Chapter 25 The first section is connected with Mao Zedong

Tao Menghe, who led his troops from Kunming to Lizhuang, was named Lugong, styled Menghe, and lived in the world with his style. Born in Tianjin in 1888 to a scholar family.At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Yan Xiu, an educator in Tianjin, founded a family school focusing on new learning, and hired his father Tao Zhongming as the teacher of the school, and Tao Menghe followed his father to study. In 1901, Tao Zhongming died early due to illness and was succeeded by Zhang Boling.In 1904, Yan's family school was changed to Jingye School, where Tao Menghe was still studying. In 1907, the school moved to the Nankai area and was renamed as a private Nankai school. Zhang Boling served as the principal, and Tao Menghe graduated and stayed at the school as a teaching assistant.Nankai School produced a large number of talents, such as Mei Yiqi and Zhou Enlai, who graduated later than Tao Meng and later became famous.

Tao Menghe did not teach in Nankai School for a long time, so he went to Japan to study in Japan as a government-funded student. He entered the Tokyo Higher Normal School to study education, and returned to China two years later due to business.During his stay in Japan, he compiled and published the two-volume Encyclopedia of Chinese and Foreign Geography.It is said that this set of books was very popular with readers, and it was reprinted seven times in ten years. In 1909, he went to England to study, and entered the School of Political Economy, University of London, specializing in sociology and economics. In 1913, he received a doctorate in economics.During his study abroad, he was greatly influenced by the Webb couple. At that time, Sidney Webb, GB Shaw and others co-founded the Fabian Society (Fabian Society), engaged in the social reformist movement in the UK, and the London School of Economics and Political Science was Founded by members of the Fabian Society.Under the influence of members of the Fabian Society, Tao Menghe wrote the book "Life in Chinese Villages and Towns", which was published in London in 1915.The publication of this work became the pioneering work of Chinese sociology. At this time, Tao Menghe was 27 years old.Many years later, the famous sociologist Wu Baosan commented that this book has at least three contributions: one is that the family is the basic unit and core of the Chinese social structure; The historical development and social structure of the society each have their own characteristics, each has its own advantages and disadvantages; the third is to affirm the Chinese custom of worshiping ancestors and the positive role of Buddhism introduced into China.

In 1913, Tao Menghe returned to China after completing his studies. He first served as a professor of Beijing Higher Normal School, and later served as a professor, department head, dean of the Faculty of Arts, and dean of Peking University. very dense.When Cai Yuanpei entered Peking University in 1917, Dow strongly sponsored the reform of Peking University. In January 1919, he invited Yang Changji, Ma Xulun and other professors to initiate the establishment of the Peking University Philosophy Research Association. ", and actively participated in the alternative culture movement that opposed the old culture.According to Wu Baosan, Luo Ergang and other researchers who worked in the Institute of Sociology, Tao Menghe was a "knowledgeable expert" who had a great understanding of sociology, economics, political science, literature, history, geography, geology, Astronomy and other kinds of knowledge, it can be said that they know everything, and they are all well-known. During the Peking University period, the vigor and prestige were not inferior to those of Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, and Hu Shi. In March 1919, Zhang Xiruo, who was studying in Europe, received several magazines from Hu Shi. After reading them, he expressed his opinion to Hu: "In "New Youth", Tao Lugong seems to have a solid foundation in his studies. Most of the rest are Jiang Menglin's so-called "water without a source". Li Dazhao seems to be a newcomer to power, and his works "The Victory of Bolshevism" and "Federationism and the World Organization", although the former is empty and does not mention the actual policies of Bolshevism, the latter The conclusion is that the four laws of thinking are not without mechanical [mechanical], but viewed as a whole, they are not absurd, and can be called trendy.” Whether this evaluation is appropriate is another matter, at least it shows that Tao Menghe was a cutting-edge figure when he was young .Of course, there are also some more cutting-edge young scholars who do not pay attention to Dow's academic ability, or are increasingly dismissive.When Luo Jialun, one of the student leaders at the time, recalled the characteristics of the founding of "New Youth" and several editors, he said in a mocking tone: "There is another inexplicable one, Tao Menghe, Tao is a British student. He reads a lot of foreign books and is a good reading consultant, but his Chinese characters are too bad, and his reading is not as simple as Hu Shizhi's, and he has no ability to summarize, and the articles he writes are very stupid (He also published a "Menghe Wencun", which is really ridiculous); but because he can talk about social issues, family systems, etc., he also became an editor."

