Since the ancestors have lived in the land known as the "Great White Canal", as the jingyang people can not forget the most unforgettable person is Mr. Li Yizhi, since the old man has not once said, Li Yizhi is our benefactor, for the people of this land has a huge gift. Since I was a child, my family has extremely strict requirements for me, and when I eat hours, I am required not to waste anything, and the rice residue that is large in rice grains falls on the ground and must be picked up, and the reason for the formation of this habit is not deeply understood until adulthood. Speaking of this, we cannot fail to mention the disaster that occurred more than ninety years ago- the eighteenth year of the Republic of China. In the human disaster caused by natural disasters and man-made disasters, the entire Shaanxi Province was affected by 9.6 million people, as many as 3.2 million people starved to death, fled and were trafficked, and the old people in the family always pointed to a certain place in the village when telling a story, saying that the original so-and-so family died and had no heirs, the small holes in the cliff wall were full of dead people, and the village was full of empty Zhuangzi. When so-and-so was hungry and helpless, he ate Guanyin soil so that he could not digest it, and finally bloated and died, and before so-and-so starved, he exhausted his family wealth in the form of revelry and ate a poisonous dumpling... And the end of this tragic scene is the big canal in front of the door, when people were either called the big canal, or the white canal, its real name is called Jinghui Canal. It is impossible to mention Jinghuiqu without mentioning Mr. Li Yizhi, the great water conservancy master of our country. Every year, the Qingming Festival is the day of China's traditional sacrifice of ancestors, and Mr. Li's long resting place is always crowded with thousands of people, bowing and performing rituals, silently circling the mausoleum, out of his heart to pay tribute to the benefactors who save people and water and fire, this behavior has long become a tradition.
First, do not do things for officials, seek truth and do not retreat
Mr. Li Yizhi was a member of the Pucheng Township Party and had an early relationship with Jingyang County, he was born in a family rich in revolutionary traditions, his father and uncle were the backbone of the Xinhai Revolution in Shaanxi Province, and they were members of the early League. In 1898, he went to Study at the Chongshi Academy in Jingyang County, which was rich in restoration ideas. Under the influence of his father, uncle and teacher Liu Shixuan, he received a good family and patriotic education since he was a child. Witnessing the poverty and weakness of the country and the plight of the masses of the people, we are determined to save the country through science and technology, revitalize the country through engineering, and study to relieve the suffering of the poor and working people and seek happiness for the masses of the people.
In 1891, when he was a teenager, he wrote an article saying that "do not seek useful beginners, Gu Nai is indulging in this, I am also good at it", and in 1919, his article "The Face of the Engineer" clearly put forward the concept of engineering technology to save the country, he said: "Ordinary young students, intoxicated with Demoklassy, with the purpose of serving the society, saving themselves from the society, and improving the society, know that they must do some responsibility for the society, and then the engineer is easy to do." To practice patriotism, only the engineers do great things and overthrow imperialism, and only the engineers do it thoroughly. From these words, we can see his lofty ambitions, determined to solve the people's livelihood and the people's welfare. One of Li Yizhi's most praised sentences is what he said to the students at the first graduation ceremony of the water conservancy group of the Agricultural School (the predecessor of Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University): "To do great things, do not be a big official, everything should be realistic, do not compete for a false name." (Zheng Huihan, "Patriotic Educator Li Yizhi"), although he was facing a student when he spoke, it was also an accurate summary of his life's activities.
Don't be vain, try to be practical. He graduated from Beijing Normal University, only received a diploma, and the identity certificate of the person - the official did not receive it, and returned to his hometown in Shaanxi. When he went to Germany to study, because he thought that it was the Shaanxi father who helped to complete his studies, because the degree examination still needed 500 marks, so he did not take the degree examination twice, in order to save some money for the country, he said: "I came to Germany to study, seeking learning, not degrees, degrees are of no use to me; and I am a publicly funded student, the money used is given by the people, I can save a book is a text, no matter what can not be wasted." After Li Yizhi returned to China, he became a major official in many localities, and according to incomplete statistics, 15 posts were appointed by the Kuomintang Central Committee, and 36 posts were appointed by the provincial or local governments. In 1928, Mr. Li was appointed chairman and chief engineer of the North China Water Conservancy Commission, and in the arid areas of the north, where the water conservancy cause was the well-being of the people, Chiang Kai-shek envied that he could gain good prestige, and a warrior and politician even got himself a chairman of the Huaihuai Water Conservancy Committee.
