We have an idiom in China called "character as its person", which means that a person writes a word, the style is like the way he behaves in the world, the book is the character, such as the character of the person, the font is usually very large, the stroke is stretched; the person who is cautious in nature, the font is small, and basically does not write scribbles. Some people even assert that people who can write beautiful words will not be bad in character.
Although this statement is somewhat absolute, it is certain that a beautiful word will make people feel happy and thus have a good impression on the writer. The protagonist in today's story is a famous calligrapher, the characters are particularly beautiful, someone spent 4,000 taels of gold to ask him to write 4 words, known as "a word of a thousand gold", but he did not have a beautiful character like a word, is a full-fledged traitor, who is he? What did he do?
Zheng Xiaoxu, born in 1860, is a modern Chinese politician, poet and calligrapher, and he has a more "loud" position than this - the prime minister of puppet Manchukuo, as a talented man who was a 22-year-old high school talent in Fujian Province, how did he get to this point?
It is said that Zheng Xiaoxu wrote a good hand since he was a child, and he was able to raise people early in high school, and he could not do without his good handwriting, plus the Zheng family generation eunuchs, poetry heirlooms, Zheng Xiaoxu's father also entered the dynasty early as an official, Zheng Xiaoxu has a good growth environment, brothers and sisters can write and paint, Zheng Xiaoxu is particularly talented.
At that time, people looked at his words and exclaimed: "The only one who can correct the shortcomings of Zhao Zhiqian's drifting, Tao Junxuan's board stagnation and Li Ruiqing's vibrating pen is Zheng Xiaoxu." "What concept?" Zhao Zhiqian was a famous calligrapher and painter in the late Qing Dynasty, and even Qi Baishi was influenced by him; Tao Junxuan was the 45th grandson of Tao Yuanming, a famous calligrapher; Li Ruiqing was an important founder and reformer of modern and contemporary Education in China, and also wrote a good hand. And Zheng Xiaoxu, even able to take its essence to remove its dross, beyond the three, can see his calligraphy level.
In 1885, Zheng Xiaoxu defected to Li Hongzhang and became his aide, and in the next few years, he became a cabinet secretary all the way, and later went to Japan to become the secretary of the Qing government embassy in Japan, laying the groundwork for his future becoming the prime minister of puppet Manchukuo.
In 1924, the Beijing coup, Zheng Xiaoxu, who wanted to "restore the country", assisted Puyi in escaping, and later went to Japan again to plan Puyi's restoration activities, when the puppet manchukuo was established, Zheng Xiaoxu immediately drafted the national anthem and the declaration of the founding of the puppet Manchukuo, and was busy with everything.
At that time, they did not have much money, Zheng Xiaoxu was directly "selling words for money", Zheng Xiaoxu's words were very valuable, as early as 1908, the first manager of the Bank of Communications Li Jingchu offered him a sky-high price of 4,000 gold to ask him to write an inscription for the bank, yes, now we can see the "Bank of Communications" 4 big characters, is Zheng Xiaoxu's own handwriting, although later he became a big traitor, but because these 4 words are too beautiful, so it is still retained.
In order to "restore the country" as soon as possible, Zheng Xiaoxu ran around, in fact, he can also be regarded as loyal to the Qing Dynasty, but this foolish loyalty made him do a lot of wrong things, such as signing some traitorous treaties with the Japanese behind Puyi's back, and there was a fierce quarrel after being discovered by Puyi, which was recorded by Puyi in his memoir "The First Half of My Life".
As everyone knows, the puppet state of Manchukuo soon disappeared into the long river of history, and Zheng Xiaoxu's "dream of restoring the country" was impossible to realize; in repeated encounters and blows, Zheng Xiaoxu was ill and died soon after in sorrow.