A letter to my wife (excerpt)
Lin Juemin? [Qing Dynasty]
I wish to see you again, but I will bid you farewell forever with this book! When I wrote this book, I was still a human being in the world; when you read this book, I have become a ghost in the underworld. I wrote this book with tears and pen and ink. I couldn't finish it and wanted to put it down. I was afraid that you wouldn't understand my feelings, so I couldn't bear to die for you. I didn't know that you didn't want me to die, so I endured my sorrow for you. In words.
I love you so much that even the thought of loving you makes me brave enough to die. Ever since I met you, I have always wished that all lovers in the world would get married. However, the land is filled with fishy clouds and the streets are full of wolves and dogs. How many people can satisfy your wish? Sima Qingshan, I can't imitate the Supreme Being's forgetfulness of love. As the saying goes: A benevolent person "When I am old, I will be in harmony with the old people; when I am young, I will be in harmony with the young people." I fulfill my love for you and help people in the world love what they love, so I dare to die before you and ignore you. You understand my heart, and when you cry, you also think about the people of the world, and you should be happy to sacrifice the welfare of my body and yours, so as to seek eternal happiness for the people of the world. Don't be sad!
Translation
Yiying’s beloved wife Rujian: Now I use this letter to say goodbye to you forever! When I wrote this letter, I was still a human being; when you read this letter, I had become a ghost in the underworld. As I write this letter, tears fall down along with the pen and ink. I can't bear to finish it and want to put it down. I'm also worried that you can't understand my sincerity, think that I can't bear to abandon you and die, think that I don't understand how much you want me to live. So I suppressed my grief and wrote it for you.
I love you very much, and this idea of ??loving you motivates me to die bravely. Ever since I got to know you, I have always hoped that all lovers in the world would get married. However, how many people in the world can be satisfied with the bloody clouds and vicious wolves and dogs in the streets? Sima Jiangzhou sympathized with the Pipa Girl and wet his blue shirt with tears. I can't imitate a saint with a high ideological level and forget my feelings. An old saying goes: A benevolent person "respects his own elders, and thereby respects the elders of others, and cares for his own children, and thereby extends to caring for the children of others." I expand my love for you and help people in the world love the people they love, so I dare to die before you and ignore you. If you can understand my mood and consider the people of the world as the people you miss after crying, you should be willing to sacrifice the welfare of my life and your life to seek eternal happiness for the people of the world. Don't be sad!
Notes
Yiying Qingqing: Yiying, the name of the author’s wife. Qingqing is a term of endearment between husband and wife in the old days, mostly used by husbands to address their wives.
Jingshu: Finish writing the letter.
Sincerity: Heart.
To: extremely, the most.
彀(gòu): Same as "enough".
Sima Qingshan: The poet Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty was once demoted to Jiangzhou Sima. His long poem "Pipa Xing" contains the line "Who weeps the most? Jiangzhou Sima's green shirt is wet." Later, "Sima Qingshan" was used as a metaphor for extreme sadness.
Tai Shang: Saint. Forgetting emotions: not being moved by emotions.
Two sentences of "Benevolent Person": The phrase comes from "Mencius·King Hui of Liang I". The word "老" in front of it is used as a verb, meaning to respect, and the word "young" in front of it is also used as a verb, meaning to care for.
Wu Ning: Not as good as.
Forbidden: Can bear it.
Wangri: the fifteenth day of each month in the lunar calendar.
Creative background
In 1911, Lin Juemin was sent back to Fujian by the 14th branch of the Tongmenghui to contact the revolutionaries, raise funds, and recruit patriots to go to Guangzhou to participate in the uprising. He reluctantly said goodbye to his family and led the first group of martyrs to board a ship from Mawei Port to Hong Kong. Three days before the Guangzhou Uprising (also known as the Huanghuagang Uprising), that is, April 24, Lin Juemin and his comrades slept together in the Binjiang Building in Hong Kong. After his comrades fell asleep, he thought of his weak wife and childish child. Although his marriage to his wife was arranged by his parents, they had a deep relationship and played in harmony. Concerned about the upcoming life and death, Lin Juemin wrote this last letter home to his wife Chen Yiying on a white scarf. While writing "A Letter to His Wife", Lin Juemin also wrote a letter of less than 40 words to his father, Mr. Lin Xiaoying. After the uprising failed, someone secretly stuffed these two letters into the crack of Lin Juemin's door in the middle of the night. The family found these two letters early the next morning.
Appreciation
This article is a final letter written by Lin Juemin, a revolutionary martyr in the late Qing Dynasty, to his wife Chen Yiying. In this final letter, the author expresses his deep affection for his wife and his deep love for his motherland, which is in dire straits, in a subtle and tortuous way. He linked family happiness and conjugal love with the future of the country and the destiny of the people; he connected the love for his wife and relatives with the love for the country and the people, and elaborated a profound truth: without the happiness of the country and the people, there would be no existence. True personal happiness. The full text is full of sincere emotions and the writing style is euphemistic and touching. It is soul-stirring and has a strong appeal after reading it.
Author
Lin Juemin (1887-April 27, 1911 [some say May 3]), whose courtesy name is Dong, also known as Tiefei, also known as Tianwaisheng, Han nationality , Min County, Fujian Province (now Fuzhou City). Pioneer of Chinese democracy and revolutionary martyr.