Chapter 6 Why Seek Knowledge (19100—1918) - Dongshan Reading

Just a few minutes after embarking on the long road from his home to Xiangxiang, Chairman Mao met a neighbor named Wang.Wang felt very fresh when he saw this young man in new clothes, new shoes and new socks, which is not the way people in Shaoshan usually dress up. "Shi San, you look so refreshed when you put on your new shoes," said the weather-beaten Wang. "I'm going to school." Chairman Mao replied proudly.He began to tell Lao Wang about his sacred ambitions. After hearing this, Lao Wang laughed so hard that there were tears on his rough face.He laughed at the young man's idea of ​​going to a "foreign school".Also asked if he had his father's permission for this stupid act, which stung him.

Mao Zedong got angry and shouted at him: "You are simply an antique! You are out of date!" After shouting, he continued to trek. [1] Chairman Mao carried his luggage on a bamboo pole and walked into the black-painted gate of Dongshan Senior Primary School.The brick-and-tiled buildings are surrounded by moats and high courtyard walls, and Mao Zedong felt as if he had entered a large temple (the largest building he saw in Shaoshan was the temple in Shaoshan). Chairman Mao walked across the white stone bridge over the moat to the majestic gate, and he was regarded as a porter.Mao Zedong is still inexperienced in dealing with this unpleasant dilemma.The size of the school also surprised him. He had never seen so many children together in such a big age.

All that came to my ears were sharp mocking words: "Dongshan is a school, not a mental hospital!" "A robber wants to enter our school!" Zedong found the principal's office rashly. "Sir, will you let me study at your school?" he asked in country boyishness.Holding a long copper-inlaid bamboo pipe in his hand, the headmaster was silent for a moment, then asked the solemn young man's name. "Sir, my name is Mao Zedong." Mao Zedong's calmness made the headmaster raise his eyebrows. He cited several reasons for not allowing this young man to enter the school, such as being too old at 16 years old, having never learned arithmetic and geography, and not being able to write well. refute. [2]

Another teacher present spoke for the young farmer.By the time he left the headmaster's office to join the worldly little rascals who had just disgraced him, he had already been granted five-month probation. He didn't know until he arrived in Dongshan that the Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu had died two years ago. From this incident, he could see how big the gap had to be made up from the remote Shaoshan to Dongshan. A cousin surnamed Wen (from the side of my mother’s natal family) has been studying in Dongshan, and he has given some help to Mao Zedong.But among the many students, only two became friends with Chairman Mao, and they were the two Xiao brothers who came from a wealthy landlord family.They have been in contact with Zedong for many years.

At school, Chairman Mao felt that he was a foreigner, so he had only a few classmates who also regarded him as a foreigner.These outlanders do not speak the standard local accent*, and their patched clothes make them distinct from the rich kids. * These students are almost all from Xiangxiang County, and they all speak with local accents.Even students in this county are pitted against each other by region.Mao said a little sadly when talking about these internal strife: "I take a neutral attitude in this struggle, because I am not from Xiangxiang in the first place." There are two other characteristics that make Mao Zedong an outsider among outsiders, that is, his age and size.He was tall for a 16-year-old, and he looked like a small tower among his classmates who were four or five years younger than him.

Most of the students here are well-dressed little snobby gentlemen.Mao Zedong was the son of a peasant family.His family is not considered poor, but it is a family in the countryside that has never seen the world.His hands are rougher than those of the students at the next table; his face is much darker than most of the students because of the sun.Mao Zedong spoke slowly, and the bright children around him talked like machine guns. He seemed out of tune with everything here, and one student even wanted to hire Zedong as his servant. Mao Zedong was tall and thin, and he walked with great strides.Soon he had the appearance of an intellectual.Despite the braids, his hair was long and unkempt.On the whole, his slovenliness was rather dashing.In terms of physique and temperament, he already has his own characteristics.

At this time, Mao Zedong was still a rough jade, unpolished.For Mao Zedong, entering Dongshan did not mean stepping into society, nor was it to gain a better social status, but just to work harder to learn things that could not be learned in Shaoshan. The school's classrooms are neat and beautiful, very different from the dusty thatched cottages in Shaoshan.The comfortable life of the upper class in China can be seen here. In Dongshan, people are also exposed to new ideas, which will soon sweep away the old traditions and social order like Shaoshan.Here, science is taught and reforms are advocated. During the early roll call, the teachers tell about China's suffering under the oppression of foreign powers, so as to awaken and cultivate students' national feelings.

The students wore robes with colored sashes, but their hearts throbbed with the new thought. Learning is Mao Zedong's only true friend.It is ironic that the painful years spent in the private school on the South Bank cultivated his solid foundation of ancient Chinese.His ability to write persuasively in an archaic style makes his other weaknesses and excesses less conspicuous. Knowledge of the reform politics of the time gave him the idea that knowledge could transform the world. In addition to all the school courses, he also read two very important works.Cousin Wen lent him several copies of "Xin Min Cong Bao" edited by Liang Qichao.Liang was a well-known political writer at that time.There is also "The Reform Movement of 1898" written by Kang Youwei, which is the final manifesto of the climax of reform. Kang was an outstanding thinker in that movement.This was Mao Zedong's first exposure to rigorous political thought.

A teacher who had studied in Japan had a great influence on Mao Zedong, although Mao Zedong did not learn English and music well.This is because the powerful Japan is very attractive to him.Mao Zedong loved the stories and poems of the time that depicted Japan's exploits in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. "I knew and felt the beauty of Japan at that time, and felt some of her pride and strength."[3] This was his first contact with the world outside of China, which made him believe that Japan is China's fraternal and friendly country all his life. Knowledge of the subject of war also marked his first steps in understanding world history.One evening, just after exercising, the sweaty students entered the classroom when they heard the bell for evening self-study.Mao Zedong walked up to Amy, one of the second brothers of the Xiao family, and wanted to know what book he was holding in his hand.It was "The Legend of Heroes of the World".Because books were very attractive to him, Mao Zedong asked him if he could borrow this book.In the next few days, like accompanying a new lover, Mao finished reading this book without letting go.

When Mao Zedong returned the book, Amy Xiao* found that various symbols had been painted on it.Mao drew circles and dots next to passages describing Napoleon, Washington, Peter the Great, Gladstone, Lincoln, Catherine I, Rousseau, and Montesquieu. *His official name is Xiao San, and I use his semi-Western nickname here (he took it himself based on Rousseau's "Emile").His nickname is widely known by his classmates and can distinguish him from his elder brother Xiao Yu.