One day in the 1910s and 1920s, a packed performance ended in applause.
A delicate-looking, graceful maid finished her day's work and walked to the carriage that was coming home.
At this time, a person who looked like a college student suddenly rushed out from the side, and he hugged and kissed her.
The famous man panicked, and the screams and screams sounded everywhere, and the scene was chaotic in a flash.
The college students were sent to the police station by those around them and fined fifty oceans (equivalent to 7,500 yuan). After leaving the police station, this person also went around preaching: "Hurry up! Worth it! ”
This offended woman was none other than Liu Xikui, the "Kunling King" who praised the whole country in the early days of the Republic of China.
This incident spread throughout the streets and alleys of the Republic of China and caused a sensation. There are good deeds written poems as evidence: "Ice and snow wisdom is passed down from now on, and the first female immortal in the play." He Lai was abrupt and abrupt, and his heart and liver were fifty yuan. ”
Liu Xikui's "suitors" not only range from celebrities and rich people, to literati rioters, down to street vendors, but also include five rulers of the Beiyang government - Yuan Shikai, Li Yuanhong, Feng Guozhang, Xu Shichang, and Cao Kun.
However, Liu Xikui successively refused the pursuit of ownership.
In the chaotic era of the Republic of China, ordinary women were still as fragile and deceitful as silk flowers, had no status, and had to bow to the power and call concubines in order to survive.
Liu Xikui, as a dramatist, refused to be traded and possessed with an incredibly tough posture.
Jumping out of the shackles of fate and the times, she lived a clean and clean life, and she was proud of her bones.
Her refusal:
Gorgeous and prickly roses
In 1918, the Shuntian Times presided over the selection of the king of the Lingjie, Mei Lanfang 232865 votes, and Liu Xikui 238606 votes, which was nearly 6,000 votes higher than Mei Lanfang.
Just in response to the sigh of Tan Xinpei, the great king of the Lingjie Realm: "The male has Mei Lanfang, the female has Liu Xikui, and I am Hugh!"
In the Beijing-Tianjin-Shanghai area in the early years of the Republic of China, Liu Xikui was a famous man who was half red in the sky.
Liu Xikui not only has a beautiful appearance, but also has exquisite artistic skills. Her theater was full, people came to listen to the play for a glimpse of her beauty, and the script "New Camellia" set an amazing result of earning 1,500 oceans.
Even Zhou Enlai in his youth came to visit her, and after hearing it, he was amazed and praised her for her excellence.
Therefore, yi Shunding, a famous scholar in the capital, wrote a poem for her: "May I be a cloth under the crotch of Xi Kui!" ”
The world praised her and revered her; countless bureaucratic magnates coveted her and tried to get her.
Historian Zhang Cixi said: "The color of Xikui is the best in the world, and its art is particularly crowned for a while, so it is a person who dumps Xikui. ”
Yuan Shikai once arranged for Liu Xikui to live in the residence of his second son Yuan Kewen in the name of listening to the play. Then, while Liu Xikui was dressing up in the background, he asked Liu Xikui to come and see him.
Yuan Shikai
Can be seen by the president, the average girl out of fear or yearning for fame and fortune, will not easily disobey the other party. However, when Liu Xikui sensed Yuan Shikai's intentions, he directly threw him in the face.
She said unceremoniously to Yuan Shikai, "I still have to make up, and I have to go first if I have nothing to do." ”
Yuan Shikai, who had eaten once, did not die, and sent Liu Xikui three thousand taels of gold, and asked people to send a message to accept her as a tenth aunt.
Liu Xikui was still unmoved: "Don't say three thousand two gold, even thirty two thousand I will not betray myself!" ”
Zhang Xun, the "braided" marshal of the Beiyang warlords, was more "direct" than Yuan Shikai. He had Liu Xikui forcibly "brought" to his palace and asked Liu Xikui to accompany him to the wine.
However, Liu Xikui was not humble and said, "I'm sorry, but those who do our business can't drink." ”
Zhang Xun moved out the same routine again- ordering people to move out three large boxes of silver dollars and place them in front of Liu Xikui.
Liu Xikui didn't even look at it: "If I want to earn money, this little thing of yours really doesn't get into my eyes." I'm not interested in money, I just want you, as a big marshal, to respect Kun Ling, which is also a respect for your own identity. ”
Zhang Xun wanted to marry by force, and Liu Xikui said, "It is impossible to ask me to be an aunt and wife." Soft or hard, I don't follow. When I was cornered, I refused to die. ”
She is a lady, but she has a strong personality and is proud of her bones.
She will not destroy her independence as a woman, buy and sell herself for profit, become a plaything for vulgar people, and defile herself.
Premier Zhou Enlai praised her: "Not greedy for wealth, not greedy, so in the old society to behave so strong." ”
Contemporary playwright Guo Qihong also commented on her: "In that environment, there are several great presidents who pursue and can still adhere to their own beliefs, which is very rare and also maintains the reputation of opera actors." ”
Her choices:
Without love, life is still magnificent
"When I hear about the love of the Republic of China, there are nine sorrows in ten."
In 1915, Lu Zhengxiang, the foreign minister of the Republic of China, held a church meeting, and Liu Xikui and Mei Lanfang performed on the same stage for the first time.
Liu Xikui is the "King of Kunling" and Mei Lanfang is the "King of Men".
Mei Lanfang is a year older than Liu Xikui, and the two are a pair of "golden boys and jade girls" who are equal on the Chinese opera stage in the early twentieth century.
In the process of exchanging art, they sparked sparks, admired each other, and gradually became affectionate.
