Chapter 46 The fourth series of my life 1. Memories of childhood

I was born in Yiwei (1895), the 21st year of Guangxu, the year that Taiwan was ceded to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki.My father was enthusiastic about Western learning and reform, so there was a chromolithographic portrait of Emperor Guangxu on one side of the house, and a portrait of a foreign girl on the other, with a smiling face and a tattered straw hat in both hands. With a few newborn eggs.My mother loved it so hung it up.This is my home.In my mother's sewing basket, there was an American women's magazine, or Slickmagazine, that somehow found its way into my house, and the paper was smooth.Mother used the old magazine to store her embroidery thread.

The ones who have influenced me the most are my father, my second sister, and the landscape of Xixi in Zhangzhou.The deepest is the landscape of Xixi.My father was a reformer and an idealist who dreamed of dreaming for me to enter the University of Berlin.The second sister is the one who encouraged me to study hard and become famous.Besides, I have a gentle and humble mother who is unparalleled in the world. What she gave me is infinite maternal love, never scolding me, only loving me.This fountain of love, which flows day and night, is invisible and all-encompassing.Saying that she influenced me, I couldn't point it out, saying that she didn't affect me, and I looked ahead, but suddenly behind.Probably like spring breeze turning into rain.I grew up under the protection of this spring breeze and rain.I grow up, I grow up, she grows old, she sees her back, leaving me alive.There is nothing to say, it is nothing, but the reason why I am me is cultivated by her.You think there is no limitless love in the world, only maternal love is limitless.

This infinite love, each person has only one, how can it be forgotten? We live in Banzai Township, Pinghe County, and our father is a Presbyterian pastor.Banzai is also known as East Lake. In the local people, the word "lake" refers to the plain surrounded by high mountains.There are many mountains in the front, back, left, and right, with ten peaks (called ten peaks) in the south, and a steep cliff in the north, named Shique, with dog-toothed twists and turns.The sunrise in the east, the sunset in the west, and the afterglow of the morning glow all have the righteousness of heaven and earth.It is not strange to say that it is not strange, it is the illusion of nature.Looking south at the ten-pointed Yuanling Mountains, clouds and clouds come and go.When I was young, I heard people say that it used to be Yunxiao County.Among the thousands of clouds and mountains, only the dreams and fantasies of young children are promoted.Growing up in this majestic mountain, how can we look down on the tall buildings in the city?For example, Ferris in New York, to call him "Ferris" is because he doesn't know the heights of the sky and the earth, how can he be worthy of it?My outlook on life is based on this landscape.The shackles of human nature and the harassment of personnel are all because they have not seen, or forgotten, this vast world.To appreciate the insignificance of human beings, one must first see the magnificence of the universe.

Another thing I can't forget is the night moon in Xixi.When I was ten years old, my father sent me to go to Gulangyu Island, Xiamen, to attend primary school with my third elder brother (恨庄) and fourth elder brother (died early).It is only one hundred and twenty miles from Banzai to Xiamen, but it takes three or four days to go down by boat.The "five canopy boats" in Xixi, Zhangzhou can only go to the creek. From the creek to Banzai for twelve or three miles, they have to change boats and cross the shallows (called "Lase" by the locals). After jumping into the water, several people supported the shoulder of the boat and went up against the water.But the Xixi five-pail boat is good.From Xiaoxi to Longxi, there are beautiful mountains and rivers all the way, and it takes a long time to travel. It takes two days to go into the water and three days to go up the water.When I was young, I enjoyed the aura of the mountains and rivers and the scenery of the night moon happily.Boats often anchor in the river at dusk.There is always a small niche at the stern of the boat, where a few sticks of incense are inserted to worship Ma Zupo, and sometimes it is also about the Holy Emperor.Chinese civilians always admired loyalty and courage, so Guan Yu became an idol that everyone admired.In the dim night scenery, Chuanzi smoked his dry tobacco and drank his bitter tea.He or someone in his company told us folk tales.In the distance, the bonfires of other boats were on and off, and the sound of the flute blowing across the water was particularly melodious.

