Perspective||The president of Peking University said: "A paper is not an impression, and it is good to write one a year!" ”

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The author of this article is Professor Fu Jie of Ma Yifu College of Zhejiang University, whose main research areas are Chinese classical philology and Chinese academic history.

Chu Teh-hee

Zhu Dexi (1920~1992), a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, was a famous Chinese paleographer, linguist, grammarian and educator, and former vice president of Peking University.

"Some people are dead, but he is still alive"

In June 1989, Mr. Chu Teh-hei, president of the Chinese Chinese Language Society and retired vice president of Peking University, went to the United States and died three years later in July 1992.

As early as the early fifties, Mr. Zhu became famous throughout the country for his co-authored "Speech on Grammar and Rhetoric" with Mr. Lu Shuxiang, which was serialized in the People's Daily. As a leader in the field of Chinese Chinese and a world-renowned expert in Chinese, "he studied Chinese all his life, but in the end he was unable to return to his 'place where he only spoke Chinese'" (Professor Li Ling's words), we cannot guess what kind of regret Mr. Zhu had when he said goodbye to the world.

It may be a pity to note that a series of Mr. Zhu's treatises in the fields of Chinese grammar, paleographic interpretation, and language teaching have been widely circulated by later generations in the five-volume Collected Works of Chu Teh-hei, and have been cited again and again in a variety of related treatises, just like during his lifetime, and even unabated. And the scholars who were directly or indirectly influenced by him will never forget his teachings - just in the past year, two scholars, one from the south and one from the north, wrote about Mr. Zhu.

"Nan" is Professor Lu Guoyao of Nanjing University (note: Professor Emeritus of Nanjing University, now a distinguished professor of the Institute for Advanced Study of Humanities of Shaanxi Normal University).

In the preface to Lu Guoyao's Collected Essays on Linguistics, Mr. Lu quoted a letter from Mr. Zhu to him a year before his death:

In the past few years, he has made great progress in his studies, and he has become a family of his own in the study of the history of phonology. I am particularly impressed by his unremitting spirit of study and down-to-earth style of study. The letter said that in the future, I plan to focus on learning theories and methods, and I do not want to force this matter. An accomplished scholar must have his strengths, but also his weaknesses. …… In my opinion, the main energy and time should still be focused on the collection and analysis of linguistic facts. In recent years, American Chinese linguistics has the disadvantage of emphasizing theory over facts, and not only linguistics, economics and even physics also have similar situations.

Mr. Zhu sent a newspaper clipping in which Nobel laureate Tiondiv criticized modern economists for being "ignorant of facts", saying that one of the main problems of economics at present is that "there are too many theories, too many assumptions, and too few facts" (Mr. Zhu also quoted this in his 1990 book "Thoughts and Hopes for Current Chinese Studies").

Mr. Lu "Carefully follow the teacher's teachings, I have done a number of special studies on the history of Chinese language for many years, and I am confident that I will not talk about roots, I will not rush for quick success, and I will not follow the trend, but I will bury my head in writing, revising, and supplementing, so as to seek the truth of one thing, the truth of one word, and the peace of mind of one heart."

"North" is Professor Li Jiahao of Peking University ("Must Remember" note: Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Anhui University) in the "Selected Works of Famous Middle-aged Linguists: Li Jiahao Volume", Mr. Li recalled:

One day in 1975, Mr. Zhu Dexi, Mr. Qiu Xigui and I, while sorting out the bamboo slips of the Han Tomb in Yinque Mountain, talked about the Changsha Chu Silk Book, which reminded me of Mr. Zhu's plan to write a "Commentary on Changsha Silk Books" in his early years, so he said to Mr. Zhu, why don't you write that "Changsha Silk Book Commentary". Mr. Zhu said that there are some words in the silk book that I don't know, and some words are not easy to understand, so I can't write them all. From this conversation, I learned that it is important to be practical in doing knowledge, not to be greedy for perfection, and to write about things that I did not understand.

