Haotianshun, a Good Son of Zanhuang County, Interprets Filial Piety Through Action
As a son of his parents, Hao Tianshun meticulously cared for his father and mother, who each suffered from paralysis for many years after falling ill one after the other; as a son of the people, Hao Tianshun, in his post as director of the Zanhuang County Civil Affairs Bureau, spread the love he had for his parents to all the elderly and disadvantaged groups across the county, innovated working mechanisms, raised the level of support, and safeguarded the rights and interests of the elderly. Through his actions he interpreted the traditional virtue of "respecting one's own elders, and extending that respect to the elders of others."
Hao Tianshun, 53 this year, has visibly graying hair at his temples, and he says the gray hair has been there since he was 33. That was around New Year's Day 1995, when his mother suffered a second recurrence of cerebral thrombosis and was hospitalized, and his hair turned gray overnight from worry. Although he did everything possible to treat his mother, she could not be cured, and from then on could only lie in bed. Misfortunes never come singly: in the summer of 2002, his father also suddenly suffered cerebral thrombosis and was hospitalized, and although he received treatment, he was left with hemiplegia. Looking at his parents lying in bed unable to care for themselves, Hao Tianshun was heartbroken. But he told himself he must never collapse, and must use his own efforts to give his parents the courage and confidence to keep on living. "For fifteen years it was the same as one day; I never spent a Sunday in the city. My parents were in my hometown, 18 kilometers from the city. As soon as I got off work on Friday afternoon I would go back to my hometown, help the elders wash their feet, feed them, give them their medicine, and carry out rehabilitation treatment," Hao Tianshun recalled.
From then on, all of Hao Tianshun's holidays were given to his parents. Over 15 years, several thousand days and nights, recalling those years at his parents' sickbeds, Hao Tianshun sums it up as bitter yet warm. Bitter, because he could never again recover the warm family affection of his parents in life, and warm, because he left no regret of "wanting to support one's parents while they are alive, but they are no longer there." "I have a clear conscience toward my parents; caring for the elderly is only natural, and my mood is joyful." His filial devotion moved heaven and earth, and in 2013, Hao Tianshun won the Fifth "Chinese Model of Filial Piety and Respect for the Elderly Nomination Award."
Respecting one's own elders, and extending that respect to the elders of others. Hao Tianshun took up the posts of director of the Zanhuang County Civil Affairs Bureau and director of the Office on Aging in 2011, and he treasures this work. Zanhuang County is a national-level impoverished county and also a major civil affairs county. Hao Tianshun always has the safety and well-being of urban and rural disadvantaged people on his mind, having visited and extended condolences to key preferential care recipients, extremely poor households, subsistence allowance households, and households enjoying the five guarantees in all 11 townships of the county, with a satisfaction rate among civil affairs recipients reaching 100%. At the same time, he continuously innovated working mechanisms, being the first in the city to introduce a subsidy system for elderly people aged 80 and above; established a legal aid center for the elderly, providing free legal services to the elderly; and implemented a system of signing "family support agreements," among others.
On July 19 this year, the rain poured down, and multiple townships in Zanhuang County including Zhangshiyan, Huangbeiping and Xuting were in a state of emergency. Upon receiving orders from the county flood control command, Hao Tianshun drove at full speed to the county flood control and disaster relief frontline command post set up at Baicaoping Reservoir. When he reached a low-lying road surface, it was difficult to move forward, so Hao Tianshun had to get out of the car and wade through the water on foot to check the road conditions. By accident, his left foot stepped on a wooden board with nails, and a nail pierced through the sole of his shoe and into his heel. Hao Tianshun pulled out the nail and continued to search for a passable route. The flood situation was urgent, and Hao Tianshun found a village clinic along the way to give the wound simple treatment, then hurried on to the resettlement point for disaster-affected people in Yecaowan Village to inspect the disaster situation and the resettlement of those affected. Of the county's 11 disaster-affected townships and 59 severely affected villages, Hao Tianshun walked through half of them on crutches.
In this way, Hao Tianshun led all the personnel of the Zanhuang County Civil Affairs Bureau to urgently allocate disaster relief supplies, delivering batch after batch of relief supplies to the disaster-affected townships and resettlement points for affected people. What gratified Hao Tianshun most was that among the county's 21,000 people supported by civil affairs, including subsistence allowance recipients, those enjoying the five guarantees, extremely poor households, and preferential care recipients, not one was injured and not one died in this major disaster. The county's 17,000 relocated people were, in the shortest possible time, ensured hot meals to eat, clean water to drink, clothes to wear, and beds to sleep in. "When strong winds, big waves, and heavy rain come, everyone runs home, while we run to our posts. As a civil affairs worker, you have to have that kind of feeling," Hao Tianshun said. (Reporter Wang Geng)