Friday, 21 March

Twenty-fourth day of the second lunar month

I called on President Sun who came here this morning. He was in a much better mood when I told him of my intention to go with him to Chungking. He seemed pleased and said Chen Bozhuang was ready to move out and so I can have my old room. A little bird had whispered to me that he wanted to turn his difficult guest out, but why should I receive the unpleasant punishment? So I insisted upon the small sitting room as fitting me best. He may have spotted my real intention and so gave orders to have that ready. He told me that the Chinese Communist Party affair was temporarily settled just as he had expected. The U.S.S.R. has taken a very fair attitude, and instead of siding with the CCP, continues to supply us with war materials. Zhang Shizhao (章士釗)[1] joined us at lunch. He condemned the new literary movement in bitter terms and advocated the revival of classical studies. Peng Chunshi disagreed with him. I thought his suggestion very impracticable. I am afraid he belongs to a generation which has already passed, and like every old man, regards what suited them well in their younger days, as the best for his descendants for ever and ever, forgetting the hard fact that this world continues to change.

[1] Zhang Shizhao(1881-1973) was an extremely famous scholar and politician in Modern China. He died in Hong Kong. He was a Hunan native. He was the chief editor of Jiayin(甲寅).