In any case, Hu Shi is the most important spiritual heritage of modern China. Although he has been dead for nearly 60 years, his spiritual appeal has not faded. He has countless "disciples" and die-hard fans, taking him as an example and recognizing him as an idol.
In China's intellectual circles, in the past hundred years, the left and right have always been the most obvious division of camps. Hu Shi and Lu Xun, together, represent two major divisions. Just as we still can't get rid of Lu Xun, we still can't drive away Hu Shi, and we can't drive him away. At the beginning, after Liang Qichao wrote the famous article "Young China Says", Hu Guanxiang, a private teacher in Hu Shijixi's hometown, said that he was the most "hot-blooded teenager" kind of person, and used these four words to pin high hopes on him.
After Hu Shi became an adult, he really lived up to his trust and lived up to the expectations of the people. It can be said that Hu Shi and Lu Xun are the two most profound cultural giants that have influenced modern and contemporary China. You can hate them, but how can you deny this fact?
Hu Shi's "ghost is not scattered" so far, and he has been sought after by too many Chinese people, and I think that the core point is not in his studies or articles, but in his personal style, ideological attitude and political behavior.
Hu Shi was a famous "hot-blooded teenager" in the Republic of China, who was determined to serve the country when he was young, and later became famous when he was a young man in his 20s. At first, his fame depended on literature, scholarship, and ideas. But in these three aspects, he is really not very clever. At present, Xu Jin, like those people, directly ridiculed him for his "mediocre qualifications and nothing to look at." These words are ugly, but they are not too slanderous.
When it comes to scholarship, Hu Shi has opened up various disciplines and traditions, but it is indeed not profound enough, and those who have transferred sperm after the end can already get rid of him. Compared with Wang Guowei, Chen Yinke, Qian Zhongshu and others who came up and down his knowledge, it was really a difference between cloud and mud. Even compared with the students, such as Gu Jiegang, they are weak. Or his North Gate student Fu Sinian said well, Lao Hu is generally knowledgeable, but people have a good vision, new methods, and it is worth learning. The intellectuals of the Republic of China also paid tribute to Hu Shi, not because they were more knowledgeable, but because they were the best at discovery. In today's parlance, it's a brain hole.
In the literary industry, he advocated vernacular literature, etc., but all of them had been advocated by his predecessors for a long time. It's just that his efforts and contributions really exceeded anyone else's—vernacular literature can become authentic, and the most inseparable thing is Hu Shi's efforts. His publication of a collection of vernacular poems is a pioneering achievement, but it is really bad to write. His articles are difficult to read, and the only feature is probably plain, but all the advantages are left with this point of plainness. When I returned to my hometown during the Spring Festival last year, I turned to his collection of essays on the shelves, and the more I looked at it, the more I admired myself: How did these dry words go on page by page?
On thought, Hu Shi did not have any creative ideas, and it was really difficult to find anything profound. Compared with Lu Xun, his thinking is actually naïve and shallow. His derogatory rebuke of Chinese culture, such as "total Westernization", although well-intentioned, cannot but be said to have a poisonous component, which directly promotes the loss of national self-confidence. Later, Lin Yusheng was completely anti-Hu Shi, and this way of thinking was actually very familiar and in the same vein.
It can be said that looking back at Hu Shiqi is really not very good at cultural reserves. What can be hung is that in that era of great destruction, he did single-handedly promote the discoloration or deterioration of Chinese culture to the greatest extent.
Yes, Hu Shi has very little vision and great plans, and has opened up many new roads in the study of Chinese literature, Chinese history and classics, but his academic foundation is not good enough, and now when people talk about learning, they are afraid that very few people respect Hu Shi.
In comparison, he seems to be more like the chief designer of modern Chinese cultural circles, in the midst of planning, commanding Ruo Ding like Xiao Cao. However, his strength is indeed not strong enough to charge the battle with bare arms, and can only guide the country behind the scenes.
Therefore, there are still countless people who pursue Hu Shi, and I think that the central theme is definitely not to value his knowledge. It lies in the fact that he has a personality charm that is almost unmatched in modern Chinese, especially his life style, spiritual orientation, and even political behavior, which still has the irreplaceable role model of others, and has infinite appeal.
In Hu Shi's life, what is a style of conduct for people is tolerance, tolerance, peace, and the way of loyalty and forgiveness; what spiritual orientation is pluralism, independence, and protest; what is political opinion, what is moderation, is construction, is reason, is a reform program, and is opposed to independence. If Lu Xun's main effect is to destroy the old fortress, then Hu Shi's life, the place where he draws his heart lies in construction. In these three aspects, Zhou Cezhong said that Hu Shi's "most important insight" was introduced.
My reading impressions also believe that this is the most basic attitude and spirit of Hu Shi's life, and it is also one of the most important value heritages of modern China. His private disciple Yin Haiguang later said that the meaning revealed by these aspects of Hu Shi was "the compass of the general direction that contemporary Chinese should take", and it was highly respected, not for no reason. Hu Shi himself seems to have been aware of this factor in his later years, so the last two or three years of his life are constantly explained.
He hopes that after his death, these values can be inherited and carried forward by future generations.
What Hu Shi left behind is not only the place where he was great, but also the reason why he was able to be universally admired and loved by intellectuals during his lifetime.
And this is the most important reason why we want to continue to commemorate him and remember him. It can be said that without Hu Shi, modern Chinese culture may continue to take a lot of unjust roads; without the guidance and development of These values of Hu Shi, we are afraid that we will often go back to the dark road without consciously.
The current trend is to both belittle Lu Xun and look down on Hu Shi, counting them down as if they were three, and the attack is incomplete. I hope that these two teams of people and horses can think about whether this is thick and whether they lack morality, iq, and historical sense. We can forget them, but we really shouldn't insult them. I think the only thing that needs to be pinned high hopes on is that our generation, or even the compatriots of the next generation, should do the most for The two great god predecessors of Lu Hu, not to ruthlessly defeat them, but to surpass them.
Hu Shi's life, whether it is the era of "hot-blooded youth", or the "passionate prime" period, or the old age of "pawn crossing the river", has left us with too many revelations.