I once talked to Mr. Zhu about the interpretation of ancient characters, and he said that among the newly known ancient characters, choose some interesting characters to write, and don't write all words. Mr. Zhu not only said this to me, but also did it himself. Mr. Li Xueqin said in the article "Mr. Zhu Dexi's Contribution to the Study of the Warring States Period": "Mr. Zhu's research can often focus on some characters with key properties in the Warring States period, which of course has greater significance than arbitrarily selecting and interpreting a few characters. ”

In addition to the examples they recorded, the "Collected Essays of Mr. Chu Teh-hei" published by the Chinese Language Publishing House provides us with richer memories, and all the memories confirm the poet's famous words:

Some people are dead, and he is still alive.

"Super enjoyment" and "hard work"

Mr. Wang Zengqi said in "Remembering Dexi":

Dexi's scholarship is completely ultra-utilitarian. When I was studying in college, I lived in poverty, but I worked hard every day and couldn't let go of the papers. Later, he taught at a university and held an administrative position, and he was very busy with many international and domestic scholars, but he was still tirelessly engaged in research and writing. Every time I went to his house, I always saw an unfinished paper on his desk, with a lot of reference materials and reference books on the table. Research work, in which he is hard labor, but also a super pleasure. I think he enjoys it because he feels the beauty of language and ancient writing all the time. All science, in the end, is aesthetics. …… It is interesting to feel the beauty in work and live like this.

Writer Li Rui admired that "I don't know how many novels and articles I have received Mr. Wang's affection and wisdom", which is also an example - the nostalgia for his old friend and the accuracy of his grasp undoubtedly reflect Mr. Wang's "affection and wisdom". At Mr. Zhu, academic research is first and foremost a super pleasure. He once told his students that they should have a childlike heart in learning, just like a child playing with mud on the ground, with only their own fun, no utilitarian motives and other purposes. There are only two ways to engage in grammar research, one is to seek truth, pursue truth, and keep exploring; The other is "a habit, accustomed to it, like a carpenter, making furniture every day, and when he sees wood, his hands itch". He once told his daughter that studying paleography is like watching Sherlock Holmes, which is particularly interesting.

This reminds me of Mr. Zhou Zhou Liang ("Must-Remember" note: Professor of Peking University) who also had similar feelings. Mr. Zhou recalled that when he was a teenager, he liked to read two types of books the most: one was Wang Yinzhi's "Jingyi Shuwen" and Wang Guowei's "Guantang Jilin", which he was impressed by the detailed and detailed evidence and meticulous analysis; The second is detective novels like "Sherlock Holmes", and there is no lack of substantive similarities between the two. It was his fascination with paleographies that led Zhu Dexi, a 20-year-old second-year student in the Department of Physics at Southwest Associated University, to transfer to the Department of Chinese - I don't know if this is a misfortune for physics; And history has proven that the discipline of Chinese is fortunate.

In his later years, Mr. Zhu recalled the process of changing departments, saying that at that time, "I didn't want to be a person, but I just wanted to do what I wanted and studied hard." Yes, just "what is in the mood" can only become a player; The "hard work" driven by the "prosperity", that is, the "hard work", is the guarantee for the achievement of an excellent scholar. He practiced what he taught his students: "Those who are truly devoted to academics must put their lives into it." This can be described by Li Shangyin's two poems of 'the spring silkworm is dead to the end, and the wax torch turns to ash and tears begin to dry'. ”

How many people have witnessed his tireless and diligent study in old age, and the most vivid memories come from his family first. Let's take a look at her daughter Zhu Xiang's narrative first:

My father never seemed to sleep in my memory, and when we slept, the light in his study was still on, and when I woke up in the morning, my father was already sitting at his desk. The right elbow of the coat that my father wore at work was ground out with round holes. …… For as long as I can remember, my father has never spent a vacation with us, and on the hottest dog days, he also lies on the table and writes articles; On the coldest three or nine days, a hot water bottle was placed at the foot and still worked until late at night.

