The reason was that Chen Yinke gave a Chinese question to the Tsinghua University freshman entrance examination this year, and a pair with "Sun Xingzhe" as the first couplet.

Before reading this article, please click "Follow" to facilitate discussion and sharing, but also bring you a different sense of participation. Thank you for your support!

Introduction

In the summer of 1932, the master of Chinese studies, Chen Yinke , who has always been famous in the literary world, was subjected to unprecedented criticism. The reason for

was Chen Yinke. He gave a Chinese question to the entrance examination for the Tsinghua University freshmen this year, and a pair with "Sun Xingzhe" as the first couplet.

Beiping The World Journal even opened a reader forum area in newspapers. Even the striking figure at that time, Hu Shi, , came out to accuse Chen Yinke in his speech:

"In students' exams, use this kind of 'indifferent' stuff."

For this reason, Chen Yinke, who is cultivating, had to come back from Beidaihe and accepted an interview from the World Journal, and publicly explained to the whole society the purpose of placing this test question.

Seeing this, I believe everyone is curious about this couplet that has caused such a great controversy.

Why did Chen Yinke, a master of Chinese studies, choose such a controversial exam question? Which candidate stood out from such a controversial question? What is his answer?

Let’s go into the article together and find out.

Exam questions that aroused public anger

In the summer of 1932, Chen Yinke, a professor at Tsinghua University who was packing his luggage at home, interrupted his plan to go to Beidaihe to recuperate due to the arrival of an "uninvited guest".

is Mr. Liu Wendian , who temporarily serves as the director of the Chinese Department of Tsinghua University.

At this time last year, Mr. Zhu Ziqing was on vacation and was preparing to study in the UK for a year, so the position of director of the Chinese Department fell on Liu Wendian.

Liu Wendian

But at this time, Liu Wendian came to find Chen Yinke who was preparing to recuperate. What else was there?

did not say hello, Liu Wendian hurried to Chen Yinke's room and said to him earnestly:

"Heshou (Old Chen's word), you have to help me this time, you are not allowed to leave if you don't help."

Chen Yinke asked, and then he realized that a new student would come to report soon after the summer vacation. Liu Wendian's trip was intended to help him find out a few Chinese questions to detect these new students in Tsinghua .

Chen Yinke thought about it and felt that this was not a difficult task, so he agreed readily.

At that time, he prepared different test questions for Tsinghua freshmen, second and third grade students and graduate students.

But since he is about to set off for Beidaihe, it is best to start with what he is good at when he is good at. As a master of Chinese studies, he is best at "couple".

In addition, Chen Yinke really wants to take this test to test the Chinese studies of this group of freshmen who have entered Tsinghua University.

So he gave two questions to the freshmen who were admitted to school. In his opinion, the first one was the composition question, which was "Sleepwalking in Tsinghua University".

The second one is pairing, and there are two questions: "Sun Xingzhe" and "Young young man leaves home and the boss returns."

However, what Chen Yinke never expected was that it was one of the " pairs of " test questions that made him, who was naturally quiet and concise, had to stand up and respond publicly in the newspaper.

Not long after, Tsinghua University welcomed a new group of students. Most of this group of students have experienced the baptism of New Culture Movement and are full of longing and curiosity about Western culture. As a very outstanding group of students in China, they are looking forward to their first exam at Tsinghua University.

At around 8 a.m. on July 30, 1932, nearly a thousand first-year students stepped into the examination room with confidence, but when the test papers were sent to their hands, they were all stunned.

Picture source network

Two ordinary Chinese questions, the first test composition, if you have visited Tsinghua Park , you can write your own feelings, and if you have never visited, you can write your imagination.

The second "pair" is given in the test paper, and the candidate completes the second couplet according to the requirements of level and tone, virtual and real. The first

is not bad, but the second matching question has stumped a large number of students.

uses "Sun Xingzhe" as the first couplet and gives the second couplet. The title is only three short words, but more than half of the students hand in the blank paper.

