Confucius wrote in the Analects of Government: "I have five out of ten and am determined to learn, thirty and standing, forty without confusion, fifty and knowing the Mandate of Heaven, sixty and obedient, seventy and doing what the heart desires, not exceeding the rules." Confucius believed that when a man reaches the age of 30, it is a time when personality and morality stand side by side, and words and deeds also have etiquette. And "forty not confused" is obtained from "thirty and standing", and those who can enter the realm of "not confused" are "knowers".
Confucius also said, "Those who know are not confused, those who are benevolent are not worried, and those who are brave are not afraid." And "those who know are not confused" do not mean that the knowledge learned is complete, and there will be no doubts. Rather, on the basis of ability, not being confused by external things. Hu Shi, who is known as a famous thinker and writer in modern and modern China, is considered to have "studied both East and West". So what does Hu Shi look like when he is forty?
At the age of 45, I met a talented girl
Hu Shi was able to become a celebrity, thanks to the "Gengzi Compensation" to study in the United States after being admitted to a Chinese public school. After returning from studying abroad, Hu Shi became a representative of the Branch Office of the New Cultural Movement, began to emerge, became famous for writing essays, and became the dean of the School of Literature of Peking University in 1932.
As Hu Shi's reputation grew, he lectured everywhere on study tours. In January 1936, when Hu Shi was in Shanghai, he met Xu Fang, a talented woman of the Republic of China. There were too many talented women in the Republic of China, who had received Western-style education at that time, could write vernacular texts, dared to show their faces, and could be called talented women, but to be a famous talented woman, they also had to pay their faces or belly.
Why can Xu Fang be called a talented woman? Mainly from the origin of the family, Xu Fang is a Qing Dynasty scientist and the great-granddaughter of the pioneer of China's modern shipbuilding industry. His grandfather was Xu Jianyin, also a scientist, but Xu Jianyin was also a Qing Dynasty official, and his grandfather was even more famous than his great-grandfather.
Xu Jianyin served with his father at the Anqing Ordnance Institute. In 1875, the Qing Dynasty wanted to establish the Shandong Machinery Bureau, and the weapons and equipment made were very advanced, and Xu Jianyin served as the general office here. In 1879, Xu Jianyin was sent by the Qing Dynasty to Germany, Britain, France and other countries for investigation and visit. In 1886, Xu Jianyin built a machine bureau in Nanjing, using Western methods to make new weapons breech guns and cast steel.
In 1889, when the law was reformed at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Xu Jianyin was appointed as the inspector of agriculture, industry and commerce, and soon after he was transferred to the Mawei Shipyard of the Fujian Shipping Bureau, and later served as the general office of the Hubei Provincial Battalion, as well as the inspector of the Security Gunpowder Bureau and the Hanyang Steel Pharmaceutical Factory. In March 1901, Xu Jianyin tried to produce smokeless gunpowder with workers in a steel pharmaceutical factory, and suddenly exploded and died in the line of duty.
Introducing the situation of Xu Fang's grandfather, we can also understand how Xu Fang can become a talented woman? In the Republic of China, if you want to become a talented woman, you don't have to think about it when you have no money or power at all, so few rural girls can become talented women.
Shanghai is also Hu Shi's hometown, and Hu Shi has revisited his hometown this time. But Hu Shi met Xu Fang, caizi met a beautiful person, immediately resonated and fell in love, and in just one month, the two became confidants. Gossip aside, in the words of Xu Fang: "We have found happiness together in Shanghai." This is also the charm of mature men, of course, Hu Shi is talented and attractive.
Suffering for 7 years without results
For this short love affair, Hu Shi did not care, but Xu Fang put it in his heart, in addition to often writing letters to Hu Shi, hoping to keep this relationship. But is it possible?
Hu Shi had been married for 29 years at this time and was already 45 years old. To borrow Confucius's words about the age of "not confused". And Hu Shi's wife is a small-footed woman, 13 years old and Hu Shi engaged, no culture, not as good as Xu Fang's talented women. Therefore, in July 1923, when Hu Shi proposed divorce, the original wife took up a kitchen knife and threatened to kill her son, and Hu Shi never dared to mention the word divorce again.
As time went on, Hu Shi did not take Xu Fang to heart at all. In 1937, Hu Shi had already gone to the United States to become an ambassador to the United States, and he had a new extramarital relationship in the United States, and his enthusiasm for Xu Fang had long since disappeared. In April 1941, Xu Fang wrote a letter to Hu Shi, hoping to use his ambassador's power to allow her to study in the United States. Hu Shi didn't pay any attention at all. Moreover, he completely cut off contact with Xu Fang, otherwise a grand ambassador to the United States and rumors that he had an extramarital affair must be a major scandal in the Republic of China, and Nanjing will not spare him, but his reputation in the literary world will stink.
In 1943, Xu Fang, who had been pursuing fruitlessly, also completely lost hope in Hu Shi and married Xu Peigen in September. His husband was a soldier, and if the encyclopedic information is correct, this person was the chief of staff of the five theaters under Li Zongren during the War of Resistance, and during the civil war, he served as Bai Chongxi's chief of staff.
71 years old life summary
Hu Shi died of illness in Taiwan in 1962, counting the age of 71, this so-called "literati" Hu Shi, who thought that he had learned ancient Chinese very well. But judging from his resume, at the age of 15, he basically left the study of Chinese, and at the age of 15, he could learn the ancient Chinese used in the imperial examination in the private school.
Hu Shi is known as a "thinker" and "scholar", in fact, from his experience of education and life, 23 years of experience in the United States and other Western countries accounted for 1/3 of his life course, and his so-called thinking is only Western-style thinking. China is a country where thousands of years of cultural traditions have been precipitated, and the culture of Western countries is fundamentally different.
Hu Shi thinks that he is at the high end of China's new culture movement, what is new culture? Is traditional Chinese culture a mess? As far as emotion is concerned, Hu Shi's "holding on" to his wife is a kind of helplessness, and he is actually full of Western open-ended thinking.
Or experts and scholars to comment more accurately.
Ji Xianlin: "Hu Shi is a scholar, and if he doesn't sound good, he is a nerd." ”
Zhang Taiyan: "Philosophy, is Hu Shizhi also worth talking about?" Kang and Liang have some 'roots'. Hu Shizhi, he didn't even have a 'root'. ”
Li Ao: "With his position as the highlight of the play, over the past forty years, he has brought the style of literature and history to such a pedantic situation, could not get rid of the tricks of Qianjia's remnants, could not shake off the confrontation between the han and Song dynasties, and even wore the tiger skin of the 'scientific method' and received the subsidy of the 'Scientific Committee for Long-term Development'. ”
I don't know how the officials think of people like Hu Shi?