As a controversial figure, Tao Xisheng's life has been torn between academics and politics.
Tao Xisheng (1899-1988), a native of Huanggang, Hubei Province, was a chinese poet. Admitted to the Law Department of Peking University.
During the May Fourth Movement, Tao Xisheng participated in the "burning of the Zhao Family Building" incident. In the summer of 1922, he was about to graduate from college, and like many college students today, he was worried about finding a job. Eventually, he found a teaching position at the Anhui Fazheng College. At that time, the law school could be said to be the center of the student tide, and it was not unusual for students to drive away teachers and even principals.
The fledgling Tao Xisheng was afraid that he would not be able to stop the students, and he had to do his homework before each class. After a few lessons, the students seemed to accept the teacher, who was a few years older than them. But what happened next turned out that he was still too young and too simple. The final exam is coming, and the students have drawn the scope of the exam as they did in the past year, but Tao Xisheng had to draw out the scope of the exam - 156 pages of lecture notes, more than 130 pages.
What's the difference between that and not scratching? The students approached him in a furious manner and asked why he didn't draw a range for the Peking University exams, and Tao Xisheng said, "When I was in school, I also scolded those gentlemen who did not draw the scope; after leaving the school, I scolded those gentlemen who drew the scope." I'd rather have you scold me now than scold me for the rest of my life after you leave school. "The students had to retreat in sorrow.
Tao Xisheng, who was relieved, did not expect that the students would actually threaten the school with a strike. Tao Xi resigned from the teaching staff in anger and became an editor at the Commercial Press. During this time, Tao Xisheng read a wide range of books, and this well-known theorist laid the foundation of his knowledge.
On the recommendation of Zhou Fohai, he became the secretary general of the Wuhan branch of the Whampoa Military Academy. The overjoyed Tao Xisheng thought that he had the opportunity to show his ambitions, but he did not expect that the next series of political events would almost save his life, and he escaped with the help of Chen Duxiu. Tao Xisheng, who fled back to Shanghai, made up his mind not to participate in politics anymore and devoted most of his energy to the study of Chinese social history, which led to the "Analysis of the History of Chinese Society".
In the book, he argues that China is not a feudal society, but a commercial capital society with remnants of feudal forces, and that the existence of feudal forces hinders the further development of capitalism and is the source of the suffering of the peasants.
As soon as this theory came out, it immediately triggered a "controversy in Chinese social history", and Tao Xisheng became famous. In 1931, his alma mater, Peking University, hired him as a faculty member. During his tenure at Peking University, Tao Xisheng founded the magazine "Food" dedicated to discussing China's social and economic history, studying Chinese history from a materialist perspective, with a left-centered stance. Using this as a position, a "food school" headed by him was formed. "
After the July 7 Incident, Chiang Kai-shek invited him to Lushan for talks, hoping that he would abandon his studies and engage in politics and guide the Propaganda of the Kuomintang. Tao Xisheng listened and asked in surprise: "President, the Kuomintang has four units and four organizations, who do I guide?"
Chiang Kai-shek said, "I told them to listen to you."
Leaving the office, Tao Xisheng was busy asking his old friend Chen Bray what was going on.
"This is the command." Chen Bray did not explain, only this short answer.
Tao Xisheng abandoned his studies to enter politics, and the next month he joined the attendant room to take charge of international propaganda work. After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, as the Chinese army repeatedly lost on the battlefield and a wave of pessimism began to spread at the top level, some scholars and politicians, such as Hu Shi, Xiong Shihui, Zhou Fohai, Chen Gongbo, Tao Xisheng, and others, often gathered together to discuss the current situation, believing that winning the victory in the War of Resistance Was only "singing a high note" and that only by reaching peace talks with Japan through diplomacy could China be saved. Later, Hu Shi named the informal organization the "Low-Key Club."
At the end of 1938, Tao Xisheng and others followed Wang Jingwei out of Hanoi and announced peace with Japan. In May of the following year, Tao Xisheng came to Shanghai, and by this time he understood that Japan did not have ambitions to destroy China, and that the peace talks were just bait.
When the news came that Wang Jingwei had established another central committee, Chiang Kai-shek was greatly angered and immediately issued an arrest warrant for Wang Jingwei, Chen Bijun, and others, but he did not know whether he wanted to divide into the Wang pseudo camp or whether he felt that Tao Xisheng was a scholar after all, and Chiang Kai-shek deliberately checked Tao Xisheng from the list. At this time, members of the Wang puppet regime suspected that Tao Xisheng and Chiang Kai-shek still had links and were closely monitored.
Tao Xisheng, who had gone the wrong way, was determined to pull out his leg. But in the face of the all-pervasive Japanese gendarmerie, he made a mistake. With Du Yuesheng's help, he, together with Gao Zongwu, left Shanghai by boat and fled to Hong Kong. After learning the news, Wang Jingwei found his wife Wan Bingru and asked, "If you go alone, can you persuade Xi Sheng to return to Shanghai?" "
Wan Bingru said that he could come back, but to agree to her conditions. After wang Jingwei agreed, Chen Bijun next to him asked, "How do you go to the Fa?"
Wan Bingru replied, "Take two children with you." Three older children, still in school here. "
Hearing these words, Chen Bijun relaxed her heart and let her take her two children to Hong Kong. After his wife arrived in Hong Kong, Tao Xisheng, on the one hand, stabilized Wang Jingwei and sent a telegram saying that he would return to Shanghai immediately. On the one hand, he is transferring his other three children out through the Shanghai gang. After settling down their families, Gao Tao and his wife made public the traitorous secret treaty of the Wang puppet regime ---- the "Outline for the Adjustment of The New Relations between Japan and China, and dealt a heavy blow to Wang Jingwei's traitorous countercurrent, which is a famous "Gao Tao Incident" in modern history.
After the outbreak of the Pacific War, Tao Xisheng served in the attendant room, and after the outbreak of the Pacific War, he served as the chief writer of the Central Daily, drafting "The Fate of China", thus becoming an authoritative theoretician in the Kuomintang.
In 1949, the Kuomintang regime collapsed, and Tao Xisheng followed him to Taiwan. In his later years, he said that he had been a professor and a journalist all his life, but he did not mention politics, and he also warned his children not to engage in politics.
In 1988, Tao Xisheng completed his long life. Before dying, he said of himself:
"A scholar discusses politics, and a scholar discusses politics."