1937 Part 2

1937 - age 36 continued

I'm staying at Mr. Li's rented house. But there's no one taking care of cooking and cleaning so it wasn't very convenient. At that time Lingqing and her husband lived in Jiwujianxiang No. 65 Lane. They had a spare room where I could stay, so I moved into the Hu household on March 14. There Sixth Sister [puopuo's older sister: in the nuclear family they were Er, San (my grandma), Si, Wu who were in their generation Liu, Ba, Jiu, Shi respectively] lived with them also and she took care of cooking and cleaning; even so, I felt uncomfortable because there were so many people living there. I went back to inquire about any vacancy at the YMCA and the director gave me preference because I had served at the other YMCA. So I moved in on March 29 and there's a dining hall so it was much more convenient. One afternoon, my boss, Mr. Wu needed to visit the former Secretary of the Interior, Mr. Li. Mr. Li came from Hubei and was a scholar, very humble and sincere. He related a lot of experiences of working in the Department. He came to bring me with him to Mr. Li's home; a very Western home with a beautiful yard, by the lake. 

I worked in Wuchang. Aside from having lunch with my colleagues, I usually do not participate in private dinner parties. So usually I can eliminate changes for people to try to bribe me. Then one day I received an invitation from my old friend's father Xu Zhendong. Mr. Xu's father, when I went to Japan, came to pick me up. So I remember him real well. And also he gave me some clothes to wear when I was so poor as a student. I received an invitation to a private party at their house. Because of our old friendship, I did not decline. The party was at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. When I arrived, there were several guests already there. These guests were playing majiang in one of the side rooms. I usually do not play majiang so I was waiting in this large sitting room and the servants served many snacks and drinks. Mr. Xu hadn't gotten off work yet so I was waiting for him. The party was already going until past 6 o'clock and they finished eight rounds of majiang. Mr. Xu arrived and so we started dinner. Because this kind of party is the old way of living wasting precious money and time. I wrote a letter to Diqing, at first when I arrived at the Department of Interior to work and improve the farmers' standard of living, a hundred-year endeavor. I viewed the environment around them and doubted whether we would succeed or not. I didn't like this way of working and sometimes thought I would rather go back to Shanghai to work in the bank and do some research on the economy. At this time, I waited for an opportunity to do that. 

There was an iron mine in Hubei. And people said there was a lot of iron in this mine. Because the mine was concentrated at 60% and it wasn't very deep and close to the surface. So when you mined, you don't have to do a lot of work. It was cheaper to mine. The factory in charge of mining wasn't very big. The majority of the mine was sold to Japan. The Japanese company, years ago in the beginning when Japan was working on this mine, usually they got the iron cheaply. In this case, this mine isn't the property of a person, but government property. But in the history of mining, people took it as their own property; if they want to sell cheap they'll sell cheap. There's no regulation. So they sold cheaply to Japan. Because Japan enjoyed this cheap mine, they gave kickbacks to these individuals. By the time I started working there, this Japanese company had already developed to a large operation; a major company in Japan because with iron, they made steel. This Japan Steel Company, I interacted with representatives because they knew I knew Japanese. I started negotiating with them. I wanted to get rid of the kickbacks. So my boss wanted me to do this and I told him I didn't want to continue negotiating because I didn't want to be involved with kickbacks. I wanted to resign and my boss spoke to the Governor, Mr. Huang. The Governer and my boss told me we needed to report to this to Nanjing Central Government. So I need to go with them and take an express ship from Wuchang to Nanjing because of the urgency I didn't have time to pack. So I asked the director of the YMCA to do it for me. Because of this situation, this is the conclusion of my service in Wuchang. 

1937 Part 1

1937 age 36

This year was a big turning point for China. The first thing is about the Hubei governor, originally a person named Yang Yongtai from Guangdong. He was a very ambitious and capable person, trusted by the Hubei people. Even though he was governor of the one province, the neighboring Jiangxi, Henan, Sichuan governors came to consult with him. Mr. Yang was proud to be their head. His policies were very strict; once he used a ruler to mark a red cross on a map of Wuchang City. He sent this map to his department of buildings. Wherever the red cross marked, they were to take down all the houses to make the streets wider. According to his description, it was very dictatorial. There were many examples like this. So he had a lot of enemies. The year before, he was riding on his private boat from Hankou to Wuchang. He was assassinated at the port. After this incident, there were big changes politically. The central government assigned the governer of Zhejian, Huang Saoxiong, to become the governor of Hubei. They asked Zhejiang Secretary of Interior Wu to be the Secretary of Hubei. When Secretary Wu was traveling to Hubei to his new post, passing by Shanghai, he stopped by especially at the Central Bank's Committee of Special Research. He especially thanked my boss for assigning me to help the work in Zhejiang for the past year. Mr. Wu said my help was a great accomplishment. Now that he was going to Hubei, he wanted me to have a leave of absence from the Central Bank and go to Hubei to work for him at the secretariat. He knew my studies in Japan had been sponsored by Hubei's government and said, "Now is the time for you to pay them back." So the Central Bank approved the procedures for me to return to Hubei to work. 

