In the end, Lu Shi still rejected James.

It was a deliberate decision.

It's not that he doesn't feel that he is qualified, but that he is worried about getting angry.

In the first few years of the Nobel Prize, in order to attract the favor of bigwigs from all walks of life, the Nobel Committee was quite undisciplined and did not do anything about personnel.

Their only principle is to rub it if they can,

The "rub" here refers to rubbing traffic.

For example, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Theodore Monson the following year.

The identity of this German is very numerous:

Classical scholar, jurist, historian, journalist, politician, archaeologist, writer......

There are no writers.

The reason given by the Swedish Academy of Letters is also quite strange: "The greatest historian of this generation is undoubtedly expressed in his monumental work "History of Rome". ”

It's outrageous.

Many people suspect that Monson won the award purely because he was too famous and too high in the field of historiography.

This is in line with the principle of "rubbing if you can".

Lu Shi is worried about being used,

Try to imagine that the No. Committee revealed Lu Shi's evaluation of a certain writer or a certain work under a certain "inadvertent" situation:

Lu Shi, a visiting professor of politics and economics in London, author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and "The Mystery of Roger", and a famous historian, believes that XXX is not enough to match the Nobel Prize in Literature, and gives XXX a comment......"

The picture is too beautiful to think.

The Nocs Committee made enough gimmicks and rubbed enough traffic, but Lu Shi formed a bond with others.

It's a loss-making business.

Therefore, it is better not to wade in muddy waters for the time being.

In the following time, Lu Shi's main focus was on the preparation of the "Mirror".

But it's just a blind job,

With two professionals, Scott and Cooper, coupled with the influence of Wardhouse, and the name of the University of London Alliance, there is no resistance to running a newspaper.

Everything is going in an orderly manner.

Lu Shi became an idler.

Fortunately, Gu Hongming did not leave after coming to London, and came to visit from time to time to fight the landlords.

This time, Lu Shi will not let him do the same as last time.

"Bomb!"

"I'll blow it up again!"

"Well, let's go."

……

After playing a game, Lu Shi smiled and said, "Okay! Shuffle the cards! ”

Natsume Soseki reluctantly shuffled the cards.

On the other side, Gu Hongming couldn't stand it,

"How can you win as soon as you take the landlord?"

He put the cards together,

"No more playing! Don't play anymore! It's just too frustrating. It's not as good as writing articles as a junior, and you can't play cards...... Hum! If Zhengxiang hadn't returned to China, I would have asked him to make a head, and the four of us would rub it a few times together. ”

Lu Shi laughed,

"Okay, I can also play mahjong, and I have all five poisons."

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, ninety percent of the scholars with names and surnames liked to play cards and rub hemp.

Many people should have heard "Hu Shi's Diary",

The content inside is very classic:

July 21: Chemistry Test 2 ...... Play cards.

July 22: Play cards. Read several famous American short stories.

July 24: Classes. The book of virtue struggle. Play cards. Chemistry arithmetic.

……

In short, it's all kinds of playing cards, and it's become a stalk on the Internet.

Lu Shi stretched,

"If that's the case, then don't play."

He turned around and straightened the manuscript on the table.

Gu Hongming looked at Lu Shi, then at Natsume Soseki, and finally at our generation who was yawning there, and couldn't help but say: "The atmosphere here is so good, it reminds me of the days when I used to study." ”

Lu Shi was curious,

"What do you mean by that?"

Gu Hongming twisted his beard lightly and said, "Students can cite each other as a creative boost. ”

He often came to visit Lu Shi during this time, not only to play cards, but also to get down to business-

Reading books and urging drafts.

Gu Hongming couldn't help laughing,

"Frankly speaking, I thought I didn't like popularity, but after reading your works, I feel that I like both reasoning and fantasy."

Lu Shi joked: "Do you like it more than playing cards?" ”

Gu Hongming waved his hand again and again,

"That's not going to happen."

All three people in the room laughed at the same time.

My generation looked at them curiously, "meow~", and got into Natsume Soseki's arms.

Gu Hongming asked, "Lu Shi, how many drafts have you written?" ”

Lu Shi spreads his hands,

"Mr. Gu, you said that you came here every now and then, how much do you think I can write? People chase newspapers and magazines, you are old, and you chase the author directly, is the next step to close the small black room for me? ”

Gu Hongming smiled and said stiffly: "Actually, I like "I Am a Cat" more than your "Lord of the Rings". ”

It's not all nonsense,

Because "I Am a Cat" depicts Japan, it must be more intimate to read.

