Chapter 159 anecdote

Cai Yuanpei's first enlightenment teacher was surnamed Zhou. At first, he read three small books, "Thousand Characters" and "Prodigy Poems", and then read the Confucian classics "Four Books" and "Five Classics".When reading these traditional textbooks, the old Master Zhou emphasized familiarity with memorization instead of explanations.The young Cai Yuanpei seemed to understand what he read, but he could recite it after reading it many times. When he was 11 years old, Cai Yuanpei's father passed away. Since then, his family's situation has deteriorated day by day, and he cannot afford to buy books, but this has not affected his study and education.First, his sixth uncle, Mingen Mingen, was a granary student in the late Qing Dynasty, and the state would give him a certain amount of silver and food subsidies every month.He opened all his books to him, so that he read "Historical Records", "Han Shu", "Wen Shi Tong Yi", "Shuowen Tong Xun Ding Sheng" and other books.Under the guidance of his uncle, Cai Yuanpei entered the world of studying Confucian classics and history earlier from enlightenment.

At the age of 13, Cai Yuanpei studied stereotyped essays and Confucianism of the Song Dynasty under the guidance of Wang Zizhuang, a famous scholar of Confucian classics.This Mr. Wang is an old boy who has never been an official, but he is famous for his intensive study of stereotyped essays.Wang Zizhuang's teaching method is different from that of ordinary school teachers. If there is something wrong in Cai Yuanpei's article, Wang Zizhuang does not correct it immediately, but points out the mistake in person and asks the students to go back and correct it.It was under the heuristic teaching of Wang Zizhuang that Cai Yuanpei made great progress in learning and formed his own unique "strange stereotyped" style.From then on, he relied on this "strange stereotype" to make his way to the top of the examination field.

When Cai Yuanpei was in school, the teacher had strict requirements. At that time, the stereotyped essays he wrote, if there were any mistakes, the teacher would not just correct them. He often pointed out the mistakes and corrected them by himself.I can't finish it in school, so I will conceive it under the lamp after dinner at home.At this time, Mother Cai often accompanied her and did not go to bed.Cai Yuanpei said: Once, my mother felt that the night was too late, I was too tired, and I couldn't develop my thoughts, so I simply fell asleep.It was called at dawn the next day, but at this time it was done in one go.From then on, I felt that staying up late is not as good as getting up early, which was nurtured by my mother.

After the age of 18, Cai Yuanpei began to work as a tutor for others, that is, as a tutor, teaching himself while teaching.At this time, his reading became more and more complicated, and he stopped practicing stereotyped essays, but started free reading. Mr. Cai wrote many brilliant and penetrating articles in his early years, which formed a strong contrast with the stereotyped imperial examinations that were stable and meaningless at that time.Cai Yuanpei wrote a strange article, and at the beginning he quoted a sentence from the Book of Rites, "Eating and drinking, men and women, people's great desires exist."When the time for handing in the paper is up, he submits the essay to the examiner.Mr. Cai won the Juren in this provincial examination.

Cai Yuanpei received an old-fashioned literati education since he was a child.During the reign of Guangxu, he was awarded Juren first, and then Hanlin.In the year of Zhongju, he was ordered by his parents to marry Ms. Wang Zhao, whom he had never met, as his wife.Yet such an old-fashioned educated man of letters advocated democracy and equality.He started with "I" and took "I" as an example to reform the social atmosphere, break through feudal customs, advocate equal rights for men and women, and break the traditional Chinese shackles on women on marriage issues. It is the embodiment of his thinking.

When Cai Yuanpei presided over the Shaoxing Prefecture Academy, teachers and students gradually divided into old and new factions, and disputes often occurred, which were most concentrated during lunch and dinner.There are multiple square tables in the dining hall of the Gai Xuetang, with one teacher at each table and six students. Teachers who do not share the same table with students sit at the middle round table, and they can argue freely. On January 4, 1912, the provisional government of the Republic of China was established in Nanjing, and Cai Yuanpei became the chief education officer of the Nanjing provisional government.Under Cai Yuanpei, the Ministry of Education solicited the public for a possible national anthem, and later promulgated the provisional national anthem of the Republic of China, a draft national anthem written by Shen Enfu and composed by Shen Pengnian, titled "Five Banners Republic Song".

Cai Yuanpei devoted himself to learning, but he was very casual about eating.His wife said to him: "I also eat porridge, dry rice, and burnt rice." Cai Yuanpei went to Leipzig, Germany for a study tour. He heard Li Shi talk about the harmfulness of eating meat. He happened to read Leo Tolstoy’s tragic description of hunting, so he announced that he would no longer eat meat. He also advised his friend Shou Xiaotian: Eating has three meanings: first, hygiene; second, abstinence from killing; third, use.” He also stated that he ate vegetables because of his abstinence from killing. Once, Cai Yuanpei held a symposium with the students and asked the students present: "What is one plus one?" Reply.After a long time, a student plucked up the courage to say, "Sir, one plus one is equal to two." Cai Yuanpei immediately laughed and said, "That's right. One plus one is equal to two. You worship and even superstitious idols like this, and you don't even know the truth." No more."

