Chapter 34 Introducing the Most Worth-Reading Autobiography——Preface to "The Study of Overcoming Difficulties"

Introducing the Most Worth-Reading Autobiography——Preface to "The Study of Overcoming Difficulties" Mr. Shen Zonghan's "Study on Overcoming Difficulties" is the most interesting, honest and most encouraging autobiography among the many autobiographies published in the past twenty years.I received a volume from him overseas. I read it in one sitting that afternoon, and then wrote to congratulate him on the success of this autobiography.Sure enough, the first edition of this book was sold out quickly, and now it is going to be revised and republished.Mr. Shen asked me to write a short preface, of course I dare not refuse.

The greatest strength of this autobiography is that it is willing to tell the truth.It is not easy to tell the truth; it is even more difficult to tell the truth about one's family, parents, brothers, and relatives. More than 1,800 years ago, the great thinker Wang Chong (he was from Shangyu County, Kuaiji County, Han Dynasty, and a fellow villager of Mr. Shen) described his grandfather and father in his "Zi Ji Pian" as follows: Grandfather Fan, carrying the facts, settled in Kuaiji, stayed in Qiantang County, and worked as a merchant.There are two sons: the elder is called Meng, and the younger is called Chan.To recite is to act as a father.The ancestral ancestors were entrusted with their spirits, until they became very obsessed and recited.Therefore, Meng and Chan were in Qiantang, and they were brave and domineering. At the end of the day, they had grudges with Ding Bo, a wealthy family, and moved their family to Shangyu.

This is to be honest.At that time, people had ridiculed him that "the ancestors did not have the foundation of Shuyi,... they have no endowments, and they will not be high in the end".Six hundred years later, in the "Preface" of "Shi Tong", Liu Zhiji even blamed him for "reporting that his parents were unworthy and despised by the state" and "being proud of himself while humiliating his ancestors." ".One thousand six hundred years later, Hui Dong, Qian Daxin, and Wang Mingsheng also blamed Wang Chong for this passage.What Wang Chong said, from the present point of view, does not "disgrace his predecessors", but to be honest, his grandfather, uncle, and father are all a bit heroic, so they have a grudge against Qian Tang's "rich family".However, these few honest words caused Wang Chong to be scolded for 1,800 years!

Mr. Shen wrote that his family was a large family of rural gentlemen.His village is a Shenwan village where many ethnic groups live together. There are 200 households and 700 people in the village, all of whom are from the Shen ethnic group.The wealth of the villagers is fairly even, the richest family only has more than 200 mu of land, and the poorest family has seven or eight mu.Farmers eat three meals a day, there are no beggars in the whole village, and no one has filed a lawsuit for a hundred years.This is a typical Jiangnan rural society.Mr. Shen's own family is an upper-middle-class family in this rural society.His grandfather, Mr. Shuixiang, uncle, Mr. Shaoxiang, and father, Mr. Dichu, were all scholars and scholars, and they were all capable of solving problems for others.Therefore, his family is a country gentleman's family.

Mr. Shen's grandfather had four sons and four daughters, his uncle had five sons and two daughters, and his father had six sons.When Mr. Shen was just two years old (1895), this big family already had more than 20 members.So there was the first "separation".After the family separation, "in addition to repaying the public debts, 43 mu of the ancestral land was left as a sacrifice for the grandfather."Mr. Dichu went out to teach in other people's homes by himself, and he only made 40,000 Wen a year for Shuxiu.The family has 12 acres of rented land, and hires a long-term laborer and a shepherd boy to cultivate it. Every other year, they can collect about 20 acres of land rented by the ancestors.The total annual income is only one hundred and fifty silver dollars.But this small family already has four boys.Long-term workers have to eat, and this is a family of seven.Mr. Shen's mother has to do the housework by herself, provide meals for seven people, and take care of the clothes, shoes and socks of the father and son.Therefore, one of his family's three meals a day would be cooked rice, and at night he would order oil lamps with only one wick and a flint to make fire.

