Chapter 29 grow old together

Feng Youlan's wife, Ren Zaikun, named Shuming, is from Xincai, Henan, and Feng Youlan is one year old. In 1915, she was admitted to the law department of Peking University, and immediately transferred to the Department of Philosophy to study Chinese philosophy.In the same year, Ms. Ren and Mr. Feng Youlan got engaged. In 1918, they became good friends of Qin and Jin in Kaifeng.Since then, Mrs. Ren has been by Feng Youlan's side, sharing weal and woe, and standing together through thick and thin. Moreover, Mrs. Ren has dedicated her life to Feng Youlan's academic career. Because of his wife's careful care, Mr. Feng Youlan is a "hands-off shopkeeper" at home.Mr. Feng Youlan's brother-in-law Zhang Dainian once lamented: No one can compare to Mr. Feng at home. Mr. Feng has never bought vegetables in his life.Zong Pu of Mr. Feng added with a smile: It is false to say that he has never bought vegetables in his life. When I was in Kunming with Southwest Associated University, my mother was not in good health, and my father took me to the market, but my father really rarely cooks. The gentleman stays away from the kitchen" This sentence is suitable for him.There is only one time in my memory, my father and I were cooking together, and the conditions were not good. First, we had to put pine needles braided into "pine hair" in the stove as a kindling, and put charcoal on it.We couldn't make a fire no matter what, so after working for a long time, ha, a pot of rice came out!Later, when I was in college, I wrote an essay describing this incident. I remembered that there was a sentence "Cooking is black and white". Because of its lively and lively, it was praised by the teacher...

When I was at Southwest Associated University, due to the war, many family members of professors had not yet arrived in Mengzi, Yunnan. The virtuous Mrs. Ren took turns inviting teachers to their home for dinner on Saturdays.Generally, it is home-cooked dishes such as noodles with fried sauce, fried eggs, and fried pea tips.Mr. Zhu Ziqing once praised Mrs. Ren's noodles with fried sauce as delicious.During the civil war, prices soared, and the life of the professors was very difficult. Mrs. Ren didn't care about the face of the professor's wife, and set up a frying pan to sell mahua to subsidize the family.

During the "Cultural Revolution", the wife was under multiple pressures.The first is economic. In July 1966, a dozen or so Red Guards came to Feng’s residence to confiscate all cultural relics and books. They withheld wages and gave Feng Youlan and his wife only 24 yuan a month for living expenses. The slightly valuable things were taken away, and the house was sealed off, and it was stipulated that the old Feng and his wife could only live in one room.For more than two years, Mrs. Ren could only cook in the open air in the small courtyard, regardless of the weather.The second is the pressure of life, including labor.Because the Yannanyuan Neighborhood Committee stipulated that Mrs. Ren should undertake all the housework and clean the roads in Yannanyuan.Mrs. Ren was already seventy years old at that time, and she was not in good health.At this time, she not only had to complete the labor reform by herself, but also took care of Feng Youlan's daily life, for which Feng Youlan was very sorry.He said in his diary in November: In recent months, in order to help me reform my mind and take care of my life, my lover has worked hard and gone through a lot of hardships.She had a heart attack, so she was still supported.I have felt flustered and backache for the past two days, and I felt dizzy again this morning, and I barely got up at five o'clock to prepare breakfast for me. The old illness broke out, and this is all because of my tiredness.

In addition to these, Mrs. Ren has to bear political pressure.No matter what kind of criticism meeting Peking University holds, whether it is related to the philosophy department or not, Mrs. Ren must accompany Feng Youlan to receive education, usually until late at night.During the criticism process, Mrs. Ren always stayed outside the door, knocking on the door politely from time to time and asking others kindly: "Have you finished criticizing?"What Mrs. Ren was most worried about was that something might happen to Feng Youlan.At that time, Feng Youlan and other "ghosts and snake spirits" had to undergo quarantine inspections, clean up, learn from Marxism-Leninism to recite quotations from Chairman Mao, or write confessions and exposing materials, and had to queue up for meals.According to Feng Youlan's recollection: Shuming was very worried when she saw that I couldn't go home at night. She ate lunch early every morning. After eating, she walked to the front of the office building, sat on the steps, looked at the foreign language building, and saw me coming out with the team. After eating, she knew that I had passed the night safely and that I was not dead, so she was relieved.Wait again the next day.There are a few stones there, I said that those few stones can be called "Wangfu Stone".

Mrs. Ren's careful and whole-hearted care, as well as silent ideological support, gave Feng Youlan great spiritual strength and enabled him to successfully go through the lowest period of his life.Unfortunately, in 1977, Mrs. Ren, who suffered from illness and overwork, passed away due to illness. Feng Youlan reluctantly made a elegiac couplet: Follow each other in the past, share honor and disgrace, share safety and danger, and help each other when going in and out, Huangquan Biluojun goes first; from now on No worries, breaking the name rein, breaking the sharp lock, pitching without shame, the sea and the sky, I fly by myself.

On December 22, 1991, Mr. Zhang Dainian delivered a speech at Feng Youlan's funeral ceremony, praising Feng Lao's great contribution to Chinese culture throughout his life, and he specifically mentioned that he would pay respects to Feng Lao's wife, Ms. Ren Zaikun.Because there is no Mrs. Ren who has been working alone for decades, no matter what the situation is, she will continue to support Mr. Feng in his academic work. It is very difficult for Mr. Feng to concentrate on his studies, especially in the harsh environment where he has been criticized for a long time. Mrs. Ren's support and care for Mr. Feng may not be able to sustain it.