Ren fusheng
Weixiu Garden is opposite to yenching university (now the West Gate of Peking University), formerly known as "Hanfang Garden", and covers an area of 100 mu and is square. Earlier, many royal gardens were built around Haidian, including Shuchun Garden and Shaoyuan, a painter and calligrapher in the late Ming Dynasty. In the east of Weixiu Garden, Weixiu Garden was bought by yenching university and built into a world-famous campus-Yanyuan Garden. To the west is the beautiful and unique Chengze Garden in Yi Kuang of the Qing Dynasty. His prime minister has been engaged in diplomacy and is a frequent place for foreign ministers of various countries. To the south is the Changchun Garden in the heyday of Kangxi 300 years ago. To the north is the world-famous Yuanmingyuan.
1858, Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty gave it to Yi Xuan, the half-brother of his seventh brother. In September, Yi Xuan18th birthday, his sixth brother, Prince Gong Yi? The poem "Beautiful Garden Asked Qiu Guang, Yellow Birthday Banquet" tells the grand occasion of opening the garden for birthday. In that winter, Emperor Xianfeng named it "Weixiu Garden". Seven lords happily wrote in his poem: the garden road is winding, the bridges are flowing, the old trees are strange, the bamboos are in the way, the vultures are bathing in the water, the partridges are heard, the Jiangnan is idyllic, and you are wandering around. Unexpectedly, just after living for two years, I caught up with 1860 British and French allied forces to attack Beijing and burn the Yuanmingyuan. Weixiu Garden was doomed and almost vanished.
186 1 When Emperor Xianfeng died, Yi Xuan helped Empress Dowager Cixi launch a coup, uprooted her political opponents and married her sister as Difujin, which won the trust of Empress Dowager Cixi. Thirteen years later, Emperor Tongzhi died of illness. 1875, Cixi succeeded Zai Tian, the second son of Yi Xuan, and her sister, who was called Emperor Guangxu. Yi Xuan was appointed as the command minister. He is conscientious, likable, trustworthy and low-key. In order to please Empress Dowager Cixi, he appropriated naval funds to build the Summer Palace. Qin Chunwang Mi is located on the north bank of Houhai. Today, Soong Ching Ling's former residence is the West Garden in Wang Fu. After eighteen years of neglect, Weixiu Garden has been redecorated, but it is far from what it used to be.
189 1 When the Summer Palace was completed, Yi Xuan also died of illness and was buried in Fenghuangling area. Now the mausoleum is well preserved and is called the Seven Tombs by the people. He spent his rest in Weixiu Garden before his death, and was taken back by the Ministry of Internal Affairs after his death. Later, Emperor Puyi gave Weixiu Garden to his father, Zai Feng, the fifth son of Yi Xuan. In the early years of the Republic of China, it was occupied by local warlords. In 193 1, yenching university bought the dormitory for the families of faculty and staff. 194 1 year, the Pacific War broke out, the United States and Japan declared war, the Japanese army closed the campus, Yanda moved to the southwest to continue running schools, and Weixiu Garden became Japanese territory. After the Japanese surrender, Yanda resumed his studies in Beiping, and Weixiuyuan returned to Yanda as a staff dormitory. When my family moved in, I saw Weixiu Garden rebuilt in Yi Xuan, which was abandoned after 68 years of wind and rain erosion, but it still vaguely retained its original appearance.
According to historical records, the main entrance of Weixiu Garden is in the south, facing south, with a hilltop-style building (such as the west gate of Yanda University) at the top and eight-character screen walls on both sides, which is very imposing. When we moved in, these didn't exist, but the wall of the garden was recessed in a figure of eight, and it was inferred that it was the old site of the gate. Later, the garden wall was mended, a small courtyard was built and several new houses were built. The historical data also said: "There are two doors that enter the door. After passing through, there is a peak stone screen in front of you. The mountains are high and the clouds are green. " At that time, the "peak stone screen" was gone, leaving only a large piece of green slate, which was used as a courtyard wall material by Xicheng household. The blue brick screen wall is still there, and the mountains behind it and Yun Song are there. There is a mountain gap on the left, and there is a curved tunnel on the north of the cluster gap. There are tiger mountain walls on both sides, and the exit is trumpet-shaped and faces the South Lake.
When my family moved in, the gate of Weixiu Garden faced east, facing the west gate of Yanda University. There was a black plaque on it, which read "Weixiu Garden" in three big gold letters. This is Mr. Cai Yuanpei's original work. This East Gate Conjecture was built by Yanda University to facilitate workers' entry and exit, so it built a tunnel to the west and opened a hole in the mountain that was in the way, forming an elbow. Now the East Gate has become the traffic artery for the staff and students of Peking University, and the school has made an oblique cut to make the road to and from the campus closer.
According to historical records, there is a corner gallery in the east of the Central Island Courtyard, with colorful flower windows on the wall and a pavilion. At that time, the Intermediate People's Court was basically intact, with a corner gallery and assorted flower windows in the east, a rockery in the south and a painted square pavilion on the mountain (now the rockery square pavilion is no longer there, and the original site has been changed to a residential courtyard). In addition, there is a mountain pavilion across the lake in the southwest of the central island, which is recorded as a hexagonal pavilion in historical records, and there is a goldfish pond at the foot of the mountain. At that time, the hexagonal colored pavilion was still there (it was changed into a square pavilion during maintenance in the 1960s), and there was a square deep pool made of bricks at the foot of the mountain, with an incomplete surface. There is a small room next to it. After the renovation, people lived there. First, carpenter Yao lives there, and his daughter Yao is in my class. I heard that Mr. Shen, a professor of psychology, also lives there. Then there is the North Yard, which is recorded as the Second Yard in the history books. The gate faces the rockery, with wings on both sides inside and a stage outside. At that time, the front yard and the stage were gone, and it became a meadow, leaving only three north houses to form a hall, which was converted into a music classroom by the middle school affiliated to Yanda University. A square pavilion with a single eave was left at the southwest end as a loan for the middle school attached to it (the square pavilion is still there). The backyard door is locked and looks intact.
