Lin Changmin

Lin Changmin was born on the 14th day of the sixth month of the bingzi year of the Guangxu reign, which is August 3, 1876, in the Gregorian calendar, in Min County, Fujian (now Fuzhou). Chen Xueyong writes that the historian Liang Jing, a fellow native of the region and a close friend who travelled with Lin in Europe for several months, recorded his birthday in a biography of Lin as July 16 in the Gregorian calendar, a date that has been widely repeated; Chen considers this probably mistaken, since the lunar date converts to August 3, and notes that an essay written for Lin’s birthday by his close friend Zhang Shizhao also gives August 3. Chen Xueyong writes that the Lins had once been a leading family of Fujian but had declined over a long period, so that by the generation of his father, Lin Xiaoxun, they had sunk into poverty; Lin Xiaoxun worked his way back into officialdom through the imperial examinations and served as a prefectural and county magistrate in several places in Zhejiang.⁠[1][1][1]

As a boy he studied in the Lin family school under Lin Shu, a noted scholar of Fujian, from whom he gained his first knowledge of Western learning. Chen Shaoqing writes that his father, Lin Xiaoxun, who served for many years as an official in Zhejiang, set up a family school in Hangzhou to teach his sons and nephews.⁠[2][3]

In 1897 he obtained the xiucai degree in the Qing imperial examinations; he then returned to private schooling and added Japanese and English to his studies.⁠[1]

Chen Shaoqing writes that when Lin Baishui returned to Fuzhou in 1902 and founded an elementary school there (later the Houguan Higher Primary School), Lin Changmin and his cousin Lin Yinmin both studied in it. Accounts of his years in Japan differ. The chronology compiled by Chen Xueyong says that he went to study in Japan in 1902 but soon gave up and returned home, went back to Japan in 1907, entered the political economy course of Waseda University, was elected president of the association of Fujian students in Japan, and returned home after graduating in 1909. An excerpt from Chen Xinhua’s book Lin Huiyin, printed in Wenzhai Bao in 2003, says that he went to study in Japan in 1906, soon came home, graduated from the Hangzhou Dongwen School and then went to Japan again, where he studied in the preparatory course and the political economy course of the university division of Waseda University. Li Lei writes that when Lin Huiyin was two, her father went to Waseda University in Japan to study politics and law, and she and her mother lived with her grandparents.⁠[3][1][2][4]

Chen Xinhua’s book states that Japan did not turn him into a radical young revolutionary: he still hoped to bring about constitutional government by reform through a political career, and while his cousins Lin Yinmin and Lin Juemin argued passionately for revolution, he concentrated on building wide connections. He knew the Japanese public figures Inukai Tsuyoshi and Ozaki Yukio, was well acquainted with Zhang Jian and Cen Chunxuan, formed close friendships with constitutionalists studying in Japan such as Tang Hualong, Liu Chongyou and Xu Fosu, and also befriended Yang Du of the constitutional-monarchy camp and Song Jiaoren of the Tongmenghui.⁠[2]

In 1904 he moved to Hangzhou with his father, and in the same year his eldest daughter, Lin Huiyin, was born. His father, Lin Xiaoxun, had come to Zhejiang as an official in the late Qing and, fond of Hangzhou’s landscape, bought property in the city and moved the family there. Lin Huiyin was the first child of Lin Changmin and his wife He Xueyuan, born eight years after their marriage, and Lin Xiaoxun, a Hanlin academician, chose her name, Huiyin, from the Book of Songs.⁠[1][5]

After returning from his studies in 1909 he declined the Hanlin and jinshi titles that the Qing court offered him and became dean of studies of the government Fujian School of Law and Politics and secretary-general of the Fujian Provincial Assembly; dismissed after disagreeing with his superiors about how the school should be run, he founded a private school of law and politics and became its principal. Chen Xinhua’s book states that he returned to his ancestral Fujian to run schools because he was dismayed at how poorly educated the people were. Chen Shaoqing writes that after becoming secretary-general of the Fujian Provincial Assembly he threw himself into Fujian’s new-policy reforms but met fierce resistance from conservative officials and gentry, and his position moved closer to that of the revolutionaries.⁠[1][2][3]

