The Surging News reporter Ming Que intern Ding Chaoyi Ge Bei'er
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Changsha Qingshuitang, Hunan Publishing Bureau dormitory, Zhong Shuhe has lived here since 2002, and there is a bamboo plaque with "Nian Lou" written on the doorstep of his home, because in the 20th floor, "20" is pronounced "Nian".
The room has maroon floor, white walls, air conditioning set at 24 degrees and humidity is just right. Zhong Shuhe, 91, is lying on a hand-cranked lift bed, wearing a dark T-shirt with a checkered blanket over his feet. He said, "I'm half-dead right now. ”
On the afternoon of July 30, Zhong Shuhe was in the NianLou. Unless otherwise noted, the text was taken by Rumi.
A year ago, he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed, hospitalized for half a year, had limited mobility, and was even frustrated by eating, reading, and writing. "If you want to hang yourself and jump off a building, it's impossible." Unable to move and unable to eat, he lost more than a dozen pounds. He would say leisurely, "I am not afraid of death, but I am afraid of pain." ”
Born in November 1931, Zhong Shuhe only read books in school for six years, experienced social changes such as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Liberation, the "Cultural Revolution", reform and opening up, pulled a scooter, sat in unjust prison, and was born at the age of 49 before regaining his freedom, becoming an editor of the publishing house, planning and editing books such as "Toward the World Series" and "Zhou Zuoren's Complete Essays", which have influenced countless Chinese.
The "Towards the World Series" published in the 1980s.
"Going global"
In the 1980s, Zhong Shuhe's "Toward the World Series" edited by Zhong Shuhe was published, causing a sensation in academic, ideological and even cultural circles. The series of books contains the texts left by modern Chinese intellectuals who went abroad to study, envoy, travel and investigate between 1840 and 1911, and is also a record of the early Chinese going to the world and observing modern civilization.
Li Yihao, who was the head of the Planning Group for the Collation and Publication of Ancient Books of the State Council, called it "the most ideological, scientific and creative set of books in the collation of ancient documents." In 2006, the Beijing News published the article "Re-reading the 'Toward the World Series'" by Professor Lu Jiande, deputy director of the Institute of Foreign Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, which said: To this day, this series of books still has the power to make people uneasy.
The breeding of this power first came from Zhongshuhe's childhood reading. When he was young, he read some books at home, such as Rong Hong's "The Gradual Record of Western Learning and Eastern Learning", Huang Zunxian's "Chronicle of Japan", Kang Youwei's "Travels in Eleven European Countries"... Zhong Shuhe said that these are all books that exist in the Republic of China, and some of them are universal library books.
On July 23, Zhong Shuhe, speaking a Changsha dialect, recalled to the surging news reporter: "Chinese civilization has a strong ability to inherit, so it is particularly difficult for Chinese to go global." "Because of his left hemiplegia, he speaks slowly, somewhat laboriously, and coughs occasionally.
"Even if you don't want to, your feet seem to be dragging iron shackles and iron balls, you have to go to this world." For there is no way for you to get out of this world, even if you have wings on both feet. Wherever man goes, it is the world, and it becomes the world of man. In March 1984, Qian Zhongshu wrote a preface to the "Toward the World Series" and published it in the People's Daily of that year.
In 1984, Qian Zhongshu wrote a preface to "Toward the World". Courtesy of respondents.
Zhong Tingting, the second daughter of Zhong Shuhe, remembers that before the publication of the complete set, hardcover, and large-scale "Towards the World Series", she had read the small single-line book of this series of books, and was very surprised that the content was what the predecessors saw and heard in the process of going abroad and going to the world, most of which were diaries and travel notes, which were easy to understand but of extraordinary significance.
For example, in 1871, after Zhang Deyi witnessed the events of the Paris Commune, he wrote "Notes on The Envoy to France". Previously, international claims that before 1927, China had almost no writing or reaction related to the Paris Commune. The discovery and publication of The Envoy to France changed the view of historians on this issue.
Zhong Shuhe said that all human beings are slowly moving towards global civilization from the original scattered, partial, and isolated existence. Nowadays, China and the world have become one and should go global.
Less time green lights
In the autumn of 1938, as the Invading Japanese approached Changsha, 7-year-old Zhong Shuhe was sent back to Pingjiang County, north of Changsha, by his father.
