When he 15 was admitted to Nanjing Jiangnan College, only three of the 270 students in the school were authentic Nanjing people, and he learned authentic Nanjing dialect from these three Nanjing students. On one occasion, he dined at the same table with guests who happened to come from all directions. Zhao Yuanren can talk with his deskmate in eight dialects.
1920 coincides with the lectures given by Dewey, an American educator, and China, an English philosopher. Tsinghua University sent him to translate for Russell. He learned to speak Hunan dialect when he accompanied Russell to Changsha, Hunan. Because of his clear speech, profound knowledge and dialect translation, Russell gave a better lecture than Dewey at that time. Since then, Zhao Yuanren's linguistic genius has been recognized, and he himself has decided to take linguistics as his main career for life. Zhao Yuanren's greatest happiness in his life is being recognized as a "fellow villager" by local people all over the world.
After World War II, he went to France to attend a conference. At the Paris station, he spoke the Parisian dialect to the waiter. The other party thought that he was a native of Paris and sighed: "You are back. It's not as good as before. Paris is poor. "
Later, I went to Berlin, Germany, and chatted with the locals in German with Berlin accent. An old neighbor said to him, "God bless you, you escaped this disaster and came back safely."
1920, the British philosopher Luo Su gave a lecture in China, and Zhao Yuanren served as a translator. Everywhere he went, he translated in the local dialect. On the way, he learned Changsha dialect from Hunan, and when he arrived in Changsha, he was able to translate it in the local dialect. After the speech, someone came to climb with him. On the evening of September 1920, it is estimated that the Jingmen Gate has been closed, so Zhao Yuanren can't go back to stay with his relatives in Tsinghua campus, and intends to talk with his uncle about the dissolution of the engagement. At my cousin's house, Zhao Yuanren met Yang Buwei, a female doctor in Senren Maternity Hospital.
When Zhao Yuanren and Yang Buwei first met, what they talked about was unclear, but they liked each other, that's for sure. The next day, Yang Buwei, a female doctor, invited Zhao Yuanren's cousin back, and he was also invited. They went to Central Park first and had dinner together. Zhao said in his diary that day: Dr. Yang is 100% open. Yang Buwei also has a fiance arranged by her family, and she broke off her engagement. It can be seen that Zhao Yuanren is very sympathetic and appreciative of Dr. Yang Buwei's breaking the old ethics and breaking the contract of arranged marriage.
Since then, Zhao Yuanren has been to Senren Hospital almost every two days. On September 25th, he bid farewell to Yang Buwei, saying, I'm afraid I'm too busy (he was invited by the "Society" headed by famous artists such as Liang Qichao to translate for the British philosopher Russell who came to China to give lectures). I hope you don't mind if I can't come again. But he went again that night.
At this time, Zhao Yuanren had a feeling of love for Yang Buwei. Therefore, the arranged marriage was dissolved. Until the end of May of 192 1, the woman agreed to dissolve the engagement, but she needed to provide Ms. Chen with a tuition fee of 2,000 yuan (better than the loss of youth). Zhao Yuanren wrote in his diary: I have been engaged to this girl for more than ten years, and I am finally free.
1921On May 25th, Zhao Yuanren and Yang Buwei began to prepare for the wedding, and drafted and printed the marriage notice; Self-written marriage certificate, affixed with 40 cents stamps; Go to Central Park to take multiple selfies, and choose one as a wedding photo in the motto hall; I rented a wedding room at No.49 Xiaoyabao Hutong, Dongcheng, Beijing. The room is very comfortable and has a roof garden. On May 3 1 day, after Zhao Yuanren and Yang Buwei decorated the house properly, Hu Shi and Zhu Zheng, a female doctor, were invited to have dinner in the living room that night. After dinner, I took out my marriage certificate and asked two friends to sign it as marriage certificate holders. In order to legalize it, a stamp duty of 40 cents was levied.
Zhao Yuanren recalled: On the notice we sent to our relatives and friends, we said that when we received the news, we got married at 3 pm on June 192 1 Sunday based on the standard of the average sun of east longitude 120 degrees. With two exceptions, never accept gifts. The first exception is letters, poems, or music scores, and the second exception is donations to the Chinese science society.
The next day, the Beijing Morning Post took the title of "Newly Married New Characters". After marriage, Yang Buwei gave up the position of hospital director and gynecological director, and became a good wife and mother. The two live in harmony, and a loving couple have been together for more than 60 years. After Zhao Yuanren returned to China, he taught many courses in Tsinghua University. With Liang Qichao, Wang Guowei and Chen Yinque, they are also called "four great teachers" of Tsinghua. However, such a master has avoided being an official all his life.
1945 After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Zhao Yuanren family in the United States were ecstatic when they heard the news of Japanese surrender and the end of World War II on the radio. They began to prepare for returning to China. In August of the following year, Zhao Yuanren's second daughter, Sinna, and her son-in-law Pei Yun set off for home. Before leaving, Mr. and Mrs. Zhao Yuanren told their daughter, "We will come back next year and wait for us." .
