Listen to centenarians talk about health

When they were young, one of them taught "Introduction to Literature" and the other "Introduction to Linguistics", and Mr. Zhu Dongrun, the head of the department, jokingly called their family "Double Introduction Building". Zhu Lao was a calligrapher, but it is a pity that Jiang and Pu did not take the opportunity to ask him to write the "Double Introduction Building" plaque, otherwise it would be a precious work of art.

However, our 1953 "Introduction to Linguistics" was still taught by Mr. Wu Wenqi, and it was not until the next class, Mr. Pu, who began to take over the class. She gave us a writing class. At that time, Mr. Pu was still wearing two small braids, and the braids jumped left and right when he walked, and he was very youthful and energetic. Mr. Pu's speech was very clear, and he also asked us to write clearly and clearly. At that time, we were all literate, and we often wrote with a literary and artistic style, pursuing the beauty of writing, but Mr. Pu said that when writing articles, we should express the meaning clearly, and do not write in a fancy way, which benefited me a lot.

After graduation, I stayed in the school to teach, and for a long time I was in the same literary and art theory teaching and research department as Mr. Jiang Kongyang, and also worked as a tutor for Mr. Jiang's "Introduction to Literature" class (the "Introduction" class was later commonly known as the "Introduction" class). In this way, my relationship with Mr. Jiang and Mr. Pu'er became even closer. However, what brought me closer to them was the experience of participating in the "Four Qings" movement. I have participated in one phase of The Little Four Qing and two Phases of the Big Four Qing. The time of the fourth year of the Qing Dynasty is very long, the first phase has been carried out for more than half a year, and the second phase is nearly a year. The first phase was with Mr. Pu in Huqiao Commune, Fengxian County, and the second with Mr. Jiang in Luodian Commune, Baoshan County. Fengxian was far away from Fudan, and at that time, the traffic was inconvenient, and it took most of the day to arrive. When Mr. Pu was on rotation every month, he always asked me to walk with me, saying that there was a companion on the road and could talk. When I was in Luodian to find out the four clearances, Mr. Jiang and I often chatted together, and sometimes we sneaked into the town to buy food. This is how our teacher-student friendship was established.

Mr. Jiang was not in good health, he died at the age of 77, and Mr. Pu lived alone, a little lonely. Her second daughter Jiang Hong, who taught in the United States, took her to live in the United States, she was not used to living abroad for a long time, and came back after living for a few hours; Jiang Nian, the third daughter who worked in Fudan, asked her to move in with her, and she refused, or liked to live in the old nest, live her own life, and do her own thing. Living alone has the benefits of living alone, but as you get older, there are also difficulties. Once, Mr. Pu fell and was injured and could not stand up, and it happened that the part-time worker's aunt was not there, and there was no one at home, which was very embarrassing. Fortunately, she had a clear mind, quickly climbed to the kitchen, first turned off the gas stove where the stew was cooking, so as not to leak gas and catch fire, and then climbed out of the kitchen to call for help. It's really dangerous! Later, the eldest grandson (the son of the eldest daughter Jiang Pu) who works at Shanghai University came to stay with her twice a week, helped her do something, and talked to her, and she was very happy.

Mr. Pu was born in 1922, and by last year (2021), she was already a hundred years old, and the Department of Chinese of Fudan University and the United Front Work Department of Fudan University jointly made her centennial birthday and invited us old students to participate. Mr. Pu has had difficulty walking since that wrestling, this time in a wheelchair, but his mind is still very clear, in his reply, he spoke with a straight face, we ate at a table, and her food intake was also very good, which was really gratifying. A few days later, she suddenly called me and said she wanted to talk to me. Her memory is still very good, and she has told a lot of past events, all of which are very clear, but after all, she is old and has times when she can't remember clearly. While talking, she suddenly asked me: "Xiao Wu, are you 60 years old this year?" I responded, "Mr. Pu, I'm 85 years old!" She said, "Ah! Are you all that big? Then I don't want to call you Xiao Wu anymore, and I will call you Lao Wu in the future! I was busy saying, "In front of the teacher, I will always be Xiao Wu!" She smiled happily. Later, I turned to think about it, and I didn't think it was strange that Mr. Jia Zhifang always asked me in his later years: "Xiao Wu, you are 60 years old, right?" "At that time, I was in my 70s. And my early students, who are now in their seventies and eighties, still think they are still young and treat them as young people. This is probably the general psychology of teachers, not necessarily the relationship between memory.

After the Spring Festival this year, I went to visit Mr. Pu, she was very happy, talked with me a lot, said that after Fudan gave her a hundred years old birthday, the Municipal Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party did it for her again, "At the symposium, they asked me to introduce my health experience: how to exercise? What supplements to eat? I answered truthfully: neither exercise nor eat supplements, to say health, is two experiences: one is to eat, the other is to sleep. I eat a bowl of rice and a bowl of dishes every meal, the rice is ordinary rice, the dish is also a general side dish, meat and vegetarian collocation. I used to sleep until dawn, but now I'm old and I want to get up at night, but after I get up, I can sleep immediately. Nothing else. "I think this is a good pension experience and worth learning." However, according to her actual life situation, I added and summarized the third lesson for her, that is, there is some spiritual sustenance, and there is something to do in old age. The reason why Mr. Pu wants to live independently, in addition to having her own living space and maintaining her own living habits, she also has to do what she wants to do, which is the spiritual sustenance. After a period of spiritual adjustment, Mr. Pu sat down to do follow-up work, that is, to organize and publish Mr. Jiang and her own book manuscripts. The editing of the Complete Works of Jiang Kongyang was initiated during Mr. Jiang's lifetime, but it was too late to finish, and the fifth volume was edited by Mr. Pu, followed by publishing affairs; in addition, he edited and published Mr. Jiang's early letters and essays, essays, and essay collections "Sincere Pursuit", which was a letter written by Mr. Jiang to Mr. Pu during their love affair, and Mr. Pu said that her letter to Mr. Jiang would wait until after her death. At the same time, she republished the "History of Chinese Chinese Dialects" for herself, compiled and published the "PuZhizhen Linguistics Papers", and recently told me on the phone that her graduation thesis "Yangxiong Dialect Research" when she was studying at the Jiangjin National Women's Normal College in Sichuan Province, which has 50,000 words, will also be published. Although the publication of these books has the help of young people, it always requires Mr. Pu to sort, review, and finalize. It is estimated that Mr. Pu has done a lot of desk work in the past 20 years.

From Mr. Pu's experience, the elderly do a little work that they like and can do, and they have some spiritual pursuits and sustenance, which seems to be more pensionable than the pension for the sake of the elderly. (Wu Zhongjie)