On 149 years ago today, June 24, 1876 (the third day of the fifth lunar month), American politician Leighton Stuart was born.

John Leighton Stuart (1876.6.24-1962.9.19) was an American Presbyterian missionary and diplomat. Born in Hangzhou on June 24, 1876, both parents were American missionaries in China. He began missionary work in China in 1904 and participated in the establishment of Hangzhou Yuying College (later Zhijiang University). In 1906, Stuart's only son, Jack, was also born in Hangzhou. In 1908, at the invitation of Nanjing Jinling Theological Seminary, Stuart left Hangzhou with his wife and children. Since 1919, he has served as president and president of Yenching University. In 1946, he served as the US ambassador to China and left China in August 1949.

Mao Zedong was very famous in China because of an article he wrote "Farewell Leighton Stuart", but unknown in his native United States.

Leighton Stewart's parents were Southern Presbyterian missionaries who arrived in China early. By blood, he was a pure American. In Stuart's own words, he is "more of a China than an American." During the Tongzhi and Guangxu periods of the Qing Dynasty, Leighton Szeto was in charge of Hangzhou Christian Tianshui Hall. He was born in the priest's residence of Tianshui Hall (now Jesus Hall Lane, Xiacheng District, Hangzhou) and can speak pure Hangzhou dialect. When he was 11 years old, he went to school in Virginia, USA, where he was ridiculed as a monster who could not speak English. While in college, he was influenced by the "Student Volunteer Movement for Missionary Abroad" and transferred to the seminary, determined to preach. After getting married in 1904, he returned to Hangzhou with his wife and became the second-generation Southern Presbyterian missionary. In the 31st year of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1905), he began to engage in missionary work and studied Chinese.

Since 1908, he has been a professor of Greek at Jinling Theological Seminary. In 1910, he served as chairman of the Nanjing Church Affairs Committee. During the Revolution of 1911, he served as a special reporter for the Associated Press News Agency in Nanjing.

In January of the 8th year of the Republic of China (1919), he was hired as the president of Yenching University. Since then, as a long-term leader of Yenching University, he has made indelible contributions to the development and growth of the school. Stuart Raiden raised donations from all over the world to build a palace-style beautiful new campus for Yenching University in the western suburbs of Beijing. He did not hesitate to invite famous Chinese and foreign scholars such as Wu Leichuan, Xu Dishan, Deng Zhicheng, Guo Shaoyu, Gu Jiegang, Zhao Zichen, Rong Geng, Qian Mu, Wu Wenzao and others to teach at Yenching University to enhance the reputation and academic status of Yenching University. In 1927, Yenching University cooperated with Harvard University to form the famous Harvard-Yenching Society to promote cultural exchanges between China and the United States. By the 1930s, Yanda had developed into the highest academic university in China.

Stuart Leiden advocates academic freedom and requires students of Yan University to be both Chinese and international. Stuart Leiden also pays attention to the interaction with students and staff, treats students amiably, and treats faculty members warmly, which has left a deep impression on many students and staff.

Leighton Stuart sympathized with the student movement. After the September 18th Incident, he personally led hundreds of students and students from Yanjing University to march on the streets to protest Japan's aggression against China. In 1921, he was hired as a member of the China Church Education Investigation Team. In 1930, Princeton University awarded him an honorary doctorate in literature. In 1933, he was summoned by US President Roosevelt to listen to his opinions on the current situation in China.

When the Pacific War broke out in 1941, he was held in a concentration camp by the Japanese army for refusing to cooperate with the Japanese army until he was released after Japan surrendered. In 1945, after his release, Leighton Stuart succeeded as president of Yan University (later president) until he left China. On July 11, 1935, the Republic of China (1946), he became the U.S. ambassador to China. He actively supported the Kuomintang government in its anti-communist civil war, and also wooed democratic individualists and cultivated middle forces. In October of the same year, he came to Hangzhou to attend the resumption ceremony of the Hangzhou Youth Association and sweep the tomb of his parents. The Hangzhou City Senate awarded him the title of "Honorary Citizen of Hangzhou City." Someone commented at the time: He was "both a politician and a scholar, both a cunning opponent and a warm friend."

In April 1949, the People's Liberation Army captured Nanjing. He did not follow the Kuomintang government south to Guangzhou and stayed there. On August 2, 1949, because all efforts by U.S. imperialism to obstruct the victory of the China people's revolution had completely failed, Leighton Stuart had to quietly leave China and return to the United States, and immediately retired. It is said that on the eve of his departure from China, he had secret contact with top leaders of the Communist Party of China and also planned to go to Beijing to discuss the United States 'recognition of the government of the People's Republic of China, but he was recalled early and failed to make it. On August 8, Xinhua Agency broadcast Mao Zedong's "Farewell, Leighton Stuart", satirizing him as a symbol of the United States, saying that he was "a symbol of the complete failure of the United States 'aggressive policy." This article was also included in middle school Chinese textbooks, and the name "Leighton Stuart" has become synonymous with infamy and failure in China.

After returning to the United States, he was first given a "gag order" by the State Department and later harassed by McCarthysts. Suffering from a cerebral thrombosis, causing hemiplegia and aphasia. He died of illness in Washington on September 19, 1962. He has always hoped to send the ashes to China and bury them on the campus of Yanjing University.

His major works include "Notes on the Book of Revelation," "Stuart's Diary," "Fifty Years in China - Stuart's Memoirs," and others. The historian Lin Mengxi commented on him: "Probably no American in the entire 20th century was as involved in China's politics, culture, and education as Dr. Stuart did for a long time and comprehensively, and had an incalculable impact."

On the morning of November 17, 2008, at Anxian Garden in Banshan, Hangzhou, the ceremony for placing Mr. Leighton Szeto's ashes was held in solemnity. Returning to China for burial was Mr. Stuart's last wish. He claimed to be "more a China than an American." At this point, his last wish was completed.