Wu Chao Men Di

Author: Wang Yitong
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-03-01
Features: In the tenth month of the Jia Yin year, I was born in Jiangyin, Jiangsu. Today, I am ninety. My life has been filled with ups and downs, worthy of recounting. The year of my birth, World War II broke out in Europe. Twenty-three years later, just as I graduated from Peking University, the Lugou Bridge Incident occurred. My former schools, such as Peking University and Tsinghua University, were in a state of panic and had to move, while Peking University, with the help of foreign residents, managed to survive. At that time, I accompanied my parents to seek refuge by the shores of Gulu Lake in Yixing, completely uninvolved in the outside world. The following year, I returned to school from Shanghai by sea, entered the graduate school, and revised the two volumes of The Five Dynasties' Gentry. When the manuscript was completed, my mentor, Professor Hong, burned incense and sent a letter to the Harvard-Yenching Institute, planning to have it published. However, with the outbreak of the Pacific War, the project was abruptly halted. At that time, I was traveling from Hong Kong to Guilin and then to Sichuan, taking up a position at Jinling University in Chengdu, and lending my copy for publication. Less than two years later, the Japanese invasion forced the universities in the rear areas to rush to restore their operations. Before I could even catch my breath, the civil war broke out again, and the north and south collapsed. The world has changed, like white clouds and blue dogs, and this book has not been widely disseminated. There were pirated copies in Taiwan, with poor-quality paper and dark, ugly printing, which were rarely sought after. By the autumn of the Ding Ji year, the Chinese University of Hong Kong finally published a new edition. It seems that my life, the changes in the nation's affairs, and the fate of this book have all been like this. I lost my mother at five, my father at twenty-five, and my wife at sixty-six. Of my four siblings, all have passed away, leaving me alone. The setbacks in my personal life have been just as severe. Now that I am old, my friend Fan Ziyue, with his great kindness, said that this book has suffered too many misfortunes and should be republished for the world. He recommended the Commercial Press to take charge of the publication, and it was printed in Beijing. However, among my teachers and friends, those who taught me, debated with me, and shared deep bonds with me have nearly all passed away. I will not mention my teachers, but among my friends, such as Yang Liansheng (Liansheng) of Shaoxing, Liu Zijian of Guiyang, Zheng Siyu (Chiyu) of Changning, Li Tianyi of Lu, Xu Xianxiu (Jieren) of Yongjia, Zhou Yiliang (Taichu) and his brother Zhaoliang of Dongzhi, Li Jingjun of Tianjin—all have passed before me, leaving me unable to see them. To drink together and discuss art, I can only hope that their spirits will visit me in dreams. In the winter of the Jia Shen year, Wang Yitong of Jiangyin.