How much do you know about Meng Xiaodong, Mei Lanfang and Du?

On the 16th day of the twelfth lunar month, 1907, a little girl named "Xiaodong" was born in the Meng family. The Meng family is a pear garden family, and they have been Peking Opera actors for generations. Influenced by family education since childhood, Meng Xiaodong showed great talent for Peking Opera.

At that time, Meng Xiaodong, a 5-year-old singer, hanged himself here at dawn every day. When she was young, her voice was inevitably immature, but her uncle Qiu Yuexiang decided that she would be a famous "role" in the future.

At the age of 9, Meng Xiaodong learned to sing "The Old Man" with his uncle and sang "Wu Pen Ji" on the stage for the first time. When he wanted to cry, the audience was surprised. /kloc-premiered in Wuxi at the age of 0/2, and 14 was famous for her good singing skills.

Photographs of Xiaodong Meng Opera

The theater critic Meihua's owner commented on her: "She is beautiful in appearance, with a loud voice and no female voice, which is second to none among Kunsheng."

The "Yanjing Three" who wrote drama reviews in those years commented on Meng Qiang: "It is rare among thousands of people in Qian Qian. In the field of female students, I dare not say that there will be no future, at least unprecedented. "

1925, Xiaodong Meng, who made a fortune in the south, insisted on going north. At that time, Beijing was the "holy land" that Beijing opera actors yearned for. She came to Beiping to study art and became an instant hit as soon as she came to power.

In addition to his outstanding voice, Meng Xiaodong looks good. She is tall and elegant, with a pair of water-cut eyes and a pouting mouth, revealing a feeling of indifference and aloof. Such a refined woman has turned men upside down on the stage, making people unable to move their eyes.

According to a middle school student opera fan in Tianjin, he recalled in the article:

"She is not only a famous actress, really, she is really beautiful. Everyone in the class bought one or two photos of her. The big one was put in the book and the small one was posted on the pencil box. At that time, many middle school students did not understand the singing skills of Beijing Opera, and rushed to see her just to see her beauty. "

Yuan Shikai's son-in-law and drama critic Xue Guanlan once compared Meng Xiaodong with Lu Sujuan, Lu Lanchun and other 10 Hannah Quinlivan, who is famous for her beauty, and came to the conclusion that "no one can rival Meng Xiaodong".

02

1925 In August, there was a benefit performance in Beijing, and big names gathered. On the day of rehearsal, Mei Lanfang and Yang Xiaolou's Farewell My Concubine was the grand finale, Yu Shuyan and Shang Xiaoyun's Fisherman Killed the Son, and Meng Xiaodong's Going to the Roof was the penultimate scene. Meng Xiaodong and Mei Lanfang passed each other when they came to power. She respectfully shouted "Boss Mei" and he smiled back.

This meeting is the first meeting between Meng Xiaodong and Mei Lanfang, and it is also the first meeting between "Winter Emperor" and "Spirit King".

1926 in the second half of the year, Wang Kemin, a politician from Beiping, held a birthday party and invited many famous singers to sing in operas. It was suggested that Meng Xiaodong and Mei Lanfang sing a song "The Prince and the showgirl": "One is the emperor and the other is the king. The king and the emperor should be present together."

In The Prince and the Dancer, Meng Xiaodong has a big mouth and plays the handsome and romantic emperor Zheng De. Mei Lanfang, dressed in women's clothing, plays the beautiful and moving restaurant girl Li Fengjie. Two people look at each other, Gandan Kunsheng, Yin and Yang upside down. When the audience under the stage enters the play, the protagonist on the stage can't tell the difference between the play and the play.

In The Prince and the Dancer, the handsome emperor Zheng De married Li Fengjie, who sold wine, while in The Prince and the Dancer, the bearded emperor Meng Xiaodong, aged 20, married Mei Lanfang, the king of the world, aged 33.

No matter how you look at it, it is a perfect match.

03

Mei Lanfang had two wives before she married Meng Xiaodong: the first wife, Wang Minghua, was virtuous and virtuous, but she was seriously ill and recuperated in Tianjin; Fu Zhifang, the second wife, has nine children. She has a good housework style and a good relationship with Mei Lanfang.

Meng Xiaodong naturally doesn't want to be young, so in what capacity should she marry?

The clever matchmaker has his own story: Mei Lanfang adopted her uncle's family since childhood, so she is also her uncle's son. Meng Xiaodong is uncle's daughter-in-law, and Fu Zhifang's "famous marriage" and "big at both ends" are not wings.

