Chiang Kai-shek led the Chinese Kuomintang for decades and nominally unified China for more than twenty years, and was an important figure in China's modern history.
He was stubborn from a young age, and when he was young, he was even more debauched and his private life was chaotic, he married four women before and after, until he married his last wife, Song Meiling, he cultivated himself and did not remarry.
He had two sons, the eldest son Chiang Ching-kuo was born to him and his original partner Mao Fumei, Chiang Ching-kuo studied in the Soviet Union, followed Chiang Kai-shek after returning to China, and led the Kuomintang to rule Taiwan for a long time after the death of his father, and was also a well-known figure.
His other youngest son, Jiang Weiguo, did not have such a great reputation, and his life was mediocre, although he also had a certain position in the army by relying on the care of his father and brother, but he had no achievements.
And the most surprising thing is that Chiang Wei-kuo's birth mother is not one of Chiang Kai-shek's four wives.
Originally matched with Mao Fumei, he gave birth to a son, Chiang Ching-kuo
Born in 1887, Chiang Kai-shek's father died when he was eight years old, and Chiang Kai-shek was raised by his mother, Wang Caiyu.
Since he was a child, Chiang Kai-shek has been very naughty, mischievous and mischievous everywhere, unwilling to study well, like to call friends and friends, and provoke trouble.
Because his nickname is Ruiyuan, in the small town of Ningbo Xikou, there is also the name of Ruiyuan rogue.
Seeing that he was growing up day by day, it was becoming more and more difficult to control, wang Caiyu was also a little worried, seeing that he was also fourteen years old, Wang Caiyu thought about marrying him and making him accept his heart.
Wang Caiyu
According to local customs, he would often marry a wife who was a few years older to take good care of the family, and Wang Caiyu booked a family affair for him: Mao Fumei, who was 5 years older.
Mao Fumei was the daughter of a local honest family, wrapped up in small feet, a woman under traditional feudal education, bent on marrying her husband and singing women, and teaching her husband to teach her children, but she did not expect that on the day of marriage in 1901, the stubborn Chiang Kai-shek gave her a blow.
At the wedding ceremony, there were firecrackers outside to celebrate, and Chiang Kai-shek, who had just finished the chapel, disregarded Mao Fumei, who was still wearing a bridal hijab, and ran out to play with a group of naughty children snatching firecrackers, and soon even the figure could not be found.
The wedding ended hastily, and Mao Fumei could only sit alone in the new room and wait foolishly.
Mao Fumei
It wasn't until the evening that Wang Caiyu sent someone to retrieve Chiang Kai-shek, and when he was tired of playing, he came back and lay down on the bed of the new room and slept heavily, ignoring the fact that there was still today's new wife around him.
Mao Fumei could only wash his face with tears next to him, comforting himself that her husband was still young, and when he was older, he would understand things.
In the first month of this year, Chiang Kai-shek, as the new aunt, went to the old man's house to visit the New Year according to the custom, but he did not expect that Chiang Kai-shek, who went out early, ran out to play again, and Mao Fumei's parents, who were waiting at home, did not see their new aunt until the evening.
Such a son-in-law, of course, will not be satisfied, and Mao Fumei, who has been complained by his parents, also has a grudge against Chiang Kai-shek.
The age gap between the two was not small, and they could not go together after marriage, which also sowed the seeds of Mao Fumei's lifelong marriage tragedy.
In 1903, Chiang Kai-shek, who had failed the imperial examination, went to study at the Fenglu Academy in Fenghua, Ningbo, and at this time, he was more sensible as an adult, and he took Mao Fumei with him.
In Fenghua, Chiang Kai-shek, who had received a new-style education, heard that the county town had also set up a girls' school "as a new girls' school," and insisted that Mao Fumei also go to school to keep up with the new era.
Although Mao Fumei was nervous, in order to obey her husband's wishes, she also entered the girls' school and became a classmate of a group of teenage girls who were behind her.
This time is also a rare happy time after Mao Fumei's marriage, although her age in the school is a little awkward, but she has a gentle and generous personality, and she gets along well with teachers and classmates.
During this time, Chiang Kai-shek did not provoke right and wrong, and he studied with peace of mind, and the husband and wife also lived a period of time when they raised their eyebrows.
However, the good times did not last long, Chiang Kai-shek was always difficult to change in nature, and soon he could not hold back his restless heart, and only after seven or eight months, he sent Mao Fumei back to his hometown in Xikou and went out on his own.
Since then, Mao Fumei has never left Xikou, she has been at home to serve her mother-in-law, take care of family affairs, only when Chiang Kai-shek returns to her hometown, she can be reunited with her husband.
In 1910, she and Chiang Kai-shek's son Chiang Ching-kuo were born, and Chiang Kai-shek, who was still studying in Japan at the time, was also very excited, and the traditional Mao Fumei was unable to change her husband, and her son became her greatest spiritual sustenance.
She put all her mind on her son and raised him with hard work.
After spending his childhood and adolescence in Xikou, Chiang Ching-kuo was taken to Shanghai by Chiang Kai-shek, who had already made his fortune, and was sent to the Soviet Union to study.
