Martin: Anecdotes about village studies

Since ancient times, village school has been an educational institution commonly established in rural areas for cultural inheritance. In the past, it was called a village school or a private school, which was generally very small, almost all large and small villages, and most of them were located in temples, or in the ancestral halls of large families, also known as bookstores.

Although our Zhai Jiazhuang (common name is "Polishing"),there is also a bookstore in the Guandi Temple at the west end of the village. Later, it was called a school or school. I heard that my second uncle (ranked ma sixth) Ma Juncai, was once a village school administrator.

Since I can remember, I have heard my fathers and brothers say that for many years, a high teacher (character xingwu) in the neighboring village of Mazhuang has taught more than twenty students, one stubble after another, continuously, and many cultural people in the village have gone out from here.

Zhai Hongmu (pseudonym Mu Hongkui), the earliest revolutionary in our village and an early Communist Party member, first received an enlightenment education from the village school, then transferred to the Qingzhao Temple Primary School in the neighboring village, and was admitted to Jinan No. 1 Middle School in 1921. In 1923, he went to the Soviet Union as a miner and received a Marxist-Leninist education. In 1925, he returned to China to join the Communist Party of China, and in 1926 he established a party branch in our village (one of the early party branches in Zibo area) and served as secretary.

pity! In March 1929, Zhai Hongmu was secretly ordered by the Shandong Provincial Party Committee to go to Jinan to commit rape, but he was betrayed by traitors and arrested by the Kuomintang.

There are also his uncle Zhai Yinquan (ranked Zhai Jiu), cousin Zhai Hongbao (Zi Yushan), Zhai Hongyou (Zi Zi Jia), are also students of Teacher Gao. Zhai Yinquan, who served as the director of the Jiaoji Anti-Japanese Brigade in 1938, was arrested by the Japanese and sacrificed heroically. The two uncles and nephews became the famous "three tigers (no household) and two martyrs" in my village. Zhai Hongbao, later served as the station manager of a small station on the Jiaoji Railway, and became Teacher Gao's son-in-law.

As the saying goes, "Strict teachers produce high disciples." When Zhai Hongbao was a student, he was both the head of the university and did not take the ring of the teacher. There is also Zhai Hongyou, Teacher Gao let him endorse the most, but also the most board, but the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting are all familiar, Teacher Gao took a fancy to this good seedling, and when he retired in old age, he recommended Zhai Zijia to be his successor.

When Zhai Zijia became a village school teacher, I went to school. However, during the war-torn and turbulent War of Resistance Against Japan, the school gathered and scattered, stayed and rested twice; learning knowledge was a dragonfly and a little water, which did not leave much impression, but some anecdotes were deeply remembered.

Teacher Zhai's erhu was good. Several old classmates who worked on the railway—Ma Changfu, Ma Degong, Yang Qingfang, Wang Jizhong, etc.—came to Teacher Zhai to play and sing as soon as they were off work. Therefore, in my young soul, I left the impression of "Yang Yanhui, sitting in the Gongyuan", "a horse left the Western LiangJie", "Su San left Hongdong County", etc., which can never be erased.

Teacher Zhai also has a certain foundation in calligraphy and painting, and often attracts some enthusiasts to come to show it. At that time, there was a special regular visitor, who was a dilapidated remnant of the official residence in Changcheng, known as Zou Shaohu. He came every three to five minutes to show his calligraphy and painting skills, but his real purpose was to rub rice to eat (at that time, xing students took turns to manage Mr. Rice).

As soon as the man arrived, the students gathered around the door of the teacher's office to watch him write and draw. His movements are strange. He wrote and painted, did not sit or stand, but jumped on the chair monkey sitting (squatting), and writing a few strokes, he jumped off the chair, ran out of four or five steps, beckoned people to pick up the rice paper, he stared for half a day, and then jumped back on the chair, and then wrote and drew a few strokes----- so repeated several times, to complete a calligraphy painting. Although it is not a one-size-fits-all, it is always integrated, which attracts praise and applause from connoisseurs. We also applauded.

