Fisherman on the River by Song dynasty Fan Zhongyen
On the river, people come and go,
Everyone loves the taste of bass;
You see one slip of a boat,
To and fro in the wind and waves.
Fan Zhongyen was a governor and was famous for saying, "I am ahead of all in concerns of state affairs; as for pleasure, I am behind all."
1932 - age 31 continued
I thought, to solve this problem, to form farmer co-ops. These co-ops, since they are organizations, can help farmers spend money and buy their necessary merchandise. As a co-op, the capital sum is greater than any individual's. This helps with purchasing, transportation, and expenses. They can lower their price when they buy and raise the price when they sell. They can save the farmers a lot of money and headache and give them a lot of convenience. Besides these, the department of agriculture had new methods of fertilization, irrigation, breeding technology and advances to make the farmers' lives richer and better. Mr Wu made lots of surveys of these organizations and returned to Guangxi, China very satisfied.
The director of YMCA, Mr Zhang Qinjian, was a hard worker and fervently wanted to serve people. Besides his job at the YMCA, he also wanted to improve the education of the children of the overseas Chinese. He established an overseas school and was the principal. He wanted me to teach at the school. I viewed this as a benefit to the Chinese society here and also I was and continue to be a patriot, so I happily accepted and volunteered to work without pay. In December of this year, Mr. Zhang had to go on a business trip for a week and he asked me to cover his principal's job. I gladly agreed to this. Mr Zhang, besides running a school, also partnered with several Japanese friends to open a Chinese restaurant called Beijing Pagoda. I went there a lot because it was low-priced and served foods with a hometown taste. [In July 1970, I was in Taipei at the time, and received a phone call from a friend, Mr Zhu. He had recently gone to China as an American citizen and met Mr Zhang's two daughters in Hankou. Both of them wrote letters asking Mr Zhu to send them to me. In the letters, they wrote to say Mr Zhang had died the year before and that they didn't know what had happened to Beijing Pagoda because Mr Zhang had returned to China in a hurry. (Note: "worldly things foggy mystifying, where to start writing? where to end?" an emotional statement indicating how out of our control life is and how we grow nostalgic especially when someone dies.)]
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Sunday, December 16, 2018
1932: Farming families
Farmer's Family by Five Dynasties poet Yen Renyu
Before dawn, wake sons, take advantage of morning to till,
Haggard ox, no strength, gradually hard to walk;
Common people don't know the farmers' suffering,
And say, the grain of the fields grows by itself.
1932 - age 31 (continued)
All these years in Japan, I lived a simple, frugal life. Besides when I graduated and took a trip with my fellow classmates to Guandong Guanxi, I seldom traveled for pleasure. After I started at my college department, my school work has lessened and I still had government money coming in. Usually, I had more spending money. One day, I went with my YMCA friends to take a trip around Japan's famous tourist spots: Riguang, Shanggen, Rihai, Ido. I also wrote poems about these places.
Since 1924 when I came to Japan, it had been eight years. My studies were almost done, so during the summer, I decided to go back to China. On July 20, I took a train from Tokyo to Changqi (Hiroshima). From Changqi, I took a ship. At that time between China and Japan, there was a regular shipping schedule. When my boat was close to Changjiang, and I could see Wusong, I wrote a poem and then I arrived in Shanghai and stayed at the China Arts & Literature Institute. It was built by earlier graduates Zou, Zhen, and Wang. Located in the French Concession, the building was big and wide and well managed. The rent was quite low because I was a member and I could move in right away. In the meantime, I asked the Institute to publish my articles on accounting basics.
After I settled in at the Institute, Mr Hu Zongyuan introduced me to Miss Xu Diqing. We agreed to all go on July 24 to Trinity Church on Jioujiang Road to attend Sunday service. On that Sunday, I accompanied by Zongyuan and Diqing accompanied by Lioujie (6th sister), we all went to church. After service, we all met at the door of the church. Because of so many years in Tokyo, I usually wore the student uniform. When I came back, I changed into a Chinese outfit: inside is a long pant and outerwear is a long robe. The one I wore that day was an old robe from many years ago, of bad material and out of fashion. It was quite short for me. After we got married, Diqing often said, "The first time I saw you, your robe was a foot from the ground."
After July 24, on the 25th, we had dinner at Gong Deling's vegetarian restaurant. That finished the introduction process. From then on, we just wrote letters. On the 26th, I accompanied Zongyuan on the express railroad from Shanghai to Nanjing, and then on the 27th, we took the ship from Nanjing to Jioujiang. From Jioujiang, I visited my Yang family side uncles and cousins, and visited my grandmother's old residence to pay respects. On the 28th, I started writing letters to Diqing. I started with, "Miss Diqing, this is the first time I've written a letter, and I don't know the appropriate way to address you, please forgive my ill manners. This letter I am mailing from Jioujiang, addressed to Four Banks, 60 Sichuan Road, Shanghai. I am using the return address Jioujiang, Main Road. I discussed with the company about using the address as your mailing address." This was the first letter I wrote to Diqing. I have kept it to this day. After we were engaged and married, any time we were not together, we wrote letters. Both sides would keep the letters, now probably several hundred letters. We always think, someday, we'll have a proper time and we'll let our kids and grandchildren and relatives read these letters for fun.
July 28th, after I wrote the first letter to Diqing, I crossed the river back to my hometown, Huangmei, which I had left for eight years. I paid respect to my parents and all my relatives. On August 3, I left home to Jioujiang and then took a boat to Hankou, then to Wuchang, and I stayed at the YMCA in Wuchang. Besides going to the Hubei provincial government to discuss the grant, I went to my middle and high schools to visit. On August 19, I took a boat from Hankou back to Jioujiang. On the afternoon of the 20th, I arrived in Huangmei and stayed for seven days. On August 27th, I took a boat from Jioujiang to Nanjing. On the morning of the 28th, I arrived at Xiaguang (a Nanjing port). I went to Zongyuan's family to visit them. On September 3, I took the express rail from Nanjing to Shanghai. I stayed at the Institute and now my important business was my engagement.
