The photos of the "Red Chamber" of Tongji University in this article are provided by Tian Nianci, Shen Jingzhen, Song Zhiliang, LOFT, Zhang Huaming and others.
Recently, four young teachers from the School of Humanities of Tongji University visited. Since I became a Tongji student newspaper, after more than seventy years of long years, naturally after experiencing personnel metabolism, unpredictable, large and small people, I was able to meet the new generation of teachers from my alma mater in my twilight years, talk about the sky, and ask some questions. Its joy is really indescribable for a while.
A long-sealed past seems to open the floodgates and suddenly emerge in front of you.
In the second half of 1946, after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, I entered the newly created Faculty of Letters of National Tongji University Chinese Department. The Faculty of Letters has three departments: the Department of Chinese, the Department of Philosophy, and the Department of Foreign Languages.
At the same time, a law school was established. Because of the ugliness and simplicity, the two colleges were crammed into the campus at the bottom of North Sichuan Road and in the area of the present-day Fuxing Middle School on the side of Jiangwan Road. The teaching building of the College of Literature is in front of the Hongkou Park, on the side of Jiangwan Road, facing the Red Chamber of the Kuomintang Songhu Garrison Headquarters (below). The law school is located in a gray building on the south side of the Red House. In the open space east of the Red Chamber, there was a small bungalow with red tiles and cream yellow, where professors such as Guo Shaoyu and Mou Runsun lived, as well as Mr. Feng Baolu (later known as Feng Qi), who was still very young at the time, who taught philosophy.
From this east, in front of you is a row of simple bungalows close to Sweet Love Road, three or four scenes. One of them, the boys' dormitory of the College of Letters of Tongji University, is crowded with more than a dozen stacked iron beds, with dim light and turbid air, and the dim yellow and depressing lights are lit day and night. At night, a wooden barrel is placed outside the door for students to untie their hands. In the north is a large room Chinese library, which houses some books such as the Hundred Sons and Hundred Families, and a few newspapers. Most of the books, only to be bundled, stacked on one side, can not be opened, an old gentleman named Chen Xiaosong managed the job. Students rarely seem to step into the doors of this library. Instead, a few steps out of the school gate, the former site of the Uchiyama Bookstore, which was opened by Wang Zaoshi, one of the "Seven Gentlemen", opened the "Free Publishing House", which has a variety of books on its shelves, so it has become a place where we patronize all year round, from which we can get new knowledge and old knowledge.
Living in such a simple dormitory, what is deeply unforgettable is the rare and quiet sweet love road. At night, from the window, you can occasionally see a pair of young boys and girls, wandering intimately among them. Sometimes, you can also hear the melodious sound of playing the harmonica, in the quiet moonlit night, how can this scene not be evocative?
It was our left neighbor who lived a group of guards from the garrison command. Going in and out all day long, bustling, ruins the tranquility of the campus and makes people feel a kind of helpless awkwardness. In short, here and now, there is nothing to say!
I am ashamed to say that during the arduous War of Resistance, I only read intermittently until I graduated from junior high school. I applied for Tongji with the qualification of "equal academic ability". The name of Sun Shan seems to be inevitable. However, even in hopelessness, man sometimes harbors a strong desire not to yield to the god of destiny.
At this time, I thought of Mr. Curing, and I could only turn to Mr. Curing for help. As early as a year or two ago, I, a very young child who was only sixteen or seventeen years old, had already submitted articles to his compilation of Wen Wei Po Century Wind and The Central Daily Wen Zong. He also made a special trip to Shanghai and met him. At that time, he was only thirty years old. At the Eight Immortals Bridge, in the editorial department of the Shanghai Publishing Company, he introduced Me to Mr. Tang Tao and his nephew Ah Zhan. He also wrote me enthusiastic letters.
Mr. Kaoya:
The Lama Monk received. "Everyone" may not come out for a while, so it is still published in the "Literature Review". In fact, "Everyone" is only a name, because the publishers are acquaintances and cannot be ignored, so it is not appropriate for them to do this kind of thing. If I decide to publish it, I will write to you to write it.
The masterpiece is quite windy, and the problem is that it is too floaty, and it seems that it can go from the real place. "Literature Review" is thirsty for a draft, I hope you can write more, often send me. "Weekly" also wants to point out short articles in the future, but to say that there is something, the lyrical work of the space cave is not appropriate, are you willing to try? I don't go to the "JoongAng Daily", and in the future, I will send the newsletter to the "Weekly Daily".
