“A spiritual force in Tsinghua”
Born in 1894, Wu Mi entered the Tsinghua Academy at the age of 17 and then went to the United States to study Western literature. He received his B.A. from Virginian University and his M.A. from the Department of Comparative Literature at Harvard University, where he conducted in-depth studies of nineteenth-century English literature, especially the works of the romantic poets, and has a number of treatises to his credit.
After returning to China in 1921, Wu Mi taught at Nanjing High School, National Southeast University, and Northeastern University, where he taught courses on the history of world literature. Although his main focus was on the introduction of Western literature, he still advocated maintaining the proper value of Chinese cultural heritage and attacked the new style of free verse.
Later, Wu Mi came to teach at the Department of Foreign Languages at Tsinghua University, where Qian Zhongshu was his favorite student, and Ji Xianlin, who was promoted by the Chinese Communist Party, was also his student. His greatest contribution to Tsinghua University was his involvement in the establishment of the Tsinghua Institute of Chinese Studies, of which he was the director, and even more amazingly, he invited the four most famous mentors of the Republic of China, Wang Guowei, Liang Qichao, Chen Yinqian and Zhao Yuanren, to teach him. It can be said that there are no four instructors, the National Academy is famous. As Wang Guowei told Wu Mi after he arrived at Tsinghua, “I was reluctant to teach at Tsinghua, but I was so moved by your respectfulness that I was hired.”
After Wang Guowei sank in Kunming Lake, Wu Mi vowed before his spirit, “I dare to swear to the spirit of Mr. Wang that if I cannot carry out my will in other years and die in a mundane manner, or if I am forced by the enemies of Chinese culture and morality, I will follow Mr. Wang’s example and die with grace. In the decades that followed, Wu Mi continued to live by this spirit.
During his time at Tsinghua, Wu Mi was regarded as “a spiritual force at Tsinghua”. This was not only due to his great inspiration, charisma, and gentlemanly demeanor, but also to his meticulousness as a teacher. It is said that Wu Mi had an amazing memory, and he said of himself, “Mi teaches classes mostly from memory, without relying on books, even if there is a review, you can consult the library, no need to purchase it.”
In 1923, an article in the Tsinghua Weekly described Wu Mi’s lectures: he wrote the outline on the blackboard in advance, and when the lecture began, he did not look at the books or notes, but spoke in a well-organized manner.
In “Mr. Wu Mi,” a Tsinghua student, Wen Yuanning said, “As a teacher, Mr. Wu was perfect, except for his lack of infectiousness. He kept his moments strictly, like a clock, and lectured diligently, like a hard worker. Others always open their books to read the original text when they have a citation, but he, no matter how long the citation is, always recites it by heart. No matter what issues he explained, he was like a sergeant in practice, speaking in an orderly manner, the first point this, the second point that. The first point is this, and the second point is that. It is sometimes boring, but it is never incomprehensible. Whereas some teachers talk about everything, they do not say anything, but Mr. Wu is straightforward and says what he thinks: he may be wrong, but at least he is not boastful. He is not ambiguous, he is always firm. In other words, he is not afraid to be straightforward about what he is getting himself into. He is unimpeachable as far as the facts are concerned, especially those found in the various encyclopedias and reference books, and you can argue with him only on questions of interpretation and appreciation.”
Among Wu Mi’s accomplished students were Qian Zhongshu, Cao Yu, Lv Shuxiang, and Li Funing …… Li Funing, a master of Western languages and literature, remembers Wu Mi as follows: “Mr. Wu never wrote Chinese characters in simple script, but always in regular script, dignified and square, meticulous. This rigorous style of learning has been a lifelong benefit to me. His lectures were very informative and well organized, never a word of nonsense. He was extremely conscientious and responsible for teaching, and he would arrive ten minutes early for each class, wipe the blackboard and prepare for the class. He never misses class and never leaves early. Mr. Wang always answers every question, treats students’ questions with enthusiasm and seriousness, answers them patiently, and inspires them to answer their own questions. Mr. corrected students’ homework even more carefully and conscientiously, circling the good sentences and wonderful points written by students and writing specific comments to help students correct their mistakes and make continuous progress.”
Wu Mi, who was the head of the Foreign Languages Department at the time of the Southwest United University, was remembered as wearing a gray cloth robe that had been washed white, carrying a cloth bag in one hand and a staff in the other, and wearing a cotton gauze nightcap in winter. The first thing he did on the podium was to open the bag and take out the ink cartridge and two brushes, one red and one black. His English lecture notes are also written with brushes. The Chinese characters are written in small, fly-headed letters, while the English ones are largely printed, and where it is important, he also uses a red pen to put dots, wavy lines or straight lines to show the difference. His lecture notes were also in “bacchanalian”, and there were envelopes and shopping wrappers, as well as corners cut from historical paper or burlap paper.
Wu Mi was very helpful, saying, “Mi is just happy to help people, and has no other purpose, nor does he expect people to repay him.” For example, in the 1930s, when one of Wu Mi’s students wanted to study in the United States but did not have enough money to pay for his studies, Wu Mi generously gave 300 yuan to help him make the trip and repeatedly stated that he did not have to pay back.
However, Wu Mi himself was frugal and self-disciplined in his life, not smoking or drinking, and usually eating light meals. His lecture notes and his diary for decades were mostly written on found cigarette boxes, and a mosquito net was used for nearly 40 years from 1938 until the Cultural Revolution.