Natsume Soseki said: "Mr. Gu won the award, and my work will definitely not be comparable to Lu's. How can the fluorescent light of rotten grass reach the bright moon of the heart of heaven? ”

Gu Hongming waved his hand,

"We're Chinese modest enough, you Japanese ......"

The latter words are not explicitly stated.

Natsume Soseki blushed slightly, a little embarrassed.

Gu Hongming turned to Lu Shi and said: "Of course, it is interesting to be popular, but I still want to read that book on the study of Ming history. Your writing style is very bold, and most people don't use the biography style anymore when writing history. Are you trying to imitate Tai Shi Gong? ”

Lu Shi waved his hand,

"That book is not a history book, and it is not accurate to classify it in the style of chronicles."

Gu Hongming nodded,

"The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" is easy to understand, and people without historical skills can read it.

It is clear that there are no history books with such characteristics.

Gu Hongming said: "By the way, what did you call "guns, germs and steel" last time...... Popular Science ......"

Lu Shi said: "Popular science books. ”

Gu Hongming nodded,

"Yes, yes, yes! It's popular science books. Is this "Fifteen Years of Wanli" also a popular science book? ”

"The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" is more serious than popular science books, otherwise it would not have been used as a textbook in so many universities in the United States.

But it also has places where it is not rigorous,

Overall, this book is somewhere between a monograph and popular science, and it is not easy to classify.

Lu Shi did not pick up the stubble.

Seeing that he stopped talking, Gu Hongming continued: "You write very well, but the subject matter is ...... Alas, you said that you are writing historical textbooks, what are you not good using, why do you use Ming history? The resistance is enormous. ”

He paused and asked, "Do you know why the Later Dynasty took the initiative to revise the history of the previous Dynasty?" ”

Lu Shi replied: "This is the tradition of Chinese historiography. ”

Gu Hongming didn't expect to get this answer,

In his mind, Lu Shi has always hit the nail on the head, but why is he so naïve and pedantic about this issue.

He asked rhetorically, "You just said, tradition?" ”

Lu Shi nodded,

"This is a great tradition, the later dynasty for the previous dynasty to revise history, is the winner's respect for the history of the loser, and at the same time cultural identity. Although the dynasty has changed, the nation, culture, and civilization have continued. ”

Gu Hongming was speechless.

Indeed, Chinese revision of history is a habit of civilization inheritance, which is a rare habit in the world that runs through the entire history of civilization development.

He thought of Lu Shi's speech at Cambridge,

The speech has been compiled by the University of Cambridge and the University of London Alliance, and published in the university's magazine.

In his speech, Lu Shi firmly stated that Chinese civilization is continuous and comes from ancient China.

Gu Hongming sighed: "It would be nice if I were a young man like you......"

This is a sincere compliment.

Lu Shi shook his head and went back to the topic,

"Mr. Gu just asked me a question, I actually know what answer you want to get. You want to say that the later dynasty is revising the history of the previous dynasty, on the one hand, to learn from the demise of the previous dynasty, and on the other hand, to prove its own legitimacy. ”

Gu Hongming nodded,

Sure enough, Lu Shi was as sharp as ever.

Lu Shi said: "History can indeed be described in its own way, but if there is no act of description and arrangement, then nothing can be talked about." No dynasty can be created in a vacuum, and recording history is the starting point. ”

Gu Hongming nodded his head,

"Good! Ok, good, good! Lu Shi, I once told Zhengxiang that you were a 'young talent', but now it seems that you are conservative. You're much better than us old pedants. ”

Lu Shi shook his head,

"That's not going to happen."

He pointed to the original manuscript of "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" and said, "I am about to lose several handfuls of my hair for this now." ”

Natsume Soseki snickered next to him,

Lu Shi ate well and slept soundly, but he didn't see a few hairs dropped.

Gu Hongming said: "Also, this kind of article is the most difficult to write, because it needs a lot of historical data to support, otherwise it will seem very unauthentic." However, I see that your book is also written in a big way, and the big frame is built, and it shouldn't take long to complete the book. ”

As he spoke, Gu Hongming picked up the original manuscript,

"I don't really like that you list Li Zhen as a separate chapter character."

Gu Hongming studied Western, but he was conservative in many concepts.

For example, marriage, he is a staunch supporter of polyandry and concubinage, and he very much looks down on the status quo of monogamy in the West and fornication behind the scenes.

