Ji Xianlin's uncle Ji Yitao once wrote such a family letter: "Xian Lin'er is like a face: I read the letter with my two grandsons recently, and I know that I am busy with work and responsibilities, and it is difficult to shirk the blame, but I hope to be good and cherish myself!."These few short sentences reveal the deep family affection between uncles and nephews. On November 27, Rong Hongjun, a distinguished professor and collector of Beijing City University, donated 19 family letters from the Ji Xianlin family to the Family Book Museum of Chinese University and will be exhibited in the museum from now on.
Ji Xianlin personally taught Rong Hongjun in his later years, and Rong Hongjun was deeply moved by Mr. Rong's simplicity and deep love for the country. After Ji Xianlin's death, Rong Hongjun found a batch of items belonging to Ji Xianlin at a scrap yard, including this batch of 19 letters and 23 pages of family letters. Dating from June 1948 to May 1955, most of them bear envelopes, stamps, and postmarks, and are well preserved.
These family letters were written by Ji Xianlin's uncle Ji Yitao from Jinan to Ji Xianlin, who was teaching at Peking University at the time. In Ji Xianlin's upbringing, his uncle's teachings played a crucial role. The content of the family letter not only reflects the deep love of the elders for the younger generations, but also reflects some aspects of the social situation at that time, which is an important historical material for the study of Ji Xianlin's life.
Letters are highly private and have special documentary value. In a unique era, these family letters have become a special carrier of the feelings of the family and the country. Jiang Meng, a professor at the School of History of Chinese University, said that the historical value of these letters is very high, not only reflecting the family relations and ups and downs of high-level intellectual families, but also has vivid economic historical value and postal historical material value.
Ji Xianlin is not only an academic master who is well-known at home and abroad, but also one of the active advocates of the protection of family letters. He was the initiator of the "Rescue of Folk Family Letters Project", the predecessor of the Family Book Museum of Chinese University, and made important contributions to the rescue and collection of folk family letters.
I was fortunate enough to be able to find this batch of letters and to organize them in a preliminary manner. Now that these letters have come to the Chinese People's University, I believe that through the research of teachers and students, they will be able to better explore their value. Rong Hongjun said, "My donation today can be regarded as the fulfillment of Mr. Ji Xianlin's wish. ”