Chapter 23 Section 4 Disappearance of Academic Giants

At the same time when the academic circles in mainland China, represented by Guo Moruo, were criticizing Dong, Dong Zuobin, who went to Taiwan to "prepare to be buried", was not prepared to die immediately, but was thinking about ways to change the predicament of his life, continue to live, and live a better life. .Not long after Dong Zuobin came to Taiwan with his family from the mainland, with the support and instigation of Zhu Jiahua, Fu Sinian and others, he founded the academic journal "Mainland Magazine" and served as the publisher.Before his death, Fu Sinian was in a hurry to write an article to get the manuscript fee, and asked his wife Yu Dacai to buy cotton to make a pair of cotton trousers to keep out the cold, just to contribute to the "Mainland Magazine" run by the director.But when Fu's article was published and Dong Zuobin brought the manuscript fee to Fu's residence with tears in his eyes, Fu Sinian had passed away.As the director of the Institute of History and Philology and the president of National Taiwan University, Fu Sinian formed a small family with his wife Yu Dacai, and his living conditions were so poor.As for Dong Zuobin, who has 10 children, one can imagine the life of his family.After Hu Shi became the dean of the "Academia Sinica", Jiang Dongxiu came to Taiwan from the United States and learned that Hu's breakfast only ate a little porridge and a little pumpkin. He felt that the food was too bitter and wanted to add some staple food and dishes, but Hu Shi stopped him.Hu talked about the colleagues of the Institute of History and Philology living in the Yangmei era. After the 20th of each month, several families would use pumpkin and salt to cook porridge to survive until the next month’s salary, and then they would return to the next month’s 20th. I have to rely on pumpkin and salt to cook porridge to survive.The number one family among the "several families" mentioned by Hu Shi is Dong Zuobin.

Even if you live by cooking porridge with pumpkins and salt, you can’t lie on the bed waiting to die or squat on the eaves all day long cursing Jiang’s father and son for their neglect of people’s sentiments and lack of compassion. .Therefore, shortly after Fu Sinian became the director of the Institute of History and Philology, Dong Zuobin devoted his energy to presiding over the construction of the office building and dormitory project in Nangang of the Institute of History and Philology.At that time, intellectuals in the construction industry and academic institutions were not as enthusiastic about taking kickbacks for construction as they were in Taiwan or the mainland decades later, and they had the saying and practice of "building a building and getting rich with a bunch of dogs" (South Press : There is also a saying that a group of dogs fell down, that is, the corrupt person was caught in prison), even if there is, with the education Dong Zuobin received and the principles of conducting himself in the world, there is little room for profit from power.A few years have passed in a flash, and seeing buildings erected one after another, the life of the Dong family is still extremely difficult, and it is not easy to even have a full stomach in many cases.After Dong Zuobin was a part-time lecturer in the Department of Archeology and Anthropology at National Taiwan University, several close colleagues often saw him buy a bag of peanuts from the canteen on campus every time he came home from get out of class, and ate them deliciously while walking. Ask him why he always buys peanuts?

Dong said that he was a little hungry after the lecture, so he ate a few peanuts to satisfy his hunger, but he couldn't afford anything else, and peanuts were cheaper.The other party asked inexplicably, why not take it home and eat it?Dong pinched the peanuts with his fingers and put them in his mouth, and said with an embarrassed smile: "My family has a lot of index fingers. If you take it back, this bag of peanuts will not be mine." Many years later, Dong Min, Dong Zuobin's son, confirmed the story and believed that it was Dong Zuobin's assistant Qu Wanli in the Lizhuang era who first spread the story. Cheapskates on the board.According to Qu Wanli's vision, how can a university professor and an academician of Academia Sinica eat snacks on campus? Isn't it shameful to do so?Who else but old-fashioned would look like this?Therefore, Dong Min believed that Qu Wanli spread the matter with ill intentions, but it just failed to achieve the expected slander effect.Because everyone who heard this story was moved by the difficult life of the Dong family. No one thought about whether Dong Zuobin was old-fashioned or stingy in Henan. He ate a few peanuts in front of teachers and students on the National Taiwan University campus. It's not a big deal, let alone something to embarrass.In this regard, Dong Min added: "In fact, the Dong family was really poor at that time. My father had the habit of working late at night to do research and write articles. There was a small iron cylinder under his desk, which contained some biscuits and pastries. When I stayed up late at night and was hungry, I took out a little stuff from the iron cylinder. At first, the children didn’t know it, but after they found out the secret, they secretly ate it when he was not at home. As a result, one night In the middle of the night, my father looked for something to eat from the small iron tube. When he saw that it was empty, he was very depressed. He got up and walked around the room a few times, sighing. The empty iron cylinder understood, and shed tears on the spot."

