Memories are a thread of emotion, seeking back the past events that have gone with the wind one by one, stringing them together, and slowly remembering them in the life of retirement.
First, into the county high school
I taught junior high school physics and electrical engineering, and Ellie taught junior high school physics.
Yinjiang Middle School has a long history. As early as in 1688, there was a “Longjin Academy” here. It has been renamed several times since then, and has evolved for more than 300 years.
The campus is famous for its one pagoda and one academy.
The “One Pagoda” refers to Wenchangge, which was built in 1531, the tenth year of the Ming Dynasty, to signify the prosperity of literature. Tower height of 38.72 meters, seven layers of four-sided hexagonal octagonal save the spire. Wenchangge is a provincial key protected cultural relic, and is regarded as the birthplace of Yinjiang civilization and the symbol of Yinjiang High School.
“A school” refers to the Iren School, which was renamed from “Longjin School” in the early Qing Dynasty and still exists today. The academy is the main gathering place of literati and the main place of preaching and teaching in Yinjiang in history. Over the years, countless literati and scholars have come out of it. On the basis of the school run by Yiren Academy, a new type of school was built in 1940 – Yinjiang County High School.
The county high school is the most concentrated unit of intellectuals in the county, at that time, a large proportion of graduates from abroad, including graduates of Fudan, East China Normal University, Shanghai Institute of Foreign Languages, Wuhan University, Jinan University and other key universities. It can be said that there are a lot of talents, hidden dragons and crouching tigers.
The dormitory we lived in was called “Liu’s courtyard”, somewhat like a courtyard in Beijing, with a stone paved dam, or a patio, at the front door. The tall hall (former ancestral hall) facing the gate is now divided into several small rooms for each family’s kitchen and a large room for the school staff cafeteria. On either side are two-story wood-paneled houses, where about ten teachers live. We lived downstairs in two wood-paneled rooms, and the space in the house was not high enough for me to reach the ceiling.
As soon as the house was settled, the head of the grade team came to the house to register whether I had a radio, how many bands I could receive, and to caution against listening to enemy stations outside the country. Then the office secretary gave us a political task: to monitor our next-door neighbor, the “historical counterrevolutionary” Yan Zaishi, and to report any situation in time.
This Yan was the former principal of the county high school and a member of the provincial CPPCC. His grandfather Yan Yinliang is a big name: 1888 Beijing Summer Palace was completed, the Empress Dowager Cixi edict all ministers for the Summer Palace inscription, but no one writing can make Cixi favorite, the edict to select the garden has been hanging high in the Forbidden City. Yan Yinliang went to Beijing to take the examination, the name was lost, and fell in a store in the west of the capital, selling text to make ends meet. The owner of the store saw Yan’s talent was not met, very sorry. He persuaded Yan to write down the words “Summer Palace” and delivered them on his behalf. These three characters were so strong and powerful, with silver lines and iron hooks, that they shocked the court and were chosen by Cixi. He was given a jade medallion with a dragon pattern and a jade medallion of “Chen reward”. Since then, Yan has been famous at home and abroad. People from all over the world have been asking for ink treasures, and all those who have received his ink have been treated as treasures. (Yinjiang County is the hometown of calligraphy, in addition to Yan Yinliang, there are also famous calligraphers Wang Zhicang, Wei Dunquan, Wei Yuping, Wei Yuping now lives in Chongqing, was the vice chairman of Chongqing Calligraphy Association, Chongqing Poetry Society President)
Later, I saw Yan Zaishi at a criticism meeting at school. Two tall students grabbed one of Yan’s arms and carried him like a chicken, and Yan was pulled to the podium without touching the ground. This kind of violence against a skinny old man in his sixties aroused my sympathy, and because the string of class struggle was not taut in my mind, I was not willing to be an informer. So I lived with Yan Zaishi for two years as a neighbor, and I didn’t report him once. Yan’s son and I were both stamp collectors, and sometimes we exchanged stamps and got along very well with each other.
After Yan Zaishi was rehabilitated, he was very grateful to me and cited me as his friend. When I was transferred to Guiyang, Yan wrote to his acquaintances at the provincial library and museum, asking them to make it easier for me to borrow books. I am glad I did not act as an “infiltrator” or “informer” in those days when the class struggle was more important than anything else, and did something regrettable.
As a first-time teacher, and having lost many years of secondary school, I was very careful in preparing lessons with Ellie, often reading books and writing lesson plans late into the night in order not to mislead others. On the other hand, during the teaching process, we soon found that most students did not learn at all, because the college entrance examination system had not been restored at that time, students lacked motivation to learn, and the discipline in class was very poor, thus the classroom had to spend a lot of energy to control discipline. One female teacher was in class when two students in the class fought and rolled around on the floor, all the way to the podium. The female teacher had no choice but to step over the students and dash to the principal’s office to “call the police”.
