On October 30, 2018, Jin Yong died in Hong Kong at the age of 94. In seventeen years, he has written fifteen classic martial arts novels, influencing the imagination of generations of martial arts and jianghu. Hong Kong scholar Lin Yiliang once said: "Where there are Chinese and Chinatown, there are Jin Yong's martial arts novels." "Why are Jin Yong's works fascinating? In the view of some scholars, it is because he has constantly innovated, broken through the framework of the two genres of "martial arts" and "heroic legends", and integrated his understanding and thinking about history and traditional culture.
More than three years after Jin Yong's death, we share a speech he gave at Peking University in 1994, in which Jin Yong did not mention Guo Jing Huang Rong and Qiao Feng Aju, but detailed his view of history.
After reading it, perhaps you will have a deeper understanding of his family and country feelings.
Jin Yong gave a speech inside Peking University
Text/Jin Yong
1. My relationship with Peking University
Now that I'm a part of Peking University, I can call you classmates. I sincerely thank Peking University for giving me the high honor of conferring the title of Honorary Professor.
Peking University is a university that I have admired since I was a child. My uncle is a graduate of Peking University, and most of the people in my hometown do not know how his knowledge is, but when they hear that he is a graduate of Peking University, they are all in awe. When I was in junior high school, my homeroom teacher was also a graduate of Peking University, and he was knowledgeable, noble in character, and loved me. Although it is now fifty or sixty years, I still miss him a lot.
Peking University played a leading role in the May Fourth Movement, and the progress and development of the entire modern Chinese society is inseparable from the major contributions of The masters and students of Peking University. Whenever we think of Peking University, we think of the enlightened and open President Cai Yuanpei, think of the far-sighted President Ma Yinchu, and think of many great thinkers, scientists, writers, scholars, professors, and university inquirers who have ties to Peking University.
Peking University has many fine traditions, the most important of which is a deep concern for the country and society, and an academic atmosphere of tolerance and freedom. In recent years, I have lived at Oxford University for a long time, and I feel that Oxford University's free and open academic atmosphere and profound academic research are world-class, but the care and sacrifice of Oxford teachers and students for the country, society and people are currently far inferior to the teachers and students of Peking University.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, my first choice was to apply for the Southwest United University, which was jointly organized by Peking University, Tsinghua University and Nankai University. I was fortunate enough to be accepted. Perhaps it can be said that I am already a member of Peking University. However, at that time, because I had no money, the Southwest United University was in Kunming again, and the road was far away, so I could not get along with peking university classmates earlier. Today, as a member of Peking University, I am a family member with you, so I feel a great honor.
I have worked primarily in journalism all my life. As a journalist, you must know a little about every subject, but what you know is superficial and superficial. Experts and professors are different, they have studied a certain discipline and understand it very deeply. These are two different ways of getting in touch with knowledge.
I am a journalist, and I am completely unqualified to be a professor, but fortunately I am an "honorary professor", and it does not matter if the honorary professor is wrong, it does not matter. What I want to say next, I really want to ask teachers and friends for advice, this is not polite, in Chinese learning to ask the best teachers, of course, only to Peking University, there is no other place to go.
I went to Shaoxing this spring, to the place where Wang Xizhi of Lanting used to write. The people there wanted me to write, and I said how could I write in Wang Xizhi's place? But they had to write for me, so I had to write eight words: "Ban Men get an axe, Lan Ting wields a millimeter." "Ban Men is very arrogant in getting the axe, and it is even more arrogant to swing it in Lan Ting." When I went to Peking University this time, I said that I would give two speeches, and I wrote sixteen words myself: "Banmen gets an axe, Lan Ting swings a millimeter, and Caotang inscriptions..." The poem is inscribed in the home of the great poet Du Fu, and the fourth sentence is: "Peking University lectures."
2. Chinese civilization continues to grow
Everyone wants to hear me talk about novels, but in fact, there is no learning to write novels, and everyone likes to read them. I'm a little interested in history. Today I would like to briefly talk about a question, that is, what is the reason and what are the laws for the Chinese nation to develop and grow so long and continuously for such a long time?
In recent years, I have been at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and I am very interested in English literature, British history and Chinese history. As we all know, one of the british historians who had the greatest influence on the twentieth century was named Toynbee, who wrote a long, long "Historical Study". In this book, he analyzed many civilizations in the world, showing that many civilizations in the world have declined or died out in the course of history, and there are only two civilizations that have really flourished until now, one is the European and American civilization in the West, and the other is the Chinese civilization in the East.
