What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Li Xiuwen, a 102-year-old woman who has lived to live, has left her name in history because her husband is a well-known figure in modern China -- Li Zongren, a first-class general of the Kuomintang, vice president of the Nationalist government, and acting president.
Marrying such a big person is not the beginning of Li Xiuwen's happiness, but the beginning of her psychological torture, life upheaval and displacement, and the bitterness she has endured for more than half a century.
Li Xiuwen was born in 1891, with Li Zongren tonggeng, also Li Zongren's Hometown in Guilin, in 1911, the 20-year-old Li Xiuwen married Li Zongren, and in 1920 gave birth to a son Li Youlin.
When the two married, Li Zongren was just an army student, and then he joined the army and rose all the way to become the leader of the Gui warlords. In 1922, Li Zongren was already a warlord on the dominant side, when he met The 16-year-old Guo Dejie, whose name was Guo Ruxian, was a new-style woman, although she came from an ordinary family, but her family was not bad, which allowed her to realize the opportunity to receive an education.
Guo Ruxian, who has knowledge, has a very high heart, she is competitive, she must be the first in everything, and she has a rare self-worth realization need of women in that era. Guo Ruxian looks beautiful and generous, knowledgeable, has his own ideas, good at sociability, such a woman and his own illiterate wife in the countryside form a huge contrast, and Li Zongren, who is already the head of the Gui clan, believes that such a woman is worthy of his current identity and social requirements, so both sides believe that the other party is the partner they want to find, in 1924, the two married, Li Zongren changed the name of Guo Ruxian to Guo Dejie, and this German word is taken from one of the words of his name "Delin".
Li Zongren and Guo Dejie
Whether it is Li Zongren or Guo Dejie, they deliberately avoid the reality that he also has an original wife Li Wenxiu and a four-year-old son Li Youlin.
I have to say that Guo Dejie's general's wife has done a good job, she can not only arrange Li Zongren's life and other issues, in the group of wives of high-ranking Kuomintang officials, she also operates with ease, she actively does charity, enthusiastic education, in 1927 Li Zongren Northern Expedition, she even as the leader of the Guangxi Women's Task Force of the Seventh Army of the National Revolutionary Army, led the women's army to participate in the Northern Expedition. For a while, thousands of people in the alley, people must see Mrs. Li's heroic posture, spread as a beautiful talk. For a long time, Guo Dejie was indeed the support of Li Zongren's feelings, life partner, and work assist, which was Li Zongren's plus.
However, how proud and beautiful Guo Dejie was, how dejected and sad Li Xiuwen was, she served her in-laws and raised her young son in her hometown. Li Xiuwen has the virtues of traditional Chinese women, she is virtuous, stoic, sensible, and measured. In 1925, li xiuwen personally arranged for Li Xiuwen to take his 5-year-old neighbor to the army to reunite with Li Zongren.
Li Zongren personally went to the station to greet Li Xiuwen and his son, seeing his son who was already 5 years old, Li Zongren could not help but sigh, he was thirty-five years old, there was only this one son under his knees, and for the parents at home, it was also his wife Li Xiuwen who was taking care of his filial piety, maybe at that moment, for Li Xiuwen, Even if there was no love, Li Zongren would be grateful from the heart.
An awkward threesome of wives and concubines together began, Guo Dejie never put herself in this position of concubine, and she was proud and arrogant, and it was impossible not to have a little frustration in the face of the original partner and the eldest son Li Youlin. This feeling of hers was expressed from time to time in the decades that followed.
First of all, the officers and men did not know how to call the two ladies who suddenly appeared, so they had to call Li Xiuwen as mrs. and Guo Dejie as the second lady, which made Guo Dejie very unhappy, but she did not have any good way. In daily life, the second lady often has to find herself to make up for the presence of the lady of the main room, Guo Xiuwen knows that she is illiterate, in many places she can not help her husband, silence and forbearance have become her normal, Li Zongren is emotionally inclined to Guo Dejie, but morally, he is firmly on the side of Li Xiuwen, for example, he said that why he took a concubine, because of the needs of work and life, but the family affairs, or you (Li Xiuwen) have the final say.
It can be seen that behind closed doors, when it comes to family order, Li Zongren also believes that Guo Dejie is the identity of a concubine. Living together as a family, guo dejie often presents such a pattern: Guo Dejie brushes the identity and sense of existence of his hostess from time to time, intentionally or unintentionally, Guo Dejie always laughs at the ignorance and ignorance of the countrymen, in order to highlight the superiority of his own cultural people. And Li Xiuwen couldn't bear it, Li Zongren and Thin Mud.
From Li Xiuwen's memoir "Me and Li Zongren", we find a story like this:
One day at the dinner table, Li Zongren said that this pale red japonica rice was delicious while eating, and Guo Dejie echoed it. The two sang one and the husband sang with the woman, and Li Xiuwen completely became the third person who could not be integrated, Li Xiuwen's depression and bitterness for many days were suddenly released, and she said coldly:
"This is what we country wives have grown with their clumsy hands, and we can't eat it ourselves, but only for the wives of the officials in the city to eat fragrant japonica rice." There is no country wife, no farmer, you don't want to eat such a good japonica rice. ”
There is a thorn in the words, that is because there is a grievance in the heart, so to speak, Li Xiuwen's eye circles are red, she came to her husband's side, not only did she understand that she could not regain her husband's warmth, but also, she was like an old mother, serving her husband at the same time, but also serving the most hostile woman to herself.
