1
One must cherish one’s youth in one’s life, how one can write a book in vain
On December 3, 1877, in a village in Yanguan Town, Haining City, Zhejiang Province In a scholarly family, with a not-so-loud cry, a baby boy fell to the ground. He was the master of Chinese studies who later became famous at home and abroad and became a star in the history of Chinese literature - Wang! country! dimension!
According to legend, when Wang Guowei was born, there was a sudden heavy rain. Wang Naiyu, who was standing outside the house waiting for the birth of his son, looked up at the sky with mixed feelings of joy and sorrow. If you are happy, a sudden change in the weather indicates that the person born will be extraordinary; if you are worried, a weak cry indicates that the baby is weak.
Wang Guowei, also known as Jing'an, was born in Yanguan, a famous tide-watching resort on the Qiantang River. Haining City has been home to numerous celebrities since ancient times, the most famous of which is the originator of the magical novel "Sou Shen Ji" , Eastern Jin Dynasty writer Qian Bao.
If you are not familiar with Qian Bao, here is another great literary figure born 20 years after Wang Guowei - Xu Zhimo, who is also from Haining, Zhejiang.
Wang Guowei was born into a poor family and lost his mother at the age of three. His father, Wang Naiyu, was an elegant gentleman who passed down the scholarly legacy. He served as a master in the county government and had extensive research on calligraphy, painting, and epigraphy.
Wang Naiyu had high expectations for his eldest son Wang Guowei. He sent him to a private school at the age of six. At the age of forty, he resigned and stayed at home to personally teach his son to write poems and antiphonal compositions. What’s interesting is that today, Wang Naiyu can definitely be called a parenting guru. He wrote down all his son’s growth steps in his diary.
For example, in his diary in 1891, he mentioned the situation when he was supervising his son to practice calligraphy:
"In the beginning, I gave instructions on how to write calligraphy in Jing'an. You Yan is free, Shang It's not enough. It's very difficult to sit still for a long time. You know that laziness is harmful to people, and people are not aware of it. It's like a horse that loses its bridle or an eagle that loses its tail. It's advisable for young people to punish themselves."
His father's sincere teachings made Wang Guowei cherish his time and study hard. At the age of sixteen, he passed the scholar examination and became the first among the four talents in Haining. At this time, Wang Guowei often discussed ancient history with his companions, corrected doubts and errors, and had begun to behave like a scholar.
He chanted in the lyrics: "The ups and downs of lyrics, written vertically and horizontally, do not waste time."
If you think Wang Guowei only knows how to chew books, you are totally wrong. wrong.
Wang Guowei is well-developed morally, intellectually, physically and aesthetically. In addition to being accompanied by books, he also has literature, entertainment, epigraphy, quizzes, and wrestling. His schoolwork is so colorful!
However, judging from the photos, the master’s thin body should be a bit poor in wrestling.
Lu Xun once said that Wang Guowei was as honest as a ham. Hu Shi also bluntly said that after reading Wang Guowei's poems, he thought he was a suave and elegant young man, but in fact he was very ugly.
Although he looks ugly, there is an ancient saying: "People cannot be judged by their appearance, and sea water cannot be measured."
Talented people never rely on their appearance to make a living.
2
It takes three days to test the jade, and seven years to identify the material.
Wang Guowei, who was famous in his hometown at a young age, was still just a poor man. A scholar is still a thousand miles away from being admitted to the imperial examination in one fell swoop. If you want to be an official, you must first pass the exam.
Xin Qiji wrote in "Partridge Sky. The Autumn Examination of Sending Kuo", "When the blue clouds are gone next year, I will laugh and watch the world being busy with raising children." He is talking about the comfort after passing the examination. The young Wang Guowei had such a relaxed attitude even though he only had the reputation of being a scholar.
Because he disdained Shiwen’s stereotyped writing, he handed in a blank paper in the Qiu Wei examination.
Be awesome!
