Erjia Private Junior Middle School began to enroll one class in 1957 and in 1958 I became one student of the two classes, altogether 3 classes, around160 students. Its facilities were very simple, there being no houses but three classrooms and one teachers’ office. Our tuition fee was somewhat higher than that of the public school, but not much higher. There were no dormitories for us and we had to rent a house to live in. Father went there, finding a room of one home, no bed provided. Where I could have dinner was a small restaurant. All that meant that father would spend a lot more money. Although I was only 13, I realized that it was because I wasn’t enrolled by the public school that more money was paid. Father found two door boards, two benches, tied them on an old-fashioned cart with one wooden wheel and pushed it over 14 Chinese li to Erjia Town.
The year 1958 was full of turmoils: “quantum leap”, “people’s community”, “making iron and steel everywhere” and “all having meals in eateries”. However, running eateries was good for me. The whole Erjia Town had four residents’ committees, and four eateries were established, so I could have means like other residents in one of them. Additionally, the meal tickets could be used in any of the four, so I could eat in any of them, tasting different meals. Because I had only 28 Chinese jin (equal to 14 kilograms) grain one month I had to eat at most one jin (500 grams) a day. On Sundays I went home, resulting in saving some meal tickets. No money buying other dishes, one jin grain was not enough. At the age of 13 I could eat a lot, but I had to eat according to the plan, two liang (100 grams) porridge for breakfast, five liang (250 grams) cooked rice for lunch and three liang (150 grams) porridge for supper. One of my countryman, Shuxiang Sun, whose stomach was larger than mine, could eat 8 liang (400 grams) porridge for one meal, making a bet with another. To me, five liang (250 grams) cooked rice for lunch was far from enough, and if only I could have another five liang. But I had to resist the temptation, otherwise I would have had nothing to eat at the end of the month.
Gray cabbage，treasure during the time of hunger
I was not satisfied with the study atmosphere in my class. Sometimes there was someone quarreling with the teacher, which I had never experienced. In the evening only a few of us taught ourselves in the classroom with our own small kerosene lights. I saw almost all students of the Erjia Pubic Middle School studying in the classroom with a kind of light, burning kerosene evaporation, which was bright enough for the whole classroom. Our private school had no such a condition, and each of us used a small ink bottle with a tube made of sheet iron, through which there was cotton yarn absorbing the kerosene for burning, looking somewhat like an alcohol burner in the chemical lab. In order to save some kerosene, sometimes two persons used one lamp, giving a dim light, under which we read and wrote. If we were too close to the lamp our noses would be smoked black. Nowadays we all use electric lights and regard the kerosene lamp very primitive, which was sure to damage the children’s eyesight. To everyone’s surprise, my eyesight has been staying 1.5, although I used such a lamp for at least two years. It is lucky that I am not a near-sighted all my life.
small kerosene light made by ourselves
During the second year of the junior middle school something happened which almost caused me to discontinue my studying. In 1959 the private school enrolled another two classes, resulting in altogether 5 classes. The school was expended to the back yard and occupied several houses and rooms. We had our own eatery and dormitory. There being no bunk beds, we slept on our own single ones. In my bedroom there were three students including me, one being Potbelly Shuxiang Sun and the other was Zhongqi Cao from Bailing Temple, not very far from Jinyu. I was the poorest of the three. Potbelly had fewer brothers and sisters than me and his father managed a larger shop in Jinyu, so he had much more pocket money than me. Zhongqi Cao’s father worked in a city far away from Nantong and could get fixed pay every month, who bought a beautiful Soviet novel “Тихий Дон” (Quiet Flows the Don) with hardcover, written by a famous the Soviet Union author M.A. Sholokhov. Cao kept it in his suitcase and took out only to show off, not willing to lend us for reading at all. Once his father mailed him 20 yuan, which was at that time a great amount. Our young teacher who had just graduated from the normal school earned only 29.5 yuan one month. I spent only 6 yuan on meal one month. What we had never thought of was that a theft happened one day, Cao’s 20 yuan stolen from his suitcase. After he reported to the school, teachers tried hard to crack the case. There were only three of us, the door being locked in the daytime and bolted at night. Potbelly was the first one under suspicion, because he had some small changes and often spent some money to buy some snacks to eat. Several teachers cross-questioned him in the office, who was sweating all over the head and didn’t admit that he had stolen the money. He slapped himself in the face, but one teacher said “Don’t act out anymore!”, and it seemed that the money was sure to be stolen by him. Sun persisted in not admitting stealing the money, so the school had no choice but to stop trying the case. Afterwards I was ill and asked for a leave. One of my fellow villager called Konghua Bei who was in the lower grade got home and came upon me when I was buying something to eat in the street. Being ill caused loss of appetite, I was given some coins by mother to buy some food different from what was cooked at home. When I recovered and got back to school, great changes had taken place. Sun told me that I became the suspect of stealing the money instead of him. It was said that I was afraid of being discovered and pretended to be ill and hid at home. Additionally, the teacher asked Konghua Bei something about me and Bei said he had seen me buying something to eat, which provided the proof that I had money now. The whole class talked about it and Zhongqi Cao followed Sun and me closely and was on the track of us, which made us very angry. Both of us often went to the bank of a brook and poured out the grievances. We were too young to withstand such a heavy suffer. I went home and told all to my parents. Thinking of parents working so hard to finance me, I was determined not to go to school. Father had different idea, sent me to school and found the teacher called Defen Cao, who also came from Jinyu. Father told Cao about my heavy psychological burden. Cao called some other teachers, who listened to father saying it again, expressing that they would not doubt without any evidence. In addition, they asked me to work hard in the school, forgetting all about it. Accordingly discontinuing studies didn’t take place.
