-yin, theGoddessofMercy, wastheirfavoritedeity, andmymother, chieflyoutofheranxietyformyhealthandwell-being, , andshe, inspiteoftheboundfeetwhichpainedherthroughoutherlife, walkedthewholedistanceofhillytrailtoandfromtheshrine.
Iwasinthevillageschool, ofwhichtherewereseveninourvillage, for9years （1895–1904）， duringwhichtimeIreadandmemorizedthefollowingbooks:
， apost-Confucianclassicofunknownauthorship.
（or “TheSmallLearning”）， abookofNeo-ConfucianistmoralteachingcommonlyattributedtotheSungphilosopher, ChuHsi.
:TheAnalectsofConfucius，TheBookofMencius，TheGreatLearning， andTheDoctrineoftheMean.
:TheBookofPoetry，TheBookofHistory，TheBookofChange， andTheLiKi.
Mymother, whowasalwayseconomicalinherhouseholdexpenses, insistedonpayingmyteacheratleastthricebetterthantheusualtuitionfee, , -dollarpupilmerelyreadaloudandrecitedbyheart, , becauseoftheadditionalpay, enjoyedtherareprivilegeofhavingeverywordandsentenceinthereadingsexplainedtome, thatis, translatedfromthedeadlanguageintothecolloquialdialect.
BeforeIwas8yearsold, , myteachermademereadTheGeneralMirrorforGovernment， , asanaidtomemory, tocompilearhymedsummaryofthedynasties, emperors, andchronologicaleras.
Thenonedayinawaste-paperboxinmyuncle’shouseIchanceduponatornvolumeofapartofthegreatnovelShuiHu （， orspokenlanguage, , forgoodandforevil, andgavemealiterarymediumwhichyearslaterenabledmetostartwhathasbeencalled “theLiteraryRenaissance” inChina.
