Hometown people recall Mr. Ji Xianlin| the friendship life of two cultural giants

Written by Lu Shouxian

Ji Xianlin, a native of Linqing, Shandong, is a famous contemporary scholar and the pride of the people of Linqing, Liaocheng, Shandong and the whole country. Ji Xianlin mentioned many times before his death that he had a weakness, that is, it was not good to visit people. He thinks this is a "quirk" and wants to change it, but it is "easy to change and difficult to sex". However, among Ji Xianlin's classmates and friends, Zang Kejia is the only exception. Ji Xianlin and Zang Kejia met in the 1940s, and the two saw each other and were friends for the rest of their lives. Until the turn of the century, during the Spring Festival of several decades, Ji Xianlin insisted on visiting Zang Ke's home, talking with their whole family with a glass of wine, and celebrating the festival. The friendship between the two has lasted for 60 or 70 years, and it has lasted for a long time, which can be called "a good story in the literary world".

The famous poet Zang Kejia is a native of Zhucheng, Shandong, and Ji Xianlin is a real fellow countryman. However, speaking of Zang Kejia, Ji Xianlin had a small copywriting with him as early as the 1930s. Zang Kejia's poetry collection "Branding", published in the 1930s, contains 26 poems such as "Branding" and "The Black Hand of Evil", describing the poor crowd in dark corners such as foreign coachmen. These poems were called "the strong bamboo next to the stone mountain" by Mr. Lao She, and sincerely "hoped that it would become a big pine". Ji Xianlin did not think so, believing that the real situation of the foreign coachman in "Branding" did not understand, nor did he understand the feelings of the working people from the standpoint of the working people, and wrote a comment on this and published it, expressing his criticism of "Branding".

Perhaps neither of them would have thought that more than ten years later, Ji Xianlin and Zang Ke's family would meet at Li Changzhi's home in Nanjing.

Li Changzhi is a native of Jinan, and is not only a fellow Shandong resident with Ji Xianlin and Zang Kejia, but also a "four-consecutive" classmate of Ji Xianlin from elementary school, junior high school, high school to university. After graduating from Tsinghua University, Li Changzhi first stayed on to teach, then went to Chongqing Central University to teach, and in 1946 went to nanjing national compilation library to become the acting director of the library.In May 1946, Ji Xianlin returned to Shanghai from studying in Germany, with no place to stay, and due to the interruption of transportation in the civil war, he could not return home, so he went to find Li Changzhi, who was working in Nanjing. At that time, Ji Xianlin was a scholar and still could not afford to stay in a hotel in Nanjing, so he had to borrow to live in Li Changzhi's office at night. Li Changzhi had to work during the day, and Ji Xianlin had nowhere to stay, so he had to go out and wander. In 1923, in order to apply for the Jinan Provincial First Middle School, Zang Kejia and Li Changzhi both participated in the summer training course held by the First Middle School, and they also had classmate relationships, but this relationship was not known to people.

In June 1946, Zheng Man, the wife of Zang Kejia, went to Nanjing to work, and Zang came to Nanjing as a family member. In 1934, after graduating from the National Qingdao University, Zang Kejia went to teach at Ji Xianlin's hometown of Shandong Provincial Linqing Middle School until 1937, thus forming an indissoluble relationship with Linqing. Zang Kejia wrote a long poem for Linqing with this verse: "From now on, the young figure has been in my heart. Since then, I have always pretended to be a Linqing in my bosom." The two thus have an extra layer of relationship. In Li Changzhi's home, the two sat together, talked very speculatively, very harmoniously, and had a sense of being the same at first sight. Hearing that Ji Xianlin will go to Peking University to teach, Zang is very happy for him. In a foreign land, eating hometown-style meals, we also went to Xuanwu Lake to play in a boat.

