Chapter 40 My mother Lin Huiyin

Liang Congjie/dictation ◇Mother was smart and assertive since she was a child Her mother's original name was Lin Huiyin, but she later changed her name to Lin Huiyin. There is a story about it.In the 1930s, there was a female writer in Beijing named Lin Weiyin who wrote "lace literature".There is only one letter difference between her and her mother's name, and "Hui" is very similar to "Wei", which is often mistaken by the outside world. Mother was upset, so she changed her name to Lin Huiyin. My mother's childhood was not very happy, so she didn't often talk about her childhood.She was born in a family of officials, and her grandfather Lin Changmin was the chief justice, but her grandmother was an old-fashioned woman, illiterate, and the daughter of a wealthy businessman, and she didn't know female celebrities and housework, so she couldn't get her grandfather's favor.But my mother was born beautiful, lively, and intelligent, and was deeply loved by my grandfather and the whole family.Even so, it did not change the status of the grandmother in the family. Later, the grandmother lived in the Kuayuan, and the grandfather remarried and gave birth to several children.

My mother loves my grandfather very much, but hates him for being ruthless to my grandmother; my mother also loves my grandmother very much, but hates her for not being up to date.The interpersonal relationship in that semi-feudal family hurt her heart.It may be because of these things that the mother seldom showed the meekness of the three obediences and four virtues when she grew up, but constantly pursued independence and freedom in personality.When my mother was in Shanghai and Beijing, she studied in church girls' schools and learned fluent English from foreign teachers. This was very helpful for her to acquire new knowledge, study and travel abroad, make foreign friends, and expand her life circle. help.

◇Meet Xu Zhimo for the first time in London My father is an architect.People in the world often think that my mother also entered the field of architecture because she was influenced by my father, but this is not true.When my mother was in middle school, she went to a classmate's house to play. The classmate's father was an architect and was drawing pictures. There was no such industry in China at that time. This was the first time she saw architectural drawings in her life.Drawing a pattern, building a house for someone, fascinated my mother.She later said that combining artistic creation with people's life needs is what she wants to do.Several years later, she went abroad to study architecture with her father, not without reason.

My grandfather, Lin Changmin, and grandfather Liang Qichao were good friends. My mother met the eldest son of the Liang family, Liang Sicheng, who later became my father. He had just entered Tsinghua University. In the eyes of relatives and friends, not only the two The young people are well matched, and the two families, one is the Attorney General and the other is the Finance Minister, are even more matched.However, both of them are young, and the two families have not talked seriously. In 1921, my grandfather was ostracized by the Beiyang government and forced to "study abroad", so he took his mother to London.When I met Xu Zhimo who was studying in Cambridge, Xu had a deep affection for his mother, wrote many poems for her, and returned to Beijing from London.This incident has become a famous "event" in the history of Chinese literature, and it is still discussed by everyone until now.Zhang Xiruo, an international student who was also in London at the time, was a friend of Xu Zhimo and later became a friend of his mother.He recalled that Xu Zhimo often invited him to "chat with Mr. Lin Changmin".When they arrived at Lin's house, Xu Zhimo disappeared after a little twirling, leaving him alone to deal with Lin Changmin.At first he was quite puzzled, but after hearing the sound of talking and laughing in the room, he suddenly realized that Xu Zhimo used him as a cover to pester Mr. Lin, and Xu went to find Miss Lin by himself.

◇The two are spiritual friendship rather than secular love So what is my mother's attitude towards Xu Zhimo?My mother is a cheerful and honest person. Not only is my father deeply aware of her relationship with Xu Zhimo, but she never hides it from our siblings.I can say this: her friendship with Xu Zhimo is very sincere, but it is by no means a marriage between a man and a woman. When she first met Xu Zhimo in London, she had a good impression of Xu Que, and even admired him.But she is only sixteen years old, Xu Zhimo is eight years older than her, and she married Zhang Youyi earlier.Basically, Xu Zhimo is a child of his grandfather Lin Changmin, not Lin Huiyin.The friendship between them is difficult to interpret as love.

