Saijinhua

Saijinhua

Sai Jinhua (1870 or 1864-1936), whose original name was Zhao Caiyun, also known as Fu Caiyun, was born in Yi County, Anhui Province. When he was young, he was sold to the so-called "flower boat" in Suzhou as a prostitute.

In 1887 (the 13th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu), Hong Jun, a former criminal champion, returned to his hometown to keep filial piety. He fell in love with Caiyun at first sight, so he accepted him as his concubine. Hong was 48 years old and Fu Caiyun was only 15 years old. Soon after, Hong Jun was appointed minister to the Russian Empire, the German Empire, the Austro Hungarian Empire, and the Netherlands. His wife was afraid of foreign customs, so she asked Caiyun to accompany him abroad. He returned with Hong Jun and soon died.

In 1894, on the way back to Suzhou, Fu Caiyun absconded to Shanghai as a prostitute and changed his name to Cao Menglan. Later, he went to Tianjin and changed his name to saijinhua. When the Allied forces of the eight powers captured Beijing in 1900, they lived in stone Hutong of Beijing as prostitutes. They had contact with some German officers and changed their men's clothes to visit the Royal Garden Xiyuan (now Zhongnanhai). In 1903, he was jailed in Beijing for maltreating young prostitutes to death. After returning to Suzhou, he was released and moved to Shanghai. He lived in poverty in his later years and died in Beijing in 1936.

There are many versions of Sai Jinhua's date of birth, mainly in 1864, 1871, 1872 and 1874. Because the date of birth is uncertain, there are different versions of the age in her life story.

Life of the characters

Early experience

Sai Jinhua's maiden name is Zhao Lingfei and her breast name is Zhao Caiyun (surnamed Zheng). She was born in Yi County, Huizhou, Anhui Province on October 9, 1872 (the 11th year of Tongzhi). Later, he moved to Suzhou with his father. In 1886 (the 12th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu), he was a member of the Qing Dynasty on a flower boat on the Suzhou River and changed his name

Fu Caiyun

. After that, I went to the sea to meet the guests.

The minister's wife

In 1886, Hong Shouxu was the number one scholar in Suzhou. When he first met saijinhua, Hong Jun was attracted by her beauty. On the 14th of the first month of 1887, Hong Junna saijinhua became the third aunt, and changed her name to the third aunt

Hong Mengluan

. In May 1887 (the 13th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu), the Qing government appointed Hong Jun as an envoy to Germany, Russia, the Netherlands and Austria. Hong Jun's wife, who is not willing to go with Hong Jun, orders Sai Jinhua to go with him, and borrows Gao Ming's clothes to Sai Jinhua. Therefore, Sai Jinhua sent envoys to the four countries in the name of his wife. during the mission, he lived in Berlin for several years, went to St. Petersburg, Geneva and other places, and worked in the upper class. He was received by Wilhelm II and queen Augusta Victoria. During this period, he met the later commander-in-chief of the Eight Power Allied forces, vadesy. While living in Berlin, Sai Jinhua and Hong Jun gave birth to a daughter, named De Guan. On November 30, 1892 (the 18th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu), Hong Jun returned to Shanghai and arrived in Beijing at the end of December. He was the left servant of the military department and still lived in the capital.

To be a prostitute again

In 1893 (the 19th year of Guangxu), on August 23 of the lunar calendar, Hong Jun died of illness. Sai Jinhua left Hong's home and stayed in Shanghai on the way of escorting Hong Jun's coffin back to Suzhou. Sai Jinhua rents a house in yanfengli, next to dingfengli on the second road, and buys two girls. They are named Cao Menglan and Fu Caiyun. Because of the signboards of the first lady and the minister's wife, she is famous in Shanghai and is known as the number one scholar in Huabang. In the summer of 1898 (the 24th year of Guangxu), Lu Runxiang, the number one scholar in Suzhou, colluded with the magistrate of Shanghai and forced Sai Jinhua to leave Shanghai. In order to avoid the disaster, Sai Jinhua went north to Tianjin and first lived in Gao Xiaomei's team. Many people came to support her. Later, he rented a house at the original site of the old "Jinhua" brothel on Binjiang North Road, listed "saijinhua Shuyu", changed its name to saijinhua, and organized "Jinhua class". In 1899 (the 25th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu), he moved to Beijing, lived in Xidan stone Hutong, and successively set up business in Gaobei Hutong and Shannxi lane. He was the second most famous scholar and businessman in the capital, Lu Yufang. Later, he moved back to Tianjin. During this period, sun zuozhou, a Peking opera fan named Shaotang, said that sun San ye had been living with Sai Jinhua to support her book. The close relationship between saijinhua and sun zuozhou also affected the business of saijinhua. Wu Jianren, a famous novelist in the late Qing Dynasty, was one of the "last two monsters" among the famous prostitutes on the sea because of her legendary experience.

Protect Beijing

During the reign of gengzi, there was a Boxer Rebellion in Tianjin, and Sai Jinhua fled to Tongzhou, Beijing. Sai Jinhua was able to talk with German soldiers because of her experience in Germany and her ability to speak German, so she had contact with the commander-in-chief of the Eight Power Allied forces, waldsey. On the one hand, Sai Jinhua raised military supplies for the Allied forces, on the other hand, he dissuaded wadesi from killing innocent people indiscriminately and protected Beijing citizens, which played a positive role in history. At the same time, he tried to persuade clinde's widow to build a memorial archway of clinde stele to end clinde's murder. The people in Beijing are very grateful to Sai Jinhua, who is called "the second master of the negotiation".

