Next to the pond in Lizi Village, Hongshi Town, Hengyang City, Hunan Province, is a long-standing old house in southern Hunan. The green trees and clear waters all year round make this house look particularly quiet. In the main hall, a bronze statue of a young male with a gentle face and a firm look made visitors stop and admire him. He is not only the little master who once lived in this house, but also the revolutionary hero who died heroically at the age of 28 - Xia Minghan.
He was born in a wealthy family, why did he break with his old family?
Xia Minghan is from Hengyang, Hunan. He was born in a prominent official family in the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1900. His grandfather Xia Shiji was well-educated and was a Jinshi during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty and held an important position for a long time; his father, Xia Shaofan, was the eldest son of Xia Shiji, who was honored for tribute; his mother, Chen Yunfeng, was the eldest daughter of the famous "Iron-faced Censor" in the late Qing Dynasty, was well-educated and virtuous, and was later awarded the title of "Herbirth of the Imperial Censor" by the court.
When Xia Minghan was born, his grandfather and his father were officials in different places. Xia Minghan was born in Zigui, Hubei where his father was at that time. When he was young, he often followed his mother to work between his father and grandfather's place of office, and therefore he was more knowledgeable than most children of the same age.
Although Xia Shiji has many children and grandchildren, he only loves the smart and naughty Xia Minghan. Until Xia Minghan was in his teens, he often hugged him in his arms and held him on his legs, personally teaching the traditional classics of our country. In the heart of Xia Shiji, the grandfather of the second-rank official, Xia Minghan, as the eldest son of the eldest son, will surely inherit the intergenerational inheritance of the Shuxiang family, so he attaches great importance to him and has very strict requirements.
If it is a stable era, grandfather's mind will be fine, and his wish will be easier to achieve. However, when Xia Minghan was born, with the forced opening of the country, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement, the failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the huge compensation, a series of incidents that damaged the vitality occurred one after another, the already corrupt dynasty of the Qing Dynasty was riddled with holes and reached the end of the declining mountains. People were confused and difficult to tell what the future looks like for for a while.
00 Changsha Confucian Temple in the early 20th century was later destroyed by the "Wenxi Fire"
Xia's family's fate was inevitably involved in the torrent of the times: after the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution in 1912, Xia Shiji refused to serve the new government and brought his family to Shanghai to live. Here, although he and Xia Minghan's father Xia Shaofan had huge differences in their views on the current situation, he agreed to his son to do things in the new government.
A year later, Xia Shiji brought all his family except Xia Shaofan back to his hometown in Hengyang , and bought an old house built during the Qianlong period at the foot of Lizi Mountain for a high price, and began to live a life of raising one's life. 13-year-old Xia Minghan also entered the local Shigu National Higher Primary School to study. Due to his prominent status, Xia Minghan spent much easier time in school than at home, because even if he made a mistake, his teachers rarely criticized him severely.
In a relatively relaxed environment, Xia Minghan, who is in the transition period between children and adolescents, began to explore the world around him with a relatively independent perspective and behavior. This is also the first time he has had such close contact with his hometown since he was born, so he cherishes such an opportunity.
After studying, his favorite thing is to go to the gurgling riverside with his classmates to catch crabs, swim in the river, fight water, or climb to nearby mountains to catch birds and beasts and fight fruits. Every inch of land in my hometown allows Xia Minghan to quickly see and experience a world completely different from the "Zhihuzheye" taught by his grandfather since childhood. The real world of birds singing, flowers and kites flying and fish leaping in the clear water and green mountains is obviously more attractive to the young man who is growing rapidly in body and mind.
A scene in the former residence of martyr Xia Minghan
He is increasingly disliked the long braid deliberately kept on his grandfather's head, and is no longer willing to shake his head and learn "Zi Yue" and "Poetry Cloud" with his grandfather; whenever his grandfather wants to take him to worship at the Confucius Temple, or want him to show his "teaching achievements" in front of everyone, Xia Minghan always tries to escape, and then finds the elderly who live there all year round to tell all kinds of strange stories about his hometown.
Under the nourishment of the landscape, humanities and other aspects of hometown, and under the careful guidance of his well-educated mother, Xia Minghan became a pure-hearted boy, treating everyone he came into contact with with great kindness, especially those whose living conditions were not as good as him. In the process of getting along with teachers, classmates, neighbors and servants at home, he worked hard to understand the common information revealed to him by the fate of different characters, that is, the "hardships in people's livelihood" in society at that time.
Xia Minghan first began to try to share the work for the maids at home. For example, when he concentrated in the hall to review his homework with his brothers and sisters at night, he did not throw away confetti on the ground like other children, but instead concentrated them in his own small bamboo basket and poured them out after the study was over.
Once, a young woman with a pale face and skinny face begged for food in the Xia Mansion with a baby in her arms. While her grandfather was not at home, Xia Minghan secretly gave her all the New Year’s money to her and her younger siblings. This incident shocked Xia Minghan, who had lived a prosperous life since birth. Many years later, Xia Minghan told his wife that it was the first time he knew that there were so many hungry people in the world.
He also took the initiative to help his servants fetch water into the river. He was accidentally discovered by his grandfather and was severely scolded, believing that Xia Minghan should not waste time doing such a lowly thing, but should recite a few more Tang poems. Xia Minghan believes that in Tang poetry, , "Who knows that every grain of food on the plate is hard-working" , grandfather has to drink tea and use water every day, but he does not know the hard work of carrying water. It can be seen that grandfather himself did not understand Tang poetry.
Among the servants of the Xia family, there is an old sedan chair bearer who started following Xia Shiji very early. When he was strong in his youth, he was a famous strong man. With Xia Shiji running around without complaints, he did not get married. However, the second year after Xia Shiji and his family returned to Hengyang, they fired the elderly sedan chair husband. The lonely and helpless elderly man was homeless and had to sell his strength and make a living by moving goods to others on the dock. Not long after, the poor old man fell to death while working.
In Xia Minghan's view, the initiator of this tragedy of is the lofty, cold and ruthless grandfather.
The image of Xia Shiji in film and television dramas
During this period, the accidental death of his father also invisibly promoted the breakup between Xia Minghan and the old-style family represented by his grandfather. Although Xia Minghan's father Xia Shaofan was an official in the same dynasty as Xia Shiji, he was not as conservative as his father. Instead, in the work environment where new and old ideas were constantly stirring, he smelled the new atmosphere of the times with the unique keenness of young people. While consciously following the call of the times, he successfully brought this enlightened atmosphere to his wife.
Due to his outstanding work performance, Xia Shaofan was sent to Japan by the Qing government to study and inspect government affairs shortly after Xia Minghan was born. Compared with the twilight atmosphere of domestic society at that time, the huge progress brought to Japanese society by " Meiji Restoration " and the thriving spirit emitted from it shocked Xia Shaofan.
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, Xia Shaofan chose to actively join the new government with his father's acquiescence. Therefore, when his father brought his family back to his hometown in Hengyang to live, he became the only family member of the family who was "lost" outside. Unfortunately, the New Year is about to go on, and before Xia Shaofan could make a difference in the new environment, he passed away due to illness in 1914.
The death of his father lost the most effective buffer for the differences in concepts between grandparents and grandchildren. Xia Shiji wanted to better protect his grandson in troubled times and kept him under his wings. Therefore, he was even more opposed to Xia Minghan's contact with everything he thought was "abnormal".Little did he know that the stronger his desire to protect himself, the more he would desire to break free from the constraints and fight for freedom. Fortunately, Xia Minghan's mother often persuaded her father-in-law and son to maintain peace at home.
