Show NEWS THIS WEEK 0 by lemuel F parton T v w fv VV M 1 ifeng EW YORK big bulbous gen I 1 i feng yu hsiang craves action among all chinas cainas rampant war lords the old christian general is the least inclined general feng to turn the other turn check and the one other cheek most moat conspicuously free from i r 0 in charges of dealing under the table with japan it was he say the news reports who eased chinese I 1 troops into the japanese concession in civilian clothes threw japa japanese ese strategy into c confusion f on and pretty nearly wrecked it the peasants love him if ever a human in an tidal wave engulfs the invading japanese he will be riding it he has been fighting off and on for about 40 years sometimes as a regular and sometimes in more or less private wars the politicians dislike him and every once in in a while have him sent oft off to the fog belt the last time was in 1929 when he stirred up a revolt in in an effort to start an up and at em cm movement against japan but they always have to call him out of retirement ti as when chiang kai shek was last december feng always has enough loyal soldiers in reserve to count him in in any large scale ruction he has commanded as many as half a million men when chiang was rescued he made peacie with feng and the latter assumed full responsibility for the national military council I 1 of 0 which chiang is chairman he was born of coolie parents in Chao hsien in june 1900 he was a big hulk missionary ing ad stand unscrambles scrambles ing guard in a snake dream peking S compound where some american missionaries had been trapped by the boxers lie he became friends with mary morrill a missionary girl from maine one night he had a terrible dream about a snake under his bed lie he asked miss morrill to interpret it what miss morrill made of the dream is not recorded A day or two later feng saw a woman be headed he was troubled withof knowing just why and again saw miss morrill she converted him to christianity in the following foU owing years the fighting trade was briska brisk in china and feng began to get a reputation now as a free lance and now with the imperial armies lie he preached to his troops every day if his men want to listen I 1 he used to pay them each soldier wore a brassard pinned on with a safety pin and written on it the ten commandments but feng had done a rewrite job on the original his ten commandments gave specific directions for overcoming an enemy in different situations every so often feng would announce that no matter what the exigencies of battle might be it was important for a man to discover his own soul on these occasions he would go to the country wearing an old pad ded coolie coat battle with y a vacuum to paint or bottle full of paint read poetry brushes hung from a cord around his waist he would mould paint plum blossoms for a while and then squat on his heels and read confucius or lao tze after a few months of this he would get back to his fighting when chiang kai shek counted him out in 1929 he went to a hovel hung high on a rocky shoulder of tal tai shan chinas cainas sacred mountain a place set as aside 1 de for ci citizens if ze na who wanted to take spiritual inventory nearby was the ancient ha hall 11 of the five sages feng used the hall as a sort of private university he hired a faculty of seven venerable teachers he 1 being the only pupil the curriculum listed first a course on the spring and autumn period of the chou dynasty feng is an ascetic abstemious in his diet wearing cotton coolie clothes subjecting himself to rigid discipline in his retreat on the sacred mountain he rose ev every ery morning at four ills his task was to draw on each of four sheets of parchment the four r rf m most 0 s t beautiful retires early characters he at retreat on could possibly de sacred mount vise his H furniture consisted of 0 a mat a table and two straight backed chairs and a tiny ou oil lamp he always went to bed at to save ou oil he said and to be rested for hla his early rising when miss morrill converted him she made him a member of the way way whay which means beautiful beautiful society it is in essence the chinese name for the methodist church but to feng the frustrated artist it was an organization for the propagation of beauty so when he fighting he fulfills Us his christian duty as he sees it by searching out beauty he is a pacifist and dislikes violence in au all forms but before he gets back to his plum blossoms and his lao tze he would like to get just one good big walloping clout at japan 0 consolidated news features feature service |