preface
In November 1916, Cai Yuanpei, who had studied in France for many years, was invited by the Beiyang government to return from Marseille, France, and go to Beijing to serve as the president of Peking University. Curiously,
Before Cai Yuanpei returned to China, his relatives and friends around him advised him to resign from this errand, so as not to ruin his own heroic name.
However, Cai Yuanpei resolutely took office on December 26.
Photo: Photo by Mr. Cai Yuanpei
Why, then, did Peking University, one of the most influential schools in the country in name, be the president of Peking University at that time be like jumping into a fire pit? This has to start from the predecessor of Peking University, that is, the past life and present life of Beijing Normal University.
From Beijing Normal University to Peking University, the ups and downs
After the policy of "closing off the country" in the late Qing Dynasty was bombarded by the Western cannons, how to revive the great cause of China naturally became the dream of Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and other reformers. So in 1896, Li Duandi (fēn), a left attendant of the Punishment Department who was subordinate to the Restoration Faction, wrote to the Guangxu Emperor requesting the establishment of a "Beijing Normal University Hall". Two years later, the Guangxu Emperor appointed Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao to launch the Pengshu Rebellion, and asked his teacher Sun Jia Nai (nài) to be the first minister of management in the capital of Beijing University, thus becoming the first president of Peking University.
Pictured: Plaque of Kyoshi University
According to the meaning of the Guangxu Emperor, the so-called "Beijing Normal University Hall" is not only an ordinary university, it is also the highest educational institution in China.
Its policy of governance is "middle school as the body, Western learning for use, Chinese and Western for both use, and the view of its general knowledge."
In addition, the Guangxu Emperor also fully accepted the suggestions of Sun Jianai and Li Hongzhang, and appointed the American missionary Ding Yunliang as the chief teacher of Western Studies. In this way, Peking University has been marked with a strong Western style from the beginning.
Photo: Group photo of Kyoshi University
However, the Guangxu Emperor's change of law soon failed. After only 100 days of the restoration, the Guangxu Emperor was stripped of his imperial power by Empress Dowager Cixi and placed under house arrest in Yingtai. Guangxu's teacher Sun Jianai was very angry about this, and first wrote to him for advice, and after seeing that Empress Dowager Cixi ignored her, she resigned due to illness, which led to Sun Jianai, although he was the principal for 3 months, he did not even choose the site of Peking University.
Photo: List of Kyoshi University staff
Fortunately, although Empress Dowager Cixi exterminated the restorationists, she left the Beijing Normal University Hall behind, and At this time, Ding Yunliang, who was the chief teacher of Western Studies, wrote to Empress Dowager Cixi to speed up the preparation of the Beijing Normal University Hall, and Empress Dowager Cixi nodded in agreement. Later, Empress Dowager Cixi also specially allocated a place in the back street of the beach that had been idle for a century to the Beijing Normal University Hall as the site for the establishment of the school
On the last day of 1898, the Kyoshi University Hall officially began to enroll students
。
Although the Penghu Reform Law did not affect the opening of the Beijing Normal University Hall, the subsequent invasion of Beijing by the Eight-Power Alliance completely dealt a devastating blow to the newly established Beijing Normal University Hall and has since been in a slump. Due to the war, Empress Dowager Cixi had to suspend the Beijing Normal University Hall, and then fled to Xi'an, which became a barracks for the Russian and German invading armies. After the signing of the Treaty of Xinugi, Empress Dowager Cixi returned to Beijing and appointed Zhang Baixi as the minister of management, but by this time the government of the late Qing Dynasty was already in a state of flux, and the investment in teaching was greatly reduced.
Photo: The Beiyang government's letter of appointment to the president of Peking University
In 1912, the Xuantong Emperor issued an abdication edict, the Qing government officially collapsed, and the newly established government of the Republic of China, in order to revitalize the Beijing Normal University Hall, Yuan Shikai promoted Yan Fu to be the general supervisor of the Beijing Normal University Hall and the dean of the College of Letters. Soon after,
Education Minister Cai Yuanpei proposed changing the name of the school to "Peking University" with Yan Fu as president, and Yuan Shikai also approved the request.
Since then, the name of "Peking University" has begun to be famous at home and abroad.
Before 1917, the study style on the Peking University campus was corrupted
During the Yuan Shikai period, Cai Yuanpei was unwilling to cooperate with Yuan Shikai, so he went to France to study, and the Peking University campus before 1917 was far from being a "pure land".
At this time, most of the students on the Peking University campus were the second generation of officials and the second generation of the rich in the former Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, and the purpose of their study at Peking University was only to mix up a diploma and become civil servants in the future; and some teachers in Peking University schools were even more corrupt because they were bureaucrats of the Beiyang government.
