How stubborn and long is this unpredictable hope,
How free and far away China's roads are...
——Mu Dan, "Walking in the Wilderness - Two of the Three Thousand Miles Walk"
The Anti-Japanese War army flourished, and Pingjin fell. Teachers and students from East China Colleges and Universities in North China walked out of the ivory tower and pavilion, dressed and traveled far, running to the mountains and mountains, the wilderness countryside. They saw the broken mountains and rivers, the hardships of people's livelihood, the faces of dishes and the bitter pain, experienced frequent tossing and turning and endless journeys, and finally reborn in the fire, and moved west to the south to become a magnificent cultural legend of the twentieth century, becoming a century-old masterpiece in the history of Chinese education.
"Poor years of writing grass and trees, zhi cut to see things." In the face of changes in the world, the famous mountains were stopped, and the triad of "heaven and earth people" was gathered, prompting the teachers and students of Nandu to cultivate a spiritual life above the transcendent daily life in the vitality of all things, to cultivate the heaven and earth realm of thought and freedom of will, and to gradually connect the subtle blood between man and nature.
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After the fall of Shanghai in November 1937 and the fall of Nanjing in December, under the pressure of Japanese artillery fire, the teachers and students of Pingjin, who had just established a temporary university in Changsha, were breathless and had no time to warm up, so they had to pull up the camp again and move west to Kunming. Wu Zhengyi, who had just graduated from Tsinghua University and stayed in school, joined the 3500-mile long-distance trek initiated by the school, and began to write the "Long March" Diary - From Changsha to Kunming, which is a personal discipline and psychological history, and the only surviving complete record of the "Little Long March of Education". The daily climate, the actual itinerary and the geographical landscape seen on the road, as well as "the people and things seen that have memory value", are simple and the past is clear.
"Tour group" to the border of Xiangqian
In his diary, Wu Zhengyi repeatedly mentioned his teacher, Professor Li Jidong. Li Jidong, who was already suffering from a leg disease, still decided to walk into Dian with the students, and before leaving, he wrote to his family: "The War of Resistance has been lost one after another, and the survival of the country is uncertain, if the country is broken, it will be martyred." Of course, as the head of the Biology Department of Changsha Provisional University, Li Jidong's trip to the south also had the original intention of observing the vegetation in the southwest mountainous area along the way.
Li Jidong is a pioneer of plant physiology in China, the founder of plant ecology and geobotany. In 1925, he received a master's degree in forestry from Yale University in the United States (later received a related doctorate), the first person in the united States to receive a doctorate in this field in the Chinese. At the beginning of the Little Long March, he was in a bad condition, so he had to be supported by the students for a while, and then he reluctantly walked on his own. The people who escorted Li could take a car with luggage, but Li Jidong refused to take the car and insisted on walking every day.
Wu Zhengyi himself was also a foot blister in the first three days, and he was able to walk normally after the third day. They can only eat two meals a day along the way. The southwest region is sparsely populated, and the tour group must rush to the larger villages and towns every day to eat and stay, plus study and inspection along the way, and the daily march ranges from thirty to fifty miles.
Over the cliffs and cliffs, through the rapids, they ate and slept in the open, "often laying straw on the farmhouse floor for the night, often sleeping with chickens, ducks and dogs." The difficulties of eating, living and traveling can be overcome, and bandits are the biggest threat to students who are not yet involved in the world. However, there are also ways to steal, and Wu Zhengyi recalled that Li Jidong once negotiated with local bandits in Xiangxi: "The bandit leader wants to buy money for the road. (Under the negotiation of Mr. Li Jidong), they knew that these were some poor students, and the teachers were also relatively poor", and they almost let them go.