1917, Xia Minghan went against his grandfather's request and was admitted to the Mechanical Department of the Third Type A Industrial School of Hunan Province (hereinafter referred to as the Third Type A Industrial School) that was founded with excellent results. Although Xia Shiji was angry, he did not stop him too much. After entering the school, Xia Minghan was eager to learn cultural knowledge on the one hand, and on the other hand, he began to come into contact with some new books and magazines, trying to understand society from a more in-depth perspective.
Xia Minghan's second year after she entered the third-level job, the warlord Wu Peifu captured Hengyang City and held a celebration banquet at the "Headquarters". Xia Shiji went to the meeting in a sedan chair, which made Xia Minghan very angry. What he didn't expect was that when Wu Peifu returned to Xia's mansion and left, Xia Shiji sent Wu to the gate while muttering, "I'm honest and sincere, and I'll see you off with sincerity." This situation made Xia Minghan completely disappointed with his grandfather in his heart.
From then on, the conflict between the two grandparents and grandchildren has completely intensified, and Xia Minghan has returned home less and less.
Excellent leader of the peasant movement
During the third grade school study, Xia Minghan quickly realized the ugly face of warlords rampant in the village and fishing the people. He began to contact classmates from other schools with the help of his teachers, and successively established secret revolutionary groups such as "Sand Club", "Hengshe", and "Xiangbin Poetry and Painting Club" to organize and carry out activities against warlords.
"The eyes are great and good at observing the wind and color, the mouth is wide and you can brag. You can make more fame and fortune by long hands, and you can be short and bend your knees and kowtow." - A satirical poem published by Xia Minghan during his studies at the 3rd Academic School
At the turn of spring and summer in 1919, after the May Fourth Movement broke out, Mao Zedong, Deng Zhongxia and others led and established a new Hunan Student Federation guided by Marxist thought in Changsha. In line with the Hunan Student Union, the Hunan Student Union was also born at Hengyang Fuqiao Office.
Xia Minghan, who has rich student work experience, soon cooperated tacitly with Jiang Xianyun, who was studying in the Third Normal School, and jointly launched a campaign to strike students in 25 counties in southern Hunan and boycott Japanese goods, which greatly shocked some local profiteers and increased the influence of the Student Union. Xia Minghan also succeeded Jiang Xianyun as the third director-general of the Hunan Student Union, responsible for the editor-in-chief and distribution of the Hunan Student Union magazine "Xiangnan Student Union Weekly".
In the spring of the second year, the Hunan Student Union introduced He Shuheng to Hengyang to guide students to drive away the warlords Zhang Jingyao , and temporarily lived in the Hengyang Education Hall in West Lake Center. During this period, he visited Xia Shiji and some upper class people, hoping to support students' driving movement through their influence.
Unexpectedly, He Shuheng's actions caused the misunderstanding of the uninformed Xia Minghan. When he asked He Shuheng why he "cluttered" with someone like Xia Shiji, He Shuheng patiently explained the pros and cons and the whole story to him. Xia Minghan, who had a one-point understanding, not only successfully persuaded his grandfather to take the lead in sending a power to the whole country to "support and drive Zhang", but also took advantage of the original conflict between Wu Peifu and Zhang Jingyao to launch a student parade and petition, directly demanding that Wu Peifu expel Zhang Jingyao.
Xia Minghan led the student movement in Hengyang, arousing the dissatisfaction and fear of the local gentry. They kept putting pressure on Xia Shiji to take care of his grandson. In desperation, Xia Shiji ordered people to lock Xia Minghan in a small room, trying to make him think of his mistakes, but Xia Minghan broke through the window with the help of his mother and younger brother and sister. Before leaving, he cut down the osmanthus tree in the backyard to express his break with his grandfather and the family.
From then on, he left Xia Mansion and never went back, so Xia Shiji cut off his financial support. Xia Minghan's mother deeply understood and supported her son's behavior. Not only did she move out of Xia's mansion soon, she also sold her jewelry to support four or five children, including Xia Minghan, to participate in the revolutionary activities.
