Of course, when this suggestion was made, some people considered the issue of candidates for cultural exchanges, that is, they could select people from among local scholars to participate in this visit and represent East China and Germany for cultural exchanges. But this suggestion has sparked another big controversy: whether local scholars can represent East China**.

Since the establishment of East China, the attitude towards local scholars has always been respectful, and it can even be said to be disdainful, on the one hand, the concept of governing East China is too advanced in this era, and the means adopted are more than tough, because it is the traditional Chinese gentry class, basically ruthless, unceremoniously suppressed. According to the traditional Chinese governance, although it also emphasizes loving the people as sons and sympathizing with the people's feelings, at the beginning of the establishment of successive dynasties, it will also redistribute, measure land, and formulate some policies that are relatively beneficial to the people. However, the rulers of the past dynasties knew that in order to rule the country well, it was the gentry who had to pull the dragon first, not the common people, and the dynasties actually implemented the so-called principle of "ruling the world with the scholars".

However, East China ** is an alternative, not at all the traditional Chinese gentry class is not taken seriously, not only did not pull Long, but was a strong suppression, by which the gentry land was confiscated, all distributed to the common people, and the establishment of a broad and strict grass-roots administrative system, completely broke the previous dynasties "imperial power does not go to the countryside" convention.

It is just that the attitude towards the gentry engaged in commercial operations is better, but first, China in this era is still an agricultural country dominated by a small peasant economy, and there are not many people who make a living purely from business, and second, the vast majority of businessmen are also large landowners, such as Sheng Xuanhuai and Zhang Jian, also have a large amount of land, although the output of the fields only accounts for a very small part of their income, which is also the special affection that Chinese are accustomed to for land. Therefore, East China has almost offended all the gentry, and these behaviors are simply apostasy and misconduct in the eyes of the traditional Chinese gentry.

At the beginning of the establishment of East China, most of the gentry thought that East China was difficult to do for a long time, at most it was only the second long-haired, or the slogan of "allocating land so that the cultivators have their fields" was just an empty word, and the patriarchs would not want land? It is often used to refute the reason for criticizing one's own land policy, "no veteran has ever occupied an acre of land, and everything is for the public", which really makes the accuser unable to refute it.

But in any case, it is difficult for traditional Chinese intellectuals to agree with the practice of East China, and East China does not expect to be supported by traditional Chinese intellectuals, firstly, before the Far East War, China's orthodoxy is still the Qing court, in the eyes of most people, East China is still a rebellion, and secondly, East China is more important to technical talents, like people like Zhan Tianyou, and they are not very interested in traditional Chinese intellectuals, in the internal words of East China, that is" 100 so-called academic masters, but not one Zhan Tianyou is useful."

Of course, at this time, there were a number of scholars in China who were proficient in European and American scholarship, but first, these people thought that they had drunk foreign ink, seen the world, had opened their eyes, and thought that they had mastered all the truths to save the world and help the world, but in fact they were nothing more than the "freedom, fraternity, equality, and human rights" of the early capitalist revolution in Europe; After all, people who can study abroad will not be from poor backgrounds, not to mention rich and expensive, at least they are well-off, and of course they are reluctant to give up their land.

It is precisely because of a sober understanding of these situations that East China is not interested in Chinese scholars and masters in this era, but rather attaches more importance to engineers and technicians like Zhan Tianyou, so it is now necessary to select local scholars to represent East China and Germany for cultural exchanges, which will naturally cause huge controversy.

However, Qin Zheng fully supports this suggestion, and thinks that at least the attitude of these scholars can be consulted first, first of all, although these scholars have no direct help to the current industrialization and economic development of East China, but it cannot be denied that they are in their respective academic scopes, some are proficient in Chinese studies, some are connected to ancient and modern, and some have made considerable achievements in exposing China and the West. At this point in the development of the present, great achievements have been made in politics, economy and military, but culture has always been a major shortcoming, so it is necessary to pay attention to making up for this shortcoming, after all, for a country, cultural construction is also very important.

