Zhou Hexuan likes to make friends with famous masters from the Republic of China. It has nothing to do with admiration, it is just curiosity. Just like when a foreigner arrives in Sichuan, he must see the pandas, and when he arrives in the capital, he must visit the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.
But Gu Hongming disappointed him.
This is a very old man who is very old. He is wearing a long cloth-shoe gown, carrying a cane, and a pigtail on the back of his head. His body is so thin that the wind can blow him over. Looking at him in the blink of an eye, he does not look like a great master, but looks like an old man from the Qing Dynasty.
"Brother Gu, long time no see!" Zhang Taiyan clasped his fists and smiled.
Gu Hongming's eyes were dim and he stared at Zhang Taiyan for a while before saying: "It's you, you're not here to borrow money from me, are you?"
Zhang Taiyan said unceremoniously: "Our friendship is worth at most two yuan, which is not enough for travel expenses."
"It's good to know," Gu Hongming pointed at Zhou Hexuan with his crutch, "Is this your son?"
Zhang Taiyan introduced: "I have a childhood friend named Zhou Hexuan."
"I've heard of fake foreign devils selling new underwear in Shanghai newspapers," Gu Hongming started to lecture him, "What do you think is good about Western underwear? Our Chinese bellybands are the best, covering those small lilac breasts.
, hold it in your hand, isn’t it beautiful! What kind of grandmaism are you doing? Why do you want to be so big? Women are not cows!”
Zhou Hexuan couldn't laugh or cry, and defended: "The purpose of advocating big nannyism is to promote breast enlargement. Breast binding is actually a bad Chinese custom, which harms women's health and causes many diseases."
"They are deceiving the public," Gu Hongming puffed his beard and said, "Who said that corseting harms the body? Chinese women have always had their corsets harmed the reproduction of the nation. We should learn from the advancement of the West, but small feet and small breasts are all mine.
China's unique aesthetics. Those who promote the idea of putting one's feet on the ground and putting one's chest on the back are stupid people who sacrifice their roots for the sake of their weaknesses."
Zhou Hexuan was speechless for a moment and had no interest in continuing the conversation. He immediately retorted: "Mr. Gu likes small feet so much, why don't you break off your toes and tie one yourself?"
Gu Hongming said his great truth: "Chinese culture comes from the "Book of Changes", which talks about yin and yang. Men are masculine, so they naturally have to be masculine. How do you say foot binding? Women are feminine, so they have to have their feet bound and their chests bound. Xiao
Breasts are yin, and advocating big grandmothers is a reversal of yin and yang.”
Zhou Hexuan's original curiosity and admiration for Gu Hongming had been exhausted at this moment. He crossed his legs unceremoniously, drank tea and said casually: "Mr. Gu, have you been to Dunhuang?"
"No." Gu Hongming said.
"If you have been to Dunhuang, you will find that all the women in the murals have grandmothers," Zhou Hexuan asked with a smile, "During the Tang Dynasty, didn't China talk about yin and yang? Why didn't women in the Tang Dynasty have corsets?"
"
Gu Hongming was at a loss for words for a moment and said forcefully: "During the Tang Dynasty, Chinese culture and customs were not perfect. It was during the Ming and Qing dynasties that Chinese culture became truly and beautiful."
Zhou Hexuan was shocked and speechless, and the glorious image of Gu Hongming in his heart was instantly shattered.
Gu Hongming is indeed very good, eloquent and proficient in many languages. But many of his ideas are extremely weird. Take the constitution as an example. Gu Hongming opposes China's constitution. His reasons are: first, the Chinese nation is a nation with a sense of integrity.
A nation with high moral standards; secondly, the foundation on which Chinese politics is built is not utilitarianism, but morality. Therefore, China does not and does not need a written constitution, because the Chinese people have a moral constitution.
During the New Culture Movement a few years ago, Gu Hongming criticized Hu Shi, comparing classical Chinese to elegant English and vernacular to popular English, saying that culture regressed during the vernacular movement. Hu Shi responded that popular English is more acceptable to the public than elegant English.
, 90% of people in China are illiterate now because classical Chinese is too difficult to learn.
Then Gu Hongming started to make sophistry, saying that the reason why you group of international students have such a high status now is thanks to the 90% of illiterates. If they were all literate, they would compete with you people for jobs.
Although what Gu Hongming said makes sense, it is obviously a change of topic and falls into the category of sophistry.
This man likes sophistry and often does sophistry, but if he meets someone who understands, his sophistry is equivalent to a joke.
Take Gongsun Long, the master of sophistry, for example. His "white horse is not a horse" will be exposed in an instant once he meets someone who is good at arguing.
For example, you can refute the theory that the white horse is not a horse like this:
“Are men human?”
"yes."
"Are you a man?"
"yes."
