Tonight's story of this strange woman is told, without hunting or acting, trying to restore to the reader the real Sai Jinhua that shimmers with a beautiful light in the depths of history.
Sai Jinhua' original surname was Zhao, his name was Yunfei, and he was originally from Yi County, Anhui Province, and was born in 1872 to a gentry family. After his mother died of illness, he moved to Suzhou with his father to avoid war. At the age of 13, due to his family's poverty and unable to make a living, he was sold by his grandmother to a "flower boat" as a prostitute. Led by a prostitute named Jin Yunxian, she became a Qingqiao for the first time, and went to the flower boat on the Suzhou River to "make a strip", that is, to greet guests. That night, she and Jin Yunxian had a series of more than a dozen flower boats, just starting out and reaping a lot of rewards. She later recalled: "At that time, every qingqiao strip was given four silver dollars, and this time Jin Yunxian made dozens of yuan out of thin air through me. ”
"Qing" refers to a virgin who has not "opened the buds", only accompanies guests, and does not stay overnight. Prostitutes are only allowed to pick up customers when they are 14 years of age or older. If the prostitute wants to get the right to the first night, he has to spend a lot of money to taste it. When the prostitute cleans the money, the old bustard asks the prostitute to burn paper, which means that the husband is dead, burn the paper for the end, and then the prostitute goes to pick up other guests, and can be carefree. After this experience, the prostitute is called "Hun Qi", also known as "Red Qi". At that time, Sai Jinhua only accompanied the guests on the flower boat, singing small songs and Kun Lu. She especially described this kind of flower boat: "At this time, there were many flower boats in Suzhou, all in the Cangqiao area, between lumen tiger hills. The boats are double-open, with glass windows on all sides, with railings around the outside, very delicately painted, and spacious enough inside to set up two tables for a feast. Everything is exquisitely arranged, with many lanterns hanging, and flower baskets made of jasmine flowers, and the tables and chairs are all mahogany and pear inlaid with marble. ”
There are various rules on the flower boat, such as who calls the strip and who pays for it, the girl sits next to whom; the girl can drink tea and eat fruit snacks with the guests, but is not allowed to drink; when the girl leaves the boat, she must press one of the dollars in the strip money given under the tea tray, which is a share for the next person, called "cabin money". When the next person came to clean up the table, he picked up the money and threw it on the boat board, and when he snorted, he shouted "Miss So-and-so Reward", and the outside shouted "thank you" in unison, and the voice was quite beautiful.
At the age of 15, Sai Jinhua was abducted and sold to Shanghai. She was exquisite in stature, good in complexion, outstanding in appearance, and charming in Chuchu, and began a career of selling laughter, with the name of Fu Caiyun, following the surname of the mother of the bustard. Because there was a famous prostitute in Suzhou called "Jinhua", the people of the time gave him the nickname "Sai Jinhua" and flattered his high level of prostitutes. At that time, the atmosphere in Shanghai was very popular, and some people in the upper class began to learn English. In order to earn money from foreigners, Sai Jinhua also asked someone to teach her to read English, which made her even more different.
During the Guangxu period, Hong Jun, a military attendant from the Imperial Guard, was ordered to send an envoy to Germany. On the eve of going abroad, in order to curry favor with him, his subordinates invited him to travel to Shanghai and invited the prostitute Sai Jinhuayu to serve him. Hong Zhuangyuan was very happy to see Sai Jinhua, and he couldn't stop it after one night, so he frequently gave notes, so that the two were inseparable. Sai Jinhua can speak some foreign languages, and is more heavily valued by Hong Zhuangyuan, so he has the intention of taking him as a concubine, and Sai Jinhua naturally can't ask for it. Hong Zhuangyuan's subordinates set two thousand yuan to redeem the race. At that time, Hong Zhuangyuan was 49 years old and Sai Jinhua was 15 years old. Sai Jinhua wrapped small feet, small children, small eyes, small mouth, not fat and not thin, face like melon seeds, face like peach blossoms, two moth eyebrows that want to be trampled, a pair of phoenix eyes that seem to open and not open, there is really an indescribable style. On the fourteenth day of the first month of 1889, Hong Jun married Sai Jinhua into the door and held a lively wedding ceremony. The old cow eats tender grass, which naturally makes Hong Jun proud. Regarding the wedding, Sai Jinhua himself said: "The wedding is very solemn, sitting in a green tweed car, with a red yarn lamp in front, and there are many ceremonial guards. ”
Wedding photo of Sai Jinhua and Hong Jun
Hong Jun's family has two wives, the eldest wife is from Nanjing, and her father is the daughter of Lu Runyu, a high-ranking official in the capital, who has a son; the second wife is from Yangzhou and has no birth after marriage. Now it was a prostitute who was marrying into the door, causing a lot of criticism from her family.
