In the old days, there was a saying among the female students in Beiping: "Peking University is old, Normal University is poor, and only Tsinghua University can be accommodating." This means that the boys at Peking University are dull, the boys at Peking Normal University are poor, and only the students at Tsinghua University are rich and energetic, and are suitable for being boyfriends.

However, Zhang Hanqing's arrival has become a clear stream in the Peking University community in advance, because he is neither poor, nor old, but also a little colorful. However, the fly in the ointment is that there are not many female students who can excel enough to study in college at this time, even Peking University, which is good at liberal arts, there are few people of the opposite sex who can make Zhang Hanqing look at him. As for Ma Jue, the first school flower of Peking University, who became famous later and Zhang Hanqing wanted to see her face, she was only a five or six-year-old girl at this time, and she was very disappointed to think about it.

If it comes, it will be safe. At this time, universities were not too involved in politics, and professors and students were still committed to studying academics. As for the extravagance of private life, including the professors, after class, it does not affect the academic atmosphere in the classroom and the greatness of their personalities. Zhang Hanqing still had the mentality of messing around at first, but once he had a deep understanding of these current situations, he couldn't help but have a heartfelt respect for them.

At this time, Peking University completely opened a precedent for hundreds of schools of thought in the academic world. Among the professors of Peking University, there are radical and conservative; Those who have the vision to go to the world and want to find a way out for China, and those who are looking for the truth of saving the country and the people in the pile of old papers; There are foreign for Chinese use, and there are ancient for modern bodies... And so on. During this period, Peking University was full of humanities, and countless masters came out of this door and were promoted at home and abroad. In addition to his amazement, Zhang Hanqing is only interested in a controversial cultural monster, or stubborn defender.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, when there was a conflict between Chinese and Western civilizations, and almost all the advanced elements in China advocated a complete negation of China's traditional culture and unreservedly absorbing Western civilization, there was a cultural geek who had studied both Chinese and Western cultures, was proficient in 9 languages, and obtained 13 doctorates, but he bravely stood up to defend Chinese traditional culture, and he advocated the ancient oriental spirit in the language of Westerners.

He is Gu Hongming.

If Zhang Hanqing's appreciation of Gu Hongming is simply understood as his isolated, courageous, and unremitting promotion of traditional Chinese civilization, then the understanding of Zhang Hanqing is too superficial, or the understanding of Zhang Hanqing's thoughts is too one-sided. Because in an atmosphere of comprehensive learning from the West, Europe and the United States, and from the East and Japan, Mr. Koo's love for China and the Chinese is so unique.

This little bit is embodied in the just-published English version of the book "The Spirit of the Chinese".

Once upon a time, Zhang Hanqing, who had crossed over, had a strong sense of responsibility and urgency to achieve his wish to awaken the people and strengthen the country. However, after gradually integrating into this era, he saw the facts that could not be shown in film and television dramas and history: poor and weak countries, ignorant and unidealized and unpromising people, high-minded intellectuals and bureaucrats who are detached from the people... In just a few months of running-in, he even felt that the horse bandits of the 27th Division were cuter than the former...

He always felt that it was very tricky to change this status quo, and it was not that he had imagined that he could achieve the goal of awakening the people by taking out one or two advanced weapons and relying on one or two shocking "prophetic" means. What does China look like now? In the case of Beijing, the representative capital, which is full of decadence and backwardness---- Qing Dynasty has fallen into decay, and Yuan Shikai still wants to be reborn from this piece of rotten flesh!

In today's China, from the top to the localities, from the upper class to the ordinary people, the hope for the country's rejuvenation has been groping and hesitating, otherwise there would not be so many students and virtuous people going abroad to study abroad. Today's people already have a deep criticism and distrust of Chinese culture. "Foreign monks chant scriptures", I am afraid that it is from this time in the land of China to take root, the wind of the Han and Tang dynasties has turned into a touch of memory, just to be recalled.

It is not that the Chinese people are born to worship foreign countries, but in the repeated foreign affairs, the country has lost its lining and face, and the last bit of confidence of the people has been lost. Just one Oriental Japan can make the Yuan government helpless and the people both shocked and afraid.

At this time, Gu Hongming stood up and gave a ray of sunshine to the Chinese people in the dark clouds. Although his various manifestations give the image of a feudal Guardian, although he still has a pigtail that symbolizes decay and backwardness, although he admires concubines, preaches loyalty, and morbidly likes women's small feet. In the face of the trend of Westernization, which is all about westernization, and in the face of criticism of overkill traditional culture, he chose the same fierce and sharp act of protecting traditional culture: to rise up and resist in an extreme way, and to praise the excellence of traditional Chinese civilization!

Regarding Gu Hongming's conservatism, the new professors have a lot of criticisms, and some people are even skeptical. A group of awakened Chinese who have been baptized by the Westernization Movement believe that the comprehensive decay of traditional Chinese culture is the crux of the phenomenon of China's poverty and weakness, so the comprehensive replacement of classical Chinese with vernacular is already in full preparation, and they even think that Chinese characters, the carrier of traditional culture---- are "guilty".

