On July 14, 1934, Mr. Liu Bannong, a pioneer of China's New Culture Movement, writer, linguist and educator, passed away in Peking Union Medical College Hospital .
1. Junior high school student who married early
Liu Bannong was born on May 29, 1891 in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province. His original name was Liu Shoupeng, and his later name was Liu Fu. His first name was Bannong, and later he was changed to Bannong. He has been extremely intelligent since he was a child and can compose couplets and chant poems at the age of 6.
In 1902, Liu Fu studied at Hanmolin Primary School in Jiangyin City. In 1907, he was admitted to Changzhou Fu Middle School with excellent results.
In June 1910, Liu Fu had not graduated from middle school, but he was getting married to his fiancée Zhu Hui.
It turns out that Liu Fu’s mother was a devout Buddhist. She met a woman from the Zhu family in a small nunnery where she often burned incense. When Liu Fu was 11 years old, he and his mother went to the nunnery to burn incense. But he met a woman from the Zhu family who also brought a pair of daughters to burn incense.
The women of the Zhu family liked Liu Fu very much and proposed to betroth their eldest daughter Zhu Hui to him.
Liu Fu's mother also liked Zhu Hui very much. But after his father knew that Zhu Hui was 3 years older than Liu Fu, he refused to agree to the marriage.
The Zhu family was determined to have this son-in-law: Then promise him their second daughter!
So the two families became in-laws.
Unexpectedly, the good times did not last long, and the second daughter fell ill and died soon after.
After the Zhu family lost their second daughter, they were still reluctant to let go of Liu Fu and proposed to betroth their eldest daughter to him.
Liu Fu's father saw that the Zhu family was so sincere, so he had no choice but to agree.
According to the old custom, men and women seldom see each other after they get engaged. Liu Fu originally liked Zhu Hui. After getting engaged, he didn't care about the old customs and ran to Zhu's house whenever he had the chance.
Zhu Hui, according to custom, has his feet bound and bound into the so-called " three-inch golden lotus ". I suffered a lot for this and even walked with a limp.
Liu Fu went to his parents-in-law's house again and again, and every time he saw his fiancée limping, he secretly felt heartbroken.
Once, he finally couldn't bear it anymore and immediately ran home and asked his parents to ask his parents-in-law: Don't let Zhu Hui bind his feet again!
How can the two parents agree?
Liu Fu, however, persisted in his insistence. In the end, both parties compromised: Zhu Hui would still bind her feet during the day, but she could let them go quietly at night.
Zhu Hui loves her fiancé even more because of this incident.
After Liu Fu went to Changzhou Prefecture School to study, his parents took Zhu Hui into their home as a child bride, considering the many affairs at home.
One year before Liu Fu graduated, his mother suddenly fell ill.
According to folk custom, the marriage of children is called a happy event, which can help sick people recover from health.
Therefore, in order to treat his mother's illness, Liu Fu and Zhu Hui got married in a hurry - Liu Fu became a junior high school student who got married early.
After the two got married, Zhu Hui had two miscarriages due to overwork. In order to continue the Liu family's incense, Liu's father asked his son to take a concubine as soon as possible. Liu Fu disagreed. In order to avoid a direct conflict with his father, he took his wife to Shanghai.
In 1916, their first child was finally born, but she was a daughter, not the son Liu's father wanted most. Taking into account the patriarchal values of his father and his hometown, Liu Fu disguised his daughter Liu Xiaohui as a boy since she was a child. It was not until 1920 when he went abroad that he allowed his daughter to resume her girlish attire.
Family photos
2. The misunderstood " Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School "
After the Revolution of 1911 , the school was closed due to the war. Liu Fu ended his studies before he received his junior high school diploma.
However, he was full of patriotic enthusiasm and rushed to Qingjiang to join the revolutionary army and undertake clerical work.
The ideal is very plump, but the reality is very skinny. Soon after, unable to tolerate the internal chaos in his army, he returned home.
returned to his hometown, and he returned to his alma mater, Hanmolin Primary School, to teach.
"The world is so big, I want to see it." In 1912, Defu, unwilling to be trapped in his hometown, came to Shanghai with his younger brother Chen Tianhua with 5 yuan in his pocket.
In the Shanghai literary world at that time, the "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School" was a very big school.
"Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School", also known as "Saturday School". At first, they were mainly romance novels describing talented men and beautiful women, romance, romance, and the like.There are many vulgar, vulgar and even pornographic and obscene works.
But later, the "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School" evolved into a more complex school. Its genres include not only novels, but also poems, poems, essays, sketches, detective novels, martial arts novels, etc.
When Liu Fu first came to Shanghai, he worked as an editor at the Kaiming Drama Society and earned very little. Later, he moved his wife to Shanghai, and life was very stressful.
So, he took advantage of his excellent writing and began to write some novels -
In October 1913, he published a 100-word novel "Autumn Sound" in " Current Affairs Newspaper ", exposing the braided handsome Zhang Xun The crime of suppressing the second revolution and torturing local people.
After that, Liu Fu used pen names such as "Liu Bannong" and published novels such as "The Hosta Flower" and "The Revenge of the Bearded Man". For a time, he was dubbed the author of the "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School".
But Liu Bannong does not admit that he is a "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School".
Indeed, his literary creation can only be said to be on the edge of the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School. These works contain humor, caution, jokes, and sadness. Although not as cynical as Lu Xun, he still awakened people's humanistic concerns.
