Chapter 45 Between Sun, Chen and Duan

Soon after the May 4th Movement, Hu Shi once introduced and praised "Sun Wenxue", and praised Mr. Zhongshan's "Industrial Plan" as a "big plan"; Mr. Zhongshan also cared about and praised Hu Shi very much.Only three or four years later, Hu Shi's attitude towards Mr. Zhongshan changed a lot. On June 16, 1922, Guangdong warlord Chen Jiongming launched an armed rebellion and bombarded the presidential palace with cannons in an attempt to control Sun Yat-sen to his death.Mr. Zhongshan escaped in a hurry, boarded the Chuyu ship at midnight, and transferred to the Yongfeng ship for refuge the next day, and was forced to flee to Shanghai.This was the worst defeat Sun Yat-sen suffered in his life.He once said with a heavy heart:

Comrade Wen led the struggle for the Republic of China. For 30 years, he was born and died in the middle. ① He never thought that Chen Jiongming, a subordinate whom he had cultivated for more than ten years, would be so "insidious and vicious" and wanted to put him to death, betraying the party and harming the country and the people.Mr. Sun has never been responsible to others, but he could hardly restrain his anger towards Chen Jiongming.It's really "sin is full, it's hard to show off"! However, nine days later, Hu Shi published a short commentary in the weekly "Efforts", praising Chen Jiongming's rebellion as a "revolution." He said:

The biggest political changes this week are revolutions in Guangdong and independence in Zhejiang.The conflict between Sun Wen and Chen Jiongming is a conflict of opinions.The Chen family advocated the autonomy of Guangdong and created a model new Guangdong; the Sun family advocated the use of Guangdong as a basis to achieve a unified Republic of China.Both claims are valid.But Sun made his ideas blind his eyes, and he did not hesitate to go against the grain in order to achieve his goals.... He lost the hearts of the whole country in the distance, and lost the hearts of Guangdong in the near. Sun still had to rely on the navy and bombard him The words of the city of Canton were used to intimidate the people of Canton, so this time failure was inevitable. ②

In Hu Shi's writings, Sun Yat-sen "acted against the trend" and lost the support of the people; Sun Yat-sen, who was bombarded by cannons and fled in a hurry, turned into a murderer who wanted to bombard Guangzhou City! But Chen Jiongming was a "revolutionary" who wanted to create a "model" The hero of "New Guangdong"! With different standpoints and different perspectives, the evaluation of things can reach such a diametrically opposite situation.Do people believe in Hu Shi, or Sun Yat-sen? History has its own judgment! Chen Jiongming's rebellious behavior was quickly condemned by other newspapers. The well-known supplement "Consciousness" of "Republic of China Daily" successively published S. S's "Disapproval of a Reporter's Talk of Hard Work Weekly", Eshi's "Absurd Hu Shi", Lizi's "Rebellion and Revolution", Zitong's "Hu Shi's Ethics" and other articles criticized Hu Shi's remarks. ③

However, Hu Shi used morality and ethics as a banner, accusing the Kuomintang figures and Sun Yat-sen, saying: Most noticeable of late has been the resurrection of the dead body of the old morality. ... Chen Jiongming's faction overthrew Sun Wen's influence in Guangdong this time, which was a kind of revolution; ".Let us ask, in a republic, what is disobedience to the Lord? What is rebellion? As for rebellion, what kind of behavior is revolution? Is it rebellion? Wu Peifu drove Xu Shichang away, is it rebellion? If you follow the ethical views of the Sun faction, not only Chen Jiongming should not overthrow Sun Wen, but Wu Peifu should not overthrow Duan Qirui and Xu Shichang either... We are not for Chen Jiongming Defend; Chen’s soldiers drove away Sun Wen this time, maybe there is something to attack; but we oppose those people who carry out the dead bodies of old morals such as "disobedience to the Lord", "violation", and "rebellion" to attack Chen Jiongming's weapon. ④

