Today, there is a distinguished old gentleman who has funded Nankai University to attend a hot search. This old gentleman is Ye Jiaying, and this donation is not the first time that Ye Jiaying has donated. Last year, Ye Jiaying donated 18.57 million yuan of life savings to Nankai University, and the 17.11 million yuan this time has accumulated 35.68 million yuan.
Speaking of Mr. Ye Jiaying, many people's first impression is that the old man in "the reader" has outstanding temperament and brilliant literary talent. Even the host Dong Qing would like to call him "Mr." affectionately.
In fact, Mr. Ye Jiaying is an expert in the study of Chinese classical poetry. At the same time, she is also employed as a professor in Taiwan University, Harvard University and other universities. She is also the winner of the lifelong achievement award of the 2015-2016 'influence the world Chinese Award'. In April 2018, Ye Jiaying was selected as the most influential foreign experts in the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up.
On her 90th birthday, Wen Jiabao, former premier of the State Council, sent a congratulatory letter to her. In the letter, Wen praised her for her pure heart, noble ambition and strength in her poems. "What a difficult, real and aesthetic life will educate future generations.". "People's daily commented on her:" reciting for the beauty of Chinese poetry has become a poem in people's hearts. It's the first intention that we should not wear and dye after 90 years of experience. Poetry nourishes one's character, which is proved by one's character. '
The word "Jialing" of Nankai University's "Jialing fund" comes from Ye Jiaying's name. Mr. Ye Jiaying's name is Jialing, which comes from the name of a kind of bird in Buddhist scriptures. In Zhengfa Nianjing, it is said that "in the valley wilderness, there are Jialing's frequent and wonderful sounds". Jialing has been inherited as a wonderful bird in China. Mr. Ye Jiaying has suffered a lot in her life, but she has a sincere heart and is committed to spreading it Chinese excellent traditional culture, like jialingniao, brings the beauty of poetry to everyone.
In the program, Dong Qing said that Mr. Ye was "a vagrant all his life, but he made countless contributions.". It is in the boat of poetry that Mr. Ye has cultivated countless Chinese people. For nearly 90 years, she has spread the beauty of Chinese charm to Harvard University, to Canada, and to her former disciples such as Xi Murong and Bai Xianyong.
People who don't know Mr. Ye Jiaying will ask, who is Ye Jiaying?
But when you listen to her life, you will be awed.
Ye Jiaying was born in 1924 in a scholarly family in Beijing. Her father worked in an airline company and her mother was a teacher.
The Ye family has a rich collection of books. Ye Jiaying finished reading the Analects of Confucius when she was young. At the age of 9, her Uncle Ye Tingyi taught her to read her first poem in her life. Ye Jiaying had never thought that this little poem would affect her life in the future.
In 1941, at the age of 17, Ye Jiaying had grown into a graceful figure. It was also this year that Ye Jiaying was admitted to the Chinese Department of Furen University.
In her sophomore year, Ye Jiaying met her teacher Gu Sui. Gu Sui is a famous poet and calligrapher. In his early years, when he applied for the examination of Peking University, Cai Yuanpei, the president of Peking University, found that his Chinese literature level was extraordinary. He specially urged him to change his newspaper to western literature, in order to broaden the space and connect the East and the West.
After graduation, Gu Sui taught in Furen University. Besides Ye Jiaying, Zhou Ruchang, the great scholar of Redology, was also his student.
Ye Jiaying followed Gu Sui in her study of poetry. She often wrote down what her husband said without missing a word. Four years later, she wrote down eight big notes.
Later, Ye Jiaying fled Taiwan and wandered overseas for decades. These notes were always carried with her and never discarded. She said: 'Mr. Gu Sui's notes are the most precious things I have kept in my life. '
Wang Guowei once lamented that "Heaven makes a poet with a hundred evils.". Ye Jiaying's life of constant hardship and achievement is the annotation of this sentence. Ye Jiaying had few stable days in her life and experienced three major disasters. He lost his mother at the age of 17 and his daughter in his later years. --Long Yingtai, a Taiwan writer, once wrote in the great river and the great sea 1949 that Ye Jiaying was one of the people "trampled, insulted and hurt by the times".
In 1937, after the fall of Peiping. Ye Jiaying's father began to transfer his official position with the government, leaving only orphans and widowed mothers at home. My mother got a tumor because she was sad all day long. My uncle took my mother to Tianjin for an operation, but I didn't think that the operation failed, the wound was infected, and I got septicemia.
The seriously ill mother insisted on going back to see her child and was carried on the train from Tianjin to Beiping. Unfortunately, she finally failed to see her child again and closed her eyes forever on the train. At the age of 17, she lost her mother like scraps of paper in the wind. At this time, only poetry gave her strength. She wrote 8 weeping poems to relieve her heartache.
In 1848, a young Kuomintang Navy named Zhao Zhongsun came into her life. They became husband and wife, and Mr. Ye followed him to Taiwan. In Taiwan in the 1950s, Mr. Ye's husband was jailed for being suspected of communism. Mr. Ye was alone with his daughter. Three years later, the husband was finally acquitted. Ye Jiaying thinks that what she is waiting for is hope, but she is more disappointed.
