Introduction.
FigXiong Xianghui In 1962, Xiong Xianghui was appointed chargé d'affaires in the UK. Located at 49-51 Portland Street, London, the Chinese Chargé d'Affaires in the UK was historically the embassy of the Kuomintang authorities in the UK and the premises of the legation in the UK acquired by the Qing Dynasty.
The two-storey brick and timber building, built in the 18th century, has become dilapidated and cramped after 100 years of use. Considering that it was quite inconvenient to use this place as a museum, Xiong Xianghui asked China for instructions, hoping to sell the old embassy house, buy another land, and build a new building.
In the autumn of 1963, Xiong Xianghui returned to China and mentioned this matter when he met with ***. Knowing a little about what it was like on Portland Street and mentioning that he lived here in the twenties, he seemed to remember something.
When Dr. Sun Yat-sen was martyred in London, was he imprisoned here? Xiong Xianghui nodded: "He was locked in an attic in the side room of the Qing Embassy, with an area of about ten square meters, the light was very dim, and there was only a window with iron bars on the wall facing the street, no window frames, and no glass. ”
** sighed: "There is no glass, so Mr. Sun can only throw a letter through the window, which was picked up by passers-by and given to Conderley to rescue him." * I was very interested in Sun Yat-sen's experience back then, so I asked Xiong Xianghui to explain it to me.
Xiong Xianghui had read the English version of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's "The Martyrdom of London" before, and was no stranger to this story. In 1894, the Sino-Japanese War ended in a complete defeat for the Qing Dynasty, and China was forced to cede territories such as the Liaodong Peninsula and Taiwan, and pay 2 trillion taels in compensation.
The weakness and incompetence of the Qing ** made Sun Yat-sen realize that it was difficult to achieve social reform from the top down by relying on the Qing **, so he changed his thinking and advocated the overthrow of the Qing **.
On November 24, 1894, Sun Yat-sen founded the Xingzhong Society in Honolulu and propagated his revolutionary ideas throughout the United States. In February 1895, Sun Yat-sen established the Hong Kong Xingzhong Society in Hong Kong, and in October of the same year, he actively prepared for the Guangzhou Uprising, but due to leaked plans and inadequate preparations, the uprising ultimately failed.
FigDr. Sun Yat-sen Mr. Sun Yat-sen went into exile abroad, but his propaganda of revolutionary ideas received a mediocre response. In 1896, he left Honolulu for San Francisco, USA, and then for England.
In London, he often visited his teacher, Conyley, who had served as a reciprologist at the College of Medicine in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Sun Yat-sen's escape was discovered by the Qing **, who ordered embassies abroad to keep a close eye on Sun Yat-sen's whereabouts and managed to arrest him.
After receiving the telegram from the minister in the United States, Minister Gong Zhaoai ordered his embassy counselor, Margery, to hire a detective agency to follow Sun Yat-sen. On October 11, 1894, Sun Yat-sen went to the church for worship and was invited to his home for tea by the Chinese Tang Tinghang.
When they walked to No. 49 Portland Street, where the Qing embassy was located, Deng Tingkeng was pulled in by two people from the Qing embassy. Sun Yat-sen was thus imprisoned in the embassy. He was caught in the mouth of a tiger and could not escape.
The Qing embassy clearly told him that the British would not come forward to help him, nor would they extradite him according to normal procedures. In order to convey the news to the outside world, Sun Yat-sen tried to use British servants hired by the embassy, but without success.
He had no choice but to throw notes through the window, but they were picked up by the embassy. At this time, Sun Yat-sen could only pray, hoping for a miracle.
Sun Yat-sen successfully escaped from the Chinese Legation On October 16, Sun Yat-sen took advantage of the unpreparedness of the embassy servant Cole, who was cleaning up, to ask him for help, promising him a high reward afterwards.
Cole promised to assist Sun Yat-sen in delivering the news, and wrote a distress message on Sun Yat-sen's business card. At the same time, Sun Yat-sen also got in touch with Mrs. Howe, the housekeeper of the embassy, and asked her to help deliver the message.
After receiving the news, Conderley actively rescued him with Meng Sheng, and personally went to the embassy to ask for his release. He also persuaded the British police to stand guard at the entrance of the Qing embassy in case Sun Yat-sen was smuggled out.
Britain initially took an indifferent attitude towards the incident, but under the rendering of the incident, the public sympathized with Sun Yat-sen and demanded that he come forward. On October 23, British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Salisbury sent a note to the Qing Embassy demanding the immediate release of Sun Yat-sen.
The Qing embassy was under unprecedented pressure and had to release Sun Yat-sen. However, the day after Sun Yat-sen's release, the embassy received a letter from Qing **, asking them to extradite Sun Yat-sen to China at all costs.
But this plan is doomed to fail. On the day of his release, Sun Yat-sen was interviewed by a British reporter, exposed the truth, and wrote the English version of "The Martyrdom of London", which allowed Westerners to understand the ignorant and backward status quo of the Qing Dynasty and sympathize with Sun Yat-sen.
The house in London was once the martyrdom of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. In 1933, the Kuomintang authorities dedicated it as a memorial room and hung a wooden plaque of "Sun Yat-sen's martyrdom".
However, overseas Chinese thought that this title was not respectful enough, and they all called it "Mr. Sun Yat-sen's London martyrdom". In 1937, when Kong Xiangxi attended the coronation ceremony of King George VI of the United Kingdom, he installed a bronze bust of Mr. Sun.
This history should be remembered, because Dr. Sun Yat-sen's martyrdom in London not only made him an international celebrity, increased his prestige and influence, but also made him realize that in addition to national and civil rights, it is also necessary to solve the problems of people's livelihood, thus initially forming the idea of the Three People's Principles.