Has the fee for the "Literature Review" been reached? The clerk sent it early. Once received your letter, asking about the "Century Wind" manuscript fee, at that time because I lost your communication office, I could not send it, and now I check it out, it has been too long, only a little bit of money is left, sorry very much. Remittance is troublesome, and now the aunt will take the risk of sending it in the letter. Waiting.
Curling on May 5th
I don't write "Century Wind" now.
Brother Xiang:
Show me. The fee for the manuscript in May has not been sent so far, and it is a special accident, and the negligence of the clerks to this point is really hateful. Immediate inquiry and delivery is not wrong.
The previous letter instructed to send a clumsy shadow, and the matter was not resumed. Brother Qi lazy, several years have not been photographed alone, close to the Fuchun River, there are friends to take a frame, but also "the only book in the sea", did not give gifts, apologies.
What's going on here? "Literature Review" has not been drafted for a long time, and I read it. Recently, Wenhui also set up a literary and art supplement "PEN Club", which was compiled by Tang Tao, and also needed a manuscript, please write more in your spare time, and do not let Yantian Jiuhuangye. The manuscript can be sent to the "Weekly" brother to receive, and the "JoongAng Daily" brother does not often go, and the letter is easy to mistake. Wait
Wen An
Curling on
New address of "Weekly News": No. 26, South Xizang Road, Shanghai
The author of this article, Mr. Zhang Xianghuan, has been publishing articles in Wen Wei Po since December 1945, and the picture shows the "Wang Ye" (pictured) published in the PEN edition on August 23, 1946.
Mr. Ke Ling immediately sent a letter to Mr. Guo Shaoyu, the head of the Tongji Chinese Department, and he also got a reply. In a short period of time, Mr. Guo Shaoyu actually wrote me four letters in his busy schedule for my study.
This is a letter sent by registered mail.
Brother Xiang: Come and recite the book. The school's affairs are troublesome, and it seems that I have no clue yet. The trial reading has not yet been seen in the meeting. If yu Yi fails to try to read, he can change to audit, but he must pass the entrance examination again in the following years, and the homework he has learned cannot be recognized, and he must still review his ears in the future. This will take another year. In short, it seems appropriate to weigh the situation and then do the retribution. The Yenching Journal did not bring it south the last time it came back. Fortunately, this article has been included in the middle of the second volume of the History of Literary Criticism. The book has been typeset and will soon be ready for binding and publication, still printed by the Commercial Press. At present, Tongji has started school on December 1, but there is no official date for classes. The registration of new students is about ten days or so. Once there is a definite time, it will be disclosed in the newspaper. Yu Yi Chinese too many readers in the department to apply for the test, and the amount is very small, I am afraid that there is no hope. There may be a way to observe, if you wish, you can come to Shanghai around ten days. Resurrection, i.e., Ode
Learning order
Guo Shaoyu Jingqi December 4
Half a month later, Mr. Guo Shaoyu sent another letter. This is a letter reporting the "good news" that I have officially qualified as a probationary student.
Brother Xiang: After the night before and after the farewell, how to think about the journey. Regarding the trial reading, it was adopted at the meeting. New student registration is being processed within a day (trial students or later), and it is good to come to Shanghai to contact the school first. Trial reading approval, accommodation issues can also be discussed. i.e. Ode
ShaoYu December 20th
When I received such a letter, I was naturally very happy. I hastily rolled up a roll, took a steam train of more than three hours, and arrived at the school very early.
Formal classes are waiting for a long, long time. By the day classes finally began, the first year of the Faculty of Letters had less than thirty students in total. There are twelve members in the Department of Chinese, eight in the Department of Philosophy, and about six in the Department of Foreign Languages (Major in German).
When you go to class in the Red Chamber, you must first see the small red bungalow that belongs to the red building attached to the Red Chamber, which is a girls' dormitory. Entering the building, a building manager, a German man named "Baldon", was standing there.
The Chinese is located on the third floor. In addition to Guo Shaoyu, Mou Runsun, Yang Yizhi, Chen Quan, Feng Baolu, etc., most of the professors of the Faculty of Literature work part-time.
There are Li Zhenlin and Suo Tianzhang, who taught phonetics and university English at Fudan University, Zhang Yungu, who taught Shakespeare's Soochow University, Mu Mutian, an early creator poet and translator who taught foreign literary works, and Xu Jie, who taught new literary and art studies. Jiang Dayi of the Shanghai Municipal Museum teaches philology; there is also Western history, taught by a gentleman from the "News Daily".
