Although today's young people may not be familiar with Bo Yang, in the 1970s, Bo Yang's name was well-known among literary youths. He was once listed as one of the top ten best-selling writers in Taiwan. Some people say that wherever there are Chinese people, Bo Yang's works are

Bo Yang and Zhang Xianghua

Although today's young people may not be familiar with Bo Yang, in the 1970s, Bo Yang's name was well-known among literary youths.He was once listed as one of the top ten best-selling writers in Taiwan. Some people say that wherever there are Chinese people, Bo Yang's works are circulated.

There is a saying that "articles hate destiny." Bo Yang's life seems to be practicing this sentence. He wrote good articles, but his fate was very bumpy.

A rough life

Bai Yang’s real name is Guo Dingsheng , and he was born probably in 1920. He said this because he did not remember his birthday, he called himself a "wild animal" in his memoirs. Regarding his birth, he only remembered one year, but in his later years, even this year was blurred, so he tentatively counted it as 1920.

Bo Yang

Bo Yang lost his mother when he was young. Bo Yang has no memory of his biological mother. He has no idea who his mother was, when she died, or why she died.

After his father remarried, Bo Yang once regarded the new lady as his mother. However, under the abuse and beatings from his stepmother, he gradually realized that he was a child without a mother.

"Everyone has a mother, but I don't have one." Bo Yang still couldn't let go when he thought about his life experience in his later years.

Historian Tang Degang once said: "Bo Yang's life, from the day he was born, formed a standardized image in traditional Chinese society - he was a little orphan abused by the 'night mother'."

For Bo Yang, the background of childhood was dark. His father worked outside all year round, giving his stepmother unlimited opportunities to abuse him. At that time, Bo Yang said: "My stepmother doesn't beat me, and I am already living a happy life."

When he was in the sixth grade of elementary school, his stepmother finally couldn't bear the abuse of him anymore. He sent Bo Yang back to his hometown - Huixian County, Henan , where Bo Yang continued his education career.

Bo Yang’s educational path was not smooth either. In 1937, he had just entered the second grade of high school. After the July 7th Incident occurred, Bo Yang resolutely joined the army, so he did not get a high school diploma.

Later, he wanted to go to college. In order to qualify for the joint entrance examination, Bo Yang spent 5 silver dollars to forge a graduation certificate. With this certificate, he was admitted to Gansu College. But the lies couldn't be true. Within a year, Bo Yang was discovered and expelled.

Later, Bo Yang moved to Chongqing, intending to try to pass the Central University , but due to poor mathematics and English, Bo Yang dropped out of Sunshan.

As the saying goes, if you don't give up before reaching the Yellow River , your dreams will be broken twice. Bo Yang feels that he has reached the Yellow River, but he still doesn't give up.

Bo Yang found a clerical job in Chongqing. The job was mainly to register exiled college students and then distribute them to other universities to continue their studies.

At that time, Bo Yang suddenly thought why he couldn't distribute himself. After having this idea, Bo Yang repeated his old story and made another false witness. He was luckier this time. He was assigned to Northeastern University where he studied for 4 years. He was not discovered until he received his diploma.

In 1948, the Ministry of Education checked the student files and found that his documents were forged. Not only was he expelled from Northeastern University, but he was also notified nationwide that no institution was allowed to accept him.

Bo Yang studied in many places throughout his life, but never obtained a diploma. In his later years, he admitted in his memoirs that his actions were against the law and should indeed be punished.

Northeastern University was the end of his studies. At this point, Bo Yang's student days came to an end.

Although Bo Yang experienced ups and downs in his early years, he did not learn to accept the situation. instead cultivated his spirit of resisting "authority". When he joined the army in high school, Bo Yang was sent to Chongqing for training because of his outstanding performance in the army.

At that time, Chongqing was bombed by the Japanese army from time to time, and running to air raid shelters became a common occurrence. Once, he and Chiang Kai-shek hid in an air-raid shelter.

At that time, Jiang gave his own photos to every soldier and personally named them one by one. The soldiers were so excited that they couldn't help themselves. During the meal, someone else murmured to himself: "After the roll call, the leader has an impression of me."

Upon hearing this, Bo Yang immediately answered: "Don't worry! The leader will not have an impression of you. The roll call is for you to have an impression of the leader."

As soon as these words came out, everyone at the table fell silent. A squad leader was the first to break the silence and said to him with a half-smile: "You speak too fast, fast enough to kill yourself."

