About the death of Yu Dafu

On the evening of August 29, 1945, Yu Dafu was drinking and chatting with a few acquaintances at home. An Indonesian young man came to him. He was wearing pajamas and slippers. Go out with the young man. The guests dispersed when he did not return. Indonesian lady He Li went into labor the next day and gave birth to her second child, Yu Meilan. However, her father disappeared without seeing her birth and never came back. Later, according to nearby residents, they saw a car parked at the intersection with someone sitting inside waiting. Yu Dafu and another person got into the car and drove away. This is what happened on the night Yu Dafu disappeared as reported in many articles.

After Mr. Hu Yuzhi returned to China in 1946, he published "The Exile and Disappearance of Yu Dafu", which was the only reliable official report at that time. However, the author's conclusion that Duff was killed by the Japanese military police was only based on his understanding of Duff's situation and his estimation and speculation of various signs before and after, without any real evidence. Mr. Hu personally told me that when the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the first ambassador sent to Indonesia was Uncle Wang Ren, who had lived in exile in Indonesia and lived in Dafu's house pretending to be a janitor and was protected by "Boss Zhao". . Hu Laoyuan expected that after he took office, he would investigate Yu Dafu's death through diplomatic channels and get to the bottom of it: but no, he did nothing. Not only did Uncle Wang Ren not pursue the case, he also told his acquaintances that Yu Dafu was out of integrity by working as a translator for the Japanese, and he seemed to have deserved his death. Hu Yuzhi's report was originally written to the Anti-Enemy Association of the Literary and Art Circles led by the Communist Party of China at that time. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Chinese Writers Association were established on this basis. For writers like Yu Dafu, they were directly involved in the Anti-Japanese War. The enemy killed and martyred people without any investigation or any indication. Except for the occasional appearance of Yu Dafu's name in literary criticism articles, he has disappeared from readers. His works were not republished until the 1980s after the reform and opening up, and the serious investigation into his death was entirely done by Japanese scholars.

First, Japanese scholars Mr. Inaba Shoji and Mr. Ito Toramaru began to collect and study Yu Dafu's works and life materials in the 1950s. They first mimeographed them at their own expense, and then published them in 1961 by the "Chinese Literature Society" of the Chinese Department of the University of Tokyo. The first issue of the official newspaper "Chinese Literature Research" began to attract the attention of the Japanese literary circle. By 1968, Suzuki Masao, who was a graduate student at Osaka City University at the time, joined the work, and "Ikutafu Research Materials" became the fifth volume of the Oriental Studies Literature Series of the University of Tokyo, and was officially published in a single volume in October 1969. to China. However, at that time, only a few universities, Yu Dafu's family, and a very small number of people in mainland China collected this book. However, it aroused enthusiastic responses in the literary circles of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States. In order to continue to collect Yu Dafu's late works and investigate the cause of his death, Suzuki went to Singapore and Indonesia, where Yu Dafu was exiled, in 1971. For more than a year, he interviewed hundreds of relevant figures and collected overseas works and materials. In 1973 and 1974, Suzuki Two volumes of "Supplementary Materials on Yu Dafu" were published in succession. In the past ten years, these three books have become the main materials for studying Yu Dafu at home and abroad, especially for studying his late period.

During this period, there were many legends about Yu Dafu's death overseas, especially in Hong Kong and Taipei. In addition to being killed by the Japanese military police, others said that he was killed by the Chinese or Indonesian prostitutes. Party assassination. Even in 1988, someone wrote an article and published it in Hong Kong's "Dacheng" magazine, saying that he had traveled to Indonesia. Overseas Chinese in Medan, Sumatra, said that Yu Dafu was betrayed by Uncle Wang Ren and died. Of course, it was even more nonsense.

After Masao Suzuki went to Indonesia, based on the clues obtained from his interviews, he continued to investigate many Japanese military police members and other related people who had been to Indonesia at that time throughout Japan. At the beginning, he was skeptical, and as a Japanese citizen, he naturally went into the investigation with the hope of denying that Yu Dafu was killed by the Japanese military police. But the result was: the fact was exactly the opposite of what he hoped. It turns out that the captain who gave the order is still alive, but he lives in seclusion in the countryside out of fear of crime. Thanks to clues provided by the family members of the military police who participated in the execution, Suzuki found him. After many interviews and patient persuasion, he agreed not to report or pursue the crime, just for the sake of safety. It is our responsibility to announce to the world the truth about Yu Dafu’s death.

