In 1936, in an interview with the American journalist Edgar **, he once said: "When I was a student at the normal school, I liked to read the magazine "New Youth". I am impressed by the articles written by Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu, both of whom are role models for me to learn. ”
Talking about the relationship between *** and Hu Shi, it can be traced back to at least 1917. At that time, Hu Shi, who was only 26 years old, was invited by Chen Duxiu to return to Beijing from the United States to become a professor at Peking University and participate in the editorial activities of "New Youth".
At that time, ***, who was two years younger than Hu Shi, was still a student of Hunan No. 1 Normal School, and since then he has developed a strong interest in "New Youth", and appreciates the articles written by Chen Duxiu and Hu Shi.
In August 1918, ** left his hometown and went north to Beijing, and under the introduction of Peking University professor Yang Changji, he became the administrator of the Peking University Library, and could receive a salary of eight oceans every month.
**I often took time to audit Hu Shi's lectures, and I had a sense of admiration for Hu Shi, who became famous because of the New Culture Movement.
Later, ** once claimed to be a "Hu Shi student", which should have something to do with the fact that he had audited Hu Shi's class. At that time, ***, who was actively pursuing progress, also visited Hu Shi with his companions under the introduction of Yang Huaizhong.
** Discussed various issues about the new trend of thought with Hu Shi and others, and the experience of visiting Hu Shi this time made *** never forget it in his life.
**, when Cai Hesen and others founded the "Xinmin Society", they also invited Hu Shi to make a report. From these incidents, it is not difficult to see that the *** in his youth was full of admiration for Hu Shizeng.
So what two things did Hu Shi do before leaving the mainland? Let *** go from admiration to deep disappointment in him?
The first thing is that before Hu Shi left the mainland, he "advised" ** to give up armed struggle. At the end of March 1945, Hu Shih represented the Kuomintang at the United Nations General Assembly in San Francisco.
At that time, Dong Biwu, a representative of the Communist Party of China, under the instructions of ***, found Hu Shi for a long talk, and the core intention of this conversation was to hope that Hu Shi would support our party's proposition.
As an influential cultural scholar at that time, Hu Shi's words and deeds at international conferences had a certain influence. However, this conversation was very unsmooth, and Hu Shi not only did not agree to Dong Biwu's request to support our party, but also put forward "persuasion" to our party.
In short, it is to persuade our party to imitate the "non-actionism" in "Huainanzi", abandon the two major struggles of class and armed forces, and only carry out simple party activities.
To put it bluntly, Hu Shih's so-called "persuasion" completely stood on the position of the Kuomintang, and he hoped that our party would follow the example of the Western political system and participate in the election as the second largest party in China.
But *** thinks that Hu Shi's so-called "persuasion" is simply nonsense. He didn't see the situation in China clearly at that time, and to put it bluntly, he made the common mistake of many cultural scholars at that time - short-sightedness.
The second incident occurred on July 1 of the same year, when six people, including patriotic democrats Huang Yanpei, Zhang Bojun, and Fu Sinian, formed a "visiting delegation of national political participants" and arrived in Yan'an.
Among them, Fu Sinian's identity is more special, when he was studying in the Department of Literature of Peking University, he was Hu Shi's personal biography**. At that time, ** also met Fu Sinian as a student of Hu Shi, and hoped to bring Hu Shi, a teacher in the United States, through him.
After Fu Sinian returned to Chongqing, he wrote an article in the newspaper and conveyed his greetings to Hu Shi on his behalf. After reading this article, Hu Shi did not change his opinion of the CCP.
On August 24, 1945, Hu Shi sent a telegram to *** in New York, the main meaning of which was "give up force" in four words.
**After receiving Hu Shih's telegram, he was disappointed in the standard-bearer who had advocated the "New Culture Movement", and at the same time gave up his illusions about Hu Shih.
However, for the sake of the relationship between teachers and students, he still made one last effort before Hu Shi left the mainland, and he once asked someone to bring a message to Hu Shi: "As long as he doesn't leave, he can be the director of the Beijing Library." ”
Hu Shi laughed and said nothing after hearing this, and in desperation, he could only cross out Hu Shi's name from the "** list", and no longer talked about any topics related to Hu Shi from then on.