Xia Minghan, who ran away from home, arrived in Changsha with the help of revolutionaries such as He Shuheng and Yi Lirong, and successively lived in the popular newspaper hall, Chuanshan Academy and the Cultural Book Club founded by Chairman Mao.In the past year, Xia Minghan has studied diligently under the difficult conditions, read a large number of progressive books and magazines, and actively participated in social activities under the guidance of Mao Zedong.
Chairman Mao when he was young
In the summer of 1921, after the founding of the Communist Party of China, the Hunan District Committee of the Communist Party of China under Mao Zedong founded Hunan Self-Study University in Changsha in order to cultivate the reserve force of the party, and a year later it attached tutoring school . Xia Minghan was not only one of the first students of the self-study university, but soon joined the Communist Party of China in the fall of 1921 under the introduction of Mao Zedong and He Shuheng.
"Comrade Xia Minghan's image will always be distinct in my mind. When I first saw Comrade Xia Minghan was at Hunan Self-study University, he was leaning his head down on the stairs, and it seemed that he had no haircut for several months, like a pile of weeds covering his head and face. I asked in surprise: Who is this? My friend told me: His name is Xia Minghan. I suspected that he was a rough man and could not get close to him. I met him soon. On the contrary to what I thought, he was a person who was speechless, without any sudden expression, and never showed his ability." - Xie Juezai "Biography of Comrade Xia Minghan"
After the establishment of the Tutoring School, he became colleagues and comrades-in-arms with Mao Zedong and He Shuheng, and began to serve as the academic directors of the self-study school. More than a year later, the Zhao Hengti government seized the two schools on the grounds that "the theory advocated is incorrect and hindered public security" because it was afraid of the impact of self-study universities and affiliated tutoring schools in society, especially between workers and students. Xia Minghan also moved to Xiangjiang Middle School organized by the Provincial Party Committee to continue teaching, and served as the Secretary-General of the Provincial Student Union and the first editor of the "Hunan Student Union Weekly".
In addition, he and Luo Xuezan and others led and organized a strike movement for Changsha rickshaw workers to fight for legitimate rights and interests for the city's rickshaw workers; after the "June 1st" tragedy in Changsha in 1923, he and Guo Liang and others mobilized and convened a petition meeting with more than 60,000 people in the name of the "Diplomatic Fan Club" to resist the indifference of the Japanese government towards the cruel actions. The Zhao Hengti government was so angry that it ordered the wanted to Xia Minghan and Guo Liang, forcing them to hide for the time being.
Warlord Zhao Hengti
In the spring of 1925, Mao Zedong returned to Shaoshan, Hunan from Shanghai and discussed the issue of the peasant movement with members of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee many times. At that time, Xia Minghan, who was already a member of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, happened to be in charge of the provincial Agriculture Committee's work. Not only did he often disguise himself as a farmer and go to the countryside for field inspections, but he also focused on cultivating peasant movement cadres and actively sent revolutionary youth to study at the "People's Movement Training Institute".
In response to the phenomenon that some farmers' movement cadres are unwilling to return to work in the county, Xia Minghan took the lead in arranging his younger brothers and sisters to return to his hometown Hengyang to carry out the peasant movement. With their efforts, Hengyang's peasant movement has also become one of the most outstanding places in the province's agricultural movement.
After a long period of exploration, accumulation and intense preparation, on December 1, 1926, the Hunan Provincial Party Committee sent Xia Minghan and Guo Liang to preside over and convene the first joint meeting of the farmers' congress and workers' congress in Hunan's history. The meeting lasted for 26 days. During this period, Mao Zedong rushed back to Changsha from Hankou and discussed a total of more than 40 resolutions with Comrades Xia Minghan, Yi Lirong, Liu Zhixun and others, and was reviewed and approved by the conference. He also made two important speeches at the meeting, highly affirming the situation of the agricultural movement in Hunan.
