The Garden Turns White Overnight and Aftermath - The Funeral of the British Jew Oss Love Hartung (3)
Probably because Hartung was a "relative" of the Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty before his death, Ji Juemi and Luo Jialing, who were in charge, immediately decided that everything should be handled according to the customs of old Beijing, and the grandeur of the palace should be highlighted. Therefore, the steward of the Natong Mansion in the middle hall of the late Qing Dynasty was specially invited to serve as the general funeral office of the fifth time. From the bar room, the bar head, the bar man, the kitchen cook, the tea room to the pasteer, the shed craftsman, the color craftsman, all invite the famous in Beijing.
The funeral office of Hatong Mansion is headed by Wang Lianwu, plus dozens of diners and idle literati in the house. Almost all the "Wenren" in Shanghai are registered here, and there are many good titles, and they are not ready to be loaded. This funeral office is no less than a small-scale political organization, and it is divided into general affairs, protocol, accounting (accounting room), and clerical departments. The clerks and servants were all well-trained. All of them are dressed in white summer cloth coats, neat and serious.
As soon as Hartung "turned his head", Ji Juemi commanded the whole park to make a surprise attack overnight, using white paint to transform the paint on all the buildings in the park, and the green rafters and red columns into white. On the third day, all the major newspapers in Shanghai reported the big news in a prominent position. The title of the "Declaration" is "Aili Garden Turns White Overnight", and the subtitle is "Hartung is buried this morning and buried in the garden". The text is:
"Since yesterday morning (the morning of the 20th), all parts of the Aili Garden, such as the Jianshou Hall, the Heavenly Evolution Realm, the Shrine Gate, the Yanyu Hall, etc., have all been hung white. The vermilion lacquer gate along Jing'an Temple Road was completely painted white after the night's work the night before. On the wall, there is a piece of yellow paper of 'Hatong Mansion Funeral Office'. ”
Some newspapers also carried that the trees in the garden were also painted with white powder, and all red pillars and plaques were painted with white paint...... It's like a snowy world.
Jing'an Road outside the park starts from the mouth of Seymour Road (now North Shaanxi Road) and ends at the mouth of Hatong Road (now Tongren Road), the road is all set up with a white cloth top cover of the "street crossing shed", the eaves outside the shed are inlaid with blue and white electric lights, and the electric light pillars are also installed on both sides, and the couplets are hung up, decorated with pine and cypress and yellow and white paper flowers.
In front of the door of Aili set up a towering Sucai archway, on the book: "Dongyuan", "Xiyuan" words. Caizihuo starts from the archway at the gate, to the "first road" and "second iodine" that enter the door, and all the gold-lacquered safflower shelves have three blue colored silk and hydrangea hanging on them. The decoration of these shelves is complemented by the colorful seeds and hydrangeas on the doorways and pavilions of each building. The walkways in the garden are all made of blue and white colored cloth into temporary corridors, with countless hanging lights and hanging couplets. A circular meadow in the garden, a monument is erected in the middle, and it is also composed of a couplet. In the night monument, the electric torch shines, Xun is a spectacle.
In addition to the street shed outside the gate, the second floor of the bell and drum is tied with mat foil and colored silk on both sides of the door, which is completely the pattern of the inner courtyard of the palace. In the courtyard, there are temporary sacrificial sheds, seating sheds, rainproof canopies with paper utensils, and tomb sheds (pit sheds) east of Yingxu Building against the flower wall corridor, and different forms of color archways are tied in front of each shed.
In front of the sacrificial hall, a large platform of two zhang square is erected, the decoration in the hall is even more exquisite, all with the blue and white turtle back brocade pattern of the color partition fan, make the bitter seat of filial piety to accompany the spirit, the front side of the semi-circle circle door, there is the color of the yellow dragon holding the pillar on the left and right. It's like a big Buddha hall.
Everything is perfect, and everything is luxurious. It is said that Caiko alone spent tens of thousands of silver dollars.