Zhou Youguang and Zhang Yunhe: find an interesting person to grow old together

Good love can withstand fireworks and keep affectionate. In addition to affection, it is also interesting and adds points.

what is the ideal marital state?

there is a popular saying that people expect an ideal partner: life is too long, you have to find someone interesting to grow old with.

this is easy to say, but difficult to implement.

first of all, there must be two interesting people; second, these two interesting people have to see the right eye; third, they had better life long enough to achieve the state of "finding an interesting person to grow old together".

among the many couples in the Republic of China, not many couples reached this level. Most of the immortal families respected by the world can only be "affectionate". If they want to be "interesting", they need a little more sense of humor and a little more playfulness.

Zhou Youguang and Zhang Yunhe, who have gone through a hundred years of wind and rain hand in hand, are such a rare couple. When the two of them add up to more than two hundred years old, they can still raise a cup to match their eyebrows, and the two "old" have no guesses.

on December 21, 1998, the International Education Foundation held a meeting of 100 loving couples. Zhou Youguang and Zhang Yunhe, who are nearly 100 years old, are the oldest couple.

the years have not worn away their passion for life and their love for each other. The more they live, the more they love each other. One is a trendy old man, the other is a white-haired talented woman, who is really "interesting to old".

who is Zhang Yunhe? One of the four famous sisters in Hefei, she ranks second in the Zhang family and is known as the "last girl", while the Zhang family affectionately calls her "Xiao Ermao".

among the four sisters of the Zhang family, she is the most lively and cheerful. She has been loved by her father Zhang Wuling since childhood. Every time she goes out, she likes to carry her, "Xiao Ermao, come!" When her father gave riddles and made couplets, she was always the first to answer, nicknamed "Kuaizui Li Civilian".

at an early age, she was full of ideas. when her parents asked her to be the harmonious teacher of the fourth sister, she acted like a "little teacher" and changed her name to "Wang Juewu." it means that she wants her sister to be a newcomer who understands democracy and science.

unexpectedly, her sister asked her, "since you are a reasonable person, why did you change my last name?" My surname is Zhang, not Wang. " When she was asked by her sister, she was so angry that she took scissors to open the embroidered word "Wang Juewu" on her schoolbag. The traditional Chinese characters of "Chueh" had twenty strokes, which made her head sweat. This little farce became a warm memory between sisters in the future.

the sisters of the Zhang family have been listening to Kunqu Opera with their parents since childhood, and have gradually learned to act at home.

Sisters love to perform plays such as "San Niang Godson", "visiting relatives and scolding each other", "Little Shangfen" and "Little cattle". The eldest sister Yuan he and San Mei Zhaohe play the protagonists, while we Ermao Yun Harmony are always supporting roles, making jokes and cheering for the protagonists.

she also loves to play clowns, ordering a piece of white tofu on her nose and ticking a few black lines, which is a lively piano boy and book boy, which is very much in line with her lively and resourceful temperament.

many people who play supporting roles will feel aggrieved for themselves. Yonghe happily recalled: "I think the supporting role is very important. Isn't there a supporting role award now?" If I had a supporting role award in my childhood, I could deserve it. " Later, she loved to play a supporting role and take part in the fun at school and in the music club.

in the marriage of third sisters Zhaohe and Shen Congwen, Yonghe can be said to be the "best supporting role".

Shen Congwen pursued Zhang Zhaohe but could not. He simply chased her to her home in Jiuru Lane. Zhao didn't want to see him. Yun, advised her that he was a teacher, you were a student, and if a teacher came to the student's home, he should always receive him. Just tell him that I have many brothers and sisters at home. Welcome to play. It was only after Zhaohe listened to her advice that Shen Congwen had a chance to enter the Zhang family.

later, Yun, proposed marriage to his parents on behalf of Shen Congwen, and the enlightened Zhang parents agreed to the marriage. Yun and very happy, hurriedly ran to the Telegraph office to send a telegram to the future third brother-in-law, there is only a "Yun" word, which not only means yes but also contains her name, a pun, you can see Zhang Erjie's wit. Shen Congwen was so grateful to the second sister that he jokingly called her a "matchmaker" in his later years.

 although Yonghe has played a supporting role in the song for a lifetime, for Zhou Youguang, she is always the same heroine.