However, Mr. Li became an official in order to do practical things, that is, to rescue the poor people who were displaced by drought and waiting to be fed, Li Yizhi experienced in his youth and several droughts in history led to major disasters, and the drought that killed more than 10 million people in the north was not far away (Note: Guangxu three years 1875, Xin Ugly year 1900 The number of starvation deaths in several provinces in northern China counted as tens of millions, and in 1920 the disaster affected the five northern provinces, involving tens of millions of people, and the death toll still reached nearly one million. ）。 He once said, "Save the crisis and be in danger, feel ashamed of yourself, love the country and compassion for others, and how can you do it later." "If he can do things to save the masses of the people from danger and seek happiness for the people, he deserves this official, otherwise there is no need to hang up this false name." When Mr. Li ran Hohai University, managed the HuaiHe River, and built Jinghui, he was exhausted and laborious, but he thought that this official should be "comfortable." On the contrary, when working, everything is not smooth, and there is only the false name of the official position, which is not worth remembering no matter how high the official position is. After becoming the Yellow River Water Conservancy Commission in 1933, he invested a lot of energy in the study of the governance of the Yellow River and the water conservation of the Loess Plateau, and the work of the Yellow River Committee was fruitful. In 1935 alone, in ten months, "he went to Beijing five times, to Beibei ten times, to Shaanxi six times, to Tianjin three times, to Zheng twice, to Puyang three times, to Taochengbu twice, to Guantai four times, to Dongzhuang three times, to Lu four times, to Su once, to Ping, once to Zhukou and Hankou, and once to Xi Buchuan" (Hu Buchuan, "Li Yizhi Chronicles"). Investigation and research to guide water conservancy work, the treatment of the Yellow River has written countless works, and the suggestions are more than 100,000 words, for some reason, his strategy of controlling the Yellow River is not adopted by the government, there is no way to apply his own ideas, resulting in the state wasting a lot of money on the Yellow River. He resolutely resigned from the so-called high-ranking ministerial level, gave up the chairman of the Yellow River Water Conservancy Commission with a monthly salary of 800 yuan, and gladly returned to Shaanxi to become the director of the water conservancy bureau with a monthly income of only 150 yuan, and continued to devote himself to the cause of water conservancy in Shaanxi. (1936.4.7 Li Yifu National Economic Committee Zheng Zhaojing: Yu in the Water Conservancy Bureau, only one hundred and fifty yuan per month, has been quite enough for the family, and such a spirit of mutual help, it is difficult to buy, so it is better to give up and keep this.) ）
The Jinghui Canal in Shaanxi province is an extremely tortuous and difficult process from survey to construction and completion. When Mr. Li went abroad to study, he made it his wish to restore Zheng Bai. Since the Qing Dynasty refused to enter the canal with spring water such as the Dragon Cave Sieve Ball as the irrigation water source, only more than 80,000 mu of land was irrigated in the heyday, and then destroyed by war and fell into disrepair until the early years of the Republic of China, only more than 10,000 mu. Before the war broke out, Mr. Li threw himself into the irrigation industry in Shaanxi. In 1913, at the behest of Guo Xiren to study water conservancy, in 1922 Guo Xiren was ill and asked Zheng Bai to return to Shaanxi to serve as a water conservancy undertaking and Li Zhongsan of the Jingguo Army, and was also the director of the Shaanxi Water Conservancy Bureau and the chief engineer of the Weibei Water Conservancy Engineering Bureau, and immediately carried out the preliminary hydrological and topographic survey work, he and the surveying team composed of disciples of Hohai University personally entered the deep mountain canyon from no one for hundreds of years, the wind and food slept, climbed the mountain and waded in the water, the conditions were difficult and abnormal, and if they were not careful, they risked their lives, and by 1924, the surveying and mapping work was completed. The design of the Jinghui Canal project was completed. However, Liu Zhenhua, the overseer of Shaanxi under the rule of the Beiyang warlords, only knew that the land was occupied to compete for fame and profit, and the subsequent warlord Feng Yuxiang would only deal with it verbally, and the project fee had no landing, and Mr. Li could only rely on his personal ability to win, and went to Beijing to contact the Huayang Charity Relief Association and the American Asia Construction Company, and after repeatedly encountering walls, Mr. Li's first effort after the rekindling of the war in Shaanxi failed.
