The grace of dripping water, when the spring repays, a person who does not know how to learn about the entu newspaper will certainly not have any big success, and all the celebrities who can achieve something in the ancient and modern exchanges are often rewarded with kindness. The nurturing grace of parents, the teaching grace of teachers, and the life in the world, there is no heavier grace than these two. Premier Zhou, who is loved by the people, is a good prime minister who serves the country and the people, and in terms of personal life, his filial piety to his parents and respect for his teachers have also set an example for the world to learn from.
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Zhou Enlai lost his mother at an early age, and his father Zhou Yi was able to work outside the home for many years, using his meager income to maintain a difficult family. In 1908, Zhou Enlai's fourth uncle Zhou Yigeng left his hometown huai'an under the care of his brother-in-law Qian Nengxun, went to the northeast to find an errand, served as a clerk in the Fengtian Finance Bureau, and after the income situation improved, Zhou Yigeng wanted to take his nephew Zhou Enlai with him, and in 1910, at the age of 12, Zhou Enlai went to the northeast and lived in the home of the fourth uncle to enroll in school.
In 1913, Zhou Yigeng was transferred to Tianjin as a member of the Changlu Salt Transport Department, and the 15-year-old Zhou Enlai also moved to Tianjin with his uncle Zhou Yigeng, and with excellent results, was admitted to the Nankai School in Tianjin. Zhou Enlai is the eldest son in the family, and there are two younger brothers in the hometown, living with the eighth uncle Zhou Yikui, Zhou Yikui has been ill in bed for many years, Zhou Yigeng's salary also has to help the family, although Zhou Enlai can barely enter the school, but life has always been very hard, and even often even handing over tuition and miscellaneous fees is very difficult.
However, Zhou Enlai's character and excellent learning soon attracted the attention of Zhang Boling, the principal of Nankai School at that time, who paid special attention to this outstanding student, and Zhang Boling said to others many times: "Zhou Enlai is the best student in Nankai."
When he was a teenager, Zhou Enlai not only cultivated the same window with his classmates when he was studying in Nankai, but also established a deep teacher-student friendship with the teachers, no matter where he was in the future, Zhou Enlai's heart always retained a piece of Nankai feelings that are difficult to forget, and this sentiment is expressed with a sentence in his letter to Nankai students who stayed in Tianjin in May 1919: "I love Nankai."
Zhou Enlai entered school in 1913 and graduated in 1917, and in the short few years of Nankai, in the long decades of his life, it may be very short, but it is definitely not insignificant. Zhou Enlai and Zhang Boling's teacher-student friendship originated in Nankai, but it did not end because Zhou Enlai left Nankai, and in the years that followed, the friendship between them lasted for nearly 40 years, and such a close relationship has long been beyond the general teacher-student relationship.
Whether it is Zhou Enlai's respect for Zhang Boling or Zhang Boling's appreciation of Zhou Enlai, it stems from the common patriotic enthusiasm in their hearts. After zhou Enlai entered nankai school, not only did he excel in various subjects, but also had a very outstanding ability in social activities, and had a high popularity and leadership among his classmates.
Zhang Boling is from the Navy, he started from scratch, relying on the society to raise donations to found Nankai Middle School, Nankai Girls' Middle School, Nankai Primary School, Nankai University, Chongqing Nankai School and a series of Nankai famous schools, not for his own selfish desires, for personal promotion and wealth, but to cultivate talents for the country and realize the ideal of education and power.
When talking about the relationship between the people and the state, Zhang Boling famously said: "China will not die for generations!" Everyone must be self-reliant, as long as everyone has a self, China will not die. We must have the courage to think like this, no matter what people say, we must have this belief! ”
As the principal, Zhang Boling has a strong sense of responsibility and mission, and what he calls "China does not die for generations" has a common spiritual connotation with Zhou Enlai's "reading for the rise of China". Nankai Middle School was founded in 1904, when Zhou Enlai enrolled, there were not more than a thousand students, and when the number of students was still relatively small, Zhang Boling, as the principal, was familiar with the students in the school and could call out the names of each of them.
