In 1912, Xu Beihong, who was studying in Shanghai, suddenly received an urgent letter from home:
"The Father is critically ill, and he hopes to return soon!"
The six words that were simple and ruthless made the 17-year-old Xu Beihong feel like being struck by lightning.
After receiving the letter from his family, he couldn't even pack his bags, so he hurried back to his hometown in Yixing, Jiangsu Province.
The journey from Shanghai to Jiangsu was not far away, but in that era of inconvenient transportation, Xu Beihong suffered many twists and turns; along the way, he did not know how many times he secretly prayed, hoping to see his father for the last time.
But when Xu Beihong's servants rushed to his home, he was stunned by the scene in front of him.
On the doors and windows of the box room, the words cut by the sisters were pasted, and relatives also came to the door to help clean the courtyard and buy wedding supplies.
He turned and ran to his father's room, only to see that his father was recuperating in bed, and his body was full of joy.
At this time, Xu Beihong knew: everything was a scam.
Rushing from Shanghai, I am falling into the dilemma of an arranged marriage.
As the saying goes: No filial piety has three, and no queen is greater.
Xu Beihong, who has reached the age of 17, whether reluctantly or unwillingly, must be bound to his parents' arranged marriage.
Such a story is also doomed to Xu Beihong's unwillingness and disgust.
The women of the old era were as fateful as duckweed.
For example, Xu Zhimo's wife Zhang Youyi and Lu Xun's wife Zhu An, all undertook family responsibilities in the name of the empty, dedicating their youth to their husbands, but what they got was indifference and contempt.
In this marriage that was carefully planned by his parents, Xu Beihong's original match was even more so.
In Xu Beihong's life, she did not even have a name; she could not escape the responsibility of passing on the generations without the warmth of her husband.
She gave birth to the eldest son for the Xu family, but what this child brought to Xu Beihong was not the joy of a new father, but a deep disgust and indifference.
Only because he hated arranged marriages, disliked his illiterate wife, out of revenge and rebellion, he deliberately married this innocent child with an obscure name "Robbery"; but what he did not expect was that the disaster brought about by this name had all been fulfilled after 7 years.
Even though the remorse was not the beginning, these tragedies were caused by Xu Beihong's hand.
Xu Beihong, formerly known as Xu Shoukang.
His father, Xu Dazhang, was a gentleman who taught and painted; under the influence of the family, the young Xu Beihong also learned to paint like his father, and he had an indelible good feeling for this color art.
At the age of 13, Xu Beihong followed his father around, selling paintings to earn some thin money and barely maintaining the family.
In the fleeting 3 years, Xu Beihong followed his father throughout the countryside and saw countless people's feelings.
It was also a feeling of youth and hardship, so he took the word "sorrowful hong" in Su Shi's "life is everywhere like, just like the sad hong stepping on the slush", and changed his name for himself, in order to seek himself like a wild goose spreading its wings and soaring.
At the age of 16, Xu Beihong was determined to innovate Chinese painting, hoping to eliminate the old decay of Chinese painting and introduce a new atmosphere.
In order to pursue art, he traveled to Shanghai alone, absorbing the essence of Western paintings with the experience of half-work and half-reading.
Without that self-defeating scam, the answer is unknown whether Xu Beihong's life would have changed.
However, arranged marriage was the fate of countless talents in that era that could not escape.
For the Xu family's parents: they know their son's personality too well, and they know the heavy responsibility of marrying a wife and having children, and they can't get into Xu Beihong's eyes at all.
It was also for this reason that when his father was in poor health, he had to lie that he was seriously ill to trick Xu Beihong into returning home.
At this time, the xu family's parents also chose a wife for Xu Beihong who was "innocent, wrapped in small feet, gentle and virtuous, and scrupulously abided by the three from the four virtues".
But such an arrangement, for Xu Beihong, is undoubtedly a purgatory on earth.
He longed for freedom all his life and was extremely resistant to the rules and regulations of the old feudal society that bound people.
"Holding prejudice alone and obstinately going his own way", these eight big characters in the studio are his determination to resist the old concept of feudalism.
But such a free and uninhibited person also has his own weaknesses.
Xu Beihong, as the son of man, could not do anything against his parents at all; especially in the old villages, those who did not obey his father's orders and intended to break away from arranged marriages would always be invisibly excluded and hostile to other townspeople.
The reality of forced and helplessness made Xu Beihong have to compromise; at the age of 17, with the emotion of "sadness and humiliation", he entered this arranged marriage.
It is precisely this dilemma that makes him think that his life is like a blank piece of paper, but because of the arranged marriage, it is stained and extremely dazzling.
With a vengeful catharsis, he named his eldest son Robbery, which means "born of robbery.".
This obscure name, so angry that the father broke his mouth and scolded: You are cursing who dies, curse me? Or curse your own children?
In his father's view, Xu Beihong's approach is undoubtedly a revenge for his own practice; but it is the most normal thing for a boy to start a family, and Xu Beihong, who has become a father, why should he be such a parent.
He couldn't understand it, but he couldn't control it.
The traditional virtuous wife, although not satisfied with the name, could only be silent in order to please her husband.
This kind of compromise and flattery of his wife made Xu Beihong feel even more depressed.
After the birth of his child, he left Shanghai without looking back, in order to escape the "feudal family" that made him breathless.
