On April 25, 1971, the elder brother of the three Song sisters, Song Ziwen, died in San Francisco, United States, and before his death, he donated his diary to the United States, but with a request that it be made public 30 years later.
Among the 6 children of the Song family, Song Meiling was the last to pass away, and Song Ziwen's diary was made public only half a year after his death, and there were many unknown big melons in it.
So, what's the story? Let's talk about it today.
Song's first brother died in the United States, and asked for the contents of the diary to be made public after 30 years
When it comes to the famous "Three Sisters of the Song Family" during the Republic of China, many people are no strangers, they are Song Ailing, Song Qingling, and Song Meiling, and the husbands of these three sisters are all big figures who have influenced the course of Chinese history.
Although Song Ailing and Song Meiling's husbands have mixed reputations, it cannot be denied that they do have a pivotal position in modern Chinese history.
These three sisters are so famous that many people ignore Song Ziwen, the "first brother" of the Song family in the Republic of China. In December 1894, Song Ziwen was born in Shanghai, and his ancestral home was in Wenchang, Guangdong.
At that time, the Song family also had a certain status in Shanghai, and another person to mention here was Song Ziwen and Song Jiashu, the father of the three Song sisters.
This person's experience is even more legendary, Song Jiashu can be called a typical self-made man, at first he was just a poor child living on the streets, begging for a living.
Later, he moved to Shanghai to become a missionary, and then stepped into the business world to become the first foreign machine agent in Shanghai, and it was at this time that he met Sun Yat-sen and used his status as a missionary to raise funds for the League.
He was introverted and low-key, not to mention that there are not many records of him in historical materials, and many members of the League and revolutionaries did not know much about Song Jiashu at that time.
Song Jiashu's wife Ni Guizhen is also a lady, who received education in traditional culture from a private school in her family, and is very good at mathematics and other sciences, and plays the piano well.
At the age of 17, she graduated from a girls' high school in Shanghai and stayed on to teach because of her outstanding grades. It is not difficult to imagine that with such a pair of parents, Song Ziwen's education level will not be too bad.
When his son was enlightened, his parents hired a tutor for him, and after graduating from high school, Song Ziwen went to Shanghai St. John's University to receive basic general education, and later applied to study at Harvard University in United States, and also went to Colombia University to major in economics.
It was the most prosperous time for the capitalist countries of the West, and economists emerged who influenced the course of humanity.
Among the world's top universities, Song Ziwen opened his eyes to the world and learned the most cutting-edge financial and economic knowledge, and after returning to China, he received olive branches from many capital tycoons in Shanghai, and finally chose to join the company founded by Sheng Huaixuan's family.
There was also a small episode during the work, Song Ziwen knew Sheng Aiyi, the seventh lady of the Sheng family, one was a handsome son who returned from abroad, and the other was the daughter of the Sheng family.
Who knew that Miss Sheng Qi's mother, Mrs. Zhuang, was not worthy of her own daughter, so she beat the mandarin ducks and ordered the company to transfer Song Ziwen to Hanyang.
The young and vigorous man believed that Miss Sheng Qi and himself were true love, and made an appointment to elope with the other party, but Song Ziwen waited for a handful of gold leaves from the other party.
Obviously, the woman wanted to use money to express her guilt, and the arrogant Song Ziwen couldn't swallow this breath, so he quit his job and went to Guangzhou to join Sun Yat-sen.
With the marriage of the three younger sisters settled, the Song family has unlimited scenery in Shanghai and ranks among the first echelon of the big families of the Republic of China, and Song Ziwen has become the secretary of the generalissimo base camp of the army and navy.
In 1924, he became governor of the Central Bank of Guangzhou, and the following year he was appointed Minister of Finance of the Nationalist Government of Guangzhou, overseeing the finances of Guangdong.
After Sun Yat-sen's death, Soong Ziwen served Chiang Kai-shek, served as vice president of the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China government in 1930, and became chairman of the Bank of China five years later.
In 1936, when the Xi'an Incident occurred, her sister Song Meiling didn't know what to do, and Song Ziwen stood up to mediate in his personal capacity and made great contributions to Chiang Kai-shek's escape from the crisis.
In 1942 he became Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Nationalist Government, in 1946 he became Chairman of the Supreme Economic Council, and the following year he resigned as President of the Executive Yuan to become Chairman of Guangdong Province.