Although the benevolent sees benevolence and the wise sees wisdom, it is an indisputable fact that Tao Menghe had a pivotal academic status and personal connections at Peking University at that time.According to Xiao San’s recollection, when Mao Zedong was working as a book registrar in the Peking University Library in 1918, through the introduction of Yang Changji, Mao took Xiao to visit Cai Yuanpei, Hu Shi, Tao Menghe and other celebrities in Peking University. In early 1920, after the death of Peking University professor Yang Changji, Cai Yuanpei, Ma Yinchu, Hu Shi, Tao Menghe and four others jointly published a "Notice" to collect funds from Peking University teachers and students.In the past 37 years, during the massive "Anti-Rightist Movement" planned by Mao Zedong, Tao Menghe once publicly expressed his opinion that Mao's method of struggle was a catastrophe for intellectuals.Mao Zedong learned of Tao's "nonsense" through Guo Moruo, and was furious. He wanted to give Tao a color, but suddenly remembered the past at Peking University, especially the collapse of Professor Yang, the only spiritual and economic pillar of the Yang family. When he died, Tao Menghe, as one of the celebrities in Peking University, gave him moral and economic consideration and care.Grateful for his old kindness, Mao Zedong only adopted the method of knocking a mountain and shaking a tiger, and issued a stern warning to Dow through Guo Moruo, telling him to shut up and stop humming indiscriminately in his face, otherwise he would be taken down on the spot and punished.Since then, Tao Menghe has been silent like a cicada, keeping his mouth shut in all previous campaigns, holding all the sullenness and resentment in his heart, and finally died of depression under the pressure of politics. The flesh and blood suffering we have experienced can be described as a great blessing among misfortunes.

Because he was more compatible with Cai Yuanpei academically and politically, Tao Menghe enthusiastically contributed to the reform and development plan of Peking University presided over by Cai. Tao himself won the trust and support of Cai Yuanpei and Peking University professors, especially the European and American schools. At the beginning of 1919, Tao Menghe went to Europe for inspection. Lu Xun briefly recorded in his diary on February 12: "Xiang Wan went to the European and American Scholars Association, and many people were Tao Menghe's farewell trip to Europe. There were three seats and more than 20 people. Come back at night." During Dow's inspection trip to Europe, he always paid attention to recruiting talents for Peking University.When he met Li Siguang and Ding Xielin (Ding Xilin) ​​in England and fought each other, he felt that the two young people had extraordinary skills, profound Taoism, outstanding talents, vision and courage to do great things, so he quickly wrote to Hu Shi with full of enthusiasm. With admiration, he praised Li and Ding as "not many talents", and they will surely make great achievements in the future. "I hope to have a discussion with the principal. It will be great if we can get two gentlemen to come to our school." Later, both Li and Ding were hired, which added two heavyweight "sea turtle" professors to Peking University.Later, Li and Ding served as directors of the Institute of Geology and the Institute of Physics of the Academia Sinica respectively. In August 1920, Tao Menghe, Hu Shi, Jiang Menglin, Wang Zheng, Zhang Zuxun, Li Dazhao, and Gao Yihan jointly issued the "Declaration for Freedom", which stated: "We were unwilling to talk about actual politics, but actual politics , but not for a moment does not hinder us.” Therefore, we have a thorough awareness that political savvy must first rely on the awareness of the people.Without developing "the true spirit of freedom of thought and judgment, there will be no people willing to fight for freedom; without people willing to shed blood and sweat for freedom, there will never be real freedom."

According to Hu Shi, he met Ding Wenjiang, a famous geologist, who was introduced by Tao Menghe. Since then, Ding Wenjiang has become Hu Shi's best friend. At the beginning of May 1922, under the influence of "Brother Ding", Hu Shi changed his idea of ​​not talking about politics for 20 years, and founded the "Working Hard Weekly", which mainly talked about politics.After the publication of this publication, it was published in the second issue drafted by Hu Shi and signed by 16 people including Cai Yuanpei, Ding Wenjiang, Tao Menghe, and tried their best to advocate "good government doctrine".Although this move quickly became an old dream of the past, Ding Wenjiang, who thought he was experienced, was sent by the warlord Sun Chuanfang to exercise power in Shanghai and quickly ended up in disgrace. The "cannon" Fu Sinian killed, but after all, it was a very valuable effort by Chinese intellectuals to interfere in politics.This is also the internal reason why Hu Shiwei and his friends had a vow of "not talking about politics for 20 years, not engaging in politics for 20 years", and later had to talk about politics or even participate in politics.

