Ye Jiaying, a famous scholar of China classical poetry at home and abroad, finally returned to her usual place.
Her return is very low-key, even many teachers and students of Nankai University who are in the same campus with her don't know it. Since the autumn of 20 14, Mr. Ye Jiaying, an academician of the Royal Canadian Society, bid farewell to the country of maple leaves and officially returned to Nankai University to settle down, ending his life of crossing the ocean like a migratory bird.
Migratory birds have lived in Ye Jiaying for 35 years. From 1979, she returned to Chinese mainland to give lectures every year, injecting poetry into the ancient "poetry country" which was in ruins at that time. In the nearest Nankai University, she founded the China Institute of Classical Culture and donated half of her pension-654.38+million dollars to reward teachers and students.
Now, 90-year-old Ye Jiaying has returned with all her "possessions". Those old suitcases of different sizes are pasted with notes marked "Information". She is ready for the return. In recent years, every time she crossed the ocean, she brought back some audio-visual and books, and she has already shipped back dozens of boxes. Ye Jiaying said that because she was too old to carry the box, her assistant, Miss Zhang Jing, helped her move it back.
These materials will be stored in a newly built quadrangle in China. This modern academy is named "Jialing Academy" after Ye Jiaying, and it is expected to be put into use on 20 15. The school is adjacent to Siyuantang, the oldest existing building in Nankai, in the east and Ningyuan, the former residence of Mr. Chen Shengshen, an international master of mathematics, in the west. It was specially built by Nankai to provide convenience for Mr. Ye's teaching, scientific research and life after he settled down. As soon as the news of the school came out, it was immediately supported by many people at home and abroad.
"I feel that I can't repay everyone's love for me, so I can only continue to work hard." Ye Jiaying said.
In her vision, even if one day she can't stand on the stage to give lectures, she can at least guide students to sort out the past research materials on poetry. After teaching for more than 70 years, she has accumulated thousands of hours of lecture recordings to be sorted out.
The younger generation is surprised by Ye Jiaying's enthusiasm for work. She personally revised the materials they compiled. She goes to bed at 2: 30 in the morning and gets up at 6: 30. Her life is extremely simple. Lunch is often a sandwich, a fruit and a cup of boiled water.
This is no different from her state many years ago. Lin, a student and researcher of Taiwan Academia Sinica, visited the University of British Columbia where she taught many years ago and stayed at Mr. Ye's home. The teacher's life gave her a "great shock". At that time, Ye Jiaying would prepare two sandwiches and two California oranges every morning, take them to the library, and make a drink at noon, thus spending the day. Even the staff of the library know that as soon as the library opens, Ye Jiaying will often appear.
Lin sighed. Everyone knows that Ye Jiaying has profound attainments in Chinese and Western cultures, but he doesn't know that it is this diligence that has made Ye Jiaying today.
Feng Qiyong, a red scientist, believes that Ye Jiaying's achievements in the study of China's classical poetry are second to none today. Taiwanese historians point out that, in a sense, Mr. Ye's greatest contribution is to "regenerate" China's classical poems. She not only wrote important academic papers, but also spread China's classical poems in the East and West like a missionary, and even told them to kindergarten children in detail. She did many things that noble poets or scholars did not want to do.
Before moving into Jialing College, Ye Jiaying taught students in her living room, just as she used to teach poetry to the children next door in Canada.
This special classroom belongs to China. A row of bookshelves stand along the wall, full of books on China's classical culture, dotted with some old photos. A wooden sign is engraved with the inscription "Jialing" by her teacher, Mr. Gu Sui. A picture of a lotus flower is a little yellow. On the coffee table, there are several small fish swimming in the dark green porcelain jar. Her usual blue and white porcelain cup is filled with clear water. Things that don't match the living room are small stools piled together, which are common in food stalls on the roadside.
Students often use small stools when they arrive at school. She has stopped recruiting new doctoral students, but every time she attends class, the spacious living room is crowded with people. There are about twenty or thirty doctoral students, master students and undergraduates attending classes together.
Zhang Jing told reporters that Mr. Ye has no shelf of a great scholar. She is very pure and unsuspecting. As long as the other person likes classical poetry, she will try her best to guide him when physical conditions permit. She also personally replied to some emails from foreign poetry lovers.
