Marriage
Qi's marriage was arranged by his mother within the clan according to Qing Dynasty tradition. He married Zhang Baochen (1910–1975), a woman he had never met before, at the age of 21. With a lifestyle far removed from Qi, Zhang knew little about calligraphy or painting. She also brought to the family her little brother. Zhang devoted herself to the family. When Qi's mother died in 1957, a grateful Qi kneeled down before her to express his gratitude. Qi was labeled as a "rightist" in Mao's Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957, and became depressed. Zhang encouraged her husband to keep on working and sold her jewelry to buy books for Qi. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Qi was arrested because of his noble family background and was forced to surrender his family's belongings. Zhang had packaged all Qi's works and collections and managed to keep them away hidden. The Red Guards searched their house several times to no avail. Zhang revealed the locations of the manuscripts to Qi before she died, and Qi later retrieved the pieces, which had been well covered in sheets of kraft paper.
Read more about this topic: Qigong (artist)
Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“Why don’t you go home to your wife? I’ll tell you what. I’ll go home to your wife and outside of the improvements, you’ll never know the difference. Pull over to the side of the road there and let me see your marriage license.”
—S.J. Perelman, U.S. screenwriter, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, and Norman Z. McLeod. Groucho Marx, Horsefeathers, a wisecrack made to Huxley College’s outgoing president (1932)
“Every relationship that does not raise us up pulls us down, and vice versa; this is why men usually sink down somewhat when they take wives while women are usually somewhat raised up. Overly spiritual men require marriage every bit as much as they resist it as bitter medicine.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)