Nanpi people's feelings for Zhang Zhidong are simple and sincere.
In 1980s, an old man in rags came to the preparation office of Zhang Park and donated 1000 yuan. It turned out that this "Zhou Tiezui" from Nanpijia Tunzi Village had donated money for the construction of Zhang Park. The staff refused to accept it, and the old man refused to do it. Everyone has to say, put money first and take it when necessary. Ten years later, the old man remembered to build the park and said, "I still have my thousand dollars."
Although none of Zhang Zhidong's descendants live in Nanpi now, the twenty special words inscribed by Zhang Zhidong in the Zhang family at the east gate of Nanpi are still widely used today: "Be kind and obey the family law, serve the country faithfully, study classics for the world, and keep Confucianism and treasure". People who don't know Zhang know each other's seniority as soon as they hear their names. But it also creates an unexpected trouble: too many duplicate names. For example, there are four or five people with the same name in Da 'an and Zhangzhang villages with large populations. It happened that the wrong person was called at the meeting and the visitor pointed to the wrong door.
In addition to the tradition of using names, the tradition of Zhang's attaching importance to education is still prevalent. Mr. Zhang, a member of the Zhang family who is enthusiastic about Zhang Zhidong's research, said in Zhang Zhidong and Nanpi Zhang Family written before his death in the winter of 2004: In the village where Zhang's population accounts for half of the village, 90% of the college students in the village are surnamed Zhang.
"In the first two years of Qingming, I went to the tomb of Zhang Zhidong and saw that the tablet case in front of the tomb was still scattered, but the pit dug in front of the grave had been filled, and there was a bunch of white pears on the fallen stone case." Wang Yuliang recalled.
In May 2004, Zhangzhidong Research Association of Nanpi County was established, with Xing Jiaxun, retired director of the former county people's congress, as its president. They collect memories and study Zhang Zhidong's articles and publish them in magazines regularly. Xing Jiaxun, Vice President Ye Shulong and other members of the seminar also attacked everywhere and followed Zhang Zhidong's footsteps to investigate and collect, looking for Zhang Zhidong's descendants. In order to save money, they only buy evening tickets. In Hanyang Iron Works, the factory museum presented the special bricks and tiles used by Zhang Zhidong when he presided over the construction of the iron works to "fellow villagers". Things weighing more than 20 kilograms were carried back by Xing Jiaxun and Ye Shulong.
In May 2005, Nanpi Zhangzhidong Painting and Calligraphy Institute was established.
In February 2006, the Propaganda Department of Nanpi County Committee, who just went to work after the Spring Festival, held a research meeting on Zhang Zhidong, and made a detailed plan for Zhang Zhidong's research and in-depth development. This is the first time in recent 15 years that Zhang Zhidong's research has been listed as the official work agenda of the county party Committee and government.
This year, Taiwan Province Zhang Zhidong's great-grandson Zhang Faming returned to Nanpi to worship his ancestors.
In February of 65438+, Nanpi No.1 Middle School built the "Zhangzhidong Exhibition Hall". 1903, Zhang Zhidong returned to Wuchang from Beijing and Nanpi to worship his ancestors. He donated 5200 silver prizes, accumulated a pension of 12200, and built a new school in his hometown, named Ci 'en School. The layout of the school is novel, with classrooms, bedrooms, restaurants, kitchens, conference halls, libraries and playgrounds. There are also rockeries in the garden, including ancient pagodas and begonia. The overall style is a combination of Chinese and western.
The school was established in 1907, and has successively established a primary school, a higher primary school and a middle school, with 30 students each, and the educational system is four years and five years respectively. After the liberation of Nanpi, Ci 'en School was renamed Nanpi Middle School. 1980 was renamed Nanpi County No.1 Middle School.
The school founded by Zhang Zhidong is not only the oldest school in Nanpi, but also the highest institution in Nanpi today. Today's Nanpi No.1 Middle School has no historical sites at all. There are teaching buildings and student apartments around the campus with more than 3000 students. But you can see the tall white marble statue of Zhang Zhidong on the campus square without entering the gate; In the memorial hall of Zhang Zhidong in the school, there is still a panoramic view of Ci 'en School hanging on his forehead. At the other end of the exhibition room, stands a bust of Zhang Zhidong. Ye Shulong, vice president of Zhang Zhidong Research Association, who is the deputy director of Nanpi County Radio and Television Bureau, said with a smile: "This is not copper, but clay sculpture made by local farmers."
