When we lament the beautiful love between Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling, an obscure woman is forgotten by the world. She is Lu Muzhen.
If Soong Ching Ling is the white moonlight that is comparable to Sun Yat-sen, then Lu Muzhen is the white rice grain that silently supports Sun Yat-sen's cause behind his back.
"Goodbye tonight, sir!" Turning around, it was tears, it was like years of water, we did not owe or owe. ”
In "Goodbye Mr. Lu Muzhen" written for Lu Muzhen by later generations, this sentence aptly summarizes the story of Lu Muzhen's encounter and separation from Sun Yat-sen.
Lu Muzhen was originally a carefree little girl, she was born in Xiangshan County, Guangdong Province, Gongchangdu Waituo Village. Lu Muzhen is the eldest daughter in the family, and she was taught by her parents from an early age to wrap her feet and keep the way of women. So Lu Muzhen, who grew up gradually, her feet did not grow longer because of years of foot binding. In addition, Lu Muzhen also learned to do female red and various household chores. She did not read much, because Lu Muzhen's mother said that "a woman without talent is virtuous", and Lu Muzhen was not very attached to reading.
But the young Lu Muzhen is also full of hopes for her future, she thinks that she will probably marry a man from the same village in the future, and then spend this life happily and plainly. This is the best part of life for her.
In 1885, When Lu Muzhen was 17 years old, she heard from her parents that she had set up a family affair for her, and the other party was Sun Yat-sen, a man from the next village.
It turned out that Lu Muzhen's father, Lu Yaoxian, was acquainted with Sun Yat-sen's brother Sun Mei, and in addition to this year, Sun Yat-sen returned to his hometown of Cuiheng Village. Because Sun Yat-sen had destroyed the idols in the village because he had opposed the qing government's rule, he was a "rebellious teenager" in the eyes of his parents.
After Sun Mei returned to his hometown, he saw that Sun Yat-sen was so uninhibited, so he deliberately asked him to accept his heart and not "cause trouble" again. After consulting with his parents, Sun Mei decided to marry Sun Yat-sen. Sun's family believed that by helping Sun Yat-sen marry a virtuous wife, this woman could manage Sun Yat-sen.
Therefore, Sun Mei thought of Lu Muzhen, the daughter of Lu Yaoxian in the next village.
The two families were in equal financial condition and knew the roots, and the marriage was soon negotiated.
On May 26 of the same year, Lu Muzhen married Sun Yat-sen, who was a year older than himself.
On the night of the wedding, Lu Muzhen met her future husband. I saw the man in front of her with big eyes and a look of uninhibitedness, no different from the Sun Yat-sen she had heard from her family. Looking back at Lu Muzhen herself, she looks ordinary, has lived according to the rules since she was a child, and has a pair of feet that are somewhat deformed due to foot binding. Lu Muzhen suddenly felt inferior. But to her surprise, although the handsome husband in front of her was somewhat dissatisfied with the marriage arranged by his parents for him, he did not blame her for this matter, nor did he dislike her.
Three months later, Sun Yat-sen left his hometown to continue his medical studies in Hong Kong. Lu Muzhen stayed at home to take care of the Sun family's parents.
Since then, Lu Muzhen and Sun Yat-sen have rarely had the opportunity to meet.
Lu Muzhen is indeed a rare virtuous wife.
In the spring of 1888, Sun Yat-sen's father, Sun Da, became seriously ill. Lu Muzhen took care of Sun Dada day and night, serving the soup medicine. Although Sun Da later fell seriously ill and died, Sun Yat-sen saw his wife's intentions, and he was very grateful to Lu Muzhen for his efforts and cared more about her. The feelings between Lu Muzhen and Sun Yat-sen also gradually warmed up.
Lu Muzhen was aware of the gap between her and her husband, so she stayed at home, doing the female red and housework she had learned since childhood, saving Sun Yat-sen's worries.