Unexpectedly, these words turned out to be a prophecy. After that, Bo Yang's outspoken personality not only did not change, but also wrote it out with a pen, almost cost him his life.

In 1949, Bo Yang went to Taiwan with the Kuomintang. In 1968, Bo Yang translated the American comic "Popeye" in a newspaper. The content of this comic is that a father and son established an independent kingdom on the island, and the two fought openly and secretly to run for president.

Moreover, Bo Yang also translated the word "fellows" as the opening remarks often used by Chiang Kai-shek - fellow soldiers and civilians across the country. At that time, Taiwan's political scene was controlled by the Chiang family and his son, and the satirical content of 's cartoon inevitably became sensitive.

On March 7 of the same year, Bo Yang was arrested by the Taiwan authorities on charges of "insulting the head of state" and was initially sentenced to death. However, after much mediation by his wife and friends, the sentence was changed to 12 years.

After several commutations, After being imprisoned for 9 years and 26 days, , Bo Yang was released on April 1, 1977.

After he was released from prison, Bo Yang did not change his enthusiasm for book business. He wrote a preface in "Bo Yang Said: Revelation of Zizhi Tongjian": "I do not sing praises for the king, but only speak human words for the common people."

These two sentences were later engraved next to Bo Yang's grave. This is not only Bo Yang's request for himself, but also a portrayal of his life.

got married again.

spent nine years in prison. When he was released from prison, Bo Yang was already 57 years old. Not only that, he is also facing the dilemma of being homeless.

It turned out that before Bo Yang was imprisoned, he had been married to Ni Minghua and had a daughter. However, after he was imprisoned, Ni Minghua filed for divorce and had already found a new love.

Seeing that Bai Yang was about to live on the streets, a friend helped him renovate a car garage, so that he could barely find a place to stay. Since Bo Yang had no money at the time, all his daily necessities were donated by his friends.

During this period, Bai Yang could be said to be at a low point in his life. He was nearly sixty years old and was penniless. But at this time, he met the person who would accompany him for the rest of his life.

It was at a party that Bo Yang met Zhang Xianghua, a beautiful-looking female poet.

From left to right: Bo Yang, Zhang Xianghua, Ni Kuang and his wife

Zhang Xianghua was born in 1939, which is a full 19 years younger than Bo Yang. Before they met, she had heard about this literary man who was convicted for his words, and imagined that he was also a man of fierce words and unstoppable force.

But after they actually met, Zhang Xianghua discovered that he was actually a gentle and polite person.

At the party, Bo Yang fell in love with Zhang Xianghua at first sight and politely asked for her contact information when they parted. But Zhang Xianghua didn't have a phone number and couldn't answer for a while.

Later, Bo Yang took a telephone application form for Zhang Chunhua and planned to apply for a telephone line for her. He wrote in a letter: "Thank God for granting us a meeting. To apply for a telephone, you need to go to the General Administration of Telecommunications. I have obtained an application form and sent it to you."Please fill it out and mail it to me, and I will register on your behalf... If there is no line, you will be in front and have priority. "

At that time, Zhang Chunhua was already famous in the poetry world as a poet. He published poems in "Wenxing Magazine" when he was a freshman. Before he met Bo Yang, he had already Served as executive editor of the "Grassroots" poetry magazine.

The famous Taiwanese writer Nie Hualing once commented on Zhang Xianghua's poetry: "Xianghua is very emotional. Poetry is the 'emotion' expressed by the poet's 'feeling' towards people, things, scenery and things. A shirt, a piece of blotting paper... Xianghua all has feelings and expresses all kinds of emotions - love, nostalgia, worldly sentiments, national sentiments, human sentiments, and family sentiments. "

Perhaps it was because of Zhang Xianghua's casual and romantic side as a poet that she quickly fell in love with Bo Yang, and not long after, the two planned to get married.

At this time, someone advised Zhang Xianghua, Bo Yang has been in prison and is nearly 20 years older than you, why should you marry him?

Zhang Xianghua, however, seemed extremely determined. She said that she was going to marry this "old, poor and ugly". In this way, on February 4, 1978, the two entered the marriage hall.

After getting married, Zhang Xianghua took Bo Yang for a full body check-up. , she was worried that nine years in prison would destroy Bo Yang's body.

To her surprise, Bo Yang's body was basically fine, but prison life had brought harm to his spirit.