After leaving Shaanxi, he separately contacted the right ren in the hope of restarting the project, but the result could only end with a long sigh. At the beginning of the Great Disaster in Shaanxi, he ran to the shout, widely publicized the Yingjing project, in order to arouse the authorities to pay enough attention, but was ridiculed, three up Beiping, two to Nanjing, but failed to prevent the occurrence of a tragic major disaster, from 1928 to 1930 Shaanxi drought, locusts, soldiers and bandits followed, by the beginning of 1930 the Disaster Relief Committee sent a telegram claiming 2.5 million deaths, women and children were trafficked as prostitutes 400,000 (only the Shaanxi-Jinchuan Junction statistics, found in the right Ren "Shaanxi Disaster Narrative") 1931.1.19), white bones thousands of miles in the middle of the sorrow, death breath filled the Qin and Shaanxi realm. The most direct inducement is that there is no effective precipitation for three years, resulting in three years of six crops and no harvest, which is the direct consequence of not paying attention to water conservancy work and the long-term disrepair of water conservancy facilities.
After leaving Shaanxi, he could not rest assured that he was still in the water conservancy business of his hometown, and in a correspondence with Xingping Zhao Yuxi (Zhao Baoshan or Zhao Baoshan, who was then the acting director of the Shaanxi Provincial Water Conservancy Bureau), he said: "The state of Shaanxi's parents, brother He Ai Tushan, forgot Jingwei. If the authorities have the heart to build the work and focus on reliable funds, the brother is no longer the director, but he takes the position of foreman, and the brother will return to the house. ”
After Yang Hucheng entered Shaanxi in 1930, the political situation stabilized slightly, and he immediately resigned as the chief engineer of the Huaihe River Water Conservancy Commission and returned to Shaanxi to start the cause of Jingjing. The opening ceremony of the Jinghui Canal Project was held in December 1930, and the first phase of the project was released in June 1932. The Construction of the Jinghui Canal was carried out using work-for-relief methods to directly save thousands of refugees from dying in the face of extreme food shortages. Between the start of the Jinghui Canal, we immediately began to plan more than ten irrigation projects such as Weihui, Luohui and Meihui, after the jinghui phase II project in 1935. When Mr. Li's colleague Wang Huzhen came to the Jinghui Irrigation District, the hell on earth in the past had changed greatly and there was little paradise, and he saw that "the irrigation district has watered 600,000 mu of land, the peasants have achieved a great harvest for two consecutive years, the situation in the irrigation district has changed greatly, the people everywhere are bustling and jubilant, and both men, women, young and old, are wearing new clothes... The farmhouse has been renovated and there are no traces of old dilapidation. "Before and after the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, the irrigation area of the Four Canals in Guanzhong was completed and reached more than 1.3 million mu, improving the living environment of working people in Shaanxi and effectively supporting the national War of Resistance Against Japan."
Born only to do practical things, never heavy on vanity and fame. Decades of continuous heavy-load work and research have seriously damaged his physical health, at the end of February 1938, he was exhausted, and when he was bedridden with a serious illness, he could not forget the progress of the Weihui Canal, and the handwritten letter on the occasion of his death was two words related to the Weihui Canal, "Earth Dam", and on March 8, 1938, Mr. Li Yizhi passed away. He interpreted the aspirations of his youth with decades of work, dedicating his life to the troubled countries and peoples.
Second, be honest and self-disciplined, and be honest and self-reliant
Mr. Li has a nickname called "sage", this nickname first originated from learning "self-made Chinese characters" when he was a child, and was laughed at by Teacher Liu Shixuan, "Are you a saint?" The implication is that the rice bowl of the sage of Cangjie should not be robbed. Later, when he studied in Germany, he was called a "saint" by his classmates because he refused to linger with others and was not a good person and was strict in cultivating morality. It is said that Mr. Li is a saint and the three emperors and five emperors in history, Kong Meng and other figures, this praise is a bit excessive, but throughout Mr. Li's short life, he is indeed extremely strict with himself, never exceeds the rules in work and life, he is loyal to his ministry, conscientious and fully devoted to his work, and in others' opinion, trivial matters are not worth mentioning, but for him reflects his noble qualities of being honest and honest in performing official duties, and also reflects his original intention of not forgetting his original intention of saving the country and saving the people since he was a child.