This is the financial situation of the family. When Mr. Shen was fifteen years old (1908), he was admitted to the private Chengyi Higher Primary School in Samen Town, Yuyao County. Because of his poor family, he received the "cold allowance" treatment, which exempted him from studying, lodging and boarding.He lived in this school for four years and graduated in the winter of the first year of the Republic of China (1912).During these four years, his father provided him with seventy-two yuan for school fees (including books and miscellaneous fees).He said, "This is all the tuition my father gave Yu Yisheng."

He graduated from elementary school at the age of eighteen.At that time, the financial situation of his family was even more difficult. Not only was his father unable to support his education, but he also forced him to work as a primary school teacher after graduation, asking him to share the responsibility of supporting the family.This conflict between "continue to study" and "employment to support the family" was the biggest difficulty in Mr. Shen's youth, and it is also the central issue of his "Learning to Overcome Difficulties".His father said it most clearly: If I have a field, I can sell it for you to go to school; if I am not in debt and can support myself, I can also send you to go to school.But if the debt is still outstanding, the interest will increase, and the interest must be paid off every year.If there is no income from you, I will not be able to pay the interest next year.No way! (page 24)

But the old man is a sensible person who loves his son. He later figured it out. Not only did he not object to his son borrowing money to go to school, he even bought a yellow suitcase for him!So he borrowed more than 40 silver dollars and went to Hangzhou Jianqiao Agricultural School to start his agricultural education. In this autobiography, Mr. Shen wrote that his father, Mr. Dichu, repeatedly opposed his education, repeatedly forced him to share the family, and repeatedly scolded him severely, but in the end he still kindly forgave him and forgave him.The most acute conflict occurred in the third year of the Republic of China. His old man firmly refused to allow his son to abandon Jianqiao Agricultural School and go north to Beijing Agricultural Specialized School.The old man shed tears and said to his son: ... I will die for the economy.Even if you can graduate from Beijing Agricultural School, do you feel at ease? !

This time, the old man was very angry and forced his son to write a letter of repentance to Principal Chen of Jianqiao, forcing him to go back to Jianqiao. The son had no choice but to cheat and leave his father. First, he went to find his second elder brother who worked in a bank in Yuyao, begged him to borrow forty silver dollars for travel expenses to the north, and then borrowed a leather robe from him. His classmate sneaked away to Shanghai and went north by ship. He entered the Beijing Agricultural Specialized School as a preparatory auditor.Half a month later, my father wrote back. Although the mother said that she was crying and unable to eat, he finally promised to "fulfill" his son's wish to study in the future.Another month later, my father heard that the person who borrowed the fur robe would ask for it back. The old man hurriedly remitted forty silver dollars to ask his son to buy another fur robe for the winter!

After four difficult years, the author graduated from the Beijing Agricultural Technical School.It was June of the seventh year of the Republic of China. He was twenty-four years old and had been married for three years.He had to find a job to share the financial burden of that big family.After several months of running around, he got a job as a tutor, and he could get forty silver dollars a month, and the student's family provided board and lodging. His father asked him to use ten yuan a month for himself, and an extra thirty yuan for his family and the tuition of his fifth brother.The two years he worked as a tutor in Beijing were the most painful period of his life (from the seventh to the ninth spring of the Republic of China).He had been baptized at that time and became a very devout Christian.But sometimes he couldn't help telling his pain in the diary.In the autobiography (page 65) there is this most honest and touching record: the father came to reprimand.At the end of the Lunar New Year in the eighth lunar calendar, my father was ill, and the accusations became more severe, and Yu was in great pain. (Nine years) On January 20, the diary said: "Writing my father's report at night, I often mourn my father's words. I wrote until eleven o'clock, and I was very distressed. I knelt and prayed for a long time, and continued to report.... I cut down on food and clothing, and worked hard. He also said that I owe money. I don't treat guests or borrow money. My friends say I'm stingy, and he also says I entertain too much. My monthly salary is 40 yuan, and I borrow money from east to west to repay my old debts and help my fifth brother. He also asked me to support me with thirty yuan a month. Alas! My father loves me the most. When the creditors press him for debts, he will scold me and get sick. He is sixty-four years old this year. Year-old housekeeper, in debt until now, from day to night, diligently teaching, saving food and clothing, frugal in everything, never once bought meat for himself. My mother bought meat for him, and he even scolded her for not saving money. When I went back last summer vacation, he went to the city to buy fish meat for me to eat. This fish meat is a million times more delicious than shark fin and bird’s nest! He scolded me for being frugal, and I sometimes objected to it, but seeing how hard he was and his hard work in teaching, I admire him so much. He loves me, but I sometimes forget about it. Now that I think about it, why didn’t I save him when he was in poverty and sickness! I only have dozens of coppers left in my pocket, and I have to pay them back in a month or two. The debt ranges to a few hundred yuan, and my fifth brother wants me to send ten yuan quickly. I can't think of anyone to borrow at this time.... I really owe my lovely father, but I really can't. I pray God to bless my father , wish me success in my business.

