In 1958, 52-year-old Shao Xunmei heard that after her lover got married, she lived a worry-free life, so she urgently wrote a letter to her, wanting 1,000 yuan of life-saving money. Unexpectedly, not only did he not get the money, but he was also sent to prison.
Shao Xunmei's eyes closed, thinking of the glory of the first half of her life, with a virtuous wife by her side, and a lover who knew him by her side, and countless money squandered in her hands. Then, his eyes opened, looking at the current embarrassing situation. He laughed to himself, how did he get to where he is now.
Shao Xunmei was born at the peak, his grandfather Shao Youlian was a minister of the late Qing Dynasty, and his maternal grandfather Sheng Huaixuan was a representative of the Westernization Movement and a well-known industrialist.
Shao Xunmei's uncle married Li Hongzhang's niece Li, and when Li married, he used the identity of Li Hongzhang's daughter. Later, his uncle died early, and Shao Xunmei passed on to his aunt. According to the genealogy, Shao Xunmei is the grandson of Li Hongzhang.
In the intertwined relationship between Li, Sheng, and Shao, Shao Xunmei is the link, and she is born rich and noble.
At the age of 5, he entered the family school "Book of Songs", memorized Tang poems, and then entered St. John's Middle School, becoming a talented and gentle young man.
Like ordinary rich children, Shao Xunmei also had a period of unscrupulous life. At the age of 17, he drove around in a Ford car, and whenever he had time, he took his servants to the theater to watch a play.
It wasn't until he was cheated out of a sum of money by a courtesan that he vowed never to enter the Fengyue place again. Later, he got engaged to his cousin Sheng Peiyu, so he took his heart and went to Cambridge University in England to study, specializing in British poetry.
The grandmother of the Shao family was afraid that her grandson would suffer while wandering outside, so she would let the account office send money on time every month. At that time, Shao Xunmei promised his fiancée not to smoke, gamble, or find women outside, and she had a lot of money, so she waved her hand and rented a house in the countryside near Paris.
It didn't take long for this place to be full of friends and become a gathering place for a group of poets and writers.
Shao Xunmei is righteous and enthusiastic, as long as his friends are in difficulty, he is generous, and he is not arrogant in sprinkling money, and he never wants anyone to return it.
Someone knocked on his door early in the morning, saying that he was in a difficult situation and borrowed money from him, and Shao Xunmei gave this man 200 francs without saying a word. Since then, he has become the "living bank" and "Meng Weijun" in the mouth of international students.
Some people even joked that if international students have financial problems, they don't need to go to the embassy, and go directly to Cambridge to ask Shao Xunmei.
But such days didn't last long, and Shao Xunmei received a letter from home asking him to go home. First, a fire broke out in the home, and the economy tightened; Second, his grandmother also looked forward to his return to China and gave birth to a son and a half daughter to inherit the family business.
Shao Xunmei returned to China with the expectations of her family and married her cousin Sheng Peiyu.
Sheng Peiyu is Sheng Xuanhuai's granddaughter, and her family is wealthy. When she got married, she packed thirty large suitcases for the dowry alone. In order to let passers-by see Sheng Peiyu's "ten-mile red makeup", the greeting team deliberately went around a few more times.
This evenly matched marriage of wealthy families has become the most talked-about topic in Shanghai for a while.
After marriage, Shao Xunmei immersed himself in reading, writing poems, opening a publishing house and a bookstore, and his circle of friends became wider and wider, and his dream was to publish books for himself and his friends.
It was at this time that he met Emily Hahn. In 1935, Emily Hahn came to Shanghai as a correspondent for the New Yorker's China Coast.
In the lecture room of the International Arts Theater organized by the foreign female communicator Fritz, the two sat side by side and talked eloquently, forming a deep friendship.
After the event, Shao Xunmei invited Emily Hahn to her home as a guest, and later took her to Nanjing. The relationship between the two quickly warmed up and fell in love, and Shao Xunmei also named her a Chinese name Xiang Meili.
Their relationship was soon known to Sheng Peiyu. Sheng Peiyu showed extraordinary generosity as everyone's lady, not only accepted Xiang Meili, but also commensurate with her as sisters, and often went shopping together. Because Sheng Peiyu knows that what she can't do for her husband, Xiang Meili can do it.
In 1937, the Japanese army invaded Shanghai. Shao Xunmei's family fled to the French Concession in embarrassment, because the incident happened suddenly, and many of their possessions and books could not be taken away. To add insult to injury, Shao Xunmei's printing factory was in the Japanese-occupied area, and seeing that they were about to go bankrupt, Shao Xunmei hurriedly asked Xiang Meili for help.
Without saying a word, Xiang Meili immediately got a pass, hired trucks and workers, and hurried to the encroachment to transport Shao Xunmei's property and important printing press to the concession.
Not only that, Xiang Meili is a lover and a comrade-in-arms for Shao Xunmei.
Shao Xunmei, in the name of Xiang Meimei, founded the anti-Japanese monthly magazine "Freedom Tan" to promote China's resistance against Japan. As long as Shao Xunmei asked Xiang Meili to help, she would readily agree.
