Gu Weijun, taciturn, beautiful and kind. In his early years, he studied at Columbia University in the United States and obtained a doctorate in law. During the Republic of China, the internal affairs situation experienced many vicissitudes and personnel metabolism. However, as a professional diplomat, Gu Weijun has always stood firm, which is quite surprising.
Gu Weijun has been married four times in her life. The first time was the daughter of the same old-fashioned family. The cause of this incident is that Gu Weijun was only 12 years old and went to Shanghai Huaying Middle School at the end of Guangxu. At that time, there was another man named Zhang Hengshan, who was also in the Yuan Guanlan shogunate. This man is optimistic about the future of Gu Weijun, promising his daughter a lifetime and offering her the opportunity to study in the United States. Gu Weijun has excellent academic performance, and served as the president of the China Student Union in the eastern States of the United States.
Shortly after returning home, he was introduced by his father-in-law, Zhang Hengshan, and went north to see Tang. Tang appreciated his talent and recommended Gu to Yuan Shikai as the English secretary and translator of the Presidential Palace. Gu Weijun, a young man, went to various social places after work. By chance, he met his daughter, Miss Tang, and fell in love with Gu at first sight. With this relationship, Gu Weijun began to rise step by step. I spent two years in Beijing, from the official to the intelligence director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In the marriage between Gu and Tang, there are still obstacles of Miss Zhang. It is said that Miss Tang tried her best, and her father used means to force Zhang to dissolve the engagement. After Miss Zhang became a monk, Zhang Hengshan died of depression. Twenty years later, Gu Weijun became Foreign Minister. When she learned that Miss Zhang was living in poverty in Shanghai, she wrote a letter with a huge sum of 50,000 yuan to show her remorse, but Miss Zhang returned the letter and money intact.
19 15, at the age of 27, Gu Weijun became the youngest special envoy in Washington.
Mrs. Tang died of an epidemic, leaving a son and a daughter. On social occasions in London, Gu Weijun met the daughter of "Sugar King" Huang and married her as his second wife. Huang, the richest overseas Chinese in Britain, accumulated 5 million pounds when he died. In a few years, Gu Weijun will form a cabinet. Someone asked Zhang in advance, "Do you think this is ok?" Zhang happily replied: "With Mrs. Gu's so much money, it is not difficult for Gu Shaochuan to be president. Isn't it just a prime minister!" A few days later, Gu Weijun did form a cabinet.
1956, Gu Weijun divorced Huang Huilan and married Yan Youyun until 1987. When Gu Weijun is old, he often talks about marriage with others. He thinks that his life's marriage seems to have a trilogy: he married Tang Mei and developed his political status; Lord Richie, married to Lady Huang Huilan, the daughter of Sugar King; Lord love, marry Ms. Yan Youyun, fall in love, and look forward to growing old together.
The Paris Peace Conference is beginning to take shape.
The most successful scene in Gu Weijun's life was his participation in the Paris Peace Conference. His diplomatic achievements originated from this, and so did his world-famous founding contributions.
19 19 after the first world war, representatives of the United States, Britain, France, Italy and Japan gathered in Paris to discuss the problems left over by Germany's defeat. In late February, a ten-member meeting of five countries (including the US President and Secretary of State, the British Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, the French Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, the Italian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, and the Prince and representatives of Nishihara Temple) discussed the issue of distributing German overseas territories occupied during the war. After a heated debate, it failed to be resolved, and the Japanese request for the Shandong issue in China was put forward temporarily. At that time, Japan recognized Japan's privilege in Shandong according to Article 21 concluded between China and Japan and the secret agreement concluded between Britain, France and Italy during the war, and insisted on and ratified it. As the United States is not bound by the Japanese secret treaty, it is proposed to listen to China's opinions first, and then discuss the solution.