The image of this family is famous for the surrounding neighboring villages. I heard that when he was a child, although the official residence of the Zou clan had fallen, the family foundation was still quite solid, and his clumsy children were not degenerating. By the time he was married, his father-in-law's family was divided. Most people are worried that if their daughter marries him, she will suffer poverty for a lifetime; only his old father-in-law firmly believes: "Such a lord, who smashes the door and hangs his nose, can eat for a lifetime!" ”

The Zou Shaohu I saw was only thirty or forty years old. Looking at the image of his melon-skinned hat, the oil-stained torn robe, and the half-cut pink paper cigarette butt on his mouth, it seems to be a realistic version of "Kong Yiji"; as a cultural beggar who eats by mr. rubbing his food, he has become a cultural beggar who eats by rubbing his food.

However, now that I think about it, judging from his portrait of "Zhong Kui" and the banner of "The Great River Goes East", he is not a person who has no thought at all.

At that time, the school had a new music teacher, named Huang Xianyi, who was Teacher Zhai's alternate cousin (cousin died, followed by her brother-in-law), and was a small intellectual woman from the city. Although one eye is defective, he can play the organ and his voice is good. She played the popular "My family had fat dolls" tune, taught us to sing the lyrics of "Su Wu Liu Hu, Festival Is Not Humiliated" ("Su Wu Shepherd"), and warned us to "don't sing outside". I am afraid that the japanese pseudo-minions will find out and cause trouble.

On the eve of Japan's surrender, the school was "red hot" for a while. It is mainly the devils who carry out the policy of appeasement, designating the villages along the railway line as "road protection villages" (our village is only 200 meters away from the Zhangbo Railway), using illusions to survive.

Our village, too, will make plans, invite Mr. Zhai Jian'an (Zhai Hongmu's second uncle, ranked Zhai Viii) who went through the Kanto to the Soviet Union in the early years, to serve as the principal, expand the number of people, recruit students from neighboring villages, and hire my second brother Ma Licheng as a Chinese teacher. Because when my second brother was 14 years old, in the neighboring village of Liangxiangzhuang, when my grandmother's family was studying private school, I used to substitute for my sick husband (Meng Xianxing) for several months. It reached the village and was universally praised. At this time, the 17-year-old second brother was appreciated by Mr. Zhai Jian'an, and later, he became Zhai Ba's second son-in-law.

The second brother has a thick foundation in private school, teaches Chinese pays special attention to ancient poetry, and the requirements are very strict. Once, I was asked to recite three poems in succession by the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi, "Ciwu Night Cry", "Yan Poems To Show Liu Shuo", and "Mother and Son". I stumbled on my back, and the second brother unequivocally beat me with three rings! Then the palm of his hand swelled.

When I came home from school, I was afraid that my mother would see it, so I hid my hand in the sleeve of my cotton jacket. When eating, I reached for chopsticks, and my mother still saw it, so she pulled up my swollen toad-like palm and yelled at my second brother in pain: "Why can it be light or heavy!" He hit his right hand again, how to eat and write! "However, since then, I have firmly remembered the three poems of Bai Juyi.

The "red fire" of village learning is only a flash in the pan. With the surrender of the Japanese and the Communists, the tug-of-war between the Kuomintang and the Communists began, and the schools were opened and scattered. Later, it was replaced by a "literacy class". I taught the sisters in the village.

The hometown was completely liberated, the village school was changed to a public school, and the school was stabilized. I also left the village school and went out to school, and I didn't pay much attention to the village school.

Public schools, there are public teachers, there are also private teachers. My cousin Ma Suyun has been a private teacher all her life. Later, with the withdrawal of village schools and the merger of them into the town, according to the policy, they were converted to public teachers until retirement, and village schools did not exist.

January 13, 2022

About author:Ma Ting, born in October 1933, is a native of Zhangdian District, Zibo City. Graduated from the Chinese Department of Shandong Normal University (now Shandong Normal University). Since 1960, he has served as a Chinese teacher in Zibo No. 6 Middle School and No. 11 Middle School. The first batch of teachers in Zibo City to obtain the title of senior teacher of middle school. He has published more than 200 teaching papers, essays, poems, etc., and has published essay collections such as "Miscellaneous Notes and Long Talks", "Polishing Anecdotes", "Farmer Yang Yukuan", "Sunset Collection", "Holding Hands Collection", "Harvest in Winter" and so on.

Yanagiizumi Financial Literature