On September 25, 1979, a sophomore at Tianjin Normal University, wearing a whitewashed dress, squated in a small corner of the nankai university's teaching building.
She held a knife in one hand and a piece of white radish in the other, and there was a piece of mud and a piece of white paper on the ground. The girl squatted there, carefully carving on the turnips, and from time to time to see if anyone passed by in the distant corridor.
Because the first time she did this kind of thing, the girl was already sweating nervously. She took a long breath, wiped the sweat from her palms on her skirt, and continued to carve it.
Ten minutes later, the girl finally carved eight words on the turnip - "only with a class pass can you enter." Her face turned red with joy, and she put the engraved radish on the printing clay, and then printed these large characters on the white paper.
After doing these things, the girl cleaned up the scene and ran quickly into a classroom on the second floor with paper. By this time, the classroom was already full of students, and the aisles were crowded with improvised chairs.
There were still students at the door desperately squeezing in, and some of them sat directly in the open space under the podium. The girl was petite and squeezed in.
She threw her bag on the ground and sat down. The reason why the girl is so desperate is because this is a class of Teacher Ye Jiaying of Nankai University. Who is Ye Jiaying? Why is she so popular with so many students?
Born noble, but with a tragic fate
On July 13, 1924, Ye Jiaying was born in an old courtyard house in Chayuan Hutong, Beiping. She is a descendant of the Manchu Yehenara clan and belongs to the Manchurian Yellow Flag.
Ye Jiaying's grandfather was a jinshi during the Guangxu dynasty, and he also served as an official in the city of Beijing at that time. Later, because of the corruption of the imperial court, Ye Jiaying's grandfather resigned his official post and returned home to concentrate on educating the family's children.
Ye Jiaying's father, Ye Tingyuan, studied in a private school opened at home since he was a child, and after his father gave his career, he studied with his father. He was familiar with ancient books from an early age, proficient in classical culture, and later admitted to the English Department of Peking University.
After graduation, Ye Tingyuan worked in the Aviation Administration of the National Government as the chief of the personnel section. Ye Jiaying's mother, Li Yujie, was born in Xiangmendi and received a good family education from an early age.
Because of her talent, Li Yujie was hired as a teacher at a girls' vocational school. It wasn't until, after marriage, that she quit her job.
Ye Jiaying was born in such a family with a strong aroma of books, and under the influence of her parents, Ye Jiaying followed her mother to recite ancient poems when she was three years old. Her memory was good, and her mother taught her to read it five or six times so she could write down the poems.
At the age of four, Ye Jiaying learned Chinese characters under the guidance of her mother. Later, Ye Jiaying's parents hired a tutor for their daughter to teach her cultural knowledge at home. So, at the age of six, she began to read the Analects with her tutor.
Later, Ye Jiaying's parents felt that their daughter was very talented in learning, so they sent her to school. At this time, due to the transfer of work, Ye Jiaying's father Ye Tingyuan was about to leave Beiping and work in Shanghai.
Because there are still elderly people in the family who need to take care of them and cannot travel with them, Ye Jiaying's mother stayed in Beiping with her children. After Ye Tingyuan went to work in Shanghai, he would send a family letter back every once in a while.
Young Ye Jiaying would ask her mother if she had a letter from her father today after school, as a sustenance.
On July 7, 1937, after the "Lugou Bridge Incident", the Japanese army occupied the city of Beijing. Suddenly, people were panicked, many teachers in the school resigned to prepare for the relocation of their families, and the original history textbooks and geography textbooks were torn up and burned.
At the age of 13, Ye Jiaying experienced the first great change in her life. Because of the constant war, Ye Tingyuan's letters were difficult to send back to Beijing, and the family received fewer and fewer letters.
Later, with the outbreak of war, Ye Jiaying's father moved west with the Nationalist government and has since severed contact with his family. After Ye Tingyuan was heard from, the family who remained in Beiping worried about him.
Soon after, Ye Jiaying's mother became ill and became seriously ill and needed to go to the Tianjin Concession for surgery. The mother was worried that the child would encounter danger when she went out, so she insisted on not letting Ye Jiaying's sister and brother accompany her to Tianjin alone for treatment.
A few days later, Ye Jiaying's mother sent news to the family that the operation was very successful and would soon return to Beiping. Ye Jiaying's sisters and brothers were very happy, and they went to the Beiping Railway Station early to wait for their mother.
But what they did not expect was that their mother died on the train from Tianjin to Beiping, and their three sisters and brothers only waited for their mother's cold body.
