Author: CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (---.uwa.edu.au)
Date: 11-24-01 02:22
The youth of Mao Ze Dong (1)
There is saying in China that
"To conquer China, the first strategy is to occupy the provinces of Hunan
(湖南省) and Hubei (湖北省) which are the rice bowl and fish of the nation."
The province of Hunan was a land of notorious for its heroes and brigrands.
More than 2,000 years ago Hunan province was called the State of Chu (楚國)
which was a very strong state. In 223BC the State of Chu was subjugated by
the State of Qin (秦國). Ying Zheng (嬴政), the ruler of the State of Qin established the Qin Dynasty (秦朝 221BC to 207BC). During that time there was saying by the people of Chu, "If only three Chu families are left alive,they will still be able to to conquer Qin." It was the Hunan army formed by Zeng Guo Fan (曾國藩) that destroyed the Kingdom of Heavenly Peace (太平天國).
As Hunan province is situated in the region south of Dong Ting Hu (洞庭湖), a
large lake of eight hundred lis in circumference and connected by numerous channels to Chang Jiang (長江) or the Yangtze River. There is a big river called Xiang Jiang (湘江) flows through the province. Hunan means south of the lake of Dong Ting Hu. Its single word is called Xiang (湘) which is named after the river
Xiang Jiang.
About twenty two miles north of Xiang Jiang is the fertile valley of Shao Shan
(韶山) which is also called the Hibicus Land (芙蓉地) because of its beauty. In
the valley there is a little village called Shao Shan (韶山村). In the little village
there was a farmhouse belonged to Mao Shun Sheng (毛順生). Origianlly the
farmhouse was a mud-walled shack erected by Mao Shun Sheng's father in
1878. Mao Shun Sheng (毛順生) was a poor peasant whose wife was called
Wen Qi Mei (溫其美). Mao Shun Sheng started tilling his father little patch of farm land when he was only eight years-old. Mao Shun Sheng had very little schooling.
His father was in debt to a landlord. At the age of 16 Mao Shun Sheng enrolled in the Qing Imperial army as a soldier to pay off his father's debt. After seven years Mao Shun Sheng saved enough money to pay off his father's debt and still had enough money to buy about half an acre to farm.
The year was 1893AD and Zhang Zhi Dong (張之洞) established factories in
Han Kou (漢口) region in Hubei province and the first newspaper in China was founded. On Boxing day of that year there born a baby in the little village of Shan Shan. He was the first child born to the Mao family and his father was Shun
Sheng who named his first son Ze Dong.
In June 1894 the war between China and Japan broke out in the Korean peninsular. The Qing Imperial troops were no match to the modern Japanese army. By the end of the year the Korean peninsular and the east of Liaoning province were occupied by the Japanese. In Febuary 1895 the Chinese fleet was defeated off the mouth of the Yalu River (鴨綠江), and again, toward the end of the war, at Wei Hai Wei
(威海衛), where it had put in for refuge. China was humiliated by the defeat of the
war. The Qing Emperor De Zong (德宗皇帝 reigned 1875 to 1908) appointed Li
Hong Zhang (李鴻章) to sue for peace and in April 1895 the treat of Shimonoseki was signed. Of the conditions in the treaty were the cession of Fomasa (台灣 Taiwan) and of the Pescadores (彭湖列島 Peng Hu Lie Dao) group and the recognition of Korea independence. China had to pay Japan an idemnity of 200,000,000 taels of gold.
In April 1896 China and Russia signed the treaty for construction of jointly operated Central Manchuria Railway. At the same time railway concessions were granted to
other Western Powers. In September Dr Sun Yat Sen was arrested in London and was imprisoned in the Chinese Embassy.
In October 1897 a German priest was killed in Cao Zhou (曹州) in Shandong province. The next month the Bay of Jiao Zhou (膠州灣) was occupied by the German.
The year of1898 was the twenty fourth year of the reign of Emperor De Zong
The full name of Emperor De Zong was Ai Xin ZaiTian (愛新載湉). In Febuary of that year Germany leased the Bay of Jiao Zhou (膠州灣 ) in Shandong province
(山東省). In March Russia leased the harbour and city of Lu Shun (旅順) in the province of Liaining (遼寧省). The scholar and reformer Kang You Wei (康有為) formed the Bao Guo Hui (保國會) or the Society of the Study of Self-Strengthening. In April the British leased Kowloon (九龍). In May the British leased Wei Hai Wei
(威海衛) in Wen Deng county (文登縣) of Shandong province. In August Empress Dowager Ci Xi (慈禧太后) resumed the duty of Regency and the "Hundred Days"
reformation ended. Emperor De Zong was imprisoned in Ying Tai (瀛台), a tiny island in the middle of the Forbidden Palace. More than 100,000 bones and tortoise-shells bearing inscriptions (Jia Gu Wen 甲骨文) were discovered at Yin
Xu (殷虛) in An Yang county (安陽縣) in Henan province (河南省). Mao Ze Dong
was five-years old.
CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
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