(Grandpa was in Boshan , taken in in the 1920s)
"The most beautiful treasures in life are those days in the past... Wearing old clothes, running around for life every day." When I stared at this precious old photo for a long time and looked at my kind grandfather, this song "The Past" has been echoing in my mind...
Past Times Music: Liao Changyong
Recently , I finally got a precious old photo of my grandfather in Boshan in the 1920s from my fourth uncle’s brother. The grandpa in the photo: dignified and calm, with a calm demeanor, wearing a satin hat, a half-used cotton robe, and a pair of old round-top cloth shoes, but the cigarette in his hand made me confused. My father said that my grandfather had studied in the Neo-Confucianism School and did not smoke or drink. In Neo-Confucianism, "we follow the teachings of Buddhism, practice the rituals of Confucianism, practice Taoism, and integrate the three religions into one body." Those who join the religion must refrain from drinking, smoking, greed, anger, lying, and disobedience. Obviously this cigarette is a "prop". searched 's "A Hundred Years of Vicissitudes" old photos of Boshan, and found old photos from the same period with the same arrangement. In one of them, a woman was holding a cigarette in her hand, which shows that this was a fashion pursued by photographers at that time. There must be so many stories hidden behind this photo. I have tried hard to pursue it and walk into my grandfather's past...
Founded the time-honored brand "Henglintang" in Boshan
I have always had a vague understanding of my grandfather since I was a child. Because when I was born, my grandfather had been dead for eight years. Later, I learned from my father that my grandfather was from Guangrao, Guangrao, and had lived in Zhoucun for a period of time. This is why our family's ancestral home in the household registration book is Youfang Street, Zhoucun. During the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, especially after the opening of the Jiaoji Railway, Boshan's industry and commerce ushered in a period of rapid development. In 1912, my grandfather and his fellow Guangrao fellow Fu Rensan jointly opened a stationery store opposite Guangshengtang on Boshan Street. The stationery store was called Henglintang. In addition to selling writing brushes , it also sold books and other stationery, and also rented in Songjia Hutong. The two houses of the Qian family made calligraphy brushes, with a total of eight or nine people at that time. In addition to retailing, the calligraphy brushes they made were also sold wholesale to Xintai and Laiwu areas. After the Japanese occupied Boshan, Mr. Fu Rensan, who was running the business together, returned to his hometown, and the calligraphy brush production ceased business.
During the Japanese occupation of Boshan, schools were closed and the stationery business was even more difficult to do. Grandpa just set up a stall in Fumenli and sold some stationery to make a living. After Japan surrendered, , my father and brothers gradually grew up, and my grandfather began to rent a house at No. 22 Yinzi City and continue to open a shop, still using the name Henglin Tangtang, also called Liu Xisan Stationery Shop. In addition to dealing in stationery, he also started to engage in printing business. First, my grandfather (Lin Shoucheng, courtesy name Dezhai, who opened the Minsheng Lithography Bureau in Xiye Street, Boshan from 1920 to 1937, and became the branch of Shunhetang Lithography Bureau in Xiguan, Zichuan, will be described in another chapter in the future) stored it after the Japanese came. I bought a No. 3 pedal printing machine at my house to print some notebooks, stationery, etc. Later, after the machine was taken back to Zichuan by my uncle, my grandfather bought the printing equipment himself.
My father said that when China was first liberated, it was easier to do business and many businesses would get rid of old machines. My grandfather took the opportunity to use 400 yuan to buy back an 80% new No. 2 type printing press from Jinan. Soon, my father went to Xinhua, Jinan. The printing factory bought back an paper cutting machine and printed some student homework books, account books, bills, etc. until the public-private partnership was merged into Boshan Department Store. My father has a deep affection for this printing press and paper cutter, because he went to Jinan to buy it with great pains, and found someone to repair and replace the parts, blades, etc. He also mainly operates the machine for printing.
A few years ago, I once saw a notebook collected by someone else on the Internet. There was a ship printed on the leather of the notebook, and also printed with the words "Resist U.S. Aid Korea, Protect the Home and the Country" and the badge of the name of my grandfather's shop.When I showed it to my father, he said that it was his own design. Unfortunately, I didn't save it properly. I just forwarded it in QQ space . Now the original poster has deleted the picture and I can't find it. After the spring of 2022, a few months before his father died, he was still talking about these two machines and wanted to know their whereabouts.
