Wan Qizhen’s “keep your promise and ferry the people on duty” Wan Qizhen

Four generations of Wan Qizhen, a member of the Farmer Party in Dashahe Village, Sanli Township, Jianshi County, Hubei Province, and her family insist on voluntary ferrying for villagers by the river, which has facilitated the transportation of tens of thousands of villagers in two nearby counties, cities and four townships. Farming and traveling. Wan Qizhen, 69 years old, is the third generation of Yidu. She has been ferrying dozens of times back and forth on the Dasha River every day for 16 years. She has also led her son and grandson to Yidu, which has become a widely circulated legend.

All of this is due to a righteous act and a promise made by the ancestors of the Wan family during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, which lasted for more than 130 years.

The water surface at the crossing of Dashahe Village is about 150 meters wide, and the deepest point is more than 50 meters. Wanjia's century-old "righteous crossing" is not for fame, nor for profit, but for the word "faithfulness". The main industries of Dashahe Village are planting and breeding. There are more than 80 acres of cultivated land on the other side of the ferry, accounting for 10% of the village's cultivated land. Many villagers have to go to the other side to farm and harvest straw. Wan Qizhen's boat not only ferry people, but also serves as a "material transport ship", carrying production and living materials for free for the villagers. The boat transfer has become an important basis for the production and life of the villagers on both sides of the river. . To facilitate the villagers, generations of Wan family members have overcome many difficulties and responded to their requests. There is no fixed time for pedestrian transition, and Wan Qizhen's life is therefore irregular. No matter it's snowy or snowy, or it's deep in the middle of the night, as long as someone shouts "cross the river", he will ferry him across. He will never waste time waiting for a few more people, even if he only crosses one person at a time. What’s even more rare is that although the water depth in this section of the Dasha River ferry is sometimes only a few feet shallow and sometimes more than 60 meters deep, there has never been an accident in more than 100 years since Wanjia started punting, and there has been no wind, frost, rain or snow. Never interrupted. In July 2006, when Wan Qizhen was ill for more than a month, he recalled his son Wan Fangquan, who was working outside, from Guangzhou to punt.

Another time, the Dasha River flooded. The water level is high and the current is strong. Lao Wan's family advised him not to take the risk of ferrying people out because the flood was so big and accidents were easy to happen. Wan Qizhen refused to listen to dissuasion and insisted on continuing the ferry. He said, don't give up easily if you agree with others. Moreover, I have been punting the boat for so many years, so I have confidence in my ability to punt the boat. His son Wan Fangquan had a quarrel with him over this. But he still accompanied his father to pick up and drop off villagers every day during the flood season. At her busiest time, Wan Qizhen punted the boat back and forth more than 50 times a day. In order not to delay the villagers, Wan Qizhen developed the habit of leaving early and returning late. When it was time to eat, he asked his son to finish the meal first and then take his place for a while. After all the villagers went home in the evening, he would go home for dinner. During the busy farming season, sometimes he was too busy to eat, so he would cook potatoes or sweet potatoes for meals in the ferry hut. There are currently 1,096 people in the village, and almost everyone has been on Wanjia's boat. Many surrounding villagers also learned rowing from Wan Qizhen. The villagers once suggested to the higher authorities to build a bridge on both sides of Dasha River. However, because the village is poor, the river mouth is wide, the span of the bridge is large, and the construction cost is high, it has never been able to solve the problem. Ferrying is still the only way for people in the village to cross the river. As he grew older, Wan Qizhen's health and energy became worse and worse, and his children became more concerned. They repeatedly advised him to enjoy his old age at home, but he repeatedly refused.

As winter passes and spring comes again, countless wooden boats have been damaged. Today, the wooden boat has become an iron boat, and the pole has become a paddle. What remains unchanged is the simple commitment and persistence. Wan Qizhen's family is not wealthy, and is only considered to be below the middle level in the whole village. Although they lived a miserable life, the story of Wan's family being indifferent to fame and fortune is widely circulated.

The source of livelihood for Wanjia Ferry comes from the several acres of mountainous land next to the ferry, which is called "righteous land". Before liberation, no taxes were paid on these acres of mountain land, and the income was used for the boatmen's livelihood. After liberation, boat workers were recorded as workers by the production team and participated in dividends at the end of the year, and their "good fields" were farmed by the production team. After the land was contracted to each household, the "good land" was assigned to the boatmen, and no retention money or agricultural taxes were paid. The tax exemption was treated as disguised compensation for the boatmen. In 2004, the state exempted agricultural taxes and fees, and Wan Qizhen's disguised subsidies were effectively eliminated. Considering the difficulties of Wan's family, in the 1980s, the county gave Wan Qizhen a monthly subsidy of 60 yuan. In the 1990s, it rose to 80 yuan. Later, the Enshi Prefecture government learned about Wanjia's century-old charity crossing and increased the subsidy to 540 yuan per month starting in 2007. Wanjia's life was a little better.

Wan Qizhen has two sons and two daughters. The son is already married and the daughter is married. Wan Qizhen's wife Tan Dagui suffers from schizophrenia and lives in a three-room wooden house left by her father.

