Chapter 9 Author, Editor, Reporter

In the summer of 1906, Hu Shi was admitted to the newly established China Public School. This school was founded by Chinese students studying in Japan in the late Qing Dynasty who returned to Shanghai. On November 2, 1905 (the thirty-first year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty), the Ministry of Education of the Japanese government promulgated a "rule for banning overseas students from the Qing Dynasty". My students studying in Japan thought it was an insult to China, so they decided to go on strike and protest, and all returned to China.At that time, more than 3,000 students studying in Japan returned to Shanghai, so they initiated the creation of an ideal school so that everyone could continue their studies. "Because this school has external significance, and there are as many returnees from 13 provinces, it is named 'China Public School'." ① In February 1906, a private house at the north end of Hengbang Bridge on North Sichuan Road, Shanghai was rented as the school building, and it was officially established. school starts.

When Hu Shi moved into this school, he looked at the students, some with braids cut, wearing kimonos, a pair of clogs, and Japanese attire;They were all older than Hu Shih, and many of them were members of the revolutionary party, who organized revolutionary groups in schools and carried out revolutionary activities.Some radical students often force those students with braids to cut their braids.They regarded Hu Shi as his little brother, so they didn't force him to cut his braid, leaving the little braid at the back of his head dragging all the time. Living in the same dormitory with Hu Shi was Zhong Wenhui, named Guyu, from Jiangxi, about 20 or 30 years old, with a small beard, so people called him Zhongbeard.They organized a competition society, which was located in Houfuli, Beisichuan Road, not far from the school.Zhong Huzi was the chairman, and he introduced Hu Shi into the meeting.

The first undertaking of the Competition Society was to create a ten-year newspaper in vernacular, called "Competition Xunbao".They invited a Mr. Fu Junjian (No. Dugen) to be an editor.According to Fu Jun, there are four purposes of Xunbao: one is to revitalize education;In fact, these are all superficial words, and they are actually advocating revolution.They meant to "spread among the young people in elementary schools", so they decided to use vernacular Chinese. ② Zhong Huzi saw that Hu Shi often read novels and could write ancient prose, so he asked him for a manuscript and persuaded him to write vernacular articles for Xunbao.Therefore, in the first ten-day newspaper published on September 11 of this year, Hu Shi's first vernacular article in his life-"Geography" was published.It talks about popular geography knowledge such as "the earth is round".Since then, he has become the author of "Competition Xun Bao".

Since you are an author, according to the conventions of literati, you must have one or even several pen names and aliases.Hu Shi was reading "Laozi" at the right time, and read the first few lines of Chapter 33: Those who know others are wise, those who know themselves are wise; those who overcome others are powerful, and those who overcome themselves. He thought the word "self-winner" was very good, so he took the nickname "Xi"; also known as "Qi Zisheng Sheng", which was the signature of his first vernacular article.Later, from his father's character Tiehua, he took the pen names "Tie'er" and "Tie" for himself, and the pronunciation was changed to "dieer", "die" and so on.In the "Jingye Xunbao", the names "Shi" and "Shizhi" and the aliases of "Shi" also began to be used, and some pen names such as "", "Dongxin" and "Mingyou" were used. There are more than a dozen, and they are quite a bit of a writer.

After the publication of "Geography", Hu Shi's courage grew, and he suddenly wanted to write novels, and from the beginning he made a long novel in chapter style.The title of the novel was set as "True Island", and after drawing up 40 episodes, he began to create.It has been serialized since the third issue of Xunbao, and the title of the first episode is: Yu Shanren's suspicion caused illness, and Sun Shaowu wrote a story about "breaking superstition and enlightening people's wisdom" on dispelling myths.He tried his best to use the little scientific knowledge he had learned in his hometown and Shanghai, and vigorously attacked religious superstition.For example, in the eighth chapter, Sun Shaowu, the protagonist in the book, talks about his views on "cause and effect":

