On August 8, 1923, Yan Keats, who came from a poor family, made a hundred-year contract with Zhang Zongying. On October 12 of the same year, Yan Keats boarded a ship bound for France, starting a difficult time of four years to study in France. In 1927, Yan Keats received a doctorate in physics and returned to China to marry his fiancée Zhang Zongying.
Although the engagement soon separated, the long-distance relationship did not affect the feelings of the young couple. For four years, they passed on the book and exchanged heartfelt complaints. Later, 300 love letters were compiled and published as a book called "French Love Letters" and became one of the "Chinese Academicians' Notes on Writing".
Yan Keats is a famous physicist and educator in China. He is not only one of the pioneers of modern physics research in China, but also one of the founders of China's optical research and optical instrument development. At the same time, his five sons and daughters-in-law have made certain achievements in the field of science and culture. For example, the eldest son, Yan Youguang, graduated from the Department of Mathematics of Tsinghua University and was the main designer of China's first digital computer.
On November 2, 1996, Yan Keats died at the age of 95.
Unlike what we think, Yan Keats and Zhang Zongying are a pair of equal opponents. They all received a good new education, and later all studied in Nanjing. Yan Keats was the first graduate of Southeast University, and Zhang Zongying was the first female student of Southeast University.
In the relationship, both refused to submit to the marriage system of the time in order to pursue love and marriage freedom. Zhang Zongying liked Yan Keats, so he invited his father to Yan Keats' house to propose to him. Yan Keats was overjoyed to learn of his lover's choice. So he also persuaded his parents to push away the doll parents set in his early childhood.
It has been said that Yan Keats "is not a romantic person in essence, and even when he arrived in Paris, it did not romanticize him".
But when I opened the "French Love Letter", I was stunned by the full piece of love words he wrote to Zhang Zongying. In the letter, the unromantic Yan Keats wrote the most romantic love words, subverting my stereotype of a science and engineering man who is serious and conservative, not smiling, and boring.
In their letters, they talked about "The West Chamber", about Molière, about Balzac, about Voltaire, about Shakespeare, about the Scottish folk song "long, long ago"; they also talked about world politics, reporting on their learning, ideological dynamics, financial expenditure details, and so on.
Whenever he missed Zhang Zongying, Yan Keats would not be shy to say: "I did not think of you, but I can also say that I think of you at the moment." “
He would secretly write a poem, accusing the moon of peeking at his fiancée while asking the moon to help him convey his thoughts about his fiancée.
He hoped that his fiancée "wouldn't think of me all day, nor would he think of me all day long", and advised her to "always think of kindness, and do not put mercy in the back of her mind".
Yan Keats's love words are warm and frank, meticulous and thoughtful, lingering and compassionate, and literary. During that period of bitter study abroad days, it was the expectations of his mentor and the thoughts of his lover that supported him to complete his studies. But what surprised me most was that many of the ideas expressed by Yan Keats in his love letters were also ahead of their time today.
For example, he advocates equality between men and women, believing that women must "know how to love others" and must also "self-love in time".
For example, he respects his wife's ambitions, encourages her to study and studies, and does not expect her to be a "good wife and mother".
For example, he believes that "love is true to me and can be omnipotent". Good love "is only naturally precious." The two should be equally matched, and their intellect should be at the same level as much as possible.
After Zhang Zongying's death, Yan Keats has been in the memory of the bones ever since. Yan Keats' granddaughter once recalled: "Although I witnessed my grandfather patiently taking care of my grandmother on the sickbed in my old age, I saw that after my grandmother's death, I would greet my grandmother every day with the pictures of my grandmother hanging on the wall, for more than ten years, until I fell ill and died." ”
As Yan Keats wrote in his youth: "I did not think of you, but I can say that I think of you immediately." In his later years, Yan Keats still maintained the habit of chatting with his wife every day. He bowed to his wife's posthumous photograph, asked for peace, and talked to her as usual.
From knowing, loving, falling in love and accompanying each other, Yan Keats and his wife have walked hand in hand through more than sixty spring and autumn seasons. In the eyes of outsiders, Yan Keats and his wife are happy and loving. Through letters of love, we have the privilege of witnessing their sincerity and fidelity to love.
"Always remember my love", this is probably the place where Yan Keats moved me the most.