First, the origin
Her name was Cao Chengying, and she was born in 1902 to a wealthy merchant family. My father was in Wuhan doing business in pen and ink, calligraphy and painting, tea, etc., and his family was well-off.
The father's original wife gave birth to three daughters, and later married her mother, giving birth to her and her brother and sister.
Later, her half-sister married the third brother of Hu Shi, a prominent figure in the Republic of China period, so in front of Hu Shi, her identity was: the sister of his third sister-in-law.
Cao Chengying of Girls' Generation
15-year-old Cao Chengying, as one of the bridesmaids, attended Hu Shi's wedding.
At that time, the 26-year-old Hu Shigang returned from studying in the United States, and after receiving his doctorate, he became the youngest professor at Peking University, polite and gentle.
Young Hu Shi
At the wedding, Cao Chengying, the most outstanding of the 4 bridesmaids, and Hu Shi, the groom, both fell in love at first sight and both moved their hearts to each other. Cao Chengying affectionately called hu shi a brother according to his milk name, and Hu Shi called her cousin.
Although Lang has a concubine intention, Hu Shi is marrying someone else!
Hu Shi married Jiang Dongxiu, a village girl from a neighboring village where his mother had been engaged to him when he was 13 years old. Although Jiang Dongxiu's mother was also born in the family of eunuchs, when she came to Jiang Dongxiu, she could not read a few words.
Hu Shi was very dissatisfied with this arranged marriage as early as his study in the United States, but he could not bear to disobey his mother's wishes, and his family was also related to Jiang Dongxiu's family - Hu Shi's aunt was Jiang's aunt.
Just like that, Hu Shi still came back and married Jiang Dongxiu.
Hu Shi and Jiang Dongxiu
Who could have predicted that he would actually have feelings for his bridesmaids at the wedding!
After the ripples in their hearts, they could not contain their inner feelings. After marriage, Hu Shi once went to Cao Chengying's village and brought her a handkerchief embroidered with plum blossoms, because he knew that Cao liked plum blossoms; and Cao Chengying gave her brother-in-law the cloth shoes he made by hand- the two of them exchanged affection in kind.
Then, Hu Shi took the winter vacation and returned to Peking University.
Cao Chengying, on the other hand, is also under the pressure of arranged marriages — as early as when she was in her womb, her family got engaged to the son of a large family in a neighboring village.
That year, after Hu Shi left, Cao Chengying had to marry her fiancé Hu Guanying as scheduled— although her brother Cao Chengke, who studied in the United States, strongly opposed the old-fashioned arranged marriage, he could not stop it.
2. Showdown
After marriage, Cao Chengying went to Hangzhou Women's Normal School under the arrangement of his brother. There, zhu ziqing, Ye Shengtao and other famous new literary scholars taught.
She also participated in the literary group "Morning Light Society" (the predecessor of the "Lakeside Poetry Society") organized by Wang Jingzhi, Feng Xuefeng, Pan Mohua and others. She wrote poetry well and was a talented poet.
Some members of the "Morning Light Society" (from right: Wang Jingzhi, Cao Chengying, Hu Guanying, Zhu Ziqing, Ye Shengtao, Cheng Yangzhi)
Since Cao Chengying had been married for three years and was not pregnant, her mother-in-law arranged for her son to marry a concubine, and Cao Chengying dissolved the marriage contract with her husband's family.
She wrote a letter to Hu Shi on official business, asking Hu Shi to write a preface to the Anhui Luhang Society, and Hu Shi of course readily agreed without saying a word. And so they began to communicate by letter.
Later, they ushered in a happy day like a hot love.
It was in the spring of 1923, Hu Shi ran from Beijing to Hangzhou for recuperation because of a recurrence of an old illness (Cao Chengying happened to be studying in Hangzhou, but their hometown was in Anhui), and the two met and traveled to the West Lake together.
From June to October of that year, Hu Shi rented three rooms in Jin Fusan's residence near The Yanxia Cave in Nanshan, West Lake, Hangzhou, where he could enjoy a bird's-eye view of the West Lake, and lived there for recuperation, while Cao Chengying was with him for a long time.
They played chess together, drank tea, watched the tide, watched osmanthus flowers, traveled to Huawu, toured Lizhuang... Had the best time of my life.
At the time of parting, Hu Shi wrote in his diary:
When I woke up, the moon was in the sky, shining on my head, and it was already three o'clock. This is the last time I saw the moon in Yanxia Cave.
The remnant moon of the lower string, the light color is miserable, not to mention that I have lived the happiest day of my life under the moonlight in the past three months!