Chinese civilization has a long history and continuous history, and it is the only one in the world. Although some ancient civilizations had an earlier history than China, and some civilizations had a larger scope than China, such as babylonian civilization, Egyptian civilization, and Greco-Roman civilization, these civilizations gradually declined and died out due to the blows of external forces or their own corruption.
He said: A civilization will always encounter external challenges, and if it can cope with this challenge well, it can continue to develop; if it does not cope well with the challenges, it will decline or even die. There are also many situations here: one is that the entire nation is killed and wiped out in the face of a powerful foreign attack; the other is that the nation has been ossified for a long time, there is no reform, no evolution, like a living mummy, and the result is decline; some are collapsed because of their own corruption; and the other is the division, and the country's civil war is endless.
There is a sentence in our national anthem: "The Chinese nation has reached the most dangerous time", which was written before and after the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and it expresses a sense of distress. At that time, my country was invaded by foreign enemies, and the situation was indeed very dangerous. All the students here are young and don't know, your parents know. My elder sister Lei Jieqiong and President Zhou Nan who are here have all experienced this difficult and dangerous moment.
As far as I can see, there are seven dangerous periods in the history of our country that have suffered from foreign aggression:
The first was the foreign attacks on the east, west, south, and north during the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Warring States period;
The second was the attack of the Xiongnu during the Qin and Han dynasties, which lasted for four hundred years;
The third was the invasion of The Five Hus such as Xianbei during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, which also lasted for four hundred years;
The fourth was the invasion of turks and Tubo during the Sui and Tang dynasties, which lasted about three hundred years;
The fifth is the invasion of the Khitans, Jurchens and Western Xia in the Five Dynasties and the Southern and Northern Song Dynasties, which lasted about four hundred years;
The sixth was the invasion of the Mongols and Manchus during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties;
The seventh is the aggression of modern Western imperialism and Japanese imperialism.
3. The law of China's historical development
Looking at the history of China, we can probably see such a law, our nation was first unified and strong, and then slowly became corrupt and its organizational strength declined. At this time, if there are some reforms, then there will be ZTE, and if the reforms fail, or if they become corrupted, then foreign enemies will invade.
When foreign nations invade, our nation has a very special phenomenon, that is, foreign invasion is often a turning point for our nation. The seven great crises of our nation mentioned above are all seven major turning points. In history, it is often after the arrival of foreigners that we Chinese nationalities assimilate and merge with them, and once we assimilate and integrate, our Chinese nation will grow stronger and become united.
Then it may become corrupt again, it may decay, or it may be divided, the foreigners will come, and our nation will merge and grow again, and so on. When other nations encounter foreign invasions, they will either win the war, and if they cannot win, the country or nation will collapse.
When our Chinese nation encounters foreign invasions, it is often able to repel foreign nationalities, and there are many cases in which they cannot be defeated, but it is difficult to be conquered. This is because on the one hand we have a tenacity, a very tenacious resistance; on the other hand, we are very open, culturally integrated with them, and over time, everyone becomes a nation, and our nation grows again.
I also addressed this issue when I was awarded Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, as well as other historical issues in China. Some Canadian professors felt that these ideas were relatively new to me and discussed why China could integrate foreign nations, while the West could not. I think the first reason is that Our country was an agrarian society from the beginning, with relatively high productivity and advanced technology, and strong economic forces to develop culture;
The second reason is that since the Western Zhou Dynasty, we have a strict patriarchal social system, and later generations have talked about Chinese feudal society, always think that the feudal patriarchal system is very restrictive to people's thinking, very restrictive to people's behavior, in fact, this patriarchal system also has its historical role, our nation because of the strict inheritance system, thus avoiding internal struggle and war. Some nomadic peoples are originally strong, but they often split at critical times. After the death of his father, his two or three sons snatched the father's seat, as was the case in Rome.
As soon as you grab a seat, you will fight, and you will have civil unrest. Tribes, tribes, or peoples that were originally very strong, as soon as they split, they had to fight themselves.
Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, although our nation has constantly had internal struggles, it basically follows the hereditary system, that is, when the father dies and the eldest son succeeds to the throne, which is an important system for the development of the Chinese nation at that time. When the basic legal system of a society is fixed, the society will be very stable and the internal struggle will be greatly reduced, which is also an important link in the strength and prosperity of the nation.
Another important link is that we are very open to foreign nationalities. Historically, China was ruled by foreign nations for a long, long time, such as the Northern Wei Dynasty. In fact, the Sui and Tang Dynasties also had a large minority composition, mainly Xianbei people.
There is a situation that you don't know if you have thought of, but in my novel there is a person called "Lonely and Defeated". He has never lost a sword competition with others in his life, so he changed his name to seek defeat, hoping to fail once, but he has never lost. This "lonely" is the humble person.
Some scholars say that "Siberia" means "Xianbeilia", and the Xianbei people originally lived in the Area of Siberia. But this is not very unanimous.
During the Northern Zhou Dynasty, there was a man named Dugu Xin, who had many daughters, of whom the eldest daughter married the emperor of Northern Zhou, the fourth daughter married Tang Gaozu's father, and the seventh daughter married Emperor Wen of Sui. Therefore, Tang Gaozu and the Sui Emperor were cousins, and Tang Taizong Li Shimin should call the Sui Emperor as his cousin.
They all have humble pedigree blood. Tang Taizong Li Shimin's mother's surname was Dou and was a humble person. Emperor Taizong of Tang's empresses was surnamed Changsun, and both Changsun and Dou were xianbei surnames. The empress's elder brother, Sun Wuji, was a very famous prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, and he was also a humble man. According to my preliminary statistics, at least two or three of the Tang Dynasty prime ministers were Hu people, mainly Xianbei people.
At that time, saying "Hu people" was like we say "foreigners" now, and there was no discrimination. In the Tang Dynasty, there were two or three foreigners who became "premiers of the State Council", which shows that the Tang Dynasty did not discriminate against foreigners at all. Speaking of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty fought with the Xiongnu, and the Xiongnu split and surrendered. One of the Xiongnu princes was named Jin Ribao (金日磾), who was highly regarded by Emperor Wu of han. After the death of Emperor Wu of Han, the major events behind him were handed over to two people, one was Huo Guang and the other was Jin Ilju. It can be seen that an important reason for the growth of our nation is that it is very open.
I wrote about how powerful Chinese martial arts are in wuxia novels, which is actually a bit exaggerated. Chinese not very good at fighting, when fighting with foreigners, lose more, win less, but we have endurance, it doesn't matter if we can't win this fight, we will work with you for a long time, and later, foreigners will split. If the Huns are very powerful, we will beat him. Han Gaozu was besieged by the Xiongnu near Datong, Shanxi, and could not escape.
His men then offered a brilliant plan, saying to the Xiongnu Empress, there are many beautiful women in the Han Dynasty, and if you arrest the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, crush the Han people, and capture a large number of beautiful women among the Han people, you as an empress will be bad. The Xiongnu empress fell into this ruse and withdrew. The Xiongnu were later divided into north and south, with the Southern Huns surrendering to the Han Dynasty and the Northern Huns heading west, some to England, and even destroying the entire Western Roman Empire. Interestingly, half of the Huns were resisted by China and surrendered, while the other half crushed all of Europe.
The same was true of the Turks of the Sui and Tang dynasties, who were divided into Eastern Turkistan and Western Turkic. The Eastern Turks surrendered to the Sui and Tang Dynasties and were slowly integrated by the Chinese nation. The Western Turks headed west to Turkey. Later, Turkey crushed the Eastern Roman Empire and occupied the whole of Constantinople until now.
4. Why is Chinese civilization backward?
So we should not think that our nation cannot do it when we mention history, but in fact, our nation really cannot do it, but it is only three or four hundred years after the 16th century.
Recently, at a dinner party at Oxford University, I met a very famous scholar who studied East Asian economics, and when he talked to me about the future of China's economy, he said that China's economy has been very developed since ancient times, and its per capita income has always been the highest in the world, but it was only after the 16th century that it was slowly caught up by Britain. GNI, on the other hand, was not surpassed by the British until 1820. China's national strength has remained the leading position in the world for two or three thousand years.
The scholar is very optimistic about China's economic future, saying that by about 2020, China's national economic income will be the largest in the world, and it will be able to maintain it for a long time, I am afraid that at least for forty or fifty years after that, no country will be able to catch up. I was excited after listening to it and asked him if he had any data? He cited a lot of statistics.
He's an expert and doesn't talk nonsense. I think his analysis makes a lot of sense. In fact, our ancient China has always been very advanced in science and technology, and it was especially advanced in the Song Dynasty, which greatly surpassed Europe. At that time, our scientific and technological inventions were far from catching up with Europe, such as papermaking, printing, gunpowder, compass, etc. in the Song Dynasty was already very prosperous. The banknotes used now are also invented in China and have been used since the Song Dynasty. At that time, our financial system was quite advanced, and the use of money was quite mature.
So when did Europeans start to turn around? It should be said that it was the Ming Dynasty in China, and since then, China has begun to lag behind.
I think one of the reasons for this is that it is politically autocratic, the people's ideological control is very strict, it is not free and open at all, it is full of doors and slashes at every turn, and it is even connected to the nine ethnic groups, which frightens people not to speak and move, and all power is controlled by the emperor alone. Another reason was that the Ming Dynasty could not deal with the invasion of the Japanese Wokou, so it was whimsical, implemented the so-called sea ban, and burned all the ships that sailed, thinking that it would cut off contact with the Wokou and starve the Wokou to death. This is a complete lack of understanding of Japan. This stupid ban, of course, happened after the Yongle Emperor and after Zheng He went to the West. As soon as the Ming Dynasty imposed a blockade, the entire national strength began to decline.
At the same time, Western science began to develop, and the Industrial Revolution began. There is an interesting time worth noting, that is, in the early 16th century, 1517, the German Martin Luther openly denied the authority of the pope and opposed the theocratic control, and it was at this time that the Zhengde Emperor of the Ming Dynasty of China went down to Jiangnan. The Zhengde Emperor was a very boring and corrupt emperor, and he went down to Jiangnan to do a lot of absurd and shameless deeds. As we all know, in the Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, China was very rich and strong, and it was okay to go to the Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, when science was developed and transportation was convenient and open to the outside world. Europe was closed, everything was controlled by the Holy See, and academic thought was not free. You say that the earth revolves around the sun, but he wants you to go to jail, everything is closed. By the 16th century, Europe was free and open, and scientific inventions began, but China was blockaded for a long time. This is the greatest historical lesson.
5. From Chinese history to the destiny of mankind
Having talked about so much today, it is nothing more than to make it clear to everyone two concepts, that is, reform and opening up. The reason why the Chinese nation has grown in this way is because of reform and opening up. When we encounter difficulties, we must actively carry out internal reforms and strive to overcome difficulties, and if the reform is successful, our nation will be prosperous. At the same time, we also want to open up to the outside world, which is even more important, because Chinese have self-confidence, we are confident that our nation is very strong, and we are not afraid of foreign forces or foreign cultures. There is another important concept that I do not have time to dwell on today. I think that historians in the past all said that the barbarians, the Wuhu Chaohua, the Mongols, and the Manchurians invaded China, and that the great mountains and rivers fell to foreign nationalities, and so on. I would like to write a few historical articles saying that ethnic minorities are also part of the Chinese nation, and that the Northern Wei, Yuan, and Qing dynasties were only a minority ruling, and that the Chinese people did not die in foreign nationalities, but only "took turns to do zhuang." The Manchus established the Qing Dynasty to govern, which was certainly much better than the Ming Dynasty. I play a lot of these ideas in novels. I hope to write it as an academic text in the future.
The British historian Toynbee I mentioned above did not attach great importance to China when he first wrote the great work of "Historical Studies". By the time he was dying, he had come to the conclusion that the hopes of the world rested on the combination of Chinese and Western civilizations. He believes that the advantages of Western civilization lie in the continuous invention, creation, pursuit, and outward expansion, which is a culture of "movement", and the advantage of Chinese civilization is peace, just like the Great Wall, which is on the defensive, stable and harmonious, and is a "quiet" culture.
Now many Western scholars believe that the earth is so big that it is impossible and undesirable to pursue and expand endlessly. In the future, we can only accept Chinese philosophy, balance and harmony, and cooperate with each other to avoid war. Thanks to the development of science and the emergence of nuclear weapons, future world wars will be inconceivable. Some crazy people may insist on fighting a nuclear war, but they do not know that the end of such a war will be the end of mankind.
The Western scholars I have come into contact with are not very worried about fighting a nuclear war at present, and their biggest concern is three problems: the first is the continuous waste of natural resources; the second is environmental pollution; and the third is the population explosion. These three issues will concern the future of humanity. So now many Westerners pin their hopes on China, they want to understand China, to understand Chinese philosophy. They believe that China's philosophical ideas of balance, harmony and unity and psychological state may be the key to solving the problems of mankind as a whole.
Recently there was a very grand banquet in Oxford, attended by Lord Lees Mog, the former editor-in-chief of The Times in London, who said that the economic center of the world in the nineteenth century was in London, in the early twentieth century it was transferred to New York, to the post-war seventies and eighties to Tokyo, and the twenty-first century was bound to be transferred to China. As for whether the center is Beijing or Shanghai in China, in my opinion, it is not a problem in Beijing or Shanghai, as long as it is in China.
Attached: In June 2007, Jin Yong came to Peking University again to talk about Chinese culture with Peking University students. Some of Jin Yong's Q&A content at this event was also shared with everyone.