Regardless of Qu Wanli's real motivation for spreading the story of Dong Zuobin eating peanuts on the National Taiwan University campus, it is an indisputable fact that the Dong family is poor, and this fact is also an important reason for Dong Zuobin to leave Hong Kong. In early 1955, the Institute of Oriental Culture of the University of Hong Kong intended to hire Dong Zuobin to serve as a professor in Hong Kong.Due to day-to-day fatigue and poverty, Dong Zuobin's physical condition was extremely weak at this time, and he hoped to find a quiet place to rest for a while.In addition, the Nangang project had been completed and put into use. Dong felt that he was worthy of the trust of his superiors and colleagues, so he agreed to the employment of the University of Hong Kong.After Dong left, Li Ji took over as the director, and Qu Wanli was the secretary.

Although Dong Zuobin went to Hong Kong to get a higher salary and rest time, after all, the academic atmosphere of Hong Kong Island cannot be compared with that of Taiwan. The fish left the sea.Academic life is severely challenged, and their inner loneliness and restlessness are difficult to be humane. In 1956, Dong Zuobin published an article "Prospects for the Future of Oracle Bone Science" in Hong Kong. He wrote in a sad style: "I visited Korea and Japan last year, and the Philippines the year before. The oracle bone inscriptions published by many scholars on the mainland. As for the dynamics of European and American sinologists, it is also seen in the newsletter. Looking forward to the world, the future of oracle bone study is very bleak. The dullness of oracle bone study is also the negativity of Chinese ancient history research Stagnated, lost for no reason."

In 1958, Hu Shi arrived in Taiwan from the United States to serve as the president of the "Academia Sinica", and strongly invited Dong Zuobin to return to Taiwan to continue his previous teaching and research work.Feeling extremely depressed, Dong Zuobin obeyed Hu's call and resigned from the University of Hong Kong in the fall of that year to return to Taipei.Dong Zuobin, who returned to the Institute of History and Philology, had no position to speak of, and no organization to return to. He had to be a full-time professor at National Taiwan University, and he was in an embarrassing situation.As the dean, Hu Shi felt very sorry. After a lot of painstaking considerations and balances, he finally came up with a solution that was acceptable to all parties, that is, to set up a laboratory of oracle bone science at the Institute of History and Philology, with Dong Zuobin as the director to preside over it. Work.At that time, the archaeological hall in the Institute of History and Philology had been completed, which happened to allow this research room to settle in and have enough space to do research on oracle bone inscriptions.Regarding this delicate plan, Dong Zuobin himself said: "This is an opportunity for me to devote my remaining years to serving the oracle bone science." Group', because in the organizational regulations, the room can be large or small, the big one can be equal to the department, and the small one can be attached to the department. But we didn't think too much at this time." It opened in November 1958 with the sound of gongs. Qu Wanli, Zhang Bingquan and Liu Yuanlin, who were recruited in Lizhuang during the Anti-Japanese War, continued to assist Dong Zuobin in his work.

The plan Hu Shi came up with naturally aroused discussion and suspicion from the outside world because it contained subtle relationships that were not humane.Li Aozhe once said this: "After Dong Zuobin lost the director of the Institute of History and Philology, he had no group to return to, so he set up a special "Oracle Bone Science Research Office" in order to escape the pressure of Li Ji and save his face. A foreshadowing - he also planned to leave the group one day and set up another 'Institute of Oracle Bone Science'. But he died before he was able to do so." The matter fell through like this.Whether what Li Ao said is reasonable or not is open to debate, but it was 1963 when he said that Dong Zuobin "died first".This year, not only Dong Zuobin passed away alone in the academic world in Taiwan, but there were two heavyweights ahead of him, one was Zhu Jiahua, and the other was Dong Tonghe.

Regarding the death of Dong Zuobin and the other three, Shi Zhangru said with sorrow in his later years: "Fifty-two years is really an unfortunate year. Several colleagues passed away. On the evening of January 3, Wang Zhiwei telegraphed the former Dean Zhu. He passed away in the afternoon of the same day. Mr. Zhu was an important person who laid the foundation of the Institute in Nangang. He was buried in Yangmingshan on January 15.According to Shi Zhangru, "Because it took a long time to go up the mountain, the funeral ceremony will be held at ten o'clock, and the public sacrifice will end at half past ten, which is much simpler than that of Mr. Hu."

