The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China - Chapter 1034

   In China in 1943, in addition to the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, there was another war without gunpowder smoke, that is, the battle for cultural influence between Britain and the United States over China.

   Last year, U.S. Special Envoy Fairbank called Roosevelt, hoping that the U.S. government would enhance Sino-U.S. cultural relations, conduct scientific research on China’s education, and send American scholars to Chinese universities for exchanges, and received Roosevelt’s full support. As for helping Chinese scholars to solve life difficulties, it is only part of Fairbank’s plan.

  Before Fairbank proposed this plan, Bufield, the cultural counselor of the British Embassy, ​​was already doing it, which is the main reason why Roosevelt expressed his support for Fairbank.

   Up to now, the British have directly established the Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum, which has greatly strengthened the cultural influence of the UK on China. Fairbank couldn’t sit still more. Just one week after the official establishment of the Sino-British Science Cooperation Center, he suggested that the US ambassador to China, Goss, act quickly, and was authorized by the US government to invite a large number of Chinese scholars to the United States for exchange activities.

  The first batch of scholars invited to the United States is a total of six people, namely Jin Yuelin, Fei Xiaotong, Cai Qiao, Liu Naicheng, Zhang Qiyun and Xiao Zuoliang. Among them, Jin Yuelin is a philosopher, Fei Xiaotong is a social anthropologist, Cai Qiao is a physiologist, Liu Naicheng is a jurist, Zhang Qiyun is a geographer, and Xiao Zuoliang is a political scientist, covering all aspects of Chinese academia.

   This cultural influence strategy was intended for the long term and was later extended to the field of culture and art. For example, the fourth batch of invited scholars includes nine people including writer Lao She, playwright Cao Yu, cartoonist Ye Qianyu, and dancer Dai Ailian.

   Yankee even included the Communist Party in the invitation scope. The Communist Party planned to send 4 scholars to the United States, but due to various complicated reasons, the trip was unsuccessful in the end.

   Zhou Hexuan was not invited, because he had been in various exchanges in the United States before, and Roosevelt should not have to spend that unjust money.

  Although Chang Kaishen did not agree to Fairbank’s payment of living allowances to Chinese professors, he attached great importance to Fairbank’s invitation to Chinese scholars to visit the United States. He asked the secretary Chen Brai to take charge of the matter, and solemnly conducted five-day training for the invited scholars. The content of the training is very simple. It teaches the scholars basic diplomatic etiquette, stipulates that words that are harmful to China’s image cannot be said, and things that are harmful to China’s image cannot be done.

   After the training, Chang Kaishen also hosted a banquet in person for the six scholars and presented his autographed photos.

   In July, Fairbank brought the first batch of visiting scholars to the Zhou Mansion.

   Zhou Hexuan was naturally a host of good wine and good food, and spent two days discussing with these scholars.

Fairbank said: “The Sino-US Scholars Exchange Program is to strengthen mutual understanding between China and the United States in the field of culture and technology. Now most Americans don’t know much about China, and some Americans even think that Chinese people still have pigtails. We The first step of the exchange plan is to let the United States know China. Here, I would like to select Mr. Zhou’s “The Fifteen Years of Wanli” as one of the exchange books between Chinese and American scholars.”

   “Of course no problem, I will let Mike-Laure Books publish the English version, and I have already done the translation of the manuscript.” Zhou Hexuan said.

  Fei Xiaotong suddenly said: “Mr. Zhou, I have some crude comments on “The Fifteenth Year of Wanli”.

   Zhou Hexuan said: “Please speak.”

“With all due respect, your masterpiece put too much emphasis on the civil service system, while ignoring the influence of local self-government forces on Zhang Juzheng’s reform,” Fei Xiaotong added, “Of course, this is just a personal opinion, Mr. Zhou does not need to Too concerned.”

   Zhou Hexuan smiled and said, “The local autonomy of the Ming Dynasty is also a subsidiary product of the civil service system, right?”

Fei Xiaotong shook his head and said, “The local autonomy of the Ming Dynasty was of course related to the civil service system, but it was not created by the civil service system. In fact, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial power could go to the county and the countryside. According to Zhu Yuanzhang’s According to the idea, the local government conducts the conscription of field burials according to the lijia household registration system, most of which are handed over to the central government, and a small part is left to the local government. In the early Ming Dynasty, the local government had relatively loose power, while the power of the local gentry much smaller.”

