Author: CHUNG Yoon Ngan
Date: 01-25-12 19:31
Mao Zedong's School Days
毛澤東學生時代
01. Childhood
英雄造時勢,---Ying xiong2 zao4 shi2 shi4,
時勢造英雄.---Shi2 shi4 zao4 ying xiong2.
The heroes produce their times,
Or the times produce the heroes.
A Chinese proverb
............................................
There is a saying about the Hunanese (湖南人).
若欲中國真滅亡,---Ruo4 yu4 Zhongguo zhen mie4 wang2,
除非湖南人死光.---Chu2 fei Hunan ren2 si3 guang.
China can only be conquered,
When all the people of Hunan are dead.
"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 brigands.
More than 2,000 years ago Hunan province was called the State of Chu (楚
國) which was a very strong state. It was in the river of Miluo (汨羅) near
the present day county of Xiangyin (湘陰縣) that, on the fifth day of the
fifth moon of 278BC Qu Yuan (屈原 ), an official cum scholar, drowned himself.
The death of Qu Yuan gave the younger generations the festival of Dragon
Boat Racing and eating Zong Zi (粽子). Eventually, in 223BC the State of
Chu was subjugated by the State of Qin (秦國). 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 conquer
Qin."
It was the Hunanese army formed by Zeng Guofan (曾國藩) that destroyed the
Kingdom of Heavenly Peace (太平天國 1851AD to 1864AD).
Hunan province is situated in the region south of Dongtinghu (洞庭湖), a
large lake of eight hundred li (里) in circumference and connected by numerous
channels to Changjiang (長江) or the Yangtze River. There is a large river
called Xiangjiang (湘江) that flows through the province Hunan. Hu (湖)
means Lake and Nan (南) means south. Hunan (湖南) means the south of the
lake of Dongtinghu. The single name of Hunan province is called Xiang (湘
) which is named after the Xiangjiang.
About twenty two miles north of Xiangjiang is the fertile valley of Shaoshan
(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 Shaoshanzhuang (韶山莊).
In that little village there was a farmhouse belonged to Mao Rensheng (毛
仁生, but in his grave it is written as Mao Shunsheng 毛順生). Originally
the farmhouse was a mud-walled shack erected by Mao Rensheng's father in
1878. Mao Rensheng was a poor peasant who started tilling his father's little
patch of farm land when he was only a young boy. He had very little schooling.
His father was in debt to a landlord. At the age of 16, Mao Rensheng enrolled
in the Qing Imperial army as a soldier so that he could earn and save some
money to pay off his father's debt. After seven years Mao Renheng saved
enough money to pay off his father's debt and still had enough money to
buy about half an acre to farm. Mao Rensheng married a girl named Wen Qimei
(文其美) who was from Xiangtan (湘潭), the district town of Shaoshan Valley.
The year was 1893 and Zhang Zhigong (張之洞 1837AD to 1909AD), a high ranking
official of the Qing Government established factories in Hankou (漢口) region
in Hubei province (湖北省). The first newspaper in China was founded. On
Boxing day of that year there was born a baby boy in the little village
of Shaoshan. He was the first child born to the family of Mao Rensheng and
he named his first son Zedong (澤東).
In June 1894 the war between China and Japan broke out in the Korean peninsular.
The Qing Imperial troops were no match with the modernized Japanese army.
By the end of the year the Korean peninsular and the east of Liaoning province
(遼寧省) were occupied by the Japanese. In Febuary 1895 the Chinese fleet
was defeated off the mouth of the Yalu River (鴨綠江). Towards the end of
the war, at Weihaiwei (威海衛), the Chinese fleet was totally destroyed
by the Japanese Navy, where it had put in for refuge. China was humiliated
by the defeat of the war. The Qing Emperor Guang Xu (光緒皇帝 1875 to 1908)
appointed Li Hongzhang (李鴻章) to sue for peace and in April 1895 the treaty
of Shimonoseki was signed. Of the conditions in the treaty were the cession
of Formosa (台灣Taiwan) and of the Pescadores (彭湖列島 Peng Hu Lie Dao)
group to Japan and the recognition of Korea's independence. China had to
pay Japan an indemnity of 200,000,000 taels of gold. One tael of gold per
Chinese to humiliate the 200 million Chinese.
In April 1896 China and Russia signed the treaty for construction of a 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 Caozhou (曹州) in Shandong
province 山東省). The next month the Bay of Jiaozhou (膠州灣) was occupied
by the German.
The year of 1898 was the twenty fourth year of the reign of Emperor Guang
Xu. The full name of Emperor Guang Xu was Ai Xin ZaiTian (愛新載湉). In
February of that year Germany leased the Bay of Jiaozhou (膠州灣 ) in Shandong
province (山東省). In March Russia leased the harbour and city of Lushun
(旅順) in the province of Liaining (遼寧省). The scholar and reformer Kang
Youwei (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 Weihaiwei in Wendeng 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 Guang Xu was imprisoned
in Yingtai (瀛台), a tiny island in the middle of the Forbidden Palace. It
was the same year that more than 100,000 bones and tortoise-shells bearing
inscriptions (Jia Gu Wen 甲骨文) were discovered at Yinxu (殷虛) in An Yang
county (安陽縣) in Henan province (河南省). Mao Zedong was five-years-old.
The Western Powers and Japan were sharpening their knives getting ready
to cut the Chinese watermelon. All they required to do was to give China
a little push it would fall into pieces. However, was still strong enough
to stand on its two feet.
http://yn.chung.id.au/TheDance.OnTheFall.OfChina.jpg
..........to be continued..........
Posted to Overseas Chinese Forum at asiawind.com
By CHUNG Yoon-Ngan (鄭永元)
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