1922-1923: How can you do that?

Drinking Wine by Jing dynasty poet Tao Yuenming 373-437

Bound hut where people live,
But heedless of car and horse noise.
Someone asks me, "How can you be like that?"
Heart far, land becomes desolate.
Picking chrysanthemum by the eastern bamboo fence,
Suddenly see the southern mountain,
Mountain air, day night: fine,
Birds fly circle and flit about.
Among these, there is true meaning:
Want to argue, forgot what to say.

1922 - age 21 (continued)

My classmate Wang Jiabing's older brother was a graduate of our school and had a job at the main customs office. He got a very good salary (our faculty monthly earned about $30, whereas his brother earned over $100) so everyone was very envious of that. He had a huge mansion in Hankou and was very hospitable and loved to entertain us students. There was a long weekend, a two-day holiday, and some of us suggested we use this holiday to go see a play. At that time, there was a show called Just Me playing at New Market. It starred Wang Wukong, he played a detective, and was so good the whole city was buzzing about him. In our class, several of us went together and let it all go and had fun. We saw the show and came back the next day, and everything we did and ate were all paid by Mr Wang. This was our special entertainment outside of school. 

1923 - age 22

This year, I graduated. Our school was a high school and there are three ways to go after graduation: first, the school would send graduates to certain offices and companies for work; second, graduates were sent to Hong Kong University and from there to England to study--this was the hardest and most difficult because the entrance exam was very hard, if you didn't have much confidence, you'd better not try; third, look for a job by yourself--some people go to the post office, customs office, salt dealers, and foreign companies. Among all these, customs office paid the best, then the salt dealership, post office, and foreign companies. When someone wanted to apply for these jobs, they needed a letter of recommendation from the school principal.

One day, our acting principal, Thomas, asked me to come to his office to talk to me. He knew I was a pretty good student and was baptized and enjoyed a full scholarship for six years. He said after graduation, he recommended I go to seminary. Before, I had had a good idea and some desire to go to seminary, however, Thomas made the decision before asking me. Thomas thought since I had six years of scholarship, he didn't have to discuss it with me. I didn't like this at all. Because I was young, my knee jerk reaction was, "How can you do that?" I took six years' scholarship, I'm very grateful. And studying in seminary fits my wish, but these two things shouldn't be mixed together because in the beginning the school didn't say I had to go to seminary or make any other requirements. I answered Thomas, "Would you give me some time to consider?" Thomas usually had a superior air, and because I did not accept it right away, he was upset. He said, "Since you don't accept it now, you won't have to consider it anymore." Before we parted, he said, "If you want to apply to these jobs, I will not recommend you." I asked Thomas, "Isn't writing recommendation letters a duty of the principal?" He said, "Not necessarily, I can but don't have to." I replied, "Since it's like that, I can't make you." He said our school wasn't accredited by the Chinese government, so our studies weren't recognized by China. So the graduates of this school could only go to foreign companies to take jobs, but without the recommendation of the principal, there was no way. This was a big challenge for me.

We had upperclassmen leaders for the lowerclassmen. You could serve and supervise the lowerclass. So the lowerclassmen, if they had some behavior or talk that wasn't proper, the leaders could punish them. So the lowerclassmen, anytime they met the leaders, they were unhappy to be with them. All of my classmates knew what it was like. There were several leaders who wanted to advocate for reform. It used to be every dining room table was supervised by a leader. Several leaders said they didn't want to do that, instead they wanted to sit together and leave the lowerclassmen tables alone, those lowerclassmen were happy and did what they liked. Plus, the leaders who were graduating all got to talk together--everyone had a better time. Some people reported this to the superintendent Teacher Xu because the revolting leaders' actions weren't approved by the administration. So they put up an announcement in the dining room that everyone should sit in their assigned seat. This announcement told that these leaders were rebellious. There was a rule that any announcement should be approved by the leaders. Since this announcement was not approved by the leaders committee, it was invalid. So everyone debated the issue, a student took the announcement down and put it in the garbage. The next day, Teacher Xu argued with a student Guan and got in a fist fight. So the incident developed terribly, and everyone stopped class and assembled on the school field to confront the situation. During this assembly, I stood up and said this system of leaders was bad and everyone applauded. The acting principal Thomas came and wanted to say something to the students. Whatever he said was not appropriate and no one wanted to listen and everyone dispersed. He had no graceful way to come down from the stage. That night, the school required us to write apologies. All our leaders requested the school to get rid of this system. We all declined our diplomas and left the school to live in a little hotel in the city while we waited for the conclusion of this event. The acting principal Thomas, during his year, there were no graduates. He couldn't take responsibility for this so he requested our first year alumnus Sen Wenching, who was already quite famous, to serve as moderator and go to the hotel. On the other hand, the students who remained at school, who saw these leaders revolt, thought it was good for the lowerclassmen. So they did some special fundraising and collected a lot of money. So this added to their support. In this way, there were no developments for quite a few days. So the school thought a good strategy was to talk to the students separately, not as a group. Several families who were helped financially, the school asked them to ask their kids to come back and write confessions and the school would let them graduate and write recommendations for new jobs. Several other students from wealthy families didn't need the recommendations of the principal, they just took the exams to test into these jobs. Only me and Zhou Ciching and the wealthy kids didn't compromise. Summer vacation came and everyone went home. 

All my relatives and friends knew that I studied in Wuchang for eight years. Finishing studies, they all came to congratulate me. I also returned the visits one by one and planned a dinner party to invite them to. Everyone came with heyi (congratulation money) and it paid for all the dinner expenses with some leftover. Later on, it supported part of the funds I needed to go to Japan.

Later that year, Zhou Ciching wrote a letter saying his uncle Zhou Jiyang was studying in Japan at that time. He knew from Zhou Ciqing's report about what happened at the school and sympathized with our situation. Urgently, he told us to study in Japan. He could afford some guidance and help. Since we don't have an alternative in Wuhan, I told my parents and discussed with my cousins Wen Long and Wen Ya of my plan to go to Japan. They thought of ways to collect $120 silver dollars to support me to go to Japan.