When he was just married, Zhang Xianghua often heard Bo Yang screaming or sighing in his dreams, and sometimes even crying like a child. Zhang Xianghua's friends warned her that people who have been in prison for ten years almost become mentally ill.

But she was not intimidated by Bo Yang's situation. In Zhang Xianghua's opinion, Bo Yang is hot He is an affectionate and warm person with a magnanimous scholarly spirit, so he cannot escape from the complicated and treacherous current situation.

With Zhang Xianghua’s careful care, Bo Yang’s awakenings in his dreams gradually eased, and he was finally able to sleep peacefully at night.

Once Bo Yang was working at his desk and heard the sound of rain outside the window. He raised his head and listened for a moment, and then said to Zhang Xianghua, This was the most peaceful moment in his life.

In addition to being romantic and graceful, the lives of the two of them are also hectic. Bo Yang worked as a librarian while in prison, books He has read all the nearly two thousand books in the library in nine years. Among so many books, he only preferred " Zizhi Tongjian " and read it several times.

After he was released from prison, he determined to translate "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" into vernacular. This translation lasted ten years.

Bo Yang is an extremely diligent and productive writer. When he made up his mind to write history, on the one hand he felt that the project was huge, but on the other hand he was afraid that he would not have much time, so he worked even harder.

“Our family is almost like a printing shop. " Zhang Chunhua couldn't help but sigh when he thought of that time.

Bo Yang's friend and Taiwanese artist Xu Rongchang also said: "When I went to their house at that time, everyone seemed to be on the production line. "

Although this project is extremely huge, with the efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Bo Yang, it was finally completed in March 1993. has a total of 72 volumes. Such a heavy work It was not easy for the 63-year-old Bo Yang.

His hard work paid off. "Bo Yang's Edition of Zizhi Tongjian" was rated as the most valuable and best-selling book in Taiwan at the time. 21

Mainland Visiting Relatives

Bo Yang has been married twice, which is well known in Taiwan. Zhang Xianghua also always thought that she was Bo Yang's third wife, but after 8 years of marriage, she discovered that this was not the case.

It was one night when Zhang Xianghua helped Bai Yang tidy up her desk. She found several letters on the table from mainland China. One said "Dear Dad" and the other said "Father".

Zhang Xianghua was stunned for a long time after seeing it, and then realized that the letter might be from Bo Yang's children in mainland China.

This guess made her a little sad. When Bo Yang asked about it in the evening, Zhang Xianghua said half-threateningly: "I think you will have a fifth wife."

But she never expected that Bo Yang would reply: "But you are the fifth." It turned out that Bo Yang had been married twice in mainland China, and the two letters were sent by two different children.

Regarding this matter, Zhang Xianghua found it funny, but inevitably felt a little sad.

But Bo Yang confessed his experience in the mainland during the war. There were too many things that he had no control over in troubled times. After hearing about his rough experience, Zhang Xianghua felt relieved.

In July 1986, Bo Yang invited his two daughters in mainland China to reunite in Hong Kong. After more than thirty years of separation, he finally saw his own flesh and blood again.

At that time, Bo Yang's eldest daughter was in poor health. Zhang Xianghua personally accompanied her to the hospital for medical treatment and took very good care of her.

In 1988, when both sides of the Taiwan Strait allowed family visits, Bo Yang returned to his hometown accompanied by his wife Zhang Xianghua. This was his first return to his hometown in nearly forty years. Although he had been away from his hometown for a long time, Bo Yang still spoke authentic Henan dialect and could communicate fluently with people in his hometown.

Regarding that visit to relatives, Zhang Xianghua recalled: "He is both rational and emotional. Speaking of sensibility, once, a friend came to shoot and asked Bo Yang to sing. He sang without thinking: 'A big knife to the heads of the Japanese...' and shed tears while singing."

Later, Bo Yang returned to his hometown twice more, but perhaps he was touched by the scene and was in a hurry each time.

Posthumous events

Starting in 1994, Bo Yang's heart gradually began to have problems. At that time, he said: "When I get better, I have to return to the mainland." Unfortunately, this wish did not come true.

In 2007, Bo Yang suffered from various diseases and frequently went in and out of the hospital. However, he was still very concerned about politics and even went on a hunger strike to protest against the authorities despite his illness.

And in order to express his patriotism, Bo Yang donated more than 10,000 cultural relics in his collection to the Chinese Modern Literature Museum, and at the same time wrote the inscription "It's good to be back in the mainland."