At that time, Central University moved back to Nanjing and wanted to hire Mr. Zhao Yuanren to teach in China. Mr. Zhao immediately agreed to resign from Harvard. However, in the summer of 1946, Zhu Jiahua, then Minister of Education, sent a telegram urging Zhao Yuanren to return from the United States and become the president of Nanjing Central University. This request frightened Zhao Yuanren, and Zhao Yuanren called back and said, "I can't do this. Thank you! " He refused again and again, so he was afraid to go back to China.
Later, at the suggestion of Mrs. Zhao, he decided to stay in the United States for another year and go back after being confirmed by the president of Central University. This is the incident of avoiding officials mentioned earlier. When he didn't return to China for some time, he accepted the invitation of the University of California and went to California temporarily. On his way home, he passed through California. Unexpectedly, more than 30 years have passed and it has become the place where he has lived for the longest time in his life. In the 1920s, Zhao Yuanren made records for the Commercial Press and promoted "Mandarin". There is an anecdote, which is hard to distinguish between true and false, but the scenery of Zhao was quite obvious. Mr. and Mrs. Zhao Yuanren prefer Mandarin when they go shopping in Hongkong. Hong Kong people are used to English and Cantonese, and few people are familiar with Mandarin. They met a shop assistant whose Mandarin was so poor that he couldn't understand anything Zhao Yuanren said. Zhao is helpless. Unexpectedly, when he was leaving the house, the man gave him a gift: "I suggest Mr. Wang buy a phonograph in Mandarin to listen to. Your Mandarin is really poor. "
Zhao Yuanren asked, "Who is the best phonograph in Mandarin?"
"Nature is the best in Zhao Yuanren."
Mrs. Zhao pointed to her husband and said with a smile, "He is Zhao Yuanren."
The clerk said angrily, "Stop joking! He speaks Mandarin so badly, how can it be Zhao Yuanren? " Zhao Lao is the first scholar in China to investigate dialects and dialects by scientific methods. His ears can distinguish various subtle phonetic differences. During the 1920s and 1930s, I personally investigated and studied nearly 60 dialects such as Wu dialect.
Zhao Yuanren's study of dialects is beyond the reach of others. He knows 33 dialects. His rigorous and diligent spirit of scholarship is amazing.
1in the spring of 927, when Zhao Lao was a tutor in Tsinghua University Institute, he went to southern Jiangsu and central Zhejiang to inspect Wu dialect. I often go to two or three places a day and record while investigating. If I can't find a hotel, I'll stay at a farmer's house. On one occasion, he and his assistant caught the train from Wuxi to Suzhou at night and only bought a fourth-class ticket with a hard seat. I was so tired that I fell asleep on the bench after I got on the bus. When I woke up, the car was in complete darkness. I looked out and realized that all the cars in front had left, leaving this fourth-class car. The assistant asked him what to do. He said, "I can't find a hotel now anyway. Just sleep in the car until dawn! " "The assistant saw that he was weak and advised him to do less research every day. He said humorously, "To do research is to work harder and hurry up, otherwise you can't go home early!"! "Isn't it more time-consuming and harder in the future?"
In that Wu dialect survey, he went to Zhenjiang, Danyang and Wuxi, got off at each stop, then took a small steamboat to Yixing, Liyang and returned to Wuxi. He braved the cold, ran back and forth, went deep into the masses, visited many places and recorded a large number of local dialects. Three months later, he returned to Beijing and wrote the investigation materials into a book "A Study of Modern Wu Language". When the book was published, the phonetic symbols were international phonetic symbols, and the printing house had no fonts. He and his assistant write, draw tables and make copies, and work more than 65,438+00 hours a day. After the book was published, it made a very precious contribution to the study of Wu dialect and dialect, and Zhao Yuanren also became the originator of Chinese dialect investigation. From 65438 to 0936, Zhao Yuanren recorded a record "Teach me how not to think about him" in EMI Company, which was popular for nearly half a century.
198 1 When he came to Beijing last time, he was invited to sing this song many times. Once after singing this song in the Conservatory of Music, people asked him: Is this a love song? Who is "he" among them? Zhao Lao replied: "The word' he' can be a man or a woman, or it can refer to something other than men and women. This word represents all the beloved him, her and it. " He said that this lyric was written by Mr. Liu Bannong in London, England, "including his nostalgia for his motherland."
Zhao Lao also told you an anecdote about this song. He said that this song was very popular in the society at that time, and a young friend wanted to see the style of the lyricist and asked Liu Bannong what he thought. One day, the Zhao family in Liu Qu was drinking tea, and Ye Zhao was present. Mr. and Mrs. Zhao Yuanren introduced to the young people: "This is the lyricist of" Teach me how not to think about him. " The young man had a big accident and blurted out, "So he is an old man!" "Everyone laughed. When Liu Bannong returned home, he wrote a doggerel: "Teach me how to think of him. Please come in and have a cup of tea. It turns out that he is such an old man. Teach me how to miss him again! "
From the 1920s to the early 1930s, most of Zhao Yuanren's lyrics were written by Liu Bannong. 1933 When Liu Bannong died of illness, Zhao Lao wrote a pair of elegies with deep affection: "It is difficult to make a song without words after playing the double reed for ten years; A few people are weak, teach me how to think about him! "