I must pay my father's debt. ... I believe that in ancient and modern Chinese biographical literature, there has never been such an honest, kind, and touching text; and no one has ever been willing to and dared to describe the relationship between father and son and family relationship so honestly. In such a family, the debts accumulated over the years have to be borne by the young children and grandchildren, and the elderly parents want the young son to "support". Son to occupation bears education expenses. ——Such a family can really "kill a hero"!Try reading the diary of Mr. Shen (page 55) on November 1, 2007. His father ordered Yu Yue to send 30 yuan.However, the salary for February has been exhausted so far.No way! ... If there is no Christian faith, I will die for money. The greatest contribution of Mr. Shen Zonghan's autobiography is that he is willing to use the most honest words to describe a person who can "force "Dead Heroes", a family system that can torture young people's ambitions. The crime here is the crime of an unconscious system, not the crime of people. Mr. Shen's parents are good people, and they are the parents who love their sons the most, but they inherit The family system of the collective economy that has been passed down for thousands of years, they do not think that this system can kill their most beloved young sons. They only think that when the sons grow up, they should marry early and have children, and should earn money early to support the family. They should bear the debts accumulated by the previous generation, and should send 30 yuan home from their monthly salary of 40 yuan: they only think that this is what should be done, and it is taken for granted. To describe a good father who loves his son the most, in Unknowingly, it almost caused a great tragedy of telling a good son to "kill for money". This is the great contribution of this autobiography in social and sociological historical materials, and it is also the great contribution of this autobiography in biographical literature. success. Mr. Shen's so-called "overcome difficulties and study hard", what he called "difficulty" is not only the difficulty of borrowing money to study, the biggest difficulty lies in his daring to temporarily abandon the vocation of being a son who earns money and supports his family that everyone takes for granted.When he was seventeen years old (Xinhai, 1911), he was already influenced by Liang Rengong's "Xinmin Congbao", which aroused his ambition to "be a new citizen and love the country"; he was also influenced by Zeng Wenzheng and Wang Yangming. Be a useful and good person.He said (page 23): Yu grew up in the countryside. Since childhood, he helped the family with farming, grazing cattle, trucking water, weeding, manure application, harvesting, drying grain, silkworm raising, chicken raising, etc. Determined to serve the most hard-working farmers. In this way, he decided on his lifelong learning policy: to study agricultural science and serve Chinese farmers. In the direction of study he decided on, the life experience of the farming and studying family in the rural society has become an important and helpful background for him.We know that his father had 12 acres of rented land. Later, his father cultivated orchids over the years, and his mother raised silkworms and hatched chickens over the years. With the money saved, he bought another 32 acres of rented land.The father went out to teach, but the sons had not yet grown up, so the family hired a long-term laborer to cultivate and hired a shepherd boy to help.There are six brothers in his family. The eldest brother teaches for life, the second brother works in the county bank, and the third brother farms at home since he was a child.The autobiography (page 29) says: The third brother was ordered by my father to work for five years in the second best farmhouse in the village, gaining his experience.My father often referred to my younger generation as my master and my third brother as my apprentice.Five years later, the third brother returned home to farm, and his experience in cultivation was better than ordinary people. And said: Yu studied at the agricultural school, and when he returned to his hometown every summer vacation, he discussed the agricultural theory he had learned in one semester with my parents, elder brother, third brother, etc., and sometimes my uncle, brother, etc. also came to participate.Yu Chang and his third brother went to work in the fields, and they were very interested.Yu taught the third brother how to fertilize vegetables. Try to fertilize the