When Zhang studied in Jinan University, he studied under Li Jianwu and Sun Dayu. At the age of 65,438+08, he translated and published O 'Neill's play Before Breakfast, and then played the leading role. Later, she also rehearsed the foreign drama Lock the Box, Cao Yu's Home, Yuling's Woman's Apartment, and Wu Zuguang's Home on a Snowy Night. Until 1950s, she became a famous professor and Shakespeare expert in the drama department of Shanghai Theatre Academy. Translated and published books such as Shakespeare Studies and Interpretation of Shakespeare's Plays.
1937, when the Shanghai Concession became an "island", Zhang Ke met Wang Yuanhua, a member and scholar of * * *, and participated in the organization of * * * in Shanghai literary and art circles. 1938, Zhang Ke, who grew up in a rich and powerful family, joined * * *, and since then she has woven her destiny with her lover and ideal without hesitation. After 1948, Outlook magazine ceased publication. Influenced by Wang Yuanhua's "underground literature", Zhang Ke, who was pregnant with her son, fled the Kuomintang raid everywhere and was frightened, but risked her life to help her husband.
From 65438 to 0949, his son Wang came to live with New China. This is a promising beginning. The following year, all underground party member will be re-registered, and heroes who have experienced the baptism of life and death will be able to enter leadership positions at all levels. Zhang Ke has been party member for 12 years. He didn't register and voluntarily gave up his party member status. Zhang Ke never thought of getting anything in return from 12' s party age. She went to be a university teacher and started a new journey in her life in the quiet study of Shakespeare.
1955, Wang Yuanhua was quarantined for review due to Hu Feng's unjust case; During this period, he suffered severe mental trauma, so he relied on Zhang Ke's careful care and recuperation, and sought medical advice in various ways. After Yuan Hua recovered, she devoted herself to the study of Shakespeare with him, and completed the translation of100000 words in 1960s. In the difficult years, she not only supported the survival of a weak family, but also supported the persistence of a humanist and the basic values of civilized culture. Husband teaches children, respects the old and loves the young, and maintains humanity with women; Translate Shakespeare's comments, edit publications and teach students to drive away barbarism with civilization. Not a word of complaint, not a little tired, not a trace of giving up. After the disaster, their persistence won praise from the academic and literary circles. Wang Yuanhua has a simple and affectionate text praising his wife:
"Zhang Ke heart almost don't know how to hate. I have never seen her treat people harshly, nor have I heard her speak in tough words. She is always so gentle, modest and generous. In the long 23 years from anti-Hu Feng to her illness, my bumpy fate brought her endless harm, and she silently endured it. People who have been humiliated will become sensitive, and their eyes will feel a slightly dissatisfied face for any unremarkable complaint. But she never showed such feelings. This is not something that any wife who is deeply involved in her husband can do. Because she can't rely on the power of thought and will to force naturally generated feelings, only by following the guidance of goodness can she reach this extraordinary realm. "
During the Cultural Revolution, Zhang Ke was also illegally isolated. At that time, she fainted due to high blood pressure and was not allowed to see a doctor. Since then, she has planted the root of the disease. 1June, 979, Zhang Ke suddenly suffered from cerebral thrombosis in a meeting and was in a coma for seven days. Later, although he was saved by rescue, his thinking and brain power were seriously damaged. From then on, there is only simple oral expression, and reading and writing are useless. The day of her stroke was the day when China intellectuals recovered from the disaster. In the long winter and cold years, Zhang overcame the disaster with the spirit of tenacity, kindness, sympathy and suffering. In "Spring Return", she did not participate in the discussion, did not express any opinions, and faded out of history.
She's not involved in history? Instead, she shows the silent trial of the victims of historical crimes.
In the 1960s, she often told her son about Dickens' Tears of a Lone Star, Oliver Twist, The Story of Pickwell and Shakespeare's Richard, advocating the humanity of the literary tradition in the19th century.