For the sake of his son's future, Mao Fumei can only put his worries in his heart, guarding his hometown in Xikou, looking forward to the return of her husband and son.
As for Chiang Kai-shek, he has long since stopped paying attention to the original mate of his hometown, and has married his wife and concubines outside the country in a dignified manner.
Concubine Yao Yecheng, adopted son Jiang Weiguo
The first woman Chiang Kai-shek married was the concubine Yao Yecheng.
Yao Yecheng and Chiang Kai-shek are the same age, born in a small town in Wu County, Jiangsu Province, nicknamed Ah Qiao, although not a perfect beauty, but also fair skin, good face.
Yao Yecheng
After she married in her hometown, she went to Shanghai with her husband to make a living, but unfortunately, her husband was infected with the vice of opium smoking, and the relationship between the two broke down, and Yao Yecheng could only go to a church in Shanghai as a mother-in-law.
At that time, the so-called church was actually a brothel.
Yao Yecheng's mother-in-law is to take care of the trivial affairs of life for high-level prostitutes.
After Chiang Kai-shek returned from studying in Japan, he wandered around in Shanghai Beach, and often lingered in these wind and moon places, met Yao Yecheng, and the two had a good feeling for each other, and soon lived together.
After living together, Chiang Kai-shek also took Yao Yecheng back to his hometown in Fenghua Xikou, Ningbo, but his mother Wang Caiyu was very particular about fame and did not want Yao Yecheng of unknown origin to marry into the door, so Chiang Kai-shek took Yao Yecheng as a concubine.
For the powerful and wealthy people at that time, concubinage was a very common thing, and even a status symbol to some extent.
Therefore, as a concubine, Yao Yecheng did not shake the status of Mao Fumei's big house, and the two got along quite harmoniously, and there was no major contradiction.
Yao Yecheng also had great respect for Wang Caiyu and Mao Fumei, and lived with them for a period of time, and since then he has often traveled back and forth between Shanghai and Xikou.
Yao Yecheng is also well known for his identity, that is, the adoptive mother of Chiang Kai-shek's other son, Chiang Weiguo.
Jiang Weiguo
Jiang Weiguo was born in 1906, but he did not come to the Jiang family until he was about four years old.
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek said that Jiang Weiguo brought back Fenghua Xikou and handed him over to Yao Yecheng to raise, and he called Yao Yecheng "adoptive mother" from childhood, Mao Fumei "mother", and Wang Caiyu "grandmother".
So, does Yao Yecheng know who Jiang Weiguo's biological parents are?
According to Chen Zhijian, a tutor hired by Chiang Kai-shek for Yao Yecheng's mother and son, when Yao Yecheng adopted Jiang Weiguo, he asked Chiang Kai-shek about the origin of the child.
Chiang Kai-shek told her that this was the illegitimate son of his righteous brother Dai Jitao, because Dai Jitao was very afraid of his wife and did not dare to take the child home, so Chiang Kai-shek adopted the child and shared the worries and difficulties for the righteous brother.
Dai Jitao
Dai Jitao was one of the elders of the Kuomintang, and when Chiang Kai-shek had not yet soared, the two became brothers of the opposite sex, and later served as Chiang Kai-shek's think tank for a long time, and even became known as the "National Teacher", and the relationship between the two has always been very close.
Jiang Weiguo's lineage has always been a case of Zong Gong, and some people suspect that Jiang Weiguo is actually Chiang Kai-shek's illegitimate son, but there is no definite evidence, and historians now generally accept the theory that Jiang Weiguo is Dai Jitao's illegitimate son.
Although Jiang Weiguo did not grow up around his biological mother, he did not receive much love from childhood.
Yao Yecheng did not have children all his life and raised Jiang Weiguo as his own child, and Jiang Weiguo also filial pieted to Yao Yecheng all his life and sent her to the end of his life.
After he came to Fenghua Xikou at an early age, he lived with Wang Caiyu and Mao Fumei, who also regarded Jiang Weiguo as the flesh and bones of the Jiang family and took good care of him.
Among his two children, Chiang Kai-shek was also particularly fond of Jiang Weiguo, and compared with Chiang Ching-kuo and Chiang Wei-kuo, he once lamented: Jing'er can be taught, and Wei'er is cute.
According to the recollections of his fellow villagers in Fenghua Xikou, when Chiang Kai-shek returned to Xikou, he often loved to pick up Jiang Weiguo high, parted his two small legs and let him sit on his shoulders, and in his mouth he kept shouting, completely without the shelf when he was outside, a kind father's style.
Jiang Weiguo has been lively and active since childhood, and although Chiang Kai-shek sometimes scolded him, he would sigh and feel sad afterwards.
Once, when he was in his hometown, Chiang Kai-shek took Jiang Weiguo out of the house in a palanquin to run errands, and before he could wait for the palanquin to stop after arriving at the place, the lively Jiang Weiguo rushed out and almost fell.
In Chiang Kai-shek's diaries and letters, there are also many records about Chiang Weiguo, his worries when he was ill, his attachment when he was parting, and his nostalgia after separation, and it can also be seen from this that Chiang Kai-shek really loved Chiang Weiguo as his own son.