When he was admitted to Nankai Middle School, Zhou Enlai was 15 years old and studied in the third class of the first grade, which was later changed to the second class of Ding. For the new students enrolled every year, Zhang Boling will pay special attention, he will talk to the students carefully about the economic situation of their families, and many teachers look at the powerful students at home differently, Zhang Boling is particularly concerned about those poor students who are in financial difficulties at home, every weekend, Zhang Boling will let his wife Wang Shuzhen cook a large table of delicious meals, and these students are called to the home to eat and talk.
After learning that Zhou Enlai's family was poor, Zhang Boling took the initiative to waive all his accommodation, tuition, and book fees, and provided him with the opportunity to work and study, so that Zhou Enlai could give the school a wax board and copy lecture notes in his spare time, so as to earn a little living expenses.
Without the worries of tuition fees, Zhou Enlai could devote all his energy to studying. At that time, Zhou Enlai's substitute teacher, Ling Nairu, often praised Zhou Enlai in front of Zhang Boling, saying that he was a material that could be built and would not be a thing in the pool in the future. Zhang Boling often asked Zhou Enlai to come to his home for dinner, and entertained this proud protégé with specialties such as sticker cakes and boiled small fish that Tianjin people love.
Many years later, Zhou Enlai also emotionally recalled: "When I was studying in Nankai, Principal Zhang often gave me small fish to eat." Presumably, what Zhou Enlai missed was not only the tender taste of boiling small fish, but also the heartfelt care of the principal for himself. Zhou Enlai was the only student in Nankai at that time who had no tuition fees, and Zhang Boling also specially appointed him as the assistant secretary of the principal's office.
In 1914, Zhang Boling supported the students to set up a drama performance group, the Nankai New Theater Troupe, where students with good writing were responsible for screenwriting, students with talent for acting were responsible for performances, students with good stage sense were responsible for sets, and students with meticulous thoughts were responsible for auditing. Zhou Enlai was a core member of the troupe, serving as the director of the set department, and one person was responsible for many tasks, because of his good writing, he was also tasked with writing articles about new plays and publishing them in the school magazine.
At that time, there were no girls in Nankai Middle School, but there could not be only male characters in a drama, so everyone discussed selecting male students with good looks to oppose women, and as a result, Zhou Enlai won this honor because of his appearance, often playing a female role in the drama. Many years later, Zhou Enlai and Zhang Boling met in Chongqing, and Zhou Enlai also joked with Zhang Boling: "Principal, I have a lot of opinions on Nankai", Zhang Boling was interested in hearing it, wanted to hear what the disciple had for the school, but did not expect Zhou Enlai to say: "When I was acting, why did I always let me play a woman." After saying that, both of them couldn't help but laugh.
Although supporting Zhou Enlai and his classmates to run a drama club is only a small thing, but behind it is full of Zhang Boling's good intentions, in his view, the school is a small stage with a thousand postures, on this stage, teachers and students are performing a variety of roles on it, good and bad, good and ugly, and now in the school can play a good role of students, in the future to the world's big stage, in order to perform brilliant social drama. Zhang Boling's statement is not wrong, Zhou Enlai was a good student in school, and when he arrived in society, he also realized the lofty ambitions in his heart.
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In 1917, Zhou Enlai graduated with gold medals and awards with honors, and was admitted to the opportunity to study in Japan at public expense. Because there was no university in Nankai at that time, students could not continue their studies after graduation, Zhang Boling and Yan Xiu, the trustee of the school, went to many countries to study together, and after returning to China, they raised funds to establish Nankai University. When Zhang Boling passed through Japan, Zhou Enlai immediately went to the hotel to meet the teacher after receiving the news, and also personally cooked and entertained, and accompanied Zhang Boling to the park to watch the cherry blossoms.
Between teachers and students, just like the best friends who have not met for many years, there are endless words, what they talk about is not only the past of Nankai, but more often talk about the national economy and people's livelihood, at this time, they are not limited to students and teachers, but a relationship between teachers and friends, without talking. In 1919, Nankai University officially opened, Zhang Boling invited Zhou Enlai to return to China to continue his studies, and Zhou Enlai returned to Tianjin to enter Nankai University for liberal arts studies without examination.
