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.

       我只在母校燕京大學國文系當過十年的教師。那時系里的主任和教師大半是我的老師。全校的教師都是我的師輩！因此在開教授會的時候，我總是挑個極邊極角的座位，惶恐地縮在一旁。大家都笑著稱我為Faulty Baby（教授會的嬰兒）。那一學期我還不滿二十六歲。
       在學生群中就大不一樣了。他們是我的好朋友。從講臺上望去，一個個紅撲撲的稚氣未退的臉，嬉笑地好奇地望著我這個“小先生”。這些笑容對我并不陌生，和我的弟弟們和表妹們的笑容一模一樣。打開點名簿請他們自己報名，我又逐一糾正了他們的口音，笑語紛紜之中，我們一下子就很熟悉很親熱了！
       回憶起那幾年的教學生涯，最使我眷戀的是：學生們和我成了知心朋友。那時教師和男女學生都住在校內(nèi)，課外的接觸十分頻繁。我們常常在未名湖上劃船，在水中央的島邊石舫上開種種的討論會，或者作個別談話。這時我眼前忽然涌現(xiàn)出好幾對美滿的夫妻，如鄭林莊和吳瑞梧，林耀華和饒毓蘇，等等。說起來是半個世紀以前的事了。他們中有過半數(shù)的人已先我而進入另一個世界，寫到這里，我心里有說不出的一種滋味！
       我應該停筆了，我說的既不是“尊師”也不是“愛生”，我只覺得“師”和“生”應當是互相尊重互相親愛的朋友。