Approaching the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, descendants need to prepare things to worship their ancestors in the middle yuan, cut paper money, fold ingots, write burdens, etc. In the period of the Middle Yuan, the Ghost Festival arrives, the ghost door is opened, and the ancestral soul returns to the hometown, and the descendants will make offerings, set off firecrackers, worship incense, and burn the money in the ancestral hall in front of the shrine that enshrines the spirit cards of the ancestors and ancestors.

When I was a child, I made sacrifices, and the whole family worked together. The younger brother cut white paper and copper coins, the younger sister folded the ingots with square gold mounted paper, and the father folded the yellow fire paper into a wrapper shape and wrapped it in white paper skin. The mother grabbed a few handfuls of potato flour and sprinkled it in a copper rice spoon, added some water, and roasted it on the stove, stirring it while baking, making a paste of soil and gluing the corners of the white paper skin on the baggage. Yuan Qiuhua grinds ink on the stone inkstone, takes a brush to make ink, and writes on the front of the white paper, the right is the grandfather Yuan Gongxue An, the middle is the period of the Middle Yuan Dynasty, and the lower left is the Yusun Huanxuan with the ten major bags. Write a big "seal" on the reverse side of the white paper. Sacrifices, the ancestors of the three generations, the examination of the concubine to worship, the next three generations, the male everyone has to offer, often a basket, every busy day.

At present, except for Yuan Qiuhua's hometown in the countryside, everyone else is in the county seat. Ancestral ancestral hall, the ancestral grave is in Yaoshan, her father instructed her to do it for her, and also instructed her to be sure to incense in front of the statue of her grandfather, and worship at her grandmother's grave. Grandma's grave, Yuan Qiuhua knows, but grandpa like her doesn't know where it is. She followed her father's instructions, stood on a wooden chair, found the mahogany box from the top of the corner bookcase, took out the cotton bag, and extracted the frame wrapped in layers of moisture-proof oiled paper. She laid the oiled paper bag flat on the desk, untied the tied hemp rope, unwrapped the oiled paper, and picked up the frame.

Inside the frame is an old black and white photo, a group photo of men and women. The boy is tall, white shirt, white gloves, beige suit, shiny black leather shoes, gold-rimmed glasses, fluffy parted head, hair is open, forehead hair curls up, three or five hair slanted down, suspended eyebrows, side hair to ears, overflowing with the temperament of a white-faced scholar, but the appearance is quite Westernized, silkworm eyebrows and big eyes, double eyelids are dense and long eyelashes, deep eyes, straight nose and mouth, wide in the middle of the person, round chin, smile, double dimples are full of joy, the corners of the mouth and eyebrows are bright and sunny, kind, Sven, stylish, fan, handsome! I can't find a trace of flaw on Uncle Shuai's face, well, it shouldn't be described as handsome, she feels a special aura, in short, it's comfortable to look at, it's kind, this feeling she hasn't seen in others. The girl is small and exquisite, wearing a cheongsam embroidered with a red brocade embroidered with a golden phoenix, a standing collar, a diagonal placket, a buckle, a slit on the left and right sides, and a red velvet trim with gold threads. Melon seed face, fair skin, delicate facial features, red lips and white teeth, black eyes and long eyelashes, full moon glasses, high bun, thin waist, red stockings, red high heels, she smiled, the bird leaned beside him, her head was level with his shoulders, her face was full of spring, and her expression was shy. At the bottom of the photo, a line of small characters is printed, Yuan Shijie, Li Changying's newlywed photograph, 1934, Wuchang Yuan Mansion, Yinglou Hall.

