之前文章写过江苏无锡的顾毓琇——江泽民、朱镕基的恩师，被人誉为东方达芬奇，今天我要说的这位是他的老乡，一样的不简单，年龄比顾毓琇大10岁，也是美籍华裔，也长寿，也都文理双通，他就是被人誉为“一代鬼才”、“现代语言学大师”的赵元任先生，根据现有资料推测，赵元任懂全国33个地方的方言，会英、法、德、日、 西班牙等8个国家的语言，有人戏言说他只要愿意走，走到哪儿都是他的家乡，因为只要他一开口说话，人们就不会把他当外地人，为此他给我们留下了很多他的名人轶事，大家有空可以去网上去百度百度，当然，赵元任是人不是神，和我们一样是凡人，那他为什么拥有那强大的语言能力呢？这可能与他的天赋和他的生活经历、自身的兴趣爱好、 努力等都有着直接的关系。
Zhao Yuanren was born in Tianjin in 1892, his ancestral home is Changzhou, Jiangsu, it is rumored that he is the 31st grandson of Zhao Kuangyin, the Taizu of the Song Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty historian Zhao Ji, that is, the author of "the generations of the country and the mountains have talents, each leading the way for hundreds of years", is his sixth ancestor, Zhao Yuanren's ancestors have been officials for generations, his father Zhao Heng has been a person in the middle of the year, good at playing the flute, and his mother Feng Laisun is particularly good at poetry and Kunqu opera. Born in Tianjin, grew up in Beijing, ran to Cizhou (now Cixian County, Hebei) at the age of three, ran to Qizhou (now Anguo City, Hebei) at the age of four, went to Baoding at the age of five, and stayed in Jizhou (now Ji County, Hebei) at the age of six". There is a story about how when he was studying in Beijing, he had a reunion with his classmates, and it happened that the classmates sitting at the same table belonged to eight places, and he was able to communicate with everyone in the dialects of eight places at the same time, which was amazing. In 1909, Tsinghua University selected government-funded international students, and needed to examine the English proficiency of students, but Zhao Yuanren of course wanted to strive for the study abroad index, but he decided not to apply for English, because he felt that English was too simple to reflect his level, and temporarily decided to take the Latin test, and wanted to take the most difficult test, but after nearly a month or so of surprise learning Latin, he actually ranked second among the more than 70 students admitted, and ranked 55th, which was actually the representative of the Chinese New Culture Movement- The famous Mr. Hu Shi, Hu Shi personally likes to admire Zhao Yuanren, it is said that Hu Shi later commented on the United States, "often recommended Changzhou Yuanren Jun first", the reason why Zhao Yuanren was able to get Hu Shi's approval, of course, is not only because his Latin level covered his head, but because Zhao Yuanren's later excellent performance was well-known.
It is said that after Zhao Yuanren arrived in the United States, he "stepped on the accelerator violently, without a buffer at all, and the road was full of unexpected sharp turns." In 1910, Zhao Yuanren enrolled in Cornell University, he had a deep language skills, but he chose to study mathematics, the key was not careful, he set the best average score record since the establishment of Cornell University with 3 100 and 199 in 4 subjects. After graduating from graduate school in 1914, he went straight to Harvard University to study for a doctorate, and after graduating from a doctorate in philosophy, he returned to Cornell University to teach but chose to teach physics, teaching physics in Cornell for less than 1 year, and returned to Tsinghua in 1920, turning his head and teaching Chinese musicology, Chinese music notation and Western music appreciation, because there were too many of them, Tsinghua gave him seven homework in one breath, he really wanted to be low-key but his strength did not allow it, 33-year-old Zhao Yuanren became and Liang QichaoLater, he founded the China Science Society; founded China's earliest academic journal, Science Monthly; in the winter of 1920, the British philosopher Russell came to China to give lectures, and he became the best translator for Russell's lectures in China; he also translated a world famous book - "Alice in Wonderland"; he composed China's first piano piece - "Peace March" It is said that he wrote the school song of Xiamen University at that time, the school song of Yunnan University was written by him, and the school song of Northeastern University was also written by him, and he also composed the music for Liu Bannong's poem "How Do I Don't Want Her", which is known as the first popular music in China, which was popular all over the country for a while, and is still a textbook-like existence in the history of Chinese music; he was the first scholar in the mainland to use scientific methods to do language investigation, and he compiled the first "Chinese-English Dictionary" in the mainland, and he was the first person in modern China to achieve a worldwide reputation. In Zhao Yuanren's era, there was a very wide joke that said that Zhao Yuanren's life was difficult to be surpassed, because he had the mind of a philosopher, the ears of a musician, and the eyes of a writer. The thinking of a mathematician, he can use a circle to plan the radius of philosophical thoughts, can use mathematical formulas to calculate the pitch of the guitar, can use various Chinese languages to learn the theory of relativity, can use psychology to pursue love, a generation of ghost talents, really learn one door, pass one door, pass one door, refine one course, do everything is the peak, people have to obey.
