On March 8, 1935, on this special day, 25-year-old movie star Ruan Lingyu ended her brilliant and short life by taking sleeping pills, and a sentence of "fearsome words" became the last words of her life, but was this really the case?
On April 26 of the same year, the article "The Truth Reveals Tang Jishan's Forged Suicide Note" published in the Siming Business Journal directly pointed the spearhead of Ruan Lingyu's suicide directly at her ex-husband Zhang Damin and the current Tang Jishan, so what is the truth about the suicide of film star Ruan Lingyu, and what kind of pain will make her choose to leave the world in such an extreme way at a young age?
Now let's follow the gears of time, look back at the life of actress Ruan Lingyu, and explore the mystery of her death together!
01
In the early 1930s, the rise of a rising star ushered in an unprecedented era of glory in the Chinese film industry, and she was Ruan Lingyu, a famous actress in the era of Chinese silent films.
On June 3, 1910, Ruan Lingyu was born in An ordinary family in Shanghai, her original name was Ruan Fenggen, her father Ruan Yongrong was a mechanical worker in the Asia Fire Oil Stack in Pudong, Shanghai, and her mother He Shi was just a housewife who was no longer ordinary.
The 25-year-old He Clan gave birth to Ruan Lingyu, they took good care of this only daughter, although life is not rich, but relying on Ruan Yongrong's meager salary, the family can still barely survive, even if they are occasionally poor, but there is love in their hearts, and the life of a family of three is not difficult.
Sometimes, life's misfortunes happen in an instant.
When Nguyen Ling Ngoc grew up to be six years old, her father, Nguyen Đạng Đại, died of illness. The departure of her father made her mother He Shi have to shoulder the burden of taking care of her daughter alone, in order to live, she went to a large family surnamed Zhang as a maid, and 8-year-old Ruan Lingyu also studied at a private school near the Zhang family, and had her first scientific name: Ruan Yuying.
The following year, with the help of the Zhang family, Ruan Lingyu entered the local Shanghai Chongde Girls' School, which was founded by American missionaries, unlike some feudal schools in China at that time, where Ruan Lingyu learned advanced knowledge and made her fall in love with entertainment.
02
Speaking of Ruan Lingyu's mother, He Clan, who is a maid, they are a famous local household in Shanghai, and in addition to Old Master Zhang, there are four young masters in the Zhang family, namely Zhang Huichong, Zhang Qingpu, Zhang Huimin and Zhang Damin, the youngest young master Zhang Damin is a few years older than Ruan Lingyu, and the similar age also lays the foundation for them to come together in the future.
Ruan Lingyu, as the daughter of a maid, could not have attracted the attention of the young master of the master's family, but she was so beautiful that she came out at the age of 12.
At that time, 18-year-old Zhang Damin was returning home from a nameless university, as soon as he entered the door, he was attracted by the beautiful girl in front of him, and he was surprised that Ruan Lingyu had looked like this in just a few years, so he launched a crazy pursuit of Ruan Lingyu.
Ruan Lingyu, who had just opened her heart, resisted this attack and soon fell in love with Zhang Damin.
As the hostess of the Zhang family and the mother of Zhang Damin, Zhang Damin naturally could not see her beloved son with the daughter of a maid, and in anger, she dismissed the He family, He and Ruan Lingyu had to move out of the Zhang family, and Zhang Damin, who was immersed in the sweetness of love, resolutely left with them despite his mother's opposition, and since then, the two have begun to live together.
Ruan Lingyu's mother, He Shi, has always hoped that her daughter can find a good family, and she expects that the Zhang family cannot really ignore Zhang Damin, as long as the two of them are together, the daughter will marry into the Zhang family sooner or later, so she is also laissez-faire about the relationship between the two people.
The brother-in-law of a rich family and the daughter of a maid are not the same people after all.
Soon after the two of them lived together, Ruan Lingyu dropped out of Chongde Girls' School, and at first, the two people relied on Zhang Damin's previous savings and the Zhang family's help from time to time, and their lives were quite good. However, with the longer they spent together, Zhang Damin's savings began to become stretched, unable to support the expenses of the three people.
He grew up rich, who suffered from such suffering, after the sweetness of love faded, he began to fall into frequent quarrels with Ruan Lingyu, and what was more terrible was that he had no money and was addicted to gambling, and the only savings in the family were lost by him.
In desperation, 16-year-old Ruan Lingyu had to start looking for a job in order to make ends meet.
03
In 1926, Ruan Lingyu, who ran into walls everywhere at work, welcomed her first nobleman into the film world - Zhang Huichong.
