Chapter 2 talent

George Morrison, a well-known China hand and former China correspondent of The Times who served as Yuan Shikai's adviser, although he was an enemy of Gu Hongming all his life, said sincerely: "Gu Hongming's English vocabulary is rare and rich, and he is a language genius." Gu Hongming is extremely gifted in languages, and Sun Yat-sen, Lin Yutang, etc. all praised his English attainments as "the first in China". After arriving in the UK, Brown personally taught the ten-year-old Gu Hongming to read.Because Koo already had a certain foundation in English, Brown decided to teach him German.He first asked Gu to recite "Faust", he read a sentence, Gu recited a sentence, but did not explain.Gu wanted to know what the book was about, but Brown said, "If you understand it and memorize it again, your mind will be confused, and you will not be able to memorize it. When you have memorized this book fluently, I will tell you it!" Half a year later, when Gu Hongming memorized "Faust" like a young monk reciting scriptures, Brown explained it to him.Once, Brown asked Gu how he felt about learning "Faust", and Gu replied: "I don't think Faust is a good person. God shouldn't send an angel to save him."

After explaining "Faust", Brown began to teach Gu Hongming to learn Shakespeare's plays, because Gu's English has already reached a certain level, so this time he learned while speaking.In less than a year, Koo was familiar with Shakespeare's 37 plays by heart. Next, Brown arranged for Gu Hongming to study Carlyle's "History of the French Revolution".This time, Gu will learn by himself, and ask others if he doesn't understand.After only three days of reading, Koo began to cry, and Brown asked why.He said: "Prose is not as easy to memorize as drama." Brown asked Gu's progress, and after knowing that he read three pages a day, he told him that half a page to one page of prose was enough to memorize every day.Gu Hongming fell into contradictions, read too much, but couldn't memorize it; read less, and couldn't hold back his curiosity, wanting to know what to say next.After reading a "History of the French Revolution", Brown allowed Gu Hongming to read other books at home at will.

Many years later, when a student asked Gu Hongming how to learn Western languages, Gu replied: "First memorize a famous work as the foundation." During his studies at the University of Edinburgh, every Sunday, Gu Hongming took a pen and paper, went to the library to search for secret books, and once he found them, he copied them down immediately.In five or six years, he copied dozens of books.The famous missionary Timothy Lee was also studying at the University of Edinburgh. He was most afraid of talking with Gu Hongming, because although he read a lot, he seemed ignorant in front of Gu.

The poetry that Gu Hongming learned in his youth will never be forgotten in his life.He taught the method of memory, which means that the first step is impression, the second step is retention, and the final step is recollection.When a foreigner asked him why he had such a memory, he said: "You foreigners remember by brain, we Chinese remember by heart." Once, Gu Hongming made a bet with Liang Songsheng that he could recite the full text of Milton.Liang didn't believe it, so Gu took out the book, handed it to him, and recited the full text without interruption, and every word was correct.Ling Shuhua also listened to Gu Hongming, who was over sixty years old, recite the 6,100-line blank poem with his own ears. Ling said in his reminiscence article that Gu's eyes "sparkled like cat's eye jewels. I admire him so much that I want to kowtow to him."

One day, Liang Dingfen, another important aide of Zhang Zhidong, asked to see Zhang.After waiting for a long time, Zhang didn't come out, so he walked to Zhang's study.Approaching the study room, he saw the window sash was wide open, and someone in the room was talking loudly, so he looked in through the window.But seeing Zhang Zhidong sitting upright, listening intently, Gu Hongming was flipping through the newspapers and magazines on the table, analyzing the current situation for Zhang, and talking about world affairs.Zhang listened with great interest, and actually listened for three hours without moving; while Liang outside the window also forgot why he came, and stopped and listened for three hours.

In 1891, Nicholas II, who was the Crown Prince of Russia at the time, came to China for a visit with his relative, the Greek prince.When the Russian ship arrived in Hankou, Zhang Zhidong, governor of Huguang, boarded the ship to pay homage. Gu Hongming accompanied him and acted as an interpreter. Gu's fluent French surprised the crown prince. A few days later, Zhang hosted a banquet in honor of the crown prince and his party.During the dinner, in order to avoid the host, the crown prince communicated with the Greek prince in Russian, saying that he had an appointment at night and should control his food intake.After hearing this, Gu immediately said to the crown prince in Russian: "This meal is very hygienic, please enjoy it to your heart's content, and please tell your son to eat more." The crown prince was even more surprised.Zhang Zhidong had the habit of taking snuff after meals. The prince, who had never seen snuff before, asked the crown prince in Greek: "What does the governor sniff?" After hearing this, Gu whispered to Zhang, took Zhang's snuff and handed it to the prince. , the Crown Prince and the Crown Prince were all shocked.Before leaving, the Russian crown prince gave Gu Hongming the gold watch with a crown engraved on it that he was wearing, and sincerely invited him to Russia as a guest while holding Gu's hand.After arriving in Shanghai, the crown prince said to everyone he met: "When I met Governor Zhang in Hankou, there is Gu who has a good command of the language, and no other country has this talent!"

When Gu Hongming was in Taiwan, he once gave a speech at the request of the Taiwan authorities.He was wearing a blue cloth gown, a red cap with melon skin, and a long braid.There were thunderous cheers when he stepped onto the podium.Because he spoke in English, the authorities specially arranged for a foreign teacher from a normal school to be an interpreter, but what Gu talked about was the Four Books and Five Classics, so eloquent that the teacher was dumbfounded and could not translate a sentence.The Japanese people in the audience fell in admiration of Gu Pei. German writer Pakai said: "Gu Hongming is the first Chinese I can talk to with authentic German." He made a passionate speech, which won applause from all the German scholars and gentlemen in the audience.

Gu Hongming is well-versed in both Chinese and Western cultures. He often answers English questions in Chinese, and answers Chinese questions in English. He also inserts Latin, French, German, etc. from time to time, which often makes the questioners dumbfounded. Many people think that Gu Hongming's erudition is due to his talent, but he said to people: "Actually, when I was studying, I mainly insisted on the method of 'learn by difficulty'. It is not difficult to master the art of learning over time, and to achieve 'it is not easy to say' Others only see how much I learn and how fast I learn, but they don’t know that I bought it with tears! Some people think that good or bad memory is innate. It is a mistake that the memory cannot be increased. The more the human mind is used, the better it will be!"