Xie Guozhen (Chinese: 谢国桢; pinyin: Zhèng Zhèng Zhèn) was born on the 11th day of the 27th lunar month of Guangxu (28 May 1901) in Anyang, Henan Province, to a family of declining bureaucratic landlords. When he was a teenager, the elders were proud to be officials, and he was good and willing to be a "nerd" and "big fool" who was regarded as a family outlier.
Implicated by family conflicts, Xie Guozhen was unable to enter the school for formal education, but fortunately had the love of Wen Liangxian's grandmother Zhu Shi, who often told stories and read ancient texts to "Dabao" (meaning "baby") under the night lamp, from "Journey to the West", "Liaozhai Zhiyi", to "Book of Poetry" and "Three Hundred Poems of Tang Dynasty". As Xie Guozhen later said, "That's why I love to read literature and history, or because of this." Later, his father found a family school teacher to teach the Four Books and Five Classics, but the level was not good, Xie Guozhen suffered a lot, and his ass was beaten bright red. Grandfather Xie Zhongqin also inadvertently played the role of an enlightener, and his collection of books "Speaking Of Texts and Interpreting Characters" and "Wenxin Carved Dragon" allowed Xie Guozhen, who was in the embryonic period of curiosity, to absorb the necessary literary and historical "nutrition".
In 1919, the 18-year-old Xie Guozhen, inspired by the New Culture Movement, embarked on the road of studying as soon as he went. From Anyang to Beijing, the confused future, the sloppy life, and the state of unsatisfactory water and soil are like the current "North Drift". Xie Guozhen, who does not know anything about English and mathematics, will only recite "Zi Yue" and "Learn and Learn" to enter the Beijing Huiwen School to study cultural knowledge, which is a transit station that determines the failure of human life, who knows that after three consecutive years of examinations, he was rejected by the dream Peking University.
Alas, could it be that the ambition to do learning is really "he did not know this life to rest"? Xie Guozhen, who fell from ideals to reality, felt more and more powerless, and every time he passed by the Peking University campus, he "looked at the Red Chamber with excitement and sighed, and saw the beach and increased his sorrow" ("My Academic Experience"). As if hesitating, Xie Guozhen followed Wu Beijiang, the last representative of the Tongcheng Sect, to learn poetry and ancient words, and at the recommendation of the other party, he found an errand for a tutor, working half-time and reading half-study, and having no worries about food and clothing.
The turning point in fate came in the summer of 1925, when Xie Guozhen was admitted to the Institute of Chinese Studies of Tsinghua University as the first name. Liang Qichao, Wang Guowei, Chen Yinke and a number of other masters of traditional Chinese studies preached here to solve their problems, and the students who visited the beginners at the same time included Wu Qichang, Wang Yong, Feng Guorui, Liu Pansui and others, "all of whom were heroic and promising, striving for self-improvement, and learning well" ("Remembering the Four Classmates of Qinghua"). In a strong learning atmosphere, Xie Guozhen's knowledge has made great progress, and he has also published a paper with a scientific point of view, "Ming Ji Nu Change Examination". "Things in history are often in places where people don't pay attention, and we can get a lot of gains if we study them carefully." This passage at the end of the article is also his lifelong understanding and practice in the way of governance.
Different eras have different value judgments, and Xie Guozhen's example is Liang Qichao, who advocated the reform and reform of the law and founded the "Xinmin CongBao". When he was young, he asked the teacher of Jiashu, "Am I good at learning Liang Qichao", and the answer was: "How do you deserve to learn Liang Qichao?" "The things of the world are so wonderful, the two people with an age difference of 28 years finally met in Tsinghua Garden, and the legendary Liang Rengong profoundly influenced and even changed Xie Guozhen's life.