Recently, in the "Boshan Business Chronicle" collected by my sister's classmate named Kang, I found records about my grandfather's operation of the time-honored Henglintang. Kang also gave us his personal collection of old stationery used by his grandfather's stationery store in 1951. Note, thank you very much to Mr. Kang.
Grandpa Liu Xisan, courtesy name Jinjiu, was born in 1888. He has two brothers, Liu Shengsan and Liu Junsan, and an older sister whose circumstances are unknown. The family name is "Junxitang", which is a word from the names of the second grandpa and grandpa respectively. ’s grandfather’s ancestral home was Shuiwangzhuang, Guangrao County, Shandong Province, and later moved to Qianjiazhuang, Dawang Town. My father heard from my grandpa that our ancestors are Liu Hu and Liu Hai, and the descendants are Kezong, Kequan and Kehui. My great-grandfather’s name was Liu Yong’an. He was a carpenter and worked outside all year round. When my grandfather was three years old, my great-grandfather died of illness in another place. Grandpa later followed his great-grandmother to seek refuge with his second grandfather who opened a grocery store in Zhoucun. Great-grandmother was a good embroiderer and specialized in helping people embroider sedan curtains.
Around 1906, my great-grandmother passed away when my grandfather was 18. Later, my second grandfather and my grandfather pooled money to buy a cemetery outside the west gate of Zhoucun, and buried my great-aunt along with my grandfather’s memorial tablet. The second grandpa and second grandma had no children, but they were kind to grandpa and loved his children very much.
My father recalled that when he was a child, he often lived at the house of his second grandfather in Zhoucun, and he also read a book "三字经" there. No matter what delicious things the second grandfather sold, such as fruits, food, etc., he would let his father do it at will. Pick and eat. The second grandfather died after the Japanese came. He and the second grandmother who later died were buried in the Zhoucun cemetery. The cemetery was leveled in 1958, and no trace can be found now.
(Photographed by my parents in Youfang Street, Zhoucun in 2002)
In 2002, I accompanied my 70-year-old father to revisit his old place in Youfang Street, Zhoucun. My father found the location where my second grandfather opened a grocery store. Grandma went to Boshan. Just a year later, an old Chinese locust tree was still growing lushly, as if telling the past events, which made people have mixed feelings. My father's eyes are a little moist. I think he must miss his father, grandma, second grandfather, and second mother, these close relatives who once lived here!
A pen maker from the hometown of Qibi
My grandfather, who lost his father at a young age, grew up in a difficult environment. At a young age, he worked in the brush workshop in his hometown in Guangrao to make a living. He also worked as a teacher at Sibaotang in Weixian County. Apprentice, learned to make brush . My father heard from my grandfather that making brushes is divided into two professions, basin and dry work. Grandpa learned to make basins, which is the whole process of writing brushes.
Historical information introduction: Qi Bi has its own unique production process. The selection of materials is very wide: rabbit hair, pig hair, wool, wolf hair, chicken hair, mouse hair, etc. The types of Qi pens are divided into four categories due to different materials used in the pen tip: sheep hair, purple hair, wolf hair and and . Among them, the purple hair of Laoshan rabbit hair is known in history as "purple hair is as valuable as gold", and the tail hair of weasel The wolf hair produced is golden and shiny, slender but elastic, and has sharp hair tips. It is also the top grade among Qi brushes. From the selection of materials to the completion of the brush, Qi Bi has to go through more than 150 processes such as dipping, pulling, combing, merging, connecting, and picking. Each step is manual work and requires very high skills. Pen craftsmen call the process from selecting wool to making pen tips "water basin", mainly because most of the processes need to be completed in lime water.
Think about this beautiful brush. Although it is noble and elegant, its original hand-making process is so laborious and the production environment must be so harsh. It is said that it is very difficult to learn the art of making pens. It takes three years to become an apprentice. I must have had no idea how much hardship my grandfather endured when he was a child.
