Peking University Red Chamber People | Qian Xuantong: Self-acting "villain" set off a literary revolution

Beijing News (reporter Wu Wei intern Li Ziyi) TV series "The Age of Awakening" interpreted a rather interesting palm story that occurred during the New Culture Movement - "Double Reed Letter". It was this event that opened the prelude to the struggle between new literature and feudal retro-reformism. The protagonist of this incident, Qian Xuantong, the leader of the new cultural movement and the standard-bearer of the text reform, once played the "negative role" he criticized.

A "double reed" became a landmark event of the new cultural movement

After Chen Duxiu moved New Youth from Shanghai to Peking University, the editing methods and content forms have undergone great changes. In particular, from Volume 4, No. 1 onwards, the magazine contained only vernacular language and adopted a new punctuation pattern.

These changes are actually a clear declaration of the magazine's new cultural claims. However, with these changes, not a single "enemy" came out to meet the battle. In order to expand social influence, Qian Xuantong and Liu Bannong of the new cultural camp jointly performed a "double reed".

In 1918, Qian Xuantong, alias "Wang Jingxuan", wrote an open letter to the New Youth magazine in the tone of a feudal defender. Written in more than 4,000 words, quanxin wenyan counts the crimes of "New Youth" and the New Culture Movement, in which the vernacular text advocates like "barking words". The open letter also believes that the use of new punctuation and the introduction of Western culture are "to work outside the flattery, but to be strong and obedient." The text also specially praised the Tongcheng sect at that time, the ancient Wen family Lin Shu.

Liu Bannong signed it as "Reporter And Half-Farmer of the Society" and also wrote an article titled "The Book of Fu Wang Jingxuan". The whole text is full of more than 10,000 words, refuting Wang Jingxuan's views one by one, and criticizing old-fashioned people like Wang Shi for being "unlearned and stubborn and foolish". Especially with Lin Shu as the target of shooting, Liu Bannong ridiculed Lin's translation of foreign masterpieces, although numerous, but of little value.

The sensational "Double Reed Letter" promoted the concept of the new cultural movement from the bookstore to the public, and became a landmark event of the new cultural movement in China.

Contributed to the publication of Diary of a Madman

In his early years, Qian Xuantong studied Traditional Chinese studies with Lu Xun, Huang Kan, and others, studying phonology, exegesis, and the Interpretation of Characters in Speaking Texts.

In August 1913, Qian Xuantong was transferred from Hangzhou, Zhejiang to Beijing, where he first served as a lecturer in Chinese literature and classics at the National Beijing Higher Normal School, and then in 1915 he became a professor in the Chinese Literature Department of the university and a professor of philology at Peking University. From 1917 to 1927, Qian Xuantong also served as a tutor at the Institute of Traditional Chinese Studies at peking university.

At the beginning of 1917, Qian Xuantong was writing to the New Youth while also seeking suitable writers for the magazine. He remembered his classmates in Tokyo, Zhou Shuren and Zhou Zuoren. Qian Xuantong often went to the Supplementary Tree Bookstore of the Shaoxing Guild Hall in the southern half of Xuanwu Gate to persuade the Zhou brothers to write for the New Youth. Zhou Zuoren quickly handed over the manuscript, but Zhou Shuren did not start for a long time. Qian Xuantong never tires of visiting them often. He and Zhou Shuren often talked at four or five o'clock in the afternoon, and talked until eleven or twelve o'clock in the evening.

Once, Qian Xuantong said, "I think you can do something." Zhou Shuren said, "If an iron house is windowless and difficult to destroy, there are many sleeping people in it, and soon they will all suffocate, but from sleep to death, they do not feel the sadness of dying." Now that you are shouting and startling up a few of the more sober ones, and causing this unfortunate minority to suffer irreparable dying, do you think you are worthy of them?" Qian Xuantong immediately argued, "However, since a few people have risen up, you cannot say that there is absolutely no hope of destroying this iron house." This sentence hit the nail on the head and touched Zhou Shuren's heart, and he finally wrote the vernacular novel "Diary of a Madman", which attacked the old etiquette of cannibalism, which was published in the May 1918 issue of "New Youth" and signed by Lu Xun. Since then, Zhou Shuren has been unable to receive anything, novels, essays and other works have continued, charging into the battle against the old world, invincible, and becoming the main general of the new cultural movement.

Qian Xuantong was the catalyst for Lu Xun's Diary of a Madman, and its significance far exceeded that of the literary revolution.

During his teaching at Peking University, mavericks were also Qian Xuantong's "symbols".

Zhang Zhongxing, a famous scholar, philosopher, and essayist, was a disciple of Qian Xuantong. In his later years, he recalled: "The first time Mr. Qian took this class, after the class bell rang, Mr. Qian walked up to the podium, still holding the black leather bag, after the examination papers and examination questions were issued, he opened the bag, took out a stack of things, put it on the lectern, sat in front of the desk while reading and writing, never looked up. I opened the exam paper, read the questions four times, was thinking about how to answer, sat next to a classmate whispered, good answer three ways can be, anyway Mr. Qian does not look. Near the end of the class, they all handed in, and sure enough, I saw Mr. Qian walk into the registration department with the examination paper, put it down and come out. Later, I learned that the examination without reading the papers was Mr. Qian's unique style, and the school had to carve a wooden stamp of the word 'pass', and one of the examination papers was covered, as long as the answer sheets were passed. ”

Zhang Zhongxing recalled that Qian Xuantong did this because he had always been realistic and high-minded in his studies. He believes that what is learned in the classroom is an introduction, and the examination and grading are only a matter of merit and have nothing to do with academics. He lectured carefully and carefully, the students in the audience studied hard, and the purpose of both sides had been achieved, and the examination was not necessary.

【Introduction】

Qian Xuantong (1887–1939) was a modern Chinese thinker, writer, and advocate of the New Culture Movement. As one of the main writers and editors of New Youth magazine, Qian Xuantong once went to the Red Chamber of Peking University and left a footprint here. During the years of the Red Chamber in Peking University, Qian Xuantong transformed from a retroist to an anti-traditionalist.

【Sound】

The so-called Europeanization is the modernization of the whole world, which is not owned by Europeans, but Europeans have heard about it earlier and have gone a few steps ahead of us. Although Qian Xuantong pinned his hopes on Europeanization, he was not a "total Westernization" of the Western-style faction, and he had his own unique interpretation of "Europeanization"

Beijing News reporter Wu Wei intern Li Ziyi

Edited by Lei Zhang