Marshal Chen Yi had a great heart throughout his life, he was able to tolerate things that others could not tolerate, and made countless touching and great contributions to the revolution. What he said today is the story of Lu Xiaoman, one of the four beauties of the Republic of China.
Marshal Chen Yi
Lu Xiaoman first divorced the Wuxi-born Lieutenant General Wang Geng of the Republic of China, and later remarried the great poet Xu Zhimo in another air crash, and her parents also died in the 1930s, so after liberation, she was single and had no stable source of income, and her life was very poor and poor.
Lu Xiaoman's Xiaokai
Lu Xiaoman
Some people say that she doesn't still have a Weng Rui noon? How did you end up single?
Yes, although she has a Weng Ruiwu, the landlord's family has no surplus grain. After liberation, it is illegal to sell cultural relics, and Weng Rui can only live a bitter life, he still has his wife and 5 children to support, and his dead brother and family also have to help, so he is often unable to do so in the end. Secondly, Weng Ruiwu has not been able to give Lu Xiaoman a name, so I said that Lu Xiaoman is single.
Lu Xiaoman and Weng Ruiwu
But Lu Xiaoman's situation took a fundamental turn in 1950.
In the autumn of this year, Shanghai was going to hold the first exhibition of calligraphy and painting, and the aunts of the neighborhood committee knew that Lu Xiaoman often painted, so they collectively went to the door to encourage Lu Xiaoman to send a few works to try.
Unexpectedly, Lu Xiaoman's paintings were actually selected to participate in the exhibition, and Lu Xiaoman and the aunts on the street were very happy.
Lu Xiaoman's flowers
Lu Xiaoman's words
The miracle appeared on the opening day, because the mayor of Shanghai, Chen Yi, and his wife Zhang Qian were invited to visit the exhibition.
Mayor Chen Yi stopped in front of Lu Xiaoman's painting and stared at it for a long time, and he said to his entourage: "This person was one of the two beauties of China known as 'Tang Ying in the south and Lu Xiaoman in the north'. Then Chen Yi told Zhang Qian: "In the past, when I was studying at the University of Sino-French in Shanghai, I listened to Xu Zhimo's lectures many times, and according to the generations, this Lu Xiaoman should still be my teacher's mother!" ”
Chen Yi was born in 1901, 5 years younger than Xu Zhimo and 2 years older than Lu Xiaoman.
Here we want to correct Marshal Chen Yi: Chen Yi said that he went to the Sino-French University, in fact, he studied at the Sino-French University in Beijing for a period of time in 1923, and I guess Chen Yi made a mistake or really misremembered it, not in Shanghai.
On the left is Tang Ying, and on the right is Lu Xiaoman
Of course, Chen Yi and Xu Zhimo are not just "teachers and students", there are stories among them.
In January 1926, to commemorate the second anniversary of Lenin's death, Chen Yi wrote an article "In Memory of Lenin" and sent it to Xu Zhimo.
Unexpectedly, Xu Zhimo, who was in charge of the editor of the "Morning Post," was very disgusted with Chen Yi's article, and personally "caught the knife" and wrote an article "On Revolution" criticizing Chen Yi. In the article, Xu Zhimo said that Lenin was "a holy hand who made aphorisms and made slogans", and that Chen Yi was a short-sighted impulsive youth who "made fires and made some small messes", and that he was "blindly following a doctrine based on incomplete reliability and assuming a revolutionary background in fantasy".
The young Chen Yihuo came up at once, and he immediately criticized Xu Zhimo for "the purpose of the words is profound, and he is extremely capable of satirizing and provoking things", and he immediately wrote an article entitled "Reply to Mr. Xu Zhimo" and published it in the "Beijing News Supplement".
Of course, these are all disputes between doctrines and ideals, and are not related to personal grievances.
Chen Yi and Xu Zhimo
Years later, Xu Zhimo had long since vanished into dust, and Chen Yi became the mayor of Shanghai, China's largest city.
Some of the accompanying personnel were familiar with Lu Xiaoman's situation, and then reported to Mayor Chen Yi the difficult situation of Lu Xiaoman's life, and Chen Yi sighed and remembered it in his heart.
Under the care of Chen Yi, Lu Xiaoman was hired as a librarian at the Shanghai Museum of Culture and History and became a painter at the Shanghai China Academy of Painting, and since then she has had a stable income and finally got rid of the difficulties of life.
Lu Xiaoman self-portrait
This reminds me of Ah Binglai in Wuxi, if Ah Bing lived in Shanghai and his "Two Springs" just happened to hear Mayor Chen Yi's ear, maybe Ah Bing would not have died? Well, don't take it seriously, this is a digression.
The news of Chen Yi's concern for Lu Xiaoman soon reached the ears of Hu Shi in Taiwan through the news media. It is said that While drinking wine, Hu Shi wept and said to a friend next to him with great emotion: "Chen Yi is a very humane person, unlike many Communist Party cadres, and I hu Shi is very grateful to him." ”
On the left is Chen Yi and on the right is Hu Shi
We leave aside the inner reason why Hu Shi should thank Mayor Chen Yi, but Chen Yi's concern for and protection of lu Xiaoman is not a minority in Marshal Chen Yi's work. What this matter represents is Marshal Chen Yi's respect for knowledge and humanistic care for talents.
Zhou Gong vomited his heart, and the world returned to his heart; those who won the hearts and minds of the people won the world, and those who won the talents won the world. I hope that a mayor like Chen Yi will have more in the world.
Chen Yi and His Wife Zhang Qian