And Li Zhen is a man of God, in the context of the Ming Dynasty, he actually hated all kinds of etiquette and religious constraints, advocated equality between men and women, did not accept concubines for the rest of his life, and after resigning, he went out all day long to promote his doctrine and thoughts, and even shaved his ordination.

It is no wonder that Gu Hongming has a lot of criticism for Li Zhen.

Lu Shi didn't expand on this topic, and instead said: "Mr. Gu talked about the key point - historical materials. I'm going to go to the British Museum Library, which has a lot of history books. ”

Gu Hongming was surprised,

"How could the British Museum have our ...... Hmmm......"

He didn't ask again, because he already had the answer in his mind.

Wars are always accompanied by the looting of cultural relics,

Napoleon fought for Milan, in order to let the Directory in Paris know what he had done for the cause of the Republic, and frantically looted cultural relics, paintings, and handicrafts;

Toyotomi Hideyoshi fought for Korea, and brought a large number of monks with the army to rob scriptures and classics;

More recently, there are Egypt, India, and China;

……

Among them, the worst should be Egypt,

Because of the long-term occupation, colonization, and civil war, in this set of "combination punches", cultural relics are often looted by tomb robbers.

There is an ancient Egyptian cultural relic called the Wishing Cup, and after research, it was found that there was a high probability that the tomb robbers felt that it was worthless, dug it up and thrown aside, so it took decades to be discovered by local residents and included in the Cairo Museum.

Sorting out the country's cultural relics still has to rely on the scum that foreigners don't want to eat, which is not miserable.

Gu Hongming asked, "Are you eligible to enter the museum's library?" ”

Due to space constraints, the British Museum has been divided twice:

The first time was in 1880, when the museum separated natural history specimens from archaeological artifacts, and the museum specialized in collecting archaeological artifacts;

The second time was in 1900, when the museum separated books, manuscripts and other contents to form the new British Library.

Because the project is complex and ambitious, the separation is not yet complete.

During this time, the library and reading room are temporarily closed to the public.

But there is no such restriction in land time,

He no longer falls into the category of "public".

James, Cavendis, Wardhouse, and George Bernard Shaw all helped to contact,

With so many bigwigs working together to protect it, there will definitely be no problem.

Lu Shi replied, "I can enter." ”

Gu Hongming pondered,

Long

"I ...... Can I go too? ”

Although he got an official position in the Qing court, he was a marginal figure after all, and there were some things he had really not seen, so he wanted to see it with his own eyes.

Lu Shi looked at Gu Hongming,

"Mr. Gu doesn't need to say much, just go with me. It's just that I'm going to the museum's library, and there doesn't necessarily have anything you want to see, don't you mind? ”

Gu Hongming waved his hand again and again,

"Of course, of course I don't mind."

Lu Shi nodded to Natsume Soseki again and said, "I have the opportunity to read the books of various countries, why don't you leave quickly?" ”

Natsume Soseki hurriedly put down my generation and packed up his things.

The trio rode in a horse-drawn carriage to the British Museum.

The British Museum is located in the heart of London, next to the famous Russell Square, and across two main roads from the main campus of University College London.

It didn't take long to get past Blya Road,

The three of them jumped out of the carriage and saw the huge Greek Revival building from a distance, which was very spectacular.

They passed by the statue of Queen Victoria and walked towards the porter.

Lu Shi and the doorman introduced themselves: "Hello, I am a visiting professor of politics and economics in London, and my name is Lu Shi." I came here to borrow the reading room. ”

The doorman raised his eyebrows,

"You said you wanted to use the reading room? Did you know that the collection is not open to the public? ”

Lu Shi said: "You can just report it." ”

The doorman looked at him suspiciously, and his eyes wandered over Gu Hongming and Natsume Soseki for a moment, before he nodded and said, "Okay, then I'll go in and report it, you guys wait here, don't move." ”

With that, the doorman walked away quickly.

Gu Hongming muttered: "This person is really annoying to talk, how can we be prevented from being like thieves?" ”

Lu Shi chuckled,

"They themselves are thieves and steal cultural relics, and when they see the owner, they will inevitably be thieves~"

"Tsk......"

Gu Hongming was stunned in disgust.

The three of them waited for a while, and a well-dressed white British male walked briskly and rushed forward to shake hands with Gu Hongming.

But soon, he hesitated to stop and whispered to the doorman.

The two whispered for a while.

The Englishman turned his target, walked to Lu, and said, "You are Professor Lu of London Economics and Political Science, right?" I'm the Curator of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, Shadney Cowen. ”

(End of chapter)