"Eighty Reminiscences of My Parents: Miscellaneous Recollections of Teachers and Friends"

Author: Qian Mu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: I was an orphan at the age of twelve when my father passed away, and I was still a child at the time. Thirty-six years later, my mother also passed away when I was forty-eight. I was alone in Chengdu and could not return to my hometown to attend the funeral. Due to the difficulties, I did not notify my acquaintances, lacked funeral rites, and only shut myself indoors, crying bitterly into the night until dawn. At the age of seventy-one, on the centennial anniversary of my parents' passing, I had already resigned from my duties at the New Asia College and was suffering from eye disease, hospitalized for surgery.
Content of the book: I was born in Nan Yanshang, Xiaodaojing, Qifangqiao in Wuxi, Jiangsu, where my family lived in a five-generation household. Tracing its origins, it can be traced back to my eighteenth-generation ancestor, a man of great wealth who owned ten thousand acres of fertile land on both banks of Xiaodaojing. He had no parents above him and no children below him, living only with his wife. When the eighteenth-generation ancestor was around thirty, he fell ill with a frail condition. Despite the best efforts of nearby doctors and countless medications, his condition worsened daily. One day, the eighteenth-generation ancestor's wife told her husband, "I have long harbored a thought in my heart, but I dare not speak it. I fear that if you do not follow it, you will blame me." The eighteenth-generation ancestor replied, "At this stage of my illness, if there is anything you can do, I will do it without hesitation. Even if it is truly beyond my ability, there will be no grounds for blame." The eighteenth-generation ancestor's wife said, "Your illness is beyond the reach of medicine. Qian family members have achieved fame through self-study, dedicating their lives to learning, encompassing the four branches of knowledge, and leaving behind a vast body of works. This book is a collection of recollections of his parents, teachers, and friends written after he turned eighty. The emotions are sincere, leaving readers in awe. Readers not only gain insight into Qian Mu's life of learning, writing, and character but also get a glimpse of the modern academic landscape. Dedicated readers can also sense the changes in "the nation, society, family, customs, figures, and academia" of this century through this book, as well as many little-known anecdotes and about Qian Mu's colleagues such as Hu Shi, Tang Yongtong, Meng Sen, Gu Jiegang, and Chen Yinque, all of whom were prominent modern scholars.