Chen Hengzhe (1890-1976) The Lake and Mountains are still Prosperous

A Life Like a Flower in March: A Special Edition for Women in the Republic of China

Author: Wang Dao

Ten years ago, in 1998, when a famous university in China celebrated its centennial anniversary, Chen Hengzhe’s daughter Ren Yidu, who lived far away in the United States, asked someone to send a message to a person in charge of the history department of the university, saying that she was an alumnus of the department and wanted to return to her alma mater to attend the centennial celebration.

Unexpectedly, the other party asked, “Who is Ren Yidu?” She replied, “Chen Hengzhe’s daughter.” Then she asked, “Who is Chen Hengzhe?” Having said that, what else could she say?

A person in the history department of Peking University did not know about Chen Hengzhe. Chen Hengzhe was the first Chinese government-sponsored girl to study in the United States, and the first female university professor in modern China (teaching at Peking University). She wrote the first modern vernacular novel. Her daughter Ren Yidu, who graduated with a doctorate from Harvard University, was the first English translator of the full text of “The Exploitation of the Works of Nature” and the first female professor in the history of the University of Pennsylvania, but she ultimately failed to attend the centenary celebration of her alma mater. This is not only a regret for her, but also a shame for the university!

In 1920, Hu Shi, the future president of Peking University, published a new poem in New Youth:

We Three Friends – To Ren Shuyong (Ren Hongjun) and Chen Shafei (Chen Hengzhe)

The snow has all melted, spring is about to arrive, but the cold is still as severe as before.

The cold wind howled and the pines roared, accompanying us three friends.

The wind dies down for a moment, and people are leaving,—

We are three friends.

The cold current bares the trees, and the people on the bridge talk.

When will this meeting happen again?

It’s been three years since we last met! The moon is half full now, shining on the lotus leaves in the lake, on Mount Zhongshan, on Taicheng, and on the tall and clear buildings.

After three years, the mountains and rivers are different again.

We are still three friends.

This scene is unparalleled, this day is the most unforgettable,——

Let my new poem wish you longevity!

The background of the publication of the poem was that in July of that year, Ren Hongjun hosted the fifth annual meeting of the Chinese Science Society in Nanjing, and Hu Shi was also invited to give lectures at the first summer school of Nanjing Normal University. Hu, Ren, and Chen met in Nanjing. At 3 pm on August 22, Ren and Chen got engaged on the campus of Nanjing Normal University. That night, they invited Hu Shi to have dinner at Jiming Temple in Nanjing, climbed the eastern foot of Jiming Mountain, overlooked the scenery of Xuanwu Lake by the window, and looked out at the shape of Purple Mountain in the distance. The three of them sat at night, watching the scenery and talking, and this “iron triangle” relationship was maintained until the founding of New China. More than ten years after the three of them were disconnected, Ren passed away, and Hu and Chen were connected across the sea, continuing the best historical story of Chinese scholars.

In the 1930s, Hu Shi suffered from appendicitis and went to Peking Union Medical College Hospital for surgery. After Ren Hongjun and Chen Hengzhe heard the news, they rushed to the hospital and sat there waiting for the results of the operation for a whole day.

When talking about Chen Hengzhe, it seems that Hu Shi is always mentioned. In fact, it is not anyone’s fault. Who made the three of them almost tied together? It is unexpected that a woman and a man could maintain such a long-term friendship. Even Chen Hengzhe’s daughter felt that “it is inevitable that the story is exaggerated and spread falsely.” Ren Yidu also said: “… However, if Hu Shi had not been engaged at the beginning, I dare not predict what the final result would be.” It can be said to be frank.

Of course, although emotions are vague and difficult to define, they do exist after all. If they don’t exist, no matter how many legends there are, they are clear-cut and as pure as black and white.

To put it another way, even without Hu Shi, wouldn’t Chen Hengzhe still be as legendary and courageous? She shouted out a sharp voice early on: Never show weakness in front of barking vicious dogs. You have to stay calm and courageous, as if you are their queen, then danger will never happen to you…

Chen Hengzhe was born in Wujin, Changzhou, Jiangsu Province in the summer of 1890. She felt that this place was plain, without mountains or rivers, but it gave rise to many great calligraphers and painters. She often regarded herself as a native of Hunan, because that was where her ancestors lived. She said that the reason why there was a “Heng” in her name was because her family ancestors were a “farming and reading family” in the Hengshan area.

Her grandfather and father were both officials in the Qing Dynasty. Chen Hengzhe’s maternal grandfather, the Zhuang family, was one of the four major families in Changzhou. Her mother, Zhuang Yaofu, was a famous Chinese painter and also a prodigy in poetry. She was open-minded and virtuous, and her bold “indulgence” in her daughter made her an outstanding new woman in China.

At the age of 7, Chen Hengzhe began to resist old ideas and foot binding. She fought wits and courage with her mother and escaped cleverly. But the maid said she helped to urge her to continue foot binding, but she was tricked and almost lost her job. Since then, her “boat feet” have grown normally. While the children in the family were studying the Four Books and Five Classics or Tang and Song poems, she was forced by her father to study difficult ancient books such as “Er Ya” and “Huangdi Neijing” and recite them completely. She couldn’t accept it, but it was difficult to resist.

Her father was an official in a foreign country, and her mother lived alone in an empty room. She often sat by the window, writing down her thoughts, but she always tore up the poems she wrote in time. She thought it was indecent to pour out her heart to her husband. Once, Chen Hengzhe curiously picked up the fragments and pieced together two lines of poetry: “The bright moon shines through the window lattice, illuminating the thoughts of the separated people.” That was the first time she read a love poem.