In 1911 he resigned as secretary-general of the Fujian Provincial Assembly, worked briefly at the Shenbao newspaper office in Shanghai, and founded and edited the Journal of Law and Politics. After the success of the 1911 Revolution he was nominated by Fujian province and went to Nanjing as its delegate to the conference of representatives of the provincial military governors, where he took part in drafting the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China; he also organized the Unity Party and was elected secretary-general of the Provisional Senate.⁠[1]

That year he was attacked by an assassin at Xiaguan railway station in Nanjing but was not hurt. Chen Xinhua’s book states that he had quarrelled with members of the Tongmenghui when he attended the first conference of representatives of the provincial military governments in Shanghai, that the attempt on his life at Xiaguan station came a few days later and left him unharmed, and that his alarmed and worried father, Lin Xiaoxun, locked him upstairs, so that for days on end he could not go out.⁠[1][2]

Chen Shaoqing of Fujian Normal University gives a day-by-day account of this year in a 2025 article in the Fujian Daily. In the spring of 1911 Liu Chongyou and Lin Changmin joined Huang Zhanyun and other members of the Tongmenghui in founding the Jianyan Bao, a paper that criticized the abuses of the day; in April Lin went to Hangzhou to visit his gravely ill mother, née You; under the combined blows of national and family misfortune he resigned from the provincial assembly, stayed in Shanghai, worked at the Shenbao office and launched the Journal of Law and Politics. After the Wuchang Uprising he went to Suzhou on November 5 to ask the Jiangsu military governor, Cheng Dequan, to send troops to help Fujian and was politely refused; on the 6th he and the Fujian Tongmenghui members Li Zhuo and Zheng Lie asked Mao Zhongfang, head of the navy department of the Shanghai military government, to send warships to Fujian, and he agreed; on the 14th Lin was appointed the Fujian military governor’s representative in Shanghai, and on the 15th he attended the opening of the conference of the provincial military governments in Shanghai; on the 24th, when the provincial delegates resolved that half of them would go to Wuchang to organize a provisional central government and half would stay in Shanghai, he stayed in Shanghai because his father was ill. On December 11 he left Shanghai for Nanjing to take part in forming the central government, and soon after getting off the train at Xiaguan station in Nanjing he was shot at: the assassin’s first shot missed, his travelling companion Qu Yingguang pushed him to the ground, and several more shots also missed; the assassin produced an arrest warrant from the Shanghai military government denouncing Lin as a traitor, and soldiers and police arrested both men. Under questioning the assassin said that Lin had always opposed the revolution and had now come to profit from it, and that he feared Lin would harm the revolution. On the 12th Huang Xing and the provincial delegates telegraphed in Lin’s defence, and Xu Shaozhen, commander of the Jiangsu–Zhejiang allied army, released him in person, saying in words that translate as “Yingshi [Chen Qimei] has been muddle-headed; this nearly became a grave mistake!”⁠[3]

Chen Shaoqing writes that Lin Changmin’s personal friendships with Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren never changed; after the Nanjing Provisional Government was established, Huang Xing, who made himself Minister of the Army, brought in Tang Hualong as secretary-general of the Ministry of the Army and Lin Changmin as a secretary, and in this period all of Huang Xing’s outgoing telegrams and letters were written by the two of them. Soon afterwards Tang Hualong resigned in the face of fierce opposition from some revolutionaries; Lin Changmin was publicly insulted in the streets of Nanjing by revolutionaries who said that he had opposed the revolution before and had now sneaked into its ranks, and he too had to resign. The two went to Shanghai one after the other and, joining former constitutionalists from Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other provinces, founded the Republican Construction Discussion Society, parting ways with the Tongmenghui.⁠[3]

