Sedan chair, a family, is carrying a burden to take her centenarian mother home. Come and have a look with me.
New school
Mr. Feng Zikai's cartoon music class in rural schools.
Nagging four □ Qin Ying
At the end of "Memories of Private Schools" (nagging III), I wrote: "After Bao Primary School was opened in Nanping, Nanjiang, this private school could not be opened. Great-grandfathers also think it's good that the two grandchildren can read, write and count, shout and salute after studying for so many years. In addition, there are many children at home, many people eat with their mouths open, and the labor force is insufficient. I don't want to send them out to study. This is a nightmare for a father who has opened his eyes and is full of expectations and imagination for the world. "
After the private school was closed, many of my father's classmates went to Wangbei Township Central School in the old granary. Those students came back and talked about their school life, which was charming. Deng Hengyuan and Ma Mingjun especially like to say that the teacher read a new book outside, and there are geography and physical education in the course. They should exercise in the morning and between classes. In my spare time, I have a lot of fun in running, playing ball games and writing competitions ... Deng Hengyuan is sociable and has many friends, and he also praises himself for getting along with the headmaster. My father felt itchy and said that he would go to school, but grandpa, the main labor force in the family, opposed it and his great-grandfather hesitated.
Although the family has 120 mu of land, it can be regarded as a well-off family, and both father and uncle (Qin Xuquan) can be called full meals, but outsiders don't know that porridge is also eaten every year. This family has a large population. Although we hired long-term and short-term workers, the main labor force was my grandfather. He only wants his two eldest sons to help us as soon as possible. If you send it out to study, not only will no one help you, but you will also have to pay tuition and living expenses, which is not a small expense.
People's situation and destiny are largely linked with the horizon. If you can see farther than the average person and have the means and ability to achieve it, it will be different. It takes courage and wisdom to pursue your dreams. Mr. Yu Jingbing, the headmaster of Wangbei Township Central School, is a famous local teacher, and his words are quite influential. His family lives in Hejiatan, Du Yao. When he walks home from the old granary every week, he will pass at the foot of the ridge and learn something about the Qin family. My great-grandfather worshipped him even more. Father knows that if we can borrow his strength, it will be easy to study. But for my father, this gentleman is beyond my power. So I have a plan: write a letter under a pseudonym to make my great-grandfather change his mind. He wrote a letter in the name of the headmaster, addressed to Deng Hengyuan. I heard that Yun Qi Hotel has two grandsons, who are outstanding in appearance, smart and articulate. Why not send them to study? If you think that if you read some books in a private school, you can recognize a few words, write a deed, count them, and shout a salute, and everything will be fine. It was a dream. Times are different. You will never get ahead unless you come out to study. Wake up!
Father finished the letter secretly. Show the letter to my uncle first, saying it was given to him by Deng Hengyuan, and encourage my uncle to read it to my great-grandfather. The scene at that time was still fresh in my father's memory. On the edge of the water tank outside the kitchen door, the uncle on the other side read in an orderly way, and the great-grandfather listened quietly, with hesitation and joy on his face; On this side, my father was trembling with nervousness. On the one hand, he feels guilty; on the other hand, he is anxious.
After all, my great-grandfather attached great importance to his two grandchildren and had high hopes for them. Sending out to study is equivalent to entering a foreign school, not to mention the significance of such an influential person. Grandma is very liberal. She wants her son to go out to study, and she doesn't feel bad about paying for food. That's settled.
I have never been sent to school at home, and it is not a small project to prepare school supplies. Only one bed, mosquito net mat, washbasin, and clothes for two people can be prepared. What to pack these luggage with is another question. My grandmother remembered the cage she used when she got married, and my aunt borrowed it when she got married, so she went back to her parents' house to get it.
1942, two brothers entered a new school.
On the wall outside the school gate, the words "Wangbei Township Central School" are painted in yellow mud, and the edges are painted in ink. It is said that it was written by Yang, a teacher who teaches picture music. The school borrowed a venue in Kannonji. The entrance to the school gate is the auditorium, and passing through the auditorium is an open space in the center of the school. Opposite Kannonji, there are classrooms and offices on the left and right. The classroom in the left corner used to be a canteen, and pigs were fed in the pigsty. The students' dormitory is mainly upstairs in the auditorium, and the wooden floor is covered with straw. Most students live here.
At that time, it was the most difficult time of the Anti-Japanese War, and most of the teachers in the school fled from the outside to take refuge, which can be called a talented person. In the father's view, the teachers are both energetic and handsome, and most of them graduated from Changsha No.1 Normal University. Among the teachers, such as Wang Jingdong and Zeng in Changsha, Wang Zitai who taught arithmetic, and Hu who taught Chinese. I didn't go to class the other day. What impressed me deeply was the reports of Wang Jin and other teachers. He told an article and some common sense. It's so fresh. There is a newspaper and periodical shelf in the auditorium, and the things on it feel unbearable.
