Chapter 31 Gentle

At the age of 14, Zhao Yuanren's eldest aunt told him that he was going to be engaged to a girl surnamed Chen. He recorded in his diary: "The marriage is not free, and I am very sad." Marriage contract, he said happily: "I have been engaged to this girl for more than ten years, and finally I am free." The reason for Zhao Yuanren's refusal was "the woman is two years older." Yang Buwei. Zhao Yuanren was smart and eager to learn since he was a child, and he kept a diary since junior high school.During his studies in Nanjing, he was once contaminated with bad habits: smoking, drinking, and masturbation.However, he worked hard to change his bad habits, and used his father's name to warn and encourage himself: "Yuan Ren, there is a long way to go."

When Zhao Yuanren was studying in the preparatory course of Nanjing Higher School, he and Zhang Yuanshan were classmates. They encouraged each other and studied hard.Because the heads of the two people were lying on the couch, they connected the pillows with a rope. The person who got up first pulled the rope, and then the two got up at the same time to practice English pronunciation on the playground. One day in August 1920, Zhao Yuanren met Yang Buwei at a friend's house in Nanjing and fell in love with her.At that time, Zhao Yuanren was interpreting for Russell's lecture tour in China.Once Russell gave a speech at the Normal University, Zhao Yuanren was late, because of the language barrier, Russell stood on the stage and sat there, helpless.Zhao Yuanren said: "Seeing me and the girl coming in, he whispered to me: 'Bad guy, bad guy!'."

In the spring of 1927, Zhao Yuanren went to Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces to investigate the Wu language.He often travels to two or three places a day, making records while investigating. If he can't find a hotel, he stays at a farmer's house.Once, he and his assistant caught a train from Wuxi to Suzhou at night, and only bought fourth-class tickets for hard board chairs.Because they were too tired, the two fell asleep on the longboard seat after getting into the car.When I woke up, the car was completely dark, and when I looked outside, I realized that the cars in front had already left, and this fourth-class car had been left behind.The assistant asked him what to do?He said: "Now I can't find a hotel anyway, so just sleep in the car until dawn!" Seeing that he was weak, his assistant advised him to do less research every day. Some, otherwise we won't be able to go home early! Isn't it going to take more time and work harder in the future?"

Zhao Yuanren had no intention of being an official. When he married Yang Buwei, he only made one request to Yang: don't force him to be an official. Zhao Yuanren was also unwilling to do administrative work. Tsinghua University offered him to be the principal, but he flatly refused. Later, Luo Jialun became the principal of Tsinghua University. Once, Zhao Yuanren came to Shanghai from Europe. At that time, there was a student riot in Southeast University. The two sides were at a standoff.Therefore, Yang Xingfo and Hu Gangfu pursued Zhao day and night, asking him to be the president of Southeast University.Zhao Yuanren was so frightened that he went north overnight and fled to Beijing.

Yang Xingfo asked Zhao Yuanren to work as a researcher at Academia Sinica, Zhao agreed, but he and Yang Xingfo agreed not to take any administrative position, and Yang Xingfo asked Zhao Yong not to resign. Zhao Yuanren laughed and said, if your brother doesn't do it or the situation changes, I am not allowed to leave. go?Unexpectedly, the word became a prophecy, and Yang was assassinated soon after. When Zhao Yuanren went to the Academia Sinica, Fu Sinian said that he could not leave the academy for one day while he was in the academy. He knew that Zhao Yuanren was not in an administrative position and did not like to compete with others for power, so people suggested that Zhao Yuanren be the director-general, but Fu Sinian always stopped him. As for some people who think that Fu Sinian is jealous of the virtuous and capable, and some people try to drive a wedge between the two.This incident was recorded by Yang Buwei when he wrote his memoirs in his later years, when Fu Sinian had passed away.

In 1946, Zhu Jiahua, Minister of Education of the Kuomintang government, sent a telegram to invite Zhao Yuanren to be the president of Nanjing Central University.Zhao Yuanren called back: "I can't do it. Thank you!" Zhu asked Yang Buwei to persuade Zhao, and Yang said, "I never want Yuanren to do administrative work." Zhao Yuanren doesn't like wearing dresses very much.When Zhao Yuanren first came to the United States after marriage, life was very difficult.Zhao Yuanren went to women's clubs to give speeches to earn extra money to supplement his family.You must wear an evening gown to speak in the United States. Zhao Yuanren ignored these and went directly to the speech in casual clothes.The chairman of the club was very embarrassed. Before the lecture, he asked Zhao if he wanted to rent a dress and change it. Zhao Yuanren said that he must change it, so I stopped talking.The chairman can only make do with him.Soon, Zhao Yuanren was going to give a speech in New York, and he had to wear a dress for the speech, so he could only wait in the reception room, and asked his friends to rent a suit temporarily to change into.Zhao Yuanren has always been opposed to wearing evening gowns. He only agreed to wear them when he went to France for a meeting on behalf of the United Education Organization in 1946 for the sake of the country's image.

Zhao Yuanren lived a simple life and paid the least attention to clothing.He has been driving, shopping, cooking, mending clothes, and many housework by himself.He is the most interesting in making buttons. He uses a large needle to thread four threads, and the two ends of the thread are tied together to form an eight-strand thread. The button is nailed on with only one stitch.