Chapter 16 Chapter 6 Harvard University

I have always believed that a university should be like a jungle, and monkeys should move freely in it, looking for all kinds of nuts on various trees, and freely swinging and jumping from the branches.By his nature, he knows which nuts are good and which ones are good to eat.I was enjoying the feast of all kinds of fruits.To me, the Widenor Library is Harvard, and Harvard is the Widenor Library. My landlady told me that the books in the Widnor Library, if lined up one book above the other, can be many miles long.I live at 51 Zheshan Street, just behind the Wedno Library.Whenever there is no class, I go to the library.I was so poor at the time that I didn't have the money to buy a ticket to watch the Harvard-Yale football game. Of course, it was unknown who would win or lose.

As a result of teaching at Tsinghua School in Beijing, I received a "half scholarship" of US$40 per month.Tsinghua University is a school funded by China and the United States, and all graduates are sent to study in the United States.In addition to the tuition fees provided by Tsinghua University, those international students also have a monthly stipend of 80 US dollars.However, no matter how I calculate, I should not study in the United States.But I was young at the time, and youth is courage.At that time, a piece of Chinese and Mexican silver ocean was slightly higher than the US dollar after the war.When my wife got married, the family gave her a thousand silver dollars as a dowry.Because of this deposit, we embarked on the journey abroad.Anyway, we managed to last four years, including the French and German days.Of course, because Mr. Hu Shizhi of Peking University had an agreement with me, I kept in touch with him.I am a firm supporter of the New Culture Movement.Taking advantage of my agreement with Mr. Hu, I telegraphed Mr. Hu twice, each time please send me 1,000 yuan.In fact, what Mr. Hu sent me was his own money, not the public funds of Peking University.I didn't discover this secret until I returned home.Because I went to see the principal Jiang Menglin and thanked him for the two thousand yuan.Principal Jiang was surprised and asked me: "Where is the two thousand yuan?" Later he said: "It's Hu Shizhi's personal money." Then I realized Mr. Hu Shizhi's friendship with me. Before the end of the year, I gave the money It was returned to Mr. Hu.I am writing down this matter now to show the generosity and tolerance of Mr. Hu.This matter has never been publicly disclosed to outsiders.

In clear contrast to the above, I have to mention Shi Bingyuan, the supervisor of students studying in the United States.I finished my year at Harvard with A's in every subject.One thing that surprised me at this time was that my half scholarship was suddenly revoked, and no reason was given on the relevant side.This Shi Bingyuan cut off my head.When I heard the news of his death later on, I felt joyful when I heard that someone died, and I didn't know that he committed suicide.He used to be a school doctor at Tsinghua University, but because of his uncle Shi Zhaoji, the ambassador to the United States, he got this coveted job.He probably hanged himself after failing in a stock speculation business.If he hadn't canceled my scholarship, I wouldn't have been forced to go to France to work and study, and then to Germany because of the general currency depreciation.I won the first prize in the "Chinese Student Monthly" three times in a row; later, I voluntarily withdrew and gave up the twenty-five dollar prize to others, and I became a poor student in this way.

At Harvard, I entered the Institute of Comparative Literature.My professors at the time were Bliss Perry, Irving Babbitt (Babbitt), Von Jagermaan (who taught me "Goethe Studies"), Kittredge (who taught Shakespeare), and another professor of Italian. Professor Bliss Perry is the most popular, and everyone likes him.He has several beautiful daughters.I wrote an essay titled "Vocabulary Changes in Critical Essays".He commented very well on this article, saying that it could be written as a master's thesis, because I was forced to leave Harvard soon and finally did not write that thesis.

Professor Babbitt caused an uproar in literary criticism.He advocated maintaining a standard of literary criticism, and J. E． The Springarnites claim just the opposite.Babbitt is the only professor at Harvard University who holds a master's degree.Because of his profound knowledge, he often reads to his students from the works of the French literary critic Saint-Perfort's Portroyal and the works of eighteenth-century French writers, and he also quotes passages from the works of the modern French critic Brunetiere.He used the course "Rousseau and Romanticism" to discuss the disappearance of all standards, and attributed this disappearance to the influence of Rousseau.The course deals with Madam de Stael as well as other early Romantic writers such as Tieck, Novalis and others.

