On February 28, 2013, during the New Year's holiday of the reunion of 10,000 families, the ward of Beijing You'an Hospital did not have any New Year's lively atmosphere at the moment.
Here, Zhuang Zedong, a table tennis national player who has walked the bumpy road of life for 77 years, is quietly sleeping. Half a century has passed, and all the glory and disgrace of prosperity and decline have disappeared.
At the farewell ceremony of the body, nearly 100 relatives, friends and relatives around him, all of them were remembering the great achievements of his life:
He is a prominent figure in the table tennis world, a men's singles champion who has won the World Table Tennis Championships for three consecutive times, a dark horse main force that has made the Chinese team win the World Table Tennis Championships for three consecutive times, and a legend who has experienced the "table tennis diplomacy" that shocked China and foreign countries.
In the sound of everyone's remembrance, the two women in front of Zhuang Zedong's hospital bed looked particularly different from the people around them. Some people were curious about their identities and came forward to inquire, but they replied in unison: "I am Zhuang Zedong's wife."
They are Zhuang Zedong's two wives and one of the most important components of Strange's life.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" >, a strange identity</h1>
Zhuang Zedong's strange life, if it is a wonderful book, then the beginning of the book is attractive enough.
His ancestors settled in Yangzhou, zhuang Zedong, who had been a Qing dynasty official for generations, and had a "quite famous" maternal grandfather, Hartung.
In 1851, Zhuang Zedong's maternal grandfather, Hartung, a Jew, was born in Baghdad.
Subsequently, Hartung followed his parents and moved to Mumbai, India and became a British citizen, and then came to China, which can be said to be a real home.
After coming to Shanghai, Hartung first worked for Sassoon Foreign Firm, and then set his sights on the emerging real estate industry in Shanghai at that time, and opened Hartung Foreign Firm in 1901, specializing in real estate business.
At his richest point, his property included 44 percent of Nanjing Road's estate, making him the richest man in the Far East.
The richest man in the Far East was kind-hearted and enthusiastic about public welfare in his later years, because he had no biological children, he opened Cangjie Middle School and adopted many orphans, and Zhuang Zedong's mother Luo Shizhen was one of Hartung's adopted daughters.
At that time, Zhuang Tishen, a faculty member at Cangjie University, was favored by Hartung because he won the horse ticket award, and married Luo Shizhen to this blessed young man. But I don't want to, Zhuang Tishen has already married his wife in his hometown, and he still has a son and a daughter, and the little boy among them is Zhuang Zedong.
In 1945, when the matter was revealed, Zhuang Tishen took his wife Lei Zhongru and five-year-old Xiao Zhuang Zedong to Beijing and lived with him.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="12" > second, gifted ability</h1>
Zhuang Zedong was frail and sickly since he was a child, and his father first arranged for him to practice martial arts for his health, and then sent him to practice table tennis. Unexpectedly, martial arts are not Zhuang Zedong's strength, but table tennis makes him like a confidant and likes it very much.
At the age of 14, he joined the table tennis group of the Beijing Children's Palace Amateur Sports School. At the age of 17, he joined the municipal table tennis team. At the age of 19, he was selected for the national youth table tennis team.
This "little tiger" who came out of nowhere, with his straight board fast attack technology, played invincible hands all over the world in the sports world, and had no one to compete in China, setting a record of more than 100 consecutive wins in domestic table tennis competitions that no one has broken at present, which can be said to be a real young genius.
Spirited teenagers naturally want to match beautiful people. In 1959, at the World Youth Festival in Vienna, Zhuang Zedong met the girl he fell in love with at first sight, and was called by the domestic media as "elegant and fragrant as a blue orchid".
The female pianist who said, "If the mind of a person who engages in music is not beautiful and clean, it will be divided" was deeply impressed by Zhuang Zedong, who was only nineteen years old at the time.
In the chat between the two, Zhuang Zedong knew the name of this extraordinary girl, learned that she aspired to become a female pianist from the age of nine, and was admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music at the age of thirteen.
The encounter between two people can be described as a genius meeting a genius, and it is inevitable that there will be a sense of sympathy for each other, and the feeling of admiration will also be planted in the hearts of the two people.
The love between Zhuang Zedong and Bao Huiqiao, in addition to the love at first sight on the appearance and the sympathy in talent, the most important thing is the high degree of unity between the two people in the three views. One of the important driving forces for Zhuang Zedong to engage in table tennis is to win glory for the country, and this is also Bao Huishuang's life goal.
