Never seen a side to remember his whole life-Chen Tanqiu’s son recalls his father’s family and national conditions
Xinhua News Agency, Tianjin, June 20th(Reporters Shao Xiangyun, Zhang Jianxin, Li Yating) In an ordinary residence in the Southwest Village of Nankai University, an 88-year-old professor leaned on his desk, opened a collection of essays, and slightly trembling fingers slid between the lines. Lifting his head, he was lost in thought.
The old man’s name is Chen Zhiyuan, a retired professor of Nankai University, and the son of Chen Tanqiu, a representative of the Communist Party of China. When his father died, he was 10 years old and the two had never met. A “Letter to Third Brother and Sixth Brother” included in “Chen Tanqiu’s Collected Works” has become the most special emotional connection between this old man and his father.
A letter from the family, the choice of the great nation
“I’ve always been a wandering and unpredictable person. I have been driving north and south for several years. I don’t know where I will be tomorrow. In such a life, the children will eventually become very tired, so I decided to send the two children to be raised by another family. Both children are lively and lovely. Zhimei was reluctant to leave them, but there is no way…Now it is about to give birth. After this birth, we also decided not to raise them, and are going to give them to someone. I wonder if Liusao had any children? If not, can you take it back and raise it?”
This is a “Tuogu” family letter, written in February 1933, and the person who wrote the letter was Chen Tanqiu. At the beginning of 1933, the organization decided to let Chen Tanqiu and his wife Xu Quan work in the Central Soviet Area. At this time, Xu Quanzhi was pregnant and was about to give birth and was inconvenient to transfer. The child in his abdomen was Chen Zhiyuan, and Chen Tanqiu could only go there first.
Chen Zhiyuan was born in Shanghai in April 1933, when his father had already rushed to the Central Soviet Area. More than two months after Chen Zhiyuan was born, his mother was arrested and imprisoned by the Kuomintang authorities for being betrayed by a traitor. In February of the following year, he died in Yuhuatai, Nanjing. He was only 31 years old.
Chen Zhiyuan’s sixth uncle and sixth aunt adopted him and treated him as their own. After he was sensible, his family began to tell him the story of his parents.
Chen Tanqiu was born in 1896 from Huanggang, Hubei. He participated in the May Fourth Movement in his youth. In the autumn of 1920, he and Dong Biwu established the early Communist Party organization in Wuhan. In July 1921, he attended the first major of the party. After that, Chen Tanqiu ran around for the party’s cause.
“I knew my parents were the Communist Party when I was very young. At that time, I didn’t understand the career my parents chose, but I thought they were amazing.” Chen Zhiyuan said that from the stories of the elders, the image of the parents gradually became fuller.
In his childhood, Chen Zhiyuan always tried to capture his father’s whereabouts from the conversations of his relatives. “My father worked in Moscow from 1935 to 1939, then went to Xinjiang, and he died in 1943.”
Chen Tanqiu went to Moscow to attend the Seventh Congress of the Communist International in August 1935, and later participated in the work of the Communist Party of China delegation to the Communist International. After returning to China, he served as the representative of the CPC Central Committee in Xinjiang and the head of the Eighth Route Army Office in Xinjiang. On September 17, 1942, Chen Tanqiu was arrested and remained unyielding in prison. On September 27, 1943, he was killed by the enemy in Xinjiang.
After graduating from junior high school, Chen Zhiyuan saw his father’s photo for the first time. Looking at the high-spirited father in the photo, he felt both familiar and unfamiliar. “I can’t imagine that such a handsome young man has such a firm belief and such a strong integrity. Later I found the answer in my father’s letter.”
“Life is of course very difficult, but the hardship of life now is by no means a problem of one-person family. It has become a problem for the most human beings (except for a very small number of people).” In the “Letter to the Third and Sixth Brothers”, Chen Tanqiu’s words made Chen Zhiyuan think for a long time.
After growing up, Chen Zhiyuan slowly understood his father, “He takes the overall situation into consideration, does not care about personal gains and losses, and gives up his small family for everyone. He is a Communist who cares about the survival of the country.”
