The world knows that Hu Shi cherished feathers, and he was not only cautious during his lifetime, but also considered the impression he left on the world after death.
He urged people to write autobiographies at any time, but he did not write it himself, but left a large number of diaries, memories and correspondence, is this intention not obvious? - I don't write the autobiography, I'll leave it to you!
People who do not understand Hu Shi often float on the surface, thinking that he is a rational person, a victim of feudal marriage, and has spent his life with his wife Jiang Dongxiu, who is wrapped in small feet and has no culture.
That's obviously a big mistake! What is the name of Xiang Yuxin, you see the "Wilson-style laughter" of "cute and witty (Xu Zhimo)" on Hu Shi's photo, he is not so simple.
Fortunately, people are not as good as heaven, and the god of history made a joke with Hu Shi and restored the near-real "Hu Bo" to future generations:
In December 1948, Hu Shi hurriedly left Peiping on the last flight, but he did not have time to take with him more than a hundred boxes of books, including all his correspondence and some diaries.
The sudden change in the political situation made it impossible for Hu Shi to systematically destroy some letters that he did not want future generations to see in his later years. Therefore, we can know the past of his "sun" and his two "moons" and "stars".
Today I'm going to talk about him and one of the moons. This moon is called Miss edith Clifford Williams.
Born into the Wwan family, her grandfather was a banker in Ithaca, USA, and her father was a professor of paleontology at Cornell University.
Wei Liansi (first from the right) with his parents and sister
Wei Liansi was six years older than Hu Shi and had a talent for painting since childhood, and when she met Hu Shi in 1914, she was studying art in New York. Hu Shi had already finished his studies at Cornell University at that time, and because he could apply for a graduate scholarship to stay for an additional year, he rented at 120 Oak Street.
It was there that he became a regular visitor to the Weiliansi family (because some American families had a tradition of receiving foreign students), and naturally he met Wei Liansi, who occasionally returned home.
During the years he spent with Wei Liansi, he gradually developed a love for this independent and talented new woman, and they exchanged frequent letters, and Hu Shi called him "the helmsman of life".
In his letter to Wei Liansi on May 17, 1939, Hu Shi specifically pointed out that three of the poems he wrote when he was studying abroad were written for her, namely: "Man Tingfang", "Linjiang Immortal" and "Lovesickness". These poems are written very obscurely, and if it were not for Hu Shi's later points, perhaps no one would have thought of a special place.
Hu Shi, who studied abroad at Cornell University
At that time, Hu Shi, who was engaged at the time, had always maintained a friendly relationship with Wei Liansi, and he repeatedly delayed the time to return to China, precisely because he was reluctant to let Wei Liansi, but the difference was always coming, and in 1917, Hu Shi returned to China.
This was also a year when Hu and Wei's respective fates turned - Wei Liansi gave up his brilliant artistic career in New York due to his father's illness and returned to Ithaca to live with his parents, which was like anonymity; while Hu Shi returned to China and established a family, and his reputation was in the sky.
Hu Shi, who had spent the period of newlywed love, suffered from a hemorrhoidal attack in 1923 and went to Hangzhou Yanxia Cave to recuperate for 7 months, during which the "immortal life" of living with Cao Chengying occurred. In January 1924, he wrote a letter to Wei Liansi, telling her about his life in Yanxia Cave, but concealed his relationship with Cao Chengying, saying only that the other party was his little cousin.
In the next two years, Hu Shi did not write to Wei Liansi again, because he himself fell into a period of malaise: he broke the connection with Cao Chengying, became angry with Jiang Dongxiu, and drank until he was drunk...
Hu Shi and Cao Chengying
His second contact with Wei Liansi was already in March 1927, when he returned to Ithaca, when Hu Shi went to the United States again because he and his teacher Guo Bingwen and others initiated the establishment of the Huamei Association.
He spent 8 or 9 days in Ithaca, meeting Verens and her mother. I don't know what he talked about with Wei Liansi during the period, but I can only see from the future letters that the two have confessed their hearts to each other, but that's all.
Hu and Wei really became lovers of "body and mind" in September 1933, when Hu Shi was 42 years old and Wei Liansi was 48 years old. Hu Shi went to the United States for the third time that year because he accepted an invitation to speak at the University of Chicago and also participated in the "Pacific Society" held in Banfu, Canada.