It was the hometown of his father, Zhong Changyan. In Pingjiang, the Zhong family is a large family, with many ancestral fields and real estate. When Zhong Changyan was young, he took the Imperial Examination of the Qing Dynasty; Later, he was admitted to the Shiwu Academy and became one of the earliest students there. He was a student of Liang Qichao.
However, when Zhong Shuhe was born, his father Zhong Changyan was 58 years old and worked as a mathematics teacher at a middle school in Changsha. Due to the large age difference between father and son, Zhong Shuhe remembers that his father has always been an old man, often going out with people to drink and chat, and rarely accompanying him. But he liked his father more than his mother, because his father never cared about him and bought him books from time to time. The mother was strictly disciplined and had a bad temper, always with a serious face.
From the age of 7 to 15, Zhong Shuhe followed his mother in Pingjiang to transition from adolescence to a teenager. There, he saw for the first time the grass seedlings in the field, the green vegetables in the vegetable field, and the domestic chickens, ducks, geese, dogs... At night, when he sat under the green lantern and read Zhiwei novels, he found his shadow cast on the wall, and when the wind blew, the lamp flame flashed, and the shadow also fluttered. The mother sat on the edge doing needlework, and the shadow drifted with it.
In those days, my father stayed in Changsha and rarely returned to Pingjiang. Once, on his father's birthday, in order to avoid others to make him a birthday, he secretly ran back to Pingjiang to see Zhong Shuhe. His father lamented to him that some of his classmates, such as Cai Yi, Fan Yuanlian, the principal of Beijing Normal University, Yang Shuda, etc., were very successful, and he himself achieved nothing. "You have to read more books, don't be as unproductive as I am." Father ding.
In his later years, Zhong Shuhe recalled his father, saying that although he was cultured, he was a nerd who did not understand the world.
Zhong Shuhe has been active, mischievous and unruly since childhood. His mother did not allow him to run around, and always let him read more books... He didn't like it. When he was four or five years old, he ran out of his home in Changsha's Red Wall Lane, crossed a railway, ran to a place called Xiecaoping to play, catch crickets, crickets, dirty clothes, and even run outside. Every time he went back after playing, he would always hear his mother's nagging, which made him grow disgusted.
It was not until adulthood that Zhong Shuhe slowly understood her mother: she had never read a book, and at a young age married a man who was more than 20 years older than herself and was widowed twice. Because the door was not right, her father's relatives looked down on her. For this reason, the mother felt aggrieved and pinned her hopes on him.
However, when Zhong Shuhe lived with his mother in Pingjiang, he did read a lot of books to pass the time in the countryside. He looked through the old books at home, including "Records of History", "Zuo Zhuan", "Notes on Reading Wei Caotang" and so on. At first, he didn't read much, but later he read more books, and gradually he knew them all.
During that time, he almost finished reading the old novels at home, and also came into contact with some Chinese write new books abroad. There is a female writer named Lü Bicheng, who writes old poems, the writing is very beautiful, and positions herself as a person like Li Qingzhao, but she wrote "European and American Travels", in which her life is very European. Impressed him.
On the afternoon of July 30, Zhong Shuhe was reading.
Because of the war, Zhong Shuhe only studied in school for six years: one year in the sixth grade of primary school, three years in junior high school, and two years in high school. His cousins and uncles had read books, and they would occasionally teach him.
Before the Spring Festival in 1945, Zhong Shuhe, who was in junior high school, moved with the school to a mountain village called "Papaya" on the border of Xianggan and Gansu. One snowy night, he borrowed a copy of "The History of Rulin" and hurriedly read it, but he could not read it after the lights went out in his bedroom. Zhong Shuhe remembered the ancient story of "sac fluorescent snow", a person ran to the snow outside the house to read a book, and found that it was impossible to read books with the reflection of snow. Only then did he realize that he began to reflect.
This experience is written in the book "Editing Zhong Shuhe" co-authored by director Peng Xiaolian (who died of illness in 2019) and screenwriter Wang Jian.
Wang Jian told reporters that this spirit of doubt and reflection later made Zhong Shuhe not trust others and always insist on being himself.
As an adult, Zhong Shuhe liked to quote the Famous Quote of the French poet Musé: My cup is small, but I drink water from my cup. He later added, "In fact, it is not easy to insist on drinking water only from your own cup." ”
In June 1949, Zhong Shuhe was a sophomore in Changsha Literature and Art Middle School and was recognized as a left-leaning student in the school. When the summer vacation was almost over, it was said that it was about to be liberated, and the underground party asked students to stay in school and protect the school. However, the Kuomintang Three Youth League at the school insisted on taking a holiday, stopping the opening of the gang, and wanted to share the surplus food expenses. So the two sides fought.
