New Shan Chow is a great matchmaker. He brought together the greatest couple in modern history of China: Song Jiashu (Yao Ru) and Ni. The loving couple gave birth to Song Ailing, Soong Ching Ling, Song Ziwen, Song Meiling, Song Ziliang and Song Zian.
In the 11th year of Tongzhi in Qing Dynasty (1872), New Shan Chow, a child aged1/kloc-0 in Jiading County, Jiangsu Province, went to study in the United States. He is one of the first 120 children sent by the China government to study in the United States.
In the United States, several China students often come to Song Jiashu's silk tea shop to buy daily necessities. Soon, New Shan Chow and Bingzhong Wen (the second batch, Cantonese) became good friends with the shop assistant Song Jiashu. Niu Hewen suggested finding opportunities to study at school to improve his knowledge and find an ideal job when he returns to China in the future.
With their encouragement, Song Jiashu wanted to study and didn't want to be a salesman any more, but his cousin and adoptive father refused to let him learn to do business.
After many twists and turns, Song Jiashu entered Trinity College in North Carolina for further study. A year later, he transferred to the Theological Seminary of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Three years later (1885), Song Jiashu graduated. Bishop Mark Thiel, the principal, is the head of the Missionary Mission of Shanghai Southern Institute of Health Sciences. He wants Xiao Song to go back to Shanghai to preach.
/kloc-in October, Song Jiashu arrived in Shanghai.
When he came to China, Song Jiashu's identity was extremely embarrassing: in the eyes of China people, he was a foreigner wearing a suit and speaking a foreign language; In the eyes of Americans, he is a short China man with yellow skin and black hair. Children call him "foreign devil" and adults call him "dwarf".
In the task, Song Jiashu's life is not easy: only 15 yuan salary-very low salary; No one in the group wants to take him away-he is discriminated against; Wu Nong dialect, he didn't understand a word-a strange place.
A year later, he was sent to Kunshan between Shanghai and Suzhou to preach.
Song Jiashu was very depressed. One day, he came to the Huangpu River to play alone.
"Charlie, is that you?" Suddenly, a voice came from behind. Song Jiashu turned his head and saw a dashing young man standing in front of him. He is tall, broad-fronted, big-eyed, well-featured, handsome, tall and straight, which is exactly the New Shan Chow that Song Jiashu met in the United States. At this time, New Shan Chow has returned to Shanghai. At first, he worked in the telegraph office. At this time, he served as a deputy in Jiangnan Manufacturing General Administration (known as "Jiangnan Arsenal" by foreigners).
After greeting, Song Jiashu poured out his difficulties to New Shan Chow. New Shan Chow, four years older than Song Jiashu, understood his loneliness and decided to introduce him to his wife.
Song Jiashu sighed: "People like me, people call me a foreign devil in front of me, and girls hide away when they see me. Who dares to recruit a son-in-law like me? "
"Don't think so, you this person, in addition to a little short, people are quite spirit. There are plenty of girls, I'm afraid I can't climb you. " New Shan Chow consoled.
After returning home, New Shan Chow told his wife what he thought. He and his wife discussed introducing his 19-year-old aunt Ni Guizhen to Song Jiashu.
New Shan Chow's mother-in-law is a descendant of Xu Guangqi, and her family all believe in Christianity. Mr. Ni is her tutor. After marriage, she gave birth to three daughters.
In old China, the beauty of three-inch golden lotus was advocated, and every woman had to bind her feet since she was a child. However, the youngest daughter, Ni Guizhen, had a high fever as soon as she bound her feet. So, mother Ni gave up foot binding for Miss San, who had big feet. At that time, bigfoot was a "needy family" in marriage.
But Miss San likes reading very much. At the age of five, she studied Chinese characters, calligraphy and classical literature. At the age of eight, she went to a girls' school. He was sent to Shanghai Peiwen Girls' Middle School at the age of 65,438+04 and graduated at the age of 65,438+07. She is good at math. She can read music and play the piano.
After returning from Boston, New Shan Chow married Miss Ni Guiqing (she also wrote "The Precious"). After her cousin and classmates returned to China, she married Ni Guishu, the second young lady of the Ni family (see Xiuzhen's statement).
Now, they are going to introduce Third Miss Ni Guizhen to Song Jiashu.
On weekends, Niu Niu and Wen took them to church and secretly watched Teacher Ni sing hymns. It is said that it was love at first sight when I saw Miss Ni wearing a emerald cheongsam with plump cheeks, a moving smile and gentle eyes.
Another way of saying it is that1one day in late July, 886, several China-born priests and Christians had dinner at Peiwen Girls' School. Walking into Peiwen Girls' School, there was a sweet piano sound. Song Jiashu went to find the place where the piano sound came from. Through the window, he saw a beautiful girl. She was Connie Guizhen.
Either way, they fell in love at first sight, which is basically certain.
Niu Hewen introduced his excellent quality to Mrs. Ni while the iron was hot. Mother Ni, who was worried about her third daughter's marriage, quickly agreed, and this marriage can be considered.
On the other hand, Song Jiashu is a "quick-witted" personality: short-tempered, fast in eating, walking, talking and doing things.
Song and Ni got married less than two months after they met, during which there was neither lingering love nor more romantic invitations.
In the summer of 1887, the 22-year-old married Ni of 19.
The wedding was held in Sam Hall, a Christian church in the north of Qiuqiao outside the west gate of Jiading City. Missionary Clarence Reid married. At noon, Jenny held a traditional China family dinner. Many guests came and twenty-five tables were filled. Business, banking, military and court dignitaries came to congratulate.
Through this wedding, Song Jiashu, a missionary, got a generous dowry, high-class status and good interpersonal relationship, which Song Jiashu needed to fight hard in Shanghai.
Of course, the personal long-sleeved dance, Ni's "helping her husband" and the Song family's precise investment in Sun Yat-sen are also important factors for the Song family to get ahead and prosper.
After the wedding, Song Jiashu took the bride Ni to Kunshan for their honeymoon.
In the following 19 years, He Ni gave birth to (1889), Soong Ching Ling (1893), (1894), (1897) and (65438).
All this depends on the help of the matchmaker New Shan Chow. In this sense, he also helped to complete the "Song Dynasty" in China's modern history.
Bingzhong Wen studied at Worcester Institute of Technology in Massachusetts, USA. After returning to China, he served as the supervisor of Suzhou Customs, the aide of the Governor of Liangjiang, and the second-class official from the official to the Qing government. 1907, he took Soong Ching Ling and Song Meiling to study in the United States.