1. Today's society still needs chivalry and righteousness
Student: The great hero must have the chivalrous style and righteous bones for the country and the people. In today's society, what room is there for chivalry to develop, and if so, what kind of performance will it be?
Jin Yong: I went to the hospital this morning to visit Mr. Ji Xianlin, and he told me that when I mention "chivalry," Chinese have different understandings from foreigners. In Germany, if a twelve- or thirteen-year-old fights with a seven- or eight-year-old child, even if a seven- or eight-year-old child can't fight there and cry, the old lady who passes by will not care. The two children had been fighting for two hours, and the old lady had at most splashed a basin of water and shouted: Don't fight, fight to death! The concept of foreigners and Chinese is different, and in this situation, Chinese must intervene and consider it unfair. But foreigners believe that the strong one will beat people, and the weak people will be beaten.
The spirit of martial arts, in China, as well as Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and other Asian countries, people are very acceptable, think it is very reasonable, but Westerners are not very acceptable, they do not understand why the chivalrous people have to see the road unevenly, draw their swords to help.
This is the traditional Chinese idea of being a hero and serving the people, which means that when you see someone being treated unfairly and seeing the people being oppressed, you must carry forward the spirit of "chivalry." Now China is very strong, but if someone bullies us, interferes in the reunification of Taiwan, or invades us, we still have to have the spirit of sacrificing for the country.
When I write a novel, I only express my emotions, not the theme first, I don't think of any theme, and then I write the plot of the novel according to this. But in general, there should still be someone in today's society who upholds justice and contributes to society. When SARS was popular, there were doctors who stepped forward and were not afraid to sacrifice their reputation and status to correct the wrong things in society, which is the spirit of chivalry.
2. "Deer Ding" is inspired by Lu Xun's "A Q Zheng Biography"
Student: When you portrayed the character of Wei Xiaobao, did you add your understanding of modern people? Because he has very different styles from the characters in your other works.
Jin Yong: The character of Wei Xiaobao, in fact, I was inspired by Mr. Lu Xun's "The True Biography of A Q". In "The True Biography of Ah Q", Mr. Lu Xun reveals the inferiority of Chinese, and ah Q's spiritual victory method is actually a common phenomenon that exists in Chinese. Chinese there are still some very bad things on the body, Mr. Lu Xun did not mention in the "A Q Biography", I saw many Chinese in foreign countries do not do well, such as not paying taxes to open a shop, checking taxes, going to pay bribes, and then things got bigger, the government detained the car, closed the shop.
In addition, there are bribes, counterfeit drugs, etc., which are all bad things. Chinese actually has many flaws in terms of personality, and I have incorporated these inferior roots in "Deer Ding", so the positive characters in this book are all villains.
However, in the epilogue of the book, I also wrote that young people must not learn from Wei Xiaobao. But I didn't expect that the social effect of "Deer Ding" was not good, and some readers said badly that they wanted to be Wei Xiaobao, so I wanted to revise the end of the novel, so that he lost all his family property in a gamble, and several wives also left a large half.
But as soon as this idea came out, some readers wrote to me, saying that literature should pay attention to integrity, so that a change would be incomplete, and although it had educational significance, it had no literary significance, so I could only give up. But I would like to remind young people not to learn from him.
3. The connotation of "Descending Dragon Eighteen Palms" is Chinese philosophy
Student: There are many martial arts schools in your novel, how did you imagine it? For example, the Nine Yin True Scriptures and the Eighteen Palms of the Descending Dragon. Do you know martial arts? Can you compare it?
Jin Yong: Some martial arts sects originally exist, like Shaolin and Wudang. I have been to the Shaolin Temple many times, and a senior monk wanted to teach me internal skills, but I said it was too much trouble, so I didn't learn it. Actually, I still have a chance.
Of course, some martial arts sects are what I imagined, like the Eighteen Palms of the Descending Dragon, which I imagined from the I Ching. Chinese Taoists pay attention to not being too strong, can not beat people can not fight back, the eighteenth move in the eighteen palms of the descending dragon, the dragon has remorse, pay attention to the hand is to be merciful, only use three points of force, seven points of force to give the other party a chance to repent. Leaving room for manoeuvre is actually Chinese philosophical thought.
The I Ching says that you should not do anything excessively, otherwise things will develop in the opposite direction. Chinese philosophy pays attention to whether it is extremely good, and when anything develops to the worst, it is time to go in a good direction. On the contrary, if something is good, it should go in a bad direction. The "I Ching" also said that it does not matter if you lose a little, you are full of losses and humble benefits, and you should not do anything excessively and extremely.