That time, Zhong Shuhe was beaten to the head and bled, and was sent to the hospital.
Later, the father went to the hospital to see him, pushed open the door of the ward, and saw that the son on the bed was distressed: "It is like a Karma. He cried out loud.
In the fall of 1965, his father, Zhong Changyan, died at the age of 88. Many years later, Zhong Shuhe wrote in an article recalling his father: In the thirty-five years that I lived with him in the world, I only saw him cry this time. "Until now, whenever I think of my father, what comes to me is still a pair of tearful eyes of the old man."
From journalist to editor
In the winter of 1949, Zhong Shuhe followed the girl he liked to apply for the training class for news cadres, and later entered the "New Hunan News".
At that time, he was under 18 years old and in his second year of high school. Originally, his ideal was to study archaeology after graduating from high school. This accidental act changed his life and destiny from then on. The girl, because of the opposition of her family, did not enter the newspaper with him.
Zhong Shuhe, 18 years old, has just entered the "New Hunan News" work. Courtesy of respondents.
Yin and yang, Zhong Shuhe became a reporter. Once, he and an old reporter went to the countryside to interview, after the interview, the old reporter wrote a newsletter for him to read, Zhong Shuhe felt that it was not good to write, he wrote another one, pasted a stamp and threw it into the mailbox and sent it to the newspaper. A few days later, his article was published in the newspaper.
Zhong Shuhe listened to his colleagues say that the leaders of the newspaper company wrote a long instruction on the sample at that time, which meant that the selection of manuscripts should depend on the quality of the articles, not on the author's name, the articles of the old comrades may not be good, and the articles of the new comrades may not be bad. This gave him a lot of encouragement and confidence.
At the same time, the girl he followed ran to Xinjiang for some reason, unwilling to come back. Soon, the relationship between the two broke off.
In the autumn of 1950, the newspaper came with several young reporters, all of whom were transferred from the "Democracy Daily", and one of the girls was Zhu Chun, who graduated from Guizhou Normal School, with two thick braids, standing in the crowd particularly conspicuous. Zhong Shuhe fell in love with her, and the two soon began to communicate.
Two years later, 22-year-old Zhong Shuhe married Zhu Chun, 24, and then gave birth to four daughters in succession.
Zhong Shuhe felt that marrying Zhu Chun was the most successful thing in his life. He talked about the criteria for finding a partner in the tone of a person who came over: "The other party's salary cannot be lower than mine, Zhu Chun's salary is not lower than mine, otherwise the burden is too heavy, my money will subsidize the family, and there will be no way to buy books." He once advised Li Mianyan, a single female editor after the 80s of Yuelu Book Club, that it is best to find a partner who does not need to look up, does not have to be too demanding, and finds the right person.
In 1957, Zhong Shuhe and Zhu Chun were dismissed from public office by the New Hunan Newspaper for being branded as "rightists." Before leaving, their monthly salaries added up to more than 160 yuan. Suddenly, neither of them had an income, and the family's life was in a difficult situation. At that time, Zhu Chun was pregnant with her fourth daughter, only two months before the due date.
At the same time, Zhu Zheng, who was also knocked down, entered the "New Hunan News" with Zhong Shuhe. The two often went to the antique bookstore together to look for old books, and talked about ideals and the future together. On July 23, Zhong Shuhe recalled that Zhu Zheng felt sad and desperate at that time, and every time, Zhong Shuhe advised the other party: "We must live well." ”
On August 3, Zhu Zheng went to Nianlou to visit Zhong Shuhe, and the two were friends of the same month of the same year. Wang Ping photographed.
This is also what Zhong Shuhe often said to his wife Zhu Chun. It was a difficult and long time. In order not to implicate their parents, the couple moved out of Zhong Shuhe's parents' house and rented a house. At that time, his father, Zhong Changyan, was a librarian at the Hunan Museum of Culture and History.
After the birth of his fourth daughter, Zhong Xianxian, Zhu Chun went into a street factory to work odd jobs, and later made wooden molds. Zhong Shuhe began to push the scooter and carry the bag.