Pictured: The Eight Hutongs in Beijing during the Republic of China
At that time, it was the prosperity of the prostitution industry in Beijing, and Peking University students also contributed a large part of the funds to this prosperity. In the "after-school leisure", a large number of teachers and students take a car to the famous Fengyue place in Beijing, "Bada Hutong", where there are some of the best first- and second-class brothels in Beijing.
Over time, prostitutes laughed that the place that could best take care of their business was "two chambers and one church", the so-called "two houses" refers to the National Senate and the House of Representatives in Beijing, and "one class" naturally refers to Peking University
(Kyoshi University Hall).
Cai Yuanpei rectified the school spirit of Peking University: the establishment of the "German Society"
After Cai Yuanpei became the president of Peking University in 1917, he felt the decadence of Peking University's study style, so he immediately did two things to rectify the school spirit:
First, reinvent the teaching staff. While eliminating a number of old bureaucratic teachers, Cai Yuanpei recruited a large number of outstanding scholars of the Republic of China, such as Chen Duxiu, Gu Hongming, Hu Shi, and Zhou Zuoren, to enrich the teaching strength of Peking University;
Second, advocate the establishment of clubs to enrich students' extracurricular lives. Under the vigorous call of Cai Yuanpei, various interest societies of Peking University have sprung up like mushrooms, such as the Journalism Research Society, the Painting Research Society, the Calligraphy Research Society, and so on.
Photo: Cai Yuanpei memorial sculpture
In order to support the school's club activities, Cai Yuanpei gave full venue support and financial support to the school's club activities, and he did so to guide peking university students to attach importance to sports and traditional Chinese culture, and also to guide teachers and students of peking university to carry out healthy recreational activities, so as to avoid them from indulging in those "improper entertainment" outside the school because there is no "noble entertainment activities".
On January 19, 1918, Cai Yuanpei led by example and personally organized a very special society: the "Jinde Society". So what are the conditions for joining this society? Cai Yuanpei's requirements were: no prostitution, no gambling, no concubines. Soon, Cai Yuanpei's club was widely participated in by teachers and students in the school. After 4 months, nearly 460 of the more than 2,000 teachers and students in the school have joined the club.
Among them were Chen Duxiu, chief of liberal arts, Xia Yuanyao (lì), chief of science, Professor Li Dazhao, Zhou Zuoren, and so on, as well as some peking university students Zhang Guotao and Luo Jialun who later became prominent.
Of course, the community system is not lip service, Cai Yuanpei organized the association to elect commentators and picketers in the association, specifically to report and supervise the daily life style of the members, and each member must fill out a volunteer letter to promise to abide by the three major social rules. Once it is found that the member has violated the law, the first offender will write a letter to exhort, but if he does not change the teaching, then after 10 of the members sign the report, the commentator will get solid evidence, and then he will be removed.
Photo: Gu Hongmingzhao
However, there were also many people who opposed Cai Yuanpei's proposal, and the famous "braided professor" Gu Hongming at that time refused Cai Yuanpei's invitation to join the association. Gu Hongming was a maverick, and Westerners at the time said:
"When you go to China, you can not look at the Three Great Halls, but you can't go without looking at Gu Hongming."
Born in Nanyang, studied in the West, married in the East, and in Beiyang, this "eccentric" has obtained a doctorate degree from 13 countries in his lifetime and is proficient in 9 languages, but he is a firm conservative when he returns to China.
As for the attitude of concubines, Gu Hongming made an analogy: "A teapot can also be paired with several teacups." Adhering to this old-fashioned concept, he seems to have deliberately taken several famous Japanese concubines like Cai Yuanpei.
He believes that since ancient times, celebrities have all been popular, and as a celebrity of the Republic of China, how can he promise not to take concubines?
In fact, at that time, there were many people who had the same ideas as Gu Hongming. In this regard, Cai Yuanpei put forward the concept of "eclectic tolerance", claiming that he founded the "Jinde Association" only to improve the social atmosphere on the Peking University campus, he did not force everyone to join, and this society did not have administrative law enforcement powers.
Cai Yuanpei rectified the North University style
However, soon after, two activists of the "Jinde Society", Xia Yuanyao and Chen Duxiu, who were commentators, took the lead in undermining discipline, which made Cai Yuanpei very nervous. It should be known that the two students in charge of the arts and sciences are Cai Yuanpei's confidants:
Chen Duxiu was the dean of liberal arts invited by Cai Yuanpei's "Three Gu Maolu", while Xia Yuanyao was the dean of science left by Principal Yan Fu, and they were all wild and uninhibited, after all, those who became big things were informal.
Photo: Chen Duxiu oil painting photo
Compared with Chen Duxiu, Xia Yuanxiu has a natural advantage: because he is a science student, his main content is Einstein's theory of relativity, which has nothing to do with the ancient Chinese Confucian etiquette and the Three Principles and Five Constants, and naturally will not be attacked by the old-fashioned literati; and Chen Duxiu has many problems, first of all, he is the leader of the new cultural movement, whether he speaks or acts is quite sharp, it is easy to be remembered, plus his personal marriage and life also have many problems, so it is very easy to give people a handle, Being attacked.
Chen Duxiu had 4 marriages in his lifetime. In 1896, the 18-year-old Chen Duxiu participated in the so-called "hospital examination" in order to perfunctory his mother's kindness, and did not want to be ranked first in Xiucai. Since then, the threshold of Chen Duxiu's family has been flattened by the people who say that the media has proposed relatives, and the big families in the four miles and eight townships have run to Chen Duxiu's home to say that the media has mentioned relatives, and there is no doubt that Chen Duxiu's first marriage is naturally "the order of the parents, the words of the matchmaker", and finally Gao Xiaolan, the daughter of Gao Dengke, the commander of Anqing, finally won and became the bride of Chen Duxiu's door.
Pictured: Chen Duxiu's first wife, Gao Xiaolan
At this time, Chen Duxiu was radical in his thinking and was very unhappy about this kind of feudal comprador marriage, and although he felt very unhappy, he could only reluctantly accept it. However, soon after the marriage, the ideological gap between the two became more and more distant. Gao Xiaolan herself is an old-fashioned housewife, although young and beautiful, decent appearance, but because she has been abused by her stepmother since childhood, she has grown up to be conformist, stereotypical, and illiterate. And Chen Duxiu, an advanced youth, is very easy to accept new things, and is not satisfied with the status quo.
In the words of Chen Duxiu's friend Pan Zanhua, it is that "the thinking of the two is almost more than a century apart."
Although after marriage, Chen Duxiu also persuaded Gao Xiaolan to read more, but Gao Xiaolan was not only passive and conservative, but also repeatedly insulted Chen Duxiu for playing "foreign farts", and once Chen Duxiu took a copy of the "Three Character Classic" and kindly wanted to teach Gao Xiaolan to read, but was torn to pieces by Gao Xiaolan, who was burning in anger. In addition, when Chen Duxiu wanted to study in Japan and wanted to borrow a gold bracelet from Gao Shi as a coil, Gao Xiaolan quarreled with him, resolutely did not borrow, and also tried to organize Chen Duxiu to study abroad.
In 1910, Chen Duxiu did not quit and directly married another woman, Gao Junman, in Anqing, and has never returned home since. The problem is that the new huan that Chen Duxiu is looking for is no one else, it is Gao Xiaolan's sister, which makes the ancient city of Anqing full of storms, Chen Duxiu's adoptive father Chen Xifan scolded him for "great rebellion", drove him out of the house, and announced that he had severed the father-son relationship with him; and Chen Duxiu's father-in-law, Gao Dengke, was even more annoyed, hating himself for blinding himself for choosing such a woman, and also physically punished Gao Junman many times, hoping to cut off her hope of combining with Chen Duxiu.
Pictured: Chen Duxiu's second wife, Gao Mancheng
In the end, Chen Duxiu and Gao Junman completely severed their relationship with the two families, left Gao Fei, went to Hangzhou to live together, and spent the happiest two years of their lives next to the West Lake. After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, the two threw themselves into the revolutionary torrent, and from then until Chen Duxiu came to Peking University in 1917, the relationship between the two has been very harmonious. However, the poor general Gao Xiaolan was left alone in Anqing's home to live and widow, although Chen Duxiu had not written a letter of resignation, and the relationship between the two had long ceased to exist.
However, since Chen Duxiu came to Peking University, although he and Gao Junman are Lang Cai's female appearance and pearl union,
But he still believed in the principle that "home flowers are not as fragrant as wild flowers" and went to beijing's eight hutongs to hang out.
He was quickly caught. In March 1919, the criticism of Chen Duxiu reached a climax, chen Duxiu's period of visiting the Eight Hutongs was well known, and some classmates pulled out Chen Duxiu's early marriage story and publicized it, which made Chen Duxiu very embarrassed in the peking university campus.
Soon after, the incident spread to the public, leading to the conservative translator Lin Shu repeatedly publishing open letters in newspapers criticizing the deterioration of Peking University's school spirit and corruption of the program. On March 21, 1919, Cai Yuanpei wrote an open letter in response to Lin Shu's criticism:
Photo: Portrait of Mr. Lin Shu
"In matters such as gambling and marrying concubines, the school enters the virtue club, and there are poems among the teachers who like to write side-colored poems, taking concubines and prostitutes as rhymes, gambling as a pastime, and taking their homework as a waste, and not tempting students to fall with them, then listening to them." Madame talent is extremely rare, if you seek complete blame, the school will be difficult to establish... Gong has translated novels such as La Traviata and The Biography of Jiayin, and has also taught ancient Chinese and ethics in various schools. Let some people slander the public for speaking of literature in the genre of this novel, and talk about ethics for prostitutes and adulterers and wives with husbands, would it be worth a stroke of the pen? ”
When Cai Yuanpei debates with others, he usually does not like to swear dirty words, but in order to defend Chen Duxiu and others, he refutes it with this very fiercely worded open letter, which shows that Cai Yuanpei is very angry about the slander of Peking University outside.
In Cai Yuanpei's view, the most important thing is that Peking University professors can give students a good lesson, and as for the occasional "life scandal", he still has a strong inclusiveness.
Pictured: Shen Yimo's old photo
However, although Principal Cai was able to tolerate Chen Duxiu, the conservative scholars in the school and the die-hard parliamentarians of the Beiyang government refused to give up. Zhang Yuanqi, who is a member of the Beiyang government, publicly impeached Peking University President Cai Yuanpei, and one of the important reasons was that he connived at Chen Duxiu's prostitution. Tang Erhe and Shen Yinmo, who had originally recommended Chen Duxiu to join Peking University, saw this situation and felt very embarrassed, so they turned against each other, believing that Chen Duxiu had damaged the reputation of Peking University and demanded that Cai Yuanpei give Chen Duxiu the punishment of dismissal.
However, after all, Cai Yuanpei cared for Chen Duxiu, and in order to let Chen Duxiu successfully enter Peking University, he did not hesitate to give Chen Duxiu's academic qualifications a fraud, so of course he was unwilling to expel him from school. However, Tang Erhe and others pestered endlessly, saying that Chen Duxiu was "corrupt in private morality", and Cai Yuanpei was still the president of Peking University, so how could he tolerate him? As a last resort, Cai Yuanpei could only summon several professors to Tang Erhe's home on March 26 to discuss and make some decisions on the reform of the Peking University school system.
Pictured: Toyr and the old photo
On April 10, Chen Duxiu announced at a public meeting of peking university that Peking University would abolish the seniority system and replace the academic affairs office with the management of the school, and Ma Yinchu was appointed as the first provost. Chen Duxiu, who felt that he had been "dismissed in disguise", was very angry and wanted to ask Cai Yuanpei to resign afterwards. Under cai yuanpei's retention, Chen Duxiu still kept his position as a professor at Peking University, and in order to calm his mood, Cai Yuanpei gave him a year's leave to let him rest. Soon after, the May Fourth Movement broke out, Chen Duxiu was arrested by the Beiyang government for distributing radical leaflets, and after his release from prison, Chen Duxiu left Beijing for Shanghai and established the Shanghai Communist Group.
Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi parted ways, and Hu Shi sighed: They all blamed The North University for the alienation scheme of outsiders
In 1935, Hu Shi, who missed Chen Duxiu very much, came to Tang Erhe's home, and he saw The diary of the Peking University campus written by Tang Erhe in his early years, and he couldn't help but feel the scene. On December 28, Hu Shi wrote a letter in which he severely criticized Tang Erhe's right and wrong at that time:
Photo: "Rebirth" symposium, right-hand side siters: Sanchi, He Qigong, Zhou Zuoren, Zhang Yanqing, Tang Erhe, Takikawa, Narita, Qian Daosun
"These are obviously a means of attacking several leaders of the new ideological trend of Peking University, and the gentlemen cannot separate private and public acts, and they are suitable for adultery..."
On January 2, 1936, Hu Shi wrote to Tang Erhe:
"Duxiu left Peking University and gradually broke away from the path of liberalism, and since then the birth and founding of the Communist Party of China, as well as the differentiation of "New Youth", have arisen... This meeting not only determined the fate of Peking University, but also determined the political and ideological divisions of ours over the past 16 years. ”
Photo: Hu Shi recently photographed
Although Hu Shi was very distressed about his parting ways with Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi was wrong about one thing:
Since the May Fourth Movement, Chen Duxiu has completely become a Marxist fighter, whether he left Peking University or not, his political path will eventually part ways with Hu Shi, the East Window Incident of prostitution can only show Chen Duxiu's maverick character, and the political direction he has identified will never easily change his goal because of Hu Shi and a few so-called "liberal" friends.
Ironically, in 1937, Toyor and the Japanese imperialist aggressors became a notorious traitor who served under Wang Jingwei until his death in 1940, while Chen Duxiu was still living in seclusion in the Jiangjin Stone Wall Courtyard, accompanied by his fourth wife, Pan Zhenlan, who was reflecting on his past, but had never surrendered to the Japanese and was not subordinate to any political faction.
In contrast, the difference between "private morality" and "public morality" is light and heavy, and I believe that all the officials have long known it in their hearts.