Today, when we hear the name Chen Hengzhe, most of them are associated with Hu Shi and Ren Hongjun. If Chen Hengzhe is still alive, I am afraid that I am somewhat sorry. In fact, without the man, she is also a glorious new woman, and her strength alone is enough to support a legend of the women of the Republic of China.
In 1890, Chen Hengzhe was born in Wujin, Jiangsu Province. Chen Hengzhe broke out in the Sino-Japanese War when he was 5 years old, and the Qing Dynasty collapsed at the age of 21. During the sensitive period of her youth, it was precisely when the country was alternating between the old and the new, and the patriotic feelings in Chen Hengzhe's heart were better than the girl's feelings.
Chen Hengzhe's father was a prominent person in the late Qing Dynasty, and his mother came from a famous and prestigious family, and Chen Hengzhe received a good education when he was a teenager. Chen Hengzhe was also forced to wrap her feet in her childhood, she was born rebellious, and every time she was wrapped up, she took advantage of her parents' lack of attention to remove it. Chen Hengzhe's mother was distressed and more enlightened, and later gave up letting her wrap her feet, so Chen Hengzhe also had the opportunity to become the first female student in China to study abroad.
In 1905, Chen Hengzhe studied medicine at the Sino-British Girls' School in Shanghai, but after only two years of schooling, she was called back to Sichuan by her father to get married. Her father chose a young talent for her, not only from the family of officials and eunuchs, but also from a dignified appearance, he thought that his daughter would gladly accept it, but Chen Hengzhe directly said that she did not want to get married for the rest of her life.
Chen Hengzhe wrote in her autobiography the reasons for her refusal to arrange marriages:
No married woman can enjoy freedom.
She was afraid of childbirth and didn't want to experience it herself.
She didn't want to marry a stranger she had never met.
Chen Hengzhe's resistance to marriage in that era was bound to be met with the strange eyes of relatives and friends around her, she hid in the home of her great aunt who had always supported her, and with the encouragement of her great aunt, she decided to take the Tsinghua examination for students studying in the United States. As a result, she was really admitted.
After going to the United States, Chen Hengzhe, a female scholar, became the target of many young men, including Hu Shi. Hu Shi admired Chen Hengzhe's talent very much, and also wrote her a lot of love letters, starting from the exchange culture, and slowly talking about love. Chen Hengzhe, who had once been determined not to get married, was also shaken, and she and Hu Shi even reached the point of talking about marriage.
At this critical moment, Hu Shi was urged by his old mother to go home and marry Jiang Dongxiu. After all, Hu Shi was pulled up by his mother alone, he was a big filial piety, did not dare to disobey his mother, and had to wronged his first love. After Hu Shi and Jiang Dongxiu got married, they worked together until they were old, and Chen Hengzhe was also inseparable.
Chen Hengzhe missed Hu Shi, and the heavens were still very kind to her, and soon after she fell in love with her true son Ren Hongjun and entered into marriage.
Ren Hongjun is a famous scientist and educator in modern China, in the past, when Hu Shi and Chen Hengzhe were in and out of pairs, he could only watch from a distance, and then Hu Shi and Chen Hengzhe broke up, and he plucked up the courage to confess to Chen Hengzhe. After completing their studies, the two returned to their motherland together and were both hired as professors at Peking University. Chen Hengzhe was the first female professor in China, which was a very sensational event at that time.
Later, Ren Hongjun came to Sichuan and became the president of Sichuan University, and Chen Hengzhe also came to Sichuan University to teach. The humanistic scene in Sichuan and Beijing is completely different, Chen Hengzhe saw that everyone here is good at gambling, there are smokehouses and casinos everywhere, and women are men's playthings, and young female students are willing to make concubines for old men. Chen Hengzhe was very angry, so he published an article in the local newspaper to criticize this social phenomenon. Chen Hengzhe originally hoped to awaken the hearts of the people through this article, but the Sichuan people thought that she discriminated against Sichuan, and the local intellectuals in Sichuan even held a group to argue with Chen Hengzhe and attacked her as a traitor sent by the United States. Because of the expulsion of the Sichuanese, Chen Hengzhe had to leave Sichuan with Ren Hongjun.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Japanese army invaded and occupied Beijing, and many people hoped that Chen Hengzhe would stay and teach, but Chen Hengzhe and his wife still resolutely came to Jiangxi with their children, and in order to avoid the chaos of war, they successively traveled to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Chongqing, and have always avoided direct contact with the Japanese.
Chen Hengzhe's life is a modern history, and she deeply understands that even if she has a husband that women all over the world envy, women's independence and self-esteem come from their own careers, and when she conceives her first child, she is still confused.
In 1920, Chen Hengzhe went on strike because of the laziness and slackness of the students, and she communicated with Hu Shi, who was the principal at the time, and Hu Shi thought that she was better off staying at home. A strong woman who once vowed not to marry, not to have children, and not to let her family drag down her career actually resigned a few months after marriage, chen Hengzhe believes that this is his great shame. Although Hu Shi did not say it to his face, the diary recorded the following passage:
Dropping out of school shortly after marriage due to pregnancy did disappoint many people. Since then, it has been more difficult to recommend women to teach at universities. At that time, I was also afraid of this layer, so I gave them the eight words of "no posterity is great, the best book to write". But this matter is a natural defect, and it is useless to regret it.
It can be seen that even if he is as enlightened as Hu Shi, even in the face of his first love, this Principal Hu still believes that having children is a natural defect of women, and feels that female professors should be "big without a queen".
In 1925, Chen Hengzhe again took leave of absence because of pregnancy, and in order to avoid affecting her career after the birth of her second child, she wanted to complete the next volume of the History of the West before giving birth, so she had to write every morning. One day, her 4-year-old eldest daughter knocked on the door of the study and hoped that her mother could play with her, but she was scolded by Chen Hengzhe and scared to cry, and from then on, her daughter never dared to disturb her mother's writing in the morning. Although Chen Hengzhe did not say anything, he always remembered this incident.
Chen Hengzhe's understanding of career and family is too profound, she wrote a book "The Fundamental Problems of Women's Education", saying that she has the sad process of taking her children to engage in education. She believes that if a woman wants to take care of her family, children and herself, she must be a genius and all-powerful, with a strong personality and a sense of responsibility. Chen Hengzhe did not want to sacrifice his children's education or sacrifice his career, so he has been in inner torment.
She said: "
If a man has a million abilities, there are a million paths to take, while even if a woman has a million abilities, there is only one female path to take. ”
Chen Hengzhe, as the first female writer and first female professor in modern China, not only wrote works, but also received many famous female disciples, and was even called "the mother of talented women" by posterity, and her apprentices included Lin Huiyin, Xiao Hong, Bingxin, Zhang Ailing and other famous writers, but she herself left very little information to future generations.
Throughout Chen Hengzhe's life, in that era, she was extremely lucky, fortunately she had a pair of enlightened parents and a husband who loved her very much. But even so, she still has to face the family and career problems that all women have to face.
At that time, many women did not understand why Chen Hengzhe was so strong, and most of them chose to be a housewife at home and complete their husbands' careers. And today, every new era woman who is working hard for her children and the family probably can better appreciate her helplessness.