Two things that happened afterwards completely changed her outlook on life.

Once, her mother said that a new bride was coming to the house for dinner, and she was looking forward to it, thinking that the woman would be dressed brightly and beautifully. But when she came, she found that the bride was in heavy mourning and her face was full of tears. It turned out that the woman had been engaged to the son of Chen Hengzhe’s uncle, but the groom died before the wedding. As a wealthy family, the uncle’s family asked the woman’s opinion and asked whether she should continue to marry. The other party was also a wealthy family and could not resist the old customs and concepts. They were afraid that their daughter would attract rumors if she did not marry.

So, in the joyous atmosphere, the woman was carried in a sedan chair according to the marriage procedure. Accompanied by the groom’s sister, she worshipped the ancestral shrine, then worshipped her parents-in-law, and then changed into heavy mourning clothes, suddenly becoming a “widow”. She was heartbroken and passed away in less than a year – maybe she still didn’t recognize the groom she had never met in the underworld?

There is another story about my eldest aunt’s family. My eldest aunt was a well-educated woman. Her eldest son married and had a daughter. This eldest daughter-in-law of my eldest aunt came from a scholarly family and was very elegant. But not long after, my eldest aunt’s eldest son died. She took her daughter to live with my eldest aunt’s youngest son and his wife, but the couple smoked opium all year round and were very stingy and had a bad attitude towards her. She couldn’t bear the humiliation, but she couldn’t commit suicide because her daughter was there. After her daughter got married, she died, but her daughter missed her mother too much and followed her.

Chen Hengzhe, who was forced by her father to study medicine, seemed to have “discovered herself” all of a sudden. She wanted to choose her own path, and move forward willingly and with a clear mind, rain or shine, regardless of danger…

In her early years, Chen Hengzhe set two paths for herself: to be Joan of Arc or to be Madame Roland of France? She stood at the fork in the road, somewhat hesitant: one of them was burned on the cross, and the other was sent to the guillotine. Chen Hengzhe said she didn’t want to die. Who would want to die as a child so young? But she later chose Joan of Arc. The girl riding a horse was romantic and beautiful. Perhaps it was Tan Sitong who made her make up her mind.

After Empress Dowager Cixi found him, the reformist madman could have easily escaped with his accomplice Liang Qichao. But he said: “China needs passionate patriots and intellectual leaders. Passionate patriots can inspire people, and intellectual leaders can lead the country to prosperity. Let me donate my blood, and you can be the leader of the intellectual community.” Chen Hengzhe heard from her father in Beijing that on the day of the execution of the Six Gentlemen of the Reform Movement of 1898, the other five martyrs trembled with fear, but only Tan Sitong clasped his hands together and looked peaceful. This adventurous spirit deeply stimulated Chen Hengzhe. She said to herself: adding fuel to the fire.

She fantasized about riding a white horse, wearing a white robe, holding a white flag, and leading the soldiers into battle in Sun Yat-sen’s “Revolutionary Party”.

But she soon changed her mind. It was the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, and she had too many opportunities to ride and fight. There were too many women joining the revolutionary team, and even a “Women’s Death Squad” was established. But she felt that “military service would only make women cruel and vulgar, and the role of a warrior was at best a wasteful and shabby role for women.” She was born into the scholar-official class, and her inner desire was to establish herself through learning. Liang Qichao’s influence influenced her to become a writer.

That year, her father went to Beijing to take the imperial examination and her mother was ill, so the task of writing letters fell on her. At that time, classical Chinese was still used, and the format was fixed. As she wrote, Chen Hengzhe began to express herself, using dialects and her own pronunciations to match the dialects. The style was novel and very interesting to read. She was only 7 years old at the time, and her parents were amazed by her.

The first male classmate who appeared in her English memoirs was Hu Shi: “(The small incident of writing a letter) made me sympathize with a Chinese classmate studying in the United States who advocated replacing classical Chinese with Chinese vernacular and making vernacular the basis of national literature. When all other Chinese students opposed his idea of ​​literary revolution, I was the only one who gave moral support to this lonely fighter.”

The “Chinese classmate” in the article is Hu Shi, and the reason why she supports Hu Shi is that the family letters she wrote when she was a child seemed to be the opening experiment of Chinese vernacular writing.

After being “alone” after her sister got married, Chen Hengzhe met the most important person in her life – her uncle. Although her uncle was an official in the Qing Dynasty, he admired Western learning and was open-minded. He encouraged Chen Hengzhe to study Western medicine, and when she was 13 years old, he took her to the more open Guangzhou, enrolled her in a medical school, and personally taught her Chinese. Later, he sent her to Shanghai and wrote a letter to Cai Yuanpei to accept her as a new student in the newly established girls’ school.

Since Cai Yuanpei was not in Shanghai, Chen Hengzhe accidentally entered a medical school to study, but she soon found that the teaching here was unscientific and irregular. There were no test tubes in the chemistry class, and there was not even a picture in the human body class. The only thing she gained was learning English, which laid a foundation for studying abroad in the future. In addition, the cruel experience here (she sometimes had to follow the teacher to see patients, and saw the cruel and bloody childbirth of women, the tragic situation of dead babies, etc.) made her, who was not yet an adult, unbearable. She secretly vowed that what she would study in the future must not be related to medicine.

At this time, her father, who happened to be an official in Sichuan, urgently called her home. When she got home, she found out that her father had found a marriage candidate for her, who was the son of a high-ranking official. Her father also explained his open-mindedness and said that he would discuss the engagement with her first. The 17-year-old Chen Hengzhe refused outright. At this time, she did not want to get married, especially she could not tolerate marrying a stranger. The father and daughter had a quarrel.

