Ye Jiaying, a well-known scholar of China classical poetry at home and abroad, has finally returned to her haunting place.
her return was very low-key. Even many teachers and students of Nankai University who are on the same campus don't know it. Since the fall of 214, Mr. Ye Jiaying, an academician of the Royal Canadian Society, bid farewell to the country of maple leaves and officially returned to Nankai University to settle down, ending his life of traveling across the ocean like a migratory bird.
The migratory bird life in Ye Jiaying has lasted for 35 years. Since 1979, she has returned to the mainland of China to give lectures every year, injecting poetry into the ancient "country of poetry" that was in ruins at that time. In the closest Nankai University, she founded the Institute of Chinese Classical Culture and donated half of her pension-1, US dollars, which was used to reward teachers and students.
Now, Ye Jiaying, who is 9 years old, has come back with all her "possessions". Those old suitcases of different sizes are pasted with notes marked "information". She has already made preparations for the return. In recent years, every time she travels across the ocean, she will bring back some audio, video and books, which have been shipped back to dozens of boxes. Ye Jiaying said that because she was too old to carry the box, her assistant, Teacher Zhang Jing, helped her to carry it back.
All these materials will be stored in a newly completed Chinese quadrangle. This modern academy is named "Jialing Academy" after Ye Jiaying, and it is expected to be put into use in 215. The school is adjacent to Siyuan Hall, the oldest existing building in Nankai, in the east and Ningyuan, the former residence of Mr. Chen Shengshen, an international master of mathematics, in the west. It was specially built by Nankai to raise funds to provide convenience for Mr. Ye's teaching, scientific research and life after he settled down. As soon as the news of the school came out, it was immediately supported by many people at home and abroad.
"I feel that I can't repay everyone's love for me, so I have to continue to work hard." Ye Jiaying said.
In her vision, even if one day she can't stand on the stage or give lectures, she can at least guide students to sort out the past research materials on poetry. After teaching for more than 7 years, she has accumulated thousands of hours of lecture recordings to be sorted out.
The younger generation are surprised by Ye Jiaying's enthusiasm for work. She personally revised the materials they had compiled. She goes to sleep at 2: 3 in the morning and gets up at 6: 3. Her life is extremely simple. Lunch is often a sandwich, a fruit and a cup of boiled water.
this is the same as her condition many years ago. Her student, Lin Meiyi, a researcher at the Academia Sinica in Taiwan Province, visited the University of British Columbia where she taught many years ago and stayed at Mr. Ye's home. The teacher's life gave her a "great shock". At that time, Ye Jiaying prepared two sandwiches and two California oranges every morning, took them to the library, and made a drink at noon, thus spending the day. Even the library staff know that as long as the library is opened, Ye Jiaying will often appear.
Lin Meiyi sighed with emotion. Everyone knew that Ye Jiaying was well versed in Chinese and Western learning, but he didn't know that it was this hard work that made Ye Jiaying today.
Feng Qiyong, a red scientist, thinks that Ye Jiaying's achievements in the study of China's classical poems are second to none today. Wong Young-tsu, a historian in Taiwan Province, pointed out that, to some extent, Mr. Ye's greatest contribution was to "regenerate" China's classical poems. She not only wrote important academic papers, but also spread China's classical poems in the East and West like a missionary, even telling them carefully to kindergarten children. She did many things that lofty poets or scholars didn't want to do.
Before moving into Jialing Academy, Ye Jiaying taught students in the living room of her house, just as she used to teach poetry to the children next door in Canada.
This special "classroom" is Chinese. A row of bookshelves stand along the wall, which are full of books on Chinese classical culture, dotted with several old photos. A wooden plaque is engraved with the "Jialing" written by her teacher, Mr. Gu Sui. A painting of a lotus flower is slightly yellowed. On the coffee table, there are several small fish swimming in the dark green porcelain jar. Her usual blue and white porcelain cup contains clear water. The objects that don't match the living room are small stools that are stacked together and are common in roadside food stalls.
a low stool is often used when students arrive. She has stopped recruiting new doctoral students, but every time she attends class, the living room that is not spacious is crowded with people. Doctoral students, master students and undergraduates attend classes together, and there are about twenty or thirty people at a time.
Zhang Jing told reporters that Mr. Ye doesn't have the condescending airs of a great scholar. She is very innocent and unsuspecting when dealing with people. As long as the other person likes classical poetry, she will try her best to guide him if her physical conditions permit. She also personally replied to some emails from foreign poetry lovers.
