Shen Shou statue
In 1874, in Wu County, Jiangsu Province, the antique merchant Shen Chun added a new small qianjin carved jade to her home, and her father, who loved her, named her Shen Yunzhi.
Shen Chun read a lot of books, proficient in salt law, once served as a salt official in Zhejiang, because he loved cultural relics and liked to collect, which opened an antique shop and started an antique business.
Since childhood, he has been dealing with cultural relics and paintings, influenced by the elders in the family and the artistic atmosphere, and several children of the Shen family have read poetry books and have their own strengths.
When she was a child, Shen Yunzhi often went to the Mudu area where her grandmother's family lived outside Suzhou, where the family raised silkworms and embroidered every household, and as the embroidery needles flipped up and down by the adults took firm root in the young Yunzhi's heart, she became interested.
When she was six or seven years old, Xiao Yunzhi began to learn acupuncture under the guidance of her sister Shen Li. Due to his extreme talent and interest, in just a few years, Shen Yunzhi's embroidery art has reached a height that makes people look back.
By the time Shen Yunzhi was sixteen or seventeen years old, she had become a well-known embroidery expert in ten miles and eight townships, and was known as a "divine needle".
Shen Shou
Shen Yunzhi is talented and embroidered, and naturally there is no shortage of good people who come to the door to propose relatives. But in the era of blind marriage and dumb marriage, the fate of parents, and the words of a matchmaker, Shen Yunzhi was fortunate to choose a partner she liked.
This person is Yu Jue, born in a family of scholars, originally from Shaoxing, after living in Suzhou, he often went to Shen Chun's antique shop to enjoy calligraphy and painting, and shen's father had similar interests.
When Shen Father saw that he had good calligraphy and painting and was quite talented, he became a confidant, and he was very optimistic about this offspring, often inviting him to his home as a guest, and even staying at home for dinner was also a common thing.
At that time, the Shen family only had Shen Yunzhi, a daughter to be married, and under long-term contact, Shen Yunzhi, who rarely met a foreign man, was in love with Yu Jue.
In addition, Shen's father also liked Yu Jue, and seeing that the two children had this intention, he happily agreed to this marriage, and when Shen Yunzhi was 20 years old, he and Yu Jue became a loving couple.
At the beginning of the marriage, Yu Jue and Shen Yunzhi were in love, and the two of them wrote a needle instead of a needle and a pen instead of a needle, complementing each other and swimming together in the world of art.
Afterthought
When he was in love, Yu Jue taught shen yunzhi all his knowledge of calligraphy and painting, carefully taught, so that calligraphy and painting could be combined with embroidery, which greatly promoted the skills and pattern of Shen Yunzhi's Su embroidery, and became famous for a time, and became famous in Jiangnan.
Later, when Yu Jue and Zhang Jian were fighting a pen and ink lawsuit, they described their situation after marriage in the "History of The Pain of Yu Jue and Shen Shou and His Wife in Nantong": "Even half a day of scrapping books, half a day of studying embroidery, Yu replacing needles with pens, and my wife writing with needles, ten years as a day, embroidery is refined, fame and fame." ”
As Yu Jue said, ten years is like a day, but ten years later, due to the birthday gift of Empress Dowager Cixi, there is a love wound between the husband and wife that can no longer be repaired.
Although Yu Jue was a reader, he did not have the pedantic spirit of a reader, and he was very good at monopolizing, so when Shan Shusheng visited the couple to prepare for the gift of Empress Dowager Cixi's seventieth birthday, Yu Jue suddenly became energetic, and he thought it was a great opportunity.
After Shan Shusheng left, he immediately carefully selected 11 famous paintings from his father-in-law's house, carefully described them, and let Shen Yunzhi embroider them.
Embroidery is a very draining thing, to let Shen Yunzhi in a short period of time fine embroidery 11 grand embroidery, this is really difficult.
However, under the soft and hard bubble of her husband, Shen Yunzhi still stayed up all night and forgot to eat and sleep to complete these embroideries that may bring her husband a splendid future.
