The Soul of Shutkin Crawling into the Dust
——The Sacrifice of the Eternal Holy Beggar Wu Xun
Zhao Yuanzhi
As the 41st Teacher's Day approached, a loud name resounded again in his ears; he did not marry or have children, begged for his whole life, and left it to the world with his own strength.
The country of Qi and Lu has made great achievements, and is truly a rich and rich place with many saints. The saint Confucius, the saint Mencius, the saint of calligraphy, the saint of business, the saint of business, the saint of science, the saint of medicine, the saint of agriculture, the saint of agriculture, and the saint of military, etc., bathed in the sky and the sun, as bright as the Beidou, reflecting the long history of Chinese civilization...
There is another saint who is closest to us, but he has forgotten the cleanest, as if he is sealed under the ice river, and his throat is hoarse and difficult to wake up. He is the saint beggar Wu Xun, who makes it difficult for us to recognize each other, and is a scathing and stubborn life.
Is it far away? In 1896, his ascetic life came to an end.
A test question was found in a history test paper in the early years of the Republic of China: Who is the historical figure you admire the most? Most students answered martial arts.
I don't know how many children nowadays, including adults, even if they have only scales and claws, they still know the truth about the martial arts. Is there one or two out of a thousand people? What about those who admire and admire? It's even rarer. It may not be indifferent, but it must be unintentional forgetting. In the knowledge Q&A of the TV screens, is this long-lost name flashing in the rolls of students' desks? Perhaps, that hot and persevering holy heart will still go its own way...
Who is Wu Xun and what did he do? Why has this saint, who was called the modern history of the East, and Mahatma Gandhi, been forgotten by modern people whose hearts are for nothing in just a hundred years?
A beggar who is praised by the world's "Education Dictionary" as a "silent educator" and "commoner educator"; a wilderness who has no name in the official history of China, but has a humble name, how could he carry a bag on his shoulders, hold a copper spoon in his hand, beg for rags, and then go into the house and then disappear in the world?
History should have been a decisive and harsh questioning time and timelessness, without waiting for future generations to brush away the long-standing dust and open the coffin to answer.
More than ten years ago, I met three authors of the TV series "Wu Xun". They are from Guan County, Liaocheng, one of them is less than three miles away from Wu Xun's hometown. The sound of chickens and dogs is heard and passed down from childhood, which makes them always have the urge to know everything they know when talking about Wu Xun’s ancestors.
In a small hotel in a narrow alley, under the faint night light, several authors and I ate the cold pancakes and completed the 20-episode literary version of the TV series "Wu Xun". On the day I finished the manuscript, I avoided their tears and took them to a small restaurant, and toasted each other with big bowls of white wine, for the Wu Xun in my heart and for our nation that has long lost its admiration for Wu Xun.
In the late 1990s, the news of the TV series "Wu Xun" spread wildly, and once attracted widespread heated discussion and attention in the film and television industry. The directors and starring actors who recommended themselves were overwhelmed, and more than a hundred media outlets published and forwarded information. Kangxi's concealment was ultimately a kind of appearance, while Wu Xun's beggar's clothes shook the last glory of the empire full of holes. There is no need to say about the particularity and importance of the subject matter. No wonder the crowded nuggets are willing to take the risk of challenging senior masters Sun Yu and Zhao Dan.
History was once paranoid and harsh. The criticism of the movie "The Biography of Wu Xun" half a century ago is probably also a paranoid interpretation of a national spirit. Wu Xun spent his whole life building a charity school and pursuing a hard-working popular culture turnaround, after all, it was a special form of class politics turnaround. This is the biggest advantage and luck of the three TV series writers over the creators of the movie "The Legend of Wu Xun".
Fortunately, the controversy over the mixed reputation of Wu Xun has become history. The humble back of the past has gradually become clear and then tall. People have begun to believe that there must be a scattered motto that will always be shown to future generations. Although it is left high, there are sometimes a loud echo under the heavy blow...
Wu Xun (1838-1896), a native of Wujiazhuang, Liulin Town, Tangyi County, Shandong Province (now Guan County) in the late Qing Dynasty. His original name was Wu Qi. He was from a poor family since childhood. He lost his father at the age of seven and begged for a living with his mother. At the age of seventeen, he worked as a long-term worker for the landlord's family. After three years, he not only did not get any money, but also suffered various humiliation and beatings for his illiteracy. When he was desperate and helpless, he hid in the ruined temple and slept for three days. After waking up, he was completely different from the past; although he was ignorant and crazy, he suddenly realized his mind and nature like apocalypse. He vowed to study so that all children from poor families could read...
Soon, he set out on the road with a bag on his shoulder and a copper spoon in his hand.
In order to save money, he cut off his long braids and sold them to the capital, then tied his braids on his head, and sang to everyone: "Shave this place and keep it there, and learn to be a chariot without worrying about learning." In order to coax the children's money, he asked the children to see him take a big cauldron, scorpions crawl, ride a car wheel, and let the children ride it as a horse... Once, a rich man led a mule to tease him and said, "If you eat the donkey dung egg, the mule will belong to you." Wu Xun really ate it without saying a word, and led the mule away.
