The sales of "Ta Kung Pao" are now rising steadily. First, the market was boosted by Li Yugong's articles on the foreign swindler incident and the Kaiping Coal Mine incident. Then, a talented woman emerged from nowhere, causing Tianjin people to rush to buy the newspaper every day.
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"Sell newspapers! Sell newspapers! "Ta Kung Pao"!" a newsboy shouted loudly.
"The master of Rakshasa Nunnery published an article on women's studies, which caused a fierce response! Don't miss it!"
"Master of Luosha Temple" is one of the many pen names currently used by Lu Bicheng.
I don’t know why, but today’s literati like to use many pen names, and changing them is like changing a vest. For example, Lu Xun used more than 180 pen names according to statistics.
Li Yu stopped the newsboy: "Give me a newspaper."
"Okay, 7 cents a share."
In the late Qing Dynasty, newspapers were relatively expensive at first, with a copy costing 30 cents. Later, "Shenbao" entered the market, and a price war began, driving the price of newspapers to single digits.
However, although the price has been reduced, it is still not cheap. 7 cents is enough for a poor person to have a meal.
It's just that those who buy newspapers now are mostly literate people, and their family conditions are somewhat better.
Li Yu opened the newspaper, and the opening article was an article titled "On the Purpose of Promoting Women's Studies." Although the signature was not Lu Bicheng's name, Li Yu certainly knew it was her.
Li Yu asked the little newsboy: "Are you literate?"
"I can read, but not much," said the little newsboy.
Li Yu asked: "Then do you think female dolls should also be literate?"
At this time, it was freezing cold, and the little newsboy's face turned red from the cold. He wiped his nose and said, "What's wrong? I've seen that the wives of the foreign gentlemen in the concession are all literate, and they also understand foreign writing."
Li Yu said with a smile: "They are foreigners to begin with, so of course they understand foreign languages. If they understand Chinese, it's almost the same."
The little newsboy scratched his head: "Forgot about this."
Li Yu directly gave him a copper dollar worth ten cents, "No need to look for it."
The little newsboy said gratefully: "Thank you, Master! May you have a long life!"
Some time after that, Lu Bicheng published a series of articles, including "A Warning to Chinese Female Compatriots", "Promoting the Perseverance of Female Powerful Women", and "Education is the Foundation of a Country".
These articles are all about advocating a new type of women's education, which shows that her advocacy of women's rights is not empty talk. She knows how to propose methods and understands the importance of establishing a new type of women's education.
Her views were strongly supported by Ying Lianzhi, Fu Zengxiang and others, but there were more conservatives.
Yan Fengsheng, Lu Bicheng's uncle in Tanggu, saw that his niece not only disobeyed his orders and ran away from marriage and home, but even now began to publish so many "rebellious and unethical" articles in newspapers, he was so angry that he shouted: "Unruly women!"
You don’t abide by the rules of women! How can a young lady behave in public all day long?”
Lu Bicheng's mother, Yan, advised: "Don't be angry, the Chinese New Year is coming soon. I will write a letter to persuade her to come back."
Yan Fengsheng felt that she couldn't bear this face: "Don't allow her to come back to my house! Doesn't she want to be independent? Just let her be independent! Sooner or later she will beg me to pick her up, otherwise she won't behave according to the rules when she comes back now."
Yan had no choice but to secretly write a letter to her daughter asking her to admit her mistake and go home.
When Lu Bicheng saw it, he admitted his mistake? It was impossible to admit his mistake, even in this life!
Lu Bicheng wrote directly back: "Please rest assured, mother, that my daughter is fine in Tianjin and has become the editor of Ta Kung Pao. Everyone treats me very well and will definitely let my uncle see what a real woman is."
Yan Fengsheng became even more angry when he saw the reply: "Ta Kung Pao? You are such a talented person, you actually hired a woman as an editor to review the manuscripts of writers! If I were still the salt transport envoy, I would definitely make him look good!"
Yan had no choice but to write another letter asking Lu Bicheng to be careful outside and to go home quickly if something happened.
Although Lu Bicheng was full of confidence when he replied to the letter, he still felt very disappointed when he thought about not being able to go home for the New Year for the first time in his life.
When Li Yu met Lu Bicheng, he saw that she looked unhappy and asked, "What's wrong?"
Lu Bicheng said helplessly: "Without any relatives, I have no home."
