Cai Yunzhi
Teacher Cai Yunzhi holds the work of student Wei Wei
The heroine in Wei Wei's prose "My Teacher".
Cai Yunzhi was born on July 27, 1910 (June 21 of the lunar calendar).
July 27, 2010 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Cai Yunzhi.
Cai Yunzhi's son published an article "In Memory of My Mother Cai Yunzhi" in the sixth issue of "Middle School Chinese Teaching" magazine in 1983. At that time, Teacher Cai had passed away for eight years. Excerpt two paragraphs from the article:
"The full text of "My Teacher" was first published in "Teacher's News" on October 1, 1956. At that time, there was a teacher Han from Yanshi High School (we lived in A man in a village read this article and thought about it again and again. Finally, he thought it was my mother from the words "there is a black lump the size of an elm coin on the right corner of my mouth" in the article. So he showed this article to his mother. I acquiesced. Later, I managed to find Comrade Wei Wei’s address. From then on, the teachers and students who had been separated for 30 years regained contact. From then on, they often wrote to each other. From Comrade Wei Wei’s letters, I saw the importance of being a famous contemporary writer. The respect and love of the teacher. I remember that every time a letter came, my mother would read it to me and teach me to imitate his handwriting and practice writing."
"When she was 44 years old, that is, in 1956. In 2006, Sima Private Middle School hired her to teach. I remember that she was very happy and energetic at that time, and felt excited about being able to cultivate talents for the country. Comrade Wei Wei's "My Teacher" gave her great strength. In her evaluation, she was very humble and believed that she just did what a teacher should do, and a teacher should have the character of loving students."
Cai Yunzhi is a native of Yanzhou, Shandong, and her father Cai Zhonghe has always been in school. Working on the Longhai Railway. Cai Yunzhi is the second daughter of Cai Zhonghe, and there are five sisters in Cai Yunzhi's family. After graduating from the one-year normal class attached to Luoyang Women's Primary School, she was admitted to Kaifeng Women's Normal University. In 1928, her father lost his job soon after working on the Zhengzhou Railway. In order to reduce the burden on the family, Cai Yunzhi decided to drop out of school and seek self-employment a year before graduation. Through someone's introduction, she went to teach at Guanyue Temple Primary School on Dongmenwai East Street in Zhengzhou (a ruined temple converted into a free civilian primary school, now known as Chuangxin Street Primary School). She was less than 18 years old at the time.
From 1928 to 1930, during the three years when Cai Yunzhi taught, Wei Wei (Wei Hongjie) studied in the second, third and fourth grades at this school. He developed his literary hobby with the young teacher Cai. In August 1930, Cai Yunzhi left Zhengzhou and went to Kaifeng to resume her studies at the Women's Normal University. The Pingmin Primary School is located in a dilapidated Guanyue Temple outside the east gate of Zhengzhou. It is a free school that does not charge tuition fees and does not require uniforms (school uniforms). This is nothing short of good news for children from poor families. Cai Yunzhi came from a poor family and was full of sympathy and love for these children who had no money to go to regular schools but were equally smart. Teacher Cai's literary hobby had a great influence on Wei Wei. Wei Wei has never forgotten the article "The Sound of Broken Hong" published by Teacher Cai in a newspaper in Zhengzhou. It can be said that Cai Yunzhi was Wei Wei's enlightenment teacher in literature.
Photos given by Wei Wei to teacher Cai Yunzhi
In 1930, Cai Zhonghe passed away, and Cai Yunzhi dropped out of school again and went to teach at Donghua Street Primary School in the old city of Luoyang. She resumed school again in 1936 and finally graduated from Kaifeng Women's Normal University in 1937. Family changes forced Cai Yunzhi to study at Kaifeng Women's Normal University on and off for ten years! After graduation, he returned to Luoyang to teach. It was not until 1940 that he married Wang Qiuzhi, the academic director of Fudan Middle School in Luoyang. At that time, Cai Yunzhi was 29 years old and was a rare young man who married late at the time. Wang Qiuzhi had more progressive ideas and once protected Ji Dengkui (former Vice Premier of the State Council) and other progressive students as a senator from Luoyang County of the Kuomintang. After the fall of Luoyang, Wang Qiuzhi took his family back to Zhuge's hometown to escape. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, Cai Yunzhi applied to be the principal of Zhuge Central Primary School, while Wang Qiuzhi still taught at Fudan Middle School.
