Author: Shanjia
Speaking of the great director Ling Zifeng, it is the level of Xingzun, known as the desperate Sanlang of the film industry, whose representative works include the films "Red Flag Spectrum", "Camel Xiangzi", "Spring Peach", and "Border City" adapted from the novel by writer Shen Congwen, all of which are quite influential.
Recently, I came across "Ling Zifeng's Self-Description" in the library. In this autobiography, Director Ling tells the story of his extraordinary life. In particular, when he mentioned his mother, he said that she was an amazing person. Why is it that such a mother who loves the family, loves her husband, and loves her children has been pried into marriage by an outsider?
01
In 1917, Ling Zifeng was born in Beiping. His home, at 41 Baozi Street, is a deep mansion compound with three entrances.
Ling Zifeng's grandfather, as the proctor of the Qing Dynasty examination hall, won the trust of his superior, Empress Dowager Cixi. In that year, Cixi also gave a photo of her to this Ling Daren. Unfortunately, during the Cultural Revolution, these old photos were burned.
Although Grandpa Ling's official work is big, Ling Zifeng can only smell Grandpa's style from the photos and from his grandmother's narration. Grandpa Ling sat on a chair, and behind him stood his protégé, very solemn. At the age of 41, Grandpa Ling vomited blood and died.
It is said that the old son's eldest grandson, the old lady's lifeblood, as the eldest grandson in the family, Ling Zifeng is deeply loved by his grandmother. Grandma always encourages her grandchildren to study hard, to have a career, and to grow up to win glory for the Ling family.
Ling family grandmother, don't look illiterate, before her husband jun was alive, she killed decisively, and the affairs of the family were decided by her alone.
When others become officials, they buy houses and buy land; while Grandpa Ling's work as an official is absolutely different. He was an official all his life, but he did not buy an acre of land, a house, and when he died, he left a debt.
The three-entry mansion at 41 Baozi Street is not his own property, but a rent. After the death of her husband, Grandma Ling resigned all the servants, also retired most of the rooms she rented, and the whole family moved to the backyard where the original servants lived.
As the head of the family, Grandma Ling didn't care what others thought. If you still rent three large mansions, then you have to rely on the protégé of the husband, and the old lady is not willing to live like this.
Decisive and bold, it is Grandma Ling's style. In this way, debt-free and light, the old lady is wise.
On the issue of choosing a daughter-in-law, Grandma Ling also does not pay attention to the right door.
Ling Zifeng's mother, the big name Zhang Minxian, the family is a cloth shop. As the only child in the family, Miss Zhang is either embroidering, cutting paper, or playing with kittens and puppies. Perhaps it was the words of the matchmaker, in short, Grandma Ling fell in love with this Miss Zhang, believing that she was virtuous and courteous and could take on the heavy responsibility of the Ling family's daughter-in-law.
As for the Zhang family, which is doing business, of course, it is very willing to marry his daughter-in-law to the family of an official eunuch who knows how to read and learn etiquette as a daughter-in-law, and she has more face!
Miss Zhang, I am really married. Illiterate, she began to read, numeracy, history, geography, and write homework under the guidance of her husband, from writing a large character every day to writing in middle and small letters. With the merits of life, The young grandmother of the Zhang family can also read, read newspapers, and keep accounts. In this way, Ling Zifeng's father is really a tall man!
Family portrait, from left: mother, second sister, Ling Zifeng, eldest sister, fourth brother, father
02
Ling Wangchao (Ling Yimin), a very knowledgeable person, studied in Beiping and knew English, French, German, Russian, and Japanese. At that time, there was a barrister named Jiang Yong in Beiping, and Ling Dad was a tutor in the Jiang family. Later, through Jiang Yong's introduction, Ling Dad also served as a clerk in the Beijing Division's procuratorate, and later as a judge.
Don't look at Ling Dad as a civil servant in the system, but according to his nature, his favorite thing is to write books, engage in translation, and the whole foreign school of characters.
