Chapter 2 The first improved family

"A plant, in itself, is insignificant. It forms part of the landscape, where by chance it takes root. The dim twilight, the cool wind, the closing of each flower— These are neither causes nor effects." The German thinker Oswald Spengler's thinking about plants is like a description of every human life.People have no choice about their birth, country and era. All cause and effect are actually fate.The brilliance or plainness of life depends to a large extent on the environment and character.There is no choice in life, but life can be changed. This is the wonderful thing about life.

In other words, in the history of modern civilization, if it is separated from the background of the times and countries, any individual's experience is pale and meaningless. Many years later, looking back at Wu Jinglian's turbulent and dramatic life, perhaps we should start from such a scene. In 1903, when the Qing Empire was in turmoil, a sea vessel slowly sailed from Shanghai Port to the distant Yokohama, Japan.As early as 9 years ago, the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War caused the greatest humiliation to the old empire of China in the past two thousand years. Some called for revolution, some advocated improvement, and the "Study Day" became the most fashionable thing at that time.On this ship, two young people from Sichuan met. One was 34-year-old Deng Xiaoke, the eldest son of Deng Huiji, the boss of Chongqing Senchang Match Factory, one of the largest match companies in the country, and the other was Wu Yuzhang. , is a 25-year-old farm boy from Rong County, Sichuan Province.

Because of their friendly accents, the two became good friends in terms of speculation. After they met in Yokohama, they went to visit Liang Qichao, the leader of the reformist constitutionalists who was in exile there.However, when they arrived at the Yokohama Wharf, they parted ways. Deng Xiaoke defected to Liang Qichao and became one of Liang's most trusted generals; while Wu Yuzhang, a peasant boy, joined Sun Yat-sen's Tongmenghui and devoted himself to the cause of the democratic revolution that overthrew the Qing Empire. Become a veteran of the Communist Party of China.Both Deng and Wu are passionate and patriotic youths. Due to their different class identities and different ideas, they made different choices about changing the country's future.

The Deng family was a prominent family of squires in Fengjie, Sichuan. Deng Huiji mined coal mines in his hometown in the early years and sold them to Hankou. In 1889, he traveled to Japan to do business and co-founded a match factory named Senchangtai. Two years later, he moved the entire factory to China and established the Senchang Match Factory in Chongqing. According to "Chongqing Port Opening History" According to records, this is the first modern private factory in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.By 1894, Senchang and another Juchang match factory had 1,200 workers, accounting for about 1/3 of the national match industry workers. In 1907, Senchang raised funds to start Baohua Coal Mine Company. At this time, the Deng family It has become a large industrial and commercial household in Sichuan Province.Deng Huiji had two sons. The eldest son, Deng Xiaoke, was passionate about politics. After returning from Japan, he organized a political club and called for reform. He was one of the leaders of the Sichuan constitutional faction.During the "constitutional movement" in 1909, he was elected as the head of the Ministry of Documents of the Sichuan Provincial Consultative Bureau (that is, the provincial assembly at the time), and also served as the editor-in-chief of the official newspaper of the Consultative Bureau, "Shu News".The second son, Deng Xiaoran, followed his father and managed the family business.

In 1903, the Qing government promulgated the "Concise Railway Regulations", allowing provincial officials and businessmen to collect their own shares to build railway trunk lines or branch lines, and to establish railway companies. Since then, it has opened the prelude to private capital investment in railways. The upsurge of capital-run railways has even seen the spectacular scene of "juanyou beggars also take the lead in buying shares".Sichuan gentry and merchants proposed the construction of the Sichuan-Han Railway, and the Deng family actively invested in the shares. Deng Xiaoran was elected as the first director of the Sichuan-Han Railway Company, and Deng Xiaoke was elected as the head of the Ministry of Law.

