Chapter 34 Doubtful spirit

Hu Shi's call for sorting out the national heritage had a great influence; and his practice of taking the lead in sorting out the national heritage had a greater impact than the call for theory. The volume of his "Outline of the History of Chinese Philosophy" can also be said to be a "historical-style" work on sorting out the history of the country, as mentioned earlier.What I want to talk about here is Hu Shi's textual research on ancient Chinese history and his advocacy of "spirit of doubting ancient times". In July 1919, Mr. Sun Yat-sen and his assistants were in Shanghai to start the "Construction" magazine. Mr. Liao Zhongkai sent letters to Hu Shi one after another. In October, Hu Shi wrote a 10,000-character "Talking about New Poems" for Shanghai's "Weekly Review". Liao Zhongkai of "Jianjian" was a little envious, and rushed to urge Hu Shi to send the manuscript. ① On November 8, Hu Shi wrote a letter discussing the "well field system" and sent it to Liao Zhongkai.Therefore, in the "Construction" magazine, he exchanged letters with Liao Zhongkai, Hu Hanmin, Zhu Zhixin, Ji Rongwu and others, and launched a special discussion on "the existence of the well field system". ②

The well field system is a legendary land system in the Yin and Zhou dynasties of our country. It was first seen in "Mencius Teng Wengong 1": When the villages and fields are in the same well, they go in and out of each other, watch and help each other, and support each other when they are sick, so that the people will live in harmony.There are square miles and wells, and the wells are nine hundred acres.Among them is the public land, and the eight families all privately own a hundred acres and raise the public land together.Don't be a savage when you finish your business and then dare to deal with private affairs.

This passage of Mencius’s article on the well field system has been well remembered by ordinary scholars in the past thousand years, and most of them have followed it without doubt.However, Hu Shi raised doubts.He arranged all kinds of legends in this area into a history of the evolution of well field theory in the order of appearance time, and pointed out that "before the Warring States period, no one had ever mentioned the ancient well field system", and it was only when Mencius "fabricated out of thin air" a neat The well field system of "dried tofu" is still incomplete and unclear.Later, it was gradually supplemented and clarified through "Gongyang Biography", "Guliang Biography", "Wang Zhi", "Han Shi Wai Zhuan", and later "Zhou Li", "Hanshu? Shihuo Zhi" and He Xiu's "Gongyang Only with books such as "Jie Gu" can there be a detailed, neat and dense well field system.In this way, "spreading falsehoods and accumulating falsehoods become true".

Hu Shi said that his "Jingtian Discrimination" is a "doubtful challenge" to the Jingtian system, and what he advocates is a little skeptical spirit, the so-called "spirit of doubting the past".At that time, he admired the Qing Dynasty scholar Yao Jiheng's daring to doubt the scriptures that his predecessors did not dare to doubt, and Cui Shu's daring to doubt ancient history and ancient events.He once praised Cui Shu as a "scientific ancient historian", wrote a chronicle for Cui Shu, and supported Gu Jiegang in sorting out and printing "Cui Dongbi's Suicide Notes". ③He once planned to follow Yao Jiheng's "Ancient and Modern Forged Books" and make a "Continued Research on Ancient and Modern Forged Books" as "a way to clean up the old pollution", and asked Gu Jiegang to punctuate Yao's "Ancient and Modern Forged Books". ④He even advocated that "it is better to doubt the ancients and lose them than to believe the ancients and lose them". ⑤

In 1923, Gu Jiegang's "On Ancient History Books with Mr. Qian Xuantong" was published in "Book Magazine" edited by Hu Shi.Gu also raised doubts about ancient Chinese history, believing that ancient history was "created layer by layer", and that the Yellow Emperor, Yao, Shun, and Yu were all fabricated by later generations and cannot be relied on.He even used "Shuowen" as a basis to deduce that Yu was a worm. ⑥ Then there was Qian Xuantong's answer in favor, while Liu Chuxian and Hu Jinren raised questions and objections, refuting each other's answers, and started a discussion on ancient history, which lasted nine months. ⑦Hu Shi did not participate in the beginning, and finally wrote a concluding article entitled "Review of the Discussion of Ancient History", supporting Gu Jiegang and advocating a spirit of skepticism.In response to some people accusing Gu's skeptical overturning article of "affecting people's hearts", Hu Shi said:

The debate this time is a question of authenticity; discarding the false and preserving the true will never harm people's hearts. …The concept of God can certainly give people a lot of comfort, but if God is really suspicious, we cannot refuse to doubt the existence of God because of people’s comfort.God is like this, let alone a Yu? How about the Yellow Emperor Yao and Shun?⑧ Therefore, Hu Shi believed that whether Yu is a worm is a "frivolous branch and leaf" issue, and he asked people to "don't forget that Mr. Gu's main point of view is to study the experience of legends." .Regarding the legendary ancient history, doubt what should be doubted, "seek truth from facts, and don't play tricks on others".But he also disapproved of unfounded suspicions and had to seek evidence. "Sufficiency and insufficiency of the evidence" is the "criterion of victory and defeat, as well as the standard of our belief and doubt" this time.It can be seen that what Hu Shi advocated was the spirit of doubting the ancients with evidence.

