Throughout the ages, the great nation of China has produced many enlightened scholars, sages, poets, writers, philosophers, and scientists. There was no shortage of world-famous masters of Chinese culture during the Republic of China era. The names of Hu Shih, Qian Mu, Chen Yinke, and others still resonate in people’s ears even today. Sadly, however, while in their prime, these masters fell victim to the deceit and the wrath of the Communist Party of China (CCP); and their fates varied greatly with the different choices they made.
‘Rescue’ plan for the masters
The “Rescue Scholars Plan” formulated by Chiang Kai-shek himself 70 years ago rescued academics from the tiger’s mouth of the ravenous CCP. Those masters of Chinese studies who fled mainland China to Taiwan, such as Hu Shih, Fu Sinian, Qian Mu, and others, escaped by grace and good fortune. They were then able to explore free ideas in a free society. Many of the outstanding intellectuals who listened to communist lies and deceit and stayed behind in mainland China were brutally persecuted and tortured in the various political struggles launched by the regime, such as the “anti-rightist” movement and the Cultural Revolution, leaving behind a tragic trail of nightmares in their wake.
According to Ji Xianlin, a renowned professor at Peking University, Chiang Kai-shek sent three special planes in November 1948 to transport these famous scholars from Peking to Taiwan via Nanjing. After receiving the order, Hu Shih personally went to Nanjing Airport to wait, but when the plane arrived, he saw that the plane was virtually empty… Hu Shih felt so saddened, and he cried alone at the airport. Hu Shih’s cry was a plea to eternity. Later facts proved that this cry was not groundless, and Hu Shih seemed to have predicted the future fate of these masters.
The future: ‘No bread and no freedom’
Wu Han, who was once a student of Hu Shih, assigned his relatives to find Hu Shih himself for a secret talk. He vigorously tried to persuade Hu Shih to stay at Peking University to serve the Communist Party and not to follow the Kuomintang and flee from home.
However, after hearing this plea, Hu Shih replied coldly: “Don’t believe in the Communist Party!” and told his student Wu Han these words: “In Soviet Russia, there is bread, but there is no freedom; in the United States, there is bread, and there is freedom; the Communist Party is coming, there will be no bread and no freedom.”
They could not grasp the unspeakable darkness of the CCP scam
Destiny hinges on discerning the difference between right and wrong. Before Hu Shih left mainland China, his youngest son Hu Sidu said that he would temporarily stay at a relative’s house as he was unwilling to travel south with his parents, much to the surprise of Hu Shih and his wife. Hu Sidu had just returned to Beiping from the United States and was unfamiliar with the situation in China at that time. He said: “I haven’t done anything harmful to the Communist Party, and they won’t do anything to me.” Due to the urgency of the matter, Hu Shih could not convince his son in that brief period of time, so he could only let it go.
In the 1950s, the CCP launched a vigorous campaign criticizing Hu Shih. Although Hu Sidu published A Critique of My Father Hu Shih, the Communist Party still did not let him off the hook and let him go scott-free. In 1957, Hu Sidu was classified as a rightist, and he was cruelly forced to hang himself for fear of being accused of a crime. When Hu Shih died of illness in 1962, he did not know that his son had passed away before him.
The communist illusion of freedom and happiness
Fu Lehuan, the nephew of the famous historian Fu Sinian, returned from his studies in Britain in 1951. He rejected Fu Sinian’s arrangement for him to work at Taiwan University and instead returned to mainland China, where he imagined freedom and happiness were waiting for him. In 1952, he became a professor at the History Department of the Central University of Nationalities. However, during the Cultural Revolution, due to his connection to Fu Sinian, he was continuously tormented, detained, and brutally tortured, being accused of being a spy planted on the mainland. Fu Lehuan committed suicide by throwing himself into a lake in Taoranting in Beijing.
In July 1951, Wu Ningkun, who was studying for a doctorate at the University of Chicago in the United States, received an urgent telegram from China that the Communist Party invited him to return to China to teach at Yenching University. He immediately interrupted his studies and returned to mainland China. His friend, Li Zhengdao, who was working as a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, went to see him off. Wu Ningkun suddenly asked Li Zhengdao: “Why don’t you return to work for New China?” Li Zhengdao smiled and said: “I don’t want people to brainwash me.” In 1957, Wu Ningkun was branded a rightist and persecuted. In the same year, Li Zhengdao was honored with the Nobel Prize in Physics.
One, a Nobel Prize winner; his friend branded a ‘rightest’
Twenty-eight years later, the two met again. At this time, Dr. Li Zhengdao was a guest of honor greeted by Chinese dignitaries, and Wu Ningkun was returning to Beijing to go through the procedures for “rightist correction.” When Wu Ningkun happened to read in the newspaper that “Chinese-American Dr. Li Zhengdao” had returned from the United States to give lectures, he went to the State Guesthouse of the Beijing Hotel to visit his old classmate. Seeing each other and hurriedly saying a few words, when parting, Wu Ningkun suddenly had a thought: “If he had persuaded Li Zhengdao to return to China to teach at that time, what would have been the result?”
Chen Yinke, the ‘professor of professors,’ duped by thoughts of freedom and savaged
Chen Yinke, a master of Chinese studies once known as the “professor of professors,” was very knowledgeable and proficient in more than 20 languages. He was known as one of the “Tsinghua Big Three,” along with Liang Qichao and Wang Guowei.
In 1965, Chen Yinke, who had a premonition, was already worried about the danger that the country was in. A catastrophe suddenly struck five months later, and his prediction came true.
Choices: Bitter regret or success
At that point, he bitterly regretted his choice! Although he went to Nanjing with Hu Shih, he did not leave mainland China. He had always adhered to “thoughts of freedom, spirits of independence,” and he never bowed to the CCP in the harsh living environment at that time. As a result, he was inevitably not tolerated by the CCP.
When the Cultural Revolution began, Chen Yinke, who was blind and sick, had his salary and savings frozen. He was criticized for being a reactionary authority at Sun Yat-sen University. The Red Guards placed several loudspeakers at the head of his bed, causing him to collapse completely as he was blind and suffering from heart disease. In the afternoon before he died, he had to give a “verbal confession” even though he was weak and exhausted. He said: “I am on death row,” and left the phrase: “Weeping in cow’s clothes.”
Wu Han, who persuaded Hu Shih to stay, was once a famous expert on Ming history and was Hu Shih’s protégé. Hu Shih had often told people that it was a pity that Wu Han had taken the wrong path.
During the Cultural Revolution, Wu Han began to be criticized for Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, a theatre play written by Wu Han. On several occasions, he was forced to kneel on the ground and was subjected to criticism and humiliation. During his captivity, his hair was pulled out, and his chest was beaten until it was severely bruised. In October 1969, Wu Han was beaten to death. Before he died, he failed to see his adopted son and adopted daughter, leaving only a pair of blood-stained pants.
Patriots lured to their deaths by the sweet-talking regime
Like Wu Han, those academic elites who chose to stay behind in mainland China would not escape the clutches of the CCP. At a turning point in history, they had the opportunity to escape. These masters were patriotic and loved their country, their culture, and their people; they were lured and hoodwinked by the deceit, lies, and false promises of communism and unfortunately fell victim to the charade of the Communist Party of China.
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