The embroidery was completed, and Shen Yunzhi also paid a painful price for it. Because of too much exertion, Shen Yunzhi unfortunately gave birth, and this small birth made her infertile for life.
They have not been pregnant for ten years, but when they are hard to conceive a child, because of the husband's self-interest, they have lost this child, and they do not know whether to say that the couple should have this fate or whether to criticize Yu Jue's indifference to his wife.
This shen yunzhi was heartbroken because of the loss of the child, but her husband happily selected the best 8 embroideries to ask Empress Dowager Cixi for credit, and the taste of the five flavors can be imagined.
Shen Yunzhi's hard work and efforts were not in vain, and empress dowager Cixi greatly appreciated it after seeing this embroidery, calling it a "peerless divine product".
In addition to being happy, Empress Dowager Cixi also personally wrote the words "Fu" and "Shou" to Yu Jue and Shen Yunzhi.
Cixi handwriting "Fu", "Shou"
Therefore, Shen Yunzhi changed her name to Shen Shou, but thanks to this longen, Shen Shou did not live as long as her name, naturally, this is all an afterword.
Shen Shou's embroidery was highly praised by Empress Dowager Cixi, and soon, because of the celebrity effect, Shen Shou's fame also spread wildly. Although Shen Shou lost her beloved child because of Yu Jue's decision, it was also because of Yu Jue that her embroidery career was decisively transformed.
Yu Jue took advantage of the hot iron and hurriedly wrote to Empress Dowager Cixi to propose the establishment of a girls' embroidery school, and thus China's first government-run embroidery school was established in the late Qing Dynasty.
As the newly promoted favorites of Empress Dowager Cixi, Yu Jue and Shen Shou were given the opportunity to visit Japan. During this inspection trip to Japan, Shen Shou ushered in another supreme sublimation of his embroidery career.
She saw that Western paintings used light to represent the light and darkness of objects, making the works more realistic and three-dimensional, so she had a bold idea: Why not integrate such expression into her embroidery?
After returning to China, Shen Shou and Yu Jue led a group of embroidery masters to Beijing non-stop, Yu Jue was the general office of embroidery engineering, and Shen Shou was the chief teacher.
While carefully supervising the apprentices, Shen Shou never forgot the novel Western paintings seen in Japan, and in the process of exploration, he developed a new way of expression, paying attention to the realism and three-dimensional sense of embroidery, and finally completed her first new embroidery "Italian Queen Portrait" in 1911.
Statue of The Italian Queen Alina
Embroidery was born, sensational in the government and the public, later, people named Shen Shou's original stitch embroidery as "imitation embroidery", creating a historic precedent for Su embroidery, and Shen Shou was also revered as Su embroidery queen or embroidery saint because of the Su embroidery skills that had never come after the ancients.
Back to Shen Shou's "Portrait of the Italian Empress", nowadays, the imperial court gave this newly baked new-style embroidery to Italy as a national gift, and after the Italian emperor and empress received it, they loved for ten minutes, marveled, and personally sent a letter to the Qing government to praise the exquisite embroidery art of Suzhou, China, and also presented Shen Shou with a diamond-encrusted gold watch with a royal medal. Later, Italy sent this work to the Italian International Exposition for exhibition, and won the "World Supreme Honor Highest Excellence Award".
In order to strengthen the embroidery method, Shen Shou completed the "Statue of Jesus" in 1915 and exhibited it at the "Panama-Pacific International Exposition" in San Francisco, USA, and won the first prize.
Statue of Jesus
But the good things in the world are not unique to one person, and Shen Shou, who has achieved great success in his career, has ushered in a major blow emotionally.
After Shen Shou miscarried her lifelong infertility because she was preparing for Empress Dowager Cixi's birthday gift, her relationship with her husband Yu Jue was not very strong, although she did not say anything, this incident became a knot that she could not untie in her life.
During Shen Shou's 1915 trip to the United States to participate in the "Panama-Pacific International Exposition", Yu Jue took two concubines on the grounds that his wife could not have children.