There are also some students who are inappropriate in their answers, and they only want to rely on the works of "Sun Xingzhe", so they answered ridiculous answers such as " Tang Sanzang " and "Zhu Bajie". As soon as the

exam was over, most of the candidates began to complain. Not long after, the test questions were passed outside the school, which attracted great attention and controversy.

As the most advanced place in China's thinking, Tsinghua University actually uses "right pairs" to do questions in the exam. Isn't this "reversal", retreat, and fall behind, and be unchanged?

At the same time, Chen Yinke, who was judging the paper, also found it incredible. A common word "couple" and "Sun Xingzhe", was not answered by most students, and a small number of them made up random things.

As Chen Yinke, who highly praised Chinese studies, his heart hurts a little whenever he opens a new test paper, and his sadness also surges into his heart.

Just as he lamented the dilemma of Chinese studies in his heart, his eyes finally lit up and he found an answer that made him extremely satisfied.

And this answer is even more perfect than the reference answer he had expected before. Chen Yinke saw the name of the answerer, and he felt a little more admiration for him.

Not long after, the list of Tsinghua entrance examinations was released, and it once again set off another climax for the already controversial "couple" questions.

Nearly a thousand freshmen participated in the Tsinghua University entrance examination, and in the end they only admitted 342 students. You should know that at that time, the registration fee for the Tsinghua entrance examination was 5 yuan, which could be worth half a month's meal for ordinary people.

So those who dare to sign up must be students who are confident in their learning achievements, but the huge gap between the number of applicants and the number of admissions makes them completely unable to sit still.

For a time, in the reader forum section of World Journal, articles criticizing Chen Yinke and Tsinghua were seen all day long.

has an author signed by Ding Ling, criticizing Chen Yinke:

"It's really too difficult for students, and the teacher himself can't judge."

Another author signed by Zhenkai criticized him, and he claimed to be a "boy" throughout the article, and criticized Tsinghua's conceit and bourgeoisie, "a beautiful and unkind tour of Tsinghua Park", "a great university, great conceit", and "a boy dare not climb this school".

Even Hu Shi had accused the Chinese language in Tsinghua University entrance examinations at a summer speech. Shouldn’t it be carried out according to the standards of the Ministry of Education? The Ministry of Education requires vernacular Chinese, but the questioner ignores it.

public opinion is getting stronger and stronger. In order to prevent the impact from further expanding, Chen Yinke had to stand up and accept an interview with the World Journal, explaining his intention to set the topic. After the reporter learned about it, he reported that the best answer to the "Sun Xingzhe" test question was "Hu Shizhi".

So, what is the wonderful thing about this "Hu Shizhi"? Why would Chen Yinke rather accept the question than give up on "right"?

Chen Yinke's good intentions

Chen Yinke was born in Changsha, Hunan during the Guangxu period. His grandfather Chen Baozhen , and served as the governor of Hunan in 21st year of Guangxu. During the Westernization Movement

, with the support of Chen Baozhen, Hunan quickly evolved from a closed provincial capital to an advanced place for mining and factory construction.

But when Chen Yinke was 8 years old, Chen Baozhen and his son Chen Sanli were permanently dismissed by the Qing government because they were the first to reform in Hunan. Under such circumstances, the Chen family had to return to their hometown Jiangxi.

After Chen Sanli returned to his hometown, he stopped working as an official, but instead set up a school at home and hired many Chinese studies masters, including Zhou Dalie, to come to class, and Chen Yinke also studied here.

Chen Sanli

At the same time, Chen Sanli is still very supportive of the new policy. He supports modern education in the school he founded himself. Therefore, in addition to the Four Books and Five Classics, Chen Yinke can also learn many emerging courses such as painting and English.

Under the influence of this environment, Chen Yinke has shown his profound Chinese studies since childhood, and at the same time he has shown a strong interest in Eastern and Western cultures.

