1933: Changes

Something Like a Dream (Spring Dawn) by Song dynasty poet Li Qinzhao 1081-1145

Last night rains slight winds blow,
Deep sleep not gone wine's show.
Try asking the one who draws the shade,
Her reply the begonias remain in row.
Do you know? Do you know?
The red shall wither, the green shall grow.

China's most famous female poet. She had a pamphlet of all her poetry, most of which are very famous. There is a story that she and her husband were both literature lovers but most people valued her as more talented than her husband. Once they both wrote a poem and gave them to someone else to exam, and the ones her chose were predominantly written by her. At the time, her poems were more famous than her husband's. Sometimes, he worked really hard to make several poems and asked one of his friends to evaluate. Unfortunately, this friend said these three sentences are the best--they were quoted from his wife. From that time on, he admitted she was much better.

For the first part of her life, they had a good marriage and life was nice even though they weren't rich. After her husband died, her life became sad and sorrowful and her poems reflect that.


1933 - age 32

Ever since I got the government grant for my studies, I saved as much as I could. Every month, there was some leftover and when it reached a certain amount, I mailed it back home to Huangmei for my family to pay back my debts and for their household expenses. So the financial situation of my home improved a little. The past August, when I went home, it was already pretty good. My mother ran the household well and there wasn't much lacking. My father had a little enjoyment: he took a little wine with each evening meal.* My younger brother Siling was already grown and he helped with the farming at home. The previous year, in October, when I had returned to Tokyo and I still had thirty Chinese dollars in my account. In January, because of the lunar new year, I sent $20 home. Even though $20 wasn't a lot, because our hometown living standards were low, it was a big help.

When the new year started, the most important thing I needed to do was prepare for my graduation exam. According to the business university regulations, if I took all the required classes and passed the examination, I would have a bachelor's degree. This year, March 15, I finished all my exams and on the 28th, we had our graduation ceremony. I received my diploma of a bachelor's degree. This diploma and my 1929 diploma from prep school I sent to the Chinese Bureau of certifying students studying in Japan. After they examined both documents, they sent me another certificate which was dated China Year 22, which was 1933. On the certificate there was my name and birthplace and the date of my graduation and from which department. I was done with my higher education.

After graduating from university, there were two major things I need to do: 1) find a job; 2) get married. In view of my present situation, I needed to find a job first, then talk about marriage. I left the doors of the university with just me and myself. In those days, everything was getting more expensive. If I got married, our lives would depend on my paycheck. In those days, most of my fellow classmates had strong family networks and didn't have to worry about finding a job. Some people participated in political parties and had lots of connections. As for me, I didn't have either. Ever since I went to business university, I only wanted to do real work to serve the society. I didn't aim at either fame or wealth. But at this time, I received a letter from Guangxi from Mr Wu. He sent me a letter asking me to take a job in Guangxi because he had founded a hydraulic farming company and he wanted me to be their accountant and designer. He also sent me 200 dollars for traveling. The way he sincerely wanted to hire me was very touching. However, I had some considerations at this time: 1) even though I had the highest education in business university, it was only book knowledge and I didn't have any real business experience. I needed to have an internship, even if for a short time, it would still be very beneficial for me; 2) according to the transportation facilities at the time, Shanghai and Nanjing were centers and Guangxi was remote. For a young person who had just come out of school, if I went to such a remote place, what would happen if I found out the job wasn't suitable? I wouldn't have much chance of change. Also, I was already engaged to Diqing and we wanted to get married soon. So wherever I went, I needed to discuss it with her. So at this point, I returned the money and told Mr Wu, whether I come to Guangxi or not, I need to decide after I get back to Shanghai.

In this bureau was a man named Ye Caojun from Jiangsu. He and Pan Xulen were relatives. I told Mr Ye about my intention to get an internship in business. Mr Ye suggested I tell Mr Pan directly. Mr Pan was a leader in business in China at that time. When the country started (1911), he came from a poor family, but studied really hard. Both his Chinese and English were highly valued. After the revolution, there was an overseas company that wanted to expand their business in China. They hired Mr Pan and sent him to the US to have advanced studies. After he finished studies and came back, he established several companies including a legal and accounting firm in China to regulate and audit systems. Besides that, he also opened some tutoring places to train people. He made many contributions to China at that time. So I followed Mr Ye's suggestion and wrote a letter to Mr Pan stating I had just graduated and would like to know if he could give me an internship opportunity. Pretty soon, I got his reply saying, "When you get back to China, you can come to my accounting company to work." He also asked me buy several books from Japan. There was another Mr Cen from Guangxi Liouzhou. He asked me to buy a lot of hydro facility books.

As for my job search, this first step was settled. As for the eight years studying in Japan, I needed to conclude my sojourn and the life of being a student. Besides all these people asking me to buy books and packing, a lot of my acquaintances and friends knew I was returning to China. So everyone came to say farewell, there were lots of farewell parties and dinners and suddenly I was very busy and full of things to do. In the following, I'm going to record a few of the most important things.