Li Zongren is not just a warrior, after all, he is a politician with culture, insight and strategy, he laughed and said:
"Good countryside! Countryside good! Farmers, industrialists and merchants, farmers second, am I not also a countryman? You both made wives for the countrymen, haha... interesting. I come out now with the determination to save the nation from water and fire, revitalize China, retire in the future, disarm and return to the field, we go back to the countryside to plant fragrant japonica rice to eat, and enjoy the joy of the countryside, it will be more interesting. ”
Li Xiuwen's grievances dissipated a lot, and Guo Dejie's face was red to the root of his neck, why? Because she called Li Xiuwen "country woman" behind her back, it can be seen that not only Li Xiuwen heard this, but it is likely that Li Zongren also heard it, and although Li Zongren said it like a joke, it was obviously appeasing Li Xiuwen and slightly beating Guo Dejie. Years later, Li Xiuwen still clearly remembers this paragraph, which shows how much comfort such a paragraph gave her.
Although he is young, he understands that the extra woman around her father is bullying her mother, and her mother obviously cannot do her, because of her existence, her mother's heart is very depressed. Therefore, his resentment towards Guo Dejie has never diminished, and when someone asks him to call Guo Dejie "aunt", he always stubbornly turns his head, and the hatred in his eyes is indelible.
The mother is bullied, which has a great impact on the healthy growth of her son. This, Li Xiuwen felt, and she did not want to live such an unhappy day, coupled with her husband's busy work and having to deal with complicated family relationships, Li Xiuwen left with her son. From the moment she left, she understood that this husband was only nominal from now on, and that the couple's relationship between the two had come to an end, and that in the future the two would be more affectionate, or because of the ties between the family, parents and sons, they were just relatives.
Teenager Li Youlin
Li Xiuwen quickly adjusted herself, and since then, she has used all her body and mind to cultivate her son, and the complicated family relationship and the difficulties of her mother have made Li Youlin more mature and more competitive than her peers. His most frequent words are:
"Mom, I want to study hard, grow up in the future, let you no longer be bullied, I want you to become the happiest mother." 」
Looking at his sensible son and looking at his son who is working hard at his studies, Li Xiuwen feels happy and relieved from the bottom of his heart. Although Li Xiuwen has no culture, she understands the principle of being a person, she does not spoil her son, but strictly disciplines her son, and puts forward high requirements for his behavior. For Li Zongren, the father, Li Xiuwen no longer conveyed his complaints to him, but considered the big picture, saying that his father did a big cause. Mother and son are deeply dependent on each other, and on the road of Li Youlin's struggle, his mother is definitely the source of his inexhaustible motivation.
In 1949, Li Zongren first went to Hong Kong, and then to the United States in December, he took Guo Dejie to the United States, leaving Li Xiuwen alone in Hong Kong, and Li Xiuwen, who originally hoped to go to the United States to reunite with her son, this difference was 9 years, and she did not go to the United States until 1958 to reunite with her son. At this time, Li Youlin is in a difficult entrepreneurial situation. Perhaps it was the arrival of his mother that brought good luck to Li Youlin, and from 1959 onwards, Li Youlin's company ushered in a golden period of more than ten years of vigorous development.
In 1965, Li Zongren returned to the mainland, but in the years of preparation, Li Youlin gave strong financial support to his father, and it can be said that it is precisely because of the support of his son that Li Zongren's return is more smooth. Li Zongren knows that because of his marriage with Guo Dejie, not only to Li Xiuwen, but also to Li Youlin, but also to Li Youlin, but also caused irreparable harm, for the only flesh and bones, Li Zongren is sorry for his son, when he gets his son's support, especially economic support, you can imagine what kind of sadness he should have.
Li Youlin and mother Li Xiuwen
Li Zongren died only 4 years after returning to the mainland, and on his deathbed he left a last word to let Li Xiuwen return to the mainland and return to the roots. In 1973, with the help of China's representative to the United Nations, 83-year-old Li Xiuwen, accompanied by his son Li Youlin, traveled to Guangzhou via Hong Kong and then returned to Guilin to settle down.
In Li Xiuwen's last 19 years, almost every year, Li Youlin had to return to China to accompany his mother for two or three months. The landscapes and rivers of Guilin recorded their laughter and recorded the deep affection of the mother and son. Those deep and shallow footprints are moving.
After more than ten years of travel, Li Youlin himself said that the money spent to visit his mother was enough to buy a villa, but no matter how much money, for Li Youlin, it was not as happy as accompanying his mother.
At Li Xiuwen's 100th birthday banquet in 1990, the guests were full of clouds and lively, and the leaders of the local government and the united front work departments of Guangxi Province and Guilin City all celebrated the centenarian's birthday, and the local media reported the news of the former acting president of the National Government's original centennial birthday. Li Youlin had mixed feelings, he wept at his mother's birthday feast, he sobbed and said: "My mother lived to be 100 years old, but she has been widowed for 70 years!" ”
Li Xiuwen's later years are very happy, the son Li Youlin is particularly filial piety, the local governments in Guangxi and Guilin have made thoughtful arrangements for Li Xiuwen's old age, she has a high-end villa, with her own special doctors, nursing and life service personnel. For the original wife of the acting president of the Kuomintang who returned to the mainland, people gave her the highest courtesy and care.
The happy Li Xiuwen died on June 18, 1992, at the age of 102. It is said that the centenarian died people are psychologically prepared, but the death of the mother is still a big blow to Li Youlin, his health has been very good, but the death of his mother has dragged him down, soon, he fell ill, when the illness was heavy, he was still anxious that his mother's mausoleum was not perfect, in March 1993, the mother's death was not yet the anniversary, Li Youlin died of illness in the United States, followed his mother.