Chapter 181 anecdote

Hu Shi studied in a private school in his hometown for nine years, and here he found a very strange phenomenon: "Students play truant, and the husband beats him when he catches him, and the more he beats, the more he escapes." Teachers have a difficult life, so of course they don’t have the energy to teach seriously, and students can only read and memorize books by rote. This is naturally very hard, and they don’t want to learn, let alone study hard.”Hu Shi's mother paid more tuition fees for him, which made the two gentlemen seriously lecture to him. Beginning in 1904, Hu Shi lived in Shanghai for six years and studied in Meixi Academy, Chengzhong Academy and China Public School successively.He said: "During my stay in Shanghai, I went to three schools (none of which was a church school), and none of them graduated."

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Zhang Yuanji presided over the Compilation Office of the Commercial Press. In addition to the compilation of textbooks, he also focused on the translation of Western cultural thoughts for general books, such as Yan Fu’s translation of "Tian Yan Lun" and other ideological classics.These ideas spread like wildfire to the efforts of many young people. Terms such as "natural evolution", "material competition", "elimination" and "natural selection" have gradually become idioms in newspaper articles and patriots' catchphrases. .Many people use these nouns as their own or their daughters' names. Hu Shi, whose original name is Hu Hongjun, also took the word "Shi" from "Natural Selection Survival of the Fittest" as his nickname and pen name.

Wen Yuanning described Hu Shi like this: "In his early forties, Dr. Hu still looks very young. He is well-shaven and well-dressed. He is really clean and neat. Augustus the Great is similar; a pair of frank big eyes; two flexible lips, appear eloquent; ruddy complexion, but not from the scholar's "simple life, high thinking" nor from the "diet" of the layman He comes from a plump, dissolute life. He is of medium build, very well-proportioned, and moves with ease. In appearance, Dr. Hu has changed from a layman to a scholar, not from a scholar to a layman." After the publication of "Suggestions on Literary Improvement", the New Culture Movement started vigorously.Hu Shi also "gained a great reputation" because of this. No one in the world knows the king. There was a catchphrase in that era, which was actually "my friend Hu Shizhi".

Hu Shi's "friends" are all over the world, even Americans are not immune.Before Pearl Harbor, Smith, a professor at the University of Chicago, was elected to the House of Representatives.Hu Shi, who was the ambassador to the United States at the time, had a meal with this gentleman. After hearing the news, he invited him to the Chinese embassy in the United States for dinner.On the way to the banquet, Mr. Shi suddenly thought: I don't know the name of the owner, what should I do?But after thinking about it, if you only need to be called "Ambassador" and "Your Excellency", you must be right.After the banquet, Ambassador Hu couldn't help saying "Welcome to our country for tourism" when seeing off the guests. "I must go to China for sightseeing," Mr. Shi said affirmatively. "When I go to your country for sightseeing, the first person I want to visit is my friend Dr. Hu Shizhi, Mr. Ambassador, where is Dr. Hu Shizhi now? "Ambassador Hu laughed loudly after hearing this, and said: "Hu Shi is standing opposite you."It seems that "My Friend Hu Shizhi" is also feasible in the United States.

Hu Shi returned from studying abroad. He is a young man with a reputation far and wide, and he is also very personable. He is gentle and considerate to women, and he is full of gentlemanly demeanor.When he was giving lectures, he would see a girl sitting by the window, and the cold wind would blow in. He would walk over and close the window for her very carefully.With the girls, he is always talking and laughing, gentle and alert, and humorous.Naturally, it was unavoidable that many girls pursued him hard and wrote many fascinated love letters. In 1926, Tang Erhe gave Hu Shi a poem, which described the situation when Hu Shi was dealing with the red sleeves: rose flowers and green willows competed for welcome, and one case admired his name wholeheartedly.If you live side by side with Suiyuansheng, I don't know how many female disciples.Wrapping your head and throwing money for selling books, and occasionally acting as a loose fairy to the world.Unexpectedly, the flying paper became an ironclad proof, and the two profiles of pork were bound to miss.

Hu Shi's masterpieces "Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy" and "History of Vernacular Literature" only have the first volume, and they are given the nickname "Half-volume Doctor". When Hu Shi introduced his career, he only introduced that literature was his "entertainment", philosophy was his "profession", history was his "training", and politics was his "interest", but he never said that education was his The "what". When Hu Shi commented on traditional Chinese operas, he said that some people actually regard facial makeup, voice, stage steps, martial arts handles, singers, gongs and drums, horse whips, extras, etc. as the essence of Chinese drama!

Hu Shi said that his "bold hypothesis, careful verification" research method was accidentally discovered by reading "Encyclopedia Britannica" when he was studying at Columbia University. In the 1930s, Zhao Yuanren and Yang Buwei traveled to Anhui, visited Huangshan Mountain, and went to the hometown of Hu Shizhi in Shexian County by the way. A place with good Feng Shui, that's why you came out.Shizhi replied, "Yunqing (Yang Buwei's style name is Yunqing), I want to kiss you a hundred times, thank you." In the spring of 1923, at the request of the students of Tsinghua University, Hu Shi listed a total of 185 "minimum bibliographies of Chinese studies", including "Nine Lives and Strange Injustices".Liang Qichao said to Hu Shi: "I am someone who has never read these two books. Although I know that my knowledge is shallow, I am not convinced that I don't even have the minimum of Chinese studies." Xu Zhimo read the "minimum list of Chinese studies" Then he said: "Ashamed! I don't know nine out of ten books... I admire Mr. Hu very much. Regarding other things, I listen to him (Hu Shi) hard, but if other things require me to follow him If you don’t work hard on the set bibliography, it’s like asking me to swallow iron bullets alive.”