He arrived in Ithaca in early September and left on the 12th. It was during this time that he and Wei Liansi broke through the male and female defenses and had a substantial relationship. Although the cunning Hu Shi did not leave any clues in his diary or letters, Wei Liansi's letter revealed everything.
The day after Hu Shi left, Wei Liansi mentioned in the letter: words like this.
After the two of them spent another good night together on the 24th of that month, Hu Shi hurriedly left to give a speech. The next day, Wellens said directly at the beginning of the letter:
However, Hu Shi, who was calm and emotionally relaxed, wrote only a fairly formal letter to Wei Liansi after returning to China, in addition to a brief greeting for the holiday, or to let her help take care of her "cousin" Cao Chengying, who was about to study at Cornell University.
Later, Hu Shi cut off communication with Wei Liansi until his fourth visit to the United States in 1937. After Hu and Wei gathered together, the relationship underwent subtle changes.
The Velenzo of the Teenage Years
Wei Liansi loved Hu Shi as always and thought about him, but she knew that she was not Hu Shi's most urgent need, because Hu Shi was the peak of "star picking" in the United States these years. He and Wei Liansi seem to have returned to the relationship they had when they first studied abroad—discussing life events and encouraging each other. They rarely correspond, but they still don't communicate.
In 1953, hu shi's two moons, Wei Liansi and Jiang Dongxiu finally met. Because Wei invited Mr. and Mrs. Hu Shi to Ithaca for a month of summer retreat, they gladly accepted the invitation and arrived in Ithaca in early July, where they stayed for 27 days.
Finally seeing Jiang Dongxiu, who had only existed in Hu Shi's mouth and letter for so many years, I wondered what Wei Liansi thought? We do not know how the two "love enemies" are getting along. When Hu Shi and his wife were leaving Ithaca, the Velians sent two silver tableware to Jiang Dongxiu, and specially engraved the word "Dongxiu" with Chinese on it.
The first on the left is Ye Liangcai, secretary of the "China Education and Culture Foundation" in the United States
In 1959, seeing That Hu Shi's health deteriorating, Wei Liansi proposed to take out a portion of his life savings as a fund for the publication of Hu Shi's works.
On February 24, 1962, Hu Shi died of a heart attack at a cocktail party at the academician meeting of the Academia Sinica. On March 2, Wei Liansi, who learned the news, wrote a letter to Jiang Dongxiu to mourn.
In 1960, Hu Shi asked Wei Liansi to give him copies of the letters stored there and bring them back to Taipei. Later, Hu thought it was incomplete and asked Wei to look for it again, and later Wei found some more.
On September 18, 1963, Wei Liansi wrote to Ye Liangcai, the secretary of the "China Education and Culture Foundation" in the United States, asking him if the Academia Sinica needed to leave a letter for Hu Shi to pass on.
A year later, Ye Liangcai wrote back, telling Wei Liansi that the "Hu Shi Memorial Hall" had been established, and Jiang Dongxiu hoped that she could send the letter that Hu Shi had given her to the memorial hall. Jiang Dongxiu would not be unaware of her husband's half-century love affair with Wei Liansi, but she still chose to be relieved and generously accepted the letters sent by her love enemies and the friendship with her husband.
Of course, Wei Liansi is also a kind person, and she will not ignore Jiang Dongxiu's feelings. The rest of the documents she later sent, as well as the letters that Hu Shi asked her to find and bring back to Taipei, were all typescripts or transcriptions of Wei Liansi, which contained some abridgements. It can be seen that in order to protect Hu Shi's posthumous reputation and take care of Jiang Dongxiu's feelings, Wei took pains to choose what she thought could be left behind.
Two women who love a man together have finally chosen the best way to work together for the love and save face for each other.
Wei Liansi and Hu Shi last met in 1960. Velázquez sold Ssaka's house and prepared to move to Babedous Island in the Caribbean of Central America, just as Hu Shi in New York insisted on going to the airport to see him off, and left a final group photo of the two.
In 1960, Hu and Wei took a final group photo at the New York airport
The woman, who had never been married for Hu Shi, died in 1971 at the age of 86.
Many people may feel unworthy of Wei Liansi's "50 years of affection" for Hu Shi. I quote a quote from Professor Li Gongqin of Shih Hsin University in Taiwan in the program "Romance of National History":
"I think it's worth it. The proudest thing about a person's life is that you have fallen in love with someone in your life, and this person is worthy of your love. ”
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Remarks: Some of the pictures are from the Internet, and infringement must be deleted.