After the death of Ling Zifeng's grandmother, the family moved to The No. 2 Liushujing, the property left by the Zhang family. What surprised Ling Zifeng the most was that the copper bed that his father slept on was very different from the bright copper bed in other people's homes. His father had the copper bed painted white, the quilts, the pillows, the sheets, all white. According to the current point of view, it is not the style of the hotel, but in that era, it is also ahead of its time, Ling Zifeng said that it is like a hospital.
Although I look at my father's foreign pie, I still prefer sons to daughters in my bones. When Ling Zifeng was three years old, his father took his wife and eldest son to the photo studio to keep this photo, forgetting that Ling Zifeng still had two sisters on it, and he still had two thousand gold.
Every morning, Ling Dad's head is combed by Ling Ma. Ling Mama held a red bone divider in her mouth, first draped a white cloth over her husband's shoulder, and then removed the parting needle from the seam of her husband's partial head and combed it with a comb.
It is reasonable to say that this hair combing thing, brushing a few times by yourself, why use such a big fanfare? But Ling Dad is willing to have someone to do the work, Ling Mama is willing to serve the Jun, one is willing to fight, one is willing to be beaten, others really don't need to talk much.
It can be seen that Ling Mama is taking full care of her husband. When Ling Zifeng grew up, he recalled that although the combination of father and mother was the order of his parents, they never quarreled or scolded their children, and the two were really happy.
03
In the second year of Ling Zifeng's admission to the Peking Academy of Fine Arts, Ling's father was invited by the principal of a middle school to teach, and the two worked together happily.
Ling Dad himself is an orthodox person, very honest, and does not allow children to play cards at home. Once, I found that there was a pair of mahjong at home, and without saying a word, I threw the mahjong away. Afterwards, I heard my wife say: It was borrowed.
It is such an honest man's Ling Dad, who is middle-aged, but the old yard is on fire, and he does not have any love.
One day, the principal took Ling Dad and said that he was going to a friend's house for a drink, in fact, he was looking for a place to be dashing.
As soon as the wine girl appeared, Ling Dad looked at it, acquaintance, a teacher's daughter. Ask her why she's here? It turned out that after the teacher's death, this daughter had no chance, and in order to live, she could only be forced into prostitution.
Once Ling Dad was deeply valued by this teacher, and now that the daughter of the teacher is in distress, Ling Dad pays for her to redeem himself, rents her a house outside, and sends her 30 yuan per month for living expenses. In this way, the two have feelings, and Ling Dad has a home outside the house.
Husband Jun's income decreased, coupled with the fact that sometimes she did not return home at night, Ling Mama's heart was clear. But she never showed herself in front of her children, let alone sighed, and always looked calm and relaxed.
Since the mother behaved so calmly, the children did not have much to say. But there are always people who are out of the way, that is, Ling Dad's hourly wet mother, Ling Zifeng called "Ma Da".
At that time, Grandma Ling resigned from all the servants in the family in a big way, leaving only Ling Dad's grandmother, this Ma Dada. It is reasonable to say that Ma Dada should be a generation with Grandma Ling, but she respects the old lady and demotes herself to a level.
This Ma Dada, in the Ling family, said one thing and one thing, and she was very dissatisfied with the fact that Ling Dad had a family outside his home. She went straight to the point: Are you worthy of your child's mother and child? A piece of money is spent on both sides, and I can't give you this home!
No matter how angry Ma Dada is, Ling Dad is a hob of meat, not silent, not refuting, not explaining, not confessing, not angry, what to do. At this time, Ling Mama did not squeak either. But the two women, two men and four children all sympathize with the mother, thinking that the father is not right, but also do not hate, which is really strange.
Once, Ma Dada asked Ling Mama: You just endured it like this? I can't get used to it, I go, I go back to my country! Ling Ma, at this time, I was a little anxious: you can't go, you're gone, what should I do?
Also, an only child, no brothers and sisters came forward to persuade her. Ling Mama proposed: Invite that one to the house to live together, but it is just one more person to eat!
Mrs. Ma Da was in a hurry, and she almost shouted out: You talk, what are you doing?
Ling Ma really consulted with her husband and brought the woman to live together, saying that she did not fight for size, so as not to have two families, which cost a lot.
