Joys Of The Teaching Career

       I was a teacher for only ten years. In 1926, on my return to China after finishing studies in the United States, I began to teach at my alma mater Yenching University, Peiping, as a lecturer in Chinese. The deans and teachers of the Department of Chinese then were mostly my former teachers. Other faculties and departments also had no lack of my former teachers. I may well say that practically all the teaching staff of the University were my seniors. Therefore, at a faculty meeting, I always chose a seat at an unobservable corner of the room. Everybody jokingly called me “faculty baby”. I was then on the right side of 26.
       It was, however, a different story when I was with my students. They and I were good friends. When I taught freshman Chinese as a required course, I used a textbook of classical prose. The freshmen were mostly young boys and girls aged between 17 and 20.  Looking down from the rostrum, I was delighted by a multitude of rosy-faced naive young students smiling and staring curiously at me — the little teacher. Their smiles were by no means unfamiliar to me, being similar to those I often saw on the faces of my younger brothers and younger female cousins. Often, when I opened the roll-call book and asked them each to give their own names, I corrected their accents one by one. Thus, between laughter and chat, we came to know each other better and were soon on friendly terms. 
       In recalling my past career as a teacher, I always think fondly of the intimate friendship between the students and me. In those days, teachers and students all lived on campus, which greatly facilitated our after-school contact. We often went boating on the Weiming Lake, or had discussions about various things on the marble boat by the island in the middle of the Lake, or had heart-to-heart private talks about, for instance, job selections or marriage. At this moment the images of quite a few couples, such as Zheng Linzhuang and Wu Ruiwu, Lin Yaohua and Rao Yusu, etc. suddenly appear in my mind’s eye. I attended some of their wedding ceremonies in my capacity as a go-between. Sometimes, preparatory to making a match, I had the parents of both parties meet each other at a dinner I gave. All that took place over half a century ago, and now, alas, more than half of them have gone to another world before me. I feel very had about it indeed.
       It’s time for me to stop writing now. I’ve not been talking solely about “students respecting teachers” or “teachers cherishing students” because, to my mind, teachers and students should be friends with mutual respect and love.

       我只在母校燕京大学国文系当过十年的教师。那时系里的主任和教师大半是我的老师。全校的教师都是我的师辈！因此在开教授会的时候，我总是挑个极边极角的座位，惶恐地缩在一旁。大家都笑着称我为Faulty Baby（教授会的婴儿）。那一学期我还不满二十六岁。
       在学生群中就大不一样了。他们是我的好朋友。从讲台上望去，一个个红扑扑的稚气未退的脸，嬉笑地好奇地望着我这个“小先生”。这些笑容对我并不陌生，和我的弟弟们和表妹们的笑容一模一样。打开点名簿请他们自己报名，我又逐一纠正了他们的口音，笑语纷纭之中，我们一下子就很熟悉很亲热了！
       回忆起那几年的教学生涯，最使我眷恋的是：学生们和我成了知心朋友。那时教师和男女学生都住在校内，课外的接触十分频繁。我们常常在未名湖上划船，在水中央的岛边石舫上开种种的讨论会，或者作个别谈话。这时我眼前忽然涌现出好几对美满的夫妻，如郑林庄和吴瑞梧，林耀华和饶毓苏，等等。说起来是半个世纪以前的事了。他们中有过半数的人已先我而进入另一个世界，写到这里，我心里有说不出的一种滋味！
       我应该停笔了，我说的既不是“尊师”也不是“爱生”，我只觉得“师”和“生”应当是互相尊重互相亲爱的朋友。