Gu Zhun was the only decent intellectual in China in the 1960s and 1970s.
- Li Shenzhi
In that era of "ten thousand horses and deplorable investigations", Gu Zhun created a miracle of thought alone.
——Shao Yanxiang
Thanks to Gu Zhun, the collective reputation of the ideological circles of our nation in that shameful era was saved.
--Luo Yuming
In a large family of ten brothers and sisters, no matter how good you are, it is difficult to get special love from your family. Gu Zhun was called the fifth old man at home (brother ranking), his father's surname was Chen, a little culture, understood Traditional Chinese medicine, and later made a little money in the cotton business, but soon the business became increasingly light, in short, Gu Zhun's family situation has always been more difficult.
In fact, Gu Zhun's father had two wives, and they were sisters. Gu Zhun's mother is a sister, Gu Zhun's previous brothers are born of the eldest bride, he is the eldest here, because there are no brothers in the mother's family, so he has been with his mother's surname since childhood (this may be the condition that his grandparents promised his father to marry his sister-in-law as a little wife).
Gu Zhun's brother Mr. Chen Minzhi admired his fifth brother the most, and until he was old, he could not help but mutter: They were all born of a father and mother, how can the IQ gap be so large? (In fact, Mr. Chen Minzhi is also very good)
Gu Zhun finished junior high school at the age of 12, but he looked like an eight- or nine-year-old primary school student. At this time, the family did not have money for him to continue his studies, and after being introduced, he came to the Fongson Accounting Office founded by Mr. Pan Xulun and became a trainee with a little salary, but he ate and lived, which was actually a miscellaneous, somewhat similar to the Office boy of a foreign company.
Speaking of Fong's accounting firm, we must talk about the founder Pan Xulun. This guy is also a wizard. Born into a wealthy family, Pan was a well-known playboy when he was young, spending all day drinking and gambling. Until the age of 27, one day somehow touched his nerves by something, suddenly repented, decided to study abroad, within two years he took a master's degree from Columbia University, and then ran to Harvard University and got a doctorate in economics.
In 1927, Pan Shulun, who returned to Shanghai, found that most of the economic entities such as companies and commercial houses opened Chinese still adopted the old-fashioned mr. bookkeeper's way, and had no idea what modern accounting was. Therefore, he first opened a business called Lixin Accounting Office, and then simply set up an accounting tuition night school, needless to say, the night school miscellaneous things went to Gu Zhun's management. After doing the work at hand, Gu Zhun sat in the empty seat behind the night school, waiting for the students to clean the classroom after class. In the process of waiting, Gu Zhun, who was bored, also listened to the lessons, he had no teaching materials, and he was embarrassed to take notes, and listened to all the lessons by memory.
Once, the students for a "difficult problem", after class is still arguing in the classroom, everyone can not convince anyone, Gu Zhun on the side is waiting for them to go back, they clean the classroom, but these people are more and more vigorous, there is no sign of leaving, Gu Zhun can't help but interject a sentence, saying that such a mess, is not it solved? The students didn't wait for him to finish, and they all reprimanded: "Go aside, little red guy!" Just at this time, Pan Xulun passed by the door, he heard Gu Zhun's explanation, he was greatly surprised, not only completely correct, but also simpler and clearer than the textbook, so he called Gu Zhun to his office, asked Gu Zhun in detail about some accounting knowledge, and found that he had nothing to teach Gu Zhun anymore.
Moreover, Pan Shulun found that Gu Zhun's expression of accounting was more in place than his. So it was decided to let Gu Zhun serve as an accounting teacher at night school. The next day, Gu Zhun walked up to the podium, and the students saw that it was this little child who was cleaning, so they scolded and forced Gu Zhun to be driven down. Pan Xulun had no choice but to let Gu Zhun follow him first, and gave Gu Zhun dozens of more oceans every month. After about a year of this, Gu Zhun was finally slowly accepted by the students.
In 1934, Gu Zhun wrote and published the first bank accounting monograph in China, when he was 19 years old. Later, he also published five or six accounting monographs such as "Chinese Government Accounting System" and "Principles and Practices of Income Tax", becoming one of the most authoritative accounting experts in China, all before he was 21 years old.
Pan Xulun is a person with extremely high self-esteem, but his evaluation of Gu Zhun is: "My brother is ten times better than me."