“Great leap” in 1958 caused crop failure in 1959, resulting in sadly lack of materials. The grain provided us could hardly support us and we often went hungry. On Sundays I went home and also fetched limited food from the public cafeteria. In order to fill up our stomach, mother added some vegetable to the gruel fetched from the cafeteria. Younger brother, Xiao Lin already 10 years old, was not willing to eat the gruel with vegetable, which had only some salt and without any edible oil. He took his own meal ticket to eat in the cafeteria. It was not for two days he came back and ate the gruel with vegetable with us to avoid being too hungry. A little piece of plot could not provide sufficient vegetable, elder sister and I often went out to dig some wild herbs to add to the gruel. Mother was always afraid that I went hungry in the school. Once she hid some carrots when digging in the production team and asked Xiao Lin to send to me, who often kept it in his mind and later mentioned it to me several times.
Something about the study. In the second year of the junior middle school I began to study algebra and plane geometry, which I showed great interest in. The solution of the equation and factorization in algebra and all kinds of proving of plane geometry theoremwere rather appealing to me and I was especially fond of drawing an auxiliary line to prove a conclusion. In the third year I got to know that 5 of the 50 students in the previous grade were successful entering the senior middle school, which added to my confidence. I thought that I was hopeful to become a senior middle school student if 5 of my class could pass the examination. Therefore, I began to work harder than before. In addition, the case of Cao’s money theft was solved, and the thief was a student lived in the next door of the dormitory, who had climbed over the crossbeam between the two bedrooms and stolen Cao’s money. The thief stole a lot of things and was finally caught by a teacher from whose pocket he attempted to steal money in the early morning. Shuxiang Sun and I were completely liberated and I could review my lessons whole-heartedly and got ready to attend the enrollment examination.
It was inconvenient for me to study in Erjia. In Jinyu a lot of us often went to Jinsha, the county town, instead of Erjia. If I could read in Jinsha, family members would go there to see me, and bring something to me. Accordingly, I decided to register for the Nantong County Middle School (NCMS). In 1961, the government carried out the policy of “regulation, consolidation, enrichment and development”, meaning the economical contraction and the admission plan would be reduced. I heard only one of six students could be enrolled in the senior middle school, which meant it would be very hard for us to become a senior middle school student. Because of the unification recruitment of students in the whole Nantong District I took part in the exam in Erjia Middle School although I registered for the NCMS. I still remember that the last topic of the mathematics was to prove two lines equal in a plane graph, and the examinees had to draw an auxiliary line, otherwise he or she was not able to solve the problem. I was good at such a problem and my thought was provoked immediately. I worked out the problem using the plane geometry theorems I’d learned and wrote a lot on the test paper. When I handed in the paper, a girl student, service personnel of the examination who also graduated from the Erjia Private Middle School and now was a senior student of Erjia Middle School said that the last problem was too hard for most of the applicants, most of whom wrote nothing on the paper. However, she added: “Only Defu Song has written a lot.” I heard what she said nearby, thinking not only did I write a lot, but I was sure that I solved the problem on the reasonable basis.
During the summer vacation of 1961 I was always helping parents to labor, not hoping to become a senior class student, and not caring about the news whether I could be enrolled or not. One day it rained outside, I was helping adults to thresh sorghum by hitting it inside our house. A neighbor, whom all of us called “Ershimu” (teacher’s wife) came to us. Her husband was
the second son of Wang’s family and used to be a teacher in the Jinyu Primary School when I was initiated in the learning. Afterwards he was reassigned to work in the county town and was in charge of the backup work in the NCMS. Ershimu came to report us the good news that I gained the admittance to the NCMS. Her daughter Ying Wang, who I had mentioned in the above that during the third year in the primary school she was in the third place and I in the sixth, was also in the enrollment list. Hearing the message my family were delighted, which was a surprise to all of us. Not any one in my family had ever been expected to become a senior middle school student. On the following day I went to Erjia alma mater to inquire how many of my class had been enrolled. To my severe fright, no one else. Two of the other class had passed the exam and altogether only 3 of more than 100 students could continue to study. The students enrolled by the private junior middle school were all behind those inthe public school. In addition, the teaching and managing level of the former was lower than the latter. As a result, the former could not be matched up to the latter. Even in the Erjia Middle School only about 10 of a class could continue to study, and most of them had no choice but to discontinue their study, including Yunfa Diao, my classmate of the Jinyu Primary School, who became a village cadre later on. I had such a feeling that I was an unskillful acrobat who was walking along a high wire, swaying uncertainly and almost falling down. How frightening it was!
Completed on Nov. 1, 2008 in Melbourne
Proofreading on Jan. 27 2012 in Chicago
upload online on Aug.3 2023 in Xuzhou
