the influence of family background on Zhou Enlai

Zhou Enlai's ancestral home is Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and he is based on Lu Xun. The Zhou family of Baoyouqiao (also known as "Old Eight Houses") respects Zhou Qing as the ancestor. Zhou Qing was the great-grandson of Zhou Mao, the ancestor of Zhou's emigration to Shao, whose name was Defang, and was given to Wen Linlang. He was once the censor of Shanxi Road in Ming Dynasty. After his death, he was buried with his wife in the foothills of Yinjiawu, a broken pond in Shaoxing. From Zhou Qing to Zhou Enlai, it took 18 generations.

in March, 1939, entrusted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Zhou Enlai went to southern Anhui to inspect the New Fourth Army in the name of inspecting the people's feelings and propagating the anti-Japanese war, and went to his hometown Shaoxing by the way. When he visited his ancestral home, he personally continued to write genealogy in the Book of Sacrifice to the Old Eight Houses. There are 14 articles with ***248 words, and one about himself is as follows: "Enlai, the word Yu Xiang, the great-grandson of Qiaoshui Gong, the eldest grandson of Yunmen Gong, the eldest son of the minister, was born in Guangxu Wuxu. Among them, the "Fifty Rooms" belong to a branch of Zhou family in Baoyou Bridge, Shaoxing.

in history, Shaoxing is a place with rich resources and rich people. The Zhou family of Baoyouqiao, to which Zhou Enlai belongs, produced two scholars and five juren only in the Qing Dynasty. Among the five juren, four are Zhou Enlai's uncles, namely Zhou Heyi, Zhou Songyao, Zhou Jiachen and Zhou Jiaying. The prominent feature of the Zhou family is that it has a tradition of being a master, and it advocates a humanistic spirit of "being gentle, kind, respectful, frugal and accommodating". The staff culture is very developed. Since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, most of the country's teachers came from Shaoxing, so there is a saying that "nothing can be done without salt". Although touts are not officials, they are only aides, but they occupy a decisive position in the administrative history of China. Officials who were born in ancient imperial examinations, from the top to the top of the six departments, went down to the magistrate's county magistrate, and most of them were only familiar with general knowledge such as poetry, books, rites and music, so once they came into contact with actual politics, especially the professional knowledge such as criminal names and Qian Gu, they were unable to do so. This provides a broad stage for the masters with specialized knowledge to display their talents.

Shaoxing's grandmaster inherited his father's business, and his family has a long history. His aristocratic children are concise and decent in writing official documents and letters, and they are well versed in laws, regulations and precedent cases. They are good at poetry, music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and they are also familiar with political anecdotes and folk customs, so they can best cope with the situation and solve problems for the main officials. Favourite is the link between officials and officials. Officials can hide many things from officials, but not from touts. Therefore, touts should be good at being cooperative and pay attention to unblocking joints at any time, which shows touts' role in ancient administration. Chen Jiting, a Neo-Confucianist in the Ming Dynasty, sent his friend to Shaoxing to be the magistrate of a county. It was said in the article that there were six departments to control the chaos in the world, and all six touts came from Shaoxing. If the touts' fathers and brothers were well educated, they could educate the touts, so as to achieve the great governance in the world. During the reign of Yongzheng in Qing Dynasty, Tian Wenjing, the governor of Henan Province, was very appreciated by the imperial court. Everyone in Henan officialdom said that he relied on a Shaoxing tout named Wu Sidao, so that Yong Zhengdi casually asked Mr. Wu when replying to Tian Wenjing's memorial, and expressed his appreciation for Mr. Wu's efforts in figuring out the meaning.