"It's not hard to do hard work, and the waist pain will not hurt for a few days." Having said that, Zhong Shuhe still suffered from the pain of life, and later went to work as a wooden molder, drawing, fitter, etc., because the salary was higher than that of the cart.
Half a century ago, Zhong Shuhe personally made bamboo carpentry.
Wang Jian said that everyone will encounter darkness and fall into the bottom of the valley, and Zhong Shuhe is the one who runs in front of him with a torch.
For a time, the family could not open the pot, and the family was forced to separate: Zhu Chun and his eldest daughter lived in an abandoned small bathhouse in the street factory; Zhong Shuhe and his second daughter Zhong Tingting rented a friend's small house; The third daughter went to her aunt's house; The fourth daughter disappeared after being sent to an orphanage in Inner Mongolia and was not found until more than a decade later.
During this period, Zhong Shuhe learned to "cook". Zhong Tingting remembers that before his father went out in the morning, he stirred the flour with water and steamed it on the stove, which was the meal of the father and daughter for a day. In the evening, my father came home sweaty, and after eating pasta, he went to the well to fetch a bucket of water and bathe in the bathhouse, and the sound of "rushing" water accompanied by the hoarse singing of "Ode to the Yellow River" came out. "He's an optimistic guy and never complains." Zhong Tingting said father. Only later, the family lived together again.
In March 1970, Zhong Shuhe experienced the "Cultural Revolution" criticism and was imprisoned for 9 years. Zhu Chun relied on making wooden molds, and took his three daughters alone until her husband was released from prison in 1979.
On the same day, Zhong Tingting went to Zhuzhou Chaling to pick up his father from prison, and saw the other party wearing a torn cotton jacket and walking out from behind the iron gate, feeling a pang of sadness. At that time, Zhong Tingting had already become an adult, and had already experienced the cold and warm of human feelings and the changes in the world. What made her happy was that her father was still happy as before, and came back to talk about happy things all the way.
After Zhong Shuhe was rehabilitated, he was reluctant to return to the New Hunan Newspaper, and after being introduced by Zhu Zheng, he entered the Hunan People's Publishing House and became a book editor.
"At that time, I was only 49 years old, not yet 50 years old." On August 7, 91-year-old Zhong Shuhe lay in bed and lamented that time was fleeting.
"Outer Circle Inner Square"
In 1979, Zhong Shuhe found his missing fourth daughter, Zhong Xianxian, and brought her back to Changsha.
At that time, Zhong Xianxian was an adult. For a long time, when she returned to Changsha, she worried that her adoptive father was too lonely and wanted to return to Inner Mongolia to take care of her adoptive father. Every time, Zhong Xianxian ran to his father's office, and before he could speak, Zhong Shuhe asked her, "Did you write a letter to your adoptive father?" Did you send him money? Zhong Xianxian kept crying, and Zhong Shuhe accompanied her to shed tears while saying, "Si Mao, I can't stop you." With such a cry, all of Zhong Xianxian's grievances dissipated.
Zhong Tingting said that under the comfort of her father, the fourth sister eventually stayed in Changsha and occasionally visited her adoptive father until the other party passed away.
Wang Ping, a neighbor who lives downstairs, is a retired editor of Hunan Publishing Group, one of the founders of Bookhouse magazine, and a friend of Zhong Shuhe. After moving into this building, the traffic became closer. Wang Ping felt that Zhong Shuhe was a person with an outer circle and an inner square, speaking gently and casually, but in fact, he had his own views and principles on people, things, and books, and was firm.
Before each volume of the "Towards the World Series" was published, Zhong Shuhe would write an introduction, that is, an introduction. At the time, colleagues advised him not to sign his name, saying "there is no such rule". Therefore, he had a clever move and changed his pen names such as "Gu JiShi", "He Shouzhong", "Jin Youke" and so on. It was not until 1984, when he was transferred to Yuelu Book Club as editor-in-chief, that he began to sign his real name.
In the 1980s, Zhong Shuhe entered the Hunan Publishing Group and took photos of his work. Courtesy of respondents.
The pen in Uncle Zhong's room.
