Some people say that vanity is a very important thing, both for men and women, because it is too often incompatible with people's authenticity. Compared with men, women prefer vanity and prefer to live at home with men, but when they have both, it is not necessarily fatal.
Guo Dejie, Li Zongren's second wife, has always accompanied Li Zongren in the vanity of belonging to women, because in these two levels, she, like many women, has become cute in moderation.
Guo Dejie, born in 1906 in Guiping County, Guangxi, was originally named Guo Ruxian. The name Dejie was given to her by Li Zongren when she married Mr. Li Zongren. Her father was a famous local mason, probably the sixth oldest in the family, so he was called Guo Liu.
Guo Liu not only has good craftsmanship, but also good character, in order to make a living, he led a group of construction workers to work, and while having a good reputation, he also supported a large family of the Guo family. This profession is, in our words today, a small contract foreman, and the Guo family's family situation has become solid in his profession.
Before the 1920s, Chinese were probably adhering to the idea that "a woman's talentlessness is morality", but all this was shattered by the May Fourth New Culture Movement that took place in 1919. Subsequently, some families with better families began to send girls to school as fashionable, and then formed a trend in society.
Guo Dejie just caught up with this trend, and she had a good family, and despite the ridicule of some neighbors, she resolutely entered the Guiping Girls' School around 1920. This later changed her fate, allowing her to eventually change from "the daughter of a mason" to a "wife of the acting president of the Kuomintang".
At Guiping Girls' School, Guo Dejie is a famous school flower. In 1922, when Li Zongren's troops were stationed in Guiping, one of his subordinates, Guo Fenggang, saw that he was busy with military affairs all day and had no intention of taking his wife Li Xiuwen to his side, so he thought about introducing him to another one. In this way, Li Zongren and Guo Dejie met and fell in love. Under Guo Fenggang's arrangement, Li Zongren went to the girls' school to give a speech, and Guo Dejie was arranged in a very conspicuous position, and was seen by Li Zongren, who was speaking on the stage, and he never forgot it. In this process, Li Zongren asked Guo Dejie to eat a few meals at the restaurant, and began to have the meaning of falling in love with Guo Dejie and marrying Guo Dejie. Guo Fenggang naturally became a person who proposed to his relatives.
Li Zongren ruled the army harshly, fought bravely and wittily, was very famous in the local area, and was highly respected by the people of Guangxi, and Guo Dejie, who had just opened his heart, also had the meaning of falling in love with Li Zongren at several meals. You have affection, I have intentions, the next thing is already a matter of course, after Guo Fenggang came to the door to propose to the family, Guo Dejie agreed, but the problem is that her family also promised her to a local family surnamed Yang, the Yang family was once a large local household, rich and status, helpless family in the middle of the road. After Guo Fenggang reported this situation to Li Zongren, Li Zongren took out 300 oceans and retired for Guo Dejie, and the two were only one step away from marriage.
At this time, the vanity of being a woman was also revealed in Guo Dejie's body, and she put forward a condition to Li Zongren, not only to marry herself, but also to make a big fuss about the wedding, because she knew that Li Zongren still had a wife in her hometown, and she was not willing to be Li Zongren's wife (concubine), and this almost became a piece of her heart disease in the course of the next few decades of her life.
Soon after Guo Dejie and Li Zongren married, Li Zongren took his original wife Li Xiuwen to his side, Guo Dejie and Li Xiuwen accompanied Li Zongren at the same time, and the two could get along peacefully, but what made Guo Dejie feel very unhappy in her heart was that on some occasions she was always called "Second Lady" or "Little Lady", so she also secretly competed in her heart to compete with Li Xiuwen for a "size". However, there were not many opportunities for the two to have a direct conflict, because it was not a long time to pick up Li Xiuwen, and in order for the eldest son Li Youlin to go to school, Li Zongren sent Li Xiuwen and Li Youlin back to his hometown together. Since then, the basic accompaniment of Li Zongren has always been Guo Dejie, who can not only keep the family in order and take good care of Li Zongren, but also do some enthusiastic and charitable things independently behind Li Zongren. It is said that Li Xiuwen also admired her ability, but she still did not give up the fight for "big".
