The Chinese Dream on Earth

Ancestral Teachings and Destiny

After numerous confiscations, families in the village became impoverished, and the gap between rich and poor disappeared. The gates at both ends of our hometown alley were forcibly removed, and even the donkeys were gone. On the wedding day, my great-uncle alone carried my mother's belongings to my grandmother's house, with my mother following behind, officially marrying into the family. It was only a ten-minute walk from the old home to my grandmother's house. When my mother first stepped into her new home, she saw the house decorated with paper-cut 'Xi' characters everywhere. Due to her severe nearsightedness, the details were blurry, but she later discovered many damages in the house, which her aunt had cleverly covered with the paper 'Xi' characters. This was in 1974, twenty-five years after the founding of New China.

In the dilapidated house where three people lived, when grandfather craved doughnuts, my mother, unfamiliar with what doughnuts were, found it hard to understand. Grandfather immediately asked my father to buy more so that my mother could try them. At that time, most rural households were impoverished, and even securing a full meal was challenging. Fortunately, Grandfather had several children working in the city who occasionally sent money home, making his life a bit more comfortable than that of the average rural elder.

Speaking of sending money, several memories come to mind. During the famine of 1960, there was no food in the old home, not even leaves, and people resorted to eating bark. My mother often reminisced about those difficult times. That year, my second uncle and his wife had a son and a daughter in the army, not twins but born within the same year. When the second uncle wrote to Grandfather to share the news, Grandfather reported him to the military, accusing him of having the energy to have two children in a year while the common people starved. He suggested that the army should discipline him. This letter resulted in criticism of my uncle, who was a battalion commander at the time, and he never advanced in rank again. This incident haunted him, and he rarely visited Grandfather or wrote letters home afterward. When the second uncle was about to transfer from the military in Xiamen, he did not consult Grandfather but discussed it with my eldest uncle back home. The eldest uncle advised him to return to Shandong but to avoid Rushan, as it would be problematic to deal with various requests from relatives and friends. Following this advice, the second uncle moved to another city in Shandong instead.

In his later years, Grandfather's household duties fell entirely on my mother. She loved cleanliness and, despite the house's dilapidation, insisted on cleaning daily, a habit she maintains to this day. Once, when they found ten yuan on the floor, my father claimed it was his, but my mother said she found it while cleaning. Hearing their argument, Grandfather immediately ruled that whoever found it could keep it. Although my father was somewhat dissatisfied, he had no choice but to accept the decision under Grandfather's absolute authority. In the eyes of my parents and uncles, Grandfather, though a rural elder, retained his wisdom and authority. Besides gambling away the family fortune, he did nothing else objectionable. His only flaw, in that era, miraculously saved the family's fate. As he had predicted, Grandfather passed away peacefully within a month. My mother always admired his premonition but never understood how he could know his time was near or why he accepted it so calmly. She was simply too young to understand the truths of life.