Note: The author of this article is Shen Weiwei, professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Chinese at Nanjing University, and the original title is "Who Decided to Move to the West from the South", published in the second issue of "Together in the Same Boat" in 2024, and is hereby shared!
There are many places called "Cloud Stop" in history, and the "Cloud Stop" mentioned in this article is the dormitory building of the Faculty of Arts of Changsha Provisional University in Nanyue. It is said that the saying "Stopping Cloud Tower" comes from Liu Wuji's "Nanyue Diary". In the diary, Liu Wuji recorded the limerick poem of the people who lived in this building, and the last sentence of the poem was "Stopping the clouds and leaving a great name for the ages", followed by the annotation "Stopping the clouds building, our dormitory." (Nanyue Diary, from Selected Essays of Liu Wuji: Ancient Rare Words and Old, China Friendship Publishing Company, 1984, p. 101).
The author is in the newly restored Cloud Stop Building (photographed by Yi Bin).
The Japanese war of aggression against China brought great disasters and sacrifices to the Chinese nation. The construction of a gradually complete modern university system faced bombardment and dismemberment by intruders. In order to preserve the cultural flame of the nation, national universities, private universities, and church universities successively moved south and west.
The time is in trouble. Who were the original movers of the southward and westward migration?
Using the newly opened archival documents of the Second Historical Archives of China, and cross-corroborating with the diaries, letters, and memoirs of the parties, and at the same time going to Changsha, Hengshan, Kunming, Chenggu, Nanzheng, and Mianxian counties to investigate the scene, and at the critical moment, the historical scene of the university's southward crossing and westward migration, to determine the basic facts of the formation of the first district of Changsha Provisional University and the second district of Xi'an Provisional University. For the first time, the precise narrative of the chronicle is used to clarify the initial initiators, decision-makers, funds and literary activities, and at the same time show the difficult process before the ** university moved west to Chongqing to form the third district, and then touch the rhythm of the ** cultural context wartime, and feel the huge energy of the cultural and educational war of resistance.
1. Initiators and decision-makers of school relocation.
At the end of 195, 10 days after the death of Fu Sinian (the character Meng Zhen), Luo Jialun said in the article "The Energetic Fu Mengzhen": "At the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, the idea of merging Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Nankai University into Southwest Associated University was made by Meng Zhen. Although the statement of "Southwest Associated University" here is inaccurate, it discloses an important information, that is, Fu Sinian was the initial initiator of the university's southward and westward relocation at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937. But this is only an isolated evidence.
Who is the final decision-maker? Where does the money come from?
History is in the details. In December 216, the archives of the Ministry of Education of the Second Historical Archives of China were opened, and the manuscript of the telegram by Wang Shijie, Minister of National Education, showed the final decision-maker of the university's southward and westward relocation. That is, Wang Shijie said in a telegram that he discussed with Hu Shi, Fu Sinian, and others to establish temporary universities in Changsha and Xi'an after the withdrawal of Pingjin colleges and universities.
The detailed planning schedule and details will be shown below.
On 7 July, gunshots rang out at the Lugou Bridge Anti-Japanese War, and on the 17th, Jiang Zhongzheng presided over a meeting on the Lushan Symposium and issued a "Solemn Statement on the Lugou Bridge Incident," calling on the whole people to resist the enemy and shoulder the responsibility of defending the land and resisting the war. Many university presidents, famous professors, and mainstays of the cultural and educational circles, such as Wang Xinggong, Ren Hongjun, Zhu Kezhen, He Bingsong, Wu Yifang, Zhang Shouyong, Xu Yiming, Zhang Boling, Chen Yuan, Mei Yiqi, Lu Zhiwei, Zou Lu, Luo Jialun, Jiang Menglin, Liu Zhanen, Hu Shi, Fu Sinian, Ding Xilin, etc., were invited to attend the meeting. Even Guo Moruo, who was "wanted" in April 1927 for publishing "Please Look at Chiang Kai-shek Today" and had been in exile in Japan for ten years, was also summoned to secretly return to Shanghai on the afternoon of 27 July to participate in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. He Lian, director of the administrative department of the National Executive Yuan, personally greeted him at the wharf.
On the same day, the Nanjing National Executive Committee issued Letter No. 547
A reed is like a thousand acres. The high-level party, government and military linkage marked the "cancellation of the wanted notice" for Guo Moruo to start wartime political reform. On the 31st, Shanghai's "Libao" published the official letter of the National Executive Committee that "Guo Moruo should be canceled from his arrest." This is an important event for the cultural and educational circles to abandon their political precedents, unite as one, and form an anti-Japanese united front, such as the Tangtang Reign.
A number of presidents and famous professors from Lushan gathered in Nanjing to discuss the difficulties faced by colleges and universities and the rescue measures. From the late night of 28 July to the early morning of 29 July, Japanese planes bombed and destroyed the building of the private Nankai University. Following the bombing of the Commercial Press and the Oriental Library during the Japanese invasion of Shanghai from January 28 to February 1, 1932, this was another targeted destruction of Chinese cultural and educational institutions, forcing the formation of a joint force of Chinese culture and education in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
According to Zhu Kezhen's diary, at 10 a.m. on 1 August, Zhu Kezhen and Mei Yiqi went to the home of Fu Sinian, director general of the ** Research Institute on Hengshan Road in Nanjing, to discuss renting a house in Changsha as a refuge for the ** Research Institute and Tsinghua University. On the morning of the second day, a meeting was held at the headquarters of the Nanjing ** Research Institute, and the Director General Fu Sinian reported on the relocation of the ** Research Institute to Changsha. That night, Fu Sinian hosted a banquet at the Shiyu Institute for Zhang Boling, Hu Shi, Tao Xisheng, Mei Yiqi, Zeng Zhaolian, He Lian, Zhu Kezhen and others to continue to discuss the relocation. Because Tsinghua University is establishing a branch campus in Changsha, the school building is under construction (the building built on the original site is now in the campus of Central South University); *The institute has set up a workstation in Changsha. (The Complete Works of Zhu Kezhen, vol. 6, pp. 344-345).
On the 3rd, Education Minister Wang Shijie had a secret talk with Hu Shizhi, Wu Daquan (Dingchang), Zhou Meisun (Binglin), Peng Haoxu (Xuepei), Luo Zhixi (Jialun), and Jiang Menglin at home. On the same day, the Ministry of Education promulgated the "Measures for the Disposal of Schools in War Zones", stipulating that in Beiping, Tianjin, and other war zones where war has taken place, "when war breaks out or is approaching, it shall be relocated in a certain amount, and the method may be used as a unit in each school, or in a mixed manner with students of all grades in each school, or temporarily merged, or temporarily attached to other schools." "Each national school shall be dealt with by the Ministry in accordance with the provisions of the preceding Article. ”
Fig. 1: Wang Shijie's Diary, manuscript volume, vol. 1, p. 83.
On the 6th, Fu Sinian, director general of the ** Research Institute, sent a letter to Dean Cai Yuanpei, saying that there was a plan to set up a "temporary university first district" in Changsha at this time ("Fu Sinian's Notes", vol. 2, p. 620). At the same time, the Ministry of Education issued the details of the temporary university zoning.
From June 1927 to June 1929, the National University (Dean Cai Yuanpei) was divided into districts and established a number of university districts; In August 1937, at a critical moment, the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China divided the area for the second time. The first district of the provisional university is located in Changsha; The second district of the temporary university is located in Xi'an; The address of the third district of the provisional university is being chosen, that is, it will be located in the university districts of Chongqing, Sichuan and Chengdu respectively in the future.
On the 15th, Luo Jialun, president of ** University, issued an announcement:
Principal Law Ka-lun August 15
2nd History Museum **8-915, pp. 82-85).
