Chapter 30 deadly symbol

There is a white classical building on the banks of the Spoli River in Berlin, which is now part of the Prussian Cultural Foundation and was the seat of the Chinese Legation more than a hundred years ago. The whole building is solid and luxurious, and it doesn't look old today.Large garden, high-speed iron gate, the whole courtyard is quiet under the sun. The building originally belonged to Bismarck's Minister of Finance and was leased to China.Where did the Qing Dynasty value the distant foreign countries?Because I look down on them, I don't bother to know their real situation; because I don't know, I look down on them even more. It wasn't until I was bullied by them that I hesitated to change my name and call them great powers.Later, I gradually learned a little about the norms of international relations, and began to send diplomatic missions to Western powers.

The Chinese legation is located in such a building, which is considered a bit grand.The first few pages of China's modern diplomatic history were filled with a lot of hateful and ridiculous bitterness, many of which were not recorded, some of which happened in this building, and no one knew about it, and the white walls, doors and windows did not leave any traces , silent. Back then, Chinese diplomats walked in and out of the place wearing the standard clothes of the Qing Dynasty, and the men's clothes of the Qing Dynasty were so ugly that they swallowed up their figures.These diplomats are not in a good mood, and some of them have already begun to frown and do comparative research on Chinese and Western cultures, thinking about the reasons for the backwardness of Chinese civilization.This is the frontier of comparison and the stronghold of thinking. Everything is based on perceptual intuition, and everything is preceded by surprise and sigh. This is the nerve ending of thousands of years of Chinese civilization.

There was only one pretty figure, and that was Minister Hong Jun's wife, Sai Jinhua, who was very young at the time. At that time there were only a handful of Chinese in Germany, so everyone became a kind of representative.Originally, the representative image had been roughly fixed, but the sudden appearance of such a woman surprised the Germans.There are many diplomatic missions from other countries in Berlin, and Sai Jinhua has become the image representative of the wives of high-ranking Chinese officials in the eyes of Western diplomats. The family members of Chinese bureaucrats generally do not participate in social interactions, including the family members of diplomats, but Minister Hong Jun is smart and free and easy. Since he dared to marry a girl like Sai Jinhua who had been in the fireworks place and let her go with his job , Of course, she will also be encouraged to participate in the communication and entertainment of the Western diplomatic circles.

I can generally be sure that although Sai Jinhua, a folk woman from the south of the Yangtze River, is not familiar with Western communication, she finds it more convenient than being familiar with the complicated etiquette of officialdom in her own country.Her youth and quick-wittedness, coupled with her husband's status and doting on her, enabled her to quickly enter the role and handle it with ease. However, it was her misfortune that she accidentally became a symbol, and it symbolized a community that was particularly good at symbols and was particularly picky about symbols. A symbol needs a status, and hers seems a bit out of place.

I thought that being married to Hong Jun was a status. I thought that the former minister greeted me with grand etiquette at the gate of this white building. I thought that being respectfully called the minister’s wife over and over again at the grand reception was a status. But the Chinese, Including Hong Jun's relatives in his hometown, they want another identity. It is the most initial identity in the long history of life, the lowest identity in the process of ups and downs, and the most obscure identity in the multiple structures that appear and disappear.If this cellar cannot be found, the people around will not feel at ease.And Sai Jinhua's life cellar is not hidden.

Therefore, all her graceful appearance in and out of this building planted the seeds of disaster for her future life.As a minister's wife, her demeanor has a meaning far beyond the individual, so she can no longer be a specific life carrying her own joys, sorrows, joys, ups and downs.No wonder all characters with a little bit of symbolic status have to learn to conceal, but she has no such possibility. Imagine if she had been a good girl back then, married an ordinary bureaucrat, and then hid herself in the court and never showed her face again, what would her future be like?What would happen if she lived an ordinary life as a merchant or a scholar?Of course, there will be gossip and pointing, which may not lead to complete happiness, but with her knowledge and intelligence, she is very likely to be peaceful and healthy. In fact, most of the little sisters who have the same starting point as her are like this.

Regrettably, since she stepped into this white building, she can no longer hide in the shade of the world and spend her days quietly.The lamp that illuminates her demeanor today will follow her all her life, illuminating the places she does not want to be illuminated, including illuminating her aging, ugliness, and death.There will never be a lack of audience before and after the lights. But at the moment she didn't realize it at all, she was only afraid of poor etiquette.After knowing a little etiquette, I started to learn German. How is her German?not sure.Mr. Qi Rushan wrote an article saying that her German is very loose, and she often asks Mr. Qi for help.However, some scholars believe that Qi Rushan’s statement is not credible, because he has never been to Germany, and only learned a little German in China to meet the needs of an ordinary artist. It should be difficult to evaluate Sai Jinhua, who has lived in Germany for three years. German level.I think that Sai Jinhua's German should not be a big problem when used in general communication situations.

Under the circumstances at that time, it was not easy for the wives of Chinese ministers to participate in communication in German.Language issues have always been a problem in the history of modern Chinese diplomacy. In the beginning, we could only ask some missionaries and businessmen for help, and there were many mistakes. Later, some translators were killed because they were suspected by the government. The responsibility rests on the translator.This situation did not change fundamentally until the Republic of China began to use foreign students as diplomatic personnel.When Sai Jinhua learned German, she put herself on the front line of direct communication with foreigners ahead of time, but later, based on those compiled legends, people still suspected that she had the possibility of communicating in Beijing with language and color, because this Only in line with her early status.

For this woman, there are too many issues that cannot be clearly explained, so she stopped talking, and gradually grew old amidst the laughter and scolding of the world. The elderly Sai Jinhua lived in a very poor life and was always pointed at behind her back, but she occasionally met one or two people who were of sufficient standard and could speak some words of sufficient standard.For example, when she was in her 60s, she was interviewed by Mr. Liu Bannong, a professor of Peking University. When talking about social phenomena, she said: innovation should be based on thinking, not on the outside. , what is the benefit?This was beyond the reach of ordinary Chinese women at the time.

I think, when she said this, this white building must have appeared in her mind.