Zhang Dongsun, a member of the Standing Committee of the China Democratic League, participated as a third-party representative in the negotiations on the peaceful liberation of Beiping by the Pingjin Front Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the Kuomintang North China "General Headquarters for Suppressing Bandits" under the leadership of our party in January 1949, and made important contributions to the establishment of the "Beiping Way."
However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he dramatically changed from a witness to the peaceful liberation of Peking to a prisoner, and was even characterized as a "bad element". So, why did this high-profile figure suffer such a fate?
Let's explore his story.
Zhang Dongsun was a figure who was an important help to the Eighth Route Army and the Communist Party. He was an early advocate of Marxism and an old friend of Chen Duxiu, the founder of the Chinese Communist Party.
In the spring of 1920, Chen Duxiu invited Zhang Dongsun to organize the Shanghai Communist Group, and he participated in several preparatory meetings. However, Zhang Dongsun believes that China does not have the conditions to practice socialism, and can only carry out propaganda from the perspective of theory.
As a result, it didn't take long for him to quit the organization. At the end of 1920, Zhang Dongsun provoked a socialist polemic and further expounded his views. Although he was criticized by Chen Duxiu and others, he still stuck to his views.
Since then, Zhang Dongsun has always maintained a critical attitude towards the CCP and Marxism, and he opposes the Kuomintang but also does not approve of our party's agrarian revolution. However, after our party issued the "August 1 Declaration" in 1935, which put forward the policy of "building an anti-Japanese national united front," Zhang Dongsun's attitude changed.
Ideologically, he began to resonate with our party's anti-Japanese democratic proposition, and thus gained a completely new understanding of our party. After reading the "August 1 Manifesto," he published an article in the "Freedom Review" entitled "Commenting on the Communist Manifesto and Discussing the Great National Cooperation."
In the article, he said: "We have never opposed the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, but only against ***, thinking that all evils are born from this. ”
Founded by cultural celebrities such as Hu Shi and Luo Longji, the Freedom Review is the mouthpiece of bourgeois democracy. Zhang Dongsun's article published in the "Freedom Review" attracted the attention of the Northern Bureau of the Communist Party of China, and he was also deeply touched after reading it.
On April 13, 1936, the pseudonym "Tao Shangxing" wrote a letter to Zhang Dongsun, saying that Zhang Dongsun's views were not only his personal and magazine's views, but also the common voice of the people of the whole country.
**I hope to reply to Zhang Dongsun publicly and invite him to publish a reply in the magazine. Through this series of exchanges, Zhang Dongsun and the underground party of the Communist Party of China in Beiping enhanced their understanding.
**Reported to **, that Zhang Dongsun's anti-Japanese attitude has made obvious progress and can become the object of unity and unity of the CCP. Since then, Zhang Dongsun has had more and more contacts with our party and has made important contributions to the anti-Japanese work.
1.Zhang Dongsun used his secret radio station to keep in touch with the underground party of the Chinese Communist Party and provided our party with political, economic, and military intelligence to help our party fight against the Japanese puppet regime.
2.After the Japanese occupation of Beiping, Yenching University became a gathering place for anti-Japanese activists, and Zhang Dongsun used his connections with Wang Kemin and Liu Yushu to prevent the Japanese army from infiltrating Yenching University.
3.Zhang Dongsun, along with many patriotic professors, mobilized patriotic students from Yenching University to the liberated areas or to the rear of Southwest University in order to avoid falling under Japanese control.
He took the students out of Beiping under the guise of an "outing" and, with the help of the underground party, escorted them to the liberated areas.
During the difficult period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Zhang Dongsun not only fully supported the Eighth Route Army and the underground party, but also used his connections in Beiping to buy urgently needed medicines and medical equipment for them when materials were scarce.
At the same time, he also set up his residence, Jingxi Wangjia Garden, as a secret contact point for the CCP's underground party, providing cover for the underground party's activities. However, the victory or defeat of the war does not lie in the quality of the equipment, but in the backlash of the people's hearts.
In order to hold on to the important towns in North China, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Fu Zuoyi as the commander-in-chief of the "Suppression Chief" in North China in November 1947.
Despite Chiang Kai-shek's active preparations for war, the final outcome of the war still depended on the voice of the people.
In June 1948, the People's Liberation Army entered the strategic stage and began to unveil the prelude to the three major battles. The Liaoshen Campaign, which began in September, had a smooth journey, and the liberation of Northeast China was just around the corner.
At this time, Fu Zuoyi of Beiping was very worried about the future of this historical city that preserved the imperial culture of the Ming and Qing dynasties. At the same time, this is also something that the CPC, the broad masses of the people, and patriotic and democratic personages do not want to see.