All novelty can't compare with the impact of ideas. What happened to physical education class? Jumping rope, playing ball, running and camping are also courses? A day's study begins with the song of Zhaohui:
He Huang Huang, a laurel tree,
Teachers and students will get together.
Vibrant He Zeze,
Teachers and students constantly strive for self-improvement ...
Look at our east.
Every Monday, the host reads the Will of the Prime Minister (Sun Yat-sen) first (my father can recite it for a long time), and then the teacher speaks and asks for some basic codes of conduct: no littering and no spitting. ...
Outside the school gate is the main road, which turns left and fills a playground composed of fields. Get up in the morning to do morning exercises, and do exercises between classes, all here. The exercises are related to ordinary life, as if they were created by the teacher himself. For example, there is an action, with both feet squatting and hands pulling up and down on the chest in turn, just like drawing water from a well.
There are all kinds of competitions in the school. Speech contest, writing contest, composition contest, current affairs contest, etc. Sports competitions are indispensable.
My father likes sprinting in physical education class best. The competition will be held on the road in front of the school, and there will also be cross-country races. After the autumn harvest, the crops will be harvested and left in the field. My father won the first place in the 100 meter race, but he was at a disadvantage in the cross-country running. He also talked about the weather in spring and autumn. After dinner, he walked along the river and played on the beach. Today, when my father thinks about it, he still feels wonderful and fascinating.
When the spring blossoms or the weather is crisp, the school will also organize camping. I remember one time I went to Grey Soup, and it took me about three hours to get there. I set up tents in groups near the hot springs. There is a big spring with high temperature in grey soup hot spring. Chinese teacher Zhang Hou put the stick in and stirred it heavily. He said that the noise is different from that when we usually boil water and the water boils. In the afternoon, farmers nearby come to pick hot water, or kill chickens or even pigs by the hot springs. In the evening, everyone lit a bonfire around the tent, sang and performed together, and invited the teachers of Tangquan Central School to watch. Father remembers a song he sang at that time: burning wildfire. "Phosphorus fire, phosphorus fire, phosphorus fire. The stars in the sky smiled at me and asked me where I came from, from Qinghai, from Yalu River … "Every group had to send people to stand guard at night to prevent other groups from sneaking up.
Physical education class, extracurricular activities and so on, all these are not only novel, but also cured my father's dizziness and proctoptosis. I think this may be the romantic aftertaste of Tsinghua and Ma Yuehan's sports thought and practice in 1930s and 1940s: "Sports is the source of life and health." Physical education is an important means to cultivate a sound personality, and the educational value of physical education can indirectly affect society.
The current affairs competition is held twice a semester. The forms of examination questions are fill-in-the-blank questions and multiple choice questions. At that time, I was more competitive, so I did something opportunistic. I remember that before an exam, the topic had just been printed, and the teacher was looking at a paper full of standard answers. Father happened to pass by the window, saw the opportunity, hid outside and peeked, and wrote down the answers:-+++,three four three two three. The judgment questions are in front, followed by multiple-choice questions. Naturally, I got a high score in this competition. Both the current affairs competition and the Chinese character competition won the first place.
Homework includes arithmetic, Chinese, history, geography, common sense and so on. It's all arranged in the morning. One subject at a time, one class at a time.
Mr. Yu Jingbing talks about history. I remember when the Qing soldiers entered the customs, Li Zicheng caught Chen Yuanyuan, but Wu Sangui didn't. Daming died and he was very excited. We lost our country because of Chen Yuanyuan, a "shell fairy".
Teacher Chen, a big man, teaches common sense. He talked about why airplanes can fly, and the key is exercise. He demonstrated with a newspaper. When it moves fast, it will float, and when it stops, it will fall to the ground.
Once in a geography class, the geography teacher asked for leave, and the Chinese teacher came to substitute for him and told him how to read the map. He talked about how to distinguish east, west, north and south on the map. Teacher Luo teaches geography. When talking about the Yellow River, he emphasizes that "the Yellow River is only rich in all evils". Father said this is very important, and Teacher Luo spoke it very well. Chatting with Professor Zou Yibin in his later years. In his father's view, Professor Zou has read a lot and has a wide knowledge, but when it comes to the Yellow River, he doesn't know this key point. In my father's memory, his junior high school teacher He Yeheng, as a history and geography teacher, did not focus on this in his lectures. It can be seen that the level of teachers in the old granary central school.
