In China's modern history, there is such a figure, who is famous for his press and publishing career, and who is also an early figure in the rise of the restoration trend, and at the same time there is a point that is famous in the world - the wind flow.
Such a popular figure, with his talent and talent, could have done something great, but he was recognized as "more than enough love for children, but insufficient ambition for the wind and clouds."
However, in Wang Tao's eyes, he was just spontaneous. And once, he had been spontaneous once in "Rugao".
Before, he and his friend Xu Beihai were looking for a girl named Gong Xiaoting, and at that time he did a very romantic thing for the little girl, giving the silk on his body to the other party, and there were some grasses and trees painted on it.
At that time, Gong Xiaoting was also particularly fond of Wang Tao, so she agreed with Wang Tao to see her again the next day. Wang Tao was a little hesitant, because at that time he still had some other "socializing" and did not have much money in his hands.
But the girl said strongly: She doesn't care about this! She likes Wang Tao's elegance. In her opinion, Wang Tao is different from others, he is not one of those big-bellied businessmen with scattered hair.
So for a while, Wang Tao had close contact with Gong Xiaoting. And every time I go to find Gong Xiaoting, I always pass a small bridge with lotus willow trees.
The scenery along the way adds a lot of color to each of their rendezvous. What will the two of them do together? Also very romantic.
There, the two of them would read and write, or count plum blossoms, or look at calligraphy paintings. Once, Gong Xiaoting asked Wang Tao if she knew Wang Taishi, and Wang Tao just happened to know, so he generously helped Gong Xiaoting to give her letter to Wang Taishi, and Gong Xiaoting sighed, this Wang Taishi was really ruthless.
From this story, we can feel that although Wang Tao is just a prostitute, he seems to be very romantic. However, it was precisely because he lingered so much in the wind and moon that not only ruined his examination, but also made his life that could have been more brilliant, becoming too fragrant.
He prostituted everywhere, and everywhere there was the figure of his prostitute, and the appearance of the Shanghai Qinglou appeared in his "Flower Country Drama Talk" and "Yanshi Cong".
Later, he went into exile in Japan, still did not stop prostitutes, and while deeply aware of the great changes in Japan, he often looked for flowers and willows, talked and drank with beautiful people, and in his large-scale diaries, the names of more than fifty geisha appeared.
The time he spent looking for flowers and asking willow was carefully calculated, and it was also forty years, and the enduring energy was touching. Even when he was fifty years old, he was not old, and the Japanese people all sighed that this person was so old, and his lust was not reduced.
So what kind of story does Wang Tao have, and what kind of content is recorded in his fragrant diary?
We may wish to enter the world of this talented person and see this extraordinary life.
One. Wang Tao's legendary life
The era in which Wang Tao was born was very special. At that time, the government of the late Qing Dynasty had just experienced the Opium War, and China had just begun to enter the modern era from the old era of feudalism, in a period of great transformation of the valley as a mausoleum.
At that time, China gradually discovered one thing: China was very backward and needed to change, otherwise it would be divided up by the world powers. So intellectuals tried to find a way to save China.
At that time, Wang Tao was also one of them.
After the defeat of the Qing government in the Sino-Japanese War, the late Qing Dynasty set off a top-down change, known in history as the Penghu Change. This change of law, represented by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, advocates starting from the system and changing China's chronic diseases.
In the late Qing Dynasty, a top-down change was set off, known in history as the Pengshu Change, which was represented by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, advocating starting from the system
The movement ultimately failed, but the Enlightenment ideas produced by the movement deeply influenced many Chinese. However, long before this reform movement, there was actually a pioneer of Enlightenment thought- that is, Wang Tao.
This person came from a family of teachers, and the family conditions were very poor, and the examination was always unsuccessful. In fact, his ancestors were very prominent, originally belonged to the "Kunshan Wang Clan", and there were many high-ranking officials in the clan, but because of the chaos in the world at the end of the Ming Dynasty, his family also declined.
In his youth, Wang Tao had to go to Shanghai to seek a living for his own livelihood and entered the "Mohai Library" run by British priests at that time.
Perhaps it is also because of the work experience during this period that Wang Tao opened his eyes to the world and gained a deeper understanding of the situation at home and abroad than most of the Chinese at that time.
As an early figure in the rise of the Restoration Trend, Wang Tao could have done more. However, throughout his life, he always seemed so decadent or even withered, and it seemed that he still had more literary achievements.
