Su Qing
When it comes to female writers in the Republic of China period, most people will first think of Zhang Ailing, whose independent, arrogant, and high-minded personality and writing are still highly respected by intellectual women to this day.
As a representative of the female writers of the Shanghai School, Zhang Ailing was once a household name, in fact, there is a female writer, in the 1940s, she was once on a par with Zhang Ailing, popular throughout Shanghai.
Unlike Zhang Ailing's lifelong pursuit of becoming an independent and free woman, this female writer's life beliefs have undergone tremendous changes and turns, and she is Su Qing.
Compared with Zhang Ailing's early appearance as a student, Su Qing can only be said to be "halfway out of the house", and her first half of life is very different from the image of an independent and free talented woman.
Zhang ailing
Perhaps this is the reason why Su Qing is not respected by today's people, people are more willing to accept the unswerving faith of an independent woman to death, but Su Qing's life is worth thinking about by every modern woman.
In 1914, Su Qing was born in Ningbo, a family of scholars, due to the superior family, Su Qing received a new-style education from an early age and only learned.
Unlike most gentle and quiet girls, Su Qing has a cheerful and lively personality, coupled with a naturally beautiful appearance, which is particularly eye-catching.
In 1933, at the age of 19, Su Qing was admitted to the Department of Foreign Languages of National Central University with excellent results, and because of her superior conditions, she soon became a prominent figure on campus.
National Central University
Influenced by the new western culture, Su Qing has been highly respecting the feminist movement since middle school, and she often said that women should be exposed to more Western culture and should have the freedom to choose their life path.
As she said, Su Qing, who came to the university, frequently participated in various literary and artistic speeches, and was also involved in painting, music, literature and other aspects, and truly lived out what she wanted.
Due to her outstanding appearance and talent, Su Qing was named "Empress of Ningbo" by the Ningbo Alumni Association shortly after entering school.
Such a talented and beautiful woman will naturally be pursued by many men, but the young Su Qing already has a belonging, that person is her middle school classmate Li Qinhou.
After Li Qin
Li Qinhou was born in the Shangjia family in Ningbo, is a standard rich family son, if the love in this world must pay attention to the door to the right, then Li Qinhou and Su Qing must be regarded as a standard pair.
In the middle school era when the love Dou first opened, a personable rich man, a temperament like a big girl, just like the mandarin duck butterfly sect of talented women, the two soon fell in love.
Maybe there are a lot of gossip people who want to know, what do they really like about each other, is it difficult to achieve it because it is so simple?
You know, what is the reason for love, maybe it is a look, willing to pour out all of themselves, for Su Qing, who advocates the freedom of love, he believes in this beauty.
However, love always has to go through some small parting to become precious, after graduating from high school, Li Qinhou and Su Qing were admitted to Soochow University and National Central University respectively, and since then they have begun a long-distance relationship.
Soochow University
The distance between Suzhou and Nanjing is only 200 kilometers, but it also makes the two suffer.
In order to alleviate the thoughts of Li Qinhou, Su Qing devoted more time to the activities of the literary and art society, but it was precisely for this reason that Li Qinhou became more and more afraid.
It is not difficult to imagine that Su Qing, as the "queen" of the campus, is surrounded by many excellent men, and whenever Li Qinhou takes advantage of the holidays to visit Su Qing in Nanjing, he can find a stack of unopened love letters.
Although Su Qing ignored these love letters, these letters were like seeds, taking root and sprouting in Li Qinhou's heart, and blossoming into two flowers of completely different colors.
In Li Qinhou's view, being able to hold Su Qing's hand and walk on campus and see the envious eyes of others is naturally very faceless, but in turn, he has no confidence at all.
After all, among the many suitors, there are many people who are better than himself in all aspects, and he began to worry that his lover would one day empathize with him.
In order to prevent his lover from being robbed, Li Qinhou asked his parents to propose to the Su Qing family for him, and it has always been a favorite thing for feudal families to start a family first, not to mention that it is a door-to-door pair.
Of course, this matter also depends on Su Qing's attitude, after all, she has only just graduated from college, as a new woman who pursues freedom and advocates the feminist movement, premature marriage is undoubtedly a huge constraint on life.
However, what people did not expect was that after learning that Li Qin wanted to get married, Su Qing did not hesitate and resolutely agreed to her lover's request.
Many people may say that how can a talented girl from a famous school who receives a new cultural education and advocates women's rights and freedom be willing to enter the siege of marriage in her best years?
It is true that in this world, many people have lofty ideals and beliefs, but "believing" and "doing" are two different things, and the firmness of faith may not be as sincere as they think.
