One
Since I was a child, I have constantly heard xiamen people say that the older the women of Gulangyu Island, the more beautiful they are.
I have been looking forward to it for more than half a century, and I have grown like this, but there is no sign of being beautiful at all. Only then did I understand that the female predecessors of Gulangyu Island were all temperamental women, and through the joint creation of time, place, and people, such a beauty has truly become extinct! Look at the current female masters, doctors abound, the nose hanging glasses are thick, the mouth is fluent in foreign language, the perfume on the body is expensive, and the hands and feet are still missing a little foundation. This little bit of lack is often unattainable in a lifetime.
Gradually fading away into the shadows of the years of Gulangyu Island, Huang Xuan's name has gradually been paid attention to because of the spontaneous memories and nostalgia of many people. Especially after the publication of the book "The Last Twenty Years of Chen Yinke", people saw a dignified and elegant intellectual woman behind the master. Judging from the black and white old photos, Huang Xuan's appearance should not be too heavy, right? Whether it was in her pampered cardamom years or during the difficult and difficult period of the War of Resistance, she bloomed with the most simple and frank smile, revealing at a glance the white and unblemished heart, the quiet and introverted wisdom, and the honor and humiliation of the world.
Zhangzhou Road is on the shore of the wind and waves. Bizzling along the curb is a small slope with a uniquely designed parapet. The quaint cottage on the slope is one of the properties of Huang Yi, the richest man in Gulangyu Island. Mr. Huang Yizhu's most splendid property on the island is the Huang Family Garden. This small sea-facing building on Zhangzhou Road is one of five small villas in the same design drawing. It is said that Huang Yi lived with the remaining materials of the Huang family garden, and his daughter Huang Xuan lived here.
Huang Xuan's mother is Huang Yizhu's original match Wang, eight years younger than Huang Yizhu, who was originally a child bride who sent the wrong door, but left the mistake wrong. Wang's filial piety and virtuousness, diligence and strength, have a profound influence on Huang Xuan. She once told her daughter Zhou Han: If you write a book, you must write about the two generations of your grandmother and your wife who depend on each other.
I often meet Zhou Han on the road. Zhou Han always has two braids coiled up, does not dye hair, does not apply fat powder, plain face to the sky, refreshing and clean. The steps are very cheerful, the voice is very bright, the interest is full of excitement, and the mind follows the century-old tradition of the family's enthusiasm for education.
From Wang To Huang Xuan to Zhou Han, what are the three generations of women in the same vein? I couldn't afford to delve deeper, so I didn't dare to say anything.
Gulangyu daughter, said that it is easy to understand and not easy to understand.
Two
In 1919, the 51-year-old Huang Yi was unable to bear the extortion of the Dutch colonial government, refused to change his nationality, and returned from Semarang, Indonesia, with more than 20 million silver dollars. At that time, he took his mother, who was originally from Nan'an, to Gulangyu Island for upbringing. 9-year-old Huang Xuan came to Gulangyu Island with her mother and grandmother, just in time to enter primary school.
Huang Xuan's childhood was spent in rural southern Fujian. Her unassuming, unassuming, plain and low-key personality is related to her closeness to the land since childhood. In her twilight years, Huang Xuan entertained herself by taking care of the small garden, and her hand-planted camellias, stone garlic, and gerbera brought the scenery of a corner of the field in her childhood to the shuttered wooden window where the waves were attached.
Due to the extremely superior family situation and the fact that Huang Yizhu paid more attention to cultural accomplishment, Huang Xuan continued to receive boudoir education, and at its peak, there were four tutors who taught Chinese, English, music and so on. Many people don't understand that an enlightened gentleman like Huang Yizhu has repeatedly invested huge sums of money in public education, but does not let his daughter go to college, is it a little strange? In fact, although Huang Yizhu has a sharp mind and a tenacious personality, he can plan and be good at management, after all, he was born in the countryside to "shave his head" and his education level is not high, which makes him determined to make his daughter a real famous lady. To this end, Huang Yizhu was especially a daughter who was already very good in English, and he invited a group of famous Confucians like Yan Yaoshu and He Xianfang to teach the scriptures and rules, and once they practiced it for a full 5 years, laying a deep foundation for Huang Xuan's classical literature.
