The father's "acting according to his conscience"

 　　"Everything should be done with conscience," was a phrase my father often said.

　　My father was born in the year of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. Because the flames of the War of Resistance Against Japan and the War of Liberation had not yet reached our remote rural village, life here was relatively peaceful. My father was an only child, and my grandfather doted on him. My grandfather was a carpenter who could earn some silver dollars, so my father attended a private school, could write and calculate, and could also play musical instruments and sing. He was once a member of a shadow puppet troupe and participated in the music at weddings and funerals. I still treasure the brass trumpet he used to play.

　　At that time, my father was considered a "cultured man." In the early 1960s, he worked as a brigade accountant. Later, when the Cultural Revolution began, my father's class status was said to be "upper-middle peasant," and he was ineligible to be a brigade cadre. This "upper-middle peasant" status was because my grandfather had bought more than ten acres of paddy fields before liberation. My grandfather lived in a thatched hut, saving every penny. Near liberation, while others sold their land, he bought it. This was because he didn't understand the political situation at the time. Therefore, during the land reform after liberation, he was classified as an "upper-middle peasant."

　　It didn't matter that he wasn't the brigade accountant; my father was well-liked, enthusiastic about public service, especially good at playing the erhu, and had beautiful calligraphy, so he was respected. Every year before the Spring Festival, relatives and neighbors would buy red paper and ask him to write couplets. In the early 1970s, when I was in elementary school, my father was elected production team leader by the villagers. No one wanted to be a team leader; there were no benefits, and it was easy to offend people. But my father was in this position almost until the land was distributed to individual households. The production team leader, similar to the current village group leader, was responsible for assigning tasks during the collective farming era. One person plowed the fields, another harrowed them; one pulled rice seedlings, another transplanted them… The production team leader had to get up early, first blowing a whistle throughout the village to tell everyone it was time to get up and prepare breakfast. About half an hour later, everyone would be going to work in the fields.

　　Being a production team leader wasn't easy, mainly because sometimes it was difficult to assign work, as no one wanted to do the hard labor. Strong, able-bodied men were only paid 10 work points a day; who wanted to do the strenuous work of plowing and harrowing? My father had to go door-to-door to persuade them, and when he encountered resistance, he would say, "Everything must be done according to your conscience."

　　What is "conscience"? Later I learned that conscience refers to a person's innate kindness, and later often refers to a person's correct understanding of right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness. "Everything must be done according to your conscience" was something my father often said when assigning work and trying to persuade people. For example, if he assigned A to plow the field, A might say, "Why not B?" My father knew B had plowed the field yesterday because B was honest; you can't make honest people do hard labor every day, can you? So my father would tell Jia, "Everything must be done according to your conscience."

　　In those days of the "collective" system and the "iron rice bowl" mentality, where everyone shirked their responsibilities and wanted to do the easy work, my father used the principle of "everything must be done according to your conscience" to persuade those "slick" and "cunning" individuals. He served as the production team leader for over ten years, enduring year after year, mainly because he was honest and fair. If anyone was sick, my mother would make them a bowl of perilla water or ginger soup, and he wouldn't assign them any work. For those young and strong laborers who liked to cheat, my father always led by example, doing the hard work himself, influencing them through his actions. For example, during the "double harvest" season, my father would plow the fields for more than ten consecutive days. Because the "double harvest" season coincided with the hottest days of summer and the beginning of autumn, the sun was extremely strong and the temperature was exceptionally high. Sometimes even the oxen got sick from the exhaustion, let alone people. There was no other way; my father acted according to his conscience.

　　Looking back now, I realize that my father's "acting according to his conscience" has influenced my entire life. In my 35 years of work, I spent 23 of those years in secretarial and document-writing roles in eight different organizations. I never passed on difficult documents to colleagues; on the contrary, I even secretly helped them with their documents. Honestly, sometimes that means being an "unsung hero." However, I also gained valuable experience—isn't writing honed through diligent practice? Looking back, my father's principle of "acting with conscience" has benefited me throughout my life.