Remembering Grandfather Xu Deheng Xu Jin: The epitome of the close cooperation between democratic parties and the CPC
Beijing, 11 Jun (China News Service) Title: Remembering Grandfather Xu Deheng Xu Jin: The Epitome of the Close Cooperation between Democratic Parties and the CPC
Author Li Xuefeng
"The democratic parties and the Chinese Communist Party are friendly parties with common political goals, not competitive parties with the goal of seizing power. His grandfather is a good example, and his struggle course is the epitome of the close cooperation between the democratic parties and the CCP. Looking back on the life of his grandfather Xu Deheng, Xu Jin said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency recently.
In March 2017, Xu Jin visited the Yonghe Memorial Hall of the Red Army's Eastern Crusade in Yonghe County, Shanxi Province. (File photo) China News Agency issued by the interviewee Courtesy of the photo
As one of the first group of intellectuals to awaken at the beginning of the last century, Xu Deheng was one of the student leaders of the May Fourth Movement, and later co-founded the Jiusan Society with his wife Lao Junzhan and friends; after the founding of New China, he served as minister of fisheries, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. On the occasion of the CENTI's centennial, Xu Jin told reporters the story of his grandfather's cooperation and exchanges with the CCP leaders.
After Xu Deheng was admitted to Peking University in 1915, he met Li Dazhao and Mao Zedong successively. Later, when launching the "12.9" Movement, Xu Deheng and Lao Junzhan and their spouses established a close relationship of mutual trust with Xu Bing and Zhang Xiaomei, CPC members who organized the Anti-Japanese Salvation Movement in cultural circles.
One day in October 1936, when Xu Bing and his wife visited the Xu family, they said that due to the Blockade of the Kuomintang, Yan'an was very short of materials. When cadres commanded battles, they did not have watches, and in the cold winter, everyone wore straw shoes on their feet, and many of the cave dwellings had no windows. After hearing this, Xu Deheng and his wife immediately decided to take money to buy daily necessities and send them to Yan'an. In order to avoid people's eyes and ears, Lao Junzhan and Zhang Xiaomei went to the Dong'an Market in Beijing to buy more than a dozen pocket watches, more than 30 pairs of cloth shoes and some ham. A rickshaw was also hired by Zhang Xiaomei to transport things to a secret location and then transferred to Yan'an.
On November 2, 1936, Mao Zedong wrote a letter of thanks after receiving the gift. For reasons of safety and other factors, Mao Zedong did not mention specific names, but referred to them as "professors and gentlemen": "We are completely in spirit with you." "The struggle to expel Japanese imperialism and the struggle for the Chinese Democratic Republic is the banner of the people of the whole country!" That is the flag we share with you! ”
"But the letter didn't come out at the time." Xu Jin said that because there was no mention of specific names and the fact that Xu Bing and his wife had died, it was not until 1983 that the Central Documentation Research Office of the Communist Party of China discovered the letter while collating and editing the Selected Letters of Mao Zedong, and it was impossible to determine the recipient. Zhang Youyu, then vice chairman of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the NPC Standing Committee and teaching in Beijing with Xu Deheng, said that the most likely people who dared to send supplies to Yan'an under the white terror blockade were Lu Xun in east China and Xu Deheng in north China. In this way, the staff rushed to the Xu family with a letter to verify, and the truth of this dusty past was revealed.
Xu Jin said that his grandfather used to reminisce about the past at the dinner table. Especially since I started writing my memoirs in 1981, I have talked about everywhere I write, and sometimes I think of some new details as I talk, so I immediately put down the dishes and chopsticks and went back to my desk to write down.
"Among them, the story of Chairman Mao encouraging the development and growth of the Jiusan Society made me personally feel that the democratic parties and the CPC were taking care of each other and moving forward hand in hand." Xu Jin said.
At the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, a group of senior intellectuals from the scientific and technological circles, culture, and education, represented by Xu Deheng and others, initiated the establishment of the "Democratic Science Forum," advocating "uniting democracy and resisting the war to the end," carrying forward the patriotic spirit, and striving to realize people's democracy and develop people's science.
In August 1945, Mao Zedong was invited by Chiang Kai-shek to Chongqing to discuss the establishment of a democratic coalition government. During this period, Mao Zedong asked Xu Deheng and his wife to meet and encourage them to develop the symposium into a permanent political organization; later, to commemorate the victory day of the War of Resistance, the symposium was renamed the "93 Forum" and was rebuilt into the Jiusan Society in May 1946; after the founding of New China, some members believed that the mission of the democratic revolution of the Jiusan Society had been completed, so there was no need for its continued existence, so they proposed to disband it.
"After learning the news, Chairman Mao and other leaders of the CPC Central Committee expounded the status and role of the democratic parties after the founding of New China, and pointed out that the Jiusan Society not only cannot be dissolved, but must also continue to develop." Xu Jin said that his grandfather and other older generations were deeply encouraged by this, and the Jiusan Society has been able to develop to this day.
In 1979, Xu Deheng joined the Communist Party of China at the age of 89. In his application for joining the party, he wrote: "I can no longer stand outside the party, but should participate in the organization, receive more rigorous education, accelerate self-transformation, and dedicate my limited time and even all my life in my later years to the party and to the people's revolutionary cause." ”
Xu Jin said: "My grandfather, like many intellectuals at that time, had the experience of studying abroad and personally experienced the Western social system and the so-called 'Western-style democracy', but after decades of social experience and struggle experience, he finally found that under historical and practical conditions, only the socialist road can completely lift the people out of poverty." Therefore, consciously and voluntarily accepting the leadership of the CCP is the common choice of my grandfather and the democratic progressives. (End)
Source: China News Network