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

Chapter 625: The Battle of Wenbai
Lu Xun wrote as he pleased and completed the manuscript very quickly.

As for the pen name, he thought of the "Xunxing" nickname he used in Tokyo, so he used the word "Xun" in it, indicating that his ideas started in his youth and had some flavor of rebellion against the times; then he named him his mother. His surname became "Lu Xun".

Lu Xun was also born out of nowhere. No one could have imagined that a Beiyang government official could write such critical content.

His first article was the famous "Diary of a Madman", which was an instant success, and Li Yu knew the aphorisms in it by heart:

Everything needs to be studied before you can understand it. People have often eaten people since ancient times. I still remember it, but I don’t know it clearly. I looked up the history and found that there was no chronology in the history, and the words "benevolence, justice and morality" were written on each crooked page. I couldn't sleep anyway, so I read carefully for half the night, and then I saw the words between the words. There were two words written all over the book, which were "cannibalism"!
After a hundred years of penetration, these words are still as sharp as a knife.

Immediately afterwards, Lu Xun wrote famous works such as "Kong Yiji" and "Medicine".

Interestingly, Lu Xun was quite cautious. Regarding the novel "Medicine", he went to Peking University to find Li Yu who had just finished a lecture and asked: "Is tuberculosis really incurable?"

Li Yu didn't know much about medicine, but antibiotics were so famous, so he naturally knew that tuberculosis was a terminal disease before the emergence of streptomycin in the 40s.

"If you have tuberculosis, it is indeed impossible to cure it," Li Yu said frankly, "but it is not impossible."

"What solution?" Lu Xun asked.

Li Yu said: "I met two researchers at the Pasteur Institute in France who are studying a vaccine against tuberculosis."

"Like vaccination against smallpox?" Lu Xun asked.

He was vaccinated with cowpox in his hometown of Shaoxing when he was three years old. At that time, variolation was widespread, which was considered quite advanced.

"Absolutely. This vaccine can effectively prevent and treat ordinary people from contracting tuberculosis." Li Yu said.

Lu Xun had studied medicine after all, so it was easy to understand what Li Yu said.

"Such a good thing, does Brother Shucai's pharmaceutical factory produce it?" Lu Xun asked immediately.

"The vaccine for tuberculosis is still in the research stage. As you know, France is on the front line of war, and many scientific research projects have been affected to some extent." Li Yu said.

"What a pity!" Lu Xun shook his fist.

"In six or seven years, they will be successful," Li Yu said. "I will introduce it into the country as soon as possible."

Lu Xun sighed: "Even smallpox vaccination has not been fully popularized, let alone the tuberculosis vaccine."

Li Yu understood what he meant: "If ignorance is not eradicated, people will not only eat steamed buns with human blood, but also believe in dancing gods and charlatans."

Lu Xun's "Medicine" tells the story of a family in the late Qing Dynasty who secretly bought steamed buns with human blood to treat their child's tuberculosis. The human blood came from a revolutionary who died generously.

Lu Xun said: "In the past, my brother Zuoren and I did not want to have too close contact with Chen Zhongfu, Hu Shizhi and others. We always felt that their approach was too radical. Now that I think about it, radical is the right thing to do."

Living in this era, Li Yu has experienced countless "big changes unseen in three thousand years". All types of turbulent waves will be staged in the land of China in an extremely heroic form.

The New Culture Movement is only a few pages in the textbooks of later generations, but the struggle between the two sides was absolutely fierce.

For example, the typical "Controversy between Wen and Bai" has gone far beyond the scope of linguistics.

Chinese writing has long been almost a patent of the upper class. Even among college students in Li Yu's era, if they were not majoring in Chinese language and literature, most of them would not be able to understand ancient texts such as the Four Books and Five Classics.

There is no need to talk about ideological monopoly. For the popularization of culture alone, this is an invisible and insurmountable gap.

That’s why Chen Zhongfu, Hu Shi, Qian Xuantong, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren and others were so determined to unify written language with oral language and replace classical Chinese with vernacular, which can be mastered by more people and promote the spread of democratic ideas and scientific culture. .

The "Controversy between Wen and Bai" has become a fundamental issue in the literary revolution.

Li Yu said: "As a carrier of civilization and knowledge, language has always played a great role. When I was in Europe, I met a philosopher named Wittgenstein, and he valued the role of language very much."

"Philosopher?" Lu Xun asked, "I have never heard of this person. Hu Shizhi studied philosophy, so he may have heard of it."

Wittgenstein's magnum opus "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" was not published until 1921. It is normal that no one in the country knows about it now.

"When the war in Europe ends and logistics and communications return to normal, I hope someone will bring it back to China, preferably translated into Chinese," Li Yu said.

"Speaking of translation," Lu Xun lit another cigarette, "in the past, the two chief and deputy supervisors of the Translation Institute of the Capital University Hall were not in favor of promoting the vernacular."

