The historiography in 1943 was very lively, not only Zhou Hexuan published a book, Wu Han published a book, and Chang Kaishen also published a book.

Chang Kaishen published a book in March, titled "The Fate of China," in which he used history to discuss politics. The book was printed on the best paper, and the price was very, very cheap in order to make it affordable for the common people.

In just one month, 150,000 copies of "The Fate of China" were distributed, and sales soon reached 1 million copies, driven by governments at all levels. But the more you sell in China, the more you lose, because you are losing money and making money.

Compared with the domestic loss, the overseas copyright of this book has earned a lot.

After all, China at the present stage belongs to the anti-fascist alliance after the United States, the Soviet Union, and Britain. The book of the Chinese leader, Chang Kaishen, has aroused great interest from British and American publishers, who have not even read the content and have paid high prices for overseas rights.

Then these Anglo-American publishers vomited blood.

After "The Fate of China" was published in the United Kingdom and the United States, its sales were so-so at first, but it was soon criticized by the political, academic and civil circles. Because the book is an unabashed expression of authoritarian and racist views, topics that were extremely sensitive in Britain and the United States during World War II.

Lao Jiang originally wanted to write a book and speak to enhance his influence at home and abroad, but he did not expect to have a bad reputation in the international community.

In the past, politicians, scholars, and ordinary people in Britain and the United States had an excellent impression of Chang Kaishen because of China's stubborn resistance to Japanese aggression. A copy of "The Fate of China" directly exposes his true face - it turns out that you are such Chang Kaishen!

The same is true at home, where the Communist Party, the Democratic Party, and liberal scholars were stunned, and they never dreamed that Lao Jiang would dare to write a book to "blacken himself" so thoroughly.

In the eyes of scholars, the publication of "The Fate of China" was Lao Chiang's biggest trick during the Anti-Japanese War, even more disgusting than the indiscriminate issuance of paper money. The indiscriminate issuance of paper money and the price of goods are very reluctantly acceptable, after all, this is a sacrifice of personal interests for the sake of the Anti-Japanese War, but "The Fate of China" can only make people feel cold.

There is a theory that Chang Kaishen completely offended most of the democratic parties and free people with a copy of "The Fate of China", and successfully pushed countless patriots to the side of the Communist Party.

Wen Yiduo said: "The publication of "The Fate of China" is a very important key to me alone, and I am simply shocked by the Boxer spirit in it. May Fourth had too much influence on me, and "The Fate of China" openly declared war on May Fourth, and I couldn't stand it anyway. ”

The meaning of this passage is very clear, Wen Yiduo finally embarked on the road of anti-Chiang because he read "The Fate of China".

At the beginning of 1942, Wen Yiduo once said to his son Wen Lihe: "(Chang Kaishen) has experienced many hardships and twists and turns in his life, and he was calm and calm during the Xi'an Incident, turning danger into relief, and his personality was great and touching. ”

That is to say, Wen Yiduo at the beginning of 1942 still belonged to Lao Jiang's fan brother, and he could even ignore the Southern Anhui Incident. He sincerely respects Chang Kaishen, has a good impression of Chang Kaishen's personal charm and persistence in the War of Resistance Against Japan, and believes that Chang Kaishen can lead China to victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan.

In just one year, the salary increase incident, the Qu Yuan incident, the disaster relief incident, and the book publication incident...... Lao Jiang's glorious image in Wen Yiduo's heart was directly shattered, and he changed from an idol leader to a dictatorial martial artist.

The book "The Fate of China" is full of errors and nonsense, and even the American Fairbank can clearly see the discussion of China's history and current situation. Fairbank made it clear: "This book of those in power is an insult to the professors who write books and theories...... It was a loss of identity for a politician to write such a pamphlet, and now I understand why everyone who participated in the English translation of the book was suffering from cold fever. ”

The "cold fever" that Fairbank mentioned was the counselors of the Supreme Council of National Defense of China at that time, who were fully responsible for the translation of "The Fate of China."