In 1982, the "Zeng Guofan Wai Collection" and the photocopy of the "Complete Collection of Zeng Wenzheng Gong" were established. In 1984, Zhong Shuhe selected the responsible editor and started editing the "Complete Works of Zeng Guofan", "Zeng Guofan is the master of the old era and old culture. ”
In 1989, in an election organized by the Hunan Provincial Publishing Bureau, Zhong Shuhe lost the election and retired from the post of editor-in-chief of Yuelu Book Club. He originally planned to produce a hundred "Complete Books to the World", but after thirty-five kinds were published, they "abruptly stopped". In 1992, at the age of 61, Zhong Shuhe retired, but did not stop the work at hand.
He always believes that as long as he persists and works hard, he will be able to do what he wants to do.
Later, Zhong Shuhe collected materials and sorted out materials in his own name. Until 1998, Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House published "Zhou Zuo Humanities Edit" edited by Zhong Shuhe. In the spring of 2017, the editor-in-chief of the "Towards the World Series" was continued to be published, which lasted 37 years, and finally completed a hundred kinds of this set of books.
Wang Ping feels that Zhong Shuhe's excellence lies not only in his very strong editing ability, but also in his unique vision and knowing what books are valuable. And he has a tough personality and will never give up lightly.
Li Mianyan is the editor of the continuation of the "Towards the World Series" and the editor of the upcoming "Zhong Shuhe Collection". What she experienced most deeply was that Zhong Shuhe was serious about doing things, "to the point of outrage." Every time she took the manuscript to Zhong Shuhe, the other party was so delicate that it was modified with a 0.35 mm refill, again and again, each time changing it to "full of paper smoke clouds".
Wang Ping also helped Zhong Shuhe compile a book, and he said that Zhong Shuhe revised the manuscript not a few times, but a dozen times. Tirelessly revised, the little girl of typography was afraid. But sometimes, after Zhong Shuhe finished changing the manuscript, he would also say: "I sometimes think that some places may be better before they have not been changed, but I am this habit and have been generated." ”
Zhong Shuhe was only a professional editor for more than a decade, but he became one of the most influential publishers of that era. In 1994, Zhong Shuhe won the third Taofen Publishing Award, and his name was included in five international dictionaries of personal names, including The Who's Who in the World. In 2017, at the East Asian Publishers Conference, Zhong Shuhe was awarded the "Special Contribution Award".
Wang Ping felt that compared with other scholars, Zhong Shuhe had no college flavor on his body, only a stronger pyrotechnic atmosphere and folk flavor. This is also the reason why Wang Ping likes to approach him.
Zhong Shuhe often writes back to readers for years, even decades, uninterrupted. Zhong Tingting said that his father has many friends, in addition to readers, booksellers, there are many friends, many of whom he has been friends since he was a child. In the first half of this year, a female friend of Zhong Shuhe came to visit him as a child, and the two sang childhood songs together.
As a book friend and reader, Wang Jian has sent books to Zhong Shuhe several times, and each time the other party will give her a copy in return. Wang Jian said that Zhong Shuhe pays attention to etiquette and is very careful, in order not to fold and dirty the book, he will wrap the book in paper every time and send it.
"I'm a person who can make friends with anyone, I can get along well with anyone, and I don't think I have any advantages." Zhong Shuhe said.
The old man who led a generation of Chinese "to the world" is motion sick, does not like to travel, likes to stay at home to read books, organize notes, and chat with friends. Almost all of his knowledge, of society and of the outside world, came from books, television, radio, friends, and so on.
Wang Ping said that Zhong Shuhe, Xiucai does not go out, can know the world's affairs.
Although he rarely went out, Zhong Shuhe went to Beijing four times to collect materials related to the "Towards the World Series" and the "Zhou Zuo Humanities Compilation". Only once, he and his wife Zhu Chun went to live with their eldest daughter in the United States for more than half a year, which was the only time in his life that he went abroad.
Zhong Shuhe recalled his trip to the United States more than 20 years ago, saying that he could not read English books, could not communicate with people, and was not used to living abroad.
The Zhong family's four daughters, three in Hunan and one in the United States. When they were young, they did not receive higher education for various reasons, and later through study and hard work, they all lived well. His four granddaughters, all of whom had studied abroad, said in Zhu Chun's words before his death, their family reached the third generation and finally "truly realized going to the world."
Now, all four daughters are retired, four granddaughters, one is working abroad, and three have returned to China to work. None of them worked in literature and history.
"He's still alone." Zhong Tingting said father.