An important thing of an engagement is to buy a diamond ring. During my studies, I didn't have much money and in everything I was thrifty. But, I thought, an engagement is a once in a lifetime thing, and a token of covenant, I cannot make it too cheap. Because even if you have more money in later days, you cannot correct it. After I discussed this in detail with Diqing, we decided to buy a more expensive diamond ring. In order to be very prudent, we went a long way to a famous and dependable jeweler called De Kangxiang. They sell jewelry and jade. After looking back and forth, finally we agreed on one. On September 20, we celebrated our engagement. I still stayed at the Institute, Diqing still worked at Four Banks Deposits Union. After work, she usually came to the Institute where we had dates. We have lots of nice warm sweet memories of those times. Sometimes we had dinner together, sometimes we went to church service together, sometimes we went to see movies together. Summer vacation over on October 3, I took a ship back to Japan. On the ship, I wrote a poem called Going East in the morning at Huangpu. On my way to Japan, I passed by Senghu (Kobe), and arrived at Dongjing (Tokyo). After I arrived in Tokyo and resumed classes. I wrote many letters to Diqing and many poems.
My friend Zhou Xianwen (the one who started nianpu writing) started a new magazine called New China Magazine and he was the Editor in Chief. He asked me to write an article for the magazine. I wrote about the finances and economics of Japan. Later on, I wrote another article about the Japanese Congress. He wanted to give me payment. I didn't think my articles were that good, so felt bad receiving money from him. He wrote me and said, "f I publish your article and don't give you money, it's not good for our accounting." He suggested that I mail the money to my home in Huangmei. He also suggested that if I wrote these articles and gave our society improvement, it would be quite meaningful. Mr Zhou actually mailed the money to Diqing. When I came back to Shanghai, she gave me all the money.
In the early part of October, Mr Wu came to Japan to survey. The YMCA asked me to receive him. This Mr Wu was a Guangxi military person of an elite branch. He was associated with the five top people in Guangxi. Mr Wu was full of ideas to improve society and very sincerely wanted to do it. When he was discharged from the military, he established a testing facility for hydraulics in the capital of Guangxi. He wanted to improve irrigation. He came to Japan mainly to look at the Japanese agricultural advancements. As for me, I had some ideas about farming coops especially aimed at farming villages. My ideas mainly were from my hometown, the real life situation in Huangmei. In Huangmei, most farmers worked on land that was inherited from their ancestors. Most families' food had to be provided by the fields they worked on. Besides the food they ate, some farmers grew cotton and flax. These farmers, after they consumed their family needs, sold the extra for money to support their families. As for other things like salt, sugar, tobacco, wine, tea, sauce, fabric for clothing, cloth, hard goods, farming tools, all these had to bought from a shop. Before they sold any extra produce, most farmers didn't have any cash. So these shops had to let the farmers buy on credit. But most shops charged interest. When the farmers sold their extra produce, at those times, the sale price was low because everyone was selling the same thing. But the interest had been compounding since they bought things. So usually the farmers are the ones who lost out. Every time a farmer wanted to sell their produce, the big city companies and lenders would send some representative to the country. Sometimes they convinced these farmers to sell to them at a lower value because a lot of the farmers needed cash fast. Since these people were coming to buy, they sold at a low price. These brokers, after buying at a lower value, transported the produce to the city and sold at high mark up.
Before dawn, wake sons, take advantage of morning to till,
Haggard ox, no strength, gradually hard to walk;
Common people don't know the farmers' suffering,
And say, the grain of the fields grows by itself.
1932 - age 31 (continued)
All these years in Japan, I lived a simple, frugal life. Besides when I graduated and took a trip with my fellow classmates to Guandong Guanxi, I seldom traveled for pleasure. After I started at my college department, my school work has lessened and I still had government money coming in. Usually, I had more spending money. One day, I went with my YMCA friends to take a trip around Japan's famous tourist spots: Riguang, Shanggen, Rihai, Ido. I also wrote poems about these places.
Since 1924 when I came to Japan, it had been eight years. My studies were almost done, so during the summer, I decided to go back to China. On July 20, I took a train from Tokyo to Changqi (Hiroshima). From Changqi, I took a ship. At that time between China and Japan, there was a regular shipping schedule. When my boat was close to Changjiang, and I could see Wusong, I wrote a poem and then I arrived in Shanghai and stayed at the China Arts & Literature Institute. It was built by earlier graduates Zou, Zhen, and Wang. Located in the French Concession, the building was big and wide and well managed. The rent was quite low because I was a member and I could move in right away. In the meantime, I asked the Institute to publish my articles on accounting basics.
After I settled in at the Institute, Mr Hu Zongyuan introduced me to Miss Xu Diqing. We agreed to all go on July 24 to Trinity Church on Jioujiang Road to attend Sunday service. On that Sunday, I accompanied by Zongyuan and Diqing accompanied by Lioujie (6th sister), we all went to church. After service, we all met at the door of the church. Because of so many years in Tokyo, I usually wore the student uniform. When I came back, I changed into a Chinese outfit: inside is a long pant and outerwear is a long robe. The one I wore that day was an old robe from many years ago, of bad material and out of fashion. It was quite short for me. After we got married, Diqing often said, "The first time I saw you, your robe was a foot from the ground."
After July 24, on the 25th, we had dinner at Gong Deling's vegetarian restaurant. That finished the introduction process. From then on, we just wrote letters. On the 26th, I accompanied Zongyuan on the express railroad from Shanghai to Nanjing, and then on the 27th, we took the ship from Nanjing to Jioujiang. From Jioujiang, I visited my Yang family side uncles and cousins, and visited my grandmother's old residence to pay respects. On the 28th, I started writing letters to Diqing. I started with, "Miss Diqing, this is the first time I've written a letter, and I don't know the appropriate way to address you, please forgive my ill manners. This letter I am mailing from Jioujiang, addressed to Four Banks, 60 Sichuan Road, Shanghai. I am using the return address Jioujiang, Main Road. I discussed with the company about using the address as your mailing address." This was the first letter I wrote to Diqing. I have kept it to this day. After we were engaged and married, any time we were not together, we wrote letters. Both sides would keep the letters, now probably several hundred letters. We always think, someday, we'll have a proper time and we'll let our kids and grandchildren and relatives read these letters for fun.
