A Brief Introduction to Hu Shi's My Mother

Hu Shi (1891-1962), formerly known as Hu Hong, has a clear pronunciation and mellow voice. His pen names are Tianfeng, Canghui and Tieer. People from Jixi, Anhui Province. I went to a private school when I was a child. /kloc-went to Shanghai to study at the age of 0/4. 19 10 to study in the United States. Beginner agronomy, then philosophy and literature. 19 17 graduated from Columbia university with a doctorate in philosophy. Returned to China in July of the same year. He used to be Professor Peking University, the president and the ambassador of the Kuomintang government to the United States. 1962 died in Taiwan Province province. In his early years, he actively advocated vernacular Chinese and made certain contributions to the New Culture Movement and the New Literature Revolution. 19 17, 1 published "My humble opinion on literary improvement" in June, 2000, and put forward "eight noes" in literature. Later, he published "On the Concept of Historical Literature" and "On the Literary Revolution under Construction", which were of great positive significance at that time. He is also an advocate and practitioner of new poetry. 1920, the first new collection of poems was published. 1922 founded Hard Weekly and Reading Magazine, and put forward that "study more problems and talk less about Marxism-Leninism" and oppose the spread of Marxism-Leninism in China. Later, Sinology Quarterly and Modern Review were published. 1926 traveled to Europe and America and gave lectures in various countries. 1928, he and Xu Zhimo published the monthly New Moon. In his later years, he devoted himself to the textual research of the version of Notes. His main works are: Hu Cun, Outline of China's Philosophy History, History of Vernacular Literature, and Dai Dongyuan's Philosophy.

(Selected from China Dictionary of Modern Literature, China University of Mining and Technology Press, 1988 edition)

Second, Hu Shi's mother (Yi Zhuxian)

Hu Shi's mother, Feng Shundi (1873— 19 18), is from Zhongtun, Jixi County.

Go out of Shangzhuang, cross Yanglin Bridge and walk ten miles northeast, which is Zhongtun. Shun Di's father is a farmer in the village, named Feng Zhenshuang, nicknamed Jin Zao. When I joined the Taiping Army when I was young, all the tailors in the army learned good tailoring skills. He works hard on weekdays and makes clothes and things for others in his spare time. He is diligent and honest, and is called the Golden Furnace Officer.

Jinzao's wife gave birth to a daughter at the first birth. In the old society, boys were preferred to girls, and girls were unpopular. Farmers especially wanted to have labor. Therefore, Jinzao named her daughter "Shun Di", which means giving birth to a younger brother. Sure enough, the second child gave birth to a son, and later gave birth to two daughters in succession. A family of six, although life is difficult, is also harmonious and dear, and has a natural and simple sense of happiness.

But Feng Jin has always had a stone in his heart. The old house handed down by our ancestors was destroyed in the war of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. He vowed to revive his family business and build a bigger and more elegant new house on the basis of the old house. However, this is not easy! Mr. and Mrs. Jinzao worked hard to scrimp and save, but the wood and bricks were still nowhere to be found and there was no money!

Shun Di is getting older and smarter than other children. She looks-

Round face, a little freckles, long hair ... face is not beautiful, but very stable, not like a child of a crop family.

At home, she serves her parents and helps her younger brothers and sisters. She is diligent and virtuous, and she is most loved by her parents. Everyone in the village says that Jinzao is a good daughter. Shun Di is also considerate of his parents. Looking at her father's sad face and dreaming of a new house, she often hates that she is not a man and can't help her father to work, make money and build a new house.

In the spring of 16 years old, Mrs. Xing Wusao of Shangzhuang came to Zhongtun Jinzao's house to give a matchmaker and told her about her eldest nephew, who was called "Mr. San".

This year, Hu Chuan was 48 years old. His ex-wife Cao Shi has been dead for more than ten years, and his children have grown up. He is an official outside, and it is really inconvenient to have no family, so he plans to continue to marry a house.

The Jinzao couple were embarrassed when they heard the purpose of Xing Wusao. On the one hand, I am afraid that if I don't become an official, I will make others laugh in the future; Secondly, Mr. San is 32 years older than Shun Di, and he is also filling the house, fearing that his daughter will not; Third, Mr. San has many children, and his eldest daughter and son are several years older than Shun Di, so it's hard for his stepmother to do it, for fear of harming her daughter for life. So Jin Zao told Xing Wusao that this matter must be discussed with her daughter, and the matchmaker was sent away.

After dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Jinzao told their daughter that Mr. Shangzhuang San wanted to get married to make up the house and Mrs. Xing Wusao wanted to be a matchmaker. He also said that parents are also in a dilemma and want their daughters to make up their minds. Shun Di listened, bowed his head and refused to speak for a long time, but his heart was tense. She has met Mr. San, and people say he is a good man. She thought that to fill the house, she could ask for more money; The ex-wife has many children and is an official, so the bride price should look better. This is a good opportunity for her to repay her parents and help her father build the new house he has dreamed of all his life. So Shun Di secretly made up his mind and agreed.

The eight characters have passed and merged with Hu Chuan's eight characters; The gift list has been delivered; Engaged in February and married in March, Feng Shundi, a peasant woman, became the official wife of Hu Chuanjia in Shangzhuang. The Feng family in Zhongtun also built a new house.

In the second year after marriage, Hu Chuan took Feng Shundi to live in Shanghai. In the winter of the third year, a boy was born, a little Hu Shi; However, it was not called "Hu Shi" at that time, but "Er". He is Hu Chuan's youngest son and Shun Di's only own flesh and blood.

Just 90 days after the baby was born, Hu Chuan was transferred to Taiwan Province Province. 1in the spring of 893, Feng Shundi went to Taiwan to visit relatives with his family, and stayed in Tainan and Taitung where Hu Chuan was an official for nearly two years. At that time, Hu Chuan, who was over 50 years old, cut some convenient red paper labels in his spare time and wrote with a brush to teach Feng Shundi, who was only 20 years old, to read. Together, they teach children over two years old to become dumb and literate. Their father is a teacher and their mother is both a student and a teaching assistant. The old man, wife and children are enjoying the most sacred family happiness in the world. By the time she left Taiwan Province Province, her mother had learned nearly 1000 words and her children had learned more than 700 words.

Happiness is so short and fleeting, but sadness comes so suddenly and so heavy. In the second year of Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Hu Shi's mother and son just left Taiwan Province Province and returned to their hometown in Jixi. Soon after, there was the bad news that his father Hu Chuan died in Xiamen. The great changes and misfortune of this family left the first memory in Hu Shi's young mind:

I was only three years and eight months old. I seem to remember that when my father got home, my mother was in the front hall of the old house and she was sitting in a chair at the door of the house. When she heard the reader reading my father's dead letter, she leaned back and even the chair fell on the threshold of the house. Aunt Jane sitting in the east gate also burst into tears. At that time, there were cries all over the room, and I just felt that the world had turned upside down! I seem to remember only this sad situation, but I don't remember the rest.

Hu Shi's mother suffered such a heavy blow. At that time, she was only 22 years old and two months 17 days, and she was only 23 years old in vain! She has just taken a few steps on the road of life, just tasted the sweetness of life, and thus lost her husband and became a widow. This is the greatest misfortune of a China woman! And she "takes a teenager as a stepmother and associates with her children", coupled with the decline of family wealth and economic distress, as her son said, "there are outsiders who can't compare."

(Selected from Biography of Hu Shi)