Chapter 4 4. Skipping classes, collecting credits and listening outside the window

Our students at that time were really free. They could go to the classes they liked, and they didn’t have to go to the classes they didn’t like.For example, Mr. Zhang Xiruo, the head of the Department of Politics, I didn’t take his two courses, History of Western Political Thought and History of Modern Western Political Thought. I didn’t take the exam, and it didn’t count as credit. My major has also become the history of ideas.Mr. Zhang likes to use English, and he often speaks mixed English. I still remember his pronunciation. Hu should pronounce [hju:]. It became "Human", but we are all used to it.In the first year, I studied the history of Western political thought, from ancient Greece to Rousseau in the 18th century. In the second year, I studied Western modern political thought, which was supposed to introduce the entire 19th century Western political thought, but Mr. Zhang didn’t talk about all of it. He only talked about him. Special attention to a few.In the last semester, only Hegel and Marx were discussed, and in the next semester, THGreen, FH Bradley and Bosanquet were discussed, all three of whom belonged to the neo-Hegelian school.In fact, these three people are not enough to include modern Western political thought. They are only a school of British idealism at the end of the nineteenth century, but Mr. Zhang said so.Fortunately, there was this freedom at that time, and teachers could develop according to their own ideas.

Like some other teachers' classes, Mr. Zhang often chatters in class, such as Aristotle said that "man is a political animal", and animals live a "mere life" (simple life), but man In addition to this, there should be a "noble life" (noble life), and then Mr. Zhang said: "Now that the rice is sold for 5,000 yuan a load, the mere life can't even be maintained, so what is the noble life?!" Mr. Zhang’s complaints sometimes are very interesting. I remember him saying with emotion more than once: “Now it’s the Republic of China, why do you keep shouting ‘Long Live’? That’s what the emperor mentioned.” (Referring to “Long Live Chairman Jiang” ) Another time he mentioned Feng Youlan's "New Neo-Confucianism" and said: "Some people talk about 'New Neo-Confucianism'. I read it, and there is nothing 'new'." He didn't mention Mr. Feng's name, of course we all know I was talking about Feng Youlan, because "New Neo-Confucianism" won the first prize in the Ministry of Education in 1941.In fact, it’s good to gossip in class, you can know his real thoughts from his free play, which cannot be learned from books.In addition, Mr. Wu Zhichun, who was in his fifties at that time, was older than the average teacher, and he also talked about the history of Western political thought. In fact, he mainly talked about the social thought trend of Darwinism in the second half of the nineteenth century in Britain.Mr. Wu's lectures were very profound, and he talked about the British political trend of thought since Spencer.However, like Mr. Zhang Xiruo, he had never written a major article, so he would have to be dismissed according to the current standards, but at that time people knew that they were university students with very good knowledge.Mr. Wu Zhichun occasionally writes articles, and they are not purely academic, but I appreciate his articles very much. I still remember a passage in which he said: There is an authoritative relationship among human beings, and a holy relationship.For example, the political relationship is authoritative, you are my subordinate, you have to obey, but the relationship between husband and wife is pure and holy, both husband and wife are equal, it does not mean that you have to obey what one party orders you.Mr. Wu said: "It's a pity that Chinese people have more authoritative elements in their affairs, but less holy concepts." This passage left a deep impression on me.

The United Nations University implements a credit system. The Faculty of Liberal Arts requires a total of 132 credits in four years to graduate. The Faculty of Engineering requires 144 credits, of which two-thirds are compulsory courses that must be passed, such as English is compulsory in the first grade, with six credits. If you fail to pass, you are not allowed, but like the second foreign language, or the third foreign language, it is an elective.When I was in the history department, according to regulations, Chinese history had to study two dynasties. As for which two dynasties, such as pre-Qin history, Qin and Han history, Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties history, or Southern and Northern Dynasties history, etc., it is up to you to choose.Because I was not interested in ancient Chinese history at that time, the two dates I chose were both modern, one was Mr. Yao Congwu's Song History, and the other was Mr. Zheng Tianting's Ming History.Mr. Yao Congwu was the head of the History Department of Peking University at that time, but we all felt that Mr. Yao's eloquence was not good and his speech was not satisfactory, so we didn't want to take his class.Mr. Yao also teaches a historical method, which is also a compulsory course in the history department. I have only listened to two lectures, and I always feel that I might as well borrow a book and read it in a week.And I know that many students don't attend his class, and Mr. Yao never calls names. At the end of the semester, we borrow students' notes to read for the exam.But later, Mr. Yao went to Taiwan to become an academician of the "Academia Sinica", and he trained a group of middle-aged key historians in Taiwan, which is really unexpected.It can be seen how unreliable it is to judge people by words and appearance.

