Looking at the life of Hu Shi , he has achieved remarkable achievements. He was a professor of Peking University at the age of 26. The vernacular language he advocated has influenced a generation, and his academic methods have had a profound academic influence. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1939. From this we can see that Hu Shi is very powerful.
So, at that time, what was Hu Shi’s salary? It is reported that in 1917, after Hu Shi, who had been studying in the United States for seven years, returned to China, he was recommended to be a professor at Peking University, with a monthly salary of 260 yuan, equivalent to more than 10,000 yuan. One month later, he was promoted to first-level professor , and his salary increased by another twenty yuan. Hu Shi lived in a free dormitory at Peking University at that time, and his monthly food expenses of 9 yuan were very good. Even if he rented another place with his fellow villagers, he only needed to pay three yuan. That is to say, Hu Shi still had a surplus of more than 200 yuan a month, but it does not mean that the salary of each teacher was as high as Hu Shi.
In the relevant regulations in 1917, at that time, university professors were divided into four grades: full professors, professors, assistants, and lecturers. Professors were divided into undergraduate and preparatory courses. The maximum salary of undergraduate professors was 280, the minimum salary was 180, and the middle was 6 grades. Hu Shi was a first-class undergraduate professor, so his salary was 280 yuan, which was the highest among professors, which was twice as high as the salary of Li Dazhao, the library director at that time. According to statistics, poor people only need 100 yuan a year to support a family of five.
Later, he added the royalties and royalties from publishing articles and writing books, which was enough for him to support himself, because in the official Beijing newspapers and academic journals, there was a royalty of four to five yuan per thousand words (one yuan was equivalent to about 40 yuan at that time). Although Shanghai was lower, Hu Shi was a cultural celebrity and could get six yuan for a thousand words. As for royalties, it was generally 15%, and if it was reprinted, it was increased by 5% on this basis. So Hu Shi's salary is very considerable.
By 1931, Hu Shi served as the dean of the School of Literature of Peking University, and his monthly salary reached 600 yuan, which was almost the same as the salary of the president of Peking University. In addition to the royalties, his monthly income was about 1,500 yuan (equivalent to about 60,000 yuan), and his average income was even twice that of Lu Xun's income (Lu Xun's monthly salary was 690 yuan). In short, Hu Shi’s monthly salary is really incredible.
Hu Shi has three former residences in Beijing, and I don’t know how many temporary residences there are. He also hires many servants at home. It can be said that his life is very comfortable, and it can be said that it is the ideal life of top intellectuals of the upper class.
