The majestic Danan Mountain stretches for 100 miles from north to south, dividing the whole county into two areas, north and south, and the clear and winding Enjiang River surrounds the Danan Mountain, slowly flowing through Wenshan County, and converging into the wide Ganjiang River. The warm and humid climate nourishes the water and soil here, and also nourishes the people here.

Ferris is the highest peak of Danan Mountain, in the vast forest sea of lofty mountains, there is a little-known small mountain village, it is called Dajin Village.

It is far away from the county seat, the traffic is blocked, the culture is backward, the generation is illiterate, and people are full of thirst for cultural knowledge.

……

In July 1944, at the age of 14, I graduated from junior high school and was supposed to go to Tenhara Prefecture to study in high school, but due to my family's financial constraints and my frail health, I had to recuperate at home.

His father died at an early age, and his mother and four older sisters became the main laborers in the family. The eldest and second brothers studied in distant provinces.

One day, my brother-in-law, who lives in Da Yuan Village, came back to see my mother, and he saw that there were many people eating in our family and few people doing things, and he saw that I was resting and recuperating at home.

Mother nodded in agreement.

When my brother-in-law saw that I was smart and good at studying, he said to me kindly:

"Zhang Xuexun, are you willing to go to Dayuan Village to be a little gentleman?"

I glanced at my simple and capable brother-in-law and said, "Yes, there must be a lot of small animals there, I really want to go and see them." ”

Mom said unhappily: "I want you to go to Dajin Village to be a little gentleman, not to play!" ”

"Oh, got it."

But I didn't take Mr. Xiao for a while, what I thought of was the green mountains and green waters, the singing of birds and the fragrance of flowers and all kinds of birds.

Before leaving, my mother encouraged me and said, "You are a junior high school student, you have nothing to fear from teaching the first and second grades of primary school, but when you get there, you must listen to your brother-in-law, respect the old and love the young, be polite, and don't be greedy for ......." ”

At that time, I was ignorant and didn't know anything about how to run a private school. Thanks to my brother-in-law, I took care of all the things about running a private school. Within a few days, my brother-in-law recruited more than a dozen six or seven-year-old schoolchildren for me, and said that each of them would pay two taels a year as my husband's salary.

I ate and lived at my brother-in-law's house, recuperating and teaching at the same time.

The classroom is set up in the hall of my cousin's house, with a few long tables, benches, a podium, and a black wrench, which is my stage.

On the first day of school, the parents of the students brought their children to the "school", and saw that the children's little gentlemen turned out to be a childish, sunny and energetic big children, both novel and envious, and thought to themselves, the children in the city are smart.

In the sound of firecrackers, the "private school" opened.

I stood on the podium with great confidence, my face radiant with the radiance of youth, and I smiled and said:

"Hello everyone, students, it's a pleasure to meet you, today we will start school, and we will be good friends in the future. My surname is Zhang, my name is Xuexun, you call me Teacher Zhang, Zhang has a lot of strokes, and it is not easy to write. ”

I wrote my name on the blackboard for the first time, and I felt a special sense of pride and happiness in my heart.

The children under the podium felt a special novelty when they saw such a big brother standing on the stage to speak and write for the first time, and their two crystal eyes were wide open, full of thirst for knowledge.

Because it is the first day of class, on the one hand, parents want to know this "little teacher" and see how he goes to class, and on the other hand, they also accompany their children, who are new to the school and are afraid of life. So these parents stood in the back row and were reluctant to leave, watching me go to class. Parents secretly remembered my little teacher, Mr. Zhang.

"Today I will teach you arithmetic and recognize the concept of numbers."

I picked up a piece of chalk and wrote on the board: 1, 2, 3, 4.

"Look, it's 1, 2, 3, 4. I'll take you to read it together. ”

“1…… 2……”

Parents saw that I was so patient and meticulous in educating their children, and their worries were slowly dispelled.

The children in the countryside are simple, honest, innocent and lovely. Every morning, when the children came to the classroom early, I led everyone to read early, and the loud and beautiful children's voices echoed in the mountains, adding vitality to the quiet mountain village.

After school, I was very touched by the fact that the parents cleaned the classroom inside and out, and thanked them for their respect for the "teacher" and the importance they attached to education. I was ashamed that I didn't feel strange and apprehensive, but I felt a little more cordial, reassuring and confident, because they regarded me as their own family.

This is how the life of "Mister" begins.

There is a tradition in the ancient village of Da Jin, whenever the child reaches the age of seven, the parents will ask the husband to hold an "enlightenment" ceremony for the child who is about to go to school (as the saying goes, "Fameng"), the parents hope that through the enlightenment, the child will be smart and studious, the title of the gold list, and the glory of the ancestors.

One day, an old man surnamed Li invited me to enlighten his two children.

Before the enlightenment, Li Laoyu brought a big red piece of paper and asked me to write seven big characters: "Heaven and Earth Monarch - Divine Position".

I quickly sharpened the ink, skillfully lifted the pen, and wrote down a few strong and powerful characters of "Heaven and Earth Monarch - Divine Position".

Li Laoyu read it and said excitedly: "Oh, Mr. Zhang's handwriting is so good!" Thank you, thank you. ”

I humbly said, "No thanks, it's over." "Although I say this, my heart is sweet, because I can do something for the villagers.