The father said, “I don’t want to see my daughter choosing her own husband like the lowly women on the street.”

“I’ll never get married,” she said.

Her mother came out to mediate the atmosphere, appease both parties, and asked her about her future plans. At that time, there was no women’s university, and she was at a loss. At this time, her father came to urge her to get married and said that he would stop supporting her financially. She fainted and stayed at home for a year after waking up. Her father laughed and said that he would build a nunnery for her behind the government office and she would never marry.

A year later, this stubborn girl went to Changshu, Suzhou, where she met her aunt. She seemed to know what she wanted to study and kicked off the most important chapter of her life.

Along the way, she brought a set of Liang Qichao’s one-million-word book and read it word by word. When she was enjoying it, she drank osmanthus wine and danced with joy. The progress of literature is reflected in such details.

The aunt in Changshu was talented and good at poetry, literature and medicine. She was a well-known wealthy lady in the local area. She owned a private garden and a large collection of books and antiques. But this aunt had a fatal weakness – doting on her son. Her only surviving son married a wife who was addicted to opium, and she herself became addicted to opium. The family’s wealth soon became insufficient to make ends meet, and the valuable collections were pawned, and the garden was in ruins. This was the decline of the family when Chen Hengzhe arrived.

When the aunt met Chen Hengzhe, she was very happy because this niece could share Du Fu’s poems with her. They abandoned the maids and traveled to Xiaoxi Lake (should be Changshu Shang Lake ), boating in it, and chanting quatrains, but after chanting, the aunt also sighed: I can’t even protect my son! Chen Hengzhe gently comforted her aunt, she knew that her aunt never shed tears, and her sighs were comparable to heartbreak.

My aunt was 20 years older than Chen Hengzhe’s father, but she and Chen Hengzhe became close friends regardless of their age difference.

Once, Chen Hengzhe got malaria, which was very serious and took her two months to recover. Her aunt prescribed medicine for her, arranged her diet, and took good care of her. She soon got rid of the pain and even her mental depression.

Several years later, Chen Hengzhe recalled in his article “In Memory of an Old Aunt”:

This aunt is not only tall and energetic, but also talented and virtuous. We can feel that she is a leader with great responsibilities and far-reaching achievements. Although due to the environment decades ago, her leadership talent can only be applied to two or three small families, her talent is not limited to singing and playing with the moon like ordinary so-called “talented women”. In addition to writing poems, reading history, and writing Wei inscriptions, she can also prescribe good medicine for people and cook delicious dishes. When she was young, she served her parents-in-law during the day and raised children at night. When it was quiet, she would read and write by herself. She often went to bed at three in the morning and got up again at six in the morning. Such energy and such arduous cultivation are not something that those “talented women” like beautiful women and talented scholars can have!

More importantly, with the encouragement and guidance of her aunt, she walked out of the period of hesitation in her life. She believed that this was the great strength given by her aunt: “It gradually made a dark future bright, turned my despair into hope, and made me believe that I was still a piece of material worth carving. … But the painful and adverse experiences I suffered in those two or three years made me doubt myself greatly, and made me feel that struggle was useless and that life was not worth maintaining. Under such circumstances, if it were not for this aunt, I am afraid I would really not have the courage to live anymore.”

Previously, her enlightened uncle had told her that there are three attitudes towards life: accepting one’s fate, complaining about one’s fate, and creating one’s fate. He encouraged her to actively create her own destiny, but she was discouraged. Now, with her aunt, in love and warmth, she began to truly create her own destiny. The care and warmth between women can often withstand storms that are far beyond their ability to bear. This is a natural tacit understanding and strength.

At her aunt’s house, Chen Hengzhe continued to study Chinese classics and taught herself English, trying to translate British poems for her aunt to appreciate. In her spare time, she took her aunt’s children to the garden to tell stories. They surrounded her and gave her small gifts as a way of “fawning”. This was the turn of spring and summer in 1911, and a big storm was approaching.

When 21-year-old Chen Hengzhe heard about the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, she was extremely calm. She said she was a bystander. Before that, she had bought the railway bonds from Hankou to Chongqing. The Qing government originally planned to borrow money from foreign countries to build the railway, which was resisted and condemned by the people. Everyone contributed money to buy this “patriotic bond”. Chen Hengzhe had no money, but she still cried and asked her uncle for 100 yuan to buy all the “bonds”. As a result, the railway was not built and the money was nowhere to be found. The massive “Railway Protection Movement” began to spread from Sichuan. Then there was a gunshot in Wuchang, which led to a face-to-face fierce battle.

At that time, one of my mother’s sisters lived in Hubei with her husband, who was an official. After the revolution broke out, they went to Shanghai. My mother sent a telegram to Chen Hengzhe to visit Shanghai. Chen Hengzhe set out from Changshu. Along the way, he saw that every Chinese person was very excited. His cousin rode his bicycle out every day and came back to inform everyone after receiving the news. Once, he even said that Shanghai would also participate in the uprising. He was ecstatic, as if he was expecting a grand gift-giving ceremony.

“In a time when the whole country was going crazy, I unconsciously grew into a woman with a cool head and no illusions.” The Chen Hengzhe who once dreamed of riding a white horse and wearing a white robe to fight on the battlefield disappeared. At that time, some friends said she was “unpatriotic” and a “cold-blooded animal” because she was unwilling to join the “Women’s Northern Expedition Team”. She was angry and aggrieved, but she always insisted on herself. She said that she was influenced by Liang Qichao’s thoughts. Later, those women did not cross the Yellow River, nor did they take up guns to become soldiers. At most, they became nurses. After she knew it, she felt a malicious pleasure.