At the beginning of 1924, Cai Yuanpei hosted a banquet at the Beijing Hotel in Lyon, France, for Ou Le, chairman of the Sino-French University of France. Seeing that there were chopsticks and spoons on the table, Ou Le said: "It is inconvenient for you not to use knives and forks." Cai replied: "Morning 3000 years ago, our ancestors also used knives and forks; however, we Chinese are a peace-loving nation, and we feel that knives and forks are weapons that can kill people, and it is too unrefined to use them when eating. So we changed to 'Dagger' (knife) and chopsticks (chopsticks), cut meat with 'dagger' and pick vegetables with 'stickers'. Later, due to the improvement of cooking technology, chopsticks were used." Ou Le said: "Really, no wonder you The Chinese are so peace-loving."

Cai Yuanpei usually ate without drinking. According to Cheng Cangbo’s recollection, when they were at Academia Sinica in Nanjing, they ate together, and Mr. Cai did not eat. On the dining table, Mr. Cai had a thermos pot of Shaoxing wine, about six taels.Mr. Cai drank alone, and they ate with him.After finishing his wine, Mr. Cai ate some pieces of toast. Cai Yuanpei wrote three doggerel poems with tea rhyme with Zhou Zuoren in the past few years, one of which is particularly funny. Let the novice wear cassocks. (Original Note: Children in Shaoxing keep their hair around and shave the side, they are called novice monks.) Grimacing faces only scare dogs, and dragon lanterns draw feet like adding snakes.Six rounds of tossing to win the beans, several words reelection. (Children in Shaoxing choose six fried broad beans, shell a little on one side, and call it yellow, and the intact side is called black. Two or more people toss them in turn, and the one with more yellow wins, and the beans are still used as chips. Start with the idiom Words that are the same as other characters are linked sentences, such as A said "the way of the university", B said "the way is not far from people", and C said "the beginning of human beings", etc., which is called Jima.) Joyful memories are not bitter words, Let me eat sweet tea as well. (There is a saying in Shaoxing that "eat sweet tea and speak bitter words".)

Cai Yuanpei is an unsmiling scholar, but he is also very funny when he is in the mood.One year, he held a "soup and cake party" for his youngest son. A Peking University alumnus who had just returned from overseas asked him with a smile, "When I was abroad, I used to bother my husband about his wedding. When I came back today, I met him again. The soup and cake meeting is a big blessing. I just don’t understand, Mr. is very old, but he sometimes has the joy of making a fortune, I don’t know why?” Cai Yuanpei replied calmly, “It’s nothing, nothing more than It’s just a well-researched method.” As soon as this remark came out, everyone burst into laughter.

Every May Fourth, Peking University Alumni Association will have a feast for classmates, and Cai Yuanpei will be honored as the guest of honor.Every year like this, Cai was quite tired, and once he joked to his neighbor, "I'm really going to eat the 'May Fourth' meal today!" Luo Jialun also wrote a letter to Principal Cai Yuanpei, requesting to be engaged to Mr. Cai's daughter.Mr. Cai replied with a letter, to the effect that: Marriage is a matter of man and woman's autonomy, and I have no right to arrange it.Kuang Xiaonv is not yet of marriageable age, so your request is too much.This incident was passed as a joke in Peking University. When Peking University held a professor meeting, the meeting place was chaotic, and everyone spoke one after another. Cai Yuanpei also stood up and was about to speak. When Gu Hongming saw it, he first said loudly: "Now, please listen to the principal's orders!" Zhou Zuoren said, this is Gu's tone, he The spirit is also fully expressed in it. During the "May 4th" Movement, the professors dealt with the incident together, among which was to retain Cai Yuanpei. Everyone said a lot, and there was no objection to the retention.Gu Hongming said his own special reason: "The principal is the emperor of our school, so he must be retained." Cai Yuanpei's handwriting is sloppy.Qian Xuantong asked Cai Yuanpei: "Mr. Cai, in the imperial examination in the former Qing Dynasty, you must have good handwriting to pass the examination. Mr.'s handwriting is so bad, how can you pass the imperial examination?" Cai replied with a smile: "I I don't know, probably because the Huangshan Valley font was popular at that time!" In 1927, He Yingqin of the Northern Expedition conquered Fujian. Cai Yuanpei and Ma Xulun welcomed the early entry into Zhejiang on behalf of the people of Zhejiang.He hosted a banquet and introduced Russian advisor Cai Lebanov to meet him.The consultant immediately sent his Chinese-style business card: "Cai Lebanov".Cai Yuanpei smiled and said, "So it's my family." Cai Yuanpei went to Germany and visited a canning company. There was a beef canning company. He saw a group of cows enter the machine, dismantle them into pieces, and finally push them out and make them into cans. Because of cruelty, he stopped eating beef and became a vegetarian for life.