Although Su Qing is a woman of the new era, she still has the little woman's yearning for a happy marriage in her bones, and in her heart, the marriage of a virtuous wife and mother still has a charming charm.
Out of deep love and trust for Li Qinhou, Su Qing resolutely took a leave of absence from school and returned to Ningbo to marry Li Qinhou.
Even though all the people who came over thought that Su Qing's giving up her studies because of marriage was a stupid choice, Su Qing did not have any regrets at that time, and her trust in love far exceeded freedom.
We all know that marriage is a besieged city, but which one is not full of hope and righteousness rushed in, as for whether you want to come out, you always have to go in to know.
Entering the palace of marriage during the period of love often gives people an illusion of happiness, and the in-laws do treat Su Qing as if they were family, especially her husband Li Qinhou is even more loving to her.
Bathed in the greenhouse of happiness, Su Qing believes that her choice is correct, even if she is busy with housework every day, she also regards these as happiness troubles and enjoys it.
However, even the happiest married life will also show fatigue, and after a few months, the tedium of family life has begun to appear, so that Su Qing has the idea of returning to school, but Li Qinhou does not think so.
For Li Qinhou, he did not want his wife to return to school, even if she was married, those threats still existed, he only wanted her to be a young grandmother of the Li family at home.
If there are a hundred ways to keep a woman at home at ease, it's certainly the safest way to get her pregnant.
So soon after, the news of Su Qing's pregnancy came out, and the whole Li family was very happy, for the traditional feudal family, passing on the generations is the top priority of the family.
Su Qing was also excited by this sudden happiness for a while, and after becoming pregnant, she became the most honorable person in the Li family, and the whole family treated her a hundred times more considerately than usual.
Being able to have her own children with someone she loves is undoubtedly the happiest thing in a woman's life, but in this world, there is always a fish and a bear's paw.
If there is any harm to Su Qing, it is that she had to completely give up her studies, and for the sake of her family, Su Qing resolutely changed her suspension to drop out.
After dropping out of school, Su Qing became a full-time wife, not leaving the door every day, enjoying the comfortable life of a young grandmother at home, but all this changed after the birth of the child.
In 1935, Su Qing gave birth to a baby girl, as a new woman in the new era, Ben did not care about giving birth to boys and girls, but at this time she found that the Li family was an extremely patriarchal family.
The in-laws, who were anxiously waiting at the door of the delivery room, were so depressed that they did not even hug their granddaughter after hearing that it was a girl.
Not only that, the mother-in-law who was extremely disappointed in Su Qing did not even come to visit her during her confinement period, and Su Qing was sad about it.
I thought that my happy life came from this child, but I couldn't imagine that with the birth of this child, my life had plummeted.
Every time he came into contact with his mother-in-law, he actually urged himself to quickly raise his body to continue to give birth, and the mother-in-law's birth made Su Qing feel extremely depressed, and he did not know when he began to become a fertility machine.
What she did not expect was that her husband, who had always been open to giving birth to boys and girls, had unconsciously joined the ranks of "spawning".
Remembering the "Ningbo Queen" on campus two years ago, who had unlimited scenery, in the blink of an eye, she had become a fertility machine that was blinded by people, and the changes in this world were really regrettable.
But all this is no wonder to others, everything is cause and effect, cause and effect are self-made, Su Qing slowly began to pay for the wrong decisions in the past.
At the end of 1935, due to Li Qin's career reasons, Su Qing and her children moved to Shanghai with their husbands.
Shanghai in 1935
In order to express the bitterness of the childbirth, Su Qing, who came to Shanghai, wrote an essay called "The Birthing Daughter" and published it in the magazine edited by Lin Yutang, thus starting her literary career.
Although she occasionally published some articles, as a full-time wife, she had to bear the pressure from the family, and in the next few years, Su Qing gave birth to three daughters in succession.
In fact, Su Qing did not want to have a son, but this kind of thing, she can not decide, after years of giving birth, her body has become very weak, even so she still has to take care of her children and husband.
Because the four children in a row were daughters, Su Qing was described by the Li family as a "useless iron rooster", and Li Qinhou also began to look at her coldly, and the couple often quarreled over trivial matters.
Lin Yutang
Countless insomnia nights, Su Qing asked herself, is this the life she wants? Once longing to break the family cage and become an independent woman, now she lives so humblely.
In such an era of social change between the old and the new, we can't be sure that Su Qing's choice must be wrong, but at least on the issue of marriage, her decision is too hasty.