For the ideal of this reform, Tao Menghe showed great compassion and great ambition, and advocated conducting surveys in all aspects of society, especially rural surveys, to analyze and put forward opinions on China's social problems.He personally participated in the investigation and published social investigation articles such as "Life of Beijing Rickshaw Drivers", "Analysis of the Chinese People", "Poverty and Population".In the article, in addition to calling "democracy is a noble ideal...we must try to improve the level of the people so that they are qualified to practice that ideal" and so on.He also pointedly pointed out that "China's poverty has little to do with population and has a lot to do with politics and economy", which is the fundamental crux of hindering the development of productive forces.

In February 1926, a social and religious group in the United States notified the China Education and Culture Foundation (hereinafter referred to as the China Foundation) in Beijing that it was willing to donate a special fund for three years and entrust the society to conduct social surveys.The China Foundation immediately decided to accept the grant, and set up a social investigation department under the association, specializing in social investigations, and hired Tao Menghe, who is well-known in the academic circle, as the director to fully preside over the work of the investigation department.Tao Po simply accepted his appointment, gathered a group of like-minded people, and started tossing around in a hurry.At the beginning of its establishment, there were 8 researchers and statisticians in the investigation department, the main backbones such as Fan Hong, Yang Ximeng, Wang Zijian, etc., all graduated from Peking University.

The so-called China Foundation was originally an administrative organization established in 1925 to manage the second return of the Boxer Indemnity by the United States. In May 1924, the U.S. Congress passed a bill, deciding to return the balance of China’s Boxer Indemnity and the interest of about US$12 million to China and pay it in installments.At that time, both Chinese and foreign people believed that this fund should be used as a fund for the development of Chinese culture and education. However, in modern China, the warlords were in chaos and the political situation was changing. The board of directors of the main fund jointly manages and uses this huge sum of money.The board of directors not only decides the field of funding and the intensity of investment; it also manages capital and purchases securities to make the fund profitable.Considering that the balance of the Geng fund will eventually be used up, it is decided to set up a fund and accept donations for a long-term purpose.The reason why the U.S. government acts in this way is mainly based on the consideration of maintaining long-term interests in China and spreading American cultural and political values; while the Chinese government believes that it can develop education and other undertakings and accelerate the pace of modernization.The two have their own ideas and have their own gains, so they hit it off and quickly put them into the operating track.

After its establishment, the highest decision-maker of the China Foundation belongs to the board of directors, and the chairman of the China Foundation is in charge of the daily work.At the beginning of its establishment, Fan Jingsheng and Zhou Yichun successively served as the secretary-general, and Ren Hongjun served as the special secretary and executive secretary of the association.According to Ren Hongjun: "Since the news that the United States returned the Geng money for the second time in the 14th year of the Republic of China came out, the education circles across the country felt a strange excitement. The reason is that in the era when China's education and cultural funds were often famine, this The money of more than one million yuan a year is like a new force, and everyone hopes that it can produce a little miracle." He also said: "The board of directors of the China Education and Culture Fund, this organization, is a condition for the United States to return the money. At that time, the Nationalist Government had not yet made the Northern Expedition, and the warlords in the north were on the verge of collapse. The U.S. government did not directly hand over the money to the Chinese government, but asked to set up a Sino-U.S. joint board of directors to manage it. To be honest, it was an expression of distrust for the government at that time. However, the name of this meeting is not "China and the United States" but "China", and it also means that this organization is completely Chinese. This cannot but be said to be the respect of the Americans for us." According to the agreement between China and the United States, this Only the China Foundation has the sole right to control the sum of money, and its purpose is to "promote the cause of Chinese education and culture."Since "educational culture" is a very broad concept, the China Foundation will limit the meaning of "educational culture" to scientific undertakings.Later, "China Foundation will further restrict, and define the scope of science as natural science and its application. Although social sciences occasionally join in, they are no longer an important part of China Foundation's business."