Among the intellectuals of the Republic of China, two masters must be mentioned, one is Fu Sian and the other is Qian Mu. The former is a worthy genius, genius and master of the 20th century Chinese historiography and national studies, some even compare him with another master of national studies, Chen Yinkian. In addition, his passionate, fierce, cynical character, is rare among intellectuals, people gave the title of “Fu Cannon”. The latter was also an accomplished historian in the field of history, and is known as one of the “Four Modern Historians” along with Chen Yinqian, Lu Simian, and Chen Yuan. He also founded the New Asia College in Hong Kong to spread Chinese Culture.
In August 1949, Mao called them “a tiny minority of the reactionary government controlled by imperialism and its lackeys in China” in his article “Throw away illusions and prepare for struggle. “.
Why did these two literati make Mao so indignant? It is because unlike many intellectuals in the Republic of China who fell for the Chinese Communist Party and were cheated by it, stayed on the mainland and suffered from its destruction, Fu Sian and Qian Mu not only did well in their studies but also had a good eye. Although they had different philosophies, they both saw through Mao Zedong and the CCP, so they chose to leave the mainland when the CCP seized the kingdom. This article is only about Fu Sian and Qian Mu.
The First Talented Scholar of the Yellow River Region
Born in 1896, Fu Snenian’s ancestor was the first scholar during the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, and served as a chancellor, so his Family was prominent. Fu Sian was also smart and well-educated since childhood, familiar with the classics of Confucianism, known as the “Yellow River region’s first talent. When he was 18 years old, he entered Peking University to study Chinese studies, and was said to have topped every examination.
After graduating from Peking University, he joined the University of London Graduate School and the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Berlin, where he studied experimental psychology, physiology, mathematics, physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity, Bronk’s quantum theory, etc. He also became interested in comparative linguistics and koans.
After returning to China in the winter of 1926, Fu was appointed as a professor at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and Dean of the Faculty of Literature and the Department of History and Chinese Language, and later founded the influential Institute of History and Language of the Academia Sinica in China, and became its own director. He also actively organized several large archaeological excavations, such as the excavation of the Yin ruins in Anyang, Henan Province, the results of his research in history also mostly out of this period.
During the war, Fu served as a professor at the Southwest United University, and also as a senator in the National Council of Government, attacking corrupt officials, and the then-powerful Kong Xiangxi was impeached by him.
Yan’an trip to recognize Mao and the Chinese Communist Party
At the end of the war, the defeat of Japan was an indisputable fact, and the two parties began to consider the issue of power. On June 2, 1945, Huang Yanpei, Zhang Bojun and other members of the Democratic League, together with the non-partisan Fu Sinian, made a joint call to Mao Zedong, proposing a visit to Yan’an. Only two weeks later did Mao reply with a welcome telegram, and Chiang Kai-shek did not express any objection.
On July 1, 1945, Fu Snen, Huang Yanpei, Zhang Bojun and a group of six others arrived in Yan’an by special plane and were personally greeted by Mao, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De at the airport. In addition to a banquet for all, Mao, who had worked as a librarian at Peking University, also took an evening to talk with Fu Sinian. Fu Sian also had the opportunity to visit the Central Research Institute, the Marxist-Leninist Institute and other organs in Yan’an, and to meet Fan Wenlan, a historian of the Chinese Communist Party.
On July 5, the members of the delegation left Yan’an and returned to Chongqing. Unlike Huang Yanpei, who said that the trip to Yan’an was “like sitting in a spring breeze”, Fu Sian had an extremely sober understanding. After his return, he had several times with the president of the Central University Luo Jialun said that the style of Yan’an is purely authoritarian and foolish, that is, anti-liberty, anti-democratic style. During his conversations with Mao, he found that he was very familiar with all kinds of novels in the market, even those of low interest, and it was through these materials that he studied the psychology of the people and used them, so Fushenian thought Mao was just “Song Jiang first class”.
In his reminiscences, Luo also mentioned that when Fu and Mao strolled to the auditorium and saw the dense layers of banners dedicated to Mao, Fu said sarcastically, “The hall is magnificent!” Mao was somewhat aware of this, but did not respond.
As for the fellow members of the Democratic League, Fu thought they were very unproductive. He said that Zhang Bojun was returned to the clan by the Third Party, and the most shameless one was Huang Yanpei, who regarded the earth-woven woolen blanket given to them by Mao as the same as the dharmakaya quilt given by The Emperor, probably because he wanted to use it as a talisman. Therefore, Fushen despised them very much.
