Essence of Feng Zikai's Essays

Author: Feng Zikai
Author Country: China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: Feng Zikai has written thousands of essays, like olives, leaving readers savoring their essence long after reading. Mr. Feng’s eldest daughter, Feng Chenbao, responding to readers’ requests, has dedicated years to organizing her father’s works. Proficient in Feng Zikai’s essays, she, now over eighty, has selected 57 pieces from his writings, titled Feng Zikai’s Selected Essays, published by our press. In the preface, she writes: “Look at these essays—such as Gradual Change, Words of a Traveler, Being a Father, Floorboards, Willows—each, like the ink-and-wash paintings by Zikai, is written in concise, witty, profound, and polished strokes, revealing deep, thought-provoking, philosophical truths.” She has also annotated the publication dates of her father’s works and added explanations for dialects or passages that readers might find unclear.
Excerpt:
In 1919, when I was twenty-two, I graduated from the Normal School of Zhejiang Province in Hangzhou. This was a primary normal school. I had graduated from the higher primary school in my hometown and entered this school, where I studied for five years before graduating. Thus, the level of this school was equivalent to today’s high school, but it was designed to train primary school teachers. However, after graduating from the primary normal school during the summer break, I neither became a primary school teacher nor pursued further education. Instead, in the same autumn, I came to Shanghai to found a specialized school and became a teacher in its specialized department. Now, looking back, I find this quite amusing. But at the time, there were various circumstances that led me down this path. What were these circumstances? Because I had entered the normal school by chance, not with the intention of becoming a primary school teacher. Therefore, I devoted myself solely to studying in school, without paying much attention to education. In my fourth year, my interest suddenly shifted to painting. I even abandoned all other subjects to focus solely on painting or took leave to paint landscapes in West Lake. As a result, in the early years of my schooling, my academic performance was consistently at the top, but by graduation, it had dropped to the 20th place. Naturally, after graduation, I had no intention of becoming a primary school teacher and hoped to pursue the painting I was passionate about. But my family’s circumstances did not allow me to study painting exclusively. As I was in a dilemma, a classmate from the same school, Wu Mengfei, who had graduated from the higher normal school’s specialized department in painting and crafts, and another old classmate, Liu Zhiping, who had recently returned from studying music in Japan, discussed founding a school in Shanghai to train teachers in painting, music, and crafts, named the Specialized Normal School. They were recruiting teachers. Knowing my passion for painting and my inability to pursue further studies, Liu invited me to help. Without fully assessing my capabilities, I rashly agreed. Thus, I became one of the founders of the Specialized Normal School and taught Western painting there. Of course, this was a difficult task. My knowledge of painting consisted only of sketching a few charcoal and plaster models during my time at the primary normal school, learning some Japanese from teachers at night, and borrowing a copy of the Principles of Regular Western Painting published in the Meiji era from the school’s library, where I gleaned some outdated knowledge of painting.