Zhang Ke also taught his son to read the Analects of Confucius, The Doctrine of the Mean and other classics since childhood, and copied her husband's monographs and papers on Wen Xin Diao Long and Gong Zizhen in small letters, which had a deep affection for China culture.
The poet Saint Du Fu has a famous poem: "Good rain knows the season, when spring happens. Sneak into the night with the wind, moisten things silently. The wild path is dark, and the river is bright. Look at the red and wet place, Jinguancheng is heavy. " Moistening things quietly is the benevolent spirit of China culture. In Zhang Ke's body, it is permeated with this spirit.
On the day Zhang Ke left, Professor Yu-sheng Lin, a famous scholar who studied the history of modern China thought, sent a couplet, comparing her to an ancient lotus picker:
I have lived my whole life, but I am single-minded. I am not a speck of dust;
The sound emblem is like yesterday, and the Chinese lettering is like new. Every time I visit my hometown, I mourn the people involved in the river.
The legend of Zhang Kehe and Wang Yuanhua.
Our long story begins with this modern era. A young man who grew up with a western education in Tsinghua campus was born in a Christian family. At the age of eighteen, he became a young man of the Shanghai underground party. In Shanghai, he met a girl who was born in an enlightened and wealthy scholarly family, and her ancestors worked in Beiyang government. She is very beautiful. She was admitted to Jinan University at the age of sixteen and studied English literature under Zheng Zhenduo and Li Jianwu.
The lean man from Hubei gave up the study abroad plan designed by his father, who was a professor in Tsinghua, and took part in the student salvation movement in Shanghai. Then he devoted himself to the liberation of China with the lifelong influence of Christianity. /kloc-joined China in 0/938 * * is a revolutionary in the cultural circles of Shanghai, that is, Wang Yuanhua. At that time, he wrote many papers and novels about literary theory and was responsible for the organization of Shanghai literary and art circles. He has always been an upright and talented person. At that time, Wang Yuanhua was left-leaning and radical. Although he can't change the habit of eating quietly since he was a child, he often wears pants like Chaplin, and his good friend Man Tao has the same taste. He crumples the ironed clothes with his hands before wearing them.
The perfect Suzhou girl, 18 years old, under the influence of her brother Man Tao and his revolutionary friends, joined the Shanghai underground party with the tolerance of a luxurious and free family and pointed out that she was a "warm-hearted person". In the same year, she was Zhang Ke of 1938. At that time, she translated O 'Neill's works and participated in the performance of Home. She played madame roland in Before Breakfast, and also played Cousin Mei. At that time, she was really a beautiful girl, kind and intelligent, honest and dusty, and was sought after by many young people. Until more than half a century passed, the photos of her youth were accidentally seen by two doctoral students of East China Normal University. Two young men crouched in front of their tutor Wang Yuanhua's bookcase, feeling that the woman in the photo was clean ice and snow. At that time, he had lived a life of untouchability for 23 years, and many of his old friends died because of unbearable, including his best friend who bled to death, Ba who died after going crazy, and Gu Zhun who died alone in the cancer ward. The mental crisis in Wang Yuanhua caused two psychogenic mental disorders, one caused by severe malnutrition and the other caused blindness. Holding a photo of Zhang Ke, the two doctoral students still envied their tutor and said to him, "Where can I find such a girl now?"
In our story, Wang Yuanhua got Zhang Ke.
1938, Wang Yuanhua said that he liked Zhang Ke, but Zhang Ke didn't like to hear such words at that time, and asked Wang Yuanhua what he meant by such words. 1947, a suitor in Zhang Ke asked Zhang Ke who she really liked, and Zhang Ke calmly replied, "Wang Yuanhua."
1948, Wang Yuanhua and Zhang Ke held a Christian ceremony wedding in Shanghai Auricularia Hall.
