Nie Qibi in his youth
After the opening of the port, Shanghai celebrities were nourished by the eastern and western customs, which made their knowledge, education, temperament and demeanor have a special charm and brilliance.
This article is about the legendary life of Zeng Guofan's granddaughter Nie Qibi. In a sense, her life is the epitome of many "last wives".
The most naughty girl in Nie Jia garden.
Near Huoshan Road and Huimin Road on the Huangpu River, there used to be a Nie Jia Garden, covering tens of acres, which was the home of Nie Ji, a Shanghai Taoist during the Sino-Japanese War. This is a fairly modern Shanghai-style garden, which combines Chinese and Western styles.
Nie Gannu died in the Revolution of 1911, but his wife lived for a long time. She was a famous calligrapher in the Republic of China, and was praised as an old man who respected morality. She is Zeng Guofan's youngest daughter, Zeng.
For more than 30 years after the death of Nie Ji, an adult in Daotai, she has been the gardener of Nie's family, and she has made Nie's family talented.
Nie Jihe had twelve children, eight sons and four daughters. Most of the sons are famous industrialists in Shanghai, and all the daughters are well married.
Judging from the photos of Nie's early family photos, men wear long gowns and women wear tight little jackets, which are neatly arranged around Zeng, which is extremely traditional. However, there is one exception. Every time she takes a photo, she always wears a flowered skirt, perms her hair and looks disdainful. She is Nie Qibi, the youngest daughter of Nie's family (daughter Bank of China 4, also known as Miss Nie 4, ranked second from the bottom among all children), and she is an absolutely anti-traditional modernist.
Unlike her brothers and sisters, Nie Qibi did not go to many private schools since she was a child, but went to a missionary school and met many foreign teachers and classmates. She is lively and intelligent, likes literary activities and is very popular with everyone. According to the rules of Nie's family, girls are not allowed to go out at night, but Nie Qibi won't do it. She wants to go to the theater, watch movies and meet friends. She has many activities to attend, and no one will listen. It doesn't matter if the gate of the yard is closed, either climb the window, climb the wall or jump ... She likes a person since she was a child, and she is bold and has her own ideas about everything, no matter what others think of her. After graduating from high school, Nie Qibi has grown slim. Her special family background and fluent English enabled her to make more foreign friends, including Hollywood movie stars who came to Shanghai. She likes to go out in social situations and go wherever she is busy. For this purpose, her mother also took special care of the servant, watching Huei-fang and not letting her out of the door. But Huei-fang's personality is like a boy, and she doesn't care about it. The old lady can't help it
Nie Qibi obeyed only on one occasion, that is, to accompany her mother to church. Her mother was different from the ordinary old lady in China. She believes in Christianity instead of Buddhism. Nie Qibi likes listening to church music. The beautiful melody is like a sedative, which makes her calm as water.
Please ask Song Meiling to be the best man.
Nie Qibi accompanied his mother to the church (Hongkou Jingling Hall) and had an unexpected result, that is, he got to know Song Meiling. Because the old ladies of the two families believed in Christianity, they both lived in Hongkou and were old enough to go to church with others. Ni, the old lady of the Song family, often accompanied by, drove to pick her up (she had already returned from studying abroad at that time); She used to be the old lady of Nie's family, accompanied by Nie Qibi and sometimes his daughter-in-law. After a long time, the two families became good friends. Miss and daughter-in-law often walk around each other and become frequent visitors to Nie's garden.
1923, Miss Nie Si is going to get married and hold a wedding. The groom's official is Professor Zhou Ren who returned from studying at Cornell University in the United States, and once served as the provost of Shanghai Jiaotong University (my grandmother was the sister of Sheng Xuanhuai, Minister of Westernization in the late Qing Dynasty, and she had many relatives with the Sheng family). After discussion, the two old ladies invited Miss Song Meiling, who is still in the boudoir, to be the best man. Song Meiling readily agreed. That day, she came to Nie's house wearing a beautiful dress and a pearl necklace.
This is a good thing for the friendly exchanges between the two families. Who knows that after more than 40 years, Nie Qibi's trouble came and became her great sin. The rebels in the "Cultural Revolution" arbitrarily thought that it was impossible to be the best man for Nie's family, but it was definitely Nie Qibi who went to be the best man and kowtowed to the Song family. Therefore, they started a war and repeatedly asked her what she had to do with Song Meiling. What's more, some rebels didn't even know what the best man was. They forced her to ask, "What's your relationship with Song Meiling? Why did Song Meiling send you a' refrigerator'? " Make her laugh and cry.
In fact, the rebels didn't know that Nie's family was the home of Shanghai Daotai (equivalent to the mayor of Shanghai), which was far more profound than the Song family's impression at that time. Nie Qibi is the daughter of Zeng Guofan's granddaughter Daotai, and his third brother Nie Yuntai is a great industrialist and president of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce. He is really rich and powerful. Four years later, when Jiang married Song (1927), the prestige of the Song family was revived.
At that time, Song Yaoru, the grandfather of the Song family, had passed away, and Song Ailing, the sister of the Song family, had been working as a governess in Shengjia (Sheng Xuanhuai family). Although she has married Kong Xiangxi, Kong Xiangxi is underdeveloped at this time. In the first few years after Song Ziwen came back from the United States, he ran into a wall everywhere in Shanghai. He pursued Sheng Jiaqi's wife, Sheng Aiyi, and the Sheng family still thought he was poor. His second sister, Soong Ching Ling, married Dr. Sun Yat-sen, but after the Revolution of 1911, the north and the south confronted each other, and the situation was complicated. The two often lived a turbulent life ... Such a wide family background, the ignorant rebels simply didn't understand it.
Nie Qibi in the "Cultural Revolution" was neck and neck, because the wedding photos of her and her husband were copied by the rebels.
Until the implementation of the policy after the "Cultural Revolution", her relative Ms. Cai Cuiniang (the daughter of Mr. Cai Yuanpei. Professor Zhou Ren's sister is Mr. Cai Yuanpei's wife, and Zhou Ren is Mr. Cai Yuanpei's brother-in-law) found their wedding photos from the returned property materials and sent them to her specially. Nie Qibi said happily: "Great. This photo can make me turn over a new leaf. Everyone can see clearly that for me, Song Meiling is indeed the most suitable! "