However, Zhou Enlai, who was 21 years old at the time, had a deeper understanding of the social reality of national turmoil and people's difficulties, and could no longer sit in the classroom and "read only the books of the sages". During the "May Fourth Movement", Zhou Enlai was arrested and imprisoned for leading the student movement, and under the heavy pressure of the Education Department at that time, Zhang Boling could no longer let Zhou Enlai return to Nankai University to study, but for this beloved student, he and the trustee Yan Xiu plotted another way out for him.
Recommended by Zhang Boling, Yan Xiu funded 7,000 silver yuan to set up the "Fan Sun Scholarship" to fund Zhou Enlai and another classmate, Li Fujing, to study in France. In Paris, Zhou Enlai joined the Communist Party, and everyone around him advised Yan Xiu not to fund Zhou Enlai anymore, but Yan Xiu replied: "Soldiers have their own ambitions, they cannot be strong", and continued to fund Zhou Enlai to complete his studies.
In December 1936, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng launched the Xi'an Incident, forcing Chiang Kai-shek to stop the civil war and unite to resist Japan. Zhang Boling and Zhang Xueliang have always had a deep friendship, and when the reporter interviewed Zhang Xueliang, he asked a question: "When you were young, who was the most influenced?" Zhang Xueliang replied without hesitation: "It is Mr. Zhang Boling." When Zhang Xueliang was only 16 years old, he listened to Zhang Boling's speech in Shenyang and benefited a lot.
Kong Xiangxi asked Zhang Boling to do Zhang Xueliang's work, believing that Zhang Boling's words could have a decisive effect on Zhang Xueliang, hoping that he would be able to win some room for maneuver. When Zhang Boling arrived in Nanjing, Zhou Enlai was negotiating with the Kuomintang in Nanjing, and the Xi'an Incident had been resolved peacefully, and Zhang Boling was very happy, and when he returned to the school, he could not help but praise his former students: "The Xi'an Incident can be resolved peacefully, but our alumnus Zhou Enlai has made great contributions." ”
In July 1937, the Japanese army attacked Tianjin, Nankai University, Nankai Middle School, Nankai Girls' High School were all destroyed by enemy fire, Zhang Boling looked at his years of hard work destroyed, heartbroken, but his spirit was not defeated, although the building of Nankai was destroyed, but the spirit of Nankai will not die. Zhang Boling asked the students to leave the campus, throw in their pens, defend their families and defend the country, and through Zhou Enlai's relationship, introduced everyone to join the Eighth Route Army.
In 1938, He opened Chongqing Nankai Middle School through fundraising, and Zhou Enlai often visited Zhang Boling when he was working in Chongqing. What is the Nankai Spirit? In his speech to the alumni, Zhou Enlai said: "The traditional spirit of Nankai is to resist Japan and democracy, and to work hard, work poorly and work hard. The reason why Zhang Boling has always told others that Zhou Enlai is the best student in Nankai is because he best presents this Nankai spirit.
In October 1944, Chongqing Nankai held a school celebration, that year was Zhang Boling's 68th birthday, Nankai alumni rushed to congratulate him, Zhou Enlai also came, he saw the old principal's home with a unique traditional means of transportation for people to ride in the Jiangnan Mountains - sliding pole, so he called Zhang Jiesheng, vice minister of the Kuomintang Military Committee, to act as a car driver, invited Zhang Boling up, and the two people carried the old principal around the courtyard.
This matter also became a beautiful talk at that time, today's Zhou Enlai, the identity has long been different from the past, but in front of the teachers of that year, he always only treated himself as an ordinary student, people helped me, never forgot, for Zhang Boling's care for Zhang Boling in the snow when he was poor in his youth, Zhou Enlai remembered it all his life. The fact that Zhou Enlai lifted a sliding pole for Zhang Boling became a beautiful talk that was circulating for a while at that time, and the newspaper published such an oil poem: "The two ministers of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China, cooperate to lift the principal, the friendship between teachers and students is thick, and the good story is mountain and city Yang."
In 1948, Chiang Kai-shek repeatedly wrote to invite Zhang Boling to Nanjing to serve as the president of the examination institute, and Zhang Boling reluctantly agreed because he had received Chiang Kai-shek's help when he was running a Nankai school in Chongqing, but he resigned after only four months.