For Nanpi people, what worries them most is where Zhang Zhidong's body is.
We have to find it! The county magistrate issued an order to Xing Gu Xun.
At that time, the cemetery had already become a large farmland, 1958 leveled the land. The field where Zhang Zhidong's tomb is located was allocated to Nanguan Village. In 2003, Xing Jiaxun rode to Nanguan Village to find the original village party secretary, and then went to Nanyuan Village, which is connected with the cemetery, to find an insider ... Unfortunately, no one could agree with different opinions.
In March 2007, Xing Jiaxun found Gao Yutang, an old man who was looking at the grave that year.
Lao Xing, who is in his 70 s, rode an electric bicycle and took 92-year-old Gao Yutang straight to the cemetery. After farmland construction and land leveling, the contract responsibility system was implemented ... everything has long been unrecognizable. What's more, it has been decades since Gaos moved out of here, and it is very difficult to identify it on the spot. Finally, the old man pointed to a large area of big leaf grass called "Laojiu" by local people and said, "This is it". Gao Yutang's son said that he buried Zhang Zhidong's bones next to a broken monument. If he finds the stone tablet, won't he find the bone? A temporary exploration team of four or five people was set up. They took a temporary 1.5m steel pipe cone and dug a hole near the original cemetery for exploration. Two months passed, leaving thousands of holes in the ground, but no traces of stone tablets and bones were found.
Xing jiaxun never gives up. He found the deputy county magistrate and Nanpi Town People's Government, called the relevant village party branches to study, and asked them to have a meeting with the old party member in the village to mobilize the masses and look for insiders. The village branch held a meeting to find the news of burying Zhang Zhidong's insider, which attracted a young man. He said that it was his cousin Zhang Zhixin in Nanguan Village who buried Zhang Gong's bones.
Looking at Xing Jiaxun and others, Zhang Zhixin, who was silent for 4 1 year, finally solved the mystery of the disappearance of Zhang Zhidong's bones. At that time, he personally buried the bones of Zhang Zhidong.
Zhang Zhixin said, 1966, he was only 20 years old. At the end of autumn, the mature laborers in the village dig rivers. He and several old people leveled the land and planed cotton and firewood in the field next to the Zhangzhidong cemetery in the south of the village. Several women said that they were a little scared and had a taste. Zhang Zhixin and an old Wang Man dragged Zhang Zhidong's body and a female corpse to the original grave and buried it again with a hoe. On the surface, the tomb was destroyed, but the bones were still below. The bodies of the other two ladies are unknown.
"I just know that Zhang Zhidong is a big officer and a good man. Besides, even ordinary people are immoral to do so! " Zhang Zhixin, who suffered a lot because of the bad ingredients, was very careful. After burying the bones, he repeatedly told the insider not to tell anyone so as not to let the rebels know. "I haven't dared to say it for so many years, but I just don't know what will happen if I say it. I have been asked before, but I am not in charge of the government. I didn't tell you. This time, I think the government is sincerely looking for it. President Xing is the real person in charge of the government! "
The excavator scraped the skull.
Zhang Zhixin has been working in the nearby fields and is familiar with the changes here. He buried the bones himself, so the location he identified should be reliable.
On June 1 day, 2007, Xing Jiaxun, who was full of hope, reported to the county government the implementation plan for finding Zhang Zhidong's remains. The plan is so simple that archaeologists may be surprised: dig with an excavator. The plan was approved by the county magistrate. Everything is ready, just waiting for the wheat harvest.
On the 7th, Xing Jiaxun received a phone call from Zhang Hanwang, the village party secretary of Nanguan, on the train returning from Zhang Zhidong's memorial activities: "The wheat has been harvested and can be dug."