How many marriages

In April 1903 (the 29th year of Guangxu), Fengling, a girl in Jinhua class, couldn't bear prostitution and committed suicide by taking opium for a living. Sai Jinhua was arrested by Gao Di Nan, the censor of the city patrol, and sent to the Ministry of punishment. In May, she was deported to Suzhou and released from prison. After Sai Jinhua got out of prison, her class broke up and her family wealth was also lost. She returned to Shanghai to hang out with Li Cuixiang, Lin jiangxue, Hua cuiqin, Lin Daiyu and Lu Lanfang. In 1905 (the 31st year of Guangxu), Sai Jinhua broke off his relationship with sun zuozhou. In 1911 (the third year of Xuantong), Sai Jinhua married Cao Ruizhong, the inspector of Shanghai Nanjing railway section, as a concubine. The next year Cao died and became a prostitute again. In 1913, Sai Jinhua met Wei Sikong, a former member of the Senate and director of Jiangxi civil affairs department. In 1916, they went to Beijing together and lived in Cherry Street outside the front gate of Beijing. On June 20, 1918, Sai Jinhua and Wei Sigong got married in Shanghai and changed their names

Wei Zhao Lingfei

. In July 1921, Wei Si Gong died of illness.

Life in old age

After Wei Sigong died, Sai Jinhua moved out of the Wei family and into the house of Tianqiao jurenli. Sai Jinhua was poor in her later years and received many people's help. She spent her last days with her maid Gu MA (Gu Jiang's). On December 4, 1936, Sai Jinhua died of illness in Beijing at the age of 66. after Sai Jinhua died, with the help of a kind-hearted man, she was buried beside the "fragrant tomb" in Taoran Pavilion. Saijinhua tomb is on the south slope of jinqiudun, to the west of Xiangzhong and yingwuzhong. The tomb is made of marble and the tombstone is 1.8 meters high granite. It is said that the tombstone was inscribed by Qi Baishi, a famous calligrapher and painter. Tao Ran Pavilion also has three stone inscriptions about Sai Jinhua's life: the picture of colored clouds, the song before colored clouds and the song after colored clouds. Caiyuntu is a portrait of Sai Jinhua painted by famous calligrapher and painter Zhang Daqian. The former caiyunqu and caiyunhouqu are long poems written by fan Zengxiang for Sai Jinhua.

The truth of vasai case

As for the well-known vasai case, Sai Jinhua said that sometimes he didn't know each other, sometimes he knew each other, sometimes he lived with vasai, so his oral statement was not reliable. Qi Rushan once wrote that Sai Jinhua and wadeshi had only met one or two sides, and could not have any influence on wadeshi and Mrs. klindre. Because Sai Jinhua even asked Qi Rushan to intercede with the German army for two small things. First, Liu Haisan, under Sai Jinhua, was arrested by the German administration in Beijing at that time. Saijinhua asked Qi Rushan to explain clearly. Second, when saijinhua sold potatoes to the German army as military provisions, the potatoes were frozen and the German officers did not want them. He asked Qi Rushan to explain clearly. Therefore, Qi Rushan believes that saijinhua is only for business, has contacts with lower level German officers, and has little influence in the German army. even Sai Jinhua's contact with the commander-in-chief of the Eight Power Allied forces, vadesy, has also been questioned. Because it was August 16, 1900 that the Allied forces of eight countries captured Beijing, and in October of the same year, wadesi led 900 German troops to China, which is different from various historical records about saijinhua. For example, Li Ao, a famous scholar in Taiwan, once wrote to Xu Shiying after reading the Memoirs of Xu Shiying, a former Beiyang government official from Anhui Province, in the talk show Li Ao Youyu, broadcast on Phoenix Satellite TV at 11:00 a.m. on May 8, 2006. He pointed out that the records about sai Jinhua and wadesi were mostly from unofficial history, and the accuracy was questionable Because Beijing was the first to be conquered and wadesi was the last to come to China.

Character evaluation

Wu Chengju's Dongyuan Shichao: "in the year of gengzi, the city of Madame was stronger than the city of emperor. Hundreds of officials touch the dust and fog one after another, and thousands of families are sad and smoke. Perseverance for the Qing Dynasty, Wenyan calm Han mountains and rivers. Just because the solution is a kind of moral language, a hundred million trillion living beings rely on preservation. " Lin Yutang's smoke and clouds in Beijing: "you've done some righteous deeds, and you've made contributions to society. God will always have eyes." "Beijing has finally been saved, free from mass killing and robbery, and order is gradually recovering, which depends on the blessing of Sai Jinhua, a famous prostitute." Hu Shi's new youth: "Professor of Peking University, writing biographies for prostitutes is unprecedented." "The soul of a great man in court is not as good as that of a prostitute," says Xia Yan in his lazy search for old dreams Liu Bannong's Sai Jinhua skills: "there are two" treasures "in China, Cixi and Sai Jinhua. One is in the court, the other is in the opposition; one is traitor, the other is betrayer; one is hateful, the other is pitiful." Lu Xun's this is also life: "Sai Jinhua, who had slept with the German commander-in-chief wadesie for some time in the yihequan era, had already been granted the title of the empress of nine days to protect the country!"

Artistic image

Literary image

Wu Jianren's strange situation witnessed in the past 20 years, Zhang Hong's continuation of the evil sea flower, and Zhang Chunfan's Nine Tailed turtle

Chinese PinYin : Sai Jin Hua