1909: Hermits and Catholics

In Reply to Ordinary Mountain People by Li Bai

They ask me, "Why do you stay in the green mountain?"
Smiling, though no reply, my heart is naturally at ease:
Peach blossoms* and flowing water quietly go;
Another heaven and earth, mortals don't enter. 

*A famous essay names a certain paradise Peach Blossom Garden.


1909 - age 8

I continued to go to school and the teacher began to teach us the Four Classics and started penmanship. In that time, in my country, we had shortage of all materials: pens, ink, paper. We had to go to Jioujiang to buy things, our family income was low and we didn't have extra money to buy these things. Any school books and pencils and supplies we had, we had to take very good care of, especially paper. We treasured paper very much. Because of this shortage, we built the habit of saving everything. Even later on, when I was working in banks, I still used envelopes and wrote notes on both sides. Any books of paper, I never threw away. Miserly to a point that I laughed at myself. 

After I went to school, I visited my grandmother as a student. My grandmother moved to a new place, still in the same district. Her landlord's name was Wei. He had one son and one daughter. The son's name was Da Bao, the daughter's was Xiao Yu. They were Catholics. One day, Da Bao and Xiao Yu brought me to church for mass. The church had western architecture and was huge, with freshly painted tables and chairs, chandeliers, and an organ. Everything was luxuriously pretty. This was the first time I experienced western culture.