1927 is a year of sudden change in political situation in China's modern history. For Wang Guowei, this year is also unusual, because Wang Guowei, who is in his prime, has set the end of his life in this year's ups and downs.
1June 2, 927, Wang Guowei went to the institute after breakfast as usual. When he arrived at school, he first remembered that he had forgotten to bring his students' grade books to the office, so he asked the staff of the institute to pick them up at home. After that, he met with Hou Houpei, the office secretary of the Institute, and discussed the enrollment arrangements for the next semester with Hou. He talked a lot about his own ideas and suggestions, and it took him a long time to break up with Hou. When he left, Wang Guowei asked Patty Hou to borrow three yuan of ocean, but Hou Haiyang just didn't take it, so he could only lend him paper money. Wang Guowei walked out of school with the money. He hired a rickshaw at the school gate and asked the driver to pull him to the Summer Palace, which is not far from Tsinghua campus. It was about ten o'clock in the morning when we arrived at the Summer Palace. Wang Guowei paid the fare, told the coachman to wait at the gate of the garden and went straight into the Summer Palace. Early summer, full of green in the Summer Palace. However, near noon, there are few tourists in the park. Wang Guowei stopped at Yuzao Pavilion in the west of Paiyun Hall for a long time, smoked his last cigarette, and then jumped into Kunming Lake. At that time, there was a gardener (or policeman) not far from where Wang Guowei drowned. After hearing the sound of falling into the water, he hurried to save it, but only after a minute or two, Wang Guowei was already dead. Although the lake in front of Yuzaoxuan is only two feet deep, the bottom of the lake is full of soft silt. When Wang Guowei sank, his head went into the water first, so that his nose and mouth were blocked by mud. The gardener who heard the news didn't know the first aid method, and Wang Guowei finally choked to death. When the gardeners rescued Wang Guowei from the water, his underwear was not soaked. If he can be rescued by artificial respiration in time, it may still be saved, but it is delayed.
A generation of masters of Chinese studies quietly left like this.
At noon, the rickshaw hired by Wang Guowei was still waiting outside Yuanmingyuan, and his family waited for him to eat for a long time, but no one came back. At 2 pm, my family went to school to ask. So Hou Houpei asked the driver at the school gate and learned that the car carrying Wang Guowei had gone to the Summer Palace and had not returned yet. Hou Houpei immediately got on his bike and went to the Summer Palace to find someone. Earlier, Wang Guowei's son Zhen Ming had learned about the situation at the school gate and rushed to the Summer Palace. On the way, he met the coachman who sent his father to the Summer Palace. At this time, the police are sitting in the coachman's car, and they are going to report to the school. Because the coachman waited for Wang Guowei outside the Summer Palace until three o'clock in the afternoon, I heard that someone was throwing water into the garden. When he entered the garden, he saw that the dead man was the one he was waiting for. When Zhenming arrived at Yuanmingyuan and confirmed that the deceased was his father, it was four o'clock in the afternoon.
The bad news arrived at Tsinghua campus at 9 pm. About 30 people, including the president, the provost, the professors of the research institute, the teaching assistants and the students, rushed to the Summer Palace in two cars, including Wang Guowei's good friends Professor Chen Yinque and Professor Wu Mi. But at this time, the garden gate was closed and the defenders were not allowed to enter. After repeated negotiations, President Cao Yunxiang, Dean Mei Yiqi and the director of the security room were allowed to visit. The next day, faculty, students and many members of Wang Guowei's family from Tsinghua campus went to the Summer Palace. At this time, Wang Guowei's body was still parked in the fish algae pavilion, and his family and coroner found a suicide note from Wang Guowei's pocket, the cover of which read: "Send it to Mr. Wang at Xiyuan 18". The last time and signature is: "the second day of May, the father word." The suicide note was written by Wang Guowei the day before his death and put in his pocket before he left. Subsequently, people moved Wang Guowei's body to three huts under the eunuch in the old inner court outside the northwest corner of the garden for burial. At 7 pm, Wang Guowei's coffin was sent to Gangbing Temple in the south of Tsinghua campus. On this day, in addition to Wang Guowei's family and students from Tsinghua Research Institute, there were professors Wu Mi, Chen Yinque, Mei Yiqi and Chen Da from Tsinghua, professor Ma Heng from Peking University, professor Rong Geng from Yanda University and Liang Shuming.