There are two most typical things: First, in the spring of 1926, Li Zongren, commander of the Seventh Army of the National Revolutionary Army, personally went to Guangzhou to instigate the Northern Expedition. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek became the central figure in Guangzhou. As soon as Li Zongren arrived in Guangzhou, Chiang Kai-shek came to visit. This was the first time the two met, and Chiang Kai-shek offered to exchange posts with Li Zongren and marry a brother with a different surname. Li Zongren has been humble because he is not mentally prepared. Guo Dejie saw that the post handed over by Chiang Kai-shek, in addition to the oath that reads "Friendship comrades, oath to cut compatriots, one heart and one virtue, life and death are related," but also the signatures of "Chiang Kai-shek" and his wife "Chen Jieru", so he tried to promote this matter, asked Li Zongren to write his name on the signature of his wife in reply, and therefore determined that Li Zongren could change the post with such a "big figure" as Chiang Kai-shek, and write "Wife Guo Dejie" on the post, which is equivalent to Li Zongren's righteous recognition of his "right wife" identity. It is said that after satisfying this vanity, on the day of the change of post, Guo Dejie was in a good mood, and praised Li Zongren's writing more and more beautifully, which was really beautiful.
Second, in 1942, Li Zongren's mother died, and Guo Dejie and Li Zongren returned to their hometown in Guangxi to attend the funeral. When she arrived at her hometown, Guo Dejie found that because Li Zongren was the ninth oldest in the family, people called Li Xiuwen "Ninth Sister-in-law", but only called her "Aunt Niang", which made her very uncomfortable, and she had a dispute and friction with Li Xiuwen. There are two versions circulating today: one is that Li Zongren was side by side with Li Xiuwen when he was worshipping his mother, and arranged Guo Dejie behind Li Xiuwen, so Guo Dejie cried in public, Li Zongren was helpless, and had to allow her to participate in the worship with Li Xiuwen one left and one right, and participate in the worship with herself; the other was that the worship at that time was divided into two teams of men and women, Guo Dejie was arranged behind Li Xiuwen, she had to squeeze Li Xiuwen hard behind her, she squeezed, and the people behind her also followed her to occupy an idle position, so that the people behind her also occupied an idle position. The space that belonged to Li Xiuwen became so limited that it was difficult for Li Xiuwen to bow down during worship. Li Xiuwen was very unhappy, and she also looked at each other angrily, ready to take the opportunity to make a big fight with Li Xiuwen to compete for "size". As a result, when they had an argument, someone came and asked her to go to the men's team to worship, and she thought that men were "one level higher" than women, which found a certain psychological balance.
Although people cannot simply say today that Guo Dejie's "struggle for greatness" with Li Xiuwen is a kind of vanity, it is certain that Guo Dejie spent a lot of thought on this issue, although she finally replaced Li Xiuwen's position in fact. The most noteworthy thing is that in January 1949, Chiang Kai-shek was forced to step down, with Li Zongren as acting president, and Guo Dejie was very happy. The reason is that in addition to Li Zongren's appointment as acting president, she was also raised high by those who supported them together with Li Zongren and became the "wife of the acting president of the Kuomintang", and the "big" Li Xiuwen had been left far behind by her and people. Since then, she has always attended various events as the "acting president's wife", and although the time is short, her vanity in this regard is greatly satisfied.
However, all this does not mean that Guo Dejie is a person with only vanity, and after coming to the United States with Li Zongren, because Li Zongren had lost his power, within a few years, he was close to each other and had a close relationship. However, Guo Dejie still took good care of Li Zongren very thoughtfully, and even when the initial economic conditions were good, he also asked someone to accompany Li Zongren to play mahjong as a pastime. In this process, Guo Dejie still did not forget his identity as "China's wife in the United States", studied painting, and passed the time with Prime Minister Li Zongrenbai, who wrote his memoirs. He even learned English and got paid off with foreigners. Later, Li Zongren's economic situation was not as good as before, but Li Zongren still liked to call friends to come to his home as guests, and in order to save money for eating and drinking to live a life, Guo Dejie had to issue an "eviction order" at the meal point after the arrival of these people.
The most unfortunate but somewhat incomprehensible thing is that in 1964, Guo Dejie, who was less than sixty years old, was diagnosed with breast cancer, and the doctor told her that if she operated, she could prolong her life. But she had two worries: one was that the operation would destroy her body shape and damage her image as Mrs. Li Zongren; and the other was afraid that people would say that she had breast cancer because she was "big" with Li Xiuwen and got retribution. Therefore, she preferred to die soon rather than undergo surgery, and the result was that in July 1965, shortly after returning to China with Li Zongren, she died of terminal cancer.
Perhaps, here, some people will say that this is caused by the vanity of Guo Dejie's love of beauty, but everything accompanies her death, as if showing some of her cuteness as a woman. This is also the life of her and some women - striving for "big" in the vanity heart, striving for perfection, but it is inevitable that there will be no regrets. It should be repeated that in 1966, four months after her death at the age of 60, Li Zongren married Hu Yousong, who was only 27 years old, at this time, her "big fight" with Li Xiuwen had long been thrown out of the clouds.
The pictures in this article are from the network, thanks to the original author!