Always take the first place in the class: review the study and life of the teenager Zhou Enlai in the northeast

The Liaoning Provincial Archives houses a precious archive by 14-year-old Zhou Enlai.

This is an inscription given to Zhou Enlai when he was about to leave the Dongguan Model School in Fengtian (present-day Shenyang, Liaoning), where he was studying. The handwriting of this inscription is smooth, soaked with the heart of a pure child who wishes the motherland to take off strongly.

From 1910 to 1913, Zhou Enlai spent three years of study in the northeast, and it was during this period that he made a vow to "study for the rise of China".

Today, let us relive the past of Zhou Enlai when he was a teenager when he was studying in the northeast.

Teenagers who are at the top of the list in all subjects

In the spring of 1910, the 12-year-old Zhou Enlai followed his third uncle Zhou Yiqian north from the Grand Canal in Huai'an, Jiangsu Province, and finally settled in Tieling to study. Since then, the young Zhou Enlai has begun a new life.

After studying for half a year at a primary school called Yinggang Academy in Tieling, Liaoning Province, Zhou Enlai transferred to fengtian sixth higher primary school (renamed Fengtian Dongguan Model School after the Xinhai Revolution). Located outside the Great East Gate of Shenyang City, this school was a new-style school that had just been opened in the late Qing Dynasty's trend of "abolishing the imperial examination and revitalizing the school", which not only taught Chinese scriptures, but also allowed students to learn new Western learning.

In the classroom, the teacher often tells the students the crisis of the situation and the stories of the national heroes of the past, inspiring the students' patriotic enthusiasm. Among the teachers of the Sixth Higher Elementary School is a teacher who teaches history. This high-minded teacher was ideologically progressive, cutting off his braids during the Xuan reunification years, and often telling students about the theory of the anti-Qing revolution, and also sent Zhang Taiyan's articles and the publications of the League to the students to read, and lent Zou Rong's passionate revolutionary reading "Revolutionary Army" to Zhou Enlai.

Zhou Enlai grasped every inch of time to extensively study knowledge in all aspects, and he enthusiastically pursued new ideas and cared about the fate of the country and the changes in society. Under the influence of Teacher Gao Yiwu, he successively read Chen Tianhua's "Alarm Clock" and "Turning Back", Zhang Taiyan's "Refuting Kang Youwei's Book on Revolution", Zou Rong's "Revolutionary Army" and other books. The League's organ newspapers, Minbao and Su Bao, were the newspapers he often read. Zhou Enlai's vision has broadened with reading, his thinking has been sublimated, he has his own unique views on things, and a lofty sense of responsibility for fighting for the future of the country and the nation has been deeply implanted in the heart of this teenager.

Zhou Enlai studied hard in school, and his grades in all subjects were among the best, especially composition, calligraphy and English, and he always ranked first in the class every semester. At that time, the school had composition classes every Monday and Tuesday, and his articles were often approved by the teacher with the words "Chuanguan" for students to read and learn from each other. At the end of a semester, the teacher will also post his article on the school's "grade exhibition" to show it to more students.

Read for the rise of China

In October 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out in Wuchang, Hubei Province. The news soon reached Fengtian, and Zhou Enlai was very excited when he heard the news, and he resolutely cut off the long braids that symbolized the qing dynasty subjects, and also persuaded the students at the school to also cut off the braids, wear short clothes, and not be bound by the robes and coats.

Once, after the principal, who also teaches self-cultivation classes, asked the students the question of "what is reading for?" in class, some students replied: "Reading for the sake of the father." Some replied, "Read for the sake of mingli." Others replied, "Read for the lintel of the shining door." When the principal asked About Zhou Enlai, he solemnly replied, "For the rise of China." The principal did not hear Zhou Enlai's southern accent clearly for a moment, so he repeated it loudly: "Read for the rise of China." For the rise of China! ”

It was this vow that ran through Zhou Enlai's life.

