Among the talented women in the Republic of China, Zhang Ailing can be regarded as the highest "popularity", she is ranked among the four talented women in the Republic of China because of her talent in the world, except for Lin Huiyin, her number of topics is almost unmatched.
Zhang Ailing has always been talked about in literature and feelings, and even in her family life. However, everything about her has a source, a mother, and a daughter. Today let's talk about her mother's story.
As we all know, Zhang Ailing, who has a flamboyant personality and has a high self-esteem, has always looked down on Bingxin, in addition to literary brilliance, of course, there is also appearance, she also thinks Bingxin is ugly; That is to say, she is confident in her appearance, can not be said to be shocking, at least she is also well-mannered, a little amorous. But in the eyes of Yang Wei, another talented woman at that time, she was ugly. However, for Zhang Ailing's mother, I am afraid that no one dares to say that it is ugly. Her mother's name is Huang Yifan (her own name), and from the name alone, "Yifan" is much more elegant than the word "Ailing".
Yes, she is indeed an amorous woman, and her life is much more free than her daughter Zhang Ailing, she has an independent personality, pursues freedom, takes the initiative to divorce, advocates celibacy, and travels all over thousands of rivers and mountains. However, she has an Achilles heel, that is, no matter where she goes, she always carries a special box, so why can she never give it up? What exactly was in her box?
(1) Huang Yifan, a fetal and posthumous daughter of the dragon and phoenix fetus, was formerly known as Huang Suqiong, and her ancestral home is Changsha, Hunan. She has a prominent family lineage. His grandfather Huang Yisheng was the governor of the seven provinces of the Yangtze River in the Qing Dynasty, and was once the deputy of the late Qing dynasty minister Li Hongzhang, and made great contributions to the Qing court in the battle to pacify the Ding Dynasty. Huang Yifan's father, Huang Zongyan, is the only son of Huang Yisheng and is from a human background. He inherited his father's title and served as an important official in Guangxi Yanfa Dao (supervising salt production, estimating salt prices, and managing land and water transportation).
But when he went to Guangxi to take up his post, he contracted a miasma and died less than a year later, at the age of 30. Huang Yifan was born in 1896, she was the dragon and phoenix child of her mother (and her brother Huang Dingzhu was born at the same time). It is said that her prominent family lineage was born with a dragon and phoenix fetus, which is a rich and noble life, but it is not. At that time, his father had died, so she was a widow (daughter), and she had never even seen her father's face; Moreover, her biological mother was only a concubine of her father Huang Zongyan. So she was not very rich when she was young.
(2) Marrying a wealthy family, blessing and misfortune Due to the early death of her father, Huang Yifan's childhood was not moist, but this did not affect her status as a lady. And when she grew up, her otherworldly appearance doubled her worth. How beautiful is she? It can be said that her appearance is beyond that era, even today, a hundred years later, there is still a compelling star temperament. She has a slim figure and an elegant temperament; The forehead is broad and reveals wisdom; The eyebrows are clear and the eyes are compelling; She also has a characteristic, that is, a high nose and deep eyes, thin lips, such a look seems to have a Latin beauty character, full of a romantic spirit.
In short, her appearance and her ten thousand styles are indeed not comparable to her daughter Zhang Ailing, in fact, Zhang Ailing has admired her mother's vulgar temperament since she was a teenager. Therefore, it is impossible for Huang Yifan not to marry a wealthy family. At the age of 22, she married Li Hongzhang's grandson Zhang Zhiyi. Zhang Zhiyi's family can be described as a rich family, and it is believed that there is money that cannot be spent in three lifetimes. Zhang Zhiyi was the only son of Li Jucouple, the daughter of Zhang Peilun, a famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty, and Li Hongzhang (he had only one sister, Zhang Maoyuan). At that time, Li Hongzhang valued Zhang Peilun very much, so he married his beloved daughter to him, and her dowry was extremely rich. Zhang Zhiyi grew up with a golden key since he was a child.