The seemingly honest Wang Guowei has his unruly nature in his heart. The decline of the Qing Dynasty and the corruption of the imperial examinations made Wang Guowei yearn for new learning, but his family was poor and had no money for him to study abroad. Due to pressure from his father, Wang Guowei took the provincial examination twice in five years, but failed both times.
At this time, Wang Guowei was in his early years and was ordered by his father to start a family before establishing a career.
Just after the Lantern Festival in 1898, Wang Guowei entered the Shanghai "Current Affairs Newspaper" and replaced his friend as the clerk and concierge. His boss was the famous Wang Kangnian.
In Shanghai, where people respect Luo Shang first and others later, Wang Guowei, who is casually dressed, is like a country bumpkin entering the city, and it is inevitable that he will not be bullied by others. He was supposed to join the job in place of a friend, and he was supposed to get equal pay for equal work, but when it came time to pay the salary, others had 20 yuan, and he only had 12 yuan.
Of course Wang Guowei is not convinced! I went to the accountant to argue, and the answer I got was: "That's all you have!" The implication is, do you want to do it or not? Wang Guowei was so angry that he almost resigned. Fortunately, thanks to his father's encouragement, I later had the opportunity to make friends with Luo Zhenyu and study in Dongwen Society.
Sometimes if you endure it, the sky will be brighter.
Although his salary was withheld by his boss, Wang Guowei's horizons were opened during his time at the Current Affairs Newspaper, and he met many reformers. Influenced by the new trend of thought, he was worried about the current situation. He saw the turbulent Qing government and faced It is powerless to resist external aggression.
He wrote in his sorrow and anger: "If you want to fly like a swan, you can't fly away." This year, Wang Guowei was 21 years old, living in a small house, but he had the ambition to fly across the mountains.
Unfortunately, Wang Guowei's talent was not favored by Wang Kangnian. This can only be said that Wang Kangnian has no vision. He did not expect that his concierge would become a well-known master of Chinese studies in China in the future.
Fortunately, a thousand-mile horse will always meet Bole.
One evening, when all his colleagues were having fun after get off work, Wang Guowei took half a bag of peanuts and two ounces of white wine and recited "Liangdu Fu" loudly at his work station. His voice was desolate and beautiful, and he happened to be called Luo Zhenyu, an educator who was discussing business in the newspaper office, bumped into him. During the conversation, Luo Zhenyu was amazed that this humble concierge was actually a well-educated man.
Luo Zhenyu appreciated Wang Guowei's talent and asked Wang Kangnian to reduce his workload so that he could have time to study foreign languages ??at the Dong Literature Society. Wang Kangnian agreed on the surface, but in private not only did he not reduce Wang Guowei's workload, but actually added a lot of translation work to him.
Wang Guowei worked hard all day and finally collapsed from exhaustion.
After Luo Zhenyu learned about it, he helped him leave the current affairs newspaper without saying a word, let him study at Dongwen Society for free, and appointed him as the society's affairs teacher, with a monthly salary of 30 yuan. , more than double that of Current Affairs Daily.
This was an important turning point in Wang Guowei's life. From then on, his life was inextricably linked to Luo Zhenyu.
3
One meal of elixir will make you live forever, and you will see how the mountains and rivers have changed
When Cixi destroyed the Reform Movement of 1898, Wang Guowei was so sad that he devoted all his energy to it. When it comes to learning English and Japanese. During his two and a half years at the Dongwen Society, he came into contact with the Western philosophies of Kant and Schopenhauer, and translated Western works such as "On the Evolution of Heaven" and "On the Immortality of Power". He also studied in Japan with the support of Luo Zhenyu.
Wang Guowei, who was dedicated to saving the country through science, chose to enter the Tokyo Institute of Physics. It is inevitable for liberal arts students to choose science majors. Four months later, Wang Guowei returned to China early due to a professional mismatch and an attack of beriberi.
