Chapter 54 Long speech

On the morning of December 20, 1950, Fu Sinian attended a meeting of the Agricultural Rehabilitation Conference convened by Jiang Menglin to discuss the improvement of agricultural education and the issue of recommending Taiwanese students to study abroad.According to the recollection of those present at the scene, Fu Sinian spoke in Chinese for a while, talked with Americans in English for a while, and mixed Chinese and English for a while, making grandiose remarks incessantly.In the meeting of more than two hours, he talked more than anyone else. After a short break after lunch, Fu Sinian rushed to the Provincial Assembly Hall to attend the fifth meeting of the Taiwan Provincial Senate.On this day, the questions asked in the council were all about educational administration.At about 5:40, Senator Guo Guoji got up to ask questions about National Taiwan University.

According to those who were present afterwards, Guo's attack was mainly about how to deal with the equipment that the Ministry of Education of the Kuomintang brought to Taiwan from the mainland and stored in Taiwan University, and how to relax the admission standards of National Taiwan University.Fu Sinian came to the stage again to answer Guo's questions.When answering Guo's question that National Taiwan University should hire more Taiwanese professors and take more Taiwanese indigenous students, Fu Sinian said: "The scholarship system should not be abolished. For those students with good qualifications and willing to work hard, they cannot study because they have no money." I am very sympathetic to the young people. I cannot abandon them from the school gates.... When we run schools, we should first solve the difficulties for the students so that they have a stable living environment, and then ask them to study diligently. If we do not first help the students They solve their difficulties and don't let them have a stable environment to study, but only ask them to study hard, which is unreasonable..." After speaking, at about 6:10, Fu Sinian walked off the platform and was about to return When he got to his seat, he suddenly turned pale and staggered. Chen Xueping, who was sitting under the stage, saw this and hurried forward to help him. Fu just said "No!" and then fell into Chen Xueping's arms and passed out.From then on, Fu Sinian fell into a coma and never woke up again.

The doctor rushed to the scene quickly and diagnosed Fu Sinian with cerebral hemorrhage.At this time, Chen Cheng, He Yingqin, Wang Shijie, Cheng Tianfang, Luo Jialun, Zhu Jiahua and other political figures, as well as academics Li Ji, Dong Zuobin, Mao Zishui, Sa Mengwu, Ying Qianli, Lao Gan, etc. came one after another.After hearing the news, Chiang Kai-shek immediately ordered Chen Cheng to mobilize all famous doctors in Taiwan to rescue him at all costs, and asked Chen Cheng to report Fu Sinian's condition every half hour. It was 11:23 in the night, Fu Sinian suddenly opened his eyes, and everyone in front of the bed was surprised, thinking that Fu finally woke up.But the doctor came over hurriedly and pressed the pulse, raised his hand and closed Fu Sinian's eyelids, stepped back without saying a word and lowered his head, and Fu Sinian passed away forever.

The next day, Li Wanju, deputy speaker of the Taiwan Provincial Council, held a press conference and announced that President Fu Sinian of National Taiwan University "passed away" on the night of the 20th.The speaker is a native of Taiwan, and his Mandarin is not very good. Some reporters heard him as "dead of anger".News spread immediately, saying that Principal Fu was "pissed off" by Guo Guoji.On the same day, Taiwan's newspapers published news, saying that the two cannons "Guo Dapao" and "Fu Dapao" had an unfortunate exchange of fire.

Hearing that Guo Guoji was mad at the principal, more than 200 students gathered around the gate of the "Provincial Council" under the banner of "Losing a Good Teacher", and strongly demanded that Guo Guoji come out and explain.The students yelled loudly: "Guo Guoji has the guts, come out, come out..." The students rushing to the front shouted and scuffled with the blocking personnel of the Senate.Seeing this, Guo Guoji sneaked away.Chen Xueping and other persuasion explained that the students still wanted Guo Guoji to come forward to answer, and finally the chief of the Taipei City Police Department came out in person to maintain order.At this time, there was a torrential rain in the world, and the students called the name of their beloved principal in the rain, vowing to find out the culprit of the "angry" principal.It wasn't until Fu Qixue, the dean of National Taiwan University, came to tell the truth and promised the students that this question would be answered in writing by the "parliament", the sad students dispersed one by one.