Mr. Zheng Tianting was originally the secretary-general of Peking University, who taught us Ming history, Tang history, and Qing history.Mr. Zheng's lectures are very systematic, one, two, three, four, ABCD, from the beginning, what government organization, source of income, what basic materials are available, etc. It is a level higher than the curriculum of the middle school system, but it is more detailed.This way of speaking is rare in the United Nations General Assembly. Of course, it also has advantages. It can have a systematic understanding for those of us who have not yet started.But it's very strange, because Ming history is a professional course in the history department. If you don't study history, there is no need to study Ming history.Needless to say, those from the Faculty of Science, even if you have other majors in the Faculty of Grammar, such as the Department of Economics, why do you study Ming History?Unless you specialize in the economic history of the Ming Dynasty, you can take Ming history courses. Otherwise, for example, if you study international trade, what is the use of studying Ming history?According to the selection criteria of professional courses, this course can be taught by at most ten people, but Mr. Zheng's class is very strange, often hundreds of people come to listen, and a large classroom must be prepared.How could there be so many more people?Because Mr. Zheng's class is the easiest to pass, all those who take the class must score at least 70 or 80 on the exam, so students from the Department of Physics and Chemistry can be selected, which is called "collecting credits", which was also a trend at the time.However, Mr. Zheng’s lectures are indeed very interesting. I remember that when talking about Zhu Yuanzhang, he specifically mentioned his appearance. According to the traditional saying, Ming Taizu's appearance is "five mountains facing the sky", which is very impressive and frightening, so he taught a whole class like this.

Mr. Zheng specializes in studying the history of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. He was transferred to Nankai when the department was adjusted. He really didn’t want to leave, because the conditions for studying the history of the Ming and Qing Dynasties are the best in Beijing, whether it is materials, objects, or even people, such as Speaking of the descendants of nobles, these conditions are the best, but they will be worse when they arrive in Tianjin.But at that time, you had to obey the leader. If the leader transferred you to Tianjin, you had to go.Later I heard a saying, I don’t know if it’s true or not, that when Peking University’s faculties were adjusted, the Hu School (Hu Shi School) was transferred out.Mr. Zheng Tianting was the Secretary-General of Peking University before the Anti-Japanese War. When I was a student, he was the Chief of General Affairs. Vice President of Nankai.

Out of curiosity, I occasionally listen to the courses of other famous people, such as Mr. Chen Futian's History of Western Novels from the Department of Foreign Languages.I remember that year all the male students in the Department of Foreign Languages ​​were transferred to be translators for the U.S. military, so seven or eight of the students in the class were female students, and there were two boys in total. It's Yang Zhenning.Mr. Chen is an overseas Chinese from Honolulu, USA. He is the director of the Department of Foreign Languages ​​at Tsinghua University. His English is better than his Chinese, but his class only starts with Defoe, the author of the seventeenth century. According to the current teaching plan, it is quite disorderly. But no one asked about it at the time.Moreover, Mr. Chen was very concerned about the war situation, and later he also presided over a training class for translators. Therefore, instead of talking about novels by Dickens and Balzac first, he analyzed the situation of the war situation such as the fall of Singapore, and the content was also similar. Very rich.

Another example is Mr. Shen Congwen's history of Chinese novels. The number of people in that class was very small, only about six or seven people.Mr. Shen's lectures are very slow, but I think he is really a writer, unlike us who can't connect one sentence to another. Every sentence and every word of his is very logical. His class record is a very good article.Mr. Shen is very respected, and I am still very impressed.In the past, it was regarded as a pornographic book, not a serious novel, and it was banned after the Republic of China. However, Mr. Shen admired this book very much, and thought that it described human emotions and the state of the world very deeply, and many places have inherited the tradition.Mr. Shen is very hardworking, but he has no academic qualifications. He was a soldier, and later he taught at a university and even became a professor. Therefore, he is often looked down upon by academics, from Mr. Liu Wendian to Mr. Qian Zhongshu.I remember a classmate told me that Mr. Liu Wendian said openly in class: "Shen Congwen also commented on professors... If you want to talk about professors, Chen Yinke can get one dollar, and Liu Wendian is one dime, and Professor Shen Congwen can only be worth one dollar." It’s a pity that we look at people in the past with understanding eyes, only seeing the harmonious side, not seeing the side that they look down on each other, and not being able to understand some contradictions between people. Really reveal.

