<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > preface</h1>
In the opening scene of the TV series "The Age of Awakening", almost all of them are covered with dust, wearing worn-out long shirts, with long pigtails that are inappropriate, numbly and earnestly living, even the sky is chaotic and dim, china at that time is eagerly waiting for a new road to the light, and revolutionaries and thinkers such as Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, and Lu Xun have become one of the members who save China...
Picture | stills from "The Age of Awakening"
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > Chen Duxiu founded the party</h1>
"Without the Communist Party, there would be no New China." However, the establishment of the Communist Party of China was not a momentary matter, but required a great deal of ideological, organizational, and cadre preparations, of which the May Fourth Movement played such a role.
Chairman Mao once said: "Chen Duxiu was the commander-in-chief during the May Fourth Movement, and the whole movement was actually led by him..."
Chen Duxiu's contribution to the creation of the Chinese Communist Party can be traced back to his prominent influence in the movement.
Chen Duxiu's political career began during the Xinhai Revolution, in which he began to emerge and attract attention, after the Wuchang Uprising, Anhui established the Governor's Mansion, at that time, Chen Duxiu twice served as the secretary general of the Governor's Mansion, which can be described as a moment of glory.
In November 1914, chen Duxiu, in view of his resentment against reality, wrote an article entitled "Patriotism and Self-Consciousness", in which he pointedly pointed out that the Chinese people did not have a patriotic "self-consciousness" and hoped that through this article, the "patriotism" of the people could be awakened.
In 1915, Chen Duxiu founded the Youth Magazine (later renamed New Youth) in Shanghai, and it was from then on that time that the prelude to the New Culture Movement was opened.
On January 13, 1917, Chen Duxiu was hired as a professor at Peking University and concurrently served as the dean of liberal arts, and after his arrival, Chen Duxiu moved the magazine "New Youth" to Peking University.
Pictured| Chen Duxiu
It was the emergence of "New Youth" that deeply influenced many founders of the Communist Party, and Chairman Mao is a very representative example.
Chairman Mao admired Chen Duxiu so much in his youth that in March 1917, he submitted his essay "Research on Sports" to "New Youth", which was praised by Chen Duxiu, and the article was also published in "New Youth".
On September 22 of the same year, Chairman Mao, while chatting with Zhang Kundi, a classmate of the Hunan Provincial First Normal School, said:
"Before there was Tan Sitong, now Chen Duxiu, his courage is great, and it is honestly not comparable to today's folklore."
On August 19, 1918, after Arriving in Beijing, Chairman Mao, with the help of Yang Changji, entered the Library in Beijing as an assistant.
During this period, after Li Dazhao's introduction, Chairman Mao became acquainted with many celebrities of the New Culture Movement, among whom Chen Duxiu was the one who impressed him the most.
At a seminar, Chairman Mao took the initiative to talk to Chen Duxiu, and after some discussion, Chen Duxiu said to Chairman Mao: "I like the spirit of struggle of the Hunan people. ”
Later, Chairman Mao once told Yang Kaihui: "Mr. Chen's superb insights and daring to act boldly are exactly the talents that the country needs. ”
When chairman Mao was in Changsha during the May Fourth Movement, on June 11, Chen Duxiu was arrested by the reactionary authorities for the Beijing Citizens' Declaration.
When Chairman Mao learned of this, he wrote in the article "Chen Duxiu's Arrest and Rescue":
"We regard Chen Jun as a star in the ideological world. Chen Jun's words could be heard with a little clarity in his mind, and everyone could not do as they wished..."
From Chairman Mao's article, it is enough to see Chen Duxiu's position in Chairman Mao's mind.
Pictured| Chairman Mao
Chen Duxiu was released on bail three months after his arrest.
When Chairman Mao returned to Peking University in 1919, Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao were planning the establishment of the Communist Party of China.
The actual work of party building began in 1920, the famous "Southern Chen Bei Li Rendezvous to Build the Party", when Chen Duxiu secretly moved from Beijing to Shanghai in order to escape persecution by the reactionary warlord government.