In theory, Huang Yifan married Zhang Zhiyi and fell into the nest of fortune, and the couple was once envied as golden children and jade girls. However, Huang Yifan was not happy in the Zhang family. First of all, Huang Yifan is not an ordinary woman, she has a hot personality, a natural Hunan people's sassiness, she herself always says that Hunan people are brave. Due to the times, although she also wrapped a pair of small feet, she received a certain new education, was more open-minded, and was a rare new woman in that era. After marrying into the Zhang family, she also met some celebrities in the academic circles at that time. She was once Hu Shi's card friend, and her thoughts were deeply influenced by Hu Shi, and Hu Shi also appreciated her boldness.
Therefore, she is not willing to accept the traditional way of life of women in the courtyard of the Zhangjiashen Mansion, and longs for freedom and independence. More importantly, her husband Zhang Zhiyi is a standard gentleman, although he has read a lot of books, but he does not seek advancement, only knows how to eat, drink and have fun. This made the proud Huang Yifan very distressed, and also very contemptuous and desperate for her husband. When she found out that her husband was out prostituting, she made up her mind to leave the house. But this is also not an easy thing, because after she married into the Zhang family, she gave birth to a pair of children, namely daughter Zhang Ailing and son Zhang Zijing; Also, there must be capital to run away. After staying in the Zhang family for a few years, Huang Yifan's opportunity came.
(3) Nala finally ran away Just like Nala, the heroine of Ibsen's "A Doll's House", Huang Yifan ran away without hesitation when he was 28 years old. She became China's first generation of "runaway Nala". At that time, she took advantage of the opportunity of her sister-in-law, Zhang Zhiyi's sister Zhang Maoyuan, to study abroad, and on the pretext that Zhang Maoyuan was young and she wanted to be her guardian to take care of her, the two went abroad together. It's also strange that Zhang Zhiyi has no big ambitions, but his sister Zhang Maoyuan is a woman with strange aspirations, she and her sister-in-law Huang Yifan are very compatible, and the two go together, and they can't ask for it. Of course, Huang Yifan also had capital at this time. At that time, her mother, her father's original wife, died, leaving a large inheritance, but she did not have children and had no children to pass on, and these inheritances were inherited by Huang Yifan and her twin brother.
At this time, she also became a rich woman, and her waist was naturally straight. Therefore, Nala's departure is inevitable and high-profile. But after all, there are still two children, her daughter Ailing is only 4 years old, and her son is only 3 years old, she is also very reluctant. According to Zhang Ailing's later recollection, she was still young at that time, and she didn't know what the pain of parting was, but she saw her mother crying in bed for a few days - "She slept there like the sea reflected on the glass of the cabin, small green sheets, but there was the endless bumps and sorrows of the ocean" (from Zhang Ailing's "Whisper"). However, Huang Yifan still made up her mind, and from then on, she changed her name Huang Suqiong to Huang Yifan. Su Qiong's name is already elegant, but not free enough; "Yi Fan" is different, "Yi" means escape, and "Brahma" means purity and detachment, which is a certain Zen. However, what happens after Nala runs away? At that time, Mr. Lu Xun's answer was to either fall or come back. So how does Huang Yifan do it?
(4) Thousands of rivers and thousands of mountains have traveled, and this is not to say Sanmao. But Huang Yifan, as Sanmao's senior, she did not do badly. Once she escaped from the cage, she was free. Later, Zhang Ailing described her mother as follows: "Stepping on this pair of three-inch golden lotuses across two eras." What about small feet? Still walk all over thousands of rivers and mountains. 28-year-old Huang Yifan and her 23-year-old sister-in-law Zhang Maoyuan rent a house and live together abroad, play the piano and dance together, wear Western-style costumes together to participate in friends' parties, and the two are trendy together and compete romantically. She admires the blue sea breeze of Europe and loves the snow in the Alps. When they went skiing in the majestic Alps, she skied faster with her little feet wrapped in her little feet than her sister-in-law with a pair of natural feet. She also studied piano and Western oil painting. In France, she lived in the same building with Xu Beihong and Jiang Biwei, and had a close relationship with them, and she was even called the painter Ms. Huang by Jiang Biwei.
