On the evening of March 7, 1935, Ruan Lingyu first went to Li Minwei's house to attend the dinner, and at this time she looked normal, no different from usual.
During the banquet, she talked and laughed, and her smile was like a flower. Afterwards she went to the Yangtze Hotel to show off her charming dancing style.
However, this is when things change happen.
On the way home, Tang Jishan and Ruan Lingyu had an argument, and Tang Jishan slapped her in anger, which was the last straw that forced Ruan Lingyu to death.
Before dying, Ruan Lingyu left two suicide notes, took out the sleeping pills prepared in advance and swallowed them in one breath, walked to the bedside, and asked her husband with tears in her eyes: "Do you really love me?" ”
Why did a generation of movie stars embark on the road of suicide? It all starts with two men.
Career in the arts
On April 26, 1910, Ruan Lingyu was born into a working-class family in Zhujiamuqiao, Shanghai.
My father worked as a coolie in the Asia Minor oil stacks, leaving early and returning to the Huangpu Wharf every morning and evening to cross the river, and my mother was a housewife.
She will always remember the night when she was 6 years old, when her father fell into the water in front of the house, holding in his hand an earring made of colored beads, which was his last gift to his daughter.
In order to raise her daughter, her mother could only take her to the Zhang family in Guangdong to work as a maid.
She saved money and sent her daughter to a nearby school to study, hoping that her daughter would succeed in her studies.
During her mother's maidship, Ruan Lingyu met Zhang Damin, the fourth young master of the Zhang family, who was white and clean,000, but a clumsy boy who did not learn any skills.
Originally, the two people were not right at home, and they could not be together.
But fate is so strange.
The flowers that sink in the cage
In early 1925, Ruan Lingyu's mother was suspected by the Zhang family hostess of unclean hands and feet, stole the family's belongings, and drove the mother and daughter out of the street.
It was Zhang Damin who reached out to them, found evidence, proved their innocence, and persuaded his mother to leave the mother and daughter.
Ruan Lingyu, who lives at the lowest level, is accustomed to white eyes and indifference, no one will ever help her, and she has always been grateful to Zhang Damin.
At this time, she was 15 years old, and she was very moving.
Zhang Damin will help out, but he is also attracted by her beauty and wants to pursue her.
Although she was sent to the fence, she did not refuse Zhang Damin's pursuit, and the two staged a scene in which a rich man fell in love with a poor maid.
Like many women, Ruan Lingyu also hopes that she can talk about a vigorous, non-break-up relationship.
The two had naively thought that with the power of love, they could break through the barriers of feudal society and unequal class relations.
It's just that when love returns to reality, everything seems pale and powerless.
Zhang Damin presented his feelings for Ruan Lingyu to his mother and wanted to marry her.
Zhang Damin's mother insisted on feudal concepts, felt that the identities of the two were very different, and advised them to cut off contact.
At this time, Zhang Damin was deeply trapped in the beauty of love and resolutely unwilling to be separated from Ruan Lingyu.
The stick does not scatter the Mandarin Duck, and the stick does not hit the Mandarin Duck naturally scatters. Zhang Damin and Ruan Lingyu are like this.
The family's resistance has strengthened the determination of the two to be together, but Zhang Damin obviously overestimated his ability to survive.
After repeated attempts to dissuade them, Zhang Damin's mother expelled Ruan Lingyu from the Zhang family, hoping to separate the two.
But the power of love is great.
In January 1926, Zhang Damin, who had no independent ability to survive, left his original family in a hot head and rented a house on North Sichuan Road.
Under his bitter pursuit, Ruan Lingyu also dropped out of Chongde Girls' School and moved in with her mother to live with Zhang Damin.
Although Zhang Damin left the family, he is still a child who has not grown up, unable to support himself, and all expenses rely on the subsidies of his parents.
In order to help his younger brother Zhang Damin get out of the predicament of life, Zhang Huichong introduced Ruan Lingyu, who was born beautiful, to apply for a job at the Star Film Company.
Ruan Lingyu is like an eagle, lacking a sky that can spread her wings and fly high, and Zhang Huichong gave her a platform to let her soar into the sky.
Since then, she has entered the show business circle and become a popular star.
At this time, fate once again allowed Ruan Lingyu to see the true face of Zhang Damin.
After the death of the old owner of the Zhang family, Zhang Damin, as one of the heirs, received a large inheritance, and he took the money to dance halls, casinos, and racecourses to indulge in indulgence, and soon the inheritance was squandered by him.
