Former site of Toshi Shiojing (Photo by Zhong Yongxin, 2020)
Author: Zhong Yongxin
I have worked and lived in Tsinghua University for nearly four years (2004-2008), during which I have extensively searched for old Tsinghua materials, and later read hundreds of modern scholars' writings in the Xishan period of Haidian, gradually gained cultural and academic vision, and insisted on studying and auditing at Peking University Tsinghua for many years, haunting Tsinghua classrooms and libraries, always feeling how the masters of the past years knew how to see the wind and bones, and saw that there were many elites in Shu Tsinghua figures, and there were poets and directors Sun Yu and chen Quan, a famous scholar in My Hometown.
Sun Yu (1919)
1. Sun Yu during the Tsinghua School period
Sun Yu, born in Chongqing in 1900, his ancestral home is Gongjing, Zigong, Sichuan, he was admitted to Tsinghua School in 1919, left in the summer of 1923 to study at the University of Wisconsin in the United States, his academic name was Sun Chengyu when he studied at Tsinghua, and the situation in school was seen in Sun Yu's autobiography "Song of the Great Road".
When Sun Yu first entered Tsinghua University, he said that he obviously felt that the simple atmosphere of Beijing Tsinghua School and Tianjin Nankai Middle School was different, which was reflected in Tsinghua's "relatively foreign atmosphere", and at first his studies were far behind his classmates, especially in English, and then slowly caught up.
By the third grade in 1922, Sun Yu translated the short story "The Story of the Leopard Man" by the American realist writer Jack London, sent to Mao Dun to be published in the "Novel Monthly" edited by Mao Dun in Shanghai, and soon translated Thomas Hardy's novel "Entertain His Wife" for publication, for which Mao Dun wrote to Sun Yu to encourage him to engage in literary creation.
At this time, Sun Yu began to be fascinated by movies, as early as the Nankai period, he had seen many highly literary films, such as the "Father of American Cinema" David Greiffiss directed "Lai Marriage" and other film works directed by "Tears of Residual Flowers", "Three Musketeers", "Four Horsemen", and in his spare time, he also continued to study the book "Film Compilation Law" purchased from the United States.
Sun Yu frankly had a better understanding of film art at that time, but it was still not clear, and his classmate Sun Fulin felt that film could play an important role among the masses, so he had the heart to continue to explore, because Sun Fulin served as the obligation of the "North China Film Company" to screen in the Tsinghua Auditorium every Saturday, Sun Yu and Zhi cooperated to screen selected films every week. In the meantime, an anecdote that had a greater influence on Sun Yu occurred, "North China Film King" Luo Mingyou founded the True Light Cinema in Beijing, and later Luo Mingyou published an advertisement in the newspaper to solicit the film review of "Lai Marriage", Sun Yu wrote 4,000 words to vote, entitled "A Scientific Review of Lai Marriage", and won the first place, so the North China Film Company gave him a long-term free ticket for the movie theater, which further encouraged Sun Yu's confidence in engaging in film.
During the Tsinghua period, campus life was rich and colorful, and Sun Yu participated in the school sports meeting, but fell down and did not get the ranking. In addition to sports, he also has painting and music hobbies in order to understand the characteristics of various fields of literature and art, and to enhance the study of films known as comprehensive art.
His self-description mentions that in the fourth grade in 1923, Sun Yu was engaged to Zhang Qixian in his hometown of Present-day Dashanpu Town, Zigong, Sichuan, and the introducer was Zhu Zhenyi, a teacher at Jiangyang Academy in Fushun (who took Sun Yu out of Sichuan in 1914), and after Sun Yu returned to China in 1926, he married Zhang Qixian the following year and accompanied him until he was old.
During the Tsinghua period, Sun Yu cultivated a strong interest in film, and he actively devoted himself to the film industry after returning from studying abroad, and then created many fields of Chinese film, such as creating film songs, using camera lifts for the first time, shooting a large number of classic films, and discovering many outstanding talents.
Chen Quan (1926)
Chen Quan
2. Chen Quan during the Tsinghua School period
Chen Quan, born in 1903 in Yanjing Street, Fushun County, Sichuan Province, was admitted to the Tsinghua Preparatory School for Studying in the United States in 1921, left in the summer of 1928, and spent seven years in school. He returned to China in 1934.
At that time, there were many masters in Tsinghua University, both the trendy Western thinking and a strong atmosphere of Traditional Chinese Studies (with Wang Guowei, Chen Yinke, Liang Qichao, Wu Mi, etc.), especially Chen Quan was directly taught by the famous Chinese scholar Mr. Wu Mi, at this time his friends also included He Lin and Zhang Yinlin, and called "the three disciples of Wu Mi" and "the three talents of the College of Literature", and it is often mentioned in the "Diary of Wu Mi" to exchange literary history and novel creation experience with Chen Quan.
