On May 9, 2022, People's Artist Qin Yi passed away in Shanghai at the age of 100. If you count from the sixteen-year-old cameo drama, Qin Yi's acting career has lasted for more than eighty years, which is already a miracle in itself.
Even by the strictest standards, she is still an uncompromising beauty, and few Chinese women can maintain such a good appearance and style at the age of 100. What we can't imagine is how many disasters and tribulations such an elegant mother has experienced in her life. I wish the elderly good health and longevity.
Text | Qunxuejun
01
On December 15, 1947, in the Universe Club on Po Tin Zha Street, next to Queen's Road, Central, Hong Kong Island, a small half of the Chinese cultural circles in Hong Kong were gathered together because of the wedding of a couple.
It was Wu Zuguang who handled the wedding, Mao Dun and Ding Cong were all guests, and the witness, Mr. Guo Moruo, wrote down the four seal characters of "double stars and jumping together" on the wedding certificate that was one foot and fang huge. After three rounds of drinking, the historian Zhai Bo praised and pulled the corner of the bride's clothes and sang: I will do your tail...
Even in the literary and artistic circles of countless handsome men and beautiful women, this newlywed couple is also a rare bi person.
The groom, Jin Yan, is the first "film emperor" in the history of Chinese cinema. In 1932, in the "Top Ten Movie Stars in China" voting launched by the "Electroacoustic Daily", the budding Golden Flame was elected as the first film emperor by fans one by one - interestingly, Jin Yan was actually a Korean. The following year, Ruan Lingyu, Chen Yanyan and Li Zhuozhuo starred in "Three Modern Women", telling the story of three young women admiring the same movie star, and screenwriter Tian Han said that he was inspired by the love letters received from countless female fans received by Jin Yan.
The bride, Qin Yi, is one of the "Four Famous Dans" who are equally famous with Shu Xiuwen, Bai Yang and Zhang Ruifang on the drama stage of the 1940s. In his later years, Wu Zuguang wrote an article recalling these four famous dans, saying that in addition to acting skills, Qin Yi was especially known for her beauty — her English name was "Helen", which was the name of the most beautiful Spartan queen in Homer's epic poem "The Iliad".
At the wedding, everyone asked the couples to say a few words, and Qin Yi only said one sentence:
"If there really is love in the world, then it is him."
02
In his wedding speech, Mr. Guo Moruo said ten words to the couple: cherish love and cherish artistic life.
Guo Moruo's words are useful. Jin Yan and Qin Yi each had an unsuccessful marriage, Jin Yan's ex-wife Wang Renmei and Qin Yi's ex-husband Chen Tianguo, both were famous actors on the beach, but their marriages ended in tragedy. Mr. Guo hopes that this "halfway couple" can take the rest of their lives and go on well.
In the sweetness of the newlywed, Qin Yi and his wife ushered in 1949. For Qin Yi, this year is unforgettable.
This year, she co-starred with her husband Jin Yan in the movie "Lost Love", which was the only on-screen collaboration between the star couple. Although it is the big director Tang Xiaodan who is in charge, the film is definitely not outstanding. Qiu Liying, a college student played by Qin Yi, wept and said goodbye to the male protagonist writer Qin Fangqian, played by Jin Yan, and finally died in prison. Until her later years, Qin Yi was still worried about this matter, and the death of Qiu Liying seemed to her as some kind of ominous omen, foreshadowing the misfortune of the two people's future lives.
It was also in this year that Qin Yi and Jin Yan had their only son, the young man, who was very cute. The daimyo was given by Mr. Xia Yan, called "Jin Jie", which represents the same birth as the newly liberated new Shanghai, but his parents have called him "little brother" all their lives.
In the years when the younger brother was born, the family of three was happy and harmonious, and The Golden Flame Qin Yi was a big star, and the days were busy, but they were comfortable. Unfortunately, sometimes we have to wonder, maybe there is really a "Pandora's box" in this world, which is full of sour, sweet, bitter and spicy flavors of life, God is impartial, and everyone is willing to be bitter and conserved. The grand splendid embroidery is likely to be a precursor to disaster, and the long night may indicate another period of willow and dark flowers.
Soon, Qin Yi's marriage and family fell into darkness again.
03
Attentive viewers have long discovered that since the 1950s, the star couple of Jin Yan And Qin Yi have almost never visited the park together, never watched movies together, or even appeared in public at the same time. As a result, all kinds of speculations and rumors, accompanied by gossip, have come out, and rappers have added oil and vinegar, deducing into a right and wrong affair, which has been passed on by word of mouth in the gossip. Regardless of whether it is right or wrong, one thing is for sure, since then, Qin Yi's life focus, in addition to work, is only left with his son and younger brother.