When Diqing and I got married, we settled down in Gubuo Gongyu in Shanghai and we have two babies, Shu-Dong and Shu-Shi. Our lives were pretty smooth: good job, good living. Yet, at this time, we had a new trend: that is our relatives from Huangmei, either close relatives or from the same tribe, they would come to visit us in Shanghai. I was working and going to school for many years outside of my birthplace. I usually didn't have close contact with my kinfolk and missed them a lot. Now, when they came to visit, I really enjoyed them. Most of my tribesmen lived in Huangmei for generations, working in the fields and growing crops. They seldom traveled outside the village. Now they said: wow, Shanghai is the most modern city and business port. Now that they have somebody settled in Shanghai, they can have a place to stop and visit. Also, we'd guide them around to see places. It's a good chance for them to see the city. Besides, Diqing had a good reputation for hospitality and being nice to the tribe's people. Usually, she paid for their traveling and bought them shoes and gave them presents. Making everybody very happy. My late mother came to Shanghai to help out when Diqing gave birth to Shu-Dong and Shu-Shi. Because my late mother was the one who took care of the household in Huangmei, after the baby and new mom settled down, she cannot stay too long in Shanghai and must return to take care of the household in Huangmei. My late father had more leisure time so if he came to Shanghai, he could stay longer. When my late dad came to Shanghai, he loved his grandson Shu-dong best. Just like I love Huangen (my oldest grandson), now I understand why he loves Shu-dong the best. My late dad stayed in Shanghai for a while and then got homesick. At that time, I had already asked the Central Bank to give me vacation time to go to Wuchang, so I could accompany my late father to board the Jiangan Lun, this boat was newly built and the cabins were clean and my late father and I had two beds in one cabin. Even though we stayed in one room, it was pretty nice; I can read and write and it was very convenient. This boat is not only for passengers but also for cargo. So it takes a whole day for the cargo to load. Also, it stopped at every port from Shanghai to Wuchang. Because of the many stops and fog on the river, it traveled very slowly. It took three days to arrive in Nanjing and another day from Nanjing to Wuhu. On the fourth day in the evening, we arrived in Jioujiang. I took my late father to my cousin Yang Chenyi's so he could rest. Also my brother Siling was in Jioujiang, afterward, he would accompany my dad back to Huangmei. I continued on the Jiangan Lun and, on the evening on the fifth day, arrived in Hangkou and then crossed the river to Wuchang. I was going to stay at the YMCA but it was full. So I and another colleague Li Jingxi, who had already rented a big house, lived together. On the sixth day, I went to work to see Secretary Wu. We talked for two hours and in the afternoon I returned to the house Mr. Li rented. I spent two whole days writing down the plan of our work. Later on, most of my assignments would proceed from this plan. 

In the province of Hubei, because of the change in governer, all the department heads followed suit. When Mr. Yang was governor, he added a new department of Land Management. The department head was Mr. Yang. He was mysterious and famous, from Fuzhou, Fujian. He came from a poor family and been through lots of lowly difficult jobs. But later on, he was outstanding in his studies and he became a very innovative ambitious enterprising person. He was sent to travel abroad. He was very good at management, whether big or small. All his plans and policies were very effective and efficient. So he was appreciated by most of his colleagues. When Mr. Yang handed off his job to the new group, they found some billing and receipts that could not be reconciled. So a lot of people thought this was a good time to expose him: 'da luo shui go' (hit a drowning dog with rocks). But Secretary Wu was an upright and kind person. He was quiet for a while among the others badmouthing Mr. Yang. Secretary Wu thought for a while and then came to me to ask me for my opinion. I usually would keep quiet because this thing doesn't have anything to do with me. But since Secretary Wu asked my opinion, I gave it to him. I said when the Land Management department was newly formed, Mr. Yang came from outside, he didn't work that long and now had to change jobs. Probably because of the short period of time and many changes, he neglected some small details. My opinion is that he didn't deliberately embezzle or mismanage funds; and for these small unreconciled points, just let it go. Also, we are all colleagues, sometime later, we might need to give the job to somebody else. My opinion was: do not severely punish Mr. Yang. So Secretary Wu let him go and didn't investigate. Someone probably heard about our exchange so one of Mr. Yang's friends came to thank me because I never met Mr. Yang. It wasn't favoritism, I merely gave my fair and impartial judgment. 

