Memoirs of Xiao Zisheng｜Mao Zedong stays in Beijing

Continued from the previous post (slightly deleted): When Cai Hesen, Xiong Guangchu, and others organized work-study preparatory classes with me, Mao Zedong was also helping. But after several discussions with Cai Hesen and me, Mao Zedong decided not to go to France, but to stay in Peiping. To this end, he made four reasons. The first is the toll problem. Mao Zedong has almost nothing, and although the toll has been reduced to one hundred oceans, this is still a large sum that cannot be solved for him, and he knows that no one can lend him this amount of money. Secondly, the language can not pass the barrier. At school, his English pronunciation was poor. Third, by staying in Beijing, on the one hand, you can continue your studies, and on the other hand, you can recruit new members for the Xinmin Society, and those who go to France need a reliable person to contact in Beijing. Fourth, he always remembered what Tan Wuben said in the "Skyscraper" Tianxin Pavilion. Tan Wuben said that in order to achieve success in politics, the most important thing is that a person has the ability to organize a party and unite a group of loyal people. Mao Zedong was basically a practical man, and I guess Tan Wuben's words undoubtedly influenced Mao Zedong so much that he made such a decision. The seeds finally fell into the fertile ground. Cai Hesen and I both agreed that Mao Zedong would stay in Beijing and run a work-study program like we did in France. This brought the inevitable problem that Mao Zedong had to find a job to make ends meet. To this end, the three of us talked several times. At the time we were recruiting members of the Xinmin Society from National Peking University. So we told Mao Zedong that he had better get a job at Peking University. We thought of the job of the classroom cleaner, because after the classroom cleaner has done his job, he can still sit in. Peking University does need a person to clean the classroom and clean the blackboard after class. The job is easy and has a big benefit as staff have constant access to professors and students. We agree that this job is the most ideal.The question that follows, then, is how to get the job. It's a senior professor who's in charge of hiring people, and he's also in charge of a lot of other things, so we don't know how to trouble him with such a trivial matter. We thought of President Cai Zimin. He has always cared and loved us. We wrote him a letter directly and asked if he could give an order to get a job for our people. Principal Cai was a respectable person and immediately understood our difficulties. He had a better idea: Instead of being a classroom cleaner, he might have Mao Zedong working in the library. Therefore, he wrote a note to Mr. Li Dazhao, the director of the library of Peking University: "Mao Zedong wants to work on campus in order to implement the work-study program, please arrange him in the library..." President Cai did not point out that Mao Zedong came from Changsha. Yes, it was a "young leader." Li Dazhao arranged for Mao Zedong to do light work such as cleaning the library and arranging books. This is entirely due to the help of Principal Cai, because Li Dazhao is in a high position and does not ask about such trivial matters as hiring workers. In 1921, both Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu became secret Communist Party leaders in Beijing, and Mao Zedong held the same position in Hunan. In 1921, before my second trip to France, I had several conversations with Mr. Li Dazhao. After returning to China, from 1924 to 1926, we carried out revolutionary work together against Zhang Zuolin. We often had to hide from the military and police and secretly connect. We talked about Mao Pingdong, and once Li Dazhao said: "I asked Mao Zedong to do the cleaning work, and I completely followed the instructions of President Cai. I didn't know he was your good friend. I hope you can forgive me." In 1926, Li Dazhao was arrested at the Russian Embassy in Beijing and died in Beijing on April 28 of the same year. Mao Zedong has always been very grateful to President Cai Zimin. Every letter to him begins with "Master Cai". He considers himself a student of Principal Cai and always respects Principal Cai.In 1938, Mr. Cai Zimin lived in seclusion in Kowloon. About twelve months before his death, I often came to his home to chat. Several times we talked about Mao Zedong. With Mr. Cai's advanced age, naturally he can't remember everything. Mr. Cai can still remember Mao Zedong's letter to him, but he can't remember Mao Zedong's voice and smile. Mao Zedong's activities in the library were not very good. According to our plan, he tried to talk with the students who came to borrow books, but the results were not satisfactory, and it was difficult for him to achieve academic success. He wrote to me that he was disappointed by the students of Peking University, such as Fu Sinian, Duan Ximing, Luo Zhixi, etc. He heard when he was in Changsha that they were the best students. In 1919, Mao Zedong returned to Changsha and began to participate in the campaign to overthrow the tyrannical Hunan Governor Zhang Jingyao. The only way to drive Zhang was to persuade the troops stationed at the border between Hunan and Guangdong to move into Changsha to assist the revolution, and then ask former Governor Tan Yanlu to return to power. The person who instigated the revolutionary