清明追忆•我的表舅喻仲林
2018年04月04日 泰安煤机 宋英敏
1985年6月12日，台湾著名作家琼瑶女士为她的国画老师喻仲林先生，收集了其生前散落在世界各地的花鸟画作，并与丈夫平鑫涛一起编辑成《喻仲林花鸟画册》，由台湾皇冠出版社出版。琼瑶女士编写前言《永远的鸟语花香》。而喻仲林，正是我的表舅——我母亲姨妈的儿子。
1925年9月6日，表舅喻仲林出生在山东冠县，父亲喻信海，母亲许大姑。1934年，许大姑去世，年仅9岁的喻仲林跟随姐姐喻惠霞一起回到梅庄姥姥家居住。当时我的外祖母也因家庭变故，携一儿两女早他们几年回到梅庄娘家居住，喻家姐弟来到之后，我的外祖母对这个自幼丧母的外甥疼爱有加，视如己出，常常把他搂在怀里，给予母爱的温暖。母亲和仲林舅的姥姥家——许氏家族——在当地也是名门望族，两个舅舅许以浩、许宗海均是早期的革命家、画家，在梅庄时，也对仲林舅十分关爱，成为他的启蒙老师，也为其日后专攻花鸟画作打下坚实的基础。
1943年，19岁的仲林舅联中毕业后，弃笔从戎，加入抗战的行列，在敌后进行游击战。1949年随国军到台湾，1958年由台湾“国防部”通讯中心队长一职退役，致力于画业。
仲林舅自幼即富艺术才华，在梅庄时又深受两个舅舅的熏陶，很快便成为台湾著名的花鸟绘画大师，也是琼瑶夫妇的国画老师。1985年在台北因病去世，孔子七十七代孙孔德成先生为其主持了追悼会。同年，琼瑶夫妇将其花鸟画作收集起来，出版了《喻仲林花鸟画册》并写前言。
我的母亲今年已经93岁了，从我记事起就经常听她讲梅庄的人和事，渐渐在我的脑海里形成了一个轮廓：梅庄许家就像是《红楼梦》里的“大观园”，母亲就是那林妹妹，仲林舅就是那宝哥哥。仲林舅生前在台北时也常和友人提起幼年在梅庄的往事，有时忍不住思乡之情，竟泪流满面。
1975年，仲林舅在美国夏威夷讲学时，曾给胞姐喻惠霞写了一封家书，惠霞姨从冠县带信到泰安来找我写回信。我看到仲林舅在信中写道：“……非常思念家乡诸亲友，梦中时常回到梅庄，醒来却是一梦。如果明年能拿到美国的公民权，我也可能回家一趟。当然这只是我的希望而已，能否实现实难预料……”在信中，他“非常思念”的“诸亲友”名字一共写了11个，现在除我母亲外，均已去世。当时正值“文革”时期，对海外来信须小心谨慎。我按照信中注明的地址，贴上他附信寄来的邮票给他发了回信。由于中间耽误的时间过长，也不知最终仲林舅收到回信没有。而仲林舅生前也因为两岸关系的原因，一直没能实现回家乡探亲的愿望。
母亲晚年在北京表姐许颖芝（曾任中国驻瑞士外交官）处见到了琼瑶女士写的《喻仲林先生年表》和《永远的鸟语花香》，从中获悉仲林舅赴台后的一些经历，更感谢琼瑶夫妇在仲林舅去世前后五十多天里一直陪伴在床前，以及后来搜集散落在世界各地的遗作，并编辑成《喻仲林花鸟册》一书。但对于数十年没能再见到仲林舅一面也感到十分遗憾。
现如今，我们的祖国国富民强，繁荣昌盛，海峡两岸同胞之间的互动往来也更加密切起来。衷心希望台湾能够早日回归祖国怀抱，让仲林舅生前回家探亲的遗憾永远不再上演。
Source: http://www.snzzjt.com/info/1038/4086.htm
Qingming Remembrance: My Cousin Yu Chung-lin
April 4, 2018, Tai’an Coal Machinery, Song Yingmin
On June 12, 1985, the renowned Taiwanese author, Ms. Chiung Yao, compiled the scattered bird-and-flower paintings of her traditional Chinese painting teacher, Yu Chung-lin, and, together with her husband, Ping Hsin-tao, edited them into “Yu Chung-lin’s Album of Bird-and-Flower Paintings,” published by Crown Publishing in Taiwan. Ms. Chiung Yao wrote the preface “Eternal Birdsong and Fragrance of Flowers.” Yu Chung-lin, my cousin, was the son of my mother’s aunt.