It is worth mentioning that during this period, vernacular Chinese was not yet popular in China. Liu Bannong's novels are naturally expressed in classical Chinese. People who lack the knowledge of classical Chinese will inevitably have trouble reading.
In 1913, Liu Bannong worked as a translator in Zhonghua Book Company . During this period, in addition to his own creations, he also published Andersen, Dumas, Tolstoy, Turgenev, and Gorky in publications such as Current Affairs News and Novel World. Works by other famous writers are translated and introduced to Chinese readers.
3. Peking University professor and new culture pioneer
In the summer of 1917, Liu Bannong returned to his hometown Jiangyin from Shanghai. On the one hand, I have no time at home, and on the other hand, I am thinking about the future.
Suddenly one day, he received a letter of appointment from Cai Yuanpei, president of Peking University - he was hired as a professor of Chinese language at the preparatory course of Peking University.
He and his wife couldn't believe it for a while.
, a person who has not finished junior high school, became a professor at Peking University mainly because of the recommendation of one person. He is - Chen Duxiu.
It turns out that not long ago, Liu Bannong met with Chen Duxiu, the editor-in-chief of " New Youth " in Shanghai. Chen Duxiu had a unique eye and discerned Liu Bannong's talent and potential. So, he strongly recommended it to Cai Yuanpei.
In this way, Liu Bannong and Qian Xuantong, Zhou Zuoren, Hu Shi and others became young professors at the highest universities in the country.
Peking University is the birthplace of new culture . Here, Liu Bannong quickly became a pioneer of the new culture movement .
He was moved by Hu Shi's " Brief Discussion on Literary Reform" and published "My View on Literary Reform" in "New Youth", deciding to break with the old literature, advocate new culture, and promote vernacular literature. And change "Ban Nong" to "Ban Nong".
Later, he also published "Spiritual Innovation in Poetry and Novels", "The Pain of Apprenticeship", "The Carrot Seller", etc., and continued to cheer for the New Culture Movement.
In addition, he also performed a "double act" with Qian Xuantong -
On March 15, 1918, "New Youth" published an open letter written by Qian Xuantong under the pseudonym "Wang Jingxuan" "A Letter to the Editor of "New Youth"" Letter". The letter used the image of a defender of feudal culture and tried its best to abuse and attack "New Youth" and New Culture. In the same issue,
published Liu Bannong's "Book of Restoration of Wang Jingxuan". He drank a lot and talked eloquently, refuting Wang Jingxuan's views one by one. After the
article was published, it caused a great response. Liu Bannong has also become a veritable cultural general.
4. The controversy over the word "she"
In April 1919, Liu Bannong was selected as a member of the Preparatory Committee for the Unification of the Mandarin Language, responsible for drafting the "Bill for the Unification of the Mandarin Language" and proposing the idea of changing the Chinese language to Mandarin and compiling a dictionary. In May 1920, he was elected as a member of the Mandarin Dictionary Committee.
In September 1920, he was sent to the University of London in England and the University of Paris in France to study experimental linguistics.
While studying abroad, he noticed that in Western languages, it is very convenient to use two different words like "he" and "she" to distinguish the third person male and female.
In China, since the rise of vernacular, Chinese people have been using "he" to refer to the third person, whether male or female.
Liu Bannong believes that Chinese should also use a special word to refer to the female third person like English does. So, after careful consideration, he invented a word - "she".
The word "she" is different from the word "he" and refers specifically to women in the third person.
Liu Bannong thought that his creation of this word was a miracle.
But to his surprise: " Women's Magazine " refused to use the word "she", and a considerable number of female groups also scolded Liu Bannong.
It turns out that under the influence of new culture and new ideas, women's collective consciousness was in the awakening stage, and women began to seek equal status and rights. Some feminists believe that the word "he" is a word that has been handed down from ancient times to the present, and now refers specifically to men. The word "she" is a newly coined word used to refer specifically to women, which is disrespectful, discriminatory and unfair to women.
Hu Shi also opposed the word "she". He advocated using "that woman".
Zhou Zuoren also opposed it. He advocated using "伊".
However, Liu Bannong did not compromise. He insisted on promoting the popularization and use of the word "she".
Several years later, the character "she" became the most creative character in China in the last century and became full of vitality.
In 1920, Liu Bannong wrote the classic modern poem "Teach Me How to Miss Her". Used to express the love for "her", the motherland and other objects of admiration -
There are some light clouds floating in the sky,
There is some breeze blowing on the ground.
ah!
The breeze blew my hair,
Teach me how to miss her?
The moonlight is in love with the ocean, and
the ocean is in love with the moonlight.
ah!
Such a honey-like silver night.
teach me how to miss her?
Flowers falling on the water surface flow slowly, and
fish swim slowly under the water.
ah!
Swallow, what did you say?
teach me how to miss her?
Withered trees are shaking in the cold wind,
Wild fires are burning in the dusk.
ah!
There is still some lingering clouds in the west.
Teach me how to miss her?
5. Tribute to the Patriarchs
In 1925, Liu Bannong received a doctorate in French national literature, becoming the first Chinese to receive the highest academic title awarded in the name of a foreign country.
In June 1934, in order to complete the compilation of "New Score of Four Tones", "Dictionary of Dialects" and "Map of Chinese Dialects", Liu Bannong braved the scorching heat to go deep into Suiyuan and Inner Mongolia to investigate the dialects. Unfortunately, he contracted "Huixu" He died of "pyre" disease in Beijing on July 14 at the age of 44.