One day in class, a student was arguing with someone else downstairs and saying strange things. I intervened twice to no avail, so I finally got angry and asked the student to leave the classroom to reflect. But the student was particularly stubborn, clinging to his desk and playing hard to get. I was furious, I took out my kung fu in the rice factory to carry more than 200 pounds of heavy sacks, “the force of the mountain, the air is over the world”, a dry land pulling onion, even people with desks on the shoulders in one go. The whole class was stunned and suddenly silent. The naughty student hanging in the air, struggling a few times, see no use, had to surrender to forgive: “Teacher put me down, I go out by myself.” For the next few days, the student kept his head buried and did not dare to look at me. This also made me reflect: this treatment of students is too simple and rough, a bit to strong to bully the weak, will hurt the students’ self-esteem, in the future to have patience, pay attention to the way.
Years later, this student also became a teacher and was embarrassed to see me. I asked him if he held a grudge against me for what happened back then, and he said he didn’t hold a grudge at all, but that he had been too naughty. But that time did scare him.
This shocking carry has become a classic. Decades have passed, the old colleagues met, and still take this incident to laugh at me.
Second, open the door to school
The education of that era is in vogue to open the door to school. The school specially screened two influential movies in the playground at that time: “Duel” and “Spring Miao”. The film “The Rupture” depicted the Song Shan branch of Jiangxi Communist University opening its doors to the public and recruiting young people with practical experience, even recruiting college students with a few hard calluses on their hands. It criticizes the professor for being out of touch with reality in class and talking about the function of horsetail. Spring Seedlings” is a film celebrating rural barefoot doctors.
Six students in the senior class jointly wrote a letter to the party branch of the school, pointing out that the school’s open-door operation was only a formal open-door, still opening machines on the blackboard, planting crops, recognizing chemical fertilizers, and after a semester of learning electricians, they could not even install electric lights, somewhat like the revisionist education line that was detached from reality, as criticized by “Duel”.
The school organized classes to discuss the letter, and decided to further open the door to school, open a variety of professional courses, out of the classroom, out of the school to run school. For example, physics teachers offered electrical classes, agricultural machinery classes (teaching to drive tractors), and biology teachers offered red medicine classes (learning medical and health knowledge). This puts a lot of pressure on the teachers, such as Ellie and I took time to learn to drive a tractor (the school has a walk-behind tractor), otherwise they can not drive, how to teach students.
I teach an electrical class to try to open the door. The measures I took were: First, I took the students out for a visit. I take students to Langxi District rhinoceros cave hydropower station visit, ask the power station technician to give a lecture; to the county radio station visit; to the machinery factory visit, ask the master electrician to talk about AC transformer, the role of magnetic starter, how to wire. Secondly, we went out for practice. I learned that the power plant is ready to install electric lights to the newly built foreign trade station, so I contacted the power plant and took the students to practice. Several masters of the power plant were very enthusiastic and patient, and they not only let the students install the lights themselves, but also taught them to install the electricity meters. A series of two days of practice, the students feel that there are still gains. But this open door also created problems: First, I took a class of students to visit and practice, other classes can not be on the class, and even some classes start a month only on a physics class. Second, for the sake of students to learn technology, affecting the progress and quality of the installation, so that the internship unit may have an opinion.
At that time, science and chemistry was a teaching and research group, the group has a teacher teaching biology Wu Xinglong, he opened a “red medical class”, leading students to study medicine, he himself also has a strong interest in studying medicine. I had a period of time due to long and intense work, poor rest, suffering from neurodermatitis. Mr. Wu used a small bamboo block with a few large head needles to make “plum blossom needle”, and then hit my affected area until bleeding. After a period of time, my dermatitis was cured. My daughter was constipated for some time and did not relieve her bowels for three or four days, so she went to the county hospital, but the problem was not solved, causing Ellie and I a great burden on our minds. Ms. Wu suggested taking vitamin B1 to increase bowel movement. We tried it, and the medicine was immediately cured. There was something even more amazing: a teacher’s lover had a stroke and was paralyzed, and Ms. Wu actually used acupuncture to get her back on her feet and able to walk.
In retrospect, the “open-door schooling” at that time went to the other extreme, affecting the systematic learning of the basics of various subjects and torturing the teachers at that time. But the teachers still made some achievements in it, showing the dedication and intelligence of intellectuals. Mr. Wu also lived in the courtyard of the Liu family, and we became friends over time. In 1978, I went back to Sichuan University for two years to further my studies, only Ellie was at home, the old man followed the feudal rituals and did not enter my home again in two years. Later he was transferred back to Guiyang, and when I left I wrote him a small poem as a souvenir. Now I only remember two lines of it: “Boiling wine and peanuts and rice, talk and laugh and much feat.”
