Author: He Tao Illustration: Huang Shan
In the middle of spring this year, I read Mr. Yue Nan's "Southern Crossing and Northern Return", which mentioned that the Nanyue Bible College, located at the foot of Hengshan Mountain, has a lot of ties with the Southwest United University in the last century.
After the July 7 Incident, Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Nankai University moved south one after another, and the three schools jointly established Changsha Provisional University in Changsha.
According to historical records, after the Faculty of Letters of Changsha Provisional University moved westward, the Nanyue Bible College successively became the military committee of the National Government, the Nanyue Guerrilla Cadre Training Class, and the provincial commercial college.
Before the founding of New China, Nanyue Bible College experienced the baptism of wind and rain and left many footprints of historical celebrities. However, in today's modern era, why has Nanyue Bible College disappeared? Next, please follow in the author's footsteps, explore the mysteries together, and taste the twists and turns of history!
Preach the Gospel
Nanyue Bible College, the local residents are not clear about this. According to the Hengshan County Chronicle, "In 1920, the Christian Church opened a Bible school in Bailongtan, Nanyue, to train clergy. Nanyue Bailongtan Bible College was funded by Mobil Oil Tycoons and built by the Changsha Christian Church.
Friends who have visited Nanyue may understand that Nanyue is an incense shrine that is inclusive of Buddhism and Taoism, and Christian clergy come to Nanyue to open schools, preach doctrines, sow culture, and put aside the utilitarian purposes of the clergy, which was also a major event for Nanyue, which was located in a remote mountainous area at that time.
The strings are singing endlessly
After the July 7 Incident, Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Nankai University all suffered losses to varying degrees, among which Nankai University suffered heavy losses. After the fall of Beiping, teachers and students from Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Nankai University withdrew south and reached Changsha and Nanyue one after another.
According to the "Nanyue Zhi", according to the "Ta Kung Pao" on November 14, 1937, the provisional university (jointly formed by Beijing, Tsinghua and Nankai) was divided into teaching, and the Nanyue Huangtingguan Bible College was leased as one of the faculties of literature of the temporary university, and I am informed that more than 300 students of the college came to Yue by boat yesterday, and there were 20 or 30 professors. Soon the arrangement is ready, that is, the school will start.
Mr. Feng Youlan wrote in Chinese Philosophy in the Modern World: "Originally, the United Nations General Assembly was located in Changsha, Hunan Province, and our philosophy department and other departments of the Faculty of Literature and Law were located in Hengshan, the famous Nanyue. We only lived in Hengshan for about four months... Spiritually motivated. At that time, it was the period of the greatest national disaster in our history, and the place was where Huai Rang made a mirror of the grinding bricks and the scholars of Zhu Xi's friends. We are suffering a fate similar to that of the Jin people and the Song people. But we live in a magical environment: so many philosophers, writers, and scholars live in one building. In the face of changes in the world, the famous mountains are thrown, and Sven is gathered: such a triad of heaven and earth makes this period of life particularly exciting and fascinating. Mr. Feng introduced later that in just a few months, he and his colleagues immersed themselves in research and writing, and completed many works there.
From November 1937 to February 1938, a large number of scholars gathered at the Nanyue Bible College, sometimes Hu Shi, who was the dean of the Faculty of Letters of Changsha Provisional University, Zhu Ziqing, the head of the Department of Chinese, as well as Wen Yiduo, Feng Youlan, Jin Yuelin, Tang Yongtong, Zheng Xin, Wu Mi, Luo Changpei, Pu Jiangqing, Ye Gongchao, Luo Haolan, Chen Mengjia and other famous professors, who had made achievements in the fields of literature, linguistics, philosophy, and literary criticism, and were called first-class scholars in the academic circles at that time.
After the scholars settled down here, they devoted themselves to research and teaching, laying a solid foundation for the later establishment of the Southwest United University. It is precisely because of the support of a large number of scholars that there was a grand situation of talents in the Southwest United University later, such as the poet and translator Mu Dan, the literary scholar Wang Zengqi, the translator Wang Zuoliang, Xu Yuanchong and other academic celebrities.
