Author | Wu Xi
Hu Dehui (1936-2018), one of my cousins, graduated from the Department of Mathematical Mechanics of Nankai University in 1961 and was the second son of my mother's aunt Zhang Jingheng and Mr. Hu Xianhua, only six years older than me.
Hu Xianhua (1894-1968) zibu zeng, number confessional, jiangxi province new person, botanist, educator, cultural scholar, the originator of modern Chinese plant taxonomy (the name of the "living fossil" Metasequoia), is also one of the pioneers of modern Chinese biology.
Hu Xianhua and Hu Shi
Academician Hu Xianhua took a group photo with his eldest daughter and eldest son in Nanjing in the summer of 1928
When I was a child, my mother often took me to my aunt's house to play, approaching the big red door facing north of Block 83, Shizuma Street, and the first thing I noticed was the large inscription on the stone wall on the right: "Jingsheng Biological Investigation Institute.".
This three-entry compound was converted into a dormitory of the Academy of Sciences in the 1950s, and the aunt's family lived in the last one at that time.
I remember the first time I went, I just walked into the second yard, I listened to a burst of dog whining, and soon saw a tall and handsome young man running out with two big wolf dogs to meet us.
My mother called him little brother and asked me to call him my third uncle. There was another young man behind him, smaller, and my mother asked me to call him my brother-in-law.
At that time, they were already high school students, and seemed to understand everything and were cheerful and cheerful. My mother handed me over to them and went out with my aunt with confidence.
The third uncle touched my head and asked me, "What do you like, what books do you want to read?" "Lead me to my uncle's study to find a book." Rows of tall black bookcases are filled with Chinese and foreign books, and I have selected several ancient and modern novels, warnings, awakening to the world... Enough for me to watch a summer vacation.
I also noticed that there were quite a few bookcases with plant specimens, including the seeds and leaves of American sequoia and Chinese Metasequoia trees.
The third uncle also showed me his own Zenit camera, which was a very advanced 135 single-lens camera at the time. He once took a lot of close-up photos of the little white cat, the big wolf dog and Wang Qing's little cousin as a study, and at that time he seemed to want to enter the Beijing Film Academy and study cinematography.
In the summer of 1956, the summer vacation at the end of my second year of junior high school, I heard my mother say: "You are waiting at home today, and the third uncle and brother-in-law will come to our house in Tianjin to see."
At that time, my family lived in a house in the northeast corner of the intersection of Luoyang Road and Xinhua Road, not taking the gate around the corner, taking the door on Xinhua Road, opposite the Cao family compound.
Sure enough, at noon, four tall young men came to the door, in addition to the third uncle and the younger brother-in-law, there were two of their classmates, one of whom was surnamed Zhang.
The four of them were put on the list of college entrance examinations, the third uncle was admitted to the Department of Mathematics and Mechanics of Nankai University, the younger brother-in-law was admitted to the Department of Mathematics of Peking University, and the classmate surnamed Zhang was admitted to Dalian Maritime College.
The four of them decided to travel to Dalian together, just passing through Tianjin to come to my house to see. They are full of energy, full of energy, sunny and happy!
It is said that they participated in the beijing mathematics competition before the college entrance examination, and all achieved very good results, the brother-in-law was escorted to Peking University, the third uncle was guaranteed to be sent to Nankai University, or a five-year preparatory student in the Soviet Union.
Probably considering the needs of the construction of the motherland, the third uncle changed his mind, did not take the photography department of the film school, and changed to mathematical mechanics.
The third uncle is in Tianjin to Nankai University, and there are more opportunities to meet! On weekends, he sometimes came to my house to talk about home cooking, and he would bring me some commemorative stamps and technology magazines. He also instructed me: "You are a middle school student, read more newspapers, and pay attention to political and economic current affairs."
Since then, I have noticed that the struggle against the Right, a hundred flowers blooming, the snakes coming out of the hole, the origin and changes of the flowers and poisonous weeds, have matured rapidly politically.
My mother didn't know when she began to care about the marriage of the third uncle, and seemed to be nosy. He fell in love with the beautiful second daughter of a German student, Mr. Jin, with blond hair and blue eyes.
Her mother, a German, originally lived in the upper floor of the Qishilin Factory in Xiaobailou, Tianjin, and later this German lady was hired to teach German at the Beijing Foreign Language Institute, and her daughters also followed, and soon the whole family went back to West Germany.
Mr. Hu Xianhua and his sons and daughters,
From left in the front row, Wang Qing, Hu Xianhua, Hu Zhaojing.
Back row from left, Hu Deyi, Hu Dexuan, Hu Dehui.
In the summer of 1959, I spent my aunt's house in Shizhima Street, Beijing, and my two cousins also spent the summer vacation at home. My sister-in-law ordered my two younger brothers to take me out to play, and my third uncle pushed a 28 bicycle from nowhere, changed tires, and refueled the axles and chains.
