My ancestral home is Zhuozhou City, Hebei Province, and I grew up in Gaobeidian in the south of Zhuozhou. This place belongs to the northern end of North China Plain, which is the land of Zhao Yan. There are many generous and sad people here. Simple folk customs and open mind. In the Warring States period, Jing Ke bid farewell to yan dan's Xiaoshui before stabbing the King of Qin, which is in the west of my home. North of my home is the hometown of Liu Bei and Zhang Fei in the Three Kingdoms. Li Daoyuan, Zu Chongzhi, a great mathematician, Lu, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, Huineng, the founder of the Southern Sect of Zen, and Chen Qiao, who proclaimed himself emperor after the mutiny, are all closely related to my hometown. This is the Song-Liao border, in the Qigou area to the north of my home. Because of the confrontation between the two sides, there were tunnels excavated at that time. Gaobeidian in Yuan Dynasty is the only road to Baoding, where the famous Prime Minister Antong and his grandparents and grandchildren were buried. The tall tombstone describing their deeds was destroyed in the Republic of China, but the name of Gaobeidian, which is famous for it, has been preserved to this day. Although it is far away from Xixia, the classic architecture of Shi Wen in Xixia in Ming Dynasty was also found in the temple ruins in the suburb of Baoding in the south, which was the last historical witness before the death of Xixia descendants. The Xiling of the Qing Dynasty is only a few tens of kilometers away from Gaobeidian, where four emperors and their queens of the Qing Dynasty are buried. In the late Qing Dynasty, the Boxer Rebellion was in full swing, Gaobeidian was one of the centers, and Zhang Decheng, the eldest brother of the Boxer Rebellion, was from Gaobeidian. I studied from this land and went to the road of life.
I grew up in an ordinary peasant family. Parents are hardworking and simple, especially when the local people didn't pay much attention to education before and after liberation and family life was very difficult. Parents' persistent education for our five children is rare in the local area. I was late for school because of the war on the eve of liberation. 1948 studied in Gaobeidian primary school after liberation, and 1952 was admitted to Dingxing county middle school, a neighboring county in the south. After graduating from junior high school, he was admitted to Zhuozhou No.1 Middle School in the north to attend high school. After graduating from high school, he was admitted to the Chinese Department of Minzu University of China to study Yi language. I'm always among the best in school. Due to the difficulties of family life, the six-year middle school is given a grant by the state to solve most of the food expenses. When I was in college, the school controlled food and sometimes subsidized cotton-padded clothes. Without the support of my parents and the care of the government, it is difficult for me to continue my studies.
When I was in college, the main course was Yi language. Under the hard teaching of CoCo Lee (Han nationality) and Ashe (Yi nationality) in Wu Luo, I read and recite Yi words, sentences and texts every day, often with hoarse voice and foaming at the mouth. Fortunately, this kind of intensive learning has made us make rapid progress. By the end of my internship at 196 1 Xide County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, I had been able to speak fluent Liangshan Yi language and translate for the local county people's congress.
I will never forget the internship in Liangshan. When I went to school, I knew that the living conditions in Yi areas were poor. Until 1957, there was a slave social system rare in the world, and the productivity level was very low. 1957 after the democratic reform, cruel slavery was abolished and slaves turned over to become masters, but it was impossible to improve productivity and people's lives. When we 196 1 went to daliangshan for an internship, the hardships and hardships there even surprised me, a rural person who is not afraid of hardship.
In the hinterland of Liangshan, the mountain is high and the road is dangerous. The people take potatoes (potatoes) as their staple food and have two meals a day. Except for weddings, funerals and celebrations, they all boil potatoes and dip them in Chili soup. Bags, oats and so on all belong to flour, rice and so on. Most of the houses are made of earth, and the roof is covered with boards and fixed by stones. On the right side of the room is a fire pit, next to which there are three stone pots for cooking. Next to the fire pit is the place where the owner sleeps. Most of them are lying with clothes and no quilts. Livestock are kept on the left side of the house, and people and animals are separated by fences. In fact, people and animals still live in the same room. A platform is set up with wooden sticks above the livestock, which is called a "building". Sundries are stored upstairs for guests to live in. My landlords are two brothers. I have lived upstairs in their house for half a year. Every night, more than a dozen sheep sleep with me, and I can hear a baa cough from time to time. Winter is very cold, the temperature inside and outside the house is almost the same, often below zero, and snowflakes can fall on the face from the cracks in the roof panel. It stinks and stinks when it is hot. The number of lice there is amazing. If you feel itchy at night, take off your clothes with your host and shake it on the fire pit where there is still a fire. I can hear the crackle of lice falling into the fire pit. Poor local villagers often wear a sweater or a blanket for several years, or even for life. They generally have no shoes, walk barefoot in cold weather, and some soles have big cracks. My mind was shocked and purified here, which made me realize that there are still such poor and backward areas in China, and I strongly felt the responsibility of a national worker.
At that time, we participated in farmland labor and rural grass-roots work, and at the same time learned languages and recorded language materials in labor and work. I remember climbing the mountain with dozens of pounds of potatoes on my back in order to help my fellow villagers pay public grain. While learning the Yi proverb (Bi Er) from an old man, the old man taught me while walking and accidentally slipped. The potatoes in the basket rolled down a slope, and everyone helped him pick all the mountains. It was a difficult time and the food ration was low. After the internship, everyone was swollen because of malnutrition. The Yi people here are very simple, hardworking and intelligent. After they turned it over, they sincerely thanked the * * * production party and Chairman Mao, although some of them thought that the * * * production party was also a name. The special experience here has given me a feeling of being reluctant to part with ethnic minorities. In the following years, I dare not forget my minority compatriots who encountered difficulties in the investigation and research work.