In October 1912, the teachers and students of the school gathered solemnly to commemorate the second anniversary of the establishment of dongguan model school. Zhou Enlai wrote an essay entitled "Speech on the Second Anniversary of the Fengtian Dongguan Model School". The article proposes that the purpose of teaching and learning is to cultivate talents for the country and make the country rich and strong. In the course of study, students should strive to learn "to investigate deeply and understand", "to think carefully and discern", "to be fully educated, to become a great person, and to shoulder the arduous responsibilities of the country in the future". Principals and teachers "should be smart and do their best" and "choose good teaching materials for students, and teach and learn for students to seek further education." Guard the will of the teacher and strictly respect the tao, and get rid of the arrogant and impetuous habits. Pay attention to moral education, supplemented by a sense of practical beauty, and further invigorate the spirit of the military and the people."

At that time, Zhou Enlai was only a 14-year-old teenager, but he had already shown noble ambitions and eye-catching and outstanding talents. When the Chinese language teacher reviewed this composition, he gladly commented that "teaching is not so enough to speak, learning is not so enough to speak, school is not so not enough to speak of school, article is not so not enough to speak of article." The following year, the Educational Achievement Exhibition held by Fengtian exhibited this composition as a first-class essay and included it in the book "Fengtian Educational Products Exhibition Chinese Language Achievements".

A heart-pounding touch during the summer vacation

During the summer vacation, Zhou Enlai went to the home of his classmate He Luzhen as a guest. It was Weijialouzi on the south bank of the Shahe River in the southern suburbs of Shenyang (now Weijialouzi Village, Shahepu Town, Sujiatun District, Shenyang), and was also the battlefield of the Russo-Japanese War in China. The local old men told them bitterly of the tragic scene when the Japanese-Russian army washed the village in blood. On the hill behind the village, there is a monument to the fallen soldiers of the Japanese-Russian Fengtian Battle erected by the Tsarist Russia, and on the Yanlong Mountain at the east end of the village there is the Japanese-Russian Fengtian Battle Battle Record Tower built by the Japanese imperialists.

He Luzhen's grandfather He Dianjia took them up to Yanlong Mountain, where the Japanese and Russian armies had fought fiercely, and wrote the following verse: "Climb the peak of The Pilong Mountain, and look at the babbling water of the Bi river." Remembering Jia Chen's year of fascination, I want to fight a russo-Japanese war. I was born in Si Xi and grew up in Si Xi, and I hate that I can't soar to the smoke of the five lakes. What is my wish? Figure self-strengthening in Er teenager! "This experience had a great spiritual touch on the young Zhou Enlai. When Zhou Enlai was preparing to leave the Fengtian Dongguan Model School, he also went to visit mr. He Dianjia, the grandfather of his friend He Luzhen. When Mr. He Lao was parting, he gave Zhou Enlai two poems and an article to encourage Zhou Enlai to fight for the rise of China.

Three irreplaceable years in life

The study life at the Fengtian Dongguan Model School was short-lived, but it left a deep impression on the young Zhou Enlai. In 1946, Zhou Enlai said in a conversation with the American journalist Li Boman: "When I was 12 years old, I left home to go to the northeast, which was the key to my life and ideological transformation, without this time of leaving home, my life must have achieved nothing..." In the past three years, Zhou Enlai has not only made great progress in his studies and thinking, but also exercised his body very strongly.

After Zhou En came to the northeast, in order to adapt to the local environment, he insisted on outdoor physical exercise throughout the four seasons. In the winter of Fengtian, the ice and snow, the north wind whistled, and the cold wind blew on his face like a knife, but he always insisted on running, playing football and doing exercises in the cold wind.

In July 1966, Zhou Enlai said to the students of Liaoning University in Beijing: "I am very grateful for your sorghum rice and climate in northeast China for being in such good health." Sorghum rice has exercised my stomach, grown my bones, and changed my lifestyle habits. The unique climate of the northeast gave me a lot of exercise, so that my body could adapt to the difficult war years and busy work in the future. ”

Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Wanquan Text Editor: Yang Rong Title Image Source: Xinhua News Agency Photo Editor: Su Wei

Source: Author: CCTV4 National Memory