Chapter 54 Section Five: The Deaths of Liang Sicheng and Ye Qisun

When Lin Huiyin, the goddess of Liang Sicheng's heart, bid farewell to the world in a hurry, Liang Sicheng, who was lingering in the political cracks, was naturally regarded as the "spokesperson of the bourgeoisie" and "reactionary academic authority" in the political turmoil. . Since 1955, criticisms of "retro-architectural thought of bourgeois aestheticism represented by Liang Si" have been launched nationwide. After the "Cultural Revolution" began, Liang Sicheng was criticized by the rebels as an "anti-Party element, a big rightist who sneaked into the party, and a reactionary academic authority" with Peng Zhen.According to the memory of Liang Sicheng’s wife Lin Zhu (Southern Press: Liang Sicheng married Ms. Lin Zhu, a data officer of the Department of Architecture of Tsinghua University in 1962), “The thing I was most afraid of finally happened. I was reading a big-character poster at the entrance of the department hall that day, and suddenly I was alone. He was pushed out from the department building, and there was a huge black sign hanging on his chest, on which was written 'Reactionary Academic Authority Liang Sicheng' in white characters, and an 'X' was placed on the three characters of 'Liang Sicheng'. The crowd at the door burst into laughter with a 'boom'. He bent over and staggered a few steps, almost fell, and walked forward with difficulty. I turned my face and met his gaze for a moment. God! I can't describe the intense humiliation and shame displayed by this upright scholar I love.... When we got home that day, we hardly dared to talk to each other, for fear of touching each other's sore spots. From then on, he had to hang up this black sign whenever he went out. Looking at his shambling figure, I kept repeating a sentence in my mind for several days: 'the insulted and the hurt'."

In August 1966, in the name of "destroying the four olds" (abolishing old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits), the Red Guards rebels wearing red armbands began to commit crimes of beating, smashing, looting, burning, killing and robbing inside and outside the campus. act.The Liang family in Tsinghua Garden was always worried about being looted, but this day has come.Around mid-September, on a night with blustery wind, a group of "Revolutionary Red Guard Generals" smashed open the gate of the Liang family's courtyard with iron hammers, and rushed in aggressively. place, and then rushed into the house and searched it up.Half an hour later, seeing that the cultural relics and deposits worth selling were not found, a Red Guard with the appearance of a leader dejectedly received a complete set of knives and forks (a total of 36 pieces) from the western tableware in the cupboard. Then he dragged Liang Sicheng, who was standing panicked at the door, over and asked, "Why do you hide so many knives at home? Do you want to plot a rebellion and carry out a counter-revolutionary coup?" With a slap in the face, Lin Zhu was deeply wronged and dared not fight, covering his face with his hands and sobbing.At this moment, suddenly from the room of the old lady (according to the south: the mother of Lin Huiyin, who has been living with Liang Sicheng's family), two "breakthrough generals" rushed out screaming, shaking a cold shining dagger in their hands, shouting loudly. Shouting: "Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek, we have found the criminal evidence of the Chiang gang's secret agents." The crowd roared and rushed forward to watch, only to see the words "gifted by Chiang Kai-shek" engraved on the dagger.Seeing this, the young and old of the Liang family turned pale with shock. Liang Sicheng was punched to the ground just as he was about to explain.The leader of the Red Guards took advantage of the situation and waved his hand in the air, and the word "go" popped out between his teeth. A group of people carried swords and knives (tools) and carried a pile of searched things. The dung beetle hugged with a "boom" like moving house out.Seeing that the dagger was taken away, the old lady burst into tears.

Afterwards, Lin Zhu found out that this short sword was issued by the school in the name of "Honorary Principal" Chiang Kai-shek when the old lady's son Lin Heng graduated from the Air Force Aviation School. In military academies with honorary principals, students can get a refined saber engraved with "gifted by Chiang Kai-shek" upon graduation.In the eyes of the soldiers at that time, this saber symbolized status and glory, and of course the duty and responsibility of defending the country and resisting foreign captives. At the end of 1940, after Lin Heng was killed in battle in Chengdu, Liang Sicheng went to deal with the funeral and brought his relics back to Lizhuang. The saber was handed over to Lin's mother for safekeeping.In her grief, Mother Lin wrapped the relics in a black bundle and put them in the bottom of the wooden box for permanent collection.The dagger followed the Liang family across thousands of mountains and rivers, and finally settled down in Beijing.Many years later, when the young and old of the Liang family had gradually forgotten about it, the dagger was born again, and catastrophe followed.

The news that Liang Sicheng copied the sword presented by Chiang Kai-shek from Liang Sicheng's family quickly spread in Tsinghua Garden, and immediately attracted the attention of various political factions and rebels. After leaving, he was locked in a venue of the Department of Architecture of Tsinghua University and isolated from the outside world to prevent "colluding with the Kuomintang inside and outside to help the Jiang Gang flee to the mainland."At this time, Tsinghua University was already shrouded in white or red terror. The rebels launched a large-scale raid on the whole school, and a large number of professors were arrested. They began to undergo cruel torture with belts and sticks intertwined and crackling, almost every week or even every day. There were reports of suicides and murders, and the entire Tsinghua University was soaked in blood spattering and wailing, and Liang Sicheng was being brutally ravaged and tortured day by day amidst the wailing.

