At 4 p.m. on September 29, 2012, Nan Huaijin died at the age of 95 at Taihu University Hall in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. After the news came out, many people expressed their condolences and regretted the departure of the masters of traditional Chinese studies, but in the Hong Kong and Taiwan regions, the academic community was unusually quiet.
Yang Zhao, a Taiwanese writer, said on Weibo: "When asked who in Taiwan can comment on Nan Huaijin, I can only respond: 'Difficult, he has hardly read in Taiwan in the past two decades.'" 'The ability of Taiwan's intellectual circles to comment on this judgment is fortunately still there. ”
Hong Kong writer Liao Weitang also said: "These things are well known to the intellectual circles of Hong Kong and Taiwan. This is why the death of the master has little repercussions in Hong Kong and Taiwan, because we have long ceased to be his master. ”
Following the people who recognized Nan Huaijin, he said that he was a master who knew both the past and the future, and learned to be rich in five cars. However, in the eyes of his opponents, he is an academic liar who completely "does not understand Sinology" and sells dog meat under the guise of "pseudo-Sinology" and hangs up sheep's head.
In the previous upsurge of Sinology learning, the name "Nan Huaijin" is almost unknown to everyone, no one knows, which face is the real Nan Huaijin?
While he received attention, he was accompanied by a lot of controversy. Li Zero, a professor at Peking University, called Nan Huaijin's "Analects of Different Languages" "pedantic, stale, fallacious, paradoxical, and all available", and only matched with "illiterate and semi-illiterate rural villagers to see".
Xu Jinru, an associate professor at the School of Letters of Shenzhen University, also publicly stated: "In the eyes of literate people, those who respect Nan Huaijin as a southern teacher must be illiterate. ”
Opponents felt that Nan Huaijin's book was completely devoid of literary readability, and that the word "Master of Guoxue" was simply insulting to him.
In the face of various voices, Nan Huaijin only responded faintly before he died: "I am just a very ordinary person." ”
So, is Nan Huaijin a "master of sinology" or a "liar"? Let's look back at Nan Huaijin's life and find the answer together.
Nan Huaijin, born in 1918 in an ordinary family in Yueqing City, Zhejiang Province, when he was a teenager, did not have the appearance of a future master at all.
In 1931, the 13-year-old Nan Huaijin took the penultimate primary school graduation examination, and finally only took a certificate, the graduation certificate was not obtained, and the primary school did not graduate, which also made Nan Huaijin criticized after that.
The failure in learning once made Nan Huai depressed and embarrassed his father.
His father saw that he was not the material for reading, thinking that people must always have a way to make a living, otherwise how to live their own lives in the future, so he let him learn wood carving or go to the shop as an apprentice.
Unexpectedly, Nan Huaijin said that she would not go, and in the end, her parents had no choice but to let him study at home.
You can study at home, but without the guidance of the teacher, it is bound to be impossible to become a climate.
After much thought, during the three years of his self-study, his father specially invited him a teacher who was knowledgeable and modern, Ye Gongshu. Under the guidance of the teacher's tutelage, Nan Huaijin went to the Tao very quickly.
People in that era were all married relatively early, and Nan Huaijin was no exception. When he was 17 years old, he married his aunt and cousin Wang Cuifeng, and then gave birth to a son. Nan Huaijin's home has become, but the industry has not yet landed.
It is said that the times create heroes, at that time the country was in a period of turmoil, although Nan Huaijin was a literati, but also wanted to serve the country. After thinking about it, he felt that it was not enough to have a heart of blood and a stomach of words, and it was necessary to have the blessing of force in order to win the war and save the country from water and fire.
He thought of Xi Wu. After that, he went to a national art hall in Zhejiang. Maybe it was where the talent was, or maybe it was his destiny to eat this bowl of rice, Nan Huaijin not only successfully graduated from the martial arts hall after learning martial arts in Zhejiang Guoshuguan, but also obtained the qualification of martial arts instructor.
After years of study, Nan Huaijin's thinking has also undergone a qualitative change.
He realized that having force alone does not understand tactics, and that being on the battlefield is tantamount to having courage and no strategy to rush forward, and that if you want to succeed, your cultural heritage is bound to be indispensable. As a result, Nan Huaijin resolutely embarked on a journey to learn culture and kung fu together.
Just when he was preparing to immerse himself in the study of literature, the Anti-Japanese War broke out in 1937, when Nan Huaijin was only 20 years old. For a time, Nan Huaijin found his place of use.
He entered Sichuan alone, was admitted to the tenth phase of the political research class of the Central Military Academy, and after graduation, he taught in the officer education team of the Central Military Academy.
At this time, Nan Huaijin's life experience seems to have nothing to do with his literary achievements in the second half of his life. There is a classic line in "Forrest Gump" that says, "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what the next one will taste", which is also true for Nan Huaijin.
Just when Nan Huaijin was preparing to do a big job, what Wanwan did not expect was that Yuan Huanxian, the representative of Zen Buddhism, appeared in his life and pulled his life direction to another end in one fell swoop.
Relying on Yuan Huanxian's path, Nan Huaijin had the opportunity to follow him to Chongqing to meet the old monk of the Zen Gate at that time. It was this insight that completely opened the door for Nan Huaijin to Buddhism.
Yuan Huanxian returned to Chengdu Lingyan Monastery to establish the Weimo Jingshe Hongfa, and Nan Huaijin followed closely behind him and became the first disciple of the Weimo Jingshe.
After entering the Vima Jingsha, he did not hang er Lang Dang a little, but took out the courage of studying in the martial arts gym at that time and began his three-year cultivation life.
Nan Huaijin, who had just entered buddhism, became extremely diligent. During the days of meditation, while participating in the meditation, Nan Huaijin also worked day and night to sort out and study many Buddhist classics, as well as some works of traditional Chinese culture.
With a devout heart, he intended to use the Dharma to open up his infinite wisdom. It was also his round-the-clock efforts that laid a deep foundation for his future academic brilliance.
In 1943, after spending the Spring Festival at Yuan Lao's home, Nan Huaijin went to Emei, planning to retreat for 3 years.
However, not long after such a day, in the autumn of 1945, Nan Huaijin received a secret report that someone wanted to calculate harm to him.
Saving his life is always the most important thing, and in desperation, Nan Huaijin can only finish his cultivation in the mountains, temporarily return to Chengdu, and then continue the retreat at Wutong Bridge.
Just as Nan Huaijin was preparing to continue to immerse herself in the Zen Path, a great change occurred in his home. In 1949, the Kuomintang was defeated, and the salute of the founding of New China resounded throughout the land, and he eventually retreated to Taiwan.
In the first few years of Nan Huaijin's settlement in Taiwan, her life was not satisfactory. He not only has to work hard, but also has to take care of his family, and he can't make ends meet financially, and the family is very poor.
In order to subsidize his family, he compiled his past understanding of the Dharma into a book called "Zen Sea Lily", but he could not sell any of it.
Books can't be sold, and there are no extra sources of income. In desperation, he could only take his wife and children to move to Taipei's Longquan Street, which was full of the noise of peddlers and pawns, bustling and bustling, tapping Nan Huaijin's literary ideals all day.
Even in the face of such a difficult situation, Nan Huaijin still did not give up her literary obsession.
There was no one to take care of the crying children in the family, so Nan Huaijin could only hold the child while writing a book, and wrote two masterpieces, "Leng Yan Dayi Present Interpretation" and "Leng Jia Dayi Present Interpretation", but as in the previous situation, the sales of the two books were still not good.
In the middle of the city, facing the double collapse of ideals and reality, you can imagine how bad Nan Huaijin's state of mind was at that time, but even so, he still did not give up.
The darkness before dawn is the most torturous, intertwined with hope and despair. Just as he gritted his teeth and persevered, the first new turning point in his life was ushered in.
In 1956, by chance, he met Yang Guanbei, a big man in Taiwan's shipping industry.
This Yang Guanbei was Du Yuesheng's right-hand man when he was young, with a wide network of contacts and a lot of wealth. Now that fame and fortune are available, Yang Guanbei quit his former profession due to illness and immersed himself in practicing the "health care meditation method" at home.
Yang Guanbei, who has been in the battlefield for a long time and has money and people, was not optimistic about Nan Huaijin at first.
He felt that this person was no different from those academic Taoists and liars in the jianghu, but they were just teasing people with some shallow tricks.
Nan Huaijin was different from the jianghu warlocks, he knew the thinking and behavior of these big people very well. After that, it took Nan Huaijin a full six years to gnaw away at this "hard bone" and conquer Yang Guanbei.
Since then, Yang Guanbei has admired him so much that he willingly calls him a teacher and becomes Nan Huaijin's "provider".
With the endorsement of Yang Guanbei, since then, Nan Huaijin's career has been like a fish in the water, all the way up.
Soon after, Nan Huaijin's accumulated reputation attracted the attention of Zhang Qiyun, the founder of The Chinese Culture University in Taipei, who took the initiative to hire Nan Huaijin as a professor and dean of the School of Etiquette, Nan Huaijin accepted the invitation, but he also had the conditions to not go to school, but let graduate students come to his home for classes.
At this point, Nan Huaijin began his academic career, and his students were not short of some high-class celebrities, since then, Nan Huaijin jumped from the status of primary school to the door of academic masters.
Centered on this identity, he gathered and came into contact with more high-level people.
In 1966, Chiang Kai-shek personally presided over the launch of the "Chinese Culture Revival Movement", and Nan Huaijin also participated with great insight, in addition to the "Buddhist Zen Tantric Ritual Story" that he had always been good at, he also began to make "interpretations" of the ancient books of the Hundred Sons.
After that, Nan Huaijin hit the iron while it was hot, bought magazines, gave lectures, accepted apprentices, crossed borders in many ways, and got to know celebrities. Since then, his reputation has been a hit and he has been well-known at home and abroad.
