Chapter 8 vagabond life

Semi-intellectuals are always the most influential figures when the political situation is not yet clear.In the army, Mao Zedong began to show his semi-intellectual characteristics.Mao Zedong's reluctance to join the student organization was not only because of his age, but also because he had always had ambivalence about education. Mao Zedong worried about the impact of school life on him.As Mao Shunsheng's son, he was more of a cultivated gentleman than he expected.He likes the uneducated soldiers to think of him as a learned man.He later recalled: "I can write, I have some book knowledge, and they admire my erudition." [13] He wrote home letters for the soldiers and read newspapers to them.

Although other soldiers went to Baisha Well to fetch water themselves, Mao Zedong bought water from porters who came to the barracks to sell water.Mao Zedong was dimly aware of his ambiguous identity. He recalled: "But I am a student, and I cannot condescend to carry water, so I have to buy it from the water bearer." [14] Although his father has absolute authority, he has never Can train Mao Zedong to become an authentic farmer. "I thought the revolution was over," Mao Zedong said in recalling the spring of 1912, "so I left the army and decided to go back to school." [15] Sun Yat-sen had reached a compromise with Yuan Shikai, a sinister strongman who advocated republicanism on the surface but inwardly But nostalgic for China's past imperial system.The military confrontation phase of the revolution is over.

Mao Zedong did not miss military life at all.During that time in the army, he had never fought a war, but only did some chores for the officers.He joined the army because he believed that the army would play an important role in the coming new China.In a conversation with a friend, he fiercely criticized the teachings of Confucius and Mencius: "If the people are weak and can be deceived, what is the use of improving their morality? The most important thing is to make them strong." [16] The company commanders and platoon leaders persuaded him to stay, but when he thought that the army was no longer the vanguard of the times, he left suddenly.The 18-year-old semi-intellectual decided to go back to school.

Which school do you want to go to?Mao Zedong couldn't make up his mind, so he checked the admissions advertisements in "Xianghan News" and other newspapers.Where can I find tuition fees?A letter came from home saying that by now Chairman Mao had to find a job. This former soldier lived in the very cheap "Xiangxiang Guild Hall" and started his first and last wandering life in his life. Mao Zedong was attracted by an advertisement for a police school, but he also liked a school that offered soap making courses, because he thought it was good for China's cleanliness and civilization?He applied for the two schools, but when the school was about to start, he withdrew again.

He applied for two other schools, the School of Political Science and Law and the Secondary School of Commerce. He hoped that these two schools would be attractive enough to his family to get tuition fees from his father. When Mao Zedong talked about the first time he wrote to his father to ask for money, he said: "I described to them my bright future, and I said that I would become a lawyer or a high-ranking official." [17] Before the family replied, The hesitant young man lost interest in these two schools again, and of course the registration fee was paid again. Mao Zedong constantly accepted the advice of his classmates, listening to one today and another tomorrow.But he didn't decide anything.He wanted to grab everything, but got nothing.

Soon, Mao Zedong aimed at a goal, and he spent money to apply for an advanced business school.Mao Shunsheng agreed to pay the tuition fee, "My father can easily understand the benefits of being good at doing business" [17], and the young Mao Zedong sat down to study economics. He certainly didn't know at first that many of the school's courses and teaching materials were in English.His English is not good, but he just learned some basic knowledge when he was a child in Dongshan Gao. Mao Zedong recalled: "This situation made me dissatisfied. At the end of the month, I dropped out of school and continued to pay attention to the advertisements in the newspaper." [18]

Penniless and sloppy, Mao Zedong had nothing to do in the wooden tea shed on the street in Changsha, staring at the newspaper with his big dazed eyes.What are you going to do? For a time Mao treated the life around him with mockery.He saw the duality of all things, and he turned to himself (whose thinking we do not know).He sits on a high place in his life, overlooking the busy living beings. "I am the universe!" he concludes with a Taoist meditation. [19] The arsenal of the Hunan provincial government army exploded and flames blazed. He went to watch it with his friends.He had joined the army with passion a year earlier.But now, he said in the tone of amused bystanders: "This is much better than setting off firecrackers." [20]