As an early figure in the rise of the Restoration Trend, Wang Tao could have done more. But throughout his life, he always seemed so decadent and even withered
So why is he like this?
The impact of a person's life experience on it is immeasurable. In fact, the matter of falling in the middle of the family road had not had such a great impact on him, after all, this was something that had already happened at the end of the Ming Dynasty.
But when he was a child, his three brothers left him in just ten days. In such a short period of time, after suffering such changes, who can easily withstand it?
At the age of twenty-one, this misfortune still spread at home. That year, his father was gone, and in 1950, his wife Yang died three years after their marriage.
This experience of family members leaving their side one by one had a huge blow to Wang Tao's spirit.
And these blows are only family, and Wang Tao's career path, as mentioned above, is actually quite unsmooth. In 1846, Wang Tao participated in the township examination in Nanjing, but unfortunately did not win the examination, but he was already keenly aware of the current situation of China lagging behind the world, so he was only concerned about politics, and often wrote to the inspector of Jiangsu to explain his views on the current situation.
Unfortunately, at that time, most of the officials of the Qing government were still unaware of the crisis from abroad, so the dozens of letters he sent to the inspector of Jiangsu could only sink into the sea.
Wang Tao had a friend named Madus, who heard that Wang Tao was in a dilemma, and thought that although his friend could not pass the examination, he could only work at the newspaper, so he hired him to work at the Shanghai Mohai Library.
Wang Tao once founded the circular daily newspaper
Sure enough, Wang Tao was a good hand at newspaper work, and soon became familiar with the content of the work, and successfully translated the Bible, making it the most widely circulated version in China.
However, in Wang Tao's view, after all, he is not a thing in the pool, always staying in the newspaper, which cannot satisfy his ambition of "cultivating himself and ruling the country and the world".
So after about thirteen years of working, he made a choice that would affect his life—to join the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Perhaps because he saw the decay of the Qing government, or perhaps because the Qing government could not find the opportunity to get ahead in any way, or perhaps he suffered the pain of too many family deaths, Wang Tao finally made this bold choice.
So on February 4, 1862, Wang Tao changed his name and became a think tank of the Taiping Army. At that time, the leader of the Taiping Army, Li Xiucheng, led an army to occupy Suzhou, and Wang Tao made a very strategic proposal, that is, to attack Shanghai and harass the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
This move was too damaging for the Qing army, and once Li Xiucheng adopted this suggestion, the Qing army's sea traffic would be cut off, making it impossible to transport its materials.
But unfortunately, in the end, Li Xiucheng did not adopt this suggestion. The Japanese scholar Masuda even felt some pity about this, thinking that if Wang Tao's strategy was adopted, "then the subsequent History of China may be very different."
However, although Wang Tao's plan was not taken seriously, when Li Hongzhang heard about it, he immediately wanted him severely. So Wang Tao began his career as a fugitive, first fleeing to Hong Kong, becoming the chief writer of the Chinese Character Daily, and translating many scriptures.
However, during this period, it left many valuable and documentary reports, which are also of great research significance to this day.
Later, he went to Japan, saw the bigger world, and had a beautiful story with many famous prostitutes, which also made his life more discredited.
After arriving in Japan, Wang Tao saw the bigger world, and had a beautiful story with many famous prostitutes, which also made his life more discredited
Two. The imprint of the literati
The so-called "famous people since ancient times love the wind", and in this field, Wang Tao is definitely one of the best. The time he spent looking for flowers and asking willows alone, 40 years, was enough to make people feel his wildness and energy.
What is even more amazing is that Wang Tao not only does it, but also records it, recording all kinds of stories between him and famous prostitutes, and the scale of it is really blushing.
This is the source of his contribution to literature and art, and it is also the place where he is most criticized. After all, he was an early figure in the dissemination of the ideas of restoration, and everyone naturally expected him to be more than just a popular scholar who looked for flowers and asked for willows and danced and ink.
As for why he is like this, on the one hand, he may be hit by reality, and on the other hand, it is likely that he is so. After all, as early as when he was 19 years old, he had already embarked on the road of looking for flowers and asking for willows.
On the one hand, it may be hit by reality, and on the other hand, it may be because of his nature. After all, as early as the time he was 19 years old, he had already begun to look for flowers and ask for willows
At that time, he was about to take the township examination, but his mind was not entirely on the examination, and he often interacted with ren Suqin and Miao Aixiang, two prostitutes in Wenyi Building. He failed the examination at this time, or many of them were also related to his search for flowers and willows at this time.