All their equipment consisted of a military uniform, a pair of leggings, a pair of straw shoes, an oil cloth umbrella, and eight kilograms of luggage packed from the necessities of daily necessities along the way. It was the middle of winter, and they braved the severe cold to cross Wuling, Miaoling, Wumeng, and waded through the XiangJiang, Yuanjiang, and Zishui Rivers... In the wind and rain, there are still a few professors, trying their best to dress and wear shoes, maintaining a certain demeanor cultivated when studying in Europe and the United States; everyone tries to maintain the peace of encounter and the spirit of curiosity about nature.
They visited historical sites all the way, browsed scenic spots, went to ethnic minority villages, or observed folk customs and customs in Taoyuan, deep valleys, villages, towns, and liquor stores. Regardless of whether the weather is good or bad, Li Jidong carefully observes the growth and distribution of animals and plants along the way, and collects animal and plant specimens. Every time they saw a representative plant, the teachers and students were hooked together. The road to exile became a scholarly journey to study nature.
Passing through Ya'an, they discovered several species they had never seen before. Crossing the Jinsha River, geology professors assert that the mist-shrouded Grand Canyon, with just a dozen homes, is rich in iron ore and coal mines. They witnessed the beautiful scenery of snowy mountains, rivers and gentle plains coexisting, and the beauty and danger of the scenery they saw along the way, all kinds of flowers, trees, birds and animals, houses and utensils, and people in various costumes brought them a unique experience.
All the way to the scenery, the humanities, the taste of the world, the mourning of the country's fortunes, the intellectual elite in this way in the torrent of anti-Japanese salvation into the bottom of the society, not only feel the beauty of the rivers and mountains, but also deeply regret the people's livelihood is difficult. Wen Yiduo said, "... The understanding of China is actually very superficial. Today, I want to use my footboard to touch the vicissitudes experienced by my ancestors. When the country is in trouble, those of us who drop the book bag should re-understand China! Although Chinese scholars have always had the tradition of "reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles", modern Chinese intellectuals have taken the lead in their quest for the true meaning of the state and the self.
The teacher counseling group is composed of 11 teachers, including Huang Yusheng, Wen Yiduo, Yuan Fuli, Zeng Zhaoli, Li Jidong and Wu Zhengyi.
The war forced them into exile, but it could not stop their enthusiasm for learning. "Xi People's Feelings, Inspecting Customs and Soil, Collecting Specimens, Understanding the Living Conditions of Ethnic Minorities, and Then Understanding the Current Situation in China"; in particular, the southwest region, as an important hinterland for the restoration of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, is "rich in resources, will be developed in the future, and has a great future". The "Xiangqian dian small long march" made the life realm of teachers and students present a greater pattern, just as one student later said that in the spiritual structure of the Southwest United University Gaoyuan Shulang, there must be the arduous tempering of this long journey.
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When I first arrived in Yunnan, the excitement and admiration of the students lasted for a long time. After a turbulent journey, the tour group members, along with thousands of teachers and students who arrived first, settled down in Kunming.
Yunnan is far away, the heavens and the earth are big, take a step back, really have the feeling of the sea and the sky. Although it is far away from the mountains and rivers in the hinterland of the Central Plains, there are also Yunnan-Vietnamese and Burma roads leading to foreign countries under construction, which is convenient for importing books, instruments and equipment from abroad, and it is also convenient to understand the dynamics of international academic and scientific research development; the ethnic diversity, mountains and biological diversity of Yunnan contain great academic value. Kunming also has four flowers of gratitude, eight sections of evergreen grass, green lake clouds, Dianchi Lake wave traces, more green trees and fertile fields, the sky is blue, containing a free soul. The hardships and hardships on the road to exile were finally replaced by the sound of reading books.
Of course, a comfortable and superior study environment cannot be discussed. Trucks carrying arms crawl like locusts on the Burma Highway, and various melancholy scenery dots a bloody era. At the same time, the clouds of war also spread on several continents around the world, and the whole world was in a state of panic and turmoil, and the later the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the more serious the economic difficulties became. The japanese army's offensive and struggle reached the point of madness, because a large number of men went to the front, the arable land was abandoned, and inflation, and the intellectual group who did not directly engage in material production and lived on salaries and wages was in an extremely passive position. Their lives are gradually impoverished, reduced to the level of hunger above and below the line of hunger.