III. Basketball League
In those days when reading was not valued, school sports activities were very active. Athletic competitions and various ball games were often held, and the most memorable one was basketball.
The teachers’ basketball tournament was held in grade groups, and there were also administrative groups. The high school division had fewer classes (high school was a two-year system at that time), so the high school division formed a high school group, and each group was strongest in the high school and junior high groups. The high school group was the school’s old champion team, while the junior group was the up-and-comer. My junior group had two main players, one was Mr. Wu Xinglong, who was 1.78m tall and an excellent center, and the other was Mr. Lei Fuqiang, a point guard who ran all over the court.
The first time the two groups met, we ended up outscoring the high school group by a dozen points. I played very well in this game, as the opponent’s attention was focused on Wu and Lei, who became the main target of prevention. This gave me a lot of opportunities to shoot, and my shooting was always accurate, especially on both sides of the rim, and I could say that I could get nine out of ten. This time I became a dark horse to win.
Finally, these two groups entered the final, and both sides were determined to beat each other. The high school team had several preparation meetings to discuss the style of play. We also had several preparation meetings, and an enthusiastic female teacher rushed to make white sports shorts for each athlete, and bought blue tank tops for the tops.
The finals were held one night in early May at the school’s lighted court. The whole school staff, some students and residents in the vicinity of the school went to watch that day. The crowd around the stadium was lively, with cheerleaders from both sides singing and sloganeering from time to time. We were at a disadvantage at the beginning of the game, I was watched to death and couldn’t get a chance to shoot. Mr. Lei committed four fouls in the first half, creating emotions and playing abnormally. At most, we lost by 6 shots. In the second half we still kept trailing and the situation was not favorable. But we didn’t give up and passed the ball to Wu and Lei as much as possible to let them score, slowly catching up the score and finally tying it in the last 5 minutes, then overtaking it and finally winning by 3 goals.
We won this game mainly because we were young and physically fit, and we were able to unite after losing the game and persevere to the end without giving up. The high school team was better than us in terms of tactics and technology, but they were generally a few years older than us and had less stamina, so we finally caught up and overtook them. After the game, we prepared wine and food, invited the whole group of teachers to come and celebrate the victory in Wu Xinglong’s dormitory. The fierce and exciting game and the joyful expressions of the whole group of teachers after the victory are still vivid in my mind.
Fourth, the death of school-run farms
County high school principal Zhang was in his forties, a tall, sturdy man. He was eager to make a difference in the education revolution, visited the national education revolution typical of Jiangxi University and Chaoyang Agricultural College. Determined to do a big job, run a sizeable school-run farm.
The site of the farm was chosen in the town of Kashan, five or six miles from the school. The Indus River turned a bay here, forming a river sleeve, the principal decided to build a dike in the river dam, so that the river is diverted to go straight, the entire sleeve are transformed into good fields. This project was very grand and the workload was huge.
The school-run farm was launched at the end of 1975. First, public opinion was created and a poetry contest was held on the site. I remember writing a poem.
The farm is connected to Beijing
How wide is the school farm?
The fields are as wide as you can see.
Standing on the river bank and looking at it
The golden road leads to the front.
One end leads to Beijing, the other to Jinggang Mountain.
One end leads to Beijing, the other to Jinggang Mountain.
Chairman Mao guides the glorious road.
Chairman Mao guided the glorious road, and the education revolution took a big step forward.
At that time, I was still quite revolutionary, and I had quite a revolutionary drive.
At that time, a pair of young teachers in the school got married, and the school sent a set of Mao’s selection, a hoe, and a straw hat, which was called a revolutionary wedding.
The 1976 winter break, from January 27 to February 15, except for the Chinese New Year holiday for one day, all used for political study, Sunday are not rest, called the revolutionary Spring Festival. The county high school used this time to organize teachers to work in the school-run farm. The start of the second semester was even postponed in order to complete the labor tasks.
The work on the school farm was very difficult. I joined the professional team and used a steel drill to drill holes in the hillside next to the river, to discharge the cannon, and to pry the rocks. Rocks weighing 700 or 800 pounds, or 1 or 2,000 pounds, rumbled and rolled down the hill, accompanied by cheers and a great deal of excitement. I was injured on the second day of labor, when I was prying a big rock with a steel brazier, the rock did not roll down the mountain, but came back down and bounced the steel brazier in my hand, which flew under my chin and cut a long slit, where a soft place immediately opened up like a mouth, and blood flowed down my neck. I rested on the grass for a few hours and then joined the work again. At that time, I didn’t know how many stitches to get, so I still have a scar.
