Chapter 8 Fei Xiaotong

Fei Xiaotong became a famous actor on the Chinese political stage in 1957.At this point in writing, I must introduce Fei Xiaotong to readers. He was born in Tongli Town, Wujiang County, Jiangsu Province on November 2, 1910. The Fei family was originally a big local family, but as he said: "I was born in a landlord family, but by the time of my grandfather, the family was in decline. " Fei Xiaotong's father, Fei Pu'an, studied in a private school, and later studied in Japan, where he accepted new Western ideas and influenced his children.After the Revolution of 1911, he served as the speaker of the Wujiang Parliament and became a local celebrity.

Fei Xiaotong's mother, Yang Niulan, was also well educated.The Yang family believes in Christianity, and she is also a devout Christian. After Fei Puan and Yang Niulan got married, they had four sons and one daughter. Four of these five children became celebrities: The name of the eldest son Fei Zhendong can be found in "Who's Who in New China".He was born in 1902 and died in 1975.He graduated from Nanyang Public School, the predecessor of Shanghai Jiaotong University, and joined the Chinese Kuomintang to engage in revolutionary work.Later he went into exile in Nanyang.In September 1949, as a representative of overseas Chinese democrats, he came to Beijing to attend the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.After that, he stayed in Beijing and served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League.

The eldest daughter Fei Dasheng graduated from Suzhou Zhoushuguan Sericulture School. She went to Japan to study and became an expert in sericulture.After liberation, she served as the deputy director of the Jiangsu Silk Industry Bureau and the vice president of the Suzhou Institute of Silk Technology. The second son, Fei Qing, studied in Germany and served as a professor of law at Peking University after returning to China. He is quite prestigious in the legal circle. The third son, Fei Huo, is a civil engineer. Fei Xiaotong is the youngest child.He is known as a sociologist.In fact, he should have been a doctor: in 1928, after graduating from middle school, he was admitted to Soochow University to study medicine for two years.

It was Wu Wenzao, the husband of female writer Bing Xin, who changed Fei Xiaotong's ambition.It was the early autumn of 1930. Twenty-year-old Fei Xiaotong came to Peiping and met Wu Wenzao, who was nine years older than him, by chance. Title, and is the head of the Department of Sociology at Yenching University.Wu Wenzao "bragged" to him about sociology, which was still an "emerging discipline" at that time, and he was fascinated by it.He was going to transfer to Peking Union Medical College, but he changed his family and joined Wu Wenzao's family, becoming a student in the Department of Sociology of Yenching University.From then on, he no longer became a doctor, but became a Chinese sociologist—he used the "scalpel" of sociology to analyze the sick China. ...

When he entered the Department of Sociology of Yenching University, Fei Xiaotong wrote this confession: "My motto in the past was 'be clean and be good for others'. Life tells me that from now on it should be: from understanding China to transforming China." A few words clearly show the profound transformation of the twenty-year-old Fei Xiaotong's thoughts. Three years later, Fei Xiaotong graduated from the Sociology Department of Yenching University, and two years later—in 1935, at the age of 25, he received a master's degree from Tsinghua University. At this time, he was in the midst of "spring breeze and horseshoe disease": just after becoming a master, he ushered in the joy of wedding.The bride is Wang Tonghui, a classmate who is two grades lower than him, and they share the same goals.Leighton Stuart, Provost of Yenching University attended their wedding.It was at this time that he was admitted as a doctoral student in the UK.

The sudden bad luck dealt Fei Xiaotong the first heavy blow: After getting married, Fei Xiaotong and his wife went to Dayao Mountain in Guangxi to conduct research and prepare to write a treatise on China's Yao society. Unexpectedly, Wang Tonghui died in Yaoshan! An American missionary described the disaster as follows: "The winding path on Mount Yao is difficult to identify. Fei Xiaotong didn't realize that he had gone astray. They didn't think that there would be any danger in going forward. Several hours passed, and they neither saw anyone nor I didn’t come across a village. In the evening, I approached a long bamboo fence that looked like a door. I thought it was a mountain folk’s house, so I hurried forward. The thing that looked like a door was actually a trap for catching tigers. Fei Xiaotong, who was walking in front, When stepping on the mechanism, a large number of stones and wood blocks fell down, and he was seriously injured; his right leg was almost broken and his left foot joint was dislocated. He was buried under the stone. Mrs. Fei removed the stone from her husband, but Fei Xiaotong was seriously injured and it was difficult to move. As night fell, they had neither food nor sleep. Finally, his wife decided to go down the mountain to ask for help. But his wife did not come back, and Fei Xiaotong lay on the cold ground, his muscles and bones were so cold. It finally passed, but his wife still did not come back. He began to crawl, and was not found by his companions until four o'clock in the afternoon. Fei Xiaotong asked them about his wife's whereabouts, but no one knew. He was carried to the Yao village, and the crowd was mobilized After several days of searching for his wife, there was still no trace. Her body was found in the mountain stream seven days later..."