This is not a joke, but a fact. For example, Qian Xuantong, a well-known language reform activist of this era, a phonologist of Chinese characters, and one of the advocates of China's "May Fourth" New Culture Movement, and a famous thinker, believed that Chinese characters were completely lagging behind the times, and that in order for China to catch up with developed countries, it was necessary to de-characterize Chinese characters. His viewpoint can be represented by one of his own words: "I boldly declare once again that if we want to make China immortal and to make the Chinese nation a civilized nation in the 20th century, we must take the abolition of Confucianism and Taoism as the fundamental solution, and the abolition of the Chinese language that records the Confucian doctrine and Taoist fallacies is especially the fundamental solution." ”

Many people don't know who Qian Xuantong is, but the three major tasks of the writing reform after the founding of the People's Republic of China: simplifying Chinese characters, promoting Putonghua, and formulating and implementing the "Hanyu Pinyin Plan" were proposed by Qian Xuantong 30 years ago and have been put into practice. This master of linguistics, with the mentality of hating iron and not steel, is groping for ways to make China strong again from the source, but it is a little too radical.

Now it seems that "abolishing Chinese characters and seeking a strong country" is, but at that time, this argument was still very marketable, and it was considered a mainstream voice, and there was no shortage of big names in the history of literature among supporters: Chen Duxiu, Qu Qiubai, Wu Yuzhang, Lu Xun, Liu Bannong, Zhao Yuanren... Because of the illness and rush to the doctor, in the weak China, there is really no other way to save the country now!

Don't laugh at these pioneers, don't you see that in the 80s of the last century, when the computer was born, countless people in China's scientific and technological circles were distressed by the inability to input Chinese characters into the computer, and the once noisy "theory of backwardness of Chinese characters" was once again cried and clamoured? Seventy years later, how much more?

Gu Hongming's "rebelliousness" against the trend and respect for Chinese culture will certainly make many people rebound and attract criticism. In addition, his literary ideas are conservative, but his style is very trendy, and there are always bullets for criticism. For don't look at him as having a great deal of respect for Confucianism, but if you think that he was completely influenced by Confucian tradition, he would also say things that would make Confucius embarrassed, such as the fact that he once preached the cultural taste of Chinese prostitutes and women with his British counterparts: "If a man wants to truly understand the spirit of Chinese culture, he must go to the 'Eight Great Hutongs' and see for himself the elegance, courtesy, and feminine and delicate demeanor of those courtesans, and pay special attention to how much foul language can make them blush......

In this regard, Zhang Hanqing is cited as a bosom friend, is this "gentleman frank"! Dare to do and dare to say, this is the big husband! Besides, visiting the Bada Hutong is not a big sin in this era, Hu Shi, Yu Dafu, Chen Duxiu... I've been there. Of course, celebrities and celebrities have this "spontaneous" behavior is not all sex, but the Chinese literati have this tradition, and you are embarrassed to create if you don't go to the Qinglou!

Maybe there is this kind of tolerance for scholars to visit the Qinglou in his bones, anyway, Zhang Hanqing firmly followed in the footsteps of Gu Hongming at Peking University at a young age, so that he went from obscurity to attention here, and it only took a short period of time. No way, at this time, the vast majority of Chinese people are firmly "admiring foreign countries", maybe this word is not very precise here, but it is indeed the consensus of people who have been bullied for decades. Only by changing the law can China be saved, only by learning from the West and the East can China be strengthened, and the two gentlemen "Sainz" (science) and "Demokrasi" (boiling) can help China in fire and water. Therefore, although everyone has a fiery patriotic heart, the mainstream opinion is critical of Gu Hongming's suppression of the new cultural trend of thought, which makes him a maverick at Peking University, where the trendy youth gather, but he is like no one next to him and goes his own way.

Only Zhang Hanqing seems to understand the inner world of this cultural giant, and even strongly echoes in his class: "I very much agree with Mr.'s admiration for Chinese culture, I think it's not that Chinese culture is not good, but that the monk with a crooked mouth recites the scriptures crookedly!" China has led the world in all aspects of science and technology, economy and even culture for thousands of years in history, and only China still maintains its vigorous vitality among the four ancient civilizations, which fully shows that Chinese culture has its own uniqueness. With the inclusive and inclusive characteristics of Chinese culture, we can completely absorb all the advanced experience, science, and technology of foreign countries for our own use, but it would be overkill to deny ourselves completely. Chinese culture is our root, and through the efforts of our generation and two generations, it will surely shine again! ”

This is the opportunity for him to express his world view by taking advantage of the "21 Articles" to let the Chinese people hold their breath, and it is also his first cry since the crossing, from Peking University, which is about to become the birthplace of China's entire intellectual elite, with a strong sense of fate.