One is chic and elegant, the other is gentle and dignified, beautiful and elegant, talented and beautiful, the male is calm, the female is demure, and the four eyes are equal to the four eyes. When she was a child, her father only told her, "Before you were born, your grandparents were no longer alive," and she kept silent about her name, appearance, experience, and deeds. Every time he worships on festivals, his father also goes alone, sneaking like a thief. For the grandparents, Yuan Qiuhua only said that the two old men slept in Jiuquan for a long time, did not hear their names, did not see their people, did not know their voices, did not have a specific figure in their dreams, and occasionally imagined the words and deeds of the old man, which was nothing more than using the ordinary bad old man in the countryside and the withered old lady as a model. It was not until the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and the resumption of people-to-people communication exchanges that she learned from the words of the adults that her grandfather was buried in Taiwan, her grandmother was buried in Yaoshan, and the husband and wife were separated by thousands of rivers and mountains. Slightly older, she followed her father to sweep the tomb of her grandmother, worship, kowtow, the elders gathered, talked about the wine table, often mentioned her grandparents, said that her writing was outstanding, her career was magnificent, and she belonged to the romantic figure of the Republic of China. When she was young and ignorant, she imagined them again, either out of the floating imagination of reading books, or from the touch of watching TV.

Yuan Qiuhua didn't know the appearance of her grandparents, but she was very familiar with the Yuan Mansion in Wuchang and the Yinglou Hall. When she returned to the city as a child of educated youth, she moved to the Yuan Mansion with her household registration, and lived and worked in Wuchang for five years, and she also knew a little about her grandparents. But the descendants who grew up under the red flag, the little grandson, has a natural diaphragm from the old things of the ancestors, and he has never seen the face, and the shadow is nowhere to be found, except for the blood relationship, family affection is impossible to talk about, and nostalgia has no source, and it has nothing to do with real life, and it is common sense to be indifferent.

Looking at his grandfather's curly and raised forehead, Yuan Qiuhua stroked his wavy head, this natural "natural curly" hairstyle can be regarded as finding a genetic secret passage inherited from generation to generation. The third uncle is very similar to his grandfather, especially the facial features, which is simply an inverted mold, and his father only has birthday eyebrows, although his figure is no different from his grandfather, his face and eyebrows are like grandma, more than delicate, and lack of fortitude. Yuan Qiuhua looked at the photos, and the more she looked at them, the more she felt that she was similar to her grandmother, with a facial wheel, facial features, thin and weak, small joints, and smooth skin. No wonder my uncles keep calling me "Xiaoying"? There is a saying in the countryside that cubs are like mothers, and they don't have to be busy when their lives are good.

Yuan Qiuhua sighed at the miracle of heredity, and also aroused her curiosity about the two elders, when she took a wedding photo, she would never have imagined that it would become a posthumous photo! She opened the music cabinet and found the Yuan family tree that was renewed in 1998. She sat at the desk, spread out the family tree, slowly turned the pages one by one, followed the branches of the genealogy, along the main trunk of the first ancestor and the second room, all the way down, under the great-grandfather, above the father, saw the names of the two. Yuan Qiuhua slapped his forehead, heh, it was really his grandparents. She also searched through the genealogy of celebrities, read the biographies of the two, and commented on their deeds.

Yuan Shijie (1891-1981), known as Shijie, was a native of Huitouling, Yaoshan Island, Longshan County. He is a well-known jurist and educator and author of "Comparative Constitution", "Principles of the Constitution", "History of China's Slave and Maid System", "300 Famous Paintings of the Forbidden City", "Treasures of the Art Garden", etc.

Yuan Shijie has been smart since childhood, entered the family school at the age of four, the youngest in all his lives, the best academic, and won the praise of his teacher Zhou Zhixi. When he was 12 years old, his teacher strongly recommended his father to send him to Wuchang to study. In Wuchang, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Shi'e, advocated new learning, and established five modern higher primary schools in Wuchang City, recruiting Xiuliang children who were about 14 years old to make a living. When Yuan Shijie took the exam, because of his young age and short stature, an examiner surnamed Luo couldn't make up his mind on whether to accept or not, and immediately reported to Zhang Zhidong. Zhang Zhidong touched Yuan Shijie's top hat and asked: What is your name?

Yuan Shijie puffed up his chest: I, Yuan Shijie, live in Huihuiling, Yaoshan Island, Longshan County.

Why do you want to study in Wuchang when you are so small?

Be a hero, for Yao Shun.

Zhang Zhidong was shocked and approved Yuan Shijie to register for the exam, and as a result, he was admitted to Wuchang South Road Primary School with the first place. After graduating in three years, he entered Hubei Excellent Normal College of Physics and Chemistry for three years. In the meantime, he married Jin Lan with Li Siguang, Shi Ying, Guo Taiqi and others. In the third year of Xuantong, Yuan Shijie was admitted to Tianjin Beiyang University (Tianjin University), founded by Sheng Xuanhuai, the leader of the Westernization faction, with the best grades.