Under the feudal patriarchal clan system, a man inherited the customs of two clans at the same time. Part-time workers are not separated from the original family lineage, but also the heirs of the inherited family. Commonly known as one son and two doors. That is, when there are only 1 male offspring among two or three brothers, they can marry two or three wives respectively to pass on several offspring.

Meng Xiaodong agreed. Although there are no legally married women, the wedding room is not located in Mei's house, but in the mansion that Mei Lanfang bought outside. In the eyes of outsiders, it is quite a bit of a "golden house", but because of love, Meng Xiaodong ignored it.

Originally, many opera fans thought that the combination of Mei Meng and Mei Meng would lead to more scenes. Meng Xiaodong, whose career is in full swing, is willing to hide behind Mei Lanfang and stop acting. Just because Mei Lanfang said to her, "Men are the masters outside and women are the masters inside, which has been the case since ancient times."

After marriage, Mei Meng and her husband really lived a loving life. They once left a photo, Mei Lanfang made a gesture sideways, leaving a projection on the wall, and Meng Xiaodong's inscription on the upper right was "What are you doing there?" ? On the top left is Mei Lanfang's calligraphy "I'm doing a goose shadow here".

04

1927 On September 28th, a man named Li Zhigang rushed into Mei Lanfang's residence and shot and killed Zhang Hanju, a friend who met guests on behalf of Mei Lanfang. After the shooting, tabloid news spread everywhere. Some people say that Li Zhigang is a fan of Meng Xiaodong and hates Mei Lanfang because she stopped singing after she got married. Some people say that he wants to kidnap Mei Lanfang and get a lot of money. ...

Mei Lanfang defended Meng Xiaodong in Tianjin Beiyang Pictorial: As for rumors, they will eventually stop at the wise.

However, at this time, Fu Zhifang, who had not intervened in Mei Lanfang's golden house for half a year, suddenly spoke. She said to Mei Lanfang, "Uncle's life is important."

I don't know if Fu Zhifang's words hit the nail on the head of Mei Lanfang. In short, Mei Meng's passionate love at this time fell.

/kloc-at the beginning of 0/928, Mei Lanfang went to Tianjin to perform, accompanied by Fu Zhifang. When Mei Lanfang and Meng Xiaodong were together, they agreed that "men are outside and women are inside", and Meng Xiaodong was willing to retire. But this time he publicly took Fu Zhifang's "appearance", which Xiaodong Meng thought was intended to refute her face.

As a result, Meng Xiaodong, who faded out of the stage, appeared on the stage again in Tianjin. The ten-day performance was a sensation and packed. Sha Dafeng, editor of Tianjin Sand Newspaper, specially opened a column of "Hua Meng" and even shouted "Long live my emperor" directly in the article.

The title of "Winter Emperor" began.

Later, Mei Lanfang's aunt died, and Meng Xiaodong went to Dai Xiao as a daughter-in-law with short hair and glistening, but Fu Zhifang stopped her at the door of Mei's house. Fu Zhifang forced Mei Lanfang to make a choice with her own life and the life of her child. At this time, Mei Lanfang said to Meng Xiaodong, "Go home."

Meng Xiaodong was disheartened and realized everything.

1933 On September 5-7, Xiaodong Meng published an urgent notice from Xiaodong Meng on the front page of Tianjin Ta Kung Pao, and Lian Deng published it for three consecutive days:

"Winter naive, everything is presided over by the reference. It is well known that names are both fixed and fixed. Nai Lanfang's words were vague, and on the day of her mother's death, she could not practice the preface, which led to the loss of fame. Although I argued with my friends, Lan Fang ignored me, which shows that there is no goodwill at all. Winter lamented his life experience and was hit again, so he resolutely broke off his family relationship with Lan Fang. I'm the one who took the blame? Restrain others from me? There is a public opinion in the world, and there is no need to say anything in winter ... If anyone intentionally damages my reputation, makes false claims and confuses people, Winter has only one legal way to sue. Don't say that winter is a lonely weak woman, so you are willing to give up human rights. "

At the time of divorce, Meng Xiaodong said to Mei Lanfang: "Mei Lanfang, I will not be worse than you in singing in the future. If I want to get married, I will either not marry or marry a man who stomps all over the city! "

Unexpectedly, these two sentences are really true.

05

After cleaning up the mess of marriage, Meng Xiaodong tried his best to learn from Yu Shuyan, a famous scholar, and studied Peking Opera seriously. Some people say Meng Xiaodong: If he worships, he will go to Yu's home to study hard every day, rain or shine. After six years, he has learned more than ten plays, and he is the only one handed down by the Yu School.