2. Temporary University Start-up Expenses**.
Because Zhu Jiahua, chairman of the board of directors of the Sino-British Geng, is the chairman of Zhejiang Province at this time, the daily affairs of the board of directors of the Sino-British Geng are specifically responsible for the secretary Hang Liwu, on the 21st, Hang Liwu asked Zhou Binglin, executive secretary of the Minister of Education, to discuss the issue of relief university education: in the future, there will be more than one major faculty member, who can be sent to the border university to serve; In the future, it is advisable to set up a science and engineering research institute in the Mainland to meet the needs of the country. This is recorded in Hu Shi's diary. (The Complete Works of Hu Shih, Vol. 32, p. 675).
Fig. 2: The manuscript of Hu Shi's Diary.
After Hang Liwu discussed with Zhou Binglin, Hu Shi, and Fu Sinian, Wang Shijie, Minister of Education, sent a telegram to Zhu Jiahua, chairman of Zhejiang Province and chairman of the board of directors of the Sino-British Geng Fund, saying that he would discuss with Hu Shi and Fu Sinian that after the withdrawal of Pingjin colleges and universities, the establishment of temporary universities in Changsha and Xi'an would require 1 million yuan. (2nd History Museum 5-2210, pp. 3-11).
Zhu Jiahua's "Overview of the Management of Sino-British Geng Funds in the Past Ten Years" does not mention this share of appropriation. [2(2)-215, pp. 45-57].
On 24 July, Education Minister Wang Shijie sent separate telegrams to Zhu Jingnong, director of the Hunan Department of Education, and Mei Yiqi (Yuehan), president of Tsinghua University, to negotiate the establishment of a temporary university in Changsha. On the 25th, Wang Shijie, Minister of Education, telephoned Sun Weiru, chairman of Shaanxi Province, to negotiate the establishment of a temporary university in Xi'an. (2210-2210, p. 20).
On the 26th, Wang Shijie, Minister of Education, approved the appointment of Zhou Binglin, Mei Yiqi, Jiang Menglin, Zhang Boling, Fu Sinian, Hu Shi, Yang Zhensheng, He Lian, Pi Zongshi, Zhu Jingnong, and Gu Yuxiu as members of the Preparatory Committee of the National Changsha Provisional University.
On the 28th, the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education sent letters to the presidents of Peking University, Tsinghua University, Nankai University and other universities, stating that "in accordance with the secret instructions of the minister, Member Zhang Boling, Member Mei Yiqi and Member Jiang Menglin are designated as members of the Standing Committee of the Preparatory Committee of Changsha Provisional University, and Member Yang Zhensheng is the secretary and director of the Preparatory Committee of Changsha Provisional University."
On the 29th, Wang Shijie's diary recorded:
On 1 September, Wang Shijie, minister of education, approved the appointment of Li Shuhua, Li Steam, Xu Yiming, Li Shutian, Zang Qifang, Xin Shuzhi, Zhou Bomin, Tong Guanxian, and Chen Jianxiu as members of the preparatory committee of Xi'an Provisional University.
On the 2nd, the Ministry of Education officially set up temporary universities in Xi'an and Changsha. (2nd History Museum 34-1110, p. 25).
On the morning of the 4th, Nanjing ** University held a school affairs meeting, attended by Sun Guangyuan, Tong Guanxian, Ai Wei, Qi Shounan, Zou Shuwen, Luo Jialun, Zhang Guangyu, and President Luo Jialun, to discuss the school's choice of location to prepare for the opening of the school, how the affiliated experimental school should open the case, the full-time professor and lecturer concentration case, the teaching assistant of each department should deal with the case, and the faculty and staff of the school subscribed to the national salvation public bond. Resolutions (excerpts):
2nd History Museum **8-915, pp. 74-75).