Pursue all my life, realize my father’s original intentions and beliefs
In 1953, Chen Zhiyuan was admitted to the Department of History of Nankai University. After graduation, he stayed on as a teacher and devoted himself to historical research. However, he once deliberately avoided studying the history of his father. Too many personal emotions are mixed in academic research.”
Later, he realized that education of martyrs was indispensable, and began to collect and organize historical data on the revolutionary years and revolutionary spirit of his parents. For him, the process of unveiling the curtain of history is joyful and painful, but the image of his father in his heart is getting bigger and bigger.
Chen Zhiyuan has visited the Chen Tanqiu Former Residence Memorial Hall in Huanggang, Hubei many times. He was full of emotions when he saw the information photos of his father. “Father’s thoughts have always been very advanced. It is said that in the small rural village at that time, his father was wearing shorts, braids, and carrying. It can be said that the schoolbags are the first to open up a new style of elementary school.”
Chen Zhiyuan went to Xinjiang three times to mourn and mourn the place where his father fought last. “In the Eighth Route Army Xinjiang Office Memorial Hall, I saw my father’s bookshelves full of history books. I have been engaged in history teaching and research all my life, which can be regarded as a kind of tacit understanding and inheritance with my father.” In the memorial hall, Chen Zhiyuan was touched the most by Chen Tanqiu. Records of several interrogations.
“When Sheng Shicai publicly embarked on the anti-Soviet and anti-Communist road, in the summer of 1942, the Party Central Committee agreed to evacuate all Communists working in Xinjiang, and his father included himself in the last batch. After his arrest, the enemy tortured him. Father. The soles of his feet are rotten, and there are injuries all over his body. I know these are very heartaches, but they are more of reverence-father and other older generations of revolutionaries are extremely loyal to the cause of the party, and no steel whip bayonet can pierce them. unbreakable faith.”
Chen Zhiyuan did not have a photo of his parents. So he chose a photo of his father and a photo of his mother and placed them in the same frame. The two people in the photo had calm and firm eyes. This special “group photo” has been placed on Chen Zhiyuan’s bookshelf.
He often looked at his parents’ pictures, as if his parents were also looking at him. “I have not personally listened to the teachings of my parents, but their revolutionary spirit and deeds have always been the driving force that inspired me to move forward.”
Passing on all the way, let the revolutionary spirit of the fathers continue from generation to generation
In 2004, the First Party Branch of the Library of Nankai University organized Party Day activities at the site of the First Congress of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai and the Red Boat in Nanhu, Jiaxing, Zhejiang. As a staff member of the library, Chen Zhiyuan’s daughter, Chen Xueqing, held a party admission ceremony with his colleagues.
Chen Zhiyuan went with his daughter. He not only witnessed the glorious moment of her daughter joining the party, but also boarded the “one red boat” carrying the hope of the nation. He felt his father’s youth dreams, and the ideals and beliefs of the three generations of grandparents and grandchildren. Special intersection.
“I carefully looked at the place where my father had fought, looked for his father’s seat on the boat, and imagined that he was sitting there.” Recalling this experience, Chen Zhiyuan was still excited.
During his time at Nankai University, Chen Zhiyuan grew from an ordinary lecturer to a well-known professor. He also served as the secretary of the department party committee during his time. However, no matter how his role changed, he devoted himself to teaching and preaching to solve puzzles.
When he was young, Chen Zhiyuan once aspired to “live to 80”. He felt that the longer he lived, the more work he could do and contribute to the development of the country.
“For many years, I have been thinking that I must live healthy and take my parents’ DNA to see what the country was like when the party was 100 years old. I am 88 years old this year, which happens to be the party’s 100th birthday. Under the leadership of the party , Our country is getting stronger and better and better.”
From the separation of flesh and blood in the flames of war, to adhering to the spirit of parents to forge ahead, to witnessing the vicissitudes of the motherland… If there is a time and space dialogue, what will the 88-year-old son say to his parents?
“A hundred years of glorious celebration, I want to tell my parents. I want to tell them that their lifelong dream of fighting has come true, and future generations have lived up to their expectations. The country has now undergone historic changes compared to when they sacrificed. I believe it will be in the future. More brilliant.” Chen Zhiyuan said firmly.
Text: Shao Xiangyun, Zhang Jianxin, Li Yating
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