This also tells me how to appreciate the straight concrete avenues in the city? My father is humorous and often tells jokes on the podium.But he also had moments of righteous indignation.He has a good body, which was developed through hard training when he was young.I used to see the scar on his shoulder when I was a kid.My grandmother is also strong; she used to drive men out of the village in Wulisha, her hometown, with a wooden stick (called "reporting").He told us that when we were young, we sold sugar on our shoulders, and when it was raining, my grandmother hurriedly fried beans and told him to sell bean curds.Also because the prison sells rice, it is more profitable, so I also pick rice to sell in the prison.The grandmother is a Christian. During the Hongyang Rebellion, the grandfather was arrested by the "Long Mao Rebels" as a porter, so the mother and son struggled to survive.My father was twenty-four years old before he entered the seminary of the church. Naturally, he learned Chinese without a teacher.Therefore, he often sympathizes with poor families.My mother also came from a humble family.She always stands at the gate, and she always invites someone passing by to pick up firewood and sell vegetables, and have a bowl of tea to rest.Once, the squire made a mischief, and the county paid firewood tax.Rural people go up the mountains to collect firewood, and carry it for dozens of miles to the plains to sell.A pick can be sold for one hundred and twenty coins.This tax system is for the fish and meat villagers, and there is no fixed tax.Banzai has a market every five days, and all the country people come to buy and sell.Once my father met the squire, who insisted on selling firewood, and paid a tax of seventy cash for each pick.The father stepped forward, had a big fight with the squire, and said that he would sue the county.The squire disappeared without a trace. ...

Speaking of my second sister, it is like this.I went to college because of her.The second sister is smart and beautiful. She wanted to go to university but couldn't.Our country home is homeschooling.Probably the country people get up early, boys take care of cleaning, draw water from wells at home into water tanks and irrigate gardens, and girls take care of laundry and kitchen.At that time, my mother was over fifty, and she was in charge of washing and cooking at home.During the summer vacation, when everyone came back, they rang the bell for class after breakfast. My father taught me the four books, besides "Enlightenment of Sound Rhythm" and "Children's Learning Qionglin".There is always the sound of reading in the room.I remember around eleven o'clock, my second sister would frown and say that she had to cook or she had laundry to do.In the afternoon when she was studying, when the shadow of the sun was on the wall, she frowned again, saying that she had to bring in the clothes to dry, and after folding, she had to cook dinner again.She is a tiger, four years older than me.We read together the series of books translated by Lin Qinnan, such as Sherlock Holmes and Arabian Nights.Another time, the two of us compiled a long novel by mouth, as we thought, and tricked my mother for fun, but I didn't write it down. I remember that there was a French detective named "Culmonin", who was cheated by us.

After graduating from Yude Girls' School in Gulangyu Island, she wanted to go to Fuzhou for higher education.How is this possible?My father gave birth to six sons and two daughters, and he was fond of dreaming. He asked all the boys to receive higher education, so naturally they couldn't control the girls, and it was the custom at that time to marry girls when they were college students.I remember hearing my father tell his friends that he sold the house passed down by his only grandmother in Zhangzhou to send his second brother to St. John’s University in Shanghai.When it was time to sign the house sale, a little tear fell on the contract paper.When I go to school in Fuzhou, missionary schools are free of tuition fees, but the miscellaneous fees in Shanchuan cost at least sixty or seventy yuan a year.This cannot be raised.Therefore, there is absolutely no hope for my second sister to study hard.

I know her clever mind and readable mood best.She is already twenty years old, so why not marry.But every time someone talks about their relationship, my mother comes to the room and tells her that she always blows out the oil lamp and refuses to talk to her.My father was having wild dreams, lit the oil lamp by the bed at night, smoked pipes, and told our children how good Oxford University is, and that Berlin University is the best university in the world.The pastor's monthly income is twenty-four yuan. Isn't this a wild dream? (He has read a lot of new books of the Shanghai Guangxi Society, so he knows these).So my second sister had to sacrifice.

When she was 22 years old and I was 18 years old, she was going to study at St. John's University in Shanghai (the money was borrowed), and she was going to get married in a mountain city, burying her dream of studying.She got married out of necessity, I know.Our family disembarked, and our parents sent their daughters to get married, and their children to study abroad. We went to that township along the Xixi River on the same boat.Before we got married, she took out 40 cents from the pocket of the bride's jacket and said to me tearfully, "Hele, when you go to Shanghai, you must study hard, be a good person, and be a celebrity. I hope." This sentence is engraved on my heart. The four characters of "reading and becoming famous" are common sayings in our family, but the feelings of parting are different.Those words seemed to mean a lot to me.

After a year, I went home and went to see her along the way.Her husband is a young man from a middle-class family who has pursued her for many years. The family has a small family property, and her mother-in-law is also very proud. After marrying this daughter-in-law, she finally has no worries about food and clothing.She asked what English words I had learned.I told her.Saying goodbye in a hurry, I can't tell much heartfelt songs.When I went back to Shanghai in autumn, I heard that she had died of the plague and was pregnant for seven months.Her grave is still in Banzai Xishan Cemetery.