The vicissitudes of Wuling, the years are like a shuttle
Wuling Gate has witnessed the landmark of Xikou Town, which has witnessed half of the history. This city gate building used to be the Wuling Nunnery, where Jiang's mother Wang Caiyu often came to chant and worship the Buddha. However, as time passed, Wuling'an gradually fell into disrepair.
In order to restore this historical site, in 1930, Chiang ordered it to be rebuilt into a Wuguan-style city gate. This city gate has three rooms and two floors, imitating Nanjing's Zhongshan Gate. The two sides of the door are engraved with the word "Wuling", the front is inscribed by the famous educator and calligrapher Yu Youren, and the back is Jiang's handwriting.
Yu Youren, a man who loved the mainland and his hometown, was forced to move across the strait in 1949 until his death in 1964 at the age of 85. Even when he is in a foreign land, he often misses it.
On January 24, 1962, he wrote the poem "Looking at His Hometown", expressing his deep nostalgia for the mainland and his hometown. The poem reads: "The mainland is not visible, only crying."
Hometown is not visible, never forget. The sky is vast, the wilderness is vast, and on the mountain, the country is in mourning! "His poems have deeply touched countless readers, showing his deep attachment to his homeland and deep love for his country.
Although he has been dead for many years, his poetry and spirit have forever remained in people's hearts.
Chiang founded the school in 1925 and used his private residence Feng Ho Fang as the school building. In July 1927, the school was renamed "Private Wuling School". Soon after, Chiang Kai-shek built a new Wuling school on a barren beach on the opposite side of the road from Wenchang Pavilion, that is, on the west side of Wuling Gate.
The school was designed by Weng Wenhao's younger brother Weng Wentao and built by Shanghai Sun Yusheng Construction Factory. After a year of hard work, the school was built in 1929 and Mr. Zhang Mingho, a graduate of the Tokyo Higher Normal School, was hired as the first principal.
On New Year's Day 1930, the students moved into the new school from the Pungho house.
The source of drinking water for Wuling School comes from the water tower of Wenchang Pavilion, the construction of which is closely related to Song Meiling. It is said that on December 1, 1927, Jiang and Song Meiling held a grand wedding in Shanghai, when Jiang was 40 years old and Song Meiling was only 29 years old.
Their marriage greatly increased the power of the Jiang Song, and when they returned to Xikou, they chose Leting Wenchang Pavilion as their residence. Song Meiling has the experience of studying in the United States, and her elegant and noble temperament has attracted a lot of attention from Xikou people.
In order to allow the villagers to appreciate her demeanor up close, Jiang Song and his wife simply sat on the chairs and let everyone feast their eyes, which became a good story in the local area.
Song Meiling was not accustomed to using the water directly, so Jiang ordered a deep well to be dug near Wenchang Pavilion and a water tower was built to pump groundwater above the water tower, so as to ** the first batch of tap water in Xikou Town.
Jiang Qin served as the principal of Wuling School, and arranged for the school director to be responsible for specific affairs, including Wang Jiaxiang, Liu Zao and Deng Shiping. In 1933, Chiang began to prepare for the Gezhu branch of Wuling School, because Gezhu Village was his grandmother's home and had a deep emotional bond.
According to legend, Wang Caiyu, Jiang's grandmother, was born in Gezhu Village, later married Jiang Zhaocong, and had a son, Jiang. Since he was a child, Jiang often went to his grandmother's house to play, and established a deep friendship with relatives and playmates in Gezhu Village.
In 1931, at the behest of Chiang, Gezhu Village was placed under the jurisdiction of Fenghua.
Chiang established a school in Gezhu to express his gratitude to his relatives back home. In November 1933, the Gezhu branch of Wuling School was completed, and the official enrollment began in 1934, named "Gezhu Branch of Wuling School", and students from Gezhu Village and the surrounding areas could be enrolled, and the director of the branch was Mr. Wang Liangmu.
When the students of the Gezhu branch graduate, they attend the graduation ceremony in Xikou with the students of the main campus. After the liberation, the Gezhu branch was renamed Gezhu Primary School. In recent decades, Gezhu Village, like many other mountain villages, has seen young people move to the city to work and live, with fewer and fewer elderly people remaining in the village, and schools have closed without students.
The current Gezhu School has long been empty, but the old site is still there, and now it has been transformed into a homestay, which allows people to look back on the changes of the years.
Many of the houses in the village are empty, only the ruins remain, telling the grind of time. The change of villages and schools has become a vivid symbol, just like the passage of time and the alternation of times in the long river of history.
In the winter of 1935, Mr. Jiang invited Zeng Yangfu, director of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Construction, Zhou Xiangxian, mayor of Hangzhou, Qian Junzhi, manager of China Travel Service, Deng Shiping, director of Wuling School, and Zhang Kai, director of Wuling Farm, to gather in Xikou to plan the construction of the second Lushan.
Zhang Kai was responsible for the establishment of Wuling Farm in the area of Shangrigang and Huangnigang, and planted a large number of golden pine and fir trees in that era, laying a solid foundation for the current Shangrigang Scenic Area.
The predecessor of Ningbo Forest Farm was Shangshang Gang Forest Farm, which originated in March 1951 when the situation changed, and was renamed Ningbo Special Administration Forest Farm. Since 1958, the forest farm has expanded to the center of Simingshan District, and in the fifties and sixties, golden pine, fir and other tree species were planted, and the planters included forest farm workers and teachers and students of forestry schools, which has achieved the current Simingshan National Forest Park.
With the changes of the times, Ningbo Special Administration Forest Farm was renamed Ningbo Regional Forest Farm in 1969, Ningbo Simingshan Forest Farm in 1983, and finally officially renamed Ningbo Forest Farm in 1984.
At the same time as the establishment of the Shanglianggang Forest Farm, Deng Shiping, the school director of Wuling School, was also responsible for the construction of the Dongao branch of Wuling School in Shanglianggang. This branch is located on the side of the ancient road from Dong'ao Village to Shanglianggang, and the agricultural experimental field department set up under it has agronomy, forestry, animal husbandry, sericulture, plant protection and other subject groups, which fully embodies the school-running idea of applying what you have learned and benefiting Sangzi.
After the liberation, the Dongao branch became the location of the farm kindergarten. The farm kindergarten moved an iron enamel bathtub from Jiang Song's villa to the kindergarten and used it as a brazier.
During the construction of Jiang Song's villa, this bathtub was carried by four people from the mouth of the stream to the consultation post, which was a representative of Western-style luxury at that time.
The fate of Wuling School's Dongao branch and Gezhu branch is similar, it has long been abandoned, and the traces of history have gradually dissipated.
In January 1949, Chiang was forced to abdicate and return to his hometown of Xikou. Soon after, on April 23, the People's Liberation Army's million-strong division crossed the Yangtze River and successfully occupied Nanjing.
However, on the afternoon of April 25, Jiang sailed out by boat from his hometown of Tuanqi Village, Xidian Township, Ninghai County, and since then embarked on the road of exile, never to return.
Time passes, time flies, and the fate of the school changes with the changes of the times. What used to be Xikou Wuling School has now become Xikou Museum and Fenghua District Wuling Middle School.
Although things are different from people, the passion and pursuit of education have always remained the same. Like the water that has passed away, no matter how many times the sun sets, it will continue to flow forward.
My life is also in the headlines, and every day is writing a new chapter.