In August 1912, Chen Hengzhe published her translation of “On the Reform of the Calendar” in Volume 9, Issue 2 of “Eastern Magazine”. This should be the only voice she publicly expressed after the success of the revolution.

Then she faced a dilemma. Her father could no longer serve as an official, so he had to spend the savings in the bank, and the family fell into an economic crisis. When her aunt found out, she introduced her to a good friend’s house as a tutor, teaching two children basic courses, providing food and accommodation, and 20 yuan per month, but requiring her to live with the other party in the countryside of Changshu. Chen Hengzhe took this first job in her life very straightforwardly. Later, the Chen family settled in Suzhou, her mother sold paintings to supplement the family income, and her father found a job near Nanjing.

Such difficult days lasted until the early summer of 1914. One day, Chen Hengzhe accidentally read in the newspaper that Tsinghua School (now Tsinghua University) was recruiting female students from all over the country to study abroad. Those who passed the exam could receive a scholarship to study in the United States for five years.

She was tempted. But the exam takes time, and she also has to review the courses she had not taken for a long time, as well as the subjects she had never touched before. Her aunt encouraged her again and again, and helped her ask the tutor for two weeks’ leave, so that she could go to Shanghai to take the exam with peace of mind. After the exam, Chen Hengzhe went back to teach – she didn’t dare to look at the admission list, she was afraid of failing, she was afraid of missing this “dawn after a long night”. It was not until her aunt wrote to tell her that she was admitted that she shed tears of joy. A total of ten people were admitted that time, and she ranked second. That night, she lay with her aunt and talked a lot. The aunt in her sixties rarely cried: this smart and caring niece would stay abroad for more than five years, or even longer, and she might never see her again.

While preparing to go abroad, Chen Hengzhe found that the other nine people were all graduates of church schools. They were already familiar with the future American life and the only thing they needed was practice. She was the only one who had not attended a church school, which made her seem “out of place”.

When she was seen off, she was even more different. On August 15, 1914, on the Bund in Shanghai, the steamship “China” quietly moored on the bank of the Huangpu River. More than 100 boys and 14 girls were about to depart from here. Hugs and exhortations were repeated again and again, and the crowds of people saw her off. There was only one girl, with no one around her. Others thought she had no relatives, but she looked calm – she deliberately did not let her mother and aunt come to experience the painful scene.

When the China entered the Pacific, the First World War broke out, heralding a great change in the world. She wrote in her memoirs: “They (the first girls sent) were assigned to learn the culture of Western countries. This emphasis on culture fostered many beautiful friendships in the future, and ultimately sowed the seeds for the establishment of an invisible but powerful alliance in people’s hearts – rather than in the political field where war is sown.”

She stood quietly at the bow, looking at the boundless ocean, and recalled the scene of taking a boat to Guangzhou with her sister and brother-in-law several years ago. She is a natural sailor, not seasick, and not lost: “I have loved water since I was a child, and the water I see now makes my heart full of indescribable joy. The sky is so wide, the sea is so vast, they seem to symbolize my future. I am as free as a bird in the sky, as free as a fish in the water, as free as the boundless sky and water. However, the boundless sky I face is also an unknown sky, and the boundless water I face is also an ocean without map marks!”

In 1935, Chen Hengzhe had already achieved success in China, had a family and children, and she wrote her autobiography in English. Surprisingly, the ending was about her journey to the United States across the Pacific Ocean:

So why did I write an autobiography? My answer is simple: I was one of those people who experienced the violent cultural and social conflicts before and after the founding of the Republic of China and tried to control their own destiny in the vortex.

Therefore, my early life can be seen as a specimen, which reveals the pain and joy of a life in the struggle of danger. It is also for this reason that this book does not record the elegant art of living room life or the romantic tenderness under the flowers and moon. In the desperate struggle with the dangerous environment, life cannot care about decoration. Its only focus can only be its own future and destiny.

Chen Hengzhe revealed her original intention of writing an autobiography, but her real life did not end there, and more exciting chapters had just begun.

Here we have to mention a person who influenced Chen Hengzhe’s life─Ren Hongjun.

Chen Hengzhe had a deep memory of their acquaintance: “I met Ren Jun in the summer of 1916, but as early as the winter of 1915, he had already begun to correspond with me because he asked me to write an article (that year he was the editor-in-chief of the Quarterly of Chinese Students in the United States).”

When Chen Hengzhe drifted to the United States, Ren Hongjun, whom she called “Ren Jun”, had already studied in the United States for a year and became a leader among overseas students. Born in Chongqing in 1886, this scholar of the late Qing Dynasty had a new mind. Long before the Xinhai Revolution, he cut off his braids and went to Japan to study. While in Japan, he joined the Tongmenghui and was admitted to the Tokyo Higher Industrial School’s applied chemistry preparatory course to learn how to make explosives, intending to help the revolution. After the revolution broke out, he immediately returned to China and served as the secretary of President Sun Yat-sen. The famous “Sacrificial Essay to the Xiaoling Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty” was written by him. After Yuan Shikai became president, Ren Hongjun went to the United States to study.

In early 1913, Ren Hongjun was admitted to the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University in the United States, majoring in chemistry and physics. He believed that “in today’s world, without science, it is almost impossible to establish a country.” He was eager to save the country through science. In the summer of 1914, he and his classmates Zhao Yuanren, Hu Mingfu, Zhou Ren and others jointly initiated the establishment of the Science Society and raised funds to establish the monthly magazine “Science”. The following year, the Chinese Science Society was officially established, and he was elected as the chairman of the board of directors and the president of the Chinese Science Society. The society is the earliest comprehensive scientific group in China. He accompanied the Science Society throughout his life until the end of his life in the 1960s.

