Tsinghua exams outSun Xingzhi, no one is right, one person is full marks
Use this 'vulgar' stuff in students' exams. ”
Professor Chen Yinke was forced to give up Beidaihe's cultivation plan because of the sudden arrival of an "uninvited guest" at home, and accepted an interview with "World **", explaining his intention to come up with this controversial couplet.
Everyone is full of curiosity about this widely controversial test question. Why did Professor Chen Yinke choose such a controversial topic? And which candidate stands out in such a question?
Let's walk into the article together and uncover these questions. At this time last year, Mr. Zhu Ziqing was on leave to study in the UK for a year, so the position of head of the Chinese Department fell on Mr. Liu Wendian.
Liu Wendian suddenly broke into Chen Yinke's room while he was recuperating and asked him earnestly to help him come up with a few Chinese language questions to test the Chinese culture skills of Tsinghua freshmen.
Chen Yinke readily agreed, and prepared different test questions for Tsinghua University's incoming freshmen, second- and third-year students, and graduate students. Since he was about to leave for Beidaihe, he decided to start with the "pairs" that he was good at.
Through this test, Chen Yinke hopes to test the foundation of Chinese culture for these new students.
In the entrance examination of Tsinghua University, Chen Yinke gave two regular Chinese language test questions to freshmen, one is the essay question "Sleepwalking in Tsinghua Garden", and the other is a pair, including "Sun Xingzhi" and "Young Leaving Home and Returning to the Boss".
However, Chen Yinke, who was quiet and simple by nature, had to respond publicly. Most of these freshmen have experienced the baptism of the New Culture Movement and are full of longing and curiosity about Western culture.
They look forward to the exam before it. However, when they saw the test papers, they were all surprised.
Tsinghua University's freshman exam questions sparked controversy, and a seemingly simple "pair" question stumped a large number of students. The test paper gives the upper link "Sun Xingzhi", requiring candidates to complete the lower link according to the requirements of Ping Qian and the truth, but only three words are given, which makes many students at a loss, and some people even write "Tang Sanzang", "Zhu Bajie" and other answers that make people laugh and cry.
After the exam, many candidates complained bitterly, thinking that this was a "reverse", backward, and old-fashioned exam. Tsinghua University is a place with advanced ideas, and the results of this examination have attracted great attention and controversy.
In the process of judging Professor Chen Yinke's papers, a seemingly simple "pair" topic made him deeply worried. Most of the students were unable to answer accurately, and even made up some of them.
This made Chen Yinke feel sad about the predicament of Chinese culture, and his heart was full of lament. However, when he saw a flawless answer, his mood lifted again.
He appreciated the talent of the respondent. In the end, the results of the Tsinghua entrance examination were announced, and this "pair" topic once again sparked controversy. Out of thousands of freshmen taking the exam, only 342 students were admitted.
You must know that the registration fee for the Tsinghua entrance examination at that time was 5 yuan, which was enough to cover half a month's food for ordinary people.
Originally full of confidence, students signed up for the exam, but the gap between the number of admissions and the number of applicants made them restless. On the readers' forum of World **, articles critical of Chen Yinke and Tsinghua filled the entire page.
The author, who signed Ding Ling, criticized Chen Yinke: "The requirements for students are too harsh, and he can't judge himself." The author signed Zhenkai was even more ruthless, calling himself a "kid" and criticizing Tsinghua's conceit and petty bourgeoisie, such as "a beautiful and insensitive topic of visiting Tsinghua Garden", "great university, great conceit", "the kid does not dare to climb this school".
Even Hu Shi also insinuated at the summer lecture that the Chinese language in the entrance examination of Tsinghua University did not meet the standards of the Ministry of Education, and shouldn't the vernacular be used according to the requirements of the Ministry of Education?
And the questioner turned a blind eye to this.
In order to calm down**, Chen Yinke accepted an interview with "World**" and explained his intentions. According to the reporter's understanding, the best answer to the "Sun Xingzhi" test question is "Hu Shizhi".
So, what is unique about this "Hu Shizhi"? Why is Chen Yinke willing to bear doubts and unwilling to give up the "pair"? Chen Yinke's good intentionsChen Yinke was born in Changsha, Hunan Province at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and his grandfather Chen Baozhen served as the governor of Hunan.
With the support of Chen Baozhen, Hunan rapidly developed into an advanced place during the Westernization Movement. However, when Chen Yinke was 8 years old, Chen Baozhen and his son Chen Sanli were dismissed from their posts because of the Hunan Reform Movement.
For this reason, the Chen family can only return to their hometown Jiangxi. After returning to his hometown, Chen Sanli no longer engaged in politics, but founded a school and hired many masters of Chinese studies to teach, including Zhou Dalie.
Chen Yinke also studied here.
Chen Sanli not only founded a modern school, but also supported the New Deal. There, Chen Yinke was able to learn not only the traditional Four Books and Five Classics, but also new subjects such as painting and English.