On December 22, Fu Sinian's body was buried.Thousands of people came to express their condolences, including Taiwanese scholars, celebrities, senior officials of the Kuomintang, Fu Sinian's relatives, friends, colleagues, and students of National Taiwan University.The Kuomintang leader Yu Youren came to the staff, and Chen Cheng cried until his eyes were red and swollen. Wang Chonghui, Jiang Menglin, Luo Jialun, Wang Shijie, Zhu Jiahua, Li Ji, Dong Zuobin, Mao Zishui and others, plus one who just came to Taiwan from Hong Kong, and Fu Sinian Qian Mu, who was not on good terms during his lifetime, stood in the crowd and silently saw each other off. At 10:30, Fu Sinian's body was sent to the crematorium. Thousands of people braved the heavy rain and walked slowly on the muddy road.The tearful students held small flags with the words: "Principal, come and see us!" It was heartbreaking to see.Taiwanese reporter Yu Heng said in a long article recalling his interview career: "Mr. Fu Sinian's death is the most sincere and touching scene I have seen in my 25 years of interviews."

On December 31, 1950, the Funeral Committee held a memorial meeting for Fu Sinian in the auditorium of the Law School of National Taiwan University.In the middle of the auditorium, there is an emblem written by Chiang Kai-shek himself, "The country has lost a teacher", and the emblems and couplets of senior officials of the Kuomintang, celebrities and scholars are hung on both sides.Chiang Kai-shek came to offer sacrifices in person, and dignitaries from all walks of life also came.According to statistics, more than 270 elegiac couplets, more than 60 elegiac poems, more than 20 elegiac words, 6 sacrificial essays, and more than 90 letters of condolence were sent from all walks of life at that time.More than 110 commemorative articles were published in newspapers, magazines and special issues.

The elegiac couplets of the colleagues of the Institute of History and Linguistics of the Academia Sinica are: 22 years of far-sighted, far-sighted, far-sighted, long-term thinking, academic foundation, bear to look at it; spiritualism. The elegiac couplet of all the teachers and students of National Taiwan University reads: Open up the atmosphere early, is a great master of a generation, my way is wrong?Fuhai said three thousand disciples; he could bear to look at the inscription, and the sky was full of clouds and things, and the people went away, mourning for millions of people. On December 20, 1951, the first anniversary of Fu Sinian's death, National Taiwan University imitated the practice of the University of Virginia in the United States to build a mausoleum in the park for the third president, Thomas Jefferson, and specially designated a piece of land in the Experimental Botanical Garden of National Taiwan University. A Roman-style memorial pavilion was built, and a rectangular tomb was built in the pavilion. In front of the tomb, there was a stele without characters and a fountain.In the garden, there is a commemorative clock donated by the Ordnance Administration, on which Fu Sinian’s eight-character school motto of “Diligence and Encouragement, Love the Country and Love People” proposed by Fu Sinian is engraved on it.Led by Fu Sinian's former classmate and good friend Luo Jialun, Luo Jintang, chairman of the National Taiwan University Student Union, held the urn, and President Qian Siliang presided over the burial of Fu Sinian's ashes in the marble tomb in the memorial pavilion.Since then, this place has been called "Fu Garden", and the commemorative bell is "Fu Zhong". "Fu Zhong" will ring 21 times every get out of class, because Fu Sinian once said: "There are only 21 hours in a day, and the remaining 3 hours are used for meditation."

After Fu Sinian's sudden and long death, Hu Shi reminded the Chinese that "China has lost its most loyal patriot." Chen Yinke, who was far away on the other side of the strait, heard the news and felt sad. He wrote a poem in December of that year to commemorate it.He sang a poem to express his condolences.The poem said: "The most painful thing is not to live or to die. You can still say that Fuyu is the overseas king. You have entered into the troubled dream of rise and fall, and the vicissitudes of life have been covered with a pillow of frost and red." This was the only written commemoration of Fu Sinian in the whole of mainland China at that time.