Babbitt's influence on modern Chinese literary criticism is deep enough.Lou Guanglai and Wu Mi spread his theory to China.Wu Mi looks like a monk, but his love affairs can be written into a legend.Both Wu Lou and Wu speak Chinese very well, and their views on literature are orthodox, so they are somewhat incompatible with the popular vernacular at that time.The two of them and I sat on a bench in class.I was forced to borrow PortRoyal to have a look.I refused to accept Professor Babbitt's standard, and once I resolutely defended Spingarn, in the end, I completely agreed with the Italian philosopher Croce on the reason why all criticism is "expression".All other explanations are too shallow.I am also opposed to Chinese stylistic concepts.Because this will knock all good works into a series of "rules" with strict syntax, whether it is "biography", "song", or "ji", or even a novel.As everyone knows, when Su Dongpo was writing, he had no other ideas, but just wrote freely, like flowing clouds and flowing water, "do what you have to do, and stop when you have to stop."

He had no fixed stylistic principles in mind. I couldn't bear to read Shakespeare's Elizabethan English taught by Professor Kittredge, and I only listened to his class once or twice.He wore knickerbockers and stood erect, and it was not a bad thing to watch his walking encyclopedia roam the Harvard campus. A disaster is coming.My wife had acute appendicitis, and I took her to a Catholic doctor.He must have carefully searched my wife's internal organs for three hours, thinking that this was a good opportunity to observe the internal organs of Chinese women.I didn't think it was a big deal to cut the cecum, so I was still reading the grammar of the Anglo-Saxon script, and then I realized that the operation time was too long.Shortly thereafter, my wife showed an infection and required a second surgery.I'd run out of money and had to use a can of Old Man's cereal to get me a week's worth of food, and I was anxious to wire her brother asking for a thousand dollars.My wife thought that I was quite heroic in overcoming this difficult time with an extremely hard-working spirit, and she often liked to talk about it afterwards.The money arrived, and I was saved.After the second operation, I stayed in the hospital for a long time.I remember that in February of that year, the streets were full of snow, and I managed to get a sled to take my wife home.She recovered and came home, the family was reunited, and we celebrated.

I should have mentioned earlier that my wife had had appendicitis during our Pacific crossing.Because we were on our honeymoon, the students from Tsinghua University found that we were always stuck in the cabin, so they made fun of us.Little do we know the extent of our pain.We have to make a decision.Is it going to go ashore in Hawaii to have the cecum removed?In this way, I will use up my wife's dowry money.However, the pain finally eased slowly.We decided to take the risk and move on, only to have the disease come back about six months later. My wife and I are alone together, the time is so sweet.During this period, my rationality was highly developed, but my emotions were not yet mature.Until now, when eating Western food, I still don't know which ladle to use for soup and which fork to use to eat fish.When I was crossing the Pacific Ocean, my wife had already mastered the etiquette and etiquette of the western table. It was beyond my surprise that she often corrected me when I made a mistake.

When eating western food, I often mess up my wine glass and the neighbor's wine glass, not knowing which is mine, so I often drink the wrong wine.Because I made a mistake unintentionally, I still feel at ease. Professor couples in universities are used to taking care of foreign students.Mrs. Seele was assigned to look after our social life.Her own name is Cathy Wilson, the daughter of President Wilson, and her husband is a professor at Harvard.One Sunday, at twelve o'clock, we were told that Mr. and Mrs. Seyle were coming to see us.At that time, as I said before, we were living on Heshi Street.At that time my wife had already returned home from the hospital.We share a kitchen with the landlady and we live in two rooms.There was also a boxing teacher and an unmarried lady, both of whom worked in a restaurant connected with the university.Once, when I was in charge of cleaning the kitchen, I dumped a dead rat from a pocket behind the kitchen door, and in my haste swept the dead rat to a corner of the floor instead of hiding it in the trash can.I feel ashamed about this.

We've been to the Sears' house.He must have been an arctic explorer because he had the teeth of a giant polar bear in his living room.There is also a very precious portrait of President Wilson, with his three daughters sitting around the table.One evening, we went to dinner, and it turned out to be the wrong day.Instead of rushing back, we ate a meal.Professor Seyle came out to welcome us.Mrs. Seele hastened to get dinner ready.That was our social faux pas. After a year at Harvard, the dean looked at my transcript from St. John's.Because I got A's in every subject, he asked me to take a Shakespeare course in Jena, Germany.You don't have to attend classes to earn a master's degree.This is how I finally got this master's degree.