The production process of the Qibi pen holder is called dry work. The pen holder is made of bamboo chips, hard wood, rosewood , mahogany , cloisonne, ivory, etc., with various textures and colorful textures, and is combined with boiled color, roasting red, and hot stamping. , carving, and other exquisite decorative craftsmanship are as addictive as handicrafts. It is precisely because of the strict prudence and continuous innovation of the pen-making artists in each process that the Qi pen has the characteristics of sharp edge, richness and perfection, neat trimming, and strength.
As one of the traditional Chinese "Four Treasures of the Study", the production of pens originated from the earliest times. Unearthed data proves that the process of making brushes was invented as early as the Warring States Period. When the reed pens of ancient Egypt and the quill pens of Europe have withdrawn from the stage of history, the Chinese writing brushes have remained fresh for a long time. Guangrao County 's Qi Bi, as the oldest branch among them, is known as China's four famous pens together with Zhejiang Hubi , Anhui Xuanbi and Hebei Hengbi. The invention of Qi Bi has a history of more than 2,000 years, but Qi Bi craftsmen are still willing to believe that the inventor of Qi Bi was Qin State General Meng Tian. Because Meng Tian's ancestral home was in the Qi Kingdom, later generations called the brush he invented "Qi Bi". There is also another saying: the traditional craftsmanship of Qi brush originated in the southern part of Guangrao County. Since this area belongs to Le'an, Qi State, the brushes produced are called "Qi brush".
After consulting relevant historical materials about the development of Guangrao Qibi, we learned that: Dazhangdan Village, Beizhangdan Village, Beiwoshi Village, Lichu Village, Huangxu Village, and Hanzhuang Village in Dawang Town, Guangrao County are the main areas of Qibi. Origin. Qibi's brush making industry flourished during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, there were hundreds of brush manufacturers in Dawang Town. During the Republic of China, a number of highly skilled craftsmen emerged among the craftsmen who made Qibi, including Fu Yisan, Fu Xueren and other Fu family members from Lixu Village.
Grandpa must have mastered the craftsmanship of Qi Bi in Guangrao and found business opportunities in Boshan, where industry and mining were very developed in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, and then decided to open a joint venture store with Fu Rensan, a master of Qi Bi production in Lixu Village. Qianjiazhuang, where my grandfather lives, is close to Lixu Village. In 2019, I went to a friend's house in Dongying to pick up a wedding quilt made for my son. I happened to pass by Guangrao. I went to Shuiwangzhuang and Qianjiazhuang to find my roots. The results were very fruitful. .
Among the descendants of great-great-grandfather, only my grandpa’s family has descendants. Grandpa left his hometown very early. He only knows that our father’s generation is the Zhenzi generation. Because there is no family tree, he doesn’t even know what generation our names should be. There are no relatives in my hometown anymore. My father holds a real estate certificate for the ancestral home in Guangrao in Jia Zhuang, which was confirmed in 1951. It was borrowed by the grandpa’s son and mortgaged to relatives. After the death of the grandpa’s son, the relatives found the father and handed over the real estate certificate. It was given to him, and the father paid off his cousin's debt. Now this real estate certificate from 1951 has become our only clue to contact our hometown, but it is difficult to find distant relatives. This time I contacted the relatives named Han from my eldest grandma’s family and talked on the phone. I learned that they had also been looking for us.
It’s a coincidence that in 2017, my son studied abroad and brought back his fiancée, a classmate named Ju from Zhejiang. At that time, I had never seen the surname Ju in my contact area. According to the explanation from my relatives, the word "Ju" has no abbreviation. The word "璩". To my surprise, I saw several villages with the character "璩" near my hometown. Looking up the map, it turns out that there are six villages with the surname Chu: Li Chu, Song Chu, Huang Chu, Han Chu, Ye Chu and Yang Chu.
