Looking for a book on the second-hand book network, I was inadvertently attracted by the cover of a book. This book is called Four Sisters in Hefei, and the cover is a photo of four people. Two people sit in the front and two people stand in the back. There must be two elder sisters in front, followed by three elder sisters and four elder sisters. Four people are wearing cheongsam with different styles and patterns and wearing different hairstyles. Eyebrows and faces are similar, each with its own characteristics. Look at the age, it should be around 20-30 years old. Judging from the clothes and accessories, it should be a big family, especially the woman in the lower right corner. She bowed her head and smiled, revealing the light-colored hairpin on her head and the pearl earrings on her ears, which were very classical. This old photo doesn't look very clear because of its age and photography technology at that time, which adds mystery to this old photo. I wonder what kind of life they have experienced.
So I bought the book back. After reading it, I know that these four sisters of Zhang are not ordinary people. They were born into a noble family and received a good education since childhood. They were famous at that time, and their husbands were celebrities. The eldest daughter Zhang Yuanhe's husband is Gu Chuanjun, a famous Kunqu master with the reputation of "the first student on the beach", the second daughter Zhang Yunhe's husband is a famous linguist Zhou Youguang, the third daughter Zhang Zhaohe's husband is a famous writer and archaeologist Shen Congwen, and the youngest daughter Zhang Chonghe's husband is German.
The Zhang family used to be just an ordinary farmer, and the prosperity of the Zhang family began with his great-grandfather Zhang Shusheng. At that time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement rose. In order to suppress the Taiping Army, the Qing government recruited volunteers from local people, including Zhang Shusheng. Later, Zhang Shusheng made great contributions and was rewarded by the emperor. Since then, the Zhang family has gained a prominent position and inexhaustible wealth. Zhang Shusheng was Li Hongzhang's right-hand man, the No.2 of Huai Army, and served as the governor of Jiangsu, Guizhou and Guangxi successively, then became the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and later became the governor of Zhili in his later years, ranking first among the nine governments in Qing Dynasty. So the Zhang sisters are really famous.
Zhang Wuling, the father of the four sisters, is not interested in being an official. Although there is no scenery of my great-grandfather, the rent and real estate of the Zhang family's ten thousand mu of fertile land every year are still very good. Although he came from an official family, he did not have the bad habits of the rich second generation and the official second generation. He was open-minded and devoted to civilian education, and successively founded Linping Boys' Middle School and Le Yi Girls' Middle School. Zhang Wuling and his wife Lu Ying attach great importance to children's education. When Zhang's grandmother didn't allow girls to go to school, they invited teachers from all disciplines to their home. Therefore, the four sisters have received a good education since childhood, and they are all intellectual women.
Zhang Yuanhe, the eldest daughter, graduated from the College of Literature of Shanghai Daxia University (195 1 merged with Guanghua University to form East China Normal University), then went to Beijing and entered the yenching university Research Institute. The second daughter, Zhang Yunhe, graduated from the history department of Guanghua University, then worked as a history teacher in Shanghai Guanghua High School, and 1952 was transferred to People's Education Publishing House as the editor-in-chief of history textbooks. The third daughter, Zhang Zhaohe, graduated from the Foreign Languages Department of China University and entered a middle school as a teacher. A few years later, she began to publish literary works. 65438-0949 studied in the Second Department of North China University (now China Renmin University). After liberation, he taught in the Middle School Attached to Beijing Normal University and the Second Middle School Attached to Beijing Normal University, and later transferred to People's Literature as an editor to publish a collection of short stories, such as Lakeside. My youngest daughter, Zhang Chonghe, entered the Chinese Department of Peking University on 1934 and was active in the literary world, publishing many poems, essays and novels. 1948 married Hans Hermannt Frankel, an American; 1949 settled in the United States and worked in the library of the University of California. Later, he taught China's calligraphy in the Academy of Fine Arts of Yale University for many years.
Shortly after his birth, he adopted Li, an uncle and grandmother who had no offspring. Li Shixiu is Li Hongzhang's niece. When I was a child, I recited Tang poems with Li, learned to play the flute and studied in a private school. When Li invited archaeologist Zhu to teach her ancient prose and calligraphy. Zhu was a disciple of Wu Changshuo, a great calligrapher in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. His calligraphy skills are very deep, and Zhang Chonghe's calligraphy skills are comparable to his. /kloc-at the age of 0/6, Zhang Chonghe returned to Suzhou. Her father invited Shen Chuanzhi, Zhang and other famous teachers to teach her Kunqu opera, and also invited the "king of flute in Jiangnan" to teach her to play the flute. Such an educational background is rare today.
Sister Zhang was born between 1907-19 14. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, warlords scuffled. At that time, most of China society was in war and famine, but Sister Yuan and her childhood toys could fill a room. What a big gap! Cruelly, such a gap still exists in today's society.
If you want to live a good life, achieve something, and then die, you need hard work and some luck. The four sisters have different personalities and experiences, but they all go to the same goal because of family resources, good education and self-cultivation.