It can be seen that when choosing a major, you must start from your interests.
On July 25, 1901, the incompetent Qing government was held down by the neck by Western powers and signed the "Xinchou Treaty". It is a pity that the era in which Wang Guowei lived was the century-old history of humiliation in modern China. The nation was humiliated and the country was in trouble. Cixi, who listened to the government behind the curtain, only cared about enjoying himself and had no way to recover.
Wang Guowei was recuperating at home, waiting for the opportunity to be admitted to the "official school" to study abroad, and went to the West instead. Luo Zhenyu called and tried his best to persuade Wang Guowei to give up his plan to study abroad. In September 1901, he followed Luo Zhenyu to work at Wuchang Agricultural School.
In the same year, Cixi carried out the Xin Chou Reform in the name of Guangxu, and the craze for the establishment of schools swept the country. Wang Guowei sighed: "Today, the emperor issued an edict to establish schools, and the time and momentum are approaching."
It must be said that Wang Guowei had a great historical perspective. Four years later, the imperial examination was abolished, and six years later, In 2000, the feudal monarchy that lasted for more than two thousand years came to an end. Subsequently, social changes occurred and the Republic of China began. This is a story for later.
Amidst this strong enthusiasm for the establishment of schools, Wang Guowei took it indifferently and concentrated on philosophy. He sneered at Zhang Zhidong's extravagant talk about the New Deal and his embrace of Cixi.
"The clouds are always dull if they have no intention, and the rivers are gurgling if they are not competing." In the seven lines of "Miscellaneous Feelings", he satirized Zhang Zhidong for his eagerness for fame. You must know that Zhang Zhidong is Luo Zhenyu's big boss. A few years later, he criticized Zhang Zhidong for changing philosophy into reading scriptures.
It can be seen that Wang Guowei is an out-and-out straight man.
In April 1903, Wang Guowei was recommended by Luo Zhenyu to teach ethics and Chinese at Tongjiang Normal School founded by Zhang Jian. He translated foreign textbooks himself, and occasionally included English in class, which attracted the attention of those who were used to hearing it. The students were stunned.
Haha, our Chinese master is just fashion!
Wang Guowei admired Zhang Jian’s talent and learning, but did not agree with his “abolition of temples to establish schools”:
“It turns out that the construction of this temple may not have relied on the material resources of society. However, the monks If a person has been operating a residence for hundreds of years, it has been his personal property for a long time, and he has recklessly used force to take possession of the weak and keep it without any accusation. This is what the monks say. In other words, it is not an exaggeration to say that he is stronger than thieves..."
Wang Guowei used this "Temple and School" to propose that "life, property, reputation, and freedom" are sacred and inviolable. This was totally non-mainstream at the time. Looking at it today, oh my god, it was so advanced!
4
The most unbearable thing in the world is that the beautiful woman left the mirror and left the tree.
During the half-year stay at Tongzhou Normal University, Wang Guowei expressed his deep love for Schopenhauer. His research on Kant became increasingly sophisticated, and he wrote his first philosophical paper, "Philosophical Apology." In August 1903, he also wrote "Praise to the Portrait of Schopenhauer" and "Praise to the Portrait of Khan" in four-character ancient style, translated "A History of Western Ethics" by the British ethicist Siegevike, and extensively studied Plato. , Aristotle, Darwin, Voltaire, Rousseau, Hegel and other famous works.
Wang Guowei spends almost all his free time writing. He wrote in "Two Occasional Poems": "The beautiful girl smiled brightly and read strange books to me."
What? Jade Girl...
Don’t think about it, the Jade Girl here refers to the bright moon. In addition to foreign masterpieces, the strange books he read also included "A Dream of Red Mansions".
In 1904, Wang Guowei published his "Commentary on a Dream of Red Mansions" that made him famous at home and abroad. Based on Schopenhauer's pessimistic philosophy, he compared Goethe's "Faust" and pointed out that "A Dream of Red Mansions" is A cosmic masterpiece beyond Faust. The reason is: Faust's suffering is the suffering of genius, while Baoyu's suffering is the suffering of everyone.
