Chapter 33 The second section of the scholar's backbone under the iron heel

Regarding Liu Wendian's character and demeanor when he was teaching at Peking University and Tsinghua University, Qian Mu and Zhou Zuoren have already outlined it, and it is generally not bad.Liu Wendian's "bereavement of his son in his later years" mentioned in Qian's article happened after the famous "September 18th Incident" in 1931.Faced with the Japanese army's aggressive occupation of Northeast China and its invasion of North China, Zhang Xueliang's army retreated without a fight, and the Northeast fell.In order to urge the Kuomintang government to send troops to resist Japan, young students from Peiping not only went south to petition the government in groups, but also launched a petition action on the track.At that time, Liu Wendian's eldest son, Liu Chengzhang, was studying at Fu Jen Catholic University in Beiping, and wanted to participate in the operation of lying on the track. After returning home and asking for instructions, he got Liu Wendian's support.As a professor, Liu believes that in the critical period of the life and death of the Chinese nation, unless some extreme measures are taken, it is not enough to make the high-ranking party leaders and military and government officials wake up and realize the power of the people at the bottom.At that time, Beiping had entered the severe winter season when dripping water turned into ice. Liu Chengzhang, who was frail, was suffering from hunger and cold because he moved all night in the snowy and rainy wilderness. Unfortunately, he contracted the wind and cold and died.

Liu Wendian was 42 years old when he lost his son, which was the heyday of his life, not the "old age" as Qian Mu said.It is conceivable that the loss of a middle-aged son gave Liu a mental blow. Amidst the great grief, his already thin body gradually collapsed.Later, with the "Great Wall Anti-Japanese War" initiated by Feng Yuxiang, Liu Wendian seemed to see a glimmer of hope for saving the nation.The national calamity and family enmity forced him to cheer up. Every time he took class, he would tell the students a passage about "the danger of the country", and told his disciples about Japan's national history based on his personal experience of staying in Japan twice and his observation and research on the history of this nation. China's sinister intentions and historical background call on students to get up and study Japan in order to find the root, crux and "death spot" of this nation's insanity and unscrupulousness, and give a fatal blow in the future war of resistance.At the same time, Liu Wendian, who was extremely bloody, was translating materials related to Japan day and night, sometimes working all night long, with the grief and indignation of his country being ruined and his son perishing.According to a student’s recollection: “One day when I was in Chinese class, I was so exhausted that I could barely speak. I said it was because I didn’t rest until three o’clock in the night because I translated books last night. I heard Mr. Liu’s words, and tears really came out of my eyes.”

During this period, Chen Jitang, known as the "Southern Heavenly King", contacted Sun Ke, Li Zongren and others to plot a rebellion in Guangzhou, confronted the central government in Nanjing, and imitated Sun Yat-sen's method of convening an extraordinary congress in Guangzhou, and established the The "Extraordinary Meeting of the Central Executive Supervisory Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang", under the banner of "overthrowing the dictatorship", "protecting the party and saving the country", "Zhongzheng is dead, and Zhaoming is standing", proposed that the first, second, and third central executive supervisors of the Kuomintang Members who support anti-Chiang (except Communist Party members) will naturally become members of the extraordinary meeting.Chen Jitang, Li Zongren and others invited Wang Jingwei, who was hiding in Hong Kong, to be the leader. Under Wang Jingwei's auspices, the Guangzhou National Government was established, denying the legitimacy of the Nanjing National Government, and openly sang against the Chiang Kai-shek clique.When the new cabinet was in urgent need of recruits, Chen Jitang thought that Liu Wendian was a member of the old alliance, served as Sun Yat-sen's secretary, and was insultingly slapped twice by Chiang Kai-shek in public when he was the president of Anhui University. So he invited Liu Wendian many times and paid a lot of money to hire Liu Wendian to leave Pingping and go to Guangdong to discuss "the overall situation of resisting Japan and rejuvenating the country".Liu Wendian knew very well that this gang of mobs were only seeking self-interest and disregarding the dangers of the country and the nation, so they could not achieve anything great, so he looked up to the sky and sighed: "At a time when the Japanese invaded China, the mountains and rivers were broken, and the national crisis was serious, we should unite and resist Japan. Ignoring the enemy at the moment, what kind of warlords are engaging in melee? If there is no skin, how can the general Mao be attached?" So he politely declined, and returned a large amount of money to show his resolve.