This not only boasted Chen Jiongming's rebellion as "a kind of revolution", but also compared his betrayal of Sun Yat-sen with Cai E's overthrow of Yuan Shikai, and put Mr. Sun Yat-sen, who founded the Republic of China, in the same position as Yuan Shikai, the thief of the country.Therefore, the "Republic of China Daily" sponsored by the Kuomintang published an article denouncing Hu Shi, saying that he was "insane".But Hu Shi still denied it with his eyes wide open, saying that he "was not defending Chen Jiongming"! Hu Shi's friend, Li Dazhao, a Communist, was also very dissatisfied after reading the text on "Keili", and once wrote a letter to persuade Hu Shi, saying: "The attitude of "Kongli" towards Zhongshan seems appropriate to sponsor it." ⑤But Hu Shi also turned a deaf ear to this.Later, Di Jin's "Recounting the Sun-Chen Controversy", Lin Sheng's "Re-narrating the Sun-Chen Controversy", and several short comments by Hu Shi were also published in the weekly newspaper "Efforts".The tune also changed a little, sometimes playing 50 big boards each, saying that "one powerful faction broke with another powerful faction, so it is considered a revolutionary action."It seems that both Sun and Chen have become "strength factions", and it seems that both parties are also "revolutionary actions".Hu Shi also said, "The change in Guangzhou this time does not belong entirely to one party, but should not be judged publicly."In fact, he still favors Chen Jiongming.Later, on August 15th, Sun Yat-sen issued a statement in Shanghai, which included the words: "The rebels led by Chen Jiongming should be wiped out, and those who harm Guangdong should not be harmed to the country." Hu Shi then accused Sun Yat-sen:

For Mrs. Sun, we have another piece of advice: his idea of ​​revenge against Chen Jiongming is too petty.Mrs. Sun is a patriotic person who loves Guangdong, and should not try to corrupt Guangdong for the sake of old grievances. ⑥ Until a year later, Hu Shi still said: "Because the Sun family wants to take revenge, it has corrupted Guangdong. As for today" He even blamed Sun Yat-sen for the "corruption" in Guangdong caused by Chen Jiongming's rebellious war. ⑦ Sun Yat-sen was naturally extremely dissatisfied with Hu Shi's favoring Chen and suppressing Sun. In 1924, the Chinese Kuomintang held its first National Congress in Guangzhou to implement cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.Sun Yat-sen gave a systematic speech on "Three Principles of the People". On August 1 of this year, the "Republic of China Daily" in Guangzhou published his first lecture on "Democratic Rights", but the editor published a short article "Less Talking Principles" in the same edition, and quoted Hu Shi "" More research issues, less talk about doctrine" text.Sun Yat-sen was very angry when he saw it, and personally criticized Yun in the original newspaper:

The ignorance of the editors and journalists is here! What a pity!... And to quote Hu Shi’s words, don’t you know that Hu is the one who defends Chen Jiongming? Hu called the Chen incident a revolution. The approval document also "indicates that the Central Executive Committee will remove this reporter as a matter of improving this newspaper." ⑧ It can be seen that Sun Yat-sen is still brooding about Hu Shi's past two years ago. Chen Jiongming's rebellion made him completely bankrupt politically and morally. Although he begged for help from the Beiyang Zhili Warlords and supported by Hu Shi's "Working Hard", he still could not escape the fate of failure. In January 1923, Sun Yat-sen sent a telegram to challenge Chen, and the coalition forces of Yunnan and Guangxi launched an attack on the Guangdong border, and the rebel army quickly collapsed; Chen Jiongming escaped from Guangzhou. In February, Sun Yat-sen returned to Guangzhou to rebuild the Grand Marshal's Mansion.Hu Shi's "Effort" weekly report did not mention such a major event, and kept it secret.

During the coup d'état in Beijing in 1924, Feng Yuxiang leaned towards revolution, so he telegraphed Sun Yat-sen to go north to discuss state affairs and preside over the resolution of current affairs.Sun Yat-sen left Guangzhou in November, went to Beijing via Shanghai, and published the "Manifesto of Going North", proposing to hold a "National Conference" to solve the problems of China's unification and construction.But at this time, Duan Qirui, who had stolen the power in Beijing, proposed to convene a "remedial meeting" to oppose the National Assembly advocated by Sun Yat-sen.

On January 1, 1925, Duan Qirui issued a telegram to convene the "Aftermath Meeting". Xu Shiying also called Hu Shi on January 4, inviting him to attend.Hu Shi actually knew that the so-called "aftermath meeting" was obviously a spoils sharing meeting for warlords, bureaucrats and politicians. It was strongly opposed by workers, peasants, students and progressive people from all walks of life across the country, and it also aroused great indignation from Mr. Sun Yat-sen.After Mr. Sun arrived in Beijing, his illness worsened and he still persisted in the struggle. He decided that the Kuomintang would not participate in the "aftermath meeting" and actively prepared to hold a national meeting.Many friends advised Hu Shi to think carefully and not to participate.Tang Erhe wrote:

Rehabilitation meeting... Now the representative in Beijing, who is not a bull head and a horse face? If the meeting is held, there must be a group of guards and horses, carrying opium cigarettes on the left and concubines on the right.With my brother's elegance, how can I sit side by side with this generation? I want to express my political opinions here, the so-called unspeakable is also true.It's worthless to slander and slander, but our behavior seems to deserve scrutiny. ⑨ Hu Shi himself "had a lot of doubts" about the "aftermath conference", but after "hesitating for a few days", he felt that he had always advocated something a little closer to this, and he didn't want to talk about the national conference like a fashionable person, and he couldn't get used to it. The frivolous talk of ordinary people, so I still decided to participate. I replied to Xu Shiying's letter, saying: Mr. Duan's TEPCO and Mr. Haodian have all been received.I am a person who has advocated holding a peace conference for two years, and I still believe that a conference-style study of the solution to the current situation is better than an armed confrontation; so although I have many doubts about the aftermath conference this time, I am willing to try it. He has a try. ⑩ Hu Shi wanted to try the news of the aftermath meeting. After it was disclosed in the newspaper, it immediately aroused dissatisfaction and criticism from many people in the academic and cultural circles.Dong Qiufang wrote a letter to "Beijing News", pointing out: ... We thought that the deranged warlords and politicians were going to share the spoils, but my husband (press, referring to Hu Shi) was happily preparing to take part in it! ... Unexpectedly, the time flies by will make my husband fall behind to such an extent! The tone of protecting the nondescript clean room does not come from the mouths of the village elders, but from the gentleman who "successfully tried since ancient times"! Mr. Hu who has "fallen from a hundred feet", if you are willing to sacrifice The honorary title of "authority of the New Culture Movement", to participate in the aftermath meeting where a few people slaughtered the whole people, I am afraid that after you have tried it, you will not be allowed to try again. However, Hu Shi did not listen to other people's advice. On February 1, he actually attended the "aftermath meeting" in Beijing to cheer for Duan Qirui's government.According to Hu Shi’s student Chen Binhe, the meeting was full of chaos. According to the account of Hu Shi’s student Chen Binhe: the chairman of the restoration party was elected; Sports recovery room clearance preferential conditions.Because of this, Chen even advised Hu Shi to "quit passively and don't try again!" Hu Shi was forced to announce his withdrawal from the "aftermath conference" due to the clearing up of the discussion. On March 12, Mr. Sun Yat-sen finally passed away in Beijing with great indignation about the "aftermath meeting". ① Sun Yat-sen's "Letter to the Members of the Kuomintang", contained in "Selected Works of Sun Yat-sen", People's Publishing House, 1956 edition, Volume 1, pp. 441-448. ② See the short commentary on "This Week" in the 8th issue of "Keep Hard" Weekly, which was later included in "Hu Shi Wencun Two Collections", Shanghai Yadong Library, March 6, 1929, Volume 3, pp. 171-172.Rearranged and deleted by Taipei Far East Book Company in 1953. ③Respectively, see the supplement "Consciousness" of Shanghai "Republic of China Daily", June 23, July 3, 27, and August 3, 1922. ④Short commentary on "This Week" in the 12th issue of "Efforts" Weekly, published on July 23, 1922; later included in "Hu Shi Wencun Two Collections", Shanghai Yadong 6th Edition, Volume 3, pp. 188-189.Deleted from Taipei Far East Edition. ⑤For Li Dazhao's letter, see "Hu Shi's Diary", Beijing Zhonghua Book Company, January 1, 1985, Volume 2, p. 442. ⑥The above quotations can be found in the "This Week" short commentary of the 16th and 18th issues of "Jiangong" Weekly, "Hu Shi Wencun II Collection", Volume 3, Shanghai Yadong 6th Edition, pp. 208-210, 217.Deleted from Taipei Far East Edition. ⑦ "Review of One and a Half Years", contained in the 75th issue of "Efforts" Weekly, published on October 21, 1923; later included in "Hu Shi Wencun Two Collections", Shanghai Yadong 6th Edition, Volume 3, p. 144.Deleted from Taipei Far East Edition. ⑧Collected by the Chinese Kuomintang Party History Committee (original), serial number (052/107); quoted from the article "Hu Shi and the Kuomintang" by Jiang Yongjing, see "Hu Shi and Modern China", the first edition of Taipei Times Cultural Publishing Enterprise Co., Ltd. in 1991. (Third Edition Note) ⑨See the manuscript of "Hu Shi's Diary", the first edition of Taipei Yuanliu Publishing Co., Ltd. in December 1990, the fifth volume, January 17, 1925. (Third Edition Note) ⑩ Ibid., February 1, 1925. (Third Edition Note) Dong Qiufang's "A Letter to Mr. Hu Shizhi", see "Hu Shi's Correspondence and Correspondence" Volume 1, pp. 300-302. See the letter from Chen Binhe to Hu Shi on February 20, 1925, "Selected Letters from Hu Shi", Volume 1, pp. 313-314.