History and historical figures of a thousand years of merit and demerit by future generations to comment, many historical figures in the major historical juncture of the choice, often sobering, the tragedy caused by a few tragic figures in recent history, can bring inspiration to people today, they are Yuan Shikai, Wang Jingwei and Hitler.
With the development of history, perhaps future generations or the historical evaluation of Yuan Shikai, Wang Jingwei and Hitler these three people changed, but the present evaluation seems to have been capped, the thieves, traitors and traitors and war-mongers of the notorious name almost become its alias. But these three men have one thing in common: they could have gone down in history if they hadn’t made that final decision to face a major historical juncture.
If Yuan Shikai had fallen ill and died before claiming the throne in 1916, Yuan’s historical position would have been very different. Yuan Shih-k’ai was in fact the expected president after the establishment of the Republic, in terms of strength, ability and prestige, and he was once called the “Washington of China”.
Yuan Shih-k’ai made his mark in military, economic, educational, cultural and political fields. He peacefully forced the Qing emperor to abdicate, ending the rule of a Qing dynasty in a way that was rare in Chinese history and avoided bloody conflict. The Beiyang government under his leadership opened up the party ban and the freedom of the press, which led to the second period of “a hundred schools of thought” in China after the Spring and Autumn period. Economically, the establishment of “private property rights” and the implementation of “free economy” led to a “golden age” of rapid economic development in China after the late Qing Dynasty. Before Yuan’s accession to the throne, the Republic of China was a unified country, and the central government was a government that could control the whole country. After Yuan’s death, China really entered into the chaos of warlordism, in fact, until Chiang Kai-shek’s successful Northern Expedition and the outbreak of anti-Japanese resistance, China was in a state of warlordism.
Yuan Shikai’s claim to the throne was not as simple as a “single-mindedness”; at that time, the so-called “persuasion” of the country had already formed a wind trend, such as when Cai E, who later rose to fight Yuan, repeatedly persuaded Yuan Shikai to establish a constitutional monarchy. The final choice of Yuan Shikai to call himself emperor was not only a personal ambition, but also a misjudgment of the situation and the existence of factors that were misunderstood, mainly against the trend of history and finally abandoned by the people.
If Wang Jingwei had died in his assassination on November 1, 1935, it would have been the best place for him to live, and there would have been one less traitor in modern Chinese history, and one more admired politician. “Generously singing in the city of Yan, calmly as a prisoner of Chu. The sword became a quick, not to lose the youth head.” The once magnificent young hero, the patriarch of the Republic of China, Wang Jingwei, who was indifferent to merit and almost perfect in his private virtues, also made a choice that seems tragic nowadays out of a misjudgment of the situation: to cooperate with Japan.
In 1933, Hitler came to power with the support of the majority of the German public, mainly because by 1936 Hitler solved the problem of unemployment among the German public; of course, he not only created the “economic miracle”, but also created the “miracle of military expansion “By 1939, Germany was actually the most powerful country in the world in terms of military power; Hitler also promoted the social change in Germany and the “socialization” of the Germans, making them feel the warmth of collective life. In just three years, 1933, 1934 and 1935, Hitler transformed Germany, a country with the highest deficit and unemployment rate in the world and practically bankrupt, into one of the world’s top economic powers, and this was not achieved by foreign investment and aid at all. Had Hitler not made the decision to go to war in the end, Hitler’s achievements would have been comparable to those of Bismarck, the most famous minister in German history. Unfortunately, Hitler chose to take a step into the abyss and became a war-monger who caused a great disaster to the world.
The message is that it does not matter what a man in a position of power has done in the past, but what he does in the face of the final choice at a major historical moment that affects history and the fate of mankind. So, when faced with the major choice before the world of whether to abandon the Chinese Communist Party, those in high positions of power need to make a wise and correct choice.
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