In the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, a group of literati discussed the direction of Chinese culture, one faction believed that we should "warm the past", and the other faction believed that we should "make a new". During this period, there was a literati who wanted to knead the two together and "learn the new" through "warming the past", and this person was Hu Shi. On December 17, the 130th anniversary of Hu Shi's birth, let us approach this 20th century ideological pioneer today.
When it comes to Hu Shi, what comes to most people's minds is the appearance of a gentle gentleman with gold wire-rimmed glasses, as well as his diary of "going out of the circle":
Play cards on July 13.
Play cards on July 14.
Play cards on July 15th.
July 16
Hu Shizhi Ah Hu Shizhi! How can you be so depraved! Have you forgotten your previous study plan? Zi Yue: "I am in three provinces and in my body." "It can't go on like this anymore!
Play cards on July 17.
Hu Shi, who looks decadent in the diary, is just a netizen's "out of context", he made a vision of "being a mentor to the Chinese people" in his youth, he wanted to "recreate a new civilization" for the Chinese people, and he summarized his lifelong cultural ambitions as "Chinese Renaissance".
Hu Shi grew up in a big family, his father died early, his mother raised him alone, and his aunts and sisters-in-law treated their mother and son very harshly in life. Therefore, Hu Shi was young and precocious, and he knew how to see people's faces at a very young age.
After growing up, Hu Shi once said: "The most disgusting thing in the world is like an angry face; the most vulgar thing in the world is like putting an angry face to others." Therefore, he himself always treats people with generosity, and Mr. Ji Xianlin once said: "Mr. Shizhi treats people kindly and kindly, and whenever he sees him, he is full of smiles, never puts up a shelf, and is like this to everyone." ”
Hu Shi has a gentle and generous temperament, and every weekend his home is always full of high-end friends, and his friends are naturally mostly like-minded elites of cultural academia, but there is also no shortage of cooks, vegetable cooks, and pulp sellers in the lower strata of society.
"Our Friend Hu Shizhi" & "Hu Shi Miscellaneous Memories"
In his later years, hu shi had a street vendor selling sesame cakes, who sold his own cakes, and in addition to selling cakes, he liked to stand next to the lead bucket selling cakes and read books and study the politics of various countries. There were many questions that puzzled him and he couldn't think of answers, so he wrote to Hu Shi for advice.
Hu Shi has faith and will be restored. Later, the peddler became a regular visitor to Hu Shi's office. Every time Hu Shi went out, he always had to write a letter to inform him first, so as not to let him come in vain. During a small talk between the two, the vendor mistakenly thought that he had nose cancer, so Hu Shi wrote a letter for him to introduce him to the hospital to arrange for examination, and paid all the expenses.
He receives money for the poor, and he knows righteousness for those who go astray. He is attentive and thoughtful to the people around him. For the students, he seduced and promoted, and spared no effort to love and raise talents; to his friends, he worked hard and treated each other loyally; in the new cultural movement, teaching and governing schools, and the diplomacy of the War of Resistance, he showed a free mind and a magnanimous spirit for learning and governing affairs.
The younger generation Shen Congwen was grateful to Hu Shi for his kindness: Mr. Shizhi's biggest attempt was not his new poem "Attempt Collection", he hired me, an unknown person who had never been to school, to teach at the university, which was his boldest attempt!
Tang Degang, Xia Zhiqing, Zhou Cezhong and many others gathered their memories into more than twenty articles to reflect Hu Shi's generosity toward others. They are either disciples, colleagues, or confidants, or alien confidants, from the three perspectives of "Mr. Hu Shizhi", "Friend Hu Shizhi" and "Hu Shizhi the Knower", they restore a vivid and eager, more real and credible Hu Shi.
As Tang Degang said: Hu Shizhi has a "magnetic personality", which can always make people sit right for a moment and spring breeze all day. His wisdom and bones constantly give us inspiration and courage.
"Hu Shi Oral Autobiography" & "Forty Self-Narration"
When "my friend Hu Shizhi" became a mantra in the literati circles of the Republic of China, Hu Shi himself also made a contribution to the new culture, advocating the new cultural movement, creating a new academic model, and vigorously promoting educational reform.