July 28th, after I wrote the first letter to Diqing, I crossed the river back to my hometown, Huangmei, which I had left for eight years. I paid respect to my parents and all my relatives. On August 3, I left home to Jioujiang and then took a boat to Hankou, then to Wuchang, and I stayed at the YMCA in Wuchang. Besides going to the Hubei provincial government to discuss the grant, I went to my middle and high schools to visit. On August 19, I took a boat from Hankou back to Jioujiang. On the afternoon of the 20th, I arrived in Huangmei and stayed for seven days. On August 27th, I took a boat from Jioujiang to Nanjing. On the morning of the 28th, I arrived at Xiaguang (a Nanjing port). I went to Zongyuan's family to visit them. On September 3, I took the express rail from Nanjing to Shanghai. I stayed at the Institute and now my important business was my engagement.
An important thing of an engagement is to buy a diamond ring. During my studies, I didn't have much money and in everything I was thrifty. But, I thought, an engagement is a once in a lifetime thing, and a token of covenant, I cannot make it too cheap. Because even if you have more money in later days, you cannot correct it. After I discussed this in detail with Diqing, we decided to buy a more expensive diamond ring. In order to be very prudent, we went a long way to a famous and dependable jeweler called De Kangxiang. They sell jewelry and jade. After looking back and forth, finally we agreed on one. On September 20, we celebrated our engagement. I still stayed at the Institute, Diqing still worked at Four Banks Deposits Union. After work, she usually came to the Institute where we had dates. We have lots of nice warm sweet memories of those times. Sometimes we had dinner together, sometimes we went to church service together, sometimes we went to see movies together. Summer vacation over on October 3, I took a ship back to Japan. On the ship, I wrote a poem called Going East in the morning at Huangpu. On my way to Japan, I passed by Senghu (Kobe), and arrived at Dongjing (Tokyo). After I arrived in Tokyo and resumed classes. I wrote many letters to Diqing and many poems.
My friend Zhou Xianwen (the one who started nianpu writing) started a new magazine called New China Magazine and he was the Editor in Chief. He asked me to write an article for the magazine. I wrote about the finances and economics of Japan. Later on, I wrote another article about the Japanese Congress. He wanted to give me payment. I didn't think my articles were that good, so felt bad receiving money from him. He wrote me and said, "f I publish your article and don't give you money, it's not good for our accounting." He suggested that I mail the money to my home in Huangmei. He also suggested that if I wrote these articles and gave our society improvement, it would be quite meaningful. Mr Zhou actually mailed the money to Diqing. When I came back to Shanghai, she gave me all the money.
In the early part of October, Mr Wu came to Japan to survey. The YMCA asked me to receive him. This Mr Wu was a Guangxi military person of an elite branch. He was associated with the five top people in Guangxi. Mr Wu was full of ideas to improve society and very sincerely wanted to do it. When he was discharged from the military, he established a testing facility for hydraulics in the capital of Guangxi. He wanted to improve irrigation. He came to Japan mainly to look at the Japanese agricultural advancements. As for me, I had some ideas about farming coops especially aimed at farming villages. My ideas mainly were from my hometown, the real life situation in Huangmei. In Huangmei, most farmers worked on land that was inherited from their ancestors. Most families' food had to be provided by the fields they worked on. Besides the food they ate, some farmers grew cotton and flax. These farmers, after they consumed their family needs, sold the extra for money to support their families. As for other things like salt, sugar, tobacco, wine, tea, sauce, fabric for clothing, cloth, hard goods, farming tools, all these had to bought from a shop. Before they sold any extra produce, most farmers didn't have any cash. So these shops had to let the farmers buy on credit. But most shops charged interest. When the farmers sold their extra produce, at those times, the sale price was low because everyone was selling the same thing. But the interest had been compounding since they bought things. So usually the farmers are the ones who lost out. Every time a farmer wanted to sell their produce, the big city companies and lenders would send some representative to the country. Sometimes they convinced these farmers to sell to them at a lower value because a lot of the farmers needed cash fast. Since these people were coming to buy, they sold at a low price. These brokers, after buying at a lower value, transported the produce to the city and sold at high mark up.
Sunday, December 09, 2018
1930-1932: Those who make do not wear
Silkworm Maids by Anonymous
Yesterday, arrived at the city,
Upon return, tears wet handkerchief;
From head to toe, silk wearers,
Are not the ones who tend silk worms.
1930 - age 29 (continued)
The new building of the business college was finished. All the classrooms and lecture halls were big and tall with modern ventilation and lighting systems. There were offices, dining rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms. The most impressive part was the library. The architecture was classical with a bell tower and stood facing a pond, beautifully landscaped. Inside, there were huge reading rooms and all the seats were so comfortable with huge tables. Every chair had a lamp. Those few years when I was at the school, besides spending time in classroom listening to lectures, the rest of the time I usually spent in the library. I had a favorite seat where I usually sat. After graduation, I left the school, and had very complicated emotions. The thing that was the hardest to give up was my seat in the library. Later on, when I was sent to Japan to work in the embassy or any time I had some business passing by Tokyo, I always visited my alma mater and had to go to the library to look at my seat. Don't you think that's kind of silly?
There was another student from Bowen High School, named Chen Shushen. He was two years ahead of me and he also had a full scholarship. This Mr Chen was a very talented young scholar. Every year, Hubei province had a special kind of exam for the students studying abroad. He scored the highest on this exam and was sent to the US to study. During this exam, he met a female student, also with the last name Chen, and she was a petite beauty. She took the exam and also passed and was sent to Japan to study. Mr Chen fell in love with Miss Chen and when he went to the US, he passed by Tokyo and came to me to help him find Miss Chen. Miss Chen, because she was so popular, when she arrived in Tokyo, everyone wanted to contact her. Because I was also from Hubei, I only saw her once. I thought Mr. Chen was so crazy about her, it wasn't appropriate. As a bystander, even though Mr Chen is a capable person, she has no reason to make his acquaintance. When I found out about the situation, I convinced him not to pursue her, advising him to take it easy. He went sadly on to the US. Later, he wrote me a letter from the US saying that he had found somebody else. In the meantime, he was hired by a newspaper to be an editor and asked me to write for this publication. I wrote an article about Japanese commerce and industry and mailed it to him. He published my article in the paper and in large print it said it was by Mr Qu from Tokyo, which made me feel uneasy as he made such a big deal about it.
