"The space in people's hearts is limited, and once it is stuffed, it can no longer be filled with anything else." This sentence was written by his wife who had been with him for forty years, and Liang Shiqiu wrote in the book "Dream of the Garden of Shame" to mourn his deceased wife. In 1984, Taiwanese literary master Liang Shiqiu died, and before his death, he not only left behind a personal work, but also a legendary emotional experience.
In 1902, Liang Shiqiu was born in Beijing's Interior Fu Street, with an enlightened father and a gentle mother, which made him calm from an early age. At the age of 13, he entered the Tsinghua Preparatory School for Studying in the United States with excellent results.
At the age of 19, under the mediation of the elders, Liang Shiqiu met his beautiful, gentle and generous wife Cheng Jishu. Cheng Jishu was born into a family of eunuchs and had only learned, his grandfather had been an official to the prefect of Daming Province, and he himself graduated from the Beijing Women's Normal University, and was the sister of Xu Guangping, Lu Xun's lover.
The first time the two met, they fell in love at first sight and quickly fell in love. When Liang Shiqiu recalled Cheng Jishu, she said that her appearance was the best, and Cheng Jishu also said that he was talented when he recalled Liang Shiqiu.
The two began to see each other frequently, talking and walking and watching movies. Although, in the present view, these are some of the routine operations of dating, in the old society, a big girl who is not out of the cabinet, and a young young man, dating in public every week, is a sensational thing, and some women are even buried alive because of it.
Cheng Jishu told her mother about her love affair with Liang Shiqiu, and while the mother was worried about her daughter, she warned her daughter to be cautious and not let her uncles know about it no matter what, while she loved her daughter and encouraged Cheng Jishu to bravely choose the person she loved.
In this way, after another two years, Liang Shiqiu graduated and will go to the United States to study. Before going abroad, he could not rest assured, so he and Cheng Jishu privately made a lifelong agreement, and after exchanging letters, the two made a three-year covenant, that is, Liang Shiqiu returned to China three years later to marry Cheng Jishu. The loneliness of studying, and the loneliness of being alone in a foreign land, made Liang Shiqiu miss Cheng Jishu more and more, and in 1926, before he got his master's degree, Liang Shiqiu hurried back to China. The following year, the two were married along the South River in Beijing.
This marriage, called the destiny of parents, is actually a free love marriage, bringing 47 years of happiness to the two. After getting married, Cheng Jishu gave up her academic career and hobby of writing, and after marriage, she devoted all her energy to taking care of her family and her husband and children. Later, due to the war, Liang Shiqiu successively traveled to Shanghai, Qingdao and Beiping, but no matter where Liang Shiqiu went, the home that Cheng Jishu was waiting for him was always his warmest and most stable rear.
In addition to giving Liang Shiqiu the gentleness of water, Cheng Jishu is also the best help to help Liang Shiqiu break through the writing dilemma, actively encourage her husband when he is discouraged, and when Liang Shiqiu writes, outside the study, silently sort out and bind the manuscript for her husband.
In 1967, Liang Shiqiu's translation of Shakespeare's complete works for nearly thirty years was finally bound, and after completion, Liang Shiqiu said movingly: "Translating Shakespeare's works is a huge project, and ji Shu is the only one who accompanies me on this long journey. ”
On April 30, 1974, in a market in Seattle, the United States, Liang Shiqiu held the hand of his wife Cheng Jishu, ready to buy some lunch food, when he walked to the market door, Liang Shiqiu's shoelaces were loose, Cheng Jishu bent down to tie the shoelaces for Liang Shiqiu, and did not expect that a vertical ladder suddenly fell down and hit Cheng Jishu. Liang Shiqiu hurriedly sent his wife to the hospital for rescue, but Cheng Jishu never woke up.
"Xiao Feng dried, and the tears were broken. If you want to write your heart, lean on the oblique. The death of Cheng Jishu brought a great blow to Liang Shiqiu.
He said: "I am like a tree, suddenly a thunderbolt, the electric fire smashed the half-split trunk, there are still half a tree, there are branches and leaves, still alive, but, the business is exhausted." Soon, with endless attachment and affection for his wife Cheng Jishu, he wrote the book "Dream of Shame Garden".
Half a year after his wife's death, Liang Shiqiu went to Taiwan at the invitation of the Far East Book Company to read the book "Dream of The Garden of Shame" commemorating his deceased wife, and accidentally met Han Jingqing, a film and television singer who was red through half the sky. When they met, Liang Shiqiu saw that this beautiful girl was holding a large dictionary compiled by herself, and she took the initiative to talk to him.
Unexpectedly, Han Jingqing also had a lot of research on classical literature, and happened to like Liang Shiqiu's works, and was a cultural fan of Liang Shiqiu, and the two chatted from poetry to Chinese painting calligraphy for a whole afternoon.
In the evening, after Liang Shiqiu returned home, he tossed and turned, unable to forget Han Jingqing's gentle smile, and the next morning, he found Han Jingqing downstairs according to the address left by Han Jingqing. After Han Jingqing got up, he opened the curtains and found liang Shiqiu waiting downstairs early, very shocked, and quickly welcomed Liang Shiqiu upstairs, briefly freshened up, and then talked with him.
From this day on, Liang Shiqiu insisted on going to Han Jingqing at two o'clock in the afternoon every day, accompanying her shopping and sending her to a tv company for classes, and some literati ridiculed Liang Shiqiu: "Like a loyal guard." ”
In just two months, the two fell in love, and Liang Shiqiu wrote more than 90 long letters and more than 200,000 words to Han Jingqing, pursuing Han Jingqing. The writer Ye Yonglie recorded in his book "Liang Shiqiu and Han Jingqing": Mr. Liang sometimes writes two letters a day, a family letter, and a love letter.
Han Jingqing thought that Liang Shiqiu's wife had just died, so he agreed to this, which was easy to provoke criticism, so he hesitated. And Liang Shiqiu hit the iron while it was hot and said: "Don't talk about the cliff now, even the volcano must jump, we hug and jump down." ”
Soon, Liang Shiqiu, who went to the United States to deal with his wife's death claim, wrote a love letter to Han Jingqing on the one hand, and on the other hand, he wrote a letter to his daughter to mourn his wife and mourn his deceased wife.
On March 29, 1975, the 73-year-old Liang Shiqiu consummated his marriage to Han Jingqing despite the strong opposition of his family and apprentices. Under the care of Han Jingqing, Liang Shiqiu regained his confidence and successively created two works, "History of English Literature" and "Selected Works of English Literature". The two lived a romantic and warm life, and they have walked hand in hand for 12 years.
Someone said, "Marriage is the graveyard of love." Liang Shiqiu said: "Love is like fire, you need to add firewood and coal at any time, so that he will burn more and more, even if the storm hits, it will not be extinguished." ”
Although there are many puzzles, it is undeniable that Liang Shiqiu's two marriages in his life are happy, and the so-called happiness is because the two wives and him are combined with love. The second is that two wives have taken good care of him: in the war years, the first wife, Cheng Jishu, has accompanied him through the ups and downs. In peacetime, his second wife, Han Jingqing, accompanied him through the last 13 years of his journey, and both wives were undoubtedly the greatest gifts given to him by Heaven.
Many friends have asked me what I think of the literary master Liang Qiushi, and I think that more than two thousand years ago, when Confucius answered the question of his disciples asking the question of "three years of mourning", he already said very clearly: "If you don't do it with peace of mind, you will do it with peace of mind."