Luo Jialun and Zhang Weizheng: My Father and Mother

Author: Luo Jiufang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: This is a memoir of family affection. The Luo Jialun recorded in this book was one of the main leaders of the May Fourth Patriot Movement, former president of Tsinghua University and Central University, and an educator who made great contributions to modern Chinese education and had a profound impact. The daughter of Luo Jialun wrote this memoir of her parents with the rich accumulation of a historian and sincere emotions. With the author's reflection as the main thread, it includes recollections of her father Luo Jialun, her mother Zhang Weizhen, and their contemporaries, vividly and comprehensively presenting the extraordinary life of Luo Jialun and his wife Zhang Weizhen. The book includes more than 70 precious historical photographs and calligraphy, many of which are being shown to readers for the first time. This book combines the new and old chapters of the author's recollections of her father Luo Jialun and mother Zhang Weizhen, along with Luo Jialun's memories of his teachers and friends, as well as some of their representative works, along with several essays written by Luo Jialun's friends and students in memory of him, forming a multi-perspective biography. Readers can not only learn about the lives of Luo Jialun and Zhang Weizhen but also experience the vicissitudes of their era.
Father Luo Jialun, styled Zhixi, was from Shaoxing, Zhejiang. He was born fifteen years before the Republic of China, in 1897. The day he passed away, he had just turned 72. Over these six decades, China underwent unprecedented changes and disasters. In this extraordinary era, many extraordinary figures emerged, and father was one of them. As his daughter, I have always been proud of his patriotic spirit, profound knowledge, innovative spirit, and his sincerity in dealing with others. In the history of 20th-century China, he was a public figure; to me, he was my beloved father forever. I was born more than six years after my parents married, and it was not easy. For this, father wrote a poem:
"Spring arrives in Jiangnan with a fierce wind,
The distant sky is veiled in purple-red.
I know life's rare blossoms emerge from pain,
Emerging from cries of suffering and sorrow."
This poem shows his joy and his deep expectations for me, though it reflects his personal feelings, it also expresses the common sentiments of many fathers in the world.
At that time, father was the president of Central University, and our home was near Xuanwu Lake in Nanjing. After work or on holidays, father often took me to visit friends and go on outings. At home, he taught me to sing children's songs he had composed for me and then taught me to recite simple Tang poems. Under my parents' love, I spent a carefree and brilliant childhood.
Soon after the July 7th Incident in 1937, Nanjing became a target of Japanese air raids. The threat of bombs ended our short-lived comfortable life, and from then on, father devoted almost all his time and energy to ensuring the safety and integrity of Central University and planning the relocation to the interior. He sent my mother, me, and my infant sister Juhua on a train to Hankou, while he stayed in Nanjing to continue the arduous work of relocating the university.
We arrived in Chongqing shortly after, and Central University began classes in a new campus in Shapingba, the suburbs of Chongqing. Our family first lived in the city area of Chongqing, but after being bombed by enemy aircraft, we moved to Geleshan, and then to Xiaolongkan, which was quite far from the university. During the war, transportation was inconvenient and fuel was scarce. For official duties, father had to frequently travel between the city and Shapingba, reducing his chances of going home. I remember during the "May 3rd" and "May 4th" bombings, from the air raid shelter on Geleshan, I could see golden incendiary bombs slowly descending into the night sky, igniting a red flame upon impact. In my half-understood, half-confused heart, I felt an inexplicable mix of novelty and terror. At that time, father was in the city, and I didn't know how my mother was worrying about his safety!
After relocating to Chongqing, father personally planned and supervised the lives, studies, and academic advancement of Central University faculty and students, as well as various wartime measures. Only those who worked with him at the time could fully understand the difficulties and hardships he faced. Although he had written a few reflective articles, he only mentioned important matters of the university and never mentioned how he often stayed in a bunker on a hillside of the campus.