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

Chapter 669 The treasure of the town hall
Lu Bicheng gave birth to a rich daughter this time. A boy and a girl were born together with the word "good".

When the pregnancy news first came out, many people came to congratulate her, and this time the Li Mansion was even more crowded.

In addition to a large group of professors from Peking University and Tsinghua University, there were also cultural celebrities such as Zhang Taiyan and Qian Xuan; as well as military and political figures such as Li Yuanhong and Duan Qirui came to congratulate him.

Fortunately, Li Yu's yard is big, otherwise it wouldn't be able to fit in it.

Li Yuanhong and Li Yu are already "old neighbors." Although Li Yuanhong has also been living in an apartment in Tianjin since he left office in recent years, the big house in Dongchang Hutong has not been sold.

Li Yuanhong said cheerfully: "Congratulations! Mr. Academician, I haven't seen you for several years. You haven't changed at all."

Li Yu said with a smile: "Gong Li has been relaxing in Tianjin for a few years, and his appearance has improved a lot."

Li Yuanhong has lived in Tianjin for almost five years. His life is very Western-style and very comfortable. He reads newspapers, practices calligraphy, plays tennis and listens to music every day. He is very happy.

Li Yuanhong said: "In the past few years, I have learned to separate talented brothers and invested in industry and education. It is much more fun than being a president!"

His investment in Tianjin seemed to be quite successful, and he made a lot of money in the past few years.

Duan Qirui, like Li Yuanhong, is now living in an apartment in Tianjin. Regardless of the past entanglements, he said: "Li Gong actually has a talent for investment. I think you are an 'industrial president'!"

Li Yuanhong said: "Duan Gong is the 'Chess Master Prime Minister'."

Duan Qirui laughed loudly: "I like this name!"

"I want to ask Mr. Duan for advice on chess skills."

"I also want to ask Li Gong for advice on investment tips!"

The two complimented each other and happily went to the back room to drink tea.

Zhang Taiyan and Qian Xuan arrived together, and Mr. Taiyan's first words were: "Brother Shucai, I dare to ask the daughter of a prince about her name."

He just loves naming people.

Li Yu replied: "Le Yi."

"Huh?" Qian Xuantong next to him repeated twice, "Why does it feel like reading the word '李' in succession?"

He had studied phonetic symbols for many years and immediately realized Li Yu's intention. But there was no Chinese Pinyin at this time, so he just felt it.

Li Yu said with a smile: "Professor Qian has never left his profession."

"Is that true?" Qian Xuantong asked.

Li Yu nodded: "Leyi Li, don't you think it's easy to understand?"

"Le Yili, Le Yili..." Qian Xuantong said, "It turns out that Brother Shucai has studied phonology, and this hand uses fanqiaoyin wonderfully!"

The so-called fanqie is the ancient phonetic notation method. The word "Leyi" uses the initial consonant "l" of "乐" and the final "i" of "yi", so it has the pronunciation of Li.

This method has been around since the Han and Tang Dynasties.

Li Yu said: "I don't know anything about fanqie. I got it purely by chance."

Zhang Taiyan joked: "Fortunately you only got it by chance, otherwise I wouldn't dare to study phonology."

Li Yu said: "The phonetic symbols were created by Mr. Taiyan, and I don't understand them at all."

Qian Xuantong also smiled and said: "Fortunately, Mr. Academician doesn't understand. Otherwise, if you use those symbols to give a name, people who don't know would think it is a Japanese name."

After they sat down, the small court in the Forbidden City sent Minister of Internal Affairs Shi Xu to send congratulatory gifts.

Shixu didn't stay to eat, maybe because he felt a little embarrassed. Before leaving, he borrowed a portable camera from Li Yu, saying that it would be used to take photos when Emperor Xuantong selected his concubine.

Li Yu asked curiously: "So it turns out that choosing a concubine is no longer choosing a real person?"