In the midst of internal and external difficulties and sentimentality, Liu Wendian was exhausted physically and mentally until he fell ill.People with good deeds suggested that taking a little opium can heal the pain of the soul.Liu acted according to the plan. Although his expression improved, he gradually became addicted to opium and couldn't extricate himself. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident broke out in July 7, 1937, Beiping fell under the iron heel of the Japanese army. Liu Wendian was unable to leave Pingping and transfer to Changsha in time due to his family's encumbrance. I buried myself in research and knowledge, waiting for the opportunity to escape.With the establishment of the Japanese puppet regime in the occupied areas of North China, the rebels were like crucian carp crossing the river for a while, and the Eight Immortals crossed the sea to fight for power and position, each showing their magical powers.The whole of Beiping was full of arrogance and turbid waves rolled in.At that time, Liu Wendian's fourth younger brother, Liu Yunliu (named Guanting), was not reconciled to lagging behind, and soon defected and found a fat job in the Japanese puppet government in Eastern Jidong.When Yun Liu, who didn't know the severity, was full of joy and excitedly returned home, talked about it at the dinner table and showed complacency, Liu Wendian was furious, and immediately dropped his chopsticks and said, "I'm sick, so I don't want to eat with Guan Ting." " Huo Ran got up and said: "The upstart's clutter is not conducive to writing books, Guan Ting will choose a new residence from today." He unceremoniously expelled this fellow brother from the house.

Liu Yunliu rolled up his clothes and led his wife and children to leave with some resentment and dissatisfaction. Another traitor, Zhou Zuoren, a former colleague of Peking University, came to the door again and persuaded Liu Wendian to work in a pseudo-educational institution.Zhou said, "Brother Wen Dian is famous in the academic circle for his book "Huainan Honglie Jijie". Although the government is fake, education cannot be fake. With your knowledge and knowledge, you should go to the 'Maintenance Association' to maintain education and resist enslavement. "Liu Wendian suppressed his anger and said calmly and mildly: "You have your reasons, but the country and the nation are righteous, and integrity cannot be stained. The poets of the Tang Dynasty who were attached to An Lushan are sad. Scholars should cherish their feathers what!"

Zhou Zuoren said in a low voice with shame on his face: "Don't regard my colleagues in Liubei as Li Ling, but as Su Wu." After he finished speaking, he retreated out muttering something.After that, several groups of lobbyists with different identities came to lobby separately, but they were all rejected by Liu Wendian.Because of Liu Wendian's many years of studying in Japan and his reputation in the academic and political circles, the Japanese and puppet organizations were still unwilling to give up the plan to drag him into the water. .All letters between Liu Wendian and overseas friends were confiscated, and letters from domestic friends Wu Zhongxin, Yu Youren, Shao Lizi, Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, etc. were not spared.Facing the rummaging Japanese gendarmes, Liu Wendian, with his stubborn and introverted character, dug out a set of cassocks from somewhere and put them on his body. "Little Captain Pig Head" shook the letter and questioned, but Mrs. Liu kept sneering and sneering, puffing out smoke rings, without saying a word.Seeing this, a young translator with oily hair and noodles shouted in a standard Beijing oily accent: "You are a student studying in Japan, and you are proficient in Japanese. Why don't you answer the donkey prince's question?" Liu Wendian rolled his eyes at the other party and said coldly. : "I am ashamed to make a noise. Only you, the grandsons born to the eunuchs at the root of the imperial city, are willing to be the slaves and running dogs of the Japanese!" Hearing this, the translator became furious, jumped up suddenly, and pulled away He waved his hand to slap Liu's face, but was accidentally kicked by the "pig head captain" of the Japanese army. He hit his head on the wall and almost fainted. When he turned around, his face showed fear, and he covered his head with his hands and grinned. The ground whimpered for a while, then hid aside and said nothing more.