I heard that Liu Wendian belonged to the Tongmenghui in the last years of the Qing Dynasty. He and Sun Yat-sen had made revolution in Japan together. , looking sloppy.One thing I think is true.Liu Wendian was the president of Anhui University during the Northern Expedition, and Chiang Kai-shek went to Anhui to invite local celebrities to meet.Chiang Kai-shek was a person who paid great attention to appearance, but Liu Wendian was a shriveled old man who was wearing glasses. Seeing his unattractive appearance, Chiang Kai-shek asked, "Are you Liu Wendian?" He replied, "Are you Chiang Kai-shek?" ?” Chiang Kai-shek was instantly annoyed.Mr. Liu was probably the oldest at the Southwest Associated University, and he was a big fan, so he didn't come to class almost most of the time.For example, one year I taught Wen Li's poetry, and he taught Wen Tingyun and Li Shangyin, poets of the late Tang Dynasty. It was a very remote class, but he always missed seven or eight of the ten classes.Occasionally he came to a class when he was happy, swearing casually during the lecture, and then he would not come to the next class.Ordinarily, this should not be the case. At that time, there was no other one like him, but this was his style.Later, because something happened, it is said that he accepted a gift from someone, the school dismissed him, and he went to Yunnan University.After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, everyone else left, but Liu Wendian stayed in Yunnan and did not come out. First, the cloud and soil are good, and Liu Wendian smokes opium, which is unique in the United Nations University; second, Yunshan is good, he likes to eat Yunnan Ham, so he didn't leave, someone nicknamed him "Layman Eryun".After liberation, he became a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and in 1957 he also wore the hat of a rightist.Professor Li Yu, a senior student at Yunnan University, told me a funny story about Liu Wendian many years ago.During the anti-rightist movement, someone exposed Liu Wendian, saying that he had a dark poem and read it out.There is a preface in front of the poem, saying that he had a girl named Ji who was very cute, bright and graceful, gentle and considerate, but unfortunately died short-lived. He was very sad and couldn't sleep at night, so he wrote poems to miss her.That poem is indeed lingering, sad and moving, how could it become a black poem?The whistleblower said that Liu Wendian was not such a concubine at all. In fact, this poem misses his bong. After liberation, he was not allowed to smoke opium, so he had to miss his bong.

I also listen to Wen Yiduo's The Book of Songs, Chuci, and Zhu Ziqing's lectures, but Mr. Zhu Ziqing's lectures are relatively dull.Mr. Bian Zhilin from the Department of Foreign Languages ​​belongs to the younger generation of teachers. He was very famous as a poet and writer at that time, but he was not yet a full professor in the school.Mr. Bian is from Haimen, Jiangsu Province. He has a very strong accent. A classmate of mine took Mr. Bian’s English for a year. When he came back, he said, “I can’t understand English and Chinese in Mr. Bian’s class.” I understand this very well, because I have listened to his class by the window, and his Chinese is really difficult to understand, but whether a person speaks clearly has nothing to do with his knowledge, these are two different things.We all went to Pan Jiaxun's class when we were learning English in the first grade. Mr. Pan translated the complete works of Ibsen during the May Fourth Movement, and he was always in his fifties when he taught us.Because Mr. Pan's professional course is phonetics, his pronunciation is very standard, and he speaks slowly and clearly, and he can hear almost every word, so we all like to go to his class.

Qian Zhongshu is very famous, so I also went to listen to it.His classes are basically taught in English, occasionally adding a sentence in Chinese, but sometimes he is a bit mysterious, and he does not speak clearly, but reminds you that you have to experience it yourself, so you must be very smart to follow him , If you are stupid, you can't make up your mind.At that time, I met Chen Yinke among the four major tutors of Tsinghua University. He taught the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the history of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, but at that time I was still a first-year student in the School of Engineering, and I was not qualified to take such professional courses.There are very few people in Mr. Chen's class, about seven or eight people, but Mr. Chen is famous and everyone knows that he is a master, so people often lie outside the window to listen, and I am caught in it.After class, Mr. Chen came in with a bag and opened the book, but he basically didn't read it, because he knew all the materials by heart, and he just opened his mouth to quote which passage from an ancient book, what the original words were.According to the post-liberation standard, his teaching method is not qualified, there is no syllabus, and it is completely casual, but this kind of teaching was allowed before liberation.Mr. Chen has an accent, and his speech is not very exciting. He is not the kind of teacher who wins by eloquence, and the things he talks about are too specialized. We have never read the ancient books he quoted, so we don't understand them at all.Mr. Chen left in the second year. He was supposed to go to England to give lectures at Oxford University. Because Germany had just occupied France and was about to cross the sea, Britain was in danger, so he had to stay in Hong Kong.