"It will be difficult for the outside world to rise, how many years is Shuo Yan left?" Feng Yuncai is slightly the rise and fall, and has won the unparalleled reputation of the scholar newspaper. Dressed in a jar of ordinary things, the history of books is ordinary. The coffin is like a rainbow, and the next day is hard to worry about who to be with. "A poem "Tune Yu Beauty" wrote his whole life.
He is a well-known historian and a battle-hardened diplomat. From seeking to learning in politics, he has the style of a king, but unfortunately, he lost most of his life's honor in marriage.
He is the Republic of China national soldier who has two wives at the same time, Jiang Tingdian.
Figure | Jiang Tingdi
One
In 1895, Jiang Tingdian was born in Hunan to a middle-class peasant family. Although his family was not well-off, he entered the school at the age of six. Fortunately, at the age of 16, he received funding from the church to study in the United States.
Coming to the United States, Jiang Tingdian struggled alone in school, attending middle school at a parker academy where he worked and studied half-time. With his talent and hard work, he was awarded a scholarship for studying abroad at official expenses.
Not only that, Jiang Tingdi hoped that his brother could also go to the United States for education, so he used this scholarship to fund his brother to study in the United States. It can be seen that when Jiang Tingdian was young, he showed the courage and boldness of ordinary people.
In 1914, Jiang Tingdian was successfully admitted to Oberlin College. A few years later, he was admitted to the Graduate School of Columbia University. It is reasonable to say that ordinary people choose a major at will in the college, but he thinks much more about choosing a major than ordinary people.
According to Jiang Tingdian in his Memoirs, "When I entered Columbia University in the summer of 1919, I had a very strange idea that I should specialize in journalism. I think if I become a Chinese newspaper tycoon, I can influence Chinese politics. To that end, I went to journalism school. But I suddenly felt that the journalists' understanding of a country's politics was only superficial and could not be deepened, so they could only go with the flow and cater to the times. ”
"I think that in order to influence politics, we must understand politics, and if we want to understand politics, we must specialize in political science. Therefore, in the autumn of 1919, the press reformed politics. But soon I felt that politics also had its limits. My conclusion is that the only way to gain real political knowledge is to start with history. I've gone from journalism to politics, and now I'm moving from politics to history. ”
From journalism to history, it is not difficult to find that as an intellectual, What Jiang Tingdian has always pursued in his heart is the ideal and belief of "political salvation of the country." He also said: "The idea of saving China has always been lurking in my consciousness, looming from time to time. This could also explain what he did afterwards.
In 1923, at the age of 28, Jiang Tingdian returned to China and successively went to Nankai University and Tsinghua University as a professor of history. During his teaching, he began to work on the creation of China's modern diplomatic history. Between professorship and dissemination, he did his best to open up the research space of Chinese historical materials. In addition, he has also made certain contributions to the study of history at home and abroad.
After establishing a preliminary framework for China's modern diplomatic history, Jiang Tingdian continued to devote himself to the collection and collation of materials on China's modern diplomatic history. He once said that his purpose in doing so was: "It is all about historicizing China's diplomatic history and academicizing China's diplomatic history." ”
Originally, Jiang Tingdian planned to spend ten years to write a "Modern Chinese History". In 1938, when the smoke of war was everywhere, he had to write the "Modern History of China" in the shortest possible time. Although the book is only a few tens of thousands of words, it is enough to see his thinking and efforts to this end.
A book of Modern Chinese History almost constructs a new narrative framework for China's modern history. In the book, Jiang Tingdian makes a profound analysis of the root causes of China's modern history. When he talks about modern history, he is not impartial, neither completely understanding it from the aspect of evil, nor only favoring the good.
Two
Jiang Tingdian can indeed be called a leader in the industry in his career. But no one is perfect, he has made outstanding achievements in his career, but in marriage, he has failed.
In this regard, the late Mr. Liu Shaotang, the president of biographical literature, once said: "Jiang Tingdian was a successful diplomat, but he was a failed husband and a failed father. The key to failure is that he has one more woman than the average man. And at the height of his career, he was plagued by this problem for at least two decades, until his death. ”
In fact, when Jiang Tingdian was still studying at Oberlin College, he had already begun to be entangled in marriage and love. After receiving his education abroad, he only wanted to study and did not want to think about marriage, let alone marry according to his parents' orders.