Hong Zhuangyuan is about to send an envoy to Germany. His wife was old and frail, and she was a small foot that was entangled, and did not dare to go far into the ocean. This matter had to let the ill-known Sai Jinhua accompany the ocean. The old man and young wife spent four years of happiness and joy in Berlin, Germany. Whenever there was a diplomatic banquet and socializing, Sai Jinhua learned the appearance of a foreigner and went with Hong. During this period, Sai Jinhua also learned some commonly used German and became acquainted with many German celebrities. At a banquet, she met a German Army officer, Wadsey, who praised Sai Jinhua as an oriental beauty and admired her. Sai Jinhua has also been to Geneva, St. Petersburg and other places, which opened her eyes. She also had the honor of being received and photographed by Chancellor Bismarck and the King and Empress of Germany, but most of the time she spent time in the embassy. There was a squirrel who helped her comb her hair and dress up and talk to her. Even when Ambassador Hong was hosting a banquet at home, she spent most of her time helping out in the kitchen.
Four years later, in 1892, Hong Jun returned to China due to his old age and remained a left attendant of the military department. Unfortunately, the year after returning to China (1893), Hong Zhuangyuan died of illness. Because Sai Jinhua had no name as a concubine and was born as a prostitute, she was persuaded by the Hong family to leave and was not allowed to step into the Hong family's door again. Sai Jinhua sent Hong Jun's spirit ship to Suzhou (Hong Jun's hometown), the coffin first docked at the booth, before she arrived at the door, she was forced to leave the ship and go to Shanghai. In Shanghai, she gave birth to Hong Jun's widow, who died after only eleven months, which severely hit Sai Jinhua's spirit. The 50,000 yuan that Hong Jun left for Sai Jinhua did not fall into her hands, and was privately swallowed by Hong Jun's family (his brother Hong Luan).
Soon, Sai Jinhua came to Beijing's Punishment Street to open her "Jinhua Class". The following year, she was imprisoned for abusing prostitutes and was subsequently ordered to be deported to her hometown. Sai Jinhua, with sorrow and bitterness, returned to Shanghai in the Ten Mile Ocean Field again, re-opened his yanzhi, hung a signboard of "Lady Zhao Mengluan of Zhuangyuan" in his "Book Apartment", solicited prostitutes, business was booming, and cars and horses were full of doors.
In the summer of 1898, Sai Jinhua "turned to Tianjin", and her name brand of Mrs. Zhuangyuan was also illuminated in Tianjin. She not only personally went out on horseback, but also recruited a group of young and beautiful prostitutes, officially formed a southern-style "Golden Flower Class" in Jiangchakou Hutong, and became a bustard herself. During this time, Sai Jinhua became acquainted with a dignitary, Hubu Shangshu Yang Lishan. Yang Lishan brought Sai Jinhua to the capital, and the Jinhua team also went with them, staying in the Hongsheng Inn on Li Tieqiu Street. Soon, it was moved to the north entrance of Shaanxi Lane to set up "Sai Yu". Sai Jinhua also brought the fashion of Shanghai's flower world to conservative Beijing, and she became a well-known prostitute in the capital. Sai Jinhua often wears men's clothing, hair braids, wears a straw hat, foot pedal satin boots, and does not have a man's heroism, she and the guests "worship the handle", called brothers and brothers, when people call "Sai Second Master". Unexpectedly, the weather is unpredictable. On the night of August 13, 1900, the Eight-Power Alliance invaded the city of Beijing.
The merit of "Second Master Sai"
The Eight-Power Coalition invaded the city of Beijing. The Boxers resisted bravely, fighting with stones without weapons, but the 80,000 Qing soldiers fled without a fight. The invading army finally broke into the city of Beijing, and these robbers, who advertised themselves as "the most civilized people in the world," allowed the army to openly loot for three days, from August 16 to 18. During these three days, the coalition army entered the imperial palace, the Summer Palace and the people's houses, burned and plundered on a large scale, and raped the house. In particular, the British army and the Indian soldiers were the most vicious. The loot is piled up in the embassy house, auctioned for days, and divided according to the rank of the army. Three days later, followed by private robberies, the officers and men of the coalition forces of various countries searched around like wolves, taking things when they saw things, and insulting them when they saw them, without any scruples. As a result, the people of Beijing suffered a terrible disaster.