As a piano prodigy who has been able to play alone on important foreign guest meetings since the age of 16, after interacting with Zhuang Zedong, bao Not only did not delay her career because of love, but also made more progress with the support of her boyfriend Zhuang Zedong.
In 1961, Bao Huiqiao stood out in the selection of the second George Enescu International Piano Competition and represented China in Romania to participate in international competitions.
In order to win honors for the country, Bao Huishuang often practiced hard in the warm piano room.
In order to keep warm, only cheap briquette stoves can be made for heating, but Bao Huibao, who is obsessed with practicing the piano, often forgets to add media, and his fingers are too cold to stretch out.
In the correspondence between practice, Bao Huishuang often wrote: "I am not representing individuals to go abroad to compete, but on behalf of my motherland." Therefore, even if I am exhausted, I will win glory for the country! ”
Zhuang Zedong knows that he has a patriotic feeling of putting the country above all else and always gives the greatest support in his spirit. In this way, the two came and went in their careers and lives, supported each other, and finally entered the marriage hall smoothly in 1967, and the two also had the crystallization of love.
After marriage, Zhuang Zedong's life was sweet, but his ping-pong career plummeted, and he had no access to the pool table he loved, so he could only stay at home and wait for opportunities.
The wife's career was not smooth, and she could only stay at home with her husband when she was pregnant, and the two people often encouraged each other to spend that period of time that did not go well.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" > three, the ball turns the big ball</h1>
Fortunately, fate gave Zhuang Zedong enough preferential treatment, and in 1969, Premier Zhou reached out to him. This time, it is still the country that needs Zhuang Zedong.
Since the end of the 1950s, China's diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union have deteriorated rapidly, and Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs has rapidly adjusted to this situation, and Sino-US relations have gradually melted ice.
In this context, in 1971, Zhuang Zedong was on his way to Japan to participate in the 31st World Table Tennis Championships, and a small episode that was rumored to be a beautiful talk occurred. At that time, the American table tennis player Cohen accidentally got into the car of a Chinese athlete because he made a mistake in his busy life.
Zhuang Zedong on the car recognized Cohen's identity, eagerly greeted him, and presented Cohen with a piece of Hangzhou tapestry embroidered with the beautiful scenery of China's Huangshan Mountains, Cohen admired Zhuang Zedong's generous talk, and returned his two red, blue and white American T-shirts.
When Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou learned of this, they were very happy and immediately invited the American table tennis team to visit China. On April 10 of the same year, the American table tennis team came to Beijing. Then, in July, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visited China. In February 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon came to China.
It can be said that the "small ball" friendship between Zhuang Zedong and Cohen has led to the harmonious development of China and the United States.
After Zhuang Zedong returned from a visit to China in 1972, in recognition of his outstanding contributions, Zhuang Zedong was promoted to the leader and head coach of the national youth team, and at the same time served as the deputy secretary of the party group of the National Sports Commission.
Zhuang Zedong, who is in a high position, does not have the arrogance of soaring, on the contrary, during his tenure, there has never been a major mistake or personnel transfer, and Zhuang Zedong rarely punishes his subordinates.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="16" >, frozen marriage</h1>
However, his wife Bao Huishuang has always disagreed with her husband's high position, feeling that he is not good at negotiating with others and neglecting the family. After he took office, the couple's relationship was once at a freezing point.
Zhuang Zedong also bought a car for his wife, hoping to make her happy, but she did not expect that her wife would rather ride a bicycle to work than ride the car he bought.
In the days that followed, Zhuang Zedong was transferred to the Shanxi table tennis team for work reasons. It was not until 1984 that Zhuang Zedong returned to the Beijing Children's Palace to work as a table tennis coach.
But at this time, the rift in the marriage between Bao Hui and Zhuang Zedong had reached an irreparable point. In 1985, Bao Huidong formally filed for divorce from Zhuang Zedong, and both children were awarded to Bao Huiqiao, and Zhuang Zedong paid 70 yuan per month in child support to his son and daughter.
Those days were not good for Zhuang Zedong. He and his wife Bao Huishuang can also be said to know each other as young, but because of their original willful behavior and arrogance and complacency, the two were separated.
