On April 2, 1938, the Ministry of Education issued a power generation order for the National Changsha Joint Temporary University to be renamed "National Southwest United University", with 26 departments including five colleges: arts, science, engineering, law and business, and normal schools. Since then, this joint university, which brings together the essence of Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Nankai , was born in the southwestern border amid the war of resistance against the war, and it ended in July 1946 and existed for 8 years.
On November 1 last year, more than 90 senior alumni of Southwest Associated University, over 90 years old gathered at Peking University to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the founding of Southwest Associated University, which attracted praise. And the most recent time, the public has refocused on Southwest Associated University because of the hit screening of the movie "No Questions to the West".
80 years have passed, and Southwest Associated University has not been forgotten by people, but has become a legend in the history of education. Memories, academic works and literary works about Southwest Associated University are emerging one after another. But these show not the full picture of Southwest Associated University. Behind the labels of many masters, talented talents, and free academic style, is the spirit and inheritance of Southwest Associated University completely in line with our beautiful imagination? Or, are we selectively overlooking its unknown side?
"The Diary of Zheng Tianting Southwest Associated University" published this year provides us with more details and different observation perspectives for understanding Southwest Associated University. In the diary from 1938 to 1946 left by Zheng Tianting , we can see that he served as the General Affairs Director of the United Nations University as Secretary-General of Peking University, and was responsible for handling various daily affairs in the school, such as personnel, salary payment, and school building maintenance.
Zheng Tianting (1899-1981), also known as Zheng Qingyan, whose courtesy name is Yisheng, was born in the village of Changle, Fujian Province. He is a famous historian and educator in our country. Since 1924, he has taught at Peking University . When the Anti-Japanese War broke out, he served as professor and general affairs director of Southwest United University. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as professor, director of the History Department and vice president of Nankai University.
The UN General Assembly we see in "The Diary of Zheng Tianting Southwest Associated University", whether it is a professor or a student, no longer gives people the feeling of being in the clouds, because in his writing, there are also professors of UN General Assembly who are petty about salary, and students will also cheat in exams, which will make the UN General Assembly in our minds immediately connect with our own life experience. In addition, Zheng Tianting also recorded the judgments of professors such as Jiang Menglin and Luo Changpei on the current situation, which will help us to have an in-depth understanding of the wartime concepts and post-war choices of intellectuals in the Republic of China.
Zheng Tianting (1899-1981) is a famous scholar of the Ming and Qing history and has made many achievements. In his early years, he taught at Xiamen University, Zhejiang University, , Zhejiang University, Peking University and other schools. After the July 7 Incident, he stayed in Peking for a while and presided over Peking University's school affairs. Later, he supported students to go south and became a professor in the Department of History at Southwest Associated University. In 1940, Zheng Tianting was invited to serve as the General Affairs Officer of the United Nations and participated in school management. "Zheng Tianting's Diary of Southwest Associated University" compiled and published by Zhonghua Book Company , which records his life and work status during this period in detail. In his diary, Zheng Tianting once doubted the value of his diary. "If you don't write current affairs, you can't write them all in your personal feelings, and you can't write them all in your reading. You only remember your daily life and behavior every day, which is very boring." He only hopes that he can "have some discussions outside of your daily life to correct his own shortcomings."
But in the eyes of today, as one of the main managers of the school, Zheng Tianting left too many details about Southwest Associated University in his existing diary, including the common wartime alarms and high prices in related memories, as well as a large number of "secrets" that involve inter-school conflicts, school management, and even professor scandals, which help us to fully understand Southwest Associated University.
"Diary of Zheng Tianting Southwest Associated University", author: Zheng Tianting, version: Zhonghua Book Company, in January 2018,
was in charge of general affairs. It was purely helpless. After the establishment of Southwest Associated University, Peking University, Tsinghua University and Nankai University still retained considerable independence, and set up offices in Kunming to handle the affairs of the school. As for the overall school affairs of the UN General Assembly, the Standing Committee (which has always been chaired by Mei Yiqi ) and its subordinate General Affairs Office, Academic Affairs Office and Training Office. At the end of 1939, Shen Lu, a professor of the Department of Psychology, resigned from his position as General Affairs Director and recommended Zheng Tianting to succeed him. At the beginning of the following year, the Standing Committee of the UN General Assembly decided: "Helping Mr. Zheng Tianting as the General Affairs Director of the University."
