Chapter 34 Li Shutong Chronicle (1)

On October 23, 1880 (September 20, Lunar Gengchen Year), he was born in a prominent family at No. 2 Lujia Hutong in front of Dizang Temple, Hedong District, Tianjin.It was named Wen Tao and styled Shutong.His ancestral home is Pinghu, Zhejiang, and Hongdong, Shanxi.His father, Li Shizhen, named Xiaolou, was in the same year as Li Hongzhang and Wu Rulun in the examination. After becoming a Jinshi, he served as the head of the Ministry of Officials. He resigned soon after and returned to Tianjin to do business. He mainly engaged in the salt industry and almost monopolized the salt industry inside and outside Tianjin. , became a wealthy man in Tianjin; in his later years, he vigorously established banks and became an earlier banker in Tianjin.Li Xiaolou was willing to do good deeds, founded the "Bei Ji Society", donated grain coffins to the poor, and set up a private school to let the poor go to school, and won the nickname "Li Shanren" in Jinmen.

Shutong's biological mother, Wang's family name Fengling, was born in 1860 and was originally a maidservant. In 1897, she was adopted by Li Xiaolou as the third concubine.She has a little fluency in writing and believes in Buddhism, which played an important role in Li Shutong's growth.Li Shutong ranked third in the family.On the day of his birth, a magpie brought a pine branch to the house. This pine branch was regarded as a good root bestowed by the Buddha, and Shutong carried it with him all his life. In 1883, the whole family moved into No. 62, Back Street of Liangdian, just across the alley from the old house.

In 1884, he began to learn calligraphy, copying Liu and Yan. This year, his father passed away due to illness, and Li Hongzhang came to Li's house to mourn for him.The Li family held a big funeral, and the monks performed Puji rituals and made a flame.After witnessing these scenes, Shutong called his neighbors and friends to follow suit and called himself the "Great Monk".After his father's death, due to property and other reasons, Shutong's mother and son were excluded by the big family, and Shutong became taciturn.Since then, he has recited famous poems and maxims from his mother Wang.

In 1886, he began to study and other enlightenment books, and later read "The Picture of Hundred Filial Piety", "Returning to Xing", "Jade Calendar", "Proverbs and Lianbi", etc.His mother also taught him short poems. In 1887, he began to study "Selected Works".Shutong recited 500 times a day, with a photographic memory, and made rapid progress. He was often praised by his teacher Chang Yunzhuang. In 1888, he was familiar with "Four Books", "Book of Filial Piety", and countless Tang poems.Because he often accompanied his aunt Guo Shi (the eldest concubine of Li Xiaolou) to Wuliang Temple, he learned to recite the "Great Compassion Mantra" and "The Rebirth Mantra".Started to learn seal cutting from Tang Jingyan, a famous calligrapher and seal carver in Tianjin.There is a Beijing opera troupe singing at home, and I learned to sing out of curiosity.

In 1891, he began to study seal script, copied "Xuan Wang Lie Jie", and wrote more than 500 characters every day.He also studied official script and was keen on stele learning. He wrote "Zhang Menglong Stele", "Zhang Qian Stele", "Twenty Classes of Longmen" and so on.I studied historical works such as "Historical Records" and "Hanshu" with Mr. Chang Yunzhuang, and I often went to the box office to learn drama. In 1894, his literary talents first appeared, and there was a saying that "life is like the moon on the west mountain, and wealth and honor are like frost on the grass".At this time, his poetry and calligraphy have laid a good foundation.At the box office with Peking Opera actress Yang Cui

One of Li Shutong's calligraphy exercises when he was a teenager Happy to get acquainted. In 1895, he entered Tianjin Fu Jen Catholic University to study.Since the summer, I have started to learn western educational content such as arithmetic and foreign languages, and accepted "new learning". In 1896, he paid homage to his father's friend Zhao Youmei, a celebrity in the poetry circle in Tianjin, to learn Ci and mastered poetry.He also officially learned calligraphy and seal cutting from the famous calligrapher Tang Jingyan.There are many famous scholars in Jinmen art forest, famous educator Yan Xiu, great writer Meng Guanghui, great calligrapher Wang Yinsheng, great painter Chen Yuzhou and many other scholars, calligraphers and painters have close contacts with him, so that he has been extensively influenced by art.That year, he entered Tianjin County School as a literary boy and began to learn stereotyped essays.

In 1897, he was ordered by his mother to marry Yu Shi, the daughter of a tea merchant in the Yu Family Tea House in Weijieyuan, Tianjin.Yu's eldest uncle is two years old, dignified and quiet.The Li family held a big wedding, and his brother allocated 300,000 yuan from the family property for Shutong's family.Shutong bought a German piano and began to study Beier's "Basic Piano Textbook" and Czerny's "Piano Preliminary Tutorial". In October 1898, Shutong went south to Shanghai with his mother and wife, rented a house in Bu Neighborhood in the French Concession, and changed his name to Li Shutong.

After arriving in Shanghai, Shutong got acquainted with Xu Huanyuan and others from the "Shanghai Society" and joined the "Chengnan Literature Society". In the spring of 1899, at the kind invitation of Xu Huanyuan, he and his family moved into the South Thatched Cottage of Xujiacheng, Qinglongqiao, Hunan. Huanyuan was named "Li Lu" for the courtyard where Shu Tong lived. He formed Jinlan brothers with Xu Huanyuan, Yuan Xilian, Cai Xiaoxiang, and Zhang Xiaolou, known as the "Five Friends of the End of the World".In addition, he also had close acquaintances with literary celebrities Mao Zijian, Li Liyuan, Liu Minsong, etc.

That year, Shutong's eldest son Hulu died after giving birth. In 1900, he wrote "Twenty Self-narrative Poems", titled with a four-character poem preface for introspection.He also compiled his own seal works and ancient famous seals collected by his family into a volume "Li Lu Seal Book" and published it.Also edited the original page 111 of "The Compilation of Shizhong" and put it on page 238. Stills of Li Shutong playing Huang Tianba in Shanghai Preliminary Collection", and made its own preface.In the spring of that year, Shutong went north to Kaifeng to take part in the exam as a child student and got the third place.

In April, together with Huang Yangzong, Ren Bonian, Zhu Menglu, Gao Yongzhi and other calligraphers and painters, he organized the "Shanghai Calligraphers and Painters Association" at the former site of Yangliu Tower, Fuzhou Road, Shanghai. The "Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy Association" holds various "calligraphy and painting workshops" to give free lectures and popularize calligraphy and painting knowledge to the public.Shutong taught seal script and seal cutting. In September, the second son Li Zhun was born. At the beginning of 1901, he collected his personal poems "Li Lu Shi Zhong", signed "Danghu Xishuang Immortal History", and published it in Shanghai.

In February, I went north to Tianjin to visit my family.After arriving in Tianjin, it happened that his brother was going to Henan. Shutong wanted to go to Henan again, but because the Boxers fought against the Eight-Power Allied Forces, the road was blocked and he couldn't make it, so he stayed in Tianjin for more than two months.During this period, he went to Beijing to visit the famous actress Yang Cuixi. After returning to Tianjin, he wrote a poem "Bodhisattva Man Recalling Yang Cuixi" as a commemoration.Shutong left a number of excellent poems and poems during his trip to the north, such as "Nanpu Moon·Northern Journey, Farewell to the People at Sea", "Singing Songs on the Pillow in the Wheel", "Didn't Worry About Sleep", etc., and compiled them into "Xin "The Ugly North Conquers Tears and Ink", after the book was published, it was highly praised by people from all walks of life in Shanghai.