The second step was to lift stones to build the dike. There were four people carrying the stones, eight people carrying the stones, and the largest stone took ten people to lift. Because of the exercise of several years of physical labor, I always competed to lift heavy stones and soon became known as the “iron shoulder that cannot be crushed. Even some old teachers no longer called me “Little Li”, but “Old Li”. But soon I suffered a setback. Once eight people carrying a stone, I walked in the last, uphill, the stone suddenly slipped back, I only felt a swelling waist, like a tarzan, a huge force down, which is the weight I have never borne, my feet immediately like nailed to the ground, can not move a step. I immediately shouted: “Quick! I can’t make it!” Several teachers came up to help me support my shoulders, and I was able to get out from under the heavy load. The leader of our teaching and research group was not as lucky as I was. He was overwhelmed by The load when he was lifting the stone, and was overwhelmed by the shoulder, and his mouth was gnawing on the stone, and two of his incisors were knocked out.
Although the labor was hard, everyone was still relatively happy. Firstly, the principal was the first to take the lead in heavy work and did not make special efforts, which was convincing. Secondly, the food was good, one yuan a day, three meals a day, and wine and meat in the evening. Third, as classroom teachers do not have to manage dozens of students, as long as they can manage themselves on the line, feel “no official is light”.
During labor breaks, the teachers bragged about it together. I remember a teacher telling the story “Room 12”, which remained untold for several days. The male teachers often avoided meeting alone with their female compatriots so that they could talk freely about dirty stories that could only be heard by the men.
Allie did not work on the farm because she had a baby. At the end of the semester, after correcting students’ papers, she took a leave of absence to have a baby. When the second semester started, a few days before the full moon, she went to work early at the request of the principal. I didn’t miss a day of class because I had a baby. People of that era were so obedient and capable of hardship that they were easy to lead.
After the school year started, the students also participated in the work, and each grade took turns to work, even on Sundays. After the riverbank was repaired, we started to pick up the soil on a large scale to make fields. Dozens of acres of soil were filled in manually on the riverbank, and seedlings of rice and yams were planted. Looking at a flat land, full of lush green crops. We all thought about the harvest after autumn and were filled with the joy of labor.
In the middle of May, it rained heavily for several days, and the river swelled, so the river bank we built was not high enough, and the farm was flooded with water, which washed away many yams and seedlings. We could not cross the river, but only at the river to watch the farm on the other side of the disaster, the heart dry anxious. After a few days, we have not yet recovered, and a heavy rain, the sky is dark and heavy, like to collapse, heavy rain from dawn, a whole day. The river broke down the dam like a wild horse, and the farm became a sea of water. Afterwards we saw a wretched farm, the boulders we had worked so hard to lift were washed away. Seeing months of blood and sweat for the fruits of labor destroyed, really want to cry. I saw the principal standing dumbly on a pier of boulders, his long body and round head, like an upside-down exclamation mark. In front of the powerful force of nature, our efforts seemed so small and unbeatable. Our dream of a farm was shattered.
Postscript
I remember studying “Quantum Mechanics” in college, a difficult course, taught by a female teacher who read from her notebook every time, lacking her own play and insight. We talked privately about stealing her notebook and seeing how she would teach the class. We told her that the class was very difficult to learn and that we were still confused after the class (the implication was that the test would be easier). The female teacher told us frankly that she was a university student in 1958, and that she really did not learn much professional knowledge in those days of the Great Iron and Steel Refining, the Great Leap Forward, and the Education Revolution, and now she can only do her best, so please understand.
Looking back at the history of education reform in the education sector for decades, it is a history of tossing and turning. There is always a force that prevents you from quietly living a normal life and working normally. There is always a force that makes you involved in the unpredictable political storm, to fight with the sky, to fight with the earth, to fight with people, to fight until the sky is angry. As one scientist put it: we did a lot of ridiculous things in those years.
In 1977, with a spring thunder, college entrance exams were resumed. Existence determined consciousness, classroom discipline became better, and teachers were respected. At that time, the teacher-student relationship was still a “pristine” and simple state. Teachers gave extra lessons to students during the holidays, which was completely obligatory and free of charge. New Year’s Day, parents compete to invite teachers to their homes as guests, especially a little famous teachers who can go to the banquet, will make parents feel very dignified. I remember a student got into college, he was the first college student out of that village. His father actually gave me a basin of rice in a washbasin, saying that he had nothing to give, but only some rice to show his appreciation.
Education went back to normal, and I did not engage in heavy physical labor in the next twenty years of teaching. In order to keep improving the rate of higher education, I fell into a kind of busy brain work again.
May 2009 in Chongqing
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