Chapter 90 7. Wang Guowei

Wang Guowei is obsessed with ideals, yearning for a kind of non-utility and pure knowledge. Wang Guowei devoted his whole life to the pursuit of academic independence. Around 1905, Wang Guowei was keenly aware that since the publication of Yan Fu’s "Tianyanlun", Western academics had gradually entered China, but Kang, Tan and others did not truly understand the value of Western academics from a metaphysical level. Just using academia as a means of politics.In this regard, Wang Guowei pointed out, "For the development of academics, we must regard academics as the purpose, not as a means." As for "individual academic independence", Wang Guowei is even more committed to it.After the Revolution of 1911, Wang Guowei spent most of his time and energy on academic research.

In the six years from 1917, he accepted Ma Heng four times and Zhang Jiafu one time, and finally agreed to become a communications tutor at Peking University, but left in 1924 two years later.The reason for this is fully revealed in a letter to my friend Jiang Ruzao: "I am a person with absolutely no party affiliation, and I don't want to be affected by this matter, so I don't ask anything about it... Both Peking University and the Research Department have taken care of it. I also hate each other, and I don’t want to get close to anyone.” Obviously, Wang Guowei is wandering in academic independence and consciously distanced himself from politics.

Wang Guowei wrote to his friend Jiang Mengping when he was hired by Tsinghua University in 1925 as a tutor of the Academy of Chinese Studies: "For several months, I have been anxious and busy. It was not until last month that I had to rest. The current owner (referring to Puyi) is in Tianjin. Advances and retreats are not enough, and those who are not enough have money. However, the poverty has reached this point, and the opinions of the middle factions are crowded out, which is no different from Chengping. Therefore, my younger brother has decided to hire Tsinghua School in the middle of last month, and the whole family plans to move to Tsinghua Garden. It’s a good plan to get away from this sea of ​​people. I haven’t read books for several months, and my intuition and mind are scattered, and I will have to call my soul to reorganize my old karma.”