1916 was an extraordinary year for Ren Hongjun. He graduated from Cornell University and entered Columbia University for graduate studies. It was here that he met his old friend Hu Shi. It was also in this year that he met the woman of his life: Sha Fei. Yes, that’s what he called Chen Hengzhe.

Group photo of the first board of directors of the Chinese Scientific Society (1916), back row from left: Bingzhi, Ren Hongjun, Zhao Mingfu, front row from left: Zhao Yuanren, Zhou Ren

They were connected by writing, and a poem written by Shafei gave him an urge to meet her.

After the ignorant Chen Hengzhe went to the United States to study, she began to try to understand the situation of local international students. Two innovations caught her attention: one was the vernacular movement advocated by Mr. Hu Shizhi, and the other was the science-based national salvation movement advocated by Ren Hongjun. It is said that the school where Ren Hongjun studied at that time was only three hours away from Vassar College where Chen Hengzhe studied by train.

As the editor-in-chief of the Quarterly of Chinese Students in the United States, he recognized Chen Hengzhe as a literary genius when he received his first article written by him under the pen name “Shafei”. The two began to correspond, often asking for manuscripts, writing manuscripts, and discussing manuscripts with each other. Once, he was working hard on poetry with Hu Shizhi, Yang Xingfo and others, when he suddenly received a poem from Shafei: “The first moon drags light clouds, smiling in the cold forest; I don’t know how beautiful it is, but it has already reflected the clear stream.” “I saw this poem and loved it so much that I imitated the words of chemist Bei Sulius and said: I have discovered a new poet in the New World.”

At that time, Chen Hengzhe was majoring in Western history and Western literature at Vassar University. After they met, Ren Hongjun invited her to join the Science Club. She said awkwardly that she was not a scientist, but he still insisted enthusiastically, saying that what we need is moral support, so she joined.

In another cultural reform event, she was more proactive. Hu Shi once pointed out in his article that Chen Hengzhe was “one of the earliest comrades” in the new literary movement. They also met because of writing. At that time, Ren Hongjun showed Hu Shi Chen Hengzhe’s poem “Moon” and misled Hu into thinking that it was written by him. Hu Shi directly pointed out: “You have such feelings, but not such wisdom. Is this new poet Ms. Chen?”

No wonder that at a very late stage, Hu Shi’s disciple, historian Tang Degang, repeatedly insisted that Chen Hengzhe was the “inspiration” of Hu Shi’s “poetry revolution” and “literary reform”. Liang Qichao said: “‘Inspiration’ is born in a moment of the highest climax of thoughts and emotions, and the heroes, filial sons and women, loyal ministers and righteous men, as well as enthusiastic religious people, artists, and explorers throughout the ages, are able to do things that shock the world and make ghosts weep, all because of this moment, inspired by this ‘inspiration’. Therefore, what is achieved in this moment without knowing it is far greater than what is achieved by decades of careful work.” This shows the influence of Chen Hengzhe on Hu Shi in literature. This inevitably caused a lot of speculation about the emotional sparks between the two.

Of course, the first person to get there was Ren Hongjun. He couldn’t help falling in love with Chen after they met in 1916. “We had admired each other for a long time, and we felt like we were old friends at first sight. Our love grew deeper and deeper, and four years later we made a lifelong commitment.” After returning to China in 1920, Ren and Chen got married.

Chen Hengzhe and Ren Hongjun

In the midsummer of 1916, the lonely and depressed Hu Shi wrote a poem “Butterfly” in the United States:

Two yellow butterflies flew into the sky.

For some reason, one of them suddenly flew back.

The one left is lonely and pitiful.

I have no intention of going to heaven because it is too lonely.

This poem was interpreted as the confusion he encountered in promoting the “New Literature Movement”. He longed for supporters, longed for listeners and interactors who could enter his heart. It was after this poem that he began to correspond with his “Sha Fei” – they had never met, but the letters were quite frequent. Hu Shi wrote in “Notes from Canghui Room”: “In the past five months, there have been no less than 40 pieces of books on academics and games. It is rare to see such a large number of friends who have never met.”

In five months, Hu Shi sent Chen Hengzhe “more than 40 pieces of letters”, which even he himself felt was abnormal. Moreover, there were many interesting things in those “games and rewards”. For example, because of the problem of addressing each other, there was such a game:

(Hu Shi to Chen Hengzhe)

If you “sir” me, I will also “sir” you.

It would be better to exempt both and save a lot of trouble.

(Chen Hengzhe to Hu Shi)

The so-called “Mr.” means “Mr.”.

If not “Sir”, what should I call you?

But if you do, I should follow the master’s rules, and I shouldn’t force myself to be your “sir”.

But I shouldn’t have called you by your full name. Please state your name next time you send me a letter.

(Hu Shi to Chen Hengzhe)

The gentleman is a good debater and his refutation left me speechless.

If you think about it carefully, what’s the difference between calling a cow or a horse, or a cat or a dog?

I was joking, I shouldn’t have done that.

Next time you write, please stop guessing:

No matter what you call it, I will agree to it loud and clear and will never reject it again.

Who would have thought that this leader and flag bearer of the New Literature Movement would first raise his hand to a “schoolmate” when he first showed his talent? However, Tang Degang said that although the two of them corresponded frequently, they were not love letters, but just “sesame and mung beans” like the content of Lu Xun and Xu Guangping’s early correspondence.