Chen Quan's creative work during his studies at Tsinghua University is mainly seen in the publication of a large number of works in Tsinghua Weekly, reflecting the academic training received by Tsinghua students in the early days. According to statistics, Chen Quan has written more than 130 articles in the school journal, which are divided into academic papers, Tsinghua commentaries, book introductions, and short commentaries on the theory of the times, and the papers he has written include "A Brief Biography of the First Lyricist of the Qing Dynasty Naran Sex Virtue and His Writings", "Literature: A Comparison of Northern and Southern Literature in the Zhou Dynasty", "The Relationship between Drinking Water Words and the Dream of the Red Chamber and Its Literature and Art", "The Three Represents in the Yuanqu", etc., and the commentaries include "Tsinghua Students and Machines", "Review and Future Standards and Implementation of Tsinghua Moral Education", "Fundamental Issues of Tsinghua Reform", and also written many travelogues" Journey to the South: Summer Life", "Shadow of The Waves", and introduced a large number of books, such as "New Theory of History", "New Theory of Social Psychology", "Accounting in recent times" and so on.
During this period, Many of Chen Quan's translations were also published in the famous modern academic journal Xueheng, such as Xue Lei's Yun yin in the 48th issue of 1925; No. 49 co-translated Rossetti's "May the King Always Remember Me"; Heartless Woman, No. 54, 1926; The 57th issue of Goethe's poetry in 1926 shows that Chen Quan already has a relatively solid foundation in literary translation.
In addition, when he was in school, Chen Quan completed a number of novel masterpieces. For example, in 1927, he wrote a novel "A Scene Before the Revolution" (published by Shanghai Liangyou Company in 1934). In 1928, the Shanghai Crescent Bookstore published the novella "Tianwen", and after returning to China, Chen Quan continued to write and maintained a strong literary creativity.
Chen Quan's life in the Tsinghua period is reflected in his active participation in club activities, such as the "Group Voice Society", "Youth Inspirational Association" and "Ren Society", and at the same time writes various short reviews and publications in Tsinghua Weekly, showing the activities of the campus period, mostly for club activities and speeches and debates, etc. These extracurricular lives have promoted the improvement of Chen Quan's social vision and communication skills.
Like other master-level figures produced by Tsinghua, the academic training and teacher-friend exchanges during the Tsinghua period were also very important for Chen Quan to become a scholar of Chinese literature, comparative literature studies, and Warring States Policy, which can be described as the initial laying of Chen Quan's ideological concepts and creative style.
Resources:
1. Song of the Great Road (Sun Yu), Yuanliu Publishing Company, 1990
2. "Chen Quan: Borrowing mirrors from foreign countries", Wenjin Publishing House, 2005
3. Tsinghua Weekly
(First draft in December 2014, revised in September 2015)
Note: It was published in Zigong Daily Shi Hai Hook Shen and "Literature and History Magazine"
appendix:
Selected poems from Sun Yu and Chen Quan's Tsinghua school period
Sun Yu
Bodhisattva Man
In 1919
The plains were silently windy and fishy, and the Shenzhou Continent was choking with smoke.
Moon black stirs the knife ring and listens to the chicken dancing and swirling.
The carving insects are many mistakes, and the ambition is scattered;
The long sword is tied around the waist, and the battlefield kills the enemy far away!
Seven poems
The famous garden was destroyed and the remaining stele was destroyed, and the jade masonry was left behind by the guests.
Only the palace flowers are better than the old, and the evening wind reads all over the female wall.
Five poems in one
Lonely Emperor Zhai, pond spring grass.
The east wind shakes the thin willow, and it looks like a thin waist person.
—Song of the Great Road, Yuanliu Publishing Company, 1990, pp. 63-64
Chen Quan
"Mourning Fiancée Xiao Yanshun"
In 1924
I want to tell God about my selfish feelings, and the negative people say that I am miserable.
I also have pity for my life, and the king of the country should be afraid of chaos.
There have long been obsessive and sleepy, ashamed of the honey to teach details.
From now on, Hugh mentioned it, and the poignant feelings could not bear to forget.
(Note: The title is added by the author)
《Xi Jiang Yue》
In 1928
The moon is dissolved and swaying, the garden is everywhere Qinghua, the shadows of the trees are chaotic, the sorrow is full of nothing, last night's spring breeze rose again, and now the red apricots sprout again. The mood is always helpless, how to put down!
I remember last year today, the grass in front of the steps is green, the light and shallow smile is always pleasant, and there is a rich rhyme. The past is now over, and the East Wind looks back on the acid. Peach blossoms fall in poor spring, a touch of oblique sun dream cold.
——" Chen Quan: Borrowing mirrors from foreign countries ( Wenjin Publishing House, August 2005, pp. 22-23)
"Translation of Ms. Rosserty's "May the King Always Remember Me"
By Christina Rossetti (1860)
May you remember me when I don't go. The road is vast, and there is no period of sight before death.
This heart is like a golden stone, and the king's hand cannot hold it. As before, I want to stop it.
May you remember me and let all your thoughts go away. A lifelong plan has been made, and it will be safe for the future.
Only I remember, and I should know this. It was too late to be persuaded.
If you forget me, you will abandon me for the time being. After reminiscing, fortunately do not lock your eyebrows.
Darkness and corruption, the scars stain my thoughts. I can't think of it, but my heart is suspicious.
I'd rather forget myself and wan'er ziyi. You don't have to remember me, remember my heart is sad.
——"A Collection of Poems of Tsinghua And Tsinghua In The Hundred Years", Tsinghua University Press, April 2011, 231 pp
[Wentu 丨 Mr. Zhong Zi, self-proclaimed Puxi Sanren, the author's original name is Zhong Yongxin. He is a member of the editorial board of the Lili Sinology Network and the editor-in-chief of the Humanities Channel. 】