Zhang Chonghe

Zhang Chonghe

Zhang Chonghe (1914-june 18, 2015), female, born in Shanghai and ancestral home of Hefei, is the great granddaughter of Zhang Shusheng, the chief General of Huaijun army and the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and the fourth daughter of Suzhou educator Zhang Wuling ("the little sister of Hefei four sisters"). Zhang Chonghe went to the United States with his husband in 1949. For more than 50 years, he has taught calligraphy and Kunqu Opera in more than 20 universities, such as Harvard and Yale, and has devoted his whole life to promoting traditional Chinese culture. Known as the Republic of China girl, "the last talented woman.".

In the early morning of June 18, 2015, Zhang Chonghe died in the United States at the age of 102.

Character experience

Zhang Chonghe's great grandfather was Zhang Shusheng, a famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty, who was the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. Nai's father was Zhang Jixuan (Ji You), an educator of the Republic of China. He was famous for destroying his family and founding Suzhou Leyi girls' school, which advocated new education. The difference between Zhang Chonghe and her three sisters is that when she was only 11 months old, she adopted her granddaughter to her grandmother. My grandmother dotes on Xiao Chong and serves as her own enlightening teacher. She teaches everyone by words and deeds. Later, her grandmother invited Wu Changshuo's Gaozu and archaeologist Zhu Moqin to be her teacher. She also asked Juren Zuo to teach her how to recite poems and fill in CI. Zhang Chonghe is intelligent and highly savvy. He can recite poetry at the age of 4 and read at the age of 6. He can recite Three Character Classic and thousand character essay. For 10 years, Chong he studied the historical records, Hanshu, Zuozhuan and the book of songs behind closed doors. In her later years, Chong he always felt that these two teachers had laid a solid foundation for her to study Chinese culture. Influenced by the Buddhist grandmother, he was very compassionate in his childhood.

After his grandmother died in 1930, 16-year-old Chong he "returned to Suzhou. At his father's knee, Cheng Huan went to school in Leyi girls' school founded by his father and lived with his sisters. The four sisters set up their own literary society, the water society, and their younger brothers and neighbors set up a Jiuru Society (living in Jiuru Lane). Brothers and sisters go on outings, bicycles and ball games together. Chong he has lived in closed Hefei for a long time. He doesn't know the rules of playing and can only be a goalkeeper. His father was a fan of Kunqu Opera. He often asked the musicians to come home to teach his daughters how to make music. The four sisters set up Manting music club. Chong he gradually fell in love with Kunqu Opera and became obsessed with it. He often sang with his elder sister yuan he in Jingmeng.

In 1933, Shen Congwen married his third sister Zhaohe in Beijing. Zhang Chonghe went to the wedding and then lived in Beijing.

Zhang Chonghe was admitted as a student of Peking University.

At that time, Ji Ji, a famous teacher in the Chinese Department of Peking University, and Hu Shi, the director of the Chinese Department of Peking University, were Professor Qian Mu, Feng Youlan, Wen Yiduo, Liu Wendian, etc. Zhang Chonghe benefited a lot from the teaching of famous teachers. Even during his study in Peking University, Zhang Chonghe still did not give up his pursuit of Kunqu Opera. In the third grade, Zhang Chonghe suffered from tuberculosis and had to leave school. She was not able to get a degree from Peking University. After his recovery, Chu Anping, a member of the central daily, studied in the UK and was short of staff. Zhang Chonghe began to write essays, essays and poems in the supplement contribution.

When the Anti Japanese war broke out, Zhang Chonghe and Shen Congwen's family lived in Southwest China. In Kunming, Shen Congwen helped her get a job in the textbook selection committee under the Ministry of education. Shen Congwen selected novels, Zhu Ziqing selected prose, Zhang Chonghe selected Sanqu. One year later, the unit was dissolved, and she worked in the ritual music hall under the Ministry of education in Chongqing to organize the ritual music. She wrote 24 pieces of ritual music with a brush, which showed her calligraphy art for the first time. There are many records about this in Mei Yiqi's Tsinghua diary.

Zhang Chonghe is dignified, generous and enthusiastic. She is very popular. She has many teachers and friends in the field of science and education in Southwest China. In Chongqing, she got to know famous people such as Zhang Shizhao and Shen Yinmo, etc., and they sang with each other's poems. Zhang Chong and Shen Yinmo, a great calligrapher, are teachers. They often take a truck to send kerosene to Shen's house in Geleshan for advice. On his first visit to the Shen family, Shen asked Zhang Chonghe to write a few words for him. After reading them, Shen commented on them as "Ming people learn from Jin people". Thanks to the affection of these celebrities, Zhang Chonghe's poetry creation also went to a higher level.

Zhang Shizhao loved her talent and presented her poems to Zhang Chonghe, calling her Cai Wenji, while Jiao Juyin, a dramatist, called her Li Qingzhao. Zhang Chong and Dan Qing also painted a painting of ladies.