Huang Xuan in his youth
Huang Xuan, who has become a bridesmaid, if he is married by his father to a marriage that is right at home, it is difficult to guarantee that the second half of his life will not be like those lonely overseas Chinese in the compound of the island's deep house. It is said that Huang Yizhu's standard for choosing a son-in-law is democratic and enlightened, and he fully respects his daughter's choice. And Huang Xuan himself is also very determined, must be a learned and insightful young man, never consider the rich family's young master. After being recommended by relatives, Zhou Shoukai, the son of Zhou Dianxun in Zhou Bao Lane, Xiamen, entered the Huang family's vision. Huang Xuan almost without thinking about it, Huang Yizhu pushed the waves, and after the two met, the fish and geese went back and forth, and finally concluded a marriage contract.
In 1910, Zhou Dianxun entered the Beijing Examination, passed the first class of the middle hall examination, and was appointed as the chief of the official department. Soon after resigning from the government and returning to Xiamen, he was the first librarian of Xiamen and the first Chinese principal of Tongwen Middle School, organizing the "Lujiang Poetry Society" and compiling several books. It is not an exaggeration to say that Zhou Dian was full of poetry books. The son Zhou Shoukai, the fourteenth in the family, the younger generation is called the fourteenth uncle. In 1925, he was admitted to Fuzhou Union Medical College, and the following year he transferred to Beijing Yenching University; in 1928, he graduated from the pre-medical department with a bachelor's degree in science; in 1933, he received a doctorate in medicine from Peking Union Medical College. He is from a famous family, and the young talents are also very appropriate. Such a dragon-riding son-in-law, Huang Yizhu is naturally happy.
It was originally a happy marriage. Unexpectedly, at the wedding, the groom was not in place! The Huang family was in an uproar. It is conceivable that there is indignation, condemnation, and suspicion, teaching Huang Xuan how to face it!
Although the Zhou family has been reading for generations, it is richer than the Huang family at that time, after all, it is poorer. According to Zhou Han's speculation: perhaps his father Zhou Shoukai felt that the family's wealth was too disparate, hurt his self-esteem and fled? Maybe among the talented girls in medical school, there is already a shadow of his heart? If neither is true, I suspect that Zhou Shoukai received higher education in Beijing, and the influence of modern civilization made him have a more romantic and beautiful dream of love, is this one of the unexplored reasons?
At this time, Huang Xuan, who was easy-going on on the surface, suddenly showed a decisive side, and sent a short note to Zhou Shoukai (the benefits of education), which was concise and concise, indicating that he would never talk about marriage again. Even though it was rumored that Zhou Shoukai had married and had children in Shanghai, Huang Xuan was bent on identifying Yiren and did not waver.
After many hesitations and wavering, Zhou Shoukai finally married Huang Xuan in September 1935. Zhou Shoukai was 29 years old and Huang Xuan was 25 years old. At that time, it was really a big man and a big woman.
Huang Yizhu, who loved his life, was overjoyed, and his former suspicions were gone, and he personally rushed to Shanghai to marry. At the wedding, Huang Yizhu openly invited his son-in-law to serve as deputy general manager of the Central South Bank he founded, but was rejected by Zhou Shoukai. The next day, the couple went north together and began to live together.
Many years later, Zhou Shoukai, who became the vice president of Zhongshan Medical College, finally said to his wife from the bottom of his heart: "If I choose again among the many professors and wives, I will still choose you." The whispers between husband and wife did not have to care what the other professors' wives would think. At least for Zhou Shoukai himself, it is indeed a happy marriage with no regrets for life.
Three
Zhou Shoukai's medical work is busy and responsible, and according to their family concepts, Huang Xuan's duty should be to teach her children at home. However, when Huang Xuan put aside the housework and went out to work every day, the husband never complained. In the evening, there is a swing chair on the wide enclosed balcony, and the two sit side by side, slowly swinging and gently shaking. According to her niece Xiuluan's recollection, a self-disciplined medical scientist like Zhou Shoukai would hum songs for his wife when he was happy. In those long days when Huang Xuan came out early and returned to Chen Yinke's work, as long as there was time, Zhou Shoukai would go to the bus station to pick up his wife and then go home graciously.
In the second half of 1950, when he heard that Chen Yinke was giving a class to graduate students at home, Huang Xuan wanted to go to the audit and invited his niece Xiuluan to go with him. Thanks to the niece's vivid description: "Mr. Chen's class is set up on the balcony of his house, and a small blackboard is propped up at the end of the balcony. The gentleman sat on a rattan chair in front of the blackboard, wearing a robe, because of the lack of sun, the skin color was very white, long face, high forehead, but unfortunately the eyes that should have flashed the light of wisdom, there was no expression, it seemed to be confused. Huang Xuan sat quietly on the side, not attracting attention.
In November 1951, Huang Xuan, who was the wife of the dean of the School of Medicine of Lingnan University, came to Chen Yinke's home on the official recommendation of Guan Songshan, the wife of Professor Chen Guozhen of the same hospital, and tried to serve as an assistant.