No good feeling towards Soviet Communist Party
As a matter of fact, Fu Sinian always had no good feelings towards the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party. As early as 1932, in his article “China Needs a Government Now”, he openly said that the Communist Party “is basically a rogue bandit of the ancestors, but the former rogue bandit was caused by the failure of the government in the past, the present Communist Party is caused by the failure of the government in the past, but the present Communist Party is caused by the collapse of the national economy in addition to the failure of the government in the past”. He declared: “Because of nationalism and humanitarianism, we are Anti-Communist and anti-Soviet. I cannot oppose the Communist Party in the same way as the Communist Party, because if I first pay homage to the Communist Party and use its methods which are not reasonable and do not value humanity, I will not be able to stand up for myself, and the only result of opposing the Communist Party is to expand its power for the Communist Party.” In his eyes, the CCP and the Soviet Union were inseparable, and the CCP followed Stalin’s dictatorship, so once the Communist Party came to power, social order would be greatly disrupted, and even people’s freedom would be deprived, culture would become a desert, and so on.
Fu was very disturbed when he saw many young people gradually evolving into fierce leftists. He once said this to others: If I were a young man of 17 or 18, I might have been interested in the Communist Party, but since I came into contact with the Communist Party, I would never be a Communist!
In December 1950, due to a sudden cerebral hemorrhage, Fu died. In his memorial service, Chiang Kai-shek personally to pay tribute, dignitaries from all walks of Life also came to say goodbye, a total of more than 5,000 people to pay tribute, and elegiac couplets, tributes, letters of condolence, condolence messages, memorial articles are also quite a lot. In order to commemorate Fu Si-nian, Taiwan University placed his mausoleum on the campus, known as “Fu Yuan”.
Academic Achievements
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, the middle school was closed and Qian Mu studied at Home, then taught in an elementary school. According to Yu Yingshi’s “A Lifetime of Inviting the Soul of the Homeland: A Tribute to Qian Bin Si Shi,” after Liang Qichao’s article “The Hope of China’s Future and National Responsibility” in 1910, which proved that China would not die, Qian Mu was deeply infected, but unlike most young people, he did not take the path of political salvation, but turned to the study of history. He turned to the study of history, hoping that through the study of history, he could find the basis for China’s non-extinction, and this was the driving force behind his 80 years of historical research.
In 1927, at the age of 33, Qian Mu taught at the Suzhou Provincial High School, where he completed his Introduction to National Studies and began writing his book The Chronology of the Sons of the First Qin. The historian Gu Jie Gang, whose family was in Suzhou, met Qian Mu when he returned home for a short stay, and after reading the manuscript of his book The Chronology of the Sons of the First Qin, he said, “It is not advisable for you to teach Chinese literature in a high school for a long Time, but to teach history in a university.” So he recommended Qian Mu to teach at Sun Yat-sen University. However, Qian Mu did not go to Sun Yat-sen University for this reason.
At the age of 36, Qian Mu was invited by Gu Jie Gang to write “A Chronology of Liu Xiangxin’s Father and Son” to refute Kang Youwei’s and other’s suspicion of ancient times. The article was published and immediately shook the academic world, liberating people from the cloak of Kang Youwei’s “Examination of the Pseudepigrapha of the New School”. Gu Jie Gang thus recommended Qian Mu to teach at Yanjing University, where he taught Chinese literature. After that, Qian Mu taught the history of ancient China and the Qin and Han dynasties in the history department of Peking University, and later he also offered a course on the history of Chinese political systems and a course on the general history of China. It is said that Qian Mu’s General History of China classes were full and well received by the students, and he spent four years at Peking University and two years at the Southwest Union University.
In addition, Qian Mu also taught part-time at Tsinghua University and Beiping Normal University.
In 1935, when The Chronology of the Pre-Qin Sons and Daughters was published, another Republican master, Chen Yinke, after reading his manuscript, privately commented to others, “I have not seen such a work since Wang Jing’an.” (Note: Wang Jing’an is Wang Guowei.) Qian Mu’s knowledge and reputation can be seen.
After Peking University and Tsinghua University moved to Yunnan to form the Southwest United University, Qian Mu wrote his masterpiece on history, “Outline of National History”, which is the most prestigious work of his life and is still read today.
After the victory of the war, Qian Mu did not receive an offer to renew his appointment at Peking University, probably due to the fact that the acting president of Peking University, Fu Sian, did not agree with Qian Mu’s philosophy. Qian Mu finally chose to teach at Jiangnan University in Wuxi, China, where he wrote The Book of Leisurely Thoughts on the Lake and The Codex of Zhuangzi.
A message from Mao made Qian Mu choose to leave
In the spring of 1949, Qian Mu went to Guangzhou to teach at Huaqiao University. At that time, many intellectuals chose to stay on the mainland under the compulsion of the Chinese Communist Party, but Qian Mu decided to go to Hong Kong. What was the reason? An article in Caijing magazine on the mainland mentioned an incident in his memoirs, “Miscellaneous Memories of Teachers and Friends”.