Since he made the ferry, his wife has taken care of the housework and farm work. During the busy farming season, when planting rice and grass, his son, who is working far away, will send money back to hire workers to do the farming.

In 2007, a reservoir was built on the Dasha River, and the ferry and Wanjia's fields were flooded areas. In order to continue the ferry work for local villagers, starting in the summer of 2009, the transportation department built a 30-passenger ferry Yu Ren's motor passenger ship was handed over to Wan Qizhen's eldest son Wan Fangquan for management, and Wan Fangquan officially became the fourth generation boatman of the ferry. During the flood season, Wan Fangquan uses motor boats to help the villagers transition.

Wan Qizhen’s home is halfway up the mountain, and the round trip from the ferry to her home is more than 5 kilometers. At first, to facilitate the ferry, he built a 10-square-meter hut on the river embankment as a resting place. Later, the villagers felt that it was hard work for him to punt the boat and he had to have a decent shelter from the wind and rain, so they spontaneously organized and built a simple stone house of more than ten square meters. From then on, Wan Qizhen regarded the low, damp hut as his home. He endured mosquito bites in summer and cold winds penetrated the walls in winter. The harsh environment never wavered in his determination to make a pilgrimage. After dinner every day, he would return to the ferry hut to keep vigil for the convenience of those who needed to cross over at night.

Now, the youngest generation of the Wan family, Wan Qizhen’s grandson Wan Qiulin, has entered middle school, and it is time for money. Someone once invited Lao Wan to "partnership": the ferry charges one yuan per person, so there are about 10 people per round trip, and about 30 round trips per day, which means that the monthly income is at least nearly 10,000 yuan. But after hearing this "way to make money," he waved his hand and decided not to do it. He said: You must be true to your words, and you must be ambitious even if you are poor.

Although her life is somewhat difficult, Wan Qizhen is very optimistic. He is good at singing mountain folk songs such as "Five Sentences" and "Pushing Boat Song" and telling jokes. His singing echoes in the Shanrun River Valley, bringing a lot of laughter to passers-by and villagers. In Dashahe Village, Wan Qizhen not only won the respect of the villagers because of his free ferrying, but also won a good reputation with his noble character as he worked diligently on the ferry, was an honest man, and dared to uphold justice.

20 meters to the left of the Dasha River ferry, there are two century-old golden marble trees that have been listed for protection by the county government. Wanjia Ferryman took on the important task of voluntarily caring for the ancient trees. Wan Qizhen's uncle handed over the boat and the two ancient trees in front of the villagers. One night in 1994, it was raining heavily. Villager Cui and the merchants who had already colluded took advantage of Wan Qizhen's sleep to dig trees by the river. Wan Qizhen heard a noise by the river and saw several black figures shaking by the river through the crack in the door. She immediately put on her clothes and went to check, and found that it was Cui and several other farmers digging trees. Wan Qizhen immediately stepped forward to dissuade him. Cui and others not only refused to listen to the dissuasion, but also threatened him. Wan Qizhen and her wife walked more than 20 kilometers in the dark and arrived at the township forestry station at 2 a.m. The forestry station immediately sent personnel to the scene to stop the incident. Most of the lateral roots of an ancient tree had been dug out. The next day, he wrapped the ancient tree with straw and carefully cultivated it with fine soil. Every night, he always patrols the river alone. For this reason, he received a lot of threats. Some people smashed his pot and destroyed his door. Someone once promised to give him 8,000 yuan in benefits as long as he turned a blind eye and allowed him to dig up the tree, but he sternly refused. Afterwards, after deliberation in the village committee, the villagers agreed to give him a certain amount of tree protection subsidies every year, but he also declined. He said: "If it was for money, I would not offend people. In the past 16 years, Wan Qizhen has rescued villagers who fell into the water many times. One evening in the autumn of 2004, villager Cui Nanqing went to the river to fish and pulled a net. The boat accidentally capsized and was in danger. Fortunately, Wan Qizhen came to the rescue in time. On the evening of September 12, 1999, after Wan Qizhen finished work and returned home, she suddenly heard a faint cry of "Help, help!" He put down his bowl and chopsticks and went straight to the ferry. It turned out that the river mouth upstream of the ferry opened to release water. The river water rose sharply, exceeding the ferry warning water level by 0.4 meters. Cui Maohui, a 64-year-old villager from Panlong Village, was in a hurry to cross the river to visit the patient. He untied the ferry rope and pitched the boat without authorization. After the wooden boat swayed into the river, the sudden flood pushed the boat to a dangerous bank. Fortunately, Wan Qizhen arrived in time and called for help from surrounding villagers, who worked together to rescue her.

Everyone sees and respects what Wan Qizhen does. He has been rated as a "Ten-Star Civilized Household" by the villagers many times and has become the most popular and respected person in the village. In August, Wan Qizhen submitted an application for joining the party to the party organization and joined the Communist Party of China gloriously. Wan Qizhen's ferry is often called the "Party Member" by the villagers.