Historical celebrities of Jiuxi Yanshu

Chen Brai

Chen Brai’s tomb is located on Luobo Mountain in Xucun behind Pingfengshan Sanatorium in Jiuxi, Hangzhou. The tomb is surrounded by walls separated from the outside world, forming a small courtyard. The environment is quiet and the tomb is It is basically cylindrical in shape, and the tombstone has the inscription "Mr. Chen Brai's Tomb" written by the calligrapher Qian Taixi. Chen Bui (1890-1948), named Xun'en, courtesy name Yanji, and alias Bui, was born in Cixi, Zhejiang. He was the chief writer of Shanghai's Tianduo Daily, Business Daily, and Current Affairs News. He was famous for his sharp writing. He served as the director of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Education for the last two years. Since 1927, he has successively served as deputy secretary-general of the Central Political Conference of the Kuomintang, secretary-general of the Central Party Department, deputy director of the Central Propaganda Department, and national policy adviser to the Presidential Office. He was Chiang Kai-shek's chief of staff and chief confidential secretary. In November 1948, he committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills in Nanjing. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, a new Pingfengshan Sanatorium was built where Chen Brai's tomb was located. The then Governor of Zhejiang Province, Sha Wenhan, had instructed that Chen's tomb should be properly preserved. However, the tomb was still destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The current tomb was rebuilt at the original site around 1990.

The tombs of Chen Sanli and Chen Hengke's father and son are located in the tea garden of Jiuxitou shooting range to the north of Chen Builei's tomb. The father's and son's tombs are located side by side, with the same style, both barrel-shaped, with a low chair-shaped wall around the tomb. It was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. The current tomb was rebuilt by the Hangzhou Municipal People's Government in 1986. The inscriptions on the tombstone were all written by Guo Zhongxuan.

Chen Sanli (1858-1937), courtesy name Boyan and nickname Sanyuan, was born in Yining (now Xiushui), Jiangxi. The eldest son of Chen Baozhen, a famous reformist minister in the late Qing Dynasty, was known as the "Four Young Masters of the Reform" together with Tan Sitong, Xu Renzhu and Tao Jucun. Chen Sanli once helped his father implement the New Deal, but things went against his wishes. During the 1898 Coup, he was charged with "attracting evil" and was dismissed from office by the Qing government along with his father. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, the Japanese army wanted to recruit Chen Sanli to serve as a puppet. They sent people to lobby in every possible way, but Sanli refused. They asked servants to use brooms to drive the lobbyists away. From then on, he did not eat for five days and died of worry and anger. He was 85 years old. . Chen Sanli is a famous poet and an important representative of the Tongguang style poetry school in modern times. Liang Qichao commented on his poems in "Drinking Ice Room Poetry Talk": "No new words are used, but the realm has changed with the times. It is mellow and elegant. I would say that among the people of the Tang and Song Dynasties, it is rare to compare it."

There is another interesting story about Chen Sanli’s stay in Hangzhou. In April 1924, when Rabindranath Tagore, the great Indian poet, came to Hangzhou, he made a special trip to visit Chen Sanli, who was living in Hangzhou at that time, at the Jingci Temple on the bank of the West Lake. Two old poets of different nationalities shared their admiration through Xu Zhimo's translation. Tagore, as a representative of the Indian poetry circle, gave Chen Sanli a collection of his own poems, and hoped that Chen Sanli would also give him a collection of poems as a representative of the Chinese poetry circle. After Sanli accepted the gift of the book, he expressed his gratitude and said humbly: "You are a world-famous poet, enough to represent your country's poetry. But I dare not claim to be a representative of Chinese poets." The latter two took a photo side by side, which was passed down as China A good story in the history of cultural exchanges between India and India.

Chen Hengke (1876-1923), courtesy name Shizeng, was the eldest son of Chen Sanli. Studied in Japan and taught at Hunan First Normal School, Beijing Higher Normal School, etc. He is good at poetry and calligraphy, especially painting. Shen Zhou, Shi Tao and Xu Wei are the masters of modern traditional Chinese painting who used landscape painting techniques. When his posthumous works were exhibited in Beijing, he was praised by Wu Changshuo as "the immortal is immortal".

Entering Jiuxi from Longjing Village is a different mood. Mountains are connected to mountains, rivers are connected to water, the streams have many twists and turns, the peaks are winding, the water is abundant, and the pebbles and gravels in the streams are clearly visible. The water and stone rush together, sounding like a zither reed, forming a piece of sweet music. There is mist in the mountains all year round, slowly appearing in the forest and by the water, like a poem or a dream. Yu Yue, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, summed up the scenery of this place in a poem: "There are overlapping mountains, winding roads; tin-ting-dong-dong springs, and trees high and low." Entering Jiuxi from Yangmeiling, it feels like stepping into a quiet and deep valley and dense forest. Along the way, the old trees block out the sun, the branches are intertwined, the sound of water is vague, and the mountains are endless. It is like being in the primitive deep mountains and old forests. What I feel is exactly what Mr. Yu Dafu said in "A Half-Day Journey". The silence in the mountains is like that of ancient times." Lin Shu, a native of the Qing Dynasty, described the scenery here well in his travel notes "Jiuxi Eighteen Streams":