Zhou Youguang, who first studied economics and then attacked language, was called "the father of Hanyu Pinyin".

as a "veteran of the four dynasties" who have experienced a hundred years of vicissitudes, Zhou Youguang gives people the greatest impression that he is calm. When he was 110 years old, he was asked the secret of longevity. He said, "Don't be angry" because to be angry is to punish yourself for other people's mistakes.

in fact, in addition to dealing with the world calmly, living a lively life may also be Zhou Youguang's secret of longevity.

he liked to travel and talk about health when he was young, and he had a wide range of hobbies. I learned to play the violin with my teacher when I was young, and I have a great talent for music. The teacher asked him to practice for four hours a day, but he said that learning the piano was just for fun, not to become a famous performer, so he practiced at his usual time.

during the decade of unrest, he was sent to Ningxia to guard the sorghum fields with educator Lin Handa, still talking and laughing as if he were speaking to 10,000 sorghum trees.

at the age of 85, he left the office and went back to his small study at home to read newspapers and write articles. The study was only nine square meters, but he was at ease and wrote a "new shack motto" with great interest:

the mountains are not high, as long as there are lush woods and

the water is not deep, as long as there are schools of migratory fish.

this is a shack, as long as I seek my materialistic happiness.

Room YinThe window is brighter and

the desk is uneven. I am to blame for being too often at my desk.

the threshold is broken, there are too many uninvited guests,

floor dance, welcome old friends to come.

when he was in his nineties, he lost all his hair on the top of his head, but he smiled and said it hadn't grown yet. He still took a few white handkerchiefs with him as he did when he was young, and from time to time he took them out to wipe his face.

 speaking, Zhou Youguang's bond with Zhang Yunhe can be attributed to several large handkerchiefs.

in his later years, Zhou Youguang recalled his love affair with Zhang Yunhe and described it as a "flowing love". Two people's acquaintance and love, did not go through the wind and waves, but naturally walked together.

Zhang Yunhe and Zhou Youguang's sister are classmates, from which they know each other. Both families are distinguished, but the Zhou family has declined, and at one time he could not even afford the tuition fees of Zhou Youguang when he was in college, so Yun and often laughed that he had seen too much opera and had the complex of "the garden behind the son in distress." not only did he not dislike the fall of the Zhou family, but decided that Zhou Youguang was a "son in distress" and wanted to rescue him.

the Zhang family has ten brothers and sisters, and there are many young people in the Zhou family. The two families often get together to play. At a small concert in Jiuru Xiang, the Zhang sisters sang, and the young Zhou Youguang would shoot music for them. Unexpectedly, this shooting lasted a lifetime.

probably because of similar temperament, Zhou Youguang and Zhang Yunhe were good friends for many years, until one day, when he was teaching in Shanghai, he wrote a letter to her who was still studying in Hangzhou. The content of the letter is very ordinary, not a word about love.

after receiving the letter, she was still very nervous, and only after discussing with her older classmates did she dare to reply. When the two meet again during the summer vacation, it is no longer as natural as it used to be when they get along with each other. Maybe the sprout of love begins with this kind of unnatural.

many years later, the scene of Yun and Zhou Youguang picking out his heart is as clear as yesterday.

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it was a Sunday in 1928, and they walked out together from the big iron gate of Wusong Chinese Public School to the breakwater by the Wusong River. instead of holding hands, they kept a distance of about a foot.

on the gentle breakwater, he took out a white handkerchief, carefully placed it on the stone, and asked her to sit down. Maybe she was so nervous that her hands were sweating, and he took out a small handkerchief and tucked it between his hands. There are so many handkerchiefs, she thought to herself.

across a handkerchief, he held her hand tightly.

recalling this moment, she wrote emotionally in her twilight years: everything has come to nothing, only two hearts are trembling.

since then, she and he, regardless of happiness or sudden change of wind and rain, have never let go of each other's hands.

when they were in love, there were two interesting episodes.

one weekend, Zhou Youguang and Zhang Yunhe met at Lingyin Temple. At that time, the temple often became a place where Miss Scholars fell in love, and the story of the Western Chamber took place in the temple.

the two men went up the mountain side by side, never daring to hold hands. An old monk followed them all the time. He left when they left, and he stopped when they stopped. The couple thought that the monk was too ignorant, so he just sat under the tree to have a rest. Unexpectedly, the old monk also sat down and asked Zhou Youguang, "how many years has this foreigner been here?"

it turned out that Yun had a high nose and a clear outline, so he was mistaken for a foreigner by the old monk, so he curiously followed him all the way.

