Song Yaoru, the founder of the Song Family of the Republic of China, was born in Wenchang, Hainan. In his early years, he moved to Indonesia, Cuba, and the United States to survive. After graduating from Vanderbilt University, he came to Shanghai to live.
Shanghai is regarded as his second hometown by Song Yaoru. Here he married Ni Guizhen after the famous family, and gave birth to Song Ailing (1889) and Song Qingling (1893), Song Ziwen (1894), Song Meiling (1898), Song Ziliang (1899) and Song Zian (1906) six children, and operated a printing factory, became a well-known comprador in Shanghai.
After Song Yaoru's death on May 3, 1918, Ni Guizhen and his children buried him in the newly built Hongqiao Road Wanguo Cemetery. Not only that, Ni Guizhen bought 22 tombs at a time. In addition to burying Song Yaoru, she prepared the remaining tombs for herself and the descendants of the Song family. She hoped that the Song family could be buried together in the future.
According to Song Meiling’s letter to a friend on May 15th that year: “Fortunately, we learned of a new The cemetery was just completed, so we went there and found it was very nice and clean. So we bought the land-the whole area is enough for our whole family. Father was the first to be buried in that cemetery. You know, he likes it. Be the first in any competition, so I think he will be very pleased if he knows it.”
Wan Guo Cemetery later became the most famous cemetery in Shanghai, where many historical celebrities and celebrities, such as former ones, were buried. Cen Chunxuan, the Governor of Sichuan and the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi in the Qing Dynasty, Li Jingfang, the son of the well-known Li Hongzhang, Yuan Bokui, Shanghai Daotai in the late Qing Dynasty, Yang Du, Yuan Shikai’s staff, and the writer Lu Xun.
On July 23, 1931, when Ni Guizhen was vacationing in the summer in a villa in Qingdao, he suddenly heard the sad news of Song Ziwen being stabbed, and suddenly his blood pressure rose and fell to the ground. Died at the age of 62. In fact, Song Ziwen was assassinated and there was no danger. The secretary, Tang Weihui, was shot and killed on his behalf. Afterwards, Song Ziwen went north to take his mother's body back to Shanghai and buried it on the west side of his father Song Yaoru's tomb. The following year, it was changed to a joint tomb.
After the death of Song Yaoru and his wife, the relationship between the six siblings of the Song family was quite contradictory, such as the political disagreement between the second sister Song Qingling and the younger sister Song Meiling, and the financial power dispute between Song Ziwen and her brother-in-law Kong Xiangxi.
By the end of the 1940s, the three sisters and three brothers of the Song family each chose their own way, and finally each day. Song Ailing and Song Ziliang moved to New York, USA, Song Ziwen and Song Zian immigrated to San Francisco, Soong Meiling followed her husband to Taiwan, Soong Chingling stayed in the mainland.
And in 1975, after Chiang Kai-shek died of illness, Soong Meiling also moved to New York, USA. But at this time, the sixth elder brother of the Song family had already passed away.
Of the six elder brothers and sisters of the Song family, Song Zian, the youngest brother, died the earliest. In February 1969, as a director of the Bank of Guangdong, he flew to Hong Kong to attend the opening ceremony of the bank. Unfortunately, he died of a blood vessel burst. He was only 62 years old. After that, his body was returned to San Francisco and buried in the Wulun Mountain Cemetery.
Two years later, on April 26, 1971, Song Ziwen was at a dinner party in San Francisco when he was choked by chicken bones stuck in his throat. Died at the age of 77. Song Ziwen chose the cemetery before his death, which was the Fincliffe High-class Indoor Cemetery outside New York. In 1988, his wife Zhang Leyi died and was buried with him.
Two years later, on October 19, 1973, Song Ailing, the oldest of the six siblings, attended the New York Presbyterian ChurchThe hospital died of cancer at the age of 84. Before Song Ailing's death, her husband Kong Xiangxi had passed away for several years. The place where she was buried was also Fincliffe Cemetery. So Song Ailing was buried here by her children.
Not only that, but the children of Song Ailing and Kong Xiangxi were buried here after their deaths. For example, the tombs of Kong Lingwei and Kong Lingkan were next to their parents.
The fourth person who passed away was Soong Ching Ling who stayed in the mainland. On May 29, 1981, Soong Ching Ling passed away at her apartment in Beijing at the age of 88. According to her last wish, her ashes were sent to the Shanghai Wanguo Cemetery and buried next to her parents’ joint burial tomb, which was regarded as a last wish of her parents. In January 1984, Wan Guo Cemetery was renamed Soong Ching Ling Cemetery.
The fifth person to die was Song Ziliang, who died in 1983 at the age of 84. Song Ziliang lived in New York before his death, and had a very good relationship with his eldest sister Song Ailing. He also chose a place to sleep for himself at Fincliffe Cemetery. After all, his eldest sister and eldest brother were already there.
Song Meiling died last. Song Meiling is a world-famous longevity star. When she passed away on October 24, 2003, she was already 105 years old. Regarding the burial place behind her, what Song Meiling hopes most is to be buried in Shanghai. According to Jay Taylor, an American scholar who studies the history of the Song family, an e-mail sent to him by a relative of the Song family in 2008 wrote: "Song Meiling also requested in her will that her body be relocated from New York to Shanghai at an appropriate time. The Song family cemetery is placed on the side of the second sister Qingling. If this is not possible, she asks to be buried on the side of her husband in Xikou.”
But things are often not what people want. Soong Meiling chose Fincliffe Cemetery in the end. The one who accompanied her in the tomb was Kong Lingyi, whom she regarded as her biological daughter (Song Ailing and Kong Xiangxi’s eldest daughter, died in 2008 ).
So far, the Song family, which has run through the ups and downs of the history of the Republic of China, completely withdrew from the stage of history. One of the six brothers and sisters of the Song family was buried in China, one in San Francisco, and the other four were buried. At the Fincliffe Cemetery in New York, USA.
References: "The Complete Biography of the Song Family", "The Song Family Dynasty", "The Three Sisters of the Song Family", "The Three Brothers of the Song Family"
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-