In July 1946, Zang Ke's family came to Shanghai alone, through the introduction of acquaintances to get acquainted with Chen Liusha, Zang was able to work in the "Qiao Sheng Bao" in charge of the supplement, so he moved into a dormitory of the "Qiao Sheng Bao". Indoor a table and a chair, sleeping "tatami", taking off shoes in the room, guests visiting and sitting on the floor. After living in Nanjing for a while, Ji Xianlin was still unable to return to Jinan to visit his family. He only had one way to go, that is, to take a steamship from Shanghai to Qinhuangdao and then transfer to a train to Beijing. So Ji Xianlin returned to Shanghai, defected to the newspaper where Zang Ke's family worked, and lived on the "tatami" of his dormitory.

Soon, Zheng Man quit his job in Nanjing and came to Shanghai to reunite with Zang Ke's family in order to take care of each other. Zheng Man wrote in an article recalling Ji Xianlin: "As soon as I arrived at the dormitory of the "Qiao Sheng Bao" in Shanghai, I saw a middle-aged man with a long body, a thin face, and an approachable person who did not smile. Kejia introduced to me: "This is Ji Xianlin, a fellow shandong countryman I met in Nanjing Li Chang, who has just returned from studying in Germany and is going to teach at Peking University. As soon as we saw each other, he went to Shanghai and lived with me.'"

In October 1946, Ji Xianlin returned to Beijing after 12 years of separation, was hired as a professor at Peking University, and served as the head of the Department of Oriental Languages and Literatures. In the spring of 1949, Zang Kejia came to Beijing from Hong Kong and worked for the People's Publishing House, living in No. 7 Biguan Hutong. Zang lived here until 1958, when he moved to Shijia Hutong because of the expansion of the street. At this time, Ji Xianlin lived alone in Cuihua Hutong. They interacted a lot with each other. In 1951, Ji Xianlin visited India and Burma with a Chinese cultural delegation, and after returning to China, he brought a bouquet of peacock feathers to the Zang Ke family as a souvenir. This bouquet of peacock feathers has more than 20 branches, and the emerald color has remained unchanged for decades, and it is well preserved in the poet's home. Since then, every time he visits abroad, Ji Xianlin can't forget to bring a souvenir to Zang Ke's family.

After Ji Xianlin joined the Party in 1957, the number of positions he held gradually increased, and the opportunities for friends to meet and talk freely became less and less. By 1978, after Ji Xianlin became the vice president of Peking University, he visited Zang Ke's home during the Spring Festival and reunited with their family for half a day, drinking a glass of wine and celebrating the festival. Every time Ji Xianlin goes, he always brings some high-grade snacks or hometown-style specialties. Sometimes, Ji Xianlin also asked a fellow Song history expert Professor Deng Guangming to go together. This habit remained until the end of the 20th century. In the old age, I feel that it is not enough to get together once a year, and I am determined to increase it once, and the time is set during the National Day, but in the end the time is too tight, and the two families are far apart and cannot be achieved.

Anyone familiar with Ji Xianlin will notice that his clothing is almost unchanged: in the spring and autumn, he wears a blue polyester zhongshan suit, and in the summer, he is either a gray zhongshan suit or an ordinary white shirt. The style of these clothes has been consistent for almost decades from the 1950s onwards. So persistent about wearing a Zhongshan suit, "stubborn", why? In fact, Ji Xianlin regards Zhongshan clothing as a symbol of upright intellectuals, so as to warn himself from time to time and never collude with the bad customs of the world. He focuses not on the ornateness of his clothing, but on the transcendence of the mind and spiritual realm. Zang Kejia admired Ji Xianlin's simple and thick style, and once gave the poem "Gifting Xianlin", in which he wrote:

Year after year, each running long distance,

Handle the hand in shock;

Plain clothes are always in the eyes,

Look around for a single black hair.