The word "cause and effect" is hard to say.Someone once said, "For example, the flowers of this tree outside the window are all the same. Why is there any difference between good and evil? After a while, a gust of wind blew the flowers of a tree. "Flowers fall and flowers fly." Flying all over the sky", some of the many flowers blow on the curtains and fall on the brocade; Won’t the evil retribution come true?” This is very true, but I mean more than that.There is probably the word cause and effect.With a cause, there must be an effect.For example, eating will naturally make you full, and eating wine will naturally make you drunk.With the two reasons of eating and drinking, there will naturally be two results of getting drunk.But eating is the function of rice to produce fullness, and planting melons is the function of melons to produce new melons.No one dominates it.If there is someone who is the master, God or Bodhisattva, since they can punish the wicked after committing crimes, why can't they be punished before they commit crimes?... If "Heaven" really has such great power, why doesn't everyone in the world be punished? Have all of them become good people? Since "Heaven" gave birth to a wicked person, let him do evil in the world, and later caused him to suffer a lot of retribution, isn't this what the book says "goes back on his word"?...In short, "Heaven" can neither If people do not do evil, they cannot punish the wicked. ... This kind of argument is actually influenced by the thoughts of Fan Zhen and Sima Guang that Hu Shi was exposed to when he was a child.The vivid parables in Luohua are all quotes from Fan Zhen, only translated into vernacular. ③Looking at it today, this kind of atheist preaching is not only superficial in reason, but also childish in art.But more than 80 years ago, when the common people and even the princes and nobles believed in gods and Buddhas, it still has positive significance.As for the vernacular writing written by Hu Shi, you can understand it with just one hand, which is very good.

"Zhenru Island" was serialized in Xunbao one after another, and it stopped at the 11th chapter, and it was not finished.This is the only novel written by Hu Shi in his life, and it is also his first unfinished "half book". In July 1908, Hu Shi changed from a contributing author to an editor and reporter of a publication. The Xunbao was edited by him from the 24th issue onwards, and more articles were written.He has a wide range of interests, young people are full of energy, and he can write almost anything.He not only wrote novels, but also short stories, biographies, poems and music, as well as editorials, treatises, series of talks, and notes.Sometimes, almost all the texts of the whole issue, from discussion to current news, are done by him.

It can be seen from these writings that Hu Shi's thoughts are very active, showing an early and comprehensive germination state.Such as opposing superstitious atheism; ④ opposing the "no heirism" of family inheritance customs; Wait.Among them, what deserves attention is Hu Shi's patriotic theory in this period.He wrote a book review "Reading the Biography of the Patriotic Two Boys", ⑧ introduced the novel "The Biography of the Patriotic Two Boys", and pointed out that the book "can really stimulate the people's self-government thoughts, industrial thoughts, and patriotic thoughts."In the article "Love the Country"⑨, he said that "everyone should love the country, and it is everyone's duty to love the country"; and pointed out:

Patriotic people, the first thing is to preserve the glorious history of the motherland and not forget it; if you forget the history of your own motherland, you will be despicable and dirty, willing to be a slave to other people's cattle and horses.Look at the people nowadays, they have forgotten the glorious history of our motherland, and they are willing to flatter foreigners, saying that foreigners are good and Chinese are bad. How could they know that their ancestors were very glorious, but now, they are giving this class a hard time. Disappointed descendants ruined, alas, how miserable!

This kind of simple patriotism, simple and kind, is what everyone should remember; but we must also guard against blind xenophobia or the bias of not daring to admit China's shortcomings.Hu Shih's thinking later developed and became more profound. When he vigorously introduced advanced western ideology and culture and criticized the backwardness and decay of traditional Chinese culture, he also used extreme words, with the bias he accused in his youth. There are several interesting biographies of Hu Shi's creations published in "Competition Xun Bao".One of the articles, "China's Greatest Man Yang Sisheng Biography", ⑩ wrote that Yang Sisheng was 13 years old and exiled to Shanghai. , from a laborer to a rich man, who is also enthusiastic about public welfare undertakings, a touching story of "breaking the family and starting a school".Hu Shi praised Yang Sisheng as a "respectable and lovely man who can learn from others" and a "big hero". He specially wrote a biography to commend him. .

