Revealing Beggars' Military Training: The Only Beggar Recorded in Official History

On the history of history, there are many wonders.

One day in the Guangxu period of the late Qing Dynasty, a beggar without clothes begged in the street in Tangyi County, Shandong Province. I saw him muttering, talking and singing, sometimes dressed as a pig and dog, and sometimes learning to bark. Its vivid performance and funny singing attracted bursts of laughter from the onlookers. There is such a sentence in his lyrics: I beg, I collect money, and I learn to be poor. Many people in the crowd shook their heads: beggars still have to learn loyalty. Isn't this a pipe dream?

Please note that the above ordinary but thrilling scene is not the plot in martial arts novels, and this beggar is not a beggar master like Hong Qigong, a beggar in the north. His name is Wu Xun, and he was an ordinary beggar at the bottom of China society at that time. However, it was this very ordinary beggar who was immortalized by his extraordinary life name and had a great influence on the cultural and educational circles in modern China.

The only beggar recorded in official history is Wu Xun, who lives by begging. After more than 30 years of unremitting efforts, he established three voluntary schools, purchased more than 300 acres of study fields, and accumulated rich funds for running schools, which is unique in the history of education in China and even in the world. The Draft of the History of Qing Dynasty published that it was recorded in this discipline, but it was not recorded, so it was handed over to the History Museum to learn the fact that Gai Yi practiced martial arts in Tangyi, Shandong. The deeds of Wu Xun were later compiled into the 286 th filial piety section of the draft of Qing history. In the history of China, Wu Xun was the only one who entered the official history as a beggar.

Wu Xun was a native of Wuzhuang (now guanxian), Tangyi County, Shandong Province in the late Qing Dynasty. Like Ah Q written by Lu Xun, he is a poor man without a name. He is named Wu Qi because he ranks seventh among his peers at home. The name Wu Xun is actually a first name. When he was old, the court named him Xun in order to reward him for advocating learning.

Mr. Liang Qichao once wrote "A Brief Introduction to Promoting Learning" specially for Wu Xun, praising Wu Xun's career in Yi Studies for decades. Numerous disciples left school, and he always ended up with two yuan a day. General Feng Yuxiang praised Wu Xun as a beggar throughout the ages. Feng Yuxiang also clamored for a large number of voluntary schools, which is a top priority. From 1932 to 1935, he founded fifteen martial arts primary schools in Shandong.

Tao Xingzhi founded Yucai School and Zhang Boling founded Nankai School, all of which are closely related to the influence of the spirit of military training. Mr. Tao Xingzhi's short poem "Ode to Wu Xun" summarizes Wu Xun's life, and the poem says: Happy all day. I've been running all my life. I am willing to be a camel for the suffering children. Be good to people, and so are cattle and horses. People without backrests have few friends. Without education, the champion surpassed him. Kneel in public, the stone turns the rudder. No property, no wife. Come for a great event, study, study, study. Wushu training has a high reputation not only at home, but also abroad. He was included in the world education dictionary. Because he has no culture, he is called a silent educator and a civilian educator.

Being illiterate, he began to consider starting a voluntary school. In the 18th year of Qing Daoguang (1838), Wu Xun was born in Wuzhuang (now guanxian), Tangyi County, Shandong Province. His family has been poor since childhood. When he was seven years old, his father died and life became more difficult. When he was a little boy, he begged for a living with his mother. Although Wu Xun is young, she is very filial to her mother. Whenever he wants clean and delicious dry food, he must take it back to his mother and never refuse to eat it himself. He is very sensible.

Every time I pass by school with my mother, young Wuqi has to stop for a long time. He is always deeply attracted by the sound of reading in it. How eager he is to learn. However, at that time, as far as his family conditions were concerned, going to school was just a distant dream. One day, he got up the courage to break into the school and asked Mr. Xue to allow him to enter school for free. Instead of sympathizing with him, Mr. Xue insulted him and drove him out of the house.

At the age of fifteen, Wu Xun came to work in his uncle's house. My rich and heartless uncle didn't give him any preferential treatment because they were relatives. On the contrary, he asked him to work harder, but never paid him. I often beat him and bully him if I have nothing to do. All this, Xiao Wu Xun endured. At the age of seventeen, Wu Xun went to the Li family as a long-term worker. One day, my sister sent a letter with some money attached. Li bullied Wu Xun into being illiterate, so he gave him the letter and swallowed the money. Wu Xun asked questions after knowing it. Li not only denied it, but also scolded Wu Xun. Once feeding pigs, Wu Xun accidentally spilled pig food on the ground and was beaten black and blue. On New Year's Eve, Wu Xun posted Spring Festival couplets to his master. Because he can't read, he posted them upside down. The host felt unlucky, punched and kicked, quarreled and scolded him, forbade him to eat, and punished him for staying up late. He stood in the cold snow all night.

Wu Xun worked in the Li family for three years, and Li never paid him. Once, Wu Xun's mother was ill and she was helpless. She asked her master for a salary. Unexpectedly, Li took out a fake account book and insisted that he had already been paid. Wu Xun was illiterate, stunned and heartbroken, but was falsely accused of intentional extortion by Li. Finally, Wu Xun was killed by Li's family and was swept out of the house.