It would be even more valuable if you could find the business card that Mr. Sun wrote to Condley at that time.
**Carefully considering the issue of rebuilding the Portland Street Embassy premises, he stressed that the reconstructed building must be consistent with the height and appearance of the original building in order to preserve the historical heritage.
Despite the country's economic difficulties, he was adamantly opposed to ** the house and instead decided to rebuild it on the same site. **The interior furnishings of the house are required to be neither increased nor subtracted in order to preserve the original appearance of the history.
He also asked the chairman to write a plaque with the words "Dr. Sun Yat-sen's London Martyrdom Chamber" and to embed the full text of the chairman's "In Memory of Mr. Sun Yat-sen" to show his admiration for this great revolutionary.
**'s proposal fully reflects his respect for history and his deep nostalgia for Mr. Sun Yat-sen.
1.Despite receiving £700,000 in cash and the assistance of architects, the Chinese Embassy in the UK still encountered setbacks in the process of rebuilding.
The crux of the matter was that the three halls of the Chinese agency were listed as "Adam's buildings" and had to be preserved, making the entire demolition and construction project impossible. 2.After receiving a notice signed "British Heritage Preservation Society", the Chinese Embassy in the UK repeatedly replied and proposed to build a replica of the original hall, but the association still insisted on not agreeing to the demolition and construction.
Even though the Agency warned that if the building collapsed, the existing Adam Hall would cease to exist, the Council did not give a clear answer. 3.In the process, the Chinese agency later learned that the British Depository Society was not deliberately making things difficult, but was a non-governmental organization, and its decision was not to be interfered with by the British.
At one point in its history, the Chinese embassy in London faced the problem of reconstruction, but at that time, the problem was not resolved. Until his death, the issue of the reconstruction of the Chinese Embassy in the UK was never resolved.
It wasn't until 1986 that Xiong Xianghui happened to see a report, which said that "***, who was on an official visit to the UK, came to the Chinese Embassy and visited the London martyrdom room of Mr. Sun Yat-sen in the museum, and inscribed "Mr. Sun Yat-sen's martyrdom room".
This incident has brought the issue of the rebuilding of the Chinese embassy in the UK back into the spotlight.
FigThe book on the cover of Sun Yat-sen's London martyrdom made Xiong Xianghui learn that the Chinese embassy in Britain had been rebuilt a few months earlier. Although the rebuilding of the Chinese Embassy in the UK was agreed by the British**, it was not implemented until seven years later, in 1980, because the British** demanded that only the interior be demolished and the façade preserved.
However, after repeated negotiations, it was finally agreed to demolish the entire building. Finally, the Chinese Embassy in the UK broke ground in June 1983 and completed construction in September 1985.
The overall appearance of the newly renovated Chinese Embassy in the UK has not changed much, except that the original two gates outside Portland Street have been replaced with one, and the construction method of concrete cast-in-place frame structure, brick wall enclosure and double brick wall with insulation layer in the middle has been adopted.
It is worth mentioning that the newly renovated Chinese Embassy in the UK still retains the "martyrdom room of Mr. Sun Yat-sen". Although Xiong Xianghui could not see the rebuilding of Mr. Sun Yat-sen's martyrdom room from the telegram of "People's **", there is no doubt that the rebuilt London embassy was newly built under the attention of ***, and also adopted ***'s opinion and retained Mr. Sun Yat-sen's martyrdom room.
FigThe description of Mr. Sun Yat-sen's letter to Conderley on two business cards "The martyrdom of Mr. Sun Yat-sen" basically reproduces the style of the past, including a bronze statue set up here when Kong Xiangxi came to England to attend the coronation of King George VI, and the line at the bottom of the bronze statue is still clearly visible: "* In May 26, he was ordered to attend the coronation of King George VI of the United Kingdom, and a bronze statue of the Prime Minister was cast in the Prime Minister's Memorial Room of the Embassy in the United Kingdom, and it was erected in honor and forever."
Kong Xiangxi remembered. In addition, another bronze statue is a statue of Conderley, the teacher who rescued Dr. Sun Yat-sen. In addition, in the martyrdom room of Mr. Sun Yat-sen, there are also displayed the "Memorial Room of Mr. Sun Yat-sen's London Martyrdom" written by Guo Taiqi, the former Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom, and the "Martyrdom of Sun Yat-sen" written by Hu Hanmin, a veteran of the Kuomintang.
In 1986, during an official visit to the UK, he also wrote a plaque for Mr. Sun Yat-sen's martyrdom room. However, Xiong Xianghui regretted that from the ** sent back, he could not see whether the window on the side of the street had followed the instructions of *** and maintained the original appearance of the year, and to his greatest regret, the telegram did not mention that "Mr. Sun Yat-sen's London martyrdom was rebuilt in accordance with the instructions of Prime Minister *** before his death".
Despite this, the idea of earnestly urging to keep the "Sun Yat-sen's London Martyrdom Room" has been realized, and Xiong Xianghui feels a little relieved.
The Embassy in the UK is not only China's first embassy abroad, but also a museum that carries history and collects nearly 300 pieces of famous calligraphy. The 120-year collection of cultural relics has witnessed the rise of China in the world.
However, with the development of China, the functional demands of embassies are increasing day by day, and the existing space can no longer be satisfied. For example, institutions such as business development and cultural education are not located on the original site of the embassy.
The way to deal with it in the future has become the focus of attention. Despite the limited space, there is no substitute for the historical and cultural value of the embassy in the UK.