1April, 924/morning of kloc-0/2 10, a ship slowly sailed into Shanghai Huishan Wharf along Huangpu River. When Tagore, an Indian poet with a red hat and a silver beard, appeared in the line of sight of the guests, an excited cheer broke out on the shore, and Indians stood in a row and sang Indian songs. The largest cultural exchange between China and India in modern history began.
Tagore, who enjoys a world-renowned reputation at this time, came to China to give lectures at the invitation of the China Institution. He couldn't help longing for Indian civilization and actively promoted this exchange. He hoped that his current visit to China would resume the cultural exchanges between China and North Korea, which had been interrupted for many years, so as to strengthen the influence of oriental culture and spread it to the whole world, so as to achieve world peace. What he didn't expect, however, was that his arrival was like a huge stone being thrown into an already hot pool. China's ideological and cultural circles, which were already quite restless, quickly split into two completely different camps around his arrival. Represented by Chen Duxiu, Qu Qiubai and Mao Dun. , they formed a "drive Thai army" and "provoke him to go"; Liang Qichao, Xu Zhimo and others formed the "Bao Tai Army", and a fierce battle broke out for a time.
Hu Shi also participated in this debate, but his role is obviously puzzling.
On the morning of May 10, Tagore gave a second public speech for young students in Beijing at the Real Light and Shadow Theater. Before the official speech, Hu Shi generously came to power to warn the domestic anti-Thai forces. He said:
I can't help being speechless because foreign countries have taken an opposing attitude towards Tagore. I don't think it is a problem whether Tagore agrees or opposes it, but it is of great significance to know Tagore first, and it is a big deal not to know Tagore. I tried to be one of those who opposed the welcome of Tagore to China. However, since Tagore came to China, I have absolutely admired him. Gaiwu thinks that China is a country of gentlemen, and we should be polite people. Tagore came to China of his own free will, but we didn't invite him. We should greet him politely, so as to be a citizen of a scholar's country. At the same time, Tagore is the greatest figure in India. Since he was twelve years old, he has been using Hangar dialect as a poem to seek the success of the literary revolution, and he has not changed his original intention for fifty years. Today, with the efforts of the Thai family, Bangjia dialect has become a world literature, and its revolutionary spirit is enough for our youth to learn from Tagore. Therefore, we are not satisfied with other aspects, but should learn from Tagore in the literary revolution.
But Hu Shi's warning didn't seem to work, because during Tagore's speech, some people still distributed leaflets to expel Tagore.
When Hu Shi taught in Peking University.
Tagore, who was originally excited, really couldn't figure out what was going on. He, an Indian who wants to make friends with the people of China regardless of his old age and infirmity, naturally feels sad and tired, so he tells visitors that he has decided to end his trip to Beijing ahead of schedule and cut the scheduled six speeches to three.
On May 12, Tagore made his final farewell speech to Beijing. Before the official speech began, Xu Zhimo took the stage to speak first, condemning those who opposed Tagore in a poet's unique way, and then Hu Shi came to power. In view of the repeated leaflets against Tagore in the lecture hall, he said bluntly:
I found the leaflet "Send Tagore" at the meeting the day before yesterday, and I felt very unhappy after reading it.
First, the leaflet said that the research department failed in the debate between metaphysics and science last year, so the ancestor was invited to compete for them. This statement has no factual basis. The debate on metaphysics began in mid-April last year, and Mr. En Houjun, the representative of Tagore, arrived in Beijing in mid-April. At that time, Peking University was unable to entertain Tagore due to various difficulties, so Mr. En Houjun contacted the lecture society, and I went south on April 2 1. At that time, Thailand's visit to China had a little clue. I was also a participant in the debate between metaphysics and science last year. I can say that Tagore's determination to come to China was made before this argument. His representative came to contact at the beginning of this debate. As a combatant, I have to do justice for my metaphysical friend.
Second, the leaflet says, "I want to send him away if I dare to look sharp." This intolerant attitude is the attitude of barbaric countries towards speech and thought. On the one hand, we must strive for freedom, but on the other hand, we don't allow others to have freedom of speech. What is the reason? If I don't agree with you, I'll "send you away". Do you want to call me barbaric? Although there are different opinions and heated debates, if you have an intolerant attitude or take intolerant measures because of different opinions, it is to slap yourself in the face and disqualify yourself from advocating freedom. The real foundation of freedom is tolerance and respect for each other's ideas. Besides, Mr Tagore's personality deserves our respect. His literary revolutionary spirit, his sacrifice to rural education and his rural cooperative movement should all be paid tribute to. That is to say, aside from these, his personal character, his kind appearance and humanitarian spirit alone should win our great respect.
Both Hu Shi and Xu Zhimo understand that the focus of the debate around Tagore's coming to China is the relationship between western civilization based on science and eastern civilization focusing on spirit. This problem did not appear after Tagore came to China, but in fact, before that, there was a heated debate on this issue in China.
1923 In February, Zhang Junmai gave a speech entitled "Outlook on Life" in Tsinghua campus. He used the western philosophy of life to define the outlook on life, thinking that science is objective and outlook on life is subjective. In fact, this view contains the general dissatisfaction with advocating scientific atmosphere in China at that time. Geologist Ding Wenjiang was the first to refute Zhang Junmai's remarks. He believes that all material and immaterial knowledge can be analyzed and studied by scientific methods, and advocates that the greatest responsibility and need of mankind today is to apply science to life problems. The essence of this debate is actually to use science or metaphysics to guide life and society, and what kind of road society is required to take. This issue has been one of the core issues in China cultural circles since the May 4th Movement, so the debate between Zhang Junmai and Ding Wenjiang was like a fuse, which triggered a "great debate on science and metaphysics" nationwide. Many celebrities in the ideological and cultural circles, such as Hu Shi, have been involved in this debate.
Hu Shi has always taken a clear-cut stand in this debate, that is, advocating a scientific outlook on life. In fact, as early as March 25th, 1922, he gave a speech on "scientific outlook on life" in Beijing Special School of Political Science and Law, which clearly showed his attitude of advocating science. Later, in the preface of the book Science and Outlook on Life published by Yadong Library, he criticized Liang Qichao's "scientific bankruptcy theory" put forward in "Travels in Europe" and clearly stated that he would "speak out to defend science" because China "has not enjoyed the blessing of science, let alone the" disaster "brought by science. Let's try to open our eyes and have a look: this place is full of temples, this place is full of fairy tales, this traffic is underdeveloped, and this industry is underdeveloped-where is it worth rejecting science? ..... At this time, we are suffering from insufficient advocacy of science, underdeveloped science education, and the power of science can't sweep away the cigar smoke that permeates the whole country. Unexpectedly, there are celebrities and scholars who come out to sing the cry of' European science bankruptcy' and accuse science of being the chief culprit of European cultural bankruptcy. Isn't it just to have an impact on science? Can people who believe in science not worry about this situation? "
Xu Beihong's sketch for Tagore
Interestingly, Hu Shi, who has always been very radical in criticizing traditional culture, and has a tit-for-tat relationship with Liang Qichao and others on eastern and western cultural issues, why did he always cooperate with Liang Qichao when welcoming Tagore, instead of taking the opportunity to make a voice for his "metaphysical friends" and clarify this issue for his former opponents, which is undoubtedly more convincing. Did Tagore really have such great charm that Hu Shi completely changed his previous position when he arrived in China? Does Hu Shi really fully agree with Tagore's "Oriental Civilization"?