I worked for the Department of Infrastructure. Because I was valued by Secretary Wu, any time there was something important, he usually came to me to discuss. The other colleagues, despite rank, also got along very well with me so I worked very happily there. At that time, China had just started to get into a normal situation. There were lots of people looking for jobs. Sometimes even with low paying jobs, many people fought for them. A lot of the time, people took backways and bribes to get jobs; disreputable things were going on. My department, for the sake of convenience, gave me a secretary job title. Every month, my salary was $300; this was next only to the department head. The department was involved in lots of important issues: agriculture, forestry, engineering, mining, transportation on land and water, and also most of the building and planning all involved my department. So there were many many people coming to apply for the various jobs in this department. My head secretary Mr. Wu did not like to talk to people, so he asked me to do the interviewing. I am a scholar, not a diplomat. Rather than complicate things, I am a 1+1=2 guy. If the person is qualified, I hire them. If not, I tell them they probably can't get the job. I tell them so they don't waste their time. I simplify and make things efficient. So various people appreciated me for making things clear. 

1936: The final paragraphs of an eventful year

1936 - age 35 continued

The main reason Secretary Wu invited me to Hanzhou was that in 1932 I had suggested a plan to improve the livelihood of the farmers. He thought it was a plan that was feasible. This idea came from my Business College professor who had a theory about co-op farming and I did research on British plans of co-ops. I also made a lot of references from Japanese agricultural improvements. This time when I came to Zhejiang province, my main focus was building warehouses to store agricultural product. What was involved in this plan was to choose a town or village where there are more farmers and a bigger area for growing crops. We would invite the leaders of these towns and villages, the ruling class knowledgeable, to a conference to explain what the government plan was for improving their livelihood. Also, after we conferenced with these leaders, we would choose a piece of land as a pilot. We chose a place that was not susceptible to flooding and had access by road for means of transportation. We asked the provincial government to collect money from the villages and towns and the provincial government would supplement any needed amounts of money. On our pilot property, we would build a big warehouse to store the agricultural products. There were a lot of architectural requirements for the warehouse: safe, secure from rain and flooding. This warehouse would be a showpiece to demonstrate to the farmers that their product would be stored safely. They would become members to use the warehouse and they would pay a membership fee. At peak production, the price would drop. With the warehouse, they wouldn't have to sell at harvest. They can control the price much better. And if some members had a special need, they could take a loan from the co-op. With this provincial government plan, the livelihood of the farmers could be improved and they wouldn't have to be poor year-round. For the management of the system, there were committees but the management would be chosen by the farmers. We launched this plan in Hanzhou and gradually spread to the rest of the province. Because it needed to be proved successful first before the rest of the province wanted to adopt it. The rest of the province had a lot of positive response. So much that the neighboring provides of Jiangxi wanted to do similar things. 

This year was very busy with Shu-dong's illness and the birth of Shu-Shih and also traveling back and forth between Hanzhou and Shanghai. Even though I was very busy, I still did a lot of research on my college major: currency and financing. My old friend, Mr. Lei, he's a very patriotic person. He established a new research group called Building New China and also a monthly magazine telling about what the group was doing. In this group and magazine, they published a lot of people's articles and plans. Mr. Liu, Mr. Ma, Mr. Xu, Mr. Lo, and also they asked me to be involved. Most of the articles I wrote were about currency and financing. Mr. Lei himself published a lot of books he compiled or edited. Inside one of his publications said that during the twenty-five years of China's recent history, since the Opium War, China is experiencing one difficulty after another. And Dongbei (east-north, Manchuria) was occupied by Japan. All the northern provinces were at war because the  Japanese were fighting to occupy the country. China had to experience all the turmoil of war, there was no time to do any building up or strengthen the country. In his publications, he always called the people to be zealous for patriotism, we can't let this beat us, we need to unite and fight. The traditional Chinese philosophy says that every single person is responsible for the life of the country. Every little person has some responsibility. Not just a small group. He wrote a lot of these kinds of articles, calling people to wake up and do their part. I wrote about financing during this unusual time of chaos and wart. I wrote a book mainly about inflation, currency, credit, and management. This little book I brought to Taiwan and I treasure it. 

[During Gonggong's time, most Chinese went through unsettling: fleeing from the enemy or no peace. Like my dad, they kept on moving from place to place. Hard for families to do research and things like that.]