The chronology compiled by Chen Xueyong states that in 1912 he took part in founding the Unity Party, which later merged with other parties into the Progressive Party, and that he was elected speaker of the House of Representatives; that in 1913 he was acting secretary-general of the Council of State and a member of its constitution-drafting committee, and joined the Constitution Research Society; that in 1914 he became a counsellor of the State Council; and that in 1915 he became director of the State Council’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs, resigned soon afterwards and again served as a member of the House of Representatives and as head of the political affairs department of the Progressive Party. In the body of his preface Chen Xueyong writes that within a few years Lin served in turn as secretary-general of the Senate, secretary-general of the House of Representatives, full-time administrator of the constitution-drafting committee of the Council of State, acting secretary-general of the Council of State, counsellor of the State Council, member of the House of Representatives, director of the Bureau of Legislative Affairs and Minister of Justice, and that he was a member of several parliaments and several times a presiding officer. In a 2022 article in Wenhui Bao, Chen Xueyong writes that as a member of parliament under the Beiyang government he served twice as secretary-general of the House of Representatives and of the Senate, was eloquent and capable, and was praised by contemporaries as “the ideal secretary-general”; that article does not mention the post of speaker.⁠[1][1][6]

The chronology compiled by Chen Xueyong places his appointment as Minister of Justice in the State Council in 1916 and states that he refused a bribe from the warlord Zhang Zhenfang and resigned a few months later. In the body of the preface Chen Xueyong writes that as Minister of Justice he turned down a bribe of 100,000 silver dollars and insisted that Zhang Zhenfang be punished, and had him imprisoned. His 2022 article states that Lin once joined the cabinet and left the post of Minister of Justice in protest after refusing a huge bribe from a powerful figure; it gives no year.⁠[1][7][6]

The chronology compiled by Chen Xueyong states that in 1917 he was appointed a member and office director of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the Presidential Office, and in 1918 a member and office director of the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the State Council, and that in the same year he founded the League of Nations Association (known for short as “Guolian”) and became its general secretary, and that in the same year he again visited Japan on a study tour. Chen Xinhua’s book states that President Xu Shichang set up a Committee of Foreign Affairs for this purpose and appointed Lin Changmin a member and its office director. Rong Wu of the University of CambridgeUniversity of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge is a university in Cambridge, England, United Kingdom. It gives 1209 as its founding date, is made up of Schools, Faculties, Departments and autonomous Colleges, and is a member of the Russell Group.Open the full entry writes in a 2023 article in Modern Asian Studies that in December 1918 a Committee of Foreign Affairs was set up under the Presidential Office, bringing together political dignitaries from inside and outside the government; it became a diplomatic force independent of the War Participation Bureau and entrusted Liang QichaoLiang QichaoLiang Qichao (1873–1929) was a thinker, politician, journalist and scholar of the late Qing and early Republic, a disciple of Kang Youwei and a participant in the Hundred Days’ Reform of 1898. After the reform failed he spent 14 years in exile in Japan, where he ran the journals Qingyi Bao and Xinmin Congbao; returning in 1912, he helped to found the Progressive Party, served the Beijing government as minister of justice and minister of finance, and in 1915–1916 opposed Yuan Shikai’s attempt to make himself emperor. After leaving politics at the end of 1917 he devoted himself to writing and teaching, was a tutor at the Tsinghua Academy of Chinese Learning and director of the Beijing Library, and left the collected works known as the Yinbingshi heji.Open the full entry with leading a “Delegation to Europe”.⁠[1][2][8]

