Old things in the south

Chapter 94 A Quiet Courtyard, a Silent Scenery and a Depression——Writing About My Three Mothers-in-Laws on Mother’s Day (2)
When I saw her, she was already a middle-aged woman, with a neat bun and a pair of pearl earrings on her ears, she was very generous and graceful.Moreover, after she joined her father-in-law, she washed all her charms, not to mention never mentioning her stage life, and she never even hummed a line!In our old family, life experience was far more important than money.After the mother-in-law gave birth to nine children and brought them up through hardships, her husband married another concubine. Of course, the mother-in-law couldn't bear it, and in this conservative scholar's family, no concubine was married.Back then, the father-in-law was a suave and talented man who was proud of his official career. He initially built a "love nest" in Jia's Hutong in the south of the city when he picked up his aunt. They also sometimes go to Jia's alley, but they only hide it from their mother-in-law.In deep grief, the father-in-law once said to his sons: "I have done such a wrong thing in my life, I am sorry for your mother." He also explained: "I am just gambling with my friends." No one in the family knew which friend was angry and what kind of anger it was.Of course, the mother-in-law is often unhappy, and sometimes makes trouble, and the father-in-law can't help it. He respects her mother-in-law and is a little afraid of her.Of course, the father-in-law also loves his mother-in-law. He loves her mother-in-law with awe and responsibility; he loves his aunt with pity and sincerity.When my aunt was with her father-in-law, she was still a flawless big girl.

My aunt used to wash inkstone and ink, and learned calligraphy and poetry from her father-in-law.I don't think my father-in-law said "I have done such a thing wrong in my life" is a sincere sentence. I think she is still a concubine of the father-in-law, but the father-in-law is in front of his old wife and a bunch of older children. He just doesn't want to show his affection for her too much.However, from many of my father-in-law's poems and articles, there are traces of the love with my aunt between the lines!The father-in-law often refers to his aunt as "Manji" in the text, and he occasionally mentions his mother-in-law, who he calls "healthy woman".Every time there is a trip, there must be a poem; every trip must have the words "Traveling with Manji", can't you see the father-in-law's affection for the aunt from this?
My aunt is a very frugal person. The period when my father-in-law was an official outside the customs before the Northern Expedition should have been the happiest time of my aunt's life.She has lived with her father-in-law outside the customs for several years. There is no "big" above and no "small" below. She is the only one.When I came back to customs, I had a few boxes of fur goods. After I got married, I saw her drying fur goods in the yard every spring, and everyone in the house looked at her.I remember that when I went to the main room, my mother-in-law would call me, raised my little finger and said, "This man is drying furs again!" These few boxes of furs finally came to the point of being turned in.

My aunt and I got along very well. When we were in the big family, she lived downstairs from me. When I went downstairs and saw her door was open, I went in to chat.She also likes my son Zu Zhuo. When she was about to come to Taiwan, she happened to be staying at her mother’s house. I took Zhuo’er to say goodbye to her. For Zhuoer, I still keep it.

My aunt has nothing to do all her life, she wanted to match her mother-in-law and sisters, but she was rejected by her mother-in-law. Although she received Lao Qi as her son, the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was extremely bad.She didn't get anything in her life, only her father-in-law's wholehearted love for her!
Alone at Dusk, a Lonely Tomb
Under the box, there is an old-fashioned bag, which is hand-woven with a shuttle. Girls nowadays don’t know how to use a shuttle. I learned a little about it in the sewing class for girls in elementary school. Now crochet the same with twine.After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, this thread-woven bag was brought back by the second brother Chengdong and handed over to us. It contained a bag of "soft" left by my fifth aunt—a pair of gold bracelets, jade pei, etc.

She was a mother-in-law I had never seen before. When Chengying adopted her, I didn’t know where she was. By the time we got married in 1939, she had already fled directly to Sichuan with a large number of family members in Nanjing.In addition to "Xinruan", I still have the correspondence between her and me.After we got married, we sent her a letter and a wedding photo. Although one was in Beiping, which was occupied by Japan, and the other was in the rear of the Anti-Japanese War, the communication opportunities seemed to be better than those in Taiwan and the mainland!

Aunt Wu is also surnamed Lin, named Baoqin, and named Yunru.She first found out that my surname was also Lin, and she was very happy. On January 1940, 1, she wrote in a letter: "... I received the letter and the photo yesterday. After reading it, it seemed like I met you face to face. Seeing that you (referring to Chengying) seemed to be a little longer, The face is also fuller, and I am deeply comforted. You and Hanying work together, share the same goals, and are very kind. Hanying and I have the same surname, so we belong to a family. Now we are aunt-in-law. It can be said that we are destined to return to our hometown. It is enough to make a wish!" Then she carefully described the real estate left by the Fifth Uncle in Nanjing, and told us in detail who owns who is going forward and who is behind, and told us to pay attention. In fact, this house has been taken over by the Japanese. How can I tell her that it was blown to the ground.

