At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, with the influx of Western ideas, the idea of ??equality between men and women gradually took root in China. The status of traditional women also entered an important turning point. Many women who accepted the new ideas began to Fight for your rights.
She was the first female killer in the Republic of China and was known as "the most legendary woman in the Republic of China".
She did not take the feudal ethics such as the Three Cardinal Guidelines and Five Constant Rules, the Three Obediences and the Four Virtues into consideration at all. She was born rebellious and would never tolerate any shackles of the feudal ethics. She was Zheng Yuxiu.
On March 20, 1891, Zheng Yuxiu was born into a large family in Xin'an County, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. His grandfather, Cheng Yao, was a famous businessman in the 1840s, with family businesses spanning Guangdong and Hong Kong. His father, Zheng Wenzhi, was a politician in Beijing and worked in the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Living in such a wealthy and powerful family, Zheng Yuxiu's life was enviable since he was a child.
Zheng Yuxiu lived in this big family when she was young. Her grandmother was the head of the family. All Zheng family members and relatives lived in the Zheng family compound. Women had to enter two doors when going out, but Zheng Yuxiu would not pay attention. These.
At that time, it was common for girls to have their feet bound when they were four or five years old. Foot binding began in the late Northern Song Dynasty and flourished in the Southern Song Dynasty. It reached its peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Women from all walks of life, rich or poor, had their feet bound. Except for the big toe, all other toes must be tightly wrapped with cloth strips inward until adulthood. You can imagine how painful it is. The beating lasted until the age of 9, when Zheng Yuxiu was forced to have her feet bound by her grandmother.
Grandma sent someone to tie up Zheng Yuxiu’s limbs and bind her feet. That night, Zheng Yuxiu was in so much pain that she couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t bear it, so she secretly untied the white cloth. The next day, grandma checked again and found that her He wanted to scold her again and wrap her up, but Zheng Yuxiu refused to say anything. He rolled around on the ground, yelled at grandma, and threatened her with death, so grandma had to compromise.
He escaped foot binding, but he could not escape an arranged marriage. When he was 13 years old, his family arranged a marriage for Zheng Yuxiu. He was the son of Cen Chunxuan, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. The marriage was completed when Zheng Yuxiu turned 16. But Zheng Yuxiu was not a person who acted according to common sense. She continued to cry and fuss, but at this time no one at home took care of her, so she thought of an even more ingenious way!
He wrote a letter directly to Nanguo, expressing his attitude that he would never marry until death, so that Nanguo would give up and take the initiative to break off the engagement. The man's family really broke off the engagement after being so disturbed by her, but fierce conflicts broke out again in the Zheng family, and Zheng Yuxiu simply chose to run away from home!
To say that she left in anger this time, it was not just because she was angry. In fact, she had already planned to go to Japan. She heard from her brother who was studying in university that there were many revolutionaries in Japan. In addition to studying in Japan, they also sought support and help. It was after listening to her brother's words that Zheng Yuxiu decided to go to Japan to find revolutionaries.
In 1907, Zheng Yuxiu followed his sister to Japan, met Liao Zhongkai and He Xiangning, and quickly joined the Tongmenghui on their recommendation.
After returning to China, Zheng Yuxiu took advantage of her status as a lady, actively participated in various social activities, made friends with powerful people, and created an image of a social butterfly for herself. In the Beijing-Tianjin area at that time As famous as the three sisters of the Song family.
Using her identity as a courtesan as a cover for the revolution soon came in handy. From 1905 to 1908, Sun Yat-sen led the Tongmenghui in launching six armed uprisings to overthrow the Qing dynasty, but all ended in failure. The royalists represented by Liang Qichao wildly criticized the violent revolution of the Revolutionary Party and criticized the leaders of the Revolutionary Party as distant revolutionaries who instigated others to die in order to gain fame for themselves. For a time, there was a wave of Sun Yat-sen's downfall within the Revolutionary Party. In order to save the revolution and save the Alliance, a death squad was established to plan and execute assassinations.
Zheng Yuxiu, who actively participated in the revolution, was a member of the death squads. The best weapon for assassination at that time was explosives. Zheng Yuxiu used his family property all over the Beijing and Tianjin areas and his status as a socialite to help organize the transportation. bomb. At that time, the fastest way was to take the train. Zheng Yuxiu often traveled between Beijing and Tianjin under the pretext of doing business.
At most, Zheng Yuxiu helped transport 136 pounds of explosives, performing extremely well in the league. Soon, she received another very important assassination mission, that is, to assassinate Yuan Shikai in 1912!
