Qian Xuesen's literary collection and others

A recent reading of "Why 'Camel Xiangzi' Is Loved by Foreign Readers: Foreign Acceptance of Modern Chinese Literature," published in Guangming Daily (November 16, 2021, 11th edition), points out that "Camel Xiangzi" was very popular with American readers after it was translated by Ivan King in 1945 and published in the United States under the name Rickshaw Boy. In fact, it is not limited to this, when Rickshaw Boy was published, it was also well received by Chinese students in the United States, including Qian Xuesen, who was working at the California Institute of Technology at the time. Through the overall examination of Qian Xuesen's books, we can see a clear ideological vein, that is, the reading process of his literary works throughout his life, and the theory of "Chinese literary style" put forward by Zhixue in the process of reading.

Qian Xuesen lived in the dormitory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Zhongguancun, Beijing, on the coffee table, which he subscribed to at his own expense, "People's Literature"

A precious collection of books that have crossed the ocean

"Camel Xiangzi" is a novel created by the famous writer Lao She, set in the 1920s Beiyang warlord melee, telling the life experience of rickshaw driver Xiangzi from the countryside to Beiping to make a living, serialized in the September 1936 to October 1937 "Cosmic Wind" magazine. In 1945, Ivan King translated the novel into English and published it by REYNAL & HITCHCOCK in New York, and Shoko also had a humorous name in the English novel: Happy Boy. From the 1930s to the 1940s, thousands of young students went to the United States to study, and after the publication of this book, there was a reading boom among these students, and Qian Xuesen, who worked at the California Institute of Technology, could not even buy the first edition, so he bought the second edition of raw books to read.

The so-called raw edge book refers to the fact that the book is bound into a book without cutting, and the reader is cut while reading to increase the pleasure of reading. As can be seen from the appearance, Qian Xuesen cut it very carefully when reading. The book is priced at $2.75, which is insignificant for Qian Xuesen's annual salary of $7,000, but the book is full of homesickness. The Beiping where Xiangzi made a living was the Same Beijing where Qian Xuesen lived as a teenager. Qian Xuesen lived in Beijing for 15 years from 1914 to 1929 with his father Qian Jiazhi, who was serving in the Ministry of Education, and in his later years he often recalled the beautiful taste of his childhood in Zhongshan Park, "sitting on the Forbidden City, looking at the buildings on the city, and seeing the chic corner towers of the city". His father also hired a "foreign charter car" to be responsible for picking him up when he was in elementary school, and I don't know if he will remember the "Shoko" who picked him up when he read. At this time, it had been ten years since he went to the United States to study in 1935, and his homesickness was gradually accumulated in his heart, and he doubled his treasure after reading it.

When Qian Xuesen returned to China in 1955, this collection, along with other collections, crossed the ocean, was consigned from Pasadena, California, to Hong Kong, and then transported by sea to Tianjin, and then transported to Qian Xuesen's dormitory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Zhongguancun, Beijing. When he moved to the Aerospace Compound near the present-day Aerospace Bridge in 1960, the collection was also moved here and treasured in a bookcase at home. In 2011, Professor Qian Yonggang donated a collection of books to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, including this collection. By sorting out this batch of books, a very interesting ideological vein can be clearly reproduced, that is, Qian Xuesen's lifelong love for literary works as a scientist.

Qian Xuesen's rough edge book collection Rickshaw Boy. It is now in the Qian Xuesen Library of Shanghai Jiao Tong University

The reading process of literary works

Tracing back to the roots, Qian Xuesen's literary reading enlightenment was deeply influenced by his father Qian Jiazhi. Qian Jiazhi (1882-1969), who studied at Qiushi Academy in his early years, studied at the Tokyo Higher Normal College in Japan, and served in educational institutions for nearly 20 years after returning to China, with profound educational theoretical literacy and rich experience in educational practice. When Qian Xuesen attended the Affiliated Middle School of Beijing Normal University from 1923 to 1929, he would receive a reading list from his father during the winter and summer vacations and submit reading notes; his father would carefully "correct" and then feedback to Qian Xuesen to improve his son's reading, thinking and composition ability. During this period, Qian Xuesen read classical novels including "Journey to the West", "Ru Lin Wai Shi", and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which consolidated the foundation of "Wen Yan Wen".

Not only that Qian Xuesen's reading enlightenment was also influenced by Lu Xun. At the earliest, because Dong Lu'an, a middle school Chinese language teacher, often expressed "admiration for Mr. Lu Xun", Qian Xuesen became curious and read Lu Xun's works, and through reading, he "revered Mr. Lu Xun". In fact, Lu Xun and Qian Jiazhi are colleagues of the Ministry of Education, and Qian Xuesen often sees this "Uncle Zhou". In his later years, Qian Xuesen also purchased the Complete Works of Lu Xun as a treasure, and even borrowed the words of the Japanese scholar Junichi Fujiyama as a motto, that is, "The problems raised to us by Lu Xun before his death have not been solved, and reading and studying Lu Xun's works is therefore more important than ever." Because of the formation of good reading habits and internalization into a potential sense of self-consciousness, he also read many literary works when he was studying at Jiaotong University, even including Lu Xun's translation of Plekhanov's "Art Theory".