There is a square arched door made of marble outside the east wall, with a big roof, carved flowers by the door and a large open space. I guess it's the stable door. If you dismount from the main entrance, bypass the east wall and enter the stable through this door, it is this clearing. The book says: Prince Chun especially likes horses and dogs. His stable and kennel are luxurious, so if you love horses and dogs, you should build a grave for him.
The above is about the historical evolution of Weixiu Garden and what I have seen since 1946. Let's briefly talk about the old friends, stories and anecdotes of Weixiu Garden.
1948 before liberation, there were 14 families in the hospital. Behind our house lives Mr. Wang Zhonghan from the History Department. He studied at Harvard University in the United States, returned to China to study the history of Qing Dynasty and became a master of Qing Dynasty in China. My wife went to Canada to study after marriage and returned to China on 1950. When she gave birth, no one looked at her and sent her to the nursery. She puts three children in a small bamboo car every day.
There are several families living on the central island, including Yan Huatang, a teacher from the Department of Physical Education. He teaches track and field and football, and is the national track and field referee. He is the busiest in the Spring and Autumn Games. There is also Mr. Lin Dao of China Literature Department, who is a famous linguist. He and his wife Du Rong love Peking Opera very much, and there are often oratorios at home. Mr. Leo of the Department of Mathematics is a famous senior professor. He has won many awards for teaching mathematics. His wife, Wang Ping, graduated from the Biology Department of Yanda University and is a part-time teacher in the Middle School Attached to China. And Mr. Zhang Youyu, the head of the general affairs class, always walks with his head down. He is very serious and doesn't like to talk. The Yan family and the Zhang family have three or four children. We go to school and play together all day. Grandpa Chang, the porter, has two daughters, and the family of four is squeezed into a small room of five or six square meters, except for a one-person wide aisle. No matter who calls the door in the middle of the night, the old man will put on his clothes and open the door, never complaining.
1946, the middle school affiliated to Yanda University resumed classes. Two rows of north houses were built by the east wall as classrooms, and a small playground was built in front of the houses. The hall of the north house became a music classroom, and the square pavilion next to it became a place to borrow books. Lang Lang's reading sound, noisy recess games and chasing in the park have brought vitality to Weixiu Garden.
The middle school affiliated to Yanda University has trained many celebrities, such as Li Ping (Li Bingheng) who participated in underground party activities before liberation. Yan Daxin became a special correspondent of Xinhua News Agency before graduation, and his work was very busy. I met him while swimming in 1954 Summer Palace. I just got back from an interview in Geneva. He said: I have never been in contact with the leaders of the * * * production party before. I really admire Premier Zhou Enlai's speech and work this time. He also told many wonderful clips of Premier Zhou's struggle with Dulles in the United States. Unfortunately, on April 1955, 1 1, on the way to attend the Asian-African conference in Bandung, Kuomintang agents planted bombs on the plane and were killed.
And Zhou Yixian: Playing football, basketball and shooting with boys at school is better than anyone else. Later, she was selected into the national women's basketball team, from player, center, captain to head coach, and was named "Top 50 Outstanding Contributors of New China Basketball".
Liang Congjie: Liang Sicheng's son, a social environmentalist, always keeps a pair of chopsticks in his schoolbag and never uses disposable chopsticks when he goes out to eat. He has made many contributions to environmental protection and international exchange in China.
There is an interesting thing: 1949 One afternoon after class, two students were standing on the Dongshan Mountain playing with slingshots, and a sleeping car came along the road outside the wall. It was hard to see cars at that time. The car bowed and the stone hit the glass. The car stopped suddenly, the driver came down to have a look and drove away at once. They thought the driver was looking for them, ran back in fear and changed clothes with each other. They saw a lot of people borrowing books from the library in the back, so they plugged in. About ten minutes later, many PLA men came, surrounded Weixiu Garden and asked from house to house. The students all sat in the classroom and didn't let them go. They looked nervous and were left to tell the truth, so the education was released. Later, I guessed: Chairman Mao lived in Xiangshan and went to town on business. Simon in Yanda is the only way. Maybe he is sitting in the car. Through this incident, the Education Bureau moved the school to the campus (southwest of the water tower and northeast of Yannanyuan) and merged with the affiliated primary school for easy management.
1952 Weixiu Garden has changed a lot since my family moved out. Lakes in the north and west were filled, mountains were leveled and rows of buildings were built. The river is gone, and the South Lake and East Lake have dried up and become a big pit. The mountains are yellow and there are fewer trees. There is only one big ginkgo tree left in front of the North Yard, and the ginkgo fruit is much smaller. From 60 years ago, the lakes were contiguous, fish and shrimp swarmed and reeds alternated, and now the rivers are broken and the lakes are dry, and the mountains are flat and the water is exhausted. Weixiu Garden has gradually disappeared from the ground. I said in the article "Weixiu Garden in Childhood": Water is the soul of Weixiu Garden. What is a garden without soul? At that time, the small Weixiu Garden was the concentration of nature. Now people are talking about returning to nature, but hasn't Weixiu Garden, the nature that once existed around us, been artificially destroyed? Do our children and grandchildren still know about Weixiu Garden?