ABSTRACT
A major Qing garrison town that grew up gradually through the accretion of imperial power, it retained institutions of the Army of the Green Standard into Republican times. Several hundred years of despotic rule and resistance to it had stained the land with blood; this mostly quieted down after Shen Congwen grew up. Shen Zongsi continued to participate in local politics back home and became a person of importance, but lost an election to become a provincial assemblyman. Shen Congwen was an intelligent child, the darling of his family’s heart and one for whom his father had great hopes. In 1916, when Congwen’s big brother, the one in charge of his discipline, left to search for their father, Congwen’s mother agreed to enroll the younger boy in a new training class in the military arts. In May of 1925, because of a literary misunderstanding, Congwen went to visit Peking University professor Lin Zaiping, to explain himself and his feelings.
