Search for "Zheng Nian" on the Internet, all the photos are elegant, beautiful and noble.
Zheng Nian is a veritable big beauty, born in a famous family, originally named Yao Nianyuan.
His grandfather, Yao Jinxi, was a great Confucian in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. After his death, President Li Yuanhong made the National History Museum set up a biography under the name of "academic proficiency and moral purity".
His father, Yao Qiuwu, returned from his stay in Japan and was invited to serve as a senior official of the Beiyang government.
In that war-torn era, Zheng Nian lived in a high-pressure garden house, received a high-level education of Chinese and Western fusion, read English books, appreciated Qianlong porcelain, ate exquisite porcelain tea and English-style thin sandwiches, and never knew the sorrows of the world.
She has a well-off family and rich family wealth, with savings at home and abroad. On weekdays, there were servants waiting, and she read and wrote when she had nothing to do, and she once wrote: I stayed alone in the study, because of the intimidating heat, the blossom carnations in the milky white Qianlong ancient bottle, all hanging their heads, along the wall a row of bookshelves, full of Chinese and foreign classics.
She studied in Nankai, Tianjin, and Yenching University in college, and later went to the London School of Economics to study and obtain a master's degree.
Her husband, Cheng Kang-chi, is a nationalist diplomat in Australia. After marriage, she followed her husband to Sydney to live for a long time, and gave birth to a daughter, named Mei Ping.
The family is happy, life is rich, and Zheng Nian's life could have been so happy and comfortable. But in 1949, when New China was just founded, she and her husband resolutely chose to return to China.
She said: We are returning to China with a pure heart and hope to contribute to the new China.
After Zheng Kangqi stepped down as a diplomat, he became the general manager of Shell's Shanghai office, but it was not long before he died of cancer. Zheng Nian thus shouldered the burden of the whole family.
Because of his proficiency in English, Zheng Nian was hired as a consultant to the general manager of the oil company.
Zheng Nian worked hard, and in that era of waste, he still maintained his way of life - only wearing a cheongsam, the ming and qing antiques at home, and a car to pick him up.
Her home in Shanghai was described by an old friend as "an oasis of elegance and nobility in this colour-poor city." ”
Even Zheng Nian himself is full of pride in his home: "Although my residence is not called a beautiful house, it can also be interesting and elegant by Western standards." ”
If she could live her life like this, it would be plain and happy, but the Cultural Revolution broke out, and since then, her life has taken a sharp turn.
Because Zheng Nian was a British student and had been working in a foreign company for a long time, he was accused of being a British spy at the time, and the Red Guards raided Zheng Nian's home, confiscated his property, and imprisoned him for nearly 7 years.
In that era, reason and the rule of law had completely collapsed, and everything had become absurd and unjustifiable. It is common to betray friends, slander colleagues and even relatives in order to protect themselves.
When his brother came to visit the prison, he saw that Zheng Nian was tortured beyond recognition, and cried and begged her to admit it, so as not to suffer. But Zheng Nian insisted that he was innocent.
For a long 7 years, in order to make her confess, she was interrogated and tortured in turn. Every time she was asked to sign the materials she confessed, she would add the words "not guilty of any crime" before signing the words "criminal" before signing.
Many people think that the pampered and habitual big lady in the past will definitely go crazy when she encounters such a change, but Zheng Nian has resisted all blows with strong spiritual strength. When everyone becomes not herself, only she has been insisting on being herself.
Even if she lived in prison, she took Chairman Mao's quotation that "it is honorable to pay attention to hygiene, and it is shameful not to pay attention to hygiene", and borrowed a broom to clean the house. She pasted the tissues one by one with rice on the wall along the bed so that her bedding would not be stained by the dust on the wall.
Her hands were chained behind her back, and the handcuffs were not removed for a long time, but even if she fought the sequelae of hand disability, she insisted on pulling up the zipper on the side of her trousers every time she went to the toilet, because opening the trouser chain was "too undignified".
Nor did she cry out and pray to the guards, who had been taught to be "uncivilized."
Some people are proud and exposed, thinking that it is bone qi, but the real wind bone is carved on the bone and hidden in the flesh. In the nearly 7 years of imprisonment, countless times on the verge of death, Zheng Nian did not admit any charges, nor did he "expose" anyone.
In 1973, Zheng Nian was finally acquitted, and he saw the light of day with 7 years of imprisonment and an illness.
But she was not greeted by her own daughter— because shortly after she was imprisoned, her precious daughter died.
Others told her that her daughter committed suicide, but she did not believe it and insisted on investigating the cause of her death. In the end, she found out the truth, and her daughter was beaten to death and then thrown downstairs, making people think it was suicide.