Born in Guan County, Shandong, on September 6, 1925, Yu Chung-lin was the son of Yu Xinhai and Aunt Xu. After the death of Aunt Xu in 1934, nine-year-old Yu Chung-lin and his sister Yu Huixia moved to live at their grandmother’s house in Mei Village. My maternal grandmother, due to family misfortunes, had moved back to her family home in Mei Village a few years earlier with her son and two daughters. After the arrival of the Yu siblings, my grandmother, who loved her nephew deeply, treated him as her own, often holding him close and giving him maternal warmth. Yu’s uncles, Xu Yihao and Xu Zonghai, renowned revolutionaries and painters in the local Mei Village and the prestigious Xu family, were particularly affectionate towards Yu Chung-lin and served as his mentors, laying a solid foundation for his future specialization in bird-and-flower paintings.
In 1943, at the age of 19, Yu Chung-lin graduated from Lianzhong and joined the army to participate in the guerrilla warfare against the enemy. He moved to Taiwan with the Nationalist Army in 1949. In 1958, he retired as the captain of the Communications Center of Taiwan’s “Ministry of National Defense,” dedicating himself to painting.
Yu Chung-lin, endowed with artistic talent since childhood and deeply influenced by his uncles in Mei Village, quickly became a famous Taiwanese master of bird-and-flower painting and also became the Chinese painting teacher of the Chiung Yao couple. He passed away in Taipei in 1985, and a memorial service was held by Kong Decheng, a 77th-generation descendant of Confucius. The same year, Chiung Yao and her husband compiled and published “Yu Chung-lin’s Album of Bird-and-Flower Paintings,” writing a preface for it.
My mother, now 93 years old, often told me about the people and events of Mei Village since I was young, gradually shaping a picture in my mind: Mei Village’s Xu family was like the “Grand View Garden” in “Dream of the Red Chamber,” with my mother as Sister Lin and cousin Yu Chung-lin as Brother Bao. Yu Chung-lin often reminisced about his childhood in Mei Village with friends in Taipei, sometimes overwhelmed with homesickness to the point of tears.
In 1975, while lecturing in Hawaii, Yu Chung-lin wrote a letter to his sister Yu Huixia, who brought it to me in Tai’an to reply. In the letter, he wrote, “I miss my hometown and relatives very much. I often return to Mei Village in my dreams, but wake up to find it’s just a dream. If I can get U.S. citizenship next year, I might visit home. But it’s just a hope, difficult to predict whether it will come true…” He listed 11 names of dearly missed relatives and friends, all of whom, except my mother, have passed away. During the Cultural Revolution, caution was required for overseas correspondence. Following the address in his letter, I sent a reply using the postage stamps he provided. However, due to long delays, I don’t know if Yu Chung-lin ever received my response. He could never fulfill his wish to visit his hometown due to cross-strait relations.
In her later years in Beijing, my mother saw “Chronology of Mr. Yu Chung-lin” and “Eternal Birdsong and Fragrance of Flowers” written by Chiung Yao at the house of her cousin, Xu Yingzhi (a former Chinese diplomat to Switzerland). She learned more about Yu Chung-lin’s experiences after moving to Taiwan and was grateful to the Chiung Yao couple for staying by his side during his final fifty days and for collecting his scattered works into “Yu Chung-lin’s Album of Bird-and-Flower Paintings.” However, she deeply regretted not being able to see her cousin again for decades.
Nowadays, our motherland is wealthy and prosperous, with closer interactions between people across the Taiwan Strait. I sincerely hope that Taiwan will soon return to the embrace of the motherland, so that the regret of Yu Chung-lin not being able to visit his hometown will never be.