No one is perfect, but a careful examination of Zhao Yuanren's life, we are surprised to find that his life can be called perfect in the true sense: he was born in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, the average age of the Chinese people is less than 50 years old, the so-called "life is rare in sixty years", but he died at the age of 90 and died All-round development, and finally achieve equal results; Unlike many celebrities with three wives and four concubines, he is also clean and self-conscious, and there is only one wife in his life, happy and loving, Growing old together, he and his wife Yang Buqing are the earliest free love combination in China, both parties are taking the initiative to dissolve the old-style marriage contract and walk together, Yang Buqing is 3 years older than Zhao Yuanren, is a rare progressive young woman at that time, she went to the ocean to study, graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in Japan, is the first Chinese woman in the mainland to obtain a doctor of medicine, and is also the first director of the women's hospital in the mainland, she not only practices medicine, but also is good at cooking, has published a book - "Chinese Recipes" , prefaced by Hu Shi and Pearl Sai, Yang Buqing died 1 year before Zhao Yuanren at the age of 92;
In China's modern history, there are several families whose family education is exemplary, and Zhao Yuanren is one of them. Among these successful families, one is the Zeng family of Zeng Guofan, more than 200 historical celebrities have been produced in more than ten generations before and after, and the other is Liang Qichao's Liang family, known as "one family and three academicians, nine sons are all talented" beautiful talk, "Liang Qichao's Family Book" has now become a parenting treasure book for many families, and the other is the "father-in-law of the Republic of China" Song Jiashu Song family, the three sisters of the Song family are well-known in China, and Zhao Yuanren is also responsible for this, Zhao Yuanren and Yang Buqing have four daughters, all four daughters have become talents, the eldest daughter Zhao Rulan is the first Chinese female professor at Harvard University, the son and daughter Zhao Xina is a famous chemist, the third daughter Zhao Laisi is a professor at Cornell University in the United States, and the fourth daughter Zhao Xiaozhong is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 1945, the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhao Yuanren's family in the United States, heard the news of Japan's surrender to the end of World War II on the radio, overjoyed, and immediately began to prepare to return to China, in August of the following year, Zhao Yuanren's second daughter Zhao Xina and son-in-law Huang Peiyun set off to return to China, before parting, Zhao Yuanren and his wife told their daughter and son-in-law: "We will come back next year, wait for us." At that time, the Central University moved back to Nanjing and wanted to hire Mr. Zhao Yuanren to return to China to teach, he immediately agreed, and immediately resigned from the teaching position at Harvard, but in the summer of 1946, Zhu Jiahua, then Minister of Education, sent a telegram asking Zhao Yuanren to return to China to become the president of the Central University in Nanjing. This request immediately frightened Zhao Yuanren, and Zhao Yuanren called back: "I can't do it." Thank you!" but he repeatedly refused to be ineffective, and he did not dare to return to China. Later, at the suggestion of Mrs. Zhao, he decided to stay in the United States for another year and wait until the president of Central University was confirmed before going back, which was the interesting "fugitive incident" in Zhao Yuanren's life. Without returning to China for a while, Zhao Yuanren accepted the invitation of the University of California to go to California temporarily, and in this way, on the way back to China, he "passed" California, but he didn't expect that after more than 30 years, California became the longest place he lived in his life.
Although Zhao Yuanren has lived in the United States for a long time, his patriotic feelings have not diminished in the slightest. After 1973, when Sino-US relations had just begun to normalize, Zhao Yuanren and his wife returned to China with their families to visit relatives many times, and were successively received by Premier Zhou Enlai and Comrade Xiaoping, and accepted the title of honorary professor conferred by Peking University.
Siren has passed away, but he has had a significant impact on the study of modern languages, music creation, talent training in the mainland, etc., his representative works in linguistics include "Research on Modern Wu Language", "Grammar of Chinese Dialect", "Chinese Gramophone Textbook", etc., representative works in music include "Teach Me How to Don't Want Her", "Sea Rhyme", "Xiamen University School Song", etc., and translated representative works such as "Alice in Wonderland".
In order to commemorate Mr. Zhao Yuanren, the University of California set up a special Zhao Yuanren Foundation, in 1982 the University of California held a grand memorial meeting for the death of Zhao Yuanren, Zhao Yuanren's former residence in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province Qingguo Lane 16, now Jiangsu Changzhou Institute of Technology has a large bust statue of Zhao Yuanren, like Zhao Yuanren's friends, may wish to take the time to Changzhou to see it.