The famous lakeside poet Wang Jingzhi and Hu Shi’s confidante Cao Chengying were both born in Jixi, Anhui, and were both born in 1902.
Wang Jingzhi was born into a tea merchant family. His family was well off and he was a well-known local wealthy family. At that time, it was a popular custom to enjoy marriage. The Wang family had a good relationship with the Cao family, a wealthy family in the village, and they often communicated with each other. The parents of both parties made an appointment to get married: if the Wang family gave birth to a son and the Cao family gave birth to a daughter, or vice versa, they would become in-laws in order to continue the friendship between the two families. As a result, the Wang family gave birth to a son, Wang Jingzhi, and the Cao family gave birth to a daughter, Cao Qiuyan (also known as Chuju). This naturally sets them up for life. Since the Wang and Cao families had frequent contacts, Wang Jingzhi and Cao Qiuyan often had the opportunity to play together. They were childhood sweethearts. Unexpectedly, Cao Qiuyan was in poor health since she was a child and often fell ill. Although her parents sought medical treatment everywhere for their daughter, they could not save her daughter's life. When she was 12 years old, she had not had time to enjoy the beauty of the world and her fiancé. Warmth left this world prematurely.
In the Cao family, there is also an aunt who is the same age as Cao Qiuyan and her grandfather's half-brother. This is Cao Chengying. Whenever Wang Jingzhi comes to Cao's house, among the friends who often play together, in addition to Cao Qiuyan, there is also Cao Chengying. Therefore, Wang Jingzhi and Cao Chengying are also childhood sweethearts and childhood sweethearts. However, when they grow up, they refer to each other as aunts.
In 1918, Wang Jingzhi went to Tunxi Anhui Tea School to study and began to get in touch with new literature. Perhaps due to the restlessness of youth, he wrote a love poem and sent it to Cao Chengying, expressing his love for Cao Chengying. Although Cao Chengying had a good impression of this little friend, she was also the one who was proposed to be married back then. She did not dare to go beyond the scope of the marriage, so she declined politely because of the difference in seniority. In this year, 16-year-old Cao Chengying held a wedding with Hu Guanying, the son of a wealthy family in the countryside. After marriage, she entered Hangzhou No. 1 Women's Normal School.
In the summer of 1919, Wang Jingzhi was admitted to Zhejiang First Normal School. Although he could not become a partner with his sweetheart Cao Chengying, even meeting her frequently was the greatest spiritual comfort. Sensitive Cao Chengying realized Wang Jingzhi's ideological motives and wanted to introduce him to a girlfriend to distract him from his entanglement. Therefore, whenever Wang Jingzhi was dating Cao Chengying, she would bring a female classmate with her to build a bridge between them. Unexpectedly, Wang Jingzhi was short, and several female classmates looked down on him.
At this time, Wang Jingzhi often published poems. In 1922, he formed the Lakeside Poetry Society with Ying Xiuren, Pan Mohua, Feng Xuefeng and others, and became a famous "Lakeside Poet" in the poetry world. They mainly composed love poems and had a great influence on the modern poetry world. They were praised by Lu Xun, Hu Shi and other new culture pioneers. This poet's crown finally enabled him to win love. After Cao Chengying failed to build a bridge for him several times, she still cared about her little nephew and found a classmate named Fu Zhuyin for him. Originally, Fu Zhuyin also disliked Wang Jingzhi's short stature, but she admired his creative talent and liked his poetry very much, so she agreed to date him. Wang Jingzhi fell in love with Fu Zhu because of her extraordinary beauty, dignity and virtuousness, and pursued her wholeheartedly. The couple finally got married in 1924.
After Cao Chengying divorced Hu Guanying in 1922, when Wang Jingzhi invited her to a dinner party, she was in high spirits and drank too much. She finally confided in Wang Jingzhi: "After the divorce, I really want to agree to your courtship. The thought of You and Zhuyin, I can't take away people's love." This mantra vomited after drinking expresses Cao Chengying's heart. However, Cao Chengying's heart was intercepted by Hu Shi half a year later, and she fell in love with Hu Shi in Yanxia Cave, Hangzhou. Her relationship with Wang Jingzhi is still that of elder and younger. In 1930, when Cao Chengying was studying at Southeast University in Nanjing, Wang Jingzhi passed by Nanjing to visit her. There was only one bed in her room. Cao Chengying said in the tone of an elder: "You sleep on this end, and I'll sleep on that end. Please warm my feet." !" They had no distracting thoughts at all, Wang Jingzhi had always respected this aunt.
After the founding of New China, Cao Chengying was assigned to teach at Shenyang Agricultural College during the adjustment of colleges and universities. After retiring in 1958, he returned to Jixi, Anhui to settle down. After the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution", her body was getting weaker and weaker. She went to Wang Jingzhi's place in Hangzhou, packed her diaries, letters and other materials into a package and gave them to Wang Jingzhi for safekeeping, and asked Wang Jingzhi to burn them after her death. Later, someone asked Wang Jingzhi about this package of information. Mr. Wang said: "After I received the bad news about Cao Chengying in 1973, I burned it according to her instructions." Some people once suspected that this package of information was not burned and was completely fabricated.
Just imagine, in that era of great cultural revolution, who would have the courage to preserve these materials! Wang Jingzhi is like "the mud Buddha crossing the river - he can't save himself", and he will not have the foresight to risk his life to save it. Only those eight generations of destitute proletarians will have such courage!