Chapter 15 A century-old legacy is like Mei Sixin

Located in the former residence of Zhou Enlai in No. 7 Consort Lane, Huaian, there is a beautiful wintersweet tree in the corner of the backyard. Every winter, the calyx and buds are in full bloom, making the sky over the huge Chu city seem to be filled with a pungent smell. Fragrance.According to legend, this plum tree was planted by Zhou Enlai's grandfather in the year Daluan (Zhou Enlai's nickname) was born.Although it has experienced a whole century of rain, snow, wind and frost, it has become more and more lush with leaves, stamens, and fragrance.People who pay homage to Zhou Enlai's former residence in Huai'an, while fully appreciating Zhou Enlai's magnanimity and magnificence, always linger under this "Yipinmei" plant, which naturally triggers endless reverie.

As early as 1985, when the plum blossoms were in full bloom, Comrade Jiang Zemin, the mayor of Shanghai at that time, visited Zhou Enlai's former residence with great reverence.After the visit, he couldn't contain his enthusiasm, and wrote in the guest book: "We visited the former residence of the Prime Minister and received a profound revolutionary education.... I deeply miss Premier Zhou and learn from the model and beloved Premier Zhou of the whole party!" 19 In June 1991, when the Zhou Enlai Memorial Hall was completed and opened, General Secretary Jiang once again took the time to write a precious inscription in the midst of all kinds of opportunities: "Learn from Comrade Zhou Enlai's noble character and serve the people wholeheartedly." Two inscription calligraphy , two earnest calls, calling on people, especially leading cadres at all levels of the party, to learn from Comrade Zhou Enlai's noble character like "a hundred flowers imitate plums".

"Several plum blossoms have seen the kindness, the small courtyard is spring and autumn, and the style of the century. Don't worry about safety in the tiger's lair, but bravely defeat the demon front." Zhou Enlai has experienced more than half a century of military service and revolutionary career, and has tempered a pair of plums. Like clanking and iron bones and a strong will to fight against the snow and defy power.In dealing with the "Xi'an Incident" that has attracted worldwide attention, he cleared the fog, made subtle changes, kept calm, and turned the tide; During the catastrophe of the "Cultural Revolution", which was "unstoppable", he skillfully mediated and was the mainstay, and skillfully arranged the chess game for the complete collapse of the "Gang of Four" and the re-emergence of Deng Xiaoping. ... The above-mentioned few waves are enough to show his wintersweet quality and demeanor of "the color of the year is not withered, the fragrance of the snow is far away", "it is already a cliff of hundreds of feet of ice, but there are still beautiful flowers and branches".

"Pretty doesn't compete for spring, but only announces the arrival of spring. When the mountain flowers are in full bloom, she laughs among the bushes." This is also a portrayal of Zhou Enlai's greatest political morality and most glorious personality.At the Zunyi Conference, he consciously gave way to the virtuous, dedicated his life as an assistant, and was willing to be the "setter". With superhuman wisdom and loyalty, he successfully assisted Mao Zedong in leading China's revolution and construction.He always takes the overall situation into consideration and bears the burden of humiliation.Zhou Enlai's humility and humility does not take credit, and it is also reflected in his handling of small matters such as his former residence and ancestral graveyard in his hometown, and he knows it from the slightest.Zhou Enlai left his hometown Huai'an at the age of twelve, and engaged in heavy revolutionary work for decades, "the young and the old never returned home".Although he has always missed the people of his hometown and the bridges, creeks and alleys of his hometown, he has never returned to his hometown to visit his relatives.In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, he strictly asked his relatives and neighbors in Huai'an not to disclose the houses he lived in, and later asked the local government "never let people visit."And "Three Chapters of Eternal Covenant": "Don't flock orioles; don't frighten the swallows; don't add bricks." In 1964, Zhou Enlai sent his nephew Zhou Ercui back to his hometown to bury the ancestral grave deep and flatten the grave , And exhorted: "When a person dies, he stops doing things and occupies a piece of land. This is a manifestation of the concept of private ownership. Flattening the ancestral graves not only expands the area of ​​cultivated land, but also a revolution that destroys old customs and establishes new styles." Adhere to this proposition, and agreed with Deng Yingchao to scatter his ashes on the rivers and land of the motherland after his death.What a thorough proletarian revolutionary spirit this is!For thousands of years, the official style of "returning his hometown" disappeared in Zhou Enlai's political career.He is really a "beautiful and indisputable" plum blossom deeply rooted in the soil of hundreds of millions of people!

