Hello everyone, I'm Wu Guan.
One day in October 1964, the Chongwen District cleaning team where Shi Chuanxiang was located came to a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl who said that she was looking for Shi Chuanxiang, and Shi Chuanxiang looked at the little girl with doubts and asked her intentions.
"Hello Uncle Shi, I want to worship you as a teacher and experience the work of excrement extraction." The little girl was very good-looking, white and pure, with two small braids on her head. But the words that came out of his mouth made Shi Chuanxiang stunned.
Isn't it a joke that such a good-looking little girl wants to come and pick up feces? Shi Chuanxiang thought to himself. But the little girl's next words made Shi Chuanxiang change his mind.
Only to hear the little girl fall and say generously: "Uncle Shi, my name is Liu Tingting, my father is Liu Shaoqi, he asked me to come to you to experience the work of digging up feces." ”
Shi Chuanxiang suddenly realized that this little girl was Liu Shaoqi's daughter Liu Tingting, so there was nothing strange about it. Shi Chuanxiang waved his big hand at the team members and said, "Find a bucket of dung for Tingting and let her pick up the dung." The team members looked at the little girl curiously, found her a small bucket of dung, and put it on her back. Liu Tingting was not timid, following Shi Chuanxiang's body and going door to door to pick up feces. She didn't say bitter, nor was she dirty, even if the dirty water splashed on the braid, Liu Tingting just took out a handkerchief and wiped it, and then stuffed it back into her pocket.
The time at work is auspicious
The people in the cleaning team, including Shi Chuanxiang, did not feel that there was anything wrong with letting Liu Shaoqi's daughter pick up feces, but instead praised Liu Tingting's behavior, and Shi Chuanxiang also thought that this was a matter of course. All this seems unbelievable, why did Liu Shaoqi let his daughter pick up feces, and how did the president of the country have a friendship with the dung digger? But if we understand the story of Shi Chuanxiang, then it is not surprising that all this is happening.
Let's set the time back to October 26, 1959, when the autumn of that year was particularly urgent, just after the National Day, the first national meeting of heroes was held in the newly completed Great Hall of the People. Shi Chuanxiang, 45, attended the meeting as a national model worker, and the national leader received representatives of the Heroes' Association. Shi Chuanxiang was among the people being received. He looked very cramped in the crowd, such a big leader, who had seen it in his life.
Only to see that at this time, Vice Chairman Liu Shaoqi shook hands with the deputies one by one, and he raised his head as if he saw something, and his eyes lit up. Shi Chuanxiang only saw Liu Shaoqi walk directly to his front, shook hands with him in the confusion on his face, and said: "You are the old comrade, I have long wanted to see you!" ”
Shi Chuanxiang was very puzzled, how could the president of the country know himself, was it because so many people were bald, so they were recognized at once? Shi Chuanxiang's doubts were not answered, but the hands of the president and the excrement collectors were tightly clasped together, and it was a moment worth remembering in history.
Many people wondered what the two of them talked about at that time, and Shi Chuanxiang later said this in his memories:
At that time, Chairman Liu Shaoqi took my hand and asked me two questions. The first one asked me, how is the life of our cleaning team now? I said very well. The second one asked me, are we tired of our work? I said not to be tired, everyone is very motivated!
What Shi Chuanxiang did not expect was that on the second day after the opening of the conference, the People's Daily reported on the grand event, and the photo of Shi Chuanxiang shaking hands with Liu Shaoqi was also published in the newspaper. It was also at this time that Shi Chuanxiang knew what it meant to shake hands with Liu Shaoqi, that is, the president of the country and every worker were equal, and this kind of thing could only happen in New China under the leadership of the Communist Party.
Shi Chuanxiang and Liu Shaoqi shook hands
In 1915, Chuanxiang was born in Qihe County, Shandong Province, to a poor peasant family. At that time, there was a famine in Shandong, the people had no food to eat, what elm bark and elm leaves were eaten, I heard that there was another thing called Guanyin soil, that is, the grain was mixed with soil and pasted a cake to eat, people would not feel hungry when they ate, but they would not be able to pull out the, and some people were so alive that they were suffocated.
