Friday, 15 January

Tenth day of the twelfth lunar month

In the morning, I discussed with father-in-law Chunsheng about Fanny’s life after my departure. Though he is not well-educated, he is quite honest. It is a pity that he is indecisive. He took me by surprise as he gave me the ring given by his wife.

At 10.00 a.m. I attended a meeting of the Legislative Yuan Conference about the assessment of personnel. I suggested the criteria should be lenient.

At 1.30 in the afternoon, I attended a Legislative Yuan’s Committee meeting covering foreign affairs. I was the Chairman and passed the motion of the work sphere and division of labour. I had no choice but to finish this task since both Lin Bin and Lou Tongsun felt that they were not senior enough to cope with all the committee members. The method of working in the Legislative Yuan has long stirred up emotion, so they insisted that I should settle the matter before my departure. I also understood their concerns. The work was divided into four parts:

1.  The law should be standardised, and allow the administrative organisations, local governmental offices and military organisations to understand their spheres of authority, so as not to violate the law, and avoid foreigners having any exemption.
2. To rectify the law to fit the statutes.
3. To review civil, criminal, labour, commercial, self governing, economic and financial laws to cope with foreigners staying with us and the new situation following the abolition of the unequal treaties.
4. We should translate all the law codes and promulgate our legislative methods to foreigners.

At 3.30 p.m. we convened a meeting on Dr Sun Yat-sen’s Ten Year Plan for national defence and we passed all the drafts of the previous meeting and presented them to the Legislative Yuan. Up until now, all my work in the Legislative Yuan has been completed.

In the evening Fanny felt a violent movement in her stomach. I discussed sending her to hospital tomorrow for checking, and she would stay at the hospital in case of labour. I also asked for the consent of Zhao Ruchang (趙汝昶)’s wife to accompany her to the hospital. After giving birth Miss Zhu Zhiwen would replace Mrs. Zhao to be with her. Miss Long Renrui would look after the little girl. I then prepared clothing and necessary things for Fanny. She thought that she would shortly be separated from me and burst into tears. I felt terribly sorry too and was sleepless. I tried my best to console her, and repeatedly comforted her with the sayings of karma as she is a firm believer in this. I believe that all matters are pre-destined. This separation is unavoidable and we can only reluctantly accept fate. From now on we should cultivate our merits and we would hope one day for a reunion and to settle down. I told her to recite the Diamond Sutra, as her family believe in Buddhism and would understand what I meant.