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In 1840, Zhang Desheng was 36 and had two children (a son and a daughter). Since he was born in a family that both his father and grandfather were craftsmen who made articles from bamboo strips, Zhang was influenced by the surrounding environment and was an artisan. Making the strips became the family’s main source of income, they spent most of the money on the education aspect since they were undereducated due to lack of the peasant’s assets. He and his wife had high expectations of their children and enforced them to read many books at an early age. His wife was also engaged in agriculture, helped the family to take care of the children, and supported his work. Zhang worked conscientiously and went to the county fair twice a week as a self-employed businessman to sell his bamboo strip products.

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In 1840, when the First Opium War was emerging, I went to the town fair once to sell my handicrafts as usual. Because of the loss of education, every time I go to town, I can only hear some recent news from bureaucrats, talented people selected through the imperial examinations, always love to chat in the afternoon.

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By chance, I heard that in 1841, the Sichuan government sent more than 700 veterans to participate in the First Opium War, and the casualties were quite heavy. In the following year, we heard rumors that the defenders of the major regions of China, such as Ningbo, Shanghai, and Yuyao, had raised their white flags and surrendered before the enemy could open fire. At that time, Sichuan was still a peaceful place, not aware that the crisis brought by the war was destroying the whole Chinese people step by step.

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It was not until 1842 that the Qing army's last attack in the First Opium War ended in defeat with the signing of the unequal Treaty of Nanking, which satisfied most of the British demands.

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In1853, a day I will never forget in my life, my father Zhang Qifan had passed away. As the eldest son of the family, I took it upon myself to organize the funeral for my father, take care of my two younger brothers, and hardly maintain the finances of the family. On the next day of my father’s funeral, my only son Zhang Zhiyuan told me that he wanted to give up the imperial examination which he prepared for a long time and joined the Jingtian uprising.

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After that, a great change had begun in my family, even though my wife tried to dissuade him. Zhiyuan was an obedient, thoughtful, and gallant child. This was a long absence of seven years. During this tough time, my daughter married the son of a friend from the neighborhood and our family began to do lots of farming and making abundant bamboo strip products to survive.

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After 1860, I (Zhang Zhiyuan) went back to my home, reunited with my family, and started to learn to make bamboo strip products to inherited my father’s craft. When I was young, I followed the activists who had the same ambitious goal to establish a country where everyone was equal and harmonious. However, the reality was brutal and I maintain that the revolution was jacobinic and extreme. The underdeveloped technology skills made China's road to self-help quite arduous, if not increasingly dangerous.

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Since China's weapons were heavily dependent on foreign countries, considering the reality of being a peasant, I was not in a position to participate in the revolution. Besides, because of Sichuan's complex landscape, the wars did not affect us too much until the explosion of the Sino-Japanese war. After the Sino-Japanese war, the state treasury was in economic crisis and needed to make the people pay in installments to make up for the shortfall of 200 million silver taels in compensation. This added to the financial difficulties of our family, which was already not well-off. As a peasant, I hope to create a business environment for ourselves by promoting the development of the commodity economy because mechanized production is a kind of impact on the traditional handicraft industry. More importantly, I want my children could go to school through the education reform that receives substantial knowledge of western’s such as aesthetics, mathematics, and philosophy instead of a single old-style private school called “Sishu”.

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Zhang Qifan is one of the ambitious, laborious, and righteous cousins of Zhang Zhiyuan. 1914, Zhang Qifan went away from his hometown to NanKai University. In the year when the Minquan newspaper ceased publication, Nankai High School exceptionally waived Zhou Enlai's tuition and fees. He was an outstanding student, actively involved in club activities, and a central figure in the school's new drama group.

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In 1919, under the leadership of Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, they advocated science and law against superstition. Zhang Qifan was attracted by them, especially the collection of young students in an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal situation, in order to prepare their minds for a thorough political struggle.

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In January 1920, students were beaten up by Japanese ronin because they went to a foreign goods store to inspect and burn Japanese goods. This incident inspired Qifan and other student petition actions. After his release from prison in 1920, Qifan began to develop a real revolutionary consciousness.

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After the Communist Party broke up in 1927, Zhang Qifan was expelled from the Party.