Bureaucrats in the feudal era hung large plaques in the lobby and always wrote the four big characters of "fairness and honesty", but few people could do this. During the Republic of China period, there were also bureaucrats who were bent on serving the people, but more people used their power to embezzle and amass wealth to satisfy their own selfish desires, which was basically incompatible with the clear and clear justice they flaunted. Mr. Li has also been a senior official of the Republic of China for decades, and most of the time he has held several positions, and he is also responsible for water conservancy projects in many places, and the silver money used to build water conservancy projects is more than thousands of thousands, and he has handled a large amount of project funds, but there has never been a little waste. He can fully consider all aspects of the project budget and try his best to implement all aspects, so the projects he presided over did not exceed the budget. For the country and the people's money and wealth, it is used in a good way, and it is never extravagant. His incorruptibility is also reflected in the fact that the boundaries between public and private can be made between public and private in the handling of personal and public property, and public property must not be used privately, even if it is a three-cent stamp or a few pieces of paper. According to his student Mr. Hu Buchuan, "Once I went to the instrumentalist's office to ask for instructions, and I saw that the instrumentalist was explaining to the secretary to send a large number of documents, and the secretary just walked to the door, only to see the instrumentalist stand up, take off his glasses and emphasize to the secretary that two of them are private letters and should be sent at his own expense." This scene will always be frozen in my mind. Think about it, sending a letter back then was only equivalent to 3 cents now. ”
Mr. Yi Zhi's study is always locked, that is, he is afraid that the child will turn over and toss things in the public, and once he found that the child wrote credit is a note from the Water Conservancy Bureau, and immediately criticized and educated his nephew Li Fulin and his 12-year-old son who served in the Water Conservancy Bureau, "In the future, it is absolutely not allowed to bring anything home in the bureau, even if it is a piece of paper, it cannot be taken out of the gate of the Water Conservancy Bureau." State property, individuals must not use the slightest bit. "Another time his child had a high fever and did not return, the family called to say that it was urgent, but he took out two dollars to let his nephew hire a rickshaw to pull his son to the hospital, and at this time, it was his special car that stayed in the courtyard, and fortunately, it was sent to the hospital in time to cause regrets. Buses cannot be used for public or private purposes, especially their own relatives. The son is sick and does not use it, even when he himself is doing personal affairs.
Others are officials with thousands of private property, rich and rich, Mr. Li for many years of high-ranking officials is a clean wind two sleeves, the family is surrounded by disciples, he gave up various part-time jobs in Nanjing, nearly a thousand oceans per month, returned to Shaanxi for the people to plan and repair Guanzhong Bahui, only received the Shaanxi Provincial Water Conservancy Bureau Director's monthly salary of 150 oceans " This low salary, half of which is used to feed a large population, the other half is donated to build water conservancy projects, this situation has become the norm, at that time the colleagues of the Water Conservancy Bureau were well known and admired. (Li Fulin) "As he says. After the death of Mr. Li Yizhi, all the property left behind was only one house, in addition to no savings and valuable or priceless items. In 1943, after his death, Li Fuyang was forced to break up with his girlfriend because of the family economy and the low esteem of the other parents. In 1949, Li Funing returned to China to visit his mother in Xi'an, and the widow of the husband could not come up with a decent little meeting gift, and finally fortunately the daughter-in-law solved the embarrassment of the old man and gave the golden ring of his dowry to the old lady to tide over the difficulties.
Mr. Li is a clean and honest official, clean and self-righteous, and his starting point for considering problems is not himself, but the country and the people who are always concerned. It is also because he is honest and self-disciplined, and single-mindedly serving the people that he has inspired a large number of water conservancy workers to follow him with his noble personality charm, "the technical personnel working in Shaanxi are completely united in spirit, loyal and hardworking, and have no gossip about each other" ("Li Yizhifu National Economic Committee Book").
Third, people have drowned, and the heavens are merciful
Mr. Li Yizhi's nickname was once a saint, and he showed his integrity and integrity in his colleagues for serving officials and colleagues, slacking off and slacking off, refusing to give in, and even daring to intimidate Song Ziwen, the minister of finance. In 1927, when Mr. Li slapped the table on the issue of water conservancy funds, he dressed up ugly and rolled up his sleeves, and even when Chiang Kai-shek hired him as a standing committee member of the National Economic Committee, he did not give face, and said: "I don't understand economics, let alone what politics, I only know how to repair water conservancy, I can't do such a high-ranking official, I don't have money to govern Huaihuai, then what is the meaning of me in Nanjing." Then, then he left, choking Chiang Kai-shek into silence, and only after a long time did he say to himself: "If there are a few more people like Li Xie in the government, the country is very fortunate and the people are very fortunate." "Now the whole country is in the midst of the people's poverty and financial difficulties, and the foreign Kou is bullying, Shaanxi is another famine year this year, while the military and political personnel in Xi'an are taking official duties to spend the day and drinking!" "It was only after General Yang came to the door to apologize that the anger was calmed."