"Mr. Yan Fu and Mr. Lin Shu?" Li Yu asked.

"Mr. Yan Fu is okay. The one who resisted the most fiercely was Lin Shu." Lu Xun said.

Li Yu said with emotion: "Mr. Qin Nan (Lin Shu) was an advanced reformer at that time. He opposed foot binding, superstition, and the big family system, and advocated the establishment of girls' schools."

Lu Xun said: "Mr. Qin Nan has nothing to say about his character and culture, but after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, he became a staunch old man."

"He doesn't seem to have received much favor from the Qing Dynasty, right?" Li Yu said.

"Not much, but after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Mr. Lin called himself a 'Chushi of the Qing Dynasty'. He went to the mausoleum of Emperor Guangxu in Yixian County, Hebei Province dozens of times to kowtow on the ground and cry so loudly that even the mausoleum guardians couldn't stand it," Lu Xun said. "Perhaps he compared himself to Gu Yanwu in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, who traveled thousands of miles to cry at the Ming Xiaoling Tombs in Nanjing and the Ming Tombs in Beijing more than ten times."

"There is a huge difference between the late Ming Dynasty and the late Qing Dynasty," Li Yu said.

Lu Xun said: "When the young emperor Xuantong in the Forbidden City learned about it, he praised him very much and gave him two words, 'Smoke and Cloud Support' and 'Zhen Bu Jie'. After receiving these eight words, Mr. Lin burst into tears. I was so grateful that I wrote a poem to express my feelings, "I never give a gift without words, but I ask myself that I have no such honor."

"He has changed so much. Maybe he wanted to revitalize the Qing court." Li Yu sighed.

"That's all," Lu Xun continued. "In order to oppose the literary revolution, Mr. Qinnan wrote several articles and an open letter to President Cai Yuanpei, attacking the so-called new culture as 'overturning Confucius and Mencius and eradicating Confucius and Mencius. He even wanted to let Principal Cai take the lead in opposing the literary revolution, but how could Principal Cai be so easily persuaded?"

"Mr. Qin Nan is just a microcosm. There are countless veterans who hold ideas like him." Li Yu said.

Lu Xun took a puff of cigarette and suddenly said: "It's better to have a revolution like Russia, once and for all."

"Russia has just begun." Li Yu said.

Even more than a hundred years later, before Li Yu traveled through time, there were still many Russians with imperial ideas, and there were still considerable political groups supporting them.

Lu Xun said: "We must now concentrate our efforts on attacking various social ills and overthrow all those 'national quintessence faction' who oppose taking medicine under the banner of 'ancestral diseases'."

"National quintessence?" Li Yu seems to have a slightly different understanding of this word.

"The so-called quintessence of the nation," Lu Xun snorted, "is like a nameless swollen poison. If it happens to a Chinese, the red and swollen parts will be as beautiful as peach blossoms; when they fester, they will be as beautiful as cheese. They take pleasure in cruelty and ugliness as beauty. , decay becomes magic, this is the quintessence of the country, a mixture of barbaric culture!”

Brother Xun's words are quite ruthless.

Li Yu said: "I thought of a sentence: I am sorry for his misfortune, but I am angry that he will not fight." He talks about it every day in junior high school Chinese classes.

"That's exactly what it means," Lu Xun said, "Chinese people are arrogant and fond of the past, and there is no personal arrogance, only gregarious arrogance. The tragedy of the party being united against dissent and killing genius is often staged; they are selfish and take advantage of the situation, and they are obsessed with everything. All I know is to sneer, this is the business of the Chinese people.”

Li Yu said: "Mr. Qin Nan is actually a new figure. It's a pity that he has learned foreign skills and still hasn't forgotten the bad habits of the old era."

"It is because some of the new characters are not new enough that they have to use adoptive means to make the old world die out early!" Lu Xun said more and more enthusiastically, "Those who hold old ideas and want to learn new things are hesitant people. Although the world is not small, people who are hesitant will never find their place.”

Li Yu smiled and said: "You are who I remember you now."

Lu Xun asked in surprise: "What impression?"

"Um," Li Yu paused, "That's you when you were studying abroad."

"I didn't think so much about it at that time," Lu Xun said, "but these people fought over each other, and no one dared to say anything bad about science. Brother Shucai was almost without a doubt called a saint."

"Don't use the word sage. I've heard it several times. It's a big label and you can't wear it." Li Yu said quickly, "But if you want to popularize science to the public, you really need to promote the vernacular movement first. Not only vernacular, but also the best By the way, all the text should be changed to horizontal format, otherwise it will be too difficult to translate and introduce Western scientific classics, and the formulas cannot be changed to vertical format. "

Lu Xun nodded: "Mr. Zhongfu wants me to be the editor of "New Youth". I will start from this magazine and try to promote horizontal publishing. We also specialize in publishing relevant scientific articles to let more people know about horizontal publishing." row benefits.”

