In China's history, there have been four large-scale southern crossings.
The so-called south crossing, almost all of them are forced to be helpless, unable to gain a foothold in the Central Plains, and will choose the partial An River table.
The first time: Jin people crossed to the south.
In the fifth year of Yongjia (311), the Xiongnu marched south, and the Western Jin capitals luoyang and Chang'an were lost. Sima Rui and the king crossed the river, and the Zhongyuan Shi clan crossed the river with a crown and established the Eastern Jin Dynasty in Jiankang (present-day Nanjing), which lasted for a hundred years.
Sima Rui, Emperor of Jinyuan (276-323) Image source: wikipedia
The second time: the Song people crossed south.
In the second year of Jing Kang (1127), the Jin Dynasty captured the Northern Song Dynasty's Tokyo (present-day Kaifeng), and the Second Emperor Hui Qin was captured. Zhao Zhao, the younger brother of Emperor Qinzong of Song, led the Song Dynasty to cross south and moved the capital to Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou), known in history as the Southern Song Dynasty, which also lasted for more than a hundred years. This is also the largest southward migration of the Han people in the Central Plains in previous dynasties.
Emperor Gaozong of Song (1107-1187)
The third time: Ming people crossed south.
In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), Li Zicheng attacked Beijing, and the Chongzhen Emperor hanged himself at Coal Mountain. After that, the Qing army entered the customs, and the Ming Dynasty clan established a number of regimes in the south. But this time, they were not as lucky as the previous two times, and the Southern Ming (also known as the Later Ming) regimes quickly collapsed in less than 20 years.
In the autumn of 1645, a map of the ming and qing confrontations. Image source: NetEase
The fourth occurred during the War of Resistance Against Japan.
The Japanese army invaded China, and a large number of Chinese people moved from the Central Plains to the southwest. As a result, historian Chen Yinke could not help but sigh at the fate of his homeland and his individual: "The southern crossing should think of the past, and the northern return is afraid of the next life."
However, to Chen Yinke's surprise, the first three southern crossings, the Central Plains changed hands; during the War of Resistance Against Japan, the southern crossing took less than ten years to complete the return to the north.
So, why was it only this time that the southward crossing was finally able to return to the north?
The famous writer Yue Nan specially wrote a book for this purpose, "Returning to the South and Returning to the North". In a recent live broadcast, he specially told Zhiya Xueyou about his understanding of this northern return and the origin of his creation.
Yue Nan pointed out: The reason why the Chinese people were able to return to the north as victors and did not become prisoners of the Japanese aggressors was that, in addition to being influenced by the international situation, the core reason was the eight years of arduous but firm Resistance, in which intellectuals played an important role in leading the spirit.
The more critical the moment, the more you can see the wind bone. The patriotic and intellectual spirit of Chinese intellectuals was vividly embodied in this period of the fourth southern crossing. If you want to understand the life, scholarship and spiritual world of these intellectuals, Yue Nan's "South Crossing and North Return" trilogy is undoubtedly an excellent choice.
According to Yue Nan's own words, he was the thirty-first generation grandson of Yue Fei. Perhaps because of this, he attaches great importance to the blood and spirit of the Chinese nation.
Some people say that there is no China after Yashan Mountain, but Yue Nan says that there is Still China after Yashan Mountain. This is because the Chinese national culture is deeply accumulated and will not be easily erased.
Yue Nan's origin in writing "Returning from the South to the North" was in 2003, when he came to Lizhuang, Sichuan, the cultural center of the Anti-Japanese War period, and wrote "The Past of Li Zhuang", which described the stories of a group of cultural elites such as Li Ji, Fu Sinian, Liang Sicheng, Lin Huiyin, Xia Nai, etc., and thus germinated the idea of creating group portraits for the masters of the Republic of China.
