Lingnan Teachers and Friends, by Huang Tianji, Southern Daily Publishing House, July 2021.
Zhang Shiyang
Teacher Huang Tianji's new work "Lingnan Teachers and Friends" was recently published, and I was asked to write a preface, and I was sincerely afraid in my heart. Seeing that I was slow to move, some brothers suggested that I might as well write about Teacher Huang in the eyes of the students. Thinking about it, it has been eleven years since I studied with Teacher Huang in 2009. It is natural to use the article to sort out the teachings of the teacher. In addition, It is a tradition for Teacher Huang to ask students to write a preface. In addition to the prefaces given by Mr. Huang Xiuji and Jin Qinjun, most of the fifteen-volume works of the Emperor received in the "Huang Tianji Anthology" are prefaces written by the students, which are the portrayals of the teachers' accounts and salaries and the promotion of the younger generations. The teacher has this beautiful intention, I am a newborn calf, but it does not hurt to write!
In 1952, Mr. Huang Tianji entered the Department of Chinese of Sun Yat-sen University, and then stayed on to teach, spending nearly 70 years at CUHK. The teacher was obsessed with the teacher who had taught him, and he said: "A good teacher has an impact on a person for a lifetime. ...... They may not be able to talk about life, but the moral articles of teachers and the methods of learning will give people a lot of inspiration. Teacher Huang experienced the spring wind and rain of the masters over and over again, and realized the wisdom and feelings obtained from hearing and seeing. The teacher lost his parents at a young age and loved the teacher as if he were a father. Recalling the past of Mr. Wang Jisi, Dong Zhijie and other gentlemen, he often had red eyes and choked on his words. He not only took care of the life and death of the gentlemen, but also waited for the future, continued to pay the torch, and cultivated an opera research team.
Teacher Huang Zhiqu was deeply influenced by Mr. Dong Andi and Mr. Wang Jisi. Mr. Wang pays attention to the examination and proofreading of opera texts, Mr. Dong pays attention to the stage and performance form of opera, and the two scholars stand together with twin peaks and lead the way (see the two articles in this book, "Apricot Blossoms And Scattered Fragrances - Remembering Teacher Dong Every", "Yu Xia Is Still Full of Heaven - Remembering Teacher Wang Jisi"). This research paradigm and academic proposition of "one article and one martial art" laid the academic foundation of Teacher Huang and the entire opera research team of Sun Yat-sen University. At the same time, he also obtained Zhan Antai and Mr. Huang Haizhang to personally pass on the old style poetry creation techniques (see the book "Lingnan Zizong Shu Hui Zilan - Remembering Teacher Zhan Antai" and "People Are Light as Juju - Remembering Teacher Huang Haizhang"), and he has also made great achievements in poetry, inscriptions and prose creation. Teacher Huang integrates the two research paths of "opera" and "poetry" taught by the teacher- using the thinking of poetry creation to study opera, and interpreting poetry with the perspective of opera. In addition to Shoucheng, he dared to innovate, and achieved the academic appearance of Teacher Huang who "cannot be bound in the song".
Teacher Huang's perception and aesthetic power of literature also stem from his profound artistic accomplishment. The teacher could have applied for the conservatory when he was young, because he not only played mandolin, but also had a good choral conducting experience. Later he embarked on the path of academic research and often conducted choruses at major festival galas. Most legendarily, he performed in the CUHK Conducting Choir in the 1980s, with the approval of Master Karajan! The rest of his life was also late, and he could not see Karayan praising Teacher Huang, but from the relays of the teachers and the grand situation of witnessing the teacher conducting the chorus in recent years, he could still feel his magnificent conducting style. When instructing students, the magic method of "yellow conductor" can also come in handy: when students are dazed, the teacher's baton gently swings away, telling them to soothe and go with nature; when the students are rushing forward, the teacher swings a big hand and guides them to sing closely with the beat.
Teacher Huang has always advocated that literature and art are not extracurricular activities of teachers and students of the Chinese Department, but compulsory courses. Because of my common musical hobbies, the teachers encouraged me a lot in terms of professional classes and literary and artistic hobbies. I remember when I was writing my doctoral dissertation, once Wen Si was stuck in a certain chapter, and simply ran to the multi-purpose hall downstairs of the Chinese hall to practice. At that time, chopin's "Nocturne" was played, and the mood was depressed, and the sound of the piano also followed the gossamer. Teacher Huang happened to pass by, pushed the door in after a while, and told me, "It's not like that." The tranquility of "Nocturne" is not simply expressed in weak tones, especially for people like Chopin who have more feelings. In the poem, it is often said that "the moonrise frightens the mountain birds" and "the birdsong mountains are more quiet", and the contrast is more expressive. The teacher also pays special attention to the relationship between music and literature, and his interpretation of songs such as "Farewell", "Liang Zhu" and "Rhododendron" can be described as unique. The proficiency in music and sensitivity to prosody added another tentacle to the teacher's poetry and opera research.
After his old age, Teacher Huang has more free time and has produced a series of achievements of high quality and quantity. In the past two years, he has maintained the rhythm of writing two articles per month, one is Tang poetry analysis, and the other is prose creation. Prose creation is the teacher's writing tonic, and the main topic is to challenge yourself and challenge the conclusion that "it is not so much" in the history of literature. He told me that starting from "people", grasping the theme of "human nature", breaking stereotypes, literary history is to be rewritten. The weight and boldness of this is self-evident. Unfortunately, poetry is not my forte. Many texts, although I was fortunate to be the first reader, did not have the ability to generate and have more insightful discussions with the teacher. However, how to find the big problems of small writers, the new problems of big writers, and how to deal with the use of literature has given me a lot of enlightenment.