On April 7, 1917, 27-year-old Chen Hengzhe had an important date. Tang Degang said that she was “in her prime, hiding in the boudoir” at the time, and “appeared in Ithaca with a glimpse of a beauty”. In Poughkeepsie, Ren Hongjun accompanied Hu Shi to visit Chen Hengzhe. This was the first time Chen Hengzhe met Hu Shi, and it was also their only time in the United States. From then on, the absolute relationship of the “three friends” was established, and “the three of them went back and forth through the mailbox almost every day”.

Even 40 years later, when the once beautiful and slightly shy schoolmate had already had children and grandchildren, when people asked the world-famous Mr. Hu Shizhi how he viewed his “relationship” with Chen Hengzhe, he still insisted that Ms. Chen was determined to be single and would not fall in love with anyone, which made Tang Degang say that his attitude was not generous enough. According to his interpretation, the beautiful girl must have been taken, so Hu Shi had to express his attitude in such a “twisted” way. The subtext is that deep in the soul of this teacher, there is still a love affair.

Some people say that Ren Hongjun was engaged in science after all, and was relatively distant from Chen Hengzhe in terms of profession, which gave her more opportunities to communicate with Hu Shi. This may be true. After Chen Hengzhe changed his mind from medicine, he was determined to achieve something in literature. With his half Hunanese blood, he had a determination to not give up and to be famous. It was rare to find a literary confidant, and he had already made some achievements. How could he let go easily? Emotions are emotions, and careers are careers. Why mix them up?

Hu Shih’s interpretation of Chen Hengzhe’s works was crucial. He wrote the preface to his first and only collection of short stories, Little Raindrops:

While we were still discussing the issue of new literature, Sha Fei had already begun to write literature in vernacular Chinese. “One Day” was the earliest work in the early stage of the discussion of the literary revolution. “Little Raindrops” was also the earliest piece created during the “New Youth” period. After the sixth year of the Republic of China, Sha Fei also wrote a lot of vernacular Chinese poems. If we try to recall the situation of the new literature movement during that period, think about when Mr. Lu Xun’s first creation “Diary of a Madman” was published, and think about how few people were interested in writing vernacular literature at that time, we can understand the status of Sha Fei’s novels in the history of the new literature movement.

In June 1917, Chen Hengzhe published a vernacular novel titled “One Day” in the “Quarterly of Chinese Students in the United States” under the name of Sha Fei. It is known as the first vernacular novel in the history of Chinese literature. In fact, this work is very simple, describing the trivial life of a freshman at an American women’s university in a boarding dormitory. She commented that it had no structure and no purpose, so it could only be regarded as a plain description. But she believed that the loyalty she wrote about and that it was her first description of human feelings should be preserved. And it did open the precedent for Chinese vernacular writing.

I heard the rain knocking on the window at night, and when I got up, I saw the moon was as clear as water.

Thousands of leaves are flying around, and the wind is howling and the pine trees are falling.

In the open United States of America, Chen Hengzhe’s talented ancient writings have excited many Chinese students. This “Wuxia woman” who longs to “raise her arms” in Chinese women’s rights is slowly blooming.

In the midsummer of 1918, 28-year-old Chen Hengzhe graduated from Vassar College with a Bachelor of Arts degree and received a scholarship from the school. She successfully entered the History Department of the University of Chicago to continue studying Western history and literature. During this period, she continued to create new works and published them in “New Youth”. Chen Hengzhe’s final degree was a master’s degree. Later, her daughter Ren Yidu completed her master’s degree in the United States and wanted to continue to study for a doctorate. She once asked her daughter in confusion: I only studied for a master’s degree, why do you want to study for a doctorate? The pragmatic her paid more attention to academic gains and release, rather than false reputation.

In 1919, Chen Hengzhe and Ren Hongjun spent their last foreign Christmas in Chicago. They returned to China the following summer and, like Hu Shi, accepted the appointment of Cai Yuanpei, president of Peking University. Chen Hengzhe taught history at the university, becoming the first female university professor in modern China. Not long after, she and Ren Hongjun got engaged in Nanjing. Hu Shi attended their engagement ceremony and wrote a poem “We Three Friends – To Ren Shuyong and Chen Shafei” to congratulate them.

Ren Hongjun and Chen Hengzhe took a photo with Hu Shi (first from right) on their engagement day

Although there is no evidence that Hu Shi attended their wedding ceremony, his wedding couplets were brilliantly written: “To have no descendants is the greatest misfortune; to write a book is the best.” Some people interpreted it as a hippie joke, while others interpreted it as a wish for the newlyweds to have children soon but not to give up their careers.

Some people say that the relationship between Hu Shi, Ren Hongjun and Chen Hengzhe is a bit like “family”, which is neither love nor friendship. For these masters of learning with rich inner emotions, who can really understand and get into their relationship? One fact is that Hu Shi has always been concerned about Chen Hengzhe’s situation.

That summer, Chen Hengzhe was pregnant and about to give birth. Hu Shi, who was working at the Commercial Press in Shanghai, sent a poem to Ren Hongjun and his wife:

I wish the lake god good protection from afar, the lotus flowers and leaves are falling.

When the overseas students come back, the lotus buds will bear fruit!

Later, when he learned that Chen Hengzhe had given birth to a daughter, Hu Shi revisited the Jiming Temple in Nanjing where he had attended their engagement ceremony and happily composed a poem:

I went up to the lakeside tower again to watch the sunset, and the lake and mountains were still as prosperous as ever.

Last year, everyone on the lake was healthy, and there were new sisters.

