Author: Shen Du
Edit: Cautious
The portrayal of the image of Gu Hongming in "The Age of Awakening" can be described as very successful, an old scholar who has studied chinese and Western, traveled all over the West, can speak many foreign languages, but has braids, he opposes the new cultural movement of Chen Duxiu and others, embarrasses Hu Shi in class, supports the monarchy, and is regarded as a former Qing dynasty old man. But when britain arbitrarily interfered in The internal affairs of Peking University, it angrily rebuked the British ambassador, let countless young people regain confidence in Chinese civilization when they lost confidence, and supported Chen Duxiu and others when the student movement encountered setbacks. It can be said that this drama brought Gu Hongming to life, and Bi Yanjun brought Gu Hongming to life.
I deliberately went to check the life of Gu Hongming, read the biography of Gu Hongming, and Gu Hongming's "The Spirit of Chinese" (also known as Spring and Autumn Dayi). Born in Penang, Malaysia in 1857, Gu Hongming's ancestors were Hokkien and went to Nanyang to earn a living in the 18th century. His father was an English rubber plantation housekeeper and his mother was a Portuguese- and English-speaking European. Although he was born abroad, Gu Hongming's father always taught him not to forget that he was Chinese.
Gu Hongming's talent is unquestionable, Gu Hongming calls himself a "man from the east, west, south and north", he was born in Nanyang, studied in the West, married to Theoyang (his wife is Japanese), and served in the Beiyang. In addition to Chinese and English, he is fluent in German, French, Italian, Latin, Greek, and has a knowledge of Japanese and Russian. He has 13 doctorates, and has translated three of the four books of "Analects", "University", "Zhongyong" into English, etc., and authored "The Spirit of Chinese" to introduce Chinese culture to the West. He is very famous in Europe, and he is a celebrity in many universities, so much so that there is a saying in Europe that "you can go to China without looking at the three great halls, but you must not know Gu Hongming."
Gu Hongming set foot in Europe at the age of 12, and the situation in Europe at this time may be very different from our general impression. Although the Industrial Revolution made the productive and living standards of Europe far exceed those of China and other Eastern countries, in the words of Engels, "compared with the gorgeous covenants of the Enlightenment scholars, the social and political system established by the 'triumph of reason' turned out to be a satire of great disappointment."
The fruits of the Industrial Revolution were not enjoyed by the general public, but rather suffered deeper exploitation. Socialists attack the capitalists for exploiting and oppressing the proletariat. The Romantics believed that the extravagant hedonism of capitalism had degraded society as a whole. For Gu Hongming, Europe at that time was in an era of "a hundred schools of thought contending" and various ideological theories rising and falling.
Gu Hongming's first teacher in Europe was his English adoptive father Brown. He asked Gu Hongming to recite Shakespeare's plays and Goethe's Faust without any knowledge of literal meaning. Gu Hongming, who had an amazing memory, actually memorized them all. At the age of 16 he was admitted to the University of Edinburgh, where the English Romantic writer Carlisle was a good friend of Brown's, and the 78-year-old influenced Gu Hongming throughout his life. The Romantics' criticism of reality, their exposure to capitalism, and their admiration for spiritual life turned the young Gu Hongming into a Romantic scholar.
The current situation in Europe also made Gu Hongming aware of the shortcomings of Western civilization, and Gu Hongming believed that "the two weapons on which Europeans rely to maintain the civilized order are religion and law." That is, Europeans maintained order with a fear of God and a fear of law. Fear means the use of force." In the words of his teacher Carlisle, "Europe is anarchy, plus a police officer."
Gu Hongming believes that Western civilization has reached the brink of collapse. If the European countries do not practise militarism, then anarchy will disintegrate their civilization, and militarism will disintegrate their civilization because of the destruction of war. If Europe wants to change this dilemma, it must rely on moral power, but Christianity has failed, where should Europe find moral power? The answer is That China must draw moral strength from Chinese civilization.