Because the German minister Klinder was killed by the Boxers, causing hatred among the Germans, innocent merchants were brutally killed in the area from Yongdingmen to Dongjiaomin Lane in retaliation. But relatively few women were killed, and they stayed behind to commit violence. The wife, concubine, daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law of the Tongzhi Emperor's father-in-law Chongqi were also doomed by this fate, and ten people, young and old, were forced to commit suicide after being openly raped by dozens of officers and soldiers of the coalition army. The ninety-year-old mother of Anhui Inspector Furun was stripped naked and insulted by the robbers and tortured to death with a leather whip. German soldiers openly gang-raped women in the streets and threw their victims into the fire. The British and Indian soldiers tied up a woman and then executed her. Even cutting off women's small feet and breasts, its shameless beastly behavior is beyond ordinary people's imagination.
Empress Dowager Cixi fled with the Guangxu Emperor to Xi'an on the eve of the allied forces entering the city. At that time, there was a folk song saying: Empress Xi, really not bad, long legs, running fast, Chang'an live and sell the country. The loss of money is uncountable, and the sale of land is a good chunk.
In September, the new commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, German Field Marshal Wadesi, came to China to take office, and the robbery of the capital was nearly over. One day, a group of German soldiers broke into Sai Jinhua's apartment to harass them, and Sai Jinhua questioned them in German. The Germans were surprised. Sai Jinhua learned that the commander of the coalition army was actually Wadsi, stationed in the Nanhai Yiluan Hall (Huai Ren Hall), but decided to visit. At this time, the situation in Beijing City was described by someone: "400,000 people bow down in unison, and none of Beijing is a man!" "The people of a weak country, unarmed, in the face of the bloody massacre of foreign guns and cannons, what can they do except be slaughtered by people on the board!" Sai Jinhua, a female streamer, despite the danger, stood up and went to persuade Vadersi to curb the barbarism.
Wadsey gladly received Sai Jinhua's visit and asked her about her life after returning from Germany. Sai Jinhua asked him to restrain the coalition from killing innocent people again. She said: "The Western countries are civilized countries, and they are especially not allowed to act arbitrarily and lose their reputation. In Sai Jinhua's autobiography, she said: "That day, stay until dark, I am going home, Wadesi is very reluctant to let me go, a thousand ding, ten thousand instructions, I hope I can often come to his camp, and personally send out how far, we shake hands and say goodbye." Since then, he has sent people to pick me up almost every day, and he has been in his camp for more than half a day, with very few intermittent days. Wadesi ordered an end to the German atrocities, and the merchants in Beijing were at peace.
Sai Jinhua stayed with Wadesi. During the three or four months that the two of them spent together, they often rode horses and walked side by side on the streets of Beijing, and when the citizens saw her, they all called her "Second Master Sai", or said: "Please be safe to Second Master Sai!" Sai laughed and accepted. Many people came to see her with business cards and gifts, and even those princes and nobles came to her with dignity and dignity, either to her as a dry lady, or to her as a sister, and many people sent her horses, it is said that at that time she once had four famous horses, three of which were pure green horses, and the latter was a mule of Little Goryeo.
In the 1980s, Chinese scholars found the diary of the Waldsee Guards in Germany, and in this diary they found accounts of Wadesi's interaction with Sai Jinhua in Beijing. In Sai Jinhua's autobiography, her interaction with Wadhi is also relatively true and reliable. After the murder of the German minister Clinder, Empress Dowager Cixi was forced to send Prince Zaifeng to personally go to the German Emperor to apologize on behalf of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty and the state, and held a grand funeral for Klinder, erecting a monument at the place where he was killed, listing the qing emperor's words of regret and misfortune, and writing them in Latin, German, and Chinese scripts. As a result, all countries agreed, and Mrs. Klinder alone, unwilling to give up, made all kinds of unreasonable demands, and thus prevented the signing of the Xinugu Treaty.
Entrusted by Li Hongzhang, Sai Jinhua found the signing of the Treaty of Tolerance and Ugliness in Wadesi. Wadsey said to her, "I'm good to say here, But Mrs. Vickerind is not easy to do there." Sai Jinhua asked Wadesi to build a bridge, and she was going to go to Mrs. Klinder herself as a lobbyist. In Sai Jinhua's biography, she recounts in detail her meeting with Madame Clinder: "I saw her, and she was very kind to me, first telling gossip, and then I slowly explained to her: 'The death of the minister was done by the boxers, not by the Empress Xi.'" The empress dowager was not in the palace, and the outside world was in turmoil, so how could she know about this? This is a royal fact, and it was not designed intentionally. Erecting a monument to man is the greatest and highest courtesy of our country, and no one can surpass this glory again'. Sai Jinhua explained that madame did not object, and the Xinugu Treaty was signed, which was her second greatest credit.