Therefore, many people from all walks of life in Beiping have come forward to ask Fu Zuoyi for peace and strive to protect the cultural relics of the ancient capital. Zhang Dongsun has always advocated the middle line after the CPPCC meeting, and he also resolutely advocated that the KMT and the CPC should let go of their own and resolve internal contradictions through negotiations.
Fu Zuoyi was a soldier who was good at warfare, but he also respected the traditions of the literati. He once invited many well-known people to Zhongnanhai Huairen Hall for discussions, and the opinions of these people also made him see the overall situation clearly.
The contradiction between Fu Zuoyi and Chiang Kai-shek was very deep, although he was reused by Chiang Kai-shek, but he was not a descendant of the army, and Chiang Kai-shek also sent people to monitor him while reusing him. In view of the above reasons, instigating Fu Zuoyi's peaceful uprising has become the common goal of people from all walks of life.
However, it is not easy to get close to Fu Zuoyi directly, and various relationship networks are particularly important at this time. In the late summer and early autumn of 1948, the Chinese Democratic Revolutionary League** judged that the CCP would win according to the war situation in the northeast, so it tried to work on Fu Zuoyi and strive for an armed uprising.
Later, the Democratic League developed and organized Fu Zuoyi's fellow villager Hou Shaobai. In late December, the NLD proposed an armed uprising to Fu Zuoyi through Hou Shaobai, and made contact with the CCP underground through Zhang Dongsun's contact with the head of the CCP's Beiping Underground Party Study Committee.
Before the outbreak of the Pingjin Campaign, the underground party of the Communist Party of China in Beiping, under the leadership of the Ministry of Industry of North China, used various connections to work for the peaceful liberation of Beiping. Du Renzhi, an underground member of the Communist Party of China, took advantage of his relationship with Fu Zuoyi's fellow villagers to persuade Fu Zuoyi to negotiate peace with the CCP through Liu Houtong, a senior adviser to Fu Zuoyi.
Du Renzhi learned that Fu Zuoyi was willing to negotiate peace, but he needed a person from a democratic party to participate in the talks. Since many underground party members openly stated that they were members of the Democratic League and were not suitable to serve as a third party, Du Renzhi found Zhang Dongsun and invited him to participate in the peace talks as a third party.
Zhang Dongsun was very happy and willing to contribute his strength to the peaceful liberation of Beiping. On December 24, Hou Shaobai recommended Zhang Dongsun and Peng Zexiang to Fu Zuoyi as representatives to go out of the city to negotiate with our party.
Although Zhang Dongsun had suggested that Fu Zuoyi contact our party through Liu Houtong and Hou Shaobai, Fu Zuoyi did not know much about Zhang Dongsun and did not express his position in time. Later, the development of the current situation prompted Fu Zuoyi to decide to send Zhou Beifeng as an official representative, and invited Peng Zexiang and Zhang Dongsun to accompany him to negotiate with the CCP again.
On January 1, 1949, the Military Commission of the Communist Party of China sent a letter to the commander of the Pingjin Front, proposing a six-point policy for negotiations with Fu Zuoyi, and instructed: "We hope that Fu Fang can send a representative with status and responsibility to secretly go out of the city to negotiate with Mr. Cui Zaizhi and Mr. Zhang Dongsun." ”
In order to ensure Zhang Dongsun's safety, it was particularly emphasized that if Zhang Dongsun could not keep it secret when he left the city, then Zhang Dongsun could not go out of the city.
After agreeing to Zhang Dongsun's exit from the city for negotiations, the Military Commission also pointed out that Peng Zexiang was a traitor to the CCP and had done spy work for Chiang Kai-shek, so it advised Fu Zuoyi not to trust him.
Still, he insisted that Mr. Chang be the negotiator, believing that his views were more convincing to intellectuals than the Communists' rhetoric. At the same time, the "intermediate color" represented by Zhang Dongsun also has special significance.
**It is hoped that through Zhang Dongsun's participation, the peace talks between the PLA and Fu Zuoyi will be more witnessed.
On the afternoon of January 5, 1949, General Fu Zuoyi sent a vehicle to meet Professor Zhang Dongsun and expressed his willingness to negotiate peace with the Chinese Communists. Zhang Dongsun expressed his admiration for Fu Zuoyi's determination and stressed the necessity and bright prospects of peace talks to avoid war in Beiping.
However, Zhang Dongsun rejected Fu Zuoyi's request to let him go out of the city as a representative to negotiate, and suggested that Fu Zuoyi send an official representative to accompany him. On January 7, Zhou Beifeng, the representative of Zhang Dongsun and Fu Zuoyi, arrived at the Pingjin Front Headquarters in Balizhuang Village in the snow, and General ** received them.
