He only has a secondary school education, but he is famous for writing "erotic" novels and is hired as a professor at Peking University;
He invented the word "she" and was spurned by new women;
As a professor at Peking University, he wrote biographies for prostitutes and was admired by the world.
He is Liu Bannong, and his life can be described by four words: "two", "swing", "mourning" and "shallow".
Let the fiancée put her feet down and refuse to take a concubine, how "two" is he?
Liu Bannong's marriage is a typical old-fashioned marriage.
In old-style marriages, men and women could not meet privately before marriage.
Liu Bannong could not hide his curiosity and sneaked to the Zhu family to see his fiancée Zhu Hui.
When I first came to the Zhu family, I happened to encounter Zhu Hui carrying a bucket of water, and walked shakily into the house, revealing the three-inch golden lotus under the skirt from time to time.
He stared at it for a long time, thinking how inconvenient it would be for such a pair of small feet to walk.
When he returned home, he went to find his father and begged him to intercede with the Zhu family and let Zhu Hui put his feet on his feet. He said: "Foot binding is too painful, since the woman is afraid of not marrying out without foot binding, then it is up to the husband's family to propose to put the foot." ”
Under Liu Bannong's insistence, the Zhu family did indeed give Zhu Hui a foothold.
Based on this incident alone, Zhu Hui secretly swore: From now on, she would follow this man.
At the beginning of the new marriage, Liu Bannong and his second brother went to Changzhoufu Academy to study, and then went to Shanghai to make a living, Liu's father was ill and could not teach, and the family was difficult. Zhu Hui alone not only has to take on heavy housework, but also has to undertake some odd jobs outside to subsidize the family. The excessive family burden caused Zhu Hui to have two miscarriages.
Liu's father was anxious that the incense of the Liu family continued, and he ordered Liu Bannong to take a concubine, and helped him seriously find a suitable woman for him to marry.
At that time, it was natural for men to have three wives and four concubines, and many new young people used the marriage revolution as a reason to divorce and remarry, or did not divorce and marry another marriage outside.
Liu Bannong did not follow his father's wishes, in order to protect his wife, he not only disobeyed his father's orders, but also concealed his father, took his wife from his hometown to Shanghai to live, the two began their own small family life, a year later had a daughter Liu Xiaohui.
Liu Xiaohui wrote in her father's memoirs: "Every day, my father would crawl out of the warm bed, run in the cold wind to chase and call for people who sold dried potatoes, and then buy hot potatoes and stuff them into the sleeves of their cotton robes and bring them back to my mother and me."
Zhu Hui was often glad that he had "saved the galaxy" in his previous life and met such a wonderful man.
Liu Bannong's marriage is an old-style arranged marriage form, but it is a new-style coexistence of "one life and one couple", in the old society he was "two", in the current view, he is a warm man.
Writing erotic novels to become famous, the rapids retreat, how "swinging" he really is
Liu Bannong worked as an editor in the Zhonghua Bookstore, the salary was not very high, and after the family added a small favor, life became difficult.
Forced to make a living, Liu Bannong began to submit articles to various magazines and publish novels to seek fees.
He spent five years publishing more than forty erotic love novels in major magazines such as "Novel Monthly" and "Novel View" under the charming pseudonym of "Half Nong", and was sought after by many fans.
Liu Bannong became famous in Shanghai for a while, and was known as "Jiangyin Talent" and "The Leader of the Literary Circle".
At this time, he felt empty and confused, standing at the crossroads of life, he fell into meditation: the situation in the outside world was turbulent, but he was immersed in his own erotic world to sell fame and reputation.
So the 26-year-old Liu Bannong resolutely resigned and returned to his hometown in Jiangyin with his wife and daughter. Without a stable income, he was often too poor to open the pot, and lived on the loans of the seller and his wife to his mother's house.
The temporary embarrassment may only be the tempering of "the heavens will descend on a great task, and first suffer their hearts".
