I studied in the private school of my brother-in-law Gu Huanqing for more than three years. When I was ten (1925) in the second half of the year, my parents sent me to my third uncle’s house in Juqianjie, Changzhou. I joined Changzhou Wuyang Primary School with my second uncle\u2019s grandson Yuan Zhenhuan (now retired in Suzhou City). He was in the first grade, and I was in the second grade for three years. I recalled that one year later, the third uncle\u2019s environment was poor and his economy was getting worse and struggling. I also felt very uncomfortable living in my uncle’s house, so I asked my parents to agree to live in Wuyang Primary School for a semester in the first half of 1928. The cost seemed to be about 20 yuan in tuition and accommodation. My parents agreed. I was very happy that living in school was more free. I had average grades in my homework. Especially arithmetic and music were just barely passing, but I like sports very much. I love basketball and jumping.<\/p>

I remembered one time when I hurt my arm in a high jump and I stopped jumping. Sometimes Uncle Jing Xiang and his friends came to the city to do errands and stayed at Sha Rongji Inn. He always came to tell me to go out to drink and eat with them. The Northern Expedition launched by the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang and came to Changzhou, the school was closed. When the third uncle and the second aunt’s family had fled to Shanghai first, only the third aunt and other people were staying at home. On the afternoon of the suspension of classes, there was a teacher, named Zhou Zicheng, from my hometown Taoyeli, who took a few classmates and fled to the countryside. I also ran with them. First left the east gate and then turned the south gate. Took a lot of detours. Finally, I knew the direction when I arrived in Taoyeli in the evening then went home, and my mother was pleasantly surprised. The next day, soldiers passed on Nanniqiao Road. My two legs are swollen and I could not walk for several days. From the morning, the army passed Lijia Bridge and Nanni Bridge to Banshang and then to Changzhou. The order was good and there was no disturbance.<\/p>

Recalling the life of the third uncle, he was in the era to abolish the imperial examination stereotypes and start school education. So he studied chemistry in the Military Engineering School of Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and received scientific and technological education. If he had the ambition to start a business, he would be able to accomplish something in his youth.<\/p>

In 1928, my father was dismissed from the Dong family, and he was introduced to teach in the tuition department of Nanyang Middle School run by Qian Fuqu, a native of Nanxiashu in Changzhou. The tutoring course was the preparatory course of Nanyang Middle School. There were three grades. The first grade was the fifth grade of elementary school, the second grade was the sixth grade of elementary school, and the third grade was the first grade of junior high school. After completion of the tutoring course, students would attend the second grade of junior high school of Nanyang Middle School. My father was the Mencius and Analects courses teacher in the first grade. School started in the fall of 1928, and my father brought me to Shanghai to enter the first grade of tutoring (equivalent to elementary fifth grade, I just finished the fourth grade of primary school in Wuyang), so the homework would be still kept up. The school rules of the tutoring department was that after school, students are not allowed to leave the school without asking for leave, and can only exercise or play in the school. I liked basketball. There were a few players in our class who had good skills. The small soccer team of Shanghai Southern City Stadium (playing a small foreign ball at the time, seven-a-side) came to the school to play, such as Jia Jiliang and Jia Youliang brothers who became famous later. At that time, I lived in my father’s bedroom with a few classmates, and taught myself in the classroom at night. My grades was not bad, kept it above the pass, so my father did not urge me.<\/p>

Later, around 1930, due to my father’s excellent calligraphy, principal Wang Peishun asked him to copy some rare books or the only extant copy of a rare book in the library. He no longer served as a tutoring course teacher and still lived in the tutoring course dormitory. In the autumn of 1931, I was promoted to the second grade of junior high school in Nanyang Middle School and moved into the dormitory of Nanyang Middle School, so I separated from my father. But at noon my father had lunch in the Nanyang Middle School cafeteria and I could see him again. The teachers were at the same table, and the dishes were more meaty than the dishes for students, and the dish quality was better. The father was still in the cram school for breakfast and dinner. Because of my father, I have always been free.<\/p>

In January 1932, I came to Shanghai Nanyang Middle School with my father to start school. Soon after the January 28th Songhu Anti-Japanese War broke out and the school was off, I had to go back to the country home with my father. Because the teachers were not paid when the school was closed, my father\u2019s daily use became a problem. Fortunately, in mid-April, Sun Kezhai and others introduced my father to work as a clerk at the Kaifeng Oil Refinery in Henan Province. Since then, he had worked until November 1938, then he lost his job because of the Anti-Japanese War. <\/span><\/p>

This half year, Nanyang Middle School had not resumed classes. I was helping with my family. I experienced the life of a farmer during the busy season of planting rice seedlings, raising silkworms, and other work.<\/span><\/p>