Chapter 24 Section 4 Traveling on the Dianchuan Road

The first convoy dispatched by the Institute of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica from Kunming did not go well. One car overturned in the mountains near Yilong, and the other broke down halfway. It was dangerous to reach the Luzhou River.The family car that Lin Huiyin and others were riding in also ran into trouble without exception. According to Liang Congjie’s recollection: “When we arrived in Weining County, it was already dark, and the car broke down suddenly a few miles away from the city gate. When I went to the city, I was afraid that my luggage would be robbed in the car, so I had to leave the whole car in the truck overnight. And I had a high fever, so my mother had to drag the whole family into the city to find a doctor for me. The next morning I heard that , The wolves howled around the carriage for half the night."

When the vehicles arrived at Lantianba on the south bank of Luzhou one after another, under the negotiation of Pan Que, Wang Wenlin and other pioneers with the local transfer station, the people and materials were transferred to the steamer of Minsheng Company, traveled westward along the river to Yibin, and then returned to Lizhuang by small wooden boat.Fu Sinian, who was in Chongqing, received the news, and on October 15, 1940, he called Wang Shijie and forwarded the report to the Sichuan provincial government, saying: "Thank you for allocating Lizhuang, Nanxi County, as the relocation site. The first batch of personnel and materials have arrived, and the rest are still on the way. .”

On November 12, the third batch of 140 boxes of materials escorted by Wang Chongwu, a researcher of the Institute of History and Philology, arrived in Yibin. After a short stay, they were packed into several small barges of Minsheng Company and transported to Lizhuang.Unexpectedly, not far from Yibin, one of the barges lost weight and capsized, and all the goods on board rolled into the river.Seeing that the event was not good, everyone rushed ashore to find someone to salvage and rescue it. Yibin Commissioner Leng Yindong heard about it and felt that the matter was of great importance. He immediately ordered the Water Transport Bureau to dispatch divers to salvage.After some emergency rescue up and down, all the boxes that fell into the river were finally salvaged.Regrettably, those who fell into the water were not the collected bronzes, pottery or oracle bones, but the rubbings and rare books packed in various boxes. Although the boxes were wrapped with a letter cover, they were all soaked by the river water.

The matter was quickly reported to Dong Zuobin who had arrived in Lizhuang earlier and Fu Sinian who was in Chongqing. The two were shocked when they heard this. Dong Zuobin sent Fu Sinian to discuss treatment methods. Dozens of boxes of precious books fell into the water.After scolding, he sent people to contact the headquarters of Minsheng Company in Chongqing for inspection and compensation, and instructed Yibin Wang Chongwu and others to quickly move the falling bookcase to a safe place for inspection and try to treat it.Afterwards, Fu Sinian called Dong Zuobin to go from Lizhuang to Yibin to personally organize and direct the rescue of books that fell into the water. book.Therefore, between Chongqing and Yibin, Fu Sinian and Dong Zuobin exchanged letters, frequently exchanged the treatment situation and notified Minsheng Company.In Yibin, in addition to Wang Chongwu's team, a group of colleagues who arrived later were sent to dry and treat together.It was around January 11 or 12, 1941, that the drying of the scrolls came to an end, and all the personnel escorted the materials by boat to Lizhuang Chestnut Au station. As Shi Zhangru said, this "equal to drying for more than three months The Sutra".In addition to Wang Chongwu and other team members who had an accident on the way, Shi Zhangru, who was the last group of escorts in Kunming to set off, also encountered a lot of trouble on the way.A car fell under the bridge of Chishui River, but fortunately it did not fall into the middle of the river where the current was rolling. Most of the boxes on the car were scattered at the bridge head, and only a few rolled into the shallow water beside the river.Shi Zhangru, Wang Zhiwei and others who were traveling with him were suffocated and went to the local area to find a crane and asked the people to help tow it. In the cold wind, after three days and three nights of tossing, the car was dragged up and started on the road again.When it came to Luzhou to load the ship, it was already January 9, 1941.After another 4 days of shipment and escort, the entire ship was safely transported to Lizhuang Chestnut Au residence. ——At this point, all the personnel and materials of the Institute of History and Philology arrived in Lizhuang, and the hearts of everyone were relieved.

