Biography
Yan Juqian (1933-1991), Zi Yiting, a native of Jiaocheng, Shanxi. In his early years, he joined the revolution, participated in the land reform movement, and served as a primary school teacher. After 1951, he was transferred to the Chengxian Cultural Center and edited the Wenfeng Weekly and the Jiaocheng Tabloid. In July 1956, he joined the Communist Party of China and successively served as deputy director of the office of the Jiaocheng County CPC Committee, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the county party committee, director of the county local history office, and honorary vice chairman of the county CPPCC committee.
In 1982, he began to work on the revision of the county chronicle, and because of the long-term dedication to the cultivation of the county, he became ill, but he fought against the disease with the firm belief and tenacious perseverance of the Communist Party, and finally completed the 30-volume, 1.2 million-word "Jiaocheng County Chronicle" before the National Day in 1990, filling the gap that the local county chronicle had not been revised for 108 years. On October 19, 1990, the Lüliang Prefectural Committee of the Communist Party of China awarded Yan Juqian the honorary title of "Servant of the People"; on November 28 of that year, the Lüliang Prefectural Committee awarded him the title of "Hero of Lüliang" in the contemporary era.
On January 22, 1991, Yan Juqian passed away.
Yan Juqian said
Sooner or later, a person will die, and it is the greatest joy for a person to dedicate himself to work in his lifetime.
Let me dedicate my life entirely to the cause of the Party.
To learn from the old, we must work until we are old, and make contributions to the construction of the four modernizations. Before he died, he raced against the clock diligently, and after his death, he was worthy of his own self-esteem.
Life is precious, and career prices are higher.
Yan Juqian's former residence, located at No. 15 Dongzheng Street, Jiaocheng County, has a small door with the word "Yanju" on it. In the afternoon of June 24, a reporter from the Shanxi Evening News walked into this small courtyard and saw Yan Liping, the son of Yan Juqian, in the middle of the living room of his residence, hanging a photo of Yan Juqian compiling a local history on his sickbed. In the photo, the old man's eyebrows are locked, his eyes are deep, and his expression is focused and determined...
Improper "High Official" as "Historical Official"
In 1982, Yan Juqian, then deputy director of the Propaganda Department of Jiaocheng County, was sent to the county zhi office to compile a history. Many people advised him not to go, first, because Jiaocheng County has not sorted out local history for 108 years, and it is destined to be a chore to fill this historical gap; second, from deputy minister to director of the county volunteer office, this is a demotion, who wants to go to the "leng yamen" office. But Yan Juqian said: "The party entrusted me with the task because of its trust in me. Besides, as a Communist Party member, how can you compete for high or low status and how much for your interests? ”
Yan Ju, who is known as the "Jiaocheng Tong", humbly and happily took office, hoping to use what he had learned all his life to supplement the historical records of his hometown. He told the leaders: "The cultivation of zhi is related to the great cause of the thousands of autumns, and we must devote all our energy to compiling and repairing the new county chronicle of Jiaocheng in a race against time." The upper is worthy of the ancestors, and the lower is worthy of the descendants. At this time, he had reached the age of knowing his destiny, but he was like a big guy when he put it together. He took 5 colleagues and ran around the streets and alleys of Jiaocheng, to and from surrounding counties and cities, just to collect more information. He could often be seen in the archives, from morning to night; as long as there were seventy or eighty-year-old people in the countryside, he would visit and ask questions.
Yan Liping recalled that his father rescued a lot of precious materials from the hands of elderly people scattered across the country who had worked in Jiaocheng, and seven or eight elderly people completed interviews before they died. In a few years, Yan Juqian and colleagues from the county volunteer office collected more than 8 million words of information, and the briefcase could not be put down, so he took out his own new bed sheets and bundled the information into a bag, as if it were a treasure.
Many people say that Yan Juqian is too stupid, a good "big official" is not right, and would rather be a "historical official" who writes, but he does not think so, and the words he often hangs on his lips are: "As a party member, do you want to do practical things, or do you insist on being an official?" In fact, Yan Juqian endured a double fatigue unimaginable to ordinary people, his wife had been ill for a long time, his daughter had leukemia, and the heavy housework for many years was almost all on his head, and The heavy responsibility of Xiu Zhi did not allow him to have a moment's pause. One day, Yan Juqian felt unwell and was diagnosed with "analitis", and the doctor prescribed medicine and instructed him to drink it three times a day. But where can Yan Juqian, who can't take care of eating food, take medicine? Everyone advised him to check it out, but he felt that it was a waste of time.
Create miracles with the will of the Communists
In 1988, Yan Juqian was diagnosed with stomach cancer during a physical examination. After the consternation, he quickly calmed down, thinking that he still had many unfinished careers and ideals in him. Regarding this experience, he once wrote in his self-statement: "Say whatever I have to take down the task of compiling the county chronicle!" ”
Yan Juqian must have had two-thirds of his stomach cut off. The doctor said that the disease needed to rest for at least a year, but it was just in time for the intense stage of first draft writing, where could he wait for a year? After barely surviving in the hospital for half a month, he went through the discharge procedures, just discharged in the morning, and returned to his sister's house in Taiyuan in the afternoon to start writing. During the three months of living in Taiyuan, Yan Juqian completed the first drafts of "Industrial History" and "Chronicle of Parties and Groups", and reviewed the first draft of "Cultural History", totaling 200,000 words. A year after the operation, he wrote and approved the first draft of the county chronicle of more than 500,000 words, and also compiled an issue of 80,000 words of literary and historical materials, and he stubbornly and firmly completed the work that ordinary people could not complete.