This year, I traveled between Shanghai and Hanzhou many many times. Besides the room and board, and transportation in Zhejiang province was paid by the government, the rest of my traveling expenses were paid by myself. Because when I was sent to Hanzhou, it was a temporary basis, so I wasn't paid by the bank. For my work in Zhejiang, I wasn't paid. Until December of this year, Mr. Wu, my boss, asked the government payroll to give me some compensation for my expenses. The one who brought the money to me was Mr. Li. He said, "Mr. Qu, I saw you were a very disciplined, upright person. You would rather be mistreated for a year than to complain. But now Mr. Wu has done the right thing and not taken advantage of his employees. Now, you have the money to have a nice new year. 

This year, in December, there was a big event: Jian Jiesi was captured in Xi'an. [My dad was born during this time. This Xi'an Incident changed the whole military situation of China.] If you want to research this incident, there is a lot of writing on this so I won't go into detail. One thing we were very grateful for was that Jian Jiesi was in danger for quite a while. Every morning, he very calmly read his bible and prayed. On Christmas Day, Madame Jiang flew to Xi'an and brought him back to Nanjing safely. That morning, he was reading the bible Jeremiah 31:22 How long will you waver, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing on the earth: a woman encircles a man.” I believe Acts 27:25 So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. The whole nation celebrated his return, this was a big turning point in our nation and a big turning point in my biography. 

[The communist version of Xi'an Incident is much different, obviously; history is written by winners.]

1936 - age 35 cont: My mother is born

1936 - age 35 continued

The first time I planned to go to Hanzhou, the departure and arrival times were set. But just before I needed to leave, Shudong started to have a fever. I thought he was catching a cold. I asked Diqing to cover him with more blankets to help him sweat it out. I thought after he sweated he would be fine, and I deaprted. We didn't know that if a child already has a fever and you make him warmer it gives them seizures. Diqing asked for help from Bao Cenliang, a famous physician. Also, she asked me to return to Shanghai immediately. I had just arrived in Hanzhou, "and you want me to return." Fortunately, I didn't need to because Dr Bao gave him some medicine which helped Shudong come out of danger.

The second time I went to Hanzhou, I stayed in a club belonging to the Infrastructure Department. It was by Xihu (West Lake), located in a nice place. Because the secretary gave special orders, all the people gave me excellent service, they did everything to please me. On Saturday, because of the weekend, many people came to Xihu to enjoy the scenery. There were so many people, only late at night did people return home. During the day, I was busy working for the department and I didn't have time to look around. After I went to bed, I woke up in the middle of the night and looked out the window. There was a very nice reflection off the lake. A thin fog hovered over the lake. With the moonlight and everything it was so nice and quiet. The beauty of the lake was even better than it was during the day. Spontaneously, I got up and asked the manager to hire someone to row a boat for me. There was a boat that belonged to the department so I didn't need to rent a boat but I did need someone to row it. He took me around the lake in the middle of the night. We passed by the bridges and mountains that were famous at Xihu. We went through all the tourist spots including the Qing dynasty governor's temple. This temple was usually inaccessible by people during the day. But I took special notice because this governor was from Huangmei. Once every three years, the government holds a national exam. This Governor Xuai got the highest marks in the preliminary exam and third in finals. There was a prime minister at the end of the Qing dynasty Zhen Guofan. He called them the Honorable Foursome, along with Xuai the other three were all very famous. Governer Xuai did a lot of good for Zhejiang, so the people set up a temple for him. When I was a child, when we started learning at home, I already knew Xuai Tanhua's (3rd place) name. Now at night, I was seeing his temple, I felt some connection with him. In the past, there was a poet who wrote: Some famous people, when you read their writing you feel close because you came from the same place. I took Governor Xuai as my close relative. For this trip, I wrote a set of four poems called Xihu Yan Fan.

Diqing was pregnant again but during the pregnancy she became ill and depended on Dr Bao several times for medicine. So she was fine until June 14 at 7:15 AM when our second child was born. With her first child, labor was so long and we had called the doctor early. So this time, we thought we should not call the doctor too early. We didn't realize this baby girl would be born so fast. Before the doctor came, she had already come out and cried so loud. None of us knew what to do. I took a blanket and covered the baby so she wouldn't catch a cold. After delivery, we called the doctor. We were so nervous. Fortunately, the doctor came very fast and she took care of the baby and the mother. Both were fine and we thanked God for his mercy. This is our first daughter and we named her Shushi and her personality is quiet and nice, just like my mom. Chinese people say you inherit traits from one generation above.