After the July 7 Incident, Li Qinhou's business in Shanghai became worse and worse, and he was an extremely good-looking person, unwilling to ask for money from his family, and often borrowed wine alone to pour sorrow.
Although it is difficult to do business under the war, but the days still have to go on, time is long, chai rice oil and salt every cost needs Su Qing to make careful calculations.
Shanghai after the July 7 Incident
Because he had no income, every expense in the family needed to be asked for from Li Qinhou, and the two had more and more disputes over "money", and the family's life was even in trouble for a while.
Once, li Qinhou, who was not going well in the business field, returned home, and when her daughter's milk powder was gone, Su Qing asked her husband for milk powder money, but at this time Li Qinhou was penniless.
He yelled at Su Qing, drunk, "Don't bother me, I don't have any money!" ”
In the face of her husband's rebuke, Su Qing said indignantly: "If I don't ask you for money, will my daughter and I starve?" ”
As soon as this remark came out, even Su Qing herself felt despicable, and unconsciously, she had become a woman who had to rely on men to support herself, how was this different from the incompetent old women in the feudal family?
To Su Qing's surprise, Li Qinhou, after hearing her questioning, felt humiliated and actually came up to give Su Qing a loud slap, pointing into her eyes and shouting:
"You are also a cultural person, and you have the ability to go out and make money yourself!"
It was this slap that completely woke up Su Qing, who had been relying on her husband's support since she got married, and had not felt her misfortune when she had lived a rich life in the past.
Now that life was tight, every penny had to be reached out to others, and she pleaded like a beggar, and she knew that what the beggar had lost was not ability, but dignity.
If Su Qing knew his achievements a few years later, he might have thanked Li Qinhou for "slapping the dreamer awake with one slap".
After that, Su Qing filed for divorce from her husband, and Li Qin later refused to divorce on the grounds that Su Qingzheng was pregnant, and Su Qing did not rush to worry about him and moved out of the house with the child.
Su Qing knew that Li Qinhou's refusal to divorce was undoubtedly for the sake of the possible boy in her belly, and compared to divorce, there was a more important thing in front of Su Qing at this time, that is, economic independence.
After leaving Li Qin, Su Qing picked up his pen again and began his own literary creation, writing day and night to make money.
For a writer, talent will not be worn away by the passage of time, but will shine with the grind of life.
Su Qing not only wrote for major newspapers and magazines in Shanghai, earning enough money to support herself and her children, but also began to write her own books, once becoming a well-known writer in Shanghai.
It can be said that at this time, Su Qing found the "Ningbo Empress" who was confident and sunny, and after nearly ten years of married life, Su Qing realized it.
I once thought that love was the whole of my life, and for it, I was willing to bury myself in the grave of love, hoping to grow a grave grass called happiness.
It wasn't until ten years later that she understood that what was more important to a woman than love was an independent personality, which was like a fertile land, cultivating all the gorgeous flowers, including love.
After seeing that his wife really earned money independently, Li Qinhou's machismo began to work, he felt that it was not a system for women to make money outside, and persuaded her to continue to go back to her husband and teach her children.
However, after experiencing the previous slap, Su Qing was already disappointed in this man, she had enough of that kind of life without dignity, and she was determined to be an economically independent woman.
After seeing Su Qing's indifference to himself, Li Qinhou had no choice but to leave sadly, and soon after, the lonely and unbearable Li Qinhou actually cheated on his sister-in-law, and for a time he made a fuss.
If Su Qing after independence still has a trace of marital feelings for Li Qinhou, then Li Qinhou's derailment is the last straw that crushes the camel.
Although Su Qing had given birth to a boy at this time, the child was meaningless to their marriage.
In 1943, at Su Qing's insistence, her marriage to Li Qinhou came to an end.
After the divorce, Su Qing finally let go of her hands and feet to start her own literary creation, and published her masterpiece "Ten Years of Marriage" according to the perception of ten years of marriage.
As soon as the book was released, it swept throughout Shanghai, and 36 editions were printed successively, creating a miracle of publishing and distribution at that time, and Su Qing was once on a par with Zhang Ailing, who was in the sky at that time.
Not only that, several novels published by Su Qing subsequently were also well received, becoming one of the few rich female writers in China.
Throughout Su Qing's life, the scenery has been, the happiness has been, the loss has been lost, and the awakening has been realized, and no one knows what kind of artistic achievements Su Qing will have if he had not wasted that ten years of marriage.
But it is precisely that decade of marriage that has created Su Qing's perception of life: no matter how determined you are about love, having an independent personality is the key to happiness.