Chapter 112 Long speech

In 1966, the Cultural Revolution began.When this "unprecedented" disaster struck, Ma Yifu could not escape bad luck.He was accused of being a "reactionary academic authority". The Red Guards ransacked Ma Yifu's house. Before the raiders swept away, he begged, "Leave an inkstone for me to write on, okay?" Slap his face. Ma Yifu's lifelong collection of ancient books and paintings was thrown into the raging fire and turned into ashes. He was really distraught.Fortunately, the comrades in charge of the Huagang security work reported to the provincial government leaders in time, so the provincial library and museum personnel rushed to the scene and rescued some precious books, cultural relics, calligraphy, paintings and manuscripts from the fire, and they were properly preserved.

The 84-year-old Ma Yifu was moved out of Jiangzhuang within a time limit.That night, wearing single clothes, he stood alone by the lake for a long time, sometimes looking up at the constellations, sighing at the sky, sometimes staring at the lake, bowing his head in thought.That night, he left Jiangzhuang to take refuge in a shabby house on Anji Road, but he was still concerned about the situation outside the house. In the face of the catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution, Ma Yifu wrote: "Speaking is too small to be broken, but poetry is poor or easy to work. A hundred years pass, and everything flows eastward. It is still slow to die, because the view is empty. Ask Hongmeng."

When someone told Ma Yifu that Pan Tianshou, Li Shutong's student, was treated inhumanely at the Academy of Fine Arts, he sighed repeatedly, "Sweetness sweeps the floor, gentleness sweeps the floor", and never spoke again.Mental torture, coupled with the aggravation of stomach problems, Ma Yifu became depressed and became sick, and he couldn't afford it. In 1967, Ma Yifu suffered a massive stomach hemorrhage, followed by all other diseases. On June 2, the stomach disease intensified and the bleeding continued. Zhejiang Hospital failed to rescue him. He died suddenly at the age of 85.

Before his death, Ma Yifu wrote his last poem "Farewell to Relatives and Friends" beside his pillow: