Qian Xuantong once publicly stated his view in a speech at Peking University, that is, to abolish Chinese characters, believing that if China wants to progress, it is necessary to create a new "Esperanto" from complexity to simplicity. However, such a view was severely criticized by the masters and students of the North, especially Zhang Shizhao, who felt that Qian Xuantong was not engaged in a new culture, but was destroying culture and wanting to destroy our race!
Soon Qian Xuantong was attacked by the masters and students of the North, although he insisted on his own views, but it was wrong to provoke public indignation, and Huang Kan even scolded Qian Xuantong as a madman, so what kind of psychology would make Qian Xuantong put forward the idea of "abolishing Chinese characters", and what kind of story did such a radical new culture "madman" have.
Qian Xuan's original name: Qian Xia. The family is a local famous and prestigious family, the father is a person during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, and the ancestors can trace back to the founding king of Wuyue State, Wusu Wang Qian.
Qian Xuantong, a person born in a feudal dynasty, received a lot of feudal etiquette and strict teachings. He hated the old rituals such as the Three Principles and Five Constants the most, opposed them the most resolutely, made many fierce remarks, and did not approve of feudal despotism from beginning to end. In 1906, when Guangxu was thirty years old, the Qing government had just announced that it would "prepare to imitate the constitution", and Qian Xuantong, who was only 18 years old at this time, dared to be the first to cut the braids.
In the same year, he and his friends founded the "Huzhou Vernacular Newspaper", and only wrote the year of Jiachen on the cover of the distribution, but did not write about the thirty years of Guangxu, which also expressed Qian Xuantong's attitude of opposing the Qing Dynasty's autocracy.
The young Qian Xuan was strategic and intelligent. Two years later, at the age of 20, he went to Japan to study, and during his studies at Waseda University in Japan, he met his mentor, Mr. Zhang Taiyan, a revolutionary in the late Qing Dynasty and early Minchu. Guided and influenced by Mr. Zhang Taiyan's idea of clearing up, Qian Xuantong joined the League the following year.
After the end of the four-year semester in Japan, Qian Xuantong returned to China and held senior positions such as faculty and professor in China, and finally as a professor at Peking University. He also began to advocate for the vernacular movement and urged others to write articles in the vernacular.
In 1911, the Xinhai Revolution broke out, the rule of the Qing government was overthrown, and the Republic of China was established. At this time, Qian Xuantong was working as a lecturer in Chinese and scripture at the affiliated middle school of Beijing Higher Normal School.
But now Qian Xuantong is still a retroist, and although he has overthrown the rule of the Qing Dynasty, he believes that China's way out is to "restore the old things" and "the better the older the better.". But what Qian Xuantong saw was not the restoration of the old things he thought, but the two ugly acts of restoration. This also led to a great change in Qian Xuantong's thinking. He gradually became a fierce anti-traditionalist, and he began to completely reject traditional Chinese culture and accept Western culture. This may also be the root of his later crazy idea of "abolishing Chinese characters".
In 1915, "New Youth" came out, Qian Xuantong began to actively cooperate in response to the new cultural movement, began to submit articles to "New Youth" magazine, strongly advocated new culture, attacked feudalism, and became a fighter for advocating democracy and science.
Qian Xuantong, on the other hand, proposed "abolishing Chinese characters," saying: "If you want to abolish Confucianism, you have to abolish the Chinese language first; if you want to drive out the naïve and barbaric stubborn ideas of ordinary people, you must first abolish the Chinese language." ”
In addition, he also had many fierce and radical ideas and views, he proposed that "Chinese books should be burned"; for Chinese opera, he believed that "today's Beijing opera, there is neither theory nor the article is extremely bad", he proposed that "if China wants to have real drama, it is necessary to close all the theaters in China";
In classical Chinese novels, he believes that "nine-tenths of the old novels are not works of obscenity and theft, that is, gods and monsters." Otherwise, in a pedantic view, the wild history of the previous generation will be created.
Qian Xuantong was "crazy" that as a master of classical Chinese literature, he actually subverted his own cognitive concepts, wanted to abolish Chinese characters, and chose Esperanto to Europeanize China. Of course, Qian Xuantong's ideas and views were not realized, in addition to his crazy views, Qian Xuantong's contributions were also there, such as his prompting Lu Xun to join the New Culture Movement.
Qian Xuantong and Lu Xun were both students of Zhang Taiyan, and the two were taught in the same door, and Qian Xuantong also discovered early on that Lu Xun had keen insight and sharp writing. He felt that Lu Xun was a genius who wrote novels, so he visited Lu Xun many times to urge Lu Xun to write vernacular novels. In the end, the publication of "Diary of a Madman" made Lu Xun a banner of the new cultural movement, and Qian Xuantong was also indispensable behind this.
In addition, Qian Xuantong focused on the work of Zhuyin and simplifying Chinese characters in the later period, and in terms of simplifying Chinese characters, Qian Xuantong believed that Chinese characters were difficult to recognize, difficult to remember, and difficult to write, which was not conducive to universal education, so he advocated the abolition of square Chinese characters.
After the establishment of the "Chinese Roman Script Research Committee", he became a member. In 1934, he proposed the "Case of Searching for Inherent and More Applicable Simplified Characters", and drafted the "First Simplified Character List" by himself, with a total of more than 2300 words, and in 1935, the Graduate School published 324 words of them. This was the first officially published simplified Chinese character in history.
Qian Xuantong's madness was used in the right place, he braved the world at that time, actively promoted the vernacular language, and promoted the reform of Chinese characters, even if he was scolded as a madman.
In the early 1930s, Zhang Taiyan took Huang Kan to Beijing to give a lecture, and one day, at Zhang Taiyan's residence, Huang Kan joked to Qian Xuantong: "Second madman, before you come, I will sue you!" You poor one! Sir is also coming, how come you have not read the phonology books well lately, what Zhuyin alphabet you want to get, what vernacular language. ”
Qian Xuantong suddenly turned his face, slapped the table and said sharply: "I just want to get zhuyin letters, to get vernacular text, assholes!" Since then, the friendship between Huang and Qian has been estranged.
Qian Xuantong's exploits are far more than this, and the punctuation marks, Arabic numerals, horizontal writing of Chinese characters, etc., which are now well known and widely used, were also proposed and popularized by Qian Xuantong.
In 1937, the "July 7 Incident" broke out, and Japan's war of aggression against China broke out in full swing. At this time, Qian Xuantong was physically ill, very weak, unable to move west with the North Normal University, Qian Xuantong stayed behind and corresponded with his friend Li Jinxi, saying that he would never be "defiled and falsely ordered." And since then, he has said many times that I will never be a traitor.
However, this iron-boned master of patriotic literature died at the age of 52 on the night of January 17, 1939, when he suddenly suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and was sent to the hospital for rescue.
I cannot evaluate such a great new cultural movement and patriot, and I will conclude with an evaluation given by the article "Tribute to Mr. Qian Xuantong" published in the progressive journal "Literature" after Qian Xuantong's death.
"In his prime, he led the youth with a fighter, in his middle age he worked hard as a scholar, and in his later years he maintained his honor as a righteous soldier, And Mr. Qian was worthy of himself and a perfect man of the country and the nation; he was a representative figure in the modern period of transformation in the history of Chinese academic thought."