Shixu said: "According to the regulations, of course you have to line up in a row and choose in person, but this era has passed, and the method of using photos is more modern and democratic."

What a "democracy", Li Yu thought to himself, and then said casually: "Fortunately, there is no beauty technology."

Shixu asked doubtfully: "Beauty?"

Li Yu said: "It is a photography technology that can make people look good."

Shi Xu was very interested: "How to do it?"

Li Yu spread his hands: "The current portable camera can't do it."

"Where's the large camera?" Shixu asked again.

"No," Li Yu said, "Why, Master Shi wants to learn this technology?"

Shixu smiled and said, "Just ask."

In fact, Li Yu guessed that since selecting a concubine is based on photos, whichever girl takes better photos will have a greater chance of being selected.

It is said that when choosing a concubine, there were four photos placed in front of Puyi. Puyi first drew a circle with a pencil on the photo of Wenxiu, who was born in a yellow flag.

Wenxiu was favored by Concubine Jingyi (the concubine of Emperor Tongzhi, didn’t Cixi ask Puyi to marry both Tongzhi and Guangxu before her death, so Tongzhi’s concubine and Guangxu’s concubine were both concubines).

But Concubine Duankang (that is, Concubine Jin of Guangxu) did not like it, saying that Wenxiu's family was poor and her appearance was not as good as Wanrong, the daughter of the Rongyuan family of the Guobulo family in Zhengbai Banner whom she recommended.

Puyi was only fifteen years old and didn't care. He thought that you had already discussed it and nothing could be seen in the photo anyway, so he drew another circle on Wanrong's photo.

Later, the concubines quarreled for a while, and finally came to the conclusion: since the emperor had already circled Wenxiu, he could no longer marry ordinary subjects and had to be accepted as a concubine.

So the little emperor Puyi suddenly had two more wives.

After Shi Xu left, Lu Xun came over and said: "President Xu Shichang has just promulgated "Qing Yun Ge" as the national anthem of the Republic of China. I wonder if the former Qing Dynasty's "Gong Jin Ou" is still playing in the Forbidden City."

The lyrics of "Qingyun Song" from the Beiyang period of the Republic of China have something to do with Fudan: "The clouds are bright and beautiful, the sun and the moon are shining, and the sun and the sun are shining. Shi Zaifu, the world is not owned by one person."

Cai Yuanpei said: "The small imperial court has always used the Xuantong reign name, and of course it followed the old system of the former Qing Dynasty."

Lu Xun said: "I estimate that the wedding of the young emperor Xuantong will be a big news in the capital. Those old people and young people who have been lurking for a long time will definitely come out and be active for a while."

Li Yu shook his head: "It's already reached this point, what's the point of being so extravagant?"

Lu Xun said: "Mr. Academician should have been to the Forbidden City. The small imperial court holds so many treasures and is not short of money."

Cai Yuanpei said: "It's of no use. They don't dare to sell it. They can only live on the millions of dollars the Beiyang government gets every year."

Li Yu said: "The little eunuchs in the palace secretly made a lot of them. I saw a lot of them in Liulichang."

Cai Yuanpei sighed: "Then there is nothing we can do."

Lu Xun suddenly asked: "What did the little imperial court give you?"

Li Yu opened the box sent by Shixu, and inside was a manuscript of Qianlong's poems.

Cai Yuanpei picked it up and looked at it: "It seems to be the handwriting of Emperor Qianlong. It's just that... the poetry is a bit bad, but the calligraphy is just okay."

Lu Xun teased: "The little imperial court is really good at choosing gifts. They are not worth a lot of money and are out of style." Li Yu laughed and said: "There must be many manuscripts of Qianlong's poems in the Forbidden City."

After all, he was a great poet emperor who wrote tens of thousands of poems.

But it seems that his tens of thousands of poems are not as good as Liu Bang's "Song of the Wind".