Obviously, Hu Shi's thought could not have changed so much before and after Tagore came to China, and it is difficult for us to find enough evidence to prove that this change is reasonable. Apart from the three paragraphs he said above, we can't find any other words that he welcomed Tagore. On the contrary, there is. Tagore's fame in the world is closely related to his propaganda of oriental civilization in his speeches in Europe and America, which Hu Shi did not agree with and even adopted an ironic attitude. 1July, 926, Hu Shi took a trip to Europe and America via Siberia because the Sino-British Geng Kuan Advisory Committee met in Britain. Many European and American organizations were prepared to invite him to give a speech, but he refused because he thought that his views on eastern and western cultures would not be as popular with Europeans and Americans as Tagore. This is clearly stated in a letter he wrote to Williams on September 5 this year: "If I go to America, my only purpose is to see my old friends. I have nothing to say to the American people. So far, I haven't found a suitable theme for my speech in America. ..... If I find myself pretending to have some opinions to bring to the western world, I think it's shameful. When I hear Tagore's speech, I often feel ashamed of his so-called oriental spiritual civilization. I must admit that I am far away from oriental civilization ... When an oriental speaker faces an American audience, the audience expects him to have Tagore-style information, that is, criticize the material West and praise the spiritual civilization of the East ... On the contrary, I wrote an article? Published shortly before I left China, in this article, I accused the eastern civilization of being completely idealistic and worthless, and praised the modern western civilization for completely meeting the spiritual needs of human beings. It is true that my criticism of eastern civilization is more severe than any criticism from the west, and my high evaluation of modern western civilization is better than what westerners themselves say. Such unreasonable opinions will definitely disappoint and shock those who are eager for Tagore and expect to hear the so-called' Oriental' information. " The article mentioned in Hu Shi's letter refers to "Our Attitude towards Modern Western Civilization" which he completed on June 6, 1924/kloc-0. In this article, Hu Shi clearly criticized the morbid psychology and wrong remarks of conservative ideological circles at home and abroad. "It is an exaggeration to cater to the oriental nation, so the old forces in the East have increased a lot of arrogance"; With the mind of a new intellectual leader in China, he encouraged Chinese people to get out of the wonderful fog of oriental civilization spread by these "shemale" and treat western civilization with a correct attitude. Hu Shi insisted on this view all his life, which was consistent with the fact that people who criticized Tagore fiercely at that time, such as Chen Duxiu, initially regarded Hu Shi as a fellow traveler at this point. For example, on April 9th, 1924, Chen Duxiu wrote to Hu Shi, asking him to write an article for the "Anti-Tagore" special issue of China Youth, a publication run by the Communist Party of China (CPC).
196 1 Hu Shi took a photo with his wife Jiang Dongxiu when he was in hospital.
If the words in Hu Shi's letter to William are not enough because Tagore came to China for too long, then he wrote such an article less than a month after he published the words defending Tagore. What does this mean? Based on this, it is hard to believe that his welcome to Tagore at that time was unreserved, at least it can prove that he was contradictory when he said those words. But can we say that his welcome to Tagore is against his will, or that, as criticized by Guo Moruo, it is out of an impulse to worship people, an impulse to worship idols, or an arty, or even that he is hypocritical and two-faced. These statements obviously do not conform to Hu Shi's way of studying and being a man.
In fact, his welcome and opposition to Tagore were sincere, but he only looked at Tagore from different angles in different times: he opposed Tagore who talked about the superiority of eastern civilization over western civilization, and welcomed Tagore as a practical language innovator and a pioneer of literary revolution, and Hu Shi's greatest achievement after returning to the United States was in the literary revolution, especially in the language revolution. Hu Shi said that he was "one of the people who welcomed Tagore when he was in opposition", and it was true. At that time, Tagore in his eyes was an advocate of oriental civilization, but after he came to China, he became a welcome of Tagore because he found this identity. In fact, the angle that Hu Shi welcomed Tagore was representative at that time. These people are often educated by western civilization and think that Tagore is an enemy of western civilization, an opponent of scientific thought and material progress, and a stubborn and conservative figure. So when they heard that Tagore was going to visit his country, their first reaction was hostility. But when Tagore met such intellectuals in China, these intellectuals suddenly found that Tagore was completely consistent with himself in some aspects, and their attitude changed from an opponent to an active welcome. This was even noticed by the kindness of the British who accompanied Tagore to China. He later recorded such a dramatic scene: "When we were with scholars in Beijing, like Dante and Chaucer at that time, Tagore and Hu Shi were determined to use the spoken language of the people as a universal tool for literary expression to replace the classical language in the hands of limited scholars. A radical China scholar jumped up from the other end of the dining table, hugged Tagore and said in an impassioned tone: Now, he not only shares the suffering he experienced with Tagore, but also shares the suffering created by the guardians of traditional culture.