Aunt Wu was the most educated among their elder sisters-in-law. She studied classics and history with her grandfather since she was a child, and later taught Chinese and history at Jiangsu Provincial Women's Normal School.Her old poems are especially good.The Lin family and the Xia family both belong to Jiangning, and the two generations intersect. The fifth aunt married the fifth uncle in Wuhu.The fifth uncle is Chengying's youngest uncle, probably because he is loved by his grandmother, and his reading is mediocre. I think he is not as talented as his wife!

When I wrote this article, I was planning to find a photo of my fifth aunt for the same issue. I wrote to my cousin, Mr. Lin, who was the nephew of my fifth aunt, but unfortunately he didn’t have it either.Instead, he told me some history of the Lin family and how he recalled his aunt.The most valuable thing is that cousin Lin sent me the only volume left in his hand, the handwriting of the fifth aunt, and the poems after entering Sichuan. 'The meaning of the article is very good, and it also expresses your filial piety. You are also the aunt of the Lin family. You have never met my fifth aunt (that is, your fifth aunt) before. You should also know something about the past of the Lin family. From this information, we can even know her old man's life experience and personality..."

Aunt Wu’s Teze was written in a book made of raw-edged paper, titled “Supplementary Notes,” and the paper was already yellow. It was written in poetry since she left Nanjing in 1937 due to the Anti-Japanese War, and first took refuge in Dangtu Wuwei, Anhui. It is written that she lives in Baisha, Sichuan, and there are 44 poems in total, which can be called epic.Aunt Wu died in 1943 at the age of 68.This teze has been preserved for half a century.

She and Uncle Wu have nothing to do. Uncle Wu is a mediocre man, but their relationship is very good.Uncle Wu died in 1934, and she has lived alone all her life since then.During the Anti-Japanese War, we were far away from her. Although we adopted her, we can say that we have not fulfilled our filial piety. What a pity.She loves Chengying and me very much. During the difficult years of the War of Resistance, she was sick and left some jewelry for me. If it were someone else, wouldn’t it be time to sell it to cure her illness?
Among her 44 poems, most of them are works of homesickness and concern for the country. All the way to Sichuan, she is also very good at describing the scenery. It is sad to go!She first took refuge in Dangtu Wuwei from Nanjing. There is a song "Crossing the Dry Lake" in which she returned to the Xia family in Wuhu in Guangxu Bingshen in the Qing Dynasty. It has been 41 years since she revisited. "Boat Traveling" describes the dangerous scene at sea:

More than forty people were in one boat, and the storm blocked the riverside.

Those who are in the heart of the sky, who are in trouble with the British, have experienced the desolation in front of the thatched cottage.

(The boat sailed to avoid the risk of mooring in a secluded place for three days. There are three thatched huts on the shore.)
She went from Wuwei to Hankou, entered Sichuan from Hankou, and passed through Yichang. From "Yichang Entering Shu Road", she wrote:
Layers upon layers of curtains are open against the sky, and the residences in the mountains are ranked second.

Steps are generated like construction, just like a picture comes from a painting.

Shushan is majestic and Shujiang is clear, and the Three Gorges are rushing like a turn.

The tide hits the waves and soaks the guests, and the rugged and strange rocks grow in the water.

After arriving in Sichuan, she went to live in Baisha after a bombing, and died here. She once wrote in "Jianglou leisurely view":
He lives on the bank of Wushan Mountain, beside the Shu Road.Homesickness shed tears, looking far away from the sky.Every memory, Cao Xin, Shi Huaiyan sequence also.When is the day of drifting, empty Fu heartbroken articles.

Thousands of worries and thoughts are combined, and the whole body is full of hardships. When the disease is deep, the only way is to take medicine.Leaning on the pillow and listening to the morning market, watching the water by the window.When the boat returns to the guests, it hurts the gods to touch the dark.

She wrote in a poem "Mountain Tomb":

On the grass on Qingqing's tomb, there are people who have been sleeping forever.

Xianjun is in a quiet place, but he is free from dust.

This is the last of her poems, isn't it a portrayal of herself?The solitary tomb of the fifth aunt stayed in Baisha, Sichuan, but it has been 44 years.

My three mother-in-laws, except for the mother-in-law who passed away a few years ago, may have family worship, and the other two mother-in-laws are even more pitiful.There is a sentence in a certain poem of the fifth aunt, "The quiet courtyard is quiet and the scenery is depressed". After reading it, I was deeply touched.The year before last, Zhuo'er and his wife went to the mainland from the United States. When they arrived in Beijing, he wanted to go to the former residence of Yongguang Temple. Twenty or thirty families lived in that house. His cousin didn't want him to go, but he insisted. He said, "I want to see grandma's main room." , the place where I played when I was young.” The cousin couldn’t resist him, so he went, the yard was messy and covered with small kitchens, and he wanted to take a picture of grandma’s main room from the yard but couldn’t, so he had to Looking directly at the past from the promenade, what a tattered photo it is!

Mother's Day 1987
[Additional note from Haiyin] I know too little about my stepmother-in-law and fifth aunt because I have never met each other.After writing the first draft, I wrote to Mr. Lin, the nephew of the fifth aunt's natal family, and Xia Yang (Xia Zuxiang), the nephew of the Xia family, asking them to write me some descriptions of the fifth aunt's personality or behavior from memory. Here is an excerpt of what they wrote:

(End of this chapter)