1931 - age 30
The subjects I took in business school were accounting from Prof. Xiaye Zhitailang, economics from Prof. Futian, and business management from Prof. Santian. The business management class was the best in Japanese academia. There was also a class called banking and currency. This subject in this school was the authoritative course. Most of the professors who taught were the top in their field, lauded by the Japanese business industry. The one who had the highest honor was Mr Gaohuan. His lectures were so in depth and referenced the best Western European and American business schools. He was very good in English, French, German and was not only fluent but had studied their new knowledge. He was over the age of 80 and still worked very hard and loved to teach, a good professor. After the war, I was sent to Japan on government duty, and went to visit him. We talked about Taiwan's banking and currency and he gave me a lot of outstanding counsel. After I finished my government duties, and returned home, the late President Jiang called me to give a report and asked me what I learned in Japan. I used Mr Gaohuan's suggestions to reply. The late President Jiang valued the Japanese opinion. After he heard my report, he hesitated but told me if necessary, we could invite Mr Gaohuan to Taiwan to improve our currency and banking. I was very impressed with his conclusion. When I spoke with the President, I used Mr Gaohuan's Japanese name and he replied to tell me he used the Japanese pronunciation because he knew Japanese. Even though I knew he could speak Japanese, he hadn't used it in a long time. When he said Gaohuan, his pronunciation was so accurate I assumed he had a friend named Gaohuan as well.
In the business university, there was a system that all junior year students had to pick a research subject and choose an adviser for study and thesis. As for writing thesis, the subject and how you're going to write it, you had to have a proposal for the professor to approve. Some professors were very strict and we students were nervous to approach them, for example, Professor Santian. Another professor named Jingten, his way of teaching was more free and liberal. You could pick a subject as you liked. He didn't interfere, so most students chose him for adviser. For my thesis, because for the past few years I had written a lot about accounting basics, I wanted to compile my articles together. I went to Jingten and he approved it, I was grateful to him. Mr Jingten's subject was finance. He already had a PhD in economics. He published a book called Principles of Finance which was the best known in Japan. In Japan, many of the economics clubs united together and became a powerful group, almost as strong as the political groups. The united economic group was of citizens, not politicians. Every year, they had a lot of input in the tax system. Because most of the tax systems were implemented by political groups, they had a lot of influence. There was a person who was a leading researcher among these experts named Fanzhong. One day, I went to visit Mr Fanzhong at the united ecenomics group and I saw on his desk was a copy of Jingten's book. Prof. Jingten was elected as president of the business school and his students after all these years numbered about 700. There was a club called Ten Friends Meeting. Today, in Taiwan, of all the alumni of this business university, only Mr Yang Langzhou and I were members of Ten Friends. In the autumn of 1970, I was working in the embassy and Mr Yang passed by Tokyo and we made a special trip to Prof. Jingten's home to visit him. We brought a dozen bottles of Shaoxing wine as a present as he famously had an evening drink. Everyone was very happy about this visit.
There was a school requirement that besides English, every student needed to choose another foreign language: Chinese, German, French, Italian, or Spanish. Most Japanese students chose Chinese, reasoning 1) it was pretty similar to Japanese and would be easier to learn than a Western language, 2) if Japan wanted to expand, China is a good aim so the Chinese language would be useful, and 3) the one who taught Chinese was called Chang Jingren and it was easy to pass his exams. I am Chinese and didn't want to pick Chinese, so I chose French. The one who taught French was a French professor our university recruited with a high salary. He was very serious in teaching, that's why we all worked very hard. At the final exam, there were several people who didn't pass and needed more tutoring. I barely passed, fortunately.
The military was fighting in the north to unite China. One of the generals was from Hubei, Mr Hu Zhongtuo. He was the head of the 7th regiment. He won Wuhan and was assigned as Hubei's governor. He is the kind of person who has vision and sent his fifth younger brother to study in Japan. Mr Hu's family was from Huangmei and between his family and my family were only a few miles. The family of Qu and family of Hu had a lot of marital relations. This fifth brother who came to Tokyo, I accepted as a kinsmen. We were very close. At that time, he was a newlywed and brought his new bride Xu Lingqing with him to Tokyo to study. Everybody was very envious because he had a wife to bring with him to study. At that time, I was already an old hand in Tokyo and took care of a lot of their miscellaneous aspects of Tokyo life. Later on, they introduced me to Diqin. From engagement to wedding, everything was arranged by this couple. (In Chinese, lianjing is the name of the son in laws. Zouli is what the daughter in laws are called.) It is a honor for me to be Mr Hu's lianjing.
1932 - age 31
My grades in business school were average but the advisory professors thought I was pretty good in banking and currency. According to their standards, I needed to take more classes in insurance so they suggested that I delay my graduation to the following year and continue the government grant. But I reflected on my life, to have an opportunity to study is not common, but I was already 31. Compared to the average college kid, I was already ten years behind. Even though I was already late, I still wanted to take the opportunity to get more knowledge. So I decided to take another year. As for the study of insurance, I needed to learn under several professors. In order to read reference materials, after passing the French exam, I decided to study German on my own. Every morning, I needed to study at least an hour. The reason is that Japan valued German articles. A lot of the students studied German on their own. There were lots of materials to aid this endeavor for sale in the market.
Yesterday, arrived at the city,
Upon return, tears wet handkerchief;
From head to toe, silk wearers,
Are not the ones who tend silk worms.
1930 - age 29 (continued)
The new building of the business college was finished. All the classrooms and lecture halls were big and tall with modern ventilation and lighting systems. There were offices, dining rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms. The most impressive part was the library. The architecture was classical with a bell tower and stood facing a pond, beautifully landscaped. Inside, there were huge reading rooms and all the seats were so comfortable with huge tables. Every chair had a lamp. Those few years when I was at the school, besides spending time in classroom listening to lectures, the rest of the time I usually spent in the library. I had a favorite seat where I usually sat. After graduation, I left the school, and had very complicated emotions. The thing that was the hardest to give up was my seat in the library. Later on, when I was sent to Japan to work in the embassy or any time I had some business passing by Tokyo, I always visited my alma mater and had to go to the library to look at my seat. Don't you think that's kind of silly?