Time passed to 1911, when the Qing government saw that the railway investment was quite profitable, so it changed its policy abruptly.In May of that year, Sheng Xuanhuai, the country's largest government official at that time, and minister of the Ministry of Posts and Communications, announced that the privatized Guangdong-Han and Sichuan-Han railways would be taken back to the state.In the way of equity recovery, it is obviously bullying private shareholders. The government only returns 60% of cash to private shareholders, and the other 40% is interest-free stocks. That is to say, investors not only have no investment income, but also bear 40% of losses. risk. After the promulgation of the "Right of Way Recovery Order", merchants and people in various provinces revolted, and the most violent ones were the people of Sichuan.The Chuan people organized the Baolu Comrades Association, swearing to "fight to the death to break the contract to protect the road", with hundreds of thousands of participants.Deng Xiaoke, Luo Lun, Pu Dianjun and others were elected directors of the Baolu Comrade Association. He changed his previous position of moderate reform and wrote an article "Traitor of the Post Office!"Traitor Sheng Xuanhuai! ", wrote very fiercely: "It not only takes away my road, but also takes my money, and does not build a road for me. My God! I want the people of Sichuan to endure this. Except for my Sichuan, 10 million people will die, women and children will be wiped out, and chickens will die. There is no dog or ear! Otherwise, you can be a ninja. There has been no such emotion since the existence of creatures, no such reason since the existence of the world, no such darkness since the existence of the sun and moon, and no such barbarism since the existence of human beings. Now there is Sheng Xuanhuai who is so barbaric to oppress I am from Sichuan." According to records, people in Sichuan at that time "read the newspapers and read them, weeping, reading and crying".

The situation in Baolu quickly deteriorated. On September 7, Zhao Erfeng, governor of Sichuan, trapped 10 people including Pu Dianjun, Luo Lun, and Deng Xiaoke, shot and killed hundreds of petitioners, and ordered the disbandment of the Baolu Comrade Association.The enraged Sichuan people rose up, and an armed uprising of the "comrade army" broke out, besieging Chengdu.The Qing government urgently dispatched new troops from Hubei to aid Sichuan, leaving Wuhan empty. On October 10, under the instigation of the Tongmenghui, hundreds of new troops launched an uprising, sparking a prairie fire.This is the Revolution of 1911, which overthrew the rule of the millennium emperor.Duan Fang, the Qing minister who supervised the state-owned affairs of the Hubei and Sichuan railways, was killed by the new army in Zizhou. One of the instigators was Wu Yuzhang, who had already joined the Tongmenghui.

Later historians recognized that the railway nationalization policy and the resulting "Road Protection Movement" were the direct causes of the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Sheng Xuanhuai, an official and businessman who proposed this proposal, was designated by the "Drafts of Qing History" as "the chief culprit for harming the country." Wu Jinglian is the grandson of Deng Xiaoran, the continuation of this improved family. After the founding of the Republic of China, Deng Xiaoke, who made great contributions to road protection, became the Minister of Salt Administration of the new Sichuan government. He focused on promoting reforms and proposed policies such as "taxation on the spot", discretionary tax reduction and free trafficking. The first man of early modernization.He also followed his mentor Liang Qichao to prepare for the formation of the Democratic Party and continued to promote China's "constitutional movement".However, with the restoration of Yuan Shikai and other events, the trend of constitutional reform was abandoned by the people, violent revolution gradually became the mainstream, and Deng Xiaoke and Liang Qichao were successively marginalized in the Chinese political arena.Deng Xiaoke later traveled north and south, frustrated and depressed, and became a lonely "apartment" in Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai and other places. When the "September 18th Incident" broke out in 1931, he was extremely indignant and asked his family members to wrap their arms in black cloth with white letters on it: "Swear to the national humiliation! Give me freedom or give me death!"

As Deng Xiaoke lost power in politics, the Deng family's industrial and commercial career also declined day by day. Around 1918, the Senchang Match Factory went bankrupt, and Deng Xiaoran successively founded a weaving factory and a paper mill, but they all failed.He also served as the president of Chengdu Bank of China.Later, he went north to the three northeastern provinces, where he cultivated farms and speculated on flag properties.In his later years, he and his elder brother Deng Xiaoke moved to Beijing with their family and started a beekeeping business.The profit was good at the beginning, but soon everyone raised bees in a swarm, and when the supply increased, the price fell.Wu Jinglian recalled that Deng Xiaoke then became the object of frequent jokes by the children of the Deng family. Whenever Deng Xiaoke's children visited the uncle's house, they were forced to drink honey water, and they would get bored if they drank too much. Just make shoe polish. Around 1933, Deng Xiaoran died in depression.

Deng Xiaoran had ten sons, the eldest daughter Deng Youlan, who was later renamed Deng Jixing, was Wu Jinglian's mother. Deng Jixing (1907~1996) received modern education since he was a child. He first studied in a private school. At the age of 14, he was admitted to the Chongqing Provincial No. 2 Women's Normal School. Among the teachers in the school were Yun Daiying, Xiao Chunv, Zhang Wentian, etc., all of whom were members of the Communist Party of China. Early patriarchs.During his studies, Deng Jixing became sworn sisters of Jinlan with several good female classmates, two of whom later became leading cadres of the Communist Party.