However, at this time, Liu Xikui was already deeply involved in the whirlpool of power struggle, and there were countless warlords and magnates around her who took turns pestering her.
They threatened her: if they didn't break up with Mei Lanfang, they would never want to see him again!
"At that time, I was in my twenties, and when I was young and young, I also had some achievements in art. Naturally, those warlords and warlords beat me up one after another. People who get too close to my emotions are bound to be threatened. ”
Liu Xikui, who had suffered many persecutions, could only break off contact with Mei Lanfang.
After experiencing a love that ended without a disease, Liu Xikui struggled alone in that whirlpool for several years.
In the face of the entanglement of the great warlord Lu Jin, Liu Xikui was almost at the end of the road.
At this time, someone mentioned to her Cui Changzhou, who was also a direct warlord.
Cui Changzhou helped Liu Xikui escape the entanglement of President Cao Kun, and later wrote a letter exposing the embezzlement of military salaries by his superiors. Liu Xikui admired Cui Changzhou's integrity and bravery, and considered that he was at the same level as Lu Jin and would not be easily persecuted, so uncle Tuo said goodbye to him. Hearing that he was dignified and tall, he agreed to marry Cui Changzhou.
After marriage, Liu Xikui found out that she was deceived by Cui Changzhou's nephew Cui Chengzi during the blind date, and Cui Changzhou was actually 13 years away from her own age, and suffered from lung disease and was weak. (There are different opinions on the Internet, the material comes from Baidu Encyclopedia)
Liu Xikui is not without a way out, but she decided to take responsibility for her choice.
She will be wrong and will continue to live with Cui Changzhou.
However, when Lu Jin heard the news, he sent Cui Changzhou down by means, causing him to run around, accumulate fatigue and illness, and eventually die in a foreign country.
An angry Liu Xikui publicly announced that he would remain widowed for the rest of his life, never marry again, and would no longer sing on stage, completely breaking the thoughts of the officials.
Rather for jade crumbling than for tiles.
As Liu Xikui said: "If you are not willing to sacrifice your body, you have to sacrifice art." ”
Liu Xikui's sacrifice is not limited to art, but also love and marriage.
She has been hidden in the mountains and forests for decades, far away from the art stage she once loved, just to keep the backbone of being a woman, to keep the dignity of being able to be independent of any man and proudly self-reliant.
Since then, there have been beautiful people in the north, unique and independent.
Her curtain call:
The value of women is defined by themselves
After the founding of New China, Liu Xikui, who had retired for many years, came to the Chinese Opera School as a professor.
The pearl that has been sealed for many years has finally shined again in its own artistic field.
At that time, Liu Xikui, who was nearly sixty years old, was petite in stature and had a rounded singing voice, and the grinding of the years had plated her with a layer of calmness.
As an artist who has walked through the old era, Liu Xikui is open-minded and bold in his plays. She fused Hebei Zizi opera with Peking Opera, making the vocal cavity more euphemistic, beautiful, and majestic.
She added Western-style instruments to the accompaniment of the opera, and used colored lighting on the stage to introduce trendy sets...
While creating new art, Liu Xikui seems to be regaining his artistic dream that he failed to sing enough.
She poured out her life's learning to every student, and the peach and plum were all over the world.
After Liu Xikui's death, her lovers buried her in the Babaoshan Revolutionary Apartment.
Liu Xikui spent his whole life rejecting the fate of being possessed, and for this reason, he ran away at any cost, ran away with half his life, and was displaced until his old age.
Her body is full of glory that belongs only to herself: she is a generation of "Kunling King" who praises the whole country, is the "first of the three masters of female performance", and is "China's first modern drama actress". It is a legend that will always be passed on in the pear garden...
History respects the "purity" in her bones, praises her "refusal", so it does not tie her to anyone's name, and does not remember and define her with any crimson story.
Only Liu Xikui himself knows that behind the seemingly simple word "refusal", all the hardships and hardships experienced have been experienced.
In the chaotic world of the Republic of China, the powerful are forced, as a dramatist, as a woman, she needs to be more sober and thorough, and she needs more strength and ability to always adhere to her own inch of pure land.
Her life was magnified by this decades of perseverance.
But today, in the 21st century, many men are still trapped in the old society's mental cage, equating women's value with money, marriage, and maternal status.
My wife was "bought" by me for the house, the car and the bride price, so she should pay for me and the family, and do her "duty" at home to help...
Didn't she break up with me because I didn't have any money? If I had money, she would have posted it a long time ago...
In the workplace, there is no need to worry that women will compete with them, because no matter how hard they fight, after they are over 30 years old, they always have to return to the family and have children...
Women who marry into the rich must be for the sake of glory and wealth, divorce is to divide up their husbands' family property, even if those women are from a good background, have no worries about food and clothing, and are highly educated...
Men's habitual contempt has become the reason why more women are struggling hard - achieving economically nothing for men is the premise of escaping being owned by men.
They can live a decent life in their own right, and love and marriage are non-essential. What attracts men to them will no longer be money and profit, but more of a vivid personality, an interesting soul, and a heart of mutual respect, mutual respect and love.
The thinking of the old society is still widespread, but the women of the old society are gradually gone.
The "Yuan Shikai" in reality should also be sober.
In the face of these women who are working hard, full of positive energy, and even superior to themselves in many aspects, how can men accept and be satisfied with an equal and equal attitude?
When gender relationships no longer need to rely on money to sustain themselves, how can men correct their preconceived notions of women?
What men should do now is to calmly explore with women a way of getting along with the sexes that are evenly matched.