"That's great," Li Yu said happily, "For someone like me who is a mess in ancient Chinese, I really hope you can complete the promotion of vernacular Chinese as soon as possible."

Lu Xun said: "You are a leader in science, and you can write popular novels that sell well in Europe and the United States, which has put many people in the new culture to shame. Such a high-level thing as science can be easily grasped in your hands."

"I can't say it's superior, but science is still based on the humanities," Li Yu said. "Or it must be paved with the liberal arts before science can be born. This is the history. Science is rational, requires a lot of time investment, and is correspondingly more difficult. Many of them can only appear when human civilization develops to a certain stage, but it is not a superstructure. As the saying goes, science without humanities is arrogant; humanities without science is sentimental.”

Chatting with Brother Xun makes me feel refreshed.

The two chatted for a long time and walked outside the principal's office unconsciously. ——The Peking University campus is so big now, which is normal.

Cai Yuanpei said: "What are you two talking about so passionately?"

"Regarding the recent New Culture Movement," Li Yu said, and then suggested, "Principal Cai, since we are all about tolerance and inclusiveness, it is really unreasonable for Peking University not to recruit girls."

Cai Yuanpei thought for a while and said: "Actually, the Ministry of Education does not stipulate that only boys should be admitted. In the past, girls did not come to school, so there were no girls. Now that girls want to study, if their level is high enough, Peking University has no reason to refuse."

"It's too obscure," Li Yu said. "How many ordinary people know these regulations of the Ministry of Education? Just publish them in the newspapers."

Cai Yuanpei said: "No problem."

In Li Yu's middle school in Tianjin, there were female students with sufficient academic ability.

After the newspaper appeared, Li Yu sent a telegram to Tianjin Middle School, and a girl named Zha Xiaoyuan immediately came to sign up. She was very brave.

She passed the academic ability test easily and enrolled in school.

Although there were female students, the school atmosphere of Peking University at this time was quite special, and there was little social interaction between boys. After the girls came, they had no contact with the boys. Even if there were girls in the same class, the boys would not interact with them. This has always been the culture of Peking University.

You talk about campus love, of course there is no such thing.

But recruiting girls is a big deal after all.

Cai Yuanpei admired: "It is said that Tianjin's education is ahead of the capital, and it is true."

"It's all the credit of Mr. Yan Fansun and Mr. Zhang Boling." Li Yu said.

The girl enrolled in the Department of Foreign Languages. Cai Yuanpei said: "Today happens to be Gu Hongming's English class, which must be very interesting."

Li Yu gloated: "There are only two pigtails in the class."

Cai Yuanpei laughed loudly: "You are really good at joking."

The two couldn't help but be curious and came outside the classroom.

Gu Hongming came to the class with a slightly chic attitude, carrying a civilized stick and not even a single handout.

Previously, Peking University students laughed at him for not cutting his braids. Gu Hongming replied, "My braids grow on my head, and your braids grow on my heart." This made the whole school speechless.

——This sentence is enough to explode even if it is placed in future generations.

But he was still a little conservative. Just when he was about to give a lecture, his eyes suddenly froze and he looked hard, "Is that classmate a girl?"

A student in the front row said: "Sir, she is a newly recruited female student."

"Female student?!" Gu Hongming was stunned, "What's your name?"

"Sir, my name is Zha Xiaoyuan." the girl replied.

"Do you understand English? Come to Peking University to take my class?" Gu Hongming asked.

Zha Xiaoyuan said calmly: "I have studied English for five years."

"Five years?" Gu Hongming said to the boy in the front row, "Give her your handouts and let her read them."

Zha Xiaoyuan took the handout and read it aloud very fluently. It could be said that he was at the top of the class.

Gu Hongming frowned and said sharply: "There is still something wrong with your pronunciation. In short, um... you are not suitable for my class. Please leave."

Li Yu opened his mouth and said: "Mr. Gu, although this girl does not have a pure London accent, her pronunciation is very standard. She is qualified as a broadcaster. Looking at the whole country, she is already very good."

Gu Hongming saw Cai Yuanpei next to him, so he walked out of the classroom and said: "Principal, how can there be women in the classroom? Men and women are not close to each other. If this must be the case, please let me resign as a teacher."

Cai Yuanpei smiled and said: "Shu Cai just said that Cornell University in the United States started recruiting female students many years ago. Mr. Gu, this is the general trend."

Gu Hongming said: "What culture do Americans have that can compare with us?"

Li Yu said: "Not only the United States, but also many universities in Switzerland recruit female students, as well as the United Kingdom, Germany, and France."

Gu Hongming was speechless for a moment.

Cai Yuanpei said: "Mr. Gu, women have been educated since ancient times, and it can be regarded as our excellent culture!"

Or would he be able to enlighten people? Gu Hongming could only accept it reluctantly: "I just want to look less at the audience from now on!"