In 1923, Deng Jixing and his classmate Wu Shuying left home to Jiangnan. They first entered the Girls Department of the High School Affiliated to Jinan University in Nanjing, and one year later, they were admitted to the Preparatory Department of Chinese Public School in Shanghai.During this period, she met Wu Shuying's younger brother Wu Nianchun (1908~1931), who was a thin and frail descendant of a Jiangnan family.During the Taiping Rebellion, Wu's family moved to Chongqing, where his father started the Jianghe Coal Company.Wu Nianchun was a student at the Journalism Department of Fudan University in Shanghai at this time.The two teenagers quickly fell in love. Wu Nianchun changed his name to Wu Zhusi because of his admiration for Deng Youlan, which means "befriending Lan is as pure as bamboo".More than a year later, at the end of 1925, the two married. At the end of 1926, Wu Zhusi graduated from university, and first went to Chongqing to work as an editor for the "Great China Daily" founded by Liu Xiang, a Sichuan warlord and known as the "King of Sichuan".Soon, Deng Jixing also returned to Chongqing with Wu Zhusi, and she was introduced by Wu Yuzhang (the head of the Lianhuachi City Party Department of the "leftist" Kuomintang at the time) to work as a trainer in Baxian Girls' Middle School.On the day he took office, it was March 31, 1927. The Sichuan warlords launched the "March 1st" massacre against the Communists, and Ba County was soaked in blood for a while.Deng Jixing personally experienced the bloody scene. In her reminiscence article in her later years, she wrote: "I witnessed the tragic scene of corpses strewn across the field and blood flowing into rivers. Although I hated the brutality of the warlords in my heart, I was also shaken at the same time, fearing the bloody struggle of the revolution. I thought to myself that since I don’t have the will to die, and I don’t join forces with the reactionaries, then it is quite just for me to serve the society for life in isolation and to strive for social justice and equality between men and women, without needing to join a revolutionary organization.” In her opinion, , "It is impossible to govern the people without knowing the law", "Those who are engaged in the world cannot be undiscussed; those who cannot be discussed but can achieve things are nothing."Deng Jixing's reformist ideas are in the same line as her uncle Deng Xiaoke's. She later joined the legal profession and the media industry, which is the practice of this. Later, Wu and Deng went to Nanjing again, and Wu Zhu seemed to join the "Central News Agency" of the Kuomintang. In 1929, he and his colleague Chen Mingde resigned to run a newspaper. With the help of Liu Xiang, on September 9, a newspaper named "Xinmin Bao" was born.There are two reasons for this registration. One is the Min Bao, the official newspaper of the Tongmenghui founded in 1905. It was in the opening words of this newspaper that Sun Yat-sen proposed the far-reaching "Three People's Principles", namely "nationalism, civil rights, The second is the "Xinmin Congbao" founded by Liang Qichao in 1902. On the first issue of this newspaper, Liang Qichao published a long political essay "Xinmin Shuo" under the pseudonym "Xinmin of China", emphasizing that "Xinmin It is the first urgent task of today, proposing that "China's reform and restoration must start with the new people", and the new people of China "start from morals and laws, down to customs and habits", "all have an independent spirit" and "unique national characteristics", Its content includes citizens' rights, obligations, freedom, equality and discipline, public morality, private morality and other civic awareness. The article "Xin Min Shuo" is considered to be the awakening of modern Chinese civic consciousness.Wu Zhusi and Chen Mingde's "Xin Min Bao" mixed the dual genes of revolution and improvement, and from the beginning it showed an independent attitude in the middle. Wu Jinglian was born on January 24, 1930, just 4 months after the publication of Xinmin Daily.This is the third crystallization of Wu Deng's marriage. Deng Jixing had two daughters before.At this time, Wu Zhurui's body suddenly collapsed, and he suffered from tuberculosis, which was considered an incurable disease at the time.In order to get medical treatment, the whole family moved to Beiping to recuperate and seek medical treatment. Wu Zhusi lived in the Zhonghe Hospital of Baita Temple (renamed the People's Hospital after 1949), and Deng Jixing transferred to Chaoyang University in Beiping to study—this school is the Chinese Political Science and Law School. The predecessor of the university, she chose law. In July 1931, Wu Zhusi passed away.At that time, Deng Jixing was 24 years old and had three sons, the eldest daughter Wu Jingyuan was 5 years old, the second daughter Wu Jingyu was 3 years old, and the youngest son Wu Jinglian was 1 and a half years old. It was in this bitter wind and rain that Chen Mingde (1897~1989) fell in love with Deng Jixing. In January 1933, Chen Deng got married in the auditorium of the European and American Scholars Association