From the city to the Yiyuan Mountains in 1953, Nanjing and Yiyuan had quite a difference in living standards. During school, Li Zhenhua often heard teachers talking about the revolutionary stories of Yimeng Sister-in-law and Yimeng Six Sisters, and he secretly made a determination to contribute to the people.

At that time, the country called on young people to "go to the most difficult places of revolution and to the most magnificent places of the motherland." Influenced by the sacred spirit of the Yimeng Old Area, the 17-year-old Li Zhenhua responded to the call, leaving the gate of Nanjing Normal School and heading to the remote and poor Yimeng Old Area.

On the way to Yiyuan, there were twists and turns. Because he was from the city and quite young, the authorities worried whether Li Zhenhua could adapt to the harsh local conditions, so they assigned him to Weifang. But in his "youthful impulsivity", Li Zhenhua pointed at the map, requested to be assigned to the most mountainous and challenging Yiyuan Mountains, at Hanwang Primary School. He told reporters:

"When I finally arrived at Hanwang Village, I realized that the locals were extremely poor. It’s hard to find a proper tile, and even a few square meters of mud ground are nowhere to be found."

After staying in the county town for a day, Li Zhenhua set out the next day with his luggage for Hanwang Village, 110 miles away. At that time, there were no roads or cars; it took three whole days of climbing and walking through the mountains until he was too exhausted to continue. On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, when Li Zhenhua finally reached Hanwang, the village’s old secretary led the villagers to welcome him at the entrance of the village.

Walking into the classroom converted from a broken temple, Li Zhenhua was stunned. The windows had no glass, the doors were half fallen, cold wind swept through, and small stones were scattered across the floor. "The village was poor; large stones were desks, small stones were stools," the old secretary said with a sigh, adding that the students had been without a teacher for half a year. Because there hadn’t been a teacher for the entire half year, when it was time for the lesson the next morning, students showed eagerness. As the sun climbed over the mountains, 38 students sat in the classroom; the oldest was already a father of three, and the youngest was only seven, with villagers gathered around the classroom windows.

In anticipation, Li Zhenhua’s father specially bought him a Zhongshan suit. Villagers had never seen machine-woven fabric, so as soon as Li Zhenhua arrived, he was called "foreign" by the villagers. In the anxiety of settling in, Li Zhenhua summoned the courage to teach, but his clumsy Southern dialect sparked laughter and discussion. After the failed teaching, Li Zhenhua felt miserable. At night, staying in a room without a secure door, listening to the howling wolves, he was scared and homesick, tears falling freely. Being away from home for the first time, sometimes a little nap would bring dreams of old trees at home vividly. Raising his eyes, he would find himself lonely.

"Thinking back now, I honestly don’t know how I got through it all back then."

Li Zhenhua, immersed in sorrow, was awakened by villagers bringing food. It was a pancake made from tree leaves and grain husks mixed with sweet potato flour, the outer coloration much like ox paper. Both surprised by their "fanciness" and curious, he opened it but found nothing inside, only warmth, and realized that this was the meal.

Li Zhenhua took bites, swallowing with difficulty, finally dipping the pancakes into bitter bean broth soup to finish one. "Finished one only to claim fullness, yet in my heart, I desired more." At that moment, Li Zhenhua felt as if needles pierced his heart, unsure how to handle the upcoming lessons, nor how to swallow the novel sight of blackened sweet potato pancakes and grain husk dry bread.

Li Zhenhua and the kids were together. (Image courtesy of the interviewee)

No longer able to take a step back to the city

Ideals and reality are like two sides of twin sisters; to achieve ideals, one must go through countless trials. Without finding a God-like support, no matter how good the ideal, it might remain unrealized.

Faced with language and lifestyle challenges, relying on fervent enthusiasm towards the impoverished mountains, Li Zhenhua didn’t waiver: "This place can keep me; I can stay as long as the day keeps me."

When he first arrived at the Yimeng Mountain Area, Li Zhenhua hadn’t planned on staying for a lifetime. At that time, he thought of returning after three to five years. When imagining going back, pondering how to explain his stay, it was a troubling thought. "Back then, I thought of a compromise; if I can stay five days, I’ll stay three days. If I stay one more day, the extent of ridicule when I return will be a little less."

Within half a year, out of more than 40 students from the same school who came to Yiyuan, 37 returned one by one, but Li Zhenhua gradually couldn’t leave the Yimeng Mountains. During a village farewell gathering, amongst joyous laughter, a frail girl was seen amid the crowd, imprinted in his eyes, etched in his heart. When returning to the village, he brought an old mirror, used the spinning wheel to turn cotton into thread, and used a wooden loom to weave cloth, sewing cotton coats and pants, and took straw and reeds, wrapped in shoe pads to warm.

"Once gifted, the tears flowed down uncontrollably. I felt I had seen old familiar faces."

Li Zhenhua recalled that upon learning that he disliked pancakes, villagers ate hull and greens themselves but gave the good meals to him. When someone’s hen laid eggs, originally traded for wood and salt, such gifts were kept in the bosom to be given to him.

"Each time receiving those eggs with warmth, words failed the heart."

"This is cultural support, I’m not leaving." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Li Zhenhua remembered, during the Menglianggu Battle, the entire village dispatched 72 young people to carry the wounded, while the families sent pancakes and cloth shoes to the frontlines, all dedicated wholly to revolution. "Families sacrificed their lives dearly for the revolution; why dread these small hardships?" The sacred spirit of Yimeng God and simplicity of the villagers moved Li Zhenhua, making him unable to take a step back to the city, aware that he had found his path forward.

Pouring all knowledge into students

Li Zhenhua made up his mind to transform the destiny of the impoverished mountain area with knowledge. Therefore, for 68 years, he became resolute in one thing: studying hard. Since then, he’d teach all day and walk five to six miles at night to tutor students. To improve educational conditions, he’d use basket gall and old newspapers as a globe, drawing latitude and longitude, showing geography students where the Western Seas and Pacific Ocean were, where Europe and Asia lay; using wooden rods, thread, and ping pong balls to create models of the solar system, explaining solar and lunar eclipses.

Hanwang Primary School was set in the mountains, and when students suddenly fell ill, Li Zhenhua carried them over mountains to get treatment; if the river flooded, he’d wait early by the riverbank till each student was ferried, and at dismissal, carry them individually across to the other bank.

Fully dedicated, the academic performance of the pupils soared dramatically. In 1955, while the secondary school admission rate in other schools of Yiyuan County was 10:1, all eight graduating students he tutored were admitted to junior high, stunning the entire county.

In 1982, Li Zhenhua was transferred to work in Yiyuan County. There, he served in a newly established special school, with all students having failed entry exams for junior high school in the county. Under such circumstances, Li Zhenhua proposed a policy — "Pouring all knowledge into students," teachers devoted everything to the students tirelessly. Among the first batch, Liu Yang (pseudonym) was extremely mischievous, with police from the station accustomed to dealing with his troubles. Upon finding Liu Yang suffering from severe cold during class, Li Zhenhua promptly cooked a bowl of egg noodles at home, which moved the student to tears, as he vowed never to be troublesome again, ultimately passing his exams into higher education.