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文|Channing
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introduction
Koo Hongming, a super scholar who grew up in Malaysia, earned a PhD in 13 disciplines from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, and mastered 9 foreign languages. He is known as the "Crazy Hero".
When such a character came to China in the late Qing Dynasty, it was reasonable to say that he should show his extremely advanced thinking and find ways to make the thinking of the Chinese people progress.
Strictly speaking, Gu Hongming's propaganda of Chinese culture played a crucial role in that era, and it was still systematic. However, such a scholar has a unique habit, that is, he likes to smell smelly feet, or a three-inch golden lotus, and insists on supporting the polygamy system, believing that Confucianism can really save China.
What is it that makes him show such a two-faced image?
(Gu Hongming)
1. Scholars who love to smell stinky feet
Let's talk about Gu Hongming's love for smelly feet first. Gu Hongming's father, Gu Ziyun, once told him: "No matter where you go, don't forget that you are a Chinese." It is because of his father's education that Gu Hongming is extremely interested in Chinese culture even though he has studied in Europe for many years.
When he was 28 years old, his parents saw that he was not yet married and asked him what kind of wife he wanted. He received the top international education at that time, but he said that his wife should be a traditional woman wrapped in a three-inch golden lotus. At that time, there was a great call for progress in China, and many girls with small feet were regarded as typical examples of backwardness, and everyone was reluctant to marry.
(Stills of Gu Hongming in the Awakening Era)
But Gu Hongming disagreed, he thought that the perfect woman in his heart should be like the women of the old society, with a three-inch golden lotus, holding men to the sky, and facing himself with an almost ignorant virtue. With such a goal, Gu Hongming finally succeeded in marrying Shugu.
Let's not talk about foot binding, just nowadays, if the socks are made of the wrong material, or the foot smells caused by problems such as the foot being stuffy in the shoe for too long, that smell is enough to make people feel disgusting. Foot binding is a long-term process, and when the foot binding cloth is removed, the smell is naturally "violent".
(Stills of Gu Hongming in the Awakening Era)
But Gu Hongming is very interested in this taste, whenever he has no inspiration for writing, Shugu only needs to take out her feet and let Gu Hongming smell it, which is more effective than smelling salt, refreshing and refreshing, and inspiration will come immediately. Gu Hongming called Shugu his "stimulant", and he also had a "sleeping pill" named Yoshida Rongzi!
As mentioned earlier, Gu Hongming is a proponent of polygamy. As for whether it is a wife or a concubine, Gu Hongming actually doesn't care, he just wants more women to accompany him. Yoshida Rongzi still met herself in the Fengyue place, because the two could talk and saw her pitiful, so they took her home. Under the advice of his "virtuous" wife, Shugu, Yoshida Rongzi became Gu Hongming's concubine.
Gu Hongming's behavior, whether viewed from a modern perspective or from the perspective of pursuing ideological progress in those years, is extremely backward. But he is a scholar, a scholar who has gone from the rendering of advanced Western thought to the land of China. What makes him show such duplicity?
(Gu Hongming restores photos)
2. Contribution and arrogance
If we look at it from the perspective of talent, there is no doubt that Gu Hongming is a great scholar. He is also a tough sophist, and no matter who he is, he can't take advantage of him in terms of taunting skills. He has translated many Chinese works, systematically organized Chinese literary works, and even translated poetry into the most classic translations from today's point of view.
The emergence of Gu Hongming is an important node for the spread of mainland culture to the world, so the West has a saying: "When you go to China, you can not look at the three major halls, but you can't ignore Gu Hongming." "Westerners' preliminary understanding of Chinese history does not recognize our official history of China, but recognizes Gu Hongming's works.
(Tagore and Chinese scholars in 1924, 2 Gu Hongming on the right, Xu Zhimo on the left)
Gu Hongming sits on the title of Confucianism, also because he has talent and learning as capital. It's just that people at that time didn't understand why a person who came out of the Western world didn't want to lead China's ideological progress, but embraced many old customs of the past. Gu Hongming is like a person whose knowledge exists in the future, but his thoughts are stuck in the past.
When everyone twisted their braids, he kept long braids and appeared in front of everyone in a high-profile manner. In the face of ridicule, he used a sentence: "My braids are on my body, and your braids are in my heart" so that the audience could not refute and fell silent. In the face of those who say that he is backward in thinking, he not only does not care, but even enjoys it, which he considers to be a compliment to himself.
(Gu Hongming and the concubine Yoshida Rongzi sitting in the middle)
He defended the anachronistic past of that era, so insisting. But in fact, there are some ideas that are not necessarily wrong if you look at them with absolutely realistic ideas. As for the concept of Confucianism to save the country, we cannot say that Confucianism is wrong, but we can only say that some of its contents are in line with the ruling methods of the kings of the time, but they are contrary to the idea of equality of human rights.
Gu Hongming's pursuit of tradition may not be rational, but out of love and persistence in his bones. As for polygamy, we naturally think it is wrong today, but many countries still practice it, and some of them are still Nordic countries.
(Ryoko Yoshida)
If you can handle your feelings well, it is not impossible in a practical sense. It is not so much that Gu Hongming is a traditional person, but that he is a realistic person, a person who is willing to believe that old customs still have the possibility of governing the country. As for his fetishes, he can only laugh and ridicule, who hasn't had a fetish?
3. Miserable old age
As a scholar, Gu Hongming received strong support from the Qing government. Perhaps it was also because the Qing government gave too much sweetness, he thought that the feudal dynasty system was right, so he was unwilling to twist his braids, believing that there was no difference between the revolution and the peasant uprisings in Chinese history.
(Portrait of Gu Hongming)
From an economic point of view, he is an absolutely wealthy character, he has never lacked money in his life, he is accompanied by two women, and his life is very chic. However, with the death of Shugu and Sadako one after another, Gu Hongming fell into infinite mental anguish. He loved his two women dearly and never treated them badly, but he was not a good father.
He didn't pay much attention to his children's education, so his son Gu Shouyong didn't become a scholar, but more like a gentleman. His two daughters, also because of the poor education at home, were introverted and lonely since childhood, lost their yearning for people, and eventually cut their hair to become nuns.
Some people think that Gu Hongming is a hero of cultural transmission, and some people say that he is a pedantic person bound by the old era.
(Portrait of Gu Hongming)
Just as human nature is normal, there are positive and negative, and there is no absolute sense of good and bad in this world. It is true that he is conformist and pursues old customs, but he also tells his students that he is raising the future of China, not the lackeys of the Westerners and Japanese. He was indeed invited to Japan to run a school, but after understanding the ideas of Japanese imperialism, he insisted on leaving peacefully.
In 1928, at the age of 71, he passed away, he once violently fought the Eight-Nation Coalition in many foreign languages, he once mocked Hu Shi for three days and two ends, and he used to be so lonely when he died.
Resources:
DONG Wenxue. Gu Hongming's cultural outlook and cultural self-confidence[J].Chinese Character Culture,2022,(03):179-180.)
What kind of person is Gu Hongming? Gu Hongming, a strange genius in the late Qing Dynasty, likes the smell of women's feet!.新知网,2018-08-21