This year, the double failure of marriage and career made Zhuang Zedong depressed at that time. But fate and fate always seem to have been predestined, and that year, Atsuko Sasaki, a Japanese who later became Zhuang Zedong's second wife, officially came to China.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="18" >5, the second half of the life of the peak loop</h1>
Atsuko Sasaki came to China as a resident salesman of the Japanese Ito Man Company in China, and when she first wanted to see Zhuang Zedong by name, as soon as she saw Zhuang Zedong himself, she said excitedly: "I have always wanted to see you!" ”
It turns out that Atsuko Sasaki was born in northwest China, and her parents have worked in China since childhood, so she has always had a hometown-like affection for China.
In 1967, Atsuko Sasaki followed her parents back to Japan. In 1971, during the Nagoya World Table Tennis Championships, Atsuko Sasaki admired the heroic Zhuang Zedong in the competition, and has since become a fan of him.
Atsuko Sasaki's enthusiasm and cheerfulness became a rare ray of sunshine for Sho Nobuto, who was living in a cloudy life at that time.
Atsuko Sasaki is cheerful and simple, and obeys Zhuang Zedong in daily trivial matters, which can be said to be wholeheartedly supporting Zhuang Zedong's decision. Soon, the two fell in love.
It was easy to fall in love, but it was difficult to get married, and it was extremely difficult to marry a foreigner in China at that time.
Atsuko Sasaki's brother wrote a sincere letter to Vice Premier Wang Zhen, who was then the honorary president of the China-Japan Friendship Association, for the sake of his sister's marriage, and said: "Our father was the Chinese revolution, died of illness in Lanzhou in 1962, and his daughter wanted to marry Chinese. ”
Wang Zhen immediately agreed, and together with Zhuang Zedong found Li Ruihuan, Li Ruihuan laughed and said, "If I don't help you with the marriage, won't even the Kuomintang be inferior?" He then wrote to Deng Xiaoping for approval.
For this special fate and for the sake of their lover, Atsuko Sasaki and Zhuang Zedong wrote to Deng Xiaoping to ask for permission to marry, and the other gave up their Japanese nationality to settle in Beijing.
This marriage, which alarmed Deng Xiaoping, can be said to be the only one since the founding of the People's Republic of China. In order to thank the state for permission, Zhuang Zedong did not ask for the housing in Beijing allocated by the state at that time, and bought a small house of only 14 square meters at his own expense.
At that time, Zhuang Zedong's monthly salary was only a few dozen yuan from the Children's Palace, plus a "world championship fee" of 30 yuan, and there was little left after the maintenance of his ex-wife and children.
Atsuko Sasaki lost her original job and lost her living income because she gave up her Japanese citizenship. The lives of the two can be said to be extremely poor.
Although the house is small, the couple living in the small room are willing to eat. In the more than two decades since their marriage, the two have never blushed.
Zhuang Zedong's relationship with his ex-wife and children is also very harmonious, and Atsuko Sasaki has not doubted her husband's love for her, and the two people have no children, but they are still happy.
In 2008, when Zhuang Zedong was diagnosed with terminal cancer and was on his sickbed, his biggest worry was not his physical condition, but how his wife Atsuko Sasaki, who took care of him at the bedside every day, should live after his death.
After all, Atsuko Sasaki has no job, no health insurance and social security, and the two people all rely on Zhuang Zedong's 3,000 yuan pension every month to survive.
During this period, Zhuang Zedong repeatedly auctioned off his calligraphy works from his later years to ensure the life of his wife, Atsuko Sasaki.
After his ex-wife Bao Huishuang learned of Zhuang Zedong's illness, she often brought her children to visit, and often brought Chinese New Year's Eve meals during the Spring Festival, and the family gathered together to eat, as if there had never been a gap.
It seems that he felt that his limit was approaching, Zhuang Zedong said in his will: in the case of ineffective drug treatment, he hopes to be able to "sleep with dignity", in the letter he thanked the public for their concern, and agreed with his wife Atsuko Sasaki: "Don't bother everyone anymore, don't say goodbye to the body." "And gratitude to two wives.
On February 10, 2013, on the Chinese New Year's Eve night of Wanjia Lights, Zhuang Zedong, the overlord of the football world, died five years after battling the disease.
At the memorial service on February 28, the people he loved the most were reunited with the people who loved him the most. With the end of Mrs. Atsuko Sasaki's thanks to all those present on behalf of her family, the life of the legend zhuang Zedong in the football world came to an end.