Zheng Tianting served as the Secretary-General of Peking University for a long time and has a lot of administrative experience. However, in his diary, he had long said, "I came to the south this time and decided to study", and he did not want to be distracted from business work anymore. So Zheng Tianting resigned to Mei Yiqi many times, but members of the Standing Committee Yang Zhensheng, Feng Youlan and others came to ask for help, leaving a note saying "If this person doesn't come out, what is the people?"
stalemate until late January 1940, Zhou Binglin, Cha Liangzhao and other colleagues began to persuade Zheng Tianting to temporarily "sacrifice individuals" on the grounds of "to avoid causing friction between schools and affecting the cooperation situation", which means that Zheng Tianting, a professor at Peking University, cannot be too embarrassed by Tsinghua President Mei Yiqi. At the same time, Peking University President Jiang Menglin personally promised that Zheng Tianting would only be the position of General Affairs Director until the summer vacation, and then hire someone else. Zheng Tianting wrote helplessly in his diary, "Although he was unwilling to do so at that time, his teacher's order was not convenient to violate it." He also wanted to "eliminate disputes in the school and misunderstandings between the two schools". He had to force himself to be appointed as the general affairs director of Southwest Associated University.
Original document of Zheng Tianting’s diary (May 1, 1939).
From then on, Zheng Tian survived the regular life of "starting from eight o'clock", "entering to school at nine o'clock", "returning to school at twelve o'clock", and "reentering to school at three o'clock" until "geting to bed at twelve o'clock". The daily work of the General Affairs Officer, as he said one day's diary, "Mian Zhong came to discuss the purchase of public rice, and discussed the adjustment of salary and staff punishment with Yuehan" - Mian Zhong was Cha Liangzhao and Yuehan was Mei Yiqi.
Zheng Tianting was forced to take office and never gave up his thoughts of resigning. In August 1940, the summer vacation that was agreed to have passed earlier, but because the lease period of the old school building of the UN General Assembly was about to come, he was unable to find a new place to move for a long time. Zheng Tianting had to bite the bullet and continue to do it. It is expected that "after the school building problem is solved", he will resign from the General Affairs Director again. In September of the same year, when he heard that Shen Lu was interested in returning to the United Nations General Assembly, Zheng Tianting optimistically stated in his diary that "I may have a chance to escape from the sea of suffering." However, the problem of the UN General Assembly building has not been resolved for a long time, and Shen Lu did not return to the UN General Assembly. Zheng Tianting's expected resignation opportunity has never appeared.
Ren Jiyu once recalled Zheng Tianting's work, "He handled those extremely trivial and inconspicuous general affairs, calmly and fairly", especially "good at dealing with disputes, coordinating the relationship between colleagues, and not supporting or spreading words and deeds that are not conducive to the unity of the three schools, so that it will be eliminated invisible." "Mr. Zheng never confessed his love to others during his lifetime." "Zheng Tianting's Diary of Southwest Associated University" provides rich evidence for Ren Jiyu's above memories.
Zheng Tianting took a photo in 1939.
coordinated the three schools and tried to avoid conflicts
Zheng Tianting agreed to the appointment of the General Affairs Director in order not to harm the relationship between Peking University and Tsinghua University. After he took office, a major task was also to deal with inter-school conflicts. In September 1940, Mei Yiqi was criticized by some professors and once wanted to resign from the position of chairman of the Standing Committee of the UN General Assembly. Zheng Tianting's diary speculated that if Mei Yiqi resigned, the successor would be Jiang Menglin, and he served as the general affairs chief, Fan Jichang as the provost, and Yang Zhensheng as the secretary-general, then "it is equivalent to governing the three schools of Peking University, and this matter is absolutely impossible."
In order to take care of the balance of power of the three schools, Zheng Tianting suggested to his teacher Jiang Menglin that "Tsinghua and Nankai must be each with one leader"; while sending a letter to Mei Yiqi, saying, "If the sir goes, Tianting should leave immediately." Zheng Tianting also represented Jiang Menglin and went to try to keep Mei Yiqi: "In the context of cooperation between the three schools, one person stayed or left, and it had a great relationship." This dispelled his intention to leave.
