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

Chapter 134
The sales volume of "Ta Kung Pao" is rising steadily. First, it boosted the market through the manuscripts of Li Yugong's foreign scammer incident and the Kaiping coal mine incident. Then, a talented woman turned out to make Tianjin people scramble to buy newspapers every day. .

"Sell newspapers! Sell newspapers! Ta Kung Pao!" a newspaper boy shouted.

"The Rakshasa nunnery published an article on women's studies, which aroused strong reactions! Don't miss it!"

"Lord of Luosha Temple" is one of the many pseudonyms Lu Bicheng currently uses.

I don't know why, but nowadays literati like to use many pseudonyms, and changing them back and forth is like changing vests.For example, Lu Xun used more than 180 pen names according to statistics.

Li Yu stopped the newsboy: "Give me a newspaper."

"Okay, 7 cents a piece."

Newspapers in the late Qing Dynasty were relatively expensive at the beginning, costing 30 cents a copy, but after the "Shenbao" entered the market, a price war started, and the price of newspapers suddenly hit single digits.

However, although the price has been reduced, it is still not cheap. 7 Wen is enough for the poor to have a meal.

It's just that those who buy newspapers are all literate people, and their family conditions are somewhat better.

Li Yu opened the newspaper, and the opening article was an article titled "On the Purpose of Advocating Women's Studies". Although Lu Bicheng's name was not signed, Li Yu knew it was her.

Li Yu asked the little newsboy, "Are you literate?"

"Literate, but not many." The little newsboy said.

Li Yu asked: "Then do you think female dolls should also be able to read?"

At this moment, it was freezing cold, and the little newsboy's face was flushed with cold. He wiped his nose and said, "What's wrong? I saw that the wives of the foreign masters in the concession are literate, and they still know foreign language."

Li Yu said with a smile: "They are foreigners in the first place, so of course they understand foreign languages. If they understand Chinese, they are more or less the same."

The little newsboy scratched his head: "Forget about this."

Li Yu directly gave him a ten-cent copper coin, "There's no need to look for it."

The little newsboy said gratefully: "Thank you, master! May the master live a long life!"

For a period of time thereafter, Lu Bicheng published a series of articles successively, including "A Respect to Chinese Female Compatriots", "Prospering the Powerful Women with Perseverance", and "Education is the Foundation of a Nation".

These articles are all about advocating new-style women's education, which shows that her advocacy of women's rights is not empty talk, she knows how to propose methods, and understands the importance of establishing a new-style women's education.

Her point of view has been strongly supported by Ying Lianzhi, Fu Zengxiang and others, but there are more conservatives.

Lu Bicheng's uncle Yan Fengsheng who lived in Tanggu saw that his niece not only disobeyed his orders and escaped from marriage and left home, but also started to publish so many "rebellious" articles in the newspapers, so angry that he bearded: "Do not obey women's ways! Don't obey women's morals! A big girl with yellow flowers, showing her face all day long, how decent is she?"

Lu Bicheng's mother Yan advised: "Don't be angry, Chinese New Year is coming soon, I will write a letter to persuade her to come back."

Yan Fengsheng couldn't bear this face: "Don't let her go back to my house! Isn't she going to stand on her own? Let her stand on her own! Sooner or later she will beg me to pick her up, otherwise she won't obey the rules when she comes back now."

Yan had no choice but to secretly write a letter to her daughter asking her to admit her mistake and go home.

Lu Bicheng took a look, admitted his mistake?It is impossible to admit mistakes, and it is impossible in this life!

Lu Bicheng replied directly: "Mother, don't worry, everything is fine in Tianjin. My daughter has become the editor of Ta Kung Pao. Everyone treats me very well. I will definitely let my uncle see what a real woman is."

Yan Fengsheng became even angrier when he saw the reply: "Ta Kung Pao? You are so handsome, you actually accept a woman as an editor and review manuscripts of literati! If I am still a salt transport envoy, I will definitely make him look good!"

Yan had no choice but to write another letter telling Lu Bicheng to be careful when he was out, and to go home quickly if something happened.

Although Lu Bicheng was full of confidence when he replied to the letter, he was still very disappointed when he thought that he would not be able to go home for the New Year for the first time in his life.

When Li Yu met Lu Bicheng, she looked unhappy and asked, "What's wrong?"

Lu Bicheng said helplessly, "I have no relatives, no home to return to."

"Aren't you going home for New Year's Day?" Li Yu asked in surprise.

The current "New Year's Day" refers to the Spring Festival in later generations. It was not until the Republic of China that the Gregorian calendar was used, and New Year's Day was changed to January [-]st of the Gregorian calendar.

Lu Bicheng sighed: "I'm not going back! It's not a lone wild goose, how can the sound of autumn come to the world."

