Category: Culture/Art
Analysis:
At the beginning of the 20th century, Westerners once spread a saying: You can go to China without seeing the three major palaces, but you must see them. Gu Hongming.
Who is Gu Hongming? He was born in Nanyang, studied in the West, married in the East, and served in the Beiyang. Proficient in 9 languages ??including English, French, German, Latin, Greek and Malayan, he has obtained 13 doctoral degrees. He read English newspapers backwards to mock the British and said Americans were uneducated. He was the first to translate China's "The Analects" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" into English and German into the West. With his impeccable tongue, he lectured on Confucianism to Japanese Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, exchanged letters with literary master Leo Tolstoy, and discussed world culture and political situations. He was called "the most noble China" by India's Mahatma Gandhi. people".
Gu Hongming, also known as Tangsheng. Born on July 18, 1857 in a British rubber plantation on Penang Island in the northwest of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia. In his early years, his ancestors moved to Nanyang from Fujian, China, and accumulated rich property and reputation. His father, Gu Ziyun, was the general manager of a rubber plantation run by the British at the time. He spoke fluent Hokkien and could speak English and Malay. His mother is a blond, blue-eyed Westerner who speaks English and Portuguese. In this kind of family environment, Gu Hongming has had an amazing understanding and memory of language since he was a child. Mr. Brown, the childless rubber plantation owner, liked him very much and adopted him as his adopted son. Let him read the works of Shakespeare, Bacon and others since he was a child.
British gunboats opened the door to China in 1840. Mr. Brown, Gu Hongming's adoptive father, said to him: "Do you know that your motherland, China, has been put on the chopping block, and the vicious invaders are wielding butcher knives, ready to divide and eat it. I hope you can learn both Chinese and Western knowledge and take on the responsibility of The responsibility of governing a rich country and civilizing Europe and America." When the Browns returned to England in 1867, they brought the ten-year-old Gu Hongming to the most powerful Western empire at the time. Before leaving, his father burned incense in front of his ancestors' memorial tablets and warned him: "No matter where you go, whether you are surrounded by British, German or French people, don't forget that you are Chinese."
Arrived in the UK, under the guidance of Brown, Gu Hongming started with the most classic Western literary masterpieces, and quickly mastered English, German, French, Latin, and Greek with the most sincere rote memorization method, and He was admitted to the famous University of Edinburgh with excellent results and was appreciated by the president, famous writer, historian, and philosopher Carlyle. In 1877, after Gu Hongming obtained a master's degree in literature, he went to Germany to study literature and philosophy at famous universities such as the University of Leipzig. Later, when Cai Yuanpei went to study at the University of Leipzig, Gu Hongming was already a well-known figure with a prominent reputation; and when Lin Yutang came to the University of Leipzig 40 years later, Gu Hongming's works were already required reading designated by the school. Fourteen years of studying abroad have turned the talented young man Gu Hongming into a young scholar proficient in Western culture.
After completing his studies, Ku Hongming followed the persuasion of Ma Jianzhong, a language guru in Singapore at the time, and immersed himself in the study of Chinese culture. He returned to his motherland and continued to study Chinese classics. He served in the powerful minister Zhang Zhidong's shogunate in the late Qing Dynasty for 20 years, and his main responsibility was "interpretation". While assisting Zhang Zhidong in coordinating Western affairs, he studied Chinese studies intensively and called himself the "Hanbin Reader".
Ku Hongming's reputation for being fluent in various Western European languages ??and being quick-tongued quickly spread among European and American people in China. He kowtowed to his ancestors, and the foreigners laughed and said: Will your ancestors be able to eat the food on the table if you do this? Gu Hongming immediately retorted: If you put flowers on the graves of your ancestors, can they smell the fragrance of the flowers? The British writer Maugham came to China and wanted to see Gu. Maugham's friend wrote a letter to Gu and invited him to come. But after waiting for a long time, no one came. Maugham had no choice but to find Gu's courtyard by himself. As soon as he entered the room, Gu said unceremoniously: "Your compatriots think that the Chinese are either coolies or compradors. As long as you wave, we have to come." In one sentence, Maugham, who had traveled far and wide and experienced a lot, was immediately embarrassed. Don't know what's right.
At the same time, as a defender of Eastern culture, Gu Hongming's reputation has gradually become more prominent. When Gu Hongming was lecturing at Peking University, he publicly said to the students: "Why do we need to learn English poetry? That is because after you learn English well, you can use our Chinese principles of life and gentle and honest poetry to teach those people from all over the world. At that time, he still spoke harshly and called the West a "land of four barbarians." For this reason, many people only regarded him as a maker of jokes, but ignored his inner pain and his feelings for the barbarians. The positive thinking of Eastern culture ignores his deep concern for the fate of this land and the determined and desperate struggle he made.