At this time, Gu Zhun was not only the director of the night school department of Lixin Accounting School, but also a part-time professor in several universities such as Zhijiang and Hujiang, with a monthly income of up to 300 oceans. At that time, the monthly charter price of a rickshaw in Shanghai was 2 oceans.
But he was not satisfied with this, and at the age of 18, Gu Zhun began to accept Marxism. He officially joined the Communist Party of China at the age of 20, and since then, in addition to his own work, Gu Zhun has been busy with the revolutionary cause most of the time. In this regard, Pan Xulun knew that he had planned to hand over all the schools to Gu Zhun in the future, and seeing that Gu Zhun was so keen on the revolution, although he did not openly support it, he also helped in many aspects. He reduced Gu Zhun's daily affairs and gave Gu Zhun full freedom of work.
In 1940, Gu Zhun left Shanghai and joined the New Fourth Army. He worked and studied in southern Jiangsu, northern Jiangsu, Yan'an and other places until the liberation of Shanghai in 1949, when he returned with Chen Yi, during which he served as the director of the Shanghai Finance Bureau and the director of the Taxation Bureau.
In 1952, Gu Zhun was dismissed from all posts inside and outside the party due to differences of opinion with the leaders. In 1953, probably discovered by the conscience of the leaders, Gu Zhun was transferred to Beijing as the director of the Financial Department of the Central Construction and Construction Project.
In 1956, Gu Zhun was transferred to the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a researcher and deputy director of the Comprehensive Resources Inspection Committee. In 1957, he was classified as a rightist and sent to Xinyang, Henan Province, for labor reform, and almost starved to death. In 1962, he returned to the Institute of Economic Research, and in 1965, Gu Zhun was put on a rightist hat for the second time and sent to Henan again. In 1972, Gu Zhun returned to Beijing and spent all day soaking in the library, and on December 3, 1974, Gu Zhun died of illness in Beijing Anti-Imperialist Hospital (Union Hospital) at the age of 59.
Before Gu Zhun died, he wanted to meet with his 5 children, so he did not hesitate to sign a document admitting the mistake - before the relevant parties promised that as long as they signed, they could not only take off their hats, but also resume their work and pay back their salaries, but he resolutely did not sign, and later people said that if they signed, your children would come to see you, Gu Zhun signed, but none of the children came, not only did not come, the youngest child, a high school student, also wrote a "letter of severance", not acknowledging that there was a father like him. Later, this child became the first science student in Beijing after the resumption of the college entrance examination, and now lives in the United States, cutting off all contact with China. One of Gu Zhun's daughters is said to be a staunch Mao fan.
Gu Zhun's official education is a two-year junior high school. When he was a teenager writing accounting monographs, when he needed foreign language reference materials, pan Shulun mostly helped him, so there were several books signed by the two of them. Later, Gu Zhun felt inconvenient, so he taught himself English, and soon reached the level where he could independently translate Schumpeter's economic monographs. Gu Zhun read "Capital", first looked at the translation, then looked at the English version, and felt that some chapters of the Chinese translation were not well translated, so he simply retranslated it himself.
From joining the revolution in 1934 to his death in 1974, Gu Zhun spent forty years pursuing his revolutionary ideals, during which he searched for answers from The works of Marxism-Leninism, no matter what political tribulations he encountered. It wasn't until 1972, two years before his death, that he suddenly became interested in the history of ancient Greece, revealing in a letter to Chen Minzhi that he planned to spend 10 years, that is, his future career, to clarify the problem.
So, what exactly did he find in Greek civilization? No one knows exactly. For all he left was an unfinished manuscript, The Greek City-State System: Notes on the History of Greece.
Many times, the more serious a scholar reaches the late stage, the more cautious he becomes in his writing. When he thinks that he can mature a certain point of view, he will organize as comprehensive a material as possible to support it, and often a new material will lead to a new point of view, so he lets go of the old everything. Just like in Marx's later years, he wrote down tens of millions of words of reading notes and did not publish a word. Even the painstaking "Capital" was shelved halfway through writing and did not continue. Unlike when I was in my twenties, a copy of the Communist Manifesto was written in the draft, and after writing it, I let Engels copy and polish it, look back, and sign it.
Gu Zhun's thinking and writing are a bit like Marx in his later years, without the slightest utilitarian purpose. He would not easily conclude until he had found a satisfactory answer, but his direction had not changed,—— from the Greek civilization to discover, there must be treasure there.