Let's look at Mrs. He Kongjing's narration:

Dexi is really meticulous in his studies and goes all out. A problem must be solved before it can be settled. Write an article word by word, and every sentence is required to be appropriate. When he writes papers, he never does it with a wave, it is like carving it out with a knife. I said to him, "You write an article as if you had a difficult birth, and I feel bad with it." Dexi said: "You're right, I write articles that are difficult births." His friend said: Dexi's article is theoretical and logical, and one sentence is one sentence, not mixed with water. His close friend Guo Liangfu also said that Dexi's article was waterless. His old classmate, linguist Li Rong, said: Dexi's article was written in blood.

Mr. Zhu once sighed: "I really admire that some people can write a thousand words when they write articles." When I write a thousand words, I have to use up at least two or three thousand words of manuscript paper, and after writing an article, it is like having an illness. "Some students asked their teachers: You don't need to change your essays, do you? Mr. Zhu replied: "Not at all, I often make a mess. Good articles are changed, and they must be changed repeatedly until they are satisfied with themselves before they can be taken out. In the future, someone may ask you for a manuscript, and you may not take it out immediately if you have something at hand, and the editor has the standard of editing, and you have to have your own standard. When writing articles and books, you must not have commercial considerations, and do not pursue the excitement of the moment. In this way, something may be published a little, but one article is another. "A sentence is a sentence, and an article is the result of an article, which is naturally the reduction of quantity and the improvement of quality. Professor Yao Dianfang said:

Dexi's academic rigor is manifested in many ways, and I think the most commendable thing is the accumulation and thin hair. He has made many pioneering contributions to the study of modern Chinese, both in terms of research directions and methods, as well as in the exploration and study of the grammar system itself. However, the only thing that has accumulated more than 40 years of research experience and published it in the form of a monograph is a thin copy of "Grammar Handouts" published in 1982. This book seems to be "thin" from the title to the word count, but its actual weight is very heavy. It summarizes the author's most mature and incisive views on grammatical research in very simple language and form.

In Mr. Li's words, Mr. Li's few paleographic interpretations are also "often written in order, and the reading makes people feel that they have won my heart first." It's not a stroke of genius - ninety-nine points of sweat, one point of god. This is a stroke of genius - read more than 10,000 volumes, and write like a god."

Mr. Zhu has always advocated that students should study in a down-to-earth manner, "it is enough to write a weighty article a year, and do not be greedy for more than one thing", and does not want them to follow the practice of "making big deals with small capital and only talking about novel theories".

As a non-layman scholar and a non-stupid principal, he knows that the level and strength of a scholar or a school are never determined and displayed by the number of articles produced. Professor Ding Shisun, a mathematician who was the president of Peking University, recalled that during their co-administration of Peking University:

He once told me to distinguish between essays and impressions. I felt that he had illustrated an important boundary in an easy-to-understand sentence. Later, I often thought of his words to help me make judgments about some academic works.

Professor Sun Yushi recalled that after Mr. Zhu became the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Peking University:

At the first editorial board meeting, he bluntly put forward the principle that the journal should be less up-to-date with the current situation and more academic. When an article is published, it must have permanent academic value, and someone will have to read and cite it after many years. Later, even with this and that kind of pressure, he always stuck to his thoughts. He always had a sense of hatred and hatred for those boastful and flamboyant styles of study that were very self-confident and full of loopholes.

Two authors also mentioned the phenomenon that made Mr. Zhu "very angry". Professor Sun Yushi said: "He is concerned about the construction of the learning style of the Chinese department, and he is very angry that some so-called 'scholars' do not even know the minimum primary school and some conceptual categories and talk about mythological origins and theoretical issues, and he makes the teachers of the Chinese department take warning." Professor Li Jiahao said: "When I talked with my husband in my daily life, I once talked about a kind of person in the academic world, who writes academic works like writing novels, galloping his imagination, ignoring the facts reflected in the materials, playing at will, and writing tens of thousands of words, and the result is full of mistakes. He was very angry at that kind of work. ”

Unfortunately, in the ten years since Mr. Zhu's death, this kind of phenomenon has not only not been eradicated, but I am afraid that it will continue unabated and become more and more intense.

