One
Gone for four or five years
At the beginning of 1939, my father, who had moved to Kunming first, finished his work and came to Hong Kong to bring my mother, me, my sister and my brother to Kunming. At that time, the Southwest United Dalian School Building was still difficult, even if it was enough to arrange the staff dormitory, each family had to rent a private house by itself. Our family revolves around the center of tsinghua office, initially living in Caisheng Lane, and later living in Qianju Street, Wenlin Street, and Qingyun Road. In less than two years, I moved four times, and I went to three schools with me. In the winter of 1940, the area around the Great West Gate was bombed by Japanese aircraft, and our home was severely damaged. So according to the evacuation arrangements of the school authorities, we evacuated with other Tsinghua family members to Liyan Village, on the northwestern outskirts of Kunming, twenty miles away from the city.
About four or five miles northeast of Liyan Village, is the Great Phuket, and the two places are separated by large areas of farmland. There is a newly built house there, which is the location of Tsinghua Science Research Institutes. There is also a small Phuket nearby, so it is collectively called Phuket. Across the street from The Great Phuket is Chen Jiaying, another evacuation site for Tsinghua family members.
Tang Shaoming
Heading south from Grand Phuket, there is a river embankment with a road on the embankment for cars, which is the only passage from GreatEr Phuket to Kunming City. About four or five miles, it happened to meet a small road from Liyan Village to the east for about three or four miles, forming a settlement called Dahegeng. Mr. Pan Guangdan and Mr. Zhao Shichang live here. In this way, with Dapuji (including Chen Jiaying) as the main body of work and residence, a triangle of less than ten miles of the "Great Phuket - Liyan Village - Dahegeng" square garden was formed, gathering a large number of Tsinghua faculty and staff and their families, which is a region that condenses rich knowledge wealth and elites, so shining, it has become an unforgettable "Golden Triangle" in my heart.
Among the division commanders, the researchers generally went to work in Dapuji, the teaching staff went to the Southwest United University in the city to take classes, and the staff worked in Xicangpo and Dapuji in the city. Under difficult conditions, they persisted in the War of Resistance, persisted in teaching and scientific research, trained and reserved a large number of outstanding talents for the country, and made outstanding contributions to the development of China's scientific and educational undertakings. No wonder dr. Joseph Needham visited Grand Phuket and called it the "cradle of Chinese scientists," and I had the opportunity to live in this wartime Tsinghua base camp for four or five years.
Two
Food, clothing, shelter and transportation are difficult
Liyan Village is located at the foot of Yucheng Mountain, facing west and east, and the mountain behind the village is stretched. The village stretches for about three or four miles from north to south, with a main street winding through the village, lined with farm households, trees, ponds and threshing grounds. It is said that in the past, there were many pear trees in the village, and it was called "pear garden". In yunnan dialect, "garden" and "smoke" are harmonious, so the village is usually written as "Liyan Village" in writing, and later officially named "Longyuan Village". The villagers were very friendly to the Tsinghua family members who were evacuated here, and the two gentry specially vacated their private houses for the Qinghua families to live. At that time, the evacuation scene was recorded in Mr. Ma Wenzhen's poem: "Packing up clothes and traveling far, fathers and old wives smiled and greeted each other." In front of the door, there is a pear blossom tree, and the green mountains are like a picture screen. ”
Our residence, at the end of the village, is a new courtyard of a local gentry surnamed Li, commonly known as the "Li Family Yard", adjacent to his old courtyard and hidden in the bushes. This gentleman served as the director of the Military Government of Guangdong, and people still called him "Director Li" with the old title.
Life in Kunming during the war was already very simple, and rural life was even more simple. For people who are accustomed to urban life, the most inconvenient thing is that there is no electric lamp, not even a kerosene lamp, so they have to make a plate, fill it with vegetable oil, soak it in oil with a corduroy core, and then light the wick for lighting. This rush is everywhere, and it has become a task for our children to collect it. Peel off the skin of the rush, pull out the core of the pole, and make a wick. As for the use of water, go to a well in a vegetable garden not far from the door. Later, they hired a young worker to carry a load of water for each family every day; if it was not enough, they had to fight it themselves. In the afternoon, I used to carry a tin bucket with my mother and bring the water back for later. Without a kitchen, families cut off a corridor in front of the door, installed a clay stove, lit charcoal, and boiled water to cook. Grain and vegetables and other things, go to the "street" (market) to buy or take things to exchange.
At that time, life was very hard, and basically there was no meat to eat. I remember that every once in a while, my father would pull me, my sister and my brother to his side, take turns looking at our faces, and then shake his head and say, "There are dishes on the face, there are dishes on the noodles", so I asked my mother to buy some meat, and the next day there will be some shredded meat on the table. Everyone is always very happy and looking forward to the next time. As for the clothing, you can only turn over the bottom of the box, adults wear the old ones for children, and the big ones can't be changed to the small ones.