Zhang Damin, who will not make money, will only spend money, lost to reality.
As a last resort, Ruan Lingyu could only support the burden of supporting her family, and she worked day and night to shoot advertisements and movies, hoping to earn more money to support the family's expenses.
The poor couple mourns, and the two often quarrel over various trivial matters.
One is a stupid boy who has not grown at all, and the other is an increasingly mature popular female star.
Zhang Damin could not ask for money from his parents, so he regarded Ruan Lingyu as his cash cow and asked for money from her more than once.
What's even worse is that the money he wants from his wife is used to play with women!
Narrow-minded, he was also particularly afraid of losing Ruan Lingyu, on the one hand, coveting her beauty, on the other hand, coveting her property.
When Ruan Lingyu appeared in public, he deliberately did not trim the edges and attended with a poor appearance, which made Ruan Lingyu extremely embarrassed.
She had repeatedly persuaded her husband to turn back to the prodigal son, and said that as long as he could change from evil to righteousness, she would establish a happy family with him.
When he saw Ruan Lingyu's innocent look, Zhang Damin revealed a sneer: "Married? You're naïve!
I never wanted to marry you, all I liked was your jade face, and if you married me as an aunt, I felt that my status had been lowered! ”
He ruthlessly cut off Ruan Lingyu's hopes and plunged her into a desperate situation.
Zhang Damin was fired from the company for embezzling public funds, and it was Ruan Lingyunian who entrusted him to find a job in Fujian in the past.
But Zhang Damin is a black hole that fills the dissatisfaction, he will never be satisfied, and will only intensify his efforts to ask Ruan Lingyu for money.
Unable to tolerate It, Ruan Lingyu eventually signed a contract with him through a lawyer to break away from cohabitation and gained freedom.
Ruan Lingyu may have had a smooth career, but her love life is a literal tragedy.
Before she could fully get out of Zhang Damin's control, she met another man, Tang Jishan, who played with women as fun.
After the "12.8" incident in 1932, many rich people in Shanghai took refuge in Hong Kong, and Ruan Lingyu also took her adopted daughter to live in Hong Kong.
Here, she met tang jishan, a married compatriot 14 years older than herself, a tea giant.
The second man, Tang Jishan
Tang Jishan graduated from Shanghai Nanyang Public School in her early years, and later studied in the United Kingdom, and is one of the few returnees.
After returning to China, his father invited several well-known wealthy businessmen to raise 100,000 yuan to set up a Chinese tea company, which was handed over to Tang Jishan to run.
Tang Jishan is a business wizard who has developed Huacha Company into the largest tea trading house in China in only 14 years.
He has a lot of business acumen in business, but he has never been serious about feelings, and in his view, women are just playthings.
Tang Jishan is a typical Shanghai "white person", who once frantically pursued China's first film queen Zhang Zhiyun, and kicked her away after the freshness faded.
To him, women are like clothes, and when they get tired of playing, they kick away.
Tang Jishan only pursues the most popular actresses and actresses in society, which can satisfy his psychology of showing off.
Not long after separating from Zhang Zhiyun, he began to pay attention to Ruan Lingyu.
Ruan Lingyu's beauty is recognized by the public, and Tang Jishan is also fascinated by it, and after hearing about Ruan Lingyu's encounter, he transforms into a confidant big brother and comforts her.
He knew that Ruan Lingyu loved to dance, often invited her to the most luxurious dance halls, and was willing to buy all the luxuries for her.
The strength and financial resources displayed by Tang Jishan have made Ruan Lingyu extremely admirable, but she has not yet come out of the haze of the previous relationship, and she does not consider developing new feelings for the time being.
Tang Jishan has never lost his hand in the pursuit of women, and he has never changed his attitude towards Ruan Lingyu, often going to the set to send her a bouquet of flowers and accompany her to film.
Under his repeated attacks, Ruan Lingyu fell into confusion.
After Tang Jishan saw that her attitude had changed, she did another thing that surprised Ruan Lingyu: he invested heavily in Ruan Lingyu's film and television company and became one of the major shareholders.
In the face of the invitation of her superior, Ruan Lingyu naturally did not refuse, and she finally fell.
After returning to Shanghai from Hong Kong, she moved in with Tang Jishan.
Ruan Lingyu knew that Tang Jishan already had a wife, but she didn't care, she once told her good friend: "Maybe it is the experience of life that makes me too soft-hearted, and I can't stand others being too good to me."