The friendship between Ji Xianlin and the Zang Ke family has lasted for sixty or seventy years, and the reason is that, first of all, the two are unanimous in terms of major issues of right and wrong, and both sincerely love the motherland, the people, and socialism. Then there is Ji Xianlin's wide range of interests and likes to read poetry. Zang Kejia believes that there is a characteristic of the Chinese Chinese, that is, it is to talk about refining words and refining sentences, such as "clouds breaking the moon to make flowers and shadows", "red apricot branches in the spring", "spring breeze and the south bank of the Green River", "making trouble", "making trouble" and "green" are typical. Ji Xianlin believes that Zang Kejia's poems were obviously influenced by Mr. Wen Yiduo. In the process of writing articles and poems, according to the characteristics of the Chinese language, Zang Kejia poured a lot of effort into this life, and achieved great success. It can be seen from this that the friendship relationship between the two literary giants is based on a solid foundation, loyal and reliable, timeless and strong, very rare.

One thing can well reflect the otherworldly friendship between Ji Xianlin and Zang Kejia, two literary giants. In the early 1980s, Ji Xianlin was serving as the vice president of Peking University, and Su Yi could not continue in the factory due to hypertension, so her mother came forward and wanted Ji Xianlin to arrange for her to be a clerk in the South Asian Research Institute he presided over. After Ji Xianlin was entrusted, he immediately asked Sue to go to talk. Zheng Man happily accompanied his daughter to see Ji Xianlin. After meeting, Ji Xianlin asked Su Yi, "Have you read the Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty?" This is the introductory book of the South Asian Institute, and we all have to examine this book first." Su Yi is an ordinary high school graduate, where would he have read such a profound academic work as "The Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty"? Originally thought that Ji Xianlin only took a test of general common sense, did not expect to really take the test, and it is the "Tang Dynasty Western Regions", Su Yi was stupid, and quickly borrowed a copy from the library after returning home. At that time, the "Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty" still only had the original ancient texts, and it was conceivable that a high school graduate would have many difficulties in reading the ancient texts. After a period of time, Zheng Man's unit, the People's Publishing House, recruited candidates, and Su Yi applied for the examination and was admitted as a proofreader.

At Peking University, Ji Xianlin is known for his simplicity, tolerance and kindness. He once took the respect of the vice president of Peking University as a freshman to take care of the luggage, he took out more than 200,000 yuan from the not very rich income to fund the development of education in his hometown Linqing, he let the nanny of the family bring his son to Beijing, he gave the school and managed to eat and live and return the pocket money, the nanny's salary was still paid, but when relatives and friends wanted to use the power in his hands, he would never make a deal with principles: he could help as much as he could, and if he couldn't help, he was not afraid of offending people! In the face of Ji Xianlin's principles, even the little girl of the Zang Ke family could not get her back door to enter. "There is a conscience in the heart, and the moral article is written. A cloth cloth, words and things, deeds, poor and unmoving, spoiled and insulted." This is the evaluation of Mr. Ji Xianlin in the award speech of the "2006 Moving Chinese" jury.

Zheng Man later recalled: "Ji Xianlin's acting according to the rules is the embodiment of his noble character of strictly abiding by his duties. Ji Xianlin's words and actions are one is one, two is two, not to bend over backwards, not to be polite, how to think how to say. Our family is very touched and will always remember." The attitude of the Zang Ke family towards this matter can also show the excellent character of the family.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Mr. Ji Xianlin's death and the 108th anniversary of Mr. Ji Xianlin's birth. The philosopher has passed away, but the spirit lives on. As the hometown of Mr. Ji Xianlin, the 830,000 people of Linqing are all proud and proud of having such a fellow villager, and they are even more inspired and encouraged by Mr. Ji Xianlin's spirit of loving the country, loving the people, loving his hometown, and strictly managing his studies and working hard, so that he will brave difficulties, ride the wind and waves, stride forward on the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and create a happier and better life for the people of Linqing, so as to comfort Mr. Ji Xianlin's spirit in heaven!

May 27

(The author is the director of Linqing Culture and Art Exchange Center)