For eight years, the reason why Mei Yiqi has been hosted by Mei Yiqi is that in addition to Jiang Menglin and Zhang Boling in Chongqing for a long time and cannot take care of Kunming's school affairs, there is another important reason, that is, President Mei can use Tsinghua's Sino-US Boxer Fund to subsidize the funding expenses of Southwest Associated University. But Tsinghua people are very sensitive to the use of funds. Zheng Tianting's diary in April 1941 mentioned something, "Mi Sun (Zhou Binglin) came to the office and said that Tsinghua University was asking the Ministry of Education for payment. The Ministry planned to allocate 500,000 yuan from Tsinghua funds. He felt very unfair, thinking that Peking University used political power to oppress Tsinghua." He accused Peking University of occupying Tsinghua's Box Fund. In fact, as Zheng Tianting recorded, Peking University "has no intention to distribute or deprive Tsinghua funds", and Jiang Menglin also explained the situation to Mei Yiqi in time.
Inter-school dispute also extends from China to overseas. Chen Futian, who came from Tsinghua University, told Zheng Tianting, "There are few students in Peking University in the United States, with Tsinghua the most, followed by Nankai University, and all students from the United University attended the Tsinghua Alumni Association." Zheng Tianting believes that "this is something to pay attention to."
Chemistry Department is doing experiments.
In July 1944, US Vice President Wallace visited Southwest Associated University and presented a batch of items. Zheng Tianting organized the four schools of Peking University, Tsinghua University, Nankai University and Yun University to equally divide it. Peking University was divided into "second microscope, second set of pen, second set of knife, second set of razor, second box of blade, three set of sewing tools, second box of aluminum strips, and one piece of pancreas". Only some medicines were stored in the United Nations.
From 1945, when the war was about to end, Zheng Tianting began to consider the aftermath, one of which was "please ask the Ministry of Education to recognize the existence of Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Nankai, and all rights and interests of other schools." It can be seen from this that the three schools have always been independent. The United Nations General Assembly only integrates the original spirit of the three schools, as Mei Yiqi said.
personnel disputes, patiently handle
0 There are many daily affairs that the general affairs director needs to deal with, such as complex interpersonal relationships. In July 1940, the accounting director and the affairs director of the UN General Assembly had a grudge. Zheng Tianting encouraged them to "do not mislead official duties because of personal anger"; in August, the affairs group of the UN General Assembly had another friction with the accountant, and Zheng Tianting had to "convene a conversation between the affairs, cashiers, and accounting directors, and mediate for everyone." In the same month, Fu Sinian and Yao Congwu had a dispute and firmly resigned from the position of director of the Institute of Liberal Arts of Peking University. Zheng Tianting wanted to mediate in person, so he sent a car to the countryside to pick up Fu into the city. Unexpectedly, after Fu Sinian came, he was furious again. Zheng Tianting reluctantly wrote down the reason in his diary, "I took it but did not have any major matters, so I thought it was a scam." Fortunately, Fu Sinian was persuaded to resign.
involves salary issues more difficult to deal with. Several staff members of the UN General Assembly saw Zhu Huichen, director of the Certificate Group (a department under the General Affairs Office), receive a professor's grant, and wrote a letter to the school, demanding the same treatment. Zhu Huichen thought these people were interested in targeting him and resigned in anger. Zheng Tianting came forward and sighed in his diary, "The rewards and grants are determined by the department, not by himself. Huichen himself is not responsible. His shortcomings are listed alongside the current professor when requesting the qualifications."
After Zhu Huichen left, Mei Yiqi and Zheng Tianting asked the UN General Assembly Secretary Zhang Tingqian several times to succeed him, but they were both rejected. When Zhang Tingqian complained to Chen Xueping, he told the reason: "The school does not know its status, and there is something like insulting about this matter." "In the past, Jinfu (Yang Zhensheng) was the secretary director but could not tell me as his subordinates. How can I obey the General Affairs Office now?" Zhang Tingqian taught at Peking University before the war, so naturally he did not want to be regarded as an employee. Zheng Tianting hurriedly stated to Zhang Tingqian: "I have done my best on my behalf" and "I will never ignore it as a subordinate."
students are in class.
