名妓李香君之死

陈水明 作

李香君，又名李香，明末南京妓女。她随养母李贞丽姓李，大约是知其母而不知其父甚至连母也不知的姑娘。她以任侠、有气节、爱国闻名。她小时候在妓女院曾跟拒绝受阉党阮大铖重薪聘清任教的名伶苏昆生学艺，深受老师一身正气感染。东林党名士、爱国志士张溥，夏允彝对她评价甚高。她曾拒绝阮大铖的拉拢和魏仲贤干儿子田仰的威逼。在田仰用势力压她时，她以死抗争，血溅扇面。杨文骢用她的血在扇面上画成桃花一枝，人称该扇为“桃花扇”。后来孔尚任以此事写成著名的传奇《桃花扇》。在南京时她和以文名著称、以气节标榜的侯朝宗相恋。明亡后，她带着那把扇子随侯朝宗回他老家商丘。

侯氏家族是当地有名的世家，族中不少人敬重她的气节，对她尊重；但也有人认为她是妓女，有辱门风，对她歧视。因此侯朝宗把她移出家门到城南乡下居住，在那里给她建了一处宅子叫‘李姬园’。她遭受这样的侮辱已经够伤心了，更使她伤心的是侯朝宗参加清庭举办的考试。这对于一个重气节、爱国的女子是致命的打击。之后不久，她就含恨死去，是年29岁（1652）。

她多才多艺，能作诗填词，可惜她的作品现在看不到了。

侯朝宗对她的死感到羞愧交加。据说他在她墓前碑上刻有：“卿含恨而死；夫惭愧终身”对联，在她的墓前一块石头上刻‘悔不墩’三字，经常在上久坐伤神，并将他的著作取名为《壮悔堂文集》。在她死后二年也与世长辞。是年37岁。

上世纪30年代，万恶的日寇曾将李香君的墓挖开，企图掠取那把‘桃花扇’，但没找到，竟然把她的遗体撒骨扬尘了事。

The Death of the Well-known Prostitute, Li Xiangjun

陈水明 译

Li Xiangjun, another name Li Xiang, a prostitute of Nanjing in the last period of Ming dynasty. Following the family name of her adopted mother Li Zhenli, she also took her surname as Li, and was a woman who only knew her mother but did not know her father; even didn’t know who her real mother was. She went by the name of chivalrousness, moral quality and being patriotic. When she was young, she learned art from Su Kunsheng, a well-known actor, who had refused the high salary employment from a notorious high ranking Ruan Dacheng. So Li Xiangjun was affected by her teacher’s uprightness. Then she was highly praised by Zhang Pu and Xia Yunyi, two well-known scholars of Donglin Party. She also had refused being wooded and bought by Ruan Dacheng and being oppressed by Tian Yang, who was a Godson of a notorious eunuch authority Wei Zhongxian. When being oppressed by Tian Yang, she bravely refused him with her life by knocking her head at the wall. Then a scholar and painter Yang Wencong painted a branch of peach follower on the face of a paper fan with her blood which was called “peach blossom fan”.. Afterward, a famous scholar Kong Shangren (1648-1718), wrote a well-known play with the background of this story.  In the last period of Ming dynasty while she was living in Nanjing, she was in love with Hou Fangyu who was a well-known scholar that went by the name of learning and boasted of being loyal to Ming dynasty and moral integrity,. After the doom of Ming dynasty, she brought the fan mentioned above with her and followed Hou to return to his country-home, Shangqiu, Henan province.

Hou’s family was an aristocratic one in that place. A lot of its members respected her for her moral integrity; but others looked down her because they considered her as having been a prostitute; which insulted their family fame. Therefore, Hou let her move to the south suburbs of Shangqiu city, where he built a house called ‘Li’s Garden’. This insult she suffered had made her deeply grieved; in addition, Hou was forced to take part in the state examination of Qing dynasty. This was really a fatal attack to her as she was a woman that valued moral integrity and being loyal to the former dynasty. Soon after this she died un-avenged at the age of 29 years old.

She was a talented woman that could compose poems and draw pictures. Unfortunately, her works are lost and cannot be seen nowadays.

For her death Hou felt deeply ashamed. It is said that before her grave he set a gravestone where were carved:
You have died with a deep regret;
I will be deeply ashamed forever!

Still, he set a stone seat there that was called “Regretful Seat”, where he often sat mournfully losing in thought; meanwhile, he named his works as <Collected Works of Regrets>.He pasted away at the age of 37 years old, when it was two years after the death of Li Xiangjun.

In the 1930’s the all evil Japanese invaders dug out the tomb of Li Xiangjun in an attempt to rob the ‘peach flower fan’ because they considered it a valuable cultural relic, but they found nothing therein. At last they scattered the bones of Li Xianjin to the wild countryside