Wang Guowei's self-abandonment shocked the Tsinghua campus, and even shocked the academic circles. People all regretted the loss of such an accomplished master of Chinese studies. On the day of Wang Guowei's suicide, Liang Qichao left Tsinghua, got the bad news and went back to Tsinghua to attend the aftermath in person, and fought for Wang Guowei's pension from the school and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He lamented the death of Wang Guowei. He said to his daughter: "This open research method is extremely novel and intensive. I am only fifty-one years old this year. If it is postponed for another ten years, it will be the invention of China academic circles. " Gu Jiegang, a young scholar at that time, compared Wang Guowei's death with Kang Youwei's death in March of the same year. He said: Mr. Kang Su Chang passed away, and I took it lightly. I am no less influenced by him in my study than Mr. Jing 'an. Since I admire him, why don't I feel sorry for his death? Because his knowledge is just the beginning, and he has not continued to process it. So Kang Youwei died in academia at the age of 36. "As for Mr. Jing 'an, unlike Mr. Kang, he is making progress every day. His great contribution was made after the age of 35, and it has become more and more intensive in recent years. Others can't resist the oppression and temptation of the environment and change their minds together. Only he worked tirelessly and became the only important academic town in China. He is only fifty-one years old this year. If he can live as long as Kang, I really don't know how high his achievements can be. " Now he has "abandoned the middle road". For academic circles, his death is a great loss, and it is hard to tell how much he sacrificed. The words of Liang Qichao and Gu Jiegang reflect the deep regret of the academic circles for the death of Wang Guowei.
On June 16, Wang Guowei's memorial service was held in Zhejiang Hall, Xiaxie Street, Beijing, and people sent elegiac couplets one after another. Liang Qichao especially praised Wang Guowei's academic research in elegiac couplet, and especially mentioned Wang Guowei's outstanding achievements in Oracle Bone Inscriptions research. He wrote: "His knowledge is based on learning from others, not just the translation of strange words? , create a turtle contract; There is a sense of shame when you die. Don't make wild guesses. " Chen Yinque's elegiac couplet has a deeper feeling: "If you dare to cry for personal friendship, Chinese culture will be lost." The Yue family should not be ashamed of public affairs alone, but share the same dust with the laity in Lei Ning. What I have learned is related to providence, and the world knows the truth of jealousy. Won the clear water of Daqing, and said that it is spiritual every year. Wu Mi expressed his views on Wang Guowei's self-destruction in his elegy: "Being out of the palace is still a former dynasty, humiliating and worrying about my ministers and making great contributions to others;" "The catastrophe coincided with this day, people died, and Yu Hai cried Jun Zheng in unison." Hundreds of mourning poems received at this memorial service jointly expressed people's mourning and regret for Wang Guowei. In addition, local newspapers such as Sinology Monthly in Beijing, Sinology Series, and Ta Kung Pao in Tianjin have successively published albums such as Special Issue of Mr. Wang Jing 'an, Commemorative Number of Mr. Wang Jing 'an, and Anniversary of Mr. Wang Jing 'an's Death. Wang Guowei's death also caused a shock in overseas academic circles. Japanese scholars held a memorial meeting for Mr. Wang Guowei in Osaka, and Wang Guowei's Japanese friends and scholars attended the meeting or wrote poems to mourn. The eighth and ninth issues of the Japanese magazine Wen Yi (eighteen volumes) from 65438 to 0927 are devoted to recalling Wang Guowei's academic work. French scholar pelliot also wrote many articles to introduce Wang Guowei's achievements to readers. He wrote in the 26th bulletin: As an old friend of Wang Guowei, I often mentioned his name and quoted his extensive and rich achievements many times. Modern China has never produced a scholar who has gone so far and dabbled in so many things. All this shows that Wang Guowei has won people's universal respect for his great academic achievements.