Xiao Yin Anecdote 9
Xiao Yin designed the school gate for his alma mater, Tuocheng Middle School
Praised for Tao Zhu but destroyed by the Cultural Revolution
Chen Jiaji
In 1929, 14-year-old Zheng Wensheng (Xiao Yin's real name), with the sponsorship of many teachers, was admitted to his hometown Longchuan County No. 1 Middle School (Tuocheng Middle School) with the fourth place among nearly 300 candidates. In school, Xiao Yin read through the tens of thousands of books in the school library and began to create literature. He has a deep affection for the schools he once attended and the teachers and classmates who helped him.
In June 1956, Xiao Yin used a half-month creative leave to go home to write, during which Xiao Yin returned to his alma mater. At this time, Tuocheng Middle School has moved from the site of the town (the former Tuocheng Xuegong) to the outside of the city, and the campus construction is underway. Xiao Yin took the initiative to ask for help and designed a school gate with a novel shape for the school.
According to the description of the Biography of Xiao Yin written by Xiao Yin's student He Lang, the school gate design is like this:
On both sides of the school gate are cement square pillar piers, and the top of the column piers is like a fist, and it looks like a bunch of pen holders. It symbolizes wisdom and strength.
From a photograph of Tuozhong taken by his own hand, the author saw the style of building the gate of Tuocheng Middle School according to his design (above).
This photo is based on a negative film saved by Xiao Yin. The negatives are kept in a negative bag of a large number of photographs taken by Xiao Yin for his hometown (below).
A negative bag of a large number of photos taken by Xiao Yin for his hometown
On the bag is The handwriting written by Xiao Yin
On the bag of the photo, Xiao Yin wrote: "Tuocheng style, the negatives are all intact, but they have not been selected and printed. Seventy-two. May at the hot springs". In 1972, Xiao Yin resumed his work and in May went to the Conghua Hot Spring Sanatorium on the outskirts of Guangzhou for convalescence. It was here that Xiao Yin sorted and marked the negatives that had been preserved for many years.
Organizers of the "Xiao Yin Photography Exhibition" held at the Heyuan Library in 2018 once believed that Xiao Yin's photo of the Tuo Middle School Gate was taken in May 1972. This is actually a misunderstanding, and the time when Xiao Yin sorted out the negatives was taken as the time of shooting.
He Lang's "Biography of Xiao Yin" also has the following description of the school gate:
Then, from these two pillar piers, like two fists, four large red characters in the shape of a half moon are held up: Tuocheng Middle School. The font is vigorous and powerful, and it is Xiao Yin's handwriting.
The photos we see taken by Xiao Yin do not have the name of the school that Xiao Yin inscribed. My analysis of this is that when Xiao Yin took the photo, the school gate pillar pier had just been built, and Xiao Yin had not yet written an inscription for the school.
In 1963, Tao Zhu, then the first secretary of the Central and Southern Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, returned from Shantou and passed through Longchuan. The car passed near Tuocheng Middle School, and Tao Zhu got off the car to admire the design of the school gate. It is estimated that what he saw at that time was the school gate with Xiao Yin's inscription on it. Tao Zhu admired it for a long time and asked, "Who designed this?" After learning that the designer was Xiao Yin, Tao Zhulian claimed to praise, "Ah, the design is good, very good." ”
At the end of 1966, Tao Zhu, the number four figure in the Central Committee at that time, was overthrown as an "anti-party group of Liu Deng Tao". Perhaps because he once praised Tao Zhu, the Xiao Yin-designed school gate of Tuocheng Middle School was destroyed.
The author is now launching a search for photos of the school gate with Xiao Yin's inscription before the destruction in Longchuan and Heyuan. I hope that someone can save such photos, so that we can see the style of xiao Yin's design and inscription of the school gate!