Chen Xueyong writes that around the First World War, as conflict between China and Japan grew sharper, Lin Changmin turned to foreign affairs and founded the non-governmental Citizens’ Diplomatic Association, using citizen diplomacy to restrain the pro-Japanese forces inside the government. Rong Wu writes that the association, founded in February 1919, was a non-governmental gathering of those who had been sidelined, including Guomindang political figures and members of the Yanjiuxi (Research Clique) led by Liang Qichao, both of whom had lost ground under the Duan administration, and that Lin Changmin was its director; in early April the association appointed Liang Qichao as its representative in Paris, and Liang regularly kept it informed of the latest developments at the peace conference by telegram. Zhu Zhongyuan writes in a 2015 article in China Reading Weekly that on February 16, 1919, the association, formed jointly by groups from all sectors in Beijing, held its founding meeting at the residence of Xiong Xiling and elected ten directors: Xiong Xiling, Wang Daxie, Liang Qichao, Lin Changmin, Fan Yuanlian, Cai Yuanpei, Wang Chonghui, Yan Xiu, Zhang Jian and Zhuang Yunkuan; in his view, although Lin Changmin was its chairman, its foremost leader and guiding figure was Liang Qichao, its members all belonged to Liang’s faction, and it had been set up at Liang’s behest.⁠[1][8][9]

In 1919, after China’s diplomatic defeat at the Paris Peace Conference, Lin Changmin published a dispatch, “Shandong Is Lost”, and an article, “A Diplomatic Warning to Our Citizens”, in the Beijing newspaper Chenbao, crying out that the nation’s fall was only days away and calling on the four hundred million people to unite and fight to the death to save it. Zhu Zhongyuan writes that in mid-March 1919 Liang Qichao, then in Paris, telegraphed Wang Daxie and Lin Changmin at home with news of the Qingdao question at the peace conference, and that after receiving the telegram Lin wrote the article on May 1 and took it that evening to the office of the Chenbao, the paper of the Research Clique, which printed it on May 2. Chen Xinhua’s book and the articles by Feng Xuerong and Zhu Zhongyuan all date the article to May 2, 1919, and Feng Xuerong and Zhu Zhongyuan give its title with “compatriots” in place of “citizens”; Rong Wu’s paper gives May 4 in its text but cites the Chenbao of May 2 in its footnote, and states that the article was printed on the front page of Chenbao in a large, eye-catching poster font and that its author, Lin Changmin, was a close ally of Liang Qichao.⁠[1][7][2][9][10][8]

Chen Xueyong writes that the article set off the May Fourth Movement; Gao Dan calls it no less than the fuse; Zhu Zhongyuan regards the short article as the text that directly detonated the May Fourth Movement and notes that it states plainly that the news had been confirmed by Liang Qichao’s telegram and was published on Liang’s explicit instruction. At 4 p.m. on May 3, Xiong Xiling, Lin Changmin, Wang Chonghui and more than thirty other members of the Citizens’ Diplomatic Association met and resolved on the actions to be taken. The Japanese side reacted strongly; Chen Xinhua’s book states that President Xu Shichang suspected Lin Changmin of being the hidden instigator of the student movement and summoned him to the Presidential Office for a severe reprimand, and calls Lin Changmin the real lighter of the fire at Zhaojialou. In late May he resigned to Xu Shichang as member and office director of the Committee of Foreign Affairs and had his letter of resignation published in the newspapers. Zhu Zhongyuan also quotes a decision of the Japanese cabinet of Hara Takashi of September 9, 1919, which refers to continued instigation by politicians such as Lin Changmin, Xiong Xiling and Wang Daxie.⁠[1][7][2][9]

Cao Rulin, who was denounced at the time as pro-Japanese, saw it differently: Feng Xuerong writes that in his memoir Cao said that Lin Changmin was an old acquaintance who had earlier asked him for a loan and been refused, and that Cao believed Lin was using patriotism as a tool to stir up public anger in order to take revenge on him.⁠[10]

The chronology compiled by Chen Xueyong states that in 1920 he went to Europe as China’s chief delegate to a world “Guolian” congress and afterwards toured post-war Europe. Dou Zhongru writes that he went to Europe to travel and lecture as a member of the Chinese branch of the International Union Association; Li Lei writes that, sidelined in Beiyang officialdom, he was forced to go abroad on an “inspection tour”. Chen Xinhua’s book dates the departure to the spring of 1920; Dou Zhongru gives the period in Europe as April 1920 to October 1921. Of his many children he took only his 16-year-old eldest daughter, Lin Huiyin, and this was her first journey abroad.⁠[1][11][11][4][2][7]