Xu Beihong's desperate departure allowed him to gain his freedom as he wished, but this practice hurt his innocent wife.
She knew that she could not get her husband's pleasure, so she tried her best to reduce Xu Beihong's burden; in order not to let her husband worry about the family, she carefully managed the housework, took care of her in-laws, and also did her best to raise her children.
Sometimes, she would send someone to write to Shanghai to inform Xu Beihong about the situation at home.
But Xu Beihong identified this as his own stain, for these letters, he never seriously looked at them, and even threw them directly into the trash can without waiting to open them, as if such an approach could make him clear the entanglement with arranged marriages.
But what did the wife do wrong?
She is the most traditional woman, obeying the arrangements of the family, husband and godson, three from four virtues...
These seemingly spurned practices are precisely the deep-rooted education that women of that era received.
They have no choice and no way out.
In the already desperate marriage, they can only confess their fate and suffer bitterly.
Perhaps, no one is wrong, but it is just not the right time.
Therefore, not long after the child died of illness, the original match, who had always been silent, also passed away.
But there is providence in the darkness: whether it is the wife who is rejected by him as much as possible, or the children who are not welcomed by him, their existence has always been the basis of Xu Beihong's marriage.
It was also this unsatisfactory arranged marriage that completely presented the inferior elements of Xu Beihong's personality, and this emotion with resentment and unwillingness always affected his life afterwards.
As Xu Beihong's first child, Hesheng never received the love of his father.
It wasn't until he was four years old, when Xu Beihong went home to visit his elderly parents, that he discovered:
His son is very talented in painting, even if it is a random scribble, he can bring things to life.
It was this discovery that made Xu Beihong change the normal.
He felt that this child was a material that could be made.
So I also decided: teach him my own painting skills, just as my father taught him to draw when he was a child.
The change of attitude has also given this unpopular marriage the illusion of relaxation.
He renamed the child "JiSheng" to "Jisheng" in order to wash away the obscurity of "Ji" with the joy of "Ji".
Xu Beihong himself also achieved good results in painting, not only meeting many nobles, but even going to Japan to study paintings with their help.
But this late compensation can not change the fate of the fate after all.
The innocent child, at the age of seven, died of smallpox.
The tragic ending of the child also makes people sigh: the "robbery" that Xu Beihong personally gave to the child in that year cannot be avoided after all.
The death of the child also takes away all the memories of the original match.
In this desperate arranged marriage, she had lived a depressed and cautious life; now that the child was suffering, she had no worries and could finally be relieved.
Therefore, not long after the child died of illness, the original match, who had always been silent, also passed away.
Born of robbery, born of robbery, and fallen of robbery.
In this arranged marriage, Xu Beihong gave innocent children and wives in the most ruthless way, a disaster that could not be escaped; this was not caused by his intention, but by his own hands!
In the name of the robber, the words are fulfilled.
Looking at Xu Beihong's later life, it seems that it is also a love robbery.
He was born unwilling to believe in and accept his fate, so he changed his name and tried to control his life.
In several other relationships in his life, this practice is even more vividly reflected.
After making a lifelong appointment with Jiang Tangzhen, he changed her name to "Jiang Biwei" and personally carved it into two crystal rings, one "Biwei" and one "Sorrowful Hong", which were worn on his hands every day.
Jiang Biwei and Xu Beihong
When he was empathetic to his 18-year-old student Sun Yunjun, he changed the name of the other party to "Sun Duoci", engraved a seal of "Great Mercy and Great Compassion", and a pair of red bean gold rings with the words "Compassion" and "Compassion" to show his special affection.
Love that can be derailed at the cost of love, where is there a long time to speak of?
For the sake of Sun Duoci, he twice reported a divorce, completely disregarding the companionship and dedication of his wife Jiang Biwei for decades; but it was precisely this desperate love that made Sun Duoci also choose to stay away.
Until the age of 40, Xu Beihong met his third wife.
In this marriage with a white head, he once again renamed her "Liao Jingwen"; using this most abusive sense of ritual to redefine his life and his wife's life.
Liao Jingwen
It can be said that the number of lives represented by the name is nothing more than a personal choice.
Xu Beihong's life has too many feelings that make people sigh.
Trapped in an arranged marriage, he could have used a relaxed and inclusive mentality to create a warm and romantic home, but he did not; the arranged marriage was his heart knot, the shame in his heart, and this resentment and hatred kept him away from his kind wife and innocent children.
If Xu Beihong could spend more time with his wife, would the child who was born to be disgusted by him also escape the poisonous hands of the disease because he was carefully cared for?
Similarly, his relationship with Jiang Biwei began with a righteous elopement; but after suffering and being bitter, Xu Beihong gave Jiang Biwei a fatal injury in the way of cheating on a student; the later Sun Duoci or Liao Jingwen, although it was the sustenance of his warm feelings, such love was ultimately lamentable.
In this life, he seems to have no remorse for freedom, but he has hurt too many people and owed too much affection...
For a long time, he continued to paint and sell paintings, and earned high compensation fees in the form of self-depletion to make up for the harm to his ex-wife Jiang Biwei; but how to make up for the love he owed to the original match, and how to make up for the love he owed liao Jingwen?
Going around, after all, I owe too much;
Counting and counting, it seems that how to pay back, can not be clear...
————END————
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