In 1891, Lu Muzhen gave birth to Sun Yat-sen's son Sun Ke. A few months later, Sun Yat-sen graduated in Hong Kong with the first grade in the school. Soon after, the new home (now the former residence of Sun Yat-sen) designed by him was completed. Sun Yat-sen took Lu Muzhen to live in his new home. Lu Muzhen took care of his diet and living.
In 1894, Lu Muzhen gave birth to Sun Yat-sen's eldest daughter, Sun Fei. In the same year, Sun Yat-sen met many patriotic young people who were dissatisfied with the Qing government in the process of practicing medicine. He often interacted with these young people, and his heart was more firm in the ideal of "medical treatment". Soon after, Sun Yat-sen and his allies founded the Xingzhong Association and began a life of saving the Chinese nation from water and fire.
Lu Muzhen only knew that her husband Sun Yat-sen was doing a big thing, and she didn't know how to do it.
But she knew that keeping the family she and Sun Yat-sen had formed was all she could share for her husband.
In 1895, when Sun Yat-sen launched an armed uprising against the Qing Dynasty in Guangzhou, Lu Muzhen was caring for two children at his home in Cuiheng Village. Sun Yat-sen's uprising failed, and the Qing government immediately launched the arrest of these patriotic youths. Sun Yat-sen fled to Macau late at night, and before he left, he had no time to say goodbye to Lu Muzhen.
For the youth who participated in the uprising, the Qing government implemented a policy of committing crimes. Therefore, the Qing government went to Sun Yat-sen's hometown to arrest his family. But fortunately, the leader sent by the Qing government to arrest people misremembered Cuiheng Village as "Cuiwei Village", so they did not find Lu Muzhen and others after many days of painstaking searching, and Lu Muzhen and his children's relatives escaped the disaster.
Later, with the financial support of the revolutionaries Chen Can and Chen Shaobai, Lu Muzhen fled with his family to Honolulu and lived in the home of Sun Yat-sen's brother Sun Mei. I didn't expect this stay, it was many years.
During this time, Sun Yat-sen rarely came to visit Lu Muzhen because he was busy with the revolutionary cause, but Lu Muzhen was always worried about the safety of her husband.
In 1896, Lu Muzhen heard that Sun Yat-sen had been arrested in Britain and was almost killed. Lu Muzhen began to lose sleep at night. It wasn't until more than half a month later that the news of Sun Yat-sen's escape came from the outside, and Lu Muzhen slept well that night.
Lu Muzhen, who has been at home all year round, has not been idle all these years.
When she and her children were in Honolulu, there was no private school to read, and Lu Muzhen became the child's teacher, teaching the children to read word by word. When the child grows up, she is afraid that she will not be able to teach the child well, so she asks a tutor to teach the child. Lu Muzhen is tender and watery in the face of her husband, but she is unambiguous about her children's education, which makes their eldest son Sun Ke have a good foundation in Chinese studies at the age of 13.
In 1903, Lu Muzhen finally met her husband Sun Yat-sen, whom she had not seen for 7 years.
Sun Yat-sen was very pleased to see that Lu Muzhen had educated his children well, and at the same time his heart was full of apologies for his wife, and he said to Lu Muzhen affectionately: "I am so grateful to you!" ”
Lu Muzhen's efforts over the years were finally recognized, and she excitedly hugged Sun Yat-sen and sobbed softly. Yes, Lu Muzhen is just a housewife, she is alone to take care of her children, but also worry about the safety of Sun Yat-sen who is running for the country, in her heart, in fact, there are grievances and sadness. But Lu Muzhen did not say a word to her husband, she did not want to complain about anything, only hoped that Sun Yat-sen could let go of his career and not be tied up by the family.
Four years later, Sun Yat-sen's family moved to Kowloon, Hong Kong. This year, because Sun Yat-sen exhausted his family property to fund the revolution, the family had little property left, and the family lived a hard life in Kowloon. Soon after, Sun Yat-sen's mother died of illness. Sun Yat-sen only had the money to buy his mother's coffin after being donated by the Nanyang Party, but because he was a major criminal pursued by the Qing court at that time, he could not return to the inland to bury his mother, which also became a regret in Sun Yat-sen's life.
