Biography
Meng Wentong (1894~1968), Mingerda, Zi wentong, a native of Yanting County, Sichuan Province, a 20th-century master of traditional Chinese studies, an outstanding historian and educator, who had deep achievements and achievements in the field of ancient Chinese history and ancient academic culture. Major works: "Ancient History Zhen Wei", "Compilation Of Li Rong Laozi's Notes", "Zhou Qin Ethnic Minority Studies", "Classics of The Origin", "Yue Shi Cong Kao" and so on.
Meng Wentong graduated from the Sichuan Cungu School in his early years, and studied from Liao Ping, a master of modern literature and classics, and Liu Shipei, a master of ancient classics, and was especially influenced by Liao Ping's scholarship, and after becoming famous, he learned from the modern Buddhist master Ouyang Without Asking Questions, went out of the scriptures and entered history, turned to many teachers, and formed his own academic style of penetrating the classics, history, and zhuzi, next to the Buddhist Tao Erzang and Song Ming Science, becoming one of the rare masters of traditional Chinese studies in the 20th century.
Since the 1920s, Meng Wentong has taught at Peking University, Sichuan University, and West China Union University. In the 1940s, he was the director of the Sichuan Provincial Library. After 1949, in addition to continuing to serve as a professor in the Department of History of Sichuan University, he also served as a researcher and academic committee member of the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Master of Traditional Chinese Studies, Meng Wentong
Academic achievements
Meng Wentong is a descendant of the modern "Shu Studies", and his academic style is different from the "New Historiography" that dominated the academic circles in the 1920s and 1930s, and is known for his broad knowledge. In 1927, Meng Wentong became famous with the book "Zhen Wei of Ancient History", and later continued to become "Jingxue Shuyuan", which put forward the "three-system theory" of China's ancient ethnic groups, and its conclusions and methods had a far-reaching and extensive impact on Chinese academic circles. His long essay "The Expansion of Agricultural Output in China and the Evolution of the Conscription System and Academic Thought" in successive dynasties strives to find out the law of historical evolution in the interaction between the economic base and the superstructure, which is a representative work of his view of "changing in history with the ming".
In his later years, Meng Wentong devoted himself to the study of ethnic history and local history, especially in the last four years of his life, and wrote the book "Yue Shi Series Examination", which refuted all kinds of strange theories of some Yue history experts in the world coveting China's territory, marking a new level of research on ancient ethnic history in China.
In addition to the above-mentioned works, Mr. Meng has dozens of monographs and papers, such as "Zhen Wei of Ancient Lands", "Zhen Wei of Ancient Tribes", "Five Treatises on Confucianism", "Ten Kinds of Daoist Books", "Treatise on the Ancient History of Bashu", and "Research on Ethnic Minorities in the Pre-Qin Dynasty". In 2015, the Bashu Book Society published the six-volume Complete Works of Mengwen Tong.
Academic experience
In October 1894, Meng Wentong was born in Shiniumiao Township, Yanting County, Sichuan Province. At the age of 5, he entered a private school, and in less than two years, he could recite most of the four books and five classics and the texts of the sons. His uncle was a layman, enthusiastic about local education, and advocated new schools. In 1906, Meng Zhicheng was appointed as a professor of Chengdu Fuxue, and Meng Wentong also went to Chengdu and entered the Sichuan Provincial City Higher School to set up a middle school, including Guo Kaizhen (Mo Ruo), Wang Guangqi, Li Jieren, Zhou Taixuan and so on. During his time in school, Meng Wentong read books such as "Xuan Xuan Language", "Bibliographic Answers", "Outline of the General Bibliography of the Four Libraries", and "Explanation of Characters".
In 1911, Meng Wentong was selected to enter the Sichuan Cungu School (later renamed Sichuan Guoxue School, Xie Wuliang, Liu Shipei, Liao Ping, and Song Yuren successively served as principals), and under the guidance of masters of the classics and Shi Zhu, he improved his studies, and wrote a thesis "Kong's Ancient Literature", which was published in the "Compilation of Guoxue Hui". This text distinguishes between the old history and the Six Classics, thus exploring the source of the present and ancient texts, which is the precursor to the publication of the later special books "Introduction to Classics" and "Classics and Selecting Sources".
Studied under a Buddhist master
After 1918, Meng Wentong returned to his hometown of Yanting from Chengdu and ran a school in his hometown of Jindingchang, recruiting the children of relatives and friends in the neighborhood, teaching the history of reading the Bible, and cultivating a group of talents with expertise for his hometown.
In 1921, at the invitation of his uncle Meng Zhicheng, who was then the principal of Chongqing Lianzhong, Meng Wentong successively taught at Chongqing Lianzhong and the Provincial Chongqing Second Female Division. During this period, I saw Qian Mu's article "On Etiquette and Law in the Pre-Qin Dynasties", and I was shocked by its grand purpose, so I sent a book to Qian Mu on Academics.
In 1923, the domestic academic community launched a fierce debate over the dispute between modern and ancient texts. In view of this, Meng Wentong left Chongqing and went east to Jiangsu and Zhejiang to visit Shi Xian, hoping to discuss the changes in scripture since Tongzhi and Guangxu. When he arrived in Nanjing, he paid homage to Zhang Taiyan. Later, the buddhist master Ouyang Jingwu inquired about the study of the Dharma of Wisdom, and deeply felt the importance of using the method of governing the scriptures to study the Buddhist scriptures, so he entered the "Indochina Academy" run by Ouyang in Nanjing and immersed himself in studying Buddhist philosophy. In the courtyard, he got along with his friends Tang Yongtong, Xiong Shili, Lü Li, Wang Enyang, etc., talking about the past and the present, and complementing each other perfectly. The papers written by Meng Wentong, "The Examination of Zen Studies in China" and "The Study of Wisdom in Silla Studies", were deeply appreciated by Ouyang Jingwu, and the "Examination of Zen Studies in China" was published in the inaugural issue of the journal "Neixue".