In order to save money, he slept in the open and traveled across Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu and Henan. I ate the dried food I asked for and the broken ones I ate, and I ate the better ones and sold them to cash. He works as a cattle, horse and cattle for people—pushing mills, cutting wheat, pulling carts, picking up manure, ginning cotton, twisting thread heads, eating snakes and scorpions…
In order to save money, he vowed not to marry or have children. His mother died of illness and he did not dare to go home, for fear of the money he had finally saved to hold the funeral. He hid in the fields and looked at the neighbors who were sending mourning from afar. When everyone dispersed, he couldn't get up and threw himself in front of his mother's grave and cried loudly...
Years have passed, and Wu Xun has saved more and more money, so he asked the gentry with a good reputation to help manage deposits and lend money to earn interest. Over the years, his little accumulation has been considerable, and his brother came to borrow it and refused. Later, the land rented to his brother was taken back because he refused to pay the rent.
In fact, he was so obsessed with saving money that he was not affected by the smell of money; in one year, northwest Shandong had drought for a long time and had not rained, and the land was barren for thousands of miles, and the victims were corpsed in the village. Wu Xun did not hesitate and bought forty ducts of red sorghum to help the victims... "I accumulate money, I buy land, and practice a charity school for poverty. Whoever supports the family, whoever is rich, whoever is attacked by the Thunder God from Heaven." This is the loudest and moving song of Wu Xun's life - he can learn from people's Vajra aspirations, and he can touch the heaven and earth to tears. Not only did he complete the redemption of his own wonders, but he also benefited the sentient beings who have suffered...
At the age of fifty, the first charity school "Chongxian Yishu School" was built in Liulin Town. On the first day of school, he begged teachers to teach due diligence and students not to mislead classes. After the charity school was opened, he still had no place to live and beg everywhere. He came to visit Yixue for a while and knelt down to the diligent teaching teachers and naughty children...
Wu Xun's great good and righteous actions spread like wildfire, moved the people from all over the world and won the respect of the upper class in society. After hearing the news, Shandong Governor Zhang Yao bowed to see Wu Xun, not only helped 200 taels of silver as a fund for charity education, but also ordered the exemption of charity education field, money, grain and corvee.
In the 16th year of Guangxu (1890), Wu Xun was 53 years old. He and the monk Lezheng who donated incense money and some temples jointly founded the Yangerzhuang charity school in Guantao County.
In the 22nd year of Guangxu (1896), Wu Xun was 59 years old. He spent all his savings and funds to beg for a total of 3,000 yuan, and founded the third charity school in Linqing: Linqing Censor Lane charity school.
The sound of children's reading begins to ring in the third Yixue School. Since then, 59-year-old Wu Xun is about to reach the end of his life with exhausted lamps - because he is afraid of spending money on buying medicine, he fell ill in bed after taking moldy pills. He walked out of the house and fell tremblingly under the eaves of the charity school; he refused to occupy even the smallest house, and the school building was tight, which was used by the children to study, and he spent his whole life sleeping in the open. "When hearing the sounds of the students reciting, I still smiled with my eyes." ("Draft History of Qing Dynasty") The life of humiliation and asceticism finally dried and frozen the last smile on the corner of his mouth...
On the day of the funeral, thousands of people from all towns gathered, and all the officials and gentry in Tangyi, Guantao and Linqing counties held a funeral. The students were heartbroken and cried, which made everyone sigh: "Who said Wu Xun had no son?"
Someone has done statistics. The income that Wu Xun devoted his life to Yixue is equivalent to one thousandth of the annual fiscal revenue of the Qing government, which is more than 10 million yuan today.
Wu Xun's extraordinary journey caused great shock in the crumbling Qing Empire. Not only did the Minister of the School (Minister of Education) at that time donate money to help students, Emperor Guangxu also presented Wu Xun with a plaque "Love and Give" and gave him a yellow jacket.
More than a century has passed, and it is gratifying that another primary school teacher with great reputation across the country has appeared in Guan County, Shandong Province. At the original site of the first charity school "Chongxian Yishu" founded by Wu Xun in the past, a hundred-meter stele corridor and Wu Xun's tomb were set up; this place has become a well-known base for respecting teachers and education and a hope project...
A strange man who "for the sake of a bitter child, willing to be a camel, benefit others, and also do cattle and horses" (Tao Xingzhi's words), a peerless saint who kneels down and begs for life, a most saint who lives in a secular society and has wealth but limits himself to the bottom of society, and a foolish saint who forgets to give up all material desires and enjoys, his spirit will definitely be passed down through the long tunnel of time and is passed down from generation to generation.
or as Einstein wondered:
"In the future, few people believe that such a flesh and blood body had hurriedly passed by the earth."
