There is a saying going around: "There are many scumbags among the literati in the Republic of China." What does this sentence mean?

It means that according to the standards of love and marriage in today's society, many literati in the Republic of China are actually "scumbags". Most of them have been married more than twice, and some have "abandoned" their bad wives. It is also common to visit the church again and again to marry the new couple. Some literati are frequent visitors to Fireworks Willow Alley, living a life of feasting and feasting.

Mr. Cai Yuanpei, the president of Peking University, known as "a leading figure in academia and a role model in the world", has been married three times. Of course, Cai Yuanpei only married his new wife after his previous wife passed away.

Mr. Liang Qichao, the leader of the reformists in the Qing Dynasty, had two marriages, which seems to be not many. However, Liang Qichao married his second wife, Wang Guiquan, and his first wife, Li Huixian, was still alive and well, which meant that Liang Qichao was embracing everyone and enjoying the blessings of everyone. However, Li Huixian and Wang Guiquan have a good relationship and they educate their children carefully. Therefore, all of Liang Qichao's children have a very good relationship with their two mothers, one is called "Mom" and the other is called "Mother".

Compared to Liang Qichao, another leader of the reform faction, Mr. Kang Youwei, was "scumbag".

Kang Youwei advocated "one husband, one wife, one world", advocated women's liberation and the establishment of a modern family system, but he himself had many wives, concubines, and beauties. According to research, Kang Youwei officially married 6 wives and concubines in his life, and they all lived in the same home in Shanghai at the same time: the eldest wife Zhang Yunzhu, the second concubine Liang Suijue, the third concubine He Zhanli, the fourth concubine Shi Ganghe Son, the fifth aunt, Liao Dingyu, and the sixth aunt, Zhang Guang.

When Kang Youwei married his sixth aunt Zhang Guang in 1919, he was already 61 years old and Zhang Guang was only 16 years old. Kang Youwei held a grand wedding in Shanghai. Relatives and friends came to celebrate, but his wife, concubines, and children were not present and collectively expressed their boycott.

Strictly speaking, both Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao lived in the late Qing Dynasty and lived a life of three wives and four concubines. It seems understandable, but aren't fashionable literati who studied in Britain and the United States not "scum"?

"Gently I leave, just as lightly as I came; I gently wave my hand to bid farewell to the clouds in the western sky..." Xu Zhimo, the poet who wrote the famous "Farewell to Cambridge", is worthy of this poem. The representative of "scumbag".

Xu Zhimo married Zhang Youyi, the sister of celebrity Zhang Junmai, at the age of 18, but he disliked Zhang Youyi before and after the marriage, thinking that she was very rustic, and marrying her was just to comply with his parents' wish to have grandchildren.

In 1921, when Xu Zhimo met the talented Lin Huiyin, he decisively kicked Zhang Youyi away and pursued Lin Huiyin fanatically. However, Lin Huiyin eventually married Liang Qichao's eldest son, Liang Sicheng.

While Xu Zhimo was pursuing Lin Huiyin, he flirted with Lu Xiaoman, the wife of his friend Wang Geng. As the saying goes, "Don't play with your friend's wife." Not only did Xu Zhimo play with her, he also took her into his arms. Xu Zhimo also paid a heavy price for this "foreign" love. Lu Xiaoman was used to spending money lavishly, and she still pursued a luxurious life after getting married. Xu Zhimo worked hard to make money part-time in order to satisfy her life desires.

Speaking of the "scumbags" of the Republic of China, Hu Lancheng has to write a good story.

Hu Lancheng is a talented writer. He got married at the age of 19 and married Tang Yufeng. During the marriage, he had an ambiguous relationship with a woman named Yashan. After Tang Yufeng died of illness, Hu Lancheng married Quan Huiwen. It was during this marriage that Hu Lancheng met Zhang Ailing and lived with her.