On September 10, the Ministry of Education issued Order No. 16696, deciding that some teachers from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Nankai University and ** Research Institute will move south to Changsha to form Changsha Provisional University. Some teachers from Peking University, Peking Normal University, Beiyang Institute of Technology and Beiping Research Institute moved west to Xi'an to form Xi'an Provisional University.
Changsha Provisional University was established in Changsha by Peking University, Tsinghua University and Nankai University; The dust has settled on the relocation of other universities in Pingjin to the west and the establishment of temporary universities in Xi'an.
On September 23, the Ministry of Education approved the relocation of ** University to Chongqing.
At the same time, it was decided that Changsha Provisional University would officially open on November 1.
Under the crushing blow of the Japanese army's artillery fire, Chinese universities united to save themselves and moved forward in the fire.
On January 1, 1938, the Kuomintang ordered the abolition of the Reflection Yuan for the "political prisoners" of the Communists, and the "prisoners" were released on bail. The brother stares at the wall, and the outside resists his insult. This is the basic measure for the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the unity of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party to dilute the party struggle. (2nd History Museum 34-1115, p. 6) On April 2, Changsha Provisional University was renamed National Southwest Associated University; On the 15th, Xi'an Provisional University was renamed National Northwest Associated University. (2nd History Museum 34-1121, p. 104).
3. "Stop the clouds and leave a great name for eternity".
The family and country are unfortunate and the poet is lucky. The exile and separation in the war was an extreme life experience for professors and poets, and it also created a new form of literary creation: anti-Japanese war literature and art.
According to "Wu Mi's Diary", on November 10, Wu Mi took a boat from Tianjin, arrived in Qingdao on 13 November, Jingnan, Xuzhou, Zhengzhou, and Hankou, and on 19 November, arrived in Changsha, where he met with Shen Lu and Pan Guangdan, who had arrived earlier, and then visited Zhu Jingnong, director of the Hunan Provincial Department of Education, and Mei Yiqi, president of Tsinghua University, and learned that the Faculty of Liberal Arts of the Provisional University was now located in the Nanyue Bible School in Hengshan.
Fig.3 The building on the upper left is the Cloud Stop Building (courtesy of Tang Zhihui).
On December 6, Wu Mi, Tang Yongtong, He Lin, Qian Mu and others arrived in Hengyang in the same car. On the 7th, he stayed in the mountain col where the Faculty of Arts of Nanyue Bible School Temporary University is located, and lived in the Bible School dormitory "Shuyun Building" on the top of 384 steps, and lived with Qian Mu, Liu Wuji, Zhu Ziqing, Pu Jiangqing, Qian Mu, Chen Mengjia, Wen Yiduo, Shen Youding, etc., who arrived in advance. met with Feng Youlan, Ye Gongchao and others, and began to take classes.
There are many reminiscences about Changsha Provisional University and Southwest Associated University, and literary reminiscences are a supplement to historical truth and a record of individual mentality and circumstances. Wherever I go, step by step literature traces. Only the relevant part of the Changsha Provisional University in Nanyue Hengshan is selected here.
The sun and the moon do not live in the sky, and the poet is in the wind. The Faculty of Liberal Arts of the Temporary University is struggling to teach and live, but it is full of vitality. Most of the professors who arrived early lived in the Cloud Tower. Liu Wuji recorded in his diary on December 1 that he said, "My colleague Yung Zhaozu wrote several limerick poems, which were very interesting to the people who lived in this building, and the following is borrowed." This group of poems embeds the names of some of the professors and staff of the Ministry of Education who teach here:
How is Feng Yan's Yaqu (Feng Youlan).
Smell one has never seen much (smell a lot).
Sexual slowness is still in a hurry (Zhu Peixian).
May the public be on the top of the Mo Waste (Ye Gongchao).
Ding Shen Luoshui is Ye Fei (Shen Youding).
Bingbi can still return (Zheng Bingbi).
Yangshi 3000 Jiangshangpu (Pujiang Qing).
When did Wuji break Zhao Wei (Liu Wuji).