In Chen Cunren's home, Hu Shi often liked to tell jokes, talk about little feet, braids, and playing mahjong.He often mentioned his wife, Ms. Jiang Dongxiu.He said that although his wife has small feet, she was released from the shackles in the early years. He called her a "reformist".As for his own braids, in the year when he was admitted to study abroad for official fees (the second year of Xuantong), he still dragged his braids on board.As for playing mahjong, his wife likes it the most. He considers himself the president of the Henpeck Club, so not only does he not object, but he often joins in playing mahjong for a few rounds after he gets tired of writing.

During the period of the Republic of China, it was common for officials and literati to play mahjong. Hu Shi denounced the harm of mahjong in his article "Mahjong".He calculated an account, that is, mahjong takes about two hours for every four rounds. To say the least, there are only 1 million mahjong tables in the country every day, and each table only plays eight rounds, and it takes 4 million hours, which is a loss of sixteen. Seventeen thousand days, not to mention winning or losing money and wasting energy.He wrote: "We have traveled all over the world, have we ever seen any progressive nation and civilized country willing to waste time and waste business like this?...Only our unprogressive nation regards 'leisure' as happiness and "Recreation" is urgent, men play mahjong as "pastime", women play mahjong as a daily routine, and old women play mahjong as a major career for the rest of their lives!" He listed mahjong, opium, stereotyped writing, and small feet as "four evils" .

Regardless of scolding, it's not that Hu Shi regards mahjong as a scourge and resolutely refuses to touch it.Liang Shiqiu once saw the scene of Hu Shi rubbing hemp: "One year in Shanghai, Hu Shi, Pan Guangdan, Luo Longji, and Rao Zili opened a room in the Yipinxiang Hotel. They played cards on the hardwood table, which was slippery and loud. "Liang Shiqiu still remembers that time when Hu Shi's luck with hemp was not good, and he lost everything in the end. Because he didn't have enough cash, he had to write a check for more than 30 yuan, which was not a small sum at the time.

Compared with Hu Shi's victories are few and losses are many, Mrs. Hu can be said to have won every battle in the Fangcheng battle. This makes Hu Shi, who has never believed in ghosts and gods, "cautiously verify" that "there are ghosts in mahjong", which is also an anecdote. Tang Degang associates his thoughts with Hu Shi playing mahjong, and has a wonderful description: "One time I saw him playing mahjong from behind, and I suddenly realized something. Hu grabbed a hand of miscellaneous cards, and kept shouting, 'It's not good, it's not good!', but the 'good cards' kept coming. I was in a hurry, but I still couldn’t draw the cards. It turned out that Hu Shizhi, the enlightenment master, was making things up and running in such a hurry. When he went to the house, the lady was slow, strategizing, and commanding. 'Good Zhangzi, bad Zhangzi', as long as the colors are different, just destroy it!" In fact, "As long as the color is different, just knock it out." It's not just the female guest of the Hu family.During Hu's lifetime, all the parties, schools, and masters... which ones didn't just get rid of them as long as they were of different colors? !They are confident and have a clear choice, so they are not as knowledgeable and talented as Hu Shizhi, and they are not as busy as Hu Shizhi! Hu Shi commented: "Peking opera is too outdated. A whip is considered a horse, and two flags are considered a cart. You should use a real cart and a real horse..." Huang Kan stood up and said: "Appropriate, appropriate, What if you want to sing Wu Song Fighting the Tiger?" Hu Shi is known as "the ancestor of new poetry" because of his creation and advocacy of vernacular poetry.All new poets in China are honored to have Hu Shi's comments, so that Guo Moruo, who later became famous in the poetry circle, regretted that he could not get Hu Shi's comments. In 1923, the two met at a banquet. When Hu Shi said that he had wanted to comment on it and read it for five days, Guo Moruo was so happy that he hugged Hu Shi and kissed him. Once, when Hu Shi met with poets of the New Moon School, he said to Wen Yiduo: "You have three masters in Hubei, one literary, one military, and one actor. The scholar is you, the warrior is Li Yuanhong, and the famous actress is Tan Xinpei." Wen Yiduo laughed and said: "You There are also three masters in Anhui, one civil, one military and one actress, the literati is naturally you, the warrior is Duan Qirui, and the famous actress is Mei Lanfang.” After the Revolution of 1911, the Nanjing Provisional Senate passed the "Preferential Conditions for the Resignation of the Qing Emperor", so that the last emperor Puyi was able to live in the palace and continue his "emperor" life.Under the tutelage of the foreign master Johnston, the little emperor inside the red wall is full of curiosity about all new things in the outside world: glasses, phones, bicycles.At the same time, he also understood the political and cultural situation at home and abroad, knew about the "New Culture Movement" (he called it "the Vernacular Movement"), and "knowledge" Hu Shi. live".After the palace installed a telephone, Pu Yi thought of Dr. Hu Shi, and wanted to hear what accent Dr. Yang used to speak. Pu Yi called Hu Shi in the Forbidden City, and said to Hu Shi: His preferential treatment conditions for the Republic of China are not I don't care, I just want to read more books and be a "promising young man".Hu Shi complimented: "The emperor is really enlightened! The future is promising!" After meeting, Hu Shi felt pity for the lonely Pu Yi, and wrote a poem in his diary on June 6: A kernel that cannot be bitten or crushed,