On January 18, 1941, Fu Sinian hurried from Chongqing to Lizhuang to preside over the distribution of housing. Just as Mrs. Fu was about to leave, the teachers and students of Tongji University also crossed the Wumeng Mountains, crossed the Chishui River, and rushed back to Lizhuang.The ancient town of Lizhuang, which originally had a population of just over 3,000, suddenly had to resettle tens of thousands of "downriver people". I was still shocked and embarrassed when the tide came rushing in with my luggage. When contacting the place of relocation, Tongji University was the first, and the telegram sent by the squire of Lizhuang was also "Tongda moved to Sichuan, Lizhuang welcomes, everything is needed, and the local supply." In terms of the distribution of houses in the courtyard of Li Zhuang, just like the separation of families of local rich and powerful families, the primary and secondary relationship between the wife of the main house and the mistresses, third wives, fourth wives, concubines and maidservants has been formed.Tongji University naturally won the first prize by virtue of its status as the originator of this operation. Fanlizhuang Town is the most suitable place for foreigners to work and study, such as various guild halls, ancestral halls, or The later "Nine Palaces and Eighteen Temples" were all occupied by him.For example, the famous Nanhua Palace became Tongji University's School of Science, and Ziyun Palace became Tongda Library.Yuwang Palace, with the best location, the largest scale, and the most spacious and bright buildings in the town, has become the headquarters of Tongji University.The most representative building in southern Sichuan - Dongyue Temple. The local gentry organized manpower to lift the statues with pulleys and long poles, so that these gods who are in charge of good weather and good harvests temporarily gather in a dark room for "study classes". Come out to work after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.Simple desks were set up in the vacated main hall, side halls, and courtyards of various sizes—the largest engineering college of Tongji University rang the bell for class here.The original primary school site in the town, the Patriarch Hall, was vacated and handed over to the School of Medicine of Tongji University. In addition to the usual classes, it is also used as a place for anatomy and experiments in the college.A regiment headquarters of the 18th Division of the local garrison lived in the side hall of Dongyue Temple. After being persuaded by the school, it was also moved to another place and transferred to Tongda.Tongji teachers and students found a green shade and habitat in this thousand-year-old town.

Compared with Tongji University, Academia Sinica's research institute in Lizhuang, the Preparatory Office of the Central Museum, and China Construction Society are much inferior.The Institute of History and Philosophy, which is in the position of mistress, finally occupies the largest residence of the Zhang family four kilometers away from the town - Chestnut Au (Lifeng Villa).Half a year later, when Luo Changpei, a professor at the School of Liberal Arts of Southwest Associated University, came to Lizhuang, he made the following description of the location and topography of the villa: The Institute of History and Linguistics is located in Chinli'ao, more than eight miles away from Lizhuang Town...Leaving the town, we walked through a large section of field ridges, about half an hour away.When I arrived at a place called Muyushi in the middle of the mountain, I was already sweating and out of breath.Hiding in the shade of a banyan tree to rest for a while and wait for the sweat to dry before continuing climbing.After turning three more turns, the Yangtze River was no longer visible, and my shirt was soaked with sweat, and I still couldn't see a decent big house.Going forward to a mountain valley where many mountains escaped, we finally found the Zhang family's compound in Chestnut Au.

Although Chestnut Au is a bit far from the center of the town, and it is located on the top of a big mountain, to get to it, you need to cross the field ridge, pass through the woods, and climb more than 500 steps to go up the mountain.But this base camp, which used to hide weapons and weapons back then, is as huge and self-contained as the water village in Liangshan.In the later period of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a local person known as "Emperor Zhang Si" had secretly contacted Shi Dakai who had fled to the southwest, and led more than 10,000 people to rebel here, and was later wiped out by the Qing soldiers and the local militia.Such a huge castle-style villa, in addition to storing a large number of materials in the house, can also accommodate researchers and family members, which is an ideal place of refuge.After Fu Sinian arrived, he began to find someone to renovate the house and started to distribute it.Because the traffic in Chestnut Au is relatively difficult, especially if you have to climb more than 500 steps to reach the mountain villa at the top of the mountain, it is extremely hard to travel. Li Ji and Liang Siyong, two heavyweights in the archaeological team, did not want to go up the mountain. They found it in Lizhuang Town by themselves. Rent to live.Dong Zuobin, another heavyweight, is not afraid of high mountains and difficult roads, and is willing to live together with everyone on the mountain.For this reason, Fu Sinian strictly stipulated that all single researchers and technicians should go up to the mountain, and set up a cooking group on the mountain to cook together over a fire.Housing in Chestnut Au is allocated according to the hierarchy system. The houses assigned to researchers with higher ranks are relatively bright and spacious, while young people with lower ranks naturally have to squat in small dark rooms.In order to facilitate management, the entire housing and office space are basically based on the four large courtyards originally called Guihuaao, Chaimenkou, Tianbianshang, Paifangtou, and Xilouyuan.

Arranged according to the seats of each institution, the China Construction Society, as a non-governmental academic institution "abandoned" by the government and a vassal of the Institute of History and Philology, was forced to come to Lizhuang this time. After Liu Dunzhen, another important pillar of the society, and With the efforts of Lin Huiyin and others, they finally found a farmhouse in the moon field of Shangba on the outskirts of Lizhuang.This house belongs to an ordinary southern Sichuan house. It is laid out as two large courtyards at the front and back. There are several bungalows in each courtyard. office space.Liang Sicheng, who presided over the work of the Institute, had a high fever when he left Kunming, and he did not arrive with the last convoy of the Institute of History and Philology until one month later.Afterwards, Liang and Liu hired a few local carpenters to make a few tables and benches, which were regarded as office equipment for their colleagues to use for reading, drawing, and writing.

The China Academy of Architecture finally settled down. Although the conditions were tough, there were books from the Institute of History and Philology to read, and a large amount of materials from past field trips to sort out and compile. There was a relatively quiet environment, and learning could be done slowly.Compared with these institutions, the Institute of Social Sciences of the Academia Sinica led by Tao Menghe seemed rather embarrassed and embarrassed.