One day, the three schoolmates met Mao Zedong on the top floor of Tianxin Pavilion. He was overlooking Changsha from the seven-story tower on the city wall alone and calmly.Mao Zedong returned to reality from meditation, and the four of them went to drink tea and eat sunflower seeds together. These three youths were all higher than Mao Zedong in social status, and one of them often lent him money.They knew more about politics than he did from a worldly point of view.A young man surnamed Tan, the son of a high official, said the abolition of the monarchy meant "we could all be president".

When another schoolmate teased Tan with some witty words, Mao Zedong stopped being silent and said excitedly: "Let him say, I'm very interested, let him say it!" Tan went on to explain, to a political leader For me, knowledge is secondary, but the important thing is the will to struggle.Mao Zedong was deeply attracted by this view, and he thought deeply, just as he gazed at the red roofs of Changsha. [twenty one] The seemingly indecisive wanderer actually seems to be giving birth to a new worldview. He stepped into the gate of another school --- Hunan Provincial No. 1 Middle School, but left after 6 months.He is already very confident in the exam, and he is among the best among the candidates who applied for No. 1 Middle School.

Perhaps a little smugly, Mao made two criticisms of the school: "Its curriculum is limited, and its rules are tiresome."22 This speaks volumes for the character of the young Mao. A teacher lent Mao Zedong a very interesting official history book --- "Yu Cri Tong Jian Ji Lan".This book provides a springboard for his next move.Compared with the things taught in class, he prefers these edicts, decrees, and emperor's imperial approval, etc.So he decided to study on his own for a while. It seems that 6 months is the natural span of Mao Zedong's interest transfer, and he spent half a year in the Hunan Provincial Library all day.

