1919: Clouds, a mountain, conversion

Clouds by Tang dynasty poet Lai He

A thousand shapes, ten-thousand images, still disappear.
Reflect in water, hide among mountains, tufts gather in layers. 
Without end: dry sprouts, withered, nearly dead.
Float, float, leisurely there, making unique peaks.

Inscription on West Forest Temple by Su Dongbuo

From the front, looks like high ground; from the side, peaks.
Far, close, high, low: each not the same.
Don't know Lu Mountain's true face and eyes,
Because I am in the heart of this mountain. 

West Forest Temple is near Lu Mountain, Jioujiang. In ancient times, a man named Kuang Su built a hut on Lu Mountain, (lu meaning small house), thus giving it its name. Lu Mountain has water on three sides. 

1919 - age 18

This year, all of a sudden, I began suffering skin lesions. Because it was contagious, they put me in isolation to quarantine me. There were strict rules about these skin problems. The way I bathed and laundered my clothing, everything had to be quarantined. So I had to separate from my usual dormitory. Because there were so many rules, I felt terrible. Fortunately, there was Mr Xiao who was over 60 years old but quite strong and healthy. He was usually quiet and kept to himself. He had a calm temperament. His job was to ring the school bells. For several decades, he did this bell ringing and was never late or made mistakes. Mr Xiao voluntarily cleaned my clothes and per doctor's orders washed them in boiling water, rinsed, and ironed. Every night, he put the clean clothing on my bed. He continued in this way for more than a year. Mr Xiao never asked for any money. I always thanked him and he just smiled back. I started to wonder: why is he like this? I knew that he was a Christian and he loved me with the love of Jesus. Besides this, I cannot explain his way of doing things. By this time, through attending church services, I knew several scriptures, and I "treasured up all these things in [my] heart." Luke 2:51 I used to be short. After this skin condition healed, plus with my exercising every morning, suddenly I grew a lot. I grew to 1.67 meters.

At the beginning of May, the news arrived in Wuchang that students in Beijing were protesting because of the unfair treatment of the Shandong Problem. The movement spread to many other places, including Wuhan. Our school faculty and staff organized and led all the students in the school to march to a place where the government allows protesters to congregate. At Hanyang Gate, a poster said: Only China Has Talent. Everyone went to Hanyang Gate and occupied it. We elected some student representatives and we wrote letters to our city government. The city officials said they would relay our sentiments to the central government. We occupied til the next morning. In the morning, we returned to school. We rested and started class in the afternoon. This was our famous May 4th Movement in Chinese history. 

My school was Methodist, and according to the rules of the Methodist church, the principal of the school was a reverend from England, our was called Pastor Di Yihua. The previous year, he had returned to England on furlough and Reverend Rao Yongkang was sent to serve as deputy. This year, Di Yihua returned. There was a sense of renewal. Our school was established by Methodists from England and most our faculty and staff were missionaries from England. They were bi-vocational. Another small portion of the faculty were Chinese. The English missionaries usually had superiority complex and looked down on the Chinese and sometimes took advantage of them. Most the Chinese faculty and staff were graduates from the school and recommended by the English missionaries. The Chinese' attitude to the foreigners was...

...my school usually did not force us to convert to Christianity. Now, I voluntarily asked them to be baptized and all my teachers were overjoyed. They told me that they had been praying for me for a long time and believed this day would come. On a Sunday near Christmastime at the church, I was baptized by Rao Yongkang and Di Yihua. There were several other missionaries there too. I repented and confessed my sins and asked for forgiveness from Jesus. I've been given a new life by the Lord.