At that time, Zhang Ke's father didn't think Wang Yuanhua was the best young candidate, and on the eve of the Kuomintang's imminent failure, Wang Yuanhua was in charge of the underground publication Underground Literature, which was in a very dangerous situation. But they didn't really stop their daughter. Instead, they solemnly took their beautiful daughter in a white dress from her comfortable home to a simple church with cloisters on Tibet Road, where they decorated the wedding with white flowers and gave her hand to Wang Yuanhua according to Zhang Ke's wishes. There, the couple vowed never to leave, in sickness or in health, in disaster or in happiness, until the end of their lives. Later, they spent their wedding night in the luxurious Park Hotel (now the International Hotel) in Shanghai. From then on, Zhang Ke, a member of * * * *, and Wang Yuanhua, a member of * * * *, joined together and began to hide in the Kuomintang raid.
At that time, it was called the darkness before dawn by later generations, and the Kuomintang began a crazy massacre. Li Bai, the Shanghai underground party, was killed, and Chen Bulei, Chiang Kai-shek's secretary, later became the daughter of the underground party. Even the smell of Shanghai, where thyme and American jazz reverberated in parliament all night, could not wash away the bloody smell of that year. Many people can't see the arrival of the new China they are fighting for, so they give up and go to the west.
Zhang Ke saw this day. 1949, New China entered her life with her only son Wang.
In the second year, all underground parties in Shanghai re-registered and prepared to enter various leadership positions. Zhang Ke didn't register, and gave up his party member status after a bloody conflict of 12 years. 1938, when she attended * * * wearing freshly ironed clothes, it was not for eating, to avoid buying and selling marriage, to be with a beauty lover, or to get ahead. She yearns for the free and prosperous China in her mind and the ideal shown in the book. She doesn't want to get any material benefits from her twelve years of party membership. She never lacks or is keen on it.
She went to be a college drama teacher and taught Shakespeare. Her proficiency in English and profound knowledge made her an expert on Shakespeare studies in China. At the same time, she is also a gentle and considerate housewife who educates her children. After hiding in Tibet, her favorite thing is to cook many delicious dishes, light up every lamp in the living room, invite people to dinner, put her famous Italian tomato sauce noodles, Russian thick soup and Portuguese chicken on the most meticulous plate, and polish every tableware. After many years, when the dust settles, people who have eaten at her home will always think of her warm smile. Among those guests, there is Hu Feng. At that time, Wang Yuanhua participated in the establishment of the New Literature and Art Publishing House and published two of his books. After Hu Feng left, Zhang Ke said that he didn't like Hu Feng very much because he was too bossy.
In the golden fifties, many young intellectuals, including Wang Yuanhua, were in high spirits. His pride, passion and talent in the blood of the Chu people, coupled with his generosity in singing all the way in New China, made him look unstoppable. Li Ziyun, who worked with him at that time, said that she didn't want to talk to her leader, Wang Yuanhua. Forty years later, Li Ziyun, who has become a friend in need in Wang Yuanhua, recalled that steaming cup of black tea, still shook his head and said firmly, "I didn't pay attention to him at that time, it was too' standard'!"
At that time, Wang Yuanhua's forehead was red. When Kan Kan was talking, Zhang Ke would look at him, smile with insight, and then give him a slender thumb and shake him: "Yes, yes, you will always be' me, me, me', you are the best, you are great."
A basin of warm water overflowed. Then, wisely, without a word, retreat and go.
Silently studying Shakespeare, translating Shakespeare's authoritative documents, managing a beautiful home, and giving a sly and sarcastic thumbs-up to relatives who are proud of the spring breeze are the present Zhang Ke in our long story. While her husband, Wang Yuanhua, and her brother, Man Tao, were obsessed with Chekhov, she fell in love with Shakespeare, who was not lively in China since the May 4th Movement, and took it as her lifelong research direction. At the age of 78, Wang Yuanhua still deeply remembers what Zhang Ke said about himself when he joined the underground party: a warm-hearted person. But he also deeply realized the fleeting sly smile on his wife's warm and beautiful face. When he was in high spirits, it was Zhang Ke's personality and wisdom, and the purity of an intellectual woman.
