The first time when I met with Mr.Ma Qizhi was in 1980s of the last century,already more than twenty years passing by.At the time Mr.Ma was just a low-rank or small leading official at prefecture level.But comparatively,I already got a title "famous "before my official post,and honorably I was then elected as Chairman of Ningxia Literature and Art Association.It reminds of an event that early in 1980s,Mr.Wang Meng (famous writer)came afar from Beijing and paid me an on-purpose call.During his visit,we together had sightseeing in several counties and cities in Ningxia,and the city of Wuzhong lying in the central part of Ningxia was naturally included.Hearing our coming,Mr.Ma Qizhi,who at the time worked in this city,came to see us at the hotel where we lodged.Thus,that evening we talked about everything under the sun,topics involving literature,art,history,the present situation of Ningxia and its future development prospects,and etc.And in time when we had so much in common,we all burst into laughter.Certainly,we had a kind of feeling of regretting not having met earlier.After Mr.Ma Qizhi said good-bye to us,Mr.Wang Meng told me in a surprising way,"I have never expected that in this small place there possesses such a great talent!"After going back to Beijing,Mr.Wang Meng was appointed the Minister of Cultural Ministry.Recalling what Mr.Wang Meng said about Ma Qizhi,I think an official coming from Beijing surely had capacity to make an assessment to officials at low level.
As what is said in the book Romance of the Three Kingdoms,"talents are always hard to get with in hundreds of li",Ma Qizhi is really such a talent.After a few years working in Wuzhong City,he was promoted and began to work in Yinchuan,the capital city of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region,where his job was responsible for publicity work of the whole Region.Objectively speaking,Ningxia is a small province economically,but her literature and art always rank the front place in China.To a literati,I feel great honour about it,And I think this,to a certain extent,has a great relationship with the energetic support given by Mr.Ma Qizhi and his collogues.
Mr.Ma Qizhi is a straight forward person,and this in turn demonstrate his personal features of broad-mindedness,a deceive manner in handling affairs and always putting people's interests on priorities.In his poems,there contains such sentences as "Now I try to work hard and out sap my strength,the sole reason is to repay the kindness of my hometown "",Always is so bad of the weather here,and seldom could I see is when people are beamed with smile ",etc.and etc.
In the history of China,we adopted a system that .When a students finds that he can more than cope with his studies,then he takes office.Hence,in China in the past,government officials were mostly literati's,and there were few exceptions.And in the poems of those literati,there contains in many places the idea of concerning about the country and the people.For an example,"By living at the Imperial Ancestral Temple,I worry about the people;And by staying near the lake afar,I still worry about my country men ",to which I think is a fine tradition of the Chinese literati.So,for us Chinese both in the past and at modern times,to be a successful official,he/she must first be a good literati.Personally,I think what Mr.Ma Qizhi has already achieved is closely related with his sense of cultural quality and also with his deep understanding of the Chinese culture.Hence,I could boldly say that Mr.Ma Qizhi is still a literati rather than a government official.
Nevertheless,I could not say that Mr.Ma Qizhi has reached a quite higher level in writing poems,because some of the sentences in his poems need to be weighed further.But as the case may be,"the writing mirrors the writer ",hence,when Mr.Ma Qizhi is in his position,he could express his idea freely,and never bothers about trifles.The following is just an example written by a writer in ancient China,"Though the article is not properly weighed,it could last through the ages;But so hastily are those eunuchs even though they were on power for as long as ten years ",and I think this is the gift I present to Mr.Ma Qizhi.With his good groundling in knowledge and also with his present position,Mr.Ma Qizhi is surely to make a greater contribution to the people living here.