The lingering sound of "Marriage March" is still echoing in my ears, but after just one hundred and eight days, the heavy notes of mourning and music are about to sound!Fei Xiaotong buried his newlywed wife in Wuzhou, Guangxi, with tears running down his throat, and wrote the following inscription in his own hand: "My wife, Ms. Wang Tonghui, was invited by the Guangxi provincial government to study special ethnic groups in September of the 24th year of the Republic of China. On December 26, I went from Guchen to Luoyuan on the Yaoshan Road. On the charming bamboo forest road, I accidentally stepped on a tiger. A trap, she was bound to die. My wife tried to move the boulder, and she was killed. She went out of the forest to call for help, and did not return until night. The next day, she fell down the mountain and was rescued. When I returned to the village, I found out that my wife was missing. In the middle of the night, I dreamed that I was in the water. One day, I was seen in a slippery rush, the water was steep and the cliff was deep, and I died with love. God called my wife, what good is it to live me? The soul is lonely, so call me quickly. My wife is twenty-four years old. ) only one hundred and eight days. Sad! Fei Xiaotong."

Heartbroken by the loss of his newlywed wife, Fei Xiaotong returned to his hometown to die. The older sister, Fei Dasheng, does her best to take care of her younger brother who is lonely.Fei Xiaotong, who is on crutches, has difficulty dispelling the depression in his heart, and hopes to focus on his work. "I want to visit the countryside." Fei Xiaotong made such a request to his sister. Fei Dasheng often went to the countryside to help farmers raise silkworms.She hired a boat and took her younger brother to the remote village on the east bank of Taihu Lake - "Kaixian Gong".This rather weird village name is because there is a small river in the middle of the village that runs straight to Taihu Lake. The shore of the lake is like a bow, and the river is like an arrow.

Fei Xiaotong conducted sociological investigations in this small village in the south of the Yangtze River.Soon, he completed two books: "Hualanyao Social Organization", written by Wang Tonghui - to commemorate his wife who died for it; "Jiangcun Economy - The Life of Chinese Farmers", written by Fei Xiaotong. The so-called "Jiangcun" means "Jiangnan countryside" or "Jiangsu countryside". He finally woke up from the pain.From October 1936, he studied at the London School of Economics in England.In June 1938, he received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Graduate School of the University of London, UK.Three months later, he set off for home.At that time, Peiping had fallen into the hands of the Japanese army.His teacher Wu Wenzao was in the Sociology Department of Yunnan University, so he came to Kunming and became a professor of Sociology Department of Yunnan University.

In 1943, sent by Yunnan University, Professor Fei Xiaotong went to the United States and worked there for a year. As he said: "Xing likes to write." Fei Xiaotong has written a large number of sociological works, among which the publication of the English versions of "Jiangcun Economy" and "Rural China" has brought him attention in the international sociological circle.Sociology is closely related to politics, and he cannot but be involved in politics. He "likes to write" and wrote articles about Chinese politics.He joined the China Democratic League in 1944.Shortly thereafter, he edited "Times Review" and published a series of articles advocating democracy and safeguarding human rights.These articles were compiled into the book "Democracy, Constitution, and Human Rights", which showed his dissatisfaction with the Kuomintang government at that time.

At ten o'clock in the evening on July 11, 1946, when Li Gongpu, executive member of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League, was suddenly shot dead at the intersection of Daxing Street in Kunming, Fei Xiaotong's political attitude was clearly "exposed".He issued a public statement condemning the atrocity of the assassination of Li Gongpu: "This is the harbinger of final victory. Li Gongpu's blood marks a turning point in the Chinese people's struggle for democracy, and it is undoubtedly closer to the light. My grief is that Li Gongpu failed to see the light coming, but he shed his blood for it. He finally Indict the darkness and 'shamelessness' of assassinating him. Now let me comfort the dead, the apex of shamelessness is about to be wiped out. Believe in the people, they will continue to fight." Fei Xiaotong risked his life by making such a statement—it should be noted that Li Gongpu’s blood was still wet. Four days later, at 45:00 on July 15, Wen Yiduo, another executive member of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League, was at the Xicangpo, Kunming was massacred again! That night, Fei Xiaotong, Pan Guangdan, Zhang Xiruo and other professors had to take refuge in the US consulate! Since then, he has continued to write articles for the "Observation" magazine edited by Chu Anping.His articles suggest that he is increasingly leaning toward the CCP politically.He became an ally of the Chinese Communist Party. It is precisely because of this that in 1948, when the Chinese People's Liberation Army was encircling Beiping, Fei Xiaotong, a professor at Tsinghua University, lived in Tsinghua University. He neither went to Taiwan with some professor friends nor accompanied other professors. Friends go to Britain and America. Later, in June 1949, Fei Xiaotong revealed his state of mind in a letter to a foreign friend: "If I retell the history of these six months, it will be a very long story. I think my decision to stay in Beiping was correct. I learned a lot of fundamental and valuable experiences from the process of liberation. It is at least Give me a chance to reflect on many fundamental issues and criticize my previous work. I became a student again and received 're-education' in the process of ideological remolding... I also believe that if the West lets us build our own country , China will catch up with the modernized West within my lifetime. The word Liberation is not an empty slogan, it has a concrete meaning..." This letter shows that after Fei Xiaotong stayed in Peiping, he was very harmonious with the Chinese Communists, and he was in a very happy mood. Once "we are in the same boat through thick and thin" and "shared weal and woe". Fei Xiaotong attended the first session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Since then, he has served as vice president of the Central University for Nationalities and deputy director of the Ethnic Affairs Commission of the State Council. He still "likes to write", and he expresses various opinions on Chinese politics.He is very sensitive.That's why he published that very subtle article in the early spring of 1957...