Li Laoyu brought a big red paper and pasted it very reverently on the incense case at home.

On the day of enlightenment, I came to Mr. Li's house, only to see the candles on the desk, the green smoke curling, and the rice and rooster for worshipping the gods were ready. The students knelt on the futon facing the incense platform, and the women in the family avoided it.

I solemnly lit three pillars of incense, took great care to pay incense to the "Heaven and Earth Monarch Teacher", made three prays, inserted them in the incense burner, and began to recite with the students:

"The son of a man, Jin Manying, my godson, you are a classic, you are diligent and meritorious, and it is useless...... Benefiting the country, facilitating the people, fame, showing parents, light in the front, rich in the back, precepts, and encouragement ......"

I teach a sentence, and the student who kneels on the ground reads a sentence, and his voice is muffled and reverberates around the beam. The adults looked serious and full of respect for the gods. After reciting, the students first bowed to the god of "Heaven and Earth", and then bowed to the teacher three times.

In the end, I kindly picked up the enlightened students and touched their heads, feeling that the children were very cute. Maybe it's because I'm too young, and the two elementary school students don't treat me as a husband at all, but as a big brother, sticking to me and not feeling strange at all.

Li Laoyu looked at it and said happily: "Okay, good, good, my son and daughter like you, it means that they like to read, and they will definitely like to read in the future, and touch your aura more." ”

I couldn't help but laugh when I heard it.

The woman outside set off the firecrackers, and the ceremony was over, and then the "gentleman" was invited to the table, and the parents and students toasted, plus a few yuan of red envelopes, which was regarded as my "enlightenment" hard work.

It was a lively day, and the "sir" was sent home after dinner. This night, I slept very soundly and sweetly, as if I had grown up.

How do I know the procedure for the "initiation" ritual? This is suitable for teaching me, Mr. Wang, who often takes me to enlighten the children, so I learned this "technique" from him, and now he is also concocting the same method, showing the demeanor of a little teacher.

I gave several children "enlightenment" before and after, and ate "enlightenment" wine for several days, and I had a good time! It was a very memorable one-man "play" of my life, and it's kind of funny when I think about it now!

In order to be a good gentleman in this mountainous area, my mother gave me many teachings. I also went to the city to buy textbooks, materials, homework books, paper, pen and ink and other learning supplies for elementary and junior high schools. The private school is a first-year school, and the teaching content includes Chinese, arithmetic, planning plate, big character practice, music, physical education, etc.

The first class of the day is to practice calligraphy, the younger ones write on the red book, and the older ones practice calligraphy. If the copybook is not enough, I will write a sample, first talk about the stroke order, practice the key points, and then let them practice according to the model. The second lesson is Chinese. Starting with word recognition, then forming words and sentences, teaching in the order of the text, and then assigning homework.

The third lesson is a reading lesson. It is mainly to organize students to read texts, memorize poems, and memorize addition, subtraction, multiplication and division formulas. Sometimes I tell stories to students, such as: Mr. Ma Daha, the weasel greeting the chicken, and my grandmother calling me a good baby. He also told students the stories in "Strange Tales from Liaozhai", "Arabian Nights", and "Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales", as well as stories of celebrities in history such as Sima Guang, Ouyang Xiu, and Li Bai. Sometimes, students are also asked to talk about what happened in their own family and practice their expression skills.

In the afternoon, the first session was an arithmetic class. When they learn numbers, they begin to catch their handwriting, and then let them write independently. The older ones learn the number formulas and calculations on the basis of learning the numbers, and then learn the plan plate. Parents of students are also very interested in planning and hope that their children can learn well. The second session is a self-study class. Mainly for students to do homework, individual tutoring, etc.

The old sister-in-law of the Zhou family has an only child, when she was a child, she was sick and caused a little dementia, she was eight or nine years old, and she didn't know anything before entering school.

The old sister-in-law saw that his baby son had grown, and she was overjoyed and smiled. By the end of the school year, the child would be able to recognize and write many words, count and learn the addition and subtraction of abacus. His parents liked it very much, and they praised me for teaching well.

I am one with the students every day, I never yell, beat or scold the students, nor do I follow the methods of kneeling to Confucius, and the students are happy to come to the school to study, rain or shine. With these lovely children "playing" with me, there is no psychological pressure, I am happy and comfortable every day, and my sister and brother-in-law make a lot of good dishes for me to eat every day, I really feel a little "happy", and my physique is also strong.

The parents of the students sometimes bring me some home-grown fresh vegetables or something, and when they meet guests and do good deeds at home, they never forget to invite me to the "banquet". When I have free time, I also visit homes and make friends to learn about the students' family situation and customs. In a year's time, I basically traveled all over the "Eighteen Yards" in Dajin Village.

Happy times go by so fast. When I left the private school, the adults, children, students, and parents in the village were reluctant to come out to see me off, and gave me a generous gift of chickens and many eggs. For the sake of my future, I had to endure the pain of parting my love, leaving these innocent and lovely children, and leaving the villagers of Dajia Village who treated me like their children.

In the spring of the second year, I used the dozen taels of grain I earned from teaching this year as tuition to go to Luzhou School in Tenhara Prefecture to study in high school.