On January 1, 1912, Sun Yat-sen was sworn in as president in Nanjing. From then on, the revolutionary army and the Beiyang Army began a tug of war. Yuan Shikai's ambitions gradually expanded. On the one hand, he forced the Qing emperor to abdicate, and on the other hand, he played tricks on the revolutionaries.
On January 16, 1912, a 12-man assassination team led by Zheng Yuxiu ambushed Yuan Shikai in a teahouse near Donghua Gate in Beijing. When Yuan Shikai's carriage just passed the teahouse, members of the assassination group ambushing in the teahouse rushed out of the teahouse and threw three bombs at Yuan Shikai's carriage. With a loud noise, the commander and another soldier next to the carriage were blown away on the spot. However, due to the offset position, Yuan Shikai not only was not injured, but calmly stepped out of the carriage, commanded the guards, and arrested the assassin. The scene The crowd was fleeing in all directions, and the scene was very chaotic.
Seeing that the operation had failed, Zheng Yuxiu fired two shots into the air without hesitation in order to help her companions gain more time to retreat, making the scene even more chaotic. Zheng Yuxiu originally wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to shoot Yuan Shikai directly with a gun. Unfortunately, because he had not undergone strict military shooting training, the gun went astray. His right thumb got stuck on the firing pin, and he immediately bled profusely.
In desperation, Zheng Yuxiu had to give up the assassination plan. She wisely threw away the gun, inserted her bleeding hand into her coat pocket, and shouted at Yuan Shikai's soldiers who were maintaining order: "How unreasonable, those lawless revolutionaries dare to do such a thing in broad daylight?" When the soldiers saw Zheng Yuxiu's well-dressed and majestic appearance, they thought he was a figure and did not dare to offend him. Zheng Yuxiu fled the scene easily.
On February 12, 1912, the last emperor Puyi announced his abdication, marking the complete end of the feudal monarchy that had ruled China for thousands of years. But not long after, a friend informed Zheng Yuxiu that she was on someone else's assassination list. This person was Yuan Shikai. What was going on?
It turned out that not long after the assassination of Yuan Shikai, Zheng Yuxiu participated in another assassination operation to assassinate Aisin Gioro.
This time it was still organized by Zheng Yuxiu. In order to learn from the experience last time, Zheng Yuxiu decided to kill someone close to Liang Bi with a "human bomb". After the plan was finalized, it was Peng Jiazhen who volunteered to be the assassin, but this made Zheng Yuxiu hesitate because Peng Jiazhen and his biological sister were in love and had reached the point of discussing marriage. But in the end, with Peng Jiazhen's repeated insistence, Zheng Yuxiu agreed. Agree with him to carry out the mission.
Peng Jiazhen dressed up as a Qing Dynasty official and said that she had to go to Liangbi Mansion to meet him for something important. As a result, she happened to be bumped into by Zheng Yuxiu who was also in front of Liangbi Mansion. With a "bang", Peng Jiazhen's head was blown up and she died on the spot. Liang Bi died due to ineffective treatment. Due to Zheng Yuxiu's negligence in some details, her identity was also exposed.
Originally hearing that Yuan Shikai was going to assassinate her, Zheng Yuxiu showed no fear and said, "Let them do it!"
But when Zheng Yuxiu heard what his father said, he changed his mind. One day, Her father came to her and said that his home in Beijing was suddenly raided by unknown persons and the house was in chaos. Zheng Yuxiu guessed that it must be Yuan Shikai who did it. In order not to drag down her family, she decided to study in France.
Zheng Yuxiu successfully entered the Sorbonne University in France to study law, and successfully joined the French Law Society, becoming the first Chinese to join the Law Society. In 1924, Zheng Yuxiu received a doctorate in law, becoming the first Chinese person to join the Law Society. Female doctor.
In 1926, Zheng Yuxiu returned to China and opened a law firm in the Shanghai French Concession, becoming the first female lawyer in China. At that time, the Beijing government announced the implementation of China's first law. The "Interim Regulations on Lawyers" stipulates that lawyers must be males who are over 20 years old during the Republic of China.
Zheng Yuxiu repeatedly studied Shanghai's judicial system. Although women could not serve as lawyers in mixed Chinese and foreign courts, as a Chinese with a French lawyer's license, she could appear in court in the French Concession. So she and her partner Wei Daoming, who later became Husband, the two finally obtained the consent of the French Consulate, and the "Wei Zheng United Law Firm" was finally established in August 1927. She married Wei Daoming.
At that time, many industrial and business tycoons, such as Huang Huangrong, Zhang Xiaolin, Du Yuesheng and other Shanghai gangster tycoons, saw that foreigners respected Zheng Yuxiu and Wei Daoming, and also tried their best to bring these two barristers together, and some important government officials also I want to have some friendship with him.
