The Color of Sacrifice 牺牲的颜色 – Chapter 18
The story of a young Chinese peasant’s search for a better life and the Long March … 中国青年农民寻找更好的生活与长征的故事 by 作者: Ramses Rashidi 华蓝星
Chapter 18 On the Path of Learning
Chinese New Year was a wonderful time for Ping who felt so welcomed at teacher Liang’s home. However, Ping was constantly thinking about his family. This was a difficult time for farmers in China.
He started writing letters now that he had access to the postal service and he could get help from teacher Liang.
Teacher Liang’s home was built in a traditional Chinese style with a square courtyard in the middle and rooms on all four sides where it was easy to see all the members of the family as they would go from one room to another. There was a small fountain in the middle of the courtyard and a little garden surrounding the fountain where teacher Liang’s parents would grow all kinds of vegetables and a few fruit trees.
One the 2nd day of the Chinese New Year, Ping was inspired to write a poem for his wife and family as he was trying to figure out a way to tell them what had happened and that he had lost a leg.
“Crossing the Xiang River … a leg was lost …
Walking on the path of a revolution…
One must be ready to pay the cost …
Meeting new friends …
Getting to know a wonderful family in this little remote corner of the world….
Feeling the warmth of their hearts… Being lifted upon the clouds of endless love…
Living in an ocean of kindness ... Learning much in the fast passage of time.
Now believing in a new vision for humanity.
Unity, peace, prosperity … and responsibility…
Seeing a ray of light at the end of a dark time…
Now sensitive to the beauty of a flower, a bee, a tree… and all that is …
in a new world of possibilities.” – Ping 1935 Zunyi
Teacher Liang was in tears as he read Ping’s poem. “Ping…This is so beautiful. I hope you will write more. You have a talent for expressing your feelings.” He was highly encouraging of Ping’s poem and shared it with his wife, family and friends that would come to pay their visit during the Chinese New Year. Ping was really happy to see teacher Liang’s friends who were mostly teachers, writers, artists and a few farmers.
Living at teacher Liang’s home was truly a treat and Ping cherished every moment of every day. He actually was thinking about becoming a teacher one day when he could help young people learn all the knowledge that was available so they could build a better world.
One night, when teacher Liang came by to Ping’s room to say good night. Ping asked him about his wish to become a teacher.
“Teacher Liang, I hope one day I can be a teacher like you and work with children and youth.”
Teacher Liang smiled and sat down. “Well, there is much to be said. I have been a teacher for a few years and I have been thinking about our education system and what we teach. I sometimes think about the usefulness of the books we use to teach a few subjects. To be honest with you, our students don’t learn much. You can’t rely on school to do all the needs of young people for education. For example character education, social skills, understanding money, having a basic knowledge of health. The school curriculum we are using and trying to expand was actually developed after industrial revolution to teach factory workers critical thinking so they could do their job well. It’s a western education system that serves capitalism. Just keep the population as dumb as possible so the capitalist have a big pool of human resources that are willing to work for a little money while the investor make money in the stock market by speculating. It’s more like a gambling game and now it’s not working in America. The market crashed a few years ago and there were a lot of hungry people who would wait in long lines for free food at the soup kitchen. That’s capitalism for you and what it can produce. But here most people don’t know what’s happening. When it comes to foreigners or western ideas, we treat them as superior no matter what and they sure act that way.”
Ping was smiling as teacher Liang talked about education and capitalism.
“You are opening my eyes. This is too much for my farmer’s brain. I went to Shanghai with my dad where we saw a lot of foreigners and how well they were treated which raised a lot questions in my mind. Tonight, you have answered a lot of those questions. So, what do you think would be a good system of education?”
Teacher Liang was delighted to hear what Ping had to say as he continued.
“I have been waiting for someone to ask that question. We need a big change in our way of thinking. Actually, the purpose of education should be to build a better civilization not just training students for job skills in the so called free market and helping the rich people get richer. We need to educate our community. How do we build a community? How do we create harmony in society? How do we foster peace? How do we teach young people about prosperity? How do we tell the rich people that the well-being of community and its members are interdependent? Clearly, we need spiritual education, social harmony and character development. We need to promote unity like we see in the Baha’i Writings. It’s also important to know that the traditional Chinese culture is about inclusiveness and collective well-being. You must read the writings of Confucius, Laozi, Mengzi and other ancient Chinese philosophers. It’s fascinating. They had a much better idea of human nobility and what constitutes a society.”
Ping was listening intently to every word of teacher Liang’s take on society and education as he continued after a short pause.
“Most of what we learn happens at home and in the community. So, family and community members all have a responsibility to make sure that children are learning good behavior, virtues, communication skills, health, nutrition, creativity, serving the community, knowing their talents and understanding what happens in the life of the community.”
Here Techer Liang paused for a second and looked at Ping with a big smile. “I hope I am not overwhelming you. You asked for a glass of water and you are getting a bucketful. But I feel you understand what I am talking about. You have spiritual perception which is more important than academic knowledge. I believe your injury is going to take you on a very different path.”
Teacher Liang stood up and walked over to Ping’s bed.
“Now I feel that you need to get some rest. You are on the road to recovery and good sleep is a must. We can continue our conversation in the following days. I really enjoy talking with you and please feel free to express your thoughts. There is much that I want to learn from you.”
Teacher Liang shook Ping’s hands and left the room so Ping could get some sleep.
Ping was totally excited. He was really thirsty for knowledge. What teacher Liang was telling him made so much sense. It was like he was talking to his heart. It just felt so right.
© 2021 Ramses Rashidi
"You asked for a glass of water and you got a bucketful." Perfect. Here is a beautifully unfolding flower, the journey towards wisdom...