Everything overseas makes her happy. She learned to make handbags and shoes, and worked tirelessly to bring back an entire box of snakeskins from Malaysia. She took it out from time to time to turn it over, and a turquoise green gloomy hanging by the window, everyone else was panicked, but she was very comfortable. From Britain and France to Switzerland, from Malaysia and Singapore to Egypt, and later to India, he also served as secretary to President Nehru's sisters. Her slim figure dressed in a gorgeous cheongsam is like a beautiful phoenix, elegantly floating in the upper-class space of overseas countries... (5) The first divorced woman in the Republic of China On this side, when Zhang Ailing was 8 years old, her father lost his official position and had a conflict with his aunt, and remembered that his wife Huang Yifan was coming, so he wrote to her and begged her to return to China.
He sent a photo overseas, accompanied by a seven-sentence poem: "Only then did I listen to the sound of the golden armor of the law, and I heard the sound of drums." The scholar is ashamed of the book city, and the two words are safe and secretive. "Huang Yifan was touched when he saw this poem with a bit of literary brilliance; In addition, she really missed her children, and at this time, her sister-in-law Zhang Maoyuan also completed four years of school, and it happened that she was also going back to China, so she came back with Zhang Maoyuan.
After not seeing her for several years, Xiao Ailing was overjoyed, she and her brother looked at their beautiful and fashionable mother who could play the piano and sing, and their hearts were full of pride and happiness. At this time, she had the happiest time of her teenage years. During this period, Huang Yifan's influence on his daughter was undoubtedly huge. At that time, the mother was a god in the daughter's heart. For example, Huang Yifan stood in front of the mirror, dressing up, which made Zhang Ailing admire and envy her. Huang Yifan began to teach by example, and she let her daughter learn English, play the piano, and receive a new education. This paved the way for Zhang Ailing's artistic accomplishment in the future.
Her husband Zhang Zhiyi also seems to have changed, showing signs of reforming his evil and becoming a new person. So they moved out of the cold and deep old house of the Zhang family, lived in a new style bungalow, and started a new life. They grow flowers and grass, raise dogs and cats... However, the good times did not last long, Huang Yifan, who was cultivated by Western-style romantic culture, and Zhang Zhiyi, who was wrapped in old-style decadent thoughts, were incompatible, and the contradictions between the two reappeared. So Huang Yifan was no longer meticulous, and at the age of 34, she was determined to end the marriage completely. She hired a foreign lawyer to draft a divorce agreement, and was considered to be the first woman in the Republic of China to divorce voluntarily (at least the first batch of women who successfully divorced by legal means).
Zhang Zhiyi, on the other hand, refused to sign and tried to keep her. But Huang Yifan said resolutely: "My heart is already like a piece of wood." "Only left. But Huang Yifan is not a desperate person, and on the eve of the divorce, she forced Zhang Zhiyi to go to the hospital to rehabilitate drugs, after all, he is still the father of his own children. After the divorce, Huang Yifan was completely free, and he could not help but be independent. At that time, of course, the child followed Zhang Zhiyi. But Zhang Ailing, who has a lonely personality, has a feud with her stepmother, and was beaten by her father for quarreling with her stepmother, and even put under house arrest, so she ran to find Huang Yifan to get some care from her mother. Although it is a love affection, Huang Yifan still treats his daughter with a high attitude. Facing Ai Ling, who looked longing, she just chuckled unhurriedly: "You think carefully, with your father, naturally you are rich; Follow me, but there is no money, you have to suffer this suffering, there is no remorse. She gave her daughter two choices: one was to study, and the second was to dress up and marry as soon as possible.