Until now, 1954, 35-year-old Zhang Ke is still an enthusiastic person. The fashionable thirties are over. Although her story is somewhat unexpected, it is not a Cheng Naishan-style talented woman, a Jiang Guangchi-style revolution and love, a dirty lady in the era of Zhang Ailing, a revolutionary girl tragedy, a Yang Mo-style thoroughly remoulding, or a Chen-style work. It is beautiful, but her story is still developing in a predictable way. Do you think there is a strange refreshing atmosphere in it?
In the 1950s, I didn't miss its current trend, but the story of Zhang Ke was fully unfolded at that time, just like a walnut, which was smashed open and the yellowish flesh could be seen inside. For Zhang Ke, if it weren't for Wang Yuanhua's twenty-three years of bad luck, no one would know what kind of flowers were blooming in her heart. How can life be like this? If there is no chilling pressure, a person will never know what kind of courage and firmness is hidden in his heart. Speaking of Zhang Ke's story, I watched her gracefully walk to the end of June 1955. At that time, on Gaolan Road outside her home, the brown bark on the trunk of the tall buttonwood tree began to explode. Looking from a distance, like Kandinsky's paintings, spring is coming again. She is a quiet woman, but she will be happy for the arrival of another spring. There is a Russian church on that road, and the faded lotus church tower looks like a sad fairy tale in the thin sunshine in spring. Zhang Ke walked there calmly and naively.
1955, a massive anti-Hu Feng movement was launched nationwide, with more than 1000 participants. Ten years ago, Wang Yuanhua knew Hu Feng, but he didn't have much contact. At that time, some people in the party said that Hu Feng had serious political problems, but Wang Yuanhua thought there was no evidence. In the early days of liberation, Wang Yuanhua did not assign jobs. 1June, 955, Wang Yuanhua was suddenly isolated and censored. During this period, Zhou Yang pointed out that Wang Yuanhua was one of the few scholars in the Party who had a deep understanding of Marxist literary theory. If he is willing to admit that the three articles published about Hu Feng Group are counter-revolutionary, then try to treat him as a contradiction among the people. But Wang Yuanhua refused to be imprisoned, which became Hu Feng's counter-revolution.
Zhang Ke knew nothing about her husband's whereabouts, and her home was stolen for the first time. At school, she was forced to admit that her husband was a counter-revolutionary and was hit in the face with a book, but Zhang Ke refused to admit it.
1957 In February, when Wang Yuanhua was released home, he was already suffering from psychogenic psychosis. He lost the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood, confuse reality with hallucinations, and needed to take sleeping pills to fall asleep. Everything about him has changed except his home. There is a clean tablecloth on the table and incense in the closet. It is his pride that his wife is still elegant and gentle. His habits at home have not changed. He has returned to the British habit left over from his previous campus life in Tsinghua: eating breakfast on a tray in bed. If you invite friends home for dinner, there are still spaghetti with Italian tomato sauce, Portuguese chicken and country soup. 1958, Wang Yuanhua's illness was relieved, and he began to look for his favorite books to read. At that time, Wang Yuanhua often went to Sima Road to read books. Although Wang Yuanhua had only a small amount of living expenses for four years, he bought many books one after another. Speaking of it, it was almost the first time in Wang Yuanhua's life that he really studied quietly. He has done a lot of translation work. On the one hand, this is his interest. On the other hand, he changed his remuneration to subsidize Zhang Ke's family. After translating the Revolution History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with his father, he began to translate the literature about Shakespeare's plays with Zhang Ke, and finished On Shakespeare's Four Tragedies. Zhang Ke copied this manuscript with nearly100,000 words on the manuscript label of Do Yun Xuan with a beautiful brush, covered with porcelain green paper and bound in thread. This quietly kept a solo book for self-entertainment, which was burned by myself in the early days of the Cultural Revolution. I also finished my thesis "The Orphan of Zhao in Shaanxi Opera".
