Anecdote

A Monument to Martyr Zhang Weihua

Although very busy after celebrating his 80th birthday in April 1992, Kim Il Sung met Zhang Weihua’s son, Zhang Jinquan, and his party on April 19, during their visit to Korea.

At their talks, Zhang Jinquan said that he planned to have a new tombstone erected at his father’s grave on the 55th anniversary of his death, and he requested that the President write an epitaph for it.

“Is it already 55 years? As far as I remember, your father died in the tenth month by the lunar calendar.”

Zhang replied: “It was the second day of the tenth month by the lunar calendar, and it is October 27 by the solar calendar this year.”

After a while, Kim Il Sung said: “Well, rather than writing an epitaph for the tombstone you are going to have erected, I will have a monument erected in my own name.”

Surprised by this unexpected suggestion, Zhang Jinquan quickly said that he could not impose such a burden on him, and that if the President wrote the epitaph, he would take it home and have it inscribed on the tombstone.
Kim Il Sung understood what he meant and said that the idea may be good, but as the saying went, when all things are equal, choosing the best is a good policy. He insisted that he would have a monument prepared inscribed with an epitaph and send it, and that his guest should make preparations to receive and erect it.

Kim Il Sung even set the date of the unveiling ceremony for the monument, saying that it would be advisable to hold it on the anniversary of Zhang’s father’s death.

October 27 that year witnessed the ceremony of unveiling the moment to Zhang Weihua at his grave in Fusong, China.

Officials of the local committee of the Communist Party of China, government organs, the mass media, local Chinese people and Koreans resident in China attended the function.

“The revolutionary exploits of the martyr Zhang Weihua constitute a bright symbol of friendship between the Korean and Chinese peoples. His noble revolutionary spirit and services to the revolution will live on for ever in the people’s minds.
Kim Il Sung
October 27, 1992”

The epitaph written in Kim Il Sung’s handwriting on the monument greatly moved the people attending the ceremony.

Kim Il Sung wrote in his memoirs With the Century the following:

“A living man must not forget the dead. Only then can their friendship be lasting, true and immortal. If the former forgets the latter, such friendship will die out there and then. Frequent remembrance of dead friends, wide publicity of their distinguished services, good care of their children and loyalty to their last wishes: these are the moral obligations of living men to their predecessors, martyrs and deceased revolutionary comrades.”