Faced with an increasingly dangerous environment, Liu Wendian knew that Peiping could not stay any longer, so he decided to try to escape as soon as possible and join his colleagues from Tsinghua University in the southwestern border.Before leaving, he solemnly wrote the poem "The heart of the minister is a magnetic needle, and he will not give up unless he guides the direction" to encourage himself. At the beginning of 1938, Liu Wendian entrusted a friend of the British embassy to buy a boat ticket, dressed up alone, quietly left Peiping, transferred to Tianjin, took a boat to Hong Kong and Haiphong, Vietnam, and entered Yunnan after traveling for more than two months.All the way up and down, suffering.When he saw the "public and private misery" caused by the war along the way, he had mixed feelings, and he cried out in his heart, "Yao's capital is Shunyang, when will it be restored? This mourning, mourning can be known".

On May 22 of that year, Liu Wendian took the Yunnan-Vietnam train and finally arrived at Mengzi, where the Faculty of Arts of Southwest Associated University is located.At this time, Liu Wendian's clothes were in tatters, his dark face was covered with travel dust, his body was emaciated, and he had nothing but a stick and a broken bundle in his hand, just like a wandering beggar.When he got out of the car with a light and thin body like a thatch, he walked 10 kilometers with a limp on a stick, and inquired all the way to the campus of the United Nations University. Unbearable, immediately throw away the things in your hands, clap your hands to straighten your clothes, and bow solemnly to the national flag three times.Li Bi raised his head, tears streaming down his face.A few days later, Liu Wendian's wife, Zhang Qiuhua, and her second son, Liu Pingzhang, escaped from Peiping and took a cruise from Tianjin to Yunnan via Hong Kong and Hanoi. The family was finally reunited.Four boxes of cultural materials, books and manuscripts carefully collected by Liu Wendian were taken out by his wife after going through all kinds of hardships and dangers, and they were temporarily kept by a student of Liu Wendian when they stayed in Hong Kong. Since or Kunming.When Liu Wendian heard this, he felt very bad, and loudly reprimanded his wife: "I have poured all my life's effort into these manuscripts. I would rather lose silk and satin than leave the books in Hong Kong!" The ominous premonition has finally become an unfortunate fact. At the end of 1941, the Pearl Harbor incident occurred, Hong Kong fell, and all four boxes of manuscripts were captured by the Japanese invaders, and their whereabouts were unknown, which became a lifelong regret.Later, when Liu was teaching students, he said: "All my books and materials were lost during the escape, so I will give you what is in my mind!" According to Zheng Qianshan, a student of Liu Wendian, after the end of the Anti-Japanese War, the National Government paid The committee sent a letter to Yunnan University in November 1947, informing Liu Wendian that four boxes of books lost in Hong Kong were found in the Ueno Library in Tokyo, and asked Liu to fill in the property loss report form and return application form, and then send it back to the Compensation Committee for compensation. The committee negotiates with relevant parties.Liu Wendian was overjoyed upon hearing the news, and immediately went through the formalities.Unexpectedly, the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party became more and more fierce, and the Nationalist government was on the verge of collapse. Liu's books and manuscripts were ignored, and the self-proclaimed governments and institutions of other parties were not recognized by the League of Nations and the Allied Command, so the matter died prematurely. In 1961, Liu Pingzhang, the second son of Liu Wendian, wrote a letter to Premier Zhou Enlai to report this matter. The Prime Minister’s Office replied: “Since Sino-Japanese relations have not returned to normal, it is not appropriate to mention this matter at present.”