In Shi Chuanxiang's dreams, there were often large fields of sorghum, corn and wheat, and in the winter, the yellow soil was endless, and he and the teenagers of the same age shuttled through the lush green gauze tents. His dreams were covered with sorghum leaves, and he sat in front of the kerosene lamp, his fingers fiddling with the abacus, calculating the harvest. In the dream, he had endless white rice, but in reality he couldn't even eat wheat bran. He grew up unconsciously in the days of hunger and fullness.
When Shi Chuanxiang was 15 years old, the Yellow River flooded again. Shi Chuanxiang's father is a poor peasant, his mother is an ordinary rural woman, the two have a total of 6 children, and the life of a family of eight is very difficult. In this year, for the sake of the family's livelihood, my father had to borrow money from the landlord to survive, but he was trapped by the landlord's usurious loans and owed a debt to the king of Yama, and the fierce landlord forced the debt like a wolf. The father fell, covered his chest, and called Shi Chuanxiang's name, and the mother ran over and let out a series of exclamations. Shi Chuanxiang's last memory of his father was that he was lying on the door panel, and a white cloth covered his father's body, the white cloth was short, and his feet were exposed, and there was no blood. Shi Chuanxiang stood to the side, staring at his father, without tears, and his heart was full of panic.
The family did not dare to continue to borrow money to bury their father, but just casually found a piece of land and buried it hastily. The burden of life was thus placed on his mother's body, and Shi Chuanxiang decided to leave home and go outside alone. So in order to alleviate the poverty of the family, one less person in the family will eat with one less mouth, and shi Chuanxiang, who is desperate, decides to go to Beiping City to beg for food.
When Shi Chuanxiang arrived in Beijing, it was winter. It was cold in Beijing, and Shi Chuanxiang was wandering the streets, cold and hungry. Sometimes some leftovers in the street restaurants are poured into swill buckets, and he secretly goes to catch them and eat them. But there were still people who robbed him, and there were too many refugees at that time, and no one had any food. Shi Chuanxiang was thin and small, wearing a thin torn cotton coat, and walked shakily like a pendulum. If you accidentally fall on the ground with your head, you can't get up for half a day. Once he fell to the ground and couldn't get up for half a day, but fortunately he was saved by Uncle Li who was passing by and picking up the dung. Uncle Li's life is not rich, and he and Shi Chuanxiang said that if he wants to live, he has a way, that is, like him, to be a dung flower child who is looked down upon. Shi Chuanxiang still had a choice, nodded his head and agreed.
Shi Chuanxiang's dung field at that time was at Xuanwu Gate. This dung farm was opened by a dung bully, and Shi Chuanxiang worked under this dung bully for 20 years and suffered from the exploitation and oppression of the dung bully. At that time, the intensity of his daily labor was very large, from Liubukou to Guang'anmen, and then to the area around Yao Gezhuang Xiaojing, back and forth for twenty or thirty miles, in such a large area, he cleaned up feces one by one.
At that time, the road environment in Beiping City was very poor, it was all mud, and the dust raised on the road in the spring could cover people's eyes, and there was a lot of dung pulled by the camel caravan from other places, and some people even directly spilled last night's urine bucket on the road. It can be said that the road of the old Beiping City is very difficult to walk, but the overworked Shi Chuanxiang, every day whether it is windy or rainy, cold or hot, have to drag the tired body, push the dung truck "one step three, step by step" back and forth on the muddy road.
In addition, when the labor intensity is very large, it is still very difficult to live. He and 12 other excrement workers lived in a very rudimentary shed, ventilated on all sides, and kept a donkey in it. Sometimes overworked Shi Chuanxiang could not go to the shed, found half a brick pillow on the side of the road to sleep, they ate the food was the rest of the food in the restaurant, the clothes they wore were dirty and torn, patched and beaten there was no other piece of clothing to change.
But even such difficult living conditions. Shi Chuanxiang still had to be squeezed and exploited by the dung bully and some evil forces in the industry, and for twenty years he was beaten and scolded almost every day, and he was bullied to the fullest, although the labor intensity was very high, but the dung bully only gave three yuan of wages. When he started working, he also found various excuses to deduct his salary, and in 20 years, Shi Chuanxiang did not get a full amount of three yuan.