This encounter hit him hard. After his injury, Wu Xun slept in a small temple in Zhuangzi for three days. After waking up, he learned from a painful experience that he was humiliated because he couldn't read. There are many poor people like him around. If you don't study, you will always be bullied for no reason. So he came up with the idea of starting a compulsory school, so that people can read and write, and they will no longer be bullied.

Singing while walking, begging happily to raise money, but it is unheard of to run a compulsory school in extreme poverty, and the difficulty can be imagined. But Wu Xun is confident in this, and he is determined to realize this great dream with lifelong asceticism and persistence. 1859, Wu Xun, 2 1 year-old, began to beg for money, thus turning a new page in his life. Holding a copper spoon in his hand, carrying a bag on his shoulder and covered with rags, he sang while walking and begged everywhere, and traveled all over Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Jiangsu and other places. This beggar, who will be immortal in the history of education in the future, thus kicked off the extraordinary life of begging for funds to run a school.

While begging, he sang his own songs. The lyrics are poetic, but the content is positive and has a certain rhyme, which is related to the establishment of compulsory schools. No matter whether others ask questions or laugh, he always answers with singing; Whether he is at work or at rest, he sings happily. If he is bullied by others, he might as well beg with himself. Don't look at me begging. Sooner or later, we should build a just college.

He sold his labor everywhere, worked hard and lived a life inferior to that of cattle and horses in order to save money for running a school. Cows do coolies, Wu Xun doesn't feel bitter, but also happily sings:

Dig out dung, weed, pull the dice to find it, no matter how dark it is, no matter how much it costs.

Give me money and I'll farm. It is not difficult to build a compulsory school.

When you are a mule or a cow, you don't have to worry about elective courses.

Who knows, the kind military training will be cheated again. A year later, Wu Xun's hard-earned money was cheated by his brother-in-law. Wu Xun was so angry that his heart was broken. After a few days, he recovered his breath and sang smartly: I saw a good man build a tall building, but no bully came to the end.

Someone laughed at him for suffering from benevolence and righteousness, and he calmly sang and replied: benevolence and righteousness have no fire, when people are unhappy, repay kindness with virtue, repay with wealth, support life with life, and never move again after taking a benevolence and righteousness.

When begging for food, you will inevitably meet people who are stingy and don't give anything. Wu Xun sang philosophically: If you don't give me anything, I won't complain. My own good people will take care of my food. He didn't get angry when faced with insults. He sang the right song: don't be angry, uncle. If you are not angry, I will go out.

Wu Xun saved all the money he wanted, sold all the dry food he wanted and saved it for money. I only eat rough and moldy food, vegetable roots, sweet potatoes and so on. Sing my own voice with a ditty:

Eating groceries can be eaten as a meal, saving money and building a school of righteousness.

The food is good, but the elective course is good.

In those years, Wu Xun didn't know how much he suffered. He likes to do hard work that others have always refused and disdained. Such as grinding flour, milling rice, cutting wheat for others, etc. In addition, it cleans other people's huts early in the morning and makes manure after drying. Sometimes, they help people carry water to the water garden, pick food, pick heavy objects and so on. And according to the distance and weight, the income is still considerable, so the funds needed to run a voluntary school accumulate over time.

In order to earn some money to run a compulsory school, he sometimes plays tricks at temple fairs around the country like a juggler to get rewards. Performed a full-body handstand with a tripod, climbing scorpions with hands instead of feet, jumping wheels with somersaults, kneeling on the ground to ride horses for children, stabbing the body with a cone, breaking a knife and other programs, and even eating caterpillars, snakes and scorpions, swallowing stones and gravel. It's not easy to humiliate your body like this. Everything is for running a voluntary school! He also cut off his pigtail, leaving only a pigtail on his forehead, and dressed as a clown in the play to get charity from others.

In addition, he also works as a matchmaker, postman, rag collector, cotton ginning, spinning and so on. Wu Xun just wandered around, working, begging and drifting. Sleep in other people's mills, stoves, or ruined temples at night. Every night, he still twists the rope and winds it under the light of beans. He sang while playing hemp:

Pick up the thread, wrap the thread eggs, and concentrate on building a healthy college;

Don't worry about taking the right path.

By the age of 29, Wu Xun had saved some savings. He used these savings to buy 45 acres of cheap low-lying saline-alkali land and sang happily:

As long as it's my turn to learn, buying land is not afraid of buying alkali sand; There will be no alkali sand after three years.

As long as it's my turn to learn, I'm not afraid to ask for a big pit; The water also flowed and the soil stopped. Three years later, the pit was leveled.

When Wu Xun was thirty-eight years old, there was a drought in Shandong, and many people starved to death. Wu Xun bought forty loads of sorghum with his own money to help the people. Wu Xun's brother does nothing, and often borrows money from him. Some relatives and friends also came to him for help. Wu Xun refused, and he replied positively: I built several places regardless of my relatives and reasons.

A widowed mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in the village make a living by begging, but the kind Wu Xun generously gave them ten acres of land and sang:

This person is good, this person is good, and giving her ten acres is not enough.

This person is filial, and this person is also filial. Give her ten acres of old-age care.