On April 29, 2008, 89-year-old Bai Yang died of illness in Xindian Gengxin Hospital in Taiwan. In accordance with Bo Yang's last wish, some of the ashes were scattered on the sea of ​​Huoshao Island where he was once imprisoned.

Thanks to Zhang Xianghua’s efforts, the other ashes were brought back to Bai Yang’s hometown of Henan for burial, realizing his last wish of “returning to his roots and his hometown”.

In addition, Zhang Xiuhua also invited Bo Yangyuan's children in mainland China to attend the funeral so that they could send their father off for the last journey. Bo Yang's life was full of ups and downs, but he stabilized in his later years with the company of his wife Zhang Xiuhua.

Zhang Xiuhua once said of him: "Ten years of novels, ten years of imprisonment, ten years of essays, and ten years of writing history." Bo Yang kept writing throughout his life and wrote numerous books. In fifty years, he wrote an astonishing 20 million words.

On the day after his death, "Yangcheng Evening News" highly praised him: "Bo Yang's significance is infinitely far-reaching! I dare not say that Bo Yang's spirit is immortal, but I dare to say that Bo Yang's articles are immortal!"

No matter how far-reaching the significance and how vast the influence, for Zhang Xianghua, the most direct result was that she lost her partner of thirty years.

After Bo Yang's death, she lived alone in the original house for a few years, and then moved to Hsinchu and lived a secluded life, reading, walking, and writing poetry.

Later, Zhang Xianghua gradually lost sight and stopped writing poems.In this regard, she had a very open-minded attitude and joked to herself: "How can I get in love if I can't touch the scene?"

She once wrote a song "One-Way Ticket": "If If you can reserve a seat for the next life, please pre-purchase two one-way tickets. Take me early to fly across the rivers and lakes, across the seven seas, to the heights of the blue sky, and to the netherworld of the underworld. Please don’t leave me behind, and don’t let me struggle and wait for a long time.”

The strong emotions described in the poem touched many people.

Zhang Xianghua also wrote a poem to Bo Yang - "My Loved One is on the Fire Island", which expresses even more passionate emotions. The poem says: "We use our arms to form a haven, we use warm eyes to ignite the hope of the fire, and we will sing magnificent poems."

The Fire Island is where Bo Yang was imprisoned. This poem was written by Zhang Xianghua with emotion about his experience at that time. Bo Yang once admitted that he actually didn't like 's new poem , but he also emphasized that this was his favorite work by Zhang Xianghua.

Bo Yang once said that the luckiest thing about him was marrying Zhang Xianghua. Zhang Xianghua also said that living with Bo Yang made his character stronger. The two people love, appreciate and appreciate each other, which is why they have been together for thirty years.

Among Bo Yang's many books, "The Ugly Chinese" is the most widely circulated, and at the same time, this book is also the most controversial.

Bo Yang wrote this book with the attitude of "hating iron but not steel", hoping to expose the shortcomings of the Chinese people in the book, encourage the Chinese people to change them and reflect on themselves.

He has repeatedly told Zhang Xianghua that when Chinese civilization has progressed, the publication of this book will be abolished.

However, since 2016, Taiwan has repeatedly wanted to include "The Ugly Chinese" in local textbooks. Zhang Xianghua believes that this is the ulterior motive of the Taiwan authorities.

In order to protect Bo Yang's works from being abused and prevent Bo Yang's books from being misread, she refused such invitations one by one.

Zhang Xianghua said that he and Bo Yang were born in an era when the motherland was displaced, so they cherished peace. No matter where they were, "Patriotism is a beautiful nature!"

It was precisely because he knew Bo Yang's love for the motherland that Zhang Xianghua repeatedly refused to include "The Ugly Chinese" in the textbook.

Recently, Zhang Xianghua issued a statement: This book will not be renewed after its contract with cross-strait publishing houses expires in 2024. At the same time, each publishing house is also requested not to publish this book.

Zhang Xianghua's compliance with Bo Yang's last wish and the couple's love for the motherland can be seen from this.

References

[1] "International Press", Issue 1, 1994, ""Popeye" brings trouble to Bo Yang"

[2] "China Culture News", May 24, 2003, "Bo Yang in Zhang Xianghua's eyes"

[3] "Cross-Strait Relations", Issue 9, 2010, "Bo Yang returns to his hometown"