Yes, it was the eldest son of the Zhang family, who saw ruan Lingyu look smart and beautiful, so he recommended her to be admitted to the star film company and start her film career.
Ruan Lingyu's first film in her life was called "Nominal Couple", and it was also after this film that she officially changed her name to Ruan Lingyu, and starred in many films under this name, and became famous through "Wild Grass Idle Flowers" in 1930, which established her position in the film industry.
In the years when Ruan Lingyu was working hard in the film industry, her gambling boyfriend Zhang Damin asked her for money again and again, which once made her unable to make ends meet. In addition, in the first three years before Ruan Lingyu became famous with "Wild Grass Idle Flowers", the cold treatment in her career made her depressed, and Zhang Damin's coercion and inducement also made her miserable, and she also had the idea of suicide for the first time.
Fortunately, the first suicide was discovered by his mother, Ho, and successfully saved.
In 1930, Ruan Lingyu was in the limelight with "Wild Grass idle flowers", and she starred in many films in a row, which received a good response, and her mood also improved.
Unfortunately, Zhang Damin is still dead, and she is completely disappointed in him.
04
In 1931, Nguyen Ling-yu, who had taken refuge in Hong Kong, met her second man, tea merchant Tang Jishan.
Tang Jishan was attracted by her beautiful appearance and temperament when she first met Ruan Lingyu, he had seen her figure many times in the film, but in reality it was the first time they met, and she did not expect that she herself was more moving than in the film.
Therefore, Tang Jishan ignored the already existing movie star Zhang Zhiyun and turned his head to attack Ruan Lingyu.
Ruan Lingyu was extremely disappointed in her boyfriend Zhang Damin, the two had been together for many years without love, coupled with Tang Jishan's meticulous care now, she felt the warmth of a long absence, so she fell.
However, Tang Jishan is a person with a family, but so what? Ruan Lingyu, who is deeply in love, has long been unable to take care of anything else, and she has no hesitation in starting a cohabitation life with him.
However, all this became complicated with the arrival of Zhang Damin.
When Zhang Damin learned of Ruan Lingyu's relationship with Tang Jishan in the newspaper, he returned to Shanghai in great anger, but his trip had another purpose - to ask for money! Through the mediation of the lawyer, ruan Lingyu finally paid Zhang Damin a hundred a month to end the painful relationship.
05
She thought that after getting rid of Zhang Damin, Ruan Lingyu could finally usher in a normal life, but she was wrong.
How can the gambler's words be taken seriously?
Ruan Lingyu's career is in the ascendant, and Zhang Damin, who failed to gamble, can't sit still.
In December 1934, a lawyer's letter was delivered to Ruan Lingyu's hand, and it turned out that Zhang Damin wanted to sue Ruan Lingyu and Tang Jishan for stealing his property by privately engraving seals. This out-of-the-box incident triggered Tang Jishan's strong dissatisfaction, and he also joined the team of the lawsuit, this time, he wanted to sue Zhang Damin for damaging the right to reputation.
As a result, due to insufficient evidence, Tang Jishan's lawsuit failed.
In the end, the three fell into a stalemate.
The crazy Zhang Damin sued Ruan Lingyu again and again, ruan Lingyu was physically and mentally exhausted, and as an actress who was in the sky at that time, her words and deeds were infinitely magnified by the media newspapers.
Worst of all, even the films she starred in were labeled "ugly journalists," and her feelings were attacked with unbearable words.
If this is the harm caused by the external world, then what really crushes her inner world is Tang Jishan's resentful attitude towards her and the dislike of the new and the old. Because at this time, Tang Jishan was already surrounded by a woman named Liang Saizhen, and she had become the former "Zhang Zhiyun".
epilogue
On March 8, 1935, Ruan Lingyu, who returned from a party, silently took a bowl of porridge and poured three bottles of sleeping pills into it to eat slowly, this time, there was no mother He Shi by her side, only the current Tang Jishan, but when Tang Jishan found that she had taken a large number of sleeping pills, the first thing to worry about was not her body, but her own reputation.
He refused to send Ms. Nguyen to a nearby large hospital, but instead moved to two remote private hospitals, missing the best time for treatment.
Ruan Lingyu's death made the Chinese film industry sigh, and her three female fans also followed her that day. Regarding Ruan Lingyu's death, there are many opinions in the outside world, all of which are rumored to be because "people's words are terrible", but with the exposure of her last suicide note, Zhang Damin's shameless behavior and Tang Jishan's initial chaos and abandonment have become the ultimate reasons.