The matter came to nothing.It is reported that the Yunnan Provincial Archives has a file of four boxes of books stolen by Liu Wendian when the Japanese invaded China. Liu Pingzhang learned that he would negotiate with the Japanese government to have these books and manuscripts returned to China. It was all later. However, Liu Wendian said that after several days of rest after arriving in Mengzi, his body and spirit improved significantly. After class, he often went for a walk in the suburbs with Chen Yinke, Wu Mi and others.One day, a few people walked to the shore of Nanhu Lake, and came across a local farmer covered in mud beating his wife violently.Liu Wendian usually hates men who are superior to women and who do not treat women as human beings.Seeing that the man was beating fiercely, he was furious, and stepped forward to question why he beat a weak woman so fiercely.Unexpectedly, the farmer didn't explain, and replied aggressively: "You don't care!" Yan Bi continued to beat his wife who had fallen to the ground screaming like a pig, foaming at the mouth.Seeing that the other party was so unruly, Liu Wendian was furious, pointed at the man's nose and cursed loudly: "Fuck you, there are things I can't control on Mengzi's land!" Rounding his arms, he slapped the opponent hard and loudly.The man was hit so hard, covered his face and looked up at Liu Wendian's upright and majestic demeanor, he looked like a gentleman with a background. He heard the other party speak Peking official dialect, and claimed that there was nothing he couldn't control in Mengzi territory. Feeling timid, he bowed his head and slipped away.

Looking at this dramatic scene, Wu Mi and Chen Yinke snickered in their hearts, and wanted to leave.Unexpectedly, real life is sometimes more dramatic than drama. I saw the woman lying on the ground with disheveled hair, foaming at the mouth, bruised nose, and swollen face standing up suddenly, from a wounded rabbit to a wild tiger. He jumped up with claws and claws, grabbed Liu Wendian's sleeve, asked why he hit her man for no reason, and then freed a hand to scratch Liu's neck and face.Liu Wendian was immediately stunned and didn't know how to explain.Luckily, Wu Mi and a few other boys from the lake surrounded her and captured the woman, and Liu Wendian, who was in a state of distress, took the opportunity to escape in desperation.This matter quickly spread as a joke in Mengzi branch school. Teachers and students expressed different opinions in the discussion. Some people think that the man should be beaten, but the woman is even more fucked. She may want to express an inexplicable psychology. , Cai En declared war on Liu Wendian at all costs.Regarding Liu's actions and various comments, Wang Li, a professor of the Chinese Department, did not take it seriously. He openly declared in an essay called "Between Couples": "It is inevitable for couples to turn against each other. However, the master pouted for three seconds. Clock, my wife rubbed her eyes for a while, it's really not worth recording in daily life. Even the master beat his wife until his body was bruised, and the wife twisted the master until his whole body was blue. Sometimes it is the element that enhances feelings, and the person who persuades them may not be a fool. Morrie Sadly, in "The Helpless Doctor", it is narrated that Skanal beat his wife, and a neighbor came to persuade him, and the wife said to the persuader, "I am happy to call him, but you don't care!" Really, beat Wife, a man who is forced to throw himself into a river or hang himself is not necessarily abandoned by his wife, nor does he necessarily abandon his wife; a woman who pulls her husband's hair or bites his wrist is not necessarily ready to hold her off." Some people say that this article is aimed at Liu Wendian. The emotion expressed from Nanhu's persuasion and humiliation means that Liu's ignorance of the world has made him angry.It seems that Master Liu has indeed done a stupid thing like a mouse getting into the bellows - getting angry at both ends.