Dealing with ordinary people is compassionate and tolerant. He embarked on the road of water conservancy because when he was young, he experienced the agricultural harvest failure caused by the lack of water in his hometown, the displacement of working people, and also saw the tragic situation of hunger and death in his hometown, so he was determined to use his own strength to change the occurrence of one tragic image after another, and only then did he have a special love for Shaanxi's water conservancy cause. Earlier, he said that as long as Shaanxi builds water conservancy, engineers can not do it, even if it is to be a general small foreman, they must participate in the introduction of the Jing project. He has a deep affection for the masses of the people in general, and everything can be considered from the perspective of ordinary people, and there are many of his contacts with ordinary workers, peasants and refugees in life, and there are many details of kindness and leniency towards others, which reflects his fraternal thoughts of "people are hungry and hungry, people are drowning", can think of others everywhere, and regard the difficulties of others as their own difficulties.
During the great disaster in Shaanxi, the drought and disaster tore at mr. Li's painful soul, he constantly called for the reconstruction of Shaanxi water conservancy, the tragic situation in the disaster area made him feel that he must make a difference, he suggested for the general disaster relief, "Migration of millet is not the way to provide disaster relief, but also a long-term cure." Zheng Bai's wo, the source of food and clothing. According to Duan Huicheng's "Memories of The Construction of Water Conservancy in Shaanxi", in 1929, Duan Huicheng and his men met with Mr. Li at the most critical time of guiding Huaihuai, and still promised that when the funds for the project in Shaanxi Province were settled, they would return to Shaanxi to establish water conservancy. In 1930, Yang Hucheng was the main ruler of Shaanxi, and the situation was slightly stable, that is, "resolutely give up, return to help, sincerely save the people's water and fire, can not be ignored!" ”
Once a refugee stole something from him, and after understanding the situation, instead of punishing the refugee, he gave him a silver dollar and found him a job. Moved to tears, the refugees said, "I have met a living bodhisattva." For the marriage of the driver Zhang Luo, Mr. Li Yizhi and the full-time driver Chen Ajin have been together day and night for many years, and their feelings are very deep. More than once said to Chen Ajin: "I have traveled all over most of China, and found that Jingyang and Sanyuan are really good places, and your age is not small, you have been running around with me all day, and it is time to consider becoming a family." You don't have any relatives over there in Shanghai, so you might as well make a home here. ”
Zang Kejia's poem "Some People" is the most accurate summary of Mr. Li's life, Mr. Li Yizhi bent down to work as a cow and horse for the people and seek the well-being of the ordinary people, and he died more than eighty years ago. After his death, only thousands of local people in Jingyang County spontaneously wore white flowers for him, and since then it has become a local Qingming custom, and as for the people benefiting from water conservancy throughout the country, they have always paid homage to him every day and have never been broken. The locals praised him as the "Living Dragon King", and sent Ganlin to the arid Guanzhong Plain and the Loess Plateau, so that the broad masses of people could live a happy life.
Finally, borrowing from "What He Finally Wrote on the Occasion of His Death∣ Today, the 78th Anniversary of His Death" concludes with a summary of Mr. Li Yizhi: "There is an international view that in the 1920s and 1930s, there were only two and a half water conservancy giants in the world: one was Engels of Germany, one was Li Yizhi of China, half of which was in Japan; in China, there is a general knowledge in contemporary water conservancy academia, that is, Li Yizhi has transformed traditional Chinese water conservancy ideas into modern water conservancy. To study Li Yizhi's water conservancy thought is to study modern Chinese water conservancy thought. In September 2001, at the International Hydraulic Congress in Beijing, China, Li Yizhi was identified as one of the most outstanding scientists of the twentieth century. Since the death of Mr. Li Yizhi in 1938, the activities of the two parties, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the government, and the people to commemorate Mr. Li Yizhi have never stopped, which shows that Mr. Li Yizhi has a shocking force that far exceeds politics and transcends time and space. After 80 years, Mr. Li Yizhi, who has demonstrated his charisma and specific spiritual connotations, is still influencing generations of scholars. ”
Resources:
1. "The Face of the Engineer" Li Yizhi
2. "Patriotic Educator Li Yizhi" Zheng Huihan
3. "Li Yizhi Chronicle" Hu Buchuan
4. "Li Yifu National Economic Committee Zheng Zhaojing", April 7, 1936
5. "Li Yifu National Economic Committee Book"
6. "Memories of The Construction of Water Conservancy in Shaanxi", Duan Huicheng, 1929