Zhang Bojun

Zhang Bojun (simplified Chinese: 章伯钧; traditional Chinese: 章伯鈞; pinyin: Zhāng Bójūn; November 17, 1895 – May 17, 1969) was a Chinese politician and intellectual, and was removed from his ministerial position in the late 1950s after being declared "China's number one rightist."

Biography

Zhang graduated from the

His 10,000-volume family library was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s.^[3] His daughter Zhang Yihe is a writer whose history books have been censored.^[4] Even several years after his death, Chinese communists still criticised him and defended the CPC’s actions.^[5]

With his political ambitions unfulfilled and reform goals unaccomplished, Zhang lived a Renaissance man’s life in his private library of ancient books and art relics after his removal from the many positions he once held. At least until the Cultural Revolution, he could retreat to this last sanctuary to reflect back on his journey from an early member of the CPC and a leader in the “August First” military uprising (1927), to a high-level power broker between the CPC and third-party political forces (late 1940s), and on to an enthusiast of the New China. He was once made an offer by the central government to live in exile abroad with state funding, but Zhang rejected the offer, and said, “Please convey to Chairman Mao, Zhang Bojun was born on this land, and he will die on this land”, as quoted in his daughter’s best seller of 2004 as well as unofficial biographies of friends and associates of Zhang and his family. Also quoted in his daughter’s best seller was Zhang’s own personal motto: “I do not judge myself by the honors I hold or by the indignities forced upon me, nor do I judge others by their successes and failures in life.” Taking great personal pride in his contributions to the founding of the People's Republic, Zhang rose early on October 1 of every year to prepare for the celebration of the new republic's birthday, dressing up very meticulously for the occasion. He kept up this practice even after he was stripped of all of his titles.

Zhang died of stomach cancer and the family believed that depression as a result of his political downfall may have contributed to the deterioration of his health.

To his consolation in a poetic sense, in the TV