There was another student from Bowen High School, named Chen Shushen. He was two years ahead of me and he also had a full scholarship. This Mr Chen was a very talented young scholar. Every year, Hubei province had a special kind of exam for the students studying abroad. He scored the highest on this exam and was sent to the US to study. During this exam, he met a female student, also with the last name Chen, and she was a petite beauty. She took the exam and also passed and was sent to Japan to study. Mr Chen fell in love with Miss Chen and when he went to the US, he passed by Tokyo and came to me to help him find Miss Chen. Miss Chen, because she was so popular, when she arrived in Tokyo, everyone wanted to contact her. Because I was also from Hubei, I only saw her once. I thought Mr. Chen was so crazy about her, it wasn't appropriate. As a bystander, even though Mr Chen is a capable person, she has no reason to make his acquaintance. When I found out about the situation, I convinced him not to pursue her, advising him to take it easy. He went sadly on to the US. Later, he wrote me a letter from the US saying that he had found somebody else. In the meantime, he was hired by a newspaper to be an editor and asked me to write for this publication. I wrote an article about Japanese commerce and industry and mailed it to him. He published my article in the paper and in large print it said it was by Mr Qu from Tokyo, which made me feel uneasy as he made such a big deal about it.
1931 - age 30
The subjects I took in business school were accounting from Prof. Xiaye Zhitailang, economics from Prof. Futian, and business management from Prof. Santian. The business management class was the best in Japanese academia. There was also a class called banking and currency. This subject in this school was the authoritative course. Most of the professors who taught were the top in their field, lauded by the Japanese business industry. The one who had the highest honor was Mr Gaohuan. His lectures were so in depth and referenced the best Western European and American business schools. He was very good in English, French, German and was not only fluent but had studied their new knowledge. He was over the age of 80 and still worked very hard and loved to teach, a good professor. After the war, I was sent to Japan on government duty, and went to visit him. We talked about Taiwan's banking and currency and he gave me a lot of outstanding counsel. After I finished my government duties, and returned home, the late President Jiang called me to give a report and asked me what I learned in Japan. I used Mr Gaohuan's suggestions to reply. The late President Jiang valued the Japanese opinion. After he heard my report, he hesitated but told me if necessary, we could invite Mr Gaohuan to Taiwan to improve our currency and banking. I was very impressed with his conclusion. When I spoke with the President, I used Mr Gaohuan's Japanese name and he replied to tell me he used the Japanese pronunciation because he knew Japanese. Even though I knew he could speak Japanese, he hadn't used it in a long time. When he said Gaohuan, his pronunciation was so accurate I assumed he had a friend named Gaohuan as well.
In the business university, there was a system that all junior year students had to pick a research subject and choose an adviser for study and thesis. As for writing thesis, the subject and how you're going to write it, you had to have a proposal for the professor to approve. Some professors were very strict and we students were nervous to approach them, for example, Professor Santian. Another professor named Jingten, his way of teaching was more free and liberal. You could pick a subject as you liked. He didn't interfere, so most students chose him for adviser. For my thesis, because for the past few years I had written a lot about accounting basics, I wanted to compile my articles together. I went to Jingten and he approved it, I was grateful to him. Mr Jingten's subject was finance. He already had a PhD in economics. He published a book called Principles of Finance which was the best known in Japan. In Japan, many of the economics clubs united together and became a powerful group, almost as strong as the political groups. The united economic group was of citizens, not politicians. Every year, they had a lot of input in the tax system. Because most of the tax systems were implemented by political groups, they had a lot of influence. There was a person who was a leading researcher among these experts named Fanzhong. One day, I went to visit Mr Fanzhong at the united ecenomics group and I saw on his desk was a copy of Jingten's book. Prof. Jingten was elected as president of the business school and his students after all these years numbered about 700. There was a club called Ten Friends Meeting. Today, in Taiwan, of all the alumni of this business university, only Mr Yang Langzhou and I were members of Ten Friends. In the autumn of 1970, I was working in the embassy and Mr Yang passed by Tokyo and we made a special trip to Prof. Jingten's home to visit him. We brought a dozen bottles of Shaoxing wine as a present as he famously had an evening drink. Everyone was very happy about this visit.
There was a school requirement that besides English, every student needed to choose another foreign language: Chinese, German, French, Italian, or Spanish. Most Japanese students chose Chinese, reasoning 1) it was pretty similar to Japanese and would be easier to learn than a Western language, 2) if Japan wanted to expand, China is a good aim so the Chinese language would be useful, and 3) the one who taught Chinese was called Chang Jingren and it was easy to pass his exams. I am Chinese and didn't want to pick Chinese, so I chose French. The one who taught French was a French professor our university recruited with a high salary. He was very serious in teaching, that's why we all worked very hard. At the final exam, there were several people who didn't pass and needed more tutoring. I barely passed, fortunately.
The military was fighting in the north to unite China. One of the generals was from Hubei, Mr Hu Zhongtuo. He was the head of the 7th regiment. He won Wuhan and was assigned as Hubei's governor. He is the kind of person who has vision and sent his fifth younger brother to study in Japan. Mr Hu's family was from Huangmei and between his family and my family were only a few miles. The family of Qu and family of Hu had a lot of marital relations. This fifth brother who came to Tokyo, I accepted as a kinsmen. We were very close. At that time, he was a newlywed and brought his new bride Xu Lingqing with him to Tokyo to study. Everybody was very envious because he had a wife to bring with him to study. At that time, I was already an old hand in Tokyo and took care of a lot of their miscellaneous aspects of Tokyo life. Later on, they introduced me to Diqin. From engagement to wedding, everything was arranged by this couple. (In Chinese, lianjing is the name of the son in laws. Zouli is what the daughter in laws are called.) It is a honor for me to be Mr Hu's lianjing.
1932 - age 31
My grades in business school were average but the advisory professors thought I was pretty good in banking and currency. According to their standards, I needed to take more classes in insurance so they suggested that I delay my graduation to the following year and continue the government grant. But I reflected on my life, to have an opportunity to study is not common, but I was already 31. Compared to the average college kid, I was already ten years behind. Even though I was already late, I still wanted to take the opportunity to get more knowledge. So I decided to take another year. As for the study of insurance, I needed to learn under several professors. In order to read reference materials, after passing the French exam, I decided to study German on my own. Every morning, I needed to study at least an hour. The reason is that Japan valued German articles. A lot of the students studied German on their own. There were lots of materials to aid this endeavor for sale in the market.
Sunday, December 02, 2018
1929: Hermits and scholars
Reply to the People by Most Wise Hermit
Happen to come under a pine tree,
Without a care, a rock for a pillow.
In the mountain, there are no dates, no calendar,
The cold weather's gone, but what year is it?
He lived on Zhongnan Mountain.