Of course, Zhang Ailing firmly chose to study. If there is a mother, there will be a daughter. So Huang Yifan sent his 11-year-old daughter to Maria Girls' School to receive a Western-style education, and spared no expense (US$5 an hour) to hire expensive personal tutors to train her to study. She also personally cultivated her daughter's Western aristocratic etiquette, standing and sitting, every move, and even a smile when taking a selfie in the mirror. Later, Zhang Ailing was quite aesthetic, with a bold and avant-garde dressing style, and even designed her own clothing, and this aesthetic foundation came from her mother. Zhang Ailing will always remember the elegant demeanor of her young mother standing in front of the mirror, with a fashionable Aisi hairstyle, a green short jacket, and an emerald brooch.
However, there is no doubt that Huang Yifan is still an "independent", even selfish, her care for her daughter is not meticulous, there is absolutely no concept of "you are my only", she is not a qualified good wife and mother, she pursues her own life. So, on the one hand, she saw her daughter's article published in the newspaper, and she was also happy and proud of her daughter's amazing talent; But when she saw Zhang Ailing's displeasure, she could actually say something like this: "I regret that I used to take care of your typhoid fever, I would rather see you die than see you live to make you suffer everywhere." Although Huang Yifan provides the most favorable conditions for her daughter's study, she is also very demanding in life, because she wants to save some money for herself to spend.
She was accustomed to the life of an aristocrat, and she did not accept the days of suffering. Her life was extravagant and delicate, and even the carpets in her home had to be woven according to Picasso's paintings. While Eileen Cheung was living in a school in difficult conditions to save money on travel, Wong stayed at the most expensive Repulse Bay Hotel in Hong Kong. Dressed in a luxurious cheongsam as usual, she stood gracefully in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window facing the sea, her fingers as thin as the tip of an onion, gently shaking the tall glass filled with Western red wine, and her eyes fell on the distant sunset-covered sea. Yes, her dream of traveling far away was never shattered. Her romance belongs to the distance, to the other side of the sea... Later, there was such a detail in Zhang Ailing's novel "Little Reunion": the daughter gave the 800 yuan scholarship to her mother with great interest, but the mother did not have the slightest excitement, but suspected that her daughter had an improper relationship with the teacher; That's all, she turned around and lost her daughter's 800 yuan on the mahjong table... Some people say that this is Zhang Ailing's insinuation of her mother.
In short, when she was a teenager, Zhang Ailing still had a lot of complaints about her mother, so that when she later had money, she returned her mother's money for her to go to school, and did not owe her money. So in "Little Reunion", she designed this plot: when her daughter put two or two small gold bars in the palm of her hand and handed them to her mother, she smiled politely and distantly: "I have never been willing to spend your money for so many years." Zhang Ailing's self-reliance may have been forced by her mother Huang Yifan. After the divorce, the amorous Huang Yifan was often surrounded by rich and powerful people who were willing to serve her, infatuated diplomats, American businessmen who had waited for her for many years, handsome British officers, etc., but she just lingered among various men and seemed to have no heart for marriage.
(6) Always adrift, but unable to give up a box, just like Sanmao later, Huang Yifan, who pursues freedom, cannot stay for a long time, although there are still children's concerns. A few years later, she left her homeland again and went to her Europe. Huang Yifan had a favorite lover when she was in France, so she sold some antiques for money to raise money for her lover to go to Singapore to do a leather business. But at the end of 1941, Singapore was occupied by Japanese troops, and her boyfriend died in a plane bombing. Since then, Huang Yifan has refused love and has become celibate. Once again, I was an example of Sanmao. Her life since then has been graceful and strained. She also did the painstaking work of sewing leather bags. The days of being alone outside have had a lot of pride and a hundred desolations.
