In the 1970s, a 38-year-old woman chose a 60-year-old man with two adult children as a partner, and this wave of unworldly marriages was not only at the time, but even today it is bound to be questioned by public opinion, not to mention that both were foreign ministry heads and faces at the time.
But they still walked together without hesitation, and because of this, they fell out with their children. The protagonists of today's story are Qiao Guanhua and Zhang Hanzhi. Their marriage lasted only ten years, but it was a very extraordinary past.
According to Ms. Zhang Hanzhi's recollection, there was an "ominous omen" in the wedding with Qiao Guanhua.
Chapter contains it
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > first marriage</h1>
Zhang Hanzhi was the adopted daughter of the famous democrat Zhang Shizhao, and her biological mother was originally tan Xueqing, an old Shanghai socialite, who lived with Chen Du, the son of Chen Tiaoyuan, and gave birth to a daughter, because she was unwilling to make Chen Du a concubine, under the mediation of Zhang Shizhao, entrusted her daughter to Zhang Shizhao.
Due to her adoptive father's social status and family situation, Zhang Hanzhi's first marriage started from a high point, and her first husband, Hong Junyan, was an economics professor at Peking University.
In 1949, Zhang Hanzhi, who was still in middle school, met Hong Junyan, a student of Yenching University, at a Christmas ball, and after the two met, they talked about love for eight years, Zhang Hanzhi graduated from the Beiwai English major, married Hong Junyan in 1957, after marriage, Zhang Hanzhi continued to study in the Beiwai English Department, stayed in school to teach after graduation, and a few years later the daughter of the two was born.
Because of the extraordinary friendship between his adoptive father Zhang Shizhao and Chairman Mao, in 1963, Zhang Hanzhi was personally invited by Chairman Mao to work as an English teacher for the chairman for half a year.
In fact, Chairman Mao was inspecting Zhang Hanzhi's professional level, but he did not expect to be very satisfied, and once said to her, "Our country's diplomatic cause needs talents like you.", and it is precisely because of meeting Chairman Mao, the "Bole", that Zhang Hanzhi's life has undergone a major turning point - she bid farewell to the podium where she once worked and became the first female diplomat in New China.
In 1966, because he was regarded as the gangster of Lu Ping, the president and party secretary of Peking University at that time, Hong Junyan was criticized for fighting, and the scenery of the past was gone, and he lived in fear every day. When he was raided, he also affected his father-in-law Zhang Shizhao, for which Hong Junyan felt guilty and heavy, and his father-in-law not only did not complain but comforted him.
While Hong Junyan was experiencing the darkest period of his life, his wife Zhang Hanzhi's career was booming. In 1971, a major turning point in her life for Zhang Hanzhi, who had just joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she became a superior and subordinate with her later second husband, and her marriage with her ex-husband was on the verge of breaking down.
As for the marriage of Hong Zhang and the two, it is said that it is due to the fact that both of them cheated in marriage. According to the book written by Zhang Hanzhi, it is because the husband has an affair, and the marriage has long existed in name only.
However, in the memoir "Hong Junyan: Before and After My Divorce with Zhang Hanzhi" described by her ex-husband, Zhang Hanzhi actually hid a lot of unfavorable situations for herself, and even reversed the fact of divorce, covering up the fact that she had long been out of the wall.
Hong Zhang, a talented and female-looking couple, has experienced twenty-three years from knowing and falling in love with each other to divorcing.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > "romantic love kidnapped by political conspiracy"? </h1>
Qiao Guanhua and Zhang Hanzhi walked together, originating from a trip to Europe together. There were rumors that the marriage between Qiao Zhang and Qiao Zhang was a "romantic love kidnapped by political conspiracy", and the two did not confirm the authenticity of this view.
It was 1971, and the two attended the Un General Assembly together as Chinese delegations, the first time that a Chinese delegation attended the UN General Assembly after the restoration of its legitimate seat in the United Nations.
At that time, Zhang Han was a fledgling diplomat, but Qiao Guanhua was the head of the delegation.
In an ad hoc meeting on military topics, Zhang Hanzhi repeatedly made mistakes due to his lack of preparation for professional vocabulary, which made Qiao Guanhua angry.
Later, in order to ease the atmosphere, Captain Qiao invited the members of the group to the room to listen to music, and after listening, everyone went back to the room. After a while, Zhang Hanzhi returned to Qiao Guanhua's room alone with two cups of coffee, and after entering, he never came out again.
It was this mysterious encounter, in a foreign country, was taken indecently photographed by unidentified people on the Us side, using this to threaten Qiao Guanhua and ask him to cooperate with the US side, otherwise the "scandal" that occurred in New York as a senior Chinese official would become US news.