According to the recollection of Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao's friends: "At that time, Li Dazhao dressed up as Mr. Accounting Room, Chen Duxiu dressed as a boss, the two hired a mule car, pretended to go out to collect the bills, left Beijing from Chaoyangmen to the south, on the way from Beijing to Tianjin, the two discussed matters related to the establishment of the Communist Party..."
Under the secret propaganda and active preparations of Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao for a year, on July 23, 1921, the first national congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Shanghai, officially announcing the birth of the Communist Party of China.
The founding of the Chinese Communist Party went through a process in which Chen Duxiu played the role of organizer, and his active activities played an important role in the success of the CCP's great congress in Shanghai.
In 1936, chairman Mao recalled to Snow his experience of attending a major congress, and said: "I went to Shanghai to attend the founding congress of the Communist Party, and the main players in the organization of this congress were Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. ”
Chairman Mao's words undoubtedly affirmed that Chen Duxiu was a meritorious person who founded the Communist Party of China, but later Chen Duxiu also made a "mistake", and in 1929 Chen Duxiu was expelled from the party because he expressed different opinions on issues such as the Middle East Road, and later the central authorities also removed Chen Duxiu from his post in the party.
In 1932, after years of a huge reward from the Kuomintang, Chen Duxiu was arrested, and although many people came out to defend him after his arrest, he was imprisoned by the Kuomintang and was not released from prison until 1937.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="24" chen Duxiu died alone in Jiangjin ></h1>
After his release from prison, Chen Duxiu had two options in front of him, the first of which was to join the Kuomintang, and at that time Chiang Kai-shek wanted to win Chen Duxiu over and appoint him as minister of labor. ”
His second way was to return to the Communist Party of China, when the Communist Party published an article entitled "Where Is Mr. Chen Duxiu Going", and Chairman Mao, after learning of Chen Duxiu's presence, also said: "You can form some kind of cooperative relationship with Mr. Chen Duxiu and others, and fight the war with his unity ... Now that we are uniting all our forces to resist Japan, if the Chen Duxiu Trotskyists express their repentance, they must not resist Japan together. ”
Of course, Chen Duxiu's return to the Communist Party is also conditional, and Chairman Mao and Zhang Wentian, on behalf of the CPC Central Committee, put forward three conditions for cooperation in resisting Japan:
Openly admit the mistakes of the past; support the policy of the anti-Japanese national united front; and show the sincerity of this support in practical actions.
In fact, the conditions put forward by the CPC Central Committee were not excessive, as long as Chen Duxiu agreed, he could continue to fight with the Communist Party, but Chen Duxiu was an extremely stubborn person, and he refused the request of the CPC Central Committee.
In 1938, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Changsha were successively occupied by the Japanese army, and Chen Duxiu could only take his wife and a large number of refugees to exile in Jiangjin County, a suburb of Chongqing.
In 1939, the Kuomintang hoped that Chen Duxiu could be drawn into its "camp" and wanted to publicly compile and print his relevant remarks into a book, believing that this would not only be conducive to resisting Japan and saving the country, but also the most powerful weapon against the Communist Party.
Soon, Chiang Kai-shek entrusted this task to his cronies, Dai Kasa and Hu Zongnan, and instructed: "This matter must be carefully kept secret and must not spread, and you can go in a private capacity." ”
During that time, Chen Duxiu did not live in Jiangjin County, but lived in a friend's house, and when Hu Zongnan and Dai Kasa could not find Chen Duxiu, they speculated that Gao Yuhan, a loyal follower of Chen Duxiu and a political spokesman, must have followed him.
Sure enough, when Hu Zongnan and Dai Kasa found Gao Yuhan, they found Chen Duxiu, and in the face of the visit of the red people around Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Duxiu naturally understood their intentions.
After some talks, Hu Zongnan said: "On the issue of the two parties in China, the problem of the two parties is divided and merged, and the problem is fought from the combination of the two parties, and at present, if the national policy cannot be implemented, the future is bound to be hidden. ”
Pictured| Hu Zongnan
Chen Duxiu thought about it for a moment and said: "Mr. Jiang's decision to resist the war conforms to the wishes of the people of the whole country. Weak countries are strong enemies, quick victories over difficulties, as long as the whole country is united, then any difficulty can be overcome....... Please tell Mr. Jiang to do it yourself..."