Judging from the donated Qian Xuesen collection, when he stayed in the United States from 1935 to 1955, he also began to read Western literary works, such as THE DICKENS DIGEST, THE THURBER GARNIVAL, THE FALL OF PARIS, etc. It is rarely mentioned that after returning to China, he was busy with official duties as a leader in the space industry, but he still did not forget to read literary works, and even subscribed to the magazine "People's Literature" at his own expense. After he retreated to the second tier in the early 1980s, reading literature became a "compulsory course." From the perspective of categories, it includes novels, essays, poetry and songs, operas and dramas, such as "The Complete Works of Mao Dun", "Qing Barnyard Banknotes", "Music of Yuan Sanqu", "Mustard Garden Painting Biography", "Selected Words of Jin Yuanming and Qing Dynasties", "Anthology of Keling Film Scripts" and so on. From the perspective of countries, it also includes classic works from European and American countries, such as "The Complete Works of Shakespeare", "Selected Novels of Chekov", "Spartacus", "Whose Sin? "Virgin Land", "Anna Karenina", etc.

Solo music is not as good as public music, Qian Xuesen often recommends good works to friends. For example, when he read Bi Shumin's "Turning the Pulp" and was "deeply moved", he recommended it to a friend. Inspired by reading, he was no longer satisfied with being a "lover of literature and art", but began to enter a state of rational thinking; he not only deeply studied the "History of Chinese Literature", "Speech at the Yan'an Literary and Art Forum", "History of Chinese Painting", "Ten Lectures on Classical Opera", "Methodology of Aesthetic Literature and Art", "Formal Methods in Literature and Art", "Treatise on Deng Xiaoping's Literary and Artistic Thought" and other theoretical works, but also took magazines such as "Literary and Art Theory and Criticism", "Literary and Art Studies" and "Literary Studies" as a list of required reading. It can be said that Qian Xuesen built a professional-level literary knowledge map through reading practice and theoretical study, laying an ideological foundation for the theory of "Chinese literary style" put forward in his later years.

Lin Geng's book "History of Chinese Literature", which Qian Xuesen received when he returned to China in the summer of 1947 to visit his relatives, was a "pillow book" for his later research on literary and art theory. It is now in the Qian Xuesen Library of Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Put forward the theory of "Chinese literary style"

"Chinese literary style" is a proposition put forward by Qian Xuesen in his later years when he pondered how science fiction should be sinicized, but its connotation is actually oriented to the entire category of literary and art theory. The so-called "Chinese literary style" means that the construction of China's theoretical view of literature and art should be combined in "taking the road of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought in studying literary and art theory". On the one hand, as literary and artistic theoretical workers in socialist China, they must "not forget China's five-thousand-year glorious literary and artistic tradition" and "use the latest scientific and technological achievements to carry forward this literary and artistic tradition" with a keen eye; on the other hand, we must not blindly "complain" about the culture of other countries, but must be able to objectively analyze and criticize and absorb the excellent elements in them. Therefore, in the process of continuously promoting the combination of the two, it embodies the "Chinese flavor" and realizes the value of serving the people.

Based on this, Qian Xuesen proposed to enrich Marxist literary and art theory from three aspects: "literary and artistic systematics," "literary and artistic ability," and "literary and artistic politics." Moreover, he also practiced what he preached, and through the study of learning, he built a literary and artistic system composed of "literary and artistic creation theory aesthetics Marxist philosophy", and proposed that aesthetics plays a two-way role as a bridge between literary and artistic theory and Marxist philosophy; in this way, he can realize the guidance of Marxist philosophy to literary and artistic theory, and can deepen Marxist philosophy through literary and artistic theory. At the same time, he also divided literature and art into 11 aspects from the content, namely, novel essays, poetry and song, architecture, gardens (bonsai, window views, courtyards, small gardens, scenic spots, national parks, etc.), fine arts (painting, plastic arts, arts and crafts, etc.), music, technical art (combination of industrial design and art), cooking, clothing, calligraphy, and comprehensive art (drama, film, etc.). This division transcends the general connotation of literature and art, and has a broader academic vision.

For another example, Qian Xuesen also put forward the main categorical idea of "different aesthetics". He very much agreed with Li Zehou's aesthetic view, that is, "beauty is the unity of subjectivity and objectivity after the interaction between subjective practice and objective reality", and thus put forward the view that "people's sense of beauty is different, and their ability to appreciate art is also different" based on "different practices"; as a refinement, he also divides literature and art into three aspects: "expressing philosophy + Yangchun white snow + xia riba people" according to the needs of different subjects. As a scientist, Qian Xuesen also particularly advocated the "combination of science and art" and "advocated that scientific and technological workers and literary artists make friends."; not only should scientific and technological workers "learn as much literature, art, music, and painting as possible"; on the other hand, people in literary and art circles should "be able to learn some science and technology". Such views are still of positive enlightening value to the study of today's literary and artistic theories.

At this point, it should be pointed out that in addition to acquiring knowledge through reading, Qian Xuesen also paid great attention to establishing academic communications for in-depth exchanges and inspiring their academic inspiration. For example, the scholars he maintained correspondence in the field of literature and art include Zi Minjun, Tu Wusheng, Gao Shiqi, Zheng Qi, and So Zhi. Therefore, in a sense, the academic views put forward by Qian Xuesen in his later years are nothing more than the comprehensive results of collective wisdom.