Sitting Alone at Blessed Pagoda Mountain* by Tang dynasty poet Li Bai
All the birds fly high away.
Single cloud alone went quietly.
Won't tire of looking at each other:
There's only Blessed Pagoda Mountain.
*In An Hui province
1908 - age 7
Age 7 is the age you can go to home school (which is actually a private community school sponsored by a family who hires a tutor). My home school was located one house over from Wen Si's house. The teacher's name was Zhang. He was related to us by marriage and was a nice, kind, and patient educator. On the first day of class, your family prepared candles to honor Confucius, the utmost sacred teacher. Next is honoring your teacher (by kneeling before them). Then, honoring your classmates by bowing to one another. Having completed my ritual, I became a formal student of our Qu private school. The first task was learning the 3-word classic proverbs and Confucius' sayings. In those days, books had no punctuation, so the teacher used a red pen to add punctuation. All the students had to memorize and give recitation. After that came penmanship: we began with sheets of characters in red ink that we had to trace over with a pen. Before I left for the day, I paid my respect to Confucius and my teacher. If I met any elders on the way home, I bowed to them. When I arrived at home, I had to bow to my parents and the ancestral icon.
My house needed a lot of repairs. My dad remodeled our house, in a way. Besides the kitchen and bathroom, there were three bedrooms and a living room. My mother loved to keep house and tidy. Everyday she cleaned and dusted. The windows were clear and tables spotless. My extended family, when we had business meetings, usually met at my house. When I came home from school, my mom would watch me do homework. On the south side of my house, if you opened the door, you could see Lu Mountain. Later, when I grew older, I learned to write poetry. I wrote a poem about Lu Mountain in my book of poems.
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Sunday, December 03, 2017
1907: 3000, 9, 2, 70
Gazing at Lu Mountain Waterfall by Tang dynasty poet Li Bai
The sun shines on Incense Burner*, giving off purple smoke.
From afar, the water-cloth looks like a long hanging river,
The streaming flow drops down three thousand feet,
As if the Silver River** is falling from ninth heaven.
*name of the waterfall
**Milky Way
1907 - age 6 (cont.)
From our straw house, to the east, belonged the house of Paternal Uncle Da Muo, and on the west side, the house of Paternal Uncle Da Gu. I called Uncle Da Muo's wife Mama De. She and my mother were very good friends. Mama De loved me like her own son. Because our houses were next to each other, she took good care of me. Uncle Da Muo's oldest son, Mo Hai, was a year older than me, and I called him Elder Brother Hai. He was a good companion during my childhood.
On the east side of Uncle Da Muo's house, lived the Yang family. Their house was made of brick. The Yang family didn't till the field, they accommodated business people who were in the salt trade. On the Long River, there were many boats that transported salt. My family was located in a place called Two Outfit Port. On the port there was a tax booth. All the shipping boats had to pay taxes there. All the people who came on boats, besides paying taxes, docked for food and entertainment: gambling, bars, and prostitution (smoking flowers). These kinds of businesses made easy money but were disdained by the rest of the community.
To the east of the Yangs lived the Yo and Cai families. These two families were decent business people.
Further east lived Yu Zaoxiang. The Yu family had a tall brick house with gardens. The Yus and our neighbors the Weis were the prominent families in our neighborhood. The Yu's third son, Kaisan, was two years older than me, and I knew him because we were neighbors. Later on, after I left home to study, Kaisan also went to higher education in Jiangxi. And after he graduated, he taught at school and became quite a famous teacher. Kaisan also went to Japan to study. When he finished studying in Japan and returned to China, I had already finished studying in Japan and was working at the Central Bank, he passed through Shanghai to pay me a special visit. When the Communists took over the mainland, Kaisan fled from home and, stopping by several places, came to Taiwan. He taught at National Taiwan University until retirement. Mr. Yu lived very close to Guling Street. When I retired, he and I became even closer. He is my friend of seventy years. Because we cannot go back to our hometown, we became even closer in Taiwan. In Taiwan, he is the only person who has known me for seventy years, that's why I've made special note of this year.
The sun shines on Incense Burner*, giving off purple smoke.
From afar, the water-cloth looks like a long hanging river,
The streaming flow drops down three thousand feet,
As if the Silver River** is falling from ninth heaven.
*name of the waterfall
**Milky Way
1907 - age 6 (cont.)
From our straw house, to the east, belonged the house of Paternal Uncle Da Muo, and on the west side, the house of Paternal Uncle Da Gu. I called Uncle Da Muo's wife Mama De. She and my mother were very good friends. Mama De loved me like her own son. Because our houses were next to each other, she took good care of me. Uncle Da Muo's oldest son, Mo Hai, was a year older than me, and I called him Elder Brother Hai. He was a good companion during my childhood.
On the east side of Uncle Da Muo's house, lived the Yang family. Their house was made of brick. The Yang family didn't till the field, they accommodated business people who were in the salt trade. On the Long River, there were many boats that transported salt. My family was located in a place called Two Outfit Port. On the port there was a tax booth. All the shipping boats had to pay taxes there. All the people who came on boats, besides paying taxes, docked for food and entertainment: gambling, bars, and prostitution (smoking flowers). These kinds of businesses made easy money but were disdained by the rest of the community.
To the east of the Yangs lived the Yo and Cai families. These two families were decent business people.
Further east lived Yu Zaoxiang. The Yu family had a tall brick house with gardens. The Yus and our neighbors the Weis were the prominent families in our neighborhood. The Yu's third son, Kaisan, was two years older than me, and I knew him because we were neighbors. Later on, after I left home to study, Kaisan also went to higher education in Jiangxi. And after he graduated, he taught at school and became quite a famous teacher. Kaisan also went to Japan to study. When he finished studying in Japan and returned to China, I had already finished studying in Japan and was working at the Central Bank, he passed through Shanghai to pay me a special visit. When the Communists took over the mainland, Kaisan fled from home and, stopping by several places, came to Taiwan. He taught at National Taiwan University until retirement. Mr. Yu lived very close to Guling Street. When I retired, he and I became even closer. He is my friend of seventy years. Because we cannot go back to our hometown, we became even closer in Taiwan. In Taiwan, he is the only person who has known me for seventy years, that's why I've made special note of this year.
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