Lizhuang Ancient Town is located on the south bank of the Yangtze River in the eastern suburbs of Yibin, and is known as the "First Ancient Town of the Yangtze River". Image source: Sohu personal account - Autumn Wind Traceless People Have Memories / Photo
Of course, it is not easy to write about a group of people and an era. It took Yue Nan eight years, many times to the southern and southwestern border areas of the field interview and investigation, and searched for a large number of precious materials, before completing the "Southern Crossing and Northern Return".
This set of books also did not live up to his efforts, and once it was published, it triggered a warm response. According to Yue Nan, the sales of "South Crossing and North Return" have now reached 1.2 million sets, with an average of 10,000 sets sold every month.
So, what exactly is written in "South to North" to become a long-term bestseller?
This question, I am afraid, must start from the Southwest United University depicted in the book, this famous school that stands firm in the flames.
On November 1, 1937, the National Changsha Provisional University, which consisted of National Peking University, National Tsinghua University and the private Nankai University, opened in Changsha. Due to the successive Japanese bombardments of Changsha, the school moved to Kunming the following year and was renamed National Southwest United University in April 1938.
Group photo of the leaders of the three universities of Southwest United University, from left, are Zha Liangzhao (former director of the Southwest United University), Hu Shi (then president of Peking University), Mei Yiqi (then president of Tsinghua University), and Huang Juesheng (secretary general of Nankai University). Image source: Sohu
Yue Nan told us that at that time, Nankai President Zhang Boling was often in Chongqing, Peking University President Jiang Menglin was responsible for communicating between Chongqing and Kunming, and only Tsinghua President Mei Yiqi stayed in Kunming for a long time, so he always served as the chairman of the Standing Committee and was the real backbone of southwest United University.
Mei Yiqi is undoubtedly a great principal and a true educator, and he has brought many of Tsinghua's educational concepts to Southwest United University, such as general education and physical education.
When it comes to valuing sports, this is a long tradition of Tsinghua. As early as the 1920s, Tsinghua had a set of strict physical testing standards, including climbing rope 15 feet, jumping 14 feet, swimming 20 yards (1 yard is equivalent to 0.91 meters), etc. If you fail one, you can't graduate.
The famous scholars Wu Mi and Liang Shiqiu both made up the exam because they failed the sports test, and the former also delayed graduation and stayed in Tsinghua for half a year before going to stay in The West.
Behind these regulations is a piece of painstaking work by The Director of the Sports Department, John Ma. He deeply felt that Tsinghua students were physically weak and would become "sick men of East Asia" when they went abroad, so he set this set of standards and urged students to actively exercise and strengthen their physique.
In 2017, Tsinghua picked up the abolished school rules, stipulating that undergraduates must learn to swim in order to graduate. Today's Tsinghua students can also experience the "no sports, no Tsinghua" school spirit that the masters of the Republic of China have experienced.
The statue of John Ma on campus at Tsinghua today.
However, Yue Nan believes that for Southwest United University, the most important thing is not these teaching concepts, but the balance between the three schools.
He pointed out that in the Southwest United University, the ratio of students from Nankai: Peking University: Tsinghua is 2:5:7, plus Tsinghua is a school founded by Gengzi indemnity, which is much richer than Nankai and Peking University. In order to avoid the imbalance of teaching resources between the three schools, resulting in internal contradictions, Mei Yiqi made a lot of efforts to enable the Southwest United University to maintain it after the victory of the War of Resistance.
But is the integrity of this joint university so important?
In fact, the Union University at that time was not only the Southwest United University.
Peking University, Beiping Normal University, and Beiyang Institute of Technology formed the Northwest United University in Xi'an, and because of the bombing, they went to Hanzhong, and as a result, they collapsed in less than a year, and were evaluated by Jiang Menglin as "three people wearing two pairs of pants, involving each other, and no one can move."
Jinan University and other Shanghai universities established the Southeast United University in Fujian, which lasted only one and a half years.
Through the analysis of the overall education situation in China at that time, Yue Nan concluded: Two of the three joint universities collapsed, and if the Southwest United University also collapsed, wouldn't it mean that the Chinese was really a mess? In order to prove that Chinese can unite and run universities well, Mei Yiqi insisted so much and mediated from it.