eggplant field with the method mentioned in the handout. First, dig a small ditch around the eggplant plant, apply human excrement and urine, and then add manure with soil, which can prevent the evaporation of nitrogen.The third brother thinks so. One day, a family member asked about how to prevent vegetable leafworms, and I told him to use petroleum emulsion.However, after applying it, the vegetables were scorched due to the high concentration. Another day, my uncle Xianliang came to ask the reason for the white ears of rice, and Yu pulled out the stems of the white ears in the field, peeled the stems, and brought out the borers in the stems to show it. He was shocked, so he took the theory that the rice blast god committed crimes as superstition. Summarizing the various methods I have reported, after implementation, those who are effective will come to fruition, and there are many ineffective ones.And many questions are still unanswered. Yu admired his generation's experience in cultivating rice, soybeans and wheat. This kind of living experience is of incomparable value in Mr. Shen's agricultural education.Because he has this kind of living farm experience, he can judge the applicability or inapplicability of the teaching materials and methods of the agricultural school at that time, and then he can evaluate the ability of each teacher.He said: At that time (Hangzhou Jianqiao) agricultural school teachers, except for Chen Shizong, mostly translated Japanese notes to fill teaching materials, which is not in line with the actual situation. Entomology often uses the Japanese "Thousand Insect Illustrations" as a specimen, and has never led students to collect in the wild.I even asked about insects, and he compared it with "A Thousand Insects" to make speculations, and taught Yu and others to study insects.Horticulture teachers also translated several volumes of Japanese handouts when they taught vegetables, but they did not try to understand vegetables on the spot, nor did they investigate the methods of cultivating and saving seeds.Because the crop teacher was studying animal husbandry in Japan, he translated the lecture notes of "Forage Grass", but the most famous medicinal crops in Jianqiao were never mentioned.Classrooms are completely isolated from the environment.Field practice only grows radish and cabbage, or does work such as land preparation, weeding, and fertilization. (Yu) Chang feels that the experience of the trainee teachers is far less than that of the third brother.Therefore, since the second grade, Yu has gradually become dissatisfied with the homework of the agricultural school, and fears that in the future, he will only be able to talk about it on paper, which is unrealistic. (pages 29-30) Not only the middle school could not meet the expectations of this good student from the field, but the Beijing Agricultural Technical School at that time could not escape his cold criticism.He said: English, physics and chemistry, natural history and other courses in the Northern Agricultural Preparatory Course are deeper than those in Jiannong.Only natural history 1 still uses books and Japanese specimens as teaching materials, which is disappointing. (page 38) First-year undergraduate at National Beijing Agricultural College... Homework includes inorganic chemistry, plants, geology, soil, crops, insects, farm practice, English, mathematics, etc.In addition to English and mathematics, Chinese lecture notes are generally used.The teachers were very disappointed with the lectures and Japanese specimens. This good student with farming experience was in the third year of his undergraduate degree in agriculture. Only then did he have the strength to change from negative disappointment to positive reform activities. He proposed to change three or four bad teachers, such as professors of English, horticulture, and farm practice.At that time, Jin Zhongfan (Bangzheng) came to be the principal, and hired Zou Shuwen, Wang Dezhang, etc. to teach agronomy; the court meeting was set up, and President Jin personally presided over it, exhorting people to be moral. "The spirit of the whole school is lifted." But this agricultural college that had started to improve soon became a trend. President Jin resigned, and a group of good teachers he hired also left. "After half a month, although the principal came back to clean up the incident, those teachers resigned and never returned." Mr. Shen studied agriculture in China, and it took only more than five years (January 2 to June 7) before he graduated from Beinong. His records are honest and can be used as