"Plum blossoms bloom before a hundred flowers, and the first to dispel the cold is to report a sprig of spring." According to an expert who studied Zhou Enlai, in the process of studying the history of the Communist Party of China, he discovered that there are as many as a hundred historical facts about "Zhou Enlai's best".For example: Zhou Enlai pioneered the organizational form in which young party members were selected by the branch in Europe to exercise political leadership over the regiment; Zhou Enlai was the first to realize the united front of Kuomintang-Communist cooperation in Europe; Zhou Enlai launched the Nanchang Uprising and fired the first shot at the Kuomintang reactionaries; Zhou Enlai worked in the government A central leader who put forward the four grand goals of modernization in the report the earliest, the most frequently, and for the longest time; in 1953, Zhou Enlai first proposed the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence; In 1957, in an important speech on the Hong Kong issue, Zhou Enlai had made the original idea of ​​"one country, two systems" to a certain extent; in 1973, Zhou Enlai was the first to praise Taiwan Province in the The practice of attracting foreign capital as a free port has created the motivation for the mainland to set up a special zone, and so on.All these are enough to show Zhou Enlai's wisdom, insight and boldness of "dare to be the first".In October 1990, Dr. Joseph Kennedy, chairman of the US-China Education Foundation, visited the former residence of Zhou Enlai affectionately.He said: When Premier Zhou Enlai passed away, the United Nations decided to fly its flag at half-staff.A U.S. congressman raised objections, arguing that non-heads of state should not be treated in this way.The Secretary-General of the United Nations at the time said with great enthusiasm: "Mr. Zhou Enlai of China went to Japan and Western Europe at the age of 19. He is proficient in six languages ​​and seven literatures, and has made outstanding contributions to the cause of human peace. His wisdom and demeanor are unparalleled; As the prime minister of a country with one billion people, he has been engaged in revolutionary work for more than half a century. He has struggled all his life, is honest and honest, and has no personal deposits in domestic and foreign banks. His mind and quality are unparalleled; , loyal and uncompromising, although he holds an important position, has no children, and has never married a second woman, his personality is unparalleled." The opponent was speechless, and then changed his attitude and nodded again and again.Speaking of this, Dr. Kennedy wrote such a heartfelt statement in English in the inscription book of his former residence: "In every thousand years, a great man appears in this world, such as Zhou Enlai, who makes many people learn from his spirit. Gained infinite power, which is good for the world. Such a man will be more valuable than any wealth in the world."

"Plum blossoms come early in spring, with one pistil bright and red. The sparse shadows of the flowers are fragrant and elegant, and the slanting branches are full of color. I come here every year and worship Zhou Gong every year. All the people in the world worship, and the tourists agree." It is true that every January 8th On the memorial day or the birthday on March 5th, there are many domestic and foreign tourists who come to Zhou Enlai's former residence to commemorate the great man of the century. The whole courtyard is crowded with people.According to incomplete statistics from the former residence management office, since January 8, 1976, people from all walks of life, foreign guests and overseas Chinese from many countries on five continents have visited Zhou Enlai's former residence to mourn and pay their respects.Zhou Enlai transcended different countries, different ideologies, and different cultural backgrounds as a role model of a true Communist Party member, and was universally respected by people all over the world. This can be described as a unique "Zhou Enlai phenomenon" in modern Chinese history.Zhou Enlai won not only the broadest and deepest love of the proletarian people, but also the deepest love of some people of different beliefs, parties, classes, and camps, both internationally and domestically, whether during his lifetime or after his death. approval.Chiang Kai-shek not only thought he was a talent, but also deeply sighed that he could not be used by the Kuomintang; Secretary of State Acheson in the Truman era called Zhou Enlai "the most talented diplomat in the world".Kissinger, the "most outstanding secretary of state" and "super diplomatic star" of the United States who rose in the 1970s, also praised Zhou Enlai as the "most admirable" foreign statesman among those he had dealt with.Dulles refused to shake hands with Zhou Enlai at the Geneva Conference in the 1950s. Nixon thought of this when he visited China for the first time in the 1970s. With a sense of historical debt, he deliberately extended his hand to him as soon as he got off the plane.