Teacher Huang has a deep love for academics all his life. After the fifteen volumes of the Huang Tianji Anthology were published, the Treatise on the Creation of the Hall of Eternal Life was included in the next step of the writing plan. The continuous flow of masterpieces is the painstaking effort of Teacher Huang's life, and it is also a great blessing for the academic community. His academic achievements have long been well-known, and he is well known as a teacher, but the teachers have a very weak view of fame and fortune. He has experienced big and small disasters in his life, and he is still a scholar when he returns. He denied the reputation of others such as "master", and laughed at the fact that only a monk or Mr. Feng Shui was called a "master". The teacher said that he was limited by the times and level, "at best, it can only serve as a transitional bridge", academic achievements "just like that", and always used Cantonese", "pot winter melon" (Cantonese, harmonic "Mandarin") to deliberately lengthen the child's pronunciation of the ending to show self-ridicule.
In fact, not only are the external objects "just like that", the teacher even holds a kind of free thinking about life itself. On the one hand, he understands Mr. Wang Jisi's teaching that "scholarship does not rely on hard work, but on longevity", so he rarely conducts surprise operations in research, and most of them think about the long term and write regularly. When the big project of "Quanming Opera" was busy, the teacher wholeheartedly handled the proofreading draft of the Ming legendary script in the morning, took a short break at noon, wrote a monograph on the creation of "Peony Pavilion" in the afternoon, and always found students to walk and chat after dinner as a relaxation. In the morning, you have to swim eight hundred to one kilometer, which is more conscious and efficient than young people. On the other hand, he despises life and death, and in the face of disease and aging, he adheres to an almost Taoist thought, fearless, and rich and stretched. What is even more rare is that he retains the "old naughty boy" mentality, watches movies and likes martial arts scenes, and only watches the women's volleyball team when watching ball games, not watching men's football. When he encountered the steps, he stepped up with an arrow and walked with flying steps. A few years ago, after a bicycle was stolen, the teacher actually wanted to change into a two-wheeled electric balance bike without armrests, and said that it was very handsome to see others shuttle like hot wheels. Later, he did go to buy it, but the merchant asked him about his age and did not dare to sell it to him...
Teacher Huang is frank and hates mannerism and deliberate embellishment. The article is like this, and so is the person, and I have made a lot of friends. "People know each other, you know each other", it is precisely because of the same voice and the same breath with true friends, the teacher can always pick out a few strokes from the small things with them, and portray the unknown side of Mr. Zhu. Behind some of the articles of feeling nostalgic for friends, there is really some sustenance. For example, he wrote the article "A Thousand Disasters in a Day's Heart Period - Remembering Professor Luo Zongqiang", and there is also a small episode: the teacher handed it over to the editor after finishing the manuscript, and instructed other texts to be deleted and changed, only the "two things" in the text cannot be changed. This article, in addition to recalling his close friend Professor Luo, also mentioned the current academic circles care about the identity of "doctoral supervisors" and the grading of publications. Teacher Huang recalled the work of being hired as a member of the second subject review group of the Degree Committee of the State Council that year, "letting the princes know the ins and outs of the problem" and the current situation of the deviation, Which is thought-provoking in the spring and autumn of Pili. The clear-eyed person immediately understands the teacher's deep meaning, which is different from the general reminiscence article.
Teacher Huang is not only sincere to his friends, but also spares no effort to help backwards. He is especially sympathetic to the hardships of young people and is willing to speak for them. The door to his office is always open, and teachers and classmates are always welcome to communicate. When the Hualien earthquake in Taiwan a few years ago, he was worried about the safety of Taiwanese student Fang Yu and contacted many parties. It was not until it was confirmed that he was safe, and the teacher relaxed his mind and informed the contact person one by one, so that they could also feel at ease. When he learned that a graduate student was ill, he went to the doctor of the sixth hospital attached to the school, instructed the doctor to be careful in diagnosis and treatment, and reminded us to encourage and help from the side. When the student encountered something unpleasant, he was more anxious than the student, pushed the glasses to his forehead, squinted his eyes, and typed out a large piece of warm comfort on the mobile phone word by word to send to the student. How could the influence of your preaching and teaching on Teacher Huang not be the source of his later cultivation and reform of his students?
Teachers have been liked by teachers and loved by juniors all their lives. He does not like the authority of the shelf tree, and he can see himself clearly as well as others. He is insightful of the world, still full of goodwill and beauty to observe the world, flesh and blood to record the love of life, to the teacher and friends. The collection of articles has different styles, and we can read not only "Lingnan Teachers and Friends", but also Teacher Huang. For readers, those who like to read stories can see the despair and hope of the historical scene from this book; those who appreciate the writing can see the sophistication and freshness of scholar-type writers in making words and sentences, unexpectedly bump into life in the book, and see through the wind and bones and feelings of a generation of intellectuals.
Don't speculate, talk about it as above. It's exquisite and left for the reader to savor.
December 24, 2020
Zhang Shiyang, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Guangzhou University. This article is the preface to Huang Tianji's "Lingnan Teachers and Friends", and the title is added by the editor.