Hu Shi's welcome to Tagore has another real and simple motive, which has been clearly expressed in his writing: China is a country of etiquette, and Tagore is a great man in the world. He came to China automatically out of kindness, so whether he welcomes or opposes it, he should conform to the status of "a country of etiquette" in etiquette. This is the basic attitude of Hu Shi, who is tolerant by nature and trained in American liberal culture and politics. He is eager for sincere understanding, frank communication with others and sincere treatment with others. Everyone can choose his own life path. In other words, Hu Shi has always been tolerant of people with different political views, academic views and life views, and always considers problems from the perspective of others. It's like he strongly criticized the old marriage system in China, but he got married at his mother's behest and never changed in his life. Just as he said that he was in favor of "total westernization", Hu Shi, who likes to drill into the old pile of Chinese studies, understands the joys and sorrows of life and strives to pursue the habits of modern civilized people, adopted a normal attitude towards life and academic attitude, and was a principle of seeking truth and freedom, although he was crowned as a "timid gentleman" for this reason. In his view, no matter any argument, "despite different opinions and fierce arguments", it should not hurt people's feelings, let alone deny others' right to speak. "Tolerance is more important than freedom." Now people who oppose Tagore even deprive others of the freedom to speak, of course, there is no tolerance. In Hu Shi's view, this is by no means what a gentleman should do. In fact, Hu Shi is like this not only to people, but also to things; Not only at that time, but all my life; Not only for Tagore, but also for everyone.
Regrettably, Hu Shi's polite and reserved welcome to Tagore actually implies that he misunderstood Tagore's thoughts, or at least his understanding of Tagore was one-sided. Like many people who opposed Tagore in China at that time, he equated Tagore's admiration for eastern spiritual civilization with his rejection of western material civilization and science, which was clearly expressed in his letter to Wellesley. In fact, Tagore has not been forgiven by his compatriots for a long time because he insisted on refusing to suppress scientific civilization. As early as three years before Tagore's visit to China, when Feng Youlan, who was studying in the United States at that time, asked him what he could do to save troubled China, he said to the latter without hesitation: "I only have one sentence: Learn science quickly?" In fact, he has been advocating that orientals learn from western science in order to get rid of the oppressed position. He said, "We must compete with the West now ... and resist their aggression. Unless we also learn their science, we can't succeed." "If we want to get the generous gift of truth, we must first learn the necessary science." In fact, Tagore didn't blindly exclude western civilization, as critics such as Hu Shi and China said. On the contrary, he does not advocate blindly rejecting the favorable factors in western culture. He thinks there are many excellent things in the west, but the key is not to imitate them. He also repeatedly taught young people: "I once again pointed out that if truth comes from the West, we should not hesitate to accept it and praise it. If we don't accept it, our civilization will be one-sided and stagnant. " In China, he also repeatedly stressed that he was opposed to turning people into slaves of machines, abusing science, putting science above everything else, and opposing abnormal material civilization. Similarly, he also opposed abnormal spiritual civilization, but not material or spiritual itself. Hu Shi and China's critics of Tagore in this respect do not seem to fully understand Tagore. This is exactly what he said when criticizing Tagore's opponents: "Whether for or against it, it is of great significance to know Tagore first. If you don't know Tagore, it's a big deal. "
Many opponents really know nothing about Tagore's criticism, but it is also true that Hu Shi did not fully understand Tagore for his own motives and extended a warm welcome to Tagore. Unfortunately, the fierce opposition of Tagore in China should also be attributed to Hu Shi, who "killed" Tagore and did a good deed. In fact, since Tagore set foot on the land of China, Xu Zhimo, Liang Qichao, Hu Shi? However, without Xu Heliang's exaggeration, they tried their best to surround him with gorgeous curtains. In this way, not only others can't see the real purpose of Dai's coming to China, but also his real value as a poet and philosopher, and even unconsciously ignore his value as a thinker and artist. At that time, in the warm atmosphere of warm welcome or opposition, it seemed that not many people bothered to understand and study Tagore, and no one was willing to regard Tagore's visit to China as an ordinary cultural exchange with a rational and peaceful heart. This is not only the sorrow of Tagore, but also the sorrow of China's ideological and cultural circles.