Comments on Soong Ching Ling's Former Residence

Comrade Soong Ching Ling's former residence, located in the north of Houhai, Shichahai, Beijing, is only a ticket to 20 yuan, but there are not many tourists visiting here, so this courtyard is particularly quiet.

The former residence is Aisingiorro, the last emperor of China? Puyi's father, Prince Zai Feng's official residence garden, is also known as the West Garden. Opposite the former residence is the famous "Houhai", known as "Hai". In the eyes of us southerners, it is a big pond. Although the area in the former residence is small, it is elegant. Cloisters with winding paths, rugged rocks and towering ancient trees show the beauty of Jiangnan gardens. I think this architectural style is also in line with Comrade Soong Ching Ling's modest and quiet temper.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), the Party and the government planned to build a residence for Comrade Soong Ching Ling in Beijing, but she repeatedly refused. From 65438 to 0962, entrusted by the Party and the government, Premier Zhou Enlai personally planned and built a two-story main building in the courtyard as the residence and office of Soong Ching Ling. 1April 1963, Soong Ching Ling moved here, and 198 1 died on May 29th. She has worked and lived here for 18 years.

The main building covers a small area and its furnishings are very common. Some furniture is old furniture moved from Mr. Song's residence in Shanghai. Furniture of various colors is put together, with different styles and disharmony. With the approach of the evening, tourists become more and more scarce, stepping on the floor and stairs of the cloister, and the drumming footsteps reverberate in the empty corridor, which makes people feel a little desolate and lonely. Touching this smooth stair handrail, it seems that you can still feel the residual temperature of Mr. Song.

Mr. Song's study, bedroom and office are used for three purposes, and her special kitchen is also very narrow. If two tall chefs cook at the same time, they can't turn around at all. This is far from the residence of the party and state leaders we imagined. Fortunately, the cloister in the bedroom is spacious, and Soong Ching Ling's legs and feet are inconvenient in her later years, so she often lies on this warm road (that is, a long balcony) to bask in the sun and see the scenery. There is a towering pagoda tree in the lawn facing the warm road. It is said that this was planted by Zai Feng, the prince of wine, when he was building a garden. In the early days of People's Republic of China (PRC). After the tree was struck by lightning, it was shaped like a phoenix spreading its wings. Soong Ching Ling named this pagoda tree "Phoenix National Sophora", which shows Mr. Song's noble feelings.

Side by side with the two-story main building is a bungalow, which used to be the activity room of Soong Ching Ling and her staff. Now it has become the exhibition hall of Comrade Soong Ching Ling's life story, displaying articles and letters used by Soong Ching Ling before her death, as well as her photos in different periods. From these exhibits, you can feel Mr. Song's greatness, kindness, frugality and reverence.

Soong Ching Ling has no children of her own, but she devoted all her loving mother's love to children all over the country. Soong Ching Ling has a famous saying: "Some things can wait, but the cultivation of children can't wait." In 1950, she won the 1950 Stalin Peace Prize for "strengthening international peace" with a prize of 654.38 million rubles. She donated all these bonuses to the establishment of china welfare institute International Peace Maternal and Child Health Hospital.

Soong Ching Ling, who is so generous to women and children, is very frugal in her usual life. As a party and state leader, she often attends many foreign affairs activities, but wears few clothes. Several cheongsam that she often wears are displayed in the exhibition room. In order to make the few cheongsam dressed in fancy, she carefully matched seven or eight vests for them, some of which were made of old clothes, and one was made of 2 18 pieces of embroidered cloth selected by her nanny from the clothing factory. Mr. Song kindly. Seeing this, who can imagine that the noble and elegant Soong Ching Ling is so frugal? I wonder if those corrupt officials who are mercenary will feel ashamed and ashamed compared with Mr. Song.

Walking out of Mr. Song's former residence, it was already dark, and the surrounding area of Houhai was full of lights and gongs. Lotus street, people come and go, business is booming.