-

Two weeks later, the National Library in Beijing cleared a large room and placed the books donated by Li Yu. Director Fu Yuefen and deputy director Ma Xulun invited Li Yu to visit.

Li Yu accepted the appointment and went there.

After looking at it in general, Fu Yuefen said: "Mr. Academician is a distinguished guest. We would like to make a special case to invite you to visit the treasure of our museum, the complete collection of four libraries in Wenjin Pavilion."

Li Yu said casually: "It's a great honor."

Li Yu actually didn't have a great impression of Sikuquanshu. After all, when Qianlong compiled this series of books, he also had a literary inquisition.

"Qingfeng is illiterate, why is he flipping through the book randomly?" A poem can cure the crime of beheading and death.

While collecting a large number of books, Qianlong also destroyed a lot of books, and it is said that some of them deleted a lot of content. Under the bright appearance, it was also a catastrophe of ancient books.

As for the rulers of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the minority ruled the majority and they had to pay attention to ideological control.

I remember that in "Prime Minister Liu Luoguo", Liu Yong's line mocking Qianlong was quite appropriate: Your Majesty, you are much more powerful than Qin Shihuang!

After all, things have happened, even in the past more than a hundred years. It would be even more unwise to destroy the Sikuquanshu.

The room where Sikuquanshu is stored is very large. This set of books contains 36300 volumes and 6752 letters, which is huge.

Li Yu picked up a book and saw "Wenjin Pavilion Treasure" on the first page, and "Summer Resort" and "Treasure of the Supreme Emperor" on the last page.

"These books were stored in the summer resort before?" Li Yu asked.

Fu Yuefen said: "That's right, even the letter containing the book and the wooden frame are all original, and they are exactly the same."

"It's not simple." Li Yu said.

When the Chengde Summer Resort Sikuquanshu was shipped back to Beijing, it was welcomed by Lu Xun, who was an official in the Ministry of Education.

There are seven sets of Sikuquanshu, all of which are hand-written manuscripts. They are definitely the largest hand-written manuscripts in history. It is said that it took 3000 people to copy it by hand, and each person only wrote 1000 words a day for many years.

The first four sets of books are stored in the Wenyuan Pavilion of the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Wensu Pavilion of the Forbidden City in Shenyang, the Wenyuan Pavilion of the Old Summer Palace, and the Wenjin Pavilion of the Chengde Summer Resort. They are the so-called "Northern Four Pavilions".

The later three sets were stored in Zhenjiang Wenzong Pavilion, Yangzhou Wenhui Pavilion and Hangzhou Wenlan Pavilion in the south of the Yangtze River, which are the so-called "Southern Three Pavilions".

Since the four northern pavilions are placed in the royal gardens, the paper quality and binding are better than those of the southern three pavilions.

Later, wars broke out frequently, and most of the Sikuquanshu in Nansan Pavilion were destroyed. Only a quarter of the Wenlan Pavilion edition in Hangzhou was protected by the Ding brothers, who were bibliophiles, and they asked someone to copy the rest.

Among the four northern pavilions, the ones in the Old Summer Palace must have all been burned down. The British and French colonists only valued gold and silver treasures and did not care about your cultural books.

So overall, there are only three sets of the original book left.

What Li Yu saw in front of him was the only set of original books, letters, and frames that remained for later generations.

It's a pity that Li Yu doesn't study Chinese studies, otherwise he would be very excited.

Ma Xulun said with emotion: "Recently, the young emperor chose a queen and a concubine and began to prepare for the wedding. However, I heard that the Ministry of Internal Affairs was in financial difficulty and wanted to contact the Japanese to sell the Sikuquanshu set from Wenyuan Pavilion in the Forbidden City for 120 million oceans. "

Damn you little devil! Li Yu was angry when he heard this: "Are Emperor Xun crazy? If they really dare to do this, they will be scolded by the whole country! There is a first time, there is a second time. Nearly a million cultural relics in the Forbidden City are all Let them sell them one by one!"