Qiao Guanhua
It is said that Qiao Guanhua was very calm and returned the blackmail he had wrongly received back to Beijing through a secret telegram. Requesting instructions, Premier Zhou, who was in Beijing at the time, replied that he would "immediately announce the marriage."
At that time, Qiao Guanhua, his wife Gong Peng had died of illness a year ago, and was indeed single. Although Zhang Hanzhi separated from her ex-husband, she did not formally divorce. Whether this past of Qiao Zhang and qiao Zhang was really promoted by the kidnapping of a political conspiracy is not known now, but it is certain that the two of them got married and broke through many obstacles.
Zhang Hanzhi already had the idea of divorcing her husband Hong Junyan, and in her heart, the marriage between the two had already existed in name only.
In 1972, she finally made up her mind to offer to divorce Hong Junyan, and later whenever someone questioned her behavior, she always moved out of her savior, saying that even Chairman Mao said to her, "Since you already know that your man is good with others, then the marriage has been blown off, why not divorce and liberate yourself?" ”
Of course, although she obviously felt the affection shown by her boss Qiao Guanhua to herself, she was not ready to accept it.
Once Qiao Guanhua asked her in English on the phone," I love you. Will you marry me?” (I love you, will you marry me), Zhang Hanzhi was very happy and excited to hear this, but she refused, she can imagine the difficulties that the two need to face to combine.
But Qiao Guanhua was firmer than her, once because Zhang Hanzhi deliberately avoided him, qiao Guanhua was drunk, and several times at night he called the duty room of the General Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to find Zhang Hanzhi, and when Zhang Hanzhi went to his house to visit him, the drunk man repeatedly asked Zhang Hanzhi "Why do you ignore me, why can't I find you" to express his heart.
After this incident, Zhang Hanzhi finally let go of the shackles in his heart, felt the worries of the past, and decided to break through the worldly prejudices, walk with Qiao Guanhua, and face many obstacles with him.
First of all, both of them were high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in the special historical period at that time, it was impossible not to consider political factors, and it was the wisest choice to protect themselves and deal with things in a low-key manner.
Secondly, the age gap between the two is huge, and the status difference is huge, which is seen by outsiders as Zhang Hanzhi's desire to climb the branches.
Qiao Guanhua's age can almost be Zhang Hanzhi's father, not to mention that the two children born to Qiao Guanhua and his ex-wife have reached adulthood, Zhang Hanzhi is only 8 years older than his eldest son, and the brothers and sisters can't accept it and can't understand how a father who has a very good relationship with his mother can find such a young stepmother shortly after his mother's death.
The marriage between Qiao Guanhua and Zhang Hanzhi lasted only ten years, ending with the death of Qiao Guanhua in 1983, and in just ten years, they withstood much public pressure.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="34" > "ominous signs" at weddings</h1>
According to Zhang Hanzhi's recollection, December 1973. He and Liang Guanhua held a wedding ceremony at No. 51 Shijia Hutong, which is Zhang Hanzhi's father's home. On the wedding day, many leaders came to eat a banquet, and the couple warmly welcomed them, but there was a small episode during the banquet, which left a deep impression on Zhang Hanzhi. Seems to be an ominous omen.
It is said that after the guests arrived that day, Zhang Hanzhi took out the Moutai wine treasured by the family for everyone to drink. At that time, Moutai was still a very precious wine, but the guests did not say a word after drinking it, and did not praise the wine.
Until she drank it herself, she realized that the bottle was not moutai wine, but boiled water. It turned out that this was the hot water used by the nanny who took care of Zhang Hanzhi's father in the family to cover her hands in the cold, and she poured it into Moutai wine for everyone to drink without knowing it.
At that time, Zhang Hanzhi felt that the first glass of wine at the wedding was fake, which was somewhat unlucky. The reason why Zhang Hanzhi was deeply impressed by this matter was that later her combination with Qiao Guanhua was questioned by many public opinions, especially with Qiao's children, which was extremely unpleasant, and after the two married, Qiao even drove her children out of the house.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="39" > breaks with children</h1>
In 1973, Qiao Guanhua was already an old man in his sixties, and Zhang Hanzhi was in his thirties and had a strong age gap, and the two people with such a large age gap were seriously opposed by Qiao Guanhua's children. After a long "tug-of-war" with his children, both sides lost patience, and since they could not get the consent and support of their children, Qiao Guanhua decided not to care about their children's feelings anymore.
Just when the eldest son, Qiao Zongzhun, wanted to try to accept this young stepmother, Qiao Guanhua immediately proposed that they wanted to live in the world of two people and let their children move out of the house.
