Mr. Zhang Hao, a famous historian, recently passed away in San Francisco, USA, at the age of 86. Zhang Hao specializes in the history of modern Chinese thought and political thought, and has written a lot of books and won many honors at home and abroad. Historian and academician of the Academia Sinica, Wang Fansen, was deeply surprised after receiving the obituary, and also wrote a memorial, on the one hand, recalling the interesting exchanges between the two, and also recalling Mr. Zhang's academic career and life experience with us.
This article is reproduced from the Lianjing Thought Space, click on the end of the article to view the original text of the web page.
Flowing water for forty years
——Tribute to Mr. Zhang Hao
Text | Wang Fansen
Source | Lianjing Thought Space
On the way to work on April 22, I suddenly received a phone call from Master Yu from the United States, and I hurriedly picked it up, and Master mother said, "Mr. Zhang has passed." Because the car had just driven into the tunnel, I was a little flustered, so I asked, "Which Mr. Zhang?" The reason why I didn't immediately think of Mr. Zhang Hao was mainly because when I saw Mr. Zhang at the online book donation ceremony of the National Library of China in February this year, I thought that he was in good condition, so I didn't expect that mr. Zhang would pass away two months later.
For more than two years, I have often thought of the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" in the Bible, who have always joined forces: plague, war, famine, and death. The coronavirus, the War between Ukraine and Russia, the hunger that has been banned in the epidemic areas, and death. The death of Teacher Yu Yingshi and Mr. Zhang Hao is shocking. Because of the epidemic, I didn't talk to the two of them for a long time, and then one day I woke up and suddenly found that the figure of the Death Knight had quietly appeared beside them.
Mr. Zhang is a master of modern Chinese intellectual history, and his writings are available for everyone to refer to. In a hurry, I can only talk about my several encounters with Mr. Zhang.
I feel that Mr. Zhang was concerned about Liang Qichao and the transition of modern Chinese civilization in the early days, while at this stage, he was quite concerned about the temperament, meaning of life, feelings of existence and social order of historical figures.
One
If I think about it, I first met Mr. Zhang Hao exactly forty years ago, in the summer of 1982, when I followed the members of the China Times Qilan Mountain Villa conference all the way from the Taipei Taiwan Convention Hall to Yilan Qilan Villa. I remember the tour bus driving on the Beihai Highway, and then stopping at a scenic spot, I heard Mr. Yu Yingshi praise the beauty of this highway, just like the Kamal Highway in California (so I hope to visit the Kamal Highway one day in the future). When people came out of the bathroom, I took the initiative to ask Mr. Zhang Hao a question, and Mr. Zhang, who was forty-five years old at the time, talked about it. I remember Mr. Yu jokingly saying, "Zhang Hao is bragging again!" Then the two looked at each other and laughed.
In the whole forty years, Mr. Zhang had very few opportunities to be with me, but there should be a lot of things worth writing, and now because the time and the materials at hand are uneven, I can only write a few personally impressive things first.
Mr. Zhang rarely wrote letters, but in the first few years of our acquaintance, I seem to have received several letters from him. The first letter, which he replied to me around the spring of 1983, I don't remember the details, but one of the passages was to ask me to read several of Max Weber's books, the most memorable one was "Sociology of Religion", and Mr. Zhang ended with the words "natural entry into Hong Kong" after reading the above books.
There was a Weber fever in Taiwan, and many of Weber's English translations were pirated, and I eagerly read all the Weber books that I could get my hands on, but the Sociology of Religion (English) was unfamiliar. So, I used to read The Sociology of Religion every night at the officer's quarters of the Army Noncommissioned Officer School with a yellow light. For me, the book was rather obscure and difficult, and it took almost a hundred days to read it. Today, most of the arguments in the book are no longer remembered.
Another letter was probably in 1985, when I sent my newly published "Zhang Taiyan Thought" to Mr. Zhang for correction. Unexpectedly, Mr. Zhang actually came with a letter of congratulations. Mr. Zhang was very generous, and in his second English book, China Intellectuals in Crisis, Search for Order and Meaning, 1890-1911, he quoted the arguments of Zhang Taiyan Thought many times, which flattered me.
In the years after the meeting at Qilan Mountain Villa, Mr. Zhang seems to have been firmly entangled in the manuscript of The Chinese Intellectualsin Crisis, dragging on for seven or eight years, and delaying the completion of the manuscript. Madame Zhang warned him of what would happen if the book was not broken!
