Chapter 10 Mother Dai

Dai Li's mother enrolled Dai Li in a local private school when he was 7 years old. At the age of 9, Mao Fengyi, a private school teacher, instructed him to read the "Four Books" thoroughly, and Dai Li began to study the composition the next year.When he was 11 years old, his mother's encouragement and teaching enabled him to enter the local elementary school, and also helped him develop a heart of loyalty and filial piety. Of course, this situation is not uncommon: the child who really has no father is prodded by a strong-willed mother.Dai Mu, who came from a prominent family in the bandit-infested mountains of Zhejiang, must have made up her mind to keep this fading family up to its gentle appearance.She obviously went to great lengths to get her son through school, and she kept reminding him not to repeat the mistake of being a yamen patrolman like his father, weakly submissive to his superiors.Later, many people commented that when Dai Li became a fearsome figure in his own right, he was still very filial to his mother.His mother lived into her 80s.

A well-known symbol of Dai Li's filial piety is the villa he built for his mother at the foot of Xianxia Ridge.Dai's mother's original house was rebuilt into a well-designed mansion, which is now a "cultural museum" for security guards. It still maintains some Rococo furniture, exquisite staircases and ornate mirrors used for decoration during the Anti-Japanese War.Her country house, ambiguously named "Feng Xing Zhai," was built on top of a hill and guarded by a team of men wearing hats who communicated directly with the military command headquarters via a private radio station.Mother Dai's servants were entitled to immunity from arrest, and, according to Communist Party sources, she used them to run litigation and blackmail.The villa overlooks a beautiful pond with a pavilion called "Tianyu Pavilion".

Dai Li often said to his subordinates that he should learn from his mother and learn her ability to manage so many affairs.Whenever Dai Li's inferiority got out of control and abused his subordinates like servants, his mother would persuade him softly but firmly, so he would immediately calm down and suppress his anger.It seemed that only she could completely control him, and he was also his mother's favorite.When Dai Li's plane crashed in 1946, no one dared to tell her about her son's death.Instead, they told her that her son had gone to the United States to negotiate on behalf of Chiang Kai-shek.Even if she guessed the truth later, she never revealed it, even when Mao Renfeng led Dai Li's former assistants to congratulate her on her 80th birthday in 1948, she did not show any emotion.She died the following year.