In fact, East China has always attached importance to the construction of culture, but what is currently done is basically staying in cultural propaganda, and in the theory of the academic system of culture, only Qin Zheng has published a few weighty articles and books, although he has made certain achievements, but on the whole it is still relatively lackluster.

However, the current situation has also undergone some changes, it turns out that after the victory of the Far East War, the popularity and public opinion in the country have overwhelmed the Qing court, not only is the change of dynasty inevitable, but also the whole country has basically agreed with this realistic result, after all, the die-hard fans of the Qing court are very few, the vast majority of people, many people who were not optimistic at the beginning, or who have slandered East China, are thinking about how to occupy a place in the new dynasty, even if it is East China The land policy can also be ignored, after all, the general trend is irreversible. Among them, there are also a considerable number of scholars, so East China can also take advantage of this opportunity to attract some scholars to our use without violating the principles, accelerate the cultural construction of East China, and build the soft power of East China.

On the other hand, despite such and such problems, scholars in this era agree with Chinese culture, and at the same time hope that China can become rich and strong, which is common to the goal of East China, so it should be possible to give it a try on behalf of East China and Germany, and this is a cultural exchange after all, it does not involve political aspects, even if something goes wrong, it will not have much impact.

After discussion, the Executive Yuan finally agreed with Qin Zheng's opinion, and Qin Zheng recommended two candidates, Yan Fu and Gu Hongming.

These two people are almost the most outstanding scholars in China in this era, and some of the others are far overseas, such as Kang Liang, and some have not yet grown up, only Yan Fu and Gu Hongming are in their prime, but they both have the experience of studying abroad, and they all have excellent grades.

Yan Fu can be regarded as an enlightenment thinker in modern China, political thought is biased towards restoration, the main academic achievement is to translate a large number of excellent and progressive academic works of the West into Chinese, to introduce Chinese scholars who are now in a backward state, let people understand European academic thought, broaden horizons, increase insight, can be called "cultural import", and first put forward the translation work of letters, reach, The principle of elegance has had a significant impact on Chinese translation work, and although some people in the academic community disagree with it, it is still regarded as the standard in the Chinese translation community until the time of the patriarchs.

Although Gu Hongming was also proficient in Western studies, he admired Confucianism academically, respected Confucius and Mencius, criticized European civilization, and was keen to promote the culture and spirit of the East to Westerners. Gu Hongming has a high reputation in the European academic circles, and in the old time and space, there was a saying in the European academic circles: When you go to China, you can not see the three major halls, but you must not look at Gu Hongming.

Of course, Qin Zheng recommended these two people with serious consideration. These two people mainly live in Shanghai, and their attitudes towards East China ** have a process from disagreement to identification. However, in contrast, Yan Fu identified with East China earlier than Gu Hongming**, because Yan Fu was born in the military, learned to drive in Fuzhou Shipbuilding School when he was a teenager, went to England to study the Navy in 1877, graduated from the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London, and participated in the construction of the Beiyang Naval Division after returning to China.

It is precisely because Yan Fu was born in the military, so although he does not recognize the political concept of East China, he is quite appreciative of East China's military achievements, after East China occupied Shanghai, Yan Fu did not leave Shanghai, on the one hand, he stayed in Shanghai to observe East China's governance ability at close range; on the other hand, he also began to seriously study East China's concept of governance, military, diplomacy, etc., and after careful study, Yan Fu had to admit that although East China The system may not be perfect, but compared with the Qing court, it is indeed ten million times stronger, even compared with Britain, France, Germany, the United States and other countries, it is not inferior.

At this time, Yan Fu had actually identified with East China psychologically, but the traditional political morality and the little loyalty to the Qing court hindered Yan Fu from completely turning to East China**.

However, the victory in the Far East War completely dispelled Yan Fu's last hesitation, and Bi Jing's victory was the most inspiring, because for a scholar like Yan Fu who was born in a soldier, the victory on the battlefield was the easiest to impress him. It was only at this time that Yan Fu completely realized that the Qing court was hopeless, and only East China could make China truly and completely rich and strong, and no longer be bullied by other countries, so at this time, Yan Fu expressed his recognition and support for East China in his letters and conversations with friends.