The next day, our three uncles and nephews rode three cars straight to the Bada of Xiangshan Mountain, and it was already evening when they returned to the tomb of Sun Yat-sen at Biyun Temple after climbing the mountain to see the scenery. The gate was closed, and we had to sit in front of the door to rest and prepare to go home.
At this moment, two Volga cars came, and a few guests in the form of big cadres came down, and they sent someone to open the gate, and they were welcomed, and everyone fished in. We also stood up, walked in after them, listened to the narrator's explanation, and went through the day contentedly.
The next day we rested at home, on the third day we rode to the Ming Tombs, just came out after visiting the Dingling Tombs, and saw the two Volgas driving over, and the big cadres who came down saw us, laughed, and became acquaintances.
One of them smiled and said, "You three lads are really good, two wheels run faster than our four wheels!" We rode around the Ming Tombs Reservoir Dam on the way back, and the west car chased us up again to say hello and goodbye! In retrospect, the relationship between cadres and groups at that time seems to be much better than it is now.
Soon, China and the Soviet Union were at odds, experts were withdrawn, overseas students were suspended, and the third uncle's preparatory student project for staying in the Soviet Union was also abruptly stopped. Just as he was about to graduate from Nanda University, the daughter of a high-ranking official surnamed L took a fancy to him and talked to him through the organization department, suggesting that he could be assigned to Beijing as long as he confirmed the relationship between male and female friends.
Helplessly, the third uncle was not old at all at that time, and even refused to be kind, and when he graduated, he was immediately "assigned" to the Baicheng Normal School in Jilin Province, northeast China, and insisted on staying in that bitter cold place for fifteen years! Teaching and educating people, has been single and unmarried.
After the End of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, both his parents and my mother had passed away "abnormally." He returned to Tianjin and went to No. 19 Yunnan Road to find me and discuss the transfer.
According to him, he could not be directly transferred back to Beijing, but it was possible to transfer back to Tianjin to the blessing of Nankai University, but if he had a fiancée in Tianjin, if he could have a letter certifying the relationship between Tianjin lovers, he could transfer the file relationship to Tianjin.
I discussed with my wife that one of my wife's classmates in the twelfth middle school was a female architect who graduated from the sixteenth middle school (Yaohua Middle School) and Tsinghua University, and had just been transferred back to Tianjin and was not yet married.
After the wife's request, he received his great righteous help, wrote a letter in his own hand, stamped the official seal, and the third uncle was smoothly transferred to Tianjin. Afterwards, my wife and I thanked me for not only, but also wanted to promote good things to come true, but the woman has a crush, and her kindness and righteousness have been unrequited!
The third uncle is tall and tall, and he is a talented man. When he was transferred back to Tianjin, he was in his early forties, and he was a graduate of Nankai University, and was assigned to the Instrument Radio Industrial School as an associate professor by the Personnel Bureau.
Just after settling down, the third uncle took the peach blossom luck, and was photographed by the dignified and beautiful Doctor Xu of the school medical office, and became a pair made in heaven and earth with her. The school allocated houses, and soon won the pearl in the palm of its hand, taking advantage of the tide of reform and opening up to live a happy and happy day for twenty or thirty years!
The third uncle Hu Dehui and his wife
When I returned ten years after I went to China, he had retired, and his daughter had inherited the excellent genes of both parents and became a female architect with artistic talent and intelligence after graduating from college.
The third uncle's family later settled in Beijing, bought a new home in the East Fourth Ring Road, and lived with his brother and sister in the East City, echoing each other, and there was a lot of care for each other, which was reassuring.
A few years ago, he accompanied his wife and daughter on a trip to the United States at the time of the ancient rarity, and our juniors had the opportunity to accompany each other, drive around the United States, and visit the United States and east with the group.
He visited the places where his father studied, the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard University, surveyed the native land of american sequoia and the migration of "living fossil" Metasequoia, visited the famous mountains and rivers of the United States and the national parks he has long admired... But part of his wish.
Unexpectedly, he left prematurely, his voice and smile and deep friendship made me think about the night and dream day and night, Cousin Dehui please go all the way, see you in heaven!
Early 2018
Written in California, USA
Revised in early summer 2021.
Note: In 2021, the complete works of Mr. Hu Xianhua (18 volumes) of The Father of Metasequoia will be launched by Jiangxi People's Publishing House.
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The author Wu Xi (pen name Wu Xi), whose ancestral home is Hangzhou, Zhejiang, was born in Beijing in 1942, moved to Tianjin with his parents in 1947, and lived in Chongqing Road, Chengdu Road, Xinhua Road, Tongguan Road, Yunnan Road, etc.; graduated from the Five Districts Central Primary School (that is, the twenty middle schools attached to the small school now Chongqing Road Primary School) in 1954, graduated from Tianjin No. 1 Middle School high school in 1960, and graduated from the Mechanical Department of Tianjin University Night University before the Cultural Revolution. He served as the director of Tianjin Environmental Sanitation Engineering Design Institute, and immigrated to Silicon Valley in California after 1993.
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