My hometown is in Xibao Village, Xinqiao, on the outskirts of the city. When I was a child, the adults called the small towering building and several bungalows on the west end of the village by the fields near the river "Fusheng", saying that it was a factory in the early years.

Feixia Cave Woshulou, Qingfu Temple is at the west end, but no photos remain

My hometown is in Xibao Village, Xinqiao, on the outskirts of the city. When I was a child, the adults took care of the west end of the village, and the small towering building and several bungalows beside the fields near the river were called "Fusheng", saying that it was a factory in the early years. But I have never known the full name of the factory, what products it makes, when it was founded, or what the word "resurrection" means. Later, my father told me that he had worked at Resurrection when he was young. It was December 1957. He had just resigned from the Suichang Paper Factory and returned home. He had nothing to do. Through the introduction of the villagers, he joined the "Fusheng" as a temporary worker as a papermaking worker. The full name of "Fusheng" is Wenzhou Fusheng Paper Factory, which produces paper products such as umbrella paper. My father only worked at Fusheng for less than two months before he was fired. The factory said that there was a new policy and all temporary workers would be fired. When my father went to work at Fusheng, he discovered that most of his co-workers were monks, nuns, Taoist priests, Taoist nuns who had returned to secular life. It turns out that "Fusheng" was founded by this group of monks who returned to secular life in the early days of liberation. The name "Fusheng" means monks returning to secular life and starting a new life.

Starting from my father’s narration, after many researches, I slowly restored this period of history. In the early 1950s, many monks in some temples in Wenzhou returned to secular life and participated in handicraft production. According to the "Wenzhou City Chronicle", in 1949, there were more than 2,800 monks in Wenzhou area and more than 180 monks in Wenzhou city. Many temples have been converted to other uses, and some monks have returned to secular life and are living in difficulty. The people's government supports their production and self-help. At that time, most of the monks in the Nagiti Temple on the banks of the Jiushan River in the urban area and the Chengxialiao under the East City returned to secular life and established papermaking workshops to produce umbrella paper and so on. These two temples are close to the river, which is convenient for papermaking operations. Manual washing of materials is done in the river (there was no concept of environmental protection at that time), and pulping (pulping) draws water directly from the river. Mr. Xu Zuguang of the former Municipal Buddhist Association (former vice-president of the Municipal Buddhist Association) wrote in the book "Hanhan Room Bi Yuan": In 1950, in order to support the lay people to help themselves through production, Ji Lao (Monk Jishan) voluntarily gave up five houses in Qingfu Temple and allowed lay people such as Li Desheng, Wu Guoli and Xu Zuguang to establish the "Popular Stationery Craft Society" free of charge, implementing the abbot's production balance. In 1951, with the "Land Reform" and other social changes, urban monks organized production to help themselves. Under the leadership of the civil affairs department, the Municipal Buddhist Association, led by Xingchan, Xuesheng, Yinjing, etc., was responsible for preparing a resuscitation paper mill at Naoti Temple (the third archway in the urban area). Most of the temple monks in the urban area participated in labor production and supported themselves. In 1953, the Fusei Paper Mill moved from Nagita Temple to Keifuku Temple due to production development. This was the founding of the "Fusheng Paper Mill".

Mr. Cai Yongmin (right), a former employee of Wenzhou Typing Wax Paper Factory, visited the Nagti Temple with his friends. The temple has long been converted into private houses, but the entrance of Nagati Temple is still there, and there is a five-pointed star relief on the top of the entrance, which is a distinctive feature of that era.

Master Hongyi and Master Yinhong took a photo in Chengxialiao

In 1951, the Wenzhou Buddhist Association issued a letter of authorization entrusting Master Yinhong, the manager of Qingfu Temple (commonly known as Chengxialiao), to register the change of property rights of the temple, that is, the property owner was changed from Yinhong to Fusheng Paper Mill. The full text is as follows: "The area of the Qingfu Temple residence under the east city of Dayanmen in this city is three acres and one-third one-quarter cents. The previous manager of the original residence was Seng Yinhong. Since June of this year, the Association has accepted it as the site of the Fusheng Paper Mill. To this end, please change the name of the administrator. The Association will check the household registration certificate of the person in charge of the factory. One copy, I hope to verify its authenticity and hereby certify it. "

/In 1951, the Wenzhou Buddhist Association commissioned Yinhong to handle the property rights certificate. Book

