Chapter 9 9

In the 1990s, the author of this book interviewed several contemporaries of Xu Zhimo and Lin Huiyin. Economist Chen Daisun said: "It is not credible that Xu Zhimo and Lin Huiyin were in love in London. Lin Huiyin was only 16 or 17 years old at that time. Xu Zhimo was very confused. Once there was only one table for a treat. I thought, when I sat down and saw that they were all women. Xu Zhimo and Lin Huiyin were in love, and Lin Changmin would not agree." (Recorded by the author and essayist Xi Xueyao in their visit to Chen Daisun on May 20, 1991) Chen Shutong's niece and Chen Zhi's sister Ms. Chen Yi, studied in the United States in the 1920s to study nutrition in the Department of Home Economics. Lin Huiyin sometimes traveled from Philadelphia to New York, and because of the close relationship between Chen Zhi and Liang Sicheng, she often stayed in Chen Yi's dormitory.Chen asked about her relationship with Xu, and Lin Huiyin clearly denied the "love affair" and believed that Xu Zhimo should not abandon Zhang Youyi.Lin also said that he must never do anything to destroy other people's marriages, and that he once persuaded Xu Zhimo and Zhang Youyi to reconcile. (Record of the author's interview with Chen Yi on May 22, 1991)

There are also many published texts that agree with Chen Daisun and Chen Yi. Wen Jieruo and Xiao Qian went to visit Bing Xin together, and also asked Lin Huiyin if she had ever been in love with Xu. A married man, a lady like Lin Huiyin, would never let him get a divorce for his own sake." (Wen Jieruwen, "Talent and Appearance Can Be Both - Lin Huiyin's Profile") Lin Huiyin's close friend, Wilma Fairbank, put it in more detail. She wrote in the book "Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin" (translated by Qu Yingpu, Guan Chao, etc.): After listening to her (press, referring to Lin Huiyin) talking about Xu Zhimo many years later, I noticed that her memory is always associated with literary masters—Shelley, Keith, Byron, Kathleen Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, and others.It seems to me that in his beloved he may have assumed the role of teacher and guide, leading her into the world of English poetry and drama, with new beauties, new ideals, new feelings.In this way he might be pleased with her quick responses to his favorite books and favorite dreams.He may have woven some fantasies.

I have an impression that she was fascinated by Xu Zhimo's character, his pursuit and his passionate feelings for her, but she is only sixteen years old, and she is not a scheming woman as some people imagine .She was nothing more than a schoolgirl living in her father's house.Xu Zhimo's enthusiasm for her is not in this inexperienced girl elicit an equivalent response. Fei Weimei made it very clear that even though Xu weaved fantasies, Lin did not have the same reaction!Among Lin Huiyin's contemporaries, only Ling Shuhua's statement in his later years was slightly biased. She recalled this way: "He told me many times that he was in love with Lin Huiyin, Lu Xiaoman, etc. without hiding anything." , the first issue of "New Literature Historical Materials" quarterly in 1983) the so-called deviation means that Ling's expression is easy to cause misunderstanding. It seems that Lin Huiyin and Xu Zhimo were in love.But after careful analysis of these words, the subject of love is Xu Zhimo, and the meaning is only to express Xu's love for Lin. As for whether Lin is in love with Xu, it has not been confirmed.See also the Chinese-American female writer Mu Lingqi's account of Ling Shuhua's conversation: "Then she (Ling Shuhua) narrated some stories about Xu Zhimo's life and death, especially about Xu Zhimo's friendship with Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin...Xu Zhimo is this A close friend of the couple, for Lin Huiyin's speech in Beijing, Xu Zhimo caught up with the plane to fly from Shanghai, but unfortunately the plane crashed on the way." (Mu Lingqi: "Ju Fang", contained in "Selected Essays of Overseas Chinese Writers") here When talking about the relationship between Xu and Lin twice, Ling Shuhua used the words "friendship" and "close friend", neither of which involved love.Ling Shuhua and Lin Huiyin had a grudge. If the rumored "love affair" is true, Ling Shuhua will not keep it secret.Looking at it more broadly, none of the insiders of Xu and Lin's contemporaries, except for the testimony of denial, has confirmed that Lin Huiyin responded to Xu Zhimo's enthusiastic pursuit. This is by no means a collective silence of conspiracy.

