In 1916, Liu Bannong left his hometown to teach in Shanghai, and it was in this year that his wife gave birth to a daughter.
Liu Bannong, a first-time father, looked at his petite daughter, his joy and excitement were beyond words, and after comforting his wife, he held this little life in his arms and was unwilling to let go.
In addition to the surprise, Liu Bannong suddenly frowned and said to his wife"To the outside world, I want to claim that I gave birth to a boy! ”
Although his wife on the side didn't quite understand Liu Bannong's intentions, she still agreed with his approach.
So, why did Liu Bannong say this, and is there any hidden meaning in it?
Those who have made great achievements in their youth often show their heads when they are young, and Liu Bannong is no exception.
Modern people's first impression of Liu Bannong is generally that Liu Bannong played a pivotal role in the New Culture Movement, which affected the great changes in modern China, but in fact, more than ten years before the New Culture Movement took place, Liu Bannong became a well-known "great talent" with very excellent results.
In 1905, the imperial examination system, which had been used for thousands of years in China's feudal society, was abolished and replaced by a more advanced modern education system.
Born in 1891, Liu Bannong was just in time for the new era of education.
It's just that at that time, he was still called Liu Shoupeng.
Liu Bannong's father was a talent in the late Qing Dynasty, and the family environment destined Liu Bannong to receive literary education first, but he himself was gifted and intelligent, and was not affected by the advanced level of learning, but graduated from primary school with the first place in Jiangyin and was admitted to Changzhou Mansion Middle School.
In the middle school hall, in the face of elite talents from various counties, Liu Bannong is not inferior, at that time, the assessment of various disciplines has used scores as a measurement standard, Liu Bannong's average score is above 90 points, which can be said to be quite outstanding.
In the process of studying, Liu Bannong also had dazzling results, that is a prefect of the classroom assessment, its form is similar to the current proposition composition, the prodigies throughout the ages have had the experience of answering such as the flow of literature and thinking, thousands of years ago on the Tengwang Pavilion, now Changzhou Mansion, Liu Bannong's wonderful answer does prove that the young talent is extraordinary.
However, this young genius is not only good at studying, but also has a surprisingly hard temper. The school knew that there was such a legendary figure as Liu Bannong, and after a period of investigation of comprehensive results, he was immediately listed in the "best" of the school.
Everyone thought that Liu Bannong would graduate step by step, but the change happened suddenly.
Although the late Qing Dynasty abolished the outdated eight-strand liberal arts system, the feudal dynasty still existed, and the education of the school system inevitably had backwardness and feudal traditions.
This news caused a big sensation for a while!
Not long ago, he was a genius boy in the famous Zhenzhou Mansion, and now he is a strange student who has dropped out of middle school, Liu Bannong himself doesn't care, but his old father Liu Baoshan's face is a little unbearable, ** Under the coercion, Liu Bannong went to Shanghai in 1912 to make a living.
At this time, Liu Bannong was only 21 years old, and for the first twenty years of his life, he was accompanied by books, except for culture, he had nothing but culture, and after a friend's introduction, he found a job at the Zhonghua Book Company in Shanghai to make a living.
But the thoughts of cultural people are jumping, and it is impossible for Liu Bannong to be idle.
At that time, China's social environment was relatively complex, and many literati would submit their works to various news magazines in their spare time, expressing their thoughts and propagating their theories.
The leaders of the New Culture Movement that we are familiar with, such as Chen Duxiu, Lu Xun, and Qian Xuan, all had many articles published in newspapers and weekly magazines, and even in the initial stage of the New Culture Movement, the main front of the literary struggle was the New Youth weekly.
Liu Bannong studied and wrote while in Shanghai, and at that time the society's ** and literary style were absorbed by a part, and it was very flexible to use it like an arm, in order to make the works circulate better, but also to reduce trouble, Liu Bannong also gave himself a pen name.
Among these pen names, there are "Fan Ruinu" and "Hanxing" deliberately taken by Liu Bannong, as well as "Bannong" and "Valva" with different homophones.
Thanks to his talent, intelligence and diligence, Liu Bannong's ** interesting audience has a large audience, and the types are very wide, involving detective, romance, funny and secular and other types, and there is an endless stream of newspapers inviting him to write.
At this time, it was 1915, and Liu Bannong was already able to rely on the monthly manuscript fee to support his family, because of the classification of ** style and literary style, Liu Bannong became a representative of the "Mandarin Duck Butterfly School" at that time.
In this way, a person who has not finished middle school, a talented man from Jiangyin, is slowly approaching the stage in the field of modern Chinese literature, and is about to create a world that belongs to him, but he still lacks an opportunity!
Although from the current point of view, Liu Bannong has completely separated from the old society and become a "new person" in the new era, but in the torrent of that era, it is impossible not to be affected a little, and the most intuitive manifestation of this is Liu Bannong's marriage.
Arranged marriage" and "one of the leaders of the New Culture Movement" are two labels that may not be mixed up with one person. Examples of people who aspire to new ideas tend to resist arranged marriages, and even if they have to compromise, they will eventually have undesirable consequences, as have abounded in modern times.
But Liu Bannong is different, his married life is still very happy.
All this is thanks to Liu Bannong's own efforts.
In 1902, Liu Bannong married his wife Zhu Hui, and their acquaintance experience was also quite special, Liu Bannong's mother was a devout Buddhist, and often went to the nearby temple to worship devoutly, so he got acquainted with a family surnamed Zhu.
Liu Bannong, who was only 11 years old at the time, often accompanied his mother to burn incense and worship Buddha, the child was free by nature, and Liu Bannong was smart and clever, so the Zhu family fell in love with this child, and at the same time, Liu Bannong also fell in love with the eldest daughter of the Zhu family, that is, Zhu Hui.
This family business was originally good, but Liu Bannong's father Liu Baoshan was not very willing, he thought that Zhu Hui was three years older than Liu Bannong, and he wanted to quit this family business because of incompatibility and other reasons. But the Zhu family insisted on getting married, and even said something like "If the eldest daughter can't do it, marry the second daughter".
After a period of deliberation, a consensus was finally reached, and it was considered to be married.
The warming of the relationship between the husband and wife actually comes from a small thing, Liu Bannong didn't know that Zhu Hui was forced to bind his feet at first, every time the two met, Zhu Hui's dress would always cover up this matter, but the young Liu Bannong already knew that Zhu Hui was his future wife, and often went to Zhu's house to play, and accidentally found out that Zhu Hui was bound to his feet, and he was very distressed about this.
If this matter is changed to an ordinary person, he may be silent because of the authority of his parents, but Liu Bannong is different, he firmly put forward his opinion, hoping that the Zhu family can lift Zhu Hui's foot binding, and dare to break the shackles on women at that time, Liu Bannong is really the first person. Thanks to this incident, Zhu Hui and Liu Bannong's relationship deepened.
In 1910, Liu Bannong and Zhu Hui officially became husband and wife.
At this time, Liu Bannong had not yet graduated from middle school, and there were still a few years before he resolutely left school.
When the time came to 1916, Liu Bannong was financially able to rely on the monthly manuscript fee to support himself, and he had already made high achievements in literature, and people at that time called him "the leader of Jiangyin literary circle". Only at home, he still has a lot of pressure.
According to his father Liu Baoshan's thoughts, when he gets married, he should put having a child on the agenda and let him hold his grandson as soon as possible, but Liu Bannong makes a living alone in Shanghai, Liu Bannong's mother has died early, and Zhu Hui is in charge of all the big and small affairs of the family, which also led to her two miscarriages and did not fulfill her father's wishes.
His father wrote many times to urge Liu Bannong, and when it was the most serious, he even told him that he had arranged family affairs for him in his hometown, and he just waited for him to come back to complete the marriage.
After a few days of careful consideration, Liu Bannong took his wife to live in Shanghai, so as to temporarily relieve the pressure from the family.
So after the birth of his daughter Liu Xiaohui in 1916, Liu Bannong announced that his wife had given birth to a son, so as to reduce the blame of ** and the family for his wife.
On the one hand, the idea of patriarchy was still very popular at that time, and on the other hand, Liu Bannong was careful and meticulous, which can be said to be very rare.
Not only that, in terms of her daughter's food, clothing and dress, she is in accordance with the standards of boys, and she is not easy to let others come into contact with her, and others can't see that Liu Xiaohui is a girl at all.
In 1917, the opportunity for Liu Bannong finally came.
As mentioned earlier, Liu Bannong is close to the new cultural position that he will struggle for in the next ten years, but he lacks an opportunity, and this opportunity is the invitation of Mr. Cai Yuanpei.
In 1916, Mr. Cai Yuanpei took over as the president of Peking University, changing the sluggish wind of the past and actively transforming Peking University, so he needed a group of "new talents", and Liu Bannong, who was famous in Shanghai, was naturally on the list.
Carrying a letter of appointment from Mr. Cai Yuanpei, Liu Bannong came to Peking University to teach, which is something that Liu Bannong never dared to think of before, he was a middle school dropout, and became a professor in the country's highest universities, but fortunately, Liu Bannong has a deep knowledge base, and has in-depth research on Chinese language, introduction to grammar and so on.
In 1917, Liu Bannong read Hu Shi's "Discussion on Literary Reform" in the magazine "New Youth" and was shocked, and completely became a believer in the New Culture Movement and launched an attack on the old culture.
In 1918, Liu Bannong and his friend Qian Xuantong decided to start a head-to-head confrontation with the representative force of the old culture "Tongcheng faction", because of his character, Liu Bannong felt that the theoretical battle on the position of "New Youth" was not loud enough, and the contrast between the old and new culture was not obvious enough, so he immediately decided to incarnate himself as a representative of the "old culture" and completely open up the ideological debate.
So Liu Bannong incarnated as "Wang Jingxuan" and wrote a letter to the editorial department of "New Youth", the full text of this letter is more than 4,000 words, but it does not use new punctuation, uses pure Chinese to list the crimes of the new culture, and does his best to insult them, and at the same time lists all the views of the old culture one by one, so as to get rid of the image of a feudal defender.
At the same time, the magazine "New Youth" published an article entitled "The Book of King Jingxuan", in which the views of the old culture were refuted one by one in the way of the new culture, with a clear banner and obvious contrasts.
This controversy was very wonderful, extending the controversy that had only circulated in books to the society, and making a debate in an open and honest manner, and the supporters of the old culture naturally took the lead, and the standard-bearers of the new culture were also-for-tat, and this event became a landmark event in the history of the struggle of the new culture movement.
From this, Liu Bannong's character can be seen, straightforward and not hidden, dare to do and think.
The height of thought is radiant, and the value of words is immeasurable, even today, we still enjoy the cultural achievements left by Mr. Liu Bannong, which is "she".
It is such a simple word that allows us to appreciate the charm of words today.
In 1925, Liu Bannong returned to China after completing his studies and became China's first French national literature doctor, and in the years he stayed abroad, he has always insisted on doing translation work, but there is a problem that has always plagued him, that is, the word "he" in Chinese does not distinguish between genders, which is very troublesome in translation work.
After some careful consideration, Liu Bannong boldly borrowed the distinction between feminine and masculine in foreign characters, and creatively proposed to use the word "she" to refer to the gender of women, but this small word caused a lot of trouble.
At that time, scholars did not agree with this point of view, and only a literati named "Han Bing" at that time published in the newspaper "A Study of Refuting the Character "She", "A Study of Refuting the Character of "She", "A Discussion on the Problem of "She", "This is Liu Bannong's Fault", and "Continuing the Study of the Character "She".
In 1926, Liu Bannong's poetry collection "Whip Collection" was published, one of which "Teach Me How to Don't Want Her" used the word "she" to refer to women for the first time.
After that, Liu Bannong's friend Zhao Yuanren, another language master in modern society, composed this poem into a song, which was widely circulated among the people, so far, this word has been accepted by the public and has been used to this day.
In 1934, Liu Bannong, who was only 43 years old, died due to an unfortunate illness during an expedition, and all the faculty and staff, including the president of Peking University, attended his funeral to commemorate this immortal scholar.
In literature, Liu Bannong, as the leader of the new culture and the literati of the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School, was a pure scholar, a true warrior, and a knowledgeable professor.
In life, Liu Bannong did not dislike his wife because of the arranged marriage, but protected in many ways, and stayed abroad for a few years, his wife gave birth to a pair of dragon and phoenix fetuses for Liu Bannong, and the burden of life for a family of five was on his shoulders.
Whether it is as a warrior of the new culture, or as a husband, or a writer, he is qualified, as Mr. Cai Yuanpei's elegiac couplet wrote: "There are people with voices, and the wind is endless." ”
Today, decades later, we read his poems and use the words he created, we can feel the talent of Mr. Liu Bannong, we are also the heirs and disseminators of the new culture, Mr. Liu Bannong brings us not only the circulation of culture, but also the noble personality charm.
Such Mr. Liu Bannong, teach us how not to want him?