Jiang Tingdian knew that when he was five years old, his father had already set up a family affair for him. When his father wrote to urge him to go home and get married, he insisted that the marriage be dissolved. The result was only a sentence from his father: "Ridiculous, impossible." ”
Although his father did not agree at the time, Jiang Tingdian was not willing to compromise at all. He told his father that he was going to choose his own marriage and that he would not return home if he did not reject the affair. In the end, the father had to give up.
Although Jiang Tingdian was given the right to marry and love freely, he never thought that the person he chose would bring him something in his later life.
Jiang Tingdian and his first love Tang Yurui met in 1919. Both were students at Columbia University at the time. Because they are all from China and share the same ambitions and aspirations, they often participate in social activities together. Over time, Jiang Tingdian and Tang Yurui developed feelings.
In 1923, when Jiang Tingdian returned to China, Tang Yurui accompanied him and returned to China by boat with him. Perhaps worried that his parents would not agree to their being together, or that Jiang Tingdi was really romantic, he immediately decided to marry Tang Yurui in the boat. They found the captain as a witness, and there was not a single relative or friend around, so they completed the wedding on the ship.
After returning to China, Jiang Tingdian entered Nankai University to teach history, while Tang Yurui worked at Nankai Middle School. In 1929, he received an invitation from Luo Jialun, president of Tsinghua University, and transferred to Tsinghua University as the head of the History Department.
Figure | Jiang Tingdian and Tang Yurui
Three
When it comes to the marriage between Jiang Tingdian and Tang Yurui, perhaps the two have spent more time in academic research together. Although there is no excessive romance, it can be seen from the fact that they have given birth to four children in succession, it can be seen that the two are actually in love.
Unfortunately, Jiang Tingdian was deeply influenced by Western thought, and from beginning to end, he did not want to be bound, and the life he pursued was always free and active.
Back in the motherland, Jiang Tingdian maintained his foreign hobby habits. Outside of work, he always likes to meet two or three friends to play tennis or bridge. At that time, it was also a favorite game for returnees.
Just because of the game, the direction of Jiang Tingdian's life began to shift. In 1938, Chiang had just left his post as Soviet ambassador and returned to China to serve as the chief of state affairs of the Executive Yuan. Two years later, he met Shen Weitai and Shen Enqin in a bridge game.
Among the card friends, Jiang Tingdian can also be called a master, saying that "the high place is not cold", if you meet an opponent, I think you will be a little more happy. Who knew that the woman sitting next to Shen Weitai was also a bridge master. Jiang Tingdian became infatuated with Shen Enqin like a demon, and his marriage to Tang Yurui had already died in name only.
As a wife, Tang Yurui must have been aware of Jiang Tingdi's changes, but she has been silently enduring her husband's half-heartedness. Their good friend Pu Xuefeng once wrote in the article "Ten Years of Farewell to Tingdi": "Yurui Zengyun: 'Although you are temporarily separated, your feelings are better, not far away. When he said these words, a drop of tears had reached the edge of the eye socket, and he was strong in self-inhibition. Yu urgently changed the subject and turned his head outward. This time inadvertently revealed a potentially long-cherished emotion, giving and impressing, and I have not forgotten it to this day. Subsequently, Yurui went to the United States, and Tingdi moved. ”
For the "marriage change" between Jiang Tingdian and Tang Yurui, the friends around him also looked at it in their eyes, and they also felt sorry and helpless about it.
Friend Liu Shaotang also mentioned in the article: "Jiang Tinggongyu is fond of bridge, and in Chongqing he often invites three friends and four friends to play bridge at home. It is rare to have a 'chess opponent'. The second woman, because of playing bridge, crashed into the Jiang family, and even bumped into the second half of Jiang Tingdi's life. This woman was the wife of Shen Weitai, a descendant of Tsinghua University, named Shen Enqin. Enchin is young and beautiful. Play cards at the same table, drink and feast at the same table, eyebrows come and go, and you have a long-term relationship, but it belongs to the wife of someone else, so why bother! At this time, the relationship with Tang naturally changed, according to Pu Xuefeng, a friend of the Jiang family, Tang Yurui often shed tears of sadness behind his back. ”
After falling in love with Shen Enqin, Jiang Tingdian did not care about Tang Yurui's thoughts and asked Tang Yurui for divorce. Naturally, she did not agree, but she also knew that it was difficult for Jiang Tingdian to change her mind. Tang Yurui was extremely sad, but he was powerless to change anything.