"Since then, I have snuffed out all my desires", wrote a memoir in his later years, Qin Yi himself said so.
Complete one's misery.
In 1965, because of kangsheng's criticism of "Northern Jiangnan", Qin Yi was sent to the Hangzhou Steam Turbine Factory to help the factory choreograph a documentary "Acura Socialist Construction". One day in May, the Shanghai Film Studio, where she worked, suddenly sent a message saying that her little brother was sick and asked her to hurry home.
As soon as you get off the train, the unit's car is waiting, and the driver says, I will send you to Longhua Mental Hospital. When Qin Yi listened, his legs were weak, and he almost fell to the ground.
The younger brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia, the year he was 16 years old.
Qin Yi felt that the sky was about to fall, but she knew that she could not fall. At this time, her husband Jin Yan had been bedridden for a long time because of a serious stomach disease, and she was the only main heart bone and top pillar in the family. For half a year, during the day she rehearsed, filmed, rushed to the hospital after work, accompanied by the little brother to take injections and medicine, and when it came to the National Day of that year, the little brother could finally say a complete sentence, "Mom, now I know that I am sick, I didn't know before ...", Qin Yi burst into tears, she took the little brother back home.
Soon, Qin Yi felt weak, she went to the hospital for examination, and the report was taken back by herself, three words: rectal cancer.
Dear friends, listening to it is like a thunderbolt on a sunny day. Qin Yi herself was very calm, she registered herself, took her own luggage, and was admitted to Huadong Hospital, she knew that if she collapsed, this family would be finished, and her little brother would be finished.
The film actor Shangguan Yunzhu was also living in the same hospital because of breast cancer at this time, and the sisters applied, and the doctor arranged their ward next door to encourage each other. Before the operation, Qin Yi received a handwritten letter instructing her that "Communist Party members should be fearless in the face of reality", and the payment was Deng Yingchao.
Qin Yi survived, and her little brother's condition also improved, and she seemed to have survived this disaster.
She hadn't imagined that greater suffering was waiting for her not far ahead.
04
An unprecedented catastrophe began.
In 1968, because of Zhang Chunqiao's words, Qin Yi was sent to the Fengxian "May Seventh" cadre school. Before leaving, she asked her elderly mother to take care of her little brother who could not take care of herself.
Three years later, when Qin Yi returned home, she almost couldn't recognize that the young man with sluggish eyes and disheveled hair was her son's little brother—his mother had died two years ago, and the little brother's father, Jin Yan, couldn't take care of himself, and Qin Yi couldn't even imagine how the little brother survived in the two years after her grandmother's death.
She let out a cry and never let her little brother leave her side again.
The younger brother's illness worsened very quickly. In 1978, schizophrenia developed into psychomania, and he had to beat people at every turn, this year the younger brother was 30 years old, one meter tall, and his men did not have any measure.
Qin Yi was afraid that the little brother would have an accident, and when he went out to shoot the drama, he was exhausted from filming during the day, and the first thing after finishing work was to go back to the guest house to cook and feed the little brother with medicine, take a bath and wash. The little brother started to get sick, a fist and foot fell like a rainstorm, Qin Yi held his head, let him beat, and only gently repeated a sentence in his mouth: Little brother, hit the mother's back, can't hit the mother's face, beat the face mother can't work tomorrow.
When the younger brother was in the worst condition, he had to be hospitalized, and Qin Yi was filming "Thunderstorm". The set is not far from the hospital, whenever the photography is free, she can't even take off her makeup, wearing Lu Ma's costume, she runs to the hospital to feed her little brother to eat. On the way there, she walked like a fly, and when she left, she listened to the iron gate of the mental hospital behind her lowering one by one, and she often fell into the darkness, sitting for an hour.
When she was most helpless, her friends on the set listened to her and said: Mother Lu is bitter, and Mother Qin is also bitter. But more often than not, she likes to say: What life gives me, I will catch it. There were no tears, no sighs.
05
On his seventieth birthday, friends bought cakes to celebrate Qin Yi's birthday. The younger brother held the wine glass, and suddenly a sentence that no one could have imagined: Mom, I wish you good health, and I will never quarrel with you again.
