Mothers of Gangnam's first lane

Author: Ji Ping

Source: Changzhou Procuratorate Online

Voice Popularization Column "Ji Ping Says Case"

Issue 14

Mothers of Gangnam's First Shi Lane

A wisp of morning light penetrates the mist, the quiet alley ushers in a warm morning, and the thousand-year-old tree is like a grandmother, smiling and squinting, greeting every visitor. This is the first Shi Lane in Jiangnan - Qingguo Lane, which was built in the Ming Dynasty before the Wanli Calendar, is a historical and cultural block in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province.

In this short alley, nearly a hundred talents and a large number of modern and modern celebrities have come out, covering the fields of politics, literature, art, education, industry, science and other fields, so Qingguo Lane has the reputation of "the first alley of Jiangnan celebrities". Here were Liu Shiyong, a famous anti-Yuan general at the end of the Song Dynasty, Tang Jingchuan, a literary hero of the Ming Dynasty, Qian Weicheng, Yun Hongyi, and Tang Yifen of the Qing Dynasty, Sheng Xuanhuai, a pioneer of the foreign affairs movement and founder of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Li Boyuan, author of the famous condemnation novel "The Present Form of Officialdom" in the early Minchu Dynasty, Shi Liang, one of the Seven Gentlemen and the first Minister of Justice of New China, Wu Ying, the founder of the Palace Museum, Wu Zuguang, a playwright, Zhao Yuanren, a linguist, Zhou Youguang, the father of Hanyu Pinyin, and Qu Qiubai, a revolutionary pioneer... An ancient alley has created a remarkable cultural plateau.

On this day, in front of the tall archway in Qingguo Lane, I met the oldest loyal reader of my "Female Prosecutor's Handbook", Grandma Ling Yaping, 95 years old. More than 70 years ago, Grandma Ling took two big cars to marry into Qingguo Lane, she said that today's weather is really good, come to see her old house. The old mansion she said was the old residence of the linguist, composer, and Zhao Yuanren, known as the "father of modern Chinese language", who was Zhao Yuanren's nephew and daughter-in-law. Grandma Ling warmly clasped my hand: I have been reading your "Female Prosecutor's Notes", you have a sense of justice, talk about salvation, quite moved, did not expect to see you in Qingguo Lane today, good luck!

(The author and 95-year-old Grandma Ling in Qingguo Lane)

Grandma Ling sat on a creaky bamboo chair and pulled up the family routine, Grandma Ling said: I married into the Zhao family, the whole family is mostly women, there are very few men, they either go out to work, or they get sick and die early, the children are brought up by the mother, and the influence of the mother on the child is quite large.

The mother is the child's first teacher, and the mother teacher is the first textbook in life. Zhao Yuanren's mother, Feng Laisun, in today's terms, is an excellent early childhood enlightenment teacher, she uses intuitive image methods to teach children to recognize words, Zhao Yuanren wrote in the "Early Autobiography": The earliest was my mother to recognize square characters, about an inch and a half square piece of paper, one side to write, one side to draw, this side is the word "people", that side draws a person; this side is "tree", that side draws a tree. Zhao Yuanren recalled: "My mother was a very talented woman at that time, she could write poetry and fill in words, write a good word, and Kunqu opera, although my mother did not teach me Kunqu opera, but I think I liked to make music later, most of them were handed down from my mother" When Zhao Yuanren was 12 years old, his parents left him one after another. In 1956, when Zhao Yuanren recorded a recitation of Tang poems, he couldn't help but cry several times, unable to continue reading and stopped. Mr. Zhao must have remembered the nights when he was a child, under the oil lamp, his mother took his small hand and taught him to read Tang poems word by word.

(Linguist and musician Zhao Yuanren)

Psychologists believe that a person's personality is formed at an early age. Mr. Zhou Youguang, the father of Hanyu Pinyin, recalled: "Since I was three years old, I was often with my grandmother. My grandmother lived in a house by the river in Qingguo Lane, with large glass windows, which was especially beautiful when there was a moon. My grandmother taught me to read Tang poems. Her grandmother's family was a big family, she was very educated when she was a girl, there was no new school at that time, she was great among women, she could write a pen in a lawsuit, she was very knowledgeable. My mother, Xu Wen, had a great influence on me, and my mother influenced my optimism. My mother had an old-fashioned education, she had no problem reading, her writing was not good, my grandmother was a very good writer, my grandmother was a high-level intellectual, and my mother was an ordinary intellectual. My mother, who has a gentle personality and has never been angry, told me: "Measure big, don't be negative when you encounter difficulties." One of her often said sayings: "The boat to the bridge is naturally straight", that is, you should not be afraid and passive when you encounter difficulties. She went through a lot of difficulties and died at the age of 96. Under the influence of my mother, I was able to deal with the difficulties of the War of Resistance Against Japan and the difficulties of the Cultural Revolution.