However, Zhang Ailing is just one of Hu Lancheng's many "good sisters". When Hu Lancheng and Zhang Ailing were flirting with each other, they also had a heated relationship with Zhou Xunde, a nurse at Hanyang Hospital, and Fan Xiumei, the concubine of the father of a classmate named Si, and even married the latter privately in Lishui, Zhejiang.

Zhang Ailing endured all this and even sent money to Hu Lancheng. Zhang Ailing’s silent efforts regardless of the cost finally paid off in 1944. This year, Hu Lancheng married Zhang Ailing, promising that "the years will be peaceful and the world will be stable." Three years later, Hu Lancheng's promise evaporated. In 1947, Hu Lancheng and Zhang Ailing divorced.

In addition to "changing women faster than changing clothes", many literati in the Republic of China visited romantic places as if they were commonplace.

When Kang Youwei was down and out in Shanghai, he often slept with prostitutes and owed a lot of romantic debt. He planned to leave Shanghai quietly and walk away. When the creditors found out, they ran to China Merchants' ship to ask for their debts. Kang Youwei was so anxious that he hid in the lifeboat on the top of the ship and actually escaped.

At that time, Li Hongzhang's assistant Ma Xiangbo was ordered to check the accounts of the Steamship Merchants Bureau. He witnessed this "grand event" with his own eyes and recorded it in the book "Shanghai in Sixty Years".

Gu Hongming, the weirdo of the late Qing Dynasty, also had this "elegance". He has a famous saying, "How can a famous man refrain from whoring and keeping concubines", which is quite plausible. When Gu Hongming was a professor at Peking University, President Cai Yuanpei established the "Advancing Morality Association" to encourage professors to behave themselves. The professors all signed, but only Gu Hongming refused. Cai Yuanpei laughed it off.

In 1885, Gu Hongming was appointed as a foreign copywriter by Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang. Once, when he and a group of friends went to a brothel to look for flowers and willows, they came across the Japanese woman Sadako Yoshida who had fallen here. He redeemed her body and "smiledly accepted" her as his concubine.

Yu Dafu, who wrote "Autumn in the Old Capital", was a wild man when he was young.

In 1913, when 17-year-old Yu Dafu went to Japan to study, he described in detail his experience of being a prostitute in Japan: "I lived alone in the countryside blocked by thick snow, and I felt that I couldn't bear it anymore. One day, the snow flakes were still there. In the dancing afternoon, I boarded a bus bound for Tokyo on the Tokaido Road... I was welcomed by the Turtle Bustard, and I chose a fat, white, tall and strong oiran. I sat there until late that night, singing and drinking wildly. I feel like I have lost my virginity."

In his early years in Shanghai, Hu Shi was a suave man who often played cards, drank, and visited brothels. In June 1914, Hu Shi suddenly woke up and began to advocate the prohibition of prostitution, respect and sympathy for fallen women, and advocated that playing with women is a "great evil": "Today's urgent task lies in a new morality, which must be chosen to make women known to be the most depraved women in the world." This pitiful thing has made it known to everyone that prostitution is a great crime for humanity, and that engaging in prostitution is a great evil for humanity and a great crime for society. Then our country, which has been educated for thousands of years, still has a day to redeem itself."

That makes sense, but how did he do it himself?

In 1917, Hu Shi was hired as a professor at Peking University. Sometimes when he went to Jinan, Wuchang and other places for business, he would still go to Hualiu Lane to relive his old dreams.

Why do these literati from the Republic of China behave so "scum"? In the final analysis, it is still the influence of the times.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, China was at the intersection of old culture and new culture. These literati of the Republic of China were both trained in the old culture and influenced by the new culture, so they formed a contradictory concept of marriage.

On the one hand, they want to inherit the family business and produce future generations for the family; on the other hand, they want to pursue love and find a compatible partner. They want to break through the "shackles" of old ideas and live according to their own ideas, so there are all kinds of "scum" that we can't imagine now.