Since publishing an article titled "Chinese Studies" in the English newspaper "North China Daily" in 1883, he has embarked on the writing path of promoting Chinese culture and ridiculing Western learning. In the years at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, he also translated "The Analects of Confucius" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" into English, which were successively published and printed overseas. Later, "The University" was translated. His work was creative, adding to the ancient Oriental theory the illuminating quips of Goethe, Schiller, Ruskin and Joubert. Before him, there had never been good translations of ancient Chinese classics.
From 1901 to 1905, Gu Hongming published 172 "Notes on China" in five installments, repeatedly emphasizing the value of Eastern civilization.
In 1909, the English book "The Oxford Movement in China" was published, which had a huge impact in Europe, especially Germany. Some university philosophy departments listed it as a required reading reference book. In 1915, "Spring and Autumn Days" (the famous "The Spirit of the Chinese") was published. With idealistic enthusiasm, he showed the world that Chinese culture is the panacea to save the world. At the same time, his criticism of Western civilization was also sharp and profound. Soon the German version of "Spring and Autumn Days" was published, causing a huge sensation in Germany, which was undergoing World War I.
Gu Hongming believes that to evaluate a civilization, one must look at "what kind of people, what kind of men and women it can produce." He criticized those missionaries and sinologists who were "called authorities in the study of Chinese civilization" who "actually do not really understand the Chinese and the Chinese language." He uniquely pointed out: “To understand the true Chinese and Chinese civilization, that person must be deep, broad and simple” because “the three major characteristics of Chinese character and Chinese civilization are exactly the deep, broad and simple Simplicity, in addition to "sensitivity"
From this unique perspective, Gu Hongming compared the Chinese with the Americans, the British, the Germans, and the French, highlighting the characteristics of the Chinese. Why: Americans are broad and simple, but not deep; British people are deep and simple, but not broad; Germans are broad and deep, but not simple; French people are not as naturally deep as Germans, and are not as broad-minded as Americans and British people. The land is simple, but they have the sensitivity that these three nations lack; only the Chinese have these four excellent spiritual qualities. It is for this reason that Gu Hongming said that the overall impression left by the Chinese is "gentle". "That kind of indescribable gentleness." Behind the gentle image of the Chinese people, there is hidden their "innocent heart" and "adult wisdom", Gu Hongming wrote that the Chinese "live like children." - A life of the soul.
Gu Hongming lived in an unfortunate era. In such an era, as long as you were a Chinese, you could only be weak and at the mercy of others. If You are awake, and if you want to fight, you will have to pay an extremely painful price. Facing the motherland with internal and external troubles at that time, Gu Hongming was worried about the decline of Chinese tradition and the ruin of Yanhuang civilization. He wrote in his notes "Zhang Wenxiang Shogunate" "Jiwen" expressed his deep sighs about the self-esteem and worries of Chinese culture.
Gu Hongming's wild posture was his tearful performance, and he used wildness to protect his strong self-esteem. When he went to a Chinese market, the four words "Children and old men are not deceived" were hung everywhere, and he often said to Gu: These four words can be seen that the Chinese people are deceitful. People are much more open-minded, and Gu Hongming understands that misfortune more clearly and deeply than anyone else. Therefore, he does not hesitate to use a paranoid attitude to express his love for Chinese culture. He studied in the West, but he likes Eastern girls. He especially liked the small feet of Chinese girls. He fell in love with her at first sight and never let her down. After the founding of the Republic of China, he taught English literature at Peking University and adopted extreme behavior - growing pigtails, wearing old clothes, and taking concubines. and foot-binding, to counter the deformed trend of the entire society abandoning Chinese traditions. However, he did not kowtow when he saw a memorial tablet. The "congratulatory poem" he blurted out in public was "The Emperor." For thousands of years, people have spent money. "Longevity without bounds, the common people suffer". After Yuan Shikai's death, the whole country mourned for three days, but Gu Hongming specially invited a theater troupe to hold a party at home, which was lively for three days.
Gu Hongming teaches at Peking University and wears pigtails Entering the classroom, the students burst into laughter, and Gu said calmly: "The braids on my head are tangible, but the braids in your hearts are invisible. "Hearing this, the arrogant Peking University students fell silent.
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