I feel that Mr. Zhang was concerned about Liang Qichao and the transition of modern Chinese civilization in the early days, while at this stage, he was quite concerned about the temperament, meaning of life, feelings of existence and social order of historical figures. I remember Mr. Zhang telling me that the subtitle of the book Chinese Intellectuals in Crisis was originally intended to use beyondwealth and power, indicating that he did not think that everything in modern China was in the pursuit of "rich" and "strong" - this is the English title of Schwartz's famous book "Yan Fu": In Search of Wealth and Power, and there is also a fierce conflict in the meaning of life and feelings. However, Mr. Zhang later changed the subtitle to "Seeking Meaning and Order".
The care for the existence and meaning of life is not only expressed in Chinese Intellectuals in Crisis, but also in the book "Martyr Spirit and Critical Consciousness: An Analysis of Tan Si Tong's Thought", and part of it has spread to the discussion of "Dark Consciousness and Democratic Tradition", which was first published at the 1982 Conference at Qilan Mountain Villa.
Zhang Hao: The Spirit of Martyrs and Critical Consciousness: An Analysis of Tan Sitong's Thought (Lianjing, 1988)
Hao Chang, Chinese Intellectuals in Crisis:Search for Order and Meaning, 1890 - 1911 (SMC Publishing,1987)
Mr. Zhang is a man without a shelf. When I worked at the Institute of History and Language after I returned to China, every time Mr. Zhang came to Taiwan to attend the academician meeting, he would always try to sit in my research room to see what books I was reading and have a casual chat.
Two
In 1987, I went to the United States to study. While studying in the United States, because the curriculum was very compact, I only went to the Midwest for the first time in 1991. Flipping through a notebook that remained at the time, I was on a Greyhound bus (and the only time) that year when I first visited Mr. Xu Anderson and his old friend Ye Kuang in Pittsburgh on June 2 of that year, and then Yau Weijun drove me to Columbus, Ohio. Depart at 9 p.m. and arrive at 12 o'clock. Today, I vividly remember the car galloping on a flat, endless Midwestern highway. Mr. Zhang has been at Ohio State University for thirty years, and this is the only time I've visited his home in Columbus.
On that visit, we talked hastily about my PhD thesis. Mr. Zhang's knowledge of the history of Western thought is very profound, and our discussion soon focuses on the influence of positivism on modern Chinese thinkers and how it has changed the thinking of the New Culture Movement.
During this brief visit to Zhang's house, I was more impressed by the pale blue wallpaper of the house and the large study of the glass house; at a quick glance, the most conspicuous thing was a large set of four old series. I remember Mr. Zhang setting up a banquet in a restaurant that day, and he said, "The taste of instant noodles is really enjoyable!" Years later, when I quoted this sentence at a dinner party in Taipei, the hostess said rather unhappily: "Wang Fansen, I invited you to eat such a hearty dish, and you actually talked about instant noodles."
Mr. Zhang is a man without a shelf. When I worked at the Institute of History and Language after I returned to China, every time Mr. Zhang came to Taiwan to attend the academician meeting, he would always try to sit in my research room to see what books I was reading and have a casual chat.
In 1999, I was invited to visit the Department of History at the University of Chinese in Hong Kong for a semester, and since Mr. Cheung was also teaching at HKUST at that time, we had two or three rounds in Clearwater Bay, Hong Kong. During the conversation, I felt that Mr. Zhang's academic concern at that time was mainly "the era of transformation of modern thought". At that time, because of heart surgery, Mr. Zhang could only eat oil-free, salt-free and tasteless food. Due to the time-consuming transportation to and from the traffic, it always comes and goes in a hurry every time. There are two things worth mentioning in the impression, one is to talk about the clues of the fierce thinking in modern times, and Mr. Zhang has repeatedly pointed out the keyness of Tan Sitong and Li Dazhao's thinking. Second, Mr. Zhang hopes to co-write with me about "The Era of Transformation of Modern Thought". Another interesting thing. Once after dinner, Mr. Zhang suddenly said, I heard that you have learned taekwondo, can you demonstrate it, I immediately kicked in his living room for a while. Mr. Zhang quickly grasped the point: "You are used to your right foot!"