Two:

I have long wanted to visit Soong Ching Ling's former residence. March 17, this wish finally came true. We take Metro Line 8, change to No.26 at Great World, and get off at Wu Kang Road. It's very quiet here, and there are almost no pedestrians on the street. I was just about to ask. When I turned around, I saw the five characters of "Soong Ching Ling's former residence" with gold on the black background across the road. As soon as I entered the door, I saw a sitting statue of Soong Ching Ling carved in white marble. I stood and watched for a long time. The carved Soong Ching Ling is very realistic and looks very kind. At the entrance of the back door, there was a plaque of Soong Ching Ling Cultural Relics Museum, and I went straight in. There are two cars parked in the garage in the yard, one is a big red flag and the other is a Jim brand car given by Stalin. These are all the cars that Soong Ching Ling took before her death, and then she went in through the side door.

Soong Ching Ling's former residence covers an area of more than 4,300 square meters. The main building is a beautiful small villa with milky white boat-shaped red top and white walls, with a construction area of 700 square meters. There is a lawn and a parking lot in front of the building, and 40 century-old camphor trees are planted around the park, which is lush, evergreen and beautiful. It is said that this is a private villa designed by German ship king Bauer at 1920. After that, it changed hands several times: first it was owned by German doctor Fursy, then it was mortgaged by him to the bank, then it was bought by Mr. Zhu Boquan, the president of Shanghai Banking Association and a famous financial expert, and finally it was confiscated by the Kuomintang government and became the guest house of the Central Trust Bureau where Jiang Weiguo once lived. Later, because Soong Ching Ling used the apartment on Xiangshan Road as the "Memorial Hall of the Sun Yat-sen", the Song family's old house opened a kindergarten, and she had no fixed address in Shanghai. Chiang Kai-shek felt that it was unreasonable to be public and private, so he moved his son Jiang Weiguo out. According to Chiang Kai-shek's decree, the Central Trust Bureau allocated this house to Soong Ching Ling for use. Soong Ching Ling moved here at the end of 1948. From 1948 to 1963, Soong Ching Ling worked and lived here for 15 years. The commentator told us that Soong Ching Ling regarded this place as her home. She said that she would go to work in Beijing and go home when she returned to Shanghai.

198 1 Soong Ching Ling died in Beijing on May 29th. 198 1 year1month, the former residence was listed as a key cultural relics protection unit in Shanghai. 1994 was renamed Shanghai Soong Ching Ling Former Residence Memorial Hall. In 200 1 year, it was approved by the State Council as a national key cultural relics protection unit. 198 1 After Soong Ching Ling's death in May, according to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China's instructions that the relics of Shanghai Soong Ching Ling's apartment should be preserved and disposed of in situ, and his former residence should be changed into a permanent memorial hall, the relics were thoroughly cleaned up and the house was partially repaired. 1982 to 1 is open to the outside world, and mainly receives relatives of Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching Ling at home and abroad, foreign heads of state and government, main members of government delegations who were friendly and visited Shanghai before their death, heads of ministries and commissions of various provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, central authorities and the State Council, and old Red Army visitors from all over the world. 1988 may 14 the former residence was officially opened to the public.

The furnishings in the former residence remained the same as before Soong Ching Ling's death, and a large number of Song relics were collected, totaling more than 10 thousand pieces. Such as daily necessities used in the Song Dynasty, written manuscripts, letters, collected calligraphy and paintings, seals and books, photos left behind, Chinese painting "Running Horse" presented by Xu Beihong on the wall of the downstairs hall, landscape oil paintings presented by international friends, the portrait of Dr. Sun Yat-sen hanging on the back wall of the living room, and photos of President Mao Zedong visiting her here in 196 1 year. In this small restaurant with simple furnishings, Soong Ching Ling also hosted a banquet for visiting distinguished guests. The study contains precious recordings and autographed works of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's speeches, as well as more than 4,000 Chinese and foreign books. The second floor is the bedroom and office. A set of rattan furniture in the room was a dowry given to Soong Ching Ling by her parents when she got married, which was a recognition of her marriage. The sofa and coffee table were used by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, including photos of Sun Yat-sen 18 years old and photos of Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching Ling one year before their death. There is writing paper that she used before her death on the desk. There is also a piano in the room. In the corridor on the second floor, there is a photo of Soong Ching Ling at 195 1 accepting Stalin's international peace prize.