"Good poem! Did you write it?" Li Yu wanted to change the subject.

Lu Bicheng nodded: "It's a chance when I'm free. It's just that I didn't expect that once I came out, I couldn't go back, I couldn't go back..."

Seeing that she still couldn't let go, Li Yu said, "What's the big deal, I can't go back to the capital either."

"You are different, you are a man." Lu Bicheng said.

Li Yu knew that she would say that, and sure enough, he was tricked, and immediately said: "Every article you published in the newspaper is about equality between men and women. Why is it different this time when I am a man?"

Lu Bicheng opened his mouth: "It seems to be such a truth..." Then he said, "I was wrong. But I really can't figure out why no one talked about the many poems I wrote before, but now when I talk about liberation Women, they can’t even go home.”

Li Yu said: "Because you wrote so many words and articles before, everyone just felt that it was rare to meet a talented woman. It was rare, and it was also a topic of conversation after dinner. But now you talk about the liberation of all Chinese women, of course those old-fashioned can't stand it. , because the nature has changed."

"I don't think there is any qualitative difference. I am a woman, and I am the same as all women in the world." Lu Bicheng said.

"That's what I said, but it's not easy to change everyone's thinking." Li Yu said.

"Then do you think I did the right thing?" Lu Bicheng asked.

"Of course!" Li Yu said, "For thousands of years, women have been in the position of losing their voice or being 'absent' in various places. Even in the past, they could not be called complete people, and they were often independent of men. Outside the law, there is no right to personal freedom, property inheritance, or even the right to dispose of one’s own rights.”

In the early years, Lu Bicheng encountered a situation where there were no males in his family and his family property was robbed by the same clan, and he was deeply touched by this: "Yes, throughout the history books and traditional education, there are many male images and plump and powerful images, while female images are pitifully few. At the same time, it is vague and single. Although there was a reform movement a few years ago, I also read the arguments of the reformers. They saw the role of women in social production and regarded women's issues as a means to solve the poor and weak. But But I found that even they have a hazy pursuit of equality between men and women, and the direction is not clear."

Li Yu said: "They do have certain limitations, they still haven't jumped out of the traditional gender division of labor, and insisted on the idea that the male dominates the outside and the female dominates the inside."

Liang Qichao once defined the new female image in "Advocating the Establishment of a Women's School", which still regards the two points of being a good wife and a good mother as a husband and a child and IKEA's kindness.The main function of women is to provide daily care for their husbands, take care of children, and engage in certain economic activities to contribute to family building.Although there was support for women to go out to work, it was mainly to alleviate the social pressure at that time, and it still failed to highlight women's own rights.

Moreover, the views of the Reformers believe that women’s inequality stems from power politics, and women can only be liberated if a constitutional monarchy is implemented—eventually it returns to their political demands.

However, compared with the previous viewpoints, the reformists are somewhat progressive. One of the things they have done more successfully is to ban footbinding.

Lu Bicheng said: "So in the end, it is up to us women to liberate women. Only we understand our own rights."

"Good job!" Li Yu stretched out his thumb, "But this is not an easy path."

"I know it's not easy, but if I don't do it just because it's not easy, then I, Lu Bicheng, might as well go home and study the three obediences and four virtues now. No, even if I work as a female worker in a textile factory, I don't want that kind of life!"

Now foreign businessmen have begun to set up textile factories, match factories, and tea baking factories in China. They employ a large number of female workers. These women are the first group of women to enter the society in modern Chinese society, and they are the earliest professional women.

Of course, foreign businessmen will not take too much into account.

The Industrial Revolution began in the textile industry. The earliest mechanical improvement was applied to textile factories. Now an important part of European workers are textile women workers.

Moreover, the wages of female workers are also lower than those of male workers. Of course, factories prefer cheap labor.

Li Yu said with a smile: "It's better to be an editor, capitalists are not much better."

On the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month, the "New Year's holiday" of officials in the late Qing Dynasty also began. Except for important departments, most government offices began to seal on this day, that is, they stopped working until the [-]th day of the first lunar month in spring. Back to work.

The specific time may be off by one or two days, because people now pay attention to an auspicious day, and need Qin Tianjian to choose the date.

Like the system of the Ming Dynasty, the annual leave of officials is one month, which is quite long when you think about it (of course, the "model worker" Zhu Yuanzhang's Hongwu years will be much less, after all, the old Zhu practiced 996 by himself).

All in all, the officials of the Ming and Qing Dynasties had about fifty days of holidays each year, which was almost half of the holidays of the Song Dynasty.

It's just that this is a holiday for officials, and the people will not follow it completely.

The Beiyang Armed Forces Crash School will not abide by it. It is called "Crash", it must be because time is precious, and there are so many holidays to play.

(End of this chapter)