At this time, Chen Yinke had been blind for several years, so he felt more acutely. Although he had never seen Huang Xuan's appearance until his death, only by a brief contact, from his rich experience, he had captured the "beauty of the door style and family learning" that he had always liked and admired with all his might, and immediately invited him to enter the door.
What I want to say is that they are attracted to each other. I would also like to say that the elegant connotation of a woman is more tempered by the years than the appearance of a flower. It is necessary to be about 40 years old to mature into a graceful, cellar-like special fragrance. At this time, Huang Xuan, because of the happy marriage and stable life, is calm and relaxed, and the pearl is round and jade, although people reach middle age, it is the most attractive golden time in the life of intellectual women.
Chen Yinke, hatched under the wings of the Hehe family gate, was born with the temperament of a celebrity, and in his heart he still maintained the traditional view that "things are clustered and people are grouped". How could such a highly pure person endure the ordinary people around him for a long time! "Therefore, the appearance of Huang Xuan is really the pity of history for this cultural old man who feels more lonely." (The Last Twenty Years of Chen Yinke)
On November 22, 1952, due to insufficient school funds, Sun Yat-sen University hired Huang Xuan as Chen Yinke's concurrent teaching assistant, paying only part of his salary.
Huang Xuan and Zhou Shoukai
It can be concluded that Huang Xuan is fully engaged in work, regardless of how much he is paid. Shortly after 1949, Zhou Shoukai's salary had climbed to the "385 high slope", that is, a monthly salary of 385 yuan, which was more than enough to maintain family expenses with the living standards at that time, and Huang Xuan did not need to make up for it until this time. This makes her particularly relaxed and comfortable, not because of the money itself, but because she is very considerate of her husband's self-esteem.
In the summer of 1953, Chen Yinke's family moved upstairs to the Zhou family, which connected with a staircase of the Zhou family. "The two families with strong traces of the Wang Xie family in the old times treat each other with courtesy, see each other sincerely, have the same taste in life, and have more common language because Huang Xuan has worked for Mr. Yin Ke. The warmth of the neighbors and the ambiguity of human feelings gave Mr. Chen Yinke a little joy. (The Last Twenty Years of Chen Yinke).
Imagine Huang Xuan walking upstairs to work, and by the way, carrying the delicious Western-style pastries baked by hand, and delivering them to the Chen family's table; imagine that in the evening, Huang Xuan was in her own home, her fingers deftly knitting sweaters (which is also what she is best at), hearing Mr. Chen's moaning voice coming from upstairs, and unconsciously showing a knowing smile; imagining Mr. Chen lying sick in bed, Huang Xuan reciting "Regeneration Edge" for him, slightly Fujian township tone, more pleasant (at least I sound like this); imagine on the lawn of No. 1 in the southeast district, Together with Mr. Chen's wife, Tang Xiaoying, Huang Xuan presided over a charity sale cold dinner party for the professors' wives. Tang Xiaoying was the granddaughter of Tang Jingsong, the former Inspector of Taiwan in the Qing Dynasty, and was able to paint poetry. The two of them stood arm-in-arm against each other, reflecting each other perfectly, and the pink dais around them were all colorless?
After all, imagination is only imagination, and I and other mundane and vulgar descendants can only rely on imagination to construct scenes that cannot be returned decades ago. Perhaps, the Zhou family and the Chen family are humble gentlemen who respect each other as guests, and do not disturb each other after work?
Four
In the summer of 1954, Zhou Shoukai, who was the vice president of the South China Medical College, had to move his home to the dormitory in Zhusi Village in the urban area, 10 kilometers away from the Chen family, and had to reverse two buses to and fro, which took three or four hours. In this way, it is a big problem for each other. Also worried about affecting the work, the weak Huang Xuan had to ask Chen Yinke to resign. To this day, Huang Xuan still remembers what Chen Yinke said at that time: "You went, it is not easy for me to find a suitable assistant teacher, as soon as you leave, I will not be able to work." The attitude was so sincere, the tone was so lonely, and Huang Xuan, who was deeply moved, stayed again.
Therefore, Huang Xuan got up at 7 o'clock every morning, quickly rushed to the station, squeezed the car for two hours, and sat in front of Mr. Chen at 9 o'clock to start work. After work, it was past 1 o'clock in the afternoon, and I squeezed in a two-hour car to go home. Breakfast was too late to eat, and I ordered a milk at the Chen family. Lunch is sometimes kept at the Chen family. Although Huang Xuan is 20 years younger than Chen Yinke, Chen Yinke still asks the children in the family to call her aunt. This kind of etiquette is thoughtful and respectful, and huang Xuan also remembers it.
