Chapter 91 keep the vacancy

Although living in an era of change, the traditional thought of monarch, subject and discipline has always influenced Wang Guowei's life.According to Mr. Jiang Xicen's recollection, Wang Guowei, who taught at the Jiangsu Normal School in Suzhou around 1904, taught self-cultivation and ethics, and entered and exited the field of feudal famous teachings. In 1898, after failing the second provincial examination, Wang Guowei hoped to study abroad, but his family could not afford it.He had to go to Shanghai in 1899 to make a living, and used his spare time to study at Dongwen Literature Society, mainly learning new studies and Japanese, and looking for a direction for his future.During this process, he developed an interest in Western philosophy, and the first change in his academic life took place.In the following years, he was obsessed with the theories of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.However, the final result of his research on philosophy is that "the lovable is not credible; the credible is not lovable". Although he accepts Western thought intellectually, he cannot part with the old Chinese culture emotionally, forming a sharp contradiction, and his life direction is reversed. more hesitant.

In 1912, Wang Guowei, who was in exile in Japan, had a poem "Sending Dr. Kano of Japan to Europe". The sentence "Zai" expresses his call for Gangji and Zhongjie and his dissatisfaction with the reality. After the Revolution of 1911, Wang Guowei fled to Japan for five years. After returning to China, he found that the social atmosphere was getting worse and worse.He once wrote "On Politics" and said: "The former kings knew that the people could not govern themselves, so they established a king to rule them, and the king could not rule alone, so they set up officials to assist them, and they also cared about the sickness of the king and the officials. Legislate to prevent it.” He never forgets the Qing Dynasty system, which represented the way of Zhou and Confucius’s rule, but he thinks that the constitution and republic of the Westerners are superfluous caused by lack of greed.He hoped that Puyi, the deposed emperor, would make great efforts to rule the country and revive the court, but the republic of the world was irreversible, and Puyi himself was in danger, which made Wang Guowei fall into despair ideologically.

In 1917, Zhang Xun was restored.Wang Guowei placed great hopes, but hopes were quickly dashed. In 1922, at the recommendation of Sheng Yun, Wang Guowei regarded it as a great honor in his life to teach Puyi's books in the Qing Palace. In 1923, Wang Guowei was summoned by Ren Qingxun Emperor Puyi to "walk in the South Study Room".At this time, Puyi had abdicated, but the royal system was still maintained in the Forbidden City, calling me the imperial edict, and maintaining the attitude of being king.Those who followed him still called His Majesty and Emperor, and they did not change their loyalty.Wang Guowei entered the South Study Room of the Qing court, which belonged to Te En Zhiba.Promoted from a scholar to "Emperor Master", he gladly followed him and deeply felt the kindness of Puyi's knowledge and experience.Later, Pu Yi rewarded him with "riding a horse in the Forbidden City", which he regarded as a deep kindness, and he was always thinking about how to repay his gratitude.When Feng Yuxiang's army came to Beijing in 1924 and forced Puyi out of the palace, Wang Guowei accompanied him and stayed with him for an instant.

In 1923, Zhang Xun died of illness, and Wang Guowei drafted the inscription for Puyi.He pointed out with emotion from the perspective of loyalty, martial arts and righteousness: "The movement of this fate is not possible, but the ultimate in loyalty is to do nothing. .” In 1924, Wang Guowei wrote "On Political Science" which is a rare political article written by Wang. The reason why Western learning has been popular all over the world is because of the prosperity and strength of its country. However, since the European War, the powers of the European powers have dwindled and their morals have fallen... In the past ten years in China, the discipline has been swept away, the competition is frequent, the finances are poor, and the country Those who do not have a country have their origins partly from this... The art of resting with the people is not better than Huang and Lao; and the way of long-term peace and stability is not prepared by Zhou and Confucius."

Wang Guowei not only showed yearning and perseverance for the ancient Chinese thoughts of monarchs, ministers, discipline, etc., but also had the determination to use them to revive the decline and save the disadvantages.As a "cultural adherent", what Wang Guowei values ​​is the spiritual value, social responsibility and moral responsibility embodied in cultural concepts such as "Tao", "Jieyi" and "Gangji". Wang Guowei is undoubtedly an early Chinese cultural conservative.The First World War had just ended, and the socialist movement in Russia was in full swing. The Beiyang warlords' melee was tormenting the common people. The military confrontation between the South (Guangzhou military government) and the North (Beiyang warlord government) and the political peace negotiations were constantly ups and downs.In the face of this worldwide social revolution and turmoil of the times, Wang Guowei was worried. In his letter to Luo Zhenyu, he said: "The current situation is the result of Western people's emphasis on prosperity and strength for hundreds of years. I am afraid that our words will come true. If the world If there are still remnants of the people in the future, they must adopt Eastern morality and politics."

It is Wang Guowei's unswerving pursuit throughout his life to seek the truth through academics and to continue his thoughts through academics, and it is also a symbolic feature of Wang Guowei's identity as a "cultural survivor". "On the Yin and Zhou Institutions" is an academic masterpiece written by Wang Guowei in 1917 to explore the ancient Chinese institutional culture. The rise and fall of a family with one surname and the transfer of the city are no different from the succession and preservation of the world by later emperors, but in essence, it is actually the abolition of the old system and the prosperity of the new system, the abolition of the old culture and the prosperity of the new culture. The original intention of establishing the system comes from The plan of the eternal law and order.He linked the political ups and downs of the Zhou Dynasty with morality, and the original intention of discussing the establishment of institutional culture was to find "a plan for public security throughout the ages." It means Mr. Tinglin."

In 1924, Feng Yuxiang led the army to "force the palace". Puyi first hid in the Japanese mansion, and then moved to Zhangyuan, Tianjin, where he was safe for a while.At this time, Wang Guowei was already a minister who had been entrusted by Puyi. He was very angry at the conditions of the revolutionary army tearing up the preferential treatment of the royal family in the Republic of China. The guard failed. In 1924, the Peking University Archaeological Society issued the "Declaration on the Preservation of the Monuments of Mount Omiya", criticizing the Qing royal family for destroying the historic sites of Mount Omiya.When Wang Guowei knew about it, he immediately rushed out to defend the Qing royal family.He has been in distress for a long time and cannot extricate himself. He even heard that someone picked up an ancient artifact in the Kunning Palace in the Forbidden City, and he couldn't bear to look at it.