Wu Dayu, who was later known as the father of Chinese physics, was the first among professors to set up a stall because his wife suffered from tuberculosis and spent a lot of money on medicine. Fei Xiaotong of the Department of Social Sciences sold a large bowl of tea. Pan Guangdan's wife, Zhao Ruiyun, set up a stall in front of the school to sell clothes. Principal Mei Yiqi's wife, Han Yonghua, made Shanghai rice noodles and bowl cakes, which were later sold by Guanshengyuan. The wife of Feng Youlan, the dean of literature, set up an oil pot at the entrance of the school to sell twist flowers, and the students came to buy twist flowers to eat after class. Looking back, the professors who used to wear suits and leather shoes were all trying to turn into small traders and hawkers to supplement their families. There are also some professors with good ancient literature skills Chinese, who serve as staff members for Yunnan Toast, writing shouwen and epitaphs in exchange for honorariums.
Professors who study botany still have stronger adaptability, for example, if they are good at floriculture, some people earn income by planting and selling sword orchids. At that time, No. 71 Beimen Street in Kunming was once a single faculty dormitory of Tsinghua University, only a few hundred meters away from the new campus of the United Nations University, Professor Li Jidong lived here, at first he could still buy vegetables with his salary, and then with the rise in prices, there was no money left to buy vegetables by the end of the month. There are still more than two acres of abandoned flower beds around the stage, and the professors of the Biology Department have the unshirkable responsibility to sow seeds and hoe the ground and talk about urgent needs. Thorny weeds were also removed from the campus, and loose soil was dug up and vegetables were planted to accompany meals.
Sometimes it's better to go out and find some wild vegetables. At that time, the professors shuttled between the fields and cottages, in close contact with nature, not for outings, but more time was to raise pigs and grow vegetables, fertilize and weed, and open source and throttle to supplement the family. Several professors have a few piglets at home. It is also their good fortune that the times have thrown the intellectual elite into the turbulent years; without such ups and downs, it will be difficult for them to obtain a profound experience of life.
In any case, this is a season of bright things, spring in Kunming, the wilderness is dotted with wild flowers, beautiful. The professors pondered the relationship between man and nature in the land of a foreign land, discerned the strange birds, animals, plants and trees in Yunnan, and worked hard to transform the foreign land into a place of peace of mind; they also followed the naturalistic tradition of professional instinct. "It cannot be limited by one time and one place" and "cannot but transcend reality"; the professors of the United Nations General Assembly have consciously undertaken the heavy responsibility of inheriting and reconstructing national culture based on the long term.
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The surface of the green lake is lightly misty, and the peaceful scenery of "blowing strings and chanting" is as usual. Teachers and students often go to classrooms, libraries and read hard, or take a walk around green lake. Since the school moved south, although the books and instruments were lost, the spirit of everyone's research did not diminish that year. The natural conditions in the rear area provide teachers and students with a broad scientific research base, and in the face of the rapid changes in the situation, they constantly adjust their academic ideas and social practices, and constantly move from the forced academic circle to a broader natural space.
The southwest region has rivers, wide canyons, vigorous vitality, and many species, and has always been known as the "animal kingdom" and "plant kingdom". Kunming is also surrounded by mountains and waters, the geological landform has changed greatly, and the conditions for field practice are good, which more or less makes up for the lack of specimens, instruments and equipment. Professor Li Jidong led the students to travel through the barren mountains and wild mountains of western Yunnan to conduct vegetation ecology research, found a large number of plants that were previously little known, and then classified them for research. The professors also temporarily organized a scientific expedition, which traveled all over central and northern Yunnan and accumulated a lot of data. In extremely difficult circumstances, the focus of teaching and research has changed.