The year I first started working was not easy for both of them. The master is proficient in more than a dozen languages, including difficult languages such as Turkic. He is rigorous in his studies, knowledgeable in his knowledge, and his ideas are like waterfalls such as galloping horses, like dragons entering the clouds like meteors, how can Huang Xuan keep up for a while? Huang Xuan tried to retreat several times, but he swallowed the words to his mouth. Because Chen Yinke, who originally had a big temper and a very strange temper, did not tire of slowing down his speech speed to cooperate with the new assistant, and even wrote word by word on the blackboard, letting Huang Xuan record word by word. In the long 13 years since then, Chen Yinke has never lost his temper with Huang Xuan.
Chen Yinke is writing a book with the assistance of his assistant Huang Xuan (first from right) (1957)
Mr. Chen's memory is amazing, and he can clearly remember which piece of historical material comes from which book and which page. Occasionally I can't remember clearly, so I let Huang Xuan help check it, but as long as Huang Xuan reads a few sentences before and after, Elder Chen can approve the specific sources of the required information.
Huang Xuan worked for Chen Yinke for 13 years. In the past 13 years, Mr. Chen has completed important works such as "On the Origin of Regeneration", "YuanBai Poetry Notes", "Liu Ru is a Biography", accumulating nearly one million words.
On September 15, 1955, proposed by Chen Yinke, Sun Yat-sen University officially hired Huang Xuan as a full-time teaching assistant. Until retirement. She is really a permanent teaching assistant, and her salary is only 74 yuan.
There are some ridiculous legends about money. We once read a passage that spread falsehood: In 1969, during the "clean up class ranks" campaign, the inventory team of the History Department of Sun Yat-sen University forced Huang Xuan to hand over "ill-gotten gains from exploiting class families." "The first face-to-face confrontation, Huang Xuan handed over 20,000 yuan in deposits." According to the analysis of the members of the post-incident inventory team, the first confrontation is far from touching the core. In the second conversation, the investigation team stipulated that Huang Xuan repeatedly studied "where is the Nanjing Government going" and "urging Du Yuming and other surrender documents" and "Huang Xuan shed tears." As a result, "the second confrontation Huang Xuan handed over 90,000 yuan", "the third confrontation Huang Xuan handed over 200,000 yuan", "the fourth confrontation Huang Xuan handed over 800 yuan of public bonds". Within a few days, "Mao Zedong Thought showed great power" and "Huang Xuan was forced to hand over 320,000 yuan of hard-earned money from working people." ”
Most likely, this is one of the remarkable achievements made up by the so-called "clearance team". Huang Xuan's request to Mr. Lu Jiandong, who came to visit him before his death, was to ask him to correct and revise this paragraph when he republished "The Last Twenty Years of Chen Yinke". Because, Zhou Han said: This fabrication is too boring, money for Huang Xuan, where does it have the effect of inducing people to shed tears?
At the beginning of the storm of the "Cultural Revolution", Huang Xuan immediately handed over a large amount of deposits existing in his name to the History Department of CUHK, and exchanged them for a receipt when there was no great chaos, so that most of the money stored for relatives abroad was finally returned to Zhao. As for the jewelry that the female relatives of large families regarded as their destiny, soon after 1949, Huang Xuan took the initiative to sell them all at a low price to the state to support construction, and the barbarian guys who later rushed into the door to raid the house found nothing.