Several of the students are "repeat students" for many years. Yang Aidi, a middle school teacher in Tianjin, is one of them. Thirty-five years ago, Ye Jiaying began to take classes at Nankai University. Because of its popularity, it is necessary to issue attendance cards to maintain order. Yang Aidi, who was studying at Tianjin Normal University at that time, and some classmates carved chapters with radishes, made fake lecture cards and mixed them in. The proliferation of false certificates has led to only 200 attendance cards, but nearly 300 people have obtained "legal seats". For 35 years, these "repeat students" have been with you.
Wang Yuming, a 73-year-old academician of China Academy of Engineering and professor of Tsinghua University, is also an supernumerary disciple. On one occasion, he met a young female doctor in Nankai who instructed him, and said seriously that you should count me as a "teacher sister". I am a disciple of Mr. Ye. Academician became attached to Mr. Ye for writing poems, and he regarded their communication as his luck.
Not long ago, Ye Jiaying's Jialing Collection was reprinted, and a small press conference was held in this living room. During the interview, Teacher Ye often asked reporters: "Who can recite the first poem of 300 Tang Poems?" "Journalists are generally Chinese-related majors. What do you mean by' Fu, Bi and Xing'? " "Let's talk about what thoughts and feelings Du Fu expressed in Eight Poems in Autumn?"
This desire to know young people's familiarity with poetry by taking every opportunity stems from Ye Jiaying's concern for the inheritance of China's classical culture. More than once, she pointed out that today's young people are guarding the treasure of China's classical poems empty-handed. "When you enter Baoshan, you will return empty-handed."
The literary revolution nearly a hundred years ago is the "crux" that Mr. Ye thinks that China people are far away from poetry today. "China is a country of poetry. From ancient times to the Han and Wei Dynasties, and then to the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, China people have been writing poems, and they have all done well. However, the literary revolution advocated that everyone should not read old books and write old poems, which gradually cut off this tradition. "
Talking about the current situation of the lack of traditional culture in China, Mr. Ye, who has always been gentle, has many feelings. She said that many young people in China are depraved, corrupt and superficial. They lost their traditional culture and failed to accept western culture from the heart. It is a "great pity" that some young people are blinded by short-term utilitarianism and material desires and no longer realize the role of poetry in improving people's minds and quality.
Ye Jiaying thinks that China's classical poetry is a good way to cure this social malady. She said that poetry can "gain and lose, move heaven and earth, and feel ghosts and gods." Reading the excellent works of great poets has "great benefits" and will make people "improve themselves unconsciously"
These comments on poetry come from her decades of research and observation of life. Mr. Ye always mentioned all kinds of hardships in his 90-year life. In her eyes, poetry is a lubricant, which can cushion and push away troubles.
She used Su Dongpo's words "Don't listen to the leaves in the forest, why not sing and walk slowly" to illustrate the power she realized from her poems. "Sometimes it is not adversity that overwhelms you, but you are overwhelmed by it. The key is whether you care in your heart. "
Mr. Ye believes that Su Dongpo's open-mindedness in his writing is precisely because he "put aside his personal interests", which is also her own moral duty and life realm.
Every time the students lined up their small stools, Ye Jiaying recited those excellent poems in that unique antique and even tone. This small living room turned into a lecture hall in an instant, and people who attended the class often forgot to finish class because they were immersed in the poetic realm.
In Jialing Academy, there will be a bigger living room waiting for its owner. Ye Jiaying is looking forward to opening a door to attract those who don't know poetry. She regards devoting herself to poetry education as "a great pleasure". At most, she teaches at three universities at the same time. She said that her body has reached the stage of aging, and she has no energy when she was young, but she is still willing to do her best as long as someone asks her to teach.
She encouraged herself with the poems of Du Fu, a poet whom she admired very much. "It's enough to build a coffin, but this ambition is often forgotten.". She said she didn't know when she could do it. But as long as you can stand on the podium, you must do your best to spread the beautiful tradition of poetry.
"In fact, I think there are many very talented people among young people, but there was no chance to contact them in the past, and no one opened this door ... since I realized it, I wouldn't pass it on to my younger generation. I think I am sorry for the ancients and sorry for the young people. " Ye Jiaying said.
Many years ago, Ye Jiaying wrote a poem "Lotus should not die if it has a heart" for the Nankai horseshoe lake in Lianyetiantian. She learned from Archaeology magazine that lotus seeds in Han tombs can actually grow flowers for thousands of years. She said that the hot and cold days of life are easy to pass, but she has a "crazy dream" that "the spring will still bloom in a thousand years"-after a thousand years, the lotus seeds she made can still bloom.