I still remember when I was a child, I hung two maps at home, a map of the world and a map of China. My father will let my sister and I look for it on the map whenever we meet any news and talk about any place. Looking at the map at any time has become our habit since childhood. Looking back now, I suddenly understand that my father's attention to geography was influenced by my great-grandfather on the one hand. He eats and is a soldier. It can be said that he traveled all over the country and opened his eyes. When he came back to talk about the situation outside, it was bound to involve geographical location. The terrain of three towns in Wuhan is used to illustrate the terrain of Shuangjiangkou at the intersection of Lushui and Huayang River, which shows that his geographical knowledge is quite rich. Of course, the complete enlightenment of geographical knowledge is still in the old granary.
Mr. Hu mentioned earlier teaches Chinese and is very talented. The teacher joked about his name and said, Why did you run to the foot of the mountain to write an article? On the road in front of the school, there is a so-called ten-mile cliff, and sedan chairs have to pass by. Father used the word "flowing" to describe the busy scene here. About that time, a new tea pavilion was built by the roadside, and Mr. Hu wrote a tea pavilion couplet here:
The cups and spoons are clear, and the road ahead is difficult in mountains and rivers;
Shoulders rest temporarily, and chaotic peaks surround this pavilion in spring.
Another teacher, Zhang Yiren, graduated from the First Normal School and wore a robe. He is very handsome. He worked as an inspector in Hengyang and returned to Ningxiang to teach Chinese. He can speak a little classical Chinese. He didn't do very well in class. I remember he said, "This song should only exist in the sky. How many times can people listen to it?" This is beside the point. Do not behave well in class.
Father is very proud of his writing. He said that he was always at the top of the composition competition. Chinese exam is the first course at the end of each semester. There is a classmate named Xie Minnong who just wants to win the first prize. Study hard, but fail to get the first place in the exam.
Seventy or eighty years ago, memories were fragments. Collage together can roughly restore the picture of the school at that time. And my father's young and enterprising spirit, his thirst for knowledge, his embrace of new things and his courage to pursue a new life are all displayed. Moreover, his concern, acceptance and embrace of new things have run through his life until today.
Qin Ying, publisher and writer.
As the saying goes, living in a loaded house is ruined. What is a house with load? Is this reasonable?
For China people, owning their own house is a place to live. No matter how big or small, as long as you can live, you will no longer be homeless.
But, to be honest, for young people, it is really stressful to buy a house on their own income. In the past, people in rural areas envied urban life, but now many people in cities yearn for rural life, especially families with homesteads in rural areas. It may be a dream that many people in cities will never realize that they can build a house of their own design.
However, if you really have a piece of land in the countryside where you can build your own house, don't just build it, because China people have many rules for building houses since ancient times.
For example, there is a folk saying that no matter how rich you are, you can't build a "load-bearing house", because there is a saying: "Living in a load-bearing house will ruin your family"! Many people may not have heard of what a "moving room" is, but I lived in the countryside when I was a child. So today, let's talk to you about what kind of house this "lifting house" is. Is there any truth in this proverb?
It is a popular folk proverb in the south of China that "the family has a burden, and the family is ruined.". A loaded house refers to a lonely house in some houses, that is, it is the only house that is higher than other houses around. From a distance, it looks like a lonely person carrying a burden.
Some places also use "sedan chair room" to describe such a house. If you have been to rural areas in Hunan or Jiangxi, you may have seen many places where houses gather. Houses in these places are often red brick exterior walls without any decoration.
And the biggest feature of this kind of house is that it will never be capped, and the roof of the house will always look unfinished. Why is this happening? It is because the local people have a mentality of building houses and keeping up with the joneses. Even if your house is not capped for life, you can't let your neighbor's house be higher than your own.
In order to prevent the house built behind others from being taller than their own, they adopted the method of not capping when building the house, so that they can add another floor at any time in the future.
Over time, such a strange scene appeared in the rural areas in the south. The whole village is the kind of house that seems to be only half built. If someone's house is much higher than the neighbor's house, it will be said that they have built a "lift house".
This folk proverb reflects the ugliness and ignorance of human nature. The neighbor's house is taller than his own. Out of comparison and jealousy, his house not only has no ceiling, but also laughs at other people's houses as "houses with burdens", which really exposes the inferiority of selfishness and jealousy.
Although they say that "they live in a loaded house, if it breaks down, they will die", but they secretly want to build a house superior to others in order to obtain some psychological satisfaction. In fact, the real feng shui lies in people's hearts, not in whose house is taller and whose house is shorter.
Therefore, it is completely ignorant and immoral to say that "the burden of living in a house is heavy and the family is ruined." As the saying goes, "If you live in the blessed land, you will live in the blessed land". Virtuous people, no matter what kind of house they live in, will get lifelong blessings and happiness!