In addition, Shi Chuanxiang often endured some people's prejudice and discrimination against the excrement workers, and in the old society, some industries were called the lower nine streams, and the dung diggers were the lowest-level industries in the lower nine streams. Many people are prejudiced against them, especially those who are high-ranking and noble, who regard them as inferior, or even do not regard them as human beings at all, calling them shit shell langs. But they never thought about what their home life would do without these shells?
Once, after Shi Chuanxiang finished working for a barrister in the city, he wanted to beg for water, but the lawyer's wife felt that Shi Chuanxiang was dirty, hid the water scoop, and covered the water tank tightly. Only the servant took the basin for feeding the cat and filled it with a little water, and sent him away, and the words were full of disgust. When Shi Chuanxiang finished drinking the water, the basin that fed the cat was gone. She asked the maid to take the basin out and throw it away, even if it was thrown away, she was not willing to give the penniless Shi Chuanxiang.
Shi Chuanxiang was bullied in the old society, but there was no way, he did not want to change, but there were layers of mountains in this cannibalistic society, which made him breathless. He had no way to change, no learning, no money, but what about learning, he was still exploited. He wanted to see the light, but where the light was, he didn't know. Sometimes he would think of his father, his mother, and his younger siblings, and he didn't know what he would think if they knew they were now a dung picker. But how can you think that this world is so difficult, it is not easy to survive and live, and what else can you dislike?
Light, light, where is the light, and what does the light look like? Shi Chuanxiang did not know.
But fortunately, the light, he finally saw, this time span is 20 years.
At the beginning of 1949, Fu Zuoyi revolted and Peiping City was liberated. Within half a year, New China was founded, and the people were the masters of their own affairs. The excrement collectors are also the people under the leadership of the Communist Party, and the excrement collectors also have the dignity of being human beings. At that time, the Beijing Municipal Party Committee formulated a series of policies to protect the rights of laborers, and they classified excrement workers as part of the working class, which was very respectful of them. In 1962, a cleaning team was set up in Chongwen District, Beijing, and the past dung diggers were integrated into the unified organization and management, and since then the excrement workers have also been officially organized by the state. It was in this year that Shi Chuanxiang joined the cleaning team.
From the past excrement cleaners to the current cleaning team members, no one has felt more deeply than Shi Chuanxiang. In the past, people mentioned that the excrement workers were full of contempt, but after the founding of New China, they regarded the dung diggers as the cornerstone of social composition and gave them respect. The Beijing municipal government not only stipulates that the wages of excrement collectors are higher than in other industries, but also tries its best to reduce the labor intensity of excrement workers and improve their means of transport. It was also from this time that Shi Chuanxiang felt the dignity of being a human being for the first time, and there was a feeling of raising his eyebrows and exhaling.
From drifting around as a child, to being oppressed in his youth, to raising his eyebrows and breathing out now. Shi Chuanxiang deeply felt the difference of this new era, and the phrase "the people turning themselves into masters of their own affairs" is not just a slogan in this era, but is really happening and changing.
Shi Chuanxiang had not read a book, nor did he have any culture, nor could he tell any great truth, nor would he use any slogan to express his gratitude. He wants to use his actions to give back to this society, to give back to this society that has given him a new life. In fact, this is because he has a simple sense of gratitude in his body, and the Communist Party not only liberated his life, but also gave him dignity and liberated him spiritually. He was determined to repay the Communist Party with his redoubled labor.
It was also at this time that he had a new understanding of the work of the cleaner, and doing this line of work is also labor, and labor is glorious. Later, under the education of the party and the government, he linked this work with socialist construction and serving the people, and his understanding was sublimated again. He realized the truth that excrement extraction is also part of the cause of socialist construction, and it is also very honorable to serve the people.
His thinking has changed, so he has worked harder. At that time, Shi Chuanxiang could take 93 barrels of dung a day, and a bucket of dung plus feces had 200 pounds, but he never cried bitter or tired, and the palms of his left and right palms were covered with thick calluses. But he was willing to pay labor, and he was willing to pay labor, and after the change of thinking, he felt that labor was glorious. He took pleasure in suffering, worked hard and complained, and was full of enthusiasm. He never refused to work, but took the initiative to attack, without others to say, he knew where to remove the dung, no matter how deep and rotten the pit was, he tried to clean it up. Among all the co-workers, he is the one who does the most, the most tired, and the one who does the most seriously.