Later, the Wu Guozhen incident and the Sun Liren incident broke out, which led to the deterioration of the relationship between Song Ziwen and Chiang Kai-shek, and he resolutely did not ask about any government affairs, and chose to go to United States to enjoy his old age in peace.
It is worth mentioning that in April 1971, Song Ziwen died in United States, and before his death, he handed over the diary he wrote to United States, asking it to be made public after 30 years.
The diary of the Song family's son was released, and the Xi'an incident was shocking
Today, Stanford University in United States has a collection of Soong Ziwen's archives, which range from 1894 to 1971, including the documents collected and preserved during Soong's lifetime.
There are also 40 years from 1920 to 1960, Song Ziwen's family finances and later life, a considerable part of which are top-secret archives.
After Soong's death, the eldest daughter consulted with her family and relatives and decided to donate the archives to Stanford University. Song Meiling died in October 2003, the last of the six children of the Song family.
A year later, Stanford opened 19 of Soong's private files, including the mysterious diary.
The diary contains not only the parties' own feelings and private lives, but also some major events, among which the Xi'an Incident has attracted much attention.
This diary reveals some unknown inside stories in detail, and some big melons are shocking, such as Song Ziwen mentioning that Zhang Xueliang wanted to shoot Yang Hucheng.
Song Ziwen mentioned that just after the outbreak of the Xi'an Incident, he was suspected of planning the Xi'an Incident by Chiang Kai-shek's henchmen.
After Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng admonished him, he went to Xi'an alone, and Chiang Kai-shek asked him not to return to Nanjing, nor to let Song Meiling come to Xi'an.
Song Ziwen did not listen to Chiang Kai-shek's advice and insisted on returning to Nanjing, believing that Madame Chiang should come to Xi'an to take care of the chairman, and secondly, let Dai Li, on behalf of the Whampoa family and the descendants, come to Xi'an to witness the situation with his own eyes.
It was only a day before he returned to Nanjing to meet the officials of the Nationalist Government and found that he had lost trust.
Chiang Kai-shek's cronies, including Dai Li and He Yingqin, invariably raised a question: Why were you not detained in Xi'an like the chairman of the NPC National Committee, but were able to return safely?
Song Ziwen wrote in his diary: The atmosphere here is full of distrust that I can come back. In the face of these people's doubts, Song Ziwen was very rational, he said: Time is pressing, your questioning of me is meaningless.
In the end, everyone in Nanjing compromised, and on the 22nd, Song Meiling, Dai Li, Jiang Dingwen, Guo Zengkai and others followed Song Ziwen to Xi'an by plane.
Soong Meiling and Soong Ziwen negotiated with Premier Zhou as representatives, but the two generals, Zhang and Yang, made a proposal that surprised everyone, they believed that Chiang Kai-shek should come forward and convene a meeting of celebrities from all walks of life in Xi'an.
The two also gave a list of those who must attend, including Feng Yuxiang, Song Zheyuan, Li Zongren, Bai Chongxi, Li Jichen and other well-known figures, and Song Ziwen believed that neither the Nanjing side nor the chairman himself would agree to the meeting.
After that, he continued to negotiate with the high-level leaders in Yan'an as a representative, and Premier Zhou's attitude was very clear: as long as Chiang Kai-shek agreed to resist Japan, he could not ask to participate in the reorganized Nationalist government.
Yan'an has repeatedly stressed that we are not supporting individuals, but out of national interests......
Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng fell out, and the Xi'an incident was resolved peacefully
In addition to the above, Song Ziwen's diary also revealed many unknown details of the Xi'an Incident.
For example, he wrote: When I met with the chairman of the NPC National Committee alone after I arrived in Xi'an, he was very moved and wept loudly, and Chiang Kai-shek was very desperate when he was arrested, and he did not even talk to Zhang Xueliang without eating or drinking, let alone negotiating.
Through this detail, it seems that it is not difficult to understand why after the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek hated Zhang Xueliang so much that he did not hesitate to imprison the other party for more than half a century.
can make Chiang Kai-shek so angry that he "doesn't eat or drink, goes on a hunger strike and cries", it can be seen that Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng's military advice has indeed touched his bottom line.
At this time, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng were still in lockstep, and their views on many key issues were still the same. Song Ziwen also wrote in his diary: The two have gone to extremes, and they may become a gang of thugs.