After liberation, Chiang Kai-shek urged Zhang Boling to go to Taiwan, when Zhang Boling was already a rare old man, and everyone wanted to fall back to their roots when he was old, Zhang Boling did not want to live overseas, but because he had served in Chiang Kai-shek's government, he was worried about his future situation. Until I received a letter signed "Anonymous", which read: "The old classmate FeiFei will not let the old principal move." FeiFei was the pen name that Zhou Enlai had used, and Zhang Boling, who received the letter, was so relieved that he decisively refused Chiang Kai-shek and stayed on the mainland.
Nankai was originally a private school, after the liberation Of Zhang Boling donated the school to the state, in 1950, Zhou Enlai took Zhang Boling to Beijing Fu Zuoyi's home for more than 4 months, after a period of time, Zhang Boling still wanted to return to Tianjin, where he founded the school, but also his hometown. Zhou Enlai, worried that Zhang Boling would be embarrassed after he returned, wrote a letter saying that he had personally brought the principal back, and instructed Huang Jingduo, the mayor of Tianjin and an alumnus of Nankai, to take good care of him.
In February 1951, the 75-year-old Zhang Boling died of illness in Tianjin, and when he was alive, he had two sleeves of fresh wind, and when he died, he did not have any savings. Zhang Boling with a patriotic enthusiasm, relying on the funds collected from the society, founded a number of famous schools in the Nankai series, because he often engaged in fundraising, the outside world also gave Zhang Boling a nickname with a joke component: "Huayuan Monk", but this nickname for Zhang Boling, is not a shame, but an honor, because he is not for his own fate, but for the country's education cause. Zhang Boling's patriotic heart has made many people with lofty ideals in society very admired, and they have generously solved difficulties and fully supported, which has led to the later Nankai.
Zhang Boling raised money, all used in school construction, his hands through millions of funds, but not a penny as personal self-interest, he asked for every donation, in the account book to remember clearly, and the accounts are all open to the public, subject to social supervision. The school has money, the teachers' salaries have risen to 300 yuan, but Zhang Boling's salary as the principal has always been 100 yuan.
The Nankai series of schools are all managed by Zhang Boling, but he did not take a few more salaries as a matter of course because he worked more, and always only let one school pay himself. Spiritually full enough people, never care about the amount of material, Zhang Boling put a heart on the school and students, he never put the principal's generous, has always adhered to the habit of thrift and poverty, traveling in the third class carriage, meetings on foot, the hotel to live the worst, because there are too many bed bugs, he has to take bed bug medicine when he goes out.
Zhang Boling's home is in the alley with the poor citizens, because the location is too remote, when Zhang Xueliang came to visit him, he did not find it for half a day. When Zhang Boling died, he had no long belongings, and his children turned over 6 yuan and 7 dimes in his pocket, although he did not leave any material wealth, but he left a clear name, and it was this Zhang Boling that made Zhou Enlai respect him all his life.
After hearing the news of Zhang Boling's death, Zhou Enlai specially came from Beijing to mourn, and he took the lead in forming a funeral committee to arrange the aftermath of the teacher. Zhou Enlai bowed three times to the body of the old principal and personally laid a wreath, which read: "Zhou Enlai, a student of the Boling Master for thousands of years, respectfully holds it."
At that time, there was a great controversy about how to evaluate Zhang Boling, and at the funeral, Zhou Enlai gave the teacher a fair evaluation of the coffin: "A person should be judged according to his historical background and conditions, and must not use the current standards to evaluate the past people." President Zhang's life was progressive and patriotic. He has made outstanding achievements in running education and has made contributions to the people. ”
Zhou Enlai's words dispelled everyone's concerns, and more than 2,000 people came to the funeral. After Zhang Boling's death, Zhou Enlai paid special attention to the life of his master's mother, Wang Shuzhen, and gave her his shopping permit during the difficult period, and also sent 500 yuan, and told his friends in Tianjin to take more care of her until her mother died.
"Sincere as a father's word, Yin Yin like a friend." Light few lines, thick erasing a lifetime of people", how to respect the teacher, how to be grateful, the teacher-student friendship between Zhou Enlai and Zhang Boling that has lasted for decades has given the world the most complete answer.