Teachers of the United Nations University take their studies with practice, often lead students out of the field, there is no road, the car can not go in, take a bag into the mountains, "at night wrapped in a sheet to sleep in the farmhouse is a common thing." "In the wild, there are often dangers. When visiting remote mountainous areas, sometimes when you are too hungry to walk, you are likely to starve to death in the forest; when you are thirsty, drink the water stored in the horseshoe prints after the rain. In such a difficult practice, the professors of the United Nations University guided the students to complete a complete set of processes from books to experiments, from sorting out specimen materials, analyzing objects, drawing drawings to writing graduation papers, etc., laying a solid professional foundation for students and extraordinary life experience. For Yunnan, there are more functions of "guiding culture, magnificent scholars are all there, and the prosperity of culture and education for a while has made Kunming the center of southwest culture", "the transfer of academic atmosphere", and "the manifestation of Dianshi".
Professor Wu Yunzhen also put her eyes and interest into the rich animal and plant resources of Yunnan, and day after day, her footprints gradually spread throughout the whole territory of Yunnan Province. Together with Wu Zhengyi, he discovered the new plant variety "Golden Iron Lock", and examined the botanical names in the "Yunnan Materia Medica" and the "Botanical Names and Facts". The long journey of knowledge and action, which is similar to the naturalistic travel, has forged the scientific spirit of seeking truth and seeking truth and the concise and clear scientific thinking of teachers and students.
In August 1938, Wu Yunzhen and Zhang Jingyu led several assistant teachers to investigate and collect plants from Dali Cangshan and Binchuan JizuShan. At Jizu Mountain, Wu Yunzhen trekked through the mountains during the day and observed plant specimens and drew plant maps at night under dim light. The field work is very tiring, relying on walking during the day, and lying on the ground in the simple Yi family at night, sleeping on the mud, eating buckwheat, drinking raw water, and boiling water is basically invisible. Many years later, Professor Li Jidong still remembers those years: this difficult expedition led to Wu Yunzhen's weaker and weaker body, and in the summer of 1942, Wu Yunzhen relapsed due to a difficult stomach disease in life and unfortunately died. His posthumous works "List of Plants in China" and "Examination of Botanical Names and Actual Figures" have not been sorted out, and the great cause has not been accomplished, which is regrettable.
On the way
In the Chengping era, young people's schoolwork was too heavy, and they did not have time to look up at the greatness of the universe, look down at the grandeur of all things, and taste the beauty and vitality of all natural things, and in the historical fate of exile, they stepped out of the study hall, stepped into the field, embraced ideals, and searched for confirmation. This is the baptism of the spirit of bathing snow and the elevation of the realm, and the irrepressible creativity also radiates an inexhaustible light in the era of war.
Professor Pan Guangdan, who lives in the southwest in the middle of the beacon fire, believes that in the harsh natural environment, it is enough to hone the mind and make people more and more magnificent and strong: if you think about it carefully, there are indeed many unexpected gains.
When it comes to animal and plant research and fieldwork, the greatest hardship paid by the joint masters and students is a group of people who "once lost the sea, but removed the Wushan Mountains", who brought scientific vision and writing literacy, collected customs and customs everywhere, and had close contact with nature. They have a wide range of interests, measuring their surroundings with their feet, observing animals and plants with a naturalistic eye, making meticulous and detailed records of any meaningful scene, going to one place and remembering one place; believing that if they are in a state of fire and turmoil, it does not affect their calm mentality of dedication to scholarship and a healthy research atmosphere; they set out with a scientific heart seeking answers, and finally found that the long exile brought them not to a fixed place, but to a new space that they had never expected. Kunming is like a sea that converges every story of upheaval and displacement, and is combined into a long-distance legend with high mountains and rivers.
We finally left the city of fishing nets,
It is suffocating, dry, empty
……
For many years, the wilderness has been surging with abundant harvests,
Now it is you who unfold the same pattern of temptation
- Mudan, "Walking in the Wilderness"
Written by | Liu Dongli
Typography | globule
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