In 1951, Wang Tao had close contact with two other prostitutes, Mingzhu and Liao Bao, and since being wanted by Li Hongzhang, Wang Tao moved to Japan, where he began his own path of finding flowers and asking for willows.
Wang Tao's "Song Yin Manga" has an article called "Painting Ship Ji Yan". This article records his affair with prostitutes on the Qiantang River, and there are more than two prostitutes.
According to this account, he and the two prostitutes hugged each other left and right, singing and drinking together, as if this were a very normal thing, and there was no shame in it.
"Song Yin Manga", there is an article called "Painting Ship JiYan". This article records his affair with prostitutes on the Qiantang River, and there are more than two prostitutes
Of course, this idea itself is wrong, and the prostitute uses the female flesh as a tool to meet the needs of men.
Regarding the profession of prostitutes, in fact, it is recorded as early as the Bible - a daughter-in-law, in order to blackmail her father-in-law, actually disguised herself as a prostitute to seduce him, and finally let her father-in-law be hooked.
So prostitutes may have appeared earlier than we think. And subtlely, for prostitutes, on the one hand, everyone thinks that this is obscene, but in a patriarchal society, it seems natural for women to sell their bodies to satisfy men.
Regarding Su Dongpo, there was such a wild history. It is said above that when he was the prefect of Hangzhou, he once went out with local officials and squires and others to watch the scenery with nearly a hundred famous prostitutes in Hangzhou, only to see that the spacious avenue was mixed with the flow of famous prostitutes before and after, and the scene was very vast.
When Su Dongpo was the prefect of Hangzhou, he traveled with local officials and squires and nearly 100 famous prostitutes in Hangzhou to watch the scenery
In this wild history, Su Shi is also like Wang Tao, and he is not ashamed of this.
During the Qing Dynasty, senior officials were strictly forbidden to play in the Qinglou. However, there are two problems here, the first is that the "strict prohibition" here restricts only high-level officials, excluding low-level officials and squires and rich people.
The second is that even these high-ranking officials follow the principle of "policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom" and raise some "child prostitutes" in the government.
The so-called child prostitutes are those children who are exclusively for high-ranking officials to "enjoy and taste", these children are beautiful, and at a young age, they are forced to watch the process of male intercourse with men, in order to achieve the purpose of making them accustomed to this distorted behavior.
Thus in China, prostitutes have been a somewhat filthy but not completely denied tradition that continued until the time of Wang Tao. Of course, although Wang Tao's prostitutes had some historical inertial factors, they were indeed exaggerated at that time.
For example, when he was 70 years old, it is said that he was still in close contact with the memory of Shanghai. In his "Binsong Trivia", in fact, the "school book" except for Hangzhou is recorded.
Wang Tao's "Binsong Trivia" actually records the "school book" except for Hangzhou, that is, his contacts with women in other places
In other words, the famous prostitutes he married were also from the Pearl River, Shanghai and even Japan. Wang Tao's practice is naturally not tolerated by morality and ethics, but under his Spring and Autumn brushwork, the prostitute has some romantic flavor.
Regarding the history of China, there may not be too many people studying the history of the Qinglou, and there are not many people who study how China has changed in the past two or three thousand years through this field.
But through Wang Tao, we can at least glimpse the possible connections and laws behind some literati and the Qinglou. After all, the relationship between Wang Tao and the women of the Qinglou Building has indeed been branded as a literati.
Three. Wang Tao's trip to Japan
During his travels to Japan, Wang Tao was not completely unsophisticated. When he arrived in Japan, it was a critical period of japan's Meiji Restoration, so he experienced the earth-shaking changes in Japan.
Through his travels in Japan during this period, Wang Tao personally felt the practical significance of changing the law to a country, so he had a profound understanding of the self-improvement of the law.
He said, "Since the nations are proud of their strengths, and from afar they are proud of what they have, and day by day they show off, bully them, and turn against each other, then I can not think of their tricks!" Yes, then lead me to the indomitable, the Heavenly Heart also; Forced me to have to change, personnel also. ”
As for the vigorous foreign affairs movement of the Qing government at that time, instead of agreeing with it, he criticized it greatly, believing that the Qing government authorities only limited their attention to specific artifacts such as guns and cannons, but did not really eradicate the chronic diseases of the Qing government from the perspective of the system.