There are many emotional codes hidden in this poem. In the previous gift poem, there were the words “lotus flower and lotus leaf”, and Chen Hengzhe’s eldest daughter’s nickname was later named “Yonghe”. In the previous year, Hu Shi also had a daughter, which he called “sisters”, and he named them “Su Fei”. It sounds nice, but anyone with a discerning eye can tell that it is a transliteration from English, and the original pronunciation is “Sha Fei”.

Tang Degang said that Hu Shi was most opposed to people giving foreign names, but he gave his daughter a foreign name. Some people said that it might be because Jiang Dongxiu did not understand English, otherwise this matter might have caused some complications. “Su Fei” – “Sha Fei” – “Sophia”, it’s just that Chen Hengzhe’s previous pen name had always been “Sha Fei”. “For the green Luo skirt, I pity the fragrant grass everywhere!” Hu Shi later wrote a poem for this deceased daughter:

Today’s dream sickness

A strange cry that night

Su Fei, don’t let me forget

It will remain a permanent mark of people’s suffering!

“I held back my tears for a year and a half, but I didn’t expect to cry for her 30,000 miles away.” At this time, Hu Shi was in the United States, and the poem about Su Fei was about his deceased daughter, which made sense. But Tang Degang changed “Su Fei” in the poem to “Sophia”, which makes people ponder: which Sophia was Mr. Hu’s poem about? “Isn’t this a lingering and sad poem that kills two birds with one stone, a poem of mourning and nostalgia?” Tang Degang even said that Hu Shi’s poems don’t have to be “understandable and reciting”, and the real meaning may only be that Mr. Hu, Su Fei and Sha Fei confronted each other in another world.

But in reality, the world of three people between Ren Hongjun, Chen Hengzhe and Hu Shi seemed to have never been separated by any storms.

Xu Zhimo (first from left), Cao Chengying (third from left), Hu Shi (fourth from left), Wang Jingwei (fifth from left), Chen Hengzhe and his wife (far right), and others in Hangzhou

During that time, the three of them kept in touch and had constant gatherings. In Chen Hengzhe’s letters to Hu Shi, there were many sentences like this: “Without you, the colors of the sunset are too charming, the morning stars smile too lovely, and the sparse shadows in the cold forest are unwilling to pose under the moonlight.” “We dreamed of the past and the future, traveled across the ocean and the continent, and returned to find the winding streams and secluded valleys. We were so happy during these three days that we didn’t feel satisfied at the time, but later we thought to ourselves, when can we continue it?” “Like a pearl, you will always be in the sea of ​​our hearts, emitting your beautiful light.” But she is still addressed as “our friend.”

Sometimes Hu Shi also stayed at the home of Ren Hongjun and Chen Hengzhe. Ren Yidu later recalled: “Uncle Hu Shi had a very good temper and was kind to others. All the children liked him very much. He liked to eat fatty meat. Every time colleagues from Independent Review came to our house for a meeting or the dinner before the meeting, everyone would give him the fatty meat, and he would eat it with relish. His health seemed not to be very good. Once he came back to our house for a meeting, he kept complaining of a headache and went to my father’s study to rest for an hour before coming back.” In the midsummer of 1923, Hu Shi traveled to West Lake with Ren Hongjun and his wife. At that time, there were also Xu Zhimo, Wang Jingwei, Cao Chengying and others. Although there were “sparks” between Cao Chengying and Hu Shi, it still could not stop people’s speculation and attention on the “sparks” between Hu Shi and Sha Fei.

In October 1924, Chen Hengzhe published a novel titled “The Problem of Lokis” in “Novel Monthly”. The story is about the emotional problems of a female graduate student named Lokis. After three years of love, the male protagonist Ward and Lokis announced their engagement, but Lokis was afraid that raising children after marriage would hinder her academic career, so she proposed to cancel the engagement. Ward respected Lokis’s opinion and agreed to cancel their engagement, but did their relationship come to an abrupt end?

A letter from Ward in the article was cited as evidence of “suspicion”:

…Many of my friends think that I should find a like-minded person to be my lifelong partner. I don’t want to do that, but, Luo Qisi, the swans in the sky will not easily come to the human world. I don’t need to explain this, you should understand it better than me. …

I won’t write any more. I want you to understand that although Wade got married, he never closed his heart; especially for Lokis, his heart is always open. I will always be yours, Wade.

A year after this article was published, Ren Hongjun and his wife heard that Su Fei had died of illness. In order to comfort Hu Shi, they asked Hu Shi to be the godfather of their second daughter “Yishu”.

The only unhappiness in the world of three people was caused by the outside world. A weekly magazine in Shanghai, “Decameron”, published an article in the sixth issue on April 20, 1934: “Chen Hengzhe and Hu Shi”.

Among the female writers who have made their mark in the Chinese literary world, there are a few who have become household names, such as Bing Xin and Ding Ling, and you should not miss Ms. Chen Hengzhe. If you have read her works “Little Raindrops” and “High School Western History”, I think you should have a good understanding of this female writer.

She is a middle-aged woman in her late 40s, a former student studying in the United States. She attended the Pacific Society twice last year and is as popular as Bing Xin.

Anyone who has read her short essays (such as “Little Raindrops”) cannot help but have great respect for the careful and meticulous thinking of this female writer. We also know that she is a person who has studied philosophy, although her calligraphy is as childish as that of a child.

Ms. Chen’s husband is Mr. Ren Shuyong, a famous Chinese scientist. How she married Mr. Ren is a tragic story that is worth singing and crying about. They will probably never forget this memory! …

The article said that Hu Shi actually liked Chen Hengzhe from the bottom of his heart. It was natural for a talented man to be paired with a talented woman. However, because he had an engagement and a promise, he could not break the rules, so he had to introduce her to his good friend Ren Jun with great reluctance, and so on.