Dai Kasa listened to Chen Duxiu's words and quickly recorded them in his notebook, and Chen Duxiu saw the situation and said: "I am lonely and unheard, unwilling to make public remarks, causing endless controversy, and I ask the two of you to never see my conversation today in the press, this is the only requirement." ”
Hearing Chen Duxiu's words, Hu Zongnan and Dai Kasa felt a little helpless, and then Chen Duxiu got up to send a guest. After Dai Kasa and Hu Zongnan returned, they reported the transcript of Chen Duxiu's conversation to Chiang Kai-shek, and after Chiang Kai-shek had finished reading it, he ordered that the matter should be kept strictly confidential and not publicized.
Although Chen Duxiu refused the request of the CPC Central Committee, Chairman Mao and others still hoped that he could return to the Communist Party, and in 1939, Chairman Mao sent Zhou Enlai to persuade Chen Duxiu to return to Yan'an. ”
When Zhou Enlai saw that Chen Duxiu could not be persuaded, he instructed the guards to take out the one hundred silver dollars he had brought and handed it to Chen Duxiu, saying that the money was mutually masonic and that he must accept it, but Chen Duxiu still insisted on not wanting anything and insisted on returning the money.
Chen Duxiu's life in Jiangjin in his later years was miserable, but free, and later Chiang Kai-shek also funded him, but he still refused, and Hu Shi also suggested that he write an autobiography in the United States, but he also refused, and he only accepted the help of colleagues and students at Peking University.
In his later years, Chen Duxiu only did two things: First, he revalued all the value and "completely overturned the views of my generation." He carried out a comprehensive reflection and cleansing of the "ism" he had embraced in his early years; another work was the study of linguistics.
Since Chen Duxiu lived in Jiangjin, he was disappointed because he could not find a suitable confidant in his thinking, and he also suffered from missing his two children, coupled with the pain of falling in prison before, which made Chen Duxiu's health deteriorate, and on May 27, 1942, Chen Duxiu died of poverty and illness at the age of 63.
Picture | stills of Chen Duxiu in "The Age of Awakening"
When Chairman Mao learned of Chen Duxiu's death, he was very sad, he once blamed Chen Duxiu's death on himself, and in 1959, when he was in Lushan, Chairman Mao mentioned Chen Duxiu:
"He died later, and the responsibility was on me, and I didn't take him over..."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="41" > rebuild the Chen Duxiu cemetery</h1>
Chen Duxiu's life has ups and downs, and after his death, the tomb can also be described as bumpy and quite tortuous.
In May 1942, after Chen Duxiu died of illness in Jiangjin, Sichuan, Chiang Kai-shek's secret service had made many articles on it to interfere with the funeral, and later with the vigorous help of The famous jiangjin scholars Deng Touqiu, Deng Xiekang, and relatives and friends, Chen Duxiu was buried in Kangzhuang at the foot of Dingshan Mountain outside the Great West Gate of Jiangjin, and the tombstone of Chen Duxiu was written "The Tomb of Mr. Duxiu".
Chen Songnian looked at his father's tombstone, knelt down in front of the tomb, and said to his father's tombstone with tears: "You stay here first, and when the time comes, I will definitely take you home." After speaking, Chen Songnian prostrated his head three times at his father's tombstone.
It turned out that before Chen Duxiu's death, he had said to Chen Songnian that he hoped that he could be buried in his hometown of Anqing after death.
In 1947, five years after Chen Duxiu's death, Chen Songnian moved the coffin of his father Chen Duxiu from Jiangjin back to his hometown of Anqing for burial.
Figure| Chen Songnian in his later years
According to Chen Songnian, when recalling the situation at that time, he said:
"In February 1947, I went to Jiangjin to check in my father's coffin, first hired a small wooden boat, transported the coffin to Chongqing, and then entrusted the Chongqing Zhejiang Guild Hall to relocate. I finished the formalities in the guild hall, and finally I had to engrave my father's name and the name of the recipient on the coffin, but I did not dare to engrave the three words 'Chen Duxiu' on the coffin, for fear of causing trouble during transportation, so I had to engrave the name 'Chen Qiansheng' of my father's scientific expedition. After my father's coffin arrived in Anqing, according to the instructions of my birth mother on her deathbed, I combined my father and mother, and did not hold any ceremony, but just erected a stele with the name of 'Chen Qiansheng'. After the parents were buried together, every year on the Qingming Festival, I would take my children to sweep the grave and make sacrifices..."