Later, the party organization wanted to translate "On Protracted War" into English and spread it abroad, and it was Yang Gang, an underground party member, who was in charge of this task.
Yang Gang was friends with Xiang Meili at that time, and lived in her home to engage in translation work, so he met Shao Xunmei, and handed over the secret typesetting task of the translation to Shao Xunmei.
Shao Xunmei lived up to her trust, printed 500 copies, and distributed them in 3 batches: some of them were taken away by Yang Gang and shipped out; Part of it was issued by a friend of the beautiful German Consulate in Shanghai; In the other part, Shao Xunmei drove a beautiful car and delivered it to the foreigner's mailbox in the dead of night.
But because of this activity, the Japanese army noticed Shao Xunmei and forced him to stop publishing "Freedom Tan".
At this time, Xiang Meili wanted to finish the writing of the book "The Three Sisters of the Song Family", and it happened that Shao Xunmei had nothing to do because of the suspension of the publication, so the two went to Hong Kong to visit Song Ailing together. After completing this part of the work, Xiang Meili wanted to go to Chongqing to visit the other two Song sisters, but Shao Xunmei cherished Sheng Peiyu in Shanghai, fearing that she would be persecuted by the Japanese, so the two parted ways.
This 4-year-long transnational love was shattered by war and ideals, and by the time Shao Xunmei saw Xiang Meili again, it was already 7 years later. In 1946, Shao Xunmei was entrusted to go to the United States to buy film equipment, and met Xiang Meili on the street.
At this time, Xiang Meili had married a wife and gave birth to a lovely daughter. The two of them, together with Xiang's beautiful husband, had an all-night conversation. Xiang Meimei's husband joked: "Mr. Shao, I have kept this wife of yours for a few years, and now it should be returned!" Shao Xunmei also responded with a smile: "I haven't arranged it yet, please keep it again." ”
Xiang Meili couldn't stop laughing when she listened, but some tears flashed in her eyes. Hearing that the couple was short of money, Shao Xunmei borrowed 1,000 yuan from a friend and stuffed it to Xiang Meili.
And these 1,000 yuan were pawned by Sheng Peiyu as a dowry. In the past few years, Shao Xunmei's publishing house career has been unable to make ends meet, and Shao Xunmei has spent a lot of money to buy expensive equipment; Second, he has always helped those friends who have not become famous, and has paid them to publish books.
Later, his publishing house was also returned because of some books with wrong ideas, and suffered heavy losses.
Sheng Peiyu recalled in her later years: Xun Meiban Publishing House couldn't make ends meet, and had to overdraft in the bank, and the overdraft had to pay interest. Some of my money was also disbursed. Later, my jewelry was released and put into our own store, always hoping to redeem the original one day.
But these dowries were not redeemed until the end.
Shao Xunmei's publishing career has never improved, and by 1958, he could not even spend an extra 20 yuan on hand to entertain guests.
It was also at this time that his younger brother, who was far away in Hong Kong, sent a letter to Shao Xunmei, saying that he was sick and urgently needed money for hospitalization.
When Shao Xunmei was so worried that she couldn't eat, a friend came to chat and inadvertently talked about Xiang Meili who made a lot of money with "The Three Sisters of the Song Family", and now she has no worries about food and clothing.
Shao Xunmei thought of the 1,000 yuan that had been subsidized to her, so she wrote a letter to get the money back and send it to her younger brother for treatment.
He handed the letter to a friend and told him to go to Hong Kong and forward it again. Unexpectedly, the letter was intercepted by the relevant parties. They traced that Xiang Meimei's husband had worked as an American intelligence agent, and Shao Xunmei was also imprisoned on suspicion of being a U.S. intelligence agent and was not released until four years later.
After being released, Shao Xunmei's heart disappeared all of a sudden, and he and his divorced son were crowded into a 10-square-meter room, one bed and one sleeping ground.
They toiled every day for a mouthful of food, and lived like a year. The glory of the year became a thing of the past, and he and Sheng Peiyu, the golden boy and girl, were also separated by poverty into white-headed double stars.
Later, Shao Xunmei's friend was humiliated and committed suicide in despair. Shao Xunmei suddenly lost her desire to live, took opium essence as a meal and devoured it, and died three days later.
When he left, he was so depressed that he couldn't afford a shroud, and he owed more than 400 medical expenses and more than 600 yuan in rent.
@素素历史阁
Shao Xunmei was born at the peak, he was righteous and helped his friends without asking for anything in return; At a time of national crisis, he refused to defect to the Japanese army, and published articles calling on the masses to stand up bravely and resist.
He was born in troubled times, the first half of his life was brilliant, and the second half of his life was bleak and bitter.
Some people call him a poor sour man who can only eat soft rice, and say that he is a gentleman who only understands the wind and snow. But back then, he dared to print and distribute the English version of "On Protracted War" during the isolated island period, and risked his life in the dark night to shuttle through the streets to submit books, which is enough to prove that Shao Xunmei has a patriotic fire in her heart and is a hot-blooded descendant of Yan and Huang.
Such a person who squandered money with righteousness and was full of patriotic enthusiasm is worth remembering.
Some of the sources in this article are: Baidu Encyclopedia - Shao Xunmei; "My Father Shao Xunmei" (Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House)