At this time, what Yu Jue did not know was that while he was enjoying the blessings of the Qi people, his wife was also coveted by others, and this person was Zhang Xiao, a great industrialist and a great industrialist at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
Zhang Jian
Zhang Jian and Shen Shou met because at the first Nanyang Persuasion Conference held by the Qing government in 1910, Zhang Xiao was appointed as the chief censor because of his merits in founding an industry in Nantong.
Because there was a large screen of ancient embroidery in the Book of Dong Qichang that needed to be identified as true or false, and Shen Shou had studied ancient embroidery quite a bit, he invited her as a reviewer. Shen Shou is just and capable, young and has exquisite embroidery skills, which makes Zhang Xiao appreciate it.
Soon, Zhang Xiao was introduced to Shen Shou's husband Yu Jue, and he was also impressed, praising him as "Yu Bingchen, talent also", Bingchen is the word for Yu Jue.
At this time, Zhang Xiao did not have any superfluous male and female intentions for Shen Shou, but only with an appreciation for the future life, moreover, Shen Shou was more than 20 years younger than him, enough to be his daughter.
What really made Zhang Jian intervene in Shen Shou and Yu Jue's husband and wife was after the demise of the Qing government and Yu Jue took his wife to Nantong for the sake of the future to join Zhang Jue.
In his lifetime, Zhang Jian founded more than 20 enterprises and more than 370 schools, and was a well-known industrialist and educator in modern times, with countless assets.
Once in the capital, Zhang Jian, because of his appreciation for Yu Jue, once told him that if he had any difficulties, he could go to Nantong to find him. The Qing government collapsed, and Yu Jue, the official position of the general office of the embroidery department of the Qing Dynasty, also ceased to exist. In the chaotic world, Yu Jue went south to defect to Zhang Jian for the sake of his future and survival.
And because of Zhang Xiao's greed for a comeback, Shen Shou had to give up the high-paying employment of schools in Tianjin, Sichuan and other schools to come to Nantong to meet her husband.
After coming to Nantong, Shen Shou served as the director of the Women's Normal and Female Workers' Training Institute and the director of the embroidery department, and worked diligently and taught students.
Because Yu Jue did not buy a residence in Nantong, Shen Shou lived in the women's normal dormitory for a long time. Yu Jue has been out for a long time due to business, and the couple's already weak feelings have become precarious.
Especially when Shen Shou was sick in bed, Yu Jue did not take care of his wife in front of the bed, but instead mixed with other women such as concubines, which made Shen Shou change from disappointment to despair for Yu Jue.
And Yu Jue was also too arrogant and unsatisfactory in his career, which made Zhang Xiao greatly change his mind about this person. How can a man who has been messing with women all day, ignoring his wife, and achieving nothing in his career, let a hegemon like Zhang Xiao look up to him?
After Shen Shou's death, Zhang Jian said, "Shen Shou was unladylike when he met people, he was depressed and depressed, and he felt sick and died." He believes that the reason why Shen Shou died of illness was because of Yu Jue's irresponsibility and resentment towards him.
Either because of pity, or because he was impressed by Shen Shou's talent, Zhang Xiao had a love for Shen Shou in his heart. Seeing that Yu Jue did not cherish Shen Shou, at first he was jealous because Shen Shou was a wife with a husband, and he was not worth it for Shen Shou.
He had the idea of occupying Shen Shou in his heart, thinking that in the future they would be a pair of loving Mandarin ducks. Shen Shou was frail and sick, often lying in bed, for her health, Zhang Xiao not only built a new "Qianting Pavilion" for her to recuperate, invited famous doctors everywhere, but also cared for her in her spare time.
Shen Shou is a self-loving woman who knows Zhang Xiao's thoughts, but in order to avoid suspicion, she does not dare to agree to live under the same roof with Zhang Jian no matter what.
There was no way, in order to accommodate Shen Shou, Zhang Jian spent a lot of money to build a new "Trench Yang Xiaozhu" for her. In several twists and turns, Shen Shou had no choice but to live in the front yard of the "Trench Yang Xiaozhu", while Zhang Xiao moved to the backyard in order to be closer to her, which could not only avoid danger, but also facilitate the care of Shen Shou.