When these counselors are translating, it is as uncomfortable as eating. What they have to do is to translate a lump of Chinese-flavored into foreign-flavored, and in the process of translating, it is equivalent to eating twice.

Although the views of this book are from Chang Kaishen, they were ghostwritten by Tao Xisheng, and Chen Bui also participated in part.

Tao Xisheng was trembling when he wrote the book, and he was in a cold sweat. He knew the consequences of the book's publication, but he had to write it head-on, fortunately he didn't have to sign the cover, and it didn't matter to him how fierce the readers were.

Taizu's evaluation of "The Fate of China" is: "This is a declaration of war against the Chinese people, and it is an ideological preparation and public opinion preparation for launching a civil war. ”

In the face of unanimous criticism from foreign readers, Lao Jiang himself said in his diary: "It was expected, but I didn't expect it to be so disgusted." ”

Nonsense, can Anglo-American readers not be disgusted?

"The Fate of China" not only talks a lot about dictatorship and nationalism, but also blames all China's backwardness on imperialist aggression, blaming everything on unequal treaties, and almost pointing at the nose of the British and American powers and scolding my mother.

If we say that China's backwardness in national strength can be blamed on imperialist aggression against China. But what is the strange idea of blaming China's political, moral, and cultural backwardness on imperialist aggression? Could it be that if the great powers do not invade China, China's political system, culture and ideology will not be backward?

Moreover, now that China and Britain and the United States are allies, and the world anti-fascist war is at a critical juncture, what is Lao Chiang's idea for publishing such a book attacking the allies?

Let's summarize the ideas expressed in "The Fate of China", roughly speaking: the Chinese nation is great, and the prosperity of the Han and Tang dynasties shows that Chinese is the best nation. Moreover, there is only one ethnic group in China, the Han, Manchu, Mongolian, and Hui ethnic groups, which are just large and small clans of the Chinese nation. China was completely corrupted and regressed at the hands of the Manchus, and then went into the abyss under imperialist aggression. If China wants to rejuvenate and become strong, it can only be completed under the leadership of the great leader Chang Kaishen, under the rule of the Kuomintang and under the instructions of the Three People's Principles, and can the inherent greatness of the Chinese nation be restored.

At first glance, it doesn't seem outrageously written. However, they often contradict themselves in their own opinions, use arguments full of errors and omissions, and completely ignore the contributions and sacrifices of the people to the country, and attribute all the progress of China since the late Qing Dynasty and the achievements made since the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression to Lao Chiang alone, and to the wisdom of the Kuomintang and the Three People's Principles.

Lao Jiang almost didn't say clearly in the book: I want to be a dictatorship, and everyone must listen to me. I want to overthrow the world powers, I want to sweep away the shame of the garbage since the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and let the Chinese nation achieve comprehensive great rejuvenation!

The image of Lao Jiang exposed in the book is that of an authoritarian version of the anti-Qing Restoration and a Boxer-style peasant nationalist - very similar to a certain type of netizens in later generations.

Not long after the first six scholars visited the United States, Zhang Daofan came to the Zhou Mansion with a copy of "The Fate of China". He said to Zhou Hexuan: "Mingcheng, I don't know if you have read the president's masterpiece?" ”

"Read." Zhou Hexuan said.

Zhang Daofan asked, "How do you feel?" ”

Zhou Hexuan said: "The shock is inexplicable. ”

Zhang Daofan said: "Nowadays, there are many critics of this book in China, please write an article to correct the name of "The Fate of China". By the way, the president asked me to tell Ming Cheng that he thinks that you have made great achievements in reading history in the past six months, and you don't need to reflect on it behind closed doors. ”

This is equivalent to an exchange, Zhou Hexuan helped Lao Jiang to tout his masterpiece, and Lao Jiang let Zhou Hexuan regain his freedom.

Zhou Hexuan thought for a while: "I don't think my academic accomplishment is enough, so let's continue to study hard behind closed doors." ”

Zhang Daofan: "......"