When Li Yu came to Yingtai that day, he happened to meet Yu Deling coming to give Guangxu an English lesson.
There are not many female teachers in the palace, and Yu Deling is very rare. Fortunately, no ministers know about the situation in Yingtai, otherwise a bunch of old scholars would definitely scold her.
Moreover, now that Yu Deling was also a female imperial official, and Cixi herself was a female figure who became the ruler of the empire, there seemed to be nothing much to say.
Guangxu did not object to female teachers. The most important thing is that in the Qing Dynasty, not many Chinese are good at spoken language. Yu Deling has been abroad for many years, and his foreign language must be too pure.
Now one of Yu Deling's most important tasks is to correct Guangxu's pronunciation, and correct it from the strange intonation that is sometimes mixed with a Northeastern accent and sometimes a Cantonese accent.
"Your Majesty, it's 'aipao', not 'ahpao'. You can read it after me, apple!"
"Forehead bubble~"
"No, it's 'Ai Pao'!"
"Hey, hey, hey bubble!"
"very good!"
Guangxu had done very little pronunciation practice before, but now it was as if he was learning to speak from scratch. He himself had a stutter and complained: "Do all British people have rolled up tongues? Why is it so difficult to read?"
Li Yu smiled and said: "Your Majesty, if you learn Russian, your tongue will become twisted."
Guangxu said: "It is not easy for me to learn English clearly. It is really difficult."
"It's more difficult for foreigners to learn our Chinese, don't you think so, De Ling?" Li Yu said.
De Ling nodded: "Yes, Your Majesty, you can learn Chinese well, but if you work hard, there is no language that you can't learn well."
Guangxu didn't believe it: "I don't understand whether the Chinese language difficulty you said is a good thing or a bad thing. I remember someone once suggested that foreign letters can be used instead of Chinese characters."
"Your Majesty, this idea is definitely not acceptable." Li Yu quickly corrected him.
Guangxu said: "What's wrong? Foreigners are so powerful, and I think it's a way to use their words."
Since many people realized that China was poor and weak, they began to think about the reasons. Some of them believed that Chinese characters should be eliminated and Latinized letters should be completely used.
Qian Xuantong, an advocate of the New Culture Movement and later a professor at Peking University, once said: "The only way to abolish the feudal Confucianism is to abolish Chinese characters."
Regarding the abolition of Chinese characters, he also introduced the reason in detail. It is because learning and writing Chinese characters is too complicated and difficult, and characters like ABC are scientific and easy to spread. Therefore, his idea is to completely abolish Chinese characters and use ABC comprehensively.
Alphabetic text.
Another staunch supporter of the Chinese character abolition movement that you would never expect is Lu Xun, Brother Xun.
After Lu Xun studied abroad and learned about Western culture in his early days, he once said so radically: "As long as Chinese characters are not destroyed, China will perish."
Of course, this was what Lu Xun said in the early days. After all, as a literary giant, Lu Xun’s Chinese skills need not be mentioned at all.
Moreover, the situation at that time was indeed desperate. Almost no one could see where China would go in the future. They had to cross the river by feeling the stones, and they were still crossing the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers.
Until the 1980s, many people still felt that the vitality of Chinese characters was about to expire, because it was difficult to input Chinese characters on computers at that time, which was a very fatal problem.
But who would have thought that with the rapid development of technology, after the 21st century, inputting Chinese characters would be much more convenient and faster than English, especially on smart phone devices.
However, it was difficult for Li Yu to explain these problems to Guangxu. He could only say to him: "Your Majesty, there is nothing wrong with the writing. The Japanese use square characters."
As expected, facts speak louder than words. He didn't need to explain much at all, he could do it with just one example.
Guangxu was very satisfied with this simple explanation: "It makes sense. I also think we should learn more from Japan. By the way, Professor Li, what are we going to learn today?"
Li Yu said: "Today's learning is a little more complicated, involving trigonometry."
When Li Yu thought about using sin, cos, and tan to torture Guangxu, he felt particularly interesting in his heart.
Not only was Guangxu listening, but even Yudeling also began to learn mathematics together.
After half an hour of class, Li Yu said to Guangxu: "Your Majesty, I will go to the Capital University in two days."
"The Capital University," Guangxu muttered, "is finally starting again."
When the University Hall was first established four years ago, Guangxu had high hopes for it and even attended the opening ceremony in person. However, things have changed now.
The University Hall is still the University Hall of the past, and Guangxu is no longer the Guangxu of the past.
Guangxu looked at the sky outside Yingtai thoughtfully.
After leaving Yingtai, Li Yu first went to HSBC Bank. Now that he has more and more money, he can't keep it all in the house.
Li Yu opened an account at HSBC, and then converted the 2,500 kronor remitted from Sweden into silver dollars that banks preferred to circulate.
Li Yu filled out the form and said to the teller: "Excluding the 10% handling fee, the total is 450 silver dollars, which will be deposited into the account under my name."
