Chen Fukang wrote an open letter: Is it appropriate to introduce Mr. Zheng Zhenduo in this way?

Mr. Chen Fukang's letter to the editorial board of the "Expo Books" criticized the introduction text about Mr. Zheng Zhenduo attached to Guo Daoping's "Zheng Zhenduo: The "Teenager" Who Entered the Light", and the full text of the letter is as follows.

Editorial Board of Expo Books:

China Social Science Daily is an important newspaper of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the highest research institution in China. When commemorating the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, around May, the newspaper set up a special edition entitled "A Hundred Academic Schools in the Centenary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China," which is undoubtedly of great significance. After I saw the first article of the edition (I remember writing about Guo Moruo), I wrote an article about Zheng Zhenduo and took the initiative to vote, but there was no response. Soon, the director of the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences called me and warmly asked me to write Zheng Zhenduo for the newspaper, and I asked him to transfer the humble article, and specifically explained that if there was any non-compliance with the requirements, please let the editor inform me, and revise it seriously. Unexpectedly, there was no news, and there was no reply to the letter to inquire. It was not until the eve of the National Day, September 28, that I finally saw that the newspaper published an article about Mr. Zheng Zhenduo (a full page), although it was not a clumsy article, I was also very happy. Because, I have always believed that if we want to talk about "a hundred years and a hundred families", it is absolutely impossible to miss Mr. Zheng Zhenduo, especially in the newspaper of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. However, after seeing the introductory text about Mr. Cheng Chun-doo at the beginning of this edition, I was surprised by his large number of low-level errors. So I wrote a letter to the editor-in-chief of the newspaper during the National Day. I sent it to the "China Social Science Network" and the "China Social Sciences Magazine Network" and asked them to forward it to the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, and I don't know if the editor-in-chief comrade received it, in short, I have not received any reply so far, and I can't help but be very disappointed.

Let's first take a look at how this edition of China Social Science Daily introduces it:

Zheng Zhenduo, character Xidi, pen name Guo Yuanxin, Falling Snow, etc., from Wenzhou, Zhejiang. Outstanding writers, writers, translators, and famous collectors and interpreters of modern China. Advocate of the New Chinese Culture and New Literary Movement.

Zheng Zhenduo, a native of Changle, Fujian Province, was born on December 19, 1898 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. In the summer of 1917, he entered the Beijing Railway Management Institute (the predecessor of Beijing Jiaotong University). In 1919, he participated in the May Fourth Movement and began to publish works, in 1920 he became the editor of the Shanghai Commercial Press, in 1921 he organized a literary research society with Shen Yanbing and others, and in 1923 he edited the Novel Monthly. He has also participated in the editing of publications such as Min chao and New Society. In 1927, he lived in England and France. After returning to China in 1931, he served as a professor at Yenching University and Fudan University, dean of the School of Literature and head of the Department of Chinese of Jinan University, devoted himself to academic research and edited the "World Library". In 1932, his work "Illustrated History of Chinese Literature" was published. In 1949, he was appointed Minister of Welfare of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Director of the Research Department of the All-China Association of Literature and Literature, Head of the Cultural and Educational Group of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Director of the Cultural Relics Bureau of the Ministry of Culture, Deputy Director of the Folk Literature Research Office, Director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Vice Minister of Culture. He is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the Plenary Committee and the Presidium of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, a member of the Standing Committee of the All-China Association of Literary and Art Circles, and a director of the Chinese In 1952, he was hired as a professor of archaeology in the Department of History of Peking University, and undertook the task of teaching the course "History of Chinese Art". In 1957, he edited and published three volumes of Studies in Chinese Literature.

His major works include "Illustrated History of Chinese Literature", "History of Chinese Folk Literature", "Studies in Chinese Literature", "Outline of the History of Russian Literature", "History of Ancient Tomb Excavations in Ancient Cities in the Past Hundred Years", etc., and translations include "Crescent Moon Collection" and "Flying Bird Collection".

It is said that Mr. Zheng Zhenduo is "the western truth of the word", but the "western truth" is actually his most important pen name, just like "Mao Dun" for Shen Yanbing, how did it become his "word"? So can "Lu Xun" be called the "character" of Zhou Shuren? In fact, Mr. Cheng Chun-do has his own words ("policeman" or "dormant"), but it is not commonly used and little is known.

Mr. Zheng Zhenduo has used many pen names, and the introduction only cites two, which should be his most commonly used and most important pen name, but "Falling Snow" is not the most common and important pen name of Mr. Zheng Zhenduo, and it is definitely not his pen name! That is just a few years ago, some irresponsible "experts" stuffed a crappy article found on the Internet into the officially published primary school Chinese textbook, and then fabricated or spread it blindly, saying that the author of the article "Falling Snow" was Zheng Zhenduo. In this regard, I have already pointed out publicly (see Wen Wei Po on June 21, 2016, China Reading Daily on August 31), and I really can't imagine that many years later, such an authoritative academic newspaper will impose this pseudo-name on Mr. Zheng Zhenduo. This is the most puzzling part of this introduction. Whoops, how far-reaching the poison is!

