Before I Was Sixty

I was born on April 27, 1884, which was the 11th year of the reign of Emperor Kuang-hsü of the Ch'ing dynasty, or 27 years before the birth of the Republic of China. My great-great grandfather was a farmer. My great grandfather moved from Shao-hsing to Hangchow, where he learned the trade of shoe-making and was therefore a worker. Later, by operating his own shop, he became a merchant as well. My grandfather was a scholar. He passed all the civil service examinations and was a metropolitan official for twenty-odd years before he passed away. Although my father tried to keep up the family tradition of scholarly pursuits, he did not succeed in being more than a student in the county school….