Qian Juntong (The Bell's Sound Sends Away the Flowing Light)

Author: Zhong Guisong
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-06-01
Features: This is a series of character-focused books that highlights historical photographs and visual materials. It is said that we are now in an era of images, and this is quite true. Regardless of television, movies, CDs, and other media dominating cultural consumption and reading trends, the rise of historical relics such as old photographs, old cartoons, and old illustrations is enough to show that people are no longer satisfied with experiencing life and history through text. They are increasingly willing to read about people and history through historical images. Indeed, individual life scenes, portraits, and even handwritten pages often contain richer and more unique content than textual descriptions, making them more engaging for readers and sparking their imagination. This is a series of illustrated personal histories that emphasizes historical photographs and visual materials. The author uses the life of the subject as a backdrop, capturing certain fragments that highlight the subject's personality and fate with elegant prose. Through the perfect combination of historical photographs, visual materials, the subject's own accounts, and others' evaluations, the lives of these modern Chinese cultural figures are presented in a multi-layered, multi-faceted, and vivid manner. Each book in the series has 30,000 words and approximately 120 illustrations. The text is concise, the images are precious, and the books have collectible value. The books are concise in text, rich in illustrations, and the two complement each other perfectly, making them highly popular among readers and praised by experts.
The next day, Father came to the private academy to take the chair that Qian Junfang sat in home. After that, Qian Junfang left this private academy and enrolled in the only elementary school in Tu Dian—Shi Jing Primary School, which later became Chong Dao Primary School. This school was not far from Qian's family and was located in the abbot's room of Ji Zao Temple. The teacher was Qian Zuo Min, a relatively open-minded young teacher. In the private academy, painting was not allowed, and if you painted, you would get your hands beaten. But here, painting became a subject, which greatly excited young Junfang and made him even more enthusiastic about painting. Gradually, his painting and calligraphy became famous in the school, and he was often encouraged by Qian Zuo Min.
The initial motivation of experts was probably interest. If the primary school teacher had been like the private academy teacher and beaten hands for painting, Qian Junfang's talent for calligraphy and painting might have been extinguished early on. Qian Zuo Min's care and encouragement made young Junfang even more diligent, especially after a remark Qian Zuo Min made in class that Junfang never forgot. Qian Zuo Min said, "You can freely choose which calligraphy scripts to practice. I don’t force you to be uniform, but you must work hard and practice your calligraphy well. In the future, when looking for a job, people won’t be able to tell your level if your handwriting is poor. Otherwise, even if you have a lot of knowledge, poor handwriting often leads to being looked down upon or even unable to find a job."
Thus, Qian Junfang became even more diligent. He recalled, "There was a long corridor between the front and back rows of classrooms, covered with tiles. On the side facing the courtyard, there was only a low wall about three feet high, paved with one-foot square blue bricks, without plaster, looking neat and clean. During winter and summer vacations, I would find a palm broom, dip it in water, and write a large character on each brick. When I reached the last brick, the ink on the previous bricks had been absorbed, so I would start again from the first brick."
When Qian Zuo Min carefully reviewed the large characters Junfang had written on the bricks, he excitedly said to Junfang, "Good boy! Writing large characters at your young age is excellent. But you shouldn’t be satisfied with that. Just writing large characters isn’t enough; you also need to practice small, delicate calligraphy. Small calligraphy will have more practical applications in the future."