Century Talent Woman — Biography of Su Xuelin

Author: Fan Zhenwei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Su Xuelin, before the age of seven or eight, spent her days playing and fooling around with her uncles and older brothers. They roamed the wilderness, fishing, catching cicadas, trapping birds, and digging for crickets. During one of their wild games, her right index finger was pricked by broken glass. At the time, she paid little attention, and only a little blood flowed. She wrapped it with a rag, but soon it became infected and wouldn’t heal. It took several months for it to finally recover. The boys’ games were often joined by the girls, and the Su family’s uncles and nephews sometimes picked up wooden or bamboo swords, spears, and bows to practice fighting. As a child, Su Xuelin was skilled in making bows and arrows. She used bamboo for the bows and thin bamboo branches for the arrows. After making them, she found they worked very well, and her uncles and brothers often asked her to make them. She was happy to help them, and sometimes, as a token of gratitude, they would give her toys she had grown tired of, like clay chickens or dogs, which made her delighted. Su Xuelin was also good at archery and had a keen eye. It seemed she was born with the ability to aim and shoot accurately, a skill she displayed from a young age and maintained throughout her life. When she was young, air rifles had just become popular, and her family owned one too. Everyone took turns practicing with it, and Su Xuelin’s shooting skills were particularly outstanding. In her memory, there was a time when her grandfather was holding court in the flower hall, and she ran outside with her small air rifle. A few guards smiled at the little girl. To show off her shooting skills, she stood firmly and aimed at a pillar dozens of feet away. With a loud bang, she hit the pillar, and the guards were greatly impressed by her marksmanship.
Later in life, during the War of Resistance, Su Xuelin sought refuge in Leshan, Sichuan. Once, in a park, she encountered an air rifle gambling game. With her childlike heart still intact, she hit the mark with all three shots. Another time, on her second trip to France, in a amusement park in Paris, she tried archery but failed because the bow was too strong for her to pull. Next, she tried a rubber gun and hit the mark twice in a row, showing that her shooting skills were indeed remarkable.
Su Xuelin was an exceptionally intelligent girl. From a young age, she showed great talent in poetry, painting, and had a high level of literary and analytical ability. Talent cannot be hidden, and this was especially evident in the precocious Su Xuelin. During her childhood, girls rarely had the opportunity to go to school. In the Su family, since her grandfather was the head of the county and the entire family lived together for generations, her childhood friends included not only her siblings but also uncles who were close in age to her. Su Xuelin’s brothers and uncles had private tutors come to their home to teach, allowing girls like Su Xuelin and her sister to attend classes as well. However, her grandmother believed that raising girls was a waste of money and that educating them was an unprofitable investment, so she did everything in her power to prevent the girls from going to school. Su Xuelin’s older sister and younger sister, along with three other girls, were originally not supposed to attend school. But her second uncle, who had been influenced by new ideas, once told her grandmother that girls should also receive some education and learn to read and write, otherwise, it would be difficult for them to manage a household and keep accounts later. Her grandmother, though illiterate, was a devout Buddhist and longed to read Buddhist scriptures like the Heart Sutra and the Great Compassion Mantra. However, she had no one to teach her. She thought that if her granddaughters were educated, she could teach them to read Buddhist scriptures.