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.
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