In the war-torn days, it was rare to find a secluded place where a desk could be placed. Mr. Feng Youlan's "Three Songtang Self-Introduction" said that "the school is backed by Hengshan Mountain, there is a small river flowing down from Hengshan Mountain in front of the gate, after heavy rain, the small river will become a small waterfall", "The place is very quiet, in the midst of the chaos of soldiers and horses, there is such a place to read, teachers and students are very satisfied", "such a place" refers to The White Dragon Pond.
However, the good times did not last long, when the Japanese military threatened to destroy China within three months, the Chinese army was gradually defeated and retreated on the frontal battlefield, the war situation deteriorated, and the war gradually penetrated deep into the interior and spread to the central and western regions.
The situation is turbulent. In February 1938, the teachers and students of the Grammar School of Changsha Provisional University left Nanyue for Mengzi in Yunnan, and the conditions in Mengzi were very simple, and after spending a semester in Mengzi, the teachers and students arrived in Kunming.
Later, the Southwest United University took "Fortitude and Excellence" as the school motto, and Mr. Feng Youlan wrote the lyrics for the Southwest United University's school song: "The Long March of Ten Thousand Miles, the Resignation of the Five Dynasties Palace Que, temporarily stopped in Hengshan Xiangshui, and became a parting." The dried zhen was transplanted, and the blood of Li Yuan was sprinkled all over Kyushu. Blow the strings in the mountain city, and the love is beautiful. A thousand autumns of shame, and finally snow. ZTE, must be a master. It is one into three households, and it is difficult to break. How difficult it is to worry about the new national fortunes, and to endure the former philosophy. To be expelled from Qiu Kou and restored to Shenjing, Yan Jie was returned. ”
The lyrics mention that "temporarily stop at Hengshan Xiangshui and become parting" is a true portrayal of the time that the teachers and students of the College of Literature spent at the Hengshan Bible College in Nanyue.
In the strategic stalemate stage of the War of Resistance Against Japan, from 1941 to 1944, in order to cultivate wartime talents, Xue Yue, then chairman of Hunan Province of the National Government, began to establish three provincial colleges of agriculture, industry and commerce, all of which were located in Nanyue. Among them, the provincial commercial special is located at the Bible College. In 1941, the school carried out maintenance, which cost a lot, expanded the size of the school, and purchased books and instruments. The first batch enrolled 125 students, with majors such as banking and accounting.
In 1944, the Defense of Hengyang began, and the Kuomintang troops held out for 47 days, and finally for various reasons, Hengyang was lost.
After the fall of Hengyang, the Japanese army burned and plundered everywhere they went, doing everything. To this day, the older generation of Nanyue Hengshan still has the folk slang of "the thirty-third of the Republic of China, the Japanese devils chased hengshan".
At that time, the Bible College on Hengshan Was not spared, and the Bible College's office buildings, auditoriums, libraries and other facilities were destroyed by the Japanese army.
After the bloody struggle of the Chinese military and people, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was finally won. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Lantian National Normal College (the predecessor of Hunan Normal University) moved south to Nanyue, the site of the National Normal College was located in the Bible College, and now located at the foot of the Bailongtan Reservoir, nanyue District No. 1 Middle School was the then Guoshi Affiliated Middle School.
Mr. Ma Jigao, former head of the Department of Chinese of Hunan Normal University and an expert in the history of ancient Chinese literature, studied at the National Normal College, and later Mr. Ma Jigao wrote a poem "Feeling Old to Nanyue Wangbailongtan": "Young people are also full of talent, and they vainly allow articles to suppress the old students." Looking back at the thirty-five years, the old students are mostly in the top row. This poem is found in Mr. Ma Jigao's collection of old-style poems, "Wind and Rain Building Poetry Copy". Mr. Youyun: "Bailongtan went to the Old Bible College, and after the victory of the War of Resistance, the former National Normal College moved here from Pupu. Yu studied here for two years. ”
It can be seen that the unique natural conditions and relatively deep historical and cultural accumulation made the Bible College the best location for the cultural and educational departments at that time.
