Chapter 7 Chi lamp

The commemoration of Professor Fred Wakeman's retirement began planning a year ago.Since the beginning of this year, I have had frequent correspondence with his student, Professor Ye Wenxin, and his assistants on the Internet.In the process of linear time, there must be complexities unimaginable by ordinary people: the alcohol content in Wakeman's body keeps rising, and the mood of the professor's wife fluctuates accordingly; the dangerous silence brought about by the power vacuum, and the various variables in the political operation of the college behind the scenes; the assistant The future of secretaries, the general anxiety of doctoral and undergraduate students.What's more, Wakeley has taught in Berkeley for forty years, established his own school, and has countless disciples. Who will take over the position of head?This is more or less like the end of a dynasty, which affects many people's hearts.

I hurried back to California from New York on May 3, and drove to Berkeley the next day to live in the "Female Faculty Club" on campus.This Victorian timber-framed inn is tucked away among the trees. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon on May 5, we met the professor's wife Liang He at the hotel, and she took us to a nearby bar for a drink.Wakeman, who was in a wheelchair, appeared accompanied by his secretary. He had just finished class, and his silly smile was slightly tired. Wakeman was born on December 12, 1937 in Kansas City, Kansas, USA.He was the eldest son with a younger brother and younger brother who died of cancer after serving in the Vietnam War.Wakeman moved to New York with his parents shortly after his birth.Father worked in an advertising agency and served in the Navy after the outbreak of the Pacific War. His father started writing novels in 1944, and became famous two years later with the book "Hucksters", which was adapted into a movie of the same name by Hollywood and became popular in the United States.After making a fortune, his father decided to take the family to travel around the world.Wakeman went to primary and secondary schools in California, Mexico, Cuba, Bermuda, and France, and graduated from high school in Florida.As a result of this special experience, he learned French, Spanish and German.

His father is his spiritual mentor.Under his guidance, he has intensively read the works of ancient Greece, Rome, and modern and contemporary historians since he was a child. When they were 11 years old, they were living in Cuba. His father asked him to read a biography of Columbus, and he personally took the family on a voyage described in the biography. Under the influence of his father, Wakeman began to write novels while studying at Harvard, and only the third "No. 17 Royal Palm Avenue" was published.After graduating from university, he went to the Institute of Political Science in Paris to study the Soviet Union.When taking elective courses, he was attracted by a folk sect in Vietnam, which brought him into the related Chinese sect.At the same time, several books on China by a French journalist fascinated him.At the crossroads in Paris, Wakeman turned from the Soviet Union to China.

Leaving the bar, we entered the University Art Museum surrounded by the regal Wakeman, and there were a cloud of disciples paying tribute to him.At 4:15 p.m., the head of the Department of History announced the opening of the commemorative event. First, I read a short poem dedicated to Wakeman, and then Professor Liu Dong of Peking University gave a special speech "Wakeman in the Classroom of Peking University".Starting from the first book "The Stranger at the Gate" written by Wakeman at the age of 29, he surveyed his academic achievements throughout his life.The next session was hosted by Professor Joe Esherick, Wakeman's senior student.He started with a glass of water in his hand, and he didn't say much, but the emotion was reflected in the tears in the corners of Wakeman's eyes.The highlight was the dialogue between James Sheehan, professor of German history at Stanford University, and Wakeman.Both have served as presidents of the American Historical Association. "I think between Confucius and Levinson, Levinson has more influence on you, right?" Professor Shi Han asked straight to the point.

After Wakeman left Paris, he should have returned to Harvard to study China with Fairbank, but he chose Joseph Levenson, a student of Fairbank who taught in Berkeley, as his tutor.This is undoubtedly related to Wakeman's life experience, literary temperament and rebellious spirit.Harvard and Berkeley represent two traditions of American culture, even related to geopolitics.Harvard is located in the center of New England, representing the orthodoxy and mainstream of American academics; while Berkeley is located in the ethnically diverse Asia-Pacific circle, the stronghold of the American left and the birthplace of the student rebellion movement in the 1960s.

According to Ye Bin, Wakeman’s doctoral student, Wakeman inherited Levinson’s views on cosmopolitanism, that is, he believes that the future world history should be a harmonious coexistence of national cultural identity and universal values, which is provincialism. Harmony with cosmopolitanism.Unfortunately, Levinson died suddenly before fully developing his related ideas.As his student and colleague, Wakeman further explained and developed this view of history. The American academia has such a clear context in the inheritance relationship, which is really admirable.This is what we call tradition.It is like a map, marking the location of each scholar and pointing the way for successors.Those who do not understand tradition are like travelers without a map, who cannot travel far.

At the end of 1992, Wakeman, who served as the president of the American Historical Association, delivered the inaugural speech "Voyage".One of his disciples, Professor Lionel Jensen, is my colleague.He described: "It was a glorious moment that will never be forgotten. Only a handful of his students attended this event in the ballroom of the Hilton Hotel in New York. I'm sure we all warmed up to the glory of that moment and the recognition of our teacher's achievements So proud. When we got together outside the ballroom and talked excitedly, a lot of Asian experts were touched. It was the best speech I have ever heard."

Based on a review of the voyage of Columbus, the Wakemans, and Zheng He, "The Voyage" begins with a child's childhood memory: the afternoon of the attack on Pearl Harbor, William Rodgers, who would later become Secretary of State in the Eisenhower administration, and his father at his Talking through the family window, he caught the attention of Wakeman, who was only four years old... He went on to tell the story of his family's travels along the route of the second Columbus voyage from 1948 to 1949. The hopeless situation, the voyage to Zheng He's voyage... the voyage across time and space and cross-ethnic culture, with the help of a unique style, interweaves history and personal, narrative and contemplation, macro vision and vivid details.