Later, Zheng Nian resorted to the law and sent the murderer to prison, but the murderer only squatted for 15 years before he came out.
At that time, Zheng Nian, who was already in the United States, saw the news in the newspaper and was very angry, and told the reporter who interviewed him that he was now out of prison and wanted to be reunited with his son and grandson, and I, my daughter, died, and she will always be alone. Hu Yongnian, this person's name I will never forget until my death.
But compared to when he first learned of his daughter's death, he wanted to shoot the murderer with one shot, Zheng Nian at this time was much more rational. She said that I didn't want to kill him anymore, not because I forgave him, but because although the people at that time committed crimes and killed people, they were also victimized by the times, and they were just tools.
Zheng Nian and daughter
After Zheng Nian went abroad, only writing could accompany her lonely life.
She wrote a memoir in English of her experiences from prison in 1966 to her departure abroad in 1980 under the title "Life and Death in Shanghai" and Chinese translated as "Life and Death in Shanghai".
As soon as the book was launched, it swept through Europe and the United States, and was translated into many Chinese, and reprinted in one edition, which caused a sensation in the entire Western world.
Some say that this book has educated Western readers for three entire generations.
For this book, there is a lot of controversy. There was a version in China in 1988, and some people said that it was nonsense, and some people said that it was shocking and profound.
At the beginning of the book, Zheng Nian wrote 4 words: to Mei Ping. She also set up the "Meiping Foundation" to fund Chinese students studying in the United States.
Zheng Nian looked so elegant and confident that nothing seemed to be able to knock her down. But in 1996, the "celebrity" who had been living in the United States for many years exuded a rare weakness and self-pity in the face of reporters who came to interview.
The 81-year-old told reporters:
I tell you, in the United States, an old man, without a home, without children, without relatives, is very bitter and bitter. I have now reached that point. I still drive a car, but my arthritis is terrible and it will always hurt. I'm only getting older, and now I'm in my eighties, and I have heart disease, but heart disease can be controlled with medication, and there's no danger to my life. In this case, I am likely to live to be ninety years old, I have to be mentally prepared, I have no problem financially, my books have made money, I would have had some money, I did not waste my life, I was very frugal, I lived a simple life. I just don't have anyone around, for example, if I am sick, if my brain is not working, there will be many people bullying me.
I've always thought of it that way now... I'll go back to China. I'd rather die in China. I have enough money to go back and do some good things. I have now helped a lot of Chinese students to study here or something. But...... I will never go back...
Reporter asked: Why?
She said:
After getting out of prison, when I see the back of the girl on the street, a long black hair, I will think of my daughter, sometimes I think it is my daughter, and then I think, no, my daughter is dead... I couldn't stand this, I could only go abroad and see those blonde girls, I wouldn't feel like it was my daughter.
The reporter asked her again: You have suffered a lot in your life, the pain of losing your husband, the pain of losing your daughter... Can you tell your readers, our audience, about how you deal with suffering?
The main thing for a person is not to be discouraged. You must have a hope, and have faith, optimism, and go toward that hope. If, you feel hopeless, then you disarm. I'm in prison, and although it's so hard, I'll always have to fight. As long as you have a breath, you should strive towards your goal.
One day in 2009, Zheng Nian fell in the bathtub and could not get up, because he lived alone and no one knew.
Fortunately, the next morning, a friend she had arranged to visit, rang the bell and no one agreed, specially called the building administrator to open the door, Zheng Nian was sent to the hospital, but he was seriously injured.
Doctors told her that her life expectancy was only one year at most.
She listened and calmly replied, "I've lived enough, I'm going to get ready to go home." ”
A few months later, Zheng Nian completed her life and died at the age of 94.
Zhu Dake said that she had a soul that was harder and more beautiful than ancient porcelain.
Every time I see Zheng Nian's smile, I wonder, what kind of person can have such a clear eye and such a calm and peaceful look after experiencing so much?
She watched the world thoroughly, always maintaining extreme sobriety and stubbornness. She maintained the independent thinking of intellectuals, neither gullible nor fanatical.
I sighed that Zheng Nian was really beautiful.
Colleagues say that this is not a simple beauty, but a noble and elegant that emanates from the bones.
As Si Said, what shocked Zheng Nian the most was not the hardships she had tasted, not the darkness of loneliness. Rather, it is the stubbornness and dignity she presents in the midst of suffering, as well as the wind and bone of never compromising and insisting on watching over universal values.
May you and I always be like her, always keep hope, no matter when, face the goal, never discouraged.