Zhang Dongsun said that Fu Zuoyi hoped that Pingjin, Tangsui and Sui would solve the problem together, and the army would not surrender or disarm in the city, but would be transferred out of the city in batches for reorganization. He also stressed that Fu Zuoyi hoped to surrender with dignity to avoid the flames of war in Beiping and protect the safety of the people.
I am a third-party representative, not General Fu Zuoyi, I am only acting as a mediator and witness between the two of you. This time I will not go back to Beiping, but go to Yenching University, and then go to Shijiazhuang to meet ***
Zhang Dongsun participated in the process of initialling the "Minutes of Talks" for the peaceful liberation of Beiping, and he is proud of it. That evening, he gave his famous lecture "The Mouse and the Vase" in the auditorium of Yenching University.
This experience not only earned Zhang Dongsun respect among intellectuals, but also significantly improved his status in the Democratic League, second only to Zhang Lan and Shen Junru.
At a meeting in the Summer Palace, ** spoke highly of Zhang Dongsun's contribution: "The peaceful liberation of Beiping, Mr. Zhang's first contribution!" However, Zhang Dongsun was imprisoned for some reason, which is regrettable.
Despite Zhang Dongsun's knowledge, qualifications, reputation, and contributions to the revolutionary cause, he should be able to have a very good position and future after the founding of New China. As the ruling party, the CPC attaches great importance to its old friends of the democratic parties who are fighting side by side.
However, in an important election before the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhang Dongsun received only one vote against it. Despite this, Zhang Dongsun's future is still bright and he is respected by *** and others.
So, what caused Zhang Dongsun** to be imprisoned, and what made him lose everyone's support at a critical moment? Let's ** this mystery together.
It turned out that in that vote, ** was not modest, but personally voted in favor. Afterwards, it was proposed to find out who did not vote, while *** insisted on respecting the facts, arguing that everyone had the right to choose not to vote for him.
In the end, people found out the truth, and it turned out that the person who did not vote was Zhang Dongsun, the secretary general of the Democratic League. Because the "middle line" advocated by Zhang Dongsun conflicted with the "one-sided" foreign policy of the early years of New China, this laid the groundwork for his later tragedy.
He hopes that through his own efforts, he will avoid direct confrontation between China and the United States and become a "mediator" in Sino-US relations. While looking for a way to contact the United States, he met Wang Zhiqi, who claimed to have ties with the United States.
Wang Zhiqi is an American ** who had a relationship with Zhang Dongsun during the Anti-Japanese War. In early 1950, Wang Zhiqi revealed to Zhang Dongsun that the United States planned to launch World War III.
Zhang Dongsun was shocked by this and believed in his analysis of the world situation. He believes that once war breaks out, China will become a victim. Therefore, he asked Wang Zhiqi to convey a message to the United States, that is, not to start a war against China and to preserve China's strength for future use.
Wang Zhiqi agreed. The two then met several times, and Mr. Zhang would ask Mr. Wang if he had conveyed the message. During a conversation, Zhang Dongsun inadvertently leaked important state secrets.
With the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, ** and *** decided to "resist US aggression and aid Korea, defend the homeland and defend the country". Under these circumstances, Zhang Dongsun could no longer mediate Sino-American relations, so he advised Wang Zhiqi to leave China and reminded him not to engage in similar behavior.
Hopefully, he can work politically to avoid the destruction of China by the United States, which is good for everyone.
Zhang Dongsun had contact with Wang Zhiqi, and after many conversations, he found out that Wang's origin was unknown, so he cut off contact with him. However, what he never expected was that the conversation between them would leak a lot of important information to the United States, which also became the main evidence of his "treason" crime.
Wang Zhiqi was later arrested by the police, confessed to Zhang, and insisted that Zhang provided all the information. This incident shocked the **leader**, and said to Zhang Lan, chairman of the Democratic League: "Such a person - Zhang Dongsun, we can't sit together for a meeting!" ”
Zhang Dongsun deeply remorseful about this, he admitted his mistake, but firmly denied that he was an American spy, a thief, or a traitor. In December 1952, the NLD** expelled him from the League.
At that time, it was suggested that he be arrested and brought to justice, but *** decided to deal with it according to the internal contradictions of the people and let him stay at home. As a result, Zhang Dongsun resigned from his posts as a member of the People's Committee and a member of the Cultural and Educational Committee of the Government Council, and lived at home.
In January 1968, 82-year-old Zhang Dongsun died in Qincheng Prison in 1973 at the age of 87 for "treason".
Zhang Dongsun originally had a bright future, but he had ideological differences and went further and further, which eventually led to the tragedy.