In 1040, 50-year-old Fan Zhongyan married a 15-year-old prostitute, and after his wedding night, he was very happy: "Why are you still a virgin?" Xiao Huan shyly lowered his head and said gently: "I sell art or not my body, besides, my heart already belongs to you."
As a famous politician and thinker in the Northern Song Dynasty, Fan Zhongyan has a far-reaching influence on the development of the Northern Song Dynasty and future generations, as a rare Qing official in the politics of the gradually declining Northern Song Dynasty, Fan Zhongyan's life is also ill-fated, he is not like many officials with solid family backgrounds, will not sneak around the horse, sycophancy this set, now looking back on his life, it can be regarded as conscientious and selfless dedication.
Fan Zhongyan's childhood was mixed with bitterness and pathos, his father died in a hurry less than two years after he was born, and the burden of life was all on Fan Zhongyan's mother, you must know that women at that time had a low social status and almost no ability to earn living expenses.
In order to be able to support himself and this child, Fan Zhongyan's mother took him to marry into someone else's family, and his stepfather was very reasonable and took good care of this bitter child, perhaps growing up in such an environment since he was a child, which also made Fan Zhongyan more determined to establish a career and gain fame.
At the age of 13, Fan Zhongyan bid farewell to his mother and went to Yingtianfu to study, and joined Qi Tongwen, because of the poor family, Fan Zhongyan always boiled a pot of porridge in the early morning, which is all the food three times a day, and occasionally took out some pickles with tasteless white porridge, but it was such a hard life, Fan Zhongyan lasted for several years, and there were many times when the cook was interrupted.
Years of hard study in the cold window did not waste his efforts in vain, Fan Zhongyan took the examination for meritorious fame, from the rank of junior to the army, and finally achieved the position of general judgment and prefect.
Fan Zhongyan's promotion and re-election in the court was quickly met with the dissatisfaction and resentment of the villains in the dynasty, plus Fan Zhongyan was not good at words, and he was very disdainful of these side doors in the officialdom, so he was depressed for most of the second half of his life, which is also the fundamental reason why Fan Zhongyan's official career could not go further.
And his love life is exactly like his political future, full of ups and downs and hardships.
Fan Zhongyan has married a total of three wives in his life, and his wife's surname is Li, and the two have similar family circumstances and have been together for a long time, which can be regarded as one of Fan Zhongyan's few confidants, but Li's body is weak and sick, and he died of illness in his early 40s, leaving Fan Zhongyan alone, which is also a pain that Fan Zhongyan does not want to mention in his heart.
This second wife is a maid surnamed Zhang of the Fan family, in fact, Fan Zhongyan married her mostly because she often served herself and knew more about her living habits, plus Fan Zhongyan was busy with official business at that time, often returning home in the middle of the night, Zhang's virtuous and hardworking also solved many family worries for Fan Zhongyan, but Zhang also died of illness early, which made Fan Zhongyan also very sad.
Fan Zhongyan's third wife met on the way to his debasement, when he suffered a double blow of career and marriage, and was demoted to Raozhou, the ancient Raozhou is different from now, at that time, Raozhou weathered places can be seen everywhere, the business of brothels can be described as a city, I have long heard that the brothels here are hot, but I didn't expect to be so famous, Fan Zhongyan dressed up and decided to enter the brothel to see.
Fan Zhongyan has never been to this kind of occasion, so he simply changed into a scholar's outfit, which looked out of place with the rich businessmen coming and going, he sat alone in the brothel hall for a long time and no one came to greet him, and the old bustard on the side saw that Fan Zhongyan was slow to leave, so he called a little girl to talk to him.
After three or two sentences, Fan Zhongyan knew that this girl was called Zhen Jinlian, and when he learned that she was only 14 years old now, Fan Zhongyan also looked at the little girl in front of him differently, because the girl in front of him was not tall, and her figure was relatively thin, unlike the flowery and willow-green girls dressed up in other green buildings, this girl was dressed plainly, and her speech and behavior were very calm, but she was less frivolous and impetuous of the Qinglou woman.
What is even more rare is that in such a noisy and frivolous environment, Fan Zhongyan fought against her chanting poetry, and Zhen Jinlian also showed him family heirloom skills, such as drawing with fingers and using chopsticks to make calligraphy, which surprised Fan Zhongyan very much.
It turned out that this Zhen Jinlian was also from an official family, but the situation was turbulent, and her father was beaten to death by local scoundrels because of tax problems, and her uncle adopted her and sold her to a brothel, in fact, she herself had just come here not long ago, and the old bustard saw that she was very pitiful and unwilling to do this job, so he didn't embarrass her.
After listening, Fan Zhongyan took out a bag of silver from his pocket and directly ordered his subordinates to call the old bustard to the backyard, the old bustard was still wondering before, and then learned that it was Lord Prefect who personally drove here to be shocked, hearing that Fan Zhongyan wanted to redeem Zhen Jinlian's body, and the old bustard was even more happy to close his mouth, on the one hand, he made money and sold it to Lord Prefect to save face, not to mention that Zhen Jinlian kept his body like a jade Fan Zhongyan and had nothing to lose, why not?
After being ransomed, Zhen Jinlian was very grateful to Fan Zhongyan in her heart, and in order to repay the saving grace, Zhen Jinlian decided to marry Fan Zhongyan, which was also the last wife in Fan Zhongyan's life - Mrs. Ru.