One set in front of the face and one set behind the back

Mr. Zhu is not only a well-known university scholar, but also a well-known educator. Half of his life was spent at his desk, half on the podium. His style of study and scholarship have profoundly and profoundly influenced more than one generation of students, such as Professor Lu Jianming and Ma Xiwen in the field of grammar, and Professor Qiu Xigui and Li Jiahao in the field of philology.

Too many people have heard Mr. Zhu's praise for Mr. Qiu Xigui. Mr. Wang Zengqi said:

Deok-hee is a person who doesn't have much emotion, but he is a very emotional person. He has a subtle, gentle, but deep love for his family and children, the third generation. The same is true for young scholars. I have heard him talk more than once about Mr. Joo Seok-gyu, and his tone is that he has discovered a genius. "You have a genius, I'm not poor", this is how Dexi treats his juniors.

Professor Yoshihiro said:

Mr. Zhu is a person who loves talents. To say that he is a Bole may not be too much. His dealings with Brother Joo Seok-gyu illustrate this point. As soon as Brother Xigui came to work at Peking University in 1960, he was taken by Mr. Zhu at a glance. In the sixties, they collaborated on writing articles on the Warring States script. In the middle and late stages of the ten-year catastrophe, they also participated in the sorting of the bamboo slips of the Han Tomb in Yinqueshan and the silk book of the Han Tomb in Mawangdui. He knows and appreciates Brother Xigui's talent and skills very well. In 1977, when Mr. Zhu came to Shandong to review the Yinque Mangosteen Slips, he praised me for Brother Qiu's attainments in paleography. In 1988, when I attended the 90 th anniversary celebration of Peking University, he invited me to have dinner with Comrade Lu Guoyao. I arrived a little earlier in order to ask him a few questions. During the conversation, he said: "Lao Qiu is amazing! He was able to put together a few bamboo slips in one night—I didn't mean just gluing some broken slips with no head and tail into one, but I meant putting them together and releasing them. Do you understand? "I understand! I know! At that time, I suddenly thought of two sentences in the ancient book: "If a person has skills, if he has them; The sage of a man, his good heart, is as good as coming out of his mouth. "Besides me, I don't know how many people he has praised Brother Qiu!

Professor Qiu Guangming said:

Mr. Zhu is sincere to his collaborators, friends and students, and respects and listens carefully to the opinions of others. From his approach and attitude towards and handling things, people can feel his modesty and prudence. Whenever we ask Mr. Zhu for the interpretation of the ancient characters of the Warring States period, he always asks first, what does Lao Qiu think?

Professor Yuen said:

Mr. Qiu Xigui often talked to us about Mr. Qiu Xigui, saying: "Qiu Xigui has always worked hard, no matter how bad the conditions and environment are, he will not relax, and he has persevered for decades and finally achieved great achievements. If you don't hurry up now, it's too late to regret it later. ”

Professor Li Ling recalled mentioning scholars who study paleography when he met with American scholars, and Mr. Zhu said, "We all admire Mr. Xueqin and Lao Qiu the most. The study is more broad, and Lao Qiu is more cautious. Professor Pan Zhaoming recalled that shortly after the Cultural Revolution, he read Mr. Zhu Qiuer's paper on the interpretation of Han Jian published in the journal "Archaeology", and liked it very much, and one day when he talked to Mr. Zhu, he said that he "not only wrote a good article, but also cultivated a good student", Mr. Zhu immediately corrected seriously: "I can't say that, this time I and Lao Qiu are completely equal cooperative relations, I have learned a lot from him, if you want to say 'training', it is also mutual 'training'." ”

Ever since 1963, when Mr. Qiu, who was still a teaching assistant at the time, was quoted in class, Mr. Zhu has continued to praise and praise Mr. Qiu. However, this is just Mr. Zhu's back; As for Mr. Qiu himself, Mr. Zhu still has an unknown face-to-face set that is not quite the same or even diametrically opposite to the one behind him, which can only be told to us by Mr. Qiu himself:

My husband did not hesitate to spend his precious time and energy to help me revise the article many times. For example, "A Preliminary Exploration of the Problem of the Formation of Chinese Characters," which I published in the third issue of Chinese in 1978, was written after several revisions under the guidance and help of my husband. After reading my first draft, he frankly told me that it didn't look like a paper at all, and made very specific comments for me to revise. After reading the first revised draft, my husband was still not satisfied, and put forward some suggestions for me to revise further. It took about three or four times to get it to the way it was published. In the end, Mr. was still not satisfied with this article. But he felt that with my level, I could only write like this, so I had to forget it. My articles such as "The Importance of Archaeological Discoveries of Qin and Han Texts for Proofreading Ancient Books", "An Investigation on Whether the Propositions of Yinxu Divination Words Are Questionable Sentences" and "The "Different" Characters of Divination Words and the "Shi" Characters in Poems and Books" have all been revised by himself.

In the process of writing the "Outline of Philology", I almost had to go to my husband's house to ask for advice as soon as I encountered a difficult problem. Sometimes it can be discussed for two or three hours for a single issue. I divide the symbols of words into two levels, namely the symbols of language and the symbols that make up words. The name of the latter symbol, "character", was given by Mr. On December 13 of the previous year, he wrote a letter from the United States, which began with the words: "Recently, I have been reading the "Outline of Philology" and writing down some opinions casually. The advantages of this book do not need to be mentioned here, but the main disadvantage is that the writing is not clear enough, and some places can really be said to be condescending and difficult to read, which covers up the benefits of the whole book. I think it's best to start revising now, find out what to change, and be ready for the reprint. Here are three specific revisions. When my husband wrote this letter, it had only been a little more than half a year since his death, and his health was not very good. In this case, he still cares so much about me that he worries about the revision of the Compendium of Philology.

"It's not like a dissertation" or "It's hard to read in some places" -- this kind of unpretentious criticism is something that some of our current teachers who are good at smearing with mud are reluctant to say directly about graduate students. But this is the real pity, the so-called deep responsibility of love.

From the above quotation, we can see that Mr. Zhu's post-learning is fully affirmed and enthusiastically promoted; the second is to be strict and helpful; The third is not to be greedy for merit and not to be ashamed to ask. This is the most valuable character of a teacher and a scholar, and in Mr. Zhu, it is his consistent style of dealing with the world. Mr. Qiu has been treated so kindly, and it is only an obvious case, not a special case. Under the guidance of Mr. Zhu, Professor Ma Xiwen, a computer expert, has made outstanding contributions to the field of Chinese grammar research. Like Mr. Qiu, he is also a figure that Mr. Zhu used to serve as a role model for graduate students. However, Mr. Ma recounted that Mr. Zhu, who had passed the sixtieth year, often got together with Professor Lu Jianming, Professor Ye Feisheng and him to discuss grammar issues, and they talked until one or two o'clock in the evening. "Mr. Zhu asked me to take the article to the discussion class and take the lead in questioning. Sharp questions are one after another, some of which are not clearly explained in the text, some of which are not noticed, and some of which cannot be answered at all, so they have to retreat, reconsider, re-add, and report again next time. That's how his thesis came to be.

Professor Mei Zulin, an expert in the history of Chinese language at Cornell University, was invited by Mr. Zhu to give a one-semester lecture on the history of Chinese grammar at Peking University. However, the paper he wrote for the inaugural issue of the Journal of Chinese Language at the request of Mr. Zhu was rejected after Mr. Zhu's review on the grounds that "the key case is untenable." Mr. Mei reflected: "I have been submitting articles to the journal since 1960, and this is the first time that I have been closed doors. But think about it calmly, Mr. Zhu is right. The theory of phonological evolution is people's, the examples are their own, the key examples cannot be established, and the article has no publication value. It was embarrassing to withdraw the manuscript from the invitation, and Mr. Zhu's willingness to do such a thankless task was really a great favor for me. "High standards, strict requirements, pure public intentions, no favoritism, all in order to improve the level of research, promote academic development, so although scholars are criticized or even offended, in the end they can not be angry, but in awe, followed by gratitude, do not hesitate to tell the world in today's famous world, and then the past is not glorious teaching experience - this is the charm of Mr. Zhu's personality.