In a letter to his daughter he explained why he was taking her with him, in words that translate as: “I am taking you with me on this long journey, first so that you may see much of the affairs of many countries and broaden your knowledge, second so that, being near me, you may come to understand my mind and aspirations … and third so that you may leave the tedious routine of family life for a while, widen your outlook and develop the views and abilities to improve society in the future.”⁠[11]

Father and daughter lived in London and travelled to other countries as well; Lin Huiyin was admitted to a girls’ school in London. On this journey father and daughter came to know H. G. Wells, Thomas Hardy, Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson and Katherine Mansfield, as well as Xu ZhimoXu ZhimoXu Zhimo (1897–1931) was a modern Chinese poet, essayist and translator, the principal founder of the Crescent Moon Society and the author of “Second Farewell to Cambridge”. After studying in the United States and England he taught at several universities and edited literary journals; he was killed in a plane crash in 1931.Open the full entry, Zhang Xiruo, Chen Xiying and others then living in Europe. He kept a diary of the journey that records conditions in the countries of Europe after the First World War; the entry of August 20, 1920, describes the scenery he saw in Switzerland, in words that translate as “The light rain has just cleared; the sky is blue and the mountains green.”⁠[4][7][1]

Dou Zhongru quotes a book edited by Lin Yuzhou on Liang SichengLiang SichengLiang Sicheng (1901–1972) was a Chinese architect, architectural historian and architectural educator, the eldest son of Liang Qichao and the husband of Lin Huiyin. With Lin Huiyin and others he carried out extensive field surveys and studies of China’s historic buildings, pioneered architectural education at Northeastern University and Tsinghua University, and after 1949 led the design of the national emblem of the People’s Republic of China and of the Monument to the People’s Heroes, while putting forward plans for preserving the old city of Beijing.Open the full entry as saying that in August 1921 Lin Changmin sent Lin Huiyin on holiday to the seaside town of Brighton in southern England with the family of his friend Dr. Bolite (as the Chinese source renders the name), and that it was there that she first came into contact with the art of architecture; Dou finds this account somewhat vague. The chronology compiled by Chen Xueyong says that he returned to China in 1921; Chen Xinhua’s book states that he returned in October.⁠[11][1][2]

Chen Xinhua’s book states that after his return he joined Cai Yuanpei, Wang Chonghui and others in a joint petition urging the government to restore parliament and complete the constitution; the proposal was adopted by the then president, Li YuanhongLi YuanhongLi Yuanhong (1864–1928) was a naval engineer officer and a commander of the Hubei New Army in the late Qing who became military governor of the Hubei Military Government after the Wuchang Uprising of 1911, served as vice president in the early Republic and was twice President of the Republic of China, in 1916–1917 and 1922–1923; in his last years he lived in Tianjin and invested in industry, and he died there in 1928 and was buried at Wuchang in 1935.Open the full entry, and Lin was elected to the constitution-drafting committee and took a direct part in drafting the constitution. The chronology compiled by Chen Xueyong states that he was elected to the constitution-drafting committee in a by-election in 1922.⁠[2][1]

In 1923 he opposed Cao Kun’s purchase of the presidency by bribing members of parliament and withdrew to Shanghai; Chen Xueyong writes that he offended Cao Kun by this and in the end refused to cast a bought vote.⁠[1][7]

In 1924 the government of Duan Qirui again engaged him to head the drafting committee for a national constitution. In the year before his death he copied out a couplet by Su Dongpo as a hanging scroll for a friend, lines that translate as “In a small boat I cross the calm lake again, to visit Zhi Daolin on Solitary Hill.”⁠[1][7]

In 1925, amid political turmoil in Beijing, Guo Songling rose against the north-eastern warlord Zhang Zuolin and, wishing to draw on Lin Changmin’s prestige, sent intermediaries to persuade him to come beyond the Great Wall. Chen Xueyong writes that he answered Guo’s invitation and went secretly to Yingkou; Chen Xinhua’s book states that, grateful to Guo Songling for valuing him, he left Beijing secretly on the evening of November 30 aboard Guo’s special train.⁠[1][7][2]