Thirty-nine years later, I saw Shakespeare's research copied in a clumsy and sturdy red notebook from the 1950s. Most of Zhang's translated works have been revised and reviewed, and five versions have been inscribed. This is their first and only real cooperation. Outside the anti-Rightists, three years of national disaster, no room for thought, no eggs. Because these translated documents are completely impossible to publish, they copied them in two notebooks, and each page was marked with Arabic numerals as neatly as possible, just like a real book. That night, talking about the story of these two notebooks, Wang Yuanhua said, "The days when we traveled in Shakespeare's art world with Zhang Ke are wonderful memories in our lives." In the days without thoughts and eggs, they created a first-class spiritual life together.
Due to extreme lack of nutrition, Wang Yuanhua got hepatitis. Because Zhang Kehe and his family got enough soybeans, eggs and sugar together, he recovered completely within one month and could continue his study and translation. And often urged him to go out to eat to improve nutrition. Then Wang Yuanhua's eyes suddenly went blind due to illness, which was the climax of his writing Wen Xin Diao Long. Zhang Ke found the best ophthalmologist in Shanghai for him, and his 80-year-old father walked every day to read materials and dictate for his blind son, with as many as eight books.
Li Ziyun once said that if Wang Yuanhua had not experienced the ups and downs in the 1950s and retired to the warm home of an intellectual, he would not have become such a great scholar who kept pace with China and the West.
Now, these two clumsy and sturdy notebooks will be published soon, and they will also be sent to Shanghai Library for collection by celebrity manuscript room. However, Zhang Ke suffered a stroke 20 years ago and completely lost his reading ability after being rescued. She can't see the book translated happily with her husband in hopeless days.
I think of Zhang Xianliang's "The Shepherd". The simple woman in red saved a scholar with her big white steamed bread and love. Many people are very moved by this. On the other hand, Zhang Ke showed great concern for Wang Yuanhua's body, soul and the whole spiritual world. She not only brought eggs, but also brought Shakespeare's vast world of wisdom. In his family, Wang Yuanhua was never an idol or a pariah. He is a scholar with proper dignity. He still keeps his own way of life, growing plums in winter and loving flowers. Although he has a dark face, he dresses appropriately. For a long time, sensitive Wang Yuanhua almost cut off all his friends. However, he is not very lonely in spirit, and he has a good time.
At that time, Zhang Ke still often participated in the school's foreign affairs activities. In the 1960s, foreigners seldom came to Shanghai. Shanghai women can't change their curiosity and affection for foreigners, and always like to look at them more, because they come from a more gorgeous and mysterious world. The female staff of the Theatre Academy should pay more attention to their work, not those foreigners who visit, but the teacher Zhang Ke who accompanied them, the elegant, beautiful and calm woman. They vaguely know that her family is unhappy, but they can't see her embarrassment and pain. With her usual low profile, it seems that this is not a protection of self-esteem. It's more like she's not too worried about the change of her husband's status. Maybe she will feel that the days when two people are together to translate Shakespeare are beautiful and have another kind of freedom.
A warm-hearted person is not a person with no edge in mind. She can also be an unsinkable lotus floating in green sewage.
Since the "Cultural Revolution" in 1966, Wang Yuanhua has become history, and now it is counter-revolutionary.
1970 to 1972, and was quarantined again. After leaving home, Wang Yuanhua's psychogenic psychosis recurred, which was more serious than 1955. He walked wildly in the fields of Fengxian farm, and saw some crabs on an unknown small river beach, smashing all the stones and driving away the grievances and pains in his heart. Insomnia is getting worse and worse.
During this period, Zhang Ke was illegally isolated because she was Mrs. Wang Yuanhua, and even was not allowed to see a doctor because of hypertensive syncope, which caused a serious stroke in 1979. After that, she couldn't read or write.