Another example that Professor Hu Shuangbao can't forget is that he took the ancient text annotations and writing knowledge that he co-wrote with others and gave it to Mr. Zhu, "He glanced at the title of the book and said: You should write more serious things in the future." What Professor Wu Xiaoru can't forget is that he collaborated with Mr. Zhu on an article, and Mr. Zhu made a lot of changes to the final draft, "Dexi does have a great ability to change articles for people, and I can't help but be convinced", so that later, "every time I write, when I finish the manuscript, there is often a scene where Dexi changes the article for me, and I think, I don't know what will happen to Zhu Gong after reading this article." ”

"Don't be funny"

From the 50s to the 70s, Mr. Zhu published papers that occupy an important position in the history of Chinese Chinese law, such as "On Syntactic Structure", "Saying", "Character Structure and Judgment Sentences", and "Research on Modern Chinese Adjectives".

In 1980, when his collection of essays, Studies in Modern Chinese Grammar, was published, and the Commercial Press asked him to write a summary for the sake of publicity, Mr. Zhu wrote back:

The synopsis is not easy to write, and it is not necessary. A short advertisement is sufficient. As I mean, it's nice to write it down below. If you think it's too simple, you can add a few words, but don't make it funny.

The full text of his self-proposed advertisement is as follows:

This book collects eight essays on modern Chinese grammar written by the author before 1979. Some of the arguments in these articles have aroused discussion in linguistic circles at home and abroad. This collection is published with slight changes in some places. The book is about 150,000 words, and the price is 〇. Five or eight dollars.

This is a letter to the editor dated July 28. Just one day later, the editor received a second letter:

The previous draft of the advertisement is still unsettled. In the second sentence, it would be slightly better to change the arguments put forward in some of them to "have aroused discussion among scholars studying Chinese grammar at home and abroad". It turns out that the phrase "linguistics at home and abroad" is too loud and inappropriate. Begging.

It is important to know that these papers have not only aroused discussion but also admiration among peers at home and abroad; Among the people who discuss and even admire are not only peers and juniors, but also senior masters, just one example is enough - Mr. Zhao Yuanren clearly declared in his most important masterpiece "The Grammar of Chinese Dialect" that "A Study of Modern Chinese Adjectives" is "the best study of its kind". Of course, Mr. Zhu would not be unaware, but he did not show it off in advertising. This reflects the self-humility and self-discipline of true scholars, and also reflects the self-esteem and self-confidence of true scholars - self-humility and self-discipline are unwilling to make any boasts, and the truth must be compared; Self-respect and self-confidence are recognized achievements that have been clearly placed before the discerning people, neither politicians nor businessmen, nor drama singers, what is the need to bewitch the unruly? So the splendid, to the bland, in the low-key simplicity of the style of display is the atmosphere. Facts have also proved that the academic treatise on this paper does no longer need to be promoted by cheap means - this collection of essays, not by virtue of its popularity and practicality, but by virtue of its classics and authority, has been published many times, and has been published many times, and has been published many times in conjunction with Zhao Yuanren's "Language Problems", Li Fanggui's "Study of Ancient Sounds", Li Jinxi's "New Works on Chinese Grammar", Wang Li's "History of Chinese Grammar", Lu Shuxiang's "Essays on Chinese Grammar", Ding Shengshu's "Modern Chinese Grammar Speech" and others It has been included in the business library, which represents the level of modern humanities and social sciences in China.

A quarter of a century later, China's commodity economy has developed considerably, and the art of merchandising has become popular in all corners, including the academic field. Mr. Zhu's taper and baht must sound so far away that it doesn't look like a modern story at all. However, there are many modern people who may not be as painstaking and striving for perfection in research and writing as Mr. Zhu, but they are full of tricks and talents in advocating and selling.