Professor Luo Changpei of the Chinese Department is Zheng Tianting’s best friend. In the summer of 1944, he proposed that he wanted to have four-hour classes in the first semester of the new school year, and not the next semester, and only guide the research papers. After hearing this, Wen Yiduo said, "I also follow the example." Zhu Ziqing was not willing to fall behind: "I will not start classes, or I may only teach in the freshman year." Zheng Tianting said in his diary, "In the Chinese Department, there are only four old professors, and now they are on vacation. This matter is spread to the outside world, and it will also be a real demographic." The old professors are all "lazy", which really makes Zheng Tianting embarrassed.
In February 1945, an interesting thing happened to the UN General Assembly: the Department of Physics sold a stored electricity meter to the South Courtyard dormitory for 150,000 yuan. After Zheng Tianting learned about it, he thought it was inappropriate for the department to sell the goods to the school directly, so he made some adjustments and allocated an additional 150,000 yuan in addition to the regular funds of the physics department to purchase instruments for them. Someone spread rumors about this, saying that Zhao Shichang, a general manager, colluded with the physics department and sold the electricity meter to outsiders. The original price was 1 million yuan, but only 150,000 yuan was charged. Zheng Tianting immediately found two people who spread rumors and told them: "If you don't understand everything, you can ask questions at any time. You should not make any mistakes or make rumors." Afterwards, Zheng Tianting analyzed in his diary, "This matter is just because he is dissatisfied with Zhao Shichang's management of the buildings, so he is irresponsible for criticism of this, and does not know how much it involves and has a great impact, so he must be strictly dealt with."
is busy and hardworking, and does not forget to study and study
. Zheng Tianting was also very concerned about the study and life of UNIX students. In October 1940, the UNIX campus was bombed. Zheng Tianting "was not waiting for the Standing Committee of the Business, and immediately announced that he would issue a loan in the afternoon for one month and try to help the students in distress." In June 1943, Zheng Tianting learned from Jiang Menglin's daughter Jiang Yanhua (a student of the Foreign Language Department of UNIX), that "there are many cheaters in the first grade exam, especially those with large classes." He believed that "this is necessary to investigate and severely punish." The courses he taught in the history of the Ming and Qing Dynasties were strictly required.
In Zheng Tianting's diary, there is a reading content almost every day. For example, "reading the notes of Mingren", "examination of "Donghua Records", "reading "Wumeicun Collection", "examination of "Xichao New Words"" and so on. Even if you run the alarm, you must "read it with the "Yunnan Notice·Verient Sacrifice" in the air raid shelter." There were frequent power outages in Kunming during the war. Zheng Tianting believed that "it is impossible to read without electric lights, which is probably the escape word of abandonment." He practiced it himself and read and wrote the article until late at night.
"Exploring the History of Qing Dynasty", author: Zheng Tianting, version: Commercial Press, August 2014
June 201943, Zheng Tianting completed the first draft of "The Clan and Bloodline of the Qing Dynasty Royal Family". His diary sighed, "This article will be stopped for two months, which shows that I live all day long. However, if you have these two small articles in your busy schedule, you can also be a big era and nation in the war of resistance. "The "Dorgon's Conjecture of the Emperor's Father" written by Zheng Tianting during the war are all the foundational works of Qing history research.
At the same time, Zheng Tianting was very frank about academic fiction. In May 1944, Zheng Tianting received a letter from Jiang Menglin, "The Academic Review Council decided that Yu's paper was the third prize, and said, "The value of the great work is the second class, but because the weight is too small, he can only give him the third class." "In Zheng Tianting's opinion, "I have realized that I can get the third level and have no complaints." However, "Academic papers are measured by weight, which is beyond recognition, and I will not accept them." "A few days later, someone told him: "The Ministry of Education has newly established a charter, and the papers sent to review must be more than 50,000 words." Zheng's article "is not as many as the number, so it is listed as the third grade." Zheng Tianting was quite puzzled, "Yu Wenguo is not in line with the new regulations, and should not be awarded or returned. Now it is changed from second grade to third grade. Why is it? "So he refused to receive the award.