Zhang Xueliang bluntly said that the committee had decided that in the event of a large-scale military conflict, Chiang Kai-shek would be handed over to Yan'an for the sake of security.
From the tone and attitude of the other party, Song Ziwen judged that they were by no means quick to speak, and thought that his brother-in-law's life was in danger. Later, Song Ziwen was about to return to Nanjing, and Chiang Kai-shek handed him several wills.
Some were written to his wife Song Meiling, and some were written to his two sons Jiang Jingguo and Jiang Weiguo, but Zhang Xueliang withheld these wills.
Soon after, Song Ziwen took Song Meiling and others to Xi'an again to negotiate with Yan'an, and Premier Zhou put forward a six-point proposal.
The two reported the results of the negotiations to Chiang Kai-shek, who agreed to several of these conditions, that he would no longer serve as president of the Executive Yuan, that there would be no pro-Japanese faction in the new cabinet, that there would be no pro-Japanese faction in the new cabinet, that the Central Army would be transferred from Shaanxi and Gansu, and that in the event of a war between China and Japan, all armies would be treated equally......
The Xi'an incident was about to be resolved, but something went wrong on the morning of the 24th.
The first reason was that Chiang Kai-shek only fulfilled part of his promises, and Zhang Xueliang's subordinates were worried that he would regret it after leaving Xi'an, and asked to leave after fulfilling all his promises;
The second reason is that Zhang and Yang fell out, Zhang Xueliang agreed to release the people, but Yang Hucheng did not agree to release them, and Zhang Xueliang also threatened to shoot the other party if he did not release them.
In the evening of the same day, Premier Zhou met with Chiang Kai-shek and once again expounded on the importance of reaching an anti-Japanese united front and made important concessions for the sake of national righteousness in Yan'an.
Premier Zhou said nine words: "If you insist on civil war, you will surely perish quickly", and finally Chiang Kai-shek expressed his acceptance of negotiations and reached an agreement to unite the Red Army to resist Japan.
On the afternoon of December 25, Zhang Xueliang, who was afraid of a long night's dreams, decided to let them go as soon as possible and personally sent Chiang Kai-shek back to Nanjing without consulting Zhou Enlai.
Everyone knows what happened after that, and the Xi'an incident did not lead to a conflict, and it can be regarded as a peaceful settlement. After Chiang Kai-shek returned to Nanjing, he announced the achievement of the united front of the Anti-Japanese War, but immediately liquidated Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng.
In the early days of the all-out war of resistance, the Nationalist army did play a role in important wars such as the Battle of Songhu, delaying the pace of Japan's offensive. Unfortunately, later Chiang Kai-shek began to promote "passive anti-Japanese and active anti-communism", which made China's anti-Japanese resistance very difficult......
As a witness of the Xi'an Incident and Chiang Kai-shek's brother-in-law, Song Ziwen's big melon revealed in his diary was indeed surprising, it turned out that the Xi'an Incident had so many twists and turns.
At present, the Hoover Institution still has a large amount of undeclassified information about Song Ziwen, and it is believed that once these archives are declassified, there will be big melons that people do not know.
What do you think differently about this?
Resources: https://kns.cnki.net/kcms2/article/abstract?v=kHMw6kznbprAAfEEzdJTxB8gaM43CjC1c3KUWABnOgy0YotnAw4TahXpTeunnSDnqzP2YcDTrKHMVTYcEv-7Ic8lLK3lqlCgyIv8sS5CNUki9ZXH6hkUTtGWxDsD93sRtEHsbMflNLDQIquiTTOgWnXsswkjMqRFFn6xfbLBtKZHj6h6umhjU0GxMlsuJXjY&uniplatform=NZKPT&language=CHS
https://kns.cnki.net/kcms2/article/abstract?v=kHMw6kznbpqNaEZtjbA4F7VcWDDYrzHNRfxIueRUQ4IxEFAgvNXrZiS0Bt5G4_Yt4iAxyUTk929wWz2XN1KBoTHmz-LMAo0H7aDI7VO5vVK7jHXb2XaqhiQgYo4SnXt6H_VHvxd32x3m_-lYOfHmbLWY5JDfvRKcJFX745JAoZQLKFOOgzxnX5G8IJwlvoY5j4vEILs40v4=&uniplatform=NZKPT&language=CHS