In China at that time, there was no commercial housing, many families were three or four generations in the same house, especially in the city, it was very difficult for parents to separate from their children, there was no way to rent a house, the units were all about seniority, and it was impossible for new people to be assigned to the house immediately.
Qiao Guanhua's two sons and daughters had just joined the work at that time, and their sons had just started a family, so for them, they didn't know where to go.
Qiao Guanhua is not unaware of this difficulty, but still determined, in the later article of the younger daughter Qiao Songdu wrote in great detail, can not say that Qiao swept his children out of the house and the stepmother Zhang Han has nothing to do with it.
The trigger was that one day her daughter Qiao Song came home from work and found that the key could not open the door lock of the house, until the nanny came back from grocery shopping, and it was obvious that the father not only said it, but also did it. Due to his father's determination, the brothers and sisters decided to move away immediately, and Qiao Guanhua was not informed in advance of the move.
At that time, the tenth party congress was being held, and when qiao Guanhua was not at home, Qiao Zong allowed a friend to be invited, borrowed a tricycle, and left his father's house with his wife and soon-to-be-born child under the watchful eyes of the surrounding neighbors, and his sister Qiao Song moved back to the collective dormitory of the hospital where she worked.
Qiao Zongzhun, who dragged his family with his mouth, was actually very embarrassed, he really had no way to find a house to live in, thanks to the reasonableness of his wife's family, he followed his wife back to her mother's house, and his mother-in-law welcomed them very warmly and lived with them for 7 years.
Knowing that their children did not quit and moved away when they were not at home, Qiao Guanhua and Zhang Hanzhi were very angry and immediately "punished" their children.
Zhang Hanzhi called the minister of public security, saying that a serious political incident had occurred in the foreign minister's home, the home had been looted, the first offender was Qiao Zongzhun, and called the duty office of the Headquarters of the Beijing Military Region to prevent Qiao Songdu from entering the university.
It is difficult for the Qing officials to judge the family affairs, and outsiders do not know how many misunderstandings there were during this period, but it can be seen that the combination of Qiao Zhang and Qiao Zhang's children has caused a great contradiction.
Because of this "moving incident" was very unpleasant, in the following three years, Qiao Guanhua rarely contacted his children, and when Qiao Song was in the hospital for lymph gland tumor removal surgery, Qiao Guanhua did not visit her, which made Song Du very sad, remembering that when her mother was alive, she was the pearl in the palm of her parents, extremely pampered, but now she has become like this.
However, the complexity of marriage and family is not clear to everyone, and right and wrong are not black and white.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="53" > the first half of writing</h1>
In October 1983, after the death of Qiao Guanhua, Zhang Hanzhi's life entered a low point.
The previous political career has disappeared, her ten years of marriage with Qiao Guanhua have offended her relatives, even her daughter born to her ex-husband has complained about her, and women in their forties have to endure the cold of the world, the cold and warm of human feelings, and the solitude of people when everyone's life begins to flourish, which is very cruel.
Later, she was far away from the political center, and it took more than a decade to gradually come out of those shadows, live the life of an ordinary person, and begin to look back and write about the legendary experience of the first half of her life.
After Qiao Guanhua's death, Zhang Hanzhi did not remarry and lived alone for 26 years.
In the second half of her life, she wrote several books to remember the past, and in her books "Crossing the Thick Red Gate" and "Ten Years of Wind and Rain", she recorded the historical situation of their era, as well as the spiritual world of her adoptive father Zhang Shizhao and husband Qiao Guanhua.
The book also records the happy and harmonious life of her and Qiao Guanhua after their marriage, they read together, planted flowers, admired the moon, and the harmonious ten years of Qinse.
Life is probably like this, the ups and downs of fate, the circumstances of life, many times are inseparable from the times.
Feng Yidai, as an old friend of Zhang Hanzhi, once suggested that she record her extraordinary life, and gave sixteen words to summarize her life in segments: "Granddaughter of the Governor, adopted daughter of the chief, teacher of the chairman, wife of the foreign minister." ”
These sixteen words summarize Zhang Zhi's life very incisively, but from another point of view, these summaries are all borrowed from the male titles associated with her, but do not restore an "independent and complete" her.
Some people say that Zhang Hanzhi is the last famous woman in China in the 20th century, some people say that she is a social flower, and some people say that she has stood on the shoulders of giants (successful men) all her life, which is the real her, experiencing several ups and downs in life, so that her heart will never be as calm as her appearance, perhaps her generalization of herself is clearer, Zhang Hanzhi once wrote:
"My whole life, whether it is right or wrong, will always be governed by my own emotions."