Poet Walking Out of the Rain Alley - Discussion on the Biography of Dai Wangshu

Author: Wang Wenbin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: When Dai Xiufu and Zhuo Peizhi were together, both of their families had already declined. While Dai Xiufu worked at the Beidaihe Railway Station, he sent money home every month to support the family. Although their family was poor, they observed many courtesy rituals, and the mother-in-law was quite strict. Zhuo Peizhi had to wear a "high-low child" (a qipao with wooden blocks in the soles) and kowtow to the mother-in-law in the morning and evening. After becoming pregnant, she also had to bear the heavy household chores of the large family. Once Dai Ying saw her older brother’s family buy a basket of golden melons, she also demanded some. Zhuo Peizhi bought a few, but Dai Ying cried and wanted many more. Zhuo Peizhi said, "How can we compare ourselves to them?" Dai Ying still cried, so Zhuo Peizhi beat her a few times. When the mother-in-law found out, she grabbed Zhuo Peizhi’s hair, dragged her to the ancestral hall, and made her kneel down while beating and cursing her, even breaking her hairpin. It wasn’t until Dai Wangshu could walk (at 3 years old) that Dai Xiufu took his mother and two children to Beidaihe. At the Beidaihe Railway Station, their life was also very difficult. Zhuo Peizhi cooked meals for some colleagues at the station to supplement the household expenses. Three years later, they returned to Hangzhou and rented a house at No. 28 Datayer Lane. At that time, the children were still young, and their expenses were not high. By the time Dai Ying got married, the family was already in debt. Zhuo Peizhi later recalled, "We lived on credit every month." Dai Xiufu bought aviation lottery tickets every month, hoping to win big one day. Sometimes Dai Xiufu also drew sketches, saying that if he won, he would build a house (a single-story house with a garden) and distribute the rooms in the sketch according to the family members. However, he never won. Datayer Lane was named after the tower, which was said to be a landmark in the center of Hangzhou’s urban area during the Qing Dynasty. No. 28 had two households living in one gate, with another family named Jiang. From the main gate, there was a small courtyard. To the west of the courtyard was a gate leading to the Jiang family’s house. The front of the courtyard was the main gate of the Dai family, with a screen. The main gate was dim, and on the right side stood a sedan chair for going out. Behind the main gate, the right wing room was the bedroom of Dai Xiufu and Zhuo Peizhi, while the left wing room was Dai Wangshu’s bedroom and study, containing a bed, a light yellow desk, and four bookshelves—two large and two small. The small bottle of alcohol-soaked severed finger mentioned in Dai Wangshu’s poem "The Severed Finger" was kept in the bookshelf. During his youth and middle age, his classmates and friends would come to this room to chat. His niece Zhong Yu still clearly remembers that when Yu Dafu came in the evening, he would talk with his uncle until late at night. Between the two wing rooms were a rear veranda and a courtyard. Behind each wing room was a small storage room, and between the two storage rooms was another small courtyard. To the west of the courtyard was a gate leading to the shared backyard with the Jiang family. Dai Xiufu grew flowers and raised birds in this garden. There was a deep well in the garden, which still had water even in drought years. In the summer, every morning they would lower a cloth bag filled with watermelons into the well, and in the afternoon they would eat "ice watermelon." Sometimes they also used well water to freeze "shihua" (a type of jelly-like food, sweetened with sugar and vinegar). Behind the courtyard and storage rooms was the kitchen. The Dai family lived here for over 20 years until 1936, when Dai Xiufu passed away and Dai Wangshu got married, and they moved to Shanghai together. P4-P5