Earlier, Zhu Zheng once said to Peng Xiaolian about Zhong Shuhe: "He is a material that can do more and greater things, but it is a pity that he attaches more importance to some realistic things, and the so-called ideal pursuit seems to be a little less." ”
On July 30, Zhong Shuhe said that compared with those great people, he was indeed too far behind. "Originally, my purpose was very ordinary, just to support myself, to support my family, and to live a very ordinary life." He said that if he had not entered the newspaper that year, he might have become a not-so-bad craftsman.
Suddenly, he turned to reporters and said, "As a peer, I want you to work hard... You are still young, you have to do a good job in your profession. My advice is that you have a stable income, as much as possible, you live well, it is possible to buy books, read books, read a lot of good books..."
"I'll leave when the hotel is closed"
Zhong Shuhe also said that the most important thing is to live long enough.
About 40 years ago, Zhongshuhe Zhong also had a wind. Zhong Tingting remembered that time, his father's mouth was crooked, and when he was eating, the chopsticks fell to the ground; While writing, the pen also dropped... This time it was worse than the last time, and he couldn't walk, eat, or even talk normally, fearing that he would never open his eyes again when he closed his eyes.
Fortunately, he recovered well.
During his hospitalization last year, at the suggestion of his daughter, Zhong Shuhe invited someone to his home to make an old-age transformation - the original steps were changed to slopes, and handrails were installed in corridors and toilets to facilitate his movements. Previously, he slept in the study, which was relatively small, and after being discharged, he moved to the larger room opposite and slept on a hand-cranked lift bed. Today, in addition to washing, going to the toilet and doing rehabilitation, he spends most of the day in bed.
He reads, writes, and writes every day, "with tight schedules, no leisure to mourn autumn and spring, fear of loneliness and death."
Uncle Zhong's study.
However, during last year's hospitalization, sometimes because he could not do anything, Zhong Shuhe thought of his late wife and could not help but cry.
In January 2007, Zhu Chun died of breast cancer.
For a long time, Zhong Shuhe could not accept this fact. He once mourned his deceased wife in an article: "The "Green Lantern Collection" published after my wife's death, one hundred and ten of the one hundred and twenty-three articles, were all printed by my wife during my illness, and some of them were also polished for me. After she left, it took me eighty days before I reluctantly regained my pen... My wife is gone, and for more than fifty years, the love affairs that I have shared with her are all in my heart, and every thought, like touching a new creation, always hurts. ”
When Zhu Chun was alive, the couple occasionally played billiards, played backgammon at home, or went for a walk in the park. But more often, Zhong Shuhe did not want to go out, and Zhu Chun kept nagging: "Zhong Shuhe, you don't move, you will soon die, these things (books) are mine when you die." ”
The past is like smoke, Zhu Chun has been dead for fifteen years.
The pool table in the living room of Uncle Zhong's family has almost become a decoration now.
On July 30, mentioning his wife again, Zhong Shuhe said that no matter what he did, Zhu Chun never interfered with him or blamed him. During the Cultural Revolution, Zhu Chun raised several children alone and sent them to his mother. They had been married for more than fifty years, and Zhu Chun took care of him and his children far more than herself, and the last thing she said to him was also: "You don't sleep too late." ”
After the death of his wife, Uncle Zhong went out even less.
Xie Shuqun, 51, who has been a nanny at the Zhong family for 24 years, said that "Daddy Zhong" was reluctant to go to the park to see the old man who was "surviving" and told her that there were not many days left.
Fortunately, there are often people in the house who visit the door, and "almost every day people come." Every time someone came, Zhong Shuhe talked to them in the room about astronomical geography, ancient and modern China and foreign countries... There will always be laughter from time to time. Once, Xie Shuqun stood outside the door eavesdropping, heard Daddy Zhong's cold joke, and couldn't help but laugh out loud.
On August 7, the reporter went to the "Nian Lou" for the third time and found that Zhong Shuhe had a circle of white gauze tied to his right arm. "This joint is sore, the bread is medicated, I only have my right hand to move now, if it is inflamed, there is no way to write and get out of bed..." He lay on the lift bed and touched the gauze of his right arm with his stiff, curved left hand and sighed: "My life now has no meaning." Immediately after, he talked about the interesting things of the past, making Wang Ping and Li Mianyan, who were sitting on both sides, laugh.
