Brief introduction of Williams

Miss Edith Clifford Williams, USA, (1885- 197 1). Hu Shi, a master of culture, is a lifelong female friend and the daughter of a professor of geology at Cornell University. 1965438+In June 2004, I met Hu Shi at Cornell University in new york, USA. For the next 48 years, she has been a fan and girlfriend of Hu Shi and never got married. Hu Shi spent 26 years and 7 months in the United States during his 50 years as an adult. Whether in mainland China, Taiwan Province Province or the United States, MissEdithCliffordWilliams, who is five years older than him, has always maintained her thoughts and feelings beyond the level of husband and wife with Hu Shi.

In Zhou Zhiping's Hu Shi study, a large number of important documents come from Chinese mainland. The Hu Shi Memorial Hall of the Academia Sinica in Taipei provided him with more than 200 letters and telegrams sent by Hu Shizhi from the United States and nearly 20 letters from Hu Shizhi to Hu Shi. The Institute of Modern History of China Academy of Social Sciences also provided him with more than 100 letters written by Wei Liansi to Hu Shi.

Hu Shijia moved to Dongchang Hutong 1946, which is now the tall office building of the Institute of Modern History of China Academy of Social Sciences. Geng, president of Hu Shi Research Association, told reporters that the letters provided in modern times were excavated from this yard. "All's well that ends well" is a human comedy. It's a tragedy that lovers get married. Sometimes tragedy is more powerful. The happiness brought by comedy, like duckweed floating in time, soon drifted away with the running water. And the pain of tragedy is a heavy gravel. The stream of time flows away, and the pain always falls heavily on your heart. This may be the reason why a series of tragic works such as A Dream of Red Mansions, Butterfly Lovers, Romeo and Juliet have been enduring for thousands of years.

Talking about the above topics easily reminds me of Hu Shi and his girlfriend Wei Liansi. This love and friendship, which lasted for half a century, made the world sigh.

Wei Liansi was Hu Shi's girlfriend when he was studying in the United States. Under the beautiful lakeside moon, Hu Shi and Wei Liansi often linger. They discussed many issues enthusiastically together, and Wei Liansi had a deep influence on Hu Shi's thought. Hu Shi once wrote in his diary: "Since I met Ms. Wei, my views on women have changed a lot in my life ... Now I know that the highest purpose of women's education is to create an independent woman." Hu Shi greatly appreciated William's character and knowledge. He once praised William as "noble and almost arrogant" and "arrogant and crazy", which shows that he and William are in the same mind.

Wei Liansi is a woman who has been so close to the spiritual world for the first time in Hu Shi's life. This is a novel and exciting world. Young Hu Shi was really moved. Like every young boy who entered the hazy first love season, his mood became slender and sentimental.

Couples who live together day and night, a little farewell, can also make people feel at a loss. "Last Thursday night, I was deeply disappointed. The cold wind blew off all the wickers in front of the window, making it impossible for me to fold the willows and say goodbye to my distant friends. " Although Hu Shi studied abroad and accepted a lot of western thoughts and cultures, he was still immersed in the traditional culture of China in the way of expressing his inner feelings. His farewell to a broken willow inadvertently reveals a rich and ancient oriental complex, which can be said that he is a typical China scholar at heart. So it is not difficult for us to understand that he and Williams have been in love for 50 years.

Hu Shi is the first generation of enlightenment intellectuals in the May 4th New Culture Movement, the successor of traditional China to modern China, and the future leader. The May 4th New Culture Movement advocated individual liberation and freedom of marriage. Hu Shi's first vernacular essay "A Life-long Event" written during the May 4th Movement was to advocate young men and women's free love and oppose arranged marriage. However, Hu Shi obeyed the arranged marriage of "parents' orders" in personal lifelong events. In Hu Shi's body, it reflects the dual personality and the historical lack of psychological behavior of the May 4th intellectuals as historical intermediaries.

Before Hu Shi went abroad to study, his mother had arranged a marriage for him, and his fiancee Jiang Dongxiu was a little illiterate. Hu Shi once told Wei Liansi about his fiancee: "She (Jiang) knows nothing about my thoughts, because she even has difficulty writing a short message of congratulations ... I have given up asking her to be my intellectual partner. This is certainly not without regrets. " Hu Shi was disappointed with his marriage, but he adopted accommodation and tolerance to it.

When Hu Shi was four years old, his father had died. It was his mother who brought him up with great pains. My mother was widowed at the age of 23, and orphans and widows lived alone. But my mother was very strict with Hu Shi since she was a child, whether she was a man or a scholar. In Hu Shi's eyes, his mother is a loving mother, strict father. Hu Shi has always been full of love for his mother. I think my mother's deep gratitude to me is unrequited. The basic principles of China people's life are loyalty and filial piety, loyalty to the country and respect for parents. Although Hu Shi had no love for Jiang Dongxiu, in order to give all his love to his mother, he chose to "bow to those who love me". That is, in the conflict between love and affection, love gives in to affection.

Hu Shi regarded sticking to the engagement as a reward for his mother. "I got married for the good of my mother, so I have never been picky (if I don't do this, I will never get married ...). Hu Shi's unbroken engagement is not so much for Jiang Dongxiu as for his mother. This is like Lu Xun accepting his mother's wife as a gift. When a dutiful son and a lover can't have both, Hu Shi, immersed in oriental culture, chose the burden of history. This is a kind of martyrdom sorrow.

Hu Shi told his friends frankly in private after marriage: I just can't bear to hurt several people's hearts. If I have the heart to break the contract and let these people suffer for life, my conscience will hurt more than any pain. It can be seen that Hu Shi is still a gentle, courteous and frugal gentleman, and he refuses to replace the love that shocks the soul with the credit of social morality. Of course, we can't say which side is heavier on the scale. ...