The sorrow of the end of the year

Author: C. T. Hsia
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: A Trilogy of Reading, Writing, and Research
I. First Reading of Romance of the Three Kingdoms
During my primary and junior high school years in Suzhou, my father worked as a junior clerk at the Bank of Communications in Peking and Shanghai. Our home had no bookshelves, let alone a study filled with traditional and Western-bound books. Having never been exposed to literary culture from a young age, nor had I seen contemporary literary works or magazines, I certainly did not develop the habits of a "literary youth." During that period, I could only be considered a diligent student who read nothing but textbooks, along with magazines like Little Friends and High School Students.
I attended the affiliated primary school of Taowu Middle School, which was a missionary school but extremely poorly equipped, as if it even lacked a self-study reading room. The entire school was just a larger two-story residential house, with the so-called playground being an courtyard adorned with a few plumeria trees—this was the only natural greenery in the entire school, and there were no grassy areas. Fortunately, there were two table tennis tables, which I could use for table tennis during breaks. This was the only sport I learned in my life.
At the entrance of the school was a reception room, and passing through a small courtyard led to the restrooms, which only had four large wooden barrels for students to urinate in. Taowu Middle School was a relatively elite missionary school, and on weekends, my older brother Jia'an often took me to watch his classmates play football on the large playground. The principal, Mr. McNulty, had a red face and wore gold-rimmed glasses, and was considered a local notable. For some reason, the affiliated primary school was so substandard. The principal, Mr. Cox, could speak some Chinese, but I only met him a few times and it seemed there was no principal's office in the school. He was thin and pale, though a missionary, he had learned Laozi's principle of "non-action," and I wondered what he was actually doing.
Of course, all the teachers were Chinese, and among them was a very kind and approachable physical education teacher whose name I still remember—Jin Kunyi. He was a Muslim, and once he said that if you stick your tongue to the upper lip while urinating, you can prolong your life. To this day, I have forgotten all the teachings of the teachers at Taowu Affiliated Primary School, but I still remember this sentence, though even at the time, I half believed and half doubted it.
During my primary school years, thanks to the long summer vacation, life was also quite interesting. Every afternoon in the height of summer, I could hardly wait for my mother to bring out the watermelon "chilled" in the well. I was not greedy for anything but had to eat half a watermelon. In those days, breakfast consisted only of congee, with no other nutrients. On hot days, the body needed vitamins, and naturally, I had a special fondness for watermelon. Besides, playing chess and reading books made the days pass pleasantly.
There were no books displayed in the house, but once, I found a set of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and a large collection of Lin Qinnan's translated novels. These might have been my father's only books. I imagine that during his student years, Lin's translations were very popular, and he bought quite a few, and he actually read them. There were no bookshelves at home, and with too many volumes of Lin's translated novels, they were just left in their original place, gathering dust. Later, after several moves, I don’t know where they ended up. That set of newly punctuated Romance of the Three Kingdoms, with three or four volumes, was likely published by the Yadong Library.
At that time, I was nine years old and had just completed the third grade. Reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms was still difficult for me because there were many unfamiliar characters, but the story was so captivating that I couldn’t put it down. This was the first time I finished reading a literary classic in my life. In the following three years, every summer vacation...