"At the end of the day, the clouds hang down everywhere, and the lone wild goose flies against the wind." Everyone's life is seeking relief from many desires and pressures.
If Cao Xueqin reads this comment, he will definitely be moved to tears by the close friend he met two hundred years later: "Wang Jing'an still understands me!"
At this time Wang Guowei has resigned from his teaching position at Tongzhou Normal University and is the editor-in-chief of "Education World" founded by Luo Zhenyu in Shanghai. He was responsible for editing, writing, and translating all by himself, writing more than 70,000 words every month. In addition, I insist on reading for three or four hours every day, and then squeeze in time to write a book.
Awesome people all have one thing in common, which is unshakable self-discipline.
Through the window of "Education World", Wang Guowei criticized corruption in the establishment of schools and denounced "rewarding learning with officials." Schools should teach students knowledge and teach them the Tao, rather than being the only "right way" to become an official, and they should not judge a person "only on academic qualifications."
At the beginning of the abolition of the imperial examination, Wang Guowei made sharp criticism that all adults and older scholars were reduced to primary school education. Wang Guowei believes that when there is a serious shortage of teachers, universities and vocational schools should be established while popularizing primary schools, gathering older talents, and expanding the number of teachers through training. Rather than just pushing all the talented people back to primary school to "return to their old age".
Now that more than a hundred years have passed, looking back at these views of Wang Guowei’s, they are still clear and precise.
Wang Guowei lived a wandering life. In February 1905, he followed Luo Zhenyu to teach at Jiangsu Normal School. In July 1906, he followed Luo Zhenyu to Beijing and served as the general affairs department of the academic department. In layman's terms, he was the editor of the library bureau. Although he was not an official, he was considered to be in the palace.
Unfortunately, his father, who had always looked forward to his becoming an official, passed away a few months ago.
Shortly after his father passed away, in June 1907, Wang Guowei's wife Mo Di also passed away. After ten years of marriage, the two have a strong relationship and have three sons. Before Wang Guowei took up his post in Beijing, Mo Di became pregnant again. This time, they were twin girls. Wang Guowei was very happy.
However, we met again after a few months. My wife was dying of "puerperal fever" and the two baby girls she gave birth to had also died. Wang Guowei hired a famous doctor to stay at his wife's bedside for half a month, but he could not save Mo's life.
"Slowly, spring is coming again. Survive thousands of miles, but one trick will last forever. My soul has gone first, and there is no words to say on the desolate bed. The past events are long and detailed. When I talk about the next life, I am afraid that I will make mistakes in the next life. Even if our alliance fails, will we be able to remember this life? ”
Meeting my beloved wife in the next life is heartbreaking.
A few months later, bad news came again: the stepmother passed away. The successive blows made Wang Guowei decadent for a time. With no one to take care of his three sons, Wang Guowei, under the auspices of his mother-in-law, married Mo's niece Pan and moved his family to Beijing.
5
The article is thoughtful and well-written, and Duan regained his reputation early
If "The Red Mansion Review" is the first glory of Wang Guowei's scholarship, So among his numerous works, "Human Words" can definitely be regarded as the second glory. Most of the book was written from the autumn and winter of 1907 to the summer and autumn of 1908, a period when he lost three relatives one after another. In grief, he buried his head in writing and went up to the tall building alone.
He wrote in "Human Words": "Those who have achieved great things and learned great things in ancient and modern times have not passed through three realms: last night the west wind withered the green trees. Standing alone on a tall building, you can see the end of the world." This is the first state. The clothes are getting wider and I don't regret it. I am so tired. This is the second state. I look for him thousands of times, but when I look back, there is that person. This is the third state. . ”
Needless to say about the achievements of this book, almost everyone who loves Chinese studies now has a copy. Perhaps he had expected that this book would have a huge social repercussions, so he wrote in the "Thirty Preface": "Although Yu Zhiyu's poems are not as good as a hundred poems, since the Southern Song Dynasty From now on, except for one or two people, no one can match the rest..."