Zhou Enlai's grandfather, Zhou Panlong, followed his second brother, Zhou Angjun, to Huai 'an in the Xianfeng period of Qing Dynasty, where he studied with the museum and settled down. Zhou Enlai recalled: "My family ancestors were also Shaoxing touts for generations, and my grandfather was originally from Nanchang, Jiangxi, and was also a tout. "In the ancestral period, the two families moved to Huaiyin and Huai 'an, Jiangsu Province, to be county officials, so they got married. The atmosphere of Shaoxing in Huai 'an Zhoujia is very strong, so Zhou Enlai always emphasizes that he is "originally from Shaoxing". Zhou Enlai is very familiar with touts' way of thinking, work characteristics and living customs. In 1964, he said at a family meeting, "We have no land. Why do we call it a feudal family? What did Shaoxing people live on in the past? One depends on the land, and the other depends on being a master in Shaoxing. Favourite is very powerful. He gives advice to county officials. Now he is called' secretary'. "County officials have two teachers. One is in charge of tax collection, most of whom are Cangzhou teachers (who also moved from Shaoxing to Cangzhou to settle down), and the other is in charge of judging cases, most of whom are Shaoxing teachers, who can exploit people." According to the memory of Zhou Enlai's secretary, Marxism-Leninism, Zhou Enlai once introduced to them the working methods of touts: preparing all the materials for the chief officials, and put forward several treatment schemes for the chief officials to choose from.

Family tradition is like a "cultural field", and people living in it will be influenced to some extent. In Zhou Enlai, it is not difficult to see the shadow of some group characters of the family predecessors, such as courtesy, diligence and prudence, shrewdness and the beauty of adults. Zhou Enlai's uncle, Zhou Heyi, is loyal, "not seeking high fame but being close to affection", and his life destination is to be an aide. In 197, he was the chief copywriter of Jiangsu Governor Chen Kuilong, and in 1917, he went to Chun Li, the Nanjing governor, as the chief secretary. Zhou Enlai is in close contact with him. Zhou Erliu, the eldest grandson of Zhou Heyi, said, "Our Zhou family is deeply influenced by Confucianism. As a juror in the late Qing Dynasty, my grandfather gave Qibo (that is, Zhou Enlai) some influence and support ideologically, culturally and even economically, which is certain. " During his long political career, Zhou Enlai's acting style has aroused great interest of scholars at home and abroad. Dick wilson, a British writer, has a puzzling question when studying Zhou Enlai, that is, why Zhou Enlai "has consistently helped others to rise to the top under the leadership of China's * * * production party for more than half a century, but refused this laurel". Indeed, after Zhou Enlai joined the revolution, he never wanted to seek the highest leadership position, although there were many such opportunities in history. He has always been able to make his political talents and professional knowledge valued by the new leader and become a valuable and even indispensable assistant to the leader. The formation of Zhou Enlai's political character, on the one hand, is that he is aware of some of his limitations, and on the other hand, it has a certain spiritual connection with his family culture. When talking about the relationship with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai said many times: "Chairman Mao is engaged in strategy, and I can only engage in some tactics. I am not sure whether I can be an assistant well." Although this is a word of self-modesty, it also reflects his self-orientation as an assistant and supporting role.

In addition to the family tradition, the influence of family life on Zhou Enlai's ideological character can not be underestimated. He himself recalled, "After I was born ... I was adopted by my uncle and raised by my widowed aunt. My aunt, the stepmother Chen, is an educated woman. When I was five years old, she often told me stories, such as "Rain Flower in the Sky" and "Rebirth". My stepmother stays indoors all day, and my quiet character is inherited from her. But my biological mother is a cheerful person, so my personality also has this part of her. " Zhou Enlai's father, Zhou Yineng, learned from his uncle Lu Xiaohe in his early years, but he didn't succeed. Later, he ran away for a long time to find some small errands, and his monthly salary never exceeded 2 yuan. Therefore, Zhou Enlai grew up in a strong maternal atmosphere. Later, when he recalled his early experiences, he said, "The excessive kindness and comity of my mother's teachings have an impact on my character, and I lack that kind of wildness."

