The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

"What happened to China? No one told me the answer, I can only find it in books."

"After the missionary who took me in died, I wandered all over the United States. Because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, it was difficult for me to find a serious job. Generally, I lived by petty theft and used old china as a Antiques were sold to Yankees to swindle money, and later they pretended to be Japanese and contributed articles to magazines and newspapers, barely earning some royalties."

"I sat in on history classes at Harvard, and I also secretly studied politics and economics at Princeton. I often pretended to be a Japanese or Chinese student studying abroad. They were more polite to foreign students, but they were very disgusted with Chinese workers stranded in the United States. By the way, I also I helped write a graduation thesis for a master's degree at Harvard, and I earned a full $200 that time."

The students stared silently at the man talking and laughing on the stage. That was their new principal, a tramp, a fraudster and a thief. But they couldn't feel hatred for him, they were more sympathetic and pitiful, and even admired.

Among other things, Zhou Hexuan was self-taught by listening in, and he was able to write a graduation thesis for a Harvard master's degree. He has real talents in his stomach.

Zhou Hexuan’s story continues: “Later, I smuggled to Europe and found that it was much easier to live there than in the United States. Although they still discriminate against the Chinese, it was just a narrow prejudice, at least they did not deprive the Chinese of their right to work. The French are romantic But childish, the British are gentlemanly and arrogant, the Germans are rigorous and rigid, the Russians are straightforward and rude... Every nation has its own characteristics, and you will find many interesting things if you pay attention to it. Of course, I pay more attention to the books of various countries I want to know about these countries, why they can become great powers, and why is China so weak and incompetent?"

"What is a country? It is nothing more than land, people, culture and government."

"Since the late Qing Dynasty, a large area of ​​China's land has been lost. The Chinese people are generally ignorant and ignorant. The Chinese culture is outdated and backward. As for the Chinese government, hehe, it is indescribable."

Zhou Hexuan made a big circle, and finally got into the topic: "I know, and you also understand. The current situation in China makes people see and worry, so you are making student movements and student protests, hoping to contribute to the revitalization of China. Contribute. I understand this very well, but I don’t advocate violence. For example, burning down the house of the head of education and the newspaper office of the “Morning News” last year is already illegal and criminal. You advocate freedom of speech, but use violence to deprive others of their speech Freedom, what is this? Are you slapping yourself in the face?"

The students hesitated to speak, not knowing how to refute, because the parade last year was indeed a little too much.

Moreover, many of the most active revolutionaries among the students have already run away at this time, and most of them are relatively peaceful, and they will not explode if they get a little spark.

Zhou Hexuan added: "In the eyes of many people, Peking University is a mess, and I am willing to take over this mess. I hope everyone can study with peace of mind. The school is a place to learn knowledge after all. If you really want to start a revolution, I support him to go to the south. If the travel expenses are not enough, I can provide assistance. During my tenure as the principal, I was not allowed to publicly shout revolutionary slogans, publicize revolutionary ideas, or openly form revolutionary associations. Anyone who violated this rule will be expelled immediately! If you really don’t like me as the principal, please go to the Ministry of Education Protest, the number of protesters exceeds 100, I will immediately take the blame and resign. That's all, goodbye, gentlemen."

After Zhou Hexuan finished speaking, he left without staying for a moment, and went straight to the gate of Peking University.

The teachers and students were collectively in a state of confusion, not knowing how to evaluate the principal. There are a lot of eccentrics in Peking University, and everyone has long been familiar with them. Now it seems that their new principal is also a eccentric.

Dare to call himself a running dog of a reactionary warlord in front of the teachers and students of the most progressive university in the country, if it were someone else, he would have been sprayed bloody. It is even possible to be dragged off the stage by angry students halfway through the speech.

Zhong Guanguang summoned several student representatives and whispered instructions for a while, and those students immediately ran excitedly to deliver the news.

On the way to the classroom, the students were still discussing Zhou Hexuan's speech just now.

A student said angrily: "It's disgusting. We are not allowed to shout progressive slogans and promote progressive ideas. Is this still Peking University with freedom of thought and inclusiveness? Zhou Hexuan just took office and ruined the school spirit of Peking University."

"Principal Zhou also has difficulties," another student helped to defend, "In fact, his thinking is progressive, but he is restrained by the warlords, so he has to do this, otherwise he can only continue to suspend classes."

"If you suspend the class, you will suspend the class. It doesn't matter if you don't go to this kind of university that restricts freedom." The previous student said.

At this moment, the student representative who was in charge of conveying the message to Zhong Guanguang came and said in a low voice: "Everyone be quiet, please listen to me. What President Zhou said just now was a bitter plan. He clearly prohibited us from forming a progressive club, but privately Discussions below are still possible, just change the name. For example, to promote redism, we can establish an agricultural society and an industrial society, and everything will turn from light to dark. In addition, in order to paralyze the reactionary warlords, we must scold Principal Zhou. The more we scold If he is ruthless, he will be safer, and it would be better if he can write an article in the school magazine to scold him."

The group of students couldn't believe it, but they quickly came to their senses.

"I just said that Mr. Zhou is a good man. He can write such works as "The Rise of a Great Power" and "The Goddess". How could he be willing to be a lackey of a reactionary warlord?"

"That's right, there are also "A Generation" and "Answer". The night gave me black eyes, but I used them to find the light, which taught us to grope our way forward in the dark!"

"Speaking of it, Principal Zhou also came from a bitter background. He wandered abroad since he was a child, and he suffered a lot of humiliation and suffering. He even did not hesitate to be a thief and a liar in order to make a living. In this growing environment, he was able to teach himself and write the thought-provoking "The Rise of a Great Power" ", what a powerful heart this is!"

"I want to write an article to scold Principal Zhou, scold him severely!"

"Let's go together, let's protect Principal Zhou together, and let go of scolding together."

"..."

This is a strategy discussed by Zhou Hexuan and Zhong Guangguan. First, he tells his own experience to win the sympathy and understanding of the students, then throws out reactionary remarks to arouse the students' rebellious psychology, and then explains the facts to create a glorious image of humiliation.

In this way, the students will truly regard Zhou Hexuan as one of their own, accept and support him as the principal from the bottom of their hearts.

As for leaking secrets, Zhou Hexuan is not afraid at all, he can completely say that the students are directing and acting on their own, carrying out those progressive activities without telling him. As long as he didn't participate in person, Zhang Zuolin would not raise his butcher's knife high, and just resign and apologize at that time.

So strange things happened at Peking University. From the end of 1926 to the middle of 1928, for a whole year and a half, the students took pleasure in scolding the principal.

At the beginning, it was scolding in the school magazine, and it soon developed to scolding in social newspapers. And the scolding was very artistic, without a word of dirty words in the whole article, but Zhou Hexuan was portrayed as a big villain with sores on the soles of his feet and pus on his head.

There was even a poetry club in the school that held the "Curse the Principal Poetry Contest", and the beautiful cursing poems were full of the students' heart to defend the principal.

In secret, whenever the students mentioned Principal Zhou, they respected him very much, thinking that Zhou Hexuan was protecting Peking University despite his infamy.

Zhou Hexuan didn't care about it, he knew when Zhang Zuolin would be finished. At that time, countless students will naturally stand up to rectify his name and reveal the truth to the world, and he will take the opportunity to resign as the principal, and a stalwart image of accepting orders in the face of danger, enduring humiliation, and retiring after success is born.