He always goes in when the library opens in the morning, and comes out when the library closes in the afternoon.He sat motionless at the desk and buried himself in his studies, as motionless as a statue with its head bowed.Just go out at noon to buy a biscuit or a few steamed buns for lunch. He surveys the history and geography of the modern West.In order to expand his knowledge, he turned to novels, Chinese poetry and Greek mythology, as well as the famous works of Adam Smith, Spencer, Mill and Darwin as well as the works of Rousseau and Montesquieu recently translated by the reformist Yan Fu. Mao Zedong became acquainted with the latter two thinkers in "The Legend of Heroes of the World". He gazed at the Atlas of the World hanging on the library wall.He had never seen a map like this before: China was just a country, lined up with dozens of other countries, with blurred borders separating China from foreign countries, and China was not a "central empire" on it. He smiled and said to Amy Xiao that at the Provincial Library, he was "like a cow breaking into a vegetable garden". ［23］ He later believed that the half-year career in Shuhai had a great impact on his life. When he had to work with others, Mao Zedong showed some monkey spirit; but when he acted according to his own wishes, he would be very tiger-like. Mao Zedong returned to the "Xiangxiang Guild Hall" every night, which was full of ex-soldiers, students, passers-by and some idlers who wasted their time. One night there was a fight here and soldiers attacked and tried to kill the students.At this point Mao seemed to still be a little Taoist in his self-preservation, rather than a stand-up citizen.He recalled that bloody night: "I hid in the toilet and didn't come out until the fight was over." [24] Mao Zedong in Hunan Provincial First Normal School in 1913. Rent cannot be paid with enthusiasm for reading.Soon, financial constraints forced Mao Zedong to check the advertising column again.He stumbled upon teaching, and an advertisement for a normal school attracted him: Tuition free, room and board cheap, graduate would be a teacher. Two of Mao Zedong's friends also urged him to enter this school. They counted on Mao Zedong to help them in the entrance examination. Mao Zedong agreed and wrote three articles. "At that time, I didn't feel that my behavior of writing articles for my friends was immoral." [25] He recalled.He thought it was friendship, and he was happy to show off his literary talents, as he had done in the army. Three articles made them all admitted to this school. ［26］The family agreed with Mao Zedong’s choice and sent him money. The era of doing things according to interest and whim is over.Twenty-three years later, Mao Zedong recalled this period of wandering life, and he couldn't help being a little funny. He said: "From now on, I have resisted the temptation of all advertisements boasting about the future." [27] The political situation got worse, and Yuan Shikai was insane, trying to restore the monarchy and want to ascend the throne as emperor.In the tense atmosphere created by the rivalry between the pewter-tipped neo-retro faction and the shaky and loose radical alliance led by Sun Yat-sen, warlords crept in.In Changsha, a warlord murdered two radical leaders who rose to power the day after the 1911 uprising.By the summer of 1917, China had two governments: the warlord government in Beijing and the Canton government under Sun Yat-sen. Japan was encroaching on China, but no one came out to organize a nationwide rebellion.The warlords at home and the coercion outside brought new pains to China—Hunan's hog production fell by half in ten years—and pessimism and despair emerged among intellectuals. Although China has shed its old shell, it has not yet gained new life. All these phenomena were not bad things for Mao Zedong.He still needs to stand aside and think, rather than do something.It was a great opportunity for a good education, and he jumped at it.A class note in his early years expresses his joy in learning: "Write down any thoughts you have at any time, and express them happily when you have thoughts in your mind, which helps to maintain balance." Mao Zedong entered the school along with 400 other students in blue woolen uniforms.The columns, vaults and courtyards of the school's two floors are exactly modeled after British colonial architecture (actually a replica of Japanese architecture). Like all institutions of higher learning in China, the First Normal University is a new school, but its equipment and conditions are good, and its excellent teachers have inherited Hunan's academic traditions. The school motto is written on the outer wall of the First Normal University: "Seek truth from facts." The so-called "things" are both Chinese and Western, just like the buildings here.Mao Zedong read Chinese history in the morning and German philosophy during his lunch break. Mao Zedong is still lean, showing a pair of big and piercing eyes.His hairstyle, hands, and shoes suggest a young intellectual, and a gray robe replaces a baggy dungaree.His speech and demeanor are still slow, he is not the kind of student who talks incessantly and dictates, and he rarely speaks at parties. Through the study of many courses, Mao Zedong chose his own path.He read parts of Aristotle, Hobbes, Bentham, Plato, Kant, Nietzsche and Goethe.He came across a point in Spencer's Principles of Sociology, which he explained in his notebooks: "An American adage says 'My country is right, my country is right. Wrong is wrong'." He has a wide range of curiosity and a high taste for eclecticism.In a letter to Xiao Yu, he said: "Jesus has been taken out of context. Those who do so may not be guilty. Even if they are really guilty, it is not worth mentioning for a wise person." [28] Mao Zedong said: "This new school has many rules, and I only agree with a very few of them." In the First Normal School, he had both praise and disgrace.Once he studied late at night, and the quilt was too close to the oil lamp, which caused a small fire and burned several beds.Another time, a classmate was troubled by his parents' arranged marriage. Mao Zedong expressed deep sympathy and went to the classmate's home to persuade his parents to give up their arrangement. In the First Normal University, people seldom call him by his name——Zedong, but by his word: Runzhi, which means "benefit" or "moisturize". Mao Zedong didn't even touch courses that he didn't like, such as still life painting and natural science courses, and often scored zero or close to zero.For his favorite courses, such as writing articles on literary or ethical topics and social science courses, he studied with gusto and originality, often scoring 100 points. It was not Mao Zedong's style to completely give up the boring still life painting class, and he had to bite the bullet and deal with it.During a drawing test, he scribbled an oval on the test paper, titled it "egg," and left the classroom.During class one day, a neat idea allowed him to leave the classroom early.He drew a horizontal line, and drew a semicircle on top of it, and inscribed it "Half the wall sees the sea and the sun" (this is a famous poem by Li Taibai in the Tang Dynasty).He failed in painting.