But it was precisely because of his reform that Chen Sanli had already seen the corruption of the court, so he never asked his son Chen Yinke to take the imperial examination and get fame. On the contrary, Chen Sanli also supports his children to study abroad.

So, when Chen Yinke was 12 years old, his father Chen Sanli sent Chen Yinke and his brother to Japan to study, where he learned a lot of advanced Western culture.

5 years later, Chen Yinke once again set off a cruise overseas. This time he spent 15 years studying abroad, and has visited several countries such as Germany, , Switzerland, and , and mastered more than a dozen languages.

During the more than two years of studying abroad at Harvard University , Chen Yinke mastered the obscure Sanskrit and Pali , and also met two masters of Chinese studies - Wu Mi and Tang Yongtong . The three of them were praised as the "Three Masters of Harvard" because of their excellent grades.

Chen Yinke finished the course for more than two years in more than two years. He thought he had mastered it well and decided to set off to University of Berlin, Germany to continue his studies soon.

's move was dissuaded by teachers and classmates at Harvard , asking him to wait patiently for another half a year and then go to Germany after getting his degree, because once Chen Yinke left rashly, he would not be able to get his degree.

Chen Yinke did not obey. He explained to his friends:

"Study abroad is to learn knowledge. Since the goal has been achieved, why do I waste my time and life for a degree?"

So, without getting the degree, Chen Yinke resolutely went to Germany to continue his studies.

In fact, when Chen Yinke was studying abroad, he always left after learning knowledge and would not waste time on his false reputation.

So over the past decade, although Chen Yinke's study footprints have spread across more than a dozen famous institutions, he has never obtained a degree. Perhaps in front of a real master, a degree cannot prove one's own level.

However, what is unexpected is that Chen Yinke went to Germany to continue studying, but he was studying Oriental Ancient Vocabulary .

Learning Eastern knowledge in a Western country is completely different from the learning atmosphere of renovating old habits and new habits in China. At first, Chen Yinke was very surprised.

But gradually, Chen Yinke realized that unlike the national status, Chinese culture has a very high status in world culture.

So many foreign scholars will even devote themselves to research for decades just to learn the profound cultural fur accumulated over the past thousand years.

's study experience in Germany in recent years made Chen Yinke understand a truth:

should never take a completely overturned attitude towards Chinese academics, that is, "absorb foreign theories and never forget the status of the nation."

1925, Chen Yinke returned to China after completing his studies. At that time, Tsinghua University did something that was contrary to the trend - setting up the National Studies Institute ", with the purpose of establishing the National Studies Institute, to cultivate Chinese studies talents for China.

seems to be very different from the trend of learning from the West at that time, but it is not, because Tsinghua University at that time was not a well-known educational hall in China and abroad now, but just an Preparatory School for studying in the United States established by the government.

1908, the United States returned part of the compensation paid by the Qing government during the war of aggression against China, and asked the Qing court to use it to develop education and build an elite university of .

At the same time, because the United States is the funding provider, it can invisibly affect Tsinghua's school management and governance.

So as a preparatory school for studying in the United States, Tsinghua University is the first to build its own culture after absorbing Western learning, and it is understandable to establish a Chinese Academy.

In the same year, Chen Yinke was invited to Tsinghua University to serve as a tutor of the Chinese Studies Institute. The other three people with the same position as him were all well-known Chinese studies figures.

One is one of the initiators of Reform of 1898, Liang Qichao , one is the pioneer of Wang Guowei , which uses oracle bone script to study the history of the Shang Dynasty, and the other is Chen Yinke's Harvard alumnus Zhao Yuanren .

At that time, after several new literature -related movements in China, the living environment of the old school was very harsh. Most scholars who advocated the new style of academic style have been abroad, and they were eager to eliminate the influence of tradition on the Chinese people.

Chen Yinke, who returned from studying abroad and emphasized the importance of Chinese grammar, obviously became an "outlier".

As early as January 1920, the Ministry of Education ordered that "all the Chinese language courses in the grades of national schools should be unified in the use of language and style (i.e. vernacular Chinese)."

