If life is a staircase, the first layer is matter, the second level is spirit, and the third level is soul. Uncle Li was the one who walked up layer by layer.
Li Shutong, born in Tianjin Ding Food Family, the family ran the salt industry and silver money industry, in the brothers line three, the young name Chengqi, taken from the "peach and Lee do not speak, the next self-chengqi" a sentence, the scientific name Wentao, the word Shu tong, the law number Hongyi, the world known as Hongyi Master.
Li Shutong's mother was a side room, and at the age of 19, he married his father, who was already in his 60s, so when Li Shutong was five years old, his father died, and in his life experience, his father's influence on him can be said to be very little.
It is worth noting that Li Shutong's father believed in Buddhism, and the young Li Shutong often followed his family to worship The Buddha. It can be said that when Li Shutong was very young, he formed a fate with the Buddha.
After the death of Li Shutong's father, Li Shutong and his mother became more and more embarrassed in the whole family, because of the side room, Li Shutong's mother did not like the main room, so she put her expectations on the young Uncle Tong, and the young mother disciplined him very strictly.
When Li Shutong was seven years old, he was ordered to receive employment from his second brother. After the age of ten, He learned to "explain the text" and copy the seal, and especially xi lined the King xuanwang hunting jie. At the age of seventeen, he learned poetry and eight strands from the famous Tianjin scholar Zhao Youmei, and from Tang Jingyan to learn seals and carved stones. At this time, Li Shutong was already famous.
Long-term study, not only did not make Li Shutong become a "serious talent" who had been through the country and the world as his brother imagined, but on the contrary planted the seeds of rebellion in his heart, and with the increase of reading, this seed also slowly grew into a towering tree in Li Shutong's heart.
The young Li Shutong developed a strong interest in the "lowly industry" of singing. He even fell in love with Yang Cuixi, a famous man at that time, and wrote for her that "the flowers on Yanzhi Mountain are like snow, and the people under Yanzhi Mountain are like the moon". Helplessly, Yang Cuixi was bought by Duan Zhigui to pay bribes to Zaizhen, the son of Prince Qing, which also caused a sensational Yang Cuixi case, and Li Shutong's first love ended without a problem.
When her mother saw the depressed Li Shutong, she had the idea of letting him start a family, and after some investigation by herself, she selected his first wife, Yu Rong'er, for Li Shutong.
Yu Rong'er is the daughter of a tea merchant, knowledgeable and dignified, but Li Shutong, who has developed a rebellious mentality, does not approve of this family affair in his heart, but the second brother promised him that if he agreed to marry Yu Rong'er, he would give him 300,000 family property and let him go out to set up his own portal.
In order to escape the repressive Li Mansion, Li Shutong chose to get married.
At that time, the old China was staging a revolution -- the restoration of the law, and Li Shutong, who was ideologically advanced and extremely disgusted with the old system, was a strong supporter of this change.
Unexpectedly, the change of law failed, the six gentlemen were martyred, and the outside world rumored that Li Shutong was Kang and Liang Tong, and in order to avoid disaster, Li Shutong moved to Shanghai with his mother and wife.
At that time, the Li family was also involved in the silver money business and also had its own money house in Shanghai, so Uncle Li at that time was quite rich in silver money and also mingled with Shanghai celebrities.
In Shanghai, Li Shutong became acquainted with the poet prostitute Li Pingxiang, and in Li Shutong's view, Li Pingxiang was similar to himself, they were all the same kind of people, shackled by various kinds, and their hearts were sad, so they had much pity for her.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, Li Shutong's mother, who was seriously ill and died as a result, Li Shutong wanted to escort his mother's coffin back to Tianjin, and therefore broke off contact with Li Pingxiang.
Before her mother died, she clearly expressed her apologies to Li Shutong and hoped that Li Shutong could live happily and gracefully in the future.
After Li Shutong returned to Tianjin, he insisted on burying his mother with a new funeral, but at that time, the people's wisdom was not opened, and the old customs were not removed, so his ideas could be described as shocking at the time, but Li Shutong defied the public opinion and successfully won the right to host his mother's funeral.
After the arrangement of his mother's affairs was completed, Li Shutong left his wife and children in Tianjin and went east to Japan to study on his own.
During his study in Japan, he and his classmate Zeng Yannian and others organized the Chunliu Society, which was the first drama group in China, mainly starring in "La Traviata Girl" and "Black Slave Wu Tianlu", etc., with Li Shutong playing the role of Traviata.
During his stay in Japan, Li Shutong met his second wife, Xuezi, who was originally his art model, and the latter two fell in love with each other in a long time together, so they became connected.
In 1911, Li Shutong graduated, so he returned to China with Xuezi, and after returning to China, Li Shutong began to engage in education, and a large number of famous artists who became famous later were his students, Feng Zikai, Pan Tianshou, and Liu Zhiping.
However, the quiet teaching life did not solve Li Shutong's inner sorrow.
In 1918, Li Shutong was officially ordained at the Dinghui Temple in Hupao, the dharma name Hongyi, the former Li Shutong became Master Hongyi, and when he said goodbye to his Japanese wife, he said: Let go of you, not my thin feelings; love, that is, compassion. Li Shutong believes that the world's big love and small love are all compassion.
Since then, he began his study of Buddhism and has become a highly respected Vinaya master in the Buddhist circles in recent times, and a famous monk in the Buddhist circles at home and abroad.
In 1942, Master Hongyi died in the "Evening Sunny Room" of the Wenling Nursing Home.
Counting Li Shutong's life, his life may only be that he has gained some happiness in his childhood and youth, and since then Li Shutong has always been depressed in his heart, and some people have attributed Li Shutong's renunciation to his emotional life, in my opinion, it is indeed inappropriate.
In the old China at that time, the wind and rain were fluctuating, and many of Li Shutong's advanced ideas and full of ambitions were hindered by the social status quo at that time, which also aggravated his depression to a certain extent, so he began to look for his own support point.
Many people in later generations have different views on his escape from the world, but Even during the period of Buddhist cultivation, Li Shutong has always been worried about state affairs, which shows that Uncle Li cherishes the world with one heart, and his avoidance is just to find a spiritual sustenance for himself.
Lin Yutang once said: He once belonged to our era, but he finally abandoned this era and jumped out of the red dust.