A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 103 Speech
When Li Yu came to Yingtai that day, he happened to meet Yu Deling who came to give Guangxu an English class.

There are not many female teachers in the palace, and Yu Deling is very rare. Fortunately, no ministers know about Yingtai's situation, otherwise a group of old scholars will definitely yell at them.

And now Yu Deling is also a female official at any rate, and Cixi herself is also a female stream who has become the ruler of the empire, so there seems to be nothing to say.

Guangxu was not against female teachers either. Most importantly, in the current Qing Dynasty, few Chinese spoke well. Yu Deling had been abroad for many years, so he was much more pure in speaking foreign languages.

One of Yu Deling's most important tasks now is to correct Guangxu's pronunciation, and correct it from the strange intonation that is mixed with a Northeast accent and a Cantonese accent.

"Your Majesty, it's 'Ai Pao', not 'A Pao', follow me, Apple!"

"Forehead Bubble~"

"No, it's 'Ai Pao'!"

"Hey, hey, hey bubble!"

"very good!"

Guangxu did very little pronunciation practice before, but now he seems to be learning to speak from scratch, and he himself has a bit of a stutter, complaining: "Do the tongues of the British roll up? Why is it so difficult to read."

Li Yu said with a smile: "Your Majesty, if you learn Russian, your tongue will become twisted."

Guangxu said: "It is not easy for me to learn English, it is really difficult."

"It's more difficult for foreigners to learn our Chinese, don't you think, De Ling?" Li Yu said.

De Ling nodded: "Yes, Your Majesty, you can learn Chinese well. If you work hard, you won't be able to learn any language."

Guangxu was a little disbelieving: "I don't understand whether the difficult Chinese you said is a good thing or a bad thing. I remember someone once suggested that Chinese characters can be replaced by foreigners' letters."

"Your Majesty, this idea is definitely not acceptable." Li Yu quickly corrected it.

Guangxu said: "What's wrong, the foreigners are so powerful, I also think it seems to be a way to use their writing."

Ever since many people realized that China was poor and weak, they began to think about the reasons. Among them, a wave of people believed that Chinese characters should be eliminated and Latinized letters should be used entirely.

Qian Xuantong, an advocate of the New Culture Movement and later a professor at Peking University, once said: "The only way to abolish the feudal Confucianism is to abolish Chinese characters."

Regarding the abolition of Chinese characters, he also introduced the reasons in detail. It is because learning and writing Chinese characters is too complicated and difficult, while characters like ABC are scientific and easy to spread. Therefore, his proposition is to completely abolish Chinese characters and use ABC in an all-round way. Alphabetic text.

Another staunch supporter of the Chinese character abolition movement must be unexpected, it is Lu Xun, Brother Xun.

After Lu Xun studied abroad and studied Western culture in his early days, he once said radically: "If Chinese characters are not destroyed, China will die."

Of course, this is what Lu Xun said in the early days. After all, Lu Xun is a literary master, and his Chinese skills need not be said at all.

Moreover, the situation at that time was indeed hopeless. Almost no one could see where China's future path lies.

Until the 80s of the twentieth century, many people still felt that the vitality of Chinese characters was dying, because it was difficult to input Chinese characters on computers at that time, which was a very serious problem.

But who would have thought that with the rapid development of technology, after the 21st century, the input of Chinese characters is much more convenient and faster than that of English, especially on smart phone devices.

However, it was difficult for Li Yu to explain these problems to Guangxu, so he could only say to him: "Your Majesty, there is nothing wrong with writing, the Japanese also use square characters."

Sure enough, the facts speak louder than words. He doesn't need to explain a lot at all, and he can get it done with one example.

Guangxu was very satisfied with this simple explanation: "It makes sense, and I also think that we should learn more from Japan. By the way, Teacher Li, what are we going to learn today?"

Li Yu said: "Today's study is a little troublesome, it involves trigonometry."

When Li Yu thought of using sin, cos, and tan to torture Guangxu, he felt particularly interesting.

Not only Guangxu was listening, but even Yu Deling began to learn mathematics together.

At the end of the half-hour class, Li Yu said to Guangxu: "Your Majesty, I will go to the Imperial University in two days."

"Beijing Normal University Hall," Guangxu muttered, "Finally school is about to start again."

Four years ago, when the University Hall was first established, Guangxu placed high hopes on it, and even attended the opening ceremony in person, but now things are different.

The university hall is still the university hall of the past, and Guangxu is no longer the Guangxu of the past.

Guangxu looked thoughtfully at the sky outside Yingtai.

Leaving Yingtai, Li Yu went to HSBC first. Now that there is more and more money, it is impossible to put it all in the house.

Li Yu opened an account at HSBC, and then transferred the 2500 crowns remitted from Sweden into silver dollars that banks prefer to circulate.

Li Yu filled out the form, and then said to the teller, "Excluding the 10% handling fee, the total is 450 silver dollars, and all will be deposited into the account under my name."

Just as he finished speaking, an annoying voice came from behind: "It's really a swollen face to pretend to be fat if you deposit 450 silver dollars in a foreigner's bank."

Lin Binghua walked in with Ronglu's son Baron.

Li Yu sneered, "You don't like foreigners, why do you come here?"

Lin Binghua was at a loss for words for a while, so he stopped talking to Li Yu, but said to Baron: "My lord, this bank is the largest bank in the British Empire, and the money is very safe here."

During the Gengzi National Disaster of the Eight-Power Allied Forces, the money of many wealthy households was looted, and hundreds of banks and bank accounts in Beijing were also robbed. Now the survivors are some "chain" bank accounts with surplus food in other provinces , has been maintained until now.

Rong Lu's family also suffered a lot of losses at the beginning, and they still have lingering fears about it.

"British banks, it sounds like it's safe," Baron said.

The teller knew that a big account was coming, and immediately came up to ask for deposits, "Bosses, do you want to deposit money? You really chose the right one! The current interest rate of our HSBC Bank is 2%, and we can negotiate for more deposits."

2% means a monthly interest rate of 0.2% and an annual interest rate of 2.4%, which is considered a relatively normal level.

Baron made up his mind: "It's acceptable, and I'll ask banks in France, Russia, and the United States when I go."

The teller quickly said, "Master, Prince Lian Qing deposits at our HSBC Bank, and now other banks' business coverage is not as extensive as ours."

In fact, Baron didn't know much about banks, so he probably knew the same in his mind, so he said, "If you deposit 200 million taels, what can you say?"

The teller's eyes are about to pop out, the handwriting is too big!
"My lord, I can't make up my mind with such a huge amount. When our manager comes back, let him talk to you in person."

Baron said: "Also, the silver is now in the bank, is it troublesome to transfer it?"

The teller said: "For such a large amount, you must also inform the bank, or we can also provide guarantee services."

"Then I know, I'll come to you guys after I've settled the matter of the bank."

Baron's silver was scattered among the three banks, and he said to Lin Binghua next to him, "It seems to be okay, what do you think?"

Lin Binghua laughed and said: "Since the young master has chosen HSBC, the younger one must also put his money in HSBC."

Li Yu heard it from the side, and cursed secretly in his heart, these stinking sons are really rich!

Jingshi University has finally started school.

Although the opening ceremony was far less grand and grand than later generations, and the number of people present was only 55 students from the Shixue Hall, 76 students from the Normal Hall, and more than 150 faculty members. It was the first time Peking University really started school.

Nowadays, the conditions of the Imperial University Hall are relatively simple. There is no decent auditorium, and the ceremony can only be held in the open air in the courtyard.

Zhang Baixi and Rong Qing, ministers of management and education, were sitting under the eaves. One of them used to be the Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and the other was the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment.

It can be seen from this that the Qing court set extremely high standards for the university hall.

The teaching of each subject is also seated on both sides.

Zhang Baixi was the one who worked the hardest for the start of the university, and he was also the first "principal" after returning to school. He got up first to give a speech, and all the students below also stood up.

Zhang Baixi said: "Today is the first day of the official opening of the Jingshi University Hall. The so-called University Hall, in my opinion, is a place to study knowledge. Our ancients have a tradition called sitting and discussing the Tao. Today, I will talk about this world with you. way."

After that, he raised his right hand and pressed down lightly: "Everyone sit down, sit down."

Zhang Baixi continued: "Since we can read, we have been learning the way of being a human being and the way of governing the world.

"The way of the world may be different, but I have been thinking about what is the real way for a country, and what is the way to revitalize the country!

"The opening of the Imperial University has encountered a lot of resistance and doubts, and everyone knows that there was even a death. The person who died was Wang Changyi. I kept thinking, why did he die? And who forced him to death? I thought of hundreds of years ago, there was also a man named Wang Yangming in the previous dynasty. Everyone knows this man. He once said a word: It is easy to break the thief in the mountain, but it is difficult to break the thief in the heart.

"That's why I thought that Wang Changyi's death was due to the thief in his heart! And this thief was not only in his heart, but also in the hearts of each of us. To clarify the way of the world, we must first get rid of the thief in our hearts!"

The Wang Changyi mentioned by Zhang Baixi is indeed a real person. Because of his poor family, he failed several times in the imperial examinations, and he was quite unhappy.

Four years ago, when Jingshi University started its first semester, I heard that there was a monthly living allowance for studying in Jingshi University, and I would be able to find a real job after graduation. After thinking about it, although I was not very willing in my heart, but I still went to the Peking University Hall to register.

Unexpectedly, his move caused ridicule and ridicule from other students who entered Beijing to take the imperial examination.

Wang Changyi was honest and honest, not good at words, and he felt a little ashamed in his heart, so he didn't dare to fight back the abuse of these people. He just dodged left and right, and avoided meeting those students as much as possible.