Another article, "The Biography of Wang Zhaojun, a Chinese Patriotic Heroine", is about the subject of the old and old Zhaojun going out of the frontier and going out.But in the past, the poems, lyrics and music in this aspect, from "Zhaojun's Resentment" to Wang Zhaojun, are all tragic images full of resentment and sorrow.Hu Shi said: For thousands of years in our China, everyone has pitied Wang Zhaojun for his hardships when he left the frontier, but no one knows how to praise Wang Zhaojun for his patriotic painstaking efforts. Therefore, he deviated from the sad and sad mood of writing about Zhaojun in the old days, and wanted to write a "patriotic heroine" Wang Zhaojun.According to a little record in the history books, he wrote that Wang Zhaojun voluntarily asked to go out of the fortress and Fan.It is written in the biography that when the Emperor Han Yuan summoned the palace people and asked who would like to go to the Xiongnu for marriage,—— Those palace people looked at each other in blank dismay, none of them dared to agree.At that time Wang Zhaojun was also there, after listening to the emperor's words and seeing everyone's situation, he knew what the people thought, and they were all stealing the day and night, regardless of the safety of the overall situation, so he felt very uncomfortable.I thought to myself, I, Wang Qiang, have been in the palace for several years, so it goes without saying that Nagato has grievances.Instead of being a mediocre person from Shangyang Palace, how about being a vigorous and friendly princess.My own appearance may be able to move Shan Yu of the Huns and make him a courtier of the Han Dynasty forever.On the one hand, it can enhance the national prestige of the great Han; on the other hand, it will make the two countries cease fighting forever, and it will also save the suffering of the people on the border every year.Even if my meritorious service is not mentioned in the history of the Han Dynasty in the future, will the word of mouth stuffed over there bury me? Thinking of this, I feel that this matter is actually Wang Qiang's unshirkable responsibility! Zhaojun has made up his mind, sighed, and felt sad Standing up, he walked out of the class tremblingly and said, "The concubine Wang Qiang is willing to go to the Huns." Afterwards, it really was "Hu Yening, and Han Ning", and the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu maintained a harmonious and friendly relationship for sixty or seventy years.Therefore, Hu Shi gave Wang Zhaojun the title of "Patriotic Heroine", and wrote her as a heroine who cared about the fate of the motherland, cared about the suffering of the people, and promoted national harmony.This is the earliest relatively fair evaluation of Wang Zhaojun, the daughter of the Han family two thousand years ago. "Competition Xun Bao" ceased publication until the 40th issue.Hu Shi made a summary of his career as an author, editor, and reporter for this passage: "These dozens of issues of "Competition Xunbao" not only gave me an opportunity to express and organize my thoughts, but also gave me more than a year of training in writing vernacular Chinese.... I don’t know that my dozens of articles are in There was no influence at that time, but I know that the more than one year of training has given me great benefits. Vernacular Chinese has since become a tool for me. Seven or eight years later, this tool enables me to participate in the movement of the Chinese Literary Revolution Be a worker who opens the way. " ① "History of Chinese Public Schools", originally published in "Chinese Public Schools Graduation Commemorative Magazine", later included in the "History" volume of "Hu Shi Selected Works", published by Taipei Wenxing Bookstore in June 1966. ② "Forty Self-Reports", "In Shanghai (2)", Shanghai Yadong Library Edition, p. 60. ③ "Liang Shu" Volume 48 "Scholar" Fan Zhen's biography, records Fan Zhen and Xiao Ziliang's debate on the cause and effect