The poet Rilke said: I have a mysterious contract with my body, but no one knows how long this mysterious contract can last. The sudden death of Mr. Zhang is "great sorrow and speechless", and the thoughts are tragic.
Three
On August 28, 2019, Mrs. Zhang Hao died of illness, and I decided to visit Mr. Zhang in Reston when I went to the United States for a meeting. On the evening of September 23 of that year, we finally touched Reston from Princeton. This was also the last long conversation with Mr. Zhang. From September 24th and 25th, we all went to Zhangfu at eleven o'clock in the morning, and then talked about leaving after dinner, and in the middle (24th) we also went to Lake Ann together in the evening for a long time.
This discussion is mainly About Mr. Zhang's life experience, especially the interesting things about Mr. Zhang's early years of study, and the future destination of Mr. Zhang's collection of books, in addition to three points: First, he said that his family went to Taiwan in 1949, studied in Taiwan for ten years, studied in the United States in 1959, then studied in the History Department of Ohio State University for thirty years, retired to the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as a chair professor for eight years, and returned to the United States from Hong Kong to stay in Reston for fourteen years. Second, Mr. Zhang said that after he went to the United States to study, he was immersed in theory, listened to lectures everywhere, and was deeply influenced by Robert Bellah. He specifically mentioned Robert Bellah as a clue to his quest for knowledge at the time. At Harvard, he was heavily influenced by several active scholars of that generation: Parsons, Robert Bellah, Shmuel Eisenstadt, Clifford Geertz (introduced by Robert Bellah). Mr. Zhang said that his mentor Schwartz had both approval and reservations about his going to lectures. Mr. Yu once told me that When Mr. Zhang Hao was a student, he always ran to Harvard's William James Building (Social Sciences), and once he asked Mr. Zhang, "Why do you always drill there?" Mr. Zhang replied, "I don't care about this!" Third, in this conversation, his father, Professor Zhang Qingzhen/Legislator, was also mentioned. Mr. Zhang said his father was a J.D. from Northwestern University in Chicago. Because the time spent in school is too short, they often have doubts in their hearts. One year, Mr. Zhang and his sister wrote a letter to Northwestern University asking for confirmation of his father's degree, and Mr. Zhang told me very funny that he did not expect that the answer was confirmed.
Robert Bellah
Shmuel Eisenstadt
In addition to the above, of course, we also talked about many past events, as well as one or two academic issues, especially the problem that I have been trying to sort out for many years about the "unstable layers of Qing rule". Although no definite conclusions were reached in this discussion, Mr. Zhang also made a comment.
Mr. Zhang is Yin Haiguang's proud protégé, but he is very ancient. Mr. Zhang is the son of a famous father, who has lived a good life since childhood, and his father has great expectations for his only son, so he often takes him everywhere to ask for advice from his elders, including Cheng Cangbo. Cheng Cangbo bore the name of the text, and the scope of the consultation at that time was mainly ancient Chinese, so Mr. Zhang could memorize ancient Texts, and ancient texts had become part of his flesh and blood, and sentences such as "Ergong Erhou" often blurted out between daily conversations. Sometimes it is mixed with words like "the fist is messed up" in martial arts novels.
Mr. Zhang believes that the best state of interaction between people is to "look at each other and smile, do not contradict the heart". Therefore, it is not limited by time and space, and there is no need to stick to red tape. In the past forty years, I have personally been deeply supported and cared for by Mr. Zhang, to the point where I don't know how to say thank you. For a few years, I was trapped in some kind of illness. Mr. Zhang paid great attention to this matter, and during the academician meeting, he rushed to the relevant academicians to consult the prescription, and his situation is still vividly remembered.
The temperament of life that Mr. Zhang appreciates is heavy and has a temperament. He told me several times that he didn't like the beautiful style of writing, preferring square, hard, monumental calligraphy, which was actually reflected in the hard pen characters he wrote. Mr. Zhang even sighed with a classical taste. On the three days of autumn 2019, that is, the last time we met, Mr. Zhang repeatedly said: "Advise the jun not to grow old!" "It's all over the place!" In particular, the phrase "all the way to the past" is repeated and repeated, which is frightening. The poet Rilke said: I have a mysterious contract with my body, but no one knows how long this mysterious contract can last. The sudden death of Mr. Zhang is "great sorrow and speechless", and the thoughts are tragic.