The quality of the building was poor. The walls are thin, the upper end is open, and whoever speaks a little louder can reach the neighbors. The footsteps were heavy, and the floors were shaking. Once, after we finished lunch, we planned to sweep away the rice grains and vegetable crumbs that had fallen on the ground, who expected to alarm the Mei family who were eating downstairs. His third daughter shouted upstairs in the courtyard: "Please wait a while to sweep, we are eating!" It turned out that the floor slab had a seam, and the upstairs sweeping floor just sprinkled "pepper noodles" on the downstairs dining table.
At this time, I was in the middle school in the city, boarding in the single dormitory of the Tsinghua staff in Yongdao Province, returning to Liyan Village every Saturday afternoon, and returning to the city the next afternoon, walking back and forth. At first, my father accompanied me, and then I had Mr. Shi Hao's son Shi Tao and me as my companion, and then I walked alone. My father was not at ease, and entrusted his co-worker Lao Zhang to arrange for me to go on the road every time. Once, when it was too late to leave the school, Lao Zhang advised me to come back tomorrow morning, but I was like an arrow in my heart and insisted on leaving. After crossing the loess slope, I came to the place where I turned west, only to see that the sun was about to set, the earth suddenly darkened, there were no pedestrians on the road, I was nervous, and I was desperately trying to hurry. When I saw that I was about to reach the big stone bridge three or four miles away from the village, I heard a sound behind me: "Oh! swish! Uh-huh!" At the sound of footsteps, a group of people chased after me, which frightened me into hiding on the side of the road, eager to burrow into the dark farmland. Suddenly, a roar was heard: "Baby, where to go?" Let's go alone!" I hurriedly replied, "Go home, from the village." Fortunately, they ignored me and swept past me like a gust of wind. I was relieved and quickly followed them, finishing the last part of the journey home. When I reached the door, I said, "Mom, I'm back!" Even shouting and crying slammed into the door panel, and the tiredness, panic, and joy poured out at this moment.
In this way, this road, I walked, walked, walked for four or five years, from 10 years old to 15 years old. The only means of transportation, the carriage, I have never touched. I can't spend that little pocket money in my pocket. Since then, I've gotten used to using my own footboard and stepping out of my own world.
Three
Friendship warms the heart
Opposite the Li family courtyard in the northwest of the village, in the middle of the village, there is a Huijia compound. The Hui family compound is larger than the Li family courtyard, the owner's surname is Hui, and he is also a local gentry, who once served as the principal of the school and was respected as "Principal Hui". He vacated the old courtyard in front of him for the Qinghua people to live in, and he moved into the newly built backyard to live. On the east side of the old courtyard, that is, on the outside side, there is a horseshoe-shaped two-story wooden structure building, long from north to south, and slightly shorter on the east and west sides. According to my fragmentary memory, Professors Wu Youxun, Ren Zhigong, Zhao Zhongyao, Yang Wuzhi, Zhao Wanxiong, Wu Dayuan, Yang Yezhi and other professors lived here, and Professor Yu Ruihuang lived in another place outside the courtyard. Principal Mei's family later moved into the compound and lived in several improvised houses.
Most of the division commanders who live here work in Grand Phuket. Some of their children are still young, not yet of secondary school age. So it was agreed that a temporary primary school for the children would be set up in The GreatEr Phuket, with two female teachers, who would be administered by my father, and where my sister and brother would attend school. Children, like adults, walk between Liyan Village – Ta Ho Ngang – Da Phuket every day. One day, there was a surprising news: Mr. Ren Zhigong was stopped by two gangsters on the embankment road returning from work in Dapuji, and snatched the only valuable pocket watch on his body. This incident once made adults and children panic.
From left: Shi Jiajiong, Pan Guangdan, Chen Daisun, Mei Yiqi, Wu Youxun, Feng Youlan, Ye Qisun
Hui and Li are not far apart, and I often go to the Hui family compound at three or four o'clock in the afternoon to find a partner to play, one of whom is Yang Zhenhan, the third son of Mr. Yang Wuzhi. He was younger than me, but they could talk to each other, and most of the topics they talked about were the old things in Tsinghua Garden and the encounters of taking refuge in the south. He once said to me, "Have you ever seen a camel?" He said he had seen camels at Xizhimen in Peiping. "Good guys! Sit down so high. Then he squatted down, more than a gesture; "Stand up so high." At this time, he stood up, and the gesture also went from low to high, until he tiptoed up and stretched out his right hand high and high, "As high as the city wall!" Also learned to take a few steps on the camel. His vivid description convinced me that the camel was indeed remarkable, and this impression remained in my mind.