After graduating from Tsinghua University, Xie Guozhen followed Liang Qichao to the "Ice Drinking Room" in Tianjin to help compile the Dictionary of Chinese Books, and served as a tutor for Liang Sida and Liang Siyi (Liang Qichao's children) while stepping into the science of history. After tea and dinner, Xie Guozhen loved to listen to Liang Qichao's lectures on learning and allusions, and broadened his horizons and increased his insights in a subtle way. Many years later, Xie Guozhen still remembers the scene at that time: "When the three drums of the party, the heat first subsided, the sun reflected the clouds, the breeze was gentle, and the second and third son, Mr. Liang Rengong, was in the atrium, calmly asking Mr. Liang Rengong about his youth. Mr. Xing, talking eloquently, the second and third sons listened to it and forgot it, did not feel crazy, looked back at the river Han, when it was already a faint dawn..." ("Mr. Liang Qichao's Juvenile Anecdotes")
The fledgling Xie Guozhen felt that "there was nothing in his belly", and Liang Qichao was a respected university inquirer, and the near water building platform first got the moon, but how to "get" it still had to pay attention to a certain method. "The first is not to be shy, what you don't know is not to know, you don't pretend to know; the second is to be diligent, hand, and pen, and when I hear what the teacher says, I immediately take a small book and write it down." ("My Experience of Governing Studies") Once, Liang Qichao talked about Su Dongponan's degrading Dan'er (Hainan Island), quoting the poem "Crossing the Sea on the Night of June 20" - "Nine Dead Southern Wilderness I Do Not Hate, Zi YouQi Absolutely Crown Life", which made Xie Guozhen feel confused, so he asked Mr. Xie for advice. Liang Qichao did not displeasure or laugh, but told the story of the Song Dynasty Yuanyou party struggle on the spot to satisfy the students' desire for knowledge.
The "Drinking Ice Room" witnessed the mentor-apprentice friendship between Liang Qichao and Xie Guozhen, and mr. Xie's sincere teachings made him remember it. The reason why Xie Guozhen was obsessed with the history of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties all his life was actually a kind of spiritual and interesting inheritance. "Since I have read Mr. Liang's Introduction to Qing Dynasty Scholarship, The History of Academic Thought in the Past Three Hundred Years, and Qing Jiangfan's Records of Sinology Teachers, I have studied the academic thoughts of Gu Yanwu and Huang Zongxi. On this basis, Mr. Liang also told me about the relics of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. When Xie Guozhen recalled his academic career in his later years, he lamented that "all were inspired by Mr. Xie."
The following year, Liang Qichao sent his children to Nankai Middle School, and Xie Guozhen also went there to teach. Before leaving, Mr. Liang gave his collection of photocopied copies of the inscription "Chunhua Ge Ti" to the students, and two other calligraphy and painting gifts were given as souvenirs. In the same year, Xie Guozhen also received a fan from another Tsinghua teacher, Wang Guowei, which featured two seven-sentence poems by Han Wei at the end of the Tang Dynasty: "That is, Eyes" and "Dengnan Shenguang Temple Pagoda Courtyard". According to Xie Guozhen's "Relics of the Fan-faced Book of Mr. Wang Guowei", on the third day of the first month of the fifth month of the old calendar in 1927, Wang Guowei drove from the Tsinghua campus to the Summer Palace, wandered alone, and temporarily turned back to the school office, used an ink pen to correct the "brother" on the fan surface to "brother", and then walked to the front of the FishZao Xuan without hesitation, imitating Qu Yuan, and sinking down in anger.
Wang Guowei's perseverance and meticulousness deeply touched Xie Guozhen, and this allusion still makes people have mixed feelings. Two years later, Liang Qichao died in The Union Hospital, and another brilliant meteor crossed the sky. Xie Guozhen benefited from Mr. Xie's friendship and went to work at the Beijing Library. At first, he edited the catalog of the collection of books, and then sorted out the golden stone tablets in the Liang Qichao Memorial Room, and engaged in the study of Ming and Qing history. At that time, there were many talents in the museum, such as Zhao Wanli, Liu Guojun, Wang Chongmin, Xiang Da, Sun Kaidi, etc. In a free and active academic environment, Xie Guozhen worked his learning and servants to complete the Examination of Late Ming History Books that laid his academic reputation.