The opening ceremony of the retirement commemoration was followed by a small dinner.Professor Ye Wenxin specially arranged me at the small table of Wakeman and his family.I sat across from Wakeman, his sister, brother-in-law and his handsome son.Candlelight flickered on everyone's faces.They mentioned their dead father and brother.The dead are like a sinking bell, which is often only rung when the family is reunited.Liang He also sat down, worried that Wakeman had drunk too much.They bought a house in the green Oregon countryside and will move there when they retire.I always joked that Wakeman was going to be kidnapped by his wife and sent to the "Green Prison".At the moment, I'm inciting him to drink a few more drinks before he goes to jail.

Wakeman and I first met in the late fall of 1989 in New York at a PEN America seminar.The second handshake was 13 years later, in Beijing, that is, the first time I was allowed to go back to visit my father who was seriously ill, and was hosted by Liu Dong and his wife.The impression of that meeting was chaotic: an unrecognizable hometown, dusty streets, flashy restaurants with no access for the disabled, and the helpless expression of a historian struggling in a wheelchair. Since then we have been very close.Three years ago, we only invited five relatives and friends, including their husband and wife, to hold a wedding.We were often guests at their apartment by the Bay Bridge in San Francisco.Once Liang He asked me to read a poem, and Wakefield read the English translation.When he read "A Lone Wolf Walks/Twilight No One Fails", he couldn't help crying.The dusk is like wine, the song ends and people part, and the hero is at a loss for the rest of his life.

In fact, I know very little about Wakeman's academic attainments. What really moved me was his human charm.He is deep and simple, a wise man and a child at the same time.Being with him evokes a kind of nostalgia for the spiritual source of human beings in the early years.He laughed so indulgently and unobtrusively, like a thunderbolt from the blue sky, only a person with a pure heart would laugh like this.I think it is his magnanimity, integrity and tolerance that transcend the narrowness, darkness and staleness of college life, and transcend personal honor, disgrace, love and hatred, and bitterness and joy. The word history can be broken down into two words in English, namely "his" and "story".Whose story is history?The story of God, the mighty, or the historian?In any case, the fragments in those voluminous documents are connected by the hands of historians.History gives historians room for imagination and interpretation, and historians endow history with a personal character.It's hard to imagine what Chinese history would be like without "Historical Records"? In the late 1950s, because Wakeman had mastered four foreign languages ​​including Russian, the CIA took a fancy to him.During the Carter administration, he was almost appointed ambassador to China.But he still chose to take the academic path.Due to the sudden death of Levinson, Wakeman, who was only 27 years old, began to teach and became one of the youngest professors. Professor Zhou Xirui, who presided over the commemorative event, recalled the past.When he came to Berkeley to join Levinson, he did not expect that the death of his mentor made him a student of Wakeman, who was only a few years older.At that time, the student movement was surging, and he was one of the student leaders, so he didn't pay attention to the young mentor at all.In Wakeman's must-read list, there is French historian Marc Bloch's "French Rural History", which was resisted by radical students such as Zhou Xirui. Dry?In class, Wakeman told a story.During the German occupation, a resistance fighter was captured by the Gestapo, dragged out with others and shot.He finally said to the 16-year-old boy beside him (who survived later): "Don't cry, my child." At this time, the machine gun rang...and he was Mark Brock.Wakeman left the classroom calmly after speaking. There was another thing that Zhou Xirui couldn't let go of.When he was writing his doctoral thesis, Wakeman wrote in the letter: "There is a problem with your thesis." In English, thesis means thesis.Zhou mistakenly thought the latter, and became furious, and wrote a long letter to reprimand the teacher.It wasn't until Wei Guo's fiftieth birthday that Zhou finally apologized for it.Professor Zhou Xirui said that when he thought of such a letter in his file, he felt ashamed. And Wakeman was also illuminated by the light of memories: Once he went skiing with Zhou Xirui, and Zhou, who was good at skiing, took him to the most dangerous area.When Wei fell down the steep slope, Zhou patiently cared and guided Wei all the way down the mountain.In that moment, Wakeman said, their teacher-student relationship was turned upside down. The real climax of the commemoration was the performance of the assistant secretary on the morning of the third day.They first brought out a huge photo from ten years ago - that was a healthy and optimistic Wakeman.Next on display is the cover of his novel "No. 17 Royal Oak".According to them, Hollywood recently bought the adaptation rights, so they read the chapters that were "adapted" aloud, causing bursts of laughter.Wakeman came to the stage to express his gratitude. He specifically mentioned his assistant Cathy, and mentioned the meticulous care after the operation accident in 1998. When he said this, he broke down in tears. The day after the event, the Wakemans and I met for lunch in a cafe.Sunny, warm and cold.There was a sense of relief in Wakeman's tired face.He has to rush to his last class.I put him in the car and hugged goodbye.Liang He told me that some people proposed to establish a "Berkeley School" in his name, and even proposed "Wakeleyism", but he flatly rejected it. "That's ridiculous," he said. As a historian, he was well aware of the dangers of abuse of power and reputation.And he only wants to light a lamp in the dark depths of history.There are poems to prove it: old country waning moon sink into a deep pool heavy as those stones you put words into history turn the river How many times does the flower bloom Promote the rise and fall of dynasties The crow is the drum Emperors spin silk like silkworms Weave long rolls for you beauty like cloud escort inner voyage The chi lamp opens a corner of the dream you hold the flame Turned into heavy snow drink in the wind you grow old with china The corridor runs through spring and autumn stranger at the gate knocking on the door