What I still can't forget is that in the Chinese general history class, Mu Runsun's loud Beijing film. A silk coat wrapped around the slightly chubby body. In the first lesson, he introduced himself as a student of the historian Chen Yuan. The kind of incessant flow in class, the meticulous quotation of scriptures, makes people believe that he is indeed a brilliant master from the door of the master of history.
Li Zhenlin wore a suit and shoes, worked as a teaching assistant at Tsinghua University, and returned from The United Kingdom. As an expert in phonetics, a London English speaker, the use of oral cavity, is extraordinary. In English, the university chose the book compiled by Chen Futian of the Southwest United University. Among them, the British essay maugham wrote about Gu Hongming's essay, so that the strange Old Man of Fujian with long braids still seems to be in his heart.
The one who had been arrested by Nazi Hitler during his studies in Germany, who studied Hegel and translated Hegel, Yang Yizhi, wore a green cloth coat all year round, and his face was blue, without a trace of blood. In his lessons, he must concentrate his mind sufficiently. Philosophers do have a different way of thinking than ordinary people. It is obscure and inevitable.
Mr. Feng Baolu (Feng Qi) also gave us several courses such as ethics. What is admirable is that he never reads the lecture script, but his eyes rarely touch everyone. The sound is neither high nor low, and it seems to be always carefully limited to a level that is smooth and steady. This look, like a primary school student who is endorsing in front of a teacher, was only thirty years old.
Guo Shaoyu told us about the history of Chinese literature and the university Chinese language. He was a scholar of his own and a scholar of ancient Chinese literature. In particular, his "History of Chinese Literary Criticism" is a masterpiece. He was also one of the pioneers of more than a dozen new poems during the May Fourth period. His calligraphy belongs to his family. Unfortunately, he is not good at talking. The university's Mandarin is his self-compiled "Examples of Learning Texts". This work uses representative ancient and modern texts and representative translations for classification and comparative evaluation, which is very distinctive.
Mr. Xu Jie is a very easy-going person. He taught new literary and artistic studies and promoted his strengths. That summer, it was another scorching day, and he was teaching part-time at the National Institute of Social Education in Suzhou, ran to my home in Panru Lane and sat for a while. Then there were two other classmates together, and the three of them accompanied him from Lindun Road in Suzhou from north to south, all the way to Canglang Pavilion. In this oldest garden, four masters and apprentices wander between a mountain and a stone by the pool. It is not easy to forget to have a little "nostalgia for the past" but to win a moment of spiritual pleasure.
In Professor Zhang Yungu's Shakespeare class, for some reason, I think of Gogol's beggar coff. He has a bit of a big belly. In my junior high school years, I only read the "Model Junior High School English Textbook" compiled by Lin Handa, and listened to him talk about "Shakespeare". For Shakespeare, I have only seen Liang Shiqiu's translation of The Merchant of Venice. Later, I learned that in addition to studying Shakespeare, Mr. Zhang Yungu was also versatile, good at finger paintings like Gao Qipei in the Qing Dynasty, and was one of the pioneers of early oil painting on the mainland.
During this period, it was funny to say that I, a person who did not know German, also ran into the classroom of the Department of Foreign Languages and listened to Professor Chen Quan's class. I just wanted to meet this person who wrote the script "Wild Rose", became famous for a while, and was the only expert in Germanic history in The country. His short stature, round face with round black-rimmed glasses, and a dashing and confident look do have a unique style. As for the legend of his classmates that he loved to imitate Hitler, it was just a joke. However, in his later years, his sad fate was unimaginable to anyone.
What is still unforgettable is the spirit of unity, fraternity, hardship and hard work of Tongji students. Most of the students, penniless, ate black bread and leftover canned food from the US military at three meals a day at the "Relief Canteen" organized by the United Nations Relief Administration, and in the cold winter, they wore black cloth Chinese cotton jackets and pants that they did not match. As the engineering college of Tongji University's base camp, so many students live in the gymnasium of the school left by the Japanese, using old cloth to separate it into small spaces that are not easy to ventilate and can only be placed in a bed. They spent one cold winter after another here, and spent one hot summer after another.
At this time, the Kuomintang government was corrupt, prices were soaring, and the people were not happy...