With a wife and a concubine and two sons, the restless Chiang Kai-shek was not satisfied.
Pursue Chen Jieru and marry Song Meiling
When Chiang Kai-shek was wandering around Shanghai, he took a fancy to a young woman, Chen Jieru.
Born in 1906 in Zhenhai, Zhejiang Province, Chen Jieru followed her parents to Shanghai from an early age, and when she attended a girls' school, she met Zhu Yimin, who later married Shanghai chaebol Zhang Jingjiang as the wife of The Continuation.
Chen Jieru
When Chen Jie once went to visit Zhu Yimin, he was taken in by Chiang Kai-shek, who was visiting Zhang Jingjiang.
Chiang Kai-shek, who was very excited, did not care that Chen Jieru was still an adult at that time, nor did he care about the age gap between the two of them of nearly twenty years, he launched a crazy pursuit of Chen Jieru.
At this time, Chen Jieru was only thirteen years old, and the Chen family naturally did not want her to get married early, and Chiang Kai-shek did not have any status achievements at that time, and he was so old, the Chen family rejected him.
But unexpectedly, Chiang Kai-shek has not given up, and has been chasing Chen Jieru for nearly two years, and Chen Jieru's father died in 1921, and the family has lost financial support.
Under the soft and hard bubble of Chiang Kai-shek, Chen's mother finally agreed to the marriage, and the two were married in 1921.
Chen Jieru has a modern education, can also speak a little English, and can accompany Chiang Kai-shek in and out of various social occasions, and Chiang Kai-shek is quite satisfied with this lady.
The period from 1921 to 1927 was the first few years of Chiang Kai-shek's career, and soon after his marriage to Chen Jieru, he followed Sun Yat-sen to Guangzhou.
In Guangzhou, Chiang Kai-shek served as the principal of the famous Whampoa Military Academy, became a senior general in the revolutionary army at that time, led the Eastern Expedition, the Western Expedition, and the Northern Expedition, and his name also changed to: President Jiang, General Commander Chiang, and Commander-in-Chief Chiang.
In 1927, he led the National Revolutionary Army into Shanghai, and Chiang Kai-shek's prestige reached its peak.
In the past few years, Chen Jieru has been with Chiang Kai-shek, and has also experienced many risks and twists and turns, and thought that he would finally do his best, but he did not expect to wait for a letter of resignation.
After the success of the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek soon betrayed the revolution and stole the fruits of victory from the sacrifice of the vast number of revolutionary soldiers, and he launched a counter-revolutionary coup d'état and extended the butcher's knife to the Communists.
In order to consolidate his position, Chiang Kai-shek prepared to marry the Song family, which had strong financial resources and connections at that time, and marry the third lady of the Song family, Song Meiling.
Soong Mei Ling had a Western-style education and could not tolerate Chiang Kai-shek's style of three wives and four concubines, and one of the conditions she proposed for marriage was that Chiang Kai-shek must completely cut off relations with his wives and concubines, and his future wife would only have one, Soong Mei Ling.
For the sake of political future, Chiang Kai-shek disregarded morality and immediately turned his face and did not recognize anyone, he sent Chen Jieru to the United States to study, and then returned to his hometown in Fenghua Xikou to force Mao Fumei to divorce.
The traditional Mao Fumei did not expect that she was in her hometown with hard work, taking care of her mother-in-law, raising her son, and waiting for this ending.
Chiang Kai-shek, aware of his own mistakes, promised Mao Fumei that he would not leave home after divorce, let her continue to live in his hometown in Xikou, and admitted that she was still a member of the Chiang family.
Subsequently, Chiang Kai-shek published a statement stating that he had gone through the divorce formalities with Mao Fumei, and as for Chen Jieru and Yao Yecheng, he claimed: "There was no marriage contract, but now it is out of relationship," and the farce of divorce and remarriage has finally come to an end.
Chiang Kai-shek finally got his wish and married Soong Mei-ling in Shanghai on December 1, 1927, which was also his last wife.
Chiang Kai-shek's four wives had different destinations, Mao Fumei stayed in his hometown of Fenghua Xikou and died in the Bombing of Japanese Planes during the Japanese invasion of China, for which Chiang Ching-kuo once wrote a sad and indignant inscription: Wash blood with blood.
After returning from studying in the United States, Chen Jieru never married again, and later died in Hong Kong.
After Chiang Kai-shek's death, Soong Mei-ling left Taiwan for the United States and spent her old age alone in the United States.
However, Yao Yecheng, who had the lowest status, had always followed him because he had adopted Jiang Weiguo, from the mainland to Taiwan, and there had always been someone around to take care of him.
bibliography:
"'Family Affairs Are Hard to Say': Chiang Kai-shek's Love for the World (1927-1937)," Journal of Nanjing University (Philosophy. humanities. Social Science Edition), No. 5, 2010
"Clarifying the Misrepresentation of Jiang Weiguo's Origins", Spring and Autumn of the Republic of China, October 1998
"Chiang Kai-shek and His Wives", Monthly Journal of Literature and History, August 2002