Preamble:
Lu Simian, a modern Chinese historian, once said: "There are only individuals in the world who betray the class, and there is no class that betrays the interests of the class."
To put this sentence in another way, the majority of people in a class will not betray their own class, and the lives of Song Meiling and Song Qingling and the three sisters of Song Ailing are a good interpretation of the meaning of this sentence.
We all know that among the three sisters of the Song family, the eldest sister Song Ailing married Kong Xiangxi, the second sister Song Qingling married Sun Yat-sen, the father of the nation, and the youngest Song Meiling married Chiang Kai-shek.
Because their life trajectories are completely different, some people later said that the eldest sister of the three sisters loves money, the second sister loves the country, and the younger sister loves power.
And it is true that among the three sisters, the eldest sister Song Ailing was the first to leave China for treatment in Brazil, and the third sister Song Qingling also chose to leave the mainland before the founding of the People's Republic of China, and only the second sister Song Meiling chose to stay in China.
On May 19, 1949, on the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Soong Meiling wrote again to invite her second sister Soong Ching-ling to go to the United States to reunite with her, in which she wrote: "Recently, we have often thought of you, considering the current situation, we know that your life in China must be very difficult, and I hope you can ...... safely and smoothly."
And this became the last correspondence between the two, and from then on the three sisters were separated, and they did not communicate with each other in old age and death.
Looking at it this way, the relationship between Song Meiling and Song Qingling does not seem to be very good, but looking back, after Song Qingling and Sun Yat-sen fell in love, the people around them opposed it, and even the parents of the Song family did not support it.
At that time, the only one who kept encouraging Song Qingling was the younger sister Song Meiling, which was the most intimate moment in the relationship between the two sisters, but the times and personalities dictated, which destined the two sisters to part ways.
Influenced by the eldest sister and the second sister, Song Meiling was not willing to be mediocre in marriage, and soon came together with Chiang Kai-shek, at that time Kai-shek and his original wife Chen Jieru had not yet divorced, so Song Qingling strongly opposed it after learning about the matter between the two of them.
He even said: "I'd rather see my sister die than let her marry a man who has at least one or two mistresses in the city of Guangzhou!" Heartless remarks.
However, at that time, Song Meiling was determined to marry Chiang Kai-shek in the end, and the conflict between the three Song sisters arose.
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched the April 12 counter-revolutionary coup d'état in Shanghai and massacred the Communists, which obviously violated the will of Mr. Sun Yat-sen.
At this time, Chiang Kai-shek was already in power, and he had already lost due respect for Song Meiling, the widow of the father of the nation, so he immediately wrote a threatening reply to Song Meiling, asking her to meddle in her affairs.
In his heart, Chiang Kai-shek even called Soong Meiling "the person who betrayed the prime minister", if Mr. Sun Yat-sen had a spirit in the sky, I don't know if he would regret accepting such a white-eyed wolf in the first place.
And it was after this that Song Meiling began to fully support Chiang Kai-shek on behalf of the Song family, although Song Qingling openly opposed, but in fact stood on the opposite side of the eldest sister and the third sister.
In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan in a panic after realizing that the general trend had gone, and the three sisters of the Song family never saw each other again.
On April 25, 1971, Song Ziwen died suddenly in San Francisco, USA. At that time, at a time when Sino-US relations were warming up sharply, Soong Qingling hoped to take this opportunity to go to the United States to meet the two sisters.
Naturally, our party agreed, and soon after, the central authorities contacted the US side to inform Soong Ching-ling of his decision to go to the United States.
Nixon, then President of the United States, was also quite happy when he learned of this, and he regarded this trip as another "ice-breaking trip", but this time it was not the ice between China and the United States, but the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
Immediately, the United States published the matter in the newspapers, and it seemed that the three sisters of the Song family were about to be reunited again. But at this moment, things suddenly took a turn for the worse.
Just when Soong Qingling arrived in Hawaii by plane and was about to transfer to another flight, she suddenly received a call from Chiang Kai-shek, in which Chiang Kai-shek asked her not to go to New York for the time being.
Song Meiling didn't know what he meant at first, but it didn't dawn on her until she read the newspaper, and then she stayed in Hawaii and called Song Ailing to inform her that she should not go.
Soon after, Song Qingling may have known her sister's attitude, so the day before the funeral, she told the United States that she canceled the trip to the United States because she could not find a suitable charter flight.
After learning of the situation, the US side immediately told Soong Ching-ling and Soong Ai-ling, but Soong Meiling flew back to Taiwan directly because she was worried that this was a "united front trap" by the US side.
On the other side, Song Ailing didn't know what the situation was and hesitated, at that time, in order to wait for Song Ailing's arrival, the Song family had to change the funeral time from morning to afternoon, but Song Ailing did not appear at the scene until it was dark, so the three sisters of the Song family lost the last chance to reunite.
As he got older, Song Qingling missed his sisters more and more, and in 1981, during his recuperation, Song Qingling once said to Shen Cuizhen, his wife Zou Taofen, who came to visit: "It would be good if Meiling could come to see me." ”
Then he said: "If Meiling can come, it is inconvenient to live here with me, you can live in Diaoyutai, you know, you can help me receive her, pick her up in the morning, and send her back in the evening." ”
Shen Cuizhen promised to inform Deng Yingchao of the matter, and soon the United States replied that Song Meiling was also seriously ill at this time and could not return to China.
After hearing the news, Song Qingling said with half emotion and half regret: "It's too late" and then died of illness shortly after.
After Soong Ching-ling's death, the central government invited people from all walks of life, including Taiwan, to attend her funeral, and at that time, the Taiwan side was extremely nervous after learning of the incident, and Chiang Ching-kuo even personally called Soong Meiling to test her attitude, for fear that she would make some "radical moves".
Song Meiling immediately said after learning of Jiang Jingguo's coming: "Although the flesh and blood are close, the avenue is important." ”
Looking at it this way, Song Meiling seems to be quite cold-blooded, but in fact, she still misses this sister deeply during her time in the United States.
In her telegram to Chiang Ching-kuo, she wrote: "I am convinced that if Yu is in China and does not try to redeem Marshall's wanton revenge and insists on going his own way in the United States when the mainland retreats, or if my aunt is not in the United States but in Shanghai, she will be dragged away." ”
It can be seen that the tragedy of Song Meiling and Song Qingling never seeing each other again may have been doomed from the moment they chose different political paths.
But the two are just a microcosm of the thousands of people who have been separated from their families. Now we can only hope that Taiwan will return to the embrace of the motherland as soon as possible and let the nostalgia brought about by the Bay Strait end as soon as possible.
Reference: Song Qingling's last letter to Song Meiling, forwarded by her