movement in the education circle was Yi Peiji, who was Mao Zedong's Chinese teacher in the first normal school. In fact, the entire educational community was involved in this movement, and Zhang Jingyao was accused of being a public enemy of the people of Hunan. Yi Peiji and his students, including Mao Zedong, started the uprising, which they said was "a struggle against evil forces." To understand the background of Mao Zedong's departure from Beijing, it is necessary to refer to the two radical leaders of Peking University at the time: Wen Chen Duxiu, dean of the college, and Li Dazhao, director of the library. Both men wrote articles glorifying the Russian October Revolution of 1917. Later they had secret contact with the Russians. The Russians suggested that they form a Communist Party in China, because they could not openly form a communist group at that time, so they launched the "Marx Research Society" and the "Socialist Youth League", headquartered at Peking University. Another major step was the establishment of a "foreign language school," dedicated to teaching Russian.These leaders did not consider Mao Zedong in the plan, because Mao Zedong was only an assistant in the library at the time, and he was not registered with Peking University. They didn't notice Mao Zedong. Mao Tse-tung believed that in terms of his situation in Beijing, there would be many restrictions on his work. Moreover, Mao Zedong did not achieve any major achievements at Peking University. So, a few months later, Mao Zedong returned to his hometown of Hunan, where he wanted to start over. He still takes the "Xinmin Society" as the backbone and hopes to build a stronger organization. This was the situation in 1919, shortly after Cai Hesen and I arrived in France. The three of us, Mao Zedong, Cai Hesen, and I, are still the main organizers of the 'Xinmin Society'. Cha Hesen and I have recruited thirty to forty members in France, and Mao Zedong has more than a hundred members in Changsha.( In fact, there are only a few dozen people.) He attaches great importance to selecting people on the basis of ideology. He also founded a magazine "Xinmin Society Member Correspondence Collection), which includes letters and comments, and members express their opinions on it. This magazine only Three issues have been published. In addition to the "Xinmin Society", Mao Zedong is still preparing for the revolutionary movement in Hunan Province. Mao Zedong edited and printed the weekly newspaper "Xiangjiang Review". The articles in the weekly newspaper are very intense and are very popular among young people. This newspaper was promoted on the Internet. The letters I wrote back to China from Paris were often published in the newspapers for publicity. Around this time, Mao Zedong opened the Culture Book Club, which sold publications introducing new ideas. This book club was run by Mao Zedong's collaborator Tao Siyong The eldest and most respectable female colleague I have already introduced earlier. The Hunan revolution was a success. Zhang Jingyao escaped from Hunan, and Tan Yanlu returned to the post of governor. Yi Peiji, who originally inspired the uprising, took over five important positions in the new government. : First Secretary of the Governor, First Secretary of the Army Commander, President of Hunan Education Association, Director of the Provincial Library, and Principal of the First Normal University.The No. 1 Normal School is the concentration of intellectuals in Changsha, and Yi Peiji appointed Mao Zedong as the principal of the primary school affiliated to the normal school. At the same time, He Shuheng, a highly respected member of the Xinmin Society, we call him He Hu, was appointed as the president of the "Popular Education Daily" (actually "the editor of the "Popular Education Books and Newspapers"). The newspaper is an excellent He Shuheng's new position is very hard and effective. He has several excellent editors, one of whom is Xie Juezai, who later served as Minister of Justice in the Communist government of Beijing. He later served as Minister of the Interior. Xie and He were friends from the same country. Later, He Weaning introduced Xie Juezai to us, so we became friends and called him "beard". These two were the oldest in our society at that time, about About thirty-five years old, ten years older than our average age. He Shuheng has been a good friend of mine for many years. We used to teach together at Chushi School. I don't know Xie Juezai very well, but I also like him very much because he is He Good friends. In this way, the "Xinmin Society" has two bases in Changsha: "Popular Education Daily" (an editorial office for popular education books and newspapers) and the Primary School attached to the No. 1 Normal University. In Cai Hesen, Xiong Guangchu, Xiang Jingyu, Li Weihan, Chen Shaoxiu and With the help of several other new members, our membership in France is the third base. In Hunan, because Yi Peiji and Tan Yanjian managed the government, Mao Zedong had greater freedom of movement. There was no Chinese Communist Party at that time, Our activities are centered on the Xinmin Society. Many members believed in Russian communism, thinking it was a magic wand for the transformation of China. Two years later, in 1921, the society split into two groups. The larger group was 100 percent communist, and the Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the Communist Party of Hunan was established.