Interface News Reporter | Dong Ziqi
Interface News Editor | Yellow Moon
"My biggest experience in reading Kong Yiji is that I see myself in Kong Yiji, and Lu Xun's Kong Yiji shows that there is a huge gap between the self-evaluation of intellectuals and the social evaluation." Yesterday, in "Modern Chinese Literature, Why Should We Reread and Re-edit?" At the book sharing event, Qian Liqun, who has retired for 20 years, explained the significance of modern classic literature to the audience.
Qian Liqun, a former professor of Chinese at Peking University, now lives in a nursing home for a long time, continues to write about modern literature, and maintains an interest in popular language on the Internet. He found that the saying of "Zhao family" was widely rumored on the Internet a few years ago, and now it is popular to "Kong Ji's long robe", which shows that Lu Xun is a contemporary existence, and readers will have a new experience when reading on behalf of their own life experience.
Kong Yiji attached great importance to the long robe he wore, just as intellectuals valued his status, but the perception of him by the people around him was only ridiculous. Qian Liqun said, "Intellectuals, including myself, face a problem, there is a huge difference between your self-evaluation and social evaluation. Contemporary youth resonate with Kong Yiji, which is to see their embarrassing position in real life. ”
Many people know Qian Liqun because of the term "refined interestist", and he is proud of this because it is related to the media-style writing of Lu Xun's essays. He himself advocated a kind of writing that blended on-site observation with historical vision, "In the current information age, intellectuals can provide a concise and persuasive explanation for the problems that everyone is concerned about and cannot see, which breaks the boundaries of research." In times like these, we need to watch, wait, persevere and keep going. Although I am in a nursing home, I am actually thinking with everyone and using my experience and education to answer everyone's questions. ”
Scholar Qian Liqun was at the scene
Qian Liqun said that this new book "New Lectures on Modern Chinese Literature" bears the imprint of "epidemic" and "post-epidemic era". During the epidemic, he read modern literary works that he had long been familiar with every day, especially those written during the Second World War, and actually developed the feeling of dialogue, discussion and debate with the classic writers of the last century. "The outbreak and spread of the epidemic is a world war, and each of us has experience war." In these works, he reads about the resurrection of the life of the long-traveled modern writer and the modernization of history.
At the event, Qian Liqun also expressed his worries about current literature, it seems that literature is far away from many readers, but it is human nature to like literature, and we can all draw nutrients from ancient literature and modern literature.
There is always a difficult life in life that you cannot cope with, and you can even feel hopeless
Chen Pingyuan, a professor of Chinese at Peking University, called Qian Liqun "old money." "Old Money" has been away from Peking University for twenty years, but three-quarters of his writings were completed after retirement. Chen Pingyuan reminded readers to pay attention to the differences between "New Lectures on Modern Chinese Literature" and previous literary history writing. After graduating from university, "Lao Qian" worked as a Chinese teacher in Anshun, Guizhou for 18 years, and developed the ability to teach and appreciate specific works, while scholars who teach with doctoral degrees are prone to macroscopic discussions and are not very good at interpreting works from the perspective of ordinary readers. Chen Pingyuan said that when we were young, we all hoped to be recognized in the academic circles and hope to come up with new ideas, but when we were older, we found that there were limitations to new and continuous breakthroughs in academia, so "old money" returned to basic reading and returned to common sense.
New Lectures on Modern Chinese Literature, by Qian Liqun, Ideal Republic Kyushu Press, 2023-4
Recalling his experience of teaching Chinese at Anshun Health School, Qian Liqun said that the real environment at that time was far from what he imagined, and he proposed to the school leaders that he wanted to enter graduate school, but he was helplessly frustrated and fell into a difficult life, and this experience is worth sharing with today's youth. "There is always a difficult life in life that you can't cope with, and you can even feel hopeless." He thought of the "three caves of the cunning rabbit" that the ancient Chinese said, so he set two goals for his life, one is a realistic goal, a survival goal that can be achieved with conditions and can be achieved as long as you work hard, and the other is a goal that has no conditions for the time being, but can be prepared for.