Back in the autumn of 1944, the Hengyang War broke out. Among the old pilots the Liang family knew, the last wounded man named Lin Yao forcibly flew the plane to join the battle. Unfortunately, he was shot by the enemy and disappeared.When Lin Huiyin in Lizhuang heard the news, in deep grief, he took up a pen and wrote the long-awaited poem "Crying for the Third Brother Heng" on the hospital bed: Brother, I don't have a language suitable for the times to mourn your death. It is what the times ask of you. Simple, you gave this cold and simple heroism, which is the poem of the times. The silent glory is you.

You believed it, you did it, and in the end you handed over everything and I fully understand, why am I still crying for you? Just because you are a child but have nothing left for yourself When I was young, I was looking forward to your happiness, your safety in wartime, today you have no children to worry about, you need care and comfort, and thousands of people in the country have forgotten, for whom did you die! When the poem was completed, it had been three years since Lin Heng was martyred.What Lin Huiyin mourned was obviously not just her younger brother, but all the pilot friends she knew who died for the country in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War.The poet placed infinite affection on these friends, as well as concern for the future of the nation.As Liang Congjie said, "It can be seen from it that she was worried about the fate of the nation and blamed the ruling authorities at that time", but she couldn't think of "my mother's sad and indignant poem "The portraits of thousands of people have been forgotten, for whom did you die!" It was once again confirmed by this group of people. How piercing the echo of this history must be!" If Lin Heng knew it publicly, he would definitely reflect on his actions back then and ask himself: "Who is my death for?"

In November 1968, under long-term torture and devastation, Liang Sicheng suffered from heart failure, shortness of breath, and was dying. He was in urgent need of hospitalization.After Lin Zhu wrote to the relevant parties many times to request, and finally Zhou Enlai intervened personally, Liang was released by the rebels and sent to Beijing Hospital for emergency treatment.When his condition stabilized slightly, Fu was taken back to Tsinghua University to continue to accept criticism from the rebels.At this time, Liang Sicheng was too weak to stand and walk. With the special approval of the principal and deputy director of the school's revolutionary committee, every time a "ghost fighting meeting" was held, the school would send someone to carry Liang Sicheng out of his home and put him in a Let him sit on Tsinghua’s most broken trolley, and push it to the venue like a monkey” to accept criticism.After the fight, use this most broken little cart to send it home like a monkey.And every time he went home, Liang Sicheng felt as if he was dead for a long time, unable to breathe.After being tortured day after day, Liang Sicheng had been beaten to the brink of death and had to be admitted to the hospital again for treatment.However, according to the regulations of the Tsinghua Revolutionary Committee, during the treatment period, he must continue to write examinations and confess the "heinous crimes" he committed against the country and the people.Liang Sicheng has lost the ability to hold a pen, so his wife Lin Zhu has to do it for him, but he is often returned and rewritten again and again on the grounds of "false inspection, real counterattack".After such repeated tossing, Liang Sicheng finally came to the end of his life. In despair, he sighed to his grieving family members: "In the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War, I traveled across mountains and rivers, first in Changsha, then in Kunming, and then in Lizhuang. Facing hunger and disease, we It's a pass, and the day of victory is finally ushered in. Now it seems that I can't pass the "Cultural Revolution"!"

Unfortunately for Liang Sicheng, at dawn on January 9, 1972, a generation of masters of architecture passed away. When Liang Qichao and Lin Huiyin passed away, Liang Sicheng, an architect, personally designed the tomb and the tombstone. When Liang Sicheng bid farewell to the world, no one dared to come forward to design a one-inch tombstone for the originator of Tsinghua University’s construction department. On the low mountains, only the bleak cold wind and the luxuriant grass fluttering in the wind accompanied him to sleep forever. In 1975, three years after Liang Sicheng's death, Ye Qisun, who had been living in fear and depression, was lifted from the "quarantine inspection", but was still ordered to "only be honest and not to talk or act."Ye Minghan, Ye Qisun's nephew, recalled that in his old age, when all the oil was exhausted, Ye Qisun knew that he would die soon, so he became more open-minded and calm.At this time, the social environment improved slightly, and his schizophrenia improved.Ye Qisun, who silently endured the suffering and grievances he experienced and never told others, suddenly found out Fan Ye's "Book of Nephews and Nephews in Prison" and pointed it out to a close friend who came to visit. The first paragraph is "My madness is destroyed, how can I say it again, you should all abandon it as sinners. However, you should still find it if you have done your own thing in your life. As for whether you can do it or not, you may not know it .”

Fan Ye was a famous official and historian in the Southern Dynasties (Song Dynasty), and the main editor of "History of the Later Han Dynasty", one of the "Four Histories", which is highly praised by the world. The disaster of killing one's body and implicating family members, relatives and friends.The specific situations of Fan and Ye are of course different. One is defeated and imprisoned, and the other is wronged and imprisoned. Presumably, Ye's feelings of grievance and longing for others to understand him are much stronger than those of Fan back then.Regrettably, under the political background of turmoil and turmoil, no one dared to risk the world's dissatisfaction to spy on his "unexpected solution" and "know" his inner pain and sadness.

On January 10, 1977, Ye Qisun's nephew Ye Minghan returned his salary from Peking University to his uncle and found that he was talking incoherently and had auditory hallucinations.On the same day, Chen Daisun, a former Tsinghua University colleague who became a professor of economics at Peking University after the school adjustment, also went to visit Ye Qisun.That night, Ye Minghan went to the Peking University school doctor's house to ask for some medicine for his uncle to take. The next day, Ye Qisun fell into a coma and was rushed to Peking University Hospital for treatment, and then transferred to Peking University Third Hospital for emergency treatment. At 21:30 on January 13, 1977, Ye Qisun finally finished his last miserable life journey and bid farewell to this chaotic world silently.