educational historical materials.His judgment is not biased towards the teachers who studied agriculture in the United States, nor is it limited to negative criticism.For example, he said: The ones I learned the most from Beinong were Xu Shishuji (who stayed in Japan) in agricultural politics, agricultural economics, animal husbandry and fertilizer; Wu Shijiqing (who stayed in Japan) in inorganic, organic and analytical chemistry; Zhang Shizishan Phytopathology (studied in the United States); Genetics of Wang Shidezhang (studied in the United States) and President Jin Zhongfan's lectures at the court. ... (page 46) Wang Shijiao's genetics is very clear, and Yu has since understood Mandel's law of inheritance. ... This is also educational history. Mr. Shen has made great achievements in studying agriculture. His biggest capital is not the tuition fees borrowed from east to west, but his living experience and good habit of manure application in the farmland when he was young.Therefore, in his first year at Jianqiao Agricultural School, he practiced making compost in February. He first collected cow dung and straw, piled it up in layers, then moistened it with water and feces, and trampled it with his feet. Easy to finish.The teachers and students were quite surprised. (page 28) Therefore, when he later served in the Changde cotton farm, he decided to work with fellow farmers in the field during the day and investigate farming affairs, one to supervise the work, and the other to learn farmers' cotton planting methods to know their advantages and disadvantages. Read cotton and other agricultural books in the morning and evening, aiming to combine academic theory and practicality, and use both hands and brains.Therefore, after breakfast, I went to work with the farmers barefoot and wearing a Lihe hoe. (page 69) Therefore, he later taught entomology at Nanjing No. 1 Agricultural School. On the one hand, he first collected nearby insects and referred to the Japanese "Thousand Insect Illustrations" to determine their families and genera... On the other hand, he dissected the main insects to understand the mouthparts and heads. The chest and abdomen, and then follow the teaching and show it in kind (page 73).Therefore, in the 14th year of the Republic of China, when he was studying genetic breeding with several famous professors at Cornell University, he recorded himself: Yu worked in the field. In addition to thesis materials, he worked with teaching assistants on field breeding of wheat, vegetables, and pastures. And travel with the professor to check the purity of the improved varieties, so as to get a glimpse of the background of genetic breeding and promotion. …The results obtained in building classrooms and laboratories are based on genetic principles. Without this practice, without knowing the know-how of field techniques, it will be difficult to do field breeding work after returning to China.Professors and teaching assistants of Kangda University often said to Yu: "You are able to work hard on the ground, and you are really different." (Page 83) This kind of hard work of "hands and brains" is the secret of Mr. Shen's great achievements in learning, the secret of cultivating many excellent agricultural talents when he was teaching at Jinling University, and the secret of his success when he was the director of the Agricultural Experiment Institute. It can lay the secret of agricultural science and agricultural extension system for the country.And the source of this secret of success lies in his living experience and good habits of "growing up in the countryside, helping the family with farming, cattle herding, trucking, weeding, fertilizing, harvesting, drying grain, silkworms, and chickens since childhood". All in all, the greatest contribution of this autobiography is that it is willing to tell the truth, plain and honest, write about a person, write about a rural family, write about a rural society, write about several schools, and all of them become social and sociological historical materials , economic history, and educational history. Mr. Shen wrote his own religious experience, which is also a very honest record, so it is very moving.He described a Mr. Xu Baoqian, which made me feel that this person is respectable and lovely.The history of Mr. Shen's own belief in Christianity described in this book is also an honest man's honesty, so it also has the value of religious historical materials. I solemnly introduce this book to young friends who have passed it on to the whole country. December 13, 1954 Preface to Selected Works of Hu Shi