On the afternoon of the 8th, a yellow excavator drove into the field. In the central area determined by Zhang Zhixin, the mechanical arm dug longitudinal trenches with a width of one meter and a depth of nearly two meters from north to south, and each trench was separated by one meter. June is a hot day. At the high temperature of 38 degrees Celsius, people seem to be working in a steamer, and their faces are red. Dig out a brick and a tile. Suddenly, with a click, a clay pot appeared in the ditch. People exclaimed for a while: is it a funeral object of Zhang Gong? Gao, the director of the county museum waiting at the scene, shook his head: "This salty food jar is a funerary object of ordinary people. However, Zhang Zhidong is a senior official, and the funerary objects should be more expensive. "
The roar of the machine attracted onlookers from all directions. An old man said that Zhang's cemetery was still in the west. Some people say that Zhang cemetery is between Houzhuang and the monument. It is also said that in the south ... Zhang Zhixin, who doesn't talk much, looks at seven or eight 20-meter-long ditches opened by excavators, and his heart is a little drummed: this place is different from before. It used to run from east to west, but now it runs from north to south. Is it because you remember wrong? He stood on the high ground and looked around again. He also ran to the northern end of the earth and made a circle. He has a bottom in mind: he can't walk far, so he will dig here.
When the sun went down, Xing Jiaxun and the village party secretary decided to call it a day, and the excavation work went on until five o'clock in the morning.
The next day, at four o'clock, Zhang Zhixin came to the field. With a vague premonition, he specially brought a spatula. Without the supervision of the first day of the brigade, the two quietly began a new excavation. Just after driving to the fourth ditch, I saw something similar to a skull. Zhang Zhixin shouted "Stop!" "It's hanging. The big scratch just grazed Zhang Gong's skull. Any deeper, the bones will be destroyed. If it is shallower, it may be missed. " According to local customs, bones can't be seen in the sky. Zhang Zhixin quickly covered it with newspaper. Look at the time. It's only six in the morning.
Soon, Xing Jiaxun, Ye Shulong, Wang Yuliang and others arrived one after another, bringing two pieces of red silk two and a half feet square. The director of civil affairs came and sent someone to the city site to order two temporary coffins. The deputy county magistrate is here. Zhang Hanwang, the village party secretary, rented a shed and bought firecrackers. Zhang Houqian, a member of the Zhang family, was invited to present paper and worship the bones. People put up sheds to cover the bones, and Zhang Houqian, a clansman, put a portrait of a bow in front of the cave and lit firecrackers after worshipping the paper. Zhang Zhixin and the digger put on snow-white gloves and began to arrange the bones.
Two bones were lying side by side, with their heads facing north, one on the east side was male and the other on the west side was female, exactly as Zhang Zhixin described. Zhang Zhixin's nephews Lu Chunsheng and Zhang Houqian also helped. They carefully put the two bones dug out on the red silk cloth prepared in advance. Lu Chunsheng also measured the arm bone of Zhang Gong: "The arm bone of Zhang Gong is really long, and the hand is really knee-high." The old man present also said that Zhang Zhidong's true bone can't be wrong.
At this time, Xing Jiaxun finally figured out why he couldn't find it at the beginning: there was no coffin, no soil and no clothes. Where can he find it? He breathed a sigh of relief: "These days, sleeping and dreaming at night are also looking for Zhang Zhidong's bones. If I can't find it within the predetermined range, I plan to go to Zhangzhou and ask experts to dig out all the original cemetery areas. I must find it! "
When interviewed in Nanpi, the reporter asked Xing Jiaxun who came by electric bicycle: Why didn't you ask professional archaeologists to look for the bones at that time?
The old man seems to have never thought about such a problem. He shook his head: how many years has this been? Do you need archaeology? Ask them to pay a lot of money.
How can we be sure it's Zhang Zhidong's bone?
Xing Jiaxun gave his four reasons: first, after measurement, the remains are consistent with Zhang Zhidong's figure; Second, the location where the bones were found was pointed out by the person who buried the body in those days, and there were no other graves of Fiona Fang within tens of meters nearby; Third, these two bones have no clothes and coffins, and they are not buried normally, but they are very consistent with the situation of Zhang Zhidong's bones in that year; Fourth, there are rumors that when Zhang Gong's bones were dug up, there were beads in his mouth. In order to pry out the sphere, several teeth on the bone were pried off. The bone found this time is really an incomplete tooth, missing a piece of chewing gum. It is basically certain that this is the remains of Zhang Zhidong.
The old man said seriously, "I didn't find it in those years because I didn't look for it seriously!" " "