Chapter 79 anecdote

When Jiang Menglin's eldest brother was born, his father dreamed of receiving a bouquet of orchids, so the eldest brother was named Menglan.The second brother was named Mengtao for the same reason, and Jiang Menglin was named Mengxiong for this reason.Later, he was blacklisted for participating in the student movement, so he changed his name to Jiang Menglin. As a child, Jiang Menglin was thin and small, and very naughty.He once bit his brother's knee so badly that it left a purple tooth mark, only to cry himself, blaming his brother's knee for hurting his teeth. Jiang Menglin's grandfather was the manager of a silver village in Shanghai and left 7,000 taels of silver to Jiang Menglin's father.With the help of his father-in-law, his father turned 7,000 taels of silver into 70,000 taels within 30 years.Jiang Menglin's father likes to invent and create, and likes to design by himself, or draw a pattern, and then instruct carpenters, blacksmiths, coppersmiths, farmers or bamboo craftsmen to build according to the size.He discovered that steamships were much faster than paddled wooden boats, so he tried every means to create a Chinese "steamer".The appearance of this "ship" was built according to that of foreign ships, but it was not equipped with a steam engine, and the power source was still relying on human paddling, so it was eventually abandoned.After learning the principle of the steam engine, Jiang's father gave up his ambition of building a ship.From then on, he devoted himself to letting his sons receive a modern education, hoping that they would one day learn the "secret" of making magical things from foreigners.

Jiang Menglin passed the examination as a scholar and became a student of the "County School". Although the "county school" is only in name, but according to the economic situation of Jiang's family, he must pay one hundred yuan in honor to see the teacher.Jiang's father bargained and paid fifty yuan, but he did not meet the teacher.When bargaining, my father said angrily: "The God of Wealth should be worshiped in the Confucius Temple." In New York at the beginning of the 20th century, there were many grocery stores opened by overseas Chinese from Guangdong, selling salted fish, eel, snake meat, soy sauce, shark's fin, bird's nest, dried abalone, etc.Once, Jiang went shopping in a grocery store run by a Cantonese. He couldn't speak Cantonese, so he took out a piece of paper and wrote down what he wanted to buy.An old lady next to him read the words written by Jiang, and said to the people in the store in surprise: "Since this Tang man can't speak Tang dialect (referring to Cantonese), why can he write Tang characters?" Many people were curious when they heard this. Surrounding Jiang Menglin, one of them, who knew a little Mandarin, asked, "Have you ever been to the provincial capital of Guangzhou?" Jiang replied, "No." "Then where did you shop?" "Shanghai After speaking, Jiang Menglin smiled and picked up a bottle of soy sauce and a package of goods and left.

In the early 1930s, Hu Shi published articles criticizing the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek because he founded the "New Moon" magazine in Shanghai. The Kuomintang Shanghai Party Headquarters therefore repeatedly declared that Hu Shi was a "scholar" and "counter-revolutionary" and demanded that Hu Shi be severely punished; the Kuomintang government ordered the Ministry of Education to , warning Hu Shi, who was the principal of a Chinese public school at the time.The Ministry of Education then issued a ministerial order stating that "the principal's remarks were inconsistent and he was ordered to warn", and the person who signed the document was his friend Jiang Menglin.As a result, Hu Shi returned the ministry order issued by Jiang, and not only refused to accept the warning, but even refuted it point by point.This is also a rare dispute between Hu Shi and Jiang Menglin in their lives.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Mrs. Jiang Menglin Tao Zenggu first arrived in Nanjing to look for a house. The Nanjing Municipal Government introduced her to a big house. After she went in and inquired about it, she realized that it belonged to the official who was shot because of Jiang Menglin’s military service report. industry.Tao Zenggu was startled, and walked away.The accompanying person was puzzled and hurriedly asked why, Tao said: "Ah! The owner of this house is asking for his life from my husband!" With Nanjing as the center, the Rural Restoration Association visited rural areas across the country.During Jiang Menglin's investigation, he often met Peking University students and volunteered to help.Once, the chartered plane that Jiang and others took landed temporarily in Hanzhong.Because it was a temporary landing, the authorities were not contacted beforehand.While wandering, Jiang's students immediately came to lead the way.Jiang Menglin's colleagues in the Peasant Restoration Association, especially the American experts, found it very strange that a person who had been a principal had so many students, and he would meet them in almost every city or country in the country.