My mother once told us that she grew up with a traditional education, and she could not change herself. Divorce was a serious matter back then. How could she ask a man to divorce and marry her again? She never even thought about it. The mother also said that Xu Zhimo did not love her, but Lin Huiyin in the imagination of a romantic poet.As for herself, she wants to be "worthy" of people—her parents, doctors, children, and even Xu Zhimo. Mother's feelings for Xu Zhimo can be divided into two stages.The first stage was in London, and I had a good impression and admiration for him.The second stage is to return to Beijing, when the two meet again, the mother may like him more and more.That kind of joy is deeper than ordinary friendship, but it is still not the love relationship imagined by the outside world.This can be seen from two documents, one is the memorial letter written by Xu Zhimo's mother when Xu Zhimo was killed; the other is a letter to Hu Shi in order to borrow Xu Zhimo's Kangqiao diary from Ling Shuhua.These two documents have never been found in the past, and now they are found, which is enough to prove the mother's true feelings for Xu Zhimo-it is a spiritual friendship, not a love in the world.

You must know that in China seventy years ago, the relationship between male and female friends, between famous people, was not as simple as it is now, and the pressure of social public opinion was extremely high.And the mother wrote the eulogy and told Hu Shi with such a candid attitude, it can be seen that there is no shadow in her heart.If she does have the slightest ambiguity, she must avoid talking about it, so as not to make it darker.Based on my mother's usual attitude and what we know about her, she is not a person who would lie to herself. Over the past few decades, many people have believed the stories circulated in the market, thinking that Lin Huiyin's attitude towards Xu Zhimo was ambiguous, which made Xu unrequited love for many years, and finally crashed the plane in order to hear her speech. The words were somewhat blaming Lin Huiyin "Playing" with Xu Zhimo's feelings, this is really an unjust case, because he doesn't understand Lin Huiyin's personality and behavior.As long as you have read the above two documents, you will have a fair conclusion.Especially the letter to Hu Shi is the most credible.Hu was recognized as a leader in the Beijing cultural circle at that time, a good friend of Xu Zhimo, and a friend and disciple of Liang Qichao and Lin Changmin; Lin Huiyin, who was in his teens when Hu Shi was young, regarded Hu Shi as a teacher and friend, and always respected and trusted him. He didn't mean it.

◇Parents take the study of architecture as their lifelong career The combination of my parents has a very deep relationship, because they care about the same cause - the study of ancient Chinese architecture.When they are together, in addition to the foundation of love, it is also very important to have a common language as the foundation and a broader career prospect as the foundation. From this perspective, it can be said that Lin Huiyin fully understood Xu Zhimo's spiritual pursuit later; on the other hand, Xu Zhimo did not necessarily understand what Lin Huiyin pursued, let alone professional support.From the perspective of Chinese ancient architecture research and art creation, Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin are the best partners.Maybe I can draw a conclusion from this: If Lin Huiyin married Xu Zhimo back then, we could only have Lin Huiyin, a writer at most; because she married Liang Sicheng, we not only have Lin Huiyin, a writer, but also Lin Huiyin, an architect.

My father had an artistic inclination in his youth. Although he had no professional training, when he was studying at Tsinghua University, most of the drawings and cartoons in the school magazine were written by his father.His grandfather originally wanted him to study politics abroad, but his mother, who was his girlfriend at the time, persuaded him to study architecture, so the two went to the United States to study architecture.Both parents went to the University of Pennsylvania, and later my father went to Harvard and my mother went to Yale to continue their studies.In 1928, she got married in Ottawa, Canada, because her uncle Wen Yuanning was the consul general there.Mother didn't want to wear a Western-style white gauze dress, and she didn't have any Chinese-style dresses to wear, so she designed a dress with a "ethnic style" and a headdress, which attracted the attention of photographers.After returning to China, they took the study of architecture as their lifelong career, and also took "national form" as their ideal goal.