They all thought that money had never been a problem for Huang Xuan, but in fact, it was not. When Zhou Shoukai was suffering, an old friend from Xiamen got married in Guangzhou, and Huang Xuan was unhappy because he was too shy to buy a small gift, so he rummaged through the boxes and cabinets to find a brand new tablecloth, and he was actually happy! Zhou Shoukai died, the old nanny refused to stay any longer, in order to make up for the wages owed to her, to raise her way back to her hometown, Huang Xuan endured the pain of selling the famous brand piano, only three or two hundred yuan. In her later years, all she entertained herself in Gulangyu Island was an ordinary old piano with a Pearl River brand. Huang Xuan's generosity and kindness, sympathy for the weak, is exactly the old father Huang Yizhu's teaching: "Credibility is more important than life." ”
Zhou Shoukai once said that Chen Yinke's ability to accept Huang Xuan as an assistant without reservation was to see Huang Xuan's sincerity and faithfulness as a person, and he would never casually publicize Chen Yinke's private affairs. When many of the post-schoolers who were in charge of Mu Shi'en avoided suspicion and stayed away together, Huang Xuan, who had no sense of intrigue, walked into Chen Yinke's desolate predicament and scrupulously fulfilled his duties to assist him, so that he could get the friendship nourishment in his twilight years. The warm comfort aroused Chen Yinke's abundant creativity and achieved unexpected and great success. As Chen Yinke wrote in the "Opinions on the Appraisal of Mr. Huang Xuan's Work": "In short, I can still correct the old manuscript and write a new article, all with the help of Mr. Huang. If she hadn't helped me, I would have been completely ruined and wouldn't have been able to do anything. ”
Five
During the Cultural Revolution, Chen Yinke, who had been frightened and tortured, knew that there were not many days to come. To Huang Xuan, who came to visit him, he said: "My methods and experiences in governing my studies are the most familiar, and after I die, I hope that I can write a text to tell the world." Huang Xuan pleaded, "Mr. Chen, I'm really sorry, I really haven't learned your stuff." Chen Yin was gloomy: "If you didn't learn it, it would be good, so as not to be poisoned by me." 20 years later, Huang Xuan said sentimentally: "My reply to Mr. Chen is disappointed. But what I can't do, how can I bear to deceive Sir? I am afraid that no one can learn the knowledge of the gentleman, and I dare not say that I understand one percent of it. ”
Zhou Han once asked her mother that the conversation with Mr. Chen made her so uneasy all her life, who else was present when she spoke? Huang Xuan's answer was: It was only her and Mr. Chen, and Mrs. Chen was going out to get something. Huang Xuan later told this to Mr. Jiang Tianshu of Fudan University in Shanghai, who was a student of Chen Yinke and a person who entrusted his life. Mr. Jiang made this incident public, and it attracted the attention of many people. He corresponded frequently with Huang Xuan during his lifetime, encouraging her to write a memoir, but it was never written.
Zhou Han believes that her mother's telling of this matter may be to let Mr. Jiang and others understand Mr. Chen's last wishes, hoping that they can fulfill this instruction for Mr. Chen for themselves?
As Chen Yinke once said to Huang Xuan: "You can afford it, you can put it down." Huang Xuan is well versed in the principle of "what can be done and what cannot be done". "Flowers are still troublesome, and the stone cannot be said to be the most adorable." The great beauty is speechless, or is it speechless in the face of the great beauty? This is also a state that not everyone can stick to.
However, when the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House wanted to publish Chen's posthumous works, Huang Xuan did not hesitate to work hard, twice went to Shanghai with illness, supplemented the materials for the posthumous text, and exchanged letters with other collators, reaching more than a dozen letters. This is what she thinks she can do for Mr. Chen, and she must do it with all her might.
In fact, on Huang Xuan's literary attainments, not only can she cooperate with the master and rub out the spark of inspiration, but she also has deep accumulation and considerable talent. It is said that on the bus for four or five hours a day, Huang Xuan is always interested in observing the people and things around him, and when he returns home, he writes down some miscellaneous essays in time, but never shows outsiders. During the Cultural Revolution, this book was destroyed along with most of her books, and even her daughter did not know what kind of thoughts and literary style Huang Xuan had. In the information collected by Zhou Han, I read some of Huang Xuan's letters to relatives and friends, which were eloquent, natural and kind, and the writing skills were slightly apparent.
Before dawn on October 7, 1969, Chen Yinke, a generation of confucians who had experienced hardships and poverty and illness, died silently and unjustly at the age of 79. After 45 days, Tang Xiaoying, who had suffered and loved his wife for 40 years, calmly explained the aftermath and left with him.
In 1970, Zhou Shoukai, an expert in internal medicine with superb medical skills, actually "died of appendicitis", and even Huang Xuan could not see the last side, which made people sigh!
In 1973, at the age of 63, Huang Xuan retired from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. In 1980, he moved back to his hometown of Gulangyu Island, returned to his roots, and quietly lived in the old house left by his father. Since then, he has embraced books, talked to each other with the qin, and has not been quiet, indifferent to himself; in May 2001, 91-year-old Huang Xuan slept with his eyes closed in the arms of his children and never woke up again.
Huang Xuan's last 20 years were much luckier than Chen Yinke's. In the morning and dusk, there is a daughter to accompany, the partition wall is the old friends and old relatives often come and go; push the window to watch the cloud sail gull birds roll up the white waves, open the door is the flowers and trees taken care of by hand, not noisy or dazzling, quietly snuggled up to her side, spread out at her feet.
Source: Magazine of All Walks of Life, Issue 3, 2022
Author: Shu Ting