Chapter 10 7.in Beijing

In the autumn of 1930, Liang Sicheng moved Lin Huiyin, their youngest daughter Liang Zaibing, and Huiyin's mother to a typical Beijing courtyard house at No. 3 Beizongbu Hutong near the east city wall.This will be the residence of the Liang family for the next seven years.Inside the high wall was a closed but spacious yard with several flowering trees.Along the four sides of the courtyard, there is a row of single-storey housing on each side.Their roofs are all made of gray tiles, and the corridors with auxiliary bricks between houses are also covered with gray tiles.The side facing the courtyard is full of wide windows and doors, inlaid with carefully designed wooden latticework.The insides of the wooden latticework were either glued or hung with bleached straw paper to let in the sunlight but not to see inside.At the northern end of the courtyard there is a central porch leading to the living room, which is larger than the other rooms and faces directly south.The Liangs replaced the paper pasted on the lower floors of some wide windows with glass so that they could see the trees and flowers in the yard and let in some warm sunshine in Beijing's cold winter.But over each pane of glass is a roll of paper, which can be lowered at night to seal off the interior from the exterior.There is a small courtyard at the front entrance, and the surrounding houses serve as housing and workspace for the servants.

Huiyin resumed her writing career here.And Xu Zhimo also re-entered their lives here. While the Liangs were seeking an architectural education in Philadelphia, Xu Zhimo nearly fell into disaster with his romantic nature. After he and Tagore broke up in Japan in the summer of 1924, Xu Zhimo returned to Beijing, where he had recently made a splash.He divorced his wife, but failed to win Hui Yin's heart to take his wife's place.He also apparently sees himself as single in his quest for pure beauty, pure love, spiritual freedom and creativity.It is inevitable that he falls in love again, but this time he is not after a sentimental middle-school girl, but a mature woman, a high-society beauty.Lu Xiaoman is a married woman.Her husband of four years is a senior military officer.Her married status did not stop Xu Zhimo from pursuing, if anything, it only stimulated him to pursue more passionately.She was as much a figure in her own circle as he was in his.Their romantic entanglement aroused so much talk in Beijing that it became such a scandal that he had to leave Beijing for five months in 1925.He returned to Europe and traveled around, writing love letters to her pouring out his love.She was divorced, and the two of them were married on October 3, 1926.

Liang Qichao reported the incident to his children in the United States in a letter. "Yesterday I did something I didn't want to do - to be a witness at Xu Zhimo's wedding. His new wife used to be Mrs. Wang Shouqing. She fell in love with Xu Zhimo and divorced Wang. This is extremely unfair Moral. I scolded Xu Zhimo several times, but to no avail. Because Hu Shi and Zhang Pengchun insisted on me taking this role, I gave a speech at the wedding, severely criticizing the newlyweds. Young people are often affected by their own feelings Driven, unable to control themselves, destroying traditional security. They fall into the trap that makes them suffer. It is indeed sad and pitiful. Xu Zhimo is really smart and I love him so much. This time I look at him He is sinking, and I really want to save him. I am really trying my best to save him." He ended with a personal statement: "These are what I feel, and I wrote it especially for Sicheng, Huiyin and Sizhong .”

We don't know what news about Xu Zhimo's life reached Philadelphia in the next two years.But it seems his creativity is still in the ascendant.His first collection of poems was published in 1925.A second volume followed two years later, and four collections of essays. In 1927 he left Beijing to teach in Shanghai, where he organized the Crescent Book Company and began publishing the Crescent Monthly.Through his publications, his teaching activities, and, as he always had, his extensive acquaintances, he continued to exert an influence on other writers, though this influence had been diminished by the spread of Marxism.

In the summer of 1928, when the Liangs returned to Beijing from the West after a long absence, Xu Zhimo was traveling alone in England and Europe.When they went north to settle in Shenyang, he came back, very depressed, and he returned to Shanghai, his base of life. His teaching life, his publishing company, and his new monthly magazine all required him to come back.The death of his revered benefactor Liang Qichao was an irreparable loss. In the second year, Hu Shi invited Xu Zhimo to teach at Peking University.So he was able to visit his friends in Shenyang from time to time.When Huiyin suffered from lung disease, he agreed with her to move to Beijing when everyone discussed, in order to get better medical conditions and a milder climate.