After visiting Soong Ching Ling's former residence, I have two ideas:

First, Soong Ching Ling was the greatest woman in the 20th century. She is a nearly perfect figure, and has always been respected by the world, known as the "national treasure". On his deathbed, he was awarded the title of "Honorary Chairman of People's Republic of China (PRC)" at the age of 88. Throughout her life, why is it so legendary? This should start with her family background. She was born in a rich and prominent family. Her father is a missionary and a wealthy businessman in Shanghai. She received a good education. After graduating from high school in Shanghai, 1907 to 19 13 studied in the United States and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the prestigious Wesleyan Women's College. She worked as Sun Yat-sen's English secretary in Japan in 19 14 and married Sun Yat-sen in Tokyo in 19 15. After Sun Yat-sen's death, she was elected as an executive member of the Kuomintang Central Committee from 1926 to 1. 1927, the Kuomintang headed by Chiang Kai-shek launched the party-clearing movement. Soong Ching Ling resolutely inherited Sun Yat-sen's policy of "uniting Russia and accommodating * * *" and broke with the Kuomintang represented by Chiang Kai-shek. In August, she left Shanghai for Moscow, the Soviet Union, and later lived in Europe for many years. Soong Ching Ling returned to China in July, 193 1. In the face of the terrorist rule of the Kuomintang, she, Lu Xun, Cai Yuanpei and others organized the China League for the Protection of Civil Rights in February 1932, which protected and rescued many persecuted China producers and patriotic Democrats. At the end of 1936, the Xi' an incident broke out. She advocates cooperation between the two parties, stopping the civil war and unanimously resisting Japan. However, after the country re-cooperated, she did not rejoin the Kuomintang. 1In June, 938, she organized an alliance to defend China in Hongkong, devoted herself to wartime medical assistance and the welfare of war-affected children, and transported the money and medical materials raised to the anti-Japanese democratic base led by the * * * production party in China, which strongly supported the anti-Japanese struggle of the China people. 1948 65438+ 10, the first congress of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang elected Soong Ching Ling as honorary chairman. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), Soong Ching Ling served as the vice chairman of the Central People's Government Committee in People's Republic of China (PRC) and was elected honorary chairman of the All-China Federation of Democratic Women.

Soong Ching Ling has a lot of political resources. She is Mrs. Sun, known as the "Mother of the Country". Although she has many honorary positions, she has no real power. She has never entered the center of political power. She is not enthusiastic about politics, but she has devoted a lot of energy to culture, education, health and the welfare of women and children. 195 1 year, Soong Ching Ling won the Stalin Peace Prize. She donated all the prize money and built a maternal and child health hospital in Shanghai.

This is probably the reason for her success. She serves the public wholeheartedly like the "Virgin Mary", and only does good things and does no bad things all her life. When I visited, I naturally thought: Jiang Qing is also the first lady. Why did she do everything bad and become the worst woman in China's history? Jiang Qing has not received the education of western democratic politics, and the deep-rooted feudal remnants in his mind will expand viciously when he meets the right soil. Perhaps the most important point is that Jiang Qing has been seeking greater political power. Power is a corrosive agent. If used well, it will benefit the people, and if used badly, there will be endless future troubles.

Second, the relationship between Soong Ching Ling and the staff around her shows that she is a very democratic person. I was deeply moved by the story between her and nanny Li Yane. Li Yan 'e/Kloc-went to Soong Ching Ling's home at the age of 0/8 and served her all her life. Li Yan 'e is a little younger than Soong Ching Ling, who called her Li Jie and left four months earlier than Soong Ching Ling. Soong Ching Ling buried Li Jie in the Song family cemetery and treated her like a member of the Song family. Li Jie lives in a room with a balcony facing north. I also saw the small gifts she gave to the staff around her every time she came back from a business trip, and the photos she invited the children of the staff around her to take together during the New Year. These details of treating people equally are very touching, which is related to the western democratic ideas she accepted when she was a student. Once again, I think that Jiang Qing's bossy, ruthless and slave style towards the staff around him does not regard herself as a queen. Democracy and autocracy, love and bad heart, virgin and devil, these are two impressions that reappeared in my mind when I visited Soong Ching Ling's former residence.