In 1932, Xie Guozhen went to the Department of History of Nanjing Central University as a lecturer, using the historical materials accumulated in his early years to write the "Examination of the Party and Social Movement in the Ming and Qing Dynasties"; in 1934, he planned to go to the Department of History of Henan University as a professor, but for some reason he could not make the trip. The "July 7 Incident" led to the fall of Peiping, he ran to Changsha, worked in the library of Southwest Union University, it is said that life is not accustomed, homesick, not long after returning to the Beiping Library. It turned out to be a decision he regretted.
The situation was complicated and turbulent, and Xie Guozhen was invited by Zhou Zuoren to enter the pseudo-Peking University History Department and talk about the history of the motherland and the "Huayi Distinction" without hesitation. He wishfully believed that "Lou Ju This Lou is also here, Tu Ju Is also this Tu Ye", but he caused himself trouble - Yuan Tongli, then director of the Beiping Library, ordered him to resign. After losing his job and having no place to live, Xie Guozhen asked Fu Zengxiang for help and went to Sichuan to help the private big and medium bank Si Bizha. "It's just a matter of mixing things and covering up the bell." (The Complete Works of Xie Guozhen)
In 1945, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was successful, the country survived the crisis, and Xie Guozhen also ended his personal chaotic period and taught at the Peking Provisional University. Or the arrangement of fate, or the test of reality, after a period of time, almost every other year will change the work and life scene. In 1946, his father was critically ill, he returned to his hometown to his relatives, on the way he met Fan Wenlan, who was entrusted by him to go to Shanghai to purchase books for North China University; in 1947, he worked for the Shanghai Dazhong Bank, and also wrote a book manuscript in the Enlightened Bookstore, and the school edition "Notes on the Collection of Gong Xi Ting" edited "The History of the Development of Northeast China by The Liu People in the Early Qing Dynasty"; in 1948, on the recommendation of Qian Mu, he went to Kunming to serve as a professor of the Department of Literature and History of Yunnan University; in the spring of 1949, he entered the Institute of Political Science of North China University to study, and in the autumn to Nankai University to teach the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties, bibliography and historical anthology.
After the anti-rightist movement broke out, Xie Guozhen was transferred to the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (now the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), where he received ideological reform at the Institute of History while continuing his research on the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties. During this period, he successively published the "Ming and Qing Notes on the Discussion Series", "Ming and Qing Notes on Barnyard And Seen" and "Records on the History of Zheng Chenggong", and completed the editing of the "Selected Social and Economic Historical Materials of the Ming Dynasty", but he still used "laziness and inertia, and did not seize the time" to review himself.
An unprecedented catastrophe of the "Cultural Revolution" plunged countless intellectuals into pessimism and despair, and Xie Guozhen was branded a "bourgeois reactionary academic authority", locked up in his room and suspended for reflection, and later assigned to the Minggang Cadre School in Xixian County, Henan Province. In the extremely harsh political climate, everyone trembled and trembled, like walking on thin ice, but he still tried every means to collect historical materials, worked tirelessly, and used two years to write an "Overview of the Social Life of the Two Han Dynasties" that was different from the study of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
When I wake up from a nightmare, I feel that the time is not waiting. Xie Guozhen was nearly 80 years old, and it was supposed to be the time of an peaceful life, but he did not show any retreat. At the same time as the Academy of Social Sciences led graduate students, Xie Guozhen also served as an adviser to the State Council's ancient book collation and planning group, and tirelessly went to various places to identify ancient books. On September 4, 1982, Xie Guozhen, who was hospitalized in Beijing, died of deteriorating condition and ineffective rescue. "Soldiers die on the battlefield, scholars die in lectures", he always remembered the last instructions of his predecessor Liang Qichao, and in the days before his death, he also edited the Chinese translation of the Cambridge Encyclopedia on the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty from his hospital bed.
Author: Huang Chunyu
Editor: Liu Di
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.