Chapter 4 Entering the family school, worshiping Confucius

Hu Shi's original name was Si, and his working name was Hong, but he later changed his name to Shi, and his style name was Shizhi. Born on December 17, 1891 (November 17, the 17th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty) in his residence outside Dadongmen, Shanghai.When I was a child, I lived in Taiwan with my parents for nearly two years and learned more than 700 square characters.Therefore, when the Kuomintang government retreated to the isolated island of Taiwan, some Taiwanese scholars claimed that Taiwan was "the birthplace of Hu Shi's literacy"②; At the beginning of the second year of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, Hu Shi's mother and son left Taiwan, passed through Shanghai, and returned to their hometown in Shangzhuang, Jixi County, Anhui Province.Soon, Hu Shi entered a private school and began to study.

The teacher of the family school is Hu Shi's fourth uncle, Hu Jin, whose name is Ru.The school is in a hut to the east of Mr. Jieru's house.There are only two students: one is Mr. Jieru's son Hu Siqi, who is a few years older than Hu Shi, but he doesn't like to study, and often likes to sneak out to play under the stove or in the back hall.The other is Hu Shi.He was only three years and a few months old, and his body was small and thin. He had to be hugged to sit on the high school stool, and had to be hugged down again.Just because Hu Chuan had a will and wanted to send his youngest son to study; Hu Shi's mother was very eager to see him study, and disciplined him very strictly; Throat reading, not going home until dark.

Later, when Hu Jieru went to Fuyang County to take up the post as a teacher, the teacher of the family school was changed to Hu Guanxiang (named Yuchen), Hu Shi's elder brother.The school has also moved to "Laixin Bookstore", and the house is much larger.The number of students also increased, initially five, and later increased to a dozen or so.Mr. Yuchen is the youngest teacher in the village. He is full of vigor. He often spanks the palms and even the bottom of the students. The students are afraid of him.There was a man named Hu Sizhao who loved playing truant and often hid in wheat fields or rice fields. He would rather sleep in the open and starve, be arrested and beaten than study.Hu Shi felt very strange.

He never skipped school.Moreover, his mother woke him up every morning and urged him to go to early school, and he was often the first student in the school: The key on the door of the school is in the master's house; I went to the door of the school to have a look first, then ran to the house of the master to knock on the door. Someone at Mr.'s house handed out the key through the crack of the door, I took it and ran back, opened the door, and sat down to read books.Among the ten days, there are always eight or nine days when I am the first to open the door of the school.When my husband came, I recited my raw books before going home to have breakfast⑤.

When Hu Shi was studying, it was the end of the Qing Dynasty, and Confucius already had the terrifyingly rich titles of "Dacheng's most holy Wenxuan king" and "The most holy teacher".Schools all over the country offer tablets and pictures of Confucius. On the wall of Laixin Bookstore, there is also a stone carving of Confucius with a red seal. It is said that it was painted by Wu Daozi, a famous painter in the Tang Dynasty.Hu Shi's mother hoped that her son would become famous in his studies, and repeatedly urged him to pay homage to Confucius every day.He is also very sincere, and he never forgets to bow to Confucius every night after school.one year,--

I went to my elder sister’s house to pay New Year’s greetings, and I saw my nephew Zhang Yanxiang (a few years older than me) enshrining a shrine to Confucius, which was made of a large paper box, with a shrine cut out of red paper, and a sacrificial table made of matchboxes. There are censer candlesticks and offerings cut out of gold paper on the table, and there are many couplets on the temple plaques on red paper and gold paper pasted outside the shrine, with sentences such as "virtue matches the world, Tao crowns the past and the present".I saw this shrine, and I was so envious. When I got home, I also built a small holy temple.I found a box of bird's nest at home and made it the big courtyard of the holy temple; I hollowed out a square in the middle of the box and pasted it with a small afternoon tea box to make the inner hall of the holy temple. , incense burner, candlestick and so on.I added a group of holy disciples’ altars on Yanyuanzi Road in the hatchback, and there were also small sacrificial tables. I borrowed a copy of "Lianyu Leibian", and printed out many couplets on holy temple plaques, all in gold and silver. The tin foil was made into a pair of plaques, and Uncle Jinren was asked to write and paste them.This Confucian Temple took me a lot of thought.My mother was very happy to see me salute Confucius in this way, and gave me a small table dedicated to this shrine and a copper censer.

Hu Shi in his youth can really be said to be a faithful and devout disciple of Confucius. Most of the books Hu Shi read in his family school were Confucian classics that promoted the thought of Confucius and Mencius.When he was in school, he could already recognize nearly a thousand characters, so he was no longer an "enlightenment" student, and he didn't need to read children's books such as "Thousand Characters".The first thing he read was "Learning to Be a Human Poetry" compiled and handwritten by his father Hu Chuan.This is a four-character rhyme, which talks about the ethics of loyalty, filial piety and righteousness, and the principle of "learning to be a human being".Then he read "Original Learning", which was also a four-character rhyme book compiled by his father, which briefly explained philosophy.Hu Shi read these two books very well, but the meaning of the books is beyond the comprehension of a three-year-old child.Afterwards, Hu Shi continued to read——

