Zhang Chonghe was born in Shanghai in 1914. His ancestral home is Hefei. He is the great-granddaughter of Zhang Shusheng, the leader of the Huai Army, and the fourth daughter of Suzhou educator Zhang Wuling. In 1949, Zhang Chonghe went to the United States with her husband, German-American sinologist Fu Hansi, and taught calligraphy and Kunqu opera in more than 20 universities including Harvard and Yale for more than 50 years. "I keep my close friends very coldly, and spend my life with a song of confusion." She lived a low-key life, was modest, and was indifferent to fame and fortune. She was known as a "talented woman of the Republic of China".
In modern China, the most famous ones second only to the "Three Song Sisters" are Zhang Yuanhe, Zhang Yunhe, Zhang Zhaohe, Zhang Chonghe, the "Four Sisters of Hefei" who are very good-natured and talented. . The eldest sister Yuan He loves literature and is married to the famous Kunqu opera master Gu Chuanjie; the second sister Yunhe is married to the linguist Zhou Youguang; the third sister Zhaohe is married to the writer Shen Congwen. In 2003, Zhang Chonghe's third sister, second sister, husband Fu Hansi and eldest sister passed away one after another. Now that Zhang Chonghe has passed away, the "Four Sisters of Hefei" have become unheard of.
Yesterday morning, Han Han, a disciple of Sun Kangyi and a postdoctoral fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told this reporter on the phone: "Six months ago, Teacher Sun Kangyi and I had a project that we wanted to collaborate with Mr. Zhang Chonghe, but unfortunately her physical condition When I was a visiting scholar in the United States, I often heard Zhang Chonghe’s friends talking about her. In fact, her later life was very dull, and people may not know much about her cultural achievements, but she The lifestyle and poetic dwelling of modern Chinese intellectual women are worthy of our deep recollection."
Zhang Chonghe
"Chong. "He Fei Shi" loves to eat McDonald's
Regarding the story of the "Four Sisters of Hefei", a recently influential book is called "The Four Sisters of Hefei". The author Jin Anping is a Yale University historian and a famous American The wife of the sinologist Shi Jingqian. Yesterday, the reporter had an exclusive interview with Yang Zao, the translator of the book and an associate researcher at the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and listened to him talk about the details of Zhang Chonghe’s life. "I have always believed that interview notes must be written in detail. Others can know high-level things from articles and speeches, but the most vivid details are the details of food, clothing, housing and transportation that are not known in person."
Overseas, the "hidden rules" have been known for many years
Yang Zao's contact with Mr. Zhang Chonghe was not because of "Hefei Four Sisters", but because of the "Topic" series of books he edited.
In 2005, when he was invited to translate "Four Sisters of Hefei", Yang Zao's impression of Zhang Chonghe was relatively fragmentary, such as "the last lady" and "Kun Opera's overseas legacy". "The origin of this book is the relationship between Jin Anping and Zhang Chonghe, but Chonghe's length is the least among the four sisters. Maybe her life is not so legendary, and her husband is not so famous?" Yang Zao guessed .
It wasn’t until he read Zhang Chonghe’s elegiac couplet “Xingdou Qiwen” written by Zhang Chonghe for Shen Congwen’s death that Yang Zao really fell in love with Mr. Chonghe’s calligraphy.
In 2006, Yang Zao tried to invite Mr. Chonghe through a friend to write a title for the "Topic" he edited. "Later, I actually received an inscription from Mr. Chonghe, and she wrote it very seriously, with various details. One piece".
According to Su Wei, the author of "The End of the World", when he visited Zhang Chonghe in the United States, he saw that this old man who had lived overseas for more than 60 years could actually talk about Guo Degang and "hidden rules." , "male sex consumption", I am very surprised. In fact, this is because Zhang Chonghe will care about the changes in his hometown by watching "Topics". "We sent every issue of "Topics" to Mr. Mitsuru, but I didn't expect that she would actually read it seriously." Yang Zao was a little surprised by this.
“Girls of the Republic of China” love chicken burgers the most
Yang Zao’s friend Huang Yong has a niece who was born in the 1990s. In 2011, she stayed at Mr. Chonghe’s home. Yang Zao invited her to write An impression of Zhang Chonghe, thus "This is Zhang Chonghe".
What surprised the girl named "Li Guiyu" the most was that the elderly Zhang Chonghe actually liked eating greasy McDonald's, especially chicken burgers. He still picked up her chicken burger and said, "I don't eat in the first place."
