Chapter 8 scholarship

On January 8, 1912, the Nanjing Provisional Senate was established, and Huang Kan was elected as a senator.In the same year, Huang Kan served as the editor-in-chief of Shanghai "Minsheng Daily", researching primary schools, economics and history while running the newspaper.When living in Shanghai, Huang Kan deeply reflected on Yuan Shikai's usurpation of power after the Revolution of 1911. He believed that "...the success of the revolution is really due to the hearts of the people. The heroic spirit is poured out so that the hearts of the people will never die, and the nature of the race will never die. It is because the country is repeatedly beheaded but not different, and the nation is revived after repeated crises. And because it has inherited the work of the father and the teacher, it will continue to learn, preserve the country, and plant it. The country is based on the nature of the country. Therefore, since the restoration, I have no desire to be involved in political affairs. The heart of rejuvenating the country and loving the family has been placed in the writing. If you want to hold this as a tool to serve the country, you will ask yourself." From then on, he abandoned politics and devoted himself to Chinese studies.This was a turning point in Huang Kan's life.

Huang Kan said on the way of learning: "There are five ways of learning: one is not to deceive others; "The first thing to do in scholarship is to abide by the teachings of teachers, the second is to be erudite, and the third is to be careful with words." Huang Kan said on academics: "The word "academic" should be interpreted as 'skills are taught by the teacher, and you can learn by yourself'." He also said, "All the achievements of famous people in ancient and modern times are all due to hard work, seldom due to genius; It’s just a wrong path.” “The one with the highest knowledge has the simplest language.”

Huang Kan said that there are four problems for beginners: one is eager to find solutions, one is eager to write books, one is unable to doubt, and the other is unable to obey goodness.Therefore, Huang Kan has a classic saying: do not write books before fifty.This sentence is still widely circulated on the campus of Wuhan University half a century later, and it has become a proof of his rigorous scholarship.Before Huang Kan was alive, Zhang Taiyan persuaded him many times to write a book, but Huang was unmoved.Due to his early death, there are not many works left in the world.Zhang Taiyan wrote in Huang Kan's epitaph: "(Huang) Youjing cured the ancient rhyme. He started from Yu Wen, and later he was a family law. However, he refused to write books lightly. I am interested in it, saying: "People write books lightly, and they do not write books lightly. Yes; Zi focuses on writing books, but he is stingy. He is unwise and merciless." The answer is: "When you are fifty years old, you should be on paper and pen." Now it is fifty, and he died of drunkenness."

Huang Kan said on becoming a talent: "If you understand the classics and history, and the literature is integrated, you can also be an adult." Huang Kan once said that before reading, "you must be as if you don't know a word" before you can read.Huang Kan reads books and likes to punctuate them casually.He was very serious when he circled, and many books were circled more than once.For example, "Wen Xuan" circled dozens of times, "Han Shu", "Xin Tang Shu" and other books three times. "Drafts of Qing History" consists of 100 volumes and 700 volumes. From the beginning to the end, he punctuated each volume in detail, never skipping.Therefore, he called those who just casually flipped through the books while reading a few chapters "killing the head of the book", and he didn't take it seriously.Many scholars like to talk about Huang Kan's suffering in studying, but he doesn't think it is a hardship.Once, when Huang Kan was chatting with his student Lu Zongda, Huang asked Lu: "When is a person the happiest?" Lu didn't know what the teacher meant by this question, so he guessed randomly, saying this was the happiest, and that was the happiest.After hearing this, Huang Kan just shook his head.Finally, when Lu asked the teacher what the answer was, Huang Kan said with a smile: "It is the happiest time when a book is circled to the last volume and there is still the last chapter left." This conversation will be remembered by Lu Zongda all his life.

When Huang Kan was lecturing Chinese studies at Peking University, he devoted himself to the "national heritage" all day long, often forgetting to eat and sleep.Once, a friend came to visit.When I entered the door, I saw Huang wanting to eat steamed buns in one hand, and holding a book in the other. Knowing that he was engrossed in the book, it was inconvenient to disturb him, so he sat quietly and waited.Suddenly, there was a "pop", and my friends were taken aback. It turned out that when Huang Du was happy, he slapped the table hard, then dipped the steamed bun into the cinnabar and ink box and put it in his mouth. His face was turned into a big painted face. .

Huang Kan often said to people: "Learning must come from hardships, and it is useless to rely on wisdom." He thought that "studying is like going to battle, facing the enemy and fighting hard. There is no rest! The so-called forging a stronghold and fighting to the death is the right way ".Every time I read, I must sit upright and be meticulous. No matter how tired I am during the day, I will go to bed at night when the cock crows as usual, and I will never change it due to personnel, poverty or illness.Sometimes friends came to visit and chatted with them late into the night. After the guests left, he still had to sit and read under the lamp, and went to bed after reading.In the second year of the Republic of China (1913), when he lived in Shanghai, he was extremely poor.On New Year's Eve, the streets were noisy with firecrackers all night long, but he sat indoors, with a bright light on, and studied carefully without sleepiness. Until his deathbed, he vomited blood and insisted on finishing the "Tang Wencui Supplement".

When Huang Kan was dying, there was still a volume of "Tang Wencui Continuation" that he had read. He vomited blood and sighed: "I have scolded people and killed the head of the book all my life, so don't let people scold me." Before Huang Kan died, he vomited blood continuously, and the doctor injected sleeping medicine to stop bleeding.