There was "Jing Tian Discussion" before, and "Ancient History Discussion" later, Hu Shi felt that it should be summarized theoretically.He believes that these two discussions are "observing historical legends with the perspective of historical evolution", and thus generalized a "historical evolution method".He said: There is no story in ancient history that has not undergone such an evolution, and there is no story that cannot be studied with this evolutionary method.The stories of Yao, Shunyu, Huangdi Shennong Fuxi, Tang, Yiyin, Houji, Wenwang, Taigong, and Zhougong can all be used as experimental products for this method. ⑨

After all, the teacher is one move higher than the students.According to Hu Shi’s summary and promotion, in the Chinese historians and intellectual circles at that time, the spirit of skepticism had a great influence, and doubts and research on ancient history and ancient books formed a trend; Qian Xuantong even started from 1925. Since August 2010, the surname is no longer Qian, but changed to "Yi Gu Xuan Tong".This also shows the trend of the time. This spirit of doubting the ancients is a manifestation of the emancipation of the mind in the May Fourth era. It has a positive effect on opposing the traditional concepts and prejudices of patriarchal absolutism. The shackles of people's minds are liberated from traditional concepts.

①See Liao Zhongkai's letters to Hu Shi on July 11, 19, August 2, and October 20, 1919, see "Hu Shi's Correspondence and Correspondence", Beijing Zhonghua Book Company, May 1, 1979, Volume 1, No. 64 ~67,74 pages. ② Discussion texts on "Research on the existence of the well field system" were published in the second volume of "Jianjian" magazine, No. 1, No. 2, and No. 5 respectively.Hu Shi wrote: 1. Letter to Mr. Liao Zhongkai (November 8, 1919); 2. Letter to Mr. Liao Zhongkai and Hu Hanmin (January 9, 1920); 3. Answer to Mr. Hu Hanmin letter (January 26 of the same year).Later, the first two letters and Mr. Liao Zhongkai's answer (December 9, 1919), with "postscript", included in "Hu Shi Wencun", Shanghai Yadong Library, December 1921 edition, volume 2.

③Refer to Hu Shi's "Scientific Ancient Historian Cui Shu", contained in "Guoxue Quarterly" Volume 1 No. 2.The main part of this article is the chronology, which was only written until Cui Shu was 43 years old (1782, Renyin, the forty-seventh year of Qianlong). It was continued by Zhao Zhenxin and contained in "Cui Dongbi's Posthumous Notes" edited by Gu Jiegang. ④ See Hu Shi’s letter to Gu Jiegang on November 24, 1920, contained in the first volume of Gu Jiegang’s "Ancient History Bian", reprinted by Pushe in September 1926, pages 5-6. ⑤ Hu Shi wrote a letter to Gu Jiegang on January 28, 1921, see "Ancient History Bian", Volume 1, p. 23.

⑥ Gu Jiegang's "Discussion on Ancient History Books with Mr. Qian Xuantong", see "Ancient History Bian", Volume 1, p. 63. ⑦ Regarding the discussion of ancient history, the texts published by both parties in "Dushu Magazine" include: Gu Jiegang's "Discussion on Ancient History Books with Mr. Qian Xuantong", No. 9, published on May 6, 1923. Qian Xuantong's "Reply to Mr. Gu Jiegang", Issue 10, published on June 10. Liu Li, "Questions about Reading Gu Jiegang's Discussion on Ancient History Books with Mr. Qian Xuantong", Issue 11, published on July 1. Hu Jinren, "After Reading Mr. Gu Jiegang's Discussions on Ancient History", No. 11. Gu Jiegang's "Reply to Mr. Liu Huer's Letter", No. 11. Qian Xuantong, "Things You Should Know First When Studying Chinese Studies", Issue 12, published on August 5. Liu Li, "Discussing Ancient History and Revisiting Mr. Gu", Issues 13 to 15, published on September 2, October 7, and November 4. Gu Jiegang's "Discussion on Ancient History and Answers to Mr. Liu Huer", No. 12 to No. 16. (unfinished) Hu Shi's "Review of Discussion on Ancient History", No. 18, published on February 22, 1924. The Hu Jinren who participated in the discussion of ancient history was Hu Shi's uncle and childhood friend Hu Xiangmu. ⑧ "Review of the Discussion on Ancient History", see "Hu Shi Wencun Two Collections", Shanghai Yadong Library, March 6, 1929, Volume 1, p. 152. ⑨ Same note ⑧, pp. 156-157.