Although Shen Shou constantly rejected Zhang Xiao, how could a man who had been domineering all his life stop because of a woman's refusal? He threw himself into his favor, knowing that Shen Shou liked ancient poetry, even if he was too busy to touch the ground, he would give her part of the time.
Zhang Xiao personally selected 73 ancient poems from the "Ancient Poetry Sources", not only copied and annotated by himself, but also carefully marked the tone, and did not fake others throughout the whole process, and finally compiled them into a book, entitled "Shen Shouxue Poetry Reader".
In the era of showing love and implicit euphemisms, Zhang Xiao often used Meng Lang's words such as bird and even lizhi to express his strong love for Shen Shou in a large number of poems written to Shen Shou.
Statue of Zhang Xiao
Later, because Yu Jue was annoyed by the world's evaluation of him, he wrote a book "The History of the Pain of Nantong by Yu Jue and Shen Shou", which vigorously denounced Zhang Xiao's shameless and moral wife-snatching behavior:
"Shen Shou was occasionally sick, Zhang Personally served soup medicine, taking care of everything; Shen Shou occasionally went out, Zhang Xin was in a hurry, and he was dissuaded by the color, saying that it was not appropriate to work when he was sick; in the second half of the house of the trench Yang Xiaozhu, Zhang worked in Yusi, met guests in Si, and opened a door directly to the east house of Shen Shou's apartment, and often came and went freely."
However, seeing these lingering whipping words, and comparing his indifference to Shen Shou and abandoning the etiquette guidelines, Zhang Xiao is indeed more able to provoke the love of women, after all, few women can refuse a man who cares for you and regards it as a treasure.
What's more, after Shen Shou was betrayed by her husband, Zhang Xiao's concern for her was more like Ganlin, which made her barren feelings watered and warmed.
But Shen Shou is a married woman after all, even if she is grateful to Zhang Xiao, she will not speak bluntly, let alone dare to be with him brazenly, she is afraid of the leisurely mouth outside.
However, Shen Shou had used his own green silk to embroider his ink treasure "Qianting" for Zhang Xiao, and in Shen Shou's last days, she had signed the embroidery as Xue Eunuch, but eunuch was Zhang Xiao's former character.
It can be seen from this that although Shen Shou was forced by etiquette and the world to never respond to Zhang Xiao, in her heart, she had feelings for Zhang Jian, whether it was gratitude or true love, at least it showed that Zhang Xiao's feelings had not been wasted.
After Shen Shou's death, Zhang Xiao was even more "overbearing", and he disregarded the dignity of the 72-year-old and directly threw himself on Shen Shou's body and cried.
Shen Shou's funeral was also organized by Zhang Jian, which exceeded the specifications of the solemnity, and personally inscribed the inscription "The Spiritual Table of the Artist Wuxian Ms. Shen Shen", the person who erected the monument was his name, and there was no single word about Yu Jue throughout the whole process, as if she did not have a husband's family, and it was as if her husband's family was Zhang Xiao.
Shen Shou Cemetery
Zhang Xiao buried Shen Shou in the southern foothills of Ma'anshan Mountain, where he could see southern Jiangsu and the Yangtze River, and the cemetery was of extremely high specifications, and also set up a museum to collect Shen Shou's works for posterity to see.
Although Yu Jue started a pen and ink lawsuit with Zhang Jian because of his shame, accusing Zhang Jian of causing him and Shen Shou to be unable to sleep together in life and die together, Zhang Xiao was as steady as Mount Tai, ignored it, and remembered Shen Shou every day for the rest of the day.
After Zhang Xiao's death, according to his will, he was buried not far from Shen Shou, just as they had just guarded the distance before they died. Perhaps, Zhang Xiao also wanted to share the cave with Shen Shou after his death, but he understood Shen Shou's concerns, knew that she was a person with a heavy reputation, and would not want him to insult her posthumous name.
However, it is also a kind of romance to look at her silently, to accompany her for life, and to enjoy the quiet years of Ma On Shan.