Liu Bannong, a professor of Chinese literature at Peking University, has great respect for women, not only treating illiterate rural wives with courtesy and affection, but alsoIn order to be able to improve the status of women, "she" was invented in addition to the word "he" to refer to women.
However, when he was happy to have a daughter in 1916, he told his wife:"It's a boy to the outside world. ”
This is not in line with his usual respectful attitude towards women, so why did he say that at the time?
Liu Bannong, a linguist and writer, could have become a figure on a par with Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu in Chinese history, but because he died early and was not well known, his life was like a meteor across the night sky, short and bright.
He was born in 1891 in a farming family in Jiangyin, Jiangsu, his father was Xiucai, although he did not get a higher reputation in his life, but he worked hard to cultivate his son, and began to teach him to read when Liu Bannong was a few years old, and then smashed the pot and sold iron for him to study.
At that time, in the late Qing Dynasty, the women's liberation movement had not yet emerged, and restrictions and restrictive attitudes towards women were still prevalent in the countryside, such as letting women bind their feet and not allowing women to study.
Although Liu Bannong grew up in such an environment, his thinking is very different.
When he was 11 years old, his parents and a good family set up a baby kiss, and the other party wanted to marry the family's 13-year-old daughter Zhu Huixu to Liu Bannong.
Liu Bannong saw that his fiancée was wrapped in her little feet, and immediately asked her parents to tell the Zhu family not to bind Zhu Hui's feet anymore, which moved Zhu Hui very much.
This kind of loveless marriage relationship has begun to be attacked by new ideas in that era, and many young people choose either to obey or rebel under the arrangement of this traditional marriage, and it is often easy to go to two extremes.
Liu Bannong, on the other hand, used his own wisdom to grasp his own proportions on this matter just right, neither unconditionally obedient, but also not to fall out with his family, as a teenager, he understood that the progress of thinking requires a slow process.
In June 1910, Liu Bannong officially married Zhu HuiIn the late Qing Dynasty, in the era of surging revolutionary ideas, many avant-garde young people like Liu Bannong were incompatible with the traditional wives of "no talent", but Liu Bannong and Zhu Hui were very affectionate.
Liu Bannong continued to study in the middle school in the county after marriage, his wife took care of his younger brother and in-laws at home, prepared a change of clothes for Liu Bannong, every time Liu Bannong went home, Zhu Hui carefully cooked some dishes to improve his food, as long as there was time, Liu Bannong either accompanied Zhu Hui to chat at home, or accompanied her to go for a walk outside, looking at the women in the village who were busy with housework all day, Liu Bannong couldn't help but sigh:
"Chinese women are really the most bitter human beings in the world, people should learn knowledge, but your parents don't let you learn knowledge, and some have to wrap their little feet, it's really bitter. ”
Zhu Hui asked puzzledly, "Then what can we do?" ”
Liu Bannong said: "I think we can set up a women's federation in the town, organize women, and set up your own kindergartens, schools, and factories, so that you can study and work." ”
Zhu Hui was noncommittal about her husband's statement, and Liu Bannong's thinking was undoubtedly ahead of her time in that era.
Although Zhu Hui was unfamiliar with this kind of proposition, he knew that what her husband said must be a good proposition, for her good, and for the good of women.
Liu Bannong's love for his wife comes from the heart and is often reflected in action.
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, Liu Bannong's middle school was closed, and he was forced to go to Shanghai to earn a livingThe wife had two miscarriages because she was doing housework, which made my father-in-law very worried, and wanted Liu Bannong to marry another wife, so that Zhu Hui couldn't hold his head up at home.
Liu Bannong resolutely disagreedIn order to keep his wife from being embarrassed, he took his wife to Shanghai under the condition that he was very hard, working hard to write to make money to support the two of them, although life is poor, but very affectionate.
Soon after, his wife gave birth to a girl, Liu Bannong was overjoyed, and hugged his lovely daughter repeatedly.
At that time, there was still a general idea of patriarchy in society, and for Zhu Hui, it was a "disgraceful" thing to finally give birth to a girl after two miscarriages, and even Zhu Hui felt ashamed of his father-in-law who was looking forward to his grandson in his hometown.
Liu Bannong, who was immersed in joy, also noticed his wife's emotions, so he said to his wife:"It's a boy to the outside world. ”
Zhu Hui quickly understood what her husband meant, smiled heartily, and silently thanked her husband for his understanding and love for her.
After having children, the family's financial pressure was even greater, Liu Bannong worked day and night to make a living, although he did not graduate from middle school, but he was well-read and highly accomplished in literature.
At first, he wrote for a living, and later began to contribute to newspapers and magazines, publishing some literary opinions and views on current affairs, which was loved by many readers and gradually became famous.
In 1916, Liu Bannong became a writer for "New Youth" at the invitation of Chen DuxiuHis writing strokes are delicate, his thoughts are read, he advocates the use of vernacular Chinese, universal education, and the emancipation of women, and his articles are circulated by young people all over the country, and his fame spreads to Beijing.
In the second year, Liu Bannong was invited by Cai Yuanpei to enter Peking University as a professor of Chinese literature.
As a professor of Chinese literature, he was fascinated by the study of linguistics, and once he suddenly wanted to summarize the swear language of various local dialects in China, so he published a "scolding notice" in the newspaper to solicit swear language from people all over the country.
After people saw this notice, they came to him one after another to "scold", and his friends Zhou Zuoren, Zhao Yuanren, Zhang Taiyan and others successively scolded him in the language of their hometown in front of him, and then told him the meaning and origin of these curse words.