If they were good to me, I would spare no effort to love him. ”
The hardships of childhood made her very eager for the kindness of others, and once others were good to her, she would double down on returning them to each other.
It was also this character that eventually forced her to a dead end.
On April 9 of the same year, Zhang Damin traveled from Fujian to Nanjing on a business trip through Shanghai, and he came to visit Ruan Lingyu in the rented house on North Sichuan Road, but found that the building had long been empty.
After some inquiry, he learned that Ruan Lingyu and Tang Jishan had come together, and Zhang Damin, who had been betrayed, was furious.
He had never encountered such a great shame in his life.
He came to No. 9 Qinyuan Village to negotiate with Ruan Lingyu.
After bargaining, the two parties finally signed the "Contract of Separation from Cohabitation", which required Ruan Lingyu to pay Zhang Damin up to 100 yuan per month for two years.
I thought it would end here.
But the insatiable Zhang Damin's desire is difficult to fill.
He watched Ruan Lingyu's value rise and become more and more unbalanced, and even entrusted a lawyer to take Ruan Lingyu to court.
The reason was: "Stealing property, encroaching on clothing and accessories, and privately engraving the seal of the Zhang family." He claimed that these things were worth more than 3,000 yuan and demanded that Ruan Lingyu return them.
Originally, Ruan Lingyu did not intend to make a big deal out of it, after all, she was a person who knew how to repay the favor, and after making a big fuss, it was detrimental to her reputation.
But Tang Jishan is a businessman, and he will not show mercy to people like Zhang Damin, and he advocates asking a lawyer to sue him.
Before the court could even open, the scandal had already put Ruan Lingyu on the cusp of the storm, and she did not have the courage to face this situation and refused to appear in court.
In the end, Zhang Damin won, and Ruan Lingyu compensated for the loss.
If you can really exchange happiness, even if you pay this money?
Unfortunately, she did not expect that she had just climbed out of hell and fell into the abyss, and this abyss was enough to swallow her up.
Not long after living together, Tang Jishan's original form was revealed.
The image of decency, personability, and caring is gone, replaced by moodiness and elusiveness.
He always overbearingly restricts Nguyen Lingyu's movements, prevents her from participating in social activities and socializing, and exercises mental control over her.
Every time Ruan Lingyu wants to attend the party, he will always say: "Tonight I don't want you to leave me, why don't you stay with me?" ”
If Ruan Lingyu did not listen to him, he would look at Ruan Lingyu with a gloomy face and not say a word.
It felt like she was being stared at by a venomous snake beast, and she often couldn't control the cold sweat and her hair stood upside down.
Once, because she came back a few hours late from filming in the crew, she was locked at the door by Tang Jishan, and no matter how hard she begged, Tang Jishan was indifferent.
If it were not for the neighbor Sister Liang Saizhen who saw this scene after returning from the dance hall and kindly took her home to borrow it, Ruan Lingyu could only sleep in the corridor this night.
This incident broke her heart, and her spirit was greatly damaged.
Tang Jishan is wandering and frivolous, often hanging out with young and beautiful dancers; He has a vicious face and often commits domestic violence against her, regardless of the occasion; He exerts mental control over Ruan Lingyu, making her feel ashamed of him.
Ruan Lingyu, who was forced to a dead end
For Zhang Damin, as long as Ruan Lingyu does not die, he will haunt her like a shadow.
When Zhang Damin came to ask for money for the second time, Tang Jishan scolded him, and he did not get a penny.
Since then, some tabloids have often published reports unfavorable to Ruan Lingyu, and Tang Jishan is worried that this matter will affect his reputation and affect his company, directly playing "missing".
Ruan Lingyu couldn't find him on the phone, and she couldn't find him when she went to his house, and the company forbade her to enter, and she realized that men couldn't be relied on at all.
What made her even more unbearable was that the number of articles in which the tabloids framed her was increasing, but the articles no longer mentioned Tang Jishan's name.
It turned out that Tang Jishan and Zhang Damin had reached an agreement: Tang Jishan would no longer interfere in Zhang Damin and Ruan Lingyu's affairs. Zhang Damin can provide ruan Lingyu's information to the press at will, but he cannot involve Tang Jishan.
Ruan Lingyu once loved two men, one of whom was mad for money and unscrupulous; One feared for the sake of fame and pushed her out as a shield.
