Chapter 51 Fairbank's visit

...Ri Lai calmly recalled the situation back then, and felt that the reason why Hu Shi tried so hard to ask me for Zhimo's diary was probably because of his love of politics.When Zhimo's accident happened, all the professors of Tsinghua University and Peking University, as well as the famous women nowadays, all ran to the Hu family. He had no chance to get close to these people on weekdays. Because of Zhimo's death, the Hu family suddenly became lively. He wanted to make friends with these people, so he had to create some accidents. , so that these people come often... Lin Huiyin was the most anxious one at that time, and she also talked to me, and I said it was a good time.

From Ling Shuhua's letter, we can see that she is still brooding over the past half a century ago.At this time, Lin Huiyin had passed away for more than 30 years, and Ling Shuhua himself was getting old.What made her so full of resentment and refused to understand and forgive those old people who were as misty and distant as floating clouds? Is it her feelings for Xu Zhimo? Or her jealousy for Lin Huiyin? And what makes Lin Huiyin infinitely concerned, Moreover, the whereabouts of the "Cambridge Diary", which caused many people to speculate out of thin air, are still unknown.From this, we can also see how different people have different opinions and conclusions on the same thing; more importantly, we can feel the huge differences between people.

"The living are passers-by, and the dead are returning." Zhimo disappeared into the boundless sky in just a moment, but all kinds of right and wrong turmoil behind him have not stopped for decades. It was May of 1932. A tall, sandy-haired young American walked into Beizongbu Hutong. He was Fairbank.When he first arrived in Beijing, he studied Chinese at the Academia Sinica while studying the diplomatic history of the Qing government and Western countries; later he got a teaching position at Tsinghua University, teaching the history of the European Renaissance.He rented a courtyard house and married his slender, blue-gray-eyed bride, Fei Weimei, in a church in Beijing.

The young American couple met Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng during this period.Fei Zhengqing and Fei Weimei are Chinese names given by Liang Sicheng based on the transliteration of their English names.Fairbank's full English name is John King Fairbank, and Fei Weimei's full English name is Wilma Danio Cannon. Regarding the relationship between Fairbank and Chinese intellectuals, a Western scholar wrote: "Unlike many foreigners in Beijing, the Fairbanks were very fortunate that their circle of friends went beyond the boundaries of Western groups. The Chinese forged deep and lasting ties, especially with Liang Sicheng, son of noted political writer and reformer Liang Qichao, and his wife, Phyllis, both trained as architects in the United States and studying separately At Yale University and Harvard University...Liang Sicheng and his wife introduced them to other scholars, including the philosopher Jin Yuelin (affectionately known as Lao Jin), the political scientist Duan Sheng, Tao Menghe, Chen Daisun, and the physicist Zhou Peiyuan—this is an outstanding group who played an important role in the future of their own country and in Fairbank's relationship with this country."

The honeymoon life spent in Beijing was unforgettable for the Americans.Of course, this kind of life also includes various benefits brought to them by extraterritorial jurisdiction.They kept their hobbies, horse riding and tennis, and at the same time enjoyed the romance and leisure of the ancient oriental country.Walk along the ancient city walls under the moonlight and watch the beautiful sunset on Xishan.Fairbank described "this fairy-tale world" in a letter to his parents: "I took Wilma home along the road to the Imperial Palace, we drove through the gate of the palace, and arrived at the alley where we lived at dusk... …we dined sweetly and intimately by candlelight, while outside we heard the sound of Chinese wedding flutes and gongs...”