Although Zhou Enlai was born in a feudal official family, by the time his parents had declined, the gains in his family could not even support his life. From the age of six, he moved and drifted again and again with his two mothers, and the changes in his family were particularly severe. Between the ages of nine and ten, his biological mother and his stepmother died successively. Young, he took his two younger brothers to live with the help and support of his people and suffered a lot of humiliation. Zhou Enlai said, "I have known that life is hard since I was a child. My father often goes out. When I was ten or eleven years old, I began to take charge of the family's daily necessities and go out to socialize. In this respect, it gave me some exercise. " The Biography of Zhou Enlai, edited by Mr. Jin Chongji, also revealed a detail: Young Zhou Enlai put a piece of paper on the wall of his home, and according to the custom of feudal families, "write down the birthdays and deaths of relatives. We'll have to borrow money to give gifts. "Both the owner and the west are going, and they have to kowtow everywhere." Zhou Enlai has accumulated a certain ability to handle affairs and coordinate, and at the same time, he has cultivated his psychological quality of being soft and tough, and the more frustrated he is, the more excited he is. Knowing this will help us understand Zhou Enlai's role as a state activist.

Zhou Enlai, who went out of Huai 'an to study in the Northeast with his uncle Zhou Yigeng, was often tortured by the intense homesickness. In the spring of 1916, when he was studying in Nankai, he wrote in an essay: "I lost my parents and relied on my father for seven years in Tianjin and Liaoning. I was a dreamer, and I only thought about my hometown, enjoyed my brother and saved my uncle." "It's because the situation is difficult for people to get what they want." One year on New Year's Eve, most of his classmates went home, and his feelings were even more difficult to suppress. The sadness came to the page: "What day is it today, husband?" When it's not a family reunion? How can I be like my parents are dead, and Beitang has not heard the voice of calling a child for a long time. Looking back on yiyi's knees, I feel so sad that I don't have to read the chapter of me. "This evening, tears filled my pillow, and I couldn't sleep at night." Among them, the "chapter of my humble abode" comes from the Book of Songs Xiaoya, which is a poem mourning my parents, with many sad words, such as "Mourning my parents, giving birth to me", "What's the trouble without my father, what's the reliance without my mother" and so on. Looking through Zhou Enlai's diary of traveling to Japan, the words of homesickness and homesickness can be found everywhere. For example, he wrote in his diary on February 12, 1918: "When I think about this year, our family can be said to be extremely embarrassed, east and west, north and south, scattered everywhere. By comparison, I am in a slightly better position. "If I ask myself, I am really upset. I can't sleep after tossing and turning."

Zhou Enlai's strong desire for family ethics and emotion was transformed into the spirit of "serving" by people around him in the process of studying. He said: "Man's standing in the world can not help animals and plants to live for themselves, but must rely on the support of the public, and service is inevitable for mankind." He is willing to contribute in school, and never stints his time and energy in whatever he can, as if "he has no responsibility to tie himself all the time". Others regard him as a fool, but he "feels twice as happy in life". When he graduated from Nankai Middle School, Classmate made such a comment on him: "You are gentle and honest, most affectionate, devoted to friendship, and do your best for friends and public welfare." Reflecting the spirit of "serving", it is the character of modesty and restraint. He never shows a sharp edge, but thinks of "self-denial" and "hiding others" everywhere. He, Zhang Ruifeng, Chang Ce 'ou and others initiated the establishment of the "Dedicated Music Club", and everyone recognized that he contributed the most, but Zhou Enlai insisted on recommending Zhang Ruifeng as the president. At the beginning of 1916, he wrote in a poem given to his friends: "Peers struggle to run away, and you are the first to whip. "When you are married, you pity the poor, and the rapids give way to the virtuous." In his early years, Zhou Enlai was ambitious, but he showed indifference and detachment in his treatment of fame and wealth.

Of course, a person's personality is influenced not only by his family background, but also by a wide range of social life practices. Therefore, although the basic characteristics of Zhou Enlai's personality tend to be soft and tender, his character structure has been tempered and enriched by his long-term political life. Mao Zedong once described himself as "tiger-like" and "monkey-like", while Japanese scholar Tomohito thought that "the extremely different dual characters of eagle and pigeon" lurked in Zhou Enlai's body. His politeness and proper gentleness fascinated everyone who met him, but he was sometimes "sharp and severe". On the whole, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai are both people who combine rigidity with softness. Mao Zedong's hardness with softness, while Zhou Enlai's softness with toughness, which is the character basis of their great achievements in mutual assistance.