Ma Xulun said: "Who says it's not the case! We have just received the news and are preparing to contact the famous figures in the capital to jointly oppose it."

"We must oppose it!" Li Yu said, "We used to cede land to pay compensation, but now we are reselling cultural relics. I really can't forget how to write the word shame from beginning to end!"

Ma Xulun said: "If we really want to sell it to the Japanese, those of us who work in libraries won't know where to put it."

"Add my name to the joint signature," Li Yu said. "We must not let the Emperor Xun's court do anything to insult the whole country just for the sake of getting married. That would be too shameful!"

Ma Xulun said happily: "Mr. Academician is highly respected. With your signature, they will definitely be wary of it."

"It's not enough," Li Yu said, "Publish this in the newspaper and let everyone know. I'll see if they dare!"

After the report came out that the young imperial court wanted to sell Sikuquanshu, there was indeed an uproar in the society. Originally, everyone was very angry about the Paris Peace Conference, but the small court was just looking for trouble, and everyone was criticizing them verbally.

The small court could not withstand the pressure and had no choice but to give up.

Thinking that the matter was over, Luo Zhenyu and Wang Guowei suddenly approached Li Yu.

"Mr. Academician, the Beiyang government recently wants to sell all the 8000 sacks of information in the cabinet's treasury as waste paper!" Luo Zhenyu said angrily.

"Cabinet information, treated as waste paper? Beiyang Government?" Li Yu was stunned for a moment.

Luo Zhenyu explained it to him and found out: Twenty years ago, the Forbidden City's cabinet cabinet was in disrepair and had increasingly serious water leakage problems that needed to be repaired. As a result, it encountered the Gengzi national crisis and was put on hold. It was not continued until Xuantong ascended the throne.

The relatively well-preserved materials were transported to the Wenhua Hall. The 10,000 sacks that were in ruins were originally intended to be burned, but Luo Zhenyu, who was the counselor of the academic department at the time, suggested that they be preserved.

Nowadays, it is difficult for the Beiyang government to achieve foreign borrowing, because the banking groups of various countries are not sure which of the two governments will have the last laugh. Therefore, the Beiyang government's finances were extremely tight and they could not pay their salaries, so they decided to sell these files.

Wang Guowei said: "I have seen this batch of archives. Although they are somewhat damaged, many of them are unique historical materials of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and are of great value."

Luo Zhenyu said: "But the Beiyang government actually sold it by the catty! It weighed 15 catties and the price was 4000 yuan."

This is much cheaper than Siku Quanshu.

Li Yu said awkwardly: "Is it really considered useless?"

Luo Zhenyu said: "If they sold it for 40,000 or 140,000, I wouldn't be so sad. At least the buyer wouldn't throw it away casually."

Li Yu said: "The money is not much, I can provide it to you, but what about the subsequent storage?"

Luo Zhenyu said: "The museum has space, they just lack the money to maintain it."

"That's easy," Li Yu said, "I'll pay for it, and I'll have to rely on you for subsequent maintenance."

Wang Guowei said happily: "We knew Mr. Academician would take action!"

Li Yu said with a smile: "Penny money is just small money, it's not worth mentioning."

Li Yu definitely didn't understand these literary and historical contents. Wang Guowei and Luo Zhenyu came to Li Yu because he was very rich and seemed to be very keen on protecting cultural relics.

Both of them were very sentimental about the late Qing Dynasty, so they tried every means to protect these cabinet materials.

Wang Guowei even still has braids. Among the masters of the Republic of China, not many had braids, only him and Gu Hongming.

However, Wang Guowei's character is not as strong as Gu Hongming and is more reserved.

Two years later, Luo Zhenyu also suggested that Wang Guowei become the South Study Assistant of the small court. It was then that the relationship between the two thirty-year-old friends and in-laws began to slowly fall apart.