Neither man understands what love is, just toy with her.
She finally realized that she had been deceived, but there was no regret medicine in the world to take, and she was once again in pain.
Jade incense dissipation
For Ruan Lingyu, the meaning of life lies in: career, reputation, love.
When the relationship encounters setbacks, she tries to find the joy of life at work and creates one moving role after another.
She is a very acting actress, every role she portrays is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and her career is thriving.
But also because of starring in the progressive film "New Woman", she angered the reactionary forces and made her life worse.
In order to teach her a lesson, the reactionaries found Zhang Damin, gave him a large sum of money, instigated him to deny that he and Ruan Lingyu had broken off their cohabitation relationship, and sued Ruan Lingyu in the name of adultery and bigamy.
Zhang Damin is a man with no moral bottom line and mercenary intentions, and when he sees that he has money, he can take it and naturally does it.
The Shanghai district court also aided in the abuse, and soon accepted the fake case of Tang Jishan and Ruan Lingyu's adultery and escape.
After the news spread, newspapers and periodicals of all sizes in Shanghai reported on the incident and gave great publicity, and some tabloids even made up fake news for the sake of eyeballs.
They described Ruan Lingyu as a watery, extravagant woman, and almost everyone on the beach knew about it for a while.
Even the mouths of the children selling newspapers on the road were Ruan Lingyu's unbearable scolding, and the image she had accumulated over the years was destroyed.
All kinds of pressure swept in, and the court also issued a notice that Ruan Lingyu must appear in court on time, in addition to these, Ruan Lingyu was also required to stand in a chest-high square wooden barrel.
How could Ruan Lingyu bear this humiliation? She refused to appear in court.
But the reactionaries had already prepared countermeasures, and all the reports poured in, and the article turned into a sharp blade poking at her.
She had always been kind-hearted, but overnight she became a sinner and could no longer raise her head.
She is no longer a young girl, but a shameless slut in the mouths of the people, a red face that cannot be blamed.
What was Tang Jishan doing in her most difficult and helpless time?
Although Tang Jishan appeared, she did not have a word of comfort, but accused her of affecting her reputation and image.
Reputation has plummeted, career difficulties, and love has suffered setbacks.
For Ruan Lingyu, she couldn't find a reason to live, rather than being pointed at the nose and spitting, it was better to die!
On March 7, 1935, she finished filming several scenes of "National Wind" as usual, and also took the initiative to participate in the family banquet hosted by the company's general manager Li Minwei.
During this period, she frequently raised a glass with the people at the banquet, talked and laughed, and after the banquet, she affectionately hugged and said goodbye to the people present.
When the two of them returned to their home in Qinyuan Village, it was already one o'clock in the morning on the 8th, and the two of them almost quarreled all the way home.
No one knows what is going on in the heart of a bitter woman who is about to say goodbye to this world, but from now on, no one can see her abnormality.
She walked over to the writing desk, wrote down two suicide notes, then took out the sleeping pills she had prepared in advance and swallowed 30 tablets in one gulp.
She walked to the bed in a trance, woke up Tang Jishan, and asked with an unusual look: "Do you really love me?" ”
Tang Jishan saw that she was in tears, quickly sat up, and then he noticed the abnormality and hurriedly sent Ruan Lingyu to the hospital.
Nor did God keep the star who was determined to find death.
It is a pity that Ruan Lingyu's life has encountered people who are unladylike, which has led to such an ending.
Her friend didn't understand why she insisted on being with Tang Jishan, who had a husband, but as a bystander, perhaps I could understand.
Ruan Lingyu's childhood was unfortunate, after losing her father at the age of 6, she has been living with her mother.
But even if the mother gives more, there is no way to replace her father, and there is no way to make up for the lack of fatherly love.
What Ruan Lingyu lacked in childhood is more eager to have in adulthood.
Although her career is very successful, but she is still a little girl at heart, Tang Jishan, as a veteran of the love scene, knows best what Ruan Lingyu needs.
When she needed it most, he appeared next to Ruan Lingyu as a gentleman's face and a confidant big brother.
How can Ruan Lingyu, who has never tasted love, resist?
In the face of love, the girl is so disregarded, she knows that Tang Jishan is not a good person who can entrust her life, but she is still willing to go to the soup for the sake of the one percent possibility.
Unfortunately, she lost the bet.
. END .
Text: Ink dyeing shan jue
Editing, Typography: Small Yuan