Soon after he reached Guo’s forces, Guo’s army suffered a crushing defeat. On the day before his death, stranded in a small pavilion in the wilderness, he paced about reciting to himself a line that translates as “For no good reason I share another man’s misfortune.” On December 24 he was killed by a stray bullet amid the fighting at Sujiatun, at the age of 49. Chen Xinhua’s book states that his party was attacked on the way by the Fengtian troops of Wang Yongqing and that he was struck by a stray bullet and killed after getting out of the vehicle to take cover.⁠[7][1][2]

Chen Xueyong writes that Lin Changmin remained poor all his life, at one point reduced to selling his calligraphy to make ends meet, and that when he was killed his family had only a little over 300 yuan in cash. His in-law Liang Qichao described the family’s plight in words that translate as: “He left not a single coin; the house is full of widows and young children, who cannot even be given gruel; without some help from relief funds they will soon be facing cold and hunger.” Liang appealed to friends and relatives and organized a “council for the support of the bereaved family” to raise money to provide for Lin Changmin’s widows and orphans. Lin Huiyin resolved for a time to give up her studies and return home, and was able to finish them only with the Liang family’s support.⁠[1]

His close friend Xu Zhimo intended to edit his posthumous writings as the Collected Writings of the Double Juniper Studio, but Xu himself was killed not long afterwards.⁠[7]

In October 2024 the People’s Literature Publishing House published the Collected Works of Lin Changmin, edited and annotated by the Lin Huiyin scholar Chen Xueyong and a granddaughter of Lin Huiyin. It is the first collected edition of his work and contains all of his poems, essays, diaries, letters and translations that could be published to date; among them his diary of the European journey with Lin Huiyin and his letters to Lin Huiyin, Liang Sicheng, Liang Qichao, Xu Zhimo, Hu Shih and others appear in full for the first time. The book also reproduces more than forty original photographs and manuscript images of father and daughter. Chen Xueyong began collecting and arranging his writings many years earlier and later, working with Lin Huiyin’s granddaughter and drawing on Lin Changmin papers held by the family of Liang Zaibing, supplemented, transcribed, verified, edited and annotated them over more than ten years in all.⁠[7][1]

A 2024 article on Hangzhou.com.cn states that the family’s ancestral home was Minhou in Fujian, that the family had long lived in the Three Lanes and Seven Alleys quarter of Fuzhou and was the “Lins of Minhou”, a family of officials over many generations, and names the late-Qing statesman Lin ZexuLin ZexuLin Zexu (1785–1850) was a scholar-official of the late Qing dynasty. Appointed imperial commissioner in 1838 to suppress the opium trade in Guangdong, he had the opium surrendered by foreign merchants destroyed at Humen in 1839, after which the First Opium War broke out between Britain and China; he was dismissed during the war and exiled to Xinjiang, and was recalled to high office in his last years. He organized translations of Western books and periodicals, from which the world geography Sizhou zhi was compiled.Open the full entry as another well-known member of this family. Li Lei writes that his father, Lin Xiaoxun, was a jinshi graduate who served as an official in Zhejiang throughout his career, founded the Yangzheng School and a vocational school of sericulture, and was one of the pioneers of new-style schools in the late Qing.⁠[5][4]

Lin Juemin, a martyr of the Huanghuagang uprising, belonged to the same clan. Li Hanqiu writes in a 2016 article in the Guangming Daily that the Lin Juemin former residence at the corner of Yangqiao Lane and Nanhou Street in Fuzhou was also the home of Lin Changmin, Lin Juemin’s clan cousin descended from the same great-grandfather, and so the ancestral house of Lin Huiyin; the Lins later sold it to Xie Luan’en, the grandfather of Bing Xin, and it thus also became Bing Xin’s former residence. Chen Shaoqing likewise writes that Lin Changmin, Lin Juemin and Lin Yinmin descended from the same great-grandfather, Lin Zhengao, and that Lin Juemin and Lin Yinmin were clan brothers among the ten Fuzhou natives, known as the “Ten Heroes of Fuzhou”, among the 72 martyrs of Huanghuagang. Chen Xinhua’s book calls Lin Yinmin and Lin Juemin his cousins; the Hangzhou.com.cn article calls Lin Juemin Lin Huiyin’s uncle (a cousin of her father).⁠[12][3][2][5]