Qingfu Temple land ownership certificate during the Republic of China /

Former "resurrection" old worker, 90-year-old Chen Huiyin recalled that when she was a teenager, she was forced to become a monk in the lower city due to life constraints. In the early 1950s, when the temple monks collectively returned to secular life, she was 18 years old.At that time, Keifukuji Temple, together with several other temples, sold several valuable copper bells in the temple to raise funds to establish a papermaking workshop. The workshop started with just over 20 workers, and later expanded to more than 40 workers. They "collected the factory" in 1950. In 1951, the government sent Xing Chan of the Buddhist Church to lead them in setting up a paper mill, and officially established Fusheng Paper Mill. After "Fusheng" was listed, the factory location changed several times. According to old man Chen Huiyin's recollection, around 1955-56, under the leadership of government investment, land was acquired and built in Xibao Village, Xinqiao, on the outskirts of the city, to build a factory with multiple houses, and the Fusheng Paper Mill was relocated here. The family rented at a farmer's house in Xibao Village for seven or eight years. Chen Huiyin has been diligent and studious since she was a child. She is talented and intelligent and has a good memory. She can memorize the Heart Sutra, Diamond Sutra, etc. by heart. After returning to secular life, she concentrated on learning production technology and management knowledge. She was eloquent and started working in paper baking and feeding materials, and then took up administrative positions in the factory. She has a good management skills and achieved the transformation from a nun to an industrial worker and a corporate manager. Regarding the relocation of "Fusheng" to Xibao, Mr. Chen Zhongting, a former "Fusheng" veteran worker and a native of Xibao Village, is 86 years old this year. He has a good memory and clear thinking. He can remember the names of more than a dozen villagers who came to work at "Fusheng" at the same time. He recalled: In the mid-1950s, Fusheng acquired a total of 16 acres of land in Xibao Village and built several red brick factory buildings. No matter how many acres of land were requisitioned, each household had one job quota. It was a state-owned enterprise. His family had 1.6 acres of land requisitioned. He, villager Xie Qingchi and other 10 people, plus 6 people from needy households in the village who received special care, were assigned to work in the Fusheng Paper Mill in 1957. After entering the factory, the men worked as paper-making workers, while the women were engaged in work such as picking skins and cutting paper. "Fusheng" has more than 120 formal employees. Except for 16 people who were acquired from land and four employees transferred from the 103 Brick and Tile Factory, the others are all employees who have returned to secular life from monks.

Wenzhou typing wax paper factory’s early manual papermaking workshop

The relocated "Fusheng" is located in the northwest corner of Xibao Village. It was originally a peninsula-shaped field, surrounded by the Huichang River on three sides, with willows and rippling blue waves on the river. There is a wharf to the east of the factory, which can be used for loading and unloading goods. There is also a ferry wharf to the north, connected to Xishan Road on the other side. "Fusheng" chose this location, which is close to the city and has convenient transportation and geographical advantages. My father said that many employees of the "Fusheng" factory who were monks rented in the village and met them every day when commuting to and from get off work. The umbrella paper produced by "Fusheng" sells well and is often in short supply. There is also a female police officer who serves as a doorman. At about the same time as the founding of "Fusheng", there was also a state-owned Wenzhou stencil paper factory. It was founded in 1951 and moved to Baiquan on Xishan Road in 1953, which is on the other side of Xibao Village where "Fusheng" is located. Wenzhou stenciled typing paper factory produced umbrella paper, vellum paper , white cotton paper (wax paper base paper), etc. Later, it became famous nationwide for its Shuguang brand typing stencil paper. In 1958, due to the expansion of the production scale of the Wenzhou Typing Stencil Factory, "Fusheng" was merged into this state-owned enterprise across the river. My father was fired from "Resurrection" at the end of 1957, which may have something to do with corporate mergers. Mr. Wu Yongli joined the Wenzhou Typing Wax Paper Factory in 1951 and was familiar with the early years. He said that many of the workers in the early years of the stenciled paper factory were merged through "resurrection". After they returned to secular life, many monks fell in love, got married, and started their new lives. Mr. Zhang, who now runs a wedding company in the urban area, once wrote an article in memory of his grandparents' experience of returning to secular life as monks. In the article, he wrote: Before liberation, his grandparents became ordained in two temples in the suburbs of Wenzhou, one a monk and the other a nun. At that time, they were not the so-called "seeing through the world of mortals", but were forced by the hardship of life to become a monk as a young man. Before they returned to secular life, they had known each other by chance and developed a secret love for each other. However, they did not have a romantic relationship with each other. They were in the temple and could only fall in love secretly. After returning to secular life in the early 1950s, the couple finally got married. The government arranged for them to work at the Fusheng Paper Mill and were given a semi-married house in San Paifang in the city. After their marriage, they gave birth to four daughters. After his retirement, his two daughters took their place in the stencil printing factory.After my grandfather retired, he helped people do some rituals. My grandmother was a devout Buddhist believer. She chanted Buddha's prayers every day, prayed for peace and prosperity for the country and the people, and thanked the Communist Party for the new life it had brought to them. The common names of my grandparents are Pan Jinfu and Wang Meichai (the Buddhist names have been forgotten). In the long river of history, they are a small wave...

After "Resuscitation" was merged, the factory became the raw material warehouse of the stencil printing factory. The locked door of the "resurrected" house I saw when I was a child was because it was used as a warehouse for a typewriter wax factory. In the early 1970s, the original site of "Fusheng" was assigned to the 11th Provincial Geological Brigade. The geological team built a bridge at the original ferry pier, called the Geological Bridge.

The original site of Fuxing Paper Mill is now the 11th Provincial Geological Brigade