Soon, Liu Bannong received an olive branch from Cai Yuanpei, president of Peking University, and wanted to hire him as a Chinese language teacher at Peking University.
Liu Bannong was flattered, and he was a little confused by the second monk. Later, I learned that it was an unforgettable meeting with Chen Duxiu, the editor-in-chief of "New Youth", in Shanghai, and Chen Duxiu caught his talent, so he recommended him to Mr. Cai Yuanpei, who chose talents in an eclectic manner.
True talent is as difficult to hide as a flame, and it will always burn.
Liu Bannong, a person with only a secondary school education, stepped into Peking University, the most prominent institution of higher learning in the country.
Peking University came to a professor who had graduated from middle school, which made some senior professors who regarded themselves as high and held high academic qualifications indignant.
Liu Bannong, a professor with only a secondary school education, was regarded by some old qualified professors as a "lower Riba person", labeled "superficial", and repeatedly suffered difficulties.
In the general election of the members of the editorial board of "New Youth", Liu Bannong rushed to run for office, but was stopped by Hu Shi on the threshold of academic qualifications.
Election of the editorial board of New Youth
After several thoughts, Liu Bannong, who was ashamed and embarrassed, proposed to the principal Cai Yuanpei that he wanted to go abroad for further study.
Unexpectedly, Cai Yuanpei raised his hands in approval. So Liu Bannong, who is in his thirties, took his wife and daughter and embarked on the road to study in Britain.
When Liu Bannong reaped both fame and fortune, he could reap it when he saw the good; when he was questioned, he also knew that it was difficult to advance.
His eyes were full of sunshine and his smile was frank.
Spurned by the new woman, writing poems to explain how "mournful" he really is
At that time, Liu Bannong felt that the cost of studying in Britain was expensive, and he heard that France had low costs and a rich collection of books, so he then turned to France to study for a doctorate in phonetics.
During his doctoral studies, Liu Bannong focused on domestic phonetic studies while translating foreign literary works in the vernacular.
In the process of translating foreign literary works, Liu Bannong found that the third person pronouns of women in China were written differently. For example, Zhou Zuoren often uses the word "Yi" to refer specifically to the female third person. Hu Shi often used "that woman" to refer to the female third person.
Liu Bannong was pondering whether he could translate "She" with a concise word.
So on a bright moonlit night, he was inspired to invent "she", excited to insomnia.
By example, comparison, and deliberation:
The Yi people said, "It is true that he is coming, but we always have to wait for the Yi people." ”
The woman said, "It's good that he's here, but we'll have to wait for the woman." ”
She said, "He's coming, and it's good, but we'll have to wait for her." ”
Soon, Liu Bannong couldn't hide his joy and published his idea in the magazine "New Youth", thinking that he could win everyone's admiration. Unexpectedly, the pro-faction and the opposition began to fight a pen war. The new women also burst into indignation, scolding Liu Bannong for machismo and discriminating against women.
First, the "Newcomer" magazine published an article signed by Han Bing, "This is Liu Bannong's Fault.". Hu Shi has always advocated vernacular literature, and this time he also strongly opposed it. For a while, Liu Bannong was pushed to the cusp of the storm.
Liu Bannong, in a fit of rage, wrote an article entitled "The Problem of the Word "She"" with a stroke of his pen, which was published in the "Current Affairs New Daily".
Subsequently, the situation began to lean one-sidedly toward Liu Bannong.
Guo Moruo published a prose poem called "She and Him" in the "Learning Lights" column of the Current Affairs News.
Lu Xun's first short story, "Blessings", changed the previous practice of using "Yi" and used "she".
With the lessons of the past, Hu Shi also tried to use "she" in the article, calling Cai Wenji "she" instead of "that woman".
Liu Bannong hit the iron while it was hot and specially created a Siguo poem entitled "Teach Me How not to Miss Her":
"There are some clouds in the sky, and some breezes blowing on the ground. yes! The breeze blew my hair and taught me how not to miss her..."
Unexpectedly, this poem was as popular as "Huan Zhu GeGe", the streets and alleys, the peddlers and pawns, everyone knew, was praised as a "love poem", and everyone speculated that Liu Bannong must be an elegant talent.
Under the influence of the halo effect, new young women gradually agreed that the word "she" refers to the female third person.
Finally, the voices of discussion and criticism subsided in this tender and sweet song "Teach Me How not to miss her".
This made Liu Bannong, who was in a foreign country, make a name for himself overnight. After returning to China after completing his studies, he was specially hired as the dean of the Women's College of Arts and Sciences of National Peking University.
The Chinese character "she" is also considered to be one of the "most fascinating" new words invented by Chinese during the May Fourth period.
Liu Bannong has the courage to challenge authority, has the spirit of questioning, dares to express his own unique opinions, and he is a real warrior.
为失足妇女作传，他到底有多“浅”
During the Republic of China period, Sai Jinhua was a famous prostitute in Beijing and was named "the first beauty in the East". When the Eight-Power Alliance invaded, she had a Chinese of words, and she had a relationship with the commander-in-chief of the Eight-Power Alliance in Germany, Wadesi, and was invited by the Qing government to negotiate peace with the Eight-Power Alliance.
However, there is rumors of emotional gossip between Sai Jinhua and Wadhi.
刘半农同情赛金花沦为失足妇女的身世遭遇，敬佩她代表清政府与八国联军进行议和谈判的爱国之举。
He said, "China has two 'treasures,' that is, Cixi and Sai Jinhua, Cixi is in the dynasty, she is in the opposition, Cixi is selling the country, she sells herself, Cixi is hateful, but she is very pitiful. ”
Liu Bannong decided to pass on Sai Jinhua.
这在当时思想保守的学界，一位声名在外的北大教授为一个失足妇女作传，让人觉得有辱斯文。
胡适说：“北大教授，为失足妇女写传还史无前例。 ”
At that time, all kinds of rumors spread wildly, but Liu Bannong was not moved, and he contacted Zheng Yingsun, a famous guqin artist in Beijing, to help interview Sai Jinhua, and Sai Jinhua agreed to accept the interview. Two days a week is set aside for the interview, which is more than two months.
Unfortunately, after completing the first draft of the interview and setting the outline of the biography, Liu Bannong died of a sudden fever while he was out on business, when he was only 43 years old.
Heavenly Jealousy Yingcai was talking about Liu Bannong.
In order to fulfill the teacher's last wishes, Shang Hongkui, a student of Liu Bannong, he really sorted out and published the deeds of Sai Jinhua according to the outline set by his teacher Liu Bannong before his death, and the book was called "Sai Jinhua Skill".
Just after its publication, the book sold only more than two thousand copies, but in the following half a century, the book was republished at home and abroad.
Liu Bannong traced back to the roots and pursued the spirit of the truth, as shallow as it was, how frank it was.
Lu Xun said in Liu Bannong's eulogy: "Half-farmers are frank and frank, although shallow, but shallow and clear."
Later generations ridiculed and commented: "Liu Bannong is Geng Zhi Boy, and he is also a literary drama master. ”
This is Liu Bannong, or two, or swing, or mourning, or shallow, in fact, no matter what kind of performance, we find that Liu Bannong is a person with ideas, lives very self, is not afraid of rumors, and does not live in the eyes of others.
Some people say that following others can take fewer detours. Some people say that following behind others, you can't become yourself.
I agree with the latter. Just like Liu Bannong, he can be brave, fearless, and frank to do what he thinks is right, without having to carry the problems of others, nor does he need to cater to the evaluation of others.
. END .
【Wen | Li Shu】
Edit | Daniel Lee]
【Typography | Drizzle】
Recommended articles in previous issues:
Du Yuesheng loved Meng Xiaodong for 30 years, married her at the age of 62, and her last words before her death made her cry
Zheng Pingru, the prototype of "Color Ring": sacrificing himself to seduce traitors, he mentioned strange last words before dying