Tang Bohu's red-faced confidant Shen Jiuniang
Shen Jiuniang (1475-1512), a famous prostitute in Suzhou during the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty, was dignified and elegant in appearance, proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and talented. Later, she was the wife of Tang Bohu, the third wife of Tang Bohu and a confidant of Hongyan.
Shen Jiuniang was a famous prostitute in Suzhou in the Ming Dynasty, and later the wife of Tang Bohu. Just when Tang Bohu was in the most difficult time, Shen Jiuniang comforted him mentally. But unfortunately, Shen Jiuniang died of illness early, which made him very sad, and he often used wine to dispel his sorrows. This made his health deteriorate, and in poor health, he was also difficult to work, so his life was very poor, and he often borrowed money to live.
Tang Bohu, a native of Wu County, Jiangsu Province, was famous in the Ming Dynasty for his poetry, books and paintings. Only because he lived in a debauched life in his early years, carved a seal of "the first wind and talent in Jiangnan", coupled with the novels, dramas, plays and singing of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and made up his "three laughs and autumn fragrance" affair, in the impression of posterity, Tang Bohu is a talented man.
In people's impressions, Tang Bohu is an out-and-out "talented man". In fact, the real Tang Bohu, the talent is real, but not the flow. According to expert research, Tang Bohu never called himself "the first talented man in Jiangnan", and this stamp was forged by posterity. The folklore "dotting autumn incense" is also purely the imagination of boring literati.
The historical Tang Bohu, surnamed Tang Mingyin, was a famous calligrapher, painter and writer of the Ming Dynasty. History of The Ming Dynasty. The Biography of Tang Yin records that after the township test was released, he went to Beijing the following year to take the test. Unexpectedly, disaster fell from heaven, and because of the leak of the examination questions in the field, he was innocently implicated and imprisoned, and became a victim of the struggle of the imperial court. After his release from prison, he fell to the point where "Yin is a disdainful person in the sea, knowing and not knowing, all pointing and spitting". The wife, who was suspicious of poverty and loved the rich, divorced her; the servant looked sideways and bumped into him at every turn, which made him mentally devastated and in a very low mood. Later, he left his hometown and traveled to the famous mountains and rivers. At this time, Zhu Chenhao, the king of Nanchang, was hired by Zhu Chenhao, the king of Nanchang, and after Tang Bohu arrived in Nanchang, he found that the king of Ning had the intention of plotting to cause trouble, so he disguised himself as a madman and was sent back to his hometown by the king of Ning. Since then, he has given up the desire of the eunuch sea and immersed himself in the art of poetry and painting. Impoverished, he was eventually able to paint and sell literature for a living, living a hard life of cloth and vegetarianism. But he was clean and self-righteous, never snuggled up to the powerful, and "idle to write a picture of Danqing to buy, not to make evil money in the world", which is very rare.
The Qing Dynasty scholar Yu Fan once debunked a rumor for Tang Bohu in the "Tea Room Cong Banknote", concluding that the "Marriage of Three Laughs" was a good thing for a good person to take advantage of Tang's fame and transfer other people's affairs to his name, which was a joke by Zhang Guan and Li Dai. The text about this teasing first began in the chapter "Tang Xieyuan's Laughing Marriage" in the Mingren Feng Menglong's "Cautionary Tales". Later, after the story was continuously adapted into operas, bullets, and drum books by the literati of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Tang Bohu became a "talented man" in the eyes of the world. According to expert research, Qiu Xiang did have his own person, a Qinglou woman in Nanjing at that time, more than ten years older than Tang Bohu, and it was impossible to have an affair with him. Tang Bohu, who was middle-aged and depressed, once married Shen Jiuniang as a stepmother, and the husband and wife were old and had a daughter. The so-called Tang Bohu has nine wives and concubines, which may be deduced from the name "Shen Jiuniang". Based on Tang Bohu's poor situation at that time, even food and clothing were a problem, how could there be a large number of wives and concubines?
Tang Bohu's life was bumpy, his life was poor and depressed, and he only lived to the age of fifty-four before he died. The poem he wrote on his deathbed expressed the complicated feelings of his inner nostalgia but cynical: "Born in the yang and scattered, why not return to the mansion when he dies." The Yang Dynasty is similar, only when it floats in a foreign land. ”
Tang Bohu married three wives in his lifetime, his ex-wife Xu Shi, the second daughter of the eunuch Xu Tingrui, who died of illness shortly after marriage. Later, he may have married a room, but he was involved in the cheating case and left. Later married Shen Shi, or the name Jiu Niang.
Later, Tang Bohu met the official prostitute Shen Jiuniang in the Qinglou. Jiu Niang respects this talent very much, in order to make Tang Bohu have a good environment for painting, she cleaned up the makeup cabinet very neatly, when Tang Bohu painted, Jiu Niang always gave him washing, color grading, laying paper, Tang Bohu had this good partner, and the painting art became more and more refined. Most of the beauties he painted were the style and charm that he experienced from Jiu Niang. When Jiu Niang saw that Tang Bohu did not treat her as an official prostitute, she respected him more and more. Over time, the two fell in love and became a couple. After two years, Jiu Niang gave birth to a daughter named Tao Sheng.
In 1509, the Suzhou flooded. Tang Bohu's painting career was naturally difficult, and sometimes even the chai rice money was lost. The family's life depends on the painstaking support of the Ninth Lady. Jiu Niang finally fell ill due to overwork, Tang Bohu invited a doctor, and after the doctor diagnosed, told Tang Bohu that Jiu Niang was terminally ill. Tang Bohu tried his best to serve the Ninth Lady, and had no intention of poetry and painting. Before the winter solstice in 1512, Jiu Niang tightly held Tang Bohu's hand and said, "I will not give up, I want to be your wife, I wanted to do my best to take care of the housework, let you concentrate on poetry and painting, and become everyone." But I am blessed, lifeless, and incompetent, I am dying, I hope you will take good care of yourself. Hearing these words, Tang Bohu couldn't help but burst into tears.
In the days that followed, Tang Bohu lived a difficult life alone with his daughter Taosheng, who was just 5 years old. Tao Sheng is the only daughter of Tang Bohu and his beloved wife Shen Jiuniang, and her name is taken from Tang Bohu's self-built residence in Suzhou, Taohuawu, and the famous "Peach Blossom Anthem" describes the leisure scenery there, "Peach Blossom In Peach Blossom Wood, Peach Blossom Immortal under Peach Blossom An." The peach blossom immortals planted peach trees, and picked peach blossoms for wine money..."
After Shen Jiuniang's death, Tang Bohu never took another wife, and in his later years he converted to Buddhism and was known as a six-like layman.