At lunch that day, the China delegation learned for the first time that China would be invited to attend the "Ten-Nation Meeting" in the afternoon to explain his ideas. Due to time constraints, Gu Weijun did not speak at the meeting. He talked frankly about Japan's traditional aggressive policy towards China, put forward the measures of 2 1 to force me to sign a contract, and pointed out that Japan's aggression against Shandong not only violated justice and public international law, but also endangered peace in the Far East and the world, and violated the original intention of the Paris Peace Conference, which would lead to the bane of World War II. Gu Weijun's speech is like flowing water and full of affection. After the speech, the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom first congratulated him, and said that the whole speech well expounded China's views. Many people sitting in the front row also came to shake hands with him. The whole scene was in sharp contrast to the silence after the Japanese representative spoke. However, the sympathy of the great powers for China was only a flash in the pan. Later, the Shandong issue could not be solved fairly for its own benefit. Finally, a plan was worked out: Japan will get all the rights stipulated in Jiaozhou and the Sino-German Treaty, and then Japan will return the leased land to China, but it will still enjoy all the economic rights including the Ji Jiao Railway. Gu Weijun and others, after learning this content, first tried their best to make the scheme modified, but to no avail.
At that time, the China government had made up its mind to sign, and Foreign Minister Lu Zhengxiang, who led the delegation, was worried about the consequences of refusing to sign. After June 24, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing sent telegrams to the delegation one after another: the domestic situation was tense, the people demanded to refuse the visa, and the government was under great pressure. The general manager was asked to make his own decision on signing the contract. At this time, General Manager Lu has been hospitalized for many days.
On June 28th, all attempts to find a compromise failed. Having no choice, the China delegation refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles and attend the closing ceremony of the Paris Peace Conference. It was not until three o'clock in the afternoon, after the last meeting of the Peace Conference, that the delegation received the refusal order from the Beijing government. Gu Weijun played an important role in refusing to sign the peace treaty. Some representatives of the delegation wavered, but under the pressure of the domestic people, they had to agree with Gu Weijun.
After the Paris Peace Conference, Gu Weijun gained great fame. He was elected as one of the five representatives of "small countries" in the League of Nations Committee of Paris Peace Conference and participated in drafting the League of Nations Convention. In June, 1920, 1 1, attended the first meeting of the League of Nations as the chief representative of China.
Contributed to the birth of the United Nations.
1922 in August, Wang Chonghui formed a cabinet in the struggle of various factions, and Gu Weijun was appointed as foreign minister. With the collapse of Wang's cabinet, he resigned as foreign minister and became the foreign minister of Sun Baodi's cabinet. 1924 10, Feng Yuxiang launched the Beijing Incident, and Gu Weijun resigned and fled to Tianjin Concession. 1in may, 926, he returned to Beijing and served as the chief financial officer in the Qing cabinet of Yan Hui.1in October, he served as the acting prime minister of the cabinet.
Foreign minister. Soon, the National Revolutionary Army ordered a wanted man to support the Zhang government. He fled to Ahava first, and then went to France and Canada.
1929, Gu Weijun went to Shenyang for talks with Zhang Xueliang, and Zhang Xueliang suggested that Chiang Kai-shek cancel the wanted Gu Weijun and return his property. After the September 18th Incident, Chiang Kai-shek talked with Zhang Xueliang about asking Gu Weijun to go to Nanking and sent a plane to pick him up. It was only from the Beiyang government to the Kuomintang government and returned to the diplomatic field. From 65438 to 0934, Gu Weijun served as the chief representative of China in the League of Nations, and later served as the ambassador to France and Britain.
After Gu Weijun returned to Chongqing, Chiang Kai-shek paid him extra courtesy. Once, at the invitation of Chiang Kai-shek, he went to Huangshan for a night. In the meantime, he walked with Chiang Kai-shek for an hour and a half, chatting while walking. Chiang Kai-shek was very hospitable to him and accompanied him to his room to check the mattress when he slept. Be sure to ask someone to help you put on your coat and get the car ready when you go out. Chiang Kai-shek would take out a pen and paper from the drawer and write it down. Gu Weijun believed that Chiang Kai-shek's behavior was influenced by the West because he married Song Meiling. In fact, Chiang Kai-shek was in urgent need of strong support from the West, which made him more attractive to foreign envoys.
As early as the First World War, Gu Weijun was very concerned about establishing an organization to safeguard world peace. He was one of the first people in China government to urge the country to pay attention to this issue. 1944 In September, Gu Weijun attended the second phase of the Donbaden Oak Park Conference as the chief representative, which proposed to establish an international organization-the post-war United Nations. In March, 1945, Gu Weijun, as the representative of China, attended the meeting of United Nations international organizations in San Francisco. 1945 At the signing ceremony held at the San Francisco Veterans Memorial Hall on June 25th, he took the lead in signing the Charter of the United Nations on behalf of China, making China the first of the four sponsors.