The matter of Liu Bannong's "scolding by example" gradually spread, so much so that Liu Bannong later openly solicited scolding language in class, attracting students from all over the country to "scold" him in his hometown.
Liu Bannong's serious attitude towards language research is undoubted, and his sympathy and understanding for women are also heartfelt, and when the two are combined, Liu Bannong has made a merit in the Chinese literary world that has been passed down to this day.
In 1920, Liu Bannong got the opportunity to study in Europe, and he couldn't bear to leave his wife alone with his daughter to stay in China, so he decided to take his wife and daughter and use his own scholarship to support three people.
At first, he studied and worked in phonetics at the University of London, and his family barely made ends meetLater, his wife gave birth to a pair of dragon and phoenix fetuses, and the family of three suddenly became a family of five, the economic conditions are not good, and the pressure on Liu Bannong is even greater.
The family lives in a small apartment in the south-west suburbs of London, England, while the University of London, where he studies and works, is five kilometers northeast of the city.
In order to save money, he gave up taking the bus and subway, walked back and forth every morning, and even stopped eating breakfast and dinner, with amazing perseverance to complete high-intensity study and work.
In a foreign country where he was unfamiliar with his life, he could only maintain everything in the family in this way, he did his best for his own learning, and he fully fulfilled his responsibilities as a husband and father for the family.
Even so, he was unable to fully support his family, and later transferred from the University of London to the University of Paris in France in order to save some tuition fees to support his family.
In addition, he began to translate manuscripts and write articles for domestic publishing houses to make ends meet, even though the family of five was crammed into a small house, it was also full of warmth.
During this period, Liu Bannong found a problem when he was doing translation workIn English, "he" was used to refer to men and "she" to refer to women, but at that time, there was only one "he" character in Chinese, and it was impossible to distinguish between men and women.
And in terms of the status of women in China at that time, this "he" would be defaulted to a man most of the time.
Liu Bannong felt that this not only brought trouble to the translation work, but also disrespected women, and there should be a word that belonged to women.
There was no dictionary at that time, so Liu Bannong, as a linguist, decided to invent one, and after thinking about it, he invented the word "she" to refer to women.
As soon as this invention spread to China, many female intellectuals immediately stood up against it, and even scolded Liu Bannong.
These women said that the Chinese dictionary has words such as "prostitute", "rape" and "demon", which already reflect the disrespect for women, and now there is a new word "she" to specialize women, which is an insult to women and further contributes to the disrespect for women in feudal thinking.
After a long period of feudal oppression, Chinese women lack the awareness of fighting for their own rights and interests, and these female intellectuals who just know how to fight for women's problems are too easy to face the enemy, so their reaction is really a bit excessive, what they don't know is that Liu Bannong, who invented this word, has no bad intentions at all.
Liu Bannong's move was of course out of respect for women, but he didn't expect to get such a reactionHe was not discouraged by this, but wrote a poem to praise the word "she", so that people can feel the aesthetic conception.
The poem is called "Teach Me How Not to Want Her".
The poem reads: There are some clouds in the sky, and some breeze blows on the ground.
Yes! The breeze ruffled my hair and taught me how not to want her?
The moonlight is in love with the ocean, and the ocean is in love with the moonlight.
Yes! It's a honey-like silver night.
Teach me how not to want her?
As soon as this poem spread to China, it quickly spread all over the country, which greatly changed people's attitude towards this word, and later Liu Bannong's friend Zhao Yuanren also composed music for this poem, which became a widely sung classic song.
Liu Bannong's ability to invent such words all comes from his sympathy and understanding of traditional women, and his respect for all women, and this respect was originally Liu Bannong's respect for his wife Zhu Hui, and the poem he wrote is not only a promotion of the word "she", but also a praise to his wife Zhu Hui, which is a romantic confession.
Since then, the word "she" has been used in more and more articles, and has gradually become a formal word, and it is still used todayThis is not only a major contribution of Liu Bannong to the study of Chinese Chinese, but also expresses his respect for women.
In 1925, Liu Bannong received a doctorate in French national literature, and he couldn't wait to return to China with his wife and children, and began to continue teaching at Peking University.
As a writer, translator, and linguist, he was in the Chinese literary circle at that time, and had contacts with Lu Xun, Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu and others, and made great contributions to the progress of Chinese people's thinking.
Originally, Liu Bannong could have become a scholar on the same level as Hu Shi and others in history, but it is a pity that he died in his youth.
In 1934, in order to complete the writing of related works, Liu Bannong led an expedition team to Inner Mongolia to investigate dialects, and spent the night in a temple, while others slept on the earthen kang, and only he slept on his own marching bed.
The camp bed was placed in the middle of the room, and he jokingly said before going to bed: "I am in the middle of the coffin!" ”
It was originally a joke, which made everyone laugh at the time, but unexpectedly, this joke became a bad omen.
On the way back from the investigation, Liu Bannong contracted relapsing fever because of lice bites, and died shortly after returning to Beijing at the age of 43 because of the delay.
Although Liu Bannong's life is only 43 years, he has lived out the style of a scholar in the new era, he has a gentle and firm personality, when facing his wife from a traditional family, he is gentle, understanding and tolerant, in the face of the collision of old and new cultures, he dares to speak out, has the courage to insist on his own views, is an indispensable new star in the new culture movement.
Although this new star fell early, the light it emitted as it crossed the sky was so dazzling that it continued to shine in the hearts of future generations.