"You said a white horse is not a horse, but according to your theory, a man is not a human either. So, are you still a human?"
Zhou Hexuan shook his head, stood up and said, "If you don't want to talk too much, Mr. Gu, I'll take my leave now."
"Let's go without seeing you off." Gu Hongming was too lazy to talk nonsense with Zhou Hexuan. He had long been dissatisfied with Zhou Hexuan because of his unrestrained ambition, and was even more unhappy with Zhou Hexuan being the president of Peking University (Gu Hongming is a die-hard supporter of Cai Yuanpei and believes that Cai Yuanpei is qualified to be Peking University.
Principal), so I didn’t give him a good look when they first met.
"It's a pity, it's a pity." Zhang Taiyan shook his head repeatedly.
Gu Hongming asked: "What's the pity?"
"I thought you were going to have a big quarrel when we met," Zhang Taiyan said regretfully, "but we didn't actually have a quarrel. There was no good show to watch, so naturally it's a pity."
Well, this old guy doesn't have any good intentions either, he just wants to watch the fun with evil intentions.
Gu Hongming said disdainfully: "A kid with a yellow mouth, what's the fuss about?"
"Mingcheng, please wait a minute," Zhang Taiyan called to Zhou Hexuan, and then asked Gu Hongming, "Have you read his "The Rise of the Great Powers"?"
Gu Hongming said: "No."
Zhang Taiyan then clasped his fists and said, "Maybe you can read it to me first and say goodbye!"
"Go." Gu Hongming waved.
Zhang Taiyan and Zhou Hexuan left hand in hand. When they walked out of the Gu family gate, he smiled and said, "What do you think?"
Zhou Hexuan said angrily: "To put it mildly, it's called Kuangsheng, and to put it worse, it's called an old thief."
"Hahahaha, you are so rude." Zhang Taiyan laughed.
"It's a pity that we didn't get Mo Bao." Zhou Hexuan shrugged his nose.
But it was said that Gu Hongming was at home, and he sighed secretly after driving away the two visitors. His beloved Japanese concubine died a few years ago, and his wife recently died of illness. His later life was quite miserable and lonely, and he was even more frustrated politically.
Two months ago, when Gu Hongming returned to China, the Japanese recommended him to serve as an adviser to Zhang Zuolin. Gu Hongming went there excitedly, intending to assist Zhang Zuolin in unifying China.
As a result, Zhang Zuolin looked down on him at all and asked in a bitter tone: "What can you do?"
Gu Hongming was stunned and didn't react. He looked at Zhang Zuolin blankly, and finally walked away in anger.
After sitting at home and reading "The Analects of Confucius" for a while, Gu Hongming felt so idle that he went out on crutches, called a rickshaw and went straight to the bookstore.
"Is there "The Rise of Great Powers"?" Gu Hongming asked his boss.
The bookstore owner glanced at the pigtails on the back of his head and said with a smile: "Of course there is "The Rise of Great Powers", otherwise why would I open a bookstore?"
Gu Hongming said: "Bring it quickly!"
The bookstore owner immediately went to get the book and handed it to Gu Hongming with both hands.
After Gu Hongming got the book, he did not pay or leave. Instead, he said: "Bring me a stool quickly. Do you know how to respect the elderly? Do you want me to stand and read at a very old age?"
The bookstore owner sweated furiously: "Old sir, we can only browse for a short time, and you are not allowed to read in the store."
Gu Hongming commented: "If I don't read the content first, how can I know whether it's worth buying? When eating in a restaurant, you have to eat first and then give me money."
The bookstore owner was speechless and could only move a stool and ignore this strange old man.
Gu Hongming sat in the bookstore, smoking a cigarette leisurely, and asked the boss to make him a bowl of tea, then he opened "The Rise of the Great Powers" and read it carefully.
It was getting dark at night, and the bookstore owner reminded me: "Old sir, I'm going to close the store. You can come back tomorrow."
"Is it dark?" Gu Hongming looked at the darkness outside and said angrily, "You are such a person. You don't even know how to ask me to eat when it's dark. Why am I so hungry?"
The bookstore owner smiled bitterly and said, "Yes, I'll treat you to a bowl of noodles."
Gu Hongming took out the money to buy books, slapped it in the boss's hand and left. When he got home, he said to the maid: "Bring me the food quickly, I'm starving to death."
After saying that, he went to the study again, carefully wrote down a greeting note, handed it to the servant and said: "Send the note to Peking University and give it to the principal named Zhou there."
Zhou Hexuan lives in the reception dormitory of Peking University. He received a greeting note from Gu Hongming just before ten o'clock in the evening. After reading it, he couldn't laugh or cry. The post was written in classical Chinese, and the general content was: I won't argue with you about what happened during the day. I saw you today.
The book is well written. Please prepare tea and food at Peking University tomorrow. I want to talk to you.
