Celebrity Photoshoot - (Treasure Edition)

Author: Du Zhengzheng, Liao Gailong / Country:
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-03-01
Features: Li Shuqing, who was called a "radical" by Mao Zedong, was born in 1874 and died in 1957. He was from Shaoshan Shao You Shan Zhuang. He was broad-minded, concerned about the nation and its people, had a strong sense of justice, and was a well-read scholar skilled in poetry and literature. In his early years, he promoted "new learning" and taught at Xiangxiang Zhen Sheng Middle School. He also turned temples such as the Lianhua Temple in Shaoshan and Changle An in Shixiang into schools, and was called a "radical teacher" by Mao Zedong. Around the May Fourth Movement, Li Shuqing accepted the democratic revolutionary ideas of the working class and peasants and later joined the Communist Youth League of China. During the period of the First United Front between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang, he was summoned to Guangzhou by Mao Zedong, who was then acting as the Minister of the Central Propaganda Department of the Kuomintang. Together with Shen Yanbing, he assisted Mao in editing the Political Weekly at No. 38 West Street, Dongshan Temple, Guangzhou. In 1927, after the April 12th Incident and the merger of the Nationalist and Wuhan governments, the Great Revolution, which had been so vibrant, suffered a tragic failure, and revolutionaries were everywhere executed, including Li Shuqing's wife, Jiang Tikuang, who was beheaded at Ruyi Pavilion by the enemy. At this time, Li Shuqing had already passed the "Grand Cycle of Life," and he returned to his hometown, furiously adopting the self-name "No Son from Shaoshan." He watched as Mao Zedong and his own children and grandchildren embarked on their long journey. Mao Zedong always remembered Li Shuqing. In 1936, when the famous American journalist Edgar Snow visited the Northwest Revolutionary Base Area of the CCP, in Bao'an County, where the Central Committee of the CCP was then located, Mao Zedong mentioned the influences of his youth and said: "There was another thing that had an impact on me. A 'radical' teacher came to a local primary school. He was called 'radical' because he opposed Buddhism and wanted to eliminate gods and spirits. He persuaded people to turn temples into schools. There was a lot of discussion about him. I admired him and supported his ideas." (See Red Star Over China, published by the Sanlian Bookstore in 1979). This refers to Li Shuqing. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan in 1945, Mao Zedong also mentioned Li Shuqing to Zhou Liwu, a Kuomintang representative who came to Yan'an for the CCP-Kuomintang negotiations, and asked Zhou to convey his greetings to Li when he returned to Hunan. General Zhou Liwu was from Xiangxiang, only 20 li away from Shaoshan, and graduated from Changsha Yueyun Middle School. He had once joined the CCP and was both literary and martial. In 1926, during the Hunan Peasant Movement, he served as the chairman of the Xiangxiang County Peasants' Association and was an "old acquaintance" of Mao Zedong. Later, Zhou was captured by the Kuomintang, surrendered in Nanjing, and was heavily rewarded by Chiang Kai-shek. By the end of 1945, he participated in the "Three-Person Executive Group" as a Kuomintang representative and visited Yan'an many times, sometimes staying up all night talking with Mao Zedong. In the spring of 1946, Zhou Liwu was specially sent by Mao Zedong to visit Li Shuqing in Chenjiaqiao, Shaoshan, to convey Mao's greetings: "I sincerely hope that you, Grand Elder Li, will take good care of your health. I wish you a long and healthy life—to see the world." Afterward, Li Shuqing, who had adopted the self-name "No Son from Shaoshan," reflected on this incident and said: "From then on, I was completely free from the suffering of illness and sorrow," and he shifted from "being immersed in poetry and wine year after year" to "waiting for the sky to clear day and night." P14-15