Xiaodong Meng and his mentor Yu Shuyan.

Six years later, Meng Xiaodong came back as the first female student in Beijing Opera.

Meng Xiaodong later remarried, and her second husband was Du, the first gangster in China for 300 years. Kidnapped Song Meiling, put two bombs in front of Song Ziwen's house and put a coffin in front of Kong Xiangxi. Du is really a big shot who stomps his feet to the sky.

Du and Meng Xiaodong are actually old acquaintances. When Xiaodong Meng was a teenager singing opera in Shanghai, he would come to join in every time he sang opera. Du, who is known as "the first opera fan in the world", is Meng Xiaodong's opera fan and bosom friend. He praised Meng Xiaodong:

"Nong has masculinity, and color and art are unique. The teenager became famous, but he was arrogant as a plum, without a trace of servility. "

1925, Meng Xiaodong left Shanghai for further study in the north, or did he take care of her trivial life and let her have no worries? Later, Meng Xiaodong divorced Mei Lanfang, and Du actually defrauded Mei Lanfang for 40,000 yuan. He started to jump, Meng Xiaodong shouted, "I just want him to bleed! You know wow! "

1947, du celebrated his 60th birthday and raised money for the national government1200 million yuan. Many important people came to celebrate his birthday, but Du was too ill to attend. However, when Beiping was occupied by the Japanese army, he was worried about Meng Xiaodong's safety, arranged a helicopter to take Meng Xiaodong to Shanghai, and dragged his sick body to meet him personally.

During Du's birthday, a benefit performance was organized in China Grand Theatre. Meng Xiaodong and Mei Lanfang both participated in the performance. Du deliberately adjusted the order-Mei Lanfang sang the big axis eight days ago and Meng Xiaodong sang the big axis two days later. Until the end, they never met.

The peak of Meng Xiaodong's drama career is a "Searching for Loneliness and Saving Loneliness" staged on this stage. A 500,000 ticket was fired to 5 million.

Meng Xiaodong's "Seeking Solitude and Saving Solitude" has a strong voice and mellow singing, which has overshadowed Mei Lanfang in three days. Those who questioned Meng Xiaodong's title of "Winter Emperor" have since shut up.

1947 "Looking for loneliness and saving loneliness" Meng Xiaodong plays Cheng Ying.

06

1950, Du planned to move his family to the United States. When he counted how many passports he needed, Xiaodong Meng asked, "I'll go with him. Is it a girl or a girlfriend? "

Hearing this, Du, who was seriously ill in bed, stopped everything and decided to arrange the marriage first. A table of 900 Hong Kong dollars for ten tables, and also helped Du marry Meng Xiaodong. She also asked the children to bow down to Meng Xiaodong and call her "Mommy".

Meng Xiaodong wedding dinner photo.

Meng Xiaodong became Du's fourth wife. This year, Du was 63 years old. He said to people: "I have lived for more than 60 years. For things between men and women, I have always known only one kind of joy, and I know nothing about love. Now don't laugh at me when I say it. It was not until the victory of the Anti-Japanese War that I realized that there is still a long way to go between love and joy. "

195 1 year, when Du is critically ill,

He asked Meng Xiaodong, "Will you still sing in your next life?" ?

Meng Xiaodong said: "In the next life, let's talk about it."

"Can you stop singing to others after I leave?"

Meng Xiaodong only said one word: "good".

Sure enough, Searching for the Lonely and Saving the Lonely became the last official performance in Xiaodong Meng's life.

07

From 65438 to 0957, Meng Xiaodong moved to Taiwan Province Province to settle down. She lives in seclusion, likes watching TV and playing mahjong on weekdays and occasionally teaches students. People only rely on "hearing" her.

I heard that after Du's death, Mrs. Fang arranged one of his relics as a souvenir. Meng Xiaodong chose a gold key chain that he used every day, because it was the one that accompanied him for the longest time.

I heard that when Meng Xiaodong sang "Searching for Solitary Rescue", Mei Lanfang shut herself in her bedroom and listened to her sing for two days. No one knows how he feels.

I heard that Meng Xiaodong had only two photos in his bedroom in his later years, one was his teacher Yu Shuyan and the other was Mei Lanfang. ...

People who saw Meng Xiaodong again later said that she no longer had the posture of "winter emperor". The most common sentence was: It's all over.

1977 In May, Meng Xiaodong died at the age of 70. At this point, the generation of winter emperors ended, and everything really passed.