Li Lei writes that Lin Huiyin’s mother, He Xueyuan, was Lin Changmin’s second wife and that their marriage was arranged; she was good-looking but uneducated and could not read. Later Lin Changmin married in Shanghai a young and beautiful third wife, Cheng Guilin, after which He Xueyuan was neglected still more and, only 31, was entirely forgotten in the back courtyard of the family house; Lin Huiyin knew from childhood that her father did not love her mother, who often wept in private. Chen Xueyong writes that Lin Changmin doted on his concubine Cheng Guilin.⁠[4][1]

Chen Xueyong writes that Lin Changmin’s character and thinking had a profound influence on the course of his eldest daughter Lin Huiyin’s life; the Hangzhou.com.cn article likewise states that her father was the strongest influence on the development of her character, and that only after the age of eight did she go with him, first to Shanghai and then to Beiping, where they settled. Lin Huiyin later married Liang Sicheng; Liang Qichao was Lin Changmin’s in-law. Lin Huiyin loved her several younger half-brothers and half-sisters with an elder sister’s sincere affection. One of them, Lin Heng, born in Fuzhou in 1916, was not yet ten when his father was killed and afterwards lived for many years with his sister Lin Huiyin and her husband Liang Sicheng in Beiping; he became an air force pilot and was killed on March 14, 1941, when he was shot down fighting Japanese aircraft over Shuangliu, Chengdu, at the age of 25.⁠[1][5][4][13]

Chen Xueyong writes that as a child Lin Changmin was called Zeze; he received the school name Changmin when he began his private schooling, took the courtesy name Zongmeng and later the sobriquet Judongzi; after marrying his concubine Cheng Guilin he called himself “Master of the Studio of a Sprig of Cassia”, and because two juniper trees grew in the courtyard where he lived in his later years he called himself “Master of the Double Juniper Hut”. In letters to his children he usually signed himself Silu, Old Man Silu, Old Man of the Cassia Studio or Old Retainer of the Double Junipers, and sometimes with a single character: Meng, Zong or Gua.⁠[1]

Chen Xueyong calls him a noted politician, diplomat, educator and calligrapher of the late Qing and early Republic, and writes that what he achieved for himself was his calligraphy, which still circulates today and fetches high prices at auction. Xu Zhimo counted Lin Changmin a close friend, which Chen Xueyong attributes to the affinity of their similar artistic gifts and temperaments; he writes that Xu Zhimo, knowing that Lin had a wealth of feeling with nowhere to settle it, repeatedly urged him to leave politics and “sail back” to soar with him in the world of letters. As a public figure, Lin Changmin also appeared on stage with his daughter Lin Huiyin and his friend Xu Zhimo in a performance of Rabindranath Tagore’s play Chitra, which was long talked about.⁠[1]

In his preface to the Collected Works, Chen Xueyong writes that throughout his life Lin Changmin was bound to politics by his ambition to serve the country and, after half a lifetime of toil, remained in the end a politician who flowered but bore no fruit. Liang Qichao also voiced reservations in a private letter, in words that translate as: “In short, Zongmeng took too narrow a road; like a mouse that has crawled into an ox’s horn, he could not turn round.” Chen Shaoqing, for his part, cites Liang Qichao’s remark that the first success of the 1911 Revolution was built by the combined efforts of both radicals and moderates, and calls the “revolutionary relay” of Lin Juemin, Lin Yinmin and Lin Changmin a vivid illustration of it.⁠[7][1][3]