When I was in Foping Middle School, Mr. Chen happened to be the head teacher of another class at the same level. Although he didn't take my place, Mr. Chen's exquisite teaching art and rigorous academic demeanor have long been famous and admirable both inside and outside the school. After the publication of teacher Chen's prose collection Deep in the Qinling Mountains, I heard about it long ago, but I dared not ask for it rashly and failed to read the excellent works in time. Years ago, Foping Literature and Art was published, with Mr. Chen as the editor-in-chief. He made an appointment with me and got in touch with me. During the conversation, he was deeply moved by Mr. Chen's humility, generosity and approachability. Asking for a book from Mr. Chen, Mr. Chen soon sent a signed masterpiece, Deep in the Qinling Mountains, which made him very happy. He read it again and again and felt a lot.
Deep in the Qinling Mountains contains more than 65,438+000 excellent essays written by Mr. Chen from 2065,438+02 to 2065,438+05, with 240,000 words. In the book, Mr. Chen tells the trivial things he experienced in his life with the brush strokes of prose, and shows us the great changes that have taken place in Foping County for half a century.
This is a history that has passed. Looking back at this period of history, we can not only see the beauty of Foping's natural ecology, but also see Foping's simple folk customs, people's living conditions of living and working in peace and contentment and the bright future of innovation and development in the new era.
The history of Foping County is not very long. In the past many years, although it was only an unknown town deep in the Qinling Mountains, it was sacred and tall in the eyes of Foping people, and it was a "big city" that everyone yearned for. County people eat "public meals", live in buildings, go to work every day, relax and enjoy a superior life, which is incomparable to rural people. However, teacher Chen's Deep in the Qinling Mountains tells us that the county people who live in the alleys, rivers and hills outside the walls of the county government have never been spoiled. They also experienced poverty and hunger, and stubbornly fought against fate.
Every essay in the depths of the Qinling Mountains tells a vivid story. Teacher Chen's careful observation of a little thing, an object, an animal and a tree in life triggered feelings and directly expressed his feelings. Although these stories are fragmentary, they are connected in series through the thread of time, which constitutes a complete development history of Foping County for nearly half a century.
The opening "Afraid of Trees" wrote, "In front of my house, by the wall of the county government, there is a big Alsophila tree, which can only be surrounded by four or five people holding hands. I used to play under trees when I was a child in the sixties and seventies. " It seems that I missed a big tree, but in fact I pointed out the background of that time. In Mr. Chen's childhood memory, materials were extremely scarce. He had to "go down to the tree to pick spiny fruits, save some to dry, take them to the county medicinal materials company to sell, and exchange more than one yuan for pens and exercise books." This is a true portrayal of real life in that era. Another example is Cherishing Xiaohegou, which reads, "In the 1960s, the water intake point was right next to my house, less than 100 meters away from the street. In the 1970 s, the water intake point moved up more than 20 meters, in the 1980 s, it moved up more than 20 meters, and in the 1990 s, it moved up more than 30 meters. " These descriptions with obvious marks of the times truly reflect the development and changes experienced by the county.
From the shabby houses, depressed streets and barren land in the 1960s to the high-rise buildings, shops on both sides of the street are thriving, highways and special railway lines have built bridges connecting with the outside world, and Foping County has undergone earth-shaking changes, just like a bright pearl embedded in the depths of the Qinling Mountains.
"Deep in the Qinling Mountains" does not focus on describing the beautiful life of county people today, but uses a lot of pen and ink to review past life experiences. For example, "Herbs Picking in the Mountain" wrote, "At that time, the conditions of every family were not good, because there were many sisters in my family, and the conditions were even worse. When I knew that herbs could be sold for money, I made an appointment with my friends, carrying a backpack and carrying a board hoe up the mountain to collect herbs. " "I used to be a blaster" wrote, "1In the winter of 975, I graduated from junior high school. Because of my poor family, I dropped out of school and went home to work in the production team. At that time, I was only fifteen years old. After a day's work, I can remember seven divisions of labor, which is equivalent to the work points earned by a woman. " Another example is "Experiencing Hunger", which is written because we are so hungry. "Me" and my friends stole the "stubborn mother and son" from the neighbor's house and the apples from the production team, which makes people laugh and cry, but also makes people sad. People who haven't experienced hunger can't understand that helplessness. I think what teacher Chen wrote is reasonable. Everyone can experience the beautiful life of the moment and see it with their own eyes. There is no need to describe too much. On the contrary, they know little about the hard times in the past. Revealing this experience will produce a strong contrast, which will make people cherish the present and work hard.
The first concern of the deep Qinling Mountains is the natural environment in which we live. Although Foping is known as the "natural oxygen bar" with a forest coverage rate of over 90%, with the development of social economy, the natural environment has been destroyed to some extent and punished by natural disasters. The "6.9" flood in 2002 and the "8.30" flood in 2007 all sounded the alarm for the people of Foping. Teacher Chen called on people to enhance their sense of hardship, fear life, care for the environment and create a more harmonious natural living space. A dead pine tree, a small sparrow, a spiritual snake, a human puppy and even an annoying toad in the middle school campus can arouse Mr. Chen's sympathy. We can't forget the little black horse that was exhausted alive, which severely whipped the greed of human nature ("injured horse"); We can't ignore the intensification and interference of human activities on weather changes, which leads to the invalidation of agricultural proverbs ("weather proverbs are ineffective"); We can't tolerate criminals killing wild protected animals in disregard of national laws and regulations in order to satisfy their appetite (the cry of wild fish in Qinling Mountains); We shouldn't let the canal built on the mountain become the killer of wild animals (Black Boy of Wild Animals). Fortunately, these phenomena, which violate the laws of nature and destroy the ecological balance, have attracted more and more people's attention and are being gradually curbed and improved. I believe our living environment will get better and better.