Zhou Youguang replied with a smile, "it's been three years."

the old monk said, "No wonder you speak Chinese so well."

people who are passionately in love inevitably have to arrange all kinds of entertainment programs. On one occasion, Zhou Youguang, who likes Western music, specially invited Zhang Yun-ho, who is still studying, to go to a concert in the French garden of the French concession. It was very expensive for a person to listen on a recliner, and he got a ticket for two silver dollars.

on that day, Beethoven's symphony was played. Unexpectedly, amid the vigorous music, Zhang Yunhe fell asleep. Miss Zhang, who loved Chinese classical music such as Kunqu Opera since childhood, really couldn't appreciate Western music.

the people around him inevitably looked at her with surprise. Zhou Youguang was also a little drummed in his heart, but he calmly listened to the concert, during which Ren Yun and he slept soundly on the couch and did not wake her up.

for other people, they may complain that their lovers don't know how to appreciate, but Zhou Youguang doesn't think of it at all. instead, he regards it as an interesting thing, so it can be seen that couples who are in harmony also need to have a tolerant heart to have a long-term relationship.

after ten years of acquaintance and five years of love, the two are ready to get married. after setting a date, Yonghe's aunt came forward to stop it, thinking that the wedding day was set at the end of the month, which was the end of the lunar calendar. So instead of serving wine on April 30, it was found that it was the end of the Gregorian calendar, and it was too late to change it, so it had to be held as scheduled. Yun believes that when the old comes to an end, it will be a new beginning.

the wedding is very simple and trendy. The fourth sister acted and sang Kunqu Opera "good time". Later, Gu Chuanli, who became the eldest brother-in-law of the Zhang family, played the flute, and there was a little Russian girl who played the piano, which can be called a combination of Chinese and Western.

Yonghe was the first of the four sisters of the Zhang family to get married. at first, the Zhang family was not optimistic about the marriage. The babysitter who took care of Yonghe took the couple's eight characters to tell their fortunes. The fortune-teller said that neither of the couples would live to be more than 35 years old. Even the third sister Zhaohe said, "the second sister is married to a tuberculosis ghost, and the day of crying is coming."

despite this, the enlightened Zhang family did not stop them. The marriage also gave the newlyweds a dowry of two thousand silver dollars. They used the money to study abroad and traveled to the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Egypt, and other places on the most luxurious cruise ship Queen Elizabeth at that time.

before getting married, Zhou Youguang wrote to Yun and said, "I am very poor. I am afraid I will not be able to give you happiness." Yun replied to a long letter, indicating a meaning: "Happiness is to be created by yourself."

sure enough, they created happiness with their own hands. They lived together for nearly 70 years, lived 93 years, and created a miracle that white heads were inseparable.

after 70 years of marriage, just like before marriage, they are still dependent on each other, during which there is no lack of ups and downs. They experienced the loss of their daughter during the Anti-Japanese War and were hit during the "Cultural Revolution." however, with the optimism and enthusiasm of their nature, they live every day with vitality.

 this couple who have been in love all their lives have a lot in common, the biggest of which is optimism and vitality.

in his later years, Zhou Youguang once wrote an article called "the optimistic Life of Zhang Yunhe". In his eyes, this lady is not only what people call "the last boudoir", but also a vibrant modern new woman.

the composition of her student days turned the desolate backward season into a joyful harvest festival; she participated in the Mandarin competition for college students, setting her title "now" to persuade young people to seize the present and not be infatuated with the past; she edited newspaper supplements and proposed that "women are not flowers" and opposed the description of female staff as "vases."

in the eyes of Zeng Qiang, granddaughter Zeng Qiang, the character of Grandma Zhang is just like Song ci, which is both graceful and unrestrained, gentle and unyielding.

during the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards came to copy their homes, but in Zhang Yunhe's view, these Red Guards were just naive children, incarnated as very strict directors at this time. As for herself, she is used to being a clown on the stage, and at this very moment, she should be acting to play with the children.

looking back on the storm, she didn't complain at all and said, "am I angry that my grandson is playing monkey in front of me?" Of course not. "

it is said that life is like a play. Sometimes people do need a spirit of play so that they can be out of it and not get caught up in pain.

most of the intellectuals with a backbone were doomed in the Cultural Revolution. At that time, someone appeared in the first couplet: "Ivan Peter Stalin", and Zhou Youguang casually pointed out the lower couplet: "Qin Huang, Han Wu, Mao Zedong". All of a sudden, he poked a hornet's nest, was beaten into a counter-revolution and was sent to Pingluo, Ningxia.

in Pingluo, he contracted glaucoma and was in critical condition. Zhang Yunhe and his granddaughter borrowed money in Beijing and, with the help of kind-hearted people, sent medicine to Zhou Youguang every month for a total of four years and four months.

Zhou Youguang remembers all the interesting things when he recalls those dark days.

