Chapter 50 go west!

At the beginning of his trip to Europe, Hu Shi planned to go west, to the United States! When he was still in Moscow, he heard that General Feng Yuxiang was also living in Moscow at that time. He admired Soviet Russia very much and often painted portraits of Lenin.Hu Shi then told Feng's secretary that he hoped that General Feng would go west from Russia, and even if he couldn't see the United States, he should at least see Germany. ① When he arrived in Paris, he wrote to his domestic friends to praise Soviet Russia, and also revealed his yearning for the liberal ideology of the United States.When discussing politics with Fu Sinian, he said more clearly:

Germany can be learned, and the United States can be learned. Their foundation depends on knowledge and learning.Although this road is circuitous and slow, it is really the only road. ② Of course, Hu Shi wanted to go to the United States to see his "second hometown" he had been away from for ten years. ③ On New Year's Eve in 1926, Hu Shi boarded the ship "American Banker", crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and arrived in New York at 7 am on January 11, 1927.This is the metropolis where Hu Shi studied and lived.Familiar streets, squares and schools seem so familiar, but they are a little strange! After parting for ten years, New York has changed, and what impressed Hu Shi most is the motorcycle! That is, the car.On the streets of New York, and even in the countryside, cars are constantly running like running water.

He saw such a statistic in The Nation in New York on January 16: There are 27.5 million motorcycles in the world. There are 22,330,000 motorcycles in the United States. The number of motorcycles in the United States accounts for 81% of the world. On average, there is one car for every five people in the U.S. population. Last year (1926), 4.5 million motorcycles were manufactured in the United States, and 500,000 were exported. ④ Readers please note that this is the statistic 60 years ago, no wonder Hu is sometimes surprised and praises that the United States is "really a country of motorcycles"!

After arriving in the United States, Hu Shi was busy receiving guests all day long, and was also busy giving speeches everywhere.Once, when Hu Shi was giving a lecture in Philadelphia, a friend invited him to live in the countryside for a day.He and the friend drove to a place and saw one or two hundred motorcycles parked in the field.Hu Shi was very surprised, thinking, why are there so many cars in the village? He asked, "Is there a car race here?" The friend laughed, pointed to the construction site over there, and said, "Aren't houses being built over there? These are the cars that carpenters and plasterers use to work."

In the United States, what Hu Shi saw was that carpenters and plasterers went to work in cars, university teachers drove their own cars to class, children in the countryside were picked up by buses to school, and eggs and milk produced by farmers were also sent to the city by car every day. .In some families, the whole family takes their own car to travel to distant places on Sundays.Hu Shi said, this is the civilization of the United States, the "motorcycle civilization"! And what about our China? At that time, it was still in the stage of "sedan chair civilization and rickshaw civilization".How can Hu Shi not admire and envy the American motorcycle civilization!

This time he lived in the United States for three months, and Hu Shi witnessed and heard the rapid progress of all aspects of American society.The "monthly payment" method popularized by automobile companies enables ordinary people to buy cars; the implementation of income tax has become a large part of national tax revenue; employees and workers buy stocks and become shareholders of enterprises and companies.All these, Hu Shi talked with great relish, full of praise. He was invited to participate in a "Fortnightly Forum" in New York. The topic of the discussion was "What should our era be called?" good times".His speech made Hu Shi applaud from amazement, and finally admired him.All these facts in the United States left a deep impression on Hu Shi.He concluded that there would be no social revolution in America, saying:

I can say arbitrarily: there will be no social revolution in the United States, because the United States is in the process of social revolution every day.This kind of revolution is gradual, and progress is made every day, so every day is a revolution. ⑤ The American "gradual" social revolution theory that Hu Shi referred to is the "neoliberalism" or "liberal socialism" that he favors and admires.He believes that this is the "third way" between pure Marxist socialism and pure capitalism, and it is a challenge to Marxism.He said: In the past, Marxist economists said that the more concentrated the capital, the more concentrated the property ownership will be, and the capital must be in the hands of a very small number of people.But the change in the United States in recent years is that capital is concentrated and ownership is dispersed among the people.A company can have a capital of 10 million yuan, and the shares can be bought by employees and workers, so a capital of 10 million yuan can have 10,000 shareholders. …Workers earn a lot of money and have a lot of savings. They often buy stocks and gradually become small capitalists. ...Everyone can be a propertied class, so the instigation of class wars will not be effective. ⑥

Hu Shi's meaning is very clear. He believes that the Marxist economic theory and class struggle theory are not effective in the United States, and are not suitable for the modern American society of advanced capitalism.This is indeed a very real and very acute challenge.Hu Shi didn’t know much about economic theories, but he asked Marxist economists a question based on reality, but he needed an answer, which was scientific! The United States is so advanced, but why is China so backward? This is a question that no Chinese descendant who travels overseas will not think of. On the evening of January 25, when Hu Shi was discussing historical issues with his friends, he asked, "Why is China's progress in the past two hundred years far less than that of the West?" Hu Shi wrote his answer in his diary:

I propose several answers: (1) Under China's unified empire, there is no need for competition or "political colonial policy", so every kind of progress stops when it can be barely applied.The great powers in Europe competed fiercely, and they deliberately increased international trade, developed industries, and promoted colonial policies, all of which were factors that China lacked. (2) The harm of opium.China took two kinds of narcotics from India: first took a spiritual opium—Buddhism; then took a material narcotic—opium.For more than three hundred years, opium turned China into a country of sick men. (3) At the beginning of the 19th century, Jiadao's style of study was still there, and Ruan Yuanlin Zexu had not yet shown any major weaknesses. The Hongyang Rebellion in the middle of the 19th century destroyed the richest and most cultured provinces in the country.This is also a big reason. ⑦

Hu Shi's answer is naturally not historical materialism, but it is his almost consistent view for decades. Isn't there some truth in him? ① See the fourth chapter of "Wandering Thoughts" "Go West!" "Three Collections of Hu Shi's Essays", Shanghai Yadong Library, June 1931, 3rd Edition, Volume 1, p. 61. ② "Hu Shi's Diary" manuscript, Taipei Yuanliu Publishing Co., Ltd., December 1990 edition, volume 5, September 18, 1926. (Third Edition Note) ③ In his study abroad diary, Hu Shi once wrote: Yu went to Qisejia on June 16, and went here for eight months.Returning this time is like a wanderer returning to his hometown, and I feel a lot of emotion.It is said that returning to Qi Sejia this time is a "little return", and returning to China next year can be called a "big return".Small returnees return to their second hometown.Those who return home will return to their first hometown. ("Notes of the Canghui Room", Shanghai Yadong Library, 1936 edition, Volume 13 "February 1 is like a wanderer returning to his hometown", postscript on July 5, 1916.)

④ See the quote from the second chapter of "Motorcycle Civilization" in "Thoughts on Roaming", "Three Collections of Hu Shi's Essays", Volume 1, p. 54. ⑤ The third chapter of "Roaming Thoughts", "A Labor Representative", Ibid., Volume 1, p. 58. ⑥ Ibid., Volume 1, pp. 58-59. ⑦ Note ② Volume Six, January 25, 1927. (Third Edition Note)