Soon after, due to his outstanding performance, he was elected captain of the cleaning team. After becoming the captain, Shi Chuanxiang did not feel that there was anything remarkable about this, but felt full of responsibility, because he knew that everyone trusted him to choose him as the captain, and what he needed to pay was more effort than before.
Particularly tiring work, particularly dirty work, he took the lead. He also calculated the working hours, tapped the potential of his teammates, changed the large class of the past 7 people into a small class of 5 people, and led the whole class from 50 barrels per class to 80 barrels per class in the past, and he himself carried 90 barrels per class, reaching 5 tons per class at most. And it is also under his efforts that the area under Shi Chuanxiang's responsibility is the cleanest area in Beijing. He worked overtime every day, even on days off, and walked the streets and alleys to clean up excrement and repair toilets for residents' offices and schools. When everyone mentions it, Chuanxiang will give a thumbs up, they will say, it is really good to do it when they are old.
It was also because of his hard work that he was honored, in 1955 he was named an advanced cleaner, in 1956 he was elected as the people's representative of Chongwen District, and in June of the same year, he gloriously joined the Communist Party of China. In 1959, he was selected as a national model worker to attend the National Heroes' Association.
After becoming a national labor model, Shi Chuanxiang did not slacken off because of this, but fought in the front line of work, doing the dirtiest and most tiring work. Not only that, he gave up almost all holiday breaks, walked around when he had time, looked around, smelled and asked, and if he found that anything needed to be cleaned, he immediately took someone to work. Someone asked him that you have achieved fame, why do you have to work so hard? Shi Chuanxiang smiled and said, "If you don't do a good job, people will not be convenient." ”
"If you don't do a good job, others are inconvenient", this is the most simple value of Shi Chuanxiang, he does not feel that the honor he has won is a big deal, he feels that he is just doing all the things within his own responsibility, doing it thoroughly, then it will bring convenience to others. His reasoning is the most simple, but it is such a simple truth, but not everyone can do it well. He is ordinary, but if an ordinary person can do his work to the extreme, then he is extraordinary.
He is just a simple laborer, who does not confess himself, and does not talk too much about big truths. However, there is a sentence that expresses his truest thoughts, that is, "I would rather be dirty than a person in exchange for a thousand family purity", in fact, this sentence was said by Chuanxiang when the reporter was interviewed at that time.
The reporter wrote:
I once asked him how he didn't get dirty. He said, where there is no dirt, but if we want one person to be afraid of dirty, then a thousand people will be dirty. If one more person stinks, it will stink in a hundred homes. Dirty and dirty, I am afraid that if I am dirty, I will have to get dirty. Thinking about this, I am not afraid of getting dirty. I looked at his dark red face and broad chest and couldn't speak for a long time.
What he said was so natural and simple that it reflected his lofty ideological realm, which was to sincerely think of others, rather than sacrifice oneself, but also to serve the people wholeheartedly, which was a noble spirit of selfless dedication.
Another noble spirit of his was that he considered the excrement workers to be part of the cause of socialist construction, equal to all other professions. But for the people of the time, the work of the excrement collector was dirty, tiring, and lowly. However, in Shi Chuanxiang's view, this kind of thinking is not right, and when he is more than half a hundred years old, he took the initiative to return to the Cleaning Team of Chongwen District to conduct ideological education for those new workers, and he also personally took these young workers everywhere to dig up feces, and the work was also the most tiring and hard. With his own personal actions, he told the young workers that there is no distinction between high and low in revolutionary work, and that the excrement workers are also glorious.
The excrement diggers are not lowly, and the excrement collectors are also part of socialist construction, so how did this sentence take root in Shi Chuanxiang's heart?
It turned out that when Liu Shaoqi received him that day, Liu Shaoqi took Shi Chuanxiang's hand and said the following sentence: "When you are old, we all have to serve the people well, you are the people's attendant as a cleaner, and I am also the people's attendant when I am the chairman. ”
Then he patted Shi Chuanxiang's hand again and said, "I heard that there are a few middle school students in your cleaning team, who can read books and newspapers, and you can't be culturally backward." An advanced producer must not only work well, but also strive to learn culture. Then he took out the hero pen he used from his jacket pocket and gave it to Shi Chuanxiang, and told him to write to him at the end of the year.