Through a series of touching stories, Deep in the Qinling Mountains celebrates the greatness of family ties. In "Calm the Soul", my father helped Teacher Li, who came all the way from Anqing City, Anhui Province, to find his relatives, so that the wandering soul finally had a home. My father lives a simple life and loves to wear liberation shoes. Punctuality and trustworthiness are inseparable from the horseshoe clock that looks at time; Love learning, care about current affairs, and never stop reading newspapers and books; Father is proficient in finance and will use abacus to sort out the accounts clearly; My father is proficient in cooking. When neighbors meet weddings and funerals, there is always his chef ("remembering my father"). My mother had a hard time and raised seven children. In the most difficult time of family life, she took out the last one dollar and exchanged it for five dollars, which solved the problem of eating that day. In such a difficult time, even if she eats little or nothing, she will give alms to the children who come to beg; She keeps her family life in order and must feed her father twice a day, because she knows that his father is the only labor force in the family and cannot fall down. In order to solve the problem that everyone in the family eats meat, mother often gets up in the middle of the night to make tofu for the canteens of government agencies, in order to leave bean dregs for pigs; Mother is charitable, and whenever her relatives encounter difficulties, she tries her best to help them; Mother's life in her later years is calm and indifferent, advocating fasting and chanting Buddha, and doing good with all her heart, while persuading people to do more good deeds and seek peace (mother's feelings). Big sister is beautiful, loves to learn, writes well, looks decent and capable. She can not only do housework, but also help her father do manual work. In the evening, she dragged a rickshaw to the mountains in more than twenty miles to cut wood and sell money to supplement her family. My sister is a good dancer, a pillar of the propaganda team, and a girl who got off the boat while playing with lights. Even in middle age, she is still the best dancer in the "Sunset Red Art Troupe"; Big sister is in high spirits, and she dares to stand up and theorize when she meets bad people (big sister). After reading these touching stories, we clearly saw the diligence of our father, the kindness of our mother, the intelligence of our sister, and the vivid images of our three relatives, which left a deep impression on us.
In the depths of the Qinling Mountains, Mr. Chen used several chapters to express his persistent pursuit of education as a national excellent teacher and a provincial star principal, as well as his thoughts on the current education system. For example, in "Afraid of Trees", the school engages in greening, and he insists on keeping a few big trees, because he wants to increase the sense of campus and let students know the truth that fear of the Lord begins with fear of big trees; For example, the Huashan pine in Unforgettable Campus died after years of wind and rain, but its vigorous and tenacious life course of more than 40 years inspired generations of students to make progress and study hard; For example, "A Difficult Donation Process" truly reproduces Foping Middle School, which was severely damaged in the "June 9" flood. With the strong support of all walks of life, the teachers and students of the school are United and determined to tide over the difficulties together; In Let Swimming Be No Pain, it is proposed that students should not be deprived of the right to learn swimming because of safety problems, and it is called on the government to carefully build swimming pools for middle school students so that students will no longer pay the price of their lives when learning to swim. In an eternal dream, Teacher Chen didn't go to Foping Middle School for historical reasons. When he became the headmaster of Foping Middle School, he thought, "I am redoubling my efforts to manage this school as well as I can, so that students in my hometown will never leave regrets about not going to school and not getting good grades!" The heart of an educator with conscience and responsibility is vividly on the paper.
Every article in Deep Qinling Mountains is rigorous in layout, complete in structure, seemingly straightforward, but full of ideas, which implies a shocking light of reason. I think this has something to do with Mr. Chen's long-term engagement in senior high school mathematics teaching. As we all know, when solving high school math problems, we must think carefully, have sufficient arguments, use formula theorems flexibly, and demonstrate the results in the simplest way. The whole demonstration process requires reasonable and impeccable evidence, just like the creation process of a mathematical paper. Teacher Chen obviously used this style in writing prose. Most articles in the depths of Qinling Mountains have the same rhythm, with few ups and downs. The paragraphs seem to be interspersed at will, but in fact they are cleverly arranged and reasonably laid out, just like powerful arguments, which are interlocking and essential. Until the end of the article, at the end, I suddenly stopped to express my views, never dragging my feet and read to my heart's content. For example, Let Swimming Be No Pain is a good illustration of this point. This paper lists the safety accidents in different periods and regions in ancient and modern times, and finally leads to the view that "let students learn to swim without paying the price of their lives", which is natural and reasonable. There are many such articles, and readers can slowly experience them.
The language of Deep in the Qinling Mountains is plain and straightforward, completely following the inner true narrative. Although the creative intention of prose lies in lyricism, Mr. Chen did not decorate the artistry of the article with gorgeous rhetoric. Instead, they use a lot of dialects and simple narrative language, such as heart-to-heart communication with people. We need to taste slowly between the lines in order to understand Mr. Chen's broad feelings. This kind of lyric, gentle and quiet, just right, can't stop.
Deep in the Qinling Mountains is a good book worth reading. After reading too many vain and impetuous empty articles, the original ecological characters from the depths of Qinling Mountain will naturally shine at the moment. This is teacher Chen's painstaking work, and it is also a copy model for beginners. If you read it carefully, you will certainly benefit a lot.