Sure enough, the first characteristic of genius is self-confidence!
At the same time as "Human Words" came out, "A Test of Opera" was published. After that, Wang Guowei turned to opera, which was also fruitful.
When the Revolution of 1911 broke out on October 10, 1911, Luo Zhenyu, Wang Guowei’s peacekeeping friend, moved to Kyoto, Japan to escape the war. The following year, Wang Guowei wrote "An Examination of Song and Yuan Operas", one of his three major works, in just three months.
Through textual research, he boldly revealed that Guan Hanqing's "The Injustice of Dou E" is not inferior to Shakespeare's tragedy. The publication of "An Examination of Operas of the Song and Yuan Dynasties" brought Chinese operas, which had been neglected by the world, into the palace of literature.
The more than four years he lived in Kyoto was the most peaceful time in Wang Guowei’s life. There were no external affairs to disturb him. On average, he wrote one or two books every month, such as "The Examination of the Bamboo Slips of the Procuratorate" and "Mingtang". "Tongkao of Temple Dormitories", "Slips Falling from the Quicksand", "List of Bronze Inscriptions of the Song Dynasty", "A Brief Introduction to Ancient Ritual Utensils", etc.
Regardless of the academic field, he either doesn’t learn or learns to become an expert.
Lu Xun once praised Wang Guowei's "Slips Falling in the Quicksand": "Only when we talk about Chinese studies can it be regarded as a book that studies Chinese studies. Only when we talk about Chinese studies can Mr. Wang Guowei be regarded as a figure who studies Chinese studies. .
”
At this time, Wang Guowei was famous all over the world, but his life was still poor.
The nine members of the family mainly relied on his royalties and the salary of helping Luo Zhenyu organize the bibliography. There are Once, when his wife was discussing the matter of firewood and rice, Wang Guowei still couldn't let go of the book. His wife was so angry that she almost burned his book.
In February 1916, Wang Guowei returned to China. The Qing Dynasty was over and the Republic of China was beginning. At this time, the richest man in Shanghai was the "Hartung couple". The Hartung Garden was a gathering place for celebrities and dignitaries. They used the excuse that "Cangjie coined the word" and made nonsense of "Cangxue".
In order to invite Wang Guowei to edit the magazine, they proposed to leave the two mansions in the garden to Wang Guowei and his family. Wang Guowei was a proud man, so of course he didn't accept it. He wrote in a letter to Luo Zhenyu: "If we could tolerate the situation, we would have been proud before Xinhai. ”
With his knowledge, if he was greedy for fame and wealth, he would have made a lot of money. But Wang Guowei was still employed.
Don’t worry, friends, Wang Guowei is not just running for money. Instead, they went there for the oracle bone rubbings collected in the garden. To Wang Guowei, these were treasures for research.
Wang Guowei declined the villa provided by the garden and asked for a first hand! The content of the magazine was arranged, and the nonsense "Cangxue" was determined not to be published.
In this way, he cleverly used the resources of Hartung Garden to compile the "Examinations of the Ancients and Kings Found in the Inscriptions of the Huanyin" and "Xianxu". Examination", unraveling the history of more than three thousand years of oracle bone inscriptions, and during this period, he wrote "Guantang Jilin", which was praised by celebrities such as Liang Qichao and Guo Moruo.
6
Spring is reduced by flying flowers, and people are sad when the wind blows.
On the occasion of the Qingming Festival in 1923, Wang Guowei suddenly received an "edict" from Puyi's small court, appointing him as the South Study Assistant. Officials reaching the fifth rank are equivalent to current deputy department-level cadres. Their specific job is to serve the emperor and study.
