Anyone who has studied or worked in Anqing No. 1 Middle School will forget the green and vigorous Podocarpus tree at the school gate? It is like a kind elder, standing at dawn and dusk
< p>In the photo, I watch over this educational field every day; and like an envoy from the depths of time, I open the yellowed book and tell people about the vicissitudes of No. 1 Middle School in the past hundred years in a deep and slow voice. In the past hundred years, the campus of No. 1 Middle School has undergone several changes, but the podocarpus tree still stands in front of the door to welcome alumni returning from all over. In the eyes of alumni, Podocarpus is the symbol of No. 1 Middle School. They rely on Podocarpus to find their alma mater and their picturesque youth.However, I am afraid that few people know that the person who planted pine trees was Mr. Wang Huiquan, the ninth principal of Anqing No. 1 Middle School, educator and inventor. Mr. Li Quan and Huiquan were born in Huaiyuan, Anhui Province in 1888. He graduated from Nanjing Liangjiang Excellent Normal School in 1911 and later taught at Fengyang Public Model School and Fengyang No. 1 High School. Around 1919, Mr. Huiquan came to Anqing at the invitation of the Provincial No. 1 Division (now Anqing No. 1 Middle School). In 1923, he was appointed as the principal of the No. 1 Division, which lasted for two years. The podocarpus was planted by the gentleman at this time.
The scene when Mr. Huiquan planted pine trees is no longer traceable. A few years ago, a famous actor from the Hu family in Anqing, Mr. Hu Hao, returned to his alma mater. He and Mr. Sun Wenyuan were present when the pine trees were planted. Unfortunately, when I planned to ask old man Hu Hao for advice, I got the news that the old man had returned on a crane. History gradually disappears in the back of this generation, and only the Podocarpus pine sends out a faint wind whisper, which seems to tell future generations of Mr. Huiquan's painstaking efforts - ten years to grow trees, a hundred years to cultivate people.
The first half of the 20th century was an era of sadness and rise for the Chinese nation due to its weakness. For decades, the entire country has been in constant struggle and change. Countless young people are looking for ways to strengthen the country, and Mr. Huiquan is one of them. Judging from his actions, he is not the kind of agitator who stands on the stage and speaks loudly, nor is he a scholar who hides in a small building to read and recite scriptures, but a calm and promising doer.
Mr. Huiquan is a progressive educator. He has served as a teacher, dean, principal, etc. in many famous schools in Fengyang, Anqing and other places. In 1925, he was invited to join the Department of Education. He served as a provincial junior college inspector and a provincial academic inspector, and during this period he blocked the government's instigation of progressive students. People in Fenghuai all admired his courage and broadmindedness. He also translated "Inorganic Chemistry" by the British Yego as a lecture note, and negotiated for publication by the Commercial Press, but failed due to the Japanese invasion. Mr. Huiquan worked hard for education throughout his life. He was 70 years old when he retired from Anqing Medical School (now Anqing Health School).
At the same time, Mr. Huiquan is also an industrialist and inventor. While teaching, he used his expertise to develop equipment that was beneficial to people's livelihood. The Huiquan electrotherapy machine he invented was a huge success, which not only shocked the scientific and educational circles, but was also popular in the market. The Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce of the Kuomintang government awarded him a special commendation order and issued a patent license. Mr. Huiquan's actions in advocating science and revitalizing the motherland were admired by people in the education circles at that time. In 1919, Dong Jiahui, director of the Provincial Department of Education, highly praised Mr. Huiquan during his inspection in Fengyang, hailed him as a model campus in Huaibei, and applied for a medal from the Ministry of Education.
After the May 4th Movement, national consciousness became increasingly strong. Mr. Huiquan led poor students to develop chalk, batteries and other products for the market to resist the invasion of foreign goods. The product trademark is a powerful fist, which means opposing the economic aggression of foreign powers. In the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, Mr. Huiquan taught at the National No. 8 Middle School. The school has ten departments (branch schools), spanning hundreds of miles, with thousands of teachers and students. Teaching and daily supplies are in short supply. As a result, Mr. Huiquan used local materials and established the No. 8 Middle School Factory. More than ten kinds of products were not only supplied to teachers and students, but also marketed on the borders of Hunan, Sichuan and Guizhou, alleviating the suffering of local people from material shortages.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Mr. Huiquan was invited by friends to return to Anqing and served as the director of Liuyi Middle School and Anqing Medical Education. After liberation, he was still in his sixties and still taught "Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry" as a medical professor in Anqing. In the 1950s, as a non-partisan democrat, he was specially invited to attend the first and second People's Political Consultative Conference of Anhui Province. He died in Huainan in October 1968 at the age of 81. He left more than 50 poems, which were compiled into "Aping Baishui Shanren Poetry Notes".