Chapter 39 to learn

Chen Duxiu was a student and admired Lu Zuqian. Lu had a nephew named Yannian, and a son named Qiaonian. Chen's second son was also named Yannian and Qiaonian. Xiao Lao recalled that after he was admitted to Peking University, he took an English class. The professor was an Englishman, and the lectures were entirely in English, without speaking a single Chinese word.Xiao's English listening is not good, and he can't understand anything, so he doesn't go to class.A week later, Chen Duxiu, dean of liberal arts, suddenly called Xiao to the office and asked, "Why don't you go to English class?" Xiao Lao said, "I don't understand." Very good, why can’t I understand?” Xiao replied: “I learned English from my Chinese teacher in middle school, and I could only write, but not speak. Now the British teacher speaks English too fast, so I can’t understand.” Chen asked Xiao to retreat to Class C, which had a slightly lower English level, and was still taught by a Chinese teacher.

Xiao Lao's ancient Chinese literature class was taught by Huang Kan.One afternoon during class, Xiao was tired and sat with his head in his hands.When Mr. Huang saw this, he was furious, and said, "I'm lecturing, and you're sleepy!" Xiao said, "The posture is wrong, it's not sleeping." Then he put down his hands and corrected his posture.But Huang was still angry, and said: "If you don't want to listen, just stop!" Xiao Lao left the classroom in anger, and did not go to class for two consecutive weeks.Chen Duxiu called Xiao to his office again, and Xiao stated the above situation.Chen said: "You are studying Chinese literature, and Mr. Huang is the main subject. How can you study without taking classes?" Xiao said, "I'm afraid Mr. Huang won't allow me to take classes." Chen said: "Okay! I'll take you there." Then He took Xiao's hand and sent him into the classroom.Huang Kan was giving a lecture at that time, Chen Duxiu watched Xiao Lao sit on his seat, Huang Kan did not speak, and just left the classroom.

After becoming the dean of liberal arts at Peking University, Chen Duxiu did not start classes, but devoted himself to the reform of liberal arts at Peking University.Cai Yuanpei handed over all the personnel and administrative affairs related to liberal arts to Chen, without interfering.Chen expanded the liberal arts and added a new department. The liberal arts at Peking University originally only had Chinese literature, Chinese philosophy, Chinese historiography, and English. Chen added German, French, and Russian. Students are also allowed to choose courses freely, and outsiders are allowed to observe; class discipline is rectified and examination systems are formulated; books are purchased and reading rooms are widely set up to provide students with learning conditions.

Chen Duxiu enforced classroom discipline at Peking University.Li Yuanhong's nephew was often absent from school, and Chen decided to punish him with one major demerit in order to enforce classroom discipline.But Chen mistook Xu Deheng for Li's nephew, and when he discovered the mistake, he took it back and comforted Xu. When Chen Duxiu and Pu Qingquan talked about writing, they said: "If everyone agrees to write a different character, it should be recognized.... For example, in the hospital for injection, everyone says to hit the buttocks (Yindian) department. His "temple" department and "pig" department just need to be spanked on the buttocks; and if young people say that they advocate revolution, the word "chui" should be read as "Trai" instead of blowing. Now everyone reads blowing, so let it go. , blowing the trumpet is bragging, bragging is bragging, propagandizing the revolution is bragging, everyone reads bragging, you must read 'Trai', that is stubborn. Another example is the word 'horrible' in 'horrified', you should not read 'horrible' but To read '海', everyone now reads the scary sound, which means fear and surprise. You can read it however you want. In short, whether you create new characters, or write and read different characters, you have to be gradual. You can't make Cangjie by yourself. Create a character as you like. It must be known that Chinese characters were not created by Cangjie, but created by the society of the ancient people.”

Wang Duqing, a poet of the Creation Society, published a collection of poems praising the "Guangzhou Uprising" in 1927. The poems in the collection are printed in a novel way, with characters of different sizes, some upright and some crooked, and some exclamation marks are added, just like the shrapnel after a shell is fired. General flying.Wang showed the collection of poems to Chen Duxiu. After reading it, Chen laughed and said, "I don't know poetry, so I don't dare to comment, but I admire your boldness, your originality, and your own style." Wang Duqing was very embarrassed, and retreated in embarrassment. .Later, when Chen Duxiu talked about this matter to Pu Qingquan in prison, he said: "Wang Duqing's poem seems to be quite novel in form, but he was poisoned by formalism, thinking that writing some slogans into poems is proletarianism. Class revolution literature. In fact, this is a joke. In the end, the poem is turned into shit, and I don’t know it, and I’m even complacent, which is very sad.”

Chen Duxiu told Pu Qingquan that he believed that poetry is a kind of beautiful prose, and it is difficult to write beautiful poetry in vernacular language. He was most opposed to writing prose into short sentences, adding some ah, ah, eh, eh, and exclamation points to call himself poetry . In the spring of 1939, Chen Duxiu found out the first draft of philology research "Elementary Literacy" that had not been completed in Nanjing Prison, and he changed the title of the book to "Primary School Literacy Textbook".When the manuscript was submitted for review, Chen Lifu, the Minister of Education of the Kuomintang, said after seeing it: "The content is not serious, but it is easy to be confused with an elementary school." Let Chen revise or choose another title.Chen Duxiu insisted: "Chen Lifu is ignorant, and the young scholars' knowledge of exegesis and textual research has existed since ancient times, how can it be changed!" So this book cannot be printed.

Chen Duxiu studied philology. In order to obtain the true meaning of a word, he not only collected widely, but also found evidence from the objects excavated underground for accurate textual research.For example, the analysis of characters such as Li, Ding, Zeng, Fu, and Chi not only quoted thirteen or four ancient books such as "Zhou Li", "Zuo Zhuan", but also examined snails, mussels, pottery, and bronze wares unearthed underground. , iron and other real objects. When Chen Zhongfan commented on "Primary School Literacy Textbook", he said: "Its method of consistently explaining characters with phonetics, sounds and meanings can be described as meticulous, and it is a valuable work in philology."

When Wei Jiangong read the manuscript of "Primary School Literacy Textbook", he "admired and delighted, thinking that since ancient writing materials, philologists have tended to abandon the book, and hold on to the old ones. Both are useless, and the loss is suddenly swept away."