However, just as he would also look for flowers and ask willows when doing such an important life event as the "village test", he observed the restoration of Japan, often sighed, and at the same time fell into the "honey pot" of Japanese prostitutes.
According to Wang Tao's "Travels of Fuso", when Wang Tao stayed in Japan, the affairs of men and women were not idle, and he once had relations with forty-five Japanese women
According to Wang Tao's "Travels of Fuso", when Wang Tao stayed in Japan, the affairs of men and women were not idle, and he had at least forty-five Ambiguous relationships with Japanese women, and he was entangled.
It should be noted that some of these women are quite young, but sixteen or seventeen years old. In the "Travels of Fuso", there are many words and phrases that are used to describe such a young woman, "In the middle of January, Yi Liangji, to make the meal flower more than the jade." The two lines of red and pink are as beautiful as The eyes are beautiful. The three daughters became the joy of me, but the peach was still unripe. ”
Wang Tao is very interested in women's "feet", and this interest is still based on China's bad habit of three-inch golden lotus.
Although Wang Tao's thoughts have been relatively open, and he has seen normally developing female feet when he has traveled to various countries, after all, he is still a traditional literati born in the feudal era and grew up in the feudal era, so it is inevitable that there is an inseparable "preference" for the "three-inch golden lotus".
After all, Wang Tao is still a traditional literati born in the feudal era and grew up in the feudal era, so it is inevitable that there is a "preference" for the "three-inch golden lotus" that is difficult to give up.
Interestingly, although Wang Tao has written a lot about Xiangyan, he can't see much in it.
Strangely, when describing women, but not much about appearance, so what is the point? Interestingly, what Wang Tao really cares about is feminine temperament.
In addition, Wang Tao has repeatedly mentioned women's family background, which also has a clear traditional literati tendency. In traditional Chinese culture, it is more important to pay attention to the birth of the door, the door is right, so Wang Tao is also very concerned about the social origin of women.
From here, we can see that even if Wang Tao has intensive contact with Western culture, it is impossible to completely get rid of the influence of traditional ideas on him.
And as a literati, of course, the favorite is not only the woman with posture, but the talented women. Since ancient times, talents have loved talented women, and Wang Tao is no exception.
He used to go in and out of the Qin Lou Chu Pavilion, and what he liked most was which prostitutes with talents, they were often able to sing and dance, and they had a certain amount of ink in their stomachs, and Wang Tao was very similar to them.
However, Western thought cannot be said to have little impact on Wang Tao. In fact, in addition to the "Oriental literati", Wang Tao also has the side of "Western gentleman".
At the beginning, because Wang Tao came from a feudal society and family, he scorned the ideas of freedom and equality in the West, believing that equality between men and women was simply a big fallacy.
Because Wang Tao came from a feudal society and family, he scoffed at the ideas of freedom and equality in the West, believing that equality between men and women was simply a big fallacy
However, after traveling in the West for so many years, Wang Tao found that those independent and thoughtful women had a different charm. He began to reflect on his former ideas, some poor eastern women's embarrassing situation in society.
Since then, he has transformed himself and even begun to speak out for women, calling on everyone to pay attention to the living conditions of women, give women the opportunity to be educated, and cultivate women's sound and independent personality.
This is wang Tao's nature, mercurial and lustful. In addition to women, he was unusually interested in men. His experience in this regard is recorded in his "Journey to the Sea".
It mentions the name of a male servant named Tian Jiyun, who was only fifteen years old when he was discovered by Wang Tao. This person's temperament is unworldly, beautiful, and extremely popular with Wang Tao, so Wang Tao has invested countless time and money in this person, and has a happy relationship with him.
In addition to this male servant named Tian Jiyun, there is also a male servant named Zhou Fenglin, known as the "Crown of Shanghai Lingling", who is inextricably linked to Wang Tao.
This man, boy and woman, as handsome as a woman, has a more beautiful posture, and his charm is charming, but Wang Tao is fascinated.
In this life, Wang Tao can indeed be described by the four words of "wandering generation". But looking at his experience and insights in China and Japan, we can feel that he is not just a wanderer.
In his bones, he is worried about the country and the people, and he also has his own ambitions, and he has also contributed a lot to the prosperity of the country and his personal future, but his ups and downs of life and the personality of favoring prostitutes make him more of a "wandering generation" in this life.
However, his ability to record these "large-scale" things is also a contribution to the world in another dimension, because it indirectly reflects the social landscape at that time, and this is actually a rare historical wealth for future generations.