   “Please continue.” Zhou Hexuan listened carefully, and he didn’t read all the history books.

Fei Xiaotong continued: “At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, local governments had power and money, so they could do many things, such as water conservancy, education, transportation, charity, public security, etc. Due to the increasing seriousness of land acquisition, the tax revenue that the local government could receive Less and less, in the case of no money, they can only give up part of their rights and functions, and turn to the gentry and clan to undertake local public affairs. This method allows the local government to save money and trouble, so it is actively recognized and encouraged, and the gentry and clan gradually Taking over the control and management of the grassroots society, even the government has to rely on the gentry to collect taxes.”

   “So it is.” Zhou Hexuan suddenly became enlightened.

Fei Xiaotong added: “Actually, the ‘one whip method’ is not the first of Zhang Juzheng’s creation, but because the local taxation is too messy, the county governments in the south make adjustments spontaneously according to the actual situation. Zhang Juzheng summed up this tax adjustment method as a national It can be seen that many capable local officials still wanted to take back the power of grassroots management. Zhang Juzheng’s reform was not unsupported, but his reform method was too radical, causing a collective backlash from officials and gentry. “

   “Thank you for your advice, I am going to revise “The Fifteen Years of Wanli”, and the revised edition will be published in a few months.” Zhou Hexuan said.

  Fei Xiaotong didn’t expect Zhou Hexuan to accept dissent so humbly, he quickly said: “No need to revise. There are no major mistakes in Mr. Zhou’s original work, just a few omissions.”

   “If you can change it, you can change it. What you said is a big problem.” Zhou Hexuan has changed a lot of Huang Renyu’s original version, but the experts still pointed out the deficiencies. And Fei Xiaotong is not a professional historian, but a sociologist and anthropologist.

   Zhang Qiyun praised: “Mr. Zhou is worthy of being a master, and his rigorous academic attitude is enough to be a model for me.”

Zhang Qiyun is the founder of China’s “human geography” and “historical geography”. He studied under the masters of philosophy Liu Boming, geography master Zhu Kezhen, and historian Liu Yizheng. Therefore, he also has high attainments in philosophy and history, and is proficient in Tibetan Minority studies such as studies, Manchu studies, and Mongolian studies.

  Zhou Weilie’s high school geography textbook was edited by Zhang Qiyun. He also edited the high school physics textbook together with Dai Yungui, and edited the high school English textbook together with Lin Yutang. These three textbooks were adopted by most high schools in China during the Anti-Japanese War.

   In early 1949, Chang Kaishen did not know where to go and asked Zhang Qiyun for advice.

   Zhang Qiyun hesitated for a long time, and finally said one sentence: “The best policy is to retreat to Taiwan!”

  Chang Kaishen was startled, and immediately called Zhang Qiyun into the secret room to discuss in detail.

   Before that, Chang Kaishen had three options, namely retreating to the southwest, Hainan or Taiwan. And most of the bureaucrats and generals of the Kuomintang tend to retreat to the southwest, and ultimately the bottom line is entrenched in Sichuan, sticking to the benefits of mountains and rivers and waiting for good opportunities.

   In fact, this is easy to understand. The Japanese invaders were so strong that they could not invade Sichuan, and the Communist Party naturally could not do it. The officials of the Nationalist government thought so, and it was a big deal to rule the “Bashu Kingdom” in the future.

   Only Zhang Qiyun urged Chang Kaishen to retreat to Taiwan, and analyzed the consequences of various choices in detail. Chang Kaishen was persuaded by Zhang Qiyun on the spot.

  Because of the merits of his advice, after the old Jiang south withdrew from Taiwan, Zhang Qiyun rose to the top, and successively served as the director of the secretary group of the Kuomintang President’s Office of the Taiwan authorities, the director of the Kuomintang Central Propaganda Department, and the minister of education. Before that, Zhang Qiyun was only a special-appointed professor of the Ministry of Education of the Nationalist government.

  Without Zhang Qiyun’s advice, Lao Jiang would probably be entrenched in Sichuan to resist the separatist regime, and there would be no cross-strait problems.