"Above the plum blossoms, the quality is among the bamboos." Zhou Enlai has noble morals and profound knowledge, which naturally produces extraordinary cultivation and excellent demeanor; admiration. "Peaches and plums, the next from Seikei".It is precisely because of Zhou Enlai's combination of both that he has become a world-recognized extraordinary figure who is superior in virtue and behavior.What is especially commendable is that Zhou Enlai's incomparably admirable and unobtainable reputation is all a perfect unity of personality.He is magnanimous and firm, great without being ordinary.To be virtuous for the superior, and for the people below, it is difficult to be cautious, and the only and the only.Such a combination of morality, talent, demeanor and charm, and it is so natural and moderate, like nature itself, just like the plum blossom in the former residence, blooming on the vigorous branches, perfect and decent, with a pleasant fragrance, which makes countless Yearning people are like streams of clouds.Ms. Asai Kayoko, a music lecturer at Tongpeng High School in Nagoya, Japan, is a typical example of this yearning.As early as 1976, she arrived in China for the first time as a member of the Japan-China Friendship Youth Delegation to China.At that time, it was the fourth day after the death of the beloved Premier Zhou Enlai, and the atmosphere of grief shrouded Chixian Shenzhou.During her visit to China, Ms. Asai had been thinking hard about why the death of the Chinese Premier would cause such deep mourning for the country and the city?Therefore, she devoted herself to studying Zhou Enlai, and her admiration and admiration grew day by day.She named her two children "Zhou Si" and "Lai Liumei", which means "inheriting Zhou Enlai's virtues and living forever".Later, she, her husband and children traveled across the ocean many times to visit Zhou Enlai's former residence.On March 27, 1991, she once again came to Huai'an, Zhou Enlai's hometown, to participate in the "Zhou Enlai Art Exhibition" held here.She brought a bouquet of paper plum blossoms made by her mother, and put them devoutly in front of the bronze statue of Zhou Enlai to take pictures as a souvenir, and asked her eight-year-old son Zhou Si to write the word "Friendship" in Chinese, dedicated to the beloved Grandpa Zhou The heroic spirits of Zhou Enlai, in order to express the "gratitude of digging a well" that Zhou Enlai has given to the fountain of friendship between China and Japan from generation to generation.Ms. Han Suyin, a famous Chinese-British writer who was interviewed by Premier Zhou Enlai nine times, traveled thousands of miles to attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of Zhou Enlai Memorial Hall when she was 71 years old, and visited this holy land that raised great men.At that time, she was writing the book "1898-1998 Zhou Enlai and His Century".Under the wintersweet tree in her former residence, someone asked her: "When writing a biography for a person, according to international practice, it is usually written from birth to death. Why did you write about Zhou Enlai's 100-year life? How should I write his biography?" Ms. Han Suyin said very emotionally: "Some people are alive, but he is dead; some people are dead, but he is alive. Zhou Enlai is a person who lives forever. His spirit is immortal. He not only belongs to Huai'an, but also belongs to the world. The people in his hometown miss him infinitely and love him, and there are even more people in the world who love and respect him. The fragrance of his virtuous government is wafting across the world, transcending time and space and being eternal. I wrote this book to let young people in the world have a frame of reference for personality, and behave like Zhou Enlai..."

Now, on the centennial anniversary of Zhou Enlai's birth, the plum blossoms in Zhou Enlai's former residence seem to be extraordinarily humane to cherish the memory of the owner, revealing more and more vigorous vitality and exuding bursts of refreshing fragrance.An old man from Huai'an's hometown specially came from the countryside to celebrate Zhou Enlai's centenary Christmas. He visited Zhou Enlai's former residence again and admired this elegant "Yipinmei".He was full of passion, and said in a poem: "There is a plum in the courtyard of the former residence, and the flowers and the great man each occupy the top spot. Proud and unrepentant, with a simple heart and a loyal child. I wish to be three friends with Songzhu, and vow to fight against the frost for a hundred times. Let it go alone. The fragrance fills the world, and the wind blows into my arms frequently." Another poet wrote a pair of couplets and dedicated them to Zhou Enlai's 100th birthday celebration. Body, assisting great achievements for thousands of years, opening up the prosperity of Kyushu; appreciating the three virtues, beautifying the masses. Hundreds of millions of people Chen Cheng recommends sweet wine, picks up a petal of fragrance, and salutes hundreds of ranks of heroes."

Oh, a sweet fragrance, a hundred-ranked heroic spirit!Oh, a hundred years of virtue, like Mei Sixin!