(3 of 7)
The Morality of Stomachs. In China's new Government Chen holds no job. He exerts his influence in other ways. From his post as Secretary-General of the Kuomintang's Central Political Council ("the politburo"), Chen runs the local party machinery through control of hsien-township—magistrates. Chen's magistrates collect the taxes, confiscate the grain for the armies, run' conscription.
If party politics is laced with corruption in China, Chen feels no personal shame. He has never used his public position to enrich himself. U.S. Ambassador Leighton Stuart says: "I defy anyone to prove that Chen Li-fu is corrupt." Nobody ever has. Says Chen: "The real problem is not corruption but the economic crisis springing out of our long period of war, just as the American Civil War gave birth to a period of low public morality. Confucius said, 'Without a full stomach one cannot speak of high principles.' . . ." Chen adds: "When man's natural desires are sufficiently satisfied, he can be turned from the temptations of jazz, debauchery, goods and profits."
The Communion of Hsiao. To Chen Li-fu, the way to virtue (and orderly society) is expressed in the word hsiao. To understand the Confucian notion of hsiao is to understand a great deal about Chen Li-fu and his China. Hsiao means, roughly, filial piety. But it stands for more than that. It means that the individual is nothing, the family everything. Hsiao holds Chinese society together; but it is also used as an excuse for graft and nepotism. Hsiao imposes on a man responsibilities the West does not know; but it also tends to modify the sense of personal guilt which is the basis of Western morality. Its companion symbol is cheng—correctness —which emphasizes ceremony and the outward forms of behavior.
Chen's close relation to Chiang Kai-shek—the deep source of Chen's influence —is saturated in hsiao and cheng. With the Generalissimo, Chen is respectful to the point of reverence. He counsels, but only as a good son might make suggestions to his honored father.
On formal occasions, when many guests are invited to Chiang's household, Chen almost never appears. Yet with probably no other person, not excepting Madame Chiang, does the Generalissimo spend more of his waking hours. In Chungking days, the two would cross the Yangtze together to the presidential home high above the south bank. Watchers would see two silent figures in the Gimo's power launch —Chiang in unadorned uniform, Chen in mandarin gown, reading each other's thoughts, rarely uttering a word.
The Techniques of Scranton. Forty-eight-year-old Chen, like 60-year-old Chiang, was born in Chekiang province. Of eight brothers, only he and Chen Kuo-fu (eight years older and now the serene, tuberculous director of the powerful Farmers' Bank of China) are still alive. Chen's childhood was poor and insecure. But among Chen's kin was an uncle, doughty Chen Chi-mei, revolutionary general and patron of young Chiang Kaishek. On his deathbed, Uncle Chen summoned Chiang.
"As I leave the world," he charged, "I have one wish in my heart. I have no sons. But my brother's sons are as my own. Please watch them as they grow up and make full use of their talents."