It was also in the ninth month of the lunar calendar of this year. Xia Minghan and the skillful female worker Zheng Jiajun got married in Changsha. In the wedding room located at No. 4 Qingshuitang, the extremely simple furniture is hard to believe how pampered the male host here once lived. Qingshuitang is also the place where Chairman Mao and his wife Yang Kaihui once lived, but Xia Minghan and his wife moved out after only a few months.
Xia Minghan's outstanding peasant work left a profound impression on Chairman Mao. Shortly after the Spring Festival in 1927, Chairman Mao, who presided over the Central Farmers' Movement Training Institute in Wuhan, wrote a letter to Xia Minghan, asking him to work with him. After Xia Minghan arrived in Wuhan, he provided a lot of valuable reference materials and suggestions for Chairman Mao’s writing of the Hunan Movement Inspection Report.
He is not only the secretary of Chairman Mao and the peasant movement workshop, but also serves as the secretary-general of the National Peasant Association, and sometimes he has to give a report to other units. According to Zhou Gucheng's recollection, Xia Minghan "has no habit at all, approachable, straightforward and sincere" , devoted his whole body and soul to the party's work. At that time, there were only two families, Chairman Mao and Xia Minghan, who lived in the lecture hall. Xia Minghan was deeply impressed by Chairman Mao's knowledge, courage and firm belief in the future. Chairman Mao also admired Xia Minghan's down-to-earth and hardworking and indomitable spirit.
Ambitions die before they are fulfilled
Just when the domestic revolutionary enthusiasm is high and the peasant movement is at its climax, Chiang Kai-shek, who is determined to achieve dictatorship in China, launched a long-planned counter-revolutionary coup in Shanghai. For a moment, the land of China was full of bloody storms, shrouded in white terror. Seeing the news that the former comrades and comrades were constantly killed, Xia Minghan was very sad and angry. After the Fifth Congress of the Party, he still decided to join the army, joined the team of the Second Northern Expedition Revolutionary Army, served as the Minister of Propaganda in the Political Department chaired by Deng Yanda, and followed the army to the Henan front line.
"The more you kill, the more you are, you will be afraid of killing. If you don't kill Chiang, how can you thank the world if you don't kill Chiang's head!" - poem written by Xia Minghan after the "April 12" counter-revolutionary coup
June, the Party Central Committee decided to transfer Xia Minghan back to the Hunan Provincial Party Committee to work, continue to serve as a member of the Provincial Party Committee and also serve as the Minister of Organization. At that time, Hunan was in the midst of the white terror after the Ma Day Incident. A large number of Communist Party members and revolutionary patriots fell one after another under the butcher knife of the reactionary government, and the party's work was forced to turn into underground activities. In order to ensure the safety of the Hunan Party organization and ensure that the party’s secrets are not leaked, Xia Minghan and his wife have been constantly changing their residences to prevent being snatched by spies. In just July and August 1927, they moved dozens of times. After the Qingshuitang, where Xia Minghan and Chairman Mao and his wife lived, Mao Zedong returned to Hunan and discussed the Autumn Harvest Uprising with the members of the Provincial Party Committee on the Autumn Harvest Uprising, and discussed and formulated land policies closely related to farmers. Xia Minghan, who was mainly responsible for the liaison work, disguised himself as he ran between Changsha and the surrounding suburbs in an extremely dangerous situation, and promoted and organized the autumn harvest uprising to grassroots organizations. In order to revolt, he sent his seventh brother Xia Mingbi, fifth brother Xia Mingzhen and fourth sister Xia Mingheng to Hengyang, Chenzhou and Hengshan to launch an uprising. Unfortunately, all his relatives died one after another during the uprising.
