1.A teacher's responsibility is heavier than a mountain

In September 1985, Li Guilin graduated from Matuo Middle School in Hanyuan County.Back then, middle school graduates were quite rare in rural Hanyuan, and Guilin, known for his good handwriting, had many opportunities to choose a nice job.But he decided with no hesitation to be a substitute teacher at a primary school back in his hometown, Wanli Village in Hanyuan County.

"A substitute teacher is still a teacher after all!" In Guilin's view, being a teacher is the best job in the world.On the day when he was offered the job by the school, he was so happy that he celebrated the occasion drinking a lot of wine as if he were celebrating his wedding.

Guilin is very strict on his work, and whatever he does, he wants to do it best, wishing that no one else could have ever done it better.

Guilin knew well that as an inexperienced teacher he must work harder to deliver a good job.He carefully prepared and taught each class, sparing no effort.Then he found it too slow to improve his teaching all by his own effort.He managed to get more teaching tasks from the headmaster so that he could practice more.He also tried to find all possible opportunities to talk with more experienced teachers, hoping they could allow him to sit in their classes or advise him on how to improve teaching skills.

"A substitute teacher is only paid the minimum basic salary, without a single penny of bonus or subsidy whatsoever no matter how good his teaching is.Guilin must be a nerd!" Some full-time teachers gossiped, who simply couldn't understand why a substitute teacher bothered so much about his performance.Some of them even worried that he might be heartbroken in case the school does not need a substitute teacher someday.

However, soon they got a quite different thing to worry about.In the final examination of his first semester, Guilin's students received an average score that ranked top among all the schools in the region.

Five years later, the substitute teacher Li Guilin gained quite some fame in Hanyuan County.

One day during the summer vacation of 1990, Guilin went to the township government to get something done.It happened that he was suffering from diarrhoea and he decided to use the public toilet before going home.

No one would expect that what happened next changed his life.

When he came out of the toilet, Guilin noticed a Yi-minority mother and her daughter standing outside the toilet.He was surprised to realize that they had stood there for quite a while, as he saw them there when he went out of the township building to the toilet and still there when he came out of the toilet.

"Do you need any help?" Guilin asked curiously in Yi language.

"No...No." answered the girl of fifteen or sixteen, blushing.

Feeling they were all right, Guilin was ready to leave.

"We want to use the toilet." The mother opened her mouth at last.

The short conversation astonished Guilin: Being illiterate, they couldn't understand the words on the wall of the toilet, "Male" and "Female", and had to wait until someone got out of the toilet to avoid entering the wrong place.

"Haven't you ever attended school?" Guilin immediately shot his question at the girl.

"School?" the girl looked up at him innocently, and then at her mother.

The mother finally told the truth.They had come from Erping Village of Ganluo County to the bazaar in Matuo Township.Because of their village's location on the steep mountains accessible only through perilous paths, the village school had been closed for ten years for not being able to hire or retain any teacher.The children in the village had been offered a chance to attend school 10 years before, but no child had since enjoyed any access to education.The Erping villagers had rarely come down from the mountain because, of course, the journey was not easy.But a bigger reason was their illiteracy.They couldn't communicate with people in Mandarin nor could they calculate, not to mention their inability to read.

Many years have passed, but a story told by this woman has remained vivid in Guilin's memory.

A villager from Erping who hunted a wild boar in the woods carried a large cut of meat down to the town, and sold it for 10 yuan.Exhausted and hungry, he went into a noodle restaurant.As the villager couldn't speak Mandarin, and the restaurant owner couldn't speak Yi language, they had to communicate by gestures.When the owner asked the villager if he wanted noodle, the villager mistakenly thought the owner was asking him to pay first, so he put on the table a 10 yuan note, which was not a small sum then.Not believing that the man could eat 10 yuan's worth of noodle, the owner felt puzzled and shook his head.The anxious villager gestured wildly, wondering why his money was not enough to buy a bowl of noodle.The restaurant owner was confused and kept shaking his head.The villager became more depressed and agitated.He took out from his pocket the small changes he had and put them next to the 10 yuan note.In total bewilderment at this point, the restaurant owner had to find a neighbor who knew both Mandarin and Yi language for help.Unexpectedly, before this neighbor was able to speak, the villager jumped to his feet and attempted to run away.

It later turned out that the villager was an illiterate who could not even read the number on the note.In the beginning, when he saw the owner shaking head, he thought the man intended to rip him off.Then seeing the owner continue to shake head, he thought he was perhaps cheated by the meat buyer and was given a small useless note.That's why he pulled out all small changes he had in his pocket, assuming it would be enough for a bowl of noodle.When he saw the owner come back with a helper, he thought he had walked into a trap and was going to be beaten up, and that's why he tried to run out – to flee away!

After learning the sad story and seeing their downcast faces, Guilin felt his heart as heavy as if under the burden of a rock.It was incredible that more than a decade after China's reform and opening up, there was still a village so isolated and backward where villagers did not even know a single Chinese word.How could, or would, he believe this?

Coming out of the Matuo township building, Guilin went straight to Wushidaqiao Township.Some time ago, the Wushidaqiao government had invited Guilin to be a substitute teacher in Erping village.However, thinking of those dozens of students in his class, Guilin declined the offer at once.Now having heard what the mother and daughter had to tell him, Guilin wanted to find out what on earth the Erping village, also a part of Ganluo county, looked like.