After winning the war, Wu Mi moved around several universities before finally settling in Chongqing, where he became a professor at Xianghui College and a professor of literature at Beibei Mianren College. He declined numerous invitations from the Ministry of Education of the Nationalist Government and from overseas universities due to his lack of basic knowledge of the Chinese Communist Party. After the Chinese Communist occupation of the mainland, the two colleges were merged and Wu Mi joined the Southwest Normal College as a teacher with the merger. This was the beginning of his fate as a tiger in the sun.
Friendship with Chen Yinke
In 1919, Wu Mi and Chen Yin-kean met at Harvard University and often walked together along the Charles River.
At that time, Wu Mi was amazed by his erudition and convinced by his knowledge, and wrote to his friends in China, “When I discuss all kinds of Chinese and Western studies, old and new, I must take Yinke as the most knowledgeable person in China.” He also said repeatedly, “Although Chen Yinkian is my friend and my teacher, he has enlightened me a lot over the years.”
In 1925, Wu Mi became the director of the Institute of Chinese Studies at Tsinghua University, and the first thing he did was to hire Chen Yinke as his “mentor”. Since then, the two have worked together at Tsinghua, going back and forth, reciting poems and singing harmony.
Insulted in the Anti-Rightist and Cultural Revolution
On the evening of May 5, 1952, when Wu Mi learned that the “Thought Reform Movement” was about to begin and that students would be supervising the reform of teachers, he was “deeply alarmed. “He was so frightened that he went to bed without even thinking about watching a movie. The next day, the Ministry of Education and Culture sent someone to the Southwest Normal College, where he was working, to work on the reformation of teachers’ thinking. When he heard that Beijing had “severely judged Liang Shuming, Zhang Dongsun, Zhao Zichen, and others and aggravated their charges,” he realized that his situation was precarious and was “so worried that I was afraid that I would not be spared from death. (See Wu Mi’s Diary)
Due to the Korean War, the Chinese Communist Party temporarily stopped “reforming” intellectuals. However, a few years later, another campaign was launched.
In 1957, during the “Anti-Rightist” campaign, Wu Mi was branded as a rightist for commenting on the inappropriateness and inconvenience of simplified Chinese characters. During the Cultural Revolution, he was criticized, beaten, humiliated, and labeled a “reactionary academic authority, a bought-and-paid-for literary figure, a feudal lackey, a cultural henchman of Chiang Kai-shek, and an accomplice of American imperialism,” and was sent to Liangping County, Sichuan, for reform. His three daughters also severed their ties with him.
In “The Wu Mi I Know,” Li Yonghui, a student who had heard his teachings, described some of the “criticism” scenes he had witnessed in the summer of 1966: First, the “group clown show,” in which dozens of “capitalists” and “cattle and snakes” from the entire institution, including Wu Mi, were taken to the tennis court to hang black cards and wear high hats, and “ride in a jet plane” in the hot sun, all of them panting and sweating and suffering.
The second was to parade dozens of “gangsters”, including Wu Mi, who had been black-tagged and beaten into a different book, to Beibei, where they were humiliated and reprimanded if they did not bow their heads or walked slowly.
The third was the “small cooking” session, where Wu Mi was criticized alone in the auditorium. Despite the strong “smell of gunpowder” in the hall, Mr. Wu always kept his head buried, squinted his eyes, and did not say a word. When one of the “junior generals” saw how “stubborn” Mr. Wu was, he rushed to the stage in anger and whipped a belt at his head. He painfully covered the top of his head with both hands and looked at the “junior” and said, “Class, stop it, it’s already bleeding.” Then several “juniors” swarmed on him and dragged him off the stage with a chorus of slogans and took him to the school’s health department to be bandaged. I couldn’t bear to see him being beaten, and I was very sad.
In another fight, the Red Guards ordered Wu Mi to kneel in front of Mao’s statue and confess his guilt. He did not kneel. He was kicked by the Red Guards in the back of his legs before he knelt down, but his leg bone was broken.
During another demonstration, he was put up on a high platform for public display, and he was dizzy and shivering. When he recovered from his leg injury, he was ordered to clean the toilets. Later, he lost the sight of one of his eyes.
In 1974, his cousin went to Chongqing to visit Wu Mi, who was unable to take care of himself, and found that there was little furniture in the house, the bedding on the bed was thin, there were no cloth certificates or cotton tickets, and a blue cloth jacket was barely wearable, with thirty-six stitches. He was taken back to his home in Jing Yang, Shaanxi Province, where all of Wu Mi’s savings consisted of a seven-cent coin under his pillow. During his year of convalescence in his hometown, every time he ate, Wu Mi, who was blind and had a broken leg, would ask, “Do you need more instructions?”
In 1978, Wu Mi came to the end of his life. As he was dying, the famous old professor kept whispering, “I am Professor Wu Mi, give me water to drink! …… Give me food, I am Professor Wu Mi! …… I am Professor Wu Mi, give me the light! ……”
A scholar and poet of passionate honesty and integrity was thus strangled in a country to which he was deeply attached. After his death, his disciple Zhao Ruihong used Zola’s famous words from more than a century ago, “I accuse!” to invoke Wu Mi’s soul. If he had known, who would Wu Mi have accused?
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