This publication was not actually well-known, and the article was just about writing about celebrity gossip to earn some eyeballs. But the article inevitably brought awkwardness to the three people. It is said that Ren Jun was the most angry and asked Hu Shi what was going on.

Hu Shi was also puzzled and hurriedly wrote a letter to The Decameron to express strong protest and repeatedly stated that there was only “a deep and pure respect and love” between them. Later, this publication was ordered to be permanently suspended.

Looking back at the evaluation of Chen Heng’s philosophy in this article, it is still fair, especially her History of the West. In Hu Shi’s view, “Ms. Chen Hengzhe’s History of the West is a work with creative ambitions. She had to rely on the supply of historical materials from Western historians.

But in terms of narration and explanation, she did a lot of careful structural work. This book can be said to be the first History of the West carefully written by a Chinese scholar of Western history for Chinese readers. In this respect, this book is also a pioneering work.”

Today, this book still ranks high in the forefront of world history books and has received rave reviews. Chen Hengzhe’s solid writing skills and grasp of the world situation allow her to write fluently and with rich emotions. “The victory of force is temporary, but the victory of culture is permanent.

The grievances suffered by Italy only lasted for a few hundred years, but its achievements in cultural history are truly immortal.” When writing about the internal strife of the French revolutionaries, she remembered Madame Roland’s words: “Freedom, freedom, how many crimes have been committed by you!”

She thought that the ultimate goal of the French Revolution was the “three goals” (freedom, equality and fraternity). As time passed, after several years, the young “Ahua” (Chen Hengzhe’s nickname) had grown into an authority in the academic world, and her childhood idol also surfaced. Like Madame Roland, she was calm, objective, and full of texture, facing this complicated world.

In the book, she talked about the purpose of writing this book: “History does not make us cry, nor does it make us laugh, but requires us to understand it.” She did it.

Throughout her life, she always maintained the independent personality and free thinking of an intellectual, just like her writing. I remember the ending of “Returning to My Alma Mater” is as follows: “I looked up again and saw a half-moon hanging in the western sky, shining on a lonely traveler on a long march, standing in a cold and dark station.”

In the early 1930s, when the Japanese Kwantung Army deliberately created incidents, Chen Hengzhe and six other top Chinese scholars participating in the Pacific International Association, including Hu Shi and Ding Wenjiang, immediately sent several urgent telegrams calling for the postponement of the conference and urging the Japanese representatives to withdraw.

Later, she participated in the preparation of the famous journal “Independent Review” edited by Hu Shi, and served as one of the main writers. She expressed her own opinions on the hot social issues at that time, such as “opium public sale”, “women’s education”, “free marriage”, “children’s health”, “adapting to the environment and transforming the environment”.

When Ren Hongjun was the president of Sichuan University, she followed him to teach, but she couldn’t stand the fact that female students at Sichuan University became concubines of bureaucrats and tycoons, so she wrote an article to criticize fiercely and called on Sichuan women to be independent.

Later, she published a long report “Miscellaneous Notes on Sichuan Travel” in “Independent Review”, exposing the corruption and darkness of Sichuan local authorities and society: “People living in Chengdu can only see the warm sunlight once every fifteen days on average, and the sun shining all day long once every forty-five days.”

She also suggested changing Sichuan Province to “Two Cloud Province”: “My friend said, ‘It’s just one cloud, where is the second cloud’? I said, there is also the ‘cloud’ that puffs up smoke! I tell you this sentence, so that you know how dark Sichuan is under the cover of these two clouds!”

Perhaps this reminded her of the feminist abuses and corrupt politics she had encountered as a child. After that, she wrote her autobiography and roared: Chinese people, especially Chinese women, should stand up for their basic rights. Of course, her fierce article angered the warlord authorities, and eventually the couple resigned and left together.

During the Anti-Japanese War, they traveled north and south with their family, and later lived in Chongqing for 5 years. During this period, Hu Shi was appointed as ambassador to the United States by Chiang Kai-shek.

When Ren Hongjun learned about it, he said to his family casually: “Oh, Shizhi has gone to work as an official.” I believe Chen Hengzhe just sent his blessings to Hu Shi in his heart, hoping that he would take care of his health.

They didn’t communicate for more than 20 years, but they still cared about each other in their hearts, a calm and long-lasting concern.

I wish you were the lost path I could never see

I am the sound of nature that you can never stop listening to

We are in the valley of dreams where we are infatuated with each other

Never come closer and never leave

This is “Valley of Dreams” by the poet Bai Ma. I think it is more appropriate to use it to describe the relationship between Chen Hengzhe and Hu Shi.

On November 9, 1961, Ren Hongjun died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Shanghai, 41 days before his 75th birthday. The 71-year-old Chen Hengzhe was extremely sad. The first person she could think of was Hu Shi, one of “our three friends”.

At this time, Hu Shi was on the other side of the strait, politically separated, and cut off from each other. Even his daughter Ren Yi was blocked in the United States and could not come back to attend the funeral.

Chen Hengzhe tried to communicate with Ren Yi, urging her to contact Hu Shi in time to inform him of the death of his father. The code used at the time was to call Hu Shi “the old man on the Hezhen River” (the Hezhen River is the Hudson River in New York, where Hu Shi studied abroad and used this name when writing to Ren Hongjun). When Hu Shi received the letter and replied, it was already the next year.

He said sadly: “Because of such a political separation, old friends can’t communicate for decades. Please tell your mother that the ‘old friend on the Hezhen River’ is crying for her.”