As soon as he finished speaking, a rather annoying voice came from behind: "It's a shame to deposit 450 silver dollars in a foreign bank."
Lin Binghua and Ronglu's son Balong walked in together.
Li Yu sneered: "Don't you love foreign things? Why are you here?"
Lin Binghua was speechless for a moment, so he stopped talking to Li Yu and said to Baron: "Sir, this bank is the largest bank in the British Empire, and the money is very safe here."
During the Gengzi National Disaster caused by the Eight-Power Allied Forces, the money of many large families was looted, and hundreds of banks and bank accounts in Beijing were also looted. Nowadays, the only survivors are some "chain" large bank accounts, which have surplus food in other provinces.
, and it has been maintained until now.
The Ronglu family also suffered a lot of losses at the beginning, and they still have lingering fears about this.
Barron said: "British banks do sound safe."
When the teller knew that a big account was coming, he immediately came up to ask for a deposit, "You two gentlemen, do you want to deposit money? You really made the right choice! Our current interest rate at HSBC is 2%, and we can negotiate for more deposits."
2% means a monthly interest rate of 0.2% and an annual interest rate of 2.4%, which are relatively normal levels.
Barron made a calculation in his mind: "It's acceptable. When I go to France, Russia and the United States, I'll also ask banks."
The teller quickly said: "Master, Prince Lian Qing has deposited money in our HSBC Bank. Now other banks' banking services are not as extensive as ours."
In fact, Baron didn't know much about banks, so he probably thought they were all the same, so he said, "What can I say if I deposit 2 million taels?"
The teller's eyes were about to pop out, his hand was too big!
"Sir, I can't make the decision on such a huge amount. Let our manager come back and let him talk to you personally."
Balon said: "Also, the money is in the bank now, is it troublesome to transfer it?"
The teller said: "For such a large amount, you must inform the bank, or we can also provide guarantee services."
"Then I understand. I'll come back to you after I've settled the bank affairs."
Baron's money was scattered among three banks. He said to Lin Binghua next to him: "It sounds okay, what do you think?"
Lin Binghua laughed and said: "Since the young master has chosen HSBC, I will definitely put my money in HSBC as well."
Li Yu heard it from the side and cursed in his heart, these stinky young men are really too rich!
School at the Capital University has finally started.
Although the opening ceremony was far less grand and grand than that of later generations, and the number of attendees was only 55 students from the Shixue Hall, 76 students from the Normal School, and more than 20 faculty members, totaling only more than 150 people, but after all, it was
After the re-enrollment, Peking University officially started for the first time.
Nowadays, the conditions of the Capital University Hall are relatively simple. There is no decent auditorium, and the ceremony can only be held in the open air in the courtyard.
The ministers of management and education, Zhang Baixi and Rongqing, were sitting under the eaves. One of them was once the minister of the Ministry of official affairs, and the other was the minister of the Ministry of punishment.
From here we can see that the Qing government set extremely high standards for the university hall.
Teachers of various subjects are also seated on both sides.
Zhang Baixi was the person who worked the most for the opening of the university hall, and was also the first "principal" after the school resumed. He stood up first and delivered a speech, and all the students below also stood up.
Zhang Baixi said: "Today is the first day of the official opening of the Capital University Hall. The so-called University Hall, in my opinion, is a place for studying knowledge. Our ancients have a tradition called sitting and discussing the Tao. Today, I will discuss the world with you.
The way."
After saying that, he raised his right hand and pressed it down gently: "Everyone, please sit down. Sit down."
Zhang Baixi continued: "From the time we became literate, we have been learning how to be a human being and how to govern the world.
"The ways of the world may be different, but I have always been thinking about what is the true way for a country and what is the way to revitalize the country!
"The opening of the Capital University this time encountered a lot of resistance and doubts. As we all know, people even died. The person who died was named Wang Changyi. I have been thinking, why did he die? And who forced him to death?
I thought that hundreds of years ago, there was a man named Wang in the previous dynasty, named Wang Yangming. Everyone knows this man. He once said: It is easy to break a thief in the mountain, but it is difficult to break a thief in the heart.
"So I think that Wang Changyi's death was due to the thief in his heart! And this thief is not only in his heart, but also in the hearts of each of us. If we want to find a clear path to the world, we must first get rid of the thief in our hearts!"
The Wang Changyi mentioned by Zhang Baixi is indeed a real person. Because his family was extremely poor, he failed several times in the imperial examinations and was quite unhappy.
Four years ago, when the Capital University opened its doors for the first time, I heard that students attending the Capital University would receive a monthly living allowance and that they would be able to find a real job after graduation. After thinking about it, I was not very willing, but
I still went to the Capital University to register.
Unexpectedly, his move aroused ridicule and ridicule from other students who came to Beijing to take the imperial examination.
Wang Changyi was a loyal and honest person, and was not good at words. In addition, he was somewhat ashamed in his heart. He did not dare to retaliate against the abuses of these people. He just dodged around and tried to avoid meeting those students.
Unexpectedly, one night, the group of students were drinking and making trouble in the shop, and on a whim, they posted a couplet on Wang Changyi's bedside.