Zhong Shuhe said that when he was young, he had many male and female friends. Today, some people have passed away, and some people are old and can't walk. In addition to Zhu Zheng, who is the same age as him, there are more readers and friends of the younger generation. Someone carried a large box of books for Zhong Shuhe to sign. Xie Shuqun was worried that Father Zhong was too tired and would make a face for the visitors. Zhong Shuhe advised her afterwards: "It's good that they like to read, and it's okay for me to sign a name." ”
He also encouraged Xie Shuqun to read more books. Xie Shuqun only went to primary school, many books can not be understood, Zhong Shuhe recommended easy-to-understand books to her. She also began to write. Some time ago, Xie Shuqun wrote an article, not daring to let Zhong Shuhe read it, and showed it to Wang Ping downstairs.
Zhong Shuhe felt that many women did not read or study when they were old, and some of them had been intellectuals. Every time he sees his daughters, he will tell them: Although you are old, you must read more books when you have time, at least you can delay the aging of the brain.
Zhong Shuhe insisted on writing a diary every day, as one day for decades. Wang Ping had wondered what Zhong Shuhe's diary had written. The result is basically just a flow account, which is very simple. For example, what books I read today, who I saw... There is very little personal expression of emotion. He works seriously, rigorously, and systematically, taking blood pressure and measuring blood sugar on time every day... Zhong Tingting said that his father brushed his teeth three times a day, and now he is more than ninety years old, and one of his teeth is as good as ever.
He sometimes forgot to eat and sleep, such as reading books and revising drafts, and the nanny called him several times, and he was "indifferent".
Over the years, Zhong Shuhe has always been hands-on. After his wife's death, for a while, he hoped that his second daughter, Zhong Tingting, would help him revise manuscripts, dock with publishing houses, and sign contracts. Zhong Tingting worked as an administrator in the education industry before retiring. She reads occasionally, doesn't like to write, and worries that she won't meet her father's requirements. Zhong Tingting said that the eldest sister and the two younger sisters also did not inherit their father's talent in this regard. It wasn't until Zhong Shuhe suffered a stroke last year that she began to take over some of her father's work.
Throughout his life, Zhong Shuhe has been reading, studying, and pursuing knowledge. However, because he did not know English, he did not consider himself a real cultural person. He always said to the junior Li Mianyan: "You are better than me, I have never been to college, you are a graduate student, and you know English, you can definitely make better grades than me." ”
Wang Ping said that once, someone kindly advised Zhong Shuhe that at such an old age, he should not read and write all day long, it was too hard, and he should relax and enjoy it in his old age. Zhong Shuhe was a little displeased after listening, "I don't look at writing something, what do I do alive?" ”
When he was young, Zhong Shuhe wore myopic glasses and had glaucoma in his left eye. Now that he is old, he must wear reading glasses to read, but he pays attention to eye hygiene. Zhong Tingting remembers that her father once said to her, "I am blind and can't read books, so I would rather die." ”
Talking about death, Zhong Shuhe quoted Churchill's words: "When the hotel closes, I will leave." ”
After this stroke, he once told his daughter Zhong Tingting: if he fell into a coma, he would not rescue him; If it fails, let it fail, and the person will always die; If he dies, no ceremony is performed. Previously, when Zhu Chun passed away, no funeral was held or a tombstone was erected. Zhong Shuhe hoped that after his death, on a snowy day, he would go to the place where his wife buried his ashes and scatter his ashes on it.
Zhong Tingting understands that his father wants to follow his mother and become one with nature. But right now, his most urgent thing is to start writing his autobiography, and he also wants to write a popular history of China.
"Time is running out and I have a lot to do." Zhong Shuhe said.
On August 7, Zhong Shuhe was revising the manuscript.
(Thanks to Xiaoxiang Morning News reporter Liu Jianyong for his assistance, interns Chen Shiyu and Xian Mengjun were also helpful in this article.) ）
References: "Going global: Chinese examining the history of the West" by Zhong Shuhe
"Zhong Shuhe" Zhang Zhongxing Zhu Zheng waited
"Little Ximen Collection" by Zhong Shuhe
"Editing Zhong Shuhe" by Peng Xiaolian and Wang Jian
"Nian Lou Essay" by Zhong Shuhe
"With Words" by Zhong Shuhe
"Mr. Old" is a column set up by the surging figures. We visited the old gentlemen who were active in the fields of science and humanities to save a picture of the knowledge and style of a generation of intellectuals.
Editor-in-Charge: Huang Fang Photo Editor: Chen Feiyan
Proofreader: Yan Zhang