Finally, it became clear that after the Japanese military headquarters knew that Zhao Lian was Yu Dafu, they lured him to Tokyo and Shanghai but were severely rejected. They were waiting for further consideration on how to deal with it. At this time, Japan declared a total surrender, and the local military police were ordered to retreat before they were ordered to retreat. Deciding to kill Yu Dafu, they sent four military police on the evening of August 29 to find an Indonesian to lure Yu Dafu out, drove him to a nearby wilderness, and strangled him alive with extremely cruel methods. In September 1985, Suzuki was invited by China to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Yu Dafu's martyrdom academic symposium and attended the conference held in Yu Dafu's hometown in Fuyang, Zhejiang. For the first time, Suzuki publicly released a report with conclusive evidence that Yu Dafu was secretly killed by the Japanese military police. At this point, after forty years, Yu Dafu's death has truly come to light and can be concluded.

The death of Xu Zhimo

The bitter fruit of marriage

In October 1926, Xu Zhimo and Lu Xiaoman held a grand wedding, which caused quite a sensation. After the marriage, the two did live a fairy-like life for a few months. Xu Zhimo has Lu Xiaoman and Lu Xiaoman's love. According to them, he has become a spiritual rich man. He seems to be extremely happy. In the bunch of diaries "Mei Xuan Xiao Yu", Xu Zhimo once said that getting Lu Xiaoman helped him make a living out of a troubled life. He compared it to being a first-class official, making millions, and even going to heaven after his death. Come preciously. However, this happiness is extremely short-lived. The reality of married life is too far away from Xu Zhimo’s ideal love life.

At the beginning, Xu Zhimo set up the model of Browning and his wife for his marriage. He pursued Lu Xiaoman not only to marry a beautiful and intelligent woman, but also to realize her life career. a part of. Before the marriage, Xu Zhimo expressed his bright and magnificent ideals to Lu Xiaoman many times. However, Xu Zhimo was wrong. After marriage, Lu Xiaoman's old habits were hard to change and she remained the same. After all, she did not become China's Mrs. Browning.

Lu Xiaoman has always been pampered. In the past, there was a reputation in Peking as a lady who knew how to spend money. After marriage, his material desires continued unabated, and Xu Zhimo was helpless. Xu Zhimo had already spent a lot of money on getting engaged and getting married. By the time he and Lu Xiaoman returned to Shanghai from Xia Shi, he was deeply in debt. In Shanghai, living in a house costs a lot of money in rent, and other expenses are also considerable. For this reason, Xu Zhimo had to give lectures at Guanghua University, Soochow University Law School, and Daxia University at the same time. He also had to write poems and essays after class to earn royalties. The income earned in January was at least more than a thousand yuan, but it was still not enough for Lu Xiaoman's squandering.

Lu Xiaoman loves to play, and her addiction to nightlife makes her go to bed at dawn every day and sleep until two o'clock in the afternoon. It wasn't until the lights were turned on at night that the room started to show life. She has a personal girl. Her parents also had two girls waiting on them, as well as a driver and an old servant. It was quite a grand occasion. During holidays and even during normal times, Lu Xiaoman often books seats in theaters and other entertainment venues. The most ridiculous thing is that once, she took her whole family and guests to a Moertangzi to serve wine for the so-called annual Chrysanthemum Festival.

Before Lu Xiaoman got married, she was already known as a social butterfly in Shanghai. He settled in Shanghai with Xu Zhimo and became famous on both sides of the Pujiang River. Lu Xiaoman likes to sing, especially to praise opera actors. Lu Xiaoman usually spends money like water, and he spends a lot of money on winning a corner without any hesitation.

What is even more uncomfortable is that Xu Zhimo not only has to watch Lu Xiaoman's plays and accompany Lu Xiaoman as an actor, but sometimes he also has to do what he likes, and his wife sings and her husband follows her, participates in performances, and makes a living. The character plays for her. Xu Zhimo was extremely fed up, but there was nothing he could do.

