Author: Jin Manlou
In 1969, half a century after the May Fourth Movement, Tian Jiongjin, who had personally participated in the movement, published an exclamation in Biographical Literature:
"No one who marched on the day of the May Fourth Movement ever thought that their actions would be called the 'May Fourth Movement.'" And those who talk about the May Fourth Movement later ,...... Many people even mixed the literary reform movement and the new cultural movement with the May Fourth Movement;
Therefore, according to his heart's likes and dislikes, certain facts of the years before May Fourth and certain events of many years after May Fourth are recorded in the merit book or the book of sins of May Fourth. As a result, it is not easy for future generations to understand the truth of the May Fourth Movement, and it is even more difficult to make a flat judgment about its merits and deeds. ”
The "May Fourth" movement is well known to the Chinese people, and the climax of "beating Zhang Zongxiang and burning the Zhao Family Building" has made many people excited. However, why did Tian Jiongjin, who had personally experienced it, sigh so much? Is it true that history seems magnificent, but when you look closely, it seems vague?
Here, the author tries to glimpse some of the details of the day from the records of many witnesses.
Let's start with the weather of the day.
May 4, 1919 is a Sunday, the second day of the fourth month of the lunar calendar, two days after the establishment of summer.
In the diary of that day, Mr. Lu Xun's record of the weather is one word: "Tan".
"Ephemeral" refers to cloudy and cloudy weather, which can also be extended to be dark and cloudy. Yang Zhensheng, one of the 32 arrested students that year, said in more detail:
"On the fourth day of May, there was a sunny day with five winds, but I always felt that there was a storm on my head."
Fan Yun, another Peking University classmate, recalled: "The weather on the fourth day was very clear, and there were a few gusts of wind that were not strong. ”
Bingxin, who was studying at Peking Union Women's University at the time, went to the German hospital in Dongjiaomin Lane to accompany her second brother for surgery that day, but in her pen: "There was a strong wind blowing outside the window that day, and the strong fragrance of locust flowers made me have a headache." ”
At the beginning of May, Beijing is at the turn of spring and summer, and the weather on that day has also been recorded by various figures as follows:
Liang Jingcheng, who had graduated from Peking University at the time and stayed on as a lecturer, recalled: "The weather in Beijing in April and May was mostly hot and dry. ”
Wang Tongzhao, an active participant in the incident and an English student at a Chinese university, said:
"The weather in Beijing, which has just entered May, although it is still a little cool in the early morning, it is quite boring at noon, and it is also the first summer of wearing a single dress." ...... The soaring of hot dust loess ,...... Nearly ten o'clock, the sun was getting hotter, everyone was standing and talking, and the sweat on their foreheads evaporated. ”
Chen Qiqiao, a first-year student of the English Department of Beijing Higher Normal School (hereinafter referred to as Beijing Higher Normal School), who had some fevers that day but still participated in the matter, recorded in his diary: "Cotton was worn in the previous day, and today it is single, and the climate in Beijing is uncertain! ”
The next day, he wrote: "The weather was suddenly very hot, as if it were in the sky. ”
According to Xu Deyan, peking university students at that time "did not wear uniforms, nor uniforms, usually robes and horse coats, and fashionable wore long shirts and suits."
At that time, the student atmosphere was occasionally one or two wearing suits, the short-dressed people were unique, and there were many middle school students wearing uniforms. Thus, under Wang Tongzhao's recollection, "almost eighty-nine out of ten students from the 'Nine Cities' to the inside of the door were long-shirted people. ”
Around 1:00 p.m. on the same day, students from Beijing Higher Teachers and Huiwen University arrived at the gate first, and other schools also arrived one after another.
However, the main force of the march, Peking University, was delayed by the obstruction of representatives of the Ministry of Education, who were the last to arrive and the largest number of people.
So, what is the number of students involved that day, some people say five or six thousand, some say one or two thousand, this is also a variety of opinions, very different from each other.
In fact, in addition to the number of people, there is also a big deviation in the time of the gathering on the day, some say that it is at one o'clock in the afternoon, some say that it is at two o'clock in the afternoon, and some say that they gather in the morning.
Judging from various reminiscence materials, the schools should have gathered one after another on that day, starting from about one o'clock in the afternoon, and finally arriving at Peking University after two o'clock, and the number of people should be about two thousand.
These details should be said to be very necessary to understand the day's activities.
(Press: On the occasion of the centenary of May Fourth, special articles will be released one after another, so stay tuned.) ）