In the war-torn era, from changsha temporary university to national normal college, the Bible College let the wind and rain blow, fortunately with the baptism of poetry and books, the collection of humanities, was able to continue the Chinese context, and trained a group of builders for new China.
Seek the world to travel the cradle of dryness
In 1938, the Political Department and the Military Commission of the Kuomintang Military Commission were successively moved to the Nanyue Bible College, during which Time Chiang Kai-shek went to Nanyue, and by 1944, a total of four high-level military conferences were held at the Bible College.
According to sources, the Bible College has air raid shelters suitable for meetings to ensure the normal progress of meetings when enemy aircraft strike. It can be seen that in the era of continuous fire, many military strategies from the Nanyue Bible College directly affected the overall situation of the anti-Japanese resistance. After the military conference, the Hunan provincial government converted the Bible College into a provincial government's Class A guest house.
In the autumn of 1938, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression entered a stage of strategic stalemate. At a high-level military conference, Zhu De, commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army, proposed to Chiang Kai-shek the idea of carrying out guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. Subsequently, at the first Nanyue military conference, Chiang Kai-shek decided to hold a training course for guerrilla cadres in Nanyue and asked the Eighth Route Army to send outstanding commanders to teach guerrilla tactics.
Immediately, Ye Jianying, chief of staff of the Eighth Route Army, led a delegation of the Eighth Route Army to Nanyue to participate in the establishment and teaching of the training class.
At that time, the nanyue guerrilla cadre training class was in full swing, with more than 1,000 trainees per session, and due to the restrictions of the venue, many trainees lived in Yueyun Middle School, Nanyue Grand Temple and other places. It is said that many officers from Hengyang, Changsha and other places came here to listen to the lectures.
Looking back at China's modern history, the Two Parties have cooperated twice in the training of military talents. The first was in May 1925, when the Kuomintang and the Communists co-founded the Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou, and the second in February 1939, when the Kuomintang and the Communists jointly established a training course for guerrilla cadres in Nanyue in Hunan. Historically, although the nanyue guerrilla cadre training class was not as well-known as the Whampoa Military Academy, the nanyue guerrilla cadre training class continuously sent many guerrilla cadres to the anti-Japanese battlefield and became the cradle of anti-Japanese military talents.
The forbidden area stands alone
In July 2021, I visited the site of Nanyue Bible College again. The site is located above the Bailongtan Reservoir, in the Grand Canyon on the right side of the Huangting Temple of Jixian Peak.
The ruins are surrounded by ancient trees and trees. In the distance, a house made of green bricks can be seen standing alone in the shade of green trees. Slowly approaching this "centenarian" who has experienced vicissitudes, the roof is collapsed, the windows are rusty, the original two-story floor slabs are no longer there, and the roof and the house are overgrown with weeds.
According to photographs from the last century, there are about six houses in the Bible College. Now that the ruins have been included in the military restricted area, people stand outside the high walls, and only the house that is about to collapse can be seen next to the wall.
(Pictured by the author)
Nearby, the valley is overgrown with trees, and the wall also blocks the author's footsteps, at this time, the author can only silently pray: I hope that the house can be preserved and left to future generations as a witness of history.
I passed through Bible College several times more than a decade ago, and the Bible College was in tatters. In recent years, despite efforts by local authorities to renovate the Bible College, the house has not been repaired for a variety of reasons. Fortunately, the guerrilla cadre training class already has an exhibition hall, and the new site is located in the former Nanyue District Government on Jinsha Road.
"Personnel have metabolism, and exchanges have become ancient and modern." The glorious Bible College of the past is gone, and the bleak Bible College has been hidden in the snow for a long time, and this history is almost in the dust. History should be respected, and protecting Nanyue Bible College is the best respect for that period of history.
About author:He Tao, a native of Nanyue, Hengyang. He loves literature, likes code words, and is a dreamer who walks on the road of education.
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