*My mom adds her grandpa kept that up when he lived with them in Taiwan, drinking Gaoliang which is sorghum liquor.

1932: The price of fish

Fisherman on the River by Song dynasty Fan Zhongyen

On the river, people come and go,
Everyone loves the taste of bass;
You see one slip of a boat,
To and fro in the wind and waves. 

Fan Zhongyen was a governor and was famous for saying, "I am ahead of all in concerns of state affairs; as for pleasure, I am behind all."

1932 - age 31 continued

I thought, to solve this problem, to form farmer co-ops. These co-ops, since they are organizations, can help farmers spend money and buy their necessary merchandise. As a co-op, the capital sum is greater than any individual's. This helps with purchasing, transportation, and expenses. They can lower their price when they buy and raise the price when they sell. They can save the farmers a lot of money and headache and give them a lot of convenience. Besides these, the department of agriculture had new methods of fertilization, irrigation, breeding technology and advances to make the farmers' lives richer and better. Mr Wu made lots of surveys of these organizations and returned to Guangxi, China very satisfied.

The director of YMCA, Mr Zhang Qinjian, was a hard worker and fervently wanted to serve people. Besides his job at the YMCA, he also wanted to improve the education of the children of the overseas Chinese. He established an overseas school and was the principal. He wanted me to teach at the school. I viewed this as a benefit to the Chinese society here and also I was and continue to be a patriot, so I happily accepted and volunteered to work without pay. In December of this year, Mr. Zhang had to go on a business trip for a week and he asked me to cover his principal's job. I gladly agreed to this. Mr Zhang, besides running a school, also partnered with several Japanese friends to open a Chinese restaurant called Beijing Pagoda. I went there a lot because it was low-priced and served foods with a hometown taste. [In July 1970, I was in Taipei at the time, and received a phone call from a friend, Mr Zhu. He had recently gone to China as an American citizen and met Mr Zhang's two daughters in Hankou. Both of them wrote letters asking Mr Zhu to send them to me. In the letters, they wrote to say Mr Zhang had died the year before and that they didn't know what had happened to Beijing Pagoda because Mr Zhang had returned to China in a hurry. (Note: "worldly things foggy mystifying, where to start writing? where to end?" an emotional statement indicating how out of our control life is and how we grow nostalgic especially when someone dies.)]

1932: Farming families

Farmer's Family by Five Dynasties poet Yen Renyu

Before dawn, wake sons, take advantage of morning to till,
Haggard ox, no strength, gradually hard to walk;
Common people don't know the farmers' suffering,
And say, the grain of the fields grows by itself.

1932 - age 31 (continued)

All these years in Japan, I lived a simple, frugal life. Besides when I graduated and took a trip with my fellow classmates to Guandong Guanxi, I seldom traveled for pleasure. After I started at my college department, my school work has lessened and I still had government money coming in. Usually, I had more spending money. One day, I went with my YMCA friends to take a trip around Japan's famous tourist spots: Riguang, Shanggen, Rihai, Ido. I also wrote poems about these places. 

Since 1924 when I came to Japan, it had been eight years. My studies were almost done, so during the summer, I decided to go back to China. On July 20, I took a train from Tokyo to Changqi (Hiroshima). From Changqi, I took a ship. At that time between China and Japan, there was a regular shipping schedule. When my boat was close to Changjiang, and I could see Wusong, I wrote a poem and then I arrived in Shanghai and stayed at the China Arts & Literature Institute. It was built by earlier graduates Zou, Zhen, and Wang. Located in the French Concession, the building was big and wide and well managed. The rent was quite low because I was a member and I could move in right away. In the meantime, I asked the Institute to publish my articles on accounting basics. 

After I settled in at the Institute, Mr Hu Zongyuan introduced me to Miss Xu Diqing. We agreed to all go on July 24 to Trinity Church on Jioujiang Road to attend Sunday service. On that Sunday, I accompanied by Zongyuan and Diqing accompanied by Lioujie (6th sister), we all went to church. After service, we all met at the door of the church. Because of so many years in Tokyo, I usually wore the student uniform. When I came back, I changed into a Chinese outfit: inside is a long pant and outerwear is a long robe. The one I wore that day was an old robe from many years ago, of bad material and out of fashion. It was quite short for me. After we got married, Diqing often said, "The first time I saw you, your robe was a foot from the ground."