The person behind this incident is Luo Zhenyu, who is already married to Wang Guowei, his third daughter. Married to Wang Guowei's eldest son, it was this relationship that became the trigger for the break between the two.
Wang Guowei was pushed into the South Study Room by Luo Zhenyu. What is ridiculous is that Puyi gave the order in person. He studied with him every day, but in fact Wang Guowei rarely saw Puyi and had nothing to do, let alone the friendship between teachers and students.
It was a waste of a scholar's academic life.
< p> On January 7, 1924, Puyi gave Wang Guowei a "horse ride in the Forbidden City" on a whim. Simply put, it meant that he could ride in and out of the Forbidden City. This fact really flattered Wang Guowei. It is not difficult to understand that the recipient of this gift has been a symbol of some kind of privilege since ancient times. .But... at this time, the emperor in the Forbidden City took a car when he went out, and the queen and concubines were learning to ride bicycles, so what's the point of riding a horse?
On November 5, 1925, Feng Yuxiang forced Puyi out of the Forbidden City, and Wang Guowei was among the entourage. He felt deeply humiliated. In addition, his in-law Luo Zhenyu was competing for favor and profit in the small court, which made Wang Guowei inevitably fall into the political whirlpool.
All this made him extremely painful.
In February 1925, an appointment letter from Tsinghua University brought a turn of events to Wang Guowei.
Hu Shi made the connection. Cao Yunxiang, the president of Tsinghua University, personally came to ask Wang Guowei, a master of Chinese studies, to serve as a tutor at the Tsinghua Research Institute. In the past few years, Kyoto University in Japan, Southeast University in Nanchang, and Peking University, where Cai Yuanpei was the president, had all turned to Wang Guowei. Wang Guowei refused to accept the offer of an olive branch.
Now burdened with the embarrassing reputation of being a teacher of Puyi, Wang Guowei was even more worried about teaching in public. Finally, Tsinghua University visited the thatched cottage three times, and Wu Mi, director of the Preparatory Office of the Institute, held the letter of appointment. , went to the door and bowed three times before inviting Wang Guowei to come out.
Wang Guowei was so moved that on April 18, 1925, his family moved into Tsinghua Garden. Later, Tsinghua invited Liang Qichao, Zhao Yuanren, and Chen Yinke to sit in the Tsinghua Research Institute. These are the famous four mentors of Tsinghua.
It is precisely the belief that "a university does not lie in its buildings, but in its masters" that enabled Tsinghua University to catch up and quickly become an academic powerhouse.
Tsinghua University gave Wang Guowei a very generous treatment, not only providing housing, but also paying a monthly salary of 400 yuan, which was definitely considered a golden collar at the time.
This year, Wang Guowei is 48 years old and lives in the quiet Shuimu Tsinghua University. There is no pressure in life. Three of his six sons and two daughters have already achieved academic success and have high-paying careers. After running around for half his life, he could finally take a breath and concentrate on his studies.
But fate was not in favor.
The stable life only lasted for one year. On September 26, 1926, Wang Guowei's favorite eldest son died of illness at the age of 27.
Like five thunders, Wang Guowei fell into great grief. He became dull and depressed, and his spirit almost collapsed. Just when he needed comfort from friends the most, his in-laws Luo Zhenyu not only failed to comfort Wang Guowei, but because of a misunderstanding, he took his daughter home, who was Wang Guowei's eldest daughter-in-law.
It is understandable that Luo Zhenyu feels sorry for his daughter's widowhood, but it would be too heartless to do so.
Poor Wang Guowei worked so hard that he sent all of his eldest son’s pension of 3,000 yuan.
Luo Zhenyu not only refused to accept it, but also insulted Wang Guowei's character by saying that the rich were not exempt from poverty. Then a letter of renunciation was sent.
Wang Guowei was so angry that he said angrily: "Can't I even afford a wife?!"
The best friends who had known each other for thirty years broke up.
