Text/Liu Haisu
Among the older generation of cultural people who are still alive, I can say that I was the first to accept Western culture. It can also be said that I am less bound by feudal thought, and I never use false Taoism to disguise myself. It's funny to think back now, it's really a teenager who doesn't know the taste of sorrow, when I was young, I seemed to be fearless of anything, and I always acted according to my own will for love and marriage. But really understanding feelings, and being able to weigh it out, is often after going through vicissitudes.
Frankly, I've been married three times in my life. Let me talk about my life. According to the fashionable saying, it is to talk about my "love life".
"Wooden Stone Former Alliance" and "'Eight Characters' Couple"
I remember it was a spring evening and my mother had been ill for a long time. My father called me to her bedside and said to my mother, "Little Nine is coming, and when you are in good spirits, you tell him." "
The mother smiled and said, "You are the head of the family, and you deserve to say it." "
I could tell from my mother's somewhat irritable expression that she didn't want to say it. Our Liu family is a local noble family, the poetry is passed down from family to family, according to the rules, the general family events are for the father to open his mouth first. At that time, I didn't know what a big deal it was, so I whispered with sincere trepidation, "Please Abba." "
The father said very seriously, "Little Nine, you have grown up too." Your mother is not in good health, she can't take care of you in everything, we are going to betrothed to you. "
I was shocked when I heard it. Busy said, "Abba, I'm only 14 years old!"
"Isn't this the first engagement?" Make a family affair and meet them again next year. We are old, and seeing that you have all become a family, we will not worry about it. The father looked back at his mother and said, "Your mother also knows that this is a family of scholars, and the girl knows the book and has a good character." "
I stood still, my father looking at me, and I deliberately bowed my head and did not make a sound. After a long pause, I asked, "Does Father have any other orders?" He shook his head. If I amnesty, I will escape from my room.
One day, while my mother was alone in the room, I asked, "Why did you propose to me so early?"
The mother smiled and said, "People like us, according to the rules, it is not too early." But..." She sighed softly and stopped talking.
"I'm reluctant! Strangers are engaged, I don't want. "Most of the people who invite the media to hire relatives are strangers." Besides..."
"Needless to say!" I interrupted my mother and said, "No strangers are not strangers!" I don't know where the courage came from, a 14-year-old teenager actually talked about his marriage proposition in front of his mother: "From childhood together, the temper is familiar..."
The mother had been smiling all the time, and when she heard this, her eyebrows tightened: "Xiao Jiu don't say anything." Your mind, the mother has guessed. "
I thought, guessing better, I listened to her tone and said, "Wait until I grow up." As long as you have feelings since childhood, you can also worry about it in the future. "
My mother fell into deep thought, and it was only after half a moment that she waved at me: "Don't tell your father about this." The mother understood in her heart. "
I think that my mother really knows me, and I didn't mention a word, and my mother knew who "she" was.
This "she" is my cousin Yang Shouyu.
Shouyu is my aunt's daughter. My aunt married a family of readers surnamed Yang to fill in the house, and the uncles of the Fang clan were together, which was a big family. Soon after my uncle died, the Yang family did not allow my aunt, so she returned to her mother's house with her daughter, who was only 7 months old, and has been living in the old family of Qingyunfang. My cousin's name was given by my aunt. The aunt was determined not to marry, so she took the word "ShouYu" for her daughter, and the single name was a "Yu", which had the meaning of guarding the body like jade. My cousin lived in my house until she was 4 years old, and the mother and daughter went back to live for a few more years. Later, they still couldn't stay in the Yang family and returned to Qingyunfang. At this time, my cousin was 10 years old and a sensible little girl. Cousins and sisters reunite, natural green plum bamboo horses, more cheerful. However, one thing that made me unhappy was that Shouyu wouldn't call me brother because I was only 7 months older than her.
When we were together, I took care of her everywhere, accommodated her, and always gave her fun and delicious things first. I remember once when I gave her a piece of cake and said, "Oh, give it to my sister!" It made the whole family laugh. The aunt said, "Little Nine is like a brother!" So when I was 12 years old, when we were studying together in my family's school, she began to call me "Brother Nine."
When I was 12 years old, I went to wujin County's new school, Rope Zheng Academy. In the second half of the 14 years old, the school was closed, and I returned to Qingyunfang to study private school. When it comes to reading, my cousin Shouyu is very hardworking, and her homework is much better than my sister's. To that end, I proposed to my husband that "all should be treated equally". This sentence was very fashionable at the beginning, and it was more popular after the development of industry and commerce in China's feudal society, that is, "all employees are treated equally." The gentleman laughed and said, "You didn't use that properly." You go to school and study, but you are not working in a business, besides, I am a teaching chair hired by the Liu family, Yang Shouyu is here to read, I have no discrimination. I heard the reason for the words, and the four words "no discrimination" implied that "it is not the authentic liu family.". I said seriously, "Sir, although Shouyu is not surnamed Liu, he is a blood relative of my Liu family, and we are a family!" These words not only surprised my husband, but also shocked my cousin. Because we have been together for many years and are similar in age, our feelings are naturally different from those of other brothers and sisters. Between the brothers and sisters, the servant woman and the maid have already said the words "born a pair" or "just right match". The 14-year-old cousin, although still confused, the 14-year-old cousin, but has been very understanding, not to mention that she lives in her uncle's house, the situation is different, I have always been attentive, she has not failed to feel. Aren't the cousin feelings in "Dream of the Red Chamber" and "Pearl Tower" also transformed in this way?