But even after the founding of New China, Chen Songnian still did not dare to say to the outside world, he was afraid of giving birth to right and wrong.
In 1953, after Chairman Mao came to Anqing, he took the initiative to inquire about anyone else in the family of Chen Duxiu, the local prefectural party committee, and when he heard that there was another son, Chen Songnian, who worked in the Anqing kiln factory and had a very difficult life, Chairman Mao said: "Chen Duxiu's two sons, Chen Yannian and Chen Qiaonian, were still early revolutionaries and activists of the party, who fought bravely and tenaciously in prison, were killed by Chiang Kai-shek, and were martyrs of the revolution. For Chen Duxiu's family, it is still necessary to treat it as the family of a revolutionary martyr! ”
Since Chairman Mao inspected the case, the United Front Work Department of the Anqing Municipal CPC Committee has subsidized Chen Songnian's family with 30 yuan per month.
When the United Front Work Department of the Anqing Municipal CPC Committee first informed Chen Songlai of receiving the subsidy, he never even dreamed that Chairman Mao and the local party and government leaders would care for his family in such a way, which made him tearful with excitement, and when he signed the 30 yuan subsidy, his hands were trembling, and finally, he bowed deeply three times to the statue of Chairman Mao hanging in his office.
In 1980, the deputy director of the Anqing Municipal Bureau of Culture talked about Chen Duxiu's cemetery with Chen Songnian and went up the mountain together to look for the cemetery.
However, after years of rain erosion, the cemetery has become a flat land, and the front and back of the cedar trees are forested, there is no marker to be found, and it is impossible to find anything.
Later, with the help of an old farmer who carried Chen Duxiu's coffin, they found the location and recognized Chen Duxiu's Nanmu coffin, and only then did they confirm the cemetery.
After finding it, the old farmer said: "Originally there was a stone stele, but in 1958 it was dug up to pave the way." ”
When everyone heard these words, when they saw Chen Duxiu's purpose, their hearts were all sad, and they couldn't imagine that the cemetery of a generation of giants would be so bleak.
Figure | Chen Songnian (second from left)
In the winter of that year, the municipal cultural relics store under the Cultural Affairs Bureau lent 200 yuan, asked several farmers to pick some soil, raise the grave a little, and erected a monument with the names of Chen Yannian, Chen Qiaonian, Chen Songnian, and Chen Henian.
This is the third time that Chen Duxiu's tomb has been built after a gap of 33 years.
The fourth major repair was in 1981, when Chen Duxiu's descendants sent a letter to Deng Xiaoping, in which he mentioned the matter of Chen Duxiu's cemetery, and Deng Xiaoping personally instructed after receiving the letter: "The tomb of Chen Duxiu can be protected as a historical relic, please Anhui Province consider whether it can be rebuilt from local finances, and hope to report to the central authorities." ”
After receiving Deng Xiaoping's personal instructions, the Anqing municipal government successively allocated 20,000 yuan to repair it, and the inscription only had the five words "Chen Duxiu's Tomb", since then, Chen Duxiu's cemetery has also been rebuilt and expanded, and the sign of "Anqing City Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit" has been erected.
Since then, Chen Duxiu's tomb has been repaired again under the care and scrutiny of the central leadership, and from 2005 to 2007, Under the direct attention of the main responsible persons of the Anqing Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government, the Chen Duxiu Cemetery has expanded the current relatively large-scale cemetery and erected a bronze statue of Chen Duxiu.
The picture | the tomb of Mr. Chen Duxiu
Chen Duxiu's tomb, moved from Jiangjin back to Anqing for burial for 79 years, experienced ups and downs, although Chen Duxiu has not been able to see the grand situation of the motherland in his life, but his contribution to the motherland will always be remembered by people.......