The first couplet is: filial piety, loyalty, trust, etiquette, righteousness, modesty; the second couplet is: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
The first line is missing a word "shame", which means to call Wang Changyi shameless. The second line is missing a "eight" (forgot eight), which means to call Wang Changyi a bastard.
Scholars in this era had a strong sense of honor and integrity. Wang Changyi's face was thin, and he was not broad-minded enough. He was so angry that he felt depressed. I lay in bed at night, tossing and turning, unable to sleep, thinking about his failure in the imperial examination and his failure in studying at the Capital University.
In a moment of anger at being insulted like this, he hung himself from the beam in the room with a bed sheet!
Zhang Baixi talked about Wang Changyi, and then continued to say to the students below: "What do you think this thief in your heart is? In my opinion, it is hypocrisy!
"Usually when people study Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, what they learn is nothing more than preserving the principles of nature and destroying human desires.
"But looking at our history, or not talking about the past dynasties, but just looking at the present, can we really rule the country and bring peace to the world by relying on the learning of saints, benevolence, righteousness and morality?
"Words of benevolence, righteousness, and morality cannot save a country from peril! Think about it, can the Four Books and Five Classics you have learned, and the eight-part essay you have studied so hard, be able to withstand the powerful ships and guns of the foreigners? Can they change rampant corruption, land annexation,
Is it a situation where people are displaced thousands of miles away and the country is riddled with abuses?
“To emphasize fame and integrity while neglecting practicality, what is hidden here is actually hypocrisy and weakness.
"Let's talk about you guys. If the imperial court didn't issue a decree this time so that students from the Capital University Hall could enjoy the benefits of passing the imperial examination after graduation, could you abandon the imperial examination and study new schools?
"I'm not blaming you today, I just hope that everyone here can understand that morality cannot change a person's destiny, nor can it change the destiny of a country at all. Talking about morality and justice is the biggest hypocrisy in the world!"
Li Yu could not help but applaud, and under his guidance, a group of students also began to applaud vigorously.
Zhang Baixi is truly worthy of being the president of Peking University. Although he is a person who lives within the limitations of the times, his vision has surpassed that of most Chinese people. This speech was inspiring and very high-level, and he is indeed worthy of the position of president.
Ding Haoliang, Yan Fu, Lin Shu and others also deeply agreed with Zhang Baixi's words and kept nodding.
But Rong Qing, another minister of management and education, and Gu Hongming, the deputy head teacher of the middle school, seemed a little dissatisfied.
After that, Ding Weiliang and Wu Rulun also delivered speeches on behalf of the General Teachers of China and the West respectively, but they were more conventional and hoped that everyone would abide by their true intentions, be strict with themselves, and learn to govern the world.
After they finished speaking, Zhang Baixi said again: "It was me and the faculty who were speaking just now. Today I also hope to invite Li Li, who won the first place in the university entrance exam, is well-known in the Western scientific community, and is honored to be the emperor's Western education teacher."
Order to give a lecture."
Since Li Yu was appointed by Cixi to teach Guangxu's Western studies, many people in the court still regarded him with some disdain, especially the royalists who still had illusions about Guangxu.
Now not only Ding Nailiang attaches great importance to Li Yu, but Zhang Baixi also lists Li Yu as a "special student" in the university hall.
Li Yu walked onto the stage. This was his second speech at the university. After a brief thank you, he began to say:
"I just heard President Zhang's speech about the 'thief in the heart', and I wholeheartedly agree with it. With all due respect, I would like to add that I think there is another 'thief in the heart', which is old-fashioned.
"I remember Li Hongzhang and Li Zhongtang once said that the Chinese scholar-officials were so immersed in the habit of regular script that they used something other than what they learned, and what they learned was something they didn't use. When they had nothing to do, they would despise foreign weapons as strange techniques, thinking that they didn't need to learn them; when they had something to do, they would
I was surprised that foreign weapons turned out to be strange and magical, and I thought I couldn't learn them.
"This is what Li Zhongtang said twenty years ago, but it still remains the same when I think about it now.
"There is no immutable principle in the world. Things in the world will change when they are poor, and changes will make things easier.
"Today's current situation is a crisis that has not been seen in three thousand years. Sticking to the old ways and being complacent will only make our country become more and more backward and weaker. If this continues, the country will not be a country.
"What I am good at is Western learning, so I can tell you from my personal experience that Chinese people can certainly learn Western learning.
"Learning itself is not difficult. What is really difficult is that we let go of our conservative mentality, abandon our conservative concepts, and truly open our minds to learning Western learning. Don't be arrogant, let alone belittle yourself!"
Li Yu certainly wouldn't talk too much, he just said a few words and then ended. But he had a very good idea, and he continued what Zhang Baixi said and extended it.
Feng Zuxun, He Yujie, Fan Xiren and others in the audience applauded Li Yu crazily, but Lin Binghua in the official academy did not care.
Starting today, they will officially enroll in the Capital University.