The impression left by historian Gu Jiegang to posterity seems to be that in addition to outstanding academic attainment and life-equal works, other aspects including social activities and leadership skills are not longer, and seem to belong to the typical literati who were relatively free, quite talented, and learned first in the Republican period.
What is surprising is that such a big academic celebrity became an indispensable guest at various dinners for a long and specific period of time, especially between 1939 and 1945.
Through a cursory combing of Gu Jiegang's diary, the good deeds found that in the 100 days from September 22, 1939 to the end of the year, he attended 58 banquets, with an average of less than once every two days. The most was in 1941, with a staggering 246 banquets a year, almost four banquets in six days. There were 137 other games in 1940, 181 in 1942, 193 in 1943, 196 in 1944, and 140 in the 8 months from New Year's Day 1945 to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. More than 5 years, a total of 1151 sessions.
So many banquets, definitely not just eat without invitation, this point of courtesy Gu Jiegang still understands, among the above more than a thousand banquets, Gu Jiegang himself invited guests alone or with others held 259 banquets, accounting for a quarter of the total slightly weaker, the proportion is not low.
Inviting guests to eat requires certain conditions, not too tight on hand, to have spare money; There should not be too many complicated things, and there must be idle work; You also need to have a wide network of contacts, not only to have someone treat you to a meal from time to time, but also to avoid the embarrassing scene where you have money to treat and no one is on the scene.
The kind of leisure, money, and connections that people are looking after nowadays is not too difficult for Gu Jiegang to achieve.
This famous university scholar, if there is no special need, his income to support his family and treat guests to dinner is not a problem;
He spends most of his time working in universities, and even research institutions are not "within the system", so he has complete freedom of time;
The most difficult thing should still be to "get together", at that time the communication conditions are not good, if you want to make up the situation, either write a letter a few days in advance to invite the invitation, or send someone to send a note, and only after getting a reply can it be decided.
Who did Gu Jiegang have dinner with?
After the July Seven Incident, many universities and research institutions moved from the war zone to Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi and other places to continue running schools, and Qilu University moved from Jinan to Chengdu to run schools at the site of West China University.
Gu Jiegang traveled from place to place in the southwest Sichuan-Chongqing area, and was recommended by his student Zhang Weihua and was hired by Liu Shichuan, then president of Qilu University, as the director of the university's Institute of Chinese Studies, from September 1939 to April 1942.
After that, Gu Jiegang left Qi University and transferred from Chengdu to Chongqing, where he served as the vice president of the magazine of literature and history until the end of the Anti-Japanese War.
This period was a period when literati and scholars gathered in the southwestern rear to educate talents for the country and participate in the War of Resistance in various forms. With the efforts of Gu Jiegang, Qian Mu, Hu Houxuan and others, the Institute of Chinese Studies of Qilu University quickly recovered its vitality and became an important center for Chinese culture research at that time.
In addition to Qi University in Chengdu, Yenching University and Jinling University also moved here, gathering many academic celebrities and jointly publishing academic journals.
Gu Jiegang's dinner was attended by a wide range of people, from academic leaders to political and business celebrities.
During his tenure as director of the Institute of Chinese Studies of Qilu University, most of his main contacts were people from several universities that had moved to Chengdu, such as Liu Shichuan, president of Qi University, and colleagues such as Qian Mu, Zhang Weihua, and Hu Houxuan, who taught and did research work at Qi University; Chen Yuguang, president of Jinling University, Chen Zhongfan, a classical writer, and Shang Chengzuo, a philologist; Zhang Linggao, Lv Shuxiang, Han Rulin, West China University; There are also Ye Shengtao, Meng Wentong, Yang Xiangkui and so on. Looking at Gu Jiegang's diary, their names frequently appeared on the dinner table.
During this period, in addition to presiding over the Qi University Research Institute, Gu Jiegang was also presiding over the preparation of the China Frontier Society with the Qi University Research Institute as the main body. At that time, there may still be meetings from time to time, and the best way to solve the problem is to get together, eat and talk at the dinner table, save time, increase understanding, and drink a glass or two of wine is common.
The frequent dinners, coupled with the admiration of people from all walks of life, caused Gu Jiegang to be overwhelmed, affecting his great cause of learning, and he felt that his body could not bear it. After some deliberation, in August 1940, he published "Gu Jiegang's Notice" in the ninth and tenth issues of the first volume of the semi-monthly magazine "Responsibility for Goodness" published by Qi University, claiming that in view of the aggravation of chronic diseases and insomnia, in order to get rid of the disturbances everywhere, "after long-term consideration, he decided to give up his urban career and move to his family and village." Now that it has been relocated, it has a natural healing effect, and it is hereby announced that all honorary positions in all places except for the current position of the Qi University Research Institute are resigned, and all kinds of gatherings should not be changed to their names. ”
In order to better publicize it, he published this notice in the "Upstream Collection" and changed the title to "Xie Keqi".
Initially, the Qi University Research Institute lived on the campus of West China University in the urban area, and later moved to Laijia Garden near Chongyi Bridge in the northern suburbs of Chengdu, which is 20 huali away from Chengdu downtown, which is a long way in the 40s of the last century, when the traffic conditions were relatively backward. Gu Jiegang likes the Lai family garden very much, living here for health care and work, isn't he happy?
"Gu Jiegang's Notice" played some role in the short term, and Gu Jiegang attended fewer banquets that year, with 137 times.
Interestingly, the following year, it did not fall, but rose, reaching a record 246 times, and there was a high-frequency meal of retaliation.
Analyzing, 1941 was the year of Gu Jiegang's personal thought fluctuations. In June of that year, he accepted the invitation of Zhu Jiahua, who had been the president of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, to go to Chongqing to preside over the editing of the Journal of Literature and History. When he arrived in Chongqing, everything was fresh and his contacts were more active, and Gu Jiegang began a new round of social activities according to local conditions. I think this should be the main reason for his sudden increase in meals.
Gu Jiegang suddenly decided to leave the Qi University Research Institute, probably because the university did not support his long-term vision enough, resulting in many designs not being realized. In addition, there are rumors that Gu Jiegang was forced away by his students when he left, and I don't care about it here.
The university tried to keep him and promised him that he could shuttle between Chengdu and Chongqing to retain the post of director of the institute. This situation lasted for nearly a year, until on April 25, 1942, Gu Jiegang sent a letter to Liu Shichuan, the president of Qi University, to resign as director, and President Liu transferred Qian Mu to take over.
So far, it reminds people of the scene when Gu Jie just left Sun Yat-sen University, and his relationship with Fu Sinian.
The two were admitted to Peking University in the same year, although it was not a subject, but because they lived in a dormitory, they became close friends. Fu Sinian returned from studying in the UK and became the dean of the School of Literature and the head of the two departments of Chinese literature and history of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, and the first person invited to establish the Institute of Language and History was Gu Jiegang. Gu also lived up to Fu Zhi's expectations, and he was quite successful.
Two years later, Gu Jiegang suddenly accepted the offer of Yenching University and went north and left Sun Yat-sen University, because he spent almost all his energy on teaching and research affairs at CUHK, and he did not write a research text, and even his reading notes were too late to memorize, which was very different from the research situation he had always pursued.
Fu Sinian was really dissatisfied when he learned the news, especially the reason given by Gu was very angry, accusing him of "ungratitude", do you Gu someone forget that he chose CUHK because Peking University owed salaries and was burdened with more than 2,000 yuan of debts, and it was difficult to maintain his family? In the two years of CUHK, Gu Jiegang paid off his debts with his salary and still had a surplus, and at the same time published books, which can be described as both fame and fortune, how did he put together the saying "my purpose is not fame and fortune but something else"?
Fu Sinian lost his temper and admitted it, Gu Jiegang seemed to be unable to swallow this breath, wrote letters to Hu Shi and Cai Yuanpei respectively, telling Fu Sinian of the situation, and wrote in his diary: "Fu Sinian is arrogant, I want nothing from the other, will it be said that the shelf overwhelms me?" ”
After that, although the two exchanged letters to discuss academics, their personal relationship was lukewarm, until Fu Sinian died of illness in December 1950, and Gu Jiegang did not say a word.
Casual nature and frank handling are the essential attributes of Gu Jiegang. Attending the banquet or hosting guests, and deciding to leave in Xingtou, whether it is Peking University, Yanjing, or Zhongda or Qi University, it is also the place where Xingzhi comes. Therefore, Mr. Gu has a lot of meals, does not look back, academic excellence, and generous personality, which is not only a sample of his era, but also a natural expression of his individual nature. People are such a person.
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