Some of the students are "repeat students" for many years. Yang Aidi, a middle school teacher in Tianjin, is one of them. Thirty-five years ago, Ye Jiaying started classes at Nankai University. Because of its popularity, it was necessary to issue attendance cards to maintain order. At that time, Yang Aidi, who was studying at Tianjin Normal University, and some students carved chapters with radishes, made fake listening cards, and mixed them in. The proliferation of false certificates has led to only 2 attendance cards, but nearly 3 people have obtained "legal seats". For 35 years, these "repeat students" have always followed.
Wang Yuming, a 73-year-old academician of China Academy of Engineering and professor of Tsinghua University, is also an supernumerary disciple. On one occasion, he met a young female doctor from Nankai who was instructed by Ye Jiaying, and seriously said, you have to count me as a "teacher elder sister", and I am a disciple of Mr. Ye. The academician became attached to Mr. Ye for writing poems, and he regarded the communication between them as his luck.
Not long ago, Ye Jiaying's Collected Works of Jialing was reprinted, and a small press conference was held in this living room. During the interview, Mr. Ye often asked reporters: "Who can recite the first poem of" 3 Tang Poems "?" "Journalists are generally Chinese-related majors. What do you mean by' Fu, Bi and Xing'?" "Let's talk about what thoughts and feelings Du Fu expressed in Eight Poems of Autumn?"
Ye Jiaying's anxiety about the inheritance of Chinese classical culture is the reason for his eagerness to know how well young people know poetry. More than once, she pointed out that today's young people keep the treasure of Chinese classical poetry empty-handed, "if they enter Baoshan, they will return empty-handed."
The literary revolution nearly a hundred years ago is the "crux" that Mr. Ye believes that Chinese people are far away from poetry today. "China was originally a nation of poetry. From ancient times to the Han and Wei Dynasties, and then to the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, China people have been writing poems, and they are all doing very well. However, the literary revolution advocated that everyone should not read old books or write old poems, and gradually cut off this tradition. "
Mr. Ye, who has always been gentle and elegant, has a lot of feelings when talking about the current situation of the lack of traditional culture in China. She said that many young people in China are depraved, corrupt and superficial. They have lost traditional culture and failed to accept western culture from their hearts. It is a "great pity" that some young people are blinded by short-term utilitarianism and material desires and no longer realize the function of poetry in improving people's mind and quality.
Ye Jiaying regarded Chinese classical poetry as a good way to cure this social malady. She said that poetry can "gain and lose, move heaven and earth, and feel ghosts and gods." Reading the excellent works of great poets has "great benefits" and will make people "improve themselves unconsciously"
These comments on poetry come from her decades-long study and taste of life. Mr. Ye always mentioned all kinds of sufferings in his 9-year life. In her eyes, poetry is a lubricant, which can buffer and push away worries.
She used Su Dongpo's words "Don't listen to the sound of beating leaves through the forest, why not sing and walk slowly" to illustrate the power she realized from her poems. "Sometimes it's not adversity that overwhelms you, but that you are overwhelmed by it. The key is whether you care about it in your heart. "
Mr. Ye believes that Su Dongpo's broad-minded attitude reflected in his poems is precisely because he "let go of personal interests and gains", which is also her own moral duty and life realm.
Every time the students line up the low stools, Ye Jiaying recites the excellent poems with the unique antique level tones. This small living room instantly becomes a lecture hall, and the listeners often forget to finish class because of the poetic state.
In Jialing College, there will be a bigger living room waiting for its owner. Ye Jiaying is looking forward to opening a door to attract people who don't understand poetry. She regards devoting herself to poetry education as "a great pleasure". At most, she taught in three universities at the same time. She said that her body has reached the stage of aging, and she has no energy when she was young, but she is still willing to try her best as long as someone wants her to teach.
She encouraged herself with a poem by Du Fu, a poet whom she greatly admired: "When you cover the coffin, it is enough, and this ambition is often forgotten.". She said that she didn't know which day she could do it. But as long as you can stand on the podium, you must do your best to spread the beautiful tradition of poetry.
"In fact, I think there are many very talented people among young people, but they didn't have the chance to get in touch with them in the past, and no one opened this door ... Since I have realized it, I will not pass it on to the younger generation, and I feel that I am sorry for the ancients and the younger ones." Ye Jiaying said.
Many years ago, Ye Jiaying wrote a poem "Lotus should not die if it has a heart" for the Nankai horseshoe lake in Lianyetian. She learned from the journal of archaeology that the lotus seeds in the Han tomb for thousands of years can actually cultivate flowers. She said that it is easy to pass the cold and hot days of life, but she has a "crazy dream" that "a thousand springs are still waiting to blossom"-after a thousand years, the lotus seeds she has made can still produce lotus flowers.