Widowed for life, Zhu An, being a woman is not a sin

If Chen Huiling's small theater "Spring Flowers Turn to Snow" focuses more on the fate of women and their emotional destinations, then Li Min's "Stormy Old Garden" objectively presents the emotional entanglements of Zhu An, Lu Xun, and Xu Guangping under the great era. Unlike the first-person perspective of "Spring Flowers", the audience empathizes with Zhu An's lifelong misfortune, her delicate thoughts that are hard to express, making you ponder the destination of love and the independence of women's spirit. In "Stormy Old Garden", Lu Xun understands that Zhu An is also a victim of this arranged marriage, understands her grievances and loneliness of being illiterate, and understands her tragic situation of having her reputation ruined once abandoned. And Zhu An, who guarded the Zhou family all her life, also understands Lu Xun's pain of being deceived into marriage and repeatedly compromising, understands his lonely soul trapped in an old-fashioned marriage, understands his brilliance as a leader of the new culture, and understands his cultural value towards the old China shrouded in storms. Zhu An is a clan aunt of Zhu Ziqing and was well-matched with Lu Xun's family. In Lu Xun's mother's heart, she was reasonable, upright, and diligently served from morning to night, truly a good daughter-in-law. However, Zhu An always bore the heavy shackles of feudal etiquette, like a lonely snail crawling in the corner. She wanted to please Lu Xun, forcibly pretended to have bound feet, but lost her shoe when getting off the sedan chair, ruining the mood; confined by the prejudice that "a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent", she couldn't read or write; she wanted to pretend to have common topics, but didn't know that "wagashi" were Japanese specialty souvenirs. Once upon a time, Zhu An thought that as long as she served the great master well, as long as she was diligent and virtuous enough, and kept following him, she could win Lu Xun's heart. However, after sitting alone on their wedding night, Lu Xun fled to Japan, leaving her to guard an empty room every night. Finally, when the couple reunited in Beiping, they lived in separate rooms, like strangers, guarding a sorrow every day. Later, he left with Xu Guangping, shattering all her illusions. Unlike Wang Baochuan, who waited in a cold kiln for eighteen years, she wasted her youth and lost all hope. Lu Xun treated her as a gift from his mother, supporting her for life to fulfill his filial piety. Others thought that Zhu An married the talented Lu Xun and fell into a blessed nest. However, a nominal marriage was comparable to being a widow for life, without sex or love. She longed for recognition of her status, and a "teacher's wife" from a female student could make her bow repeatedly in excitement. In a sense, the more Zhu An tried to please, the more pitiful her loneliness became, also fulfilling the unbearable weight of Lu Xun's life. But Lu Xun's spiritual breakthrough pushed Zhu An into a hopeless abyss. In Zhu An, he deeply tasted the harm and oppression of the cannibalistic old society, achieving his "facing a thousand pointing fingers with a cold stare", achieving his "mercilessness may not be true heroism". Don't you see, the characters like Granny Jiu, Xianglin's wife, and Kong Yiji all have his struggles and compassion. Both were victims of feudal etiquette, and it wasn't that one morally or emotionally blackmailed the other. Stop easily labeling them as scumbags or ignorant. He supported her for life but couldn't give her equal love. She guarded the Zhou family's reputation for a lifetime, widowed for life, just because they chose different lives. Xu Guangping mentioned Lu Xun's poem "The old garden is dark under the storm", but the last line is quite fitting for this new-style young woman, "The cold star does not notice my intention, I offer my blood to Xuanyuan". Xu Guangping cared about the situation, advocated freedom, and had a rebellious spirit. She participated in the student protests at the Women's Normal University with Liu Hezhen and others, fought alongside Lu Xun, and criticized Yang Yinyu for persecuting students. She bravely confessed to Lu Xun despite a 17-year age difference, encouraging and catalyzing Lu Xun's break and resistance against the feudal era. She believed that true love could sacrifice everything, defied conventions for Lu Xun, and publicly expressed her feelings in the newspaper. Later, she willingly followed Mr. Lu Xun for ten years, becoming his most important partner during his prolific period. After Lu Xun's death, Xu Guangping never remarried, organized and protected his relics, and did not forget to help Zhu An during difficult times. Even when imprisoned and tortured, she still participated in the democratic movement. She was one of the few women of that era who lived brightly and shone.