Baidu Encyclopedia shows: The surname Xu is mainly derived from the surname Ji, which comes from the doctor Zang Boyu of the Weiguo in the Spring and Autumn Period of China. It has the same origin as the surname Zang. The word "璩" is derived from the word "蘧" with the root of the grass removed and the bottom of the word "蘧" added next to the word "yu". "Ju" is actually a misspelling of "璩". It was misled by the people after the 1950s due to simplified Chinese characters. However, the writing authorities were negligent in their supervision, resulting in misinformation, which eventually spread to the whole country. When replacing the second-generation ID cards, there was a huge problem. Today, the surname "Ju" on the national ID cards is all spelled incorrectly.I thought this surname was uncommon, but I didn’t expect that our ancestral home in Qianjiazhuang is surrounded by six villages with the surname Xu. The unsimplified and correct character "璩" is all on the road signs in the villages. This may be what people call past lives. It's fate!
In 1912, my grandfather opened Henglintang in Boshan in partnership with Fu Rensan from Lixu Village in the neighboring village, making and selling brushes. It was not until the July 7th Incident that the Japanese came, that Uncle Fu, as his father called him, returned to his hometown. My father recalled that they were very close to Uncle Fu when they were young. Uncle Fu was educated and he told him a lot of knowledge when he was a child. Later, Fu Rensan’s son Fu Xueqian succeeded his father and had frequent contacts with our family. In 1942, when my father was ten years old, he followed his grandfather back to his hometown once.
According to my father’s recollection, in his hometown village, in addition to farming, almost every family in the village was engaged in the side business of making calligraphy brushes. The development history of Guangrao Qibi records the famous Qibi production masters Fu Yisan and Fu Xueren. Fu Yisan is the younger brother of Fu Rensan, and their juniors Fu Xueren and Fu Xueqian are cousins. Around the 1960s, Uncle Fu Xueren once visited our home in Xigou, Xiye Street, Boshan. He went to Zibo No. 1 Hospital to have his eyes checked, and it was said that he had a minor operation. My parents were in class at the time, my grandma was living with my third uncle in Wuhan, and my eldest brother was the only one at home.
The eldest brother recalled that Uncle Fu Xueren carried a robe on his back. When he left, he left his eldest brother a pen and a piece of ink called "Gold Will Not Change". After nearly sixty years, this is the first time I heard my elder brother talk about this matter, but he still remembers it vividly.
My grandfather relied on his skill in making brushes to survive in that poverty-stricken and turbulent era. It was not until 1927, when he was nearly forty years old, that he married my grandmother after being introduced by a friend. My grandmother Dou Aizhi is from Tangwanghe, Qingzhou. She is the youngest among her siblings. Because she took care of the children of her sister who was married to Chengguan, she lived in the city of Qingzhou for a long time. She was 19 years old when she married her grandfather, which was already an old age at the time. Grandma gave birth to five sons, one of whom died of a stroke seven days after he was born.
That was before the Japanese came in 1937, and the military and government personnel were evacuated one after another. There was a fellow Guangrao fellow named Zheng Mingyuan, the chief of the Fourth Section (Education Section) of Ren Boshan. He stored some items in my house, including some Western clothes and uniforms. Grandpa was brave. Afraid of something happening, he burned the clothes at home and opened the door to ventilate the room when it was filled with smoke. As a result, the child died of a stroke. The grandparents worked hard to raise their four sons and took root in Boshan, becoming the only prosperous family among the three brothers.
The means of making a living for grandfather and brothers all relied on the great development of Guangrao Qibi. From their footprints, it can be seen that Qibi's influence is very wide. My eldest grandfather has two sons and two daughters, who are my father’s cousins. Among them, the uncle Liu Zhende, also named Yuhua, opened a store in Zhangdian in the 1930s and ran Qibi. He also married a wife and started a family in Zhangdian, and his eldest grandmother lived with him in Zhangdian. Uncle Liu Zhende formed a partnership with a Zhangdian man named Zou Dongyuan and opened a Yuhua Pen Shop on Second Road in Zhangdian, selling brushes, stationery and books. After Japan surrendered, he moved to Xiema Road and ran his own business. During this period, he also did ink and ink business. In 1959, Uncle Liu Zhende died of lung disease.
