The author's grandfather Shen Zhongyue, number Yuqing (1880--1959), was two county magistrates of Guixian County in the Republic of China and the county magistrates of Luchuan and Hengxian counties in Guangxi, and was once a prominent figure in modern Guangxi. Grandpa's eldest daughter Shen Peitang (1904--1981), known as the second aunt, married Chen Qiangzhen of Qintang in Guixian County when she became an adult and had a pair of children. Unfortunately, Chen Qiangzhen and his father Chen Xiuping lost their family fortunes in the middle of the way, and they also had a short life, and they died around 1929.
Chen Hongcai in childhood
Chen Hongcai (1924--2011), the eldest son of Pei Tang's second aunt, is the eldest grandson of his grandfather, and his life is full of legends (see the headline "The Basic Outline of The Family Relationship in Shen Fu Zhaotang in Guixian County, Guangxi During the Late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China"). Due to the early death of his father, Chen Hongcai, who was a teenager, often returned to his home outside the Shen House and received the upbringing and love of his grandfather.
Chen Hongcai (back row, left) in Early 1948 in Guangzhou. From left in the front row: Er Rank, Xi Zhang, Lin Bojun, Xi Lin (Xiao Bo), Liu Gong Shen Zhongyue (Er Ju) and so on
In his later years, Chen Hongcai wrote a poem "Childhood Old Events", which, if interpreted thoroughly, will increase the understanding of the historical scene of the modern women's school in Guixian County and a cross-century story of children's love. The poem is not long, and it is shown below.
"Childhood Events" (Author: Chen Hongcai)
One
Born on the seashore, the sun is close to Chongyang. ①
Make flowers and plants in the garden, enter the room and smell the fragrance of books.
My grandfather knew about current affairs, and my loving mother went to school. ②
Little is no more, snuggled up to the desk.
Read aloud, clear springs and lubricate the atrium.
A mulan song, unforgettable for a lifetime.
Two
The bell rings at the end of class and laughs fill the hallway.
A young girl in the same window, beautiful and dignified.
Treat me intimately. Tease me with gum.
Teach me to recognize the red characters, and ask me to call out to my aunt.
The facts of the world are unpredictable, and the years have gone through vicissitudes.
In the future, she became a mother-in-law and laughed about fate.
concentrate:
(1) I was born in the autumn of 1924 in the seaside of Hong Kong.
(2) My grandfather studied in Japan in his early years, and later became a county official, advocating women's study; the loving mother and her son went to school, becoming the first batch of female normal students in the county.
Chen Hongcai as a young child
This vernacular poem, the original author has two notes, if you read it carefully sentence by sentence, it is not difficult to detect the gist of the original poem. From a literary and historical point of view, the poem deals with some specific historical era events, and has about three meanings.
The first is the author's life: "I was born in the autumn of 1924 on the seashore in Hong Kong" has briefly explained the time, place, and people. The author's father also recalled: "In 1922, I lived with my parents and sixth sister in Hong Kong, bofulin road... We are underground... At that time, Yazhao was not yet born (it was born in 1924, and Xiuping's family lived in Xinghan Road)." "After the fourth brother returned to Guangzhou from Wuzhou, he studied as a senior teacher and often came to Hong Kong." These accounts corroborate each other with "Old Childhood Events", which not only confirms the author's self-description of his life, but more importantly, provides background material for the revolutionary activities of the author's fourth uncle (see the headline "Shen Xihu: An underground party member of guigang who died young, whose achievements will forever be remembered in history").
Chen Hongcai's handwriting
The second is the scene of female teachers running schools: the earliest girls' school in Guixian County, Kunde Girls' School, was founded by Chen Jizu in the late Qing Dynasty in the 22nd year of the late Qing Dynasty (1896), and the school site is in the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall on West Street of the county, with only more than ten students. After the founding of the Republic of China, the Guixian Girls' School was still set up in high and primary school, and until 1923, the new school system was implemented and renamed the county girls' primary school, and the school site was in the current county West Elementary School.
Chen Hongcai's daughter, son-in-law and grandson
In the autumn of the fourteenth year of the Republic of China (1925), the Guixian County Normal Training Institute was established, in addition to recruiting male students in that year, the first class of the women's department was recruited the following year (1926), and the students were selected from the high school graduates. The girls' class lasted for three years, attending classes at the site of the present-day County West Elementary School, and graduated in 1929. Then the girls' class was discontinued.