After July 24, on the 25th, we had dinner at Gong Deling's vegetarian restaurant. That finished the introduction process. From then on, we just wrote letters. On the 26th, I accompanied Zongyuan on the express railroad from Shanghai to Nanjing, and then on the 27th, we took the ship from Nanjing to Jioujiang. From Jioujiang, I visited my Yang family side uncles and cousins, and visited my grandmother's old residence to pay respects. On the 28th, I started writing letters to Diqing. I started with, "Miss Diqing, this is the first time I've written a letter, and I don't know the appropriate way to address you, please forgive my ill manners. This letter I am mailing from Jioujiang, addressed to Four Banks, 60 Sichuan Road, Shanghai. I am using the return address Jioujiang, Main Road. I discussed with the company about using the address as your mailing address." This was the first letter I wrote to Diqing. I have kept it to this day. After we were engaged and married, any time we were not together, we wrote letters. Both sides would keep the letters, now probably several hundred letters. We always think, someday, we'll have a proper time and we'll let our kids and grandchildren and relatives read these letters for fun. 

July 28th, after I wrote the first letter to Diqing, I crossed the river back to my hometown, Huangmei, which I had left for eight years. I paid respect to my parents and all my relatives. On August 3, I left home to Jioujiang and then took a boat to Hankou, then to Wuchang, and I stayed at the YMCA in Wuchang. Besides going to the Hubei provincial government to discuss the grant, I went to my middle and high schools to visit. On August 19, I took a boat from Hankou back to Jioujiang. On the afternoon of the 20th, I arrived in Huangmei and stayed for seven days. On August 27th, I took a boat from Jioujiang to Nanjing. On the morning of the 28th, I arrived at Xiaguang (a Nanjing port). I went to Zongyuan's family to visit them. On September 3, I took the express rail from Nanjing to Shanghai. I stayed at the Institute and now my important business was my engagement. 

An important thing of an engagement is to buy a diamond ring. During my studies, I didn't have much money and in everything I was thrifty. But, I thought, an engagement is a once in a lifetime thing, and a token of covenant, I cannot make it too cheap. Because even if you have more money in later days, you cannot correct it. After I discussed this in detail with Diqing, we decided to buy a more expensive diamond ring. In order to be very prudent, we went a long way to a famous and dependable jeweler called De Kangxiang. They sell jewelry and jade. After looking back and forth, finally we agreed on one. On September 20, we celebrated our engagement. I still stayed at the Institute, Diqing still worked at Four Banks Deposits Union. After work, she usually came to the Institute where we had dates. We have lots of nice warm sweet memories of those times. Sometimes we had dinner together, sometimes we went to church service together, sometimes we went to see movies together. Summer vacation over on October 3, I took a ship back to Japan. On the ship, I wrote a poem called Going East in the morning at Huangpu. On my way to Japan, I passed by Senghu (Kobe), and arrived at Dongjing (Tokyo). After I arrived in Tokyo and resumed classes. I wrote many letters to Diqing and many poems.

My friend Zhou Xianwen (the one who started nianpu writing) started a new magazine called New China Magazine and he was the Editor in Chief. He asked me to write an article for the magazine. I wrote about the finances and economics of Japan. Later on, I wrote another article about the Japanese Congress. He wanted to give me payment. I didn't think my articles were that good, so felt bad receiving money from him. He wrote me and said, "f I publish your article and don't give you money, it's not good for our accounting." He suggested that I mail the money to my home in Huangmei. He also suggested that if I wrote these articles and gave our society improvement, it would be quite meaningful. Mr Zhou actually mailed the money to Diqing. When I came back to Shanghai, she gave me all the money. 

In the early part of October, Mr Wu came to Japan to survey. The YMCA asked me to receive him. This Mr Wu was a Guangxi military person of an elite branch. He was associated with the five top people in Guangxi. Mr Wu was full of ideas to improve society and very sincerely wanted to do it. When he was discharged from the military, he established a testing facility for hydraulics in the capital of Guangxi. He wanted to improve irrigation. He came to Japan mainly to look at the Japanese agricultural advancements. As for me, I had some ideas about farming coops especially aimed at farming villages. My ideas mainly were from my hometown, the real life situation in Huangmei. In Huangmei, most farmers worked on land that was inherited from their ancestors. Most families' food had to be provided by the fields they worked on. Besides the food they ate, some farmers grew cotton and flax. These farmers, after they consumed their family needs, sold the extra for money to support their families. As for other things like salt, sugar, tobacco, wine, tea, sauce, fabric for clothing, cloth, hard goods, farming tools, all these had to bought from a shop. Before they sold any extra produce, most farmers didn't have any cash. So these shops had to let the farmers buy on credit. But most shops charged interest. When the farmers sold their extra produce, at those times, the sale price was low because everyone was selling the same thing. But the interest had been compounding since they bought things. So usually the farmers are the ones who lost out. Every time a farmer wanted to sell their produce, the big city companies and lenders would send some representative to the country. Sometimes they convinced these farmers to sell to them at a lower value because a lot of the farmers needed cash fast. Since these people were coming to buy, they sold at a low price. These brokers, after buying at a lower value, transported the produce to the city and sold at high mark up.