Born in 1894, Meng Wentong was a native of Sichuan. He is known as a superb “interdisciplinary” figure, whose exposition is almost unparalleled in modern times for its breadth of scope and multiplicity of levels. In philosophy and the history of philosophy, he covers Confucianism and the sutras of the pre-Qin dynasty, the scriptures of the Han dynasty (present-day ancient texts), Taoism, and then the science of the Middle Ages, Buddhism (Vaisnava, Zen), and Taoism; in the history of China, he covers the ancient history before the Three Dynasties, stretching down to the history of the Song dynasty; in the history of ethnic groups, he focuses on the peoples around the pre-Qin dynasty, especially the Baiyue and Ba Shu peoples; in historical geography, he covers the ancient Kunlun to the Sichuan region, and from the Shanhaijing to the Szechuan region. In terms of historical geography, he has covered everything from the ancient Kunlun to Sichuan, from the Shanhaijing to the Shuijing. As for the history of historiography, economic history and even climate history, he only catches the knife in his spare time.
A master of Chinese studies with excellent character and scholarship
In 1906, he entered the Sichuan Provincial High School (the predecessor of Chengdu Shilu Middle School), and in 1911, he was selected to study at the Sichuan Cungu Academy, where he was taught by the masters of scripture and history. Four years later, Meng Wentong wrote a research paper entitled “Confucius’ Ancient Writings”, which was published in the eighth issue of the National Academy in 1915.
In 1921, Meng arrived in Chongqing and taught at Chongqing United Middle School and the Second Provincial Girls’ School, where he taught Song and Ming Theory to students. Two years later, he came to Nanjing to visit Mr. Zhang Taiyan, a master of ancient literature and scripture, with whom he discussed the study of ancient and modern literature. Later, he joined the Chinese Academy of Internal Medicine, which was sponsored by the Buddhist master Ouyang Jingwu, and devoted himself to the study of Buddhism. During this period, he wrote his research papers “Chinese Zen Studies” and “Vaisnava Shinra Studies”, which were deeply appreciated by Master Ouyang.
In 1927, he wrote the first draft of the most important work of his life, “The Screening of Ancient History”. In the book, he divided the ancient communities into three families: Jianghan (Yan), Hailuo (Huang), and Hai Dai (Tai), and derived the theory of three families of ancient history from this.
In 1933, Meng Wentong was invited by Mr. Tang Tong, a professor at Peking University, to teach in the history department of Peking University together with Mr. Qian Mu. At Peking University, he taught the history of the Zhou and Qin peoples, the history of the Wei, Jin and North and South Dynasties, and the history of the Sui and Tang dynasties, which was well received by students. Three years later, he went to teach at the Hebei Women’s Teacher’s College in Tianjin.
After The Japanese invasion of China, he refused to write a traitorous article on “Sino-Japanese promotion”, so he led his family to flee to the south. Later, he taught at the Department of History of Sichuan University and the Department of History of Northeastern University, and wrote important academic works such as “History of the Zhou and Qin Peoples”, “History of Chinese Historiography”, “The Development of Confucian Political Thought”, and “The Flow and Primitiveness of Mohism”.
According to the recollections of his friends, Meng Wentong was a loyal and warm-hearted person, a man of ancient ways, vindictive and unafraid of the powerful. He never condoned the unfair and unreasonable events and behaviors.
It can be said that Meng Wentong in the Republican era was respected for his profound knowledge and incisive papers on scripture, history, the hundred schools of thought, Buddhism, Taoism, the two Tibetans, ancient minorities, and his noble character, and became a master of national studies of his generation.
Tucking in his tail under the rule of the Chinese Communist Party
After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, Meng Wentong, as a master of Chinese studies, was inevitably affected by the authoritarian oppression that clamped down on ideas. During the “anti-rightist” campaign in 1957, the Party Committee of Sichuan University had the intention to brand him as a “rightist”. One of the imperial literati named Miao Yue jumped out and attacked Meng Wentong, saying, “Why don’t you learn Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought and cling to feudal traditional culture?”
The Sichuan Provincial Committee, out of its unwillingness to cut off Meng Wentong, the “academic banner of Sichuan’s national studies”, stepped in to “protect” him temporarily, but Meng Wentong was forced to make a review at the conference, and Sichuan University reduced his title, which should have been rated as first-class professor, to second-class professor.
During the decade from 1957 to 1966, Meng wrote a number of academic works, such as “Materials and Problems in the Study of Yin and Zhou Societies,” “Feudal Land Rents in China,” “The Expansion of Agricultural Production and the Evolution of the Fugitive System and Academic Thought in China,” “The Xifeng Change of Law,” and “Commercial Taxes in the Song Dynasty.
Beaten to death
When the bloody Cultural Revolution began, Meng Wentong was branded by the Red Guards as a “bourgeois reactionary academic authority of feudalism, capitalism and revisionism” and a bull and snake god, and was deprived of his teaching position and human dignity, ordered to reform through labor, and forced to clean public toilets and do heavy physical labor every day.
One day in June 1968, Meng Wentong was cleaning a public toilet at Sichuan University when a Red Guard openly urinated on his body. A “Shi can kill, not humiliate” the sky rage has been suffering from the destruction and humiliation of Meng Wen Tong anger can not be strangled, he rushed up and hit the Red Guard two slaps.
This has caused a huge disaster, after the Red Guards shouted “Meng beard beaten”, a group of Red Guards rushed in and knocked Meng Wentong to the ground, and dragged him to the scene of the criticism meeting. A group of Red Guards also drew their pistols to threaten and intimidate Mr. Meng to hand over his savings: “Meng Wentong, make it clear, this is your last chance, if you don’t hand over your savings, we will not be polite to you! This is the last chance.
The scene was witnessed by Wu Shiqian and Tang Jiahong, middle-aged teachers in the history department of Sichuan University. They later recalled: “We saw the Red Guards take Mr. Meng into the criticism meeting, and a few hours later Mr. Meng came out with his beard cut off by the Red Guards, his ‘patriotic beard’ had been cut into an insulting triangle, his body had been severely beaten and deformed, and he was escorted home and died within a few days. He died of injustice within a few days of being taken home.” After Meng was persecuted to death, the Red Guards falsely accused him of dying of cancer.
The unjustly killed Meng Wentong was not yet at peace after his death. According to the recollection of Tang Jiahong of Sichuan University, “When Meng beard died, a ‘memorial service’ was held instead of a struggle meeting, with an enlarged image of Meng beard hanging on the front, plus two black crosses. On the stage was a kneeling man wearing a tall paper hat, that is Xu Zhongshu. The first one to go up for criticism was Meng’s son ……”
Conclusion
I wonder if the Red Guards who persecuted this master of Chinese studies have repented for their crimes? I wonder if the son who criticized his own father was distraught by this? Perhaps, such a tragedy we can only see under such an authoritarian system as the Chinese Communist Party, which has brought more than these humiliations to the Chinese people?
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