Let's take a look at his "wild goose dung rain": "I only heard a strange cry from a leading comrade of wild geese, and everyone defecated collectively, like a shower, pouring down, accurately falling on the heads of the May Seven soldiers at the rally." Although he was wearing a big straw hat, he was still stained with a lot of feces, but in his view, goose droppings accurately fell on the head of the crowd only once in 10,000 years, so he laughed that he was too lucky and encountered a happy timely rain.

he was assigned to a farm in Ningxia to guard the sorghum fields with Mr. Lin Handa, which was deserted. Two old men were lying in the sorghum fields, looking up at the sky and talking about the popularization of Chinese. Lin Handa asked him which term would be better for "the undead" and "widow". Zhou Youguang jokingly replied, "the widow of the big man is the widow, and the widow of the small potato is the widow."

it was with what the couple called the "Ah Q spirit" that they finally survived the disaster.

  Zhou Youguang, who returned to Beijing, published a series of works on linguistics and did not retire until the age of 85. A reporter asked him: if you are a hundred years old all your life, what experience can you leave to future generations? He replied: if there is, it is to adhere to life-long self-education, 100-year-old self-study.

A Sharp typewriter is Zhou Youguang's treasure. He learned to type as early as 1988.

this drive of "never too old to learn" infected Zhang Yonghe. At the age of 86, to reprint the Zhang family's family publication Shui, the second Miss Zhang decided to learn to type. Her teacher, of course, is Zhou Youguang, whom Shen Congwen called "Zhou encyclopedia".

Zhang Yunhe is from Hefei. Putonghua is not standard. "half Jing (Beijing), half Fei (Hefei)" is always misspelled. At this time, all you need is a "help", and Zhou Youguang will come and help her correct it.

it can be said that every word Yun and typed is imbued with her husband's love and patience, so the first thing she can type is the word "dear". It was with this typewriter that Zhang Yunhe created works such as The Last Girl and published his first work at the age of 88.

if typing is "the trial of the woman knocking on her husband", then when it comes to singing Kunqu Opera, it is "the woman sings along with the husband". In his later years, Zhang Yunhe set up the Kunqu Opera study Society with Yu Pingbo and others, and Zhou Youguang often accompanied her to participate in the Quiche activities. On Yun he's 70th birthday, Zhou Youguang gave her a set of complete works of Tang Xianzu, and the old lady said sweetly, "he knows what I'm thinking."

of course, husband and wife also have differences. Zhang Yunhe is a "poetic person" with traditional cultural charm, while Zhou Youguang is a "scientific person" who is well organized and eloquent. Different personalities do not contradict each other but complement each other. Take music as an example, he followed her to listen to Kunqu Opera, while she followed her to listen to Western music.

their marriage life is a combination of elegance and elegance. Often invite some "dear" to attend the "Butterfly Club" of "a pot of wine and a dish of vegetables" from time to time, and even carry out the "New Water order" at the banquet. With the help of their friends, they wrote down the words and songs with staff scores, so that musicians from any country could sing when they picked up the score.

"extremely happy" and "extremely proud" became the colloquial words of Zhang Yunhe in his later years. They drink tea at 10:00 in the morning and three or four o'clock in the afternoon every day. Sometimes they also drink coffee and have snacks. When drinking tea, the two of them "raise their glasses to each other's eyebrows", which is not only for fun but also an expression of mutual respect. The younger generation all laughed at them as "two elders without guessing".

Old people often say, "I am old. I live one day less." The ideas of Zhou Youguang and his wife are completely different. Mr. Zhou once said, "I don't care whether I am old or not. I live more than one day." His theory is that when a person is over 92, the age should be recalculated. At the age of 80, he still calls himself a "twelve-year-old grandfather."

Yonghe is very beautiful. when she was young, the photo appeared on the cover of the magazine, and the publisher Fan said her face was in the golden ratio. She wears Chinese clothes all her life and braids her hair with black thread and silver hair at the top of her head in her old age. She is still a fashionable and elegant old lady.

I have seen a picture taken by the two elders in 1992, in which they stood among the flowers, snuggled up to each other, and read a book together. This scene reminds people of Baodai reading the Story of the Western Chamber together.

on Yu Pingbo's wife Xu Yinghuan's birthday, Yun once wrote a poem of congratulations, which said, "People who are affectionate are not old, but it is better to be affectionate until they are old."

affectionate people are not old. It is good to say that only those who are full of enthusiasm for life can always maintain their vitality and make every ordinary life enjoyable. Even if such a person is old, his heart is always young.

after Yonghe died, Zhou Youguang was so empty that he didn't want to go back to his bedroom Rest. Every day he fell asleep on the sofa bed in his study. On the chest of drawers opposite the sofa bed, there was a row of enlarged photos of Yonghe. In the picture, she smiled at him, beautiful as before.