Liu Shaoqi's words not only inspired Shi Chuanxiang, but also greatly encouraged the broad working masses at that time, who deeply knew that the original president of the state and them were also on the same line, and they were all people who contributed to the cause of socialist construction. And Shi Chuanxiang himself was also very happy, he said: "I have been working as a dung digger for 30 years, as long as the party needs me to do it for another 30 years, 60 years." I will do it whenever the Party needs me. ”
The photo of Shi Chuanxiang shaking hands with Chairman Liu Shaoqi not only greatly encouraged the broad masses of working people, but also has great significance for the leading cadres of Beijing Municipality. One day in early June 1963, two leading cadres came up from Shi Chuanxiang's class. When Shi Chuanxiang looked at them, it turned out that they were Wan Li and Cui Yueli, vice mayors of Beijing. As soon as they entered the door, they said to Shi Chuanxiang, "Old shi, the two of us are going to participate in sanitation work with you today, and you don't want to be treated specially." ”
Shi Chuanxiang saw that they were followed by only a few cadres who also participated in the labor together, and there were no reporters accompanying them, and he smiled and nodded. Because he knew that these people had come to work sincerely, not for the sake of news propaganda.
Shi Chuanxiang took them together to carry a bucket of dung in Chongwen District to sweep the toilet and carry feces. The two deputy mayors worked hard and sweated profusely, and after more than two hours, because there were still meetings in the city to attend, they had to quit and leave.
They came very low-key and did not show off, but the news that the vice mayor of Beijing Came to participate in the excrement removal was still not shy. In that era of pursuing lofty ideals and advocating dedication, people followed their example and came to Shi Chuanxiang's class to ask for participation in dung removal. And this is also the opening scene, Liu Shaoqi's daughter Liu Tingting asked to participate in the picking of feces, this behavior is not surprising.
Shi Chuanxiang's deeds soon spread throughout the country, and even spread abroad, and many young people who pursued progress in France, Britain, and Japan also came to Shi Chuanxiang's class to follow Shi Chuanxiang to clean the toilet. Even Prince Sihanouk's nephew took the initiative to ask Shi Chuanxiang to be his teacher, and for a whole week, he followed Shi Chuanxiang to dig up the toilet and carry the dung bucket.
Before the National Day in 1966, Mao Zedong also specially took Shi Chuanxiang to Zhongnanhai to stay, and on the day of the National Day, Shi Chuanxiang was invited to Tiananmen Square as a vip to participate in the National Day ceremony. It was the first time in his life that he had ascended Tiananmen Square, and Mao Zedong held his hand and greeted him cordially on the city tower. At the state banquet held in the Great Hall of the People, Zhou Enlai toasted Shi Chuanxiang, and Zhu De gave him a dish, and Chairman Zhu De said: "When you were old, you were a person who did gravity work. ”
With his spirit of hard work, Shi Chuanxiang has won the love of the people of the whole country and the respect of the leaders of the country. However, Shi Chuanxiang himself did not feel that there was anything remarkable. He still worked on the front line as usual, keeping the most tiring and hard work to himself. And in order to do a good job of excrement removal, he also thought of a lot of ways. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were still quite a lot of bungalows in Beijing, especially in some old courtyards, there were often more than a dozen dozen, the population density was very large, the frequency of toilet use was high, and most of the toilets at that time were very simple, the pits were very shallow, and there were many people who used it, and the feces would often overflow, and the smell was very unpleasant. When Shi Chuanxiang encountered this situation, he always quietly found bricks to raise the pit higher, and the bricks and tiles fell into it, and he bent down to pick them out with his hands one by one.
He often taught young people who didn't like to do cleaning work: "If no one in Beijing goes to pick up feces for a month, the feces will flow all over the street." You are also willing to go to heavy industry, and I am willing to go to heavy industry, but no, there are always people who have to clean up the feces. ”
For the work, Shi Chuanxiang never did it well or finished it, but to consider how to make him perfect, to the extreme, and how to make it satisfactory to everyone with his own efforts. His thoughts are simple, and his actions are not lofty, but it is because of his diligence and selfless dedication that his actions seem so extraordinary, so great.