For a time, the Chinese language for first and second grades of primary schools across the country were changed to vernacular Chinese.

Not long after, the storm of " September 18th Incident " had not yet passed, and the Japanese army attacked Shanghai and occupied the Northeast.

At that time, the government urgently convened a national disaster meeting. Five Tsinghua professors, including Chen Yinke, listed themselves. This fierce national disaster made Chen Yinke, who had always been in a quiet state, unable to calm down.

As a weak scholar, he could not go to the front line to carry guns to fight. The threat of national destruction was right in front of him, but Chen Yinke seemed to be unable to do anything at all, but he was not willing to accept it.

At that time, Tsinghua University, as a preparatory school for studying in the United States, always emphasized "independence in knowledge". The idea of ​​

has become a fashionable trend, and Chen Yinke knew in his heart that it reminds us that China's cultural traditions are disappearing silently.

In front of the danger of destruction, the country's nature was being rewritten invisibly. This was something that Chen Yinke could not accept. He was thinking about what he had to do.

The best place to start is Tsinghua. As the best group of Chinese students, Chen Yinke looks forward to Tsinghua students taking on such responsibilities. China's academic independence is ready to go.

Liu Wendian

just so happened. Liu Wendian gave Chen Yinke such an opportunity - to give new life questions to enroll. In this way, Chen Yinke, who had always retreated, firmly stepped onto the forefront of this storm.

The most satisfactory answer

In Chen Yinke's view, the Chinese language exam tests students' understanding of the characteristics of Chinese characters and their reserves of Chinese language knowledge.

and "pair pairs" is the best way to express the characteristics of Chinese characters and test students' basic knowledge.

In the 1932 Tsinghua entrance examination, the pairs they gave first test words, second test four tones, third test reading, and fourth test ideas.

Before receiving the answer sheet, Chen Yinke set two answers: " Zu Chongzhi " and "Wang Yinzhi".

But when he saw the answer "Hu Shizhi", he suddenly realized that the other two answers were nothing more than that.

Then why is the second couplet said that "Hu Shizhi" is the most perfect answer? We can analyze it from the four standards required by Chen Yinke.

The first point is about word categories. It means that the words of the pair must be words of the same part of the word, such as verbs for verbs, empty characters for empty characters, etc.

"Sun" as a surname corresponds exactly to "Hu"; "Zhang" as a verb can correspond to "Shi" in the meaning of "reach"; "Zhe" as a word of "王" corresponds exactly to "zhi".

From this level, "Zu Chongzhi" and "Wang Yinzhi" can also correspond, indicating that word categories are not the key points of distinction.

The second point is about the four tones. The four tones of "Sun Xingzhe" are flat and flat, so the four tones in the lower couplet should be jingxiping.

According to the law that the first character can be flat or oblique, "Hu Shizhi" and "Wang Yinzhi" are both flat and flat, which is consistent, and "Zu Chongzhi" is flat and flat, which is not consistent.

At this point, the answer to "Zu Chongzhi" was excluded, leaving only "Hu Shizhi" and " Wang Yinzhi ".

The third point is about reading, which examines students' poetry, books, lyrics and essays, and understands scholars and works from ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad. At this point, both "Wang Yinzhi" and "Hu Shizhi" are suitable.

Wang Yinzhi As a famous scholar in the Qing Dynasty, Hu Shizhi was the most fashionable figure at that time, and they all met the requirements for students to read.

The last point is thought, that is, the pair must not only conform to the literal imaginary and real level, but also have the state of thought of "explanation".

At this point, "Wang Yinzhi" is far less clever than "Hu Shizhi".

First of all, "travel" and "fit" are equivalent in terms of connotation, one is to go and the other is to arrive, and "leading" does not correspond.

Secondly, it is "Sun" and "Hu". "Hu Sun" can be homophonic with "money sac", and the name of "Sun Xingzhe" itself is derived from the meaning of "money sac", which is indescribable.