The death of her mother caused a huge blow to Ye Jiaying, and she cried bitterly and wrote eight poems to mourn her mother. His father disappeared, his mother died suddenly, and in a short time there was Ye Jiaying and two young brothers left in the family.
Fortunately, her uncle was also in Beiping, and her uncle soon took the three poor children home. Ye Jiaying's uncle has no daughter under his knees, so he regards Ye Jiaying as his own, and he sees that Ye Jiaying likes poetry very much, so he encourages her to continue learning.
Her uncle had a profound knowledge of Chinese culture, and often taught Ye Jiaying to write poetry and lyrics, and during this period ye Jiaying created many poems.
Ye Jiaying's aunt was a kind-hearted virtuous woman who took care of all the affairs of the family and took good care of the three children who had just lost their mothers. With the support of her uncle and aunt, Ye Jiaying continued to study at school.
In 1941, at the age of 17, Ye Jiaying was admitted to the Chinese Literature Department of Fu Jen University in Beijing with excellent results, majoring in classical literature.
Ye Jiaying was very studious, listened to the lectures very carefully every time she attended class, and wrote notes in the blank space of the book.
In the autumn of 1942, the famous poetry master Mr. Gu Sui came to Fu Jen University to teach. Later, Ye Jiaying visited Mr. Gu Sui as a teacher and studied classical literature with him.
Mr. Gu Sui also gave Ye Jiaying a lot of advice in writing poetry, which made her feel inspired a lot.
Mr. Gu Sui saw that this student was very talented, so he had high hopes for her, hoping that she could carry forward the classical Chinese literature. Later, it turned out that Ye Jiaying had indeed fulfilled the teacher's expectations.
Ye Jiaying has a clean appearance and unique temperament, and is very popular with male students. After going to college, many people launched a passionate pursuit of her, but Ye Jiaying did not want to waste time in love, and only wanted to focus all her energy on classical poetry.
She turned down wave after wave of suitors, but there were still many people attracted to her talent. Later, her cousin couldn't look at it anymore and came to ask Ye Jiaying what she wanted from the other half, and Ye Jiaying only replied with four words- "Just follow the fate."
Drifting to Taiwan, he was imprisoned
In 1945, at the age of 21, Ye Jiaying graduated from Fu Jen University in Beijing. After that, she successively taught at Peiping Young Virgins Middle School, Zhicheng Girls' Middle School, and Huaguang Girls' Secondary School.
Her uncle and aunt saw that Ye Jiaying was either teaching or studying classical literature, and had never had the heart to fall in love, and was very anxious about her life events, urging her to start a family many times.
In 1948, Ye Jiaying was already a famous Chinese teacher in the school. A female teacher who teaches English admires Ye Jiaying very much, and seeing that she is 24 years old and has not yet found a partner, she enthusiastically introduces her brother to her.
This man, named Zhao Dongsun, was a civilian in the Kuomintang Navy. He originally worked in Nanjing, and came to Beiping in order to meet Ye Jiaying. After that, he was attracted by Ye Jiaying's unique temperament and launched a fierce pursuit of her.
At that time, Ye Jiaying had been urged to marry by her uncle and aunt for a long time, and she also wanted to find someone to marry as soon as possible. Ye Jiaying saw that Zhao Dongsun was elegant in appearance and gentle in temperament, so she agreed to his marriage proposal.
Soon after, Ye Jiaying quit her job in Beiping and went to Nanjing to marry Zhao Dongsun. Not long after the marriage, the Nationalist government was defeated in the Liberation War and finally fled to Taiwan.
Zhao Dongsun was a staff member of the National Government and had to follow the transfer, so Ye Jiaying followed her husband to Taiwan. At first, the life of the two in Taiwan was relatively smooth, and they got along relatively well, without contradictions or quarrels.
Zhao Dongsun worked in the army and rarely returned home, while Ye Jiaying found a teaching job in Changhua Girls' High School, and both of them lived more comfortably.
In the summer of 1949, Ye Jiaying's eldest daughter Yan Yan was born, and both husband and wife were happy for the arrival of this new life.
The night before Christmas, Zhao Dongsun rushed back from the military camp to visit his wife and daughter, preparing to spend this important holiday with them.
Early the next morning, a group of officers and soldiers came to Ye Jiaying's house and took her husband away. They thought there was something wrong with Zhao Dongsun's thinking, so they put him in prison.