All the people clapped, only Qin Yi twisted his face and quietly wiped away two lines of tears. That night, when Haoyue was empty, her friends were gone, Qin Yi and her son sat shoulder to shoulder on the balcony, and she, who had always been strong, suddenly asked: Little brother, one day your mother died, what should you do? The little brother shook his head and said: Mother will not die! After a pause, he said again: Mom is dead, and I am dead.
Looking at his son's chaotic eyes, Qin Yi came from it with sorrow. All she could do, in addition to taking care of her little brother more carefully, was to write two poems for her son in that year: "Childhood" and "We Work Together".
In 1998, the younger brother was 50 years old, in addition to the IQ still staying in the child stage, the body gradually became old, prostate enlargement, diabetes... Qin Yi, who is nearly eighty years old, still re-explores the time and method of medication of his younger brother. She is the one who knits the sweater for the little brother, and she is the one who wipes the body for the little brother. Every day at 4:30 p.m., water is released to bathe the little brother, and at 5:30 am, the little brother is fed medicine. She sometimes mastered the heat more professionally than the nurses.
The younger brother has loved to draw since he was a child, but has never received professional training. In order to help the little brother recover, Qin Yi specially invited a painter to teach the little brother, and also bought rice paper and brushes from Duo Yunxuan, and when he had time, he would model the little brother, or the mother and son would hold hands and go downstairs to sketch. Under the plane trees in Hengshan Park, by the benches and next to the rockery, there have been mothers and sons carrying painting clips and the backs of the sunset stretched, waddling, but firm.
On May 21, 2000, the Shanghai Charity Gala of the China Special Olympics Century Tour was held at the Portman Hotel in Shanghai, and international film star Schwarzenegger participated in the evening as a charity ambassador of Special Olympics International. After the gala's charity auction and donation campaign began, Schwarzenegger bought a painting called "Portrait of Hengshan Park" for $25,000.
He took the hand of The Painting's author, Jin Jie, and said it was a miracle.
06
On the day of the onset of the disease, the younger brother was 59 years old, and Qin Yi, who had been by his side all night, was already 85 years old.
At first, there were no beds in the ward, only one bed in the corridor. The air in the corridor was cloudy, and there was only a narrow passage for nurses to walk through. The little brother was admitted to the ward.
That night, Qin Yi always crouched next to the little brother, whispering softly in his ear: Little brother, don't worry, your mother is by your side, no matter what, your mother will not leave you. Suddenly, the dying little brother stepped on the bed board, and Qin Yi said that he understood his mother's words.
The little brother is gone. There was only 85-year-old Qin Yi left in the family, and she felt that she could not survive. In the mud, she inadvertently watched a TV interview with a Teenager from Weifang who was suffering from bone marrow cancer, grew up in an orphanage and never met her biological parents.
The teenager said his three last wishes: "I hope that the companions of the orphanage will have good things to eat and wear cotton clothes every year; I hope to meet my parents who abandoned me; I hope to donate the only useful cornea in my body to repay the society for many years of nurturing me." ”
Qin Yi burst into tears, pushing himself and others to think, how many such beautiful teenagers in this society have not lived to the age of 59 like my son? I have been able to accompany my son for many years, and I am happy enough.
Qin Yi came back to life.
"I have encountered too many disasters and misfortunes in my life. But people don't have to keep reminiscing in pain, that would be too torturous. My personality is more tolerant, the pain is coming, if it comes, it will be safe, you will deal with it. It is useless to cry and wipe your tears, others can only comfort you a few words, and finally you still have to carry it yourself and adjust your mentality. Qin Yi said so.
After the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, Qin Yi donated 200,000 yuan, which was all the savings she could come up with — savings that were originally reserved for her son. "The younger brother is gone, I don't have any worries, donate it, I hope to help the children in the disaster area who need more help."
Until she was nearly 100 years old, Qin Yi was still active in the film and television and drama art stage and behind the scenes, and she created a record of life.
07
Chen Danyan's "Golden Branches and Jade Leaves in Shanghai" wrote:
It is as if you hear the cracking sound of the nuts being crushed by the nuts, the crisp cracking sound, and you can feel its pain when you listen to it, and then you can smell the aroma of the pale yellow nuts inside.
Perhaps it is such a simple wisdom, a burning instinct, that makes such a mother travel through the darkness, meet the tribulations with tenacity, let the bitter cold achieve the charm, and achieve a spiritual song interspersed with stoic notes.
This is the common song of the heart of mothers all over the world.
![Centenarian Qin Yi is gone, her life is not perfect marriage is not happy enough, but worthy of the title of goddess[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)