Gu Hongming, a geek in the Republic of China, was expelled from Peking University. What do you think of this famous scholar?

Gu Hongming was a famous scholar in the Republic of China. He was very clever when he was a child. He has an English adoptive father who went to study in England at the age of 10. At the age of 20, he obtained a master's degree from the University of Edinburgh, and then moved to France, Germany and other places for further study. He has some research on western culture.

Later, he became interested in China culture.

Before the demise of the Qing Dynasty, he made friends with Zhang Zhidong. After the demise of the Qing Dynasty, he was hired as a professor at Peking University because he was proficient in literature, Confucianism, law, engineering and civil engineering.

Later, because his speech was too harsh and sharp, he clashed with the student Luo Jialun.

1923, after Cai Yuanpei resigned as president of Peking University, Gu Hongming left Peking University because of the pressure of public opinion caused by Luo Jialun's joint college students.

As for how to treat this famous scholar? First of all, he is a staunch defender of China culture. In his time, his behavior can be regarded as "royalist" on the surface. In fact, to find out the reason, although some of his remarks are biased, most of them are protecting the essence of China culture.

Of course, some of his thoughts also have certain historical limitations. For example, he regards men as pots and women as cups, and thinks that a pot with multiple cups is the right way, thus advocating that men marry concubines.

However, in the era of "changing" into a trend, even though he is called a "heterogeneous", he dares to hold high the banner of "keeping", which is a rare courage of ordinary people. At the same time, he said "keep" because he saw "the disadvantages of modern western civilization" with a forward-looking vision, which is the most rare.

1, western learning debuts but is obsessed with old learning. Gu Hongming: It's not out of date to learn Chinese and Western. In the late Qing Dynasty, the crumbling feudal dynasty made countless young people have a strong desire for change.

Thousands of years of mainstream culture was abandoned by young people at that time, and countless young people began to look to the west and seek the law of strengthening the country.

However, Gu Hongming, as a scholar who studied in the West since childhood and went to many universities for further study, not only failed to hold high the banner of "change" after integrating Chinese and Western cultures, but showed "the disadvantages of modern civilization" in an era when everyone said change, which is profound.

According to records, he once said such a passage:

"Although the west is very developed now, it has reached the end of the road, and it is irreparable. You should know that China's future is never pessimistic, and China's inherent foundation is the most in line with the new world trends. There are hundreds of millions of people across the sea, worried about the bankruptcy of material civilization, crying for help, waiting for us to catch up with them. "

In fact, we modern people may understand this sentence better.

The spiritual core of thousands of years of traditional culture lies more in the cultivation of the spiritual world.

With the high development of material civilization, people will not be able to control huge material wealth without the support of profound humanistic details, but will be played by interests and power. Finally, the restriction of human ethics will be broken, and suicide will not be "alarmist".

2. Gu Hongming, who is "whimsical", is argumentative and delays his "knowledge". Although Gu Hongming was appreciated by Cai Yuanpei during his lifetime, his sharp remarks and argumentative personality were often unpleasant, so that his insights were "covered up".

Few people understand the deep meaning behind his strange words and deeds, only that he is extreme and pedantic.

Many interesting things about him were recorded.

For example, he doesn't like bankers very much, calling them people who open umbrellas in sunny days and collect them in rainy days.

For example, when someone laughed at the whip on his head, he said:

The braid on my head is tangible, but the braid in your heart is invisible.

Here, Gu Hongming spoke of the "bondage" in people's hearts at that time.

What is getting rid of bondage?

Is it intuitive liberation in behavior? No, more imitation.

The real liberation is from the inside out.

If you are duplicitous for the sake of imitation, it will be even sadder than before.

This shows that Gu Hongming is actually a person with profound thoughts.

Unfortunately, at that time, the world paid more attention to the anger and arrogance in his words, and only saw his weird and pedantic behavior, but it was difficult to understand the "essence" behind his words and deeds. I'm sorry.

3. Written at the end Through the above analysis, we can know that Gu Hongming advocated his defense of traditional culture with "change" as the mainstream at that time.

Although it is debatable whether his attitude towards certain cultures is worth advocating, there is no doubt that his understanding of China culture is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

At the same time, he also saw the disadvantages of "western modern civilization", which may take a hundred years to be revealed. Born in western learning, he knows the value of China culture, which many scholars can't do today.

In a word, Gu Hongming is indeed a "freak", but his in-depth thinking on Chinese and western cultures is affirmative and valuable in the general program. His thoughts are also worth studying.

This article is the original and exclusive release of Yan Xiaoer's philosophical essays. If there are any infringements such as handling and plagiarism, once found, the responsibility will be investigated.