Who knows, the woman just won't, she knows very well, into the Ling mansion, she is small, while being bullied while still angry, can't cross. Ma Dada, who couldn't tolerate it, quarreled with Ling Dad.
One day, Ling Zifeng, together with his two sisters and younger brother, hid from his mother and asked someone to tell his father that his mother was seriously ill and asked him to come back.
As soon as dad arrived home, the four children of the Ling family knelt in front of Ling's father and invited him to come home. But how can the people whose old houses are on fire change their minds?
In a hurry, 16-year-old Ling Zifeng, as the eldest son in the family, is full of righteous indignation, he thinks that his father is too bullying of his kind-hearted mother, and he has asked for perfection and concessions to the extreme, and his father is still obsessed.
Ling Dad's words to his wife and Ma Dada were deaf, but in the face of his son's shouting, he did not do it, which means that you are a junior, you do not have your share of speech, you eat me, wear mine, I raise you, you can't control me! As a result, Ling Zifeng declared: I will not eat your meal, and we will break away from the father-son relationship.
In this way, Ling Zifeng left the Ling Mansion. Outside of class, he and his friend Zhang Ting (that is, the chief designer of the founding ceremony, designing the national emblem, and the one who lin Huiyin PK) partnered together, when things, pulling foreign cars, designing advertisements, doing better and better, you can be self-sufficient.
A year later, Ling Dad finally did not want his son to suffer, or came to school to let him return home. Ling's father also shed tears on the spot, and Ling Zifeng took Zhang Tong home with him.
Ling Dad's outer chamber has always existed. Ling Zifeng also stopped asking questions, because everyone was used to it.
04
Later, Ling Zifeng went to Nanjing National Drama College to study. At school, he received a letter from his mother, saying that his father's outer room had not quit and did not know the end.
And Ling Dad began to search for thousands of miles, he took a train all over the country to find, a haystack to find a needle, how easy is it to talk about? As a result, no one was found, and Ling Dad himself was a little insane. From then on, he could not read, could not translate, could not write, could not do things, and lost his job.
Ling Mama silently endured all this, and she could only rely on the books and clothes in the seller, and on embroidery and sewing clothes to maintain the family's life.
When the Japanese devils occupied Beiping, Ling Zifeng received a telegram from his mother that his father had died. Without saying a word, he sent the 200 yuan design fee he had just received to his mother as a burial fee for his father. That year, my father was only 51 years old.
Ling Zifeng recalled: If Dad could play like the headmaster, it would be okay, but he was very serious and really helped the woman, and he really had feelings. Everything is fate, half a point is not up to man.
After my father left, my mother sold her property for the old Ling Jing to study and went to college.
Ling Zifeng had five siblings, the eldest sister Ling Chengzhu, a student of Qi Baishi and the first wife of Li Kuchan, who was quite accomplished in Chinese painting; the second sister Jiang Zheng (who changed his name after participating in the revolution), the director of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee Cadre Department; the third was Ling Zifeng, director of the Beijing Film Studio; the fourth lingxuan, the photographer of the Xi'an Film Studio (the actor Ling Xiaosu was his grandson, so he also called Ling Zifeng the grandfather); the old fifth Lingjing, a professor at the Beijing Forestry College.
Five children, all count as successful careers. Mom's heart also lit up a lot.
The most rare thing is that the old lady has helped her children to bring up grandchildren. Children treat their grandmothers (or grandmothers) more closely than their own biological parents. When the children grew up, they all sent money to the old lady to provide for her.
Jagged polymorphism, the square is the origin of the world. The famous philosopher Socrates said: Only by expecting a little can we approach the highest happiness. It seems that the secret of inner peace and happiness is to lower expectations of others.
In Ling Zifeng's memory, there was always such a scene: he left home, and his mother did not send him to the station, but just led a group of granddaughters, grandchildren, and grandsons to stand outside the small gatehouse of the mansion and watch his son travel away.
Out of strong feelings for his mother, it is Ling Zifeng's original intention to make the movie "Mother" later, starring Zhang Ruifang, have you seen it?
Pulling the hand index a number, Director Ling Da died in 1999, and now it has been more than twenty years, and the days are fast...