1929 - age 28
The business university relocated to Guoliding and the university built several wooden buildings to provide temporary space for classes. The formal permanent site had not been yet constructed. On the right side, there was a lot of construction for a huge building of classrooms. The money was donated by one of the largest Japanese car manufacturers. From our university, several tens of graduates had taken the exam and worked for Jiansong. After several years, the other departments were jealous of the building. After a while, all the teachers were alumni. It was very easy to pass these classes and they profited the students. They planned to build a big building in memory of Jiansong. All of my classmates watched with their own eyes every level of construction: roof, walls, floors, decoration. We supervised from groundbreaking to completion. Our special department graduation was set in this building. Our diplomas have this building on it. My diploma is dated the 4th year of (Japanese) Emperor Zaohe's reign March 30. I received this diploma and have kept it until 1933.
I sent my diploma and my certification of BS in Business to the Bureau of Overseas Students to verify. As for the diploma issued by my business university, there was an attached clarification about my graduation from Wuchang Bouwen six years of high school. Because there had been an incident in 1933, I lacked proof of my Bouwen graduation. The Bureau issued a document to officially certify that I graduated Bouwen. When I graduated business college, my age was 28 but on the diploma it was listed as 32.
Graduating with us at Zaohe, there was a training facility for teachers. Their training was similar to a normal university. Their training and ours was more or less the same. The only thing was they had more instruction on how to teach. Most of the students in this program were from poorer families. After graduation, they needed to find a job immediately to help their families. That's why they enrolled in the teachers program because it was easier for them to find a job right away upon graduation. Even though we studied different subjects, after graduation, we united in alumnae association. We called our association Zaosi Menyang.
There was a famous graduate Zhentian Silong from the teaching program. He did not go into teaching and went to graduate school in business and later on got his doctorate degree. After he graduated, he started teaching there as a lecturer, then promoted to associate professor, then tenured professor, and finally president of the university. He would still attend alumnae meetings. Our alumnae association was called Zaoba (Zao was the name of the emperor, ba for 8th year). Later on, I went to more schooling. I was an automatic member. The Zaoba association had monthly meetings; I attended two to three times a year. Zaoba members had spent four years in the same class. Zaosi meetings were so joyous. Inside the Zao da hui they divided into six branches and I belonged one.
Happen to come under a pine tree,
Without a care, a rock for a pillow.
In the mountain, there are no dates, no calendar,
The cold weather's gone, but what year is it?
He lived on Zhongnan Mountain.
1929 - age 28
The business university relocated to Guoliding and the university built several wooden buildings to provide temporary space for classes. The formal permanent site had not been yet constructed. On the right side, there was a lot of construction for a huge building of classrooms. The money was donated by one of the largest Japanese car manufacturers. From our university, several tens of graduates had taken the exam and worked for Jiansong. After several years, the other departments were jealous of the building. After a while, all the teachers were alumni. It was very easy to pass these classes and they profited the students. They planned to build a big building in memory of Jiansong. All of my classmates watched with their own eyes every level of construction: roof, walls, floors, decoration. We supervised from groundbreaking to completion. Our special department graduation was set in this building. Our diplomas have this building on it. My diploma is dated the 4th year of (Japanese) Emperor Zaohe's reign March 30. I received this diploma and have kept it until 1933.
I sent my diploma and my certification of BS in Business to the Bureau of Overseas Students to verify. As for the diploma issued by my business university, there was an attached clarification about my graduation from Wuchang Bouwen six years of high school. Because there had been an incident in 1933, I lacked proof of my Bouwen graduation. The Bureau issued a document to officially certify that I graduated Bouwen. When I graduated business college, my age was 28 but on the diploma it was listed as 32.
Graduating with us at Zaohe, there was a training facility for teachers. Their training was similar to a normal university. Their training and ours was more or less the same. The only thing was they had more instruction on how to teach. Most of the students in this program were from poorer families. After graduation, they needed to find a job immediately to help their families. That's why they enrolled in the teachers program because it was easier for them to find a job right away upon graduation. Even though we studied different subjects, after graduation, we united in alumnae association. We called our association Zaosi Menyang.
There was a famous graduate Zhentian Silong from the teaching program. He did not go into teaching and went to graduate school in business and later on got his doctorate degree. After he graduated, he started teaching there as a lecturer, then promoted to associate professor, then tenured professor, and finally president of the university. He would still attend alumnae meetings. Our alumnae association was called Zaoba (Zao was the name of the emperor, ba for 8th year). Later on, I went to more schooling. I was an automatic member. The Zaoba association had monthly meetings; I attended two to three times a year. Zaoba members had spent four years in the same class. Zaosi meetings were so joyous. Inside the Zao da hui they divided into six branches and I belonged one.
During that time in Japan, there were two economics schools of thought: traditional and leftist. The leading professor of the traditional school was called Futian Deshan. The leftist school leading professor was He Songzhao. Futian had a lot of publications and was from the Adam Smith line of thinking. There were lots of scholars from England and Europe and traditional schools of business and established Japanese economic foundation. The leftist He Songzhao, his foundation of scholarship was Marxist. All his teaching materials were from Das Kapital. He was serious and strict about his teaching. Every year, he revised his teaching materials. His materials were translated into Chinese by Mr Chen. This helped the development of Chinese Communism and hurt the Chinese a lot. I am quite saddened by the effects of this translation. This year, I was promoted into the business department, I took a class by Futian. His class was so comprehensive and deep, I was impressed. There were other professors teaching about the history of economics and were all taught by these famous professors. There was a professor named Da Zuan, he did not seek fame but quietly did a lot of study and research. He translated Marshall's Principles of Economics. Before I took their classes, I knew nothing. After, I got in the door.
Inside China, there were lots of changes in the military. This branch of army called Northwest Expansion, led by Fong Yushang. In the western part of China, Mr Fong was a Christian and people called him General Christian. The director of the YMCA Ma Buoyuan used his position to contact Fong Yushang to convince him to follow more centrist views. Mr Ma also suggested to Mr Fong revolutionize his military base, which he accepted. Mr Fong sent twenty of his young officers to Japan for training. As for how these people were to go to military school in Japan and how to get money, Mr Fong asked Mr Ma to take care of. As for a lot of other matters, Mr Ma asked me to help. Because of this, I exerted a lot of time and effort. The good part was most of these young officers were excellent students and also had good character. One named Zhang Xiaofong, after he graduated, went back to China and made a lot of contributions to the improvement of the military. This is one of the memorable things of this year.