Lu Muzhen and Sun Mei took care of the aftermath for their grandmother.
In 1911, the Wuchang Uprising was successful, and the Republic of China was established, and Sun Yat-sen became the first provisional president. The following year, Lu Muzhen and her children came to Nanjing to reunite with Sun Yat-sen.
Lu Muzhen became the "First Lady" of the Republic of China after 17 years of wandering and fleeing with her children. Lu Muzhen felt like a dream, this identity came too suddenly, too unreal, Lu Muzhen has never called herself the "first lady". She just wanted to be Sun Yat-sen's wife.
Therefore, Lu Muzhen explained her troubles to Sun Yat-sen, she "can't bear" such a noble title, and wants to return to Cuiheng Village. Sun Yat-sen could not resist her, so he had to send someone to send her back to her hometown.
Soon after, Sun Yat-sen also stepped down from his post as president and returned to his hometown to live with Lu Muzhen. Those few days in her hometown made Lu Muzhen feel like she had just married Sun Yat-sen in a trance, which was also the calm time that Lu Muzhen missed most in her life.
A few days later, Sun Yat-sen left his hometown at the invitation of Yuan Shikai to go north, and on this trip, he took Lu Muzhen with him. This was the first time that Sun Yat-sen had lu Muzhen by his side while he was busy with the revolutionary cause. Lu Muzhen was also very happy because of this.
Later, Sun Yat-sen also took Lu Muzhen to Tokyo, Japan to investigate, and Lu Muzhen felt happy. They returned to Macau after a few months in Tokyo.
Since then, Lu Muzhen has been living in Macau.
In 1914, Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling met.
Soong Ching Ling admired Sun Yat-sen, and Sun Yat-sen also had an indescribable affection for Soong Ching Ling, which may have been the first time he had met love since his parents' arranged marriage.
Sun Yat-sen and Soong Ching-ling soon fell in love, and the two intended to start a family. But Sun Yat-sen wanted to get Lu Muzhen's consent first.
In March 1915, Sun Yat-sen wrote to Lu Muzhen to explain the matter. Lu Muzhen was unusually calm at the moment when she learned about this. She loves Sun Yat-sen, rather admiring Him, and she also knows that she can only follow Sun Yat-sen and cannot be the woman who is with him. After learning about Song Qingling's work and personality,
Lu Muzhen expressed to the chief guard who delivered the letter that he was willing to divorce, and also wrote a "can" word on the letter. This year, Lu Muzhen was 48 years old.
Although the two have divorced, Lu Muzhen has not stopped caring for Sun Yat-sen. They often exchanged letters, and Sun Yat-sen was often concerned about her physical condition in letters. This seemingly "mismatched" divorced couple has always maintained respect and care for each other.
In 1925, Sun Yat-sen died of illness in Beijing. Lu Muzhen, who was far away in Macau, was so grief-stricken that she then asked someone to ghostwrite and write a eulogy to her husband, in which she said sun Yat-sen had
"Great spirit, great personality"
。 Lu Muzhen's admiration for Sun Yat-sen is all in this sentence.
In 1939, on the eve of the fall of Zhongshan County by the Japanese Army, in order to protect sun Yat-sen's relics, the 72-year-old Lu Muzhen sent someone to move all the items in Sun Yat-sen's former residence to the Sun Mansion in Macau. She instructed the people in charge of the porters to move everything they could to Macau, because it was something she would protect even if she took her life.
After Sun Yat-sen's death, Lu Muzhen also traveled to Andromeda and the inland many times to buy guns, ammunition and medical equipment for the anti-Japanese guerrillas, helping Sun Yat-sen continue the ideal of serving the country that he adhered to all his life.
On September 7, 1952, Lu Muzhen died at the age of 86. After her divorce, she followed Sun Yat-sen's advice to convert to Christianity, and was later buried in the Western Cemetery of Macau according to Christian etiquette.
With Tagore's:
"Love is a full life, like a glass full of wine"
A poem to describe Lu Muzhen's life could not be more appropriate.