It seems okay to say that Mr. Zheng Zhenduo is a "native of Wenzhou, Zhejiang"; but Mr. Zheng Zhenduo himself has always called himself a native of Changle, Fujian, and he also filled in the personnel file of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

It does not seem wrong to call Mr. Zheng Zhenduo a "writer and a writer"; but is not a writer a writer, or is a writer not a kind of writer? Calling him a "squire" seems to be very elegant, but I don't know where to start. Does anyone in the academic world call him that? Did he ever call himself a "preacher"? Or ask the introducer to look up the dictionary and find out what "exhortation" means.

To say that Mr. Zheng Zhenduo "entered the Beijing Railway Management Institute in the summer of 1917 to study" is a big mistake! Mr. Zheng traveled north from Wenzhou in the summer of 1917, but did not take the entrance exam until mid-December, and It was not until January 14, 1918 that he was on his first day. Moreover, he did not enter the "Beijing Railway Management Institute", but the "Beijing Railway Management School". The so-called "Railway Management Institute" was only the earliest predecessor name of the school in the late Qing Dynasty in 1909, but it was renamed the "Traffic Transmission Institute" the following year, and two years before Mr. Zheng enrolled, the "Traffic Transmission Institute" was divided into two schools, and its railway major was independently renamed "Railway Management School".

To say that Mr. Zheng Zhenduo "became an editor at the Shanghai Commercial Press in 1920 and organized a literary research society with Shen Yanbing and others in 1921" is a reversal of the years. Mr. Zheng initiated the establishment of a literary research society in Beijing in the autumn of 1920, and went to work for the Shanghai Railway Bureau in the spring of 1921, and later served as an editor at the Commercial Press. In addition, Shen Yanbing was in Shanghai at the time, and Zheng Zhenduo wrote to invite him to be the initiator of the Literary Research Society, which he did not participate in organizing in Beijing.

After writing about Mr. Zheng Zhenduo's editing of the Novel Monthly in 1923, he said that "he has also participated in the editing of publications such as Minchao and New Society", in fact, "Minchao" and "New Society" were all publications run by Mr. Zheng in Beijing in 1919 (in addition, there are "Minjiang New Wave", "Humanity", "Criticism", etc.). In 1923, Mr. Zheng Zhenduo edited many important periodicals in Shanghai (such as "Xuelan", "Literature Magazine", "Children's World", "Xinghai", "Appreciation Weekly", "Congregational Daily", "Editor" and later "Literature" Monthly, "Literary Quarterly", etc.), but they were not mentioned in the introduction.

It is also wrong to say that Mr. Zheng Zhenduo "became a professor at Yenching University and Fudan University after returning to China in 1931." First of all, he returned to Shanghai on June 8, 1928, not in 1931. Secondly, after returning to China, he still returned to work at the Commercial Press, and fudan university professors only worked part-time; and a few years later, he went to Peking Yenching University and Tsinghua University as a professor. The introduction not only reversed, but also omitted Tsinghua University; in addition, Mr. Zheng also worked part-time at Peking University. (Since he mentioned Fudan University, where he works part-time, why didn't Peking University mention it?) ）

Mr. Zheng Zhenduo said that "after returning to China in 1931 ... Dedication to academic research" is also easily misleading, as if he did not devote himself to academic research until after 1931. In fact, as early as the initiation of the Literary Research Society, he was committed to literary research, otherwise why did he name it "Research Society"? Moreover, before 1931, Mr. Zheng wrote and published the famous "Outline of Literature", as well as "The Biography of Taigor" and "History of Chinese Literature (Part III of the Middle Ages)", which were not the results of academic research? In addition, the two books of Mr. Zheng's "Major Works" in the introduction, "Outline of the History of Russian Literature" and "History of Excavations of Ancient Tombs in ancient cities in the past hundred years", were also published before 1931.

The introduction also said that Mr. Cheng Zhenduo "served as a ... Deputy Director of the Folk Literature Research Office", I wonder where this unheard of unit and position is? We only know that Mr. Zheng Zhenduo was the vice chairman of the "Chinese Folk Art Research Society" after liberation.

The introduction is introduced with "1949 ren ... Director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and vice minister of the Ministry of Culture..." This formulation is also inappropriate, because many of the positions were held by Mr. Zheng Zhenduo in the 1950s.

As for the important content that should be written in the introduction and omitted, there are also many important contents. For example, it is not even mentioned that Mr. Zheng Zhenduo is the founding director of the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (it should be noted that the Institute has now developed into the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Institute of Foreign Literature, and the Institute of Ethnic Literature).

In short, in just five hundred words of introduction, errors and omissions can be described as endless. I think that the China Social Sciences Daily is the only professional newspaper officially published and distributed by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Mr. Zheng Zhenduo is an important figure at the level of the elder of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. At the end of the newspaper's article on Zheng Zhenduo, the author also deliberately and politely noted that "the parallel reality of Zheng Zhenduo's life described in this article is mostly due to Mr. Chen Fukang's compilation of the "Zheng Zhenduo Chronology", but in this way, readers will think that these mistakes are from clumsy books. Therefore, this letter of mine must be written.

Because of the academic and scholarly style issues involved, I would like to ask the "Expo Book" to publish my letter.

Chen Fukang (Director of Zheng Zhenduo Research Institute, Fuzhou Institute of Foreign Studies)

Note: Chen Fukang's letter was published on november 4, 2021 on the "Guangming Daily Expo Group Book" WeChat public account