It is a good education for me to visit Soong Ching Ling's former residence and remember her life. Her brilliant thoughts and lofty moral sentiments are the glory and pride of our nation, and we will miss her from generation to generation.

In addition, there are some introduction materials:

In the early 1990s, Professor Zhou Gu, a famous American historian and director of China Institute of Modern History, visited the mainland for the first time after more than half a century. During his stay in Shanghai, he met with his classmates and younger brothers who studied at National Chengchi University in his early years, and showed that during his tenure at the Embassy of the Republic of China in the United States in the late 1950s, he was involved in cleaning up the property in the museum, and found a group of overseas passports used by China students studying in the United States in the late Qing Dynasty in a package of files to be scrapped. One of them, 1907 (thirty-three years of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty), whose Chinese name was "Soong Ching Ling", signed Soong Ching Ling's study passport in English. These passports are all affixed with the photo of the holder, but the photo on Song Qinglin's passport has been removed. Zhou Yin didn't know who this "Song Qinglin" was, so he took out all his passports and kept them for future study. It was not until the 1960s that Zhou studied Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary history and the historical materials of the Soviet Union and the Third International that he realized that this "Soong Ching Ling", who later became Mrs. Sun Yat-sen, was the original name of Soong Ching Ling as a teenager.

This study abroad passport of Soong Ching Ling in her early years clearly records all the historical materials of her life, study and study abroad in her adolescence. According to the regulations of the government at that time, China people had to go abroad at "Tianjin Customs Road (Tianjin Customs)", "Jiangnan Customs Road (now Jianghai Customs)" and "Guangzhou Customs Road (Guangdong Customs)" according to their respective locations. The passport issued at that time had a large page (equivalent to today's 16 journal), and the inside page of the passport to the United States had a preface. The original text is as follows:

The Qing Dynasty instructed Daorui, a customs official in the south of the Yangtze River, to supervise the issuance of passports: Soong Ching Ling, a native of China, was indeed from China, not the working class. It was first stipulated in the sixth section of the Regulations on Restricting Chinese Workers, which was revised by the U.S. House of Representatives on July 5, 1984 and May 6, 1982. Please take a passport to America. People who get permission in this way are really not in the forbidden contract. To this end, a Chinese and English passport was printed, and the American Consul General in Shanghai was asked to check it clearly and stamp it to confirm that he was allowed to live in the United States. The name, age, figure and place of origin of all license holders are printed on the back, so please ask the US Customs to check and release them. If you need a passport, so do you. (The original text is punctuated, and the author added. At that time, the U.S. government was setting off an anti-China wave, banning Chinese workers from entering the country, and the U.S. Congress passed the anti-China bill "Regulations on Restricting Chinese Workers", so this "preface" was printed on the passport that went abroad to the United States at that time. )

According to Professor Zhou, the scientific name of Soong Ching Ling was Soong Ching Ling Lin when she was a teenager. She used this name during her study in the United States until she accompanied Sun Yat-sen to engage in anti-Qing revolutionary activities in Japan. Later, Zhou donated this extremely precious cultural relic to "Shanghai Sun Yat-sen's former residence, Soong Ching Ling's former residence and cemetery management committee" (now collected by Soong Ching Ling's former residence).

By the mid-1990s, according to the contents recorded in my passport, I found that it was significantly different from the narrative of various biographies of Soong Ching Ling published in China, and I wrote a long textual research. Now, I want to make a simple supplement to the theory of three names changing.

