Chapter 11 Chapter 11 My Self-Study History: Teachers and Friends

The first series of my autobiography Chapter 11 My Self-Study History: Teachers and Friends 9. Self-study materials and past teachers and friends I had at that time access to the best material for self-study that a person living in the interior of North China could possibly have, both on life and on China.I own six volumes of Renyin, Guimao, and Jiachen in Xinmin Congbao, edited by Mr. Liang Rengong, and one volume of New Fiction (a monthly magazine) (a total of five to six million words). ——This is all passed in from Japan.There are also many other books and newspapers passed in from Japan or published in Shanghai.This is what happened at the beginning (1907).Later (after 1910), there were constitutionalist "Guofengbao" (a ten-day or half-monthly publication, published in Japan), and the revolutionary faction's Shanghai "Minlibao" (daily), which were read on a regular basis. ——This was rich wealth that an ordinary middle school student in the mainland at that time could not have.  At the beginning of "Xinmin Congbao", there is "Xinmin Shuo" written by Mr. Ren Gong, which he signed himself as "China's Xinmin".This is a reminder of the new outlook on life on the one hand, and on the other hand it points out how Chinese society should be transformed; it is precisely related to the two sides of the Chinese issue of life, which meets my needs and benefits a lot.At the same time, Mr. Ren Gong published many works introducing the theories of a certain foreign school in the newspaper, which enabled me to understand a lot of modern Western thought.He also has many expositions about the ancient Zhou and Qin philosophers as well as the modern Ming and Qing Confucians, which are interesting and vigorous, and they are all enough to inspire people.In addition, there is a book "Moral Education Mirror", which is divided into categories such as determination, self-examination, self-denial, and self-cultivation.My initial contact with the ancient Chinese culture is really based on this.Although it seems that this book is worthless now, it helped me a lot back then.This help is in life, not just in thought.  "Xin Min Cong Bao" has about 20% of the articles written by Mr. Ren Gong himself, and there are many articles and records of international and domestic current affairs by other people such as Mr. Jiang Guanyun (Zhi You), accounting for about 80%. It is also very important.These can help me systematically understand the past background of the general situation of the day.Because the events of Renyin, Guimao, and Jiachen (1902-1904) recorded were just before the time I read it (1907-1909).Because I pay attention to the current situation, daily newspapers such as the local "Beijing Daily", "Suncheon Times", "Empire Daily", etc., and "Shenbao", "News", "Times" in other places are my must-haves every day. Essential reading.When it comes to the current situation, I am very clear, unlike an ordinary middle school student. The "Guofeng Bao" mostly discusses the congress system, responsible cabinet system, election system, budget system, etc.; other issues such as the treasury system, audit system, and even bank currency are often discussed.This was because the Qing government was preparing for the establishment of a constitution at that time, and the provincial counselor bureaus also had a joint petition to open the congress. The governors and envoys of the provinces also had many political suggestions, and Liang Rengong and his party were in a guiding position, that is, "National Style" "Newspaper" is its official newspaper.I was also very enthusiastic about this movement at the time, and I learned a lot about the legal system of modern countries. The publications of the revolutionaries are not as easy to obtain as those of the constitutionalists.But I got some in the end.There is a thick volume of "Controversy between the Constitutionalists and the Revolutionaries", which is a collection of many articles by Liang Rengong, Hu Hanmin (Zhantang), Wang Jingwei, etc. arguing that China should implement a revolutionary republic or a constitutional monarchy; I read it repeatedly very familiar.I don't like to read some other propaganda materials that are mainly about inciting emotions. Self-study conditions, books and newspaper materials are important, but friends are also important.At the time, I had two friends who had to be told. The first is Guo Renlin (the first is Renlin), with the word Xiaofeng, from Leting County, Hebei.He was two years older than me and next in class.Their class is to learn French; we learn English.Therefore, although they are classmates in the same school, they meet each other day and night, but they have no contact.Guo Jun's appearance is like a good woman, everyone who sees her is shocked by her beauty, but her spirit is restrained and solemn, and there is a sadness between her brows; I am always self-righteous, and my expression is lonely again.They didn't talk to each other until the third year.But after talking for a while, my thoughts changed dramatically. At that time, I was conceited that I wanted to save the country and the world, and make contributions. In terms of mind and spirit, I seemed to be extremely extraordinary; in fact, in terms