The demonstrations organized by the school's "Student Self-Government Association" have become another classroom for understanding reality and life. Reality really has its subtle power, and it does educate everyone. More and more students are taking to the streets.
On February 9, 1947, the tragic case of Kuomintang agents killing Liang Renda, an employee of the domestic goods company, occurred in the Nanjing Road Persuasion Building, and the news immediately spread to the school. The "Shanghai Literary and Art Youth Association" initiated by Ding Jingtang and others outside the school issued a "declaration of protest" on February 18, 1947. Among them are:
...... The blood of the dead and the wounded has lit up the road, we must break through the darkness and move forward, our demands are in line with the vast number of people, we must also be with the patriots, to avenge the dead, to vent hatred for the wounded, and to greet the dawn with the blood of martyrs! ......
The protest document was signed by Xue Shan, Yuan Ying, Bao Qiang, Rong Ge, Sha Ou, Xiang Yi, Liao Xiaofan, and more than fifty others, which were published in a number of progressive newspapers such as Shanghai Wen Wei Po.
The reality of Liang Renda's death has educated everyone and deeply educated me. This protest letter was signed by Tongji classmates Xiang Yi and Liao Xiaofan. I also signed it.
In the short time of my alma mater, many things have faded in my memory. However, there are some things, although trivial and very common, that will still be remembered, that is, the matter of visiting Guo Moruo.
A manuscript of a book by Wang Zaoshi, who teaches at Fudan University, asked Guo Moruo to write a preface. One day, a classmate of the Philosophy Department and I went to the nearby "Guo Yu" on Deswell Road, which sat north and south, facing the Kuomintang police station. In the small Western-style house, as soon as I entered the door, I saw a group of children crying and crying, and Yu Liqun was busy on the side. I could only put down the manuscript and turn around and retreat. Not far out of the door, on the sidewalk, I saw Guo Moruo's green cloth coat and foot cloth shoes, step by step. We only hesitated for a moment, and he walked by step...
The phrase "lost" may be the case.
There is also the "One-Two-Nine" incident in Tongji, which will not be forgotten. On the eve of "1.29", everyone gathered in the room of the engineering college venue and canteen to hold a literary and art evening. Under the close surveillance of Kuomintang agents, Situ Han of the Conservatory of Music directed everyone to sing over and over again, "Who will open the wasteland on the mountain?" "Over there in the mountains!" Good place" and other red songs. There are also Zang Kejia and other enthusiastic poetry recitations by people in the literary and art circles... The scene is intense and majestic. That night, many students from other colleges huddled on the floor of the engineering school classroom and spent an unusually cold night.
The next morning, as soon as the huge student petition team set off, they confronted Wu Guozhen, the then mayor of the Kuomintang Shanghai, and the armed horse team and the "flying fortress" led by him on its beautiful road...
After the "one-two-nine" in Tongji, the campus air was very low. Naturally, I, a man of strong blood and strong and dissatisfied with the reality of the Kuomintang, will not lead to silence because of this, and one person has set up a poster named "Everyone", collecting some underground remarks and news, and posting them on the wall of the canteen shared by the two colleges of literature and law in the middle of the night. At the same time, I also participated in the "Tongji Renren" newspaper and did a little work. One day, I was told to evacuate the school and go to the Liberated Areas. It was an autumn evening in 1948, and on a departing day, a classmate of the Department of Foreign Languages took off his thin cotton robe, which still had his body temperature, and asked me to put it on. Therefore, led by a expelled classmate of Tongji Medical College who was acting as an "underground traffic officer", he reached an open area in eastern Anhui through layers of blockade lines. Here, day and night, with the guerrilla forces attacking the enemy bunkers ... Soon after, the troops were ordered by Liu Deng's army to concentrate on Dabie Mountain. So a new life began.
Manuscript by the author of this article
Postscript This little article was inspired by chance. Tongji life is indeed an important part of my young life that I often think of. Especially those students who were so upright and friendly back then. Unfortunately, many of them died in the 1960s and 1970s, at an age when they should not have died! Including the classmate who took off his cotton robe from his body before leaving Shanghai and draped it on me, and the worker who silently hosted the "Tongji Ren" newspaper... After parting, I never saw them again. Life is in a hurry, and it has passed like this!
In the late autumn of 2021, it was written in Shanghai Yirun Garden
Author: Zhang Xianghuan
Editor: Wu Dongkun
Editor-in-Charge: Shu Ming
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.