"Aren't you going home to celebrate New Year's Day?" Li Yu asked in surprise.
The current "New Year's Day" refers to the Spring Festival in later generations. It was not until the Republic of China that the Gregorian calendar was used, and New Year's Day was changed to January 1 of the Gregorian calendar.
Lu Bicheng sighed: "I'm not going back! If it weren't for a lone wild goose, how could the sound of autumn reach the human world."
"What a poem! Did you write it?" Li Yu wanted to change the topic.
Lu Bicheng nodded: "I have a chance to have some free time. I just didn't expect that I would not be able to go back as soon as I came out, I would not be able to go back..."
Seeing that she still couldn't let go, Li Yu said, "What's the big deal? I can't go back to the capital."
"You are different, you are a man." Lu Bicheng said.
Li Yu knew she would say this, so he fell for the trick and immediately said: "The article you published in the newspaper talked about equality between men and women. Why is it different this time because I am a man?"
Lu Bicheng opened her mouth: "It seems to be true..." and then said, "I was wrong. But I really can't figure out why no one talked about me writing so many lyrics before, but now when it comes to liberation
Women can’t even go home.”
Li Yu said: "Because you wrote so many lyrics and articles before, everyone just thought it was rare to meet a talented woman. It felt rare and was a topic of conversation after dinner. But now that you talk about liberating women all over China, of course the conservatives can't stand it.
, because the nature has changed."
"I don't feel there is any qualitative difference. I am a woman, and I am the same as all women in the world." Lu Bicheng said.
"That's what I said, but it's not easy to change everyone's thinking." Li Yu said.
"Then do you think I did the right thing?" Lu Bicheng asked.
"Of course!" Li Yu said, "For thousands of years, women have been in a voiceless or 'absent' position in various places. Even in the past, they could not be called complete people and were often independent of men.
Outside the law, there is no personal freedom, property inheritance or even the right to dispose of one's own rights."
In her early years, Lu Bicheng encountered a situation where her family had no sons and her family members robbed her family property. She was deeply touched by this: "Yes, looking at history books and traditional education, there are many male images, plump and powerful, but there are pitifully few female images.
At the same time, it is blurry and single. Although there was a few years ago
Through the reform movement, I also read the arguments of the reformers at that time. They saw the role of women in social production and regarded women's issues as a means to solve the problem of poverty and weakness. However, I found that even they did not regard equality between men and women.
The pursuit is hazy and the direction is unclear.”
Li Yu said: "They do have certain limitations. They still haven't jumped out of the traditional gender division of labor and insist on the idea of men taking charge outside and women taking charge inside."
Liang Qichao once defined the new image of women in "Advocating the Establishment of Women's Schools", which still regards the two points of caring for husbands and raising children and raising children as the new standards of a good wife and mother. The main function of women is to provide daily care for their husbands.
, shouldering the responsibility of taking care of children, and at the same time engaging in certain economic activities to contribute to family construction. Although there was support for women to work outside the home, it was mainly to relieve the social pressure at the time, and it still failed to highlight women's own rights.
Moreover, the reformers' view is that women's inequality stems from power politics, and only through the implementation of a constitutional monarchy can women be liberated. This ultimately returns to their political demands.
However, the reformers were somewhat more progressive than their previous views. One thing they did successfully was banning foot binding.
Lu Bicheng said: "So in the end, we women have to do it ourselves to liberate women. Only we understand our own rights."
"Good job!" Li Yu extended his thumb, "But this is not an easy road."
"I know it's not easy, but if I don't do it just because it's not easy, then I, Lu Bicheng, might as well go home and study the Three Obediences and Four Virtues right now. No, even if I become a female worker in a textile factory, I don't want that kind of life!"
Nowadays, foreign businessmen have begun to open textile factories, match factories, and tea baking factories in China. They employ a large number of female workers. These women can be called the earliest group of women to enter society in modern China, and they are the earliest professional women.
Of course foreign businessmen won't take it into consideration too much.
The Industrial Revolution began in the textile industry. The earliest mechanical improvements were applied in textile factories. Today, an important part of European workers are female textile workers.
Moreover, the wages of female workers are lower than those of male workers. Of course, factories prefer cheap labor.
Li Yu smiled and said: "You'd better be an editor, capitalists are not much better."
On the 20th of the twelfth