It should be said that Zheng Tianting is a typical example of the scholars of the United Nations University. In order to encourage scholars to carry out academic research, the Ministry of Education held six academic awards from 1941 to 1946, giving first, second and third prize winners 2,000-10,000 yuan respectively. UNU teachers have won more than 30 awards, including the first prize Zhou Peiyuan's "Theory of the Rapids", Wu Dayou's "Vibration and Structure of Multiple Molecules", as well as Feng Youlan's "New Neo-Confucianism", Chen Yinke's " Discussion on Political History of the Tang Dynasty ", etc.
"Lecture Notes on Zheng Tianting's Ming History", author: Zheng Tianting, compiled: Sun Weiguo, version: Zhonghua Book Company, November 2017
Of course, Zheng Tianting also had slackness. For example, in June 1940, he "talked about tutoring English with Jie Quan (Pan Jiaxun). Yu Po wanted to take this summer vacation to study English, but I was too bad here and had to work hard." However, in the diary of the next few years, there were very few records of Zheng Tianting learning English. On the contrary, there were a lot of time to practice boxing and fitness and throw "promotion pictures" games.
was in the study, In the "Diary of Zheng Tianting Southwest Associated University", we can also see scholars' widespread attention to the current situation. For example, regarding the direction of the war, in May 1940, Zheng Tianting "went to Caisheng Lane with Gong Chao, knowing that the European war was very fierce, the Netherlands had surrendered, and the Bi army was also defeated, so we knew that the three years of the War of Resistance in our country was really not easy, but this was enough to look down on the world." In February 1941, Zheng Tianting "worried that Japanese people did not move south. Kuaishen fears that Japan will not advance southward and will not conflict with Britain and the United States. Once Germany and Yi fail, peace will be negotiated separately and will ignore our country." He is afraid that once the war in Europe is over, Britain and the United States will allow Japan to invade China. Fortunately, Japan's air strike on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war.
In April 1942, Zheng Tianting also bet with Pan Jiaxun, the dean of the School of Literature, and optimistically predicted that the war will be victorious until the summer of the following year. Zheng Tianting wrote a note: "Zheng Tianting said that the Allies will win in the summer of the 32nd year of the Republic of China, and China will win. Certified: Pan Jiequan."Zheng Tianting also said at the time: "This article can be hanged in the country, I hope a thousand gold can be easily changed." Two days later, news of the US military bombing of Tokyo and other places came, and Shao Xunzheng, who was also teaching in the History Department, said to Zheng Tianting: "In this way, your prediction yesterday may be valid. "Unlike Zheng Tianting's expectations, the war later lasted for more than three years before it ended.
Southwest Associated University History Department 1943 Graduation Commemoration, Zheng Tianting was the second on the right in the front row.
Around June 1944, the development of the war really became clear. Zheng Tianting "who saw the wall and knew that the Allies were logged in Europe, with the address at the junction of France and Biography. Is it true this year that the European War ended? "When he organized UNU students to join the Youth Army, Zheng Tianting rarely showed excitement in his diary, "I really wanted to write, but I didn't want to use this to show off, and I didn't want to be an official. If I pass the exam, I would like to be a soldier... I will not serve the country at this time, so what should I do? "
A dramatic scene happened in August 1945. In his diary on the 6th of that month, Zheng Tianting predicted that "the Guangdong-Hanzhou Line can be restored in about October, and his surrender will not exceed next year at the latest." As a result, just a few days later, news of Japan's surrender came. After that, Zheng Tianting's main identity will return from the General Affairs Chief of the United Nations General Assembly to the Secretary-General of Peking University, and discuss with Mei Yiqi and others how to "divid the family".
Zheng Tianting four days before his death.
In short, from the diary left by Zheng Tianting, what we see is a microscopic Southwest Associated University. Like the current school, it not only has ideals and glory, but also internal conflicts and personnel disputes. The United Nations in the details seems more real.
Author: Yang Jintao
Editor: Xu Xueqin, Zhang Dede, Xu Yuedong