Wushidaqiao Township is on the other side of the Dadu River.It takes less time to go from the Matuo township building to the Wushidaqiao township building than to his home.

When he arrived at the Wushidaqiao township building and asked about the Erping primary school, a swarthy man came out and welcomed him with great hospitality.After the man introduced himself, Guilin felt that he found the right person.The man standing in front of him was Amutha, secretary of the Wushidaqiao Communist Party committee and head of the education team in Ganluo County.

Amutha's hospitality did nothing to quench Guilin's frustration.Before they took seats, Guilin couldn't resist asking: "You are also from the Yi ethnicity, how could you keep your eyes closed to Erping's problems?"

"That's not true.The township government thought a lot about the Erping village," Amutha explained.

"Really? Then why do people in Erping village can't even tell the Men's Room from Ladies' Room, or understand the value of money?" Guilin burst out furiously.

Seeing that Guilin was a short temper, Amutha quickly finished things at hand, and sat down with Guilin for a talk over a pot of tea.

As the conversation went on, Guilin finally got to know this mysterious mountain village, Erping, which he had been curious about since childhood.

Erping is one of the remotest, poorest and most backward Yi villages in the whole county.People entering or going out of the village must climb the terrifyingly steep wooden ladders leaning against the cliff.In most years, frost comes as early as in October and snow remains until the coming March.Without any access to tap water, electricity, road or postal service, nearly a hundred households in the village led a self-sufficient life secluded from the outside world.They all lived in thatched cottages and always had the same three dishes year in and year out – steamed corn bread, potato, and pickled cabbage soup.

The old generation never attended school.While their offspring grew day by day, it was time for them to go to school.In 1977, the County Board of Education appropriated 2,000 RMB to build a school with a total floor area of 120 square meters, consisting of two classrooms, one kitchen and one dormitory, all made of wood and brick.

The school was ready.However, three full-time teachers came and went in succession after only a short stay – they could not bear the poor and difficult life there.By 1980, the school had to be suspended for lack of teacher.

Amutha told the story in quiet tones, but Guilin was utterly stunned.

Seeing that Guilin became emotional, Amutha made a timely comment, "Now that you come, these kids can go to school again."

Guilin had never thought about going to teach at a school on a remote, high mountain.He had aging parents and little children to take care of.Besides, he could not bear to leave his own students.Without any further thinking, he quickly refused, "No, no.I've got my own students to teach.It wouldn't be too hard for you to find somebody who can teach, I suppose."

"Do you really think it's as simple as that?" Amutha retorted."The villagers there are all Yi people who speak no Mandarin.Do you think it's an easy thing to find someone who can teach there?"

"But I'm from Ya'an.Teaching in Liangshan has nothing to do with me!" Guilin refused firmly.

"Whether from Liangshan or Ya'an, we're all Chinese, and you and I are both of Yi ethnicity.I just hope that we can both do something good for our fellow Yi people." Amutha took a sip of tea.

Hearing the mentioning of fellow Yi people, Guilin became quiet and sank into contemplation.After a long while, he said, "Well, I will find a teacher for you."

Guilin thought Amutha would be delighted to hear this.But surprisingly, Amutha didn't make any response, not even lifting his eyelids, as if he had heard nothing.Guilin soon realized that Amutha didn't believe what he had said, and he decided to make a promise: "You don't need to worry about this.If I can't find a teacher for you, I myself will go to teach on the mountain village!"

The Yi people cherish credibility as their life, and Guilin is typical of this sort.Before he made the promise, he actually did some calculation: there are at least 10 to 20 middle school graduates in his village who can speak Yi language.If primary school graduates are included, the number will be close to 100.In Guilin's view, it is indeed a piece of cake to find one or two teachers among 100 people.

It later dawned on him that this "cake" was actually not that easy to bake.

For three days, Guilin tried to visit all those in the village who he thought might be able to teach.He first talked to some literate Yi people, but they all responded with the same question: "Why don't you go and teach the Yi children yourself? Aren't you also from a Yi man?" Then, he had to find more candidates, whoever was literate in the village.But they responded in a worse manner: "Do you want me to live like a monk in that remote place?" A couple of them did show a little interest in the idea of being a teacher, but they disappeared when they learned that they would be paid only 100 yuan per month for the job.With no choice, Guilin had to try his luck outside his own village and even in other townships, again in vain.Unwilling to give up, he asked his relatives and friends to recommend whoever they knew might be qualified, but their efforts didn't work either.

Toward the end of the summer vacation, Guilin had not yet found the teacher.The school was about to begin the next day.Guilin became restless.

When the sun was sinking in the west, a stranger showed up.The setting sun cast his shadow far out on the ground.

"Mr.Li, have you found the teacher for us? Mr.Amutha sent me to pick him up." This man was Amushida, the Party secretary of Erping Village.

Guilin was not surprised by Amushida's visit at all.When in Wushidaqiao, he clapped hands with Amutha and promised him that the township government could send people to pick up the teacher when the new semester began.

The situation was like the sedan chair had come to pick up the bride, but the bride was nowhere to be found.Guilin knew that he had to sit in that sedan chair himself.