As we all know, during the Republic of China period, masters sprung up one after another, and the legendary stories they left behind are still amazing. There was such a graduation certificate circulating on the Internet, which had the names of the four tutors of Tsinghua Guoguo College, namely Wang Guowei, Liang Qichao, Chen Yinke, and Zhao Yuanren.
Mei Yiqi, the former president of Tsinghua University, once said, "The so-called university is not only a building, but also a master." "There is no doubt that the four great masters of Tsinghua are real masters, and they are all geniuses. Among the four mentors, Zhao Yuanren's name ranked last, but his ability was no weaker than the other three.
Zhao Yuanren is recognized as a prodigy of the world, or the first ghost talent of the Republic of China. Taking language as an example, there is no second person in the world to achieve the achievements of Zhao Yuanren, who is proficient in multi-Chinese dialects, plus 33 local dialects, note that this is only a rough calculation. No one can really understand how many languages Zhao Yuanren can speak, because he can always communicate with everyone in the local language everywhere he goes, so that he is mistaken for a local, and some people even say that she can speak more than 50 languages.
We know that a person who achieves greater success in one field is likely to take a lifetime. Zhao Yuanren was so crazy that as a teacher he taught physics, mathematics, philosophy, Chinese music history, Chinese Chinese, Chinese grammar, theoretical linguistics, logic and other courses. Zhao Yuanren's erudition was so impressive that people gave him the titles of mathematician, linguist, translator, philosopher, logician, musician, and so on.
Someone commented on Zhao Yuanren, "This is a true master who can integrate science, language, art and life, and embody the spirit of science and humanistic feelings so vividly." Zhao Yuanren's personality humor, such as his "notes" published in the 15th anniversary of Tsinghua Weekly in 1926, are very humorous," laughed and laughed, only laughing himself. Jokes are said with a straight face, or people laugh", "serious words are said with a straight face, only their own attention." Serious words laughed, or people also paid attention. ”
Of course, Zhao Yuanren had the highest talent in language, and he wrote many strange poems. In 1930, Zhao Yuanren wrote a 96-character (including title) strange text in the United States, called "Shi's History of Eating Lions". After reading this article, many people think that this is an ancient and strange text, and it is difficult for someone to surpass it in a thousand years, because it is pronounced the same as 96 words.
The full text of the "History of Shi's Lion Eater" reads, "Shi Shi, the poet of the stone room, loves lions, and vows to eat ten lions." Shi Shi is always suitable for the city to see the lion. At ten o'clock, suitable for ten lions suitable for the city. It is time to adapt to the city of Shi Shi. Shi Shi regarded it as the Ten Lions, and the Ten Lions died. The clan is a corpse of ten lions, a suitable stone chamber. The stone chamber is wet, and the clan makes the stone chamber. Stone chamber swab, Shi Shi's first trial food is the corpse of ten lions. When eating, the first consciousness is the corpse of ten lions, and the corpse of ten stones of lions. Trial release is a thing. ”
Isn't that a magical article? When Zhao Yuanren heard that some people in China wanted to pinyinize Chinese characters, he strongly opposed it, so he wrote this article to refute it. On February 24, 1982, Zhao Yuanren died of illness in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the age of 90.
References: Zhao Yuanren of the Four Great Tutors of Tsinghua University, Selected Papers of Zhao Yuanren Linguistics