This is a long-standing story circulated in Nanjing University: Chiang Kai Shek, then president of Central University (the predecessor of Nanjing University), invited three professors to dinner, but some people refused to go to the dinner
Two years ago, Wen Fangyi, a drama, film and television art student at Nanjing University, tried to adapt the story into a play in order to finish his homework. Unexpectedly, the play will go out of the campus and cause a sensation.
01 Jiang Gong's dinner
"In 1943, Chiang Kai Shek served as president of the National Central University and invited three professors from the Chinese Department, Chen Zhongfan and Hu Xiaoshi, to have a new year's Eve dinner. Whether to go or not has become a problem for the professors. " Wen Fangyi heard this story when he was doing his thesis for the third year of University.
In September 2011, Wen Fangyi, a junior girl, wrote her thesis for the academic year. The instructor was LV Xiaoping, director of the Department of drama, film and television art. Lu Xiaoping tells Wen Fangyi the long-standing story of NANDA University, and directly gives her the title of "Jiang Gong's face", asking her to consult the materials first, and then write a stage play script.
Before that, Wen Fangyi only wrote some parts of the stage play and never finished the whole play. "When you get this topic, the first reaction is not the theme, plot and characters, but, God! How can I find 20000 words? " Wen Fangyi said shyly.
In order to finish her homework, the post-90s girl began to search for information books about the school history of Nanjing University in the library. After reading such books as the anecdote of NANDA and NANDA, Wen Fang Yi gradually restored the story background of Jiang Gong's face.
Before the 1940s, Nanjing University, formerly known as the National Central University, had seven colleges and more than 40 departments in literature, science, law, industry, agriculture, medicine and education, making it the largest and most complete comprehensive university in China. In 1937, "Central University" moved to Chongqing in the West. Jiang Gong's face happened in 1943 when Gu Mengyu, the former president, resigned and Jiang Jieshi became president of Central University.
According to the records, part of the reason for Gu's resignation was due to the conflict with Chiang Kai Shek. Chiang Kai Shek often talks to the president of the University in Chongqing. Because of his military background, the president of the university should stand up when he asks for roll call. But Chiang Kai Shek was not happy that the university presidents didn't take it. But Gu Mengyu simply didn't come to the meeting and asked the Secretary to replace him. For this reason, Chiang Kai-shek said a lot. In the intensification of other contradictions, Gu Mengyu resigned in a rage.
Gu Mengyu's departure from Central University caused a great stir among teachers and students. Chen Lifu, Minister of education, wanted to transfer Wu nanxuan, who was president of Fudan University, to President of Central University. As a result, he was unanimously opposed by teachers and students of Central University. Chen Lifu asked Chiang Kai Shek, the chief executive, for help. Chiang Kai Shek proposed that, like military academies, he should serve as the president of all universities and send the chief of education to actually preside over the school affairs.
In May 1943, Chiang Kai Shek became president of Central University.
The students didn't buy it. Chiang Kai Shek came to inspect it. There were no students to meet them. Even when Chiang Kai Shek, as the president, conferred degrees on his students, there were people who did not come and let their classmates receive them.
Professors are more difficult to deal with. Some question whether Chiang Kai Shek, who was born in the military and had no academic attainments, could be qualified as the president of CUHK? In this context, Chiang invited professors from the Chinese Department to have dinner on New Year's Eve to try to win over the relationship.
02 historical mystery
Who are the three professors Chiang asked? Did they go to Chiang Kai Shek's dinner? What are the reasons for going or not? What did they say at dinner? Wen Fangyi tried to find the clues of history through literature.
In the history of NTU, there are not many available contents in the National Central University, and only scattered records about the situation of CUHK are found in the eight years of the general assembly and other books. There is no story of Chiang Kai Shek's invitation to dinner at all. It is said that Chiang Kai Shek invited three professors, but only Chen Zhongfan and Hu Xiaoshi are known. Who is the third professor?
Both Chen Zhongfan and Hu Xiaoshi are among the "three elders" in the Chinese Department of NTU. Chen Zhongfan, a famous classical writer, was a radical left-wing scholar who pursued personality independence and always opposed the interference of the authorities in universities. Hu Xiaoshi is devoted to learning and does not ask about politics. He also has a special hobby: a passion for food. So far, there is a famous dish in Nanjing: Mr. Hu tofu.
Wen Fangyi consulted the academic works of two professors: Chen Zhongfan's collection of papers and Hu Xiaoshi's collection of papers, and there was still too little effective information.
She even found that the widely spread story was a little out of time.
"In 1943, Chen Zhongfan was not at Central University at all, and the year was over when the news came that Chiang Kai Shek was going to be president of CUHK. That is to say, it can't be new year's Eve at all. " Wen Fangyi seems to be trapped in a historical mystery.
With these questions, Wen Fangyi asked Professor Dong Jian, an old professor in the Chinese Department, who was nearly 80 years old. Professor Dong Jian is a doctoral tutor of Mr. LV Xiaoping. In the 1990s, Professor Dong Jian told the legend on many occasions.
Professor Dong Jian studied in the Chinese Department of Nanjing University in the 1950s, and Chen Zhongfan was his teacher.
Professor Dong Jian also confirmed that in 1943, Chen Zhongfan was not in Central University, and he never heard Professor Chen Zhongfan mention it.
As for Hu Xiaoshi, Dong Jian recalled that as far as he knew, people who knew Hu Xiaoshi had never heard of him mentioning going to dinner. Professor Dong Jian provided another similar detail. When Chiang Kai Shek was sixty years old, the Kuomintang asked Hu Xiaoshi to write a birthday essay for him. Hu Xiaoshi said, "I can only write sacrifice for the dead, not for the living." When someone hears the change, he goes away.