Promoting Kunqu Opera

Zhang and Hans first lived in Berkeley, California, and then moved to Beigang, Connecticut. Fu taught Chinese poetry at Yale University, and Zhang taught Chinese calligraphy and Kunqu Opera at the school of fine arts. Zhang Chonghe joked that her American students regard learning Chinese calligraphy as painting, but they have deepened their understanding of the broad and profound traditional Chinese culture. Zhang also taught and demonstrated Kunqu Opera in 23 universities and academic institutes in Canada, France, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

In order to pass on Kunqu Opera in the United States, she also taught Kunqu Opera from heart to mouth and carefully trained her young daughter Fu Aima to learn Kunqu Opera. At first, little Emma was not interested in Kunqu Opera and didn't want to learn it. Her daughter loves to eat tangerine peel plum, so she uses tangerine peel plum as "bait" and sings a tune to give a tangerine peel plum, which is really "instant effect". Chong he also taught his daughter to play flute. After her training, Fu Emma appeared on the stage at the age of 9. Sometimes, mother and daughter perform "double reed" at the same time, either you sing and I sing, or I sing and you sing, to publicize Chinese traditional culture to Americans, which is very interesting.

Zhang Chonghe's Kunqu performance shocked the Americans to the beauty of Kunqu. Zhang Chonghe is especially gratified that she has four high feet, and has made great contributions in promoting Kunqu opera to be listed as "representative works of human oral and intangible heritage" by UNESCO.

Back home

In 1979, she returned to her hometown, where she had been away for 30 years. After that, she continued to visit relatives and friends. In the courtyard of jiuruxiang old house in Suzhou, she looks for her young dream in the face of towering old trees and deep ancient wells.

On April 13, 1981, the Chinese Department of the Metropolitan Museum of New York held a grand concert of "Jin Ping Mei" in Mingxuan, which is to be completed in imitation of Suzhou garden.

In 1986, a performance was held in Beijing to commemorate the 370th anniversary of Tang Xianzu's death. She and her elder sister were invited by the government. She and Yuan he, who was 80 years old, played the opposite play "a dream in the garden", and invited the poet Bian Zhilin to watch it. Mr. Yu Pingbo saw the stills of her performance and said it was "the most meaningful one".

In the autumn of 2004, Zhang Chonghe held his first painting and calligraphy exhibition in Beijing. The beautiful couplets in Li script are elegant and elegant in their simplicity. The Kunqu gongchi score is very interesting, especially the 100th volume of Shupu written by sun Guoting, a calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty at the age of 84.

Zhang Chonghe especially likes to wear cheongsam. The cheongsam with different colors and lengths is the most popular in his family's wardrobe. In October 2004, when she got together with the friends of Suzhou music club, she was 90 years old. She had a beautiful face and elegant manner. She was dressed in a crimson velvet cheongsam and a black shawl. She was standing beside the carved railings and her voice brightened, which won applause from the audience. Someone exclaimed: This is the last lady of the family.

At 1 pm on June 17, 2015, Zhang Chonghe, a lady of the Republic of China and the last talented woman, died in the United States at the age of 102. The four sisters in Hefei became the most famous.

family life

Get married and go to the United States

In 1947, Zhang Chonghe was a young woman. She taught Kunqu Opera in Peking University and lived with her third sister Zhaohe. In September of that year, Shen Congwen introduced him to Fu Hansi, a foreign professor of western languages at Peking University. As a Jew who lived in Germany for a long time, he was proficient in German, French, English and Italian literature. After receiving his doctorate from the University of California, he went to China to study Chinese, engaged in the research and teaching of Chinese history and literature, and became a Sinologist worthy of the name. In November 1948, Zhang Chonghe and Hansi married Qin and Jin Dynasties. In January of the next year, they both went to the United States to settle down.

Fu Hansi, Chonghe's husband, was originally translated as "Hansi", which was changed to "Hansi" by Chonghe's proposal. Although he is a foreigner, he thinks of Han. They share the same interests, have a strong interest in Chinese poetry and history, and have attainments. Hans wrote Chinese medieval history for world history published in Germany. He also took part in the translation of the twenty four histories of China. In 1980, when Shen Congwen visited the United States to give lectures, he was translated by Hansi, which was very popular with the audience. Chong and his wife cooperated to complete the English translation of Shupu and xushupu. This Chinese and Western couple has made due contributions to the cultural exchanges between China and the United States.

Life in old age

Since Zhang Chonghe studied in Peking University in the 1930s, he lived in the southwest after the Anti Japanese War, and then returned to Peking University to teach. Zhang Chonghe lived with his third sister Zhaohe and his family for quite some time. Zhang Chong and his younger brothers grew up listening to Shen Er GE's stories when they were children. Shen Congwen takes care of Zhang Chonghe like a little sister. Chong he respected and admired Shen Congwen, and sometimes acted coquettishly by selling small things. In 1980, Shen Congwen went to the United States to give lectures. When he said goodbye in San Francisco, he used western etiquette to kiss his third sister, and then Shen Congwen. Chong he laughed at him: "he's stiff and unresponsive, like a wood carving big Ah Fu."

On August 26, 2004, his wife Fu Hansi left her. Over 90 years old, Chong he has been working hard in the inkstone field while sorting out Hansi's works. Her other subject was running the small courtyard in front of her apartment. In addition to the ornamental peony and rose, some edible scallion, garlic and seasonal vegetables are also planted. I will plant flowers and plants, melons and beans. The essence of labor

Chinese PinYin : Zhang Chong He