Calmly preceded the ancestral whip (Rong Zhaozu).
Didn't reach Yuan Xi sweeping the smoke (Wu Dayuan).
Xiaomeng woke up in Chu (Sun Xiaomeng).
Aolan still listens to Mingquan (Luo Haolan).
After a long drought, he looked at Yuelin (Jin Yuelin).
Who can help with Shoumin (Liu Shoumin).
The Han family saw Wang Yezhi (Yang Yezhi) again
The swallow in front of the hall is also Propsun (燕布荪).
This quatrain was written by Feng Zhisheng).
Bu De Xianjia and Xian Geng (Zhou Xiangeng).
Everyone has good news Junsheng (Wu Junsheng).
The merit is in the annals of the imperial court light (Luo Tingguang).
Stop the clouds and leave a great name for the ages.
Stop Cloud Building, our dormitory).
Selected Essays of Liu Wuji, pp. 100-101).
Fig.4 The original steps of the Cloud Tower from the foot of the mountain (photographed by Tang Zhihui).
Fig.5 Stopping the cloud building (newly restored, photographed by Tang Zhihui).
Guanshan Nanyue, the sound of Hengyang, the sky and clouds and shadows are poems.
At this time, the four departments of Chinese Literature, Foreign Languages, History, and Philosophy of the three universities were integrated into the Faculty of Liberal Arts of the Provisional University, and Feng Zhisheng (Youlan) was the dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts. The autumn water catches the galaxy, the winter snow chases the years, and the southeast arrow gold. William Empson is a famous British poet and critic, as a foreign professor, he went to Nanyue with the teachers and students of the School of Literature of Peking University in Nandu, and wrote a long poem of 234 lines "The Autumn of Nanyue". Here is an excerpt from Wang Zuoliang's Selected British Poetry (Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1988).
William Yan Busun went through the most difficult years with the Chinese nation, and recorded the real life of the teachers and students of the School of Literature of Nanyue Provisional University with poetry. The forest is dyed, and the weather is cool and autumnal. See the snow winter again, and the string song is still the same.
In the poem, Luo Tingguang and Wu Junsheng are respectively the secretary of the Ministry of Education and the director of the Department of Higher Education, and they came to coordinate the relocation of the Faculty of Liberal Arts of the Provisional University to the Nanyue Bible School in Hengshan. Zhu Peixian (Ziqing) and Wen Yiduo, who wrote new vernacular poems, entered the ancient style poems that seemed to be oiled.
Eighty-six years later, in the scorching summer, I climbed the stairs with the Yuelu scholars, full of green mountains, and stopped gathering without clouds. Embracing the mountain breeze, meeting at William Yenpsun's "lovely sundeck", the stream is still flowing and talking and laughing. Measuring the poems and writings of Liu Wuji, Qian Mu, Wu Mi and Yan Busun with footsteps, the bell period meets the flowing water and redraws the literary map.
The author took a group photo with Tang Zhihui in the Cloud Tower (taken by Liu Ying).
Fourth, the new pattern of literature and art of the Anti-Japanese War.
The war is raging. Two months later, the Ministry of Education decided to move the Changsha Provisional University west to Kunming. The teachers and students of the Faculty of Letters, a temporary university living at Nanyue Bible School, then prepared to travel westward.
