Chapter 33 Renaissance Society

The most important subsidiary organization established by the Lixing Society is the Fuxing Society. In July 1932, when Ren Juewu served as the general secretary of the Revolutionary Youth Comrades Association, this third peripheral organization was supplemented into the organizational structure of the Lixingshe-Revolutionary Youth Association.One day the officers came to the office in Ren Juewu's residence at No. 4 Sanyili, Nanjing, for a meeting.It was extremely hot that day, and after the meeting, a group of officers who attended the meeting climbed to the roof to cool off.Ren Juewu felt the cool breeze, and casually proposed to establish another peripheral organization:

Given that there are so many young people from all walks of life requesting to join the organizer, it is inconvenient to disregard it. In order to keep secret and assess the character of their members, should they be recruited under the name of "Fuxingshe" as a third-level organization? The officers formally put Ren Juewu's proposal on the agenda of the next Lixingshe meeting, which approved the proposal and submitted it to Chiang Kai-shek.Jiang also agreed, and the Fuxingshe was soon born.According to Qian Guoxun, the Fuxing Society has a great reputation: (Because) there are no cadre organizations and offices and funds, and all their affairs are handled by the Youth Association. Because this layer of elements is not strictly recruited, the number of people is increasing day by day, so it is famous all over the world under the name of "National Revival Movement".

Members of the satellite organization automatically belong to the members of the Lixingshe from the inside out.But in other respects, the closer to the inner core, the more tightly controlled it is.As a relatively distant satellite organization, Fuxingshe is relatively easy to join, as long as there is an introduction from an old or former member.The application form was simple, and the membership ceremony was performed in front of Chiang Kai-shek's statue by a group of ten or so individuals.In Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek personally attended the oath several times, and each time 300 to 600 people participated in the oath ceremony for membership.On the other hand, if a member of the Fuxingshe was nominated to be a member of the Revolutionary Youth Comrades Association, he had to be approved by the assembly of the organization to which he belonged, and then the person's name had to be reviewed by the Lixingshe before being sent to the Supreme Leader for approval.The procedure at the next level is the same: "However, members of the Youth Association (who want to join the Lixing Society) must be approved by the Lixing Society meeting and approved by the leaders before they can be promoted and then take an oath to become a member."

The Fuxing Society does not have the power to appoint cadres, but its high-level cadres retain committee positions in the Political Training Department.As for its internal management, the Fuxingshe was controlled by a board of directors.But the real power is in the hands of the secretary-general directly appointed by the chairman Chiang Kai-shek.Under the general secretary (usually Teng Jie) there are groups or divisions in charge of organization, propaganda, and training, which are respectively led by Zhou Fu, Kang Ze, and Gui Yongqing.Naturally, the Secret Service was in the hands of Dai Li.The same structure is adopted at the provincial and municipal levels, and their basic sub-units are usually small groups, which usually meet once a week.

Except for the occasional meeting of the unit and branch, the general meeting of the whole society is seldom held.All decisions are carried out from the top down, and there are no plenums or caucuses attended by delegates.The content of the branch weekly meeting is based on the written instructions of the higher-level organization.Often these meetings are about domestic and international political events, major propaganda points, activities of local organizations, and investigations into suspected members of the Communist Party and "CC" circles, etc.After each meeting, the head of the branch has to write a report and send it to the higher level.Intelligence reports bypass the chapter branch and go directly to the central organization.

Every level of organization of the Fuxing Society, from the central headquarters to the branches, is linked to the corresponding organization of the same level in the Revolutionary Youth Association.They are mutually inclusive, and the person in charge of the Revolutionary Youth Association is also the person in charge of the Fuxing Society.Attempts, however, have been made to separate the membership of the two organizations.Members of the Revolutionary Youth Association call each other "close friends", while those of Fuxingshe can only address each other as "friends".As long as the members of Fuxing Society and Revolutionary Youth Association earn more than 200 yuan per month, they should pay 10% to the organization (almost no one fulfills this obligation).But for violations of organizational discipline, members of the Fuxingshe would only be expelled, while members of the Revolutionary Youth Association would be placed under house arrest and sometimes even shot.In fact, the membership of the two organizations often overlapped, and the distinction between a branch of the Revolutionary Youth Comrades and a Fuxingshe branch was often blurred.A person who served as the secretary of two organizations at the provincial level explained: "In addition to the distinction between inner and outer layers, they are actually one thing, that is, it is completely acceptable to use the name 'Fuxing Society' to represent these two organizations."

On the whole, this group is composed of three levels, Lixing Society is the "core", and the other two organizations are peripheral.Together, these three organizations form a hierarchically parallel structure that unfolds columnar top-down from the capital through various levels of bureaucracy and professional associations to the provinces.At the peak of its activities, this three-ring structure had a total of more than 500,000 members, and the people on the outside didn't know the existence of the people on the inside before they were absorbed as internal members.The most central part is always the Lixingshe, whose name is sometimes shortened to "Lishe", whose eighty or ninety activists have always been mainly composed of Whampoa graduates.Some non-military personnel were also invited to participate, such as Liu Wendao, a Chinese diplomat in Italy, who had a good relationship with Italian fascists.

If even the members of the Revolutionary Youth Comrades Association and the Fuxingshe collectively refer to their respective "inner layers" and outer circles as the Fuxingshe, it is no wonder that the general public calls their entire structure together the Fuxingshe.In addition, people always indiscriminately confuse the Fuxing Society with the ubiquitous but invisible "Blue Shirts Society".The reason for this confusion is that an "outsider" who was recommended to Chiang Kai-shek to join the original Fuxing Society claimed to have created a separate Blue Shirts Society by himself.

In late February 1932, at the second "preparatory department" party held in Chiang Kai-shek's official residence, just as Han Wenhuan finished speaking, Gui Yongqing suddenly broke the usual practice of seniority ranking.It stands to reason that it should be Qiu Kaiji's turn to speak, but before he could speak, Gui Yongqing, who had been eloquently talking about his trip to Europe and Asia the night before, suddenly raised his hand.He said that he wanted to recommend a "talent" to the leader in front of everyone.This person is He Yingqin's secretary, General Liu Jianqun of Guizhou. Like General He, he once served as the Minister of War, a member of the Special Affairs Committee of the Central Political Council, and a loyal supporter of Chiang Kai-shek in the army.