After the Mengzi branch of the United Nations University moved to Kunming, Liu Wendian taught courses such as "Wen Xuan".The relatively quiet life and the smooth work at work allowed him to regain the feeling he had in Tsinghua Garden.Previously, Liu Wendian publicly declared that there are two and a half people in China who truly understand, one is Zhuangzi himself, the other is himself, and the other refers to Ma Xulun or Feng Youlan, because both Ma and Feng spoke from a philosophical point of view at that time.Another theory refers to a certain Japanese scholar, which means that he is the only one who really understands in China.Liu Wendian boasted so much, not because he was talking nonsense or because he was really "mentally abnormal".Whenever he gave a lecture, Wu Mi and other heavyweight professors of Chinese studies often went to listen to the lecture. Liu Wendian didn't say hello when he saw him, and still closed his eyes to give a speech as if no one else was there. Looking at Wu Mi who was in the last row of the classroom, he asked slowly, "What do you think, Brother Yuseng?" Wu Mi immediately stood up when he heard this, and nodded respectfully while answering: "Very good, very good!" Seeing this scene, Liu Wendian and the students couldn't help laughing. Such a situation made Liu Wendian less and less respectful of ordinary professors, and extremely despised modern literature, and even more contemptuous of scholars who engaged in new literary creation, declaring that "the ability to create literature cannot replace real learning."When a student asked Liu what he thought of the works of the modern writer Ba Jin, Liu Wendian said arrogantly: "I only know how to treat her as a mother, but I don't know how to treat her as a concubine." Colleague Shen Congwen who teaches at the United Nations University.Shen is a figure of the new generation in the era of Lin Huiyin's "wife's living room". Originally, he only had a primary education level. He had served as a soldier and a coolie. Western and Eastern "sea turtles" look, while modern literature is regarded as the last stream in the traditional Chinese academic system, and "Jing", "History", "Zi" and "Ji" are the avenues of learning, so Shen Congwen is quite a thing in school. "Sea turtles" big and small in the oceans despised him, and Shen kept referring to himself as a "countryman" in his articles. Once the alarm sounded, Japanese planes came to bomb, and all the teachers and students rushed to the wild mountains or air-raid shelters to escape. Liu Wendian was running wildly with a torn bag in his arms, and suddenly found a young man rushing in front of him, and he took a closer look. Shen Congwen, who is usually the most despised, immediately became angry, grabbed Shen by the collar, and shouted: "I ran to tell the students, why do you run for a new literature, if you want to run, you should be 'Zhuangzi' Run first!" Shen Congwen was not easy to compete with others because of his lower seniority and shy nature in the United Nations University.At this time, seeing the oriental "sea turtle" and "national treasure" Liu Wendian approaching aggressively like a plague god, he didn't dare to think about it, he simply shrunk his neck and broke free from Liu's restraint, and came and fled.Mrs. Liu still didn't know what was going on, and continued to mutter and curse at the back, but suddenly saw an enemy plane flying overhead and a bomb falling, so she immediately shut her mouth, let go of her feet and ran wildly. ——After all, the bomb doesn't care about Zhuangzi himself or some "sea turtle" or "national treasure". It was precisely because of Liu Wendian's contempt for new literature and modern writers that a few years later, when he learned that the school authorities had promoted Shen Congwen from an associate professor to a professor, he was furious and shouted at everyone: "At Southwest Associated University, Chen Yinke is a talented person. He is a real professor, he should get 400 yuan, I should get 40 yuan, and Shen Congwen should get 4 yuan. But I will not give him 40 cents! If Shen Congwen is a professor, then what am I? I can’t be Professor Taishang?" Whether Liu Wendian's contempt for Shen Congwen is unfair, the benevolent sees benevolence, and the wise see wisdom, but the evaluation of Chen Yinke is probably not bad.Many years later, Liu Wendian, who was gradually getting old, often said to his disciple Zhang Wenxun and others at Yunnan University: "My biggest shortcoming is arrogance, but I am not arrogant in front of anyone." Liu listed Cai Yuanpei, Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, and Chen Yinke were all heavyweights whom he respected and remembered all his life, but he respected Chen Yinke very much and dared not make any mistakes.Liu Wendian openly admitted that his knowledge was not as good as that of Chen Yuwan, and told his students many times that he "admired Chen's personality and knowledge very much."In addition to masters such as Chen Yinke and Hu Shi, some old professors with profound academic knowledge are also respected by Liu Wendian in his heart. Yang Shuda, a 50-year-old linguist, took the initiative to greet him and said: "I have recently read the great work of "Journal", and I really admire it. Anyone who doesn't admire it is a bastard!"