This article is the preface to "The Creator: Portraits of Chinese Cultural Masters in the Twentieth Century" (by Shen Jianzhong, Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House, New Edition), and the title is prepared by the editor.
Cultural people do not necessarily have a large radius of activity, and their social circles are often small. In the era when television and other media were not so popular, let alone online video, although there were many famous figures in the history of modern Chinese culture, the same generation may not be lucky enough to witness them, and future generations will not have that lucky kiss.
Here is a touching thing, my teacher when I was a student at Peking University, Mr. Yin Falu (1915-2002), it seems that he did not leave many photos. On the Internet now, speaking of him, the picture with it is actually a photo of me and Mr. Yin in the Summer Palace, I am positive, but Mr. Yin is only half of the back. Therefore, while they are alive, it is also a matter of great merit to leave them with images, so that people can imagine their demeanor through these photos, and trace the academic and cultural history of that era. Mencius said, "If you read his books, you don't know who they are." In fact, in addition to "knowing", it is better to have "seeing", seeing their physical appearance, perhaps, it will be more intimate and make people more willing to understand their scholarship and thoughts.
Mr. Shen Jianzhong is a caring person, and over the years he has visited many senior cultural people and carefully taken photos of them. Some time ago, he gave me a copy of "Creators: Portraits of Chinese Cultural Masters in the Twentieth Century" (2017 Special Commemorative Edition, Manuscript Museum of Chinese Cultural Celebrities of Shanghai Library), which is a photo he took for some of his predecessors in the cultural circle. There are also seniors who have no chance to be close, such as Chen Hansheng, Su Buqing, Chang Renxia, Cai Shangsi, Su Bingqi, Bian Zhilin, etc. Just like Mr. Ji Xianlin, when I saw his photo, I thought of what he said to me when I was staying in a hostel in Zhuhai in 1993 when I accompanied him to hold a conference on the history of cultural exchanges between the East and the West in Macao, and I thought of his wonderful metaphor about the difference between Eastern and Western cultures at the May Fourth Conference in Dajue Temple in Beijing in 1989. Looking at these photographs, it is as if I have stepped back in time, and I vaguely feel the cultural history composed of intellectuals throughout the 20th century.
When it comes to cultural history, I might as well say a few more words here. In the tradition of Chinese historiography, the "history" of culture is often embellished with the "people" of culture, if you look at the "biography of Wenyuan" in various official histories, and arrange the characters in them one by one, is it not a genealogy of Chinese literature? If you see "The Case of Song and Yuan Studies" and "The Case of Ming Confucianism" from "Yiluo Yuanlu", is the series of scholars a history of traditional science? If you look at "The Biography of the High Monks", "The Continuation of the Legend of the High Monks" and "The Biography of the Song High Monks", then the Buddhist monks are connected, is it not a process of Buddhism in the east? It's just that ancient China didn't have the technology to take pictures and keep the truth, and if you can read its books, you can know its person, but it is difficult to recognize its face. Even so, in the late past, when Panyu Ye pursued the Qing Dynasty scholars, didn't he also rely on the traditional painting method that was not so facsimile to compile a "Qing Dynasty Scholar Elephant Biography"? As the old saying goes, there should be pictures and history on the Lingyan Pavilion, and I think Mr. Shen Jianzhong also wanted to add plates to the text of modern Chinese cultural history, as if to build a monument in the historical hall of modern Chinese culture for later generations to remember.
The last of the "Creators" he gave me earlier was Duanmu Yuliang, who was born in 1912 and died in 1996. But Mr. Shen Jianzhong told me that now, he is going to officially publish this photo collection, and the new one will add more scholars born after 1912, to a total of more than 300. Maybe he knew that I had a lot of intersections with Mr. Zhou Yiliang, who was born in 1913, and Mr. Pang Pu, who was born in 1928, so he specially sent photos of the two gentlemen. Seeing these faces that are getting closer and closer to us and feeling more and more familiar, I can't help but feel a little sad, these cultural figures who have been far away in heaven have really taken away an era? And in this day and age, can there still be such a respectable and memorable cultural figure?