In 1896, at the age of 59, Wu Xun fell ill. This beggar, whose fame had already spread far and wide, continued to think day and night about raising money to establish even more free schools. Unwilling to spend money on medicine, he succumbed to his illness. He passed away in one of the very free schools he had founded.
On the day of his funeral, officials, scholars, and villagers from three counties turned out en masse, vying to carry his coffin, with the crowd numbering up to 50,000. A sea of people with cries that shook the heavens — since ancient times, there had not been a state funeral like this one.
Memorialized by the Qing court
In 1906, the Qing court issued an edict to the National History Museum to establish an official biography for Wu Xun. Shandong’s Governor Yamen built the Wu Xun temple and erected a monument as a memorial. The Republic of China’s government built a statue of Wu Xun and built the “Wugong Memorial Hall.” His deeds have been officially recorded in school textbooks, and more than 30 schools in seven provinces across the country were named after Wu Xun.
It can be said unequivocally that, in the history of China, no one from such humble origins, who was neither engaged in teaching nor educating people, ever attained such high recognition, evaluation, and courtesy. Moreover, whether it was within official or non-governmental circles, the assessment of Wu Xun and his righteous deeds by all social classes was highly acclaimed and consistent — a genuine “zero negative reviews.”
However, China’s modern history is so contorted that the image of Wu Xun suffered a major reversal after 1949 under the Chinese communist regime.
His life story turned into a movie: The Life of Wu Xun
In October 1950, the private Kunlun Film Company filmed the movie The Life of Wu Xun based on his life story. The famous actor Zhao Dan played Wu Xun. Following the release of the film in 1951, it was highly applauded, with newspapers and periodicals in various places publishing articles of praise. More than 200 relevant review articles within a few short months were published creating a “Wu Xun fever” in the national literary and art circles across the country.
However, for a leader like Mao Zedong, who claimed to be building a new world, the emergence of an icon — a beggar no less — that surpassed him in universal significance and fundamentally challenged the logic of violent revolution was something he found difficult to accept.
From hero to ‘traitor’
In July of that year, the People’s Daily published a 45,000-word Historical Investigation of Wu Xun, approved by Mao Zedong, claiming he was a “big hooligan, big debtor, and big landlord.” From then on, the discussion of The Life of Wu Xun turned into a nationwide political denunciation. The film also became the first “banned film” officially recognized by the People’s Republic of China after its founding. During the Cultural Revolution, Wu Xun was labeled a “traitor to the working people” and other derogatory terms.
In the summer of 1966, Red Guards in Guan County, Shandong, smashed open Wu Xun’s tomb and destroyed his statue. His coffin was carried through the streets in a grotesque parade after which his bones were smashed with hammers and eventually burned to ashes along with the coffin. The stellar reputation of the unique beggar of the ages was thus wiped out.
Not until 1985 was the film The Life of Wu Xun “rehabilitated” by the People’s Daily, but it wasn’t until 2012 that the film, which had been banned for 55 years, was allowed to be “internally screened.” To this day, Wu Xun is still a familiar, yet unfamiliar, symbol for most Chinese people.
A sage who spread the light of humanity
The following is related by the writer of this article:
When my daughter was 6 years old, I told her the story of Wu Xun for the first time. The little girl, who hadn’t yet started school, burst into tears before I even finished.
I asked: “Why are you crying?” She said: “He’s so great.”
If a 6-year-old girl can grasp the true meaning of greatness, then I must deeply bow in thanks to Wu Xun. Though I know that in this country, many people are infantile and less mature than a 6-year-old girl.
If I were to use a more accurate word to describe Wu Xun, it would be “sage.” In order to achieve the goal of saving the world, he could completely disregard his safety, honor, and even life. Many people in history chanted sacred slogans, only to fulfill their bloody desires by stepping over countless corpses. For a sage like Wu Xun, he always held the world in his heart, fulfilling his mission with love, not hate, and spreading the light of humanity.
Whether such a person is in China, Japan, Switzerland, Europe, or the United States, or whether he existed a hundred years ago or will exist a hundred years in the future, the positioning he would receive and the enlightenment he would give to future generations would not be any different.
Wu Xun represents the great compassion of the nation
So if you think the Chinese are very despicable and hopeless, you can think of the miracle of Wu Xun who represents the great tenacity and compassion of this nation; if you think that the Chinese are very powerful and awesome, you can also think about his ending, representing the true ignorance and shamelessness of this nation under communism.
I would like to conclude with a quote from Yu Shicun: “No one has the power to crown him, and no institution is worthy to make a final judgment on him. No dynasty will outlast him, and the power of the State will not be stronger than he is, because as long as the Chinese people live in this world, Wu Xun lives in this world.”
Translated by Chua BC