During the New Culture Movement, he replaced European Latin with the European Renaissance, vernacular, to promote his own "vernacular literature" claim. He hoped that the popularization of vernacular language would enable more people to receive education and participate in state affairs, thus overthrowing the decaying old society and establishing a modern China.
Even in the face of the hesitant and difficult field of poetry in the new literary movement, he bravely put forward the poetic theory thesis of "natural syllables", and divided the rhythmic rhymes in the vernacular new poetry into two aspects: "sound" and "knot".
"Trial Set"
At the same time as theoretical research, he also boldly created, and after the publication of the "Trial Collection", it was repeatedly revised and edited, and the rheological process in it can also well reflect the change and development of his "natural syllable" theoretical ideas.
Hu Shi's openness to cultural exchanges between China and the West may make people think that he is a person who has been completely Westernized, but he is not. During the New Culture Movement, Hu Shi immersed himself in traditional Chinese culture, hoping to find something that was in line with the values of modern civilization.
A History of Vernacular Literature
He is not a radical advocate of vernacular literature, he does not want to see all traditional Chinese culture erased, he hopes that new shoots can be sprouted on the trunk of the tree of traditional culture.
Just as Hu Shi regarded the Song Dynasty as the beginning of the Chinese Renaissance, he highly recognized Fan Zhongyan's "Ning Ming and die, not silently live", he believes that this sentence embodies the freedom of modern thought and speech; for example, he used Yang Wanli's "Ten thousand mountains do not allow a stream to run, block the sound of the stream day and night" to compare it to oppose the practice of blocking speech.
Even if such a concept is not outdated today, it is still worth exploring and thinking about by young people. As one of the main banners of the New Culture Movement, Hu Shi vigorously advocated scientific thought.
Tolerance and Freedom
In the collection of essays "Tolerance and Freedom", Hu Shi shared a lot of remarks and opinions on the shortcomings of the needle, such as "My Son", he said that "the tree has no heart to marry, and I am not grateful to you", to describe the relationship between parents and children is not the relationship between raising and repaying kindness.
The child himself is not free to advocate birth, and the parents have given him a life without his consent. This person will be bittersweet in society in the future, and the parents should bear part of the responsibility. To put it more extremely, giving birth to him is like planting a curse for him and planting a curse for society. So we "teach him to raise him" is just our own way of alleviating our sins.
Another example is Hu Shi's discussion on the issue of chastity (included in "Immortality - My Religion"): "Women are defiled by rape and do not have to commit suicide. The virginity of a woman who has lost her body is not lost. What is the difference between marrying a defiled woman and marrying a 'virgin'? If anyone dares to break this 'virgin superstition', we should respect him. ”
Immortality – My Religion
To this day, our modern society can not completely say that the elimination of such prejudices, these very avant-garde ideas are Hu Shi's thoughts a hundred years ago, and people have to be impressed that he has a straightforward understanding of the weaknesses of human nature.
Hu Shi's thorough outlook on life may stem from his study of philosophy, and half of his philosophical history is hailed as the first work of the history of Chinese philosophy.
Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy
Hu Shi, with the courage and courage to cut off the flow of the crowd, began in the era of Lao Tzu and Confucius, and applied the methodology of the history of Western philosophy to the study of the history of Chinese philosophy.
Hu Shi wrote parallel accounts of the various schools, schools, and eras of the history of ancient Chinese philosophy, weaving them in a complete system. In this way, not only the Kong and Mo families have teachers to inherit, so that future generations can figure out the context of the evolution of the doctrine. Even the doctrines of Confucianism, Mo, Ming, and Fa, from Lao Tzu to Han Feizi, once compared, have clues to evolve one after another.
Hu Shi, as the pioneer of China's new cultural movement, the ambassador of the Republic of China to the United States with great international prestige, and the promoter of the vernacular movement, he was the interplayer of the old society and the era of the new century; he was tolerant and gentle, and his research was clear and bright, and he eventually became a generation of masters and created a trend of the times.
Nearly a century has passed, and to this day we read Hu Shi again, his thoughts still shine brightly, and his wisdom in life is still a cure for the pain, confusion, and depravity of our souls. As he himself said: Fear of what truth is infinite, and there is an inch of joy in one inch. The door to truth that we are trying to explore may begin with reading Hu Shi.
*Images are from stills from The Age of Awakening