When Prince Su was at the height of power and splendor, it was said that his mansion was overflowing with silver (used as currency then). The servants had to dry the silver in the sun to prevent it from going moldy. However, the invading armies of foreign imperialism soon sent the whole generation of the last dynasty into wane.

This is a  photo of Jin at the age of 19.

Jin Moyu was a defiant child in the mansion. She refused to be attended by a nanny who would follow her anywhere. In her teens, she studied in a Japanese noble school. She made her own plan for the future at the age of 19. She wanted to be a journalist or a singer, which was stunning to her elders. "How could a princess show her face in public as a career woman?" they wondered. Anyhow, Jin found a decent job in a Japanese company and kept her family in the dark. That was the happiest period in her life, although she spent all her wages without restraint.

At that time, she did not know that one day she would make a living by weaving sweaters for seamen to support nine people in her family. Nor did she know that one day she would without hesitation eat a bowl of noodle in a restaurant.

Jin married to a painter in 1954, in a simple and thrifty wedding. Jin, wearing a qipao (cheongsam dress) borrowed from other people, ruefully pondered that if the Qing Dynasty had not been overthrown in the 1911 revolution, she would have been married to an eminent Mongolia prince with a grand royal wedding.

Jin was sent to jail in 1958 and decided to face the 15-year imprisonment alone. The couple got divorced in 1966. In 1974, a Shanghai man gave Jin, who then was serving another sentence on a farm, a shovel and a copy of the Japanese version of People's China(a magazine)(a book?), as well as her second marriage proposal. Jin said yes because in this way she could get a house of her own in the farm. Years of hard labor work had left her overridden with diseases.

If she had left the country with her brothers in 1949, she would not have experienced the hardship. However, Jin does not regret her decision.

One of her tutors once told her that nobility was a moral character. Noble-minded people squeeze one day out of the year to question their own morality. The tutor told her that if she thinks she had made the right decision, stick to it regardless of what other people think.

In 1979, Jin sent her first letter appealing for help, to Deng Xiaoping. She asked for a brainwork job, as she had been unable to do labor work. She soon got a reply. Forty years after she left Beijing , Jin finally became a common citizen.

Dozens years of imprisonment did bring her some ideas. If all the people had received good education, the mutual understanding would not have been so superficial and cursory. Jin's school was now in Langfang, Hebei province .

Author: Cindy

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