Three years of prison life has destroyed Zhao Zhongsun. He has become perverse, irritable, and prone to anger. All this can only be borne by the innocent Mr. Ye. For the sake of his father and two reading daughters, he has done his utmost to be patient and calm. Finally, poetry saved Ye Jiaying. Ye Jiaying is addicted to the study of poetry, while her husband's vexatious behavior becomes unimportant.
Later, someone asked Ye Jiaying: 'have you never experienced the taste of love?' "Ye Jiaying shook her head and replied: 'never. Her daughter, Zhao Yanhui, said: 'my mother has been in love with ancient poetry all her life. '
In 1976, Ye Jiaying flew from Vancouver to Toronto to give lectures. Her eldest daughter lives in Toronto and her youngest daughter lives in Pittsburgh. At the moment when the plane took off, she closed her eyes and thought that she could finally settle down for the rest of her life. When she was free, she could fly to Toronto to see her eldest daughter and Pittsburgh to see her younger daughter. At last, she could settle down.
But at this time, fate will jump out to make fun of her. That day, as soon as she got off the plane, she received a phone call from her little daughter: "my elder sister and brother-in-law were killed in the car accident. 'it's like a bolt from the blue. The white hair gives the black hair away. In an instant, the fate of Ye Jiaying completely destroyed.
At this time, she even wanted to commit suicide, but poetry saved her. "My mother died on the train from Tianjin to Beijing in the early years. I wrote eight poems about crying for my mother. I didn't expect that I was over 50 years old. My eldest daughter and son-in-law had a car accident on a trip, and they were gone at the same time. After taking care of her daughter and son-in-law's affairs, she closed the door, weeping day by day, and wrote 10 weeping poems.
Poetry I
After this round of suffering, Ye Jiaying suddenly realized that "it is not an ultimate pursuit and ideal to build everything on a small family and ego. 」
Mr. Ye Jiaying decided to return home and said, "I will give my life to poetry.". '
In this life, fate never treated her fairly -- young people lost their mother; middle-aged marriage was unfortunate, they took refuge and suffered a lot; in old age, they lost their daughter. But at least poetry accompanies and teaches each other.
Ms. Xi Murong recalled that the brilliance of teacher Ye Jiaying on the stage was the ease and calmness between her looks, as if her whole life was swimming in poetry. People and words become one, she is the beauty itself.
Ye Jiaying's life is not only a life of learning poetry, but also a life of teaching poetry. She once said, 'I said I was born to teach'. After graduating from University, Ye Jiaying taught in a middle school in Beiping. Because she was poor, she wore a thick cotton padded coat in winter. The coat broke a hole and the cotton was exposed. Ye Jiaying wore this coat to class all winter. But she likes teaching life very much. She talked about her teaching career. "As soon as I graduated from Beijing, I taught in a middle school, and then the second middle school invited me, and the third middle school invited me & hellip;"
Later, she went to Taiwan with her husband. In order to make a living, she continued to teach. Although her life was hard, she enjoyed it. As soon as I arrived in Taipei, I was asked to teach not only by No. 2 girls middle school, but also by Taiwan University. Later, after the establishment of juanjiang University, I was asked to teach. Then, when Fu Jen University resumed in Taiwan, I was also asked to teach. So if I don't teach, I've changed from one to two, from two to three & hellip; & hellip; all the time. So, most of my life is spent on teaching. I have never thought how famous a poet I would become, nor how great a scholar I would become. I like poetry. I am willing to pass on my feelings and understanding of poetry to the next generation, so that they can really enter poetry. It is not superficial knowledge of words, but the life, ideal and emotion of real poetry. So I teach so many schools. '
Ye Jiaying gave an order for the scholars, teachers, poets and so on she got in her life. She said that most of her life was spent on teaching, so the first was teachers, and the rest was behind. In early 1979, Nankai University formally invited Ye Jiaying to give lectures. After returning to China, in addition to attending classes in Nankai, Ye Jiaying also went to Beijing Normal University, Capital Normal University, Tianjin Normal University, Fudan University, East China Normal University, Nanjing University, Sichuan University, Lanzhou University, Yunnan University, Heilongjiang University, Xinjiang University, etc.
It was also from then on that Ye Jiaying began to teach like a migratory bird. During the year, she spent half of her time teaching and giving lectures in China and the other half doing research in Canada. In the latter half of her life, Ye Jiaying did not know how many times she had flown, how many classes she had taught and how many students she had taught.
Although she is more than 90 years old, she always stands to teach. "I'm over 90 years old now, and I have a problem with my waist and legs, but I must have been teaching standing up. This is also a respect for poetry. 」
Poetry is almost all of Ye Jiaying's life. She devoted her whole life to the teaching of classical poetry and won the praise of "regeneration" of classical poetry. "I've been teaching. I can't help it. "She said," how can such a good thing not be told to the young people? You can't tell the young people. You are not only sorry for the young people below, but also sorry for the ancients. 」
One late autumn evening at the age of 15, Ye Jiaying squatted on the ground for a long time to see a white butterfly that was about to die. She couldn't even struggle to fly. She wrote a song autumn butterfly, which was lonely and cold.
Now 80 years later, Mr. Ye Jiaying is still in the company of poetry. Many people say that she has no story in her life. In fact, poetry is her whole story, and we hope this story will never end. Because she once said, 'my lotus always withers, but I want to leave the lotus seeds. '