Another partner, Mr. Wu Youxun's son Wu Tisheng, told me he was born in 1931. In that year, the "September 18" incident occurred, and his father named him "Tisheng" to show his constant vigilance against the ambition of Japanese imperialism to destroy China. I loved listening to him relay his father's paris experiences, and I was amazed by the majestic Arc de Triomphe and the ornate Chamserie. Once, I introduced him to Lu Xun's story of the newly compiled "Li Shui", and I was puzzled by the scholar who satirized the crutch and the scholar who stuttered. We speculate that this is a criticism of the fact that some international students at that time were separated from the masses of the people. We look back at the fact that many scholars studying in foreign countries have been displaced after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and have gone to Kunming, especially today, they have come to live in the countryside. Wu Tisheng said: "This is considered to be walking out of the 'ivory tower' and coming to the public, right?" Those clever eyes, flickering behind the round lenses of the silver-rimmed glasses.
In the Chen family camp next to the great Puji, there are professors such as Huang Ziqing, Wen Yiduo, Yu Guanying, Hua Luogeng, and possibly other families. Mr. Huang Ziqing's son, Huang Zhiyuan, is also a partner I often go to. His family has a lot of books, and there are many popular interpretations. I once borrowed three copies of a set of renditions from him, but before I could finish reading them, one of them was taken to see by a friend of my relative's family who was staying at that time, and then I did not return it to me, and no one could find it, so I could not confess to Huang Zhiyuan. Later, I lent him three books to read, which were counted as compensation. Of course, the set of books is most afraid of the lack of books, and such regrets cannot be compensated by other means.
The country life has been living for a long time, and the interaction between adults has become frequent. The families living in the same courtyard see each other every day, and they are very close, and they don't need to say anything. People in the courtyard also often visit each other's doors. For example, Mrs. Wu Dayuan and Mrs. Yu Ruihuan, who live in the Hui family compound, will come to visit my mother from time to time; because they are all in Guangdong townships, they speak Cantonese when they open their mouths, and often people do not arrive, and the voice comes first, which is very kind. Mrs. Yu saw that there was a copy of "Sui and Tang Dynasty Yanyi" on my bed, so she borrowed it back to read it, and within a few days she returned the book, saying that it was beautiful, and asked if there was a next volume? Unfortunately, I don't remember how I got this book, at that time, there was only the upper volume and no next volume, and I couldn't help her find the next book, which I always regretted.
At that time, each family often made some snacks and the like, and gave and tasted them to each other. At the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, my father was introduced by Mr. Pan Guangdan to a poor job in the Kunming Library, and he could get a few buckets of rice every month, and his living conditions improved. Mothers often grind rice into rice noodles and make Cantonese pastries to give away, the most popular of which is "radish cake", which smells strange and tastes very fragrant. Mrs. Pan Guangdan is kind to people and envisions people, often visiting the door from Dahegeng to Liyan Village, and bringing some Jiangnan snacks every time. Mrs. Ren Zhigong and my mother also interacted a lot. In 1945, our family moved back to the city first, and Mrs. Ren specially sent a basket of steaming buns to send us off.
Unforgettable big river party. The host is Mrs. Pan Guangdan, who specially invited all the families of the Li family, including adults and children, to visit her house. It was a single courtyard, located in the northwest corner of the dahe embankment intersection, sitting north facing south, and on the north side of the courtyard was a two-story wooden building, they lived upstairs, in front of the courtyard. On this day, the originally small yard was crowded with people, and the children were even more noisy. Mrs. Pan prepared a variety of dishes, and everyone made their own dishes to eat. It was the first time I had seen how gluten was made from flour and I felt fresh and curious. Mrs. Pan also bought a stubble of broad beans from the owner of the field in advance, then gave each child a basket and led everyone to the field to pick broad beans. We specialize in picking tender ones, whether they are eaten raw or cooked, they are particularly fragrant. This kind of anti-war "tooth sacrifice" not only enriched everyone's mouth, but also enhanced their friendship. This is a friendship with weal and woe, a true feeling of equality, and a product of the harsh environment of wartime, which is rare before or after the war.
Four
Seek inspiration from the teacher
In the compound of the Tsinghua Research Institute in Phuket, professors such as Tang Peisong, Dai Fanglan, Meng Zhaoying and Ye Kai lived, as well as a group of young researchers and staff. Enter the gate and turn right, and the row of houses close to the courtyard wall is the wartime Tsinghua Library. The curator is Mr. Pan Guangdan, and the father and Mr. Ma Wenzhen are the specific persons in charge, as if there is a mr. Yin and others. To say that it is a library is actually a large house without cutting sections. Inside, about 4/5 of the total space are bookshelves, filled with books; in the adjacent aisle there are two large desks, one for father and Mr. Ma. The entrance to the entrance accounted for about 1/5 of the total space is the newspaper reading office, in the middle of a long coffee table, surrounded by a circle of sofas, here can also be used as a lounge, often many researchers to see the newspaper, drink tea, chat. They are concerned about current affairs, sometimes talk about the war situation, sometimes talk about the situation. In addition to this big house, there are several studios. The big house had a single room directly opposite the door, which was full of old magazines and advertisements for foreign books, and I had climbed in several times to look through old foreign pictorials.