In 1931, the four-year marriage between Meng Xiaodong and Mei Lanfang came to an end. Meng Xiaodong was heartbroken and posted a divorce notice in "Ta Kung Pao" for three days, but The two are still legally married. The two are still legally married. Du Yuesheng, who has had a crush on Meng Xiaodong for a long time, helped her find Zheng Yuxiu, who handled the divorce procedures for Meng Xiaodong.
Under Zheng Yuxiu’s defense of Meng Xiaodong, it was finally decided that Mei Lanfang should compensate Meng Xiaodong 40,000 yuan. Meng Xiaodong's successful rights protection made Zheng Yuxiu famous in Beijing and Tianjin, and also made everyone see the power of women's rights protection.
Zheng Yuxiu specializes in helping women with divorce cases, because when she was very young, she witnessed her mother's suffering with her own eyes, and was inspired to help women get rid of the shackles of feudalism and advocate women's independence. My father was an official at the time and did not come home for two or three years. My mother suffered from lovesickness. Later I learned that my father had formed a new family in Beijing, but my mother could do nothing and shed tears all day long. But in the society at that time, it was normal to have three wives and four concubines. Instead of being sympathetic to her daughter-in-law, her grandmother told her to pay attention to her etiquette and not to be laughed at by outsiders. This made Zheng Yuxiu very angry about what happened to her mother.
Zheng Yuxiu actively participated in the feminist movement, especially the women's rights movement. However, at that time, no matter how much the women were harmed, they would always compromise and did not have the courage to initiate divorce. At that time, Zheng Yuxiu, who specialized in divorce lawsuits, also aroused the dissatisfaction of many men. Hu Shi once said that she was "such a woman who doesn't care about face." After many divorce lawsuits, Zheng Yuxiu began to think, what is the purpose of divorce? Divorce is easy, but social attitudes towards divorced women, imperfect legal system, and lack of economic independence are the root causes of the low status of Chinese women.
When the Second Plenary Session of the Fifth Central Committee of the Kuomintang decided to establish five chambers of administration, legislation, judiciary, examination, and supervision, and gradually implemented them, Zheng Yuxiu, as a leader of the feminist movement, was elected as the first legislator and participated in In the revision of the "Draft of the Civil Law of the Republic of China", there were only two women, the other one being Soong Meiling.
The draft stipulates that men and women have equal rights in the family. Unmarried and married women have the same inheritance rights as men. Husband and wife have the right to inherit each other’s inheritance. Unmarried adult women have the right to enter into or dissolve a marriage contract. A married woman has the right to retain her own surname and is not allowed to take her husband's surname.
This is my country’s first major law on the enjoyment of rights and obligations. It explains and defines women’s rights. The new concept of monogamy is included in the draft Civil Code. was finally realized.
Later, Cheng Yuxiu was appointed as the dean of the Shanghai Institute of Law and Politics and the director of the Shanghai District Judicial Office, becoming China's first female judge. Her husband Wei Daoming was appointed secretary to the chairman of the Ministry of Justice. The two entered politics and their legal practice came to a halt.
Wei Daoming had high political achievements and was later promoted to the special mayor of Nanjing. A few years later, he was transferred to the president of Taiwan. In 1948, Chiang Kai-shek suddenly ordered Chen Cheng to succeed Wei Daoming as the president of Taiwan. This was also because Wei Daoming was a scholar and a warlord. Wei Daoming and Chiang Kai-shek could never be close to each other. From then on, Wei Daoming and Zheng Yuxiu immigrated to the United States and faded out. political arena.
Life abroad was not easy. The two were at a loss and engaged in business activities in Brazil. Due to poor management and unfamiliar connections, the business did not improve much. Later, the two returned to China. In 1954, Zheng Yuxiu's left arm was forced to be amputated and she was plagued by illness. Her life was almost like a year. Due to the physical trauma, she also experienced major psychological changes.
A major change, Zheng Yuxiu is no longer the heroine of the past. She starts to value money more and more. No matter where she goes, she has to carry a big handbag, which contains her years of savings. Once she receives the treasure, every piece of it will be valuable. Liancheng.
In 1959, Zheng Yuxiu, who was suffering from illness, ended her legendary life and died in Los Angeles, USA at the age of 68.
The first half of his life was glorious, and the second half was miserable. Zheng Yuxiu’s life was full of too many changes. She was a great woman and her life was a great life. Her life can be said to be too legendary, especially her outstanding contribution to the liberation of Chinese women, which we should always remember.