(Republic of China Masters Series, Part 42)
When lu xun evaluated the leading figures of the new cultural movement, he specifically compared Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, and Liu Bannong, saying: "If You compare Taoluo to a weapons warehouse, Chen Duxiu's style is that the warehouse door is wide open, and there are several guns and knives inside, so that others can see clearly, and a large banner is erected on the outside, and the flag reads: 'All weapons inside, be careful of those who come!'" Hu Shi's approach was to close the door tightly, and a small note was posted on the door, saying: 'There is no weapon inside, please do not doubt!' These two are high-ranking people, and when ordinary people see them, they are afraid and do not come forward. But Liu Bannong didn't have any strategy, he didn't have an arsenal, just a man in a red stripe, charging into the battlefield, stunned. Therefore, Chen and Hu are admirable, but Liu Bannong makes people feel close. ”
Liu Bannong is such a person, stunned, the whole life has no plan, from time to time to surprise you, but after the surprise, but for his "unexpected move" greatly impressed.
Liu Bannong was born in a family of teachers in Jiangyin County, Jiangsu Province, since childhood is extremely smart, in primary and secondary school are record-breaking super bully, just when everyone thinks that he will successfully enter Peking University, Tsinghua University, but he chose to quit school, a person to Run to Shanghai to make a living.
In Shanghai, Liu Bannong found a job as an editor and began to write a large number of novels, but don't think that this scholar wants to realize his literary dreams, in fact, he writes some unpopular erotic novels and pastime novels, the purpose is nothing more than to earn more money.
A few years later, the newspaper was closed for rectification, and Liu Bannong's editorial work also came to an end, and he had to return to his hometown. Without income, the family has a very difficult life. However, at this moment, God threw down a piece of pie - Cai Yuanpei, the president of Peking University, actually sent him a letter of appointment for professors! This big pie smashed Liu Bannong for half a day, but this is the truth, a person who wrote erotic novels who has not yet graduated from middle school actually became a professor at Peking University!
Old Liu's life is unexpected enough, right? Don't worry, this is just the beginning!
At Peking University, Liu Bannong quickly went from being an author of erotic novels to a pioneer of a new cultural movement. At that time, Chen Duxiu's "New Youth" had just emerged and became the first position of the new cultural movement, and in order to more thoroughly crack down on the retro conservative faction, Liu Bannong found his friend Qian Xuantong and told him his plan.
Qian Xuantong was also a well-known pioneer, and when he heard about Lao Liu's plan, he immediately agreed. Therefore, on March 15, 1918, the New Youth published an article signed "Wang Jingxuan": "A Letter to the Editor of the new youth > of <", and as a conservative defender, he insulted the new cultural movement. In the same issue, there was also an article, titled "The Book of Fu Wang Jingxuan", signed "Reporter and Half Peasant of the Company", which made a painful criticism of Wang Jingxuan's views.
In fact, this "Wang Jingxuan", that is, Qian Xuantong, deliberately sang and reconciled with Liu Bannong, showing the ugly face of the conservative defenders to the fullest, and at the same time setting off the advanced nature of the new cultural movement incomparably great.
These two articles quickly became the fuse, igniting an earth-shaking debate between the old school and the new school, and its first credit should undoubtedly belong to Liu Bannong. Su Xuelin once said: "Although (Liu Bannong) is not enough to drive with Chen and Hu Fang, it can be driven alongside Erzhou. In fact, he has only done more and not less for the new literature than the Lu Xun brothers. ”
However, just when Liu Bannong rose to prominence in the north and became a legend as a "university professor in middle school", he was once again unexpected and chose to study abroad to return with a well-known doctorate.
At that time, Europe had just experienced the First World War, the economy was depressed, Liu Bannong's life in Paris was extremely poor, often unable to eat, his hair was not managed, he looked like a wild man, and together with the Chinese students in Paris, he could not look at it anymore, and scolded him for Chinese shame. However, Liu Bannong was free-spirited, did not think anything of it, and named the place where he lived "Huaziwo". Once Zhao Yuanren and his wife went to see him and wanted to take a group photo, Liu Bannong actually let everyone sit on the ground and pretend to be a beggar, stretching out their hands to be begging, making Zhao Yuanren cry and laugh.
However, it was under such difficult conditions that Liu Bannong was admitted to the world's most difficult French national doctorate, and his doctoral thesis "Experimental Record of Chinese Characters" also won the French Constantine Volnet Linguistics Prize, becoming the first Chinese to win this award.
When studying in London, England, Liu Bannong also wrote a song called "Teach Me How not to Miss Her", which was composed by Zhao Yuanren and quickly became a popular song, which had a great impact. It is worth mentioning that the word "she" was also created by Liu Bannong, the original Chinese character did not represent the third person of women, to the end of the Qing Dynasty, usually used "Yi" to represent, Liu Bannong specially created a "she" word, as well as the expression of "it", has been used to this day.
This song was extremely popular at the time, and many girls thought that the lyricist was a personable and good prince, and they admired him very much, but when they saw me, they were a black and dirty old man and a half, and they were extremely disappointed. After Liu Bannong heard about it, he humorously wrote a poem about oil: "Teach me how not to miss him, please come and drink a cup of tea." It turned out to be such an old man, teaching me how to think of him again? ”
Liu Bannong has a wide range of interests, loves to do one line after another, and is also famous, in addition to the master status in linguistics, he is also a famous poet, novelist, essayist, translator, folklorist, lyricist, photographer and so on.
Once, on a whim, Liu Bannong wanted to study the swear words in dialects across the country, so he specially published a notice in the newspaper about "scolding". As soon as the notice came out, Liu Bannong immediately became the "most pitiful" person in the world: walking on the road, some people scolded him in dialect; during class, the students scolded him in dialects from all over the world; when he returned home, there was no peace, and many people came to the door to scold him. At first, Liu Bannong was still quite self-satisfied, and recorded them one by one, but after a few days, he couldn't stand it, and quickly went to the newspaper to publish an "end" notice, which eased up.
Liu Bannong was also keen to collect local folklore, and he died because of it. It was June 1934, and Liu Bannong and a few people went to Mongolia to investigate Mongolian folklore. Although the journey is arduous, Liu Bannong is best at making fun in the bitterness, often telling everyone a joke, making a prank or the like. When I slept at night, I also placed my camp bed in the middle of the room, lay motionless on it, and jokingly said, I am in the middle of the coffin! No one expected that this joke would become his death sentence.
In the process of visiting, Liu Bannong was bitten by mosquitoes, which was a common thing, and everyone did not care, but unexpectedly contracted the disease. After returning to Beijing, Liu Bannong was busy sorting out the information and failed to treat it in time, and unfortunately died a few days later.
At the memorial service, Peking University President Jiang Menglin personally presided over, and Hu Shi choked up several times when introducing his life, and all the teachers and students were in pain.
Later, someone commented: "In the May Fourth generation, serious people often take it too seriously and only recognize the reason of death; those who are dashing are often difficult to achieve." Characters like Liu Bannong are truly nostalgic. ”