To sum up, only "Hu Shizhi" is the answer that best meets Chen Yinke's requirements.

After seeing this answer, Chen Yinke was very surprised. He thought this was much better than the two answers he had come up with. He even immediately said that , Zhou Zumo, , can be used at any time in Tsinghua University.

is a pity, and in the end Zhou Zumo failed to learn under Chen Yinke's name.

But whenever this interesting thing is mentioned, Chen Yinke will talk about it with relish.

Until 1965, Chen Yinke, who was over 70 years old, was still impressed by the answer "Hu Shizhi". He wrote in his book:

"Although the 'Zu Chongzhi' and 'Sun' can also correspond, I think it is always not as good as 'Hu Shizhi'."

Zhou Zumo, who stood out from the crowd,

, the only student who got the full score of "pair of pairs" in the 1932 Tsinghua entrance examination was Zhou Zumo.

He successfully got into the English department of Tsinghua University and the Chinese department of Peking University , but due to the tuition, Zhou Zumo finally chose the Chinese department of Peking University.

As a master in the Chinese linguistics community, he has written many literary masterpieces such as "Ask for Learning" and "Collection of Rhymes of the Tang and Five Dynasties".

The book "Ask for Learning" alone covers more than 500 historical figures and more than 600 documents, which shows how high Zhou Zumo's literary attainments are.

If you are not a person who specializes in studying these works, you may be unfamiliar with Zhou Zumo, but if you mention a book, you will definitely not feel obscure.

is the well-known "Xinhua Dictionary". Everyone has brought their own dictionary since they were young, but do you know that the writing of this dictionary is closely related to Mr. Zhou Zumo.

As early as , when the Anti-Japanese War was just victorious, Zhou Zumo mentioned to Wei Jiangong, the editor of "Xinhua Dictionary",

:

"Now the war is finally over, the education of children cannot be relaxed, and primary and secondary school students need a new dictionary."

Wei Jiangong also found three other friends, and after some discussion, the five people formed a simple editing team. This time, the writing broke the original dictionary writing convention. In the " Kangxi Dictionary " before

, the order of the text was arranged according to radicals, but in the later writing, the five people decided to arrange it in phonetic order.

In addition, the five people also decided on many new matters in the writing of the new dictionary, such as the meaning of the text, the word style must be used, and example sentences must be attached; the first character at the beginning of a sentence must be used in regular script, and illustrations must be attached, etc. These rules of

can be reflected in the subsequent "Xinhua Dictionary". Since this dictionary was compiled by Zhou and Wei, they gave it a popular name, called "Wu Ji Xiao Dictionary".

But afterwards, the "Wu Ji Xiao Dictionary" was not written after all the reasons. Until After the founding of New China, Mr. Ye Shengtao, who was then the president of People's Education Press, personally invited Wei Jiangong to let him write the first draft of the "Xinhua Dictionary".

So, Wei Jiangong completed the first draft of the "Xinhua Dictionary" according to the previous writing rules of the "Wu Ji Small Dictionary".

It can be said that in a certain sense, although Zhou Zumo did not personally participate in the compilation of the "Xinhua Dictionary", he is also one of its founders.

When talking about this, Zhou Zumo also seemed very proud. He often said:

"When I saw the "Xinhua Dictionary", I often remember the scene when the five of us studied the compilation of regulations late at night."

Conclusion

A controversial "pair-to-couple" storm brought a whole new blood to Chinese literature history .

"pair of pairs" is a literary form that is criticized as a representative of backwardness and feudal dregs, really nothing is it? In fact, it is obvious that this is not the case.

In the long history, Chinese culture has been guiding us forward. Based on the changes in the situation in modern times, some cultural forms are no longer suitable for the actual situation, and there is no doubt that they will be abandoned.

But we still need to understand that the old culture is not completely equivalent to the wrong and backward culture. "Thousands of sails pass by the sunken boat". How can we know that there is no part in the old culture that we need to absorb nutrients?