First, Soong Ching Ling was originally named Soong Ching Lin, and the official documents at that time were recorded in addition to the passport. In the thirty-third year of Guangxu reign in Qing Dynasty (1907), Duan, then governor of Liangjiang, reported to the Qing government that these overseas students had been assigned to the United States that year. At the memorial hall, "... one of them, Soong Ching Ling, was sent to another suitable school" (see Duan's release), because Song was underage and the only woman when she was studying abroad. Later, after a year of language tutoring, Song entered Weiss Women's College of Arts and Sciences. Today, a textbook with the names of "Soong Ching Ling" and "Song Meilin" on the title page is displayed in the Cultural Relics Museum of the former residence of the Song Dynasty in Shanghai, which is obviously used by the two sisters. At the beginning of the 20th century, when Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching Ling were engaged in revolutionary activities in Japan, the Tokyo police were monitoring the activities of the main figures of the Kuomintang. In the official document "A Secret Record of Sun Yat-sen's Activities in Japan and Sun Wen Movement" submitted to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Soong Ching Ling was recorded.

2. 1962 The Chinese History Museum collected the 19 15 Pledge of Soong Ching Ling and Sun Yat-sen's marriage in Japan (signed and sealed by the Japanese lawyer who married him, but Song's signature was "Soong Ching Ling" but not stamped) and sent it to Song himself for identification. Song wrote "This is an original" at the end of the original volume. "The secretary returned the original according to Song's instructions, and replied ... Vice Chairman Song (then Vice Chairman the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC)) used the word Lin in the wedding vows because it was easy to write. I went to Japan from America at that time, so I didn't have a stamp cover. The marriage between Sun and Song was strongly opposed by the Song family in advance, and Song was forced to run away from home and go to Japan. At the time of marriage, in order to prevent unexpected changes in the future, the two sides made an oath, and Song signed "Song Qinglin" on the wedding oath. This name is short-lived. In addition, there seems to be no other public or private written records.

The early "forest" rankings of the Song sisters were Ailin, Qinglin and Merrill Lynch. Because Song's father immigrated to the United States when he was young, he graduated from a seminary after being trained by the church, and was sent to China by the church to preach. His life and study in America as a teenager should be in the 1960s of 19. At that time, American President Lincoln led the victory of liberating slaves in the civil war, and Song's father greatly admired it, so his three daughters all commemorated it with the ranking of "Lin" (Song's father died, and there was a portrait of Lincoln and a book for the people in his pocket. As an adult, Fu Song decided that Lin was not in line with the traditional naming habits of women in China, so she changed Lin to Lin. The three sisters were renamed Irene, Lin Qing and Mei Lin respectively. When Soong Ching Ling married Sun Yat-sen, she signed "Soong Ching Ling" on the pledge, and this time it was renamed as 1965438.

Third, according to the ranking of "age", the Song sisters changed their names for the third time at the suggestion of their close friend Shen Yugui (Shen Yuan was the editor-in-chief of the popular journal World Bulletin sponsored by the Christian church in the late Qing Dynasty, mainly introducing the new knowledge of modern western science and civilization under the pen name of Master), and the time was around 1926. Since then, the three sisters have been completely named "Aileen and Qingling".

After Soong Ching Ling got married, she took the Japanese name "Zhongshan Qiongying". This is because Sun Yixian used two Japanese names "Zhongshan Qiao" and "Zhongshan Qiongying" when she was carrying out revolutionary activities in Japan in the late Qing Dynasty, that is, the wife of Zhongshan Qiao. Soong Ching Ling used this name to correspond with Japanese friends such as Mrs. Zhuang Ji's Maywood. Today, a stamp engraved with the word "Qiong Ying" is still preserved in the Shanghai Museum of Cultural Relics of Song's Former Residence. In all China's biographical literature works about Soong Ching Ling, the changes and applications of these names are not recorded.

Actually, Fu Song's name was also changed by Shen Yugui. Song's father, surnamed Han, is a famous teacher. Because of his poor family, he immigrated to the United States from Wenchang, Hainan in his childhood and changed his surname to uncle. After graduating from the theological seminary, the post-church training was sent to preach and run industries, with abundant capital, and supported Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary cause from time to time economically. Because of his friendship with Shen Yugui, a fellow sect, he often followed suit (at that time, The Bulletin of the World was printed in the printing house opened by Song Fu), and Shen suggested changing its name to Yao Rujia's book.