When it comes to "Dream of the Red Chamber", it should be said that my mother is the youngest daughter of Hong Beijiang (Liangji), who has been a learned family since childhood. She taught me poetry when I was 7 years old. Several of our brothers learned to fill in old poems when they were in their teens. Therefore, "Dream of the Red Chamber" I watched when I was 13 years old, and my cousin also watched it at that time. At that time, my family had a lot of books, such as "The Tale of the West Chamber", "Water Margin", and "Regeneration Edge". Some esoteric literary works, such as "Peony Pavilion", etc., I encountered places that I couldn't understand, so I jumped over.
The hazy love between Shouyu and me, although it is somewhat like the corner of the "Red Chamber", my idea of asking for freedom in love and marriage is not only influenced by "Dream of the Red Chamber". At the beginning of this century, with the invasion of China by the great powers, many "imported products" were imported from Europe, and the cultural European wind and rain gradually blew in, including some foreign romance novels translated into chinese. The Jiangnan atmosphere opened early, and our Changzhou Liu family was also affected by this wind relatively early.
My cousin and I have a good relationship, and half of it is also facilitated by the environment. My brother and sister are older, and the only people who can accompany me are My cousin Shouyu. Coupled with the half-truths and half-lies of others, our pair of thirteen or fourteen-year-old boys and girls are also true and false, true and false, and it is difficult to distinguish between true and false.
My mother was attentive to this and had long been aware of this. By the time my father felt something, my cousin and I had already exchanged "keepsakes" privately. What a child's innocence!
At that time, my uncle got many jade carved gadgets from nowhere, and one of the jade monkeys gave it to me because I belonged to the monkey. I gave it to my cousin Shouyu, who is also a monkey. A few days later, she also gave me something, but it was a monkey carved with peach cores, and a red and green silk thread, which I liked and wore on my body. The brothers and sisters borrowed the "wooden stone marriage" in "Dream of the Red Chamber" and laughed that we were "two monkeys, wood and stone husband and wife". This matter was discovered by my father. He silently asked someone to count the lives of the two of us.
My father loved me the most, credulously believed the fortune teller's lie that my aunt was "destined to be hard", and was afraid that my cousin and I would not be in line with the "eight characters". As a result, there really came out of the nonsense, saying that the time of my birth and the hour of my cousin were "xiangke" and "卯酉相冲"; It is also said that my cousin's life is hard, and the birth time and my mother's zodiac sign are "in conflict with each other". My father believed it. He whispered to my mother, "It can't be done." You're already sick like this, you've just gotten a little better, you can't have any more punches. "
My mother's level of knowledge and literary attainment are higher than my father's, and she is not superstitious about that set of jianghu techniques. So the two had an argument. As a result, my mother gave in.
Although Ping Su's mother has a clever and insightful approach in running and managing the family, after marrying over, she did revitalize the decaying family business of the Liu family, but whether the daughter of the Liu family's aunt and grandmother should be the daughter-in-law of the Liu family again is decided by the elders of the Liu family; The idea of "eight characters" was also done by my father's uncle. The Liu family did not approve of Shouyu being the daughter-in-law of the Liu family, and my mother could not resist. Besides, she is also a stepmother, the eldest brother and eldest sister left behind by the ex-wife are twenty or thirty years old, and several of them do not like the clever and witty Shouyu cousin, and naturally they are afraid that once they have such a brother and daughter-in-law, it will be difficult to deal with in the future. Since this matter tacitly involved the dispute over the property rights of the Liu family in the future, it was even more difficult for my mother to speak.
After my father rehearsed the "eight characters" for me and Shouyu, he immediately hired the Lin family girl in Danyang. The day of the dowry was my mother's birthday. It is said that this is done in order to "rush the joy" and make the mother's illness heal as soon as possible. I think they always line up our "eight characters" and our parents' zodiac signs, and there is no danger of "six punches" anymore. But the Creator finally made a big joke with them: soon after they were betrothed, their mother died. Shouyu's cousin did not "gram" my mother, and the Miss Lin family did not "rush" for my mother. Since then, because my father lost his wife in old age, his mood has deteriorated day by day, and his temper has become even greater. The older brothers and sisters have left home to set up their own doors, and my young old nine, who has lost his beloved mother, must face my father's harsh teachings with more trepidation. I couldn't help it, so I was introduced to shanghai in 1909 when I was 14 years old and went to Shanghai Zhou Xiangban to study painting.
At this time, it was the time when Emperor Xuantong ascended the throne. Cixi was pro-government, the imperial court was corrupt, the country had been divided by the great powers, and the country was trapped at home and abroad. But Shanghai, as a colony, became increasingly prosperous. In Shanghai and other major cities, a new industry, photo studios, has risen from time to time. At that time, the photographs were all set on a large axis, and they could be lifted up and down with ropes like hanging in the middle hall. The scenery painted above and the decorations of the living room and study are called photo sets. Various theaters, called tea gardens at the time, also began to use sets instead of old-fashioned patterns. Even if the set content and the acting content have nothing to do with each other, it doesn't matter. You can still see stills taken by Tan Xinpei (nicknamed Tiantian) and Yang Xiaolou in the past: Yang Yanhui and Huang Zhong standing in front of the Western-style church, and standing in front of the London Bridge, holding a horse whip in their hands - because it is a fashionable thing, people are not particular.