The Peking University Council held another meeting and finally voted unanimously to accept Zhou Hexuan as the president. The condition was that Zhou Hexuan should not interfere in the affairs of Peking University. To put it bluntly, he was only the honorary president.
They also voted at the meeting to elect Zhong Guangguang as acting principal, fully responsible for school affairs.
Zhong Guanguang once served as a counselor in the Ministry of Education and also ran a factory. He is fully qualified for this position in terms of qualifications and ability.
Zhou Hexuan was also happy to have some free time and returned to Tianjin to continue running his newspaper. He only had to wait for Peking University to resume school and give a speech.
Since the suspension of classes at Peking University, there has been an acute shortage of teachers, and a sufficient number of teachers must be hired. If this is not possible, they can only hire teachers from other schools as part-time lecturers and barely build a teaching team. Secondly, many students have returned to their hometowns, and they have to be recruited one by one.
Write a letter to call back.
By the time these preparatory work is completed, it is estimated that it will be November when Peking University can officially resume classes.
In mid-October, Zhou Hexuan sent out the first 50,000-word manuscript of "The Goddess", and his "The Rise of Great Powers" was finally published, and it was released simultaneously in more than ten major cities across the country.
I have to say that the Commercial Press is so awesome. They even have a mailing service. For example, if a person in a small county in southwest China wants to buy a book, he or she can order by writing a letter, telegram or calling the phone. They need to remit the money first, and the Commercial Press will mail it immediately.
Book.
The entire set of "The Rise of the Great Powers" is divided into two parts, the upper and lower parts. It is cheaper than "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", priced at only 4 yuan.
Through the feedback information from major bookstores across the country, the Commercial Press obtained statistical data that the sales volume of "The Rise of Great Powers" in the first week reached more than 6,000 copies, which is a very impressive number.
What makes people laugh or cry is that the sales of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" are actually better. In the half month since its publication, more than 15,000 sets have been sold in North China. Sure enough, no matter in any period, popular books are more popular than academic monographs.
Welcome, because ordinary people make up the majority of the people.
Nowadays, the most popular novel among ordinary people in several provinces of North China is "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", and the second-ranked novel is Zhang Henshui's "Chunming Foreign History".
However, in February next year, Zhang Henshui will open a new series called "The Golden Fen Family", which will be serialized for seven years and attract countless readers to follow up. The copyright fee for the first printing of this book will be directly exchanged for a building in Peking.
Former Qing Palace.
"The Condor Heroes" seems to be not much different, and it has even gradually spread to the south, and piracy has begun to occur in the Jiangnan region. Traditional martial arts novelists seem to have been influenced by "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and tried to imitate the routines of this novel.
Although the book market during the Republic of China was not perfect, it was quite mature. Many newspapers had review columns to evaluate popular works, including film reviews, drama reviews, book reviews, etc.
There is also a specialized profession called critics, also known as reviewers, who earn royalties by writing critical articles.
After the publication of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", some critics applauded, while others complained that Zhou Hexuan's random revision of history would mislead readers. Fortunately, the dispute between old and new literature has long since ended, and real scholars are not rare in evaluating martial arts novels.
, otherwise you may not know what it will look like.
But having said that, the writing (written in vernacular) of "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" strictly speaking belongs to the new school of literature, and even a few years ago it was considered a progressive work.
As for "The Rise of Great Powers", critics unanimously praised it, and many cultural celebrities came forward to promote this book for free.
Shen Junru, a well-known scholar, politician, and activist, published a commentary article in China Newspaper and said: "The Rise of Great Powers is thought-provoking, and it is a particularly thorough study of the great powers. Reading this book can broaden your horizons for citizens, and it can broaden your horizons for scholars. This book can improve knowledge, and those in power can understand the strategy of governing the country by reading this book! Mr. Zhou Hexuan is a great talent in this world."
Qian Duansheng, a political science and constitutional law teacher at Peking University and Tsinghua University who advocates the abolition of concessions and the recovery of consular jurisdiction, also commented in Yishi Bao: "The Rise of Great Powers contains deep content in Western politics and law. Read it thoroughly. This book allows you to appreciate the origins of Western politics and law. It interprets the rise and fall of the world's great powers from a comprehensive perspective, and has great reference and enlightenment significance for China's current situation."
As the book "The Rise of Great Powers" spreads more and more widely, Zhou Hexuan's reputation becomes more and more famous. Although he is in Tianjin, he has long been known to people in the south, and has been fertilized with the speech "I Have a Dream" , becoming an academic idol in the minds of young students.
Of course, there are also "Generation" and "Answer", these two poems are very suitable for the Republic of China.
"The night gave me black eyes, but I used them to look for light." "Despicableness is the pass for the despicable, and nobility is the epitaph for the noble." These four lines of poetry are widely quoted. Especially during demonstrations, they are completely It can be shouted as a slogan, and combined with "I Have a Dream", it will instantly make the patriotic young people excited.
The most interesting thing is that Zhou Hexuan's poems only criticized darkness, and his speeches only looked forward to the future. His position was extremely vague and he did not offend any force. Even if "The Rise of the Great Powers" predicts that Japan will invade China, it is only from an academic point of view. The Japanese only He was regarded as a very powerful scholar and did not arouse much vigilance.
Zhou Hexuan’s biggest gain is money!
By the end of October when the royalties were settled, "Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "The Rise of the Great Powers" had brought him a monthly income of more than 40,000 yuan.
The literati of the Republic of China were so wealthy!
No wonder that after Xu Zhimo moved to Shanghai, although he was cut off from financial support by his family, he could afford to live in a bungalow with a monthly rent of 150 yuan just by relying on lecture fees and manuscript fees. His family was served by servants, and there were cars to pick him up when he came in and out. Lu Xiaoman was asked to spend extravagantly.
Of course, the premise is that the literati must be famous. Unfamous literati can only be considered poor. Once you are famous, you have to write best-selling books. It will be embarrassing if no one buys your works.
October is a big harvest season for Zhou Hexuan. Two best-selling books were sold at the same time, which suddenly made his bank balance exceed 50,000. However, this situation cannot last long because the daily sales of books have been declining. In November, there will be 2 A 10,000-yuan manuscript fee is very rare.
Just as teachers and students at Peking University were returning to school one after another, Zheng Zhenduo in Shanghai received a novel manuscript.
He first looked at the author and immediately became happy. It was actually from Zhou Hexuan. Nowadays, Zhou Hexuan is a very popular figure in the academic world, and young students also admire him very much. If his work is published in "Novel Monthly", it will definitely attract attention.
I hope the quality of Mr. Zhou's novels is not too bad... Zheng Zhenduo thought.
Zheng Zhenduo opened the text and read it. It was normal at first. A woman was arrested and imprisoned. It seemed that she had been wronged, but soon a ghost appeared.
What the hell!
There are still ghosts in the prison. Is this writing a modern "Liao Zhai"?
Zheng Zhenduo read on patiently and finished the 50,000-word novel manuscript in one breath. His scalp was numb and his vest was soaked with sweat.
Physical destruction is not terrible, but spiritual destruction is the most terrible thing.
The so-called murder is heart-breaking, and Zhou Hexuan's "The Goddess" is exactly that. In the absurd and joyful plot, there is a sadness that is almost desperate, which is the soul of a nation dying in shock.
Zheng Zhenduo closed his eyes. To be honest, he didn't want to read this novel anymore. It was too scary, just like when he read Lu Xun's "Diary of a Madman".