There is also an episode in which I organized a delegation to attend the San Francisco meeting. At that time, Gu Weijun advocated that the delegation should be broadly representative and abandon differences in internal affairs, including representatives of all parties and factions. He asked Dong to be his representative. When he was the ambassador to France, he met with Dong, who was deeply impressed by his familiarity with international affairs, affability and good rhetoric. Finally, at the request of President Roosevelt, Dong attended the San Francisco meeting as a representative of the Producers' Party. When he solemnly signed the Charter of the United Nations, Dong stood beside him.
After the San Francisco Conference, Gu Weijun served as the chief representative of China to the United Nations Preparatory Committee.
Memoirs of extraordinary value
From 65438 to 0949, the rule of the Kuomintang regime in mainland China entered the deadline, and Gu Weijun also faced the most embarrassing page in his diplomatic career.
He asked the U.S. government to instruct Ambassador Si Tuleideng to stay in Guangzhou, and asked the U.S. to allocate funds to help the national government stabilize its military morale and cope with its finances, but both of them were ruthlessly rejected.
At the beginning of 1956, Ye Gongchao conveyed Chiang Kai-shek's instructions that he should go to Taiwan Province Province for consultation. As a diplomat, Gu Weijun realized that it was time for him to resign. Back in Taiwan Province Province, I visited Chiang Kai-shek twice, and he said frankly, "I am like an old horse, exhausted." And Chiang Kai-shek has no intention of staying. Later, through Zhang Qun's mouth, he was appointed as a senior minister in the presidential palace and lived in the United States. In this way, Gu Weijun bid farewell to the diplomatic arena. This year, he was 68 years old, rented a house in pelham Manor on the outskirts of new york, and lived a hermit life.
The quiet life didn't last long. 1956 in July, Gu Weijun suddenly received a telegram from Taiwan Province Province, in which Ye Gongchao hoped to be nominated as a candidate for the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague by the representative of Taiwan Province Province to participate in the election of judges of the International Court of Justice held by the United Nations to fill the vacancy left by Xu Mo's death. International judges were respected and well paid, and Gu agreed.
During his tenure as an international judge, the work of writing memoirs was also intermittent. As early as 1956 retired, he was invited by Columbia University Press, Macmillan Publishing Company and Shuangri Publishing House to write his memoirs. From the beginning of his diplomatic career, he has been writing down daily events, from political events to life details, without interruption. Even if he is too busy to write, he will certainly make up afterwards. Moreover, he kept copies of diplomatic files over the years, including reports to the government at that time, instructions from the government, and his conversations, speeches, newspaper clippings, secret files, etc. With the politicians and business tycoons of Britain, France, the United States and other countries, it can be said that they are well informed.
This masterpiece of oral history was written with the help of Columbia University. McGee, the successor of President Goldkirk, once commented on Memoirs of Gu Weijun: "Dr. Gu's memories not only have extremely detailed descriptions and comments, but also have extremely high documentary value, because he has a lofty position in politics, diplomacy and public international law. He is an outstanding old alumnus of Columbia University. "
In Gu Weijun's later years, except for editing three times a week, life was calm and relaxed. Occasionally, I will play "Sanitary Mahjong". He never thinks about playing cards, nor does he care about winning or losing. He is purely a pastime, which is very different from his mood when he was a diplomat.
1972 In September, Zhang, a member of the China delegation attending the 27th United Nations General Assembly, was entrusted to visit and was very happy with the visit of her old friend's daughter. He asked a lot about the mainland. He was both excited and sorry for the kind invitation of his motherland, because the conditions were not mature at that time and he could not go back to China for a visit. Gu Weijun never became an American citizen in the decades in the United States. His heart has always been on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. He once said affectionately, "I will always have China in my heart. I know that China will be unified. " 1985165438+10, he died in his apartment in new york just before his 97th birthday.
On the afternoon of June165438+1October 18, Li Luye, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, and Ji Lide, Consul General in new york, paid their respects to Campbell Funeral Home on mcpherson Avenue. China's Ambassador to the United States Han Xu and former Ambassador to the United States Zhang also sent messages of condolence, saying, "Gu Lao is an outstanding diplomat in China and has made remarkable achievements. We are the younger generation and have always admired him. Public opinion in Taiwan Province Province, China also greatly praised Gu Weijun's life and career, and the unanimous evaluation of him on both sides of the strait is also rare in China's modern history.