Lu Xiaoman was frail and sick, which not only caused a huge expense, but also tortured Xu Zhimo’s spirit. Lu Dingshan's "Old News of Chunshen" records this tragedy. What happened was: Lu Xiaoman was in poor health and had been singing for two days in a row. His old illness relapsed and he suffered from syncope. Weng Ruiwu had a unique massage skill. He was the direct descendant of Ding Fengshan and often massaged Lu Xiaoman. He was really good at curing illnesses. Xu Zhimo has a free and easy nature. He believes that the relationship between husband and wife is love and the relationship between friends is affection. From this point of view, he also regarded Weng Ruiwu and Lu Xiaoman calmly when Luo Ru was half-understanding and caressing them with his skillful hands. He said: "This is medical treatment, there is nothing to avoid." Weng Ruiwu was originally a child of an aristocratic family. His father Yinruo served as the prefect of Guilin successively. He was famous for his paintings. The family had a collection of Ding Yi calligraphy and paintings, and a kitchen full of cabinets. Lu Xiaoman loves beauty by nature and likes to do things, while Weng Ruiwu always presents famous paintings on his sleeve to win his favor. He also taught Lu Xiaoman to smoke aphrodisiac, and the disease was cured immediately. Therefore, Lu Xiaoman was overjoyed, and Weng Ruiwu often had a couch spread out across the bed, with lamps and lamps between him and his pillow.

And Xu Zhimo has a philosophy that says: Since there are differences in love between men and women, a husband must not prohibit his wife from making friends. What's more, the soft hibiscus couch seems to be close, so they can only talk about love, not make love. Therefore, between men and women, the most polite and innocent place is the smoking couch, while the most ambiguous and noisy place is playing cards. Therefore, Xu Zhimo does not object to Lu Xiaoman smoking opium, but objects to Lu Xiaoman playing mahjong. In fact, Xu Zhimo loves Lu Xiaoman everything. As long as Lu Xiaoman likes it, he will sacrifice anything. But a woman's psychology is very complicated and mysterious. Lu Xiaoman does love Zhimo, but she also loves Weng Ruiwu.

In fact, at first, Xu Zhimo just let Weng Ruiwu massage and treat Lu Xiaoman calmly. He did not expect that Lu Xiaoman would be so indulgent and develop into an affair with Weng Ruiwu. In the beginning, Xu Zhimo asked Lu Xiaoman to take drugs to cure his illness, but he didn't know that he became addicted and got out of hand.

Xu Zhimo was in great pain. He said angrily that we are all in depravity now. Such friends can only be called fair-weather friends. There is no inspiration and no new vitality for each other. What kind of "action" can we talk about? , what career.

Teaching is just for the sake of rice

Xu Zhimo, who was troubled by boredom, spent a lot of energy on teaching in addition to writing some poetry and prose. Xu Zhimo took the advice of Hu Shi and other friends and wanted to move his family north to change the environment, hoping to regain his strength and lead a better life. Helpless, Lu Xiaoman refused to give up Shanghai. Xu Zhimo believes that he can no longer bear the environment in Shanghai, and if he continues to stay there, even he will be destroyed. Therefore, he had no choice but to reluctantly leave. After the autumn of 1930, Xu Zhimo resigned from his position as a professor at Nanjing Central University. At the invitation of Hu Shi, he became a professor at Peking University and concurrently served as a professor at the Women's Normal University. He ate and lived in Hu Shi's home, and his friends took good care of him. In a letter to Lu Xiaoman on February 24, 1931, Xu Zhimo said that Hu Shi’s family treated him very well and had prepared everything for him, including quilts and so on.

Even so, Xu Zhimo was in Peiping, but Lu Xiaoman, who was in Shanghai, had to travel frequently between Ping and Shanghai. In the first six months of 1931, he traveled back and forth between Shanghai and Peiping eight times. In addition to sending wages, his main purpose was to persuade Lu Xiaoman to move north. In the letters Xu Zhimo wrote to Lu Xiaoman during this period, this aspect was the central topic. Unexpectedly, Lu Xiaoman did not change his bad habits and did not even leave Shanghai.

His income at that time was not small, and his expenses in Peiping were not large. However, he was suffering from financial constraints, heavy debts, and financial embarrassment. In a letter home to Lu Xiaoman, Xu Zhimo looked extremely embarrassed:

...I am so anxious about the money issue that I can’t sleep. Now the first thing I look forward to is getting my salary before the holiday, but even if it is before the holiday, it will be sent to Shanghai and will be sent after the holiday. And the two hundred and sixty yuan arrived in the blink of an eye, and the family issued a check, and even the rent for two months was more than three hundred yuan, not counting the holidays. I don't know how to make up for it? There is nowhere to borrow money. I also have some book money, car money, and reward money here, no less than a hundred yuan. I was really hesitant. I wanted to have extra money to help, but unfortunately nothing has been successful so far. Everything is in the clouds. What should I do? Money is really hateful. It’s hard to come in and easy to go. Since March of the Gregorian calendar, not counting my own use, travel expenses, etc., but including the bank and your household expenses, I already have 2,050 yuan. If I send another 450 yuan during the festival, it will be equivalent to 2,500 yuan... I think about it, our husband and wife are really waking up! If you continue to follow the same rules, it really doesn't make sense. Besides, I originally allowed five hundred yuan per month for your household and special expenses. In addition to my original intention of teaching, I also have two hundred talents to rely on in translation. Taken together, the average is close to six hundred, which is still easy to maintain. I didn't want everything to turn upside down in the past six months. My mother passed away and I was running back and forth like the wind wrapping a sail. The body is unstable, and the mind is also unstable. How to translate Shakespeare? As a result, the school only had more than RMB 500, and half of it was deducted in the first month. My dear, do you think I will suffer in this situation? At the same time, it seems like you don’t even have enough for five hundred, so what should I do?

What’s even worse is that the relationship between Xu Zhimo and his wife worsened even more at that time. Judging from the 25 existing letters written by Xu Zhimo to Lu Xiaoman in 1931, the pain Xu Zhimo endured is truly indescribable. Because Lu Xiaoman has become increasingly depraved, his relatives and friends scold Xu Zhimo for being strict and righteous, and he has no words to answer. He was unwilling to have a public quarrel, let alone a divorce. However, "although the smoke does not come out, but is swallowed inward, wouldn't it be worse and more entangled?" As a result, advice and enlightenment were of no avail, and disaster finally struck.

The soul returns to the blue sky. In early November 1931, Lu Xiaoman sent more than a dozen telegrams urging Xu Zhimo to return south.

On the 11th, he went south from Peiping and arrived in Shanghai on the 13th. As soon as they met, the couple had a big quarrel. Lu Xiaoman, who was known to have a gentle temper, unexpectedly lost her temper like Miss Jiao. Xu Zhimo originally didn't want to make the relationship tense. He had no choice but to visit old friends to relieve his worries. For example, on the 14th, he went to Liu Haisu's place to see his new work after returning from overseas, had lunch at Luo Longji's place at noon, and returned to Liu Haisu's place to stay in the afternoon. In the end, it was still to no avail. Xu Zhimo couldn't bear it anymore and had to leave.

On the 18th, he took an early train to Nanjing and stayed at the house of his friend He Jingwu. In the evening, at 9:30, he went to Zhang Xinhai's house, where he also met Yang Xingfo.

Xu Zhimo and Zhang Xinhai’s wife Han Xiangmei continued to discuss the topic that had not been discussed for the 11th day and night - life and love. While chatting wildly, the host noticed that Xu Zhimo was wearing a pair of short and small suit trousers with a hole in the waist. He was turning around like a spiral, looking for a long-lost belt, which aroused everyone's curiosity. laugh. He laughed at himself and said that he had grabbed it and put it on in a hurry before leaving.

While joking, Han Xiang frowned and said: "Suppose Something Happens Tomorrow, Zhimo!"

Xu Zhimo said with a naughty smile: "You Are you afraid of my death?"

"Zhimo! It's better to be careful. Is the driver Chinese or a foreigner?"

"It doesn't matter! I always want to fly (I always want to fly), I thought the weather was sunny and suitable for flying."

"What did Xiaoman say when you took the plane this time?"

< p>"Xiaoman said that if I die on a plane, she will be Merry Widow."

At this time, Yang Xingfo said: "All widows are merry." ."

After that, everyone laughed. They talked about friends, Xu Zhimo's future life in Peking, and a mess of state affairs. Unconsciously, it was already late at night. Before leaving, Yang Xingfo was in front and Xu Zhimo was behind. He turned his head and kissed Han Xiangmei's left cheek very gently, like an eldest brother. Unexpectedly, this was a sign of eternal separation between them.

That night, he returned to He Jingwu's house to stay, which was close to the airport. He wanted to take the China Airlines postal flight Jinan back to Peiping for free. His free ticket was a gift from his friend Bao Junjian, who is the director of the finance department of China Airlines.

On the 19th, it was foggy. Thinking that Lin Huiyin was giving a speech on Chinese architectural art to foreign envoys at the Peking Union Small Auditorium that night and had to rush there, Xu Zhimo took off without hesitation.

Unfortunately, disaster has struck! The plane took off from Xuzhou at 8:10 a.m. that day. It flew north again at 10:20, and crashed at 2:00 p.m. Xu Zhimo died at the age of 36.