Chapter 8 monkey king

Dai Li's obsession with secrecy and anonymity endowed his power with another quality, so-called invulnerability. The Colliers magazine article that made him legendary in the United States repeatedly mentioned Dai's deft escape from arrest, time bombs, and the Japanese: "Dai Li's claim of invulnerability soon became part of his personal legend." .” Another American writer described how Dai Li escaped the capture of 159 plainclothes enemies "in his customary way of disappearing"; vellus. "No one knows how many times Dai Li's enemies tried to capture or kill him, and again and again he played tricks on death, resulting in his legendary reputation for invulnerability."

Although Dai Li was withdrawn and secretive, he still had a wide circle of acquaintances and friends from all walks of life.Most of them were of use to him, including members of the Old Guard, but also important military officers, bankers, overseas businessmen, leaders of the Shanghai gangsters and Sichuan secret societies. Zhang Shizhao, editor-in-chief of "Su Bao" and "Jia Yin" weekly magazines, was also his good friend. He also wrote a eulogy at Dai Li's funeral in 1946. Interestingly, some of his friends are Buddhist or Catholic.Among Catholics, Dai Li's friends include the Chinese Cardinal Tian Gengxin, the French bishop in Chongqing, and the Chinese Catholic priest Yu Bin.Among them, his relationship with Yu Bin may include business contacts.Because it was through Yu Bin that Dai Li was able to carry out intelligence gathering activities under the control of the Northwest Station of the Military Commission in a local Catholic church in the Shaanxi-Gansu border area of ​​Henan.But Dai Li's larger circle of friends went beyond simple religious or non-religious distinctions, especially after he achieved fame.He later also established relationships with soccer star Li Huitang, receptionist queen Chen Yunshang, Nanjing Salvation Daily chief Gong Debo and Peking opera actress Yan Huizhu.

Of all the members of Shanghai's café society, Dai Li's most notorious friend was Tang Shengming, who often accompanied the secret police to brothels and casinos.Dai Li's romantic life in Shanghai is also a part of his face. Regarding this, Tang Zeng said: "Dai Li is a strange person, he can't do without the charm of women." Perhaps this is why Tang Shengming must let his wife Xu Lai make the film The reason why Star Butterfly introduced Dai Li.Butterfly later became the mistress of the spy chief in the Pacific War. These friends, especially those who have written various biographies since the publication of General Mellors's memoirs on SACO and published in Taiwan, have different descriptions of Dai Li's image.A large number of books praising Dai Li emerged, including biographies written by Qiao Jiacai, Mao Zhongxin, Liu Peichu, etc.Zhang Jungu, a Taiwanese writer who devoted his life to describing the "Water Margin" heroes of modern northern China, compiled a biography of Dai Li based on second-hand sources and interviews with former military officials, portraying the secret agent chief as a " A zealous patriot" with a "fiery" devotion to his leader.Dai Li had a meticulous mind, ruthlessly perceiving any hint of subversive behavior, while being generous and tolerant towards friends and subordinates.In the late 1930s, a colleague close to Dai Li described the secret police chief to Zhang Jungu:

All of Dai Li's old partners emphasized that their leader had an excellent memory and great energy.He is said to be able to stay up for days and nights without appearing tired at all.And even if he is tired, he can immediately perceive a situation or a person's movements, and then try to make the most of the situation.So his people believed that it was futile to conceal the truth from the head of the secret police in any case, because he could see through the hoax without exception. Moreover, his resolute leadership style and magnanimous bearing have repeatedly proved his decisiveness, ability and talent to control the situation.

General Hu Zongnan of the Kuomintang summed up Dai Li's personality in these words: "Yunong, this self-proclaimed Monkey King, thinks that the moon in the sky can be caught, and there are almost no difficulties that cannot be overcome. His greatest strength is his deep understanding of the world, and his greatest weakness It's capricious, impatient, and unable to keep secrets." Despite such careful characterization of Dai, one cannot reconcile his heroic image among Kuomintang supporters with his reputation among sworn rivals, the Communist Party (many of his supporters even argue that if he had not died in the plane crash on July 17, the Chinese Communist Party would not have won the civil war).We have seen in "Red Rock" that the People's Republic of China later described Dai Li and the officers of the military command as cruel and ruthless sadists.Immediately after Dai Li's death, left-wing journalists accused Dai of assassinating prominent political leaders such as the leader of the Chinese Civil Rights Protection League, raping and torturing countless unarmed women, and massacring thousands of Chinese youth who opposed Chiang Kai-shek's brutal dictatorship.

"The world of secrets is a sick world, its allure to men and women who wonder who they really are, feel safe only under the veil of secrecy . At the same time, it may make them think that because they know things that others don't, they have the ability to do whatever they want without the restrictions of ordinary people." Whenever we remind ourselves of this, these diametrically opposed views on Dai Li The description would undoubtedly raise doubts. The particularity of the secret world may just explain Dai Li's suspicious image, but this ambiguity should not make us give up our obligation to understand Dai Li, because he at least represents a specific aspect of modern Chinese consciousness.In particular, when one Chinese revolution overthrew the imperial system and another was just around the corner, if we take General Dai's political thought and practice only as a reflection of the spirit of the time, then this endeavor should not be a rhetorical task.Those political upheavals produced a culture of violence fueled by the brutal practices of the underground and fueled by the shuddering imagination of the coming revolution.Amidst all these historical twists and turns, Dai Li is only a rough reflection of his distorted era.