In 1949, when the Chinese Communist army crossed the Yangtze River and started to advance to Jiangnan, intellectuals were faced with the dilemma of staying or leaving. The twin brother of Mr. Qian Jibo, who was famous for his study of classical literature, advised Qian Mu to stay. Qian Mu asked, “You are a scholar of ancient literature and rhetoric, see the bulletin of the army crossing the river, is there a generous and tolerant atmosphere? Mr. Kisei did not say anything.
The announcement was in the hand of Mao Zedong. Qian Mu read from the proclamation that the heroes of the world could not tolerate the atmosphere of all things, and suspected that as a historian he could not see the tolerance, so he went to Hong Kong, while Qian Kibo chose to believe in the Chinese Communist Party. The two men’s subsequent fates were naturally very different. Qian Mu founded a school in Hong Kong, and his works were widely disseminated to the world, while Qian’s manuscripts were burned in the 1959 “White Flag” campaign, and he eventually died in depression. Qian Mu’s insightfulness is astonishing.
Founding the New Asia College and rejecting the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front
After Qian Mu arrived in Hong Kong, he founded the New Asia College. When Qian Mu first founded the New Asia College, he wrote an article in the school magazine, stating that “the College was founded in the autumn of 1949 in response to the Communist Party’s deliberate destruction of Chinese culture in mainland China, so the College’s highest purpose of Education was to promote Chinese culture. In today’s struggle between democracy and totalitarianism, Chinese youth should have a correct understanding of their ideology, so that they will not go astray, which will not only mislead their own future, but also harm the country and the world peace.
In fact, many of the initial teachers and students of Xinyia College were young intellectuals who fled the Chinese Communist Party and went south to Hong Kong; scholars who taught humanities at Xinyia at that time and thereafter, such as Tang Junyi, Mou Zongsan and Xu Fuguan, all wrote openly against the Communist Party.
Through hard work, the New Asia College grew bigger and bigger, and Qian Mu founded the New Asia Institute. Among them, the most famous was the contemporary historian Yu Yingshi, who was a professor at Harvard University, Yale University and Princeton University. And Qian Mu was also awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Hong Kong in 1955.
In the early 1950s, the Chinese Communist Party launched a united war effort against Qian Mu, sending his teacher Lu Simian and his nephew Qian Weichang to write to him, urging him to return to the mainland. In his reply, Qian Mu said that he had seen his two friends, Feng Youlan and Zhu Guangqian, forced to write self-scandalizing reviews in the midst of the intellectual reform movement, and that doing so was like walking dead and losing human dignity, which he could never do. He would like to follow the example of Zhu Shunshui, who lived in Japan at the end of the Ming Dynasty to spread Chinese culture, hoping to spread one of the lines of Chinese culture in the South.
At the same time, Qian Mu continued to write and criticize severely the perverse practices of the Chinese Communist regime. In his History of Chinese Thought, he wrote: “The communism that is spreading rampantly in China at this moment will be at best a walking corpse with flesh and blood. …… The mainland regime is like a big rock rolling down a very high hill, and the closer it comes to collapse, the greater its power …… How horrible the Three Red Flags, how horrible the Cultural Revolution of the Red Guards, and how much more horrible things lie beneath.” It is evident that he loved China in the cultural sense, and had no illusions about the Chinese Communist regime that destroyed culture and distorted humanity.
In his later years, he refused the Chinese Communist Party’s statehood
In 1965, Qian Mu stepped down as president of the New Asia College and went to Malaysia to lecture. Two years later, at the age of 73, Qian Mu settled in Taipei and was elected a member of Academia Sinica, and later became a professor at the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Culture and a researcher at the National Palace Museum. In the 1960s and 1970s, when he gave a lecture tour to various military officer schools in Taiwan, he did not hesitate to attack the Chinese Communist Party’s destruction of culture.
In 1986, in his article “A New Year’s Perspective on the Current Situation,” Qian Mu still rejected the “national name of the People’s Republic of China” because it meant that “from now on, China will not be led by the Chinese themselves, but by non-Chinese people such as Ma En-Li Shi”; he even said bluntly He even said straightforwardly that unless this national symbol and communism were removed, there could be no talk of reunification across the Taiwan Strait.
In 1990, Qian Mu died at the age of 96.
Conclusion
It is certain that if Qian Mu had stayed on the mainland, not only would he not have been able to save his life, but he would not have been able to found the New Asia College, let alone live such a long life. As for the fierce character of Fu Sinian, he might not have seen the Chinese Communist Party either. Obviously, their wise eyes let them escape the Chinese Communist Party’s maiming, from this point of view, those masters who mistakenly believed in the Chinese Communist Party and stayed in the mainland did not end up so well, Chen Yinke, Liu Wendian, Xiong Shili and so on.
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