Chen Hongcai (2nd from left) with relatives and friends from guigang hometown
According to the oral recollections of Lin Yunyi, who was enrolled in the women's class that year (see the eighth series of "Guixian Literature and History Materials"), there were only 18 graduates of the teacher's female class: Ye Jiefang, Tang Shaozhen, Zhou Yuying, Guan Xiuxiang, Chen Xianglan, Ou Kunhe, Luo Xunhu, Cai Shuhu, Lin Bokang, Shen Peitang, Tan Qiongfang, Liang Miaolan, Shen Xiutang, Luo Aicheng, Lin Yunyi, Huang Libao, Guan Jun, and Li Qiaoxian. Most of these people subsequently became the early female teachers and public officials in Guixian County, and they were considered the new women of the old society.
Among the 18 graduates, Shen Peitang's name is prominently listed. Shen Xiutang is a sister of the same ethnic group, and Chen Xianglan is the sister of Chen Shouyi (a prominent figure in the Guangxi electric power industry during the Republic of China period), and later married the author's second uncle Shen Xilin.
Chen Hongcai (1st from left) with relatives and friends in Guigang's hometown
When the loving mother graduated, Chen Hongcai was already 5 years old and had a hazy memory. The poem has a very delicate description of the life scene on campus. However, the name of this female teacher training student who later became a mother-in-law and called "aunt" at that time did not appear in the list of graduates.
Chen Hongcai (2nd from right), Liu Yuhong (3rd from left) with their children and family members in 1999
The third is the ending of the marriage legend (supplement): Chen Hongcai married Liu Yuhong (1928.8.--2008.12.) in early 1948. Liu Yuhong's mother's name was Huang Baozhen, and she married a large family surnamed Liu from Shilong, Shandong, Gui County. Huang Baozhen and Shen Peitang were the classmates of the female teacher class in Guixian County at that time.
Chen Hongcai and Liu Yuhong, who were new fathers (mothers).
Why doesn't Huang Baozhen's name appear on the list of graduates? There are two possibilities, one is that Huang Libao is Huang Baozhen, and lin Yunyi, a provider of literary and historical materials, made a mistake in oral recollection or transcription, and recorded Huang Baozhen as Huang Libao. Second, in August 1928, after the birth of Huang Baozhen's daughter (Liu Yuhong), who had completed two years of study, it affected her inability to insist on studying until graduation, so she had to drop out of school. Of course, the above is speculation, and it is best to find more conclusive new evidence, otherwise neither possibility can be ruled out.
Chen Hongcai and Liu Yuhong, who were first grandfathers (mothers).
However, after reading "Childhood Past Events", one thing is certain, in the female teacher class, whether Chen Hongcai and her future mother-in-law Huang Baozhen, the interaction between children and young women was quite harmonious and warm at that time, and Chen Hongcai's looming intelligent and sensitive nature was enough to leave a good initial mark on Huang Baozhen.
Chen Hongcai Liu Yuhong and his wife
So, how did you get married? At the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1944, the county seat of Guixian County and some townships were occupied by the Japanese army invading China. In a "difficult walk" to escape the harassment of the Japanese Kou on the mountain, two good school friends Shen Peitang and Huang Baozhen met unexpectedly, and everyone asked about the situation of the children of the two families, they all had some thoughts, and their feelings were compatible, and a marriage was settled.
Shen Peitang (front right), Huang Baozhen (front left) and their children and their families at Binyang Middle School in 1955
In 1945, Chen Hongcai was admitted to the National Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou (during the fall of Guangzhou during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the university was relocated to Yunnan, northern Guangdong and other places), and with his clever mind, his studies have always been at the forefront. In 1948, his family urged him to go home and get married, and he gladly obeyed. So in order to embrace the beauty, he only read in college.
This sweet marriage spanned a nail, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the two mainly worked in Binyang Middle School, and the husband and wife had a total of 6 children. Before retiring, Chen Hongcai was a senior teacher at Binyang Middle School, and Liu Yuhong also served in the Academic Affairs Office of Binyang Middle School, working until retirement.
Chen Hongcai's family portrait
After retirement, Chen Hongcai's life is colorful, he has a wide range of hobbies, likes to read, create, music, play chess, etc., and wrote a "Fun Garden Meditation" knowledge sketch, which was serialized and published in "Guixian Bao". The author's father once entrusted him to work with Li Hua to write the history of the Shen family with the theme of "The House of Books", but it was fruitless. When my parents returned from the United States in 2005, they often exchanged telephone calls and exchanged information with cousin Zhao and Cousin Yuhong when they lived in Guangzhou. According to a sentence that my cousin often hangs on his lips, "Gratitude has obtained the longevity gene of the Shen family."
One of Chen Hongcai's works
In December 2008, Yuhong's cousin died of illness at the age of 80. On the sixth day of the first lunar month in 2011, his cousin also made an ancient appearance and died at the age of 87. Due to space limitations, this article mainly narrates the small poem "Childhood Events", and other anecdotes will be added separately. Thank you for reading, please leave a message and pay attention.