After liberation, Cai Yunzhi, like all intellectuals, happily welcomed the great social changes.
However, due to various reasons, it was not until the establishment of Sima Minzhong in Zhuge Town in 1956 that Cai Yunzhi was hired to teach in the minzhong. At that time, the Minzhong was also located in an ancient temple like the civilian primary school in Zhengzhou, and the conditions were very simple. However, after her comeback, Cai Yunzhi was full of energy and devoted herself to her work. Sima Minzhong, as a private middle school in the southwest of Yanshi, trained a large number of talents for Yanshi.
For 10 years from 1957 to 1966, Wei Wei and Cai Yunzhi kept writing letters, constantly telling Mr. Cai about their new works and their work and life; every time a book was published, they always had to sign it personally. The name was given to Teacher Cai, and she has always been affectionately called "Master Yunzhi". Every time I received a letter from Wei Wei, I was "as happy as a holiday" to Cai Yunzhi's family and the teachers and students of Sima Minzhong (Wang Shu French). Cai Yunzhi not only read the letter to her children, but also to her own students, so that they could Share this happiness with yourself and encourage students to be determined to succeed like Wei Wei.
These ten years have been Cai Yunzhi’s happiest days. Later, the Cultural Revolution began, Sima Minzhong was suspended, and Cai Yunzhi was also affected by the historical issues of her husband Wang Qiuzhi. A sudden blow knocked Cai Yunzhi down, and her condition worsened day by day. In the summer of 1972, Cai Yunzhi passed away full of grievances at the age of 63.
Cai Yunzhi has four children. The eldest Wang Yiping, the second eldest Wang Ruping and the fourth eldest Wang Qingping are girls. The third eldest Wang Fang (also known as Wang Shufa) is the only son. Wang Ruping, Wang Shufa, and Wang Qingping all graduated from Sima Min Middle School and were all students of Cai Yunzhi.
In 1966, Wang Shufa returned to Zhuge Village as an educated youth who returned to his hometown. He participated in the construction of the water conservancy project of the Luhundong No. 1 Irrigation Canal, and has been doing technical work in the village's engineering team. In 1976, the village recommended Wang Shufa to teach in the village's middle school, and he served as a junior high school and high school teacher. In order to improve his teaching level, Wang Shufa went to Luoyang Institute of Education at his own expense from 1987 to 1989. Thereafter, he taught graduating classes in junior high schools until his retirement in 2006. In the thirty years since he taught, he has sent away more than 3,000 students. Many students were admitted to Yanshi High School, two students were admitted to Peking University, and one student was admitted to Tsinghua University. Long-term labor caused Wang Shufa to suffer from a serious heart disease. Doctors advised him to have surgery many times, but he kept putting it off until he had the surgery in Beijing after his retirement.
In 1999, Wang Xinxiao, Wang Shufa’s second daughter and Cai Yunzhi’s granddaughter, graduated from Luoyang No. 2 Normal School and was assigned to teach at Sima Primary School. The beginning of Wang Xinxiao's teaching career and the end of Cai Yunzhi's teaching career were actually at the same place. What an amazing coincidence in history! Wang Xinxiao now teaches at Zhuge Primary School, and her lover Yuan Pingwei is also a teacher and teaches at Luoyang Tourism Middle School.
Xu Changsheng, the husband of the second daughter Wang Ruping, works in special education at a school for the deaf and mute in Luoyang. With his sign language and love, he helps each disabled child have a healthy life.
Influenced by Xu Changsheng, Zhang Ruihong, Wang Yiping’s daughter and Cai Yunzhi’s eldest granddaughter, also fell in love with special education. She worked at the Luoyang City Disabled Persons’ Federation Rehabilitation Center and devoted herself to helping disabled people with speech and hearing rehabilitation training.
When it comes to the marriage of Cai Yunzhi’s daughter and granddaughter, it seems that most of them are inclined to choose teachers. Wang Shufa said: "Whether I am a teacher or choose a teacher as my spouse, it is largely influenced by my mother. She once said, 'It is good to be a teacher and teach and educate people!'".
Cai Yunzhi nurtured a family of teachers with her actions and spirit.