Inside China, there were lots of changes in the military. This branch of army called Northwest Expansion, led by Fong Yushang. In the western part of China, Mr Fong was a Christian and people called him General Christian. The director of the YMCA Ma Buoyuan used his position to contact Fong Yushang to convince him to follow more centrist views. Mr Ma also suggested to Mr Fong revolutionize his military base, which he accepted. Mr Fong sent twenty of his young officers to Japan for training. As for how these people were to go to military school in Japan and how to get money, Mr Fong asked Mr Ma to take care of. As for a lot of other matters, Mr Ma asked me to help. Because of this, I exerted a lot of time and effort. The good part was most of these young officers were excellent students and also had good character. One named Zhang Xiaofong, after he graduated, went back to China and made a lot of contributions to the improvement of the military. This is one of the memorable things of this year.
There is another related event, Mr Ma and Mr Fong contacted each other quite often. Many subordinates of Mr Fong--Misters Xe, Zhang, Liu--they all came to Japan and went through Mr Ma's management. Of special note was Mr Liu, who was my Hubei countryman. He was chief of staff for Mr Fong. He was quite smart, and had his family with him in Japan and he visited Mr Ma quite often. He told a true story as follows. He said: one year he was sent to Nanjing on business. Staying in one of the hotels, he went into the room and looked around for an emergency exit. He said, "This is my habit: every time I go to a new place, I look for an emergency exit. While I was looking around, one of the waiters asked me what I was looking for. I frankly said, 'I am taking a look at the exits so if there's a fire, I know where to go.' The waiter was unhappy at my speech in terms of superstition. I saw the waiter was upset and I thought, I would rather change hotels than be unwelcome here. So I changed hotels and, what do you know, that night the hotel had a fire. A lot of the guests were injured. What a coincidence!"
1930 - age 29
This year was my sophomore year. The most important class was the management of commerce and business, a required course. The professor was Santian Zhencilang, he was the highest of the Japanese scholars. He authored a book called Revolution of Wealth and it was most popular. He taught very strictly and had exams all the time. If your answer had a little mistake, you would not pass. Because it was a required class, we could not escape and our only choice was to study hard. Mr Santian also had a seminar, it was so tough. But many students applied for the seminar. Why? Because famous companies liked to hire graduates from our university and anyone who passed Santian's seminar had preference to be hired with high position and salary. Many years' results, proved this was truly a trend. That's why his seminar was such a hot class. Later on, professor Santian became president of the university. He had students everywhere. His residence was an old style Japanese house. After he retired, all his students gave money to build him a western style house with a beautiful garden for him to spend his retirement. There was a photo in a magazine of him sweeping leaves in his garden, showing he had very nice retirement years, looking like he was enjoying his life. The Japanese treat their retired scholars very well.
One of the directors of the YMCA Qu Dachen was sent back to China and his residence in Japan was vacant. Mr Ma assigned me to move in. At that time, Mr Liu, Mr Gao, all Mr Tang--all my countrymen--didn't have a place to live. They wanted to find a bigger house so they could all move in. When I moved into Mr Qu's house, the downstairs had a big room, I put a bed and desk there that fit comfortably. Upstairs were two bedrooms which could house four people, and there were only three who needed board. Later on, Mr Li joined us. Everyone had space. After we moved in, we divided household chores. I was in charge of groceries, Mr Gao was a good cook so he cooked. Mr Tang cooked rice. Mr Liu washed dishes. Mr Li was in charge of cleaning. Everyone was a government-sponsored student. Sometimes, our funding didn't arrive on time and when it came, it was sent in two or three month's worth of money. If they had a lot of money, they spent a lot, and if it was late, they were broke. When they didn't have savings, they didn't have food to eat. On the other hand, since I came from a poor family, I had the habit of being frugal. When I received money from the government, I deposited it in one of the accounts in the post office. When I accumulated so much money, I mailed it back home. When I came to Japan, I borrowed so much money from our relatives, I was gradually trying to repay my debt. The remaining money was for unexpected expenses. Since I was in charge of groceries, all the expenses like gas and rice and noodles, I paid monthly. And as for the others, when the government money came, they would pay me back. Most of the year, we lived in harmony. The desk I set downstairs faced a window and it was a good place to write and read. When I read, I usually recited aloud and across from the window lived a family named Neisan, facing their garden. Mr Neisan had a daughter who usually stood outside the window and listened to me recite. Every so often, she would pick flowers and give them to me. One evening, when I came back from school, when I entered my room, I smelled a beautiful fragrance. On my desk was a bunch of flowers in a vase and I knew they were from this little girl. The flowers were called Linglan, from the most northern island in Japan. Since these flowers were from far away, I appreciated her love. So I wrote a poem which I put in my collection.
1930 - age 29
This year was my sophomore year. The most important class was the management of commerce and business, a required course. The professor was Santian Zhencilang, he was the highest of the Japanese scholars. He authored a book called Revolution of Wealth and it was most popular. He taught very strictly and had exams all the time. If your answer had a little mistake, you would not pass. Because it was a required class, we could not escape and our only choice was to study hard. Mr Santian also had a seminar, it was so tough. But many students applied for the seminar. Why? Because famous companies liked to hire graduates from our university and anyone who passed Santian's seminar had preference to be hired with high position and salary. Many years' results, proved this was truly a trend. That's why his seminar was such a hot class. Later on, professor Santian became president of the university. He had students everywhere. His residence was an old style Japanese house. After he retired, all his students gave money to build him a western style house with a beautiful garden for him to spend his retirement. There was a photo in a magazine of him sweeping leaves in his garden, showing he had very nice retirement years, looking like he was enjoying his life. The Japanese treat their retired scholars very well.
