The Republic of China period was a very special period in history, where new ideas and old ideas blended and changed in the context of the times. During this period, many talented people and talented women were born, who were the spiritual idols of an era. For example, when I heard the name "Zhang Ailing", I don't know how many people who have read her works and understand her inner world shed tears.
Zhang Ailing was born on September 30, 1920 in a declining aristocratic mansion in the western district of the Shanghai Public Concession, Zhang Ailing's family is prominent, her grandfather Zhang Peilun was a famous courtier in the late Qing Dynasty, and her grandmother was the eldest daughter of Li Hongzhang. Therefore, Zhang Ailing received a private school education at a very young age, although the Qing Dynasty at that time was already destroyed.
It is said that "three years old looks big, seven years old looks old." "It is very appropriate to use it on Zhang Ailing's body." At a very young age, Zhang Ailing showed a full interest in literature, and other people memorized scriptures in private schools, and she wrote novels. At the age of 11, he wrote the first step of the novel with a complete plot.
Zhang Ailing's official entry into the literary world was written after she was admitted to the Faculty of Literature of the University of Hong Kong in 1939, and the 19-year-old Zhang Ailing published her debut work "Genius Dream" in the monthly magazine "West Wind". Later, Zhang Ailing published a series of novels and essays during the war years, and her masterpiece "Love in the Fallen City" was also published between 1939 and 1944.
It was when Zhang Ailing was in the limelight that she met another talent, Hu Lancheng. At that time, Hu Lancheng already had a wife and concubine, but in order to pursue the talented daughter Zhang Ailing, he did not hesitate to abandon his wife. Hu Lancheng said that his love with Ai Ling was love in the fairyland, and the love with Xiao Zhou and Xiumei was the love in the dust realm, which was not a grade.
Zhang Ailing listened to Hu Lancheng's rhetoric, fell in love with each other, and was willing to do anything in order to be with Hu Lancheng. In her own words, that's: ?" Falling in love with someone, the heart will always be low, low into the soil, and blossom in the soil, so humble and so joyful. ”
Zhang Ailing's love is too pure, pure enough not to mind the age of the other party, nor to mind the identity of the other party or even to examine the character of this person. Her obsessive relationship ended in failure. In 1946, Hu Lancheng fell in love with another 17-year-old nurse and divorced Zhang Ailing.
At this time, Zhang Ailing's heart must have completely died with this feeling. She immersed herself in the creation of literature to paralyze herself, and in 1955, Zhang Ailing went to the United States and left this sad land, perhaps at this time Zhang Ailing really figured it out, or had to force herself to come out.
Zhang Ailing has developed a great interest in the unfamiliar environment around her, especially in the American literary and art circles. After spending a year in the United States, Zhang Ailing gradually became familiar with the environment here and had her own social circle. At a party, Zhang Ailing met the American playwright Lai Ya. The two married after six months of acquaintance, when Zhang Ailing was 36 years old and Lai Ya was 65 years old.
Although the two were very different in age, the two were extremely affectionate after marriage at that time, and they had the same literary hobbies. Zhang Ailing also gradually walked out of the old wounds. Unfortunately, not long after the two married, Laiya suffered a stroke and collapsed, but Zhang Ailing did not leave each other.
As mentioned earlier, Zhang Ailing's feelings are too pure. Pure enough not to care about each other's age and not to care about each other's identity. This is true for Hu Lancheng and for Laiya, and Zhang Ailing has been guarding Laiya for 11 years. Until 1967, when Laiya died, it was difficult to understand what Zhang Ailing was so insistent on for, or what she insisted on was the love she recognized in her heart.
People who can be loved by Zhang Ailing are lucky, but Zhang Ailing's emotional road is so difficult. Only literature accompanied her, and until her later years she often lamented her emotional twists and turns and regrets. In 1995, Zhang Ailing died. She left alone, and was not found until a week later, blooming like a flower and quietly falling like a flower.