I remember the first time I came to this library, I was dazzled by such a wealth of books and periodicals. Once, I casually pulled out a hard-shell book on the shelf next to my father's desk, which was the script "Wukui Bridge" written by Hong Shen. This was the first time I read the script and felt fresh about the dialogue in it. Another time, I was the only one who looked at the magazine at the coffee table in the newspaper reading office and found a booklet without a cover, titled "Commenting on the Fate of China", and another magazine contained the pamphlet "On New Democracy", and later learned that the former was written by Chen Boda and the latter by Mao Zedong.
Tsinghua University Library in the 1930s
Every time I came out of the Great Phuket Library, I always liked to cut a short road, pass through Chen Jia Ying, and follow the country road back to Liyan Village. Therefore, I often run into professors who live here, and slowly I get to know them. Once, when I was walking back from town, I heard a car coming from behind me, so I instinctively dodged to the side of the road. The car suddenly stopped beside me, and someone peeked out of the window, and it turned out to be Mr. Hua Luogeng. Unexpectedly, he said to me, "Are you Mr. Tang's child?" Where do you live? Do you want to send you a paragraph?" I said yes, told him he lived in Liyan Village, and he said, "Well, I can drop you off at the Big Stone Bridge." So he beckoned me to get in the car. At that time, Mr. Hua had just returned from England and was famous all over the world. When I got out of the car, I watched the car turn around and drive north, full of gratitude, silently remembering how strangely easy and kind he was.
Once again, when I returned home through Chen Jiaying, the sun had already tilted to the west, and I saw Mr. Wen Yiduo walking on the field. Dressed in a long coat with a beautiful beard on his face and the sunset light behind him, he walked slowly. At that time, in addition to teaching and doing research at the university, Mr. Wen often went to the middle school to carry out student counseling activities. I attended a poetry reading that he and Comrade Guang Weiran held at our middle school. Comrade Guang Weiran recited "The First Chicken of Ah Xie". Mr. Wen recited the poems of Ai Qing and Tian Jian, enthusiastically praised the people's nature and fighting nature of the poems, and expressed his determination to fight with the people.
I also had the opportunity to have a glimpse of Mr. Pan Guangdan's study, on the second floor of his house in DaheGan. Sitting north and facing south, a large open window is opened on the north wall to overlook the distant mountain: on one side is Luofeng Mountain, named because the stones on the mountain are mostly snail-shaped; on the other side is Tiefeng'an, a famous place with temples. This may be the reason why Mr. Pan named the study "Tieluo Mountain House"? Seeing Mr. Pan's desk, bookshelves, books and horse lamps, I can't help but think of the many articles and poems he published at that time, and those influential democratic political theories were painstakingly cultivated here, and I can't help but think of the wisdom of his erudite scholar, imagine his contemplation and contemplation of learning, and have a deep respect in my heart.
In the dry country life, I remember watching a movie. One night, at a threshing ground in the north of Liyan Village, a screen was pulled up to show some popular science information films borrowed from The Great Phuket, and the adults and children of each family brought their own small benches to watch. A screening, dumbfounded, is an English film, can not understand and can not understand. So someone proposed: Why don't you find the Yang family boss to translate for everyone? After a while, Yang Zhenning appeared next to the screen. He was wearing a light green American jacket, with his hands in his jacket pockets, flipping over as he watched, simple and clear, brisk and free, and explained a little in key places. Speaking of water, there are soft water, hard water, hard water because of the minerals, soap is not easy to dissolve, need to be heated into soft water, can be used for washing clothes. Mrs. Yang Wuzhi, who was sitting in front of me, listened, looked around and said, "Yes! After washing clothes with well water, you have to heat it up first and then rub it with soap!"
As 1944 passed, the tide of the war was reversed. The evacuated population gradually returned to the city, some leaving Kunming, and some detouring through India to travel abroad. Liyan Village is no longer beautiful, and there are fewer and fewer residents. The Li family yard first left Mr. Shi Zhen, then moved into Mr. He Chongben, and he also left later. Mr. Shen Lu lived downstairs for a few years and then moved away; Upstairs, Mr. Yao Jun's family then moved into the city. At this time, only Mr. Zhu Yinzhang's family downstairs and our family upstairs were still living, and the originally small courtyard suddenly appeared deserted and empty. In mid-1945, my family also moved into the city; three months later, the Zhu family also moved into the city, and a period of anti-war love between qinghua and Li family courtyards ended.
Source: Magazine of All Walks of Life, Issue 3, 2021
Author: Tang Shaoming