Many relatives and friends saw that Yan Juqian was still working after the operation and were persuading him, but he said that Jiaocheng could not do without county records, and the memoirs of many old predecessors and old comrades were still waiting to be recorded in the material book.
The "Jiaocheng County Chronicle" was unscripted in Yan Juqian's hands, and he created a miracle with his tenacious will.
In the spring of 1990, Yan Juqian felt that it was very difficult to eat, and it was difficult to swallow steamed bread at the beginning, and slowly it was even difficult to drink porridge and noodle soup. Everyone advised him to go to Taiyuan to see, he thought that the work had just started, and he could not delay. Liang Zhaolian, then deputy secretary of the county party committee, took him to the examination in the form of "issuing orders", and the bad news came again - "esophageal cancer". The doctor said that the disease was late and difficult, and it was recommended to first radiotherapy followed by surgery.
Hearing the doctor's words, Yan Juqian said: "It is no longer cured." If this disease is cured, you can live for three or five months, but this time is particularly precious to me, and the "Jiaocheng County Chronicle" has entered the stage of general writing, and as long as there are 3 months to complete it. Yan Juqian refused treatment, in his opinion, for decades of work, as long as the party gave the task, he has not failed to complete, this great cause for the ancestors, the next for the descendants is more important than his own life sentenced to death!
Moved into the deep mountain temple retreat to engage in creation
Knowing that Yan Juqian was ill again and that his life was about to reach the end, his relatives and friends came to visit the family in an endless stream, yan Juqian felt that it was too much of a waste of time, so he only made a request to the county party leader: "Ask three to get rid of (get rid of family, society, affairs), and one concentrate (concentrate on writing county records)." Hoping to move to wenchang palace at the foot of The GuaShan Mountain, there is no need to send assistants, and it is accompanied by a daughter with leukemia. ”
Hearing Yan Juqian's decision, everyone was surprised and anxious, but Yan Juqian was very calm: "The time left by Yan Wangye is not much, and every minute and second is very precious to me." Sick do not see, one is not good, the second is to waste the state's money, it is better to write the county chronicle, but my last wish. "Yan Liping always remembers his father's last time, is so calm, not afraid of life and death," the father always put a sentence on his lips, 'life is precious, work is more expensive'! ”
After moving into Wenchang Palace, Yan Juqian wrote at a rate of 10,000 words per day, but the pain of illness did not reduce his torture, and he was extremely painful when eating, and he had to endure the torture of frequent vomiting. He was infused with fluids in his left hand and insisted on writing with his right hand, sleeping for two or three hours a day, and his weight had dropped from the initial 80 kilograms to 60 kilograms. Under the lone lamp of the ancient temple, a weak but tenacious man with a withered shape still worked tirelessly, silently turning his life into a word on the county chronicle.
Before the National Day in 1990, the 30-volume, 1.2 million-word Jiaocheng County Chronicle was finalized. Yan Juqian said that he hoped to use the county ambition to present gifts to the party, and he was worthy of his status as a party member and fulfilled the tasks entrusted by the party brilliantly.
During the interview, the Shanxi Evening News reporter saw a letter written by Yan Juqian to a friend at the last moment of his life. He said: "Jiao Yulu can sacrifice for the people of Lankao, why can't I sacrifice for the people of Jiaocheng?" Yang Du went bankrupt in order to complete the last Shanxi Tongzhi, and his fingers were frozen in winter. The ancients still cultivated zhi like this, why can't I, as a Communist Party member, devote all my efforts to the cause of cultivating zhi? Yan Liping said that when his father died, he was open-minded and cheerful in the face of everyone, and he often said to his children: "Life, old age, illness and death, the inevitable law of man, why be afraid?" Judging from my decades of experience, the biggest feeling is that people must have a fearless spirit, and with this spirit, there is no difficulty in the world. ”
After Yan Juqian's death, the CPC Jiaocheng County CPC Committee, the Lüliang Prefectural Committee, and the Shanxi Provincial CPC Committee successively made the decision to learn from Comrade Yan Juqian. The China Local History Steering Group called on practitioners across the country to learn from Comrade Yan Juqian. On February 24, 1991, the front page of the People's Daily published his touching deeds under the title of "Life is Precious and The Price is Higher". In 1991, the TV series "Good Man Yan Juqian" was broadcast nationwide, and the drama "Yan Juqian" was performed in Beijing, Taiyuan and other places, causing great repercussions, and everyone got the most simple enlightenment from him: the most ordinary is often the greatest!
Shanxi Evening News reporter Sun Yiqiong
Journalist's Note
The work of cultivating aspirations is a systematic and huge project, and those who cultivate them must be able to maintain poverty and endure loneliness. Before the interview, I was thinking, what kind of faith can support YanjuQian to work selflessly and sacrifice his life?
When chatting with Yan Liping, he said that his father Yanju loved work more than anything else, and as long as it was a task entrusted by the party, he absolutely had to complete it. Maybe it's a belief. He believes in the party, cherishes his work, and believes that if the party has cultivated him, he must contribute to the party, and he must be worthy of the party, the people, and his hometown. This love, strong and simple.
In addition to writing, I read the letters that Yan Juqian wrote to many relatives and friends at the last moment of his life. In the face of death, he has never been afraid, some are just relieved, glad that he has finally written the county chronicle, glad that he has completed the tasks entrusted by the party, this is his sense of responsibility, loyalty to the party, loyalty to work, loyalty to the people, is his lifelong faith!
There was an old photo that impressed me. Yan Juqian, the last of his life, strongly supported his body, played a period of tai chi after the infusion, and in the photo, he had a peaceful face and the corners of his mouth rose... In the face of faith, to go down firmly and persistently is true happiness.
(Editor-in-charge: Candy)