The house in Beizongbu Hutong became Xu Zhimo's second home.Whenever his work required him to go to Beijing, he lived there.He is both Huiyin's and Sicheng's favored guest.He was best in their company, and he enjoyed their company and the congenial souls that still gathered around him. A relative of the Liang family, who had seen him several times in the Liang family as a teenager in 1931, described her impression of him this way: "His presence was dramatic. He wore A satin gown with a fine English mohair scarf round his neck. What a strange combination! All eyes were on him. His appearance was somewhat effeminate but provocative. His presence made everyone feel excited. Full of energy. Huiyin is lively and cheerful, while Sicheng is always so hospitable.”

Undoubtedly, Xu Zhimo's greatest and most lasting contribution to the Liang family at this time was the introduction of Jin Yuelin, one of his dearest friends.Jin Yuelin is a professor in the Department of Philosophy, Tsinghua University. "Lao Jin", as he is called by those who know him well, is China's number one expert on esoteric formal logic.Not at all like the foreign monster suggested by his major, he is a tall, thin, tennis-loving intellectual, reserved but eloquent.He is a few years older than the Liang couple.They love to recall the scene when he first arrived in Beijing from his hometown in Hunan. It was the end of the Qing Dynasty, and he tied his hair into the braids required by the Qing government.

Jin Yuelin made rapid progress in his studies in Beijing and won a scholarship to study in the United States.His first choice was the Walton College of the University of Pennsylvania, a preparatory class in economics and business.But as time progressed, his natural inclination towards analysis and abstract thinking led him to the various disciplines of philosophy.His study abroad period was extended for several years, and he ended up studying in England and Europe.His command of Oxford English is astonishing.After he returned to China, he was arranged to teach philosophy at Tsinghua University.

Rumor has it that his private life included several romantic relationships with Western girls.One of them went to Beijing with him for a short time, but he never married.Instead, he lives his life as it is until the end.He subordinated himself to the Liang family.Of course Huiyin is the main force that attracts him.Her perceptible appeal provided him with a vortex of humanity that was lacking in his deep spiritual realm.On her part, his wide-ranging life experience and his innate intelligence make him the perfect recipient and sympathetic inspiration of her creativity. Of course he loved her, but unselfishly and honestly.He had no intention of pulling her away from her family.Sicheng and the children also love and trust him, and he has actually integrated into the family.

On November 19, 1931, thirty-five-year-old Xu Zhimo flew from Shanghai to Beijing in order to attend classes at Peking University the next day.That evening he was supposed to attend Huiyin's lecture on art and architecture given by some foreign guests.She went to the airport to pick him up.She waited and waited until the plane was overdue.The plane actually crashed into a mountain in Shandong in heavy fog, killing passengers and crew.At that time, there was no way to immediately send the news to the Beijing airport.We don't know how Huiyin learned of Xu Zhimo's death later. If there is any way to relieve the distress, Xu Zhimo delivered it to his friends with the still vivid words in his poems.His attachment to love and life is matched only by his desire to fly and his longing for death.

hold me till i die until i close my eyes Till I fly, fly, fly into space Become sand, become light, become wind. what!pain!pain is short temporary.happiness is long and love is eternal I, I'm going to sleep... Many of his friends and admirers gathered to comfort each other.After that, they gather every year on November 19 to commemorate him.On the fourth anniversary of his death, Huiyin published a eulogy.It concludes: "Whether or not our works will survive will depend on whether they will live among those we have never known, the readers of our works, the lonely people scattered at different times and places who do not know each other. In my heart..." "Friends, don't underestimate this indirect existence. There are many passionate people who will increase their awareness of life for your existence. The sad ones are only your closest friends and those who work hard with the same interests. , the fact that you are not among them will always be an unfillable void. (Note 1.)”

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Note 1. Excerpted from "Ta Kung Pao" on December 8, 1935