of life thinking, it was very shallow.For many deeper problems in life, I have never paid attention to them at all.Not only did they not pay attention to the wiser thoughts of ancient and modern philosophers, they even refused to pay attention to them.Under the influence of his late father, Gai held a narrow view of utilitarianism, valuing merit rather than learning.Pay attention to knowledge that has practical value; if it is literature, if it is philosophy, it will be regarded as misleading and deceptive, and it will be rejected.Regarding the knowledge of personality cultivation, I feel the inspiration of "Moral Education Mirror", and I certainly pay attention to it; but in my mind, I think that "to do great things, you must have personality cultivation", so I read it as a method of personality cultivation.Such extreme, unreasonable, superficial and rootless thoughts should have been overthrown long ago.Like most people, most people don't even have such extreme and superficial thoughts.Although they disagree with me, and even refute me, their power is not enough to shake my self-confidence.I just met Guo Jun, who is extremely talented and detached in thinking. Although he is only eighteen or nineteen years old, his knowledge is almost as old as a veteran.He has experience in Lao, Zhuang, Yijing, and Buddhist scriptures, but he likes Tan Sitong's "benevolence" the most.Its thoughts are higher than mine, and its spirit is strong enough to envelop me.His conversation sometimes ridiculed me and made me feel at a loss; sometimes he lured me in by following my psychology of wanting to do great things, and convinced me wholeheartedly.I admired him so much that I respected him as Master Guo, and I went to ask for advice in my spare time, recorded his conversations and bound them into a huge volume titled "Quotations from Master Guo".Ordinary classmates mostly ridiculed us and called us "Liang Xianren, Guo Shengren". Since I got close to Mr. Guo, I have broken through my narrow utilitarian views and started to respect philosophy. This is really a great improvement in my thinking.At that time, there was another classmate, Chen Zifang, who was older than us and was at the front of the class. He was the best friend of Guo Jun.I also got close to Guo because of him.His ideas and spirit were also higher than mine at that time, and I was also influenced by him.The two monarchs are not alive now[ZW(]Chen has passed away for more than 20 years, and few people know him. Guo and Li Dazhao (Shou Chang) are fellow countrymen and very friendly. They used to work in the library of Peking University. When Zhang Shao was the prime minister, he He was once cited as Secretary of the State Council. It has been ten years since his death.

Another friend is Zhen Yuanxi, named Liangfu, from Taishan County, Guangdong.He was about one or two years older than me, and he was in the same class as me, but he joined the class at the end.Originally, Chen and Guo were both inclined to revolution on the Chinese issue, but they were not very active.Zhen Jun came to Beijing from Guangzhou and Shanghai (1910), and it seems that he had already had a relationship with the revolutionaries.Both of us were positive about the current situation, and soon became very good friends. But their political views are not the same.Zhen Jun is of course a revolutionary.I am only enthusiastic about political transformation, not sympathetic to platooning.In terms of political transformation, I take British politics as my ideal, and deny that there are any differences in the political transformation of the monarchy and democracy.Instead, it accuses democracies, whether they are French (cabinet system) or American (presidential system), that they are not as good as British politics. ——This is the "Republic of the Empty King" sung by Kang Youwei during the 1911 Revolution.In the political transformation movement, I think that various methods can be used, but nothing is better than the assassination method of the Russian nihilists.On the one hand, it is very effective, and on the other hand, it does not cause much damage and avoids international interference.It goes without saying that these theories and propositions come from the constitutionalists; however, every bit of it has been through my back and forth thinking, and it is not a learned tongue.Zhen Jun and I often use this to fight, just like what Liang (Ren Gong) and Wang (Jingwei) did; but they are open to the public overseas, and we dare not let others know. Later, the Qing court lost support day by day, and many constitutionalists turned to revolutionaries, and so did I.As the middle school graduation was approaching, the Wuchang Uprising broke out, and people were excited everywhere, and we couldn't stay in the school even more.At that time, the student circles in Beijing, Tianjin, and Baoding were secretly connected with each other, but the clues were different.The Qing court released Wang Jingwei.While advocating peace talks, Wang secretly organized the Beijing-Tianjin League with Li Shizeng, Wei Chenzu, Zhao Tieqiao and others.Zhen Jun and I participated in it, and are the largest revolutionary groups in the north.All the assassinations of Liangbi, Yuan Shikai and the riots in Tianjin all came from this organization.