Obviously, compared with Hu Shi, the fundamental reason why Zhu's funeral was "much simpler" may not be explained by the laborious and time-consuming climbing up the mountain. "Sorrowful Huai Xunshuo" raised his forehead, and the gaps and hidden secrets in it made the bystanders see clearly.In any case, Zhu Jiahua, as a heavyweight "predator" who has been a powerful figure in China's political and academic circles for more than 30 years, has disappeared from the sight of all living beings. 33 days after Zhu Jiahua was buried, that is, on June 18, Dong Tonghe left with him.Shi Zhangru said: "Mr. Dong Tonghe is the smartest, most capable and hardworking person among our peers. He often has his own ideas, and even Mr. Fu can't persuade him. In the rear of the Anti-Japanese War, he was awarded the honorary title when he was an associate researcher. Having won the Yang Quan scholarship, it shows how talented he is.” Shi said that Dong’s award was in Lizhuang, Sichuan.At that time, Dong Tonghe could be said to be in the prime of his life, full of vigor, high-spirited and arrogant, and he had the momentum to follow Fu Sinian's "conscientious soldier".It's a pity that heaven is jealous of talents, unfortunately suffering from liver cancer, and unable to break free from the call of death, it is extremely embarrassing.

On November 23, five months after Dong Tonghe left, Mr. Dong Zuobin also passed away.Shi Zhangru said: "It coincides with the day when President Kennedy (Kennedy) was assassinated and died. We say that Mr. Dong is a big man who can die on the same day as Kennedy. Mr. Dong's health is not bad, but he doesn't like sports, and Mr. Dong is busy. He wrote about the "Mainland Magazine" and served as the director. He went to Hong Kong to teach and returned to Taiwan and served as the director of the Oracle Research Office. He was very busy, so his colleagues once persuaded him to wear dentures, but he was too busy. If you don’t eat well, your digestion will affect your health. If Mr. Dong can cure his dental problems as soon as possible, he will be able to take care of his body easily.”

