1913: Half the story

Passing Fragrant Collection Temple by Wang Wei

Don't know Fragrant Collection Temple,
Several miles into the cloudy mist,
Old tree, no path for people,
Deep woods, from where comes the bell?

Editor's note: this poem has eight lines, I only presented four. 

1913 - age 12

A half mile south of my hometown, across the river, is a town called Lusi Que (Missing Crane). A stone bridge connected my town to Lusique, a historical site, which most people around our area knew about. After crossing the bridge, a half mile more, was Wujia Wan (The Wu Family Oxbow), a big village. Between the Wu family and Qu family there were many marriage relations. There was a family Wu Guanggui that was quite wealthy, and that year, they had an only son whom they wanted to educate. So they spent a lot of money to invite Mr. Wu Renqin, who was from Huangmei, to come and open a school. They accepted a lot of kids in the area--so I could attend. My parents told me to go to this school. Mr. Wu was very well educated and had a nice character. He liked me and knew my family was poor, so he waived my tuition. I had more than ten classmates, they were all nice to me. Among them, Guo Weikai was especially nice to me. This school, because the teacher was nice and the schoolmates were harmonious, was well respected in the community. Teacher Wu had some business to take care of, he needed to build his house, so he invited another person, Mr Li Xiqiao, to help teach. Mr Li was also from Huangmei and graduated from Wu Chang (Huangmei's capital) Law School. Mr Li was an excellent teacher and taught us writing and poetry. 

My grandmother was getting old. She needed people to take care of her. Because my mom had her own family here and could not go to Jioujiang, we moved grandmother to our house. My grandmother was very well liked by our town folk. She had a lot of friends and was very popular. Ever since she moved in, our extended relatives as well as our close family often came to visit her and pay her respects. She had a very pleasant end of life, these years. This winter, she died (wu ji er zhong 'ended without illness'--a blessing). My parents took good care of the funeral and were praised by all the people in the community for their proper mourning.