in Nanheyan, Beiping. All the guests who came to congratulate each other received a pink card with the signed agreement of the newlyweds, which contained three chapters of the agreement: 1. Marriage Later, Deng Jixing will continue to be named Deng; second, her three children will continue to be named Wu; third, the system of property separation will be implemented after marriage.These three agreements were shocking in China in the 1930s.Chen and Deng love each other for the rest of their lives, and they have spent 56 years together since then, and Deng Jixing has always been called "Mr. Deng", not "Mrs. Chen". In June 1933, Deng Jixing graduated with a Bachelor of Laws. From the graduation photos that have survived to this day, it can be seen that she is really a beautiful, intelligent and persevering modern Chinese woman.In his later years, Wu Jinglian said that the person who had the greatest influence on his life was his mother, Deng Jixing.In terms of appearance, he inherited his mother's oriental oval face and delicate thin lips. Deng Jixing is energetic, well-organized, and comprehensive. She is a rare administrative talent, and she has unprecedented enthusiasm for women's independence and the construction of the rule of law.After graduating from university, Deng Jixing took his children back to Nanjing, the capital of the Nationalist Government. He first worked in the Ministry of Justice and Administration for two years, and then resigned to become a full-time lawyer.At that time, the "Xinmin Daily" newspaper was located in Xinjiekou, the downtown area of ​​Nanjing. The first and second floors were the editorial department. Deng Jixing's law firm was on the third floor. ——"Lawyer Deng Jixing".Here, she and Li Dequan (wife of Feng Yuxiang, first Minister of Health of the People's Republic of China, president of the Red Cross Society of China), Cao Mengjun (wife of Wang Kunlun), Ni Peijun (wife of He Yaozu) and others organized " Women's Culture Promotion Association", proposed to carry out the experiment of "feminist movement".They founded the "No. 1 Nursery School in Nanjing", and Deng Jixing volunteered to be the director.She also founded "New Women's Weekly" on "Xin Min Bao", and published a large number of articles such as "The Times of Women's Movement" and "Women's Movement and Family".Soon, she became a very active and well-known female activist in Nanjing. In June 1937, at Chen Mingde's repeated urging, Deng Jixing officially joined "Xinmin Daily" as the manager in charge of finance, distribution, advertising and printing business.Soon, with her amazing management ability, this small and medium-sized newspaper grew rapidly.At her initiative, in July, the newspaper office raised 50,000 yuan to establish Xinmin Daily Co., Ltd., which was transformed from the previous "collaborative newspaper" to corporate operation. On July 7, the "Marco Polo Bridge Incident" occurred in Beijing, and the Anti-Japanese War broke out in an all-round way. "Xin Min Bao" moved to Chongqing along with the National Government.Due to the deep Sichuan roots of the Deng family and Deng Jixing's long-sleeved skills, the newspaper business is booming. The newspaper has raised capital through public offerings several times, and almost all the well-known industrial and commercial enterprises and banks in Chongqing and Chengdu participated in the investment. In 1941, "Xinmin Daily" added an evening paper. In 1943, it launched daily and evening papers in Chengdu. By the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the highest daily circulation of "Xinmin Daily" in the two places reached 100,000 copies. The most influential private newspaper in China.There are many talents in the newspaper, such as Zhao Chaogou, an excellent political commentator in China at that time, essayists Zhang Youluan and Zhang Huijian, best-selling novelist Zhang Henshui, and well-known female reporter Pu Xixiu, etc. In August 1945, Japan surrendered, and the Anti-Japanese War ended in victory.That month, Deng Jixing flew to Nanjing, and then transferred to Shanghai and Peiping to prepare for the resumption of publication.After the spring of the next year, "Xinmin Daily" was published in three places one after another. So far, the newspaper department has five newspapers and eight newspapers, becoming the largest private newspaper group in modern China, reaching an unprecedented peak in its career.Deng Jixing led the operation of the newspaper, like a fish in water, and became an unrivaled "strong woman" in the history of China's century-old newspaper industry. There is a poem by colleagues in the newspaper office that says "a hundred swords follow each other but only a shield (Deng)", which shows her status in the newspaper industry with prestige. When the Shanghai edition was first published, Deng Jixing was the general manager. In the opening speech, she asked the editor to write such a paragraph-"We are willing to be loyal to the country and the people, but we are determined not to be loyal to any political group." Many years later, she said to her beloved son Wu Jinglian: "This is the position of my life."