Li Boyuan, the author of "Official Appearance", was born in the eunuch family, his father died when he was three years old, and he and his mother lived in the uncle's house in Qingguo Lane, and his mother only gave birth to one child, and all her efforts were placed on him. In the middle of the night, under the lonely light of the light moon, Xiao Boyuan studied diligently and diligently, and his mother accompanied him by needlework. Xiao Boyuan was intelligent and studious, with a wide range of interests, when he was a teenager, he tried the first talent in zhongxiang, but he never failed to pass the examination, his career was frustrated, he felt the darkness of the field, and then he worked hard to write, exposed the shortcomings of the times, persuaded the good and punished the evil, his "OfficialDom" still has practical significance, and thus he became a prolific writer who left a young history, his achievements in literature are the best reward for his mother, Li Boyuan never married, felt the grace of his mother, and served his mother alone until he was old.

(Li Boyuan, author of the famous condemnation novel "The Appearance of officialdom" in the early MinChu Dynasty)

Coming out of Qingguo Lane, Qu Qiubai was one of the main leaders of the early days of the Communist Party of China, an outstanding proletarian revolutionary, theoretician and propagandist. His mother, Jin Xuan, was born into a family of scholars and received a good education from an early age. Qu Qiubai was the eldest son, and before entering the private school, he was dictated by his mother to recite ancient poems. When Qu Qiubai was 16 years old, he was forced to drop out of school because he could not afford to pay the tuition, and on the fifth night of the Chinese New Year's Day of this year, his mother, who was full of poetry and books, swallowed a box of Red matches and bid farewell to Qu Qiubai forever... Is the mother's search for death due to poverty and helplessness? Qu Qiubai has a passage in the "Chronicle of Hungry Townships": "The conflict of economic interests in the family ... They all looked at each other, wearing the mask of Confucianism, and behind their backs they hated, resented, cursed, poisoned, and did everything. From this passage, it can be seen that the death of the mother is a wordless struggle for her own dignity and a break with the sinister world. 20 years after her mother left, Qu Qiubai, who had a firm gaze, raised her head and walked step by step to the execution ground, at this moment, the mother of heaven opened her arms to greet her son; at this moment, for the sake of communist faith, Qu Qiubai regarded death as a homecoming!

(Qu Qiubai wrote the poem "White Chrysanthemum", which won the praise of his mother)

After casually chatting with Grandma Ling for more than an hour, I said you reminded me of my mother. My mother was supposed to be a well-written high-ranking intellectual like Zhou Youguang's grandmother, who published essays in newspapers and periodicals in junior high school, and she completed two majors at two universities, graduated from the National Institute of Social Education, which is now the Department of Journalism at Soochow University, and majored in Chinese Language and Literature at Beijing Normal University. In 1948, her mother threw herself into the pen, abandoned a rich life, joined the 28th Army of the Third Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, walked 2,000 miles into Fujian, could not pick on the shoulders, could not lift the hands of everyone, traveled hundreds of miles a day, stayed at the graveyard overnight, the soles of her feet were full of blisters without a word, crossed the dangerous Xianxia Ridge, walked out of the swamp miasma no man's land in northern Fujian, and threw herself into the Battle of Zhangxia, which was supported by a generation of intellectuals to save the country and save the people. Her mother successively served as a newspaper clerk in the Political Department of the 28th Army, a cultural instructor at the Headquarters of the 28th Army, and won the outstanding correspondent of the whole army, and the first prize of the whole army for articles on field news reports.

When I was in elementary school, my mother let me read "People's Literature", to see her high school students' good compositions, not for white, to work, to find typos in the composition of big brothers and big sisters, I learned to look like my mother in the way I think good sentences under the wavy line, the best sentence of the sentence end of the double circle, with pencil drawing, after her mother recognized her with red pen, I was particularly proud, so when I was a child, writing essays rarely typos, compositions are often read aloud by teachers as fan texts in the class, naturally, Writing became a part of my life. Mother has a firm faith all her life, integrity and integrity; teaching and solving puzzles, loving children like children; diligent and studious, optimistic and cheerful, her precious character has been passed on to our descendants, Lao She said: Those who have a mother are stable in their hearts. Mother, always with us!

(Author's mother, Tsinghua University, 1967)

Blessings: All mothers in the world, healthy and smooth, may you have more laughter and joy, and be happy forever!

(Qingguo Lane)

2022.5.8 Mother's Day in Changzhou Wangfu Garden

(This article is included in the book "Look at Qingguo Lane Again" by Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House, and won the special prize of the Changzhou Net Blog Contest and the first prize of the "Mother's Power" Essay Contest of Galaxy Yue Reading Chinese Network.) ）