November 16, 1919

[Extracted from several articles published in the 'Changsha Ta-kung-pao'
beginning on 16 November 1919.]


A person's suicide is entirely determined by circumstances. Was Miss Chao's
original idea to seek death? On the contrary, it was to seek life. If Miss
Chao ended up by seeking death instead, it is because circumstances drove
her to this. The circumstances in which Miss Chao found herself were the
following: (1) Chinese society; (2) the Chao family of Nanyang Street in
Changsha; (3) the Wu family of Kantzuyuan Street in Changsha, the family
of the husband she did not want. These three factors constituted three iron
nets, composing a kind of triangular cage. Once caught in these three nets,
it was in vain that she sought life in every way possible. There was no way
for her to go on living; the contrary of life is death, and Miss Chao thus
felt compelled to die. . . . If, among these three factors, there had been
one that was not an iron net, or if one of these nets had opened, Miss Chao
would certainly not have died. (1) If Miss Chao's parents had not had recourse
to compulsion but had yielded before Miss Chao's free will, Miss Chao would
certainly not have died; (2) if Miss Chao's parents had not resorted to
compulsion but had permitted Miss Chao to explain her point of view to the
family of her future husband, and to explain the reasons for her refusal,
and if in the end the family of her future husband had accepted her point
of view and respected her individual freedom, Miss Chao would certainly not
have died; (3) even if her parents and the family of her future husband had
refused to accept her free will, if in society there had been a powerful
group of public opinion to support her, if there were an entirely new world
where the fact of running away from one's parents' home and finding refuge
elsewhere were considered honourable and not dishonourable, in this case,
too, Miss Chao would certainly not have died. If Miss Chao is dead today,
it is because she was solidly enclosed by the three iron nets (society, her
own family, the family of her future husband); she sought life in vain and
finally was led to seek death. . . .

Yesterday's incident was important. It happened because of the shameful system
of arranged marriages, because of the darkness of the social system, the
negation of the individual will, and the absence of the freedom to choose
one's own mate. It is to be hoped that interested persons will comment on
all aspects of this affair, and that they will defend the honour of a girl
who died a martyr's death for the cause of the freedom to choose her own
love. . . .

The family of the parents and the family of the future husband are both bound
up with society; they are both parts of society. We must understand that
the family of the parents and the family of the future husband have committed
a crime, but the source of this crime lies in society. It is true that the
two families themselves carried out this crime; but a great part of the
culpability was transmitted to them by society. Moreover, if society were
good even if the families had wanted to carry out this crime they would not
have had the opportunity to do so. . . .

Since there are factors in our society that have Miss Chao, this society
is an extremely dangerous thing. It was capable of causing the death of Miss
Chao; it could also cause the death of Miss Ch'ieh, Miss Sun, or Miss Li.
It is capable of killing men as well as women. All of us, the potential victims,
must be on our guard before this dangerous thing that could inflict a fatal
blow on us. We should protest loudly, warn the other human being who are
not yet dead and condemn the countless evils of our society. . . .

If we conduct a campaign in favour of marriage reform, it is first of all
the superstitions about marriage that must be demolished, above all the belief
that marriages are predestined by fate. Once these beliefs are demolished,
the pretext behind which the arrangement of marriages by parents hides itself
will disappear at the same time and then the concept of incompatibility of
husband and wife' will immediately appear in society. And with the appearance
of the concept of incompatibility of husband and wife, the army of the family
revolution will arise in countless numbers, and the great wave of the freedom
of marriage and of the freedom to love will sweep over China. . . .

My attitude toward suicide is to reject it. . . . First of all, man's goal
is to seek life, and he should not go against the grain of his natural tendency
and seek death. . . . Secondly, although suicide results from the fact that
society deprives people of all hope. . . . We should struggle against society
in order to regain the hope that we have lost. . . . We should die fighting.
. . . Thirdly, if people show respect for those who have courageously put
an end to their own lives, that does not at all mean that they respect suicide
as such, but rather that they respect the courageous spirit of resistance
to brute force, which inspires the person who commits suicide . . . .

It is so much better to be killed in fighting than to take one' s own life!
The goal of struggle is not 'to be killed by others' but 'to aspire toward
the emergence of a true personality.' If a person does not attain this despite
all his efforts, if he fights to the death and sacrifices himself, then he
will be the most courageous of all on earth, and his tragedy will make a
great impression on men's minds! . . . .


Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.