Despite his advanced age, Zhang Chonghe still likes to joke. Su Wei and Li Guiyu both wrote about Zhang Chonghe teaching Kun Opera in a magazine edited by Yang Zao, "She raped about Kun Opera and her mouth should not be opened too wide. 'She sang very well, but her mouth always opened so wide, so I said, Throw a piece of dog shit in for you,' she said, smiling cheerfully."
It's hard to hide in peace in old age
"Li Guiyu" in the article. He recalled that on the day he left Zhang Chonghe’s house, the 98-year-old lady personally cooked braised eggs for her. “I asked her what time she got up, and she said she woke up at three o’clock. She read that she got up at five or six o’clock.” .
Bian Zhilin
In the eyes of Li Guiyu, who does not know much about traditional Chinese culture, Zhang Chonghe's words are "on point, very on point", "She is so old She has to write the copybook two hundred times every day, and every time she writes, she writes numbers. That’s why she can write so well! Smart people have to do this, but what do unsmart people do?!"
Zhang Chonghe has always wanted to live quietly in the United States, but in the writing of "Li Guiyu", the old man was not able to be undisturbed in his later years.
"Today my grandma also told me that a person came to her place before, took out the letters Shen Congwen had written before, took pictures and published them. Shen Congwen's granddaughter was very unhappy. She said that many people came here. It’s to find treasures. Alas, alas, alas.”
“Her children don’t know much about her calligraphy and painting, so she sells everything that should be sold and gives away what should be given away. Deal with it before you die."
Yang Zao sighed: "This is really helpless. You can't be the master of a person's liveliness and indifference. Mr. Chonghe has been hiding in peace overseas for many years. There was a time of being surrounded and explored in his later years."
According to legend, Bian Zhilin's "Fragment of Chapter"
was written for her.
Zhang Chonghe is the great-grandson of the famous Huai Army general Zhang Shusheng. Female, the fourth daughter of Suzhou educator Zhang Wuling. He learned to recite Tang poems before he was three years old, and began to learn to make pairs and write poems at the age of seven or eight.
In 1934, she took the Peking University entrance examination in Beijing. I had never studied mathematics and "I simply couldn't understand the questions." I got a zero score in the exam, but I got a perfect score in Chinese. The exam board admitted her under unusual circumstances. However, Zhang Chonghe was forced to drop out of Peking University in 1936 because he contracted tuberculosis.
Under the influence of scholar and calligrapher Shen Yinmo, Zhang Chonghe practiced calligraphy for at least three hours every day, and he still maintained this habit until he was 88 years old. Her writing arm was even still as strong as a girl's.
Zhang Chonghe taught calligraphy and Kunqu opera until he was over 90 years old. He has gained many talents in the United States. Bill Gates’ stepmother was also her student.
Manuscript of Bian Zhilin's "Fragment of Chapters"
When his brother-in-law Shen Congwen passed away in 1988, Zhang Chonghe sent a eulogy from the United States: "I will never give in or obey, but I will also be kind and yielding; my writings will be likened to the stars. He is a pure man." They were later engraved on Shen Congwen's tombstone in Xiangxi. This is probably Zhang Chonghe's most well-known work in China.
Kun Opera is a hobby that will accompany her throughout her life. During the Anti-Japanese War, Zhang Daqian painted a picture of a lady with only a slender back, wearing a Kunqu opera costume. She once stunned Chongqing with her play "A Dream in the Garden". Until she was about 90 years old, she still occasionally held Kunqu opera gatherings with her peers.
Zhang Chonghe had many suitors, including the poet Bian Zhilin. It is said that Bian's poem "Fragment of Chapter" was written for her.
In 1947, Zhang Chonghe met Fu Hansi, an American sinologist who taught Greek at Peking University and was proficient in German, French, English and Italian literature. In November 1948, the two got married. In 1949, Zhang Chonghe went to the United States with Fu Hansi, and subsequently taught at more than 20 universities including Harvard and Yale.
In 2003, Hansi Fu passed away, and Zhang Chonghe has been living quietly in a house at Yale University since then.
She started writing very early, but she lost it as she wrote and never published any books on her own initiative. She often used water to write on paper to teach students. They tried to persuade her to write ink on rice paper for preservation, and the always gentle old man actually became angry.
Bian Zhilin was so obsessed that she secretly collected all her works published in newspapers and took them to Hong Kong for printing. When she was teaching at Yale, a foreign student printed a poetry collection "Peach Blossom Fish" for her at his own expense, which included more than a dozen poems. When she was 100 years old, Guangxi Normal University Publishing House launched a series of Zhang Chonghe's works, namely "End of the World Evening Flute", "Quren Hongzhao" and "Ancient Beauty and Modern Fragrance", which included all the works left behind by accident. Zero light feathers.