The former is the most popular teacher in the school for Qian Liqun, and the latter goal is to study Lu Xun. "As soon as I analyzed, although many things were not allowed to be done, the class was still mine, and I had not been expelled, I was still a teacher, so I wanted to become the most popular teacher in the classroom, and I immediately moved into the student dormitory to eat, live and work, run newspapers with students, and play football, in which I felt the meaning and value of life." On the other hand, he also has to pursue higher goals, "I said to myself, sooner or later I will return to Peking University to talk about Lu Xun." "He lived in the student dormitory, and when the students fell asleep, they returned to the office to study Lu Xun, write notes, and even during the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, he seized every opportunity to study Lu Xun." I waited for eight years and prepared for eight years until the reform and opening up allowed me to enter graduate school, when I was thirty-nine years old. "When I knew that I could apply for graduate school, in theory, Qian Liqun only had half a month to prepare, but in fact, he had been preparing for eight years and won the first place.
The ghost of literary history lingers, and literature is missing in literature teaching
One of the reasons for the publication of "New Lectures on Modern Chinese Literature" was that Qian Liqun saw the problem of the lack of Chinese of literary education: "Students are busy memorizing knowledge of literary history, coping with exams, and rarely devote themselves to studying original works. The lack of literature is a crisis of our literary teaching. ”
In 1904, Chinese literary education underwent a radical change, from literary anthologies to literary history, and since then literary history has become a ghost haunting teachers and students. Chen Pingyuan said, "Writers often value whether they have entered literary history, and scholars value whether they can write a literary history in their lifetime." ”
Professor Chen Pingyuan of the Department of Chinese of Peking University
Ten years ago at Peking University, Chen Pingyuan discussed with Yuwen Suoan, a professor of the Department of East Asia at Harvard University, that there are still many countries where literary education is centered on literary history, and only the East Asian Department at Harvard University is like this. Teaching centered on literary history allows students to quickly grasp the literary profile of a dynasty or a nation, but at the cost of ignoring key writers and the ability to evaluate and grow academically, "Chinese students' undergraduate and graduate education is rich in knowledge, and they can talk about the characteristics of "Dream of Red Mansions" and Lu Xun, but lack the ability to judge in the face of isolated texts." Most literature students' ability to interpret works is far less than literary knowledge, but a large amount of rich knowledge of literary history unconsciously overwhelms our ability to appreciate literary works. The better the university, the more so, Chen said, students are good at macro discourse, but not at reading and analyzing specific works.
The anthology is an important means of reading literature in ancient China, and the Three Hundred Tang Poems or the Anthology are centered on anthologies, with a little elaboration, rather than giving you a conclusion, and he believes that this new book by "Old Money" combines commentary with literary history writing, so it is particularly useful for the average reader.
Qian Liqun was both in the academy and not in the academy, he turned knowledge production and knowledge theory into axiology, and communicated with the public and the public. Sun Yu, a professor at the School of Literature at Chinese Minmin University, believes that many scholars are lost in ivory towers, writing gossip and exuding literary and artistic tones, while Qian Liqun faces reality and self and returns to Lu Xun's voice.
In 1979, Qian Liqun bought a ticket to invite all the students to the auditorium to watch "Sanmao Wandering", and the students did not know the reason, until the line "Young Master Kuo - Qian Liqun" appeared in the actor. He only has a close-up of crying in the film, but the experience of starring has had a considerable impact on Qian Liqun's classroom teaching. Chen Pingyuan also recalled the experiment of "Old Qian" talking about Lu Xun in the class of Peking University, he read it in frustration, left class after reading, and then all the students stood up and read together. The students were also deeply moved by the reader's experience of the text and the characteristics of the sound. "More than a decade ago, universities across the country used slide teaching to emphasize the standardization of teaching, and the slides lectures were rigorous and rich in information, but the charm of the classroom was gone." Chen Pingyuan said with a smile, "'Old Money' giving a lecture at Peking University is a scene. He sat down to lecture, very old professor's style, talking about hats, coats, sweaters taken off, then sweaters, coats, and finally returned to the original dress, the effect is very good, there is stage experience. ”