The second uncle Liu Zhenye once broke into the Guandong and joined the troops of Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan in the Northeast. After being demobilized from the Northeast, he joined his brother and also married in Zhangdian. He used the demobilization fee as capital to sell New Year pictures, calendars and stationery at the Zhangdian market. He maintained a living and soon died of illness. The second aunt is called Liu Zhenyu. She and her uncle Zhong Hanshu have been engaged in the brush business on Furong Street in Jinan for a long time and have taken root in Jinan. In 1970, my eldest brother Liu Hongbo went to Jinan to look for them. He recalled that when he saw them at that time, his uncle was already over eighty years old and was still making brushes at the brush shop in Furongxiankou Street, Jinan. He was wearing reading glasses and was meticulous. The ground is combing the pen.
The gentleman's demeanor is as good as the mountains and the rivers
Although my grandfather never went to school and did not have much knowledge, he abided by the Confucian respected creeds such as benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom, trust, gentleness, courtesy, frugality, etc. throughout his life. He regarded integrity as more important than life and became a respected person. Someone you respect and love. Everyone who knew him spoke highly of his excellent character, and his words and deeds deeply influenced his descendants.
He is loyal and kind-hearted, honest and trustworthy, diligent and thrifty, constantly striving for self-improvement, and pursues a gentleman's demeanor throughout his life. I don’t have any bad habits in my life. I don’t smoke or drink. I am very self-disciplined. In decades of hard work, we have never had any disputes or unhappiness with anyone, whether with partners or in daily transactions. At that time, businessmen relied entirely on their life creed and self-cultivation to do business honestly and trustworthy. Compared with today's trust crisis that is difficult to restrict by law, it is really a world of difference.
He and his business partners and associates all get along like family members. Even if the partnership breaks up midway, they will still move around like relatives. Seeing that the new boy didn't have any seasonal clothes, grandpa bought the best fabrics to make clothes for the boy, although he wore shabby clothes himself. Before the Japanese came, was the one who stored items at my house. When the situation became more stable, my grandfather still hired a donkey to deliver other items home, but he never mentioned that the child died of a stroke because of burning his clothes. He has proven with practical actions that he is loyal to others when entrusted by others; he is open-minded and values education, especially new learning. All four sons have studied. My father started reading Confucianism at the age of four and studied for six or seven years. The eldest uncle has been studying Confucianism longer than his father.
After Japan surrendered, Boshan Town Middle School, the predecessor of Boshan Kao Yuan School and the largest middle school in Boshan at the time, enrolled more than 200 transfer students. My father was admitted to Class 1 of the sixth grade with the first place. The third uncle was also admitted to Jinan Provincial No. 2 Middle School. After graduation, he was admitted to Railway School and was assigned to Wuhan Jiangan Vehicle Factory. My fourth uncle graduated from Zibo No. 2 Middle School. Grandpa treats his children with warmth, love, and full of expectations. My father recalled that my grandfather never scolded or scolded his children. He was usually reluctant to give up food and clothing, but he was never stingy as long as his sons had expenses for their studies.
My father remembered that one time he fell in love with a dictionary that was very small and beautifully bound. The price was two yuan ocean , which was a big sum at the time, but my grandfather immediately fulfilled his wish. Until his death at the age of ninety, my father still remembered my grandfather's love for him. My grandfather was extremely filial and always obeyed my great-grandmother's words and never disobeyed. After the second grandfather passed away in 1942, the grandfather took the second grandmother, who had no ability to live, to live with Boshan until his death in 1954.
Nowadays, the brushes made by my grandfather are nowhere to be found, but among the older generation of Boshan, there are still many good memories of the Qi brushes he made. In 1983, I graduated from the Normal College and became a teacher. I once met an elderly teacher in Boshan. After learning that I was a descendant of Liu Xisan, he was very moved: "Your family comes from a scholarly family, and your grandfather is a good person." Very good, the purple hair brushes he sold back then were so good!” Thinking of these words, I want to travel back in time to see my dear grandpa, just like what is sung in that song: If I could go back to the past, even if it was only for one night...
About the author: Liu Yingzhen has a well-known internet name. He has worked as a teacher, reporter, editor, and administrator. His works are scattered in supplements such as "People's Daily", " Zibo Daily ", " Zibo Evening News ", and some of his works have won awards in national competitions. Now he is a member of Chinese Prose Society .
[This article is selected from Pastoral Painting. I would like to thank the original author]
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