Gu Hongming regards Chinese as the wealth of world civilization, and of course, the Chinese here is "the unchanged true Chinese who adhere to the faith of the good people." The so-called good people's faith is "to believe in the inherent goodness of human nature, to believe in the power of mercy", "the law of love is to love your parents, the law of justice means sincerity, trustworthiness and loyalty", "a woman must be absolutely loyal to her husband, and a man must be absolutely loyal to her monarch".
Gu Hongming uses an English word to summarize Chinese character is "gentle", docile. He believes that Chinese less animal barbaric than Europeans, not the meekness of "sadness and weakness", but "not violent, not harsh, not rude, not tyrannical", "calm, calm, and sophisticated". He said Europeans who live in China for a long time will "appreciate" Chinese because "Chinese live a life of affection or human fraternity, a life of soul", so that they are indifferent to their surroundings.
"Confucius wrote "Spring and Autumn", chaotic ministers and thieves are afraid", Gu Hongming quoted Mencius to explain, "A society in which the people have no sense of honor and no political morality, I think it cannot be united." However, regarding the shaping of the sense of honor, Gu Hongming guided the monarchy. "The belief in the absolute, supreme, superior, omnipotent power of the emperor also guarantees the absolute stability and durability of the state in the minds of ordinary Chinese." Although Gu Hongming's move can be regarded here as a reversal of history, from another angle, Gu Hongming's idea is also an argument that China should implement centralized power. Only with a strong central government can we ensure the long-term stability of Chinese society.
The most typical symbol of Gu Hongming is the braid on his head, and the most famous sentence may be "My braid is on the head, and your braid is in the heart." In "The Age of Awakening", Gu Hongming said that this braid is the root of Chinese civilization and cannot be cut off. Of course, this does not mean that Chinese must have braids, Gu Hongming is using this braid to replace Chinese civilization, using braids to express his adherence to Chinese civilization. At that time, although China had risen to cut braids and reverse foot binding, the reason was that Westerners regarded it as a barbaric and backward behavior. Gu Hongming used a braid to show his disapproval of this, Chinese how to live should not consider the views of Westerners. In the play, Gu Hongming quotes the poem "The lotus has no rain cover, and the chrysanthemum residue still has proud frost branches" to describe his braids, which is from Su Shi. That is, boasting of character, but also proud of braids. The old gentleman was really lovely.
In the process of the new cultural movement, many scholars have shown no confidence in Chinese civilization, believing that Chinese character, Chinese culture makes it impossible for China to become rich and strong, and even has the voice to Latinize Chinese characters and spell Chinese characters with simple Latin letters. But Gu Hongming, who traveled all over Europe, understood that Europeans were no better than Chinese. Chinese if you wear a suit and tie and a mouth full of English, you will not win the respect of Europeans. On the contrary, Chinese insist on their own culture, adhere to Chinese their own way of life, and will certainly arouse the yearning of Europeans.
In "The Age of Awakening", Hu Shi was frantically intimidated by Gu Hongming, Huang Kan and other masters of traditional Chinese studies as soon as he appeared. Hu applied the sentences in Homer's Epic as an opening statement, and Gu Hongming stood up and said, I will recite Homer's Epic in Latin, will you? Everyone in England and gentlemen recite Homer's Epic in the standard London dialect, what do you mean by using a beautiful voice? Huang Kan ridiculed Hu Shi and said, "Since Professor Hu Shi respects vernacular literature, then you Hu Shizhi (Hu Shizhi) should call Hu Where to Go."
If Gu Hongming was born in the present, he would definitely subtract his braids, because China's national strength is already enough to support national self-confidence and does not need to be maintained by a braid. However, some people, as soon as they saw the braids, jumped up and shouted that the cultural extermination of the country will not be a country, and used the Japanese to split China to curse the streets, and this braid really pierced into the hearts of these people.
Moreover, the shaving of hair in the Qing Dynasty was never completely implemented, but it was also a successful change of hairstyle. However, there is one thing that Manqing spent 300 years not doing, that is, to give women a foot, and the Han family boy defended the tradition of women's foot binding with extraordinary toughness and bone. Now the braids are dug into their hearts, and the foot-wrapped cloth is stuffed in their heads.