In fact, Jiang Tingdian not only did not stop there, he also took advantage of his position as director of the Aftermath Relief Administration of the Executive Yuan of the Government to specially transfer Shen and his wife to the Relief Administration. Soon after, he transferred Shen Weitai abroad. Since then, Jiang Tingdian has become even more wanton and simply lived directly with Shen Enqin.
With the dissolution of Shen Enqin's marriage relationship with Shen Weitai, Jiang Tingdian became more and more eager to divorce Tang Yurui. In 1948, Jiang Tingdian entrusted a lawyer to play the edge of international divorce rules, announced in Mexico that he and Tang Yurui had dissolved their marital relationship, and at the same time married Shen Enqin in the United States.
But Tang Yurui is not a good bully, after all, she was also a high-achieving student in the United States. Faced with Jiang Tingdi's practice of not remembering his old feelings, she simply entrusted a lawyer to sue him to the US court.
However, Jiang Tingdi's status as a diplomat had diplomatic immunity, and in the end the court did not accept it. But Tang Yurui did not want to surrender, and she made a big fuss about the United Nations. She personally visited Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, the widow of President Roosevelt, in the hope of a fair verdict. However, because of Jiang Tingdi's status in the United Nations, Mrs. Roosevelt also said that it was not good to interfere in their affairs.
In the end, unable to accept the reality of her husband's betrayal of herself, Tang Yurui began to stir up Jiang Tingdian's activities everywhere, and there was a lot of commotion in New York, USA.
Regardless of whether Jiang Tingdian was in a meeting or giving a speech, Tang Yurui would be present and always sit in the first row. As for why Tang Yurui was able to grasp his movements at all times, it was because Jiang Tingdi had her internal response around him.
However, Jiang Tingdian also had a way to deal with Tang Yurui. That is to ask someone to "clear the scene" first, or to appease her with kind words. But even his friend Liu Shaotang could see that Jiang Tingdi's body and mind had been too much involved in this divorce war, and he himself did not realize this.
As Liu Shaotang said: "No matter how to 'pass the pass safely', it always has a major impact on the mood of our ambassador's representative, who is entrusted with the heavy responsibility of the country." Affect his 'performance', affect his eloquence, affect his living, and even affect his health over time. This 18-year-long divorce war has already planted the seeds of tragedy in the second half of Jiang Tingdian's life.
Four
No matter how powerful Jiang Tingdian is in his career, in this marriage war, he has never had the upper hand. Maybe it's that he knows that he is wrong, or maybe he still has feelings for her.
After Jiang Tingdian found out that he had an incurable disease, he made a will in advance in the presence of two colleagues at the embassy, Ma Shaotang and Ms. Han Baker: half of the property to his later wife, Ms. Shen Enqin, and half to Ms. Tang Yurui, who never divorced him.
As Zhou Gu, who was then the secretary of the embassy in the United States, said: "He has never lost his affection for the sword of Wei Shi, and he is still a real reading seed in China." ”
In May 1965, Jiang Tingdian stepped down as ambassador to the United States, and he also said that after the age of 70, he was bound to retire to the Academia Sinica to resume his academic work and continue his unfinished research on China's modern diplomatic history.
In October of the same year, Jiang Tingdian died of illness in the United States at the age of 70.
Liu Shaotang was full of emotions about Jiang Tingdi's departure: "He fought one victory after another on the diplomatic battlefield, and he really deserved more than a million male divisions. If he had no marital misfortunes and troubles, if he had acted as if he had not had any 'worries' when he wrote these family letters, he might still have a few victories to fight, maybe a few big books to write, at least ten or eight years to live! ”
Unfortunately, there are no ifs in this world. Looking back at Jiang Tingdi's life, he won freedom, fame, and love. In this way, he is already much luckier than ordinary people.
Text | Nan Xi
The image reference comes from the network