Unexpectedly, one night, the group of students were drinking in the store to fight against each other. On a whim, they even posted a couplet on Wang Changyi's bedside.

The first couplet is: filial piety, loyalty, propriety, righteousness and modesty; the second couplet is: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

The word "shame" is missing in the first couplet, which means calling Wang Changyi shameless.There is an "eight" missing in the second line, forgetting eight, which means calling Wang Changyi a bastard.

Scholars in this era have a strong concept of fame and integrity, Wang Changyi's face is thin, and he is not open-minded enough.Lying on the bed at night, tossing and turning, unable to sleep, thinking of failing the imperial examination and being insulted by studying in the Imperial University, in a moment of anger, he hanged himself from the beam in the room with a bed sheet!

Zhang Baixi talked about Wang Changyi, and then continued to the students below: "What do you guys think is the thief in your heart? In my opinion, it is hypocrisy!
"Usually, when you study Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, what you learn is nothing more than preserving the principles of nature and eliminating human desires.

"But if we look through our history, let alone the past dynasties, just look at the present, can we really govern the country and the world by relying on the sage's learning, benevolence, righteousness and morality?

"Speaking of benevolence, righteousness and morality cannot save a country from peril! Think about it, can the four books and five classics you have learned, and the stereotyped essays you have studied hard, be able to resist the strong ships and guns of foreigners? Can they change rampant corruption, land annexation, Is it a situation where there are thousands of refugees and the country has accumulated many evils?

"Emphasis on name and integrity over practice, what is actually hidden in it is hypocrisy and weakness.

"Let's talk about you, if the imperial court didn't make a decree this time, so that the students of the Beijing Normal University can enjoy the treatment of the imperial examination after graduation, can you abandon the imperial examination and start a new study?
"I'm not blaming you today, but I hope everyone here can understand that morality can't change the fate of a person, nor can it change the fate of a country at all. Empty talk about morality, benevolence and righteousness is the greatest hypocrisy in the world!"

Li Yuqing couldn't help applauding, and all the students, led by him, also started applauding vigorously at the same time.

Zhang Baixi really deserves to be the president of Peking University. Although he is a person living in the limitations of the times, his vision has surpassed most people in the country.This speech can be said to be deafening, very high-level, and indeed worthy of the post of principal.

Ding Weiliang, Yan Fu, Lin Shu and others also expressed deep agreement with Zhang Baixi's words and kept nodding.

However, Rong Qing, another school management minister, and Gu Hongming, the deputy head teacher of the middle school, seemed a little dissatisfied.

Afterwards, Wai-Liang Ding and Ru-Lun Wu also gave speeches on behalf of the Head Teachers of China and the West, but they were more conventional, hoping that everyone would abide by their hearts, be strict with self-discipline, and govern the world and study.

After they finished speaking, Zhang Baixi said again: "It was me and the teaching staff who were talking just now. Today I also hope to invite Li, who passed the No. Order to give a lecture."

Ever since Li Yu was appointed by Cixi as Guangxu's teacher of western learning, many people in the court still looked at him differently, especially the royalists who still had illusions about Guangxu.

Now not only Martin Martin attaches great importance to Li Yu, but Zhang Baixi also lists Li Yu as a "special student" in the university hall.

Li Yu stepped onto the stage. This was his second speech at the university. After a brief thank you, he began to say:

"Just now I heard President Zhang's speech on 'The Thief in the Heart', and I totally agree with it. Forgive me for adding, I think there is another 'Thief in the Heart', which is old-fashioned.

"I remember Li Hongzhang and Li Zhongtang once said that Chinese scholar-bureaucrats are so immersed in the accumulation of small script and sentences that what they use is not what they have learned, and what they have learned is not what they use. If they have nothing to do, they will scoff at foreign sharp tools as strange and skillful, thinking that there is no need to learn them; The sharp weapon that surprises foreign countries is to become weird and magical, and I think it can't be learned.

"This is what Li Zhongtang said 20 years ago, but thinking about it now, it still remains the same.

"There is no unchanging truth in the world. Things in the world will change if they are poor, and change will lead to success.

"Today's current situation is a crisis that has not been seen in 3000 years. Conservative and complacent will only make our country more and more backward and weaker. If things go on like this, the country will not be a country.

"What I am good at is Western learning, so I can tell you from my personal experience that Chinese people can certainly learn from Western learning.

"Learning itself is not difficult. What is really difficult is that we let go of our old-fashioned mentality, abandon our old-fashioned ideas, and truly open our hearts to learn Western learning. Don't be arrogant, let alone belittle yourself!"

Li Yu certainly wouldn't talk too much, and ended with just a few words.But he had a good idea, and he followed Zhang Baixi's words and extended it.

Feng Zuxun, He Yujie, Fan Xiren and others in the audience applauded Li Yu frantically, but Lin Binghua in the Shixue Hall didn't care.

Starting today, they have officially enrolled in the Imperial University.

(End of this chapter)