Under the influence of this environment, Chen Yinke showed a profound foundation in Chinese culture since he was a child, and at the same time developed a strong interest in Eastern and Western cultures. However, Chen Sanli had already seen through the corruption of the imperial court because of his deposition because of his reforms, so he never encouraged his son to participate in the imperial examination or gain fame.
On the contrary, he is more supportive of children studying abroad. Therefore, when Chen Yinke was 12 years old, his father, Chen Sanli, sent him and his brother to Japan to study, where he was exposed to many advanced Western cultures.
Three years later, due to a foot injury, Chen Yinke had to return to Shanghai to continue his studies at Fudan Public School, where he became proficient in both French and German.
Chen Yinke is a distinguished scholar who has spent five years studying abroad and mastered more than a dozen languages. During his two years at Harvard, he not only learned obscure Sanskrit and Pali, but also became acquainted with two masters of Chinese studies, Wu Mi and Tang Yongtong, who were known for"Harvard Three Masters"。
Chen Yinke applied what he had learned and completed the three-year course in just two years. His goal was very clear, that is, to learn knowledge. Although his teachers and classmates at Harvard advised him to wait patiently for half a year and wait for his degree before going to Germany, he believed that the purpose of studying abroad was to study, and he had already achieved his goal, and there was no need to waste time and life for a degree.
Eventually, he decided to leave early to continue his studies at the University of Berlin in Germany.
Chen Yinke resolutely went to Germany to continue his studies without getting a degree. He never wastes his time on false names, but is always learning and exploring.
In the more than ten years he was abroad, although he learned a lot of knowledge from famous universities, he never got a degree. For a true master, a degree is not a measure of his level.
Surprisingly, Chen Yinke studied oriental paleography in Germany. This was very different from the learning atmosphere in China, and he was very surprised at first.
But as time passed, he realized that the status of Chinese culture in world culture is very high, and many foreign scholars will even spend decades studying and researching Chinese culture.
This made him understand a truth: for Chinese academics, we should adopt the attitude of "absorbing foreign theories and not forgetting the status of the nation".
In 1925, Chen Yinke returned to China after completing his studies, which coincided with the establishment of the Institute of Chinese Studies at Tsinghua University, aiming to cultivate Chinese culture talents for China. This seems to be contrary to the trend of learning from the West in China at that time, but in fact it is not.
At that time, Tsinghua University was not the famous education palace at home and abroad, but only a preparatory school established in the United States. In 1908, the United States returned part of the money from the Qing Dynasty in the war of aggression against China to the Qing court, requiring it to use it to develop education and build an elite university.
Tsinghua University, as a preparatory school for studying in the United States, needs to build its own culture after absorbing Western learning, and it is reasonable to establish a Chinese academy. In the same year, Chen Yinke was invited to Tsinghua University to serve as a tutor at the Institute of Chinese Studies, and the other three people in the same position as him were all great figures in Chinese Studies.
In that era of change, Liang Qichao, Wang Guowei and Zhao Yuanren were all outstanding figures who led the trend. However, when the new literary movement swept the country, the old school was seriously impacted, and the foreign scholars who advocated the new style of study were eager to remove the influence of tradition, and Chen Yinke, who emphasized the importance of Chinese grammar, became a different voice.
In 1920, the Ministry of Education ordered the uniform use of vernacular for national language education, and the national language in the first and second grades of elementary schools across the country was changed to vernacular. Soon after,"The 918 Incident"and the invasion of the Japanese army deepened the crisis of the country.
At a time when the country was in crisis, Chen Yinke, a professor at Tsinghua University, and others personally participated in the national crisis conference and expressed their indignation and concern. Faced with the threat of national extinction, although Chen Yinke was weak, he was determined not to be silent.
He is well aware that Tsinghua University, as a preparatory school for studying in the United States, has always adhered to the concept of academic independence, which reflects the disappearance of traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, he expects Tsinghua students to take on this important responsibility, take academic independence as their own responsibility, and contribute to the inheritance of Chinese culture.
Liu Wendian gave Chen Yinke a chance to challenge the new students. Chen Yinke, with his usual low-key attitude, stepped onto the cusp of this time. He believes that the examination should test students' understanding of the characteristics of Chinese characters and their mastery of Chinese language knowledge.
Therefore, he chose "pairs" as a method that can best express the characteristics of Chinese characters and test students' basic knowledge. In the 1932 entrance exam at Tsinghua University, he asked four questions: word classes, four tones, reading, and thought.
Before seeing the answer sheet, Chen Yinke set two answers: "Zu Chongzhi" and "Wang Yinzhi". However, when he saw the answer "Hu Shizhi", he realized that the other two answers were nothing more than that.
Why is the next link "Hu Shizhi" the most perfect answer?This needs to be analyzed from the four criteria proposed by Chen Yinke.
In the creation of couplets, the most important thing is the collocation of parts of speech. For example, "Sun" as a surname, which can correspond to "Hu";"Xing" as a verb can correspond to "appropriate";As a virtual word, "者" corresponds to "zhi".
Therefore, "Zu Chongzhi" and "Wang Yinzhi" can also form a couplet, which shows that the part of speech is not the key factor in the distinction. Secondly, the tone of the couplet is required to be flat, so the tone of the lower couplet should be flat.
According to the law that the first word can be level, "Hu Shizhi" and "Wang Yinzhi" are both flat and meet the requirements, and "Zu Chongzhi" is flat and does not meet the requirements.
Therefore, the answer of "Zu Chongzhi" was eliminated, and only "Hu Shizhi" and "Wang Yinzhi" remained. Finally, this topic examines students' knowledge of poetry, calligraphy, lyrics and literature, and their understanding of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign scholars and works.
In this regard, "Wang Yinzhi" and "Hu Shizhi" are both suitable choices.
Wang Yinzhi was a famous scholar in the Qing Dynasty, and Hu Shizhi was the most popular figure at that time, and they were both excellent examples of student reading. At the same time, their works are also very rich in thought, not only the literal fiction and reality must be reconciled, but also the connotation must have the deep meaning of "beyond words".
And in this regard, Hu Shizhi's skills are even higher. The "Xing" and "Shi" he chose are commensurate in connotation, and "Sun" and "Hu" also have the ingenuity of homophony, making the name "Hu Shizhi" very much in line with Chen Yinke's requirements.
Chen Yinke was very pleasantly surprised by this, thinking that Zhou Zumo's choice was better than the two answers he came up with, and even suggested that Tsinghua University could admit Zhou Zumo casually. Unfortunately, Zhou Zumo was not able to study under Chen Yinke's disciple in the end.
Whenever he recalls that interesting story, Chen Yinke is always full of passion. Even in 1965, when he was in his 70s, he still remembered the answer "Hu Shizhi" vividly.
He wrote in his book: "Although the 'Zu' and 'Sun' in 'Zu Chongzhi' can also correspond, I think there is no answer that can be as eye-catching as 'Hu Shizhi'." ”
Zhou Zumo, the only student who received a perfect score of "pairs" in the 1932 Tsinghua entrance examination, was one of the best. He was successfully admitted to the English Department of Tsinghua University and the Chinese Department of Peking University, but due to tuition fees, he finally chose the Chinese Department of Peking University.
As a champion in the field of Chinese Chinese linguistics, he has written many literary masterpieces, such as "Question Collection" and "Tang Five Dynasty Rhyme Book Collection". The book "Scholarly Collection" covers more than 500 historical figures and more than 600 kinds of documents, which is enough to see Zhou Zumo's profound literary attainments.
Although these works may feel a little unfamiliar to those who are not specialized in them, if you mention his other book, you will definitely find it both accessible and enlightening.
Mr. Zhou Zumo's Relationship with Xinhua Dictionary: An Innovator in Writing History As a well-known dictionary, Xinhua Dictionary plays an important role in every child's learning career.
However, you know what? The process of compiling this book is inseparable from Mr. Zhou Zumo's contribution. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhou Zumo and Wei Jiangong, the compiler of the "Xinhua Dictionary", discussed the importance of education and the necessity of a new type of dictionary for primary and secondary school students.
Wei Jiangong then invited three friends to participate in the compilation work. The simple compilation team broke with the traditional way of writing a dictionary and decided to arrange them in phonetic order instead of the previous radical arrangement.
In addition, they have introduced many new elements, such as the use of style in paraphrasing, accompanied by example sentences; The first word of a sentence is in italics, with illustrations, etc.
Mr. Zhou Zumo's active participation and innovative thinking have injected new vitality into the compilation of Xinhua Dictionary. His thoughts and perspectives have influenced not only the content of the book, but also our understanding of learning and education.
Therefore, every time we open the Xinhua Dictionary, we can feel the thought and spirit of Mr. Zhou Zumo, who wrote our language and cultural history in an innovative way.
The compilation rules of the Xinhua Dictionary originated from the joint efforts of Zhou and Wei, who even gave the dictionary a fashionable name - "Wu Ji Small Dictionary".
However, due to various reasons, the "Wu Ji Small Dictionary" could not be completed until after the founding of New China, when Mr. Ye Shengtao invited Wei Jiangong to write the first draft. Wei Jiangong successfully completed the first draft of the Xinhua Dictionary in accordance with the previous rules.
Although Zhou Zumo did not personally participate, he made important contributions to the compilation of the Xinhua Dictionary. Whenever he saw the Xinhua Dictionary, Zhou Zumo would recall the night when they worked together on the compilation of regulations, which made him very proud.
This "pair" turmoil has injected new vitality into the history of Chinese literature.
Title: Pairs: Reflections on Traditional Art Forms Is it true that pairs are criticized as outdated and feudal dross? This is clearly not the case.
Throughout China's long history, culture has always been our guiding light, guiding us forward. In modern society, as the situation changes, some cultural forms are no longer suitable for the status quo, and it is inevitable that they will be abandoned.
However, we cannot ignore the fact that the old culture is not the same as the wrong or backward culture, it may contain the essence that we need to absorb. "Thousands of sails pass by the side of the sunken boat, where is there no fragrant grass? ”
Isn't there a part of the old culture that we can learn from and learn from?