Huang Yifan's property in Paris was completely lost due to the effects of World War II. Her life is in trouble. As a result, she later returned to China briefly. Of course, every time she returns to China, she has a purpose. For example, this time, she returned to Hong Kong and found a boss surnamed Shao to sell some antique jewelry for money. Huang Yifan is also known as a man who has sold antiques all his life. Why do you say that? Because when she inherited her father's property, his brother asked for real estate, and she was given antiques, jewelry, and so on that were easy to realize. She became a rich woman because of this. Every time she went abroad, she had to sell some antiques for money, so that her life abroad could be guaranteed, and she had lived a luxurious and elegant life. That time, when he returned to Hong Kong to sell antiques to Boss Shao, the other party's bid was extremely low, and Huang Yifan was reluctant to sell the treasures at a low price, preferring to give up.
She was alone overseas, and she had worked to make a living, but she was still extremely dependent on antiques for her money. She is very contradictory in this life, on the one hand, she is proud of herself and looks down on money; On the other hand, it is inseparable from money. However, even if her life is limited to times of distress, she must live gracefully and decently. A close friend of hers once recalled her later life: "The small bungalow she lived in was still very elegantly furnished, with aristocratic carpets, paintings on the walls, and a dresser. In her later years, she was also afraid of loneliness, and once adopted a little girl from a welfare home. But she has always paid attention to elegant etiquette, and eating is no exception. But the little girl did not follow the rules when eating, and Huang Yifan couldn't bear it and sent her back.
Rather lack than abuse, like love. The friends she met overseas, such as Xu Beihong and his wife, have developed after returning to China, but Huang Yifan considers himself down and has never wanted to make a family with them. Some people also suggested that she go to her already famous daughter Zhang Ailing, but she resolutely did not have this idea, and she insisted on independence until she was old. In her later years, she packed her bags again alone and went to the English island. In his last years, Huang Yifan rented a cold and damp basement, and the green light was dusk. Sometimes she goes out to work, but she still doesn't let go. If she is not satisfied with the boss and work, she will never make do with it, she will immediately change to another one, and she cannot wronged herself. Just like Ling Shuhua, another talented woman of the Republic of China, Huang Yifan's ending is also quite bleak, spending time in loneliness in a foreign land...
Later, her daughter Zhang Ailing went to the United States. Mother and daughter have never seen each other again in this life. Huang Yifan has been lonely all her life, and the only time she showed vulnerability was when she wrote a letter to her daughter before she died, hoping to see her one last time. Zhang Ailing never moved forward, because she was still down, she couldn't even afford a ticket to the UK, and only sent a thin hundred dollars. In September 1957, the once glamorous flowers finally withered, and Huang Yifan, the proud one, died quietly in a basement on an isolated island at the age of 61. After her death, Zhang Ailing received a large box. It was full of valuable antique jewelry and some messy coins.
This is Huang Yifan's last relic in the world, and it is said that this made Zhang Ailing survive her most difficult time. In that large box, in addition to the antique treasures, there was also an old photograph. Zhang Ailing in the photo is still a student, with beautiful eyebrows and a shallow smile. And this photo, with that box, from China to Malaysia, France, the United Kingdom, etc., across thousands of rivers and mountains, Huang Yifan has always taken it with him. Although mother and daughter are estranged, they are connected by blood. Huang Yifan's life is a life of freedom, a life of independence, and she made the third possibility that Lu Xun did not think of after Nala left; However, she could not give up the box, the box containing jewelry and antiques and a photograph: antiques were the guarantee of her material life, and the photos were her spiritual and soul sustenance.
She did not live as Sanmao later, but she set a certain example for Sanmao; At the same time, she also created Zhang Ailing. Huang Yifan's life can at least allow future generations to contact Zhang Ailing and Sanmao, two amazing talents. What if she hadn't chosen to run away? Of course, there are Zhang Ailing and Sanmao in the world. However, there must be no Huang Yifan... Recommended in previous hot list articles