Not long after, Ye Jiaying was implicated in prison by her husband, along with her infant daughter. Fortunately, after reading Ye Jiaying's confession, the police chief released the mother and daughter.
Because she had been in prison, the school expelled her and took back the dormitory where Ye Jiaying's family lived. In desperation, Ye Jiaying could only take her daughter to relatives.
The relatives and family had just arrived in Taiwan, and life was also very poor, the family of five lived in two narrow bedrooms, and Ye Jiaying could only sleep on the floor in the corridor aisle.
Worried that her daughter would cry at night until her relatives rested, Ye Jiaying held her daughter and wandered outside over and over again until her daughter fell asleep. For the sake of her daughter, Ye Jiaying gritted her teeth and survived such a difficult period of time.
The following summer, Ye Jiaying finally found a job in a private girls' middle school in Tainan and took her daughter to end her days under the fence.
Three years later, Zhao Dongsun was released, because life was not smooth, and the originally humble and elegant man became a grumpy domestic violence man.
Not only did he not go out to look for a job, but he also often punched and kicked Ye Jiaying. After the birth of their second daughter, Zhao Dongsun resented that both children were girls, and his attitude towards Ye Jiaying's mother and daughter was even worse.
At that time, In order to live, Ye Jiaying also served as a poetry teacher at three universities in Taipei, and the curriculum was very heavy.
The pressure of life and the violence of her husband overwhelmed this soft woman, and she once wanted to end her life, but thinking of her daughter and the classical poetry she loved, she finally persevered.
From teaching for a lifetime, donate tens of millions
In the 1960s, Chinese mainland cut off cultural exchanges with the United States, and American sinologists wanted to understand Chinese culture and had to come to Taiwan.
In 1966, Ye Jiaying, who was already a famous classical literature figure in Taiwan, was invited to serve as a visiting professor at Harvard University and Michigan State University, spreading Chinese classical culture abroad.
In 1969, in order to leave Taiwan, a place that filled her with pain, she moved to Vancouver, Canada.
In 1974, Ye Jiaying finally returned to the mainland of the motherland that had been separated for a long time. She was very excited in her heart and wrote a long poem "Motherland Trip". However, this return was short-lived, because the domestic situation was turbulent, and Ye Jiaying returned to Canada again without staying for a few days.
It was not until 1978, when the country carried out reform and opening up, that Ye Jiaying applied to the Chinese government to return to China to give a lecture. It just so happened that the country was in dire need of talent in all aspects, so the government agreed to Ye Jiaying's application in 1979.
Ye Jiaying, who had been wandering for nearly three decades, finally returned to the embrace of the motherland and became a lecturer in classical literature at Nankai University. Her classes are so popular that many students from our own and outside schools come to listen to them.
In order to control the student capacity of the classroom, Nankai University decided to issue a pass. Students can only enter the classroom with a pass, and this notice has made many students cry bitterly.
In order to listen to Teacher Ye Jiaying's class, the students came up with various methods, some used radish to carve fake class certificates, and some spent money to go outside to apply for certificates, and the tricks came out in an endless stream.
In 2018, at the age of 94, Mr. Ye Jiaying decided to donate his property to the Nankai University Education Foundation and established the "Jialing Fund" to support the study of classical Chinese culture.
As of May 2019, Ye Jiaying had donated a total of 35.68 million yuan to Nankai University. She didn't want money, she didn't want fame, she just wanted to teach classical poetry.
Someone once asked Ye Jiaying if she had experienced the taste of love, and Ye Jiaying shook her head without the slightest hesitation. Her second daughter, Zhao Yanhui, also once said: "My mother has never experienced love, and has been accompanied by poetry all her life." ”
On November 5, 2021, the People's Daily published a video interview with Mr. Ye Jiaying. At that time, Ye Jiaying was already 97 years old, but her mental state was still very good.
She has short hair and talks with Lu Jian with black-rimmed glasses. Mr. Ye Jiaying said in an interview that he had discussed with Yang Zhenning whether the arts and sciences had the same points.
Ye Jiaying said that there is a law of conservation of energy in the universe, and there is also a law of peace and security in poetry. After some discussion, the two men concluded that changes in the laws of science are sometimes connected with changes in the laws of poetry.
Ye Jiaying also said that Yang Zhenning likes to read books she has written, and she often asks Yang Zhenning about physics problems, and she wants to learn more about physics and discover more commonalities between physics and poetry.
Since 1945, Ye Jiaying has been teaching and educating people for 77 years, and she is a true legend in the poetry world.
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