(3) "Six Notes of Rhythm Poems" (4) "Book of Filial Piety" (5) "Primary School" (edited by Zhu Xi, annotated by Jiang Yongji) (6) (annotated version of Zhu Xi's anthology) (7) "Mencius" (annotated version of Zhu Xi's collection) (8) "Great Learning" (annotated version of Zhu Xi's collection) (9) "The Doctrine of the Mean" (annotated version of Zhu Xi's collection) (10) (annotated version of Zhu Xi's anthology) (11) "The Book of Books" (Cai Chen's biography) (12) (Zhu Xi's original meaning)

(13) "Book of Rites" (annotated by Chen) (14) "Gangjian Yizhilu" (15) "Yubi Tongjian Collection" (16)⑦Nine years of hometown education, I have read many classics and historical classics, and I will learn for him later, "sorting out the national history ", laying the foundation for a more systematic old culture.At the same time, in his young mind, he also deeply buried the roots of admiration for Confucianism, Confucius, Mencius and Confucianism, especially Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. Hu Shi said that his father, Hu Chuan, "believed in Song Confucianism, especially Cheng Hao, Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi, which is the so-called 'Confucianism'. Because of the teaching of Mr. Liu Xizai, my father was also greatly influenced by Cheng Zhu's Confucianism. "⑧.The "Poetry of Learning to Be a Human" edited by Hu Chuan talks about "life" and "name" of ethics, which is exactly the set of Cheng Zhu Neo Confucianism.

The poem ends with: According to the scriptures and Confucianism, there is no other way to behave: Pursue knowledge through theory, return to practice, encourage learning, and keep the way. What he believed in was the academic attitude of the Cheng-Zhu school of "immediately grasping things and ignoring principles".When Hu Shi read this book, although he didn't understand its significance, the "legacy of Cheng-Zhu Confucianism" left by his father had an effect on him throughout his life.He read Zhu Zi's "Primary School" in his family school, and read classics and historical classics, most of which were annotated by Zhu Xi or his disciples, which can also be said to be the manifestation of this legacy of Neo-Confucianism.

① Hu Shi’s name is often mistaken by scholars in Taiwan and mainland China.See note ④ in the previous section. And Hu Shi's name is Hong, not heir.According to the "Fan Li" in "Shangchuan Mingjing Hu Family Genealogy" in Jixi County, the five-character poems with the ranking names are as follows: Tiandexi is auspicious, and Hong Enyu is kind. Ming Jing inherits Zhaozu, and the world shines with light. Bingguo thinks of name, and there is a charter for the state. Family dun filial friends, succeeding Yan Zongchang. Hu Shi’s great-grandfather, Xu Donggong, was named Xiyong; his grandfather, Kui Xigong, was named Zhen; "The character generation, because of Kuixi's public character Shien, is "Si" in order to avoid the lack of pen, so the names of the lines are Siming, Siqi, Sicong, Sijing, Siyou, Siyong, Sizu (name Zuwang), Sidu.People from other sects, Mr. Hu Lefeng, who is still alive today, is called "En", and he and Sizu, Sidu, etc. are cousins ​​who have just left the server. ②See Mr. Huang Chunqing's article "Taiwan and Hu Shi", published in the supplement of Taipei's "Central Daily" on November 29, 1952. ③ See Hu Shi's "Speech at the Welcome Meeting of the Taiwan Provincial Documentation Committee" (January 6, 1953), in "Hu Shi's Comments Collection" Part A, Taipei Huaguo Publishing House, April 1953 Edition, page 116. ④ In December of the twenty-fifth year of Guangxu (1899, Jihai) in the Qing Dynasty, Hu Yu was selected as a teacher in Fuyang County, and he served until December of the thirty-year Guangxu (1904, Jiachen). Hu Guanxiang (Yuchen) is Hu Shi's elder brother. On page 21 of the Yadong Edition of "Forty Self-Reports", it is clearly written: "My fourth uncle, Mr. Jieru, chose to teach in Fuyang, Yingzhou Prefecture. When he was about to take office, he handed over the family school to his clan brother, Mr. Yuchen."Also, "Zanghui Room Notes" Volume 4 "San Liu's first visit to the girls' dormitory" (June 8, 1914) also said: "When I was young, I didn't hang out with all the children. Among my teachers and friends, only my fourth uncle Jie Rugong, Brother Yuchen and Uncle Jinren have done the most in teaching and learning."However, on page 68 of Li Ao's "Hu Shi's Commentary Biography", it says, "...the teacher who instructed him to read these books was his relatives, first his fourth uncle Hu Jieru, and later his clan uncle Hu Guanxiang (Yu Chen)." I don't know what evidence? ⑤ See "Nine Years of Hometown Education" in "Forty Years of Self-Report", Shanghai Yadong Edition, page 29. ⑥See "From Worshiping Gods to No Gods" in "Forty Self-Reports", page 36, Shanghai Yadong Edition. ⑦According to the "Nine Years of Hometown Education" list in "Forty Self-Reports". ⑧ See "Hu Shi's Oral Autobiography", Taipei Biographical Literature Society, March 1981, first edition, p. 14.