Chapter 61 Red House

Wu Mi once promoted the popularity of Southwest Associated University.According to Yu Bin's research, from 1940 to 1942, there was a craze in the United Nations General Assembly. This craze was probably caused by a speech by Chen Quan, and Wu Mi and Liu Wendian contributed to it and escalated it. On the evening of April 11, 1940, Chen Quan gave a speech on "Schopenhauer and the Dream of Red Mansions" at the Wenlin Hall in Daximen, and the response was enthusiastic.Wu Mi helped organize this speech. He recorded in his diary the grand occasion of the speech that day: "There are so many listeners, and the door is full. Its prosperity is unprecedented." One month later, the "Stone Society" for research was established. Wu Mi is an important member of the "Stone Society".This club often held activities in the Nan Canteen at night, full of different interests, and the topic often changed from criticism to poetry and personal love stories of club members without knowing it.

In Wang Zengqi's memory, Wu Mi's lecture on "Research on the Dream of Red Mansions" was very popular. Often, girls who came later had no chairs to sit on. Start the lecture.Mr. Wu's move also attracted some chivalrous boys to follow and study. Wu Mi was trapped by love all his life, he compared himself to Jia Baoyu.Gu Yuxiu and others have the sentence "Wu Yuseng is passionate through the ages".A colleague made fun of him as a "love monk", but Wu Mi was not offended by it. When he was at Southwest Associated University, Wu Mi was famous for his lectures, and some students even gave him the nickname "Miaoyu". He often replied with a smile: "Don't dare to be, don't dare to be, don't dare to be."

Wu Mi loves it and thinks this book is the first good book in ancient and modern China and abroad, and calls herself Zijuan because Zijuan's love for Lin Daiyu is the purest.Wu Mi once published an article "On Zicuckoo" in "Wuhan Daily", in which Wu Mi praised Zicuckoo's character of loyalty, kindness and persistence.The last sentence of the article is: "If you want to know Mi, please look at Zijuan." In Wu Mi's view, Lin Daiyu is the most beautiful figure among Chinese women, who can serve and protect Daiyu with infinite loyalty and affection like Zijuan. is his highest ideal.

Wu Mi has an addiction to red buildings, and compares himself to "Mr. Yihong".Opposite the new campus of the United Nations University, there is a beef noodle restaurant opened by a native of Hunan, called "Xiaoxiang Pavilion".Wu Mi was furious when she saw this, thinking that she had insulted sister Lin, she went to smash the restaurant and ordered the boss to change her name.Unexpectedly, the boss is also a bull-tempered man, insisting on not changing it, and the two sides had a dispute. Later, someone came forward to mediate and changed the "Xiaoxiang Pavilion" to "Xiaoxiang".

Another version of this story is as follows: One day, Wu Mi found a restaurant called "Xiaoxiang Restaurant". He went in and saw that there were people drinking and punching, so Wu Mi asked the waiter to call the boss.The boss said, what advice do you have, sir?Wu Mi said: "Do you think this will work? I'll give you some money, and you change the name, don't call it Xiaoxiang Pavilion." The boss asked the reason, and Wu Mi replied: "Sister Lin will feel uncomfortable." In 1942, Liu Wendian gave two speeches at the United Nations General Assembly, and Wu Mi went to join him each time.Once, "Listen to Dian's lecture and answer students' questions. It rained heavily, and the tin iron on the roof was like thunder." Another time: "Listen to Dian's lecture in the open air. See Qiong in the crowd. Mi and Xuemei are on their way home." Zhang Erqiong, an assistant professor of the Department of Biology, teaches at Kunhua Middle School and is also one of Wu Mi's confidante. The relationship with Wu Mi is sometimes hot and cold, and they are inseparable.Xuemei is Lu Xuemei, a poetess from Guizhou, who turned to pursue Wu Mi after many failed marriages.Wu Mi accompanied her to listen to Liu Wendian's speech, but she was distracted and looked at Miss Zhang in the crowd.

Wu Mi wrote the article "Comments on A Dream of Red Mansions", in which he compared the illusory realm with hell, purgatory and heaven in Dante's "Divine Comedy", guiding people to be freed from disillusionment and pain.When he was in class, he often shuttled back and forth between one culture and another, spanning several centuries, and often recited English and Tang poems on the same theme, which amazed the students.In Wu Mi's class, "listeners fill the room and the outside". When answering students' questions, he likes to talk about himself. He recorded in his diary: Once, "Because he freely expressed his emotions and opinions on love and marriage, he hoped that he would express his love with love." Ideals are instilled in all beings. But the meaning and posture of the words are wild and out of control, which is not the same as drinking to the cloud."

Once, when Wu Mi was in a "Literature and Life" class, he unconsciously talked about it, so he used his love history as a "negative teaching material" for the students.He talked about his "engagement, marriage, and the past when he met Yan (Mao Yanwen) in the early years. The audience was crowded." After class, Wu Mi thought about it and felt that it was inappropriate to tell the students, and regretted it. During the summer vacation of 1942, Wu Mi gave seven speeches to the students of the United Nations.During this period, Wu Mi was invited by Kunming Radio Station to give a lecture on "The Literary Value of A Dream of Red Mansions" on the radio program, and received a lot of money.

Wu Mi's research is different from both the Suoyin school and the textual research school. Instead, it treats pure literary works with theories and methods of comparative literature, and focuses more on the analysis of characters.Wu Mi has written many articles, in-depth analysis of figures such as Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, Zijuan, and Wang Xifeng.For example, he interpreted Jia Baoyu with Rousseau's so-called "two selves", that is, the so-called "dual personality" in psychology, and believed that both "Baoyu" Zhen and Jia had the shadow of Cao Xueqin.At that time, Wu Mi's views were unique and refreshing.

Wu Mi believes that the universe, society, and life are like big traps and small circles. The innermost circle is the microscopic form. He believes that when designing heaven and man, the world can be seen from a grain of sand. After liberation, Wu Mi gave a lecture at Chongqing Tsinghua Middle School at the invitation of the school.During the speech, some students asked Wu Mi: "Why does Mr. Wu think that it cannot be dissected as a specimen that the feudal system was on the verge of disintegration at that time?" Wu replied: "It's like dissecting a corpse without dissecting the body of a beauty."