Sai Jinhua's righteous deeds to protect the people became famous in Beijing, and through the renderings of various newspapers, Sai's exploits were widely known. Cixi returned to the palace, and Sai Jinhua was also in the crowd of drivers. Cixi saw a strange woman in the group of courtiers and asked her who she was. Someone told Cixi about the righteous deeds that Sai Jinhua had done. Cixi then remained in the palace to serve. Later, because he was a prostitute, he was discriminated against by others and resigned from the palace.
Sai Jinhua came out of the palace feeling rather frustrated. In order to survive, she bought two prostitutes in Beijing and then Zhang Yanzhi. Many people come to the scene with a good reputation. In particular, some high-class people come to meet the endless stream. Some are prostitutes, some are not prostitutes, just admiration. Unconsciously, two years have passed, and Sai Jinhua is 31 years old, which is an older person in the brothel world. That year, she spent twelve hundred taels of silver to buy a girl from Wuqing County, thinking that she was a chick, she did not expect to have a good relationship at home, after entering her Jinhua class, she missed the old people, swallowed gold and committed suicide, which led to a lawsuit, Sai Jinhua was convicted of abusing prostitutes, sat in prison for a period of time, and finally was expelled from the capital and sent to her hometown for the second time. She would never have known in her dreams that such an ending was That Hong Jun's old relative, Lu Runku, colluded with Sun Jianai, the head of the Punishment Department, to make her have a hard time arguing and suffer a dumb loss.
Sai Jinhua returned home soon, in Shanghai to resume the old business, although the age is getting older, yesterday huanghua, but the former reputation is still there, the old brand opened in a different place, the business is still good. However, most of the guests did not come to admire her fading flower and moon appearance, or to touch her wrinkled flesh, but more to consume and mozzle her historical legend. During this time, she became acquainted with Wei Sijiong (jiǒng), a senator and head of the Jiangxi Civil Affairs Department, and the two married in Shanghai in June of the seventh year of the Republic of China (1918), at the age of 47 and Wei 45. The witness is Li Liejun. After marriage, he returned to Beijing to live.
It's really unpredictable, and the disaster is not alone. In 1922, Wei Sijiong died suddenly. In the same year, Sai Jinhua's mother also died in Suzhou. Under the double blow, Sai Jinhua dried her tears. She was forced to leave the Wei family and move with her nanny, Gu Ma, who had been following her, to a small courtyard in a small alley in Beijing called Jurenli. It was a slum near the overpass. Sai Jinhua's days are like rivers and rivers, and the eight hutongs have completely abandoned her. This bitter woman saw through the red dust and believed in Buddhism.
Fast forward more than ten years, Sai Jinhua, who has experienced the vicissitudes of the world and tasted the bitterness and bitterness of life, has entered old age. She was old and helpless, living in poverty by selling pawns, and later even relying on people to help her survive. She was reclusive, taciturn, and almost cut off from the outside world. In this narrow courtyard, I spent a bleak time, reciting Buddhist sutras every day, and raising three dogs and two cats to dissipate loneliness. She looked dark, her eyelids were deep, and her blue-gray cheongsam was no longer than her ankles, and she was rarely replaced. She faded from people's memories.
When a reporter from the Ta Kung Pao visited her in 1933, she said that her rental money was 14.4 yuan, and the district exempted her from housing donations, reducing the burden of life a little. She and the maid received 20 yuan a month for living expenses, which was very painful. The old calligraphy, paintings and jewelry have all been sold out...
After Sai Jinhua's life embarrassment was reported in the news, it aroused the sympathy of the social people. Xie Shoukang, who was a former acting envoy in Belgium, and Chen Jin, a professor at the University of China and France, initiated and organized a "competition" to raise funds for Sai Jinhua. When the celebrity Zhang Was born in Beijing, she heard of her dilemma, saying that she had contributed to the people of the association, but appealed to people in China to donate widely. After Zhang Jingsheng himself returned to Shanghai, he sent the 25 yuan raised to the hands of Beijing Sai. Sai Grateful Zero, Reply Cloud:
Mr. Zhang Taishi: I read the letter a few days ago, which makes me very grateful! Your Excellency is a warm-hearted person, and how much I admire you for doing your best for me! My current situation is not very good, old and cruel, unspeakable, just spend time behind closed doors. Please thank you for my convenience to the gentlemen who helped me. The 25 yuan sent has now been fully received, please rest assured. Congratulations to Wenqi. Wei Zhao Yunfei worshiped.