However, Shi Chuanxiang did not expect that in a certain movement, Shi Chuanxiang inevitably fell into persecution. He was severely beaten, oppressed, and hung around the streets with the word "dung bully" hanging around his neck. But he never gave in, and he angrily rebuked those with ulterior motives: "I have never done bad to any co-worker in my life, and I am innocent." ”
However, those people did not believe it, but instead became angry and ashamed, and cruelly used all kinds of torture to torture him and torture him, but Shi Chuanxiang was still strong and unyielding, and his righteousness was awe-inspiring.
He was put on the hat of a worker thief and dragged out to the streets every day to suffer all kinds of devastation. The torture seriously damaged his health, and in less than half a year, Shi Chuanxiang, who was 1 meter 8 tall and had a very strong body, suffered from a variety of serious diseases, urinary and urinary incontinence, and extremely weak body.
Fearing that he would die in prison, Shi Chuanxiang was sent back to his hometown in Shandong. However, Shi Chuanxiang was not let go like this, although his condition was already very serious, but the local hospital and clinic did not have anyone willing to accept him. By the fall of 1972, Shi Chuanxiang had become quadriplegic and had difficulty speaking. He could only walk on crutches, staggering, wandering the streets and alleys backwards and backwards, sometimes standing unsteadily, stumbling and falling, and intermittently saying in his mouth: "I am a good man, not a thief." ”
But his cry was not heard, and even if anyone heard it, they would pretend not to see it. They sympathized with him, but they could not help him, they admired him, but this admiration could only be put in their hearts and waited for the right time. But by the time the time came, it was too late. On this day, Wanli, who had participated in labor with Shi Chuanxiang, asked Zhou Enlai to report on his work, and inadvertently, Zhou Enlai asked about Shi Chuanxiang's recent situation. Wanli sighed and told Zhou Enlai what had happened to Shi Chuanxiang.
Zhou Enlai heard about Shi Chuanxiang's tragic experience and took up the case, how can we treat our "model workers" in this way, he said indignantly: "On behalf of the party organization, you must invite Shi Chuanxiang back to Beijing." To rehabilitate him, to apologize to him, to treat him and implement the policy, we have to apologize to this civilian hero. He also informed Chairman Mao of Shi Chuanxiang's situation, and Chairman Mao was also very concerned about Shi Chuanxiang and immediately issued instructions to take Shi Chuanxiang back to Beijing for medical treatment as soon as possible and to restore his reputation after rehabilitation.
On August 29, 1973, under the care of Premier Zhou Enlai, Shi Chuanxiang was transferred to the Chongwen District Hospital in Beijing for treatment, but his condition did not improve, and in less than two years, his condition deteriorated.
On May 19, 1975, when he was dying, Shi Chuanxiang called his four children to his side and said three words. One sentence is, "Children, I have been digging up all my life, and I am looked down upon for digging up dung, but I have feelings for dung." Another sentence is, "When I reported to the chairman, I said that all walks of life need someone to take over, and my only wish is that you can take over my class, this class is not my class alone, it is the class of the party and the state." His last words in life were, "You must do things in a down-to-earth manner and behave innocently." These three sentences are finished. Shi Chuanxiang died at the age of 60 due to changes in his condition.
In 1983, Liu Shaoqi's wife Wang Guangmei came to the home of Shi Chuanxiang's old partner Cui Xiuting, which was Cui Xiuting's 60th birthday, at this time Liu Shaoqi and Shi Chuanxiang had passed away, the two old men raised their glasses and sighed, and the friendship between the president of the state and the dung digger has been passed down since then.
Shi Chuanxiang died, but his spirit was passed down, and the earliest to inherit the spirit of the spirit was his children. In 1974, his youngest son, Shi Chunli, joined the cleaning team and became the first person in the second generation of the Shi family to enter the cleaning industry. At work, he rushed to the hardest and most tiring work, the winter wind was cold, Shi Chunli was working in the downwind, the dust flew and pounced, and he became a gray man. He didn't say much, his work was always at the forefront, and the teachers and masters said that seeing him was like seeing his father.
Shi Chuanxiang's son Shi Chunli
Finally, Wu Guan wanted to say a few more words. Shi Chuanxiang left us with reflection not only respect for the worker, but also his attitude towards work. If our country wants to be strong, in fact, it requires our continuous efforts and continuous struggle, and where in this world there are good years, just because someone is carrying the weight forward!