Less than a year after studying at Peiyang University, the Wuchang Uprising broke out. Yuan Shijie immediately threw himself into the revolution, dropped out of school and returned to the south, returned to Wuchang to participate in the uprising, served as the secretary of the governor Li Yuanhong, participated in the battle to defend the city, and was appointed by the governor's office to successfully complete the task of "going to Hunan to invite teachers and rush to aid Wuchang". In 1913, after the failure of the "Second Revolution", Yuan Shijie was admitted to the official scholarship to study abroad, and traveled across the ocean and the end of the world. He first went to the United Kingdom to study at the School of Economics of the University of London and obtained a master's degree in political economy. He then moved to France to study law at the University of Paris, where he received a doctorate in law from the Graduate School of Law in 1920.

In 1922, he returned to China and was invited by Yuan Pei, the president of Peking University, to teach at the Department of Law of Peking University. During this period, he and Li Siguang (professor of the Department of Geology) and Shi Ying (professor of the Department of Chemistry), who also taught at Peking University, often discussed knowledge and analyzed current affairs together in their spare time. Later, he initiated the organization of the "Civil Rights Alliance" with Li Dazhao and others, and founded the "Modern Review" weekly with Hu Shizhi and others. In 1927, the "Hubei Sanjie" was ordered by Yuanpei to prepare for the establishment of Wuhan University, and Li Siguang was the chairman of the "Construction Committee". After two years, Wuhan University began to take shape, attracting a large number of outstanding scholars to teach, Yuan Shijie was appointed as the president of Wuhan University and the dean of the School of Law, Wen Yiduo was appointed as the dean of the School of Liberal Arts, and Shi Ying was appointed as the dean of the School of Engineering.

In 1932, Yuan Shijie entered the political circles and successively served as director of the Legislative Affairs Bureau of the National Government, member of the provincial government and director of the Department of Education, and also served as Minister of Education, Minister of Propaganda, Minister of Foreign Affairs and other posts of the National Government. After the "Xi'an Incident", the KMT and the CCP cooperated for the second time. Chiang Kai-shek established the Military Counsellor's Office in 1938 and appointed Yuan Shijie as the director of the Counsellor's Office. Yuan Shijie was low-key, cautious and serious, and this was an official position with great real power, and major issues related to KMT-CCP relations, military, diplomacy, finance, industry, and post-war demobilization generally had to be given advice by the Counsellor's Office, a high-level think tank, to provide important reference for Chiang Kai-shek's final ruling. In 1945, Chiang Kai-shek, in order to win the time of a full-scale civil war, appointed Wang Shijie and Zhang Zhizhong to Xi'an to negotiate peace with the CCP. In August, in order to expose Chiang's conspiracy of fake peace and real civil war, and the safety of the world, he came to Chongqing with great courage and finally reached the signing of the "Double Tenth Agreement", and Yuan Shijie was one of the signatories of the Kuomintang. However, Chiang Kai-shek did not implement the "Double Tenth Agreement", and on the third day of signing, he issued a so-called secret order to "suppress bandits", and the Kuomintang army attacked the liberated areas on a large scale, and the civil war still broke out.

Gu Weijun, a colleague who has worked together for many years, once commented: Jiegong's temperament is especially not suitable for officialdom. The habits of officialdom are mostly those who are clever in their words, and he must not be annoyed and not smiling; the habits of officialdom are mostly the entertainment of wine and meat, and he lives a cautious life, and almost all of his life has no worldly hobbies. These two models alone are enough to make him a loner and have no friends to help.

Before liberation, he went to Taiwan, and later formed another family, and in 1950, he became the "Secretary General of the Presidential Office", and later resigned due to the case. In 1970, he was appointed Senior Minister of the Presidential Office. In March 1981, he died of illness at Taiwan Veterans Hospital. The testamentary tombstone only reads "the tomb of Mr. Yuan Shijie, former president of National Wuhan University".