Another time, on a plane flying to Taiwan, an American expert jokingly asked Jiang Menglin: "Will you still meet students in the sky?" Jiang laughed and said: "That will never happen!" A tall pilot with a neat uniform came over and saluted Jiang respectfully, and called: "Principal." Jiang asked: "Who are you?" He replied: "I am your student It’s the co-pilot.” Jiang asked: “When did you learn to fly?” The pilot replied: “A long time ago, the principal recommended me to learn aviation.” Colleagues said: "You see, decades of hard work as a principal is not for nothing, right? Hard work comes with rewards!"

Jiang Menglin summarized the relationship between men and women into three types: one is dog skin plaster, the other is rubber plaster, and the third is hydrogen balloon.The so-called dog skin plaster is not easy to apply, and it hurts to tear it off. It is also called an old-fashioned marriage.Adhesive plasters are convenient to apply, and it is not difficult to tear them off, even for ordinary marriages.As for the modern style, both men and women have to be careful from time to time, and they will separate if they are negligent, just like a hydrogen balloon. When he was in Taipei, Jiang Menglin often thought of the stinky tofu and fried stinky tofu in his hometown of Yuyao, Zhejiang. Later, he saw a hawker selling fried stinky tofu outside the Taipei Zoo in the evening, so he went there every time he took a walk and bought a few. Block home for supper.

In Taiwan, Shen Zonghan and Jiang Menglin live next to each other.At that time, Shen Junshan, the son of Shen Zonghan, saw a thin old man walking on the grass, and occasionally raised his head to look at the clouds in the sky.When Shen Junshan was in college, he liked all kinds of extracurricular activities, especially go and bridge, and often played until midnight before returning home.However, Shen Zonghan's family education was quite strict, and he locked the gate of the yard at night, put away the keys, and prevented his daughter-in-law from opening the door for his son.Shen Junshan had no choice but to jump over the wall and enter.Late one night, before Jiang Menglin went to bed, he suddenly saw a black shadow, which disappeared for a moment. After being horrified, he made two phone calls, one to the police station at the alley: "A thief has come to Commissar Shen's house, please send someone quickly." Arrest." One was to Shen Zonghan: "A thief has entered your house, but don't go downstairs and wait for the police to come." As a result, Shen Junshan was beaten by his father, and it was still a joke in the peasant rehabilitation meeting.From then on, whenever Shen Junshan saw Jiang Menglin from a distance, he quickly hid aside.

A few years later, Shen Junshan went to Princeton to do postdoctoral research and returned to his hometown to visit his relatives.Shen Zonghan took him to visit Jiang Menglin.During the conversation, Jiang suddenly blinked and asked Shen Junshan, "Now you don't need to jump over the wall when you play chess?" Zhang Yuanxi accompanied Jiang Menglin on a business trip, and after checking in at the hotel, he ran into Cai Peihuo.During the meal, Jiang and Cai sat on the table, and the rest of the people accompanied them respectfully.Unexpectedly, neither of them opened their mouths, like two Maitreya Buddhas, making everyone at the table quite embarrassed.Zhang Yuanxi couldn't bear it any longer, so he picked up the cup and said to Cai, "It's the first time we met today. Let me congratulate you on your birthday with water and wine." Cai was very surprised and asked Zhang why he knew his birthday.Zhang explained that what he saw in the visitor register, Cai suddenly realized.The deadlock was broken, and Jiang Menglin also raised a glass to toast Cai, and the dinner table was very lively.After returning to the room, Jiang Menglin said to Zhang Yuanxi: "Engineer, I have to give you credit." It turned out that Jiang and Cai had been unhappy because of birth control issues, and Cai said to Jiang: "From now on, I will not talk to you anymore. "So when they met, neither of them opened their mouths, and this deadlock was broken by Zhang Yuanxi's words.

Jiang Menglin lived in the home of his cousin Song Yuelun in Japan. One night, it was raining heavily, and the Song couple could not sleep well. They were afraid that their uncle in his 70s would also not sleep well. He went to his couch several times to check, but Jiang was sleeping soundly. rattle.Waking up early the next morning, Jiang found that the bed was wet from the rain, and said to Song Yuelun humorously, "Don't blame me for bedwetting."