It seems that the following words of Lin Huiyin's son Liang Congjie may not be as questioned by some articles, but are taboos for his mother: When my sister and I grew up, my mother used to tell us about their past on and off. …When Xu Zhimo suddenly expressed his love for his mother with the enthusiasm of a Western style poet, his mother was in a position that was completely incompatible with him in terms of spirit, thought, and life experience, so it was impossible to produce corresponding feelings.My mother later said that at that time, it was inconceivable that a girl like him, who grew up under the influence of the old moral education, would fall in love with a married man who was eight or nine years older than himself, as some people said. thing. "

(Liang Congjie: "Suddenly April Day in the World") Similarly, what Liang Sicheng said to Fei Weimei was not necessarily to hide his wife's taboo.Whatever other troubles the episode of Xu Zhimo's proposal to Lin Huiyin caused, he said, Huiyin's years of living with her heartbroken mother annoyed her at the thought of divorce.In this case of divorce, a wife who has lost her love is abandoned, and she herself is going to take her place. (See "Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin" by Fei Weimei) The more direct material is what Lin Huiyin wrote to Shen Congwen during the Anti-Japanese War. She recalled the years in London like this:

... Almost twenty years ago, I sat alone in a large study and watched the rain, the constant rain in England.My father went to a meeting of the Swiss League of Nations, and I could smell beef kidney and bacon fried in the kitchen upstairs and downstairs, and at night I was sitting alone in the big dining room (with a very dim light) With two legs that are not touching the ground and braids that have just dropped to the shoulders, eating alone while biting his fingers and crying - so bored that I can't stop crying!Ideally, I always hope that there will be a little romance in life, or that someone will knock on the door and come in and sit across from me and talk to me, or sit with me upstairs by the fire and tell me stories. The most important thing is to have Individuals are coming to love me.I'm living the dreams all girls dream about.But in reality it just rained and rained every day, I never knew a boyfriend, I never had a romantic person come up to play with me—never did I know anyone in real life who was as romantic as I imagined, But it also added a lot of personnel disputes.

This is probably the only surviving account of Lin Huiyin's life in London.The sixteen-year-old girl is eagerly looking forward to love, so she is looking forward to it, because love has not yet happened. She "never knew a boyfriend" (it can be explained as a lover), including Xu Zhimo, who often visits the door and writes frequently. There is no romantic character like I imagined", including Xu Zhimo.These words can't explain the exclusion and love affair with Xu very clearly. Xu Zhimo died when he touched the mountain. Lin Huiyin made a summary in his letter to Hu Shi after reviewing his ten years of friendship with Xu:

I miss him a lot these days, but if he is still alive, I am afraid I will not be able to change him.Very unlikely in fact.Maybe that's why I don't love him enough, a proof that I love my present home above all else.Zhimo also admitted this. These words are credible, she doesn't have to, and she can't be insincere to Hu Shi who knows everything.There are so many directly related words from the parties, some scholars who firmly believe that Lin Huiyin loved Xu Zhimo turned a deaf ear to them. The world likes to talk about Xu and Lin being in love, or "good-hearted people" regard their wishes as facts; or think that Lin Huiyin, a new-style woman, can be indifferent to the poet's pursuit.They overlooked that Xu Zhimo and Lin Huiyin were not a good match at the beginning. One was the daughter of an official family who was already famous in the capital, and the other was at best a son of a wealthy family who was not yet a suave poet in the eyes of future generations.They also overlooked that Lin Huiyin, who had just left the country, was still full of traditional Chinese ethics, and it was difficult for her to fall in love with a man who was seven or eight years older than her and had a family without any scruples.Until Xu Zhimo's death, Lin Huiyin still pointedly said: "My education is old, and I can't become a new person." Knowing each other, as well as the gossip and gossip in the society, especially Lin Huiyin's behavior that is easily misunderstood by ordinary people, that is, hanging the fragments of the wreckage of Xu Zhimo's plane in the bedroom, which made the outside world more and more convinced of the rumors.The debris of the wreck, for those who hold the common sense of China, it is almost an ironclad proof of Lin Huiyin's "love Xu". However, the party with a gentleman's style is another belly. ——Lin Huiyin's half-brother Lin Heng died in the war of resistance against Japan, and she also put his wreckage in the inner room—and she was magnanimous like a gentleman.If the collection of wreckage fragments really contains strange feelings, then where will Liang Sicheng, who lives in the same room, be put in this move?Tolerate a wife who misses her lover (if it is a lover) like this is unimaginable for those who treat others with normal Chinese feelings.