One of the directors of the YMCA Qu Dachen was sent back to China and his residence in Japan was vacant. Mr Ma assigned me to move in. At that time, Mr Liu, Mr Gao, all Mr Tang--all my countrymen--didn't have a place to live. They wanted to find a bigger house so they could all move in. When I moved into Mr Qu's house, the downstairs had a big room, I put a bed and desk there that fit comfortably. Upstairs were two bedrooms which could house four people, and there were only three who needed board. Later on, Mr Li joined us. Everyone had space. After we moved in, we divided household chores. I was in charge of groceries, Mr Gao was a good cook so he cooked. Mr Tang cooked rice. Mr Liu washed dishes. Mr Li was in charge of cleaning. Everyone was a government-sponsored student. Sometimes, our funding didn't arrive on time and when it came, it was sent in two or three month's worth of money. If they had a lot of money, they spent a lot, and if it was late, they were broke. When they didn't have savings, they didn't have food to eat. On the other hand, since I came from a poor family, I had the habit of being frugal. When I received money from the government, I deposited it in one of the accounts in the post office. When I accumulated so much money, I mailed it back home. When I came to Japan, I borrowed so much money from our relatives, I was gradually trying to repay my debt. The remaining money was for unexpected expenses. Since I was in charge of groceries, all the expenses like gas and rice and noodles, I paid monthly. And as for the others, when the government money came, they would pay me back. Most of the year, we lived in harmony. The desk I set downstairs faced a window and it was a good place to write and read. When I read, I usually recited aloud and across from the window lived a family named Neisan, facing their garden. Mr Neisan had a daughter who usually stood outside the window and listened to me recite. Every so often, she would pick flowers and give them to me. One evening, when I came back from school, when I entered my room, I smelled a beautiful fragrance. On my desk was a bunch of flowers in a vase and I knew they were from this little girl. The flowers were called Linglan, from the most northern island in Japan. Since these flowers were from far away, I appreciated her love. So I wrote a poem which I put in my collection.
1928: Changed by the wind and determined
Kite by Tang dynasty poet Gao Ping
A quiet evening, sound of strings, clear sky,
Notes depend upon the direction of the wind;
Like a composed song appreciated,
Again changed into another key by the blowing wind.
1928 - age 27 continued
This year was my third year in Business University and I would graduate next year. I already had three consecutive years of military training, now I needed to conclude. Besides finishing coaching the students, I needed to take shooting lessons with real ammunition. They chose this lesson place by Fuji Mountain. There was a military place where they could do this kind of training. Most of the students from my same year, they all lived in this military camp and lived a total military person's life. The camp grounds were fields, without pavement or roads. We needed to run on it and also carry weapons. After three days of drills, we were all very tired, even though our minds were relaxed. At this time, there were some students who suggested that since we were at the bottom of Fuji Mountain and since it was climbing season, how about we form some mountain climbing groups. Once the suggestion was out, everyone wanted to go. Only our military teacher warned us: he said, this is our national mountain. At the bottom of the mountain, it was hot, but at the top, it was severely cold. If you were not well equipped, it was hard to climb. And if you didn't have confidence, please do not try. There was one military teacher who had visited China. Usually, he was very friendly with me. He specifically told me, you Chinese are not as physically strong, please do not participate. He meant well but I think he looked down on us Chinese so I told him, physically I'm not that weak and I want to participate, so he didn't say anything. Everybody formed groups and started climbing. The mountains roads were very rugged. And it was so hot, we were sweating drops. Gradually, as we climbed higher, it became cooler. There were lots of students who usually prided themselves in their physical strength but when they climbed the mountain, a lot of people collapsed. Some were altitude sick. They sat by the roadside and quit. I also felt very tired and hungry and cold and almost could not continue but I remembered what I had told the teacher and revived my will. I struggled like this off and on for eight waves of fatigue. Coming to a rest stop, there was a little house with mats on the floor for resting. Outside of the house there was snow that had been accumulating since the beginning of time. The ice has never melted and the wind pierced through your bones. We had several tens of people, everyone slept like a flower with their feet in the center with only one little blanket to keep our feet warm. The next morning, we wanted to watch the sunrise so we continued to climb and arrived at the summit. Mt Fuji used to be a volcano. When it erupted, the dried lava looked like embers. After the eruption, the summit became a big deep hole. Going through all the cold winters, it wasn't very scenic. Called the gold water and silver water, a residue of the past. My military teacher saw that I was quite well and walking upright and with strength. He praised me a lot. After we came back, I wrote a poem called "Climbing Fuji Mountain."
A quiet evening, sound of strings, clear sky,
Notes depend upon the direction of the wind;
Like a composed song appreciated,
Again changed into another key by the blowing wind.
1928 - age 27 continued
This year was my third year in Business University and I would graduate next year. I already had three consecutive years of military training, now I needed to conclude. Besides finishing coaching the students, I needed to take shooting lessons with real ammunition. They chose this lesson place by Fuji Mountain. There was a military place where they could do this kind of training. Most of the students from my same year, they all lived in this military camp and lived a total military person's life. The camp grounds were fields, without pavement or roads. We needed to run on it and also carry weapons. After three days of drills, we were all very tired, even though our minds were relaxed. At this time, there were some students who suggested that since we were at the bottom of Fuji Mountain and since it was climbing season, how about we form some mountain climbing groups. Once the suggestion was out, everyone wanted to go. Only our military teacher warned us: he said, this is our national mountain. At the bottom of the mountain, it was hot, but at the top, it was severely cold. If you were not well equipped, it was hard to climb. And if you didn't have confidence, please do not try. There was one military teacher who had visited China. Usually, he was very friendly with me. He specifically told me, you Chinese are not as physically strong, please do not participate. He meant well but I think he looked down on us Chinese so I told him, physically I'm not that weak and I want to participate, so he didn't say anything. Everybody formed groups and started climbing. The mountains roads were very rugged. And it was so hot, we were sweating drops. Gradually, as we climbed higher, it became cooler. There were lots of students who usually prided themselves in their physical strength but when they climbed the mountain, a lot of people collapsed. Some were altitude sick. They sat by the roadside and quit. I also felt very tired and hungry and cold and almost could not continue but I remembered what I had told the teacher and revived my will. I struggled like this off and on for eight waves of fatigue. Coming to a rest stop, there was a little house with mats on the floor for resting. Outside of the house there was snow that had been accumulating since the beginning of time. The ice has never melted and the wind pierced through your bones. We had several tens of people, everyone slept like a flower with their feet in the center with only one little blanket to keep our feet warm. The next morning, we wanted to watch the sunrise so we continued to climb and arrived at the summit. Mt Fuji used to be a volcano. When it erupted, the dried lava looked like embers. After the eruption, the summit became a big deep hole. Going through all the cold winters, it wasn't very scenic. Called the gold water and silver water, a residue of the past. My military teacher saw that I was quite well and walking upright and with strength. He praised me a lot. After we came back, I wrote a poem called "Climbing Fuji Mountain."
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