My parents returned to China from the United States, initially in Northeast China, and later worked and taught at the "China Construction Society" in Beijing and Tsinghua University. They went to Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Zhejiang and other places to conduct field surveys and actual measurements of ancient buildings.When fleeing against Japan, other things can be thrown away, but investigation materials and research reports are tightly hugged in my arms. ◇Parents and Mr. and Mrs. Fairbank became close friends in the United States During the Anti-Japanese War, my family lived most of the time in Lizhuang near Yibin, Sichuan. It was a poor village with inconvenient transportation, and the material living conditions were extremely poor. My parents and their colleagues still worked hard.At that time, my mother's lung disease was already very serious, and she couldn't sleep at night due to coughing.No doctor, no medicine, not even a thermometer.But she still held on.One day, their old friends Professor Fairbank and his wife from the United States came to visit them. After seeing their living environment, they said with great emotion: "If they were Americans, I believe they would have put away their books and focused their energy on improving their living conditions. However, these highly educated Chinese are completely content with living the primitive life of peasants and sticking to their jobs.”

When mentioning Fairbank and his wife, one cannot fail to mention the friendship between his mother and Mrs. Fei Weimei (Wilma).When Fairbank came to study in China with his girlfriend Wei Mei, my parents had just returned from the United States. The two young couples immediately became friends, and later became close friends.One of my mother's favorite sports is horseback riding with them.When they returned home, their mother and Weimei kept writing letters.Wei Mei also wrote the book Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin (Liang and Lin), which was published by the University of Pennsylvania in 1994.My mother’s English name is Phyllis. To commemorate her, I also named my daughter Phyl-lis in English. My daughter went to the United States to study and visit Fei Weimei, but she didn’t recognize my daughter’s name.She said that in her heart, Phyllis is Lin Huiyin, and no one but her can use this word, which shows the deep friendship between the two people.My mother's literary accomplishments overshadowed her architectural achievements, which is very unfair.The investigations, research, and papers she and my father jointly produced are of high professional standards.After my mother passed away, my father once told us that all his good articles had his eyes pointed to by his mother. ◇My mother has both the talent of a poet and an artist Someone asked me, should my mother concentrate on literature, or study architecture, which is more meaningful and fulfilling to her personally?I think that in my mother, the temperament of a poet and the vision of an architectural artist complement each other and are indispensable.Her architectural essays, especially the early ones, are written with great vigor.For example, "Pingjiao Architectural Miscellaneous Records", several of which are regarded by experts as model essays for the study of ancient Chinese architecture.In addition to "poetic and picturesque", architecture should also have "architectural meaning", which was first proposed by my mother.My mother was talented in both literature and architecture, but she had been ill since 1942, and died of illness on March 11, 1955. She only lived to be 51 years old, and her various talents had not been brought into play. , is really a very tragic thing. My parents have a great influence on me.In terms of temperament, my mother has a greater influence on me.I have admired her since I was a child, and I like to listen to her read books, and I especially like to listen to her read her own poems.My mother never told us stories like the little white rabbit and the big wild wolf, but whenever she read a good book, she would tell us about that book.When she read the biography of Michelangelo, she told me the story of this great artist and described in detail how hard it was for him to paint on the roof of St. Peter's Basilica.She enjoyed reading Turgenev's "The Hunter's Diary", so she wanted us, my siblings, to read it as well, and tell him the story backwards.What I remember most clearly is that my mother read the ancient text "Tang Sui Never Disgraces Mission" for us. She read it vividly, Tang Sui's heroic courage, Qin Wang's front and rear respect, it was like a movie.These have a great relationship with the cultivation of my aesthetic ability. In the Taiwanese TV series "April Day on Earth", it is said that she was portrayed as a weak woman, which is not correct.My mother is not a young lady, nor is she a traditional boudoir type. According to current standards, she can almost be called a "strong woman".But she is not the kind of domineering person, but a very individual person.When we were young, she taught us a word: Be yourself.Don't pretend to be a human being, just show what kind of person you are.At that time, she was probably a "new woman".She was not a revolutionary, nor was she consciously trying to make a difference for women.On the contrary, she didn't like these very much.She wrote to Fei Weimei that her motivation for writing was that she had real feelings and something to say.She also opposed the so-called "popular literature".Although many of my mother's articles also speak for the common people, they are not the product of ideology.The greatest legacy my mother left us is to be an honest person.She herself never hides what she thinks, nor does she put on airs.