It was also under his efforts that southwest United University cultivated a number of outstanding talents, including more than 170 academicians, including Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao, who later won the Nobel Prize.
The class scene of the Southwest United University in the movie "No Questions Asked". Image source: Douban
In 1941, Tsinghua celebrated its 30th anniversary, which was highly praised by "Thirty Years of Zhongbang and One Thousand Years of Western Soil", saying that Tsinghua had reached the level of Western Millennium University in only thirty years. The academic level of China in that period reached a peak, and in many ways, we have not been able to surpass it so far.
Yue Nan's "Returning from the South to the North" is written about such an era and such a group of people.
Under the influence of the spirit of "independent spirit, free thought" (Chen Yinke), in the continuous bombardment and artillery fire, they were full of enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge, passed on the fire of knowledge, culture and hope, and wrote the meaning and value of the word master with their lives.
The Southwest United University has cultivated a group of intellectuals who love individuals, teachers, schools and patriotism, and this spirit of great love also supports the Chinese nation to stick to its heart during this fourth southward crossing and eventually succeed in returning to the north. Yue Nan said.
The Monument of southwest United University was erected in 1946 when the three schools returned to the north and were restored, and is located at the site of the former United University in Kunming (now the campus of Yunnan Normal University).
From this, we can see that the significance of "Returning from the South to the North" lies in showing the story of these intellectuals and the spirit reflected in them.
However, what made Yue Nan sigh was that during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Southwest United University ran its school in a relatively quiet environment, but after the victory of the War of Resistance, it became chaotic.
In the 1945 student movement, the trigger was the grenade thrown by the Nationalist army, resulting in four deaths and one injury to the students. Fu Sinian, a member of the Standing Committee of the Southwest United Congress and a well-known historian, said in his letter: "Is there any reason why those who have a political role in such tragedies not make full use of them? Four coffins and one leg, really strange goods to live in, the whole of Kunming is very happy."
Fu Si Nian did not want to see the student movement, nor did he want to see students violently suppressed. However, his ideas are doomed to change the course of history.
Fu Si Nian in the hit drama "The Age of Awakening". Image source: Youku
The phrase in Yue Nan's book, "The master is far away and there is no master again", caused a lot of controversy that year. But nowadays, we really lack the soil to cultivate masters.
First, because the pure land-like academic environment no longer exists, university education is affected by too many factors. Second, because people receive more information and have more ideas, they have lost the pure mentality of not asking for the way forward and concentrating on learning in the war years.
The spirit of independence and freedom emphasized by Chen Yinke is certainly quite useful in the Taoyuan Pure Land of the Southwest United Congress; but when the Wuling people come out of Taoyuan and return to reality, they will be constrained by various objective factors.
"Why do our schools always fail to produce outstanding talents?"
Perhaps we can find the answer by reading "Returning from the South to the North" and exploring the stories of the Southwest United Congress and Many Other Masters of the Republic of China, such as Chen Yinke, Mei Yiqi, and Fu Sinian.
The series "South Crossing north and returning" is certainly thought-provoking and widely acclaimed. But there are also voices of doubt, believing that this book is not a history of faith, adding too much of the author's subjective emotional color.
When asked this question, Yue Nan said that if he did not add his thoughts and emotions, then what else would he write about "Returning from the South to the North"? Is it bad to write a little wind and snow moon?
Speaking of this, Yue Nan's attitude can be described as passionate, he just wants to make the text unique, that is, to express his love and hatred through this theme. The so-called "laughter and anger are all articles", the words have emotions to inject the soul, and the images of the masters have become vivid and three-dimensional.
Looking at it, you can naturally appreciate the wind and spirit that belonged to that era, you will sigh that the masters no longer exist, and you will be glad that they once existed.
Portrait of the intellectuals of the Republic of China.
Is "South Crossing and North Returning" written well? Sales are enough to prove it.
As for whether it is a history of faith or not, how much value it is, it will be left to future generations to comment.