In the impression of Professor Dong Jian, the legend that Jiang Jieshi invited professors of the Chinese Department to have dinner began to spread in Nantah in the 1990s. The old professors would say, "the intellectuals of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai Shek, did not necessarily give him this face when they invited him to dinner."
As for whether Chiang Kai Shek invited three professors from the Chinese Department of Nanjing University to dinner, Wen could not confirm.
However, Professor Dong Jian still supported her in writing the play and suggested that the description of 1943's history should be compared with the current intellectual's spiritual loss. "We can see to what extent the spirit of today's intellectuals has degenerated, let alone the top leaders, and even a ministerial level cadre will feel infinite glory in receiving them."
Lu Xiaoping, Wen's instructor, also believes that the authenticity of the legend belongs to the contemporary era. "In history, many things have been forgotten, while others have been clearly remembered and even made up. The growth of interest in this legend is actually the professors' disappointment in their current living conditions and Reflection on their subjective mental state. "
History is impossible to find. The task before Wen Fangyi is to make up a story as true as possible. She consulted the biographies of a large number of scholars in the Republic of China, such as Wu Mi's diary, Zhu Ziqing's diary, Xu Beihong's diary and Hu Shi's oral autobiography, and finally created three "professors of Central University" with different political tendencies and ideological states.
In the drama, the three professors are then Ren Dao, Xia Xiaoshan and Bian Congzhou.
In the play, Chiang Kai Shek once ordered his students to be killed. He was very angry at Chiang's autocratic rule. But because his books were scattered and he needed Chiang's help to recover them, he was obsessed with whether he wanted to go to the banquet.
The prototype of xiaxiaoshan is Hu Xiaoshi. He acknowledged that Jiang was the leader of the whole country, but from an academic point of view, he felt that Jiang was not qualified to be president. As a gluttonous man, a famous dish at the banquet really tickles his heart.
Bian Congzhou is a completely fictional character. He is the representative of the intellectuals who cooperate with the system. He didn't encourage the students to March. After receiving the invitation, he tried to persuade his two peers to go to the dinner together. As a result, he was scolded as flattering by the then Taoist and Xia Xiaoshan.
Go, or not? This is a problem.
In Wen Fangyi's works, the story is not still in 1943, but from the time of the "Cultural Revolution": three professors who were knocked down argued whether they had gone to Chiang Kai Shek's banquet or not when they wrote the materials.
Like Wen's investigation, it's a mystery whether the three professors went to the banquet or not.
The play is directed by LV Xiaoping and the actors are all from the students of the Department of drama, film and art. May 2012 is the 110th anniversary of Nanjing University. LV Xiaoping reported "Jiang Gong's face" as one of the students' dramas.
03 fiction and reality
Professor Dong Jian, 77, believes that the student drama captures the real side of the intellectuals in that era. "On the whole, they all have a common value, that is, the independence of intellectual personality. They did not regard Chiang's invitation to dinner as a gift from the emperor. Even the official Bian never had this tendency. "
The play made the old professor feel a lot, "after the founding of the people's Republic of China, the intellectuals changed from the original spirit of independence to the worship of leadership, which is a gradual process, not completed at once."
Dong Jian thought of a past experience. In the 1950s, a professor of Biology Department of Nanjing University, who had great achievements in a certain project, was interviewed by Mao Zedong in Nanjing. When he came back, he said excitedly, "my hand can't be washed. Come and shake it quickly. This is the hand that Chairman Mao has shaken."
In Dong Jian's view, the behavior of the biology professor at that time was sincere, but now it seems ridiculous and sad. "Since 1949, the spirit of independence and freedom of Chinese universities has been destroyed many times."
In 1952, with the adjustment of departments, the law and sociology of Nanjing University were regarded as dangerous subjects and cut down. At that time, Sun Wen, a famous sociologist, was assigned to work in the reference room. Engineering College, education college and agriculture college are all separated into independent professional colleges, and the organic connection and comprehensive quality education of universities are weakened.
In 1957, Dong Jian went to the Chinese Department of NTU, and stayed in the school to teach after five years of undergraduate and three years of postgraduate. The "Cultural Revolution" began just a year ago, and only in 1978 did it begin to return to normal academic research.
When Dong Jian went to university, it was a dangerous thing to study. If you study too seriously, you will be branded as "individualism on the road of white specialty". Because of his worship of Belinsky, a Russian literary critic, Dong Jian drew a picture of him hanging on the bed and wanted to be a critic. He was criticized for that.
In the anti rightist struggle in 1957, anyone who insisted on the spirit of independence and Free University, once publicly expressed such views, was beaten to the right. In 1958, Liu Jixuan, a teacher who taught classical literature, committed suicide by jumping into the river; in 1960, Luo genze, an old professor who studied the history of Chinese literary criticism, committed suicide by jumping out of the building; in 1963, sun Jiantang, a teacher who was transferred to Shandong Province to study classical literature, committed suicide by jumping out of the well; in 1964, Xu Mingyan, a teacher who was transferred from Nanjing Normal University to the Chinese Department to study classical literature, cut off In 1965, Huang Jingxin, a young professor of linguistics who was familiar with Professor Dong Jian, committed suicide by taking sleeping pills. He was only 30 years old. Jiangsu provincial Party committee set up a special group to investigate why there are so many suicides in the Chinese Department of Nantah University? The investigation has not yet begun