To be fair, although Wang Guowei was favored by Luo Zhenyu, the two complemented each other and complemented each other. Luo Zhenyu ran education and compiled books and periodicals, and Wang Guowei devoted countless efforts.
It can be seen that no matter how good friends are, they should not get married.
7
Eternal separation brings more treasures, and several lifetimes of sadness drown in the scenery
In the late spring and early summer of 1927, the Northern Expeditionary Army approached Beijing, and the atmosphere in Tsinghua University was solemn. Liang Qichao heard that Chiang Kai-shek had launched the "Qing D" movement in Shanghai and made preparations that he "had to flee". Wang Guowei, who was melancholy by nature, became even more depressed after losing his beloved son.
The turmoil of the times became the catalyst for his pessimism and world-weariness.
At 8 a.m. on June 2, 1927, Wang Guowei clocked in at work as usual, explained the student test results to his colleagues, and discussed enrollment matters for the next semester. At nine o'clock in the morning, he and his colleagues borrowed five yuan and hired a rickshaw to the Summer Palace. Xin walked into the garden and lit a cigarette in front of the Yuzao Pavilion. The chaos in the world was drifting away in his mind like chaotic clouds.
At 11 o'clock, leaving cigarette butts on the ground, he jumped and fell into Kunming Lake.
A generation of great masters of Chinese studies passed away.
In fact, the lake was not deep, so Wang Guowei plunged his head into the mud and suffocated to death. He wrote in his suicide note: "At the age of fifty, all I owe is one death. After the changes in this world, my righteousness will no longer be humiliated."
This is in line with Yang Wanli's poem, "Poets have had a bad life since ancient times." , Wang Guowei was only fifty years old when he died, in his prime. If he had lived another ten years, he would have made more wonderful inventions and achievements in academic circles.
Wang Guowei’s death shocked both at home and abroad, and also shocked Luo Zhenyu in Tianjin. With guilt, he wrote and directed the drama about Wang Guowei's "martyrdom for the Qing Dynasty".
Why "Wu Guowei knelt down to play, he was determined to serve the country, but he was unable to save his life. He respected the words of General Chen and prayed for divine enlightenment..." He asked his fourth son Luo Fubao to imitate Wang Guowei. Wang Guowei forged a copy of the "Yizhao" in his own handwriting and was accused of martyrdom for the Qing Dynasty.
"Don't compromise your ambitions, don't humiliate your body." Defending the spirit of independence and free thoughts with death is the real cause of Wang Guowei's death! Later, it was rumored that Wang Guowei died after being forced into debt by Luo Zhenyu. This was purely a rumor made by Zheng Xiaoxu, Luo Zhenyu's political enemy.
On June 3, 1927, in accordance with Wang Guowei’s last wish, Tsinghua Research Institute held a simple funeral for him. Chen Yinke stood in front of the soul and knelt down three times and kowtowed nine times to express his respect for his close friend. Wu Mi followed him and knelt down to pay homage.
Many students were deeply moved and knelt down to say goodbye to the master.
In June 1929, the second anniversary of Wang Guowei's death, the "Monument to Mr. Wang Jing'an" designed by Liang Sicheng and written by Chen Yinke was completed in Tsinghua Garden. More than ninety years have passed in the blink of an eye. Today, when walking around Tsinghua University, you can still see this monument at the foot of the mountain behind the north end of the first classroom building.
I often think that if my husband had lived through the ages, would he have been less tragic if he had been born in the present?
However, "each generation has its own literature." The same is true of the times. Wang Guowei, who has a long braid, has never worn leather shoes in his life, and likes to eat braised pork, only belongs to his era...
August 31, 2019 On that day, I finished writing the manuscript at home.
Bibliography: "The Biography of Wang Guowei Alone on a High Building" - Chen Hongxiang
"Chronology of Wang Guowei" - Chen Hongxiang
"Preface to Thirty Years" - Wang Guowei
"Human Words" - Wang Guowei