Faced with the harsh and stormy environment, Xia Minghan not only did not waver, but also specially bought a small red bead and solemnly gave it to his wife Zheng Jiajun, who had just given it to her daughter, to encourage her confidence in the revolution. Xia Minghan said to his wife: "I give red beads like my heart, I hope your heart is like my heart." Zheng Jiajun deeply understands and supports her husband's career, and said that he will stick to his beliefs and revolution to the end. They named their newborn daughter "Chiyun", which means that red flags are everywhere. Zheng Jiajun sewed the red beads into the corner of his clothes with exquisite techniques and carefully treasured them. Who would have thought that this red bead would become Xia Minghan’s last thought for his wife and daughter!
After the Autumn Harvest Uprising was set, most of the workers and peasants in the areas of Pingjiang and Liuyang went to Jinggangshan with Chairman Mao. In order to prevent the Kuomintang reactionaries from taking the opportunity to counterattack these places and to cooperate with the struggle in Jinggangshan, the Provincial Party Committee decided to continue the guerrilla war with Pingjiang and Liuyang as the center.
In October, Xia Minghan arrived at the Pingjiang County Party Committee to preside over the work and served as the secretary of the special committee of Pingjiang and Liuyang. He first organized an armed riot in Pingjiang again with Li Liuru and Mao Jianqing, and then rushed to Liuyang, successfully planned to seize the weapons of the regiment defense bureau, and enriched the armed forces of the Liuyang riot team.
In early 1928, the Party Central Committee decided to transfer Xia Minghan to work in the Hubei Provincial Party Committee. After returning to Changsha to say goodbye to his wife and her infant daughter, Xia Minghan arrived in Wuhan by boat and temporarily lived in a Hunan business.Just after the Lantern Festival, Xia Minghan moved from Hunan business to Oriental Hotel, and contacted Xie Juezai and Xu Teli, who were still working underground in Wuhan at the time.
Xia Minghan learned from Xie Juezai that the traffic officer Song Ruolin may have betrayed and asked him to transfer as soon as possible. As soon as Xia Minghan returned to the Oriental Hotel, Song Ruolin broke in with the military and police and rushed forward to capture him. The military and police searched through the cabinets in Xia Minghan's room and found only an old pocket watch, a flashlight and a pair of myopic glasses. Just two days later, the crazy reactionaries brutally killed this revolutionary hero with an extremely firm belief in communism.
In the two days, Xia Minghan was tortured and dealing with the enemy who "tried" him, and also wrote the last letter to his mother, wife and elder sister with his tenacious will, expressing his unrepentant choice, his confidence that the revolution will surely win, and his deep love for his family. In the letter to his wife, he also left a kiss mark stained with blood. And the popular poem "The Poem of Justice" he wrote before his sacrifice is still heart-wrenching and prosperous!
"It doesn't matter if you behead your head, as long as the ideology is true. Kill Xia Minghan, there are still people who come later!" - Xia Minghan's "Poem of Justice"
Unfortunately, such a chivalrous and tender iron hero left nothing except the red bead he gave to his wife when he said goodbye to him! His body was smuggled out by his comrades at the risk of his life and was temporarily buried on the Parrot Island next to the Yangtze River . Several years later, when people were able to bury him well, it was difficult to find because of his age. Although the letter he wrote to his relatives was kept secretly by his relatives for 15 years, it was still seized and burned by the reactionaries.
Xia Minghan's parents had six children in total, all of which participated in the revolution, and four brothers and sisters, including Xia Minghan, died one after another. Not only that, Xia Minghan's nephew (the eldest sister's son) also joined the Red Army team two years after Xia Minghan's death, and died in a battle at the age of 19.
The hero has passed away, but the hero's deeds and spirit are always worth remembering by future generations. In order to commemorate Xia Minghan and his heroic family, people restored Xia Minghan’s former residence on the basis of the former site of Xia Mansion, built Xia Minghan Square, Xia Minghan Park, etc., and used Xia Minghan’s former residence as a demonstration base for patriotism education and a party member education base, so that people living in peaceful times have the opportunity to admire the microcosm of the bloody battles of their ancestors, so as to cherish the hard-won happy life now.
salutes the hero!