Wrote "Ancient History Zhen Wei"
In 1927, Meng Wentong wrote "Ancient History Zhen Wei", which was first published in 1929. This book is the most famous work of Mon venthong. Although he tried to break the system of three emperors and five emperors in the book, he did not abandon all the legends of Nuwa, Furen, Fuxi, Shennong, Gonggong, and Zhu Rong, and then used them to explore the truth of ancient history. In the same year, Meng Wentong returned to Sichuan for a time and taught at Chengdu University and Chengdu Normal University. In 1929, he went to Nanjing again and studied at the Central University. He returned to Sichuan the following year and was still employed at Chengdu University.
Studies on Ethnic Minorities in Zhou and Qin
In 1931, due to opposition to the forcible merger of the three major universities (National Chengdu University, National Chengdu Normal University, and Public Sichuan University) into the National Sichuan University, Meng Wentong angrily left Chengdu and left Kaifeng, Henan Province, to teach at Henan University. During this period, he often wrote articles expounding on the changes in the academic thinking of the Zhou, Qin, and Han Dynasties, and writing "Heavenly Questions", which explored the origin of Zoulu, Sanjin, and Jingchu cultures.
In 1933, at the invitation of Tang Yongtong, Meng Wentong went to Beijing and co-taught with Qian Mu in the Department of History of Peking University. He was successively written into various articles such as "Inuyasha East Invasion Examination", "Qin Wei Rong Ethnic Examination", "Chi Di Dong Invasion Examination", and "Ancient Ethnic Migration Examination", which were later compiled and compiled into "Zhou Qin Ethnic Minority Studies", which was published in 1958.
Returned to Sichuan during the War of Resistance
In 1935, Meng Wentong moved to Tianjin and taught at Hebei Women's Normal College. From time to time, there are scum in the academic circles who vigorously advocate "Sino-Japanese promotion", and many times they have sought out Meng Wentong and promised a lot of money, with the intention of enticing Meng Wei to write such articles. At that time, Meng Wentong and his family of 7 were very economically strapped, but they had already examined their intentions and sternly refused to invite such people. After the outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, Beijing and Tianjin fell, and in order to avoid the persecution of Japanese and pseudo-entanglement, the Meng went to the south by Tanggu on an outer ship.
After Returning to Sichuan, in addition to teaching at Sichuan University, He also taught at Chengdu West China Union University and Three Northeastern Universities until the liberation of the whole country. In 1940, he was invited by Guo Youshou, director of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Education, to serve as the director of the Sichuan Provincial Library. During this period, Meng Wentong successively completed monographs and papers such as "History of the Zhou and Qin Nationalities", "History of Chinese Historiography", "Zhen Wei of Ancient Land", "Five Theories of Confucianism", "Commerce of the Zhou Dynasty", "Society of Qin", "Economic Policy of the Han Dynasty" and so on.
The Five Treatises on Confucianism is the crystallization of Meng Wentong's study of Confucianism, of which the Development of Confucian Political Thought is particularly important. He conducted a historical investigation of Confucianism from the perspective of a historian, jumping out of the previous scholars' discussion of scripture.
Meng Wentong also had a deep study of Taoist thought, deep in the channel, and had edited the "Lao Tzu" notes with colleagues in the provincial library, which were counted before and after: Yan Junping's "Moral Return", Wang Bi's "Notes on Lao Tzu", Cheng Xuanying's "Lao Tzu YiShu", Li Rong's "Notes on Lao Tzu" and more than 10 kinds of hundreds of thousands of words.
Teaches at Sichuan University
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Meng Wentong taught at West China University in Chengdu. After the adjustment of the faculties in 1952, he taught at Sichuan University, and concurrently served as a researcher and member of the Academic Committee of the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has served as a deputy to the Chengdu Municipal People's Congress, a member of the Chengdu Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and a member of the Chengdu Municipal Committee of the China Democratic League and the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee. During this period, he wrote a lot of works, and successively completed a number of papers with high academic value, such as "China's Feudal Land Rent", "The Expansion of Agricultural Output in China in Successive Dynasties and the Evolution of The Enlistment System and Academic Thought", "On the Xifeng Transformation Law", and "The Commercial Tax of the Song Dynasty". He is particularly committed to discussing and writing the ancient ethnic and local history of the southwest region, and the "Discussion on the Ancient History of Bashu" has been unscripted.
Meng Wentong, photographed in 1956 at Sichuan University
"Yue Shi Cong Kao"
From 1964 onwards, Meng Wentong devoted himself to the writing of the Yue Shi Cong Kao. Soon, the "Cultural Revolution" began, and Mongolian Wentong was persecuted and his writing was extremely difficult. The first draft of the book was drafted, but it was not revised and finalized, and Meng Wentong died of illness in June 1968. "Yue Shi Cong Kao" became his masterpiece, and was later compiled by his son Meng Mo (a professor at Sichuan University) and published by the People's Publishing House in 1983, and won the first prize for outstanding scientific research achievements in philosophy and social sciences in Sichuan Province.
"Yue Shi Cong Kao" has attracted much attention from the academic community. The commentary believes that this is the first work devoted to the study of Yue history after liberation, which has carried out meticulous examination and in-depth discussion of important issues such as the origin, distribution, type, change, conquest, and social development of the Yue people, and is a very valuable academic monograph, and its publication marks that one aspect of the study of ancient history in our country has reached a new level.
This article is based on the "Chronicle of Sichuan Province/Character History", the "Complete Collection of < Mengwentong" > Taoist Taoist Taoist Research" of the Laozi Research Institute of Sichuan University