Now when I parted, the moon came to see me again, and since then, I don't know when I will continue these three months of Yanxia Cave Mountain Moon 'Immortal Life'! Watching the moon slowly move over the corner of the house on the pillow, I couldn't help but feel sad.
Cao Chengying was pregnant at this time, and Hu Shi wanted to divorce Jiang Dongxiu and then marry Cao, but the fierce Jiang Dongxiu made a big fuss and forced the death of his mother and son, and finally did not leave.
Hu Shi's distant cousin Ishihara Gao recalled:
Jiang Dongxiu often quarreled with Hu Shi for this matter, and once there was a big quarrel, she picked up a paper cutting knife and threw it at Hu Shi's face, fortunately, I pulled them away, and a storm began to subside.
Hu Shi's nephew, Cheng Fade, said in a letter to Hu Shi research expert Shen Weiwei:
My father knew this in detail, and he once told me that in the spring of 1923, Hu Shi went to Hangzhou Yanxia Cave to recuperate, and Cao Chengying accompanied the attendants and had a relationship.
Hu Shi wanted to marry Dong xiu after divorcing her, but Dong Xiu gave up because Dong Xiu threatened to die with mother and son. As a result, after Chengying's abortion, Hu Shibao was sent to the United States to study, and a storm subsided (Hu Shi only told his father about the abortion).
The end result was that Cao Chengying had an abortion and their marriage path was cut off.
Third, single for life
After Cao Chengying graduated from the Hangzhou Women's Division in 1925, in order to complete Hu Shi's unfinished ambition (Hu Shi's early ambition to "repay the country with agriculture"), he went to the Department of Agronomy of Nanjing Southeast University to study, and stayed on to teach after graduation.
In 1934, at the recommendation of Hu Shi, Cao Chengying went to Hu Shi's alma mater, cornell university, to study at his own expense, cornell university, the United States, and returned to China in 1937 after obtaining a master's degree in genetics and breeding, and successively taught at Anhui University and Fudan University, becoming the first female professor in China's agricultural circles!
Young Cao Chengying
In 1939, Cao Chengying met a returned student surnamed Zeng, and the two had a relationship, and the dawn of a new life beckoned to her.
However, when preparing to get married, by chance, Jiang Dongxiu leaked Cao Chengying's past love affair to Zeng's relatives, and ruined Cao's reputation in front of the man's relatives. After learning of this, he unilaterally announced the cancellation of the marriage contract.
Cao Chengying was once again hit hard, discouraged by life, and moved the idea of going to Mount Emei to become a nun.
At this time, Hu Shi served as China's ambassador to the United States in the United States. In his diary dated February 25, 1940, he mentioned:
Friends sent news that Pei Sheng (Cao Chengying, character Pei Sheng) had gone to Mount Emei to become a nun, which made people sad.
Later, Cao Chengying's brother Cao Chengke personally went to persuade her to go down the mountain, and finally persuaded her to go down the mountain and continue to teach.
Middle-aged Cao Chengying
Later, New China was founded. Hu Shi did not heed Cao Chengying's advice and went into exile in the United States, and went to Taiwan in 1952.
Cao Chengying later never married, but she was the loving mother in the hearts of Fudan students. For example, one student will never forget that when he was ill, he received a Knin whole milk powder and oranges from Professor Cao Chengying, which was accompanied by a note: "You will miss your mother when you are sick." If you have anything for your mother to do, let me do it for you..."
Later, on the occasion of Fudan's centennial celebration, many old alumni of the College of Agriculture could not help but burst into tears when they mentioned Mr. Cao Chengying.
Cao Chengying's research direction is plant genetics and breeding, and later focuses on potato variety improvement. In September 1952, due to the adjustment of colleges and universities, Fudan Agricultural College was moved to Shenyang Agricultural College. Cao Chengying was frail and sickly, and could have gone not to the north, but she could not bear to give up her beloved agronomy, or resolutely went to Shenyang.
At Shenyang Agricultural College, she developed a high-yielding potato that is still widely grown in northeast China.
In his later years, Cao Chengying
In 1958, Cao Chengying retired, and in 1969, she returned to her hometown of Jixi, Anhui Province, and donated her life savings to her hometown to build bridges and pave roads and buy agricultural machinery.
In 1973, the 71-year-old Cao Chengying died of lung cancer in Shanghai, and relatives and friends followed her will and buried her next to the Wangchuan Highway in Jixi County, Anhui Province, because she thought that if Hu Shi's soul returned to his hometown, he would definitely pass through here to meet her.....