of Buddhism.Volume 136 also records this matter, with slightly similarities and differences in writing.See Note ② in Section 5 of Chapter 1. ④ In addition to the novel "Zhenru Island" to promote the elimination of superstition, Hu Shi also wrote the editorial "On the Destruction of Gods and Buddhas" (published in the 25th issue of "Jingye Xunbao") and several chapters of "Wugui Conghua" (published successively) The 25th to the 32nd period of "Competition Weekly". ⑤ See Hu Shi's "On the Inhumanity of Inheritance", originally published in "Anhui Vernacular News"; reprinted in the 29th issue of "Jingye Xunbao", with the words "selected manuscripts" and no signature. ⑥Refer to Hu Shi's "Marriage Chapter", published in the 24th and 25th issues of "Jingye Xunbao", signed "Tie'er". ⑦ See Hu Shi's "The Legend of China's Greatest Man Yang Si", published in the 25th issue of "Jingye Xunbao", which was later included in the "Character" volume of "Hu Shi's Selected Works", published by Taipei Wenxing Bookstore in June 1966. ⑧ Contained in the 28th issue of "Competition Xunbao", signed properly. ⑨ Contained in the 34th issue of "Competition Xunbao", signed by Tie'er. ⑩ Contained in the 25th issue of "Jingye Xunbao", signed by Shizhi; later included in the "Character" volume of "Hu Shi Selected Works", published in Taipei Wenxing Bookstore in June 1966. Contained in the 32nd issue of "Competition Xunbao", signed by Tie'er. Regarding the matter of Wang Zhaojun's trip to the frontier and his marriage, it was first seen in Ban Gu's "Han Shu" Volume 94 "Hun Biography", which happened in the first year of Emperor Jingning of the Han Yuan Dynasty (33 BC). Fan Ye's "Book of the Later Han" Volume 19 "Biography of the Southern Huns" also recorded this incident, saying: Zhaojun, styled Qiang, was born in Nanjun.In the early days, Emperor Yuan was selected as a son of a Liang family into Yeting.At that time, Han Xie came to court, and the emperor ordered him to give it to five court ladies.Zhaojun entered the palace for a few years, but he could not see the imperial court, and accumulated grief and resentment, so he asked Ye Ting to order him to do so.When Hu Hanxie was about to leave the meeting, the emperor summoned five daughters to show it.Zhaojun is rich and beautifully decorated, the Han Palace is bright, Gu Yingpei returns, and moves left and right.The emperor was shocked when he saw it, and wanted to keep it, but it was difficult to break his promise, so he went with the Huns.Give birth to two sons.And when Hu Hanxie died, his former Que family descended from generation to generation, and wanted to marry him.Zhaojun wrote to ask for his return.Emperor Cheng ordered to follow Hu Su, and then he was restored to the Que family of Hou Shanyu. Among them, the words "ask for the order of the court" are the historical basis for Hu Shi's writing that Wang Zhaojun took the initiative to ask for a marriage. Hu Shi's "Chinese Patriotic Heroine Wang Zhaojun Biography", published in the 32nd issue of "Jingye Xunbao" published on October 11, 1908, in the thirty-fourth year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1908), is the earliest affirmation from the perspective of patriotism and national unity and harmony. Works by Wang Zhaojun.About half a century later, Dong Biwu composed one of the seven unique poems "Passing through Zhaojun's Tomb", which also affirmed Zhaojun's marriage. The poem says: Zhaojun has his own future, and Hu Han and his acquaintances know each other well; Ci poets are full of anger, and it is always futile to dance and write. In 1979, 70 years later, Cao Yu made a five-act historical drama "Wang Zhaojun", which focused on describing Zhaojun's contribution to the cause of national unity, and created a heroic and beautiful image who cared about the fate of the motherland and national unity.These are all new evaluations of Wang Zhaojun. "Forty Self-Reports", "In Shanghai (2)", Shanghai Yadong Edition, p. 67.