In 1985, Nan Huaijin moved to Washington, D.C., and began another wave of harvesting mainland visitors.
The traditional culture that he has been studying for many years is used to impress these spiritually deficient young people, just sprinkle water.
He borrowed the slogan "The 21st century is the century of Chinese" to recruit these visitors, who are overseas and have a passion for these visitors, eat his set, and the results are very good.
Just when Nan Huaijin's career was in full swing, some scholars jumped out and raised their questions.
Li Ao, a famous Taiwanese mouth, said mercilessly, "Nan Huaijin, in my opinion, is simply a liar... Something, utter nonsense. ”
Li Ao's questioning is not empty mouth and white teeth, he has made a fierce criticism of Nan Huaijin's "Zhou Yi" commentary from reading to commenting, from sentence to interpretation, and his words are fierce.
Li Ao's accusations also attracted a series of netizens, followed by Fang Arkzi, and later, Professor Li Zero, a professor at Peking University, used Niu Zequn's words to criticize Nan Huaijin's interpretation of the Analects:
"Pedantic, stale, fallacious, paradoxical, all available... It is more like a crappy sea chat god with the Analects Wen Qiang as the introduction. ”
In the face of these doubts, Nan Huaijin has never responded positively. He often said, "In this life, I have nothing to do and nothing to gain." ”
But in any case, no one can deny his achievements in other areas.
Nan Huaijin is usually well known as a well-known scholar, but few people know that he has actually made many contributions to the political and economic development of the two sides of the Strait.
At the end of the 1980s, cross-strait relations gradually eased, and the people's demand for reunification became increasingly loud. As a mainland immigrant, Nan Huaijin, like other wanderers, naturally looks forward to returning to the motherland as soon as possible.
With this idea in mind, he began to prepare for the next action.
He first returned to Hong Kong to settle down, and at the same time began to pave the way for cross-strait peace talks.
On June 16, 1992, Nan Huaijin drafted the "Proposal for Peaceful And Mutual Aid, Consultation, and Reunification," which laid the foundation for cross-strait peace talks.
During his time in Hong Kong, the secretary of the Wenzhou Municipal Party Committee of the Communist Party of China visited and introduced to Nan Huaijin the Jinwen Railway mentioned by Dr. Sun Yat-sen in the founding strategy, and he hoped that Nan Huaijin could help advocate and promote it. After Nan Huaijin listened, she happily agreed, and the two hit it off.
On November 18, 1992, Zhejiang Jinwen Railway Development Co., Ltd. was formally established, and during the construction period, Nan Huaijin served as the chairman and general manager.
On June 11, 1998, the first joint venture railway in New China began to open to traffic. Nan Huaijin retired and transferred his equity to Zhejiang Province and the Ministry of Railways.
This move of his has made indelible contributions to the economic development of Wenzhou and the areas along the Jinwen Railway.
At this time, Nan Huaijin was already in his old age. The only wish of an elderly person is to return to the roots of the fallen leaves. In 2004, at the age of 86, Nan Huaijin chose to return to Shanghai to settle down.
In the last years of his life, in order to continue to spread Chinese culture, he moved to WujiangMiaoGang in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, and founded the "Taihu University Hall" in the beautiful Wujiang District of Suzhou.
Located in the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan, the "Taihu University Hall" not only plays a major role in disseminating traditional Chinese culture, but also combines traditional culture with modern natural sciences and humanities to develop cognitive science and life science research.
At the same time, in order to support students with excellent academic performance in major universities in China, Nan Huaijin established the famous "Guanghua Scholarship Foundation".
On September 29, 2012, the legendary life of Nan Huaijin came to an end.
At the end of his life, he said that the meaning of life is not in the flesh, the self (the center of personality) is bright, do not be led by the four greats, do not play with the four greats, and repeatedly emphasized the truth that "all actions are impermanent, they are the law of birth and destruction, birth and death are already destroyed, and silence is happy".
Nan Huaijin's life is more like a wonderful picture, with highs, lows, praises, and denigrations.
He endured and dissolved all of this one by one. As a Buddhist disciple, Nan Huaijin can be said to be a lifelong practitioner, spending her life interpreting and disseminating what she thinks.
He is indeed controversial academically, but it is undeniable that he made indelible contributions to the country and the people.
Nan Huaijin made up his mind about himself in his later years:
"With the talent of the immortals and buddhas, in the world of half people and half ghosts." The study of the ancient is not the present, and it is between the mysterious and practical. With chivalrous and righteous Confucianism, enter the forest of rogue scholars, blackmail the emperor's skills, and live in the position of beggars. ”
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Resources
Li Zero: "Lost Dog"
Yangcheng Evening News, April 21, 2013: "Xu Jinru: Nan Huaijin's Mistake of "Bamboo Is Difficult to Write""
China Reading Daily, October 5, 2013: "Xu Hongxing: Past events and caprice on the "Nan Huaijin Phenomenon"