It was a longer and more difficult time, which seemed endless. I was a child at that time. I didn't know about the Wang Yuanhua family. I grew up in a family where students longed for revolution and became old workers. My father also suffers from severe insomnia. He and Wang Yuanhua went to the same hospital, and some doctors may have taken the same sleeping pills, especially the old sleeping pills that damaged the liver. During the "Cultural Revolution", my father also entered Fengxian ultra-leftwing. Father raises pigs and often wears black overshoes, because it is humid near the sea. The most painful thing for my father in cadre schools is that the dormitory can't be quiet. Once he is awakened by his roommate and can't take too many sleeping pills, he will wait for dawn night after night. I remember those days when they came home from ultra-leftwing every month, there was always a big truck to pick them up, and the green truck's ass was covered with yellow and white dust. Some people in blue jump high and dirty. My father is wearing a cloth hat with eaves. When he took off his hat, I could see a deep wrinkle on his forehead pulled out by it.
Many years later this year, when I heard Wang Yuanhua talk about this briefly, I thought of my father's face. Will there be wrinkles on Wang Yuanhua's head pulled out by the brim of his hat? I wasted ten years this time, the whole adolescence. For them, it was the best time of their lives.
My mother is beautiful, too, but she is very fragile. The most she said to my brothers and me was, "Don't give your father any more trouble." She used to lie down and listen to the morning news when she didn't get up in the morning. If she heard a little swearing sentences (there were too many at that time), she bent down to the small semiconductor under the lamp, and her face was full of worry and tension. Mother never liked listening to news, but she kept the habit of listening to news on time until 1982. That year, my father left his job as a consultant, and my mother only paid attention to the weather forecast in the morning. I wonder if Zhang Ke was like my mother in those ten years. They are in a more sinister place than my father.
There are no flowers in our house.
According to Li Ziyun, when some friends of Wang Yuanhua went to his house, they could still see Zhang Ke's warm and refreshing smile and eat Italian red Huimian Noodles, which was formally put on the table with a big plate. The taste is pure, but it's the same. There are no taboos. During the Chinese New Year, they still have plum blossoms with biting fragrance at home. In a secret dusty corner, Tanner's translation of Shakespeare is still preserved. Wang Yuanhua's eyes, called "like Van Gogh" by Qian Gurong, sparkled with more sincerity and love.
No one knows-not even Wang Yuanhua himself-how much it cost Zhang Ke to get this piece of Noah's Ark.
Wang Yuanhua said, "He is kind and detached."
At the end of our long story, the beauty who played madame roland in O 'Neill's novels 60 years ago was still a totally honest person. Rich life, proud life, miserable life, humiliating life, nothing makes her mind deteriorate. During her long life in Shanghai, she became a Shakespeare expert with beautiful personality on the basis of everything that could make her dirty. Now, if we talk about Shakespeare studies in China, people still have to mention Zhang Ke's name.
Now, that beautiful and clever woman has white hair and can't read or write. I can't even talk to her deeply, but she sits there, still smelling cool and clean. In fact, we don't know what the real Shanghai was like in the 1930 s. It is a diamond in the sun, each side has a different luster, and it is seen by the eyes from different angles. If in the 1930s, as the musician said, she really benefited from that era. The old lady with slender fingers and wrinkles as many as chrysanthemum petals is Zhang Ke.
The enthusiastic young man has become refined. He said that he didn't really study as he thought for fifty years, and now he feels that he is on the right track. His books are published one by one, and he goes to the bookstore to sign new books, which is not the specialty of serious scholars, and the crowds are rolling. He has won the respect of several generations of scholars because of his profound knowledge and continuous absorption and development. That way of thinking is still clear and unrestrained, but it is better than his young disciples. The old gentleman who exudes a faint fragrance that the old man rarely smells is Wang Yuanhua.
When they face each other, their eyes still sparkle with warm love.
There are too many hardships and frustrations in this long story, I said.
"The Christian view is that life is a process of suffering." Wang Yuanhua said.
"Exaggerated." Zhang Ke said.
Related to this, it is mentioned in Yu's article "The Elder".