Since then, people have been stepping into her faded, closed door. The two grapevines in the courtyard bear fruit every year. A few white and cute Western puppies roamed around. Whenever someone visits, they will feed the guests with tea and fruits and give them grape baskets. The painter Xu Beihong once gave her four horse drawings, and she transferred one of them to Mr. Wang Qingfang, who was kind to her, and the other three were donated to disaster relief. Liu Bannong's "Sai Jinhua Skill" was not completed, and he fell ill and died. The mention of this made Sai Jinhua sad and tearful, and later the book was published, and the sales were very good, but she did not get the benefit. There was no one left in her hometown, only one brother and sister. The bones of Sai Jinhua's mother are still in the Yiyuan Garden in Jiangsu Province, and whenever she thinks of it, Sai Jinhua bursts into tears.
On November 4, 1936, on a midwinter night, Sai Jinhua completed her 65 years of tortuous life and died in her apartment in Beijing. She suffered from diarrhea and was so recidivist that she lost her life. A generation of famous flowers went away desolately, and she had no relatives around her, only the old servants who had been with her for many years. When she knew that she was sick for no time, she often called her righteous son "Erxing". Erxing was born to Gu Ma, but Erxing was far away in Shanghai at this time and could not fulfill the filial piety of a righteous son. Gu Mama cried and complained, "May the second son of Dai Xing fulfill the gift of filial piety!" Sai Wenyan was even more grateful for the tears, choking more than ... When SaiJinhua water rice did not enter, the puppies did not forage for food, lying on their sides dazed. On her deathbed, she suddenly laughed wildly and said, "Amitabha... Guanyin Bodhisattva... Hong Zhuangyuan has come to greet me! "Words are out of breath.
The tragic fate of Sai Jinhua is the true portrayal of millions of prostitutes in old China, and it is also the inevitable destination of the so-called "lower nine streams" at the bottom of society. The illusion of her dying is her expression and appeal for a better life! Although she is one of the most humble prostitutes, she has a legend that no famous bridesmaids have.
Tianming, a piece of policeman named Puyu who came here to inspect heard Gu Ma's crying, and only then did he enter the small courtyard and see such a miserable scene. The maid went to report the funeral, and the neighbor heard the news. Pu Yu first informed the newspaper, and the person who answered the phone was Wu Zonghu, the editor of Liyan Bao at the time. The Liyan Newspaper immediately stopped the revision and issued an exclusive news as quickly as possible. Soon, the whole city of Beijing knew the news of Sai Jinhua's tragic death. Sai Jinhua once again entered the vision of Beijingers, and this time it has changed from bada hutongs to Jurenli, and her identity has changed from a legendary figure to a lonely old lady who died of hunger and cold.
On the second day, District Governor Wang Yushu personally went to the Social Bureau, visited Secretary General Qian Zhongying and Section Chief Yuan Zuochan, proposed to organize the "Sai Jinhua Funeral Preparatory Office", and went to several schools to discuss the matter of persuasion. At times, Sun Jinqing, president of the Chamber of Commerce, joined hands with many merchants to raise hundreds of yuan and buy a coffin. Liang Jiayuan's Crane Nian Tang Coffin Shop Treasurer heard that the deceased was Sai Jinhua, only half the price, and the shou clothes were all given away. People from all walks of life in Beijing were deeply saddened when they heard the news of her death, and people still remembered her merits to the citizens of one side.
Saikin Peanut was unable to bury his mother before, which was a pity. Some people say that they should fulfill their last wishes on his behalf and bring their mothers to be buried together. Everybody thinks so. For the writing of the tombstone inscription, there were five or six people competing for it. In the end, pan Yugui, a pro-Japanese traitor, suppressed people and decided to write it himself. The tomb of Sai Jinhua was finally built on the incense mound on the northeast side of the Taoranting Mercy Nunnery and the Jinqiu Pier north of the Parrot Mound. The tomb is made of marble, the stele is granite, and it is nearly two meters high. It's also grand.
In 1952, the Beijing Municipal Government moved the tomb of Sai Jinhua and the tombstone out of Wan'an Cemetery, and its tombstones are now stored in the stone carving exhibition room of the Mercy Temple.