As a fellow villager and colleague, Shi Zhangru, who has worked together for decades, can be said to have a deep understanding of Dong Zuobin.But things in the world are always clear to the onlookers, and the authorities are obsessed. Dong Zuobin may not realize that a tooth problem has caused so much trouble, and caused death to come to pester him endlessly, and finally lost his life.However, what the Shi family said is just the words of the family.According to Dong Yujing, Dong Zuobin's son, who had been Chiang Kai-shek's imperial physician for decades, Dong Zuobin had suffered from high blood pressure, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, and family-inherited diabetes for many years. Syndrome of the disease, which caused him to suffer from a paresis at a young age that should not have a stroke, and has never recovered. From the chronology compiled by Dong Yujing later, it can be seen that in 1959, that is, on May 10, eight months after Dong Zuobin returned to Taiwan from Hong Kong, he "suddenly suffered a stroke and was unable to speak. He was admitted to the National Taiwan University Hospital for treatment for three months and healed. Language is austere."Afterwards, Dong's health deteriorated until he suffered another heart attack and died of a stroke.Shi Zhangru and others who went to the hospital to visit saw: "Mr. Dong's mouth is crooked and he can't speak. At that time, everyone had limited medical knowledge and didn't know what the problem was. Later, they found out that it was a stroke (cerebral hemorrhage). During Mr. Dong's hospitalization, his daughter Mr. Dong is often taken care of by the side. Mr. Dong is often in a coma, unconscious, unaware of pooping, and eats very little. Occasionally he is conscious and can talk and laugh. At this time, the symptoms should have improved a little. There were quite a few. Especially on November 22, when Mr. Dong came to his senses and explained some things, we all felt a little relieved. Unexpectedly, Mr. Dong passed away on the 23rd. He was such a happy person as usual. If it's not good, it can't be delayed for such a long time. During the nearly eight months of being hospitalized, I must have suffered a lot and felt extremely uncomfortable." On November 13, 1963, Dong Zuobin died of illness in National Taiwan University Hospital.On the day of the funeral, the funeral committee will be composed of National Taiwan University, the "Academia Sinica", the "Ministry of Education", relatives and friends, etc. The specifications are basically the same as those of Hu Shi's funeral, and the chief funeral committee is Huang Jilu, the Minister of Education.Because the scholars of the "Academia Sinica" lost Hu, Zhu, Weng, and Dong in two years, the funeral committee decided to officially name the cemetery where these four scholars were buried as "Nangang Scholars Mountain". .During the Tiangong sacrifice, Huang Jilu, Qian Siliang, Wang Shijie, Kong Decheng, Li Ji, etc. were the chief priests, and Chiang Kai-shek personally wrote the "Ji Xue Yi Wei" on the forehead as a gift.KMT leaders Yu Youren, Mo Dehui, Ye Gongchao, "Vice President" Chen Cheng and other senior officials attended the meeting. Colleagues in the academic and cultural circles mourned, and more than a thousand people held the knot.There are more than 20 institutions, 6 small vehicles and 4 large vehicles, all the way from the funeral home to Nangang, where they are buried in the "Academia Sinica" Gaoshan Zhiyang, next to Hu Shi's tomb.A generation of oracle bone masters bid farewell to the world.The death of Dong Zuobin marked the collapse of a solid and grand pillar of the Institute of History and Philosophy, and only Li Ji, Shi Zhangru, and the younger Gao Quxun were the only ones who could compete with Dong. struggling to support.The entire Institute of History and Philology has also entered into the misty years of forming cliques, fighting for power and profit, and personnel entering and leaving.Because of the establishment of the "Academia Sinica" Institute of Ethnic Studies, Ling Chunsheng and Rui Yifu, who were originally close friends who had gradually created a gap, broke openly and fought for independence.Li Ji was like controlling a ship shaking violently in a huge storm, and he had to go all out to steer it. Although many foreign universities invited him to take up the post, they were all rejected.For this reason, Zhang Guangzhi, who has always been ignorant of his teacher's approach, believed that Li was a lover, and he was unwilling to give up his position and let others do it. It was not until his later years that he realized: "I strongly realized that Li Ji The fundamental reason why he repeatedly rejected job invitations from some universities in the United States and did not immigrate there was that he felt that he had to stay in China to see the whole process of Anyang research. Before Mr. Li Ji passed away, most of the excavated All the materials have been made public. For this reason, we cannot but thank Mr. Li for fulfilling his duty of leading the excavation of the Yin Ruins for decades." Zhang Guangzhi's understanding is top-notch among his contemporaries, and his understanding of Li Ji's heart is far beyond that of ordinary classmates. It cannot be said that Li Ji firmly escorted the country's important weapons to Taiwan, like Hu Shishimei and Mei Yiqi. Like keeping the Tsinghua Fund, it is also for a "big event", but it does contain this element, at least for a responsibility and a scholar's cultural conscience.Now that the country's most important treasures have arrived on Taiwan Island, as the excavators, protectors, and researchers of these treasures, they should take corresponding responsibilities and link this responsibility with the academic lifeline of the nation.It is precisely for this historical mission that Li Ji entered the later stage of his 80-year-old life, and wrote in English an epoch-making book "Anyang" that comprehensively summarizes the excavations of the Yin Ruins in Anyang and has classic significance, which has been successively published in the United States and Japan publishing.The purpose of Li’s approach is to display the research results of the Yin Ruins and the glorious history of the Chinese nation in the academic circles of the East and the West, and win a world-wide reputation for the long and glorious Chinese culture and the Chinese scholars born out of this culture.Thinking back to the war-torn war years, Li Ji and his family went from Nanjing to Changsha, from Changsha to Guilin, Vietnam, and Kunming to Lizhuang in Nanxi, Sichuan.It was so easy to look forward to the demobilization of the Anti-Japanese War and return to Beijing, and the civil war broke out again. At the end of 1948, when the mountains were shaking and the ground was shaking, Li Ji, his wife and their only son, Li Guangmo, who was studying at Tongji University in Shanghai at the time, boarded the "Zhongding" warship and escorted a group of The batch of heavy treasures crossed the turbulent Taiwan Strait, arrived in Keelung, and then transferred to Taipei.According to Li Ji's plan, his son can enter National Taiwan University to study after arriving in Taiwan and continue to complete his studies.But after living in Taipei for three months, his young son, Li Guangmo, felt that the place was noisy with people, the social order was chaotic, and there was nothing to see or play, so he felt depressed for a while.At this time, Li Guangmo received a letter from several classmates of Tongji University in Shanghai, hoping that he would return to the mainland and study together.Attracted by the friendship of his classmates, the young Li Guangmo returned to the mainland alone after seeking the consent of his parents to continue his studies at Tongji University in Shanghai.To the surprise of the family, as the war situation took a turn for the worse, it was impossible for Li Guangmo to return to Taiwan.In the following years, Li Ji and his wife were in Taipei, and Li Guangmo was in Beijing. Although the father (mother) and son were deeply affectionate, the strait was blocked and the information was cut off. Only Yiyi's longing touched the three beating hearts to collide and intertwine with each other, and blessed them from afar.With the coming of Nanyan from the north, the clouds roll and the clouds relax, and dozens of springs and autumns have passed, and Li Ji has entered the twilight years of old age.With the passing away of a group of relatives and friends, Li Ji's longing for his homeland became more and more intense. He fondly missed his friends Liang Sicheng and Liang Siyong brothers who stayed in the mainland, and of course he missed his son Li Guangmo even more, and the relationship with Li in Kunming. Zhuang's two beloved daughters, Hezheng and Fengzheng, drove the crane west one after another.The longing for the old relatives gradually became a hard fossil in Li Ji's heart, and he could not get rid of it. In his letter to Fei Weimei, Li Ji said sadly, "Those who have the same views and feelings as me Old friends were passing away one by one, which certainly diminished my sense of intimacy with those around me.”This is the last personal letter written by Li Ji in his life. At this time, he has exhausted his salary and is about to leave the world with joy and regret. On August 1, 1979, Li Chi died of a heart attack at his apartment on Wenzhou Street in Taipei. This day coincided with the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Department of Archeology and Anthropology at National Taiwan University, which he founded. Life is limited, the article is forever, and the salary is exhausted.Li Ji is gone, but his spiritual thoughts are injected into the blood of the latecomers along with the royal works he left behind, turning into a new spiritual force, motivating the postgraduates to continue to forge ahead on the winding path of science.As Zhang Guangzhi said: "For anyone who is willing to study Chinese archaeology, that is, willing to study ancient Chinese artifacts, Li Ji's archaeological works are must-reads, and will remain so until the foreseeable future...probably Some people will criticize him for not being able to show theoretical omnipotence, accusing him of not being able or even willing to pay more attention to Walter Taylor's "combination method" in his later years. But so far, in the vast land of Chinese archaeology , no one has ever surpassed him in attaining the highest exemplar of scholarship. With his death a giant disappears." Just 24 years after Li Ji's death, news spread about Shi Zhangru's death in Taiwan.According to a report by "United Daily News" on March 19, 2004: Shi Zhangru, the first generation of Chinese archaeologists known as "archaeologists", a master of Chinese archaeology, and an academician of Taiwan's "Academia Sinica", died of heart failure at 10:52 a.m. on March 18 at Cathay Hospital in Taiwan. Died of illness at the age of 104. Shi Zhangru was not only one of the founders of Chinese archaeology and a master of Chinese archaeology, but also the founder of contemporary archaeological work in Taiwan. His death marked the end of the first generation of modern Chinese archaeology. Shi Zhangru has demonstrated the "resilience" of a scholar throughout his life. The works he published before the age of 70 were all single-article studies, but after the age of 70, he began to publish works. The older he was, the harder he worked, and the more successful he became.It is said that at the end of his life, Shi Zhangru was still full of nostalgia for the mainland and full of ambitions for academics. When he was ill, he often talked about place names such as Anyang and Xiaotun in his dreams, or about working in the field with his archaeological partners.In the eyes of later generations of scholars, Shi Zhangru is a scholar who "only thinks in his life". In the later years of his life, Shi Zhangru, who was lying on the sickbed, often returned to Anyang Xiaotun in his dreams to continue his excavation work. When he was awake, he often recalled the mountains and rivers he had traveled in the mainland, especially the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War. The mountains and rivers that have migrated for thousands of miles.He has not forgotten the spring city of Kunming, which is like spring all the year round, with bright flowers and fruits, and the tragic scene of the enemy plane bombing; he has not forgotten Lizhuang Chestnut Ao, Sichuan, which has left his imprint of life and warmth after avoiding it for six years. Mountain dwellings; he has not forgotten the surging passion brought by the surging water and rolling waves at the end of the Yangtze River-of course, the mountains, fields and local customs that are in his blood.Just three days before his death, Shi Zhangru asked Chen Cungong, a researcher at the Institute of Modern History of Taiwan's "Academia Sinica", to take the newly published "Interview with Mr. Shi Zhangru" (according to the south: Chen is one of the interviewers) Went to the hospital bed, signed with trembling hands, and asked Mrs. Chen to send this memoir, which contains a large number of pages of memoirs, which records the contents of the Institute of History and Philology and himself in Changsha, Kunming, and Lizhuang during the Anti-Japanese War, to Sichuan. The People's Government of Lizhuang Town, Yibin City, Province, to express their gratitude and nostalgia for this land and the people-this is the last handwriting left by Shi Zhangru before his death, and it is also the last communication with the mainland of the motherland. The final destination is Li Zhuang, China, which bears his youth and dreams and will never be forgotten.