The life of a martyr is short, but the love of children is long. The flowers float and the water flows freely, and the starlight adds new sorrows. Changsha and Hengshan For Wu Mi, one is that four years after the suspension of the magazine "Xue Heng", he was able to meet with the supporters of "Xue Heng", the principal of Mingde Middle School, Hu Yuanqi, and Mingde colleagues Liu Pu and Hu Zheng in Chudi, and the old people reunited in poetry. The second is to let him experience the misery and misery of the fugue in the special circumstances of the Beacon Beauty. In front of him, Wu Mi's crush on Shanshan Xiangnu, Lan Paste is bright and beautiful, and will become the bride of someone else (Chen Zhimai), Wu Mi's infatuation can't help herself, and the enthusiasm of unrequited love is blown away in the cold wind. The wife of the former prime minister (Xiong Xiling) who is far away in Hong Kong, Wu Mi has pursued Helen for many years, on December 25, the new widow is lonely. Wu Mi was trapped by infatuation, too obsessed, just frowned, but in his heart, he glanced at the shock, and thought about the dragon. Red dust passers-by, a game and a mistake. Nanyue Holy Mountain can avoid temporary difficulties, but it does not extinguish the expectation of resurgence, and does not understand the troubles of entanglement, so I have to babble in my diary, perform lovesickness and sorrow, and let loneliness torment.
In the midst of the wind and fire, the line is repeated, and the wind is elegant.
On the way to Kunming in the west, in December 1938, the famous school song "National Southwest Associated University School Song" composed by Luo Yong (Yingzhong) and composed by Zhang Qingchang was produced in Yishan, Guangxi Province (when the school was officially determined in 1939, individual words were changed):
Hengshan autumn soldiers, blowing strings and reciting, giving birth to this song full of Jianghong.
The soul remembered. The purpose of the university's migration from south to west is to protect the lifeblood of national culture. Literature and metaphysics have an intrinsic emotional connection, as well as unspeakable mysteries. Fu Sinian, who lives on Hengshan Road in Nanjing, was the original initiator of the three northern universities to cross to Changsha in the south, and the School of Liberal Arts of Changsha Provisional University immediately stopped in Hengshan; The school song of the United University uses "one into three households, strong and difficult to break" to express the firm belief of "driving out the Japanese captives", which is to use the proverbial oath of the Chu people that "although there are three households in Chu, the death of Qin will be Chu", on August 21, 1945, the defeated Japanese army was surrendered in Zhijiang, Hunan, Chu, and returned our rivers and mountains. Tie the bell and untie the bell. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Kuomintang appointed Fu Sinian as the president of Peking University before Hu Shi returned to China. Fu Sinian compared this to "Song Jiang came out of the horse, and Li Kui took the lead". He made the greatest contribution to the separation of Peking University from Kunming Southwest Associated University and the return of Yanjie to the north.
I visited Wang Dingjun, an exiled student and essayist during the Anti-Japanese War, four times in New York, and learned that more than 3,600 songs were produced during the Anti-Japanese War. This school song is an important testimony to history. Poetry activates history and witnesses suffering and literature. Especially at the moment of national crisis, the old and new literary writers were united, the ancient style and the vernacular colloquial language coexisted and tolerated, and the ancient style of poetry and music under the weight of the May Fourth vernacular new literature was fully resurrected, playing an important role in the literary war of resistance. The revival of this form of literary classicism has also become a bright spot in the new pattern of literature and art of the Anti-Japanese War.
In particular, the creation of ancient style poems by Wu Mi, Hu Xianqiao, and Chen Yinke, the main members of the Xueheng School, showed a new peak, such as Hu Xianqiao's "Southern Expedition" created by imitating Du Fu's "Northern Expedition", which became famous for a while; Lu Qian, a rising star of the Xueheng School, edited the "National Poetry Circle" in Wuhan in May 1938, which mainly published ancient style poems; Shen Zudi, a first-class university student who appeared on the literary scene by writing new vernacular poems, traveled from Nanjing to Chengdu, and "Shijiang Ci" was shot. So much so that Ye Shaojun (Sheng Tao) and Shen Yanbing (Mao Dun), who opposed the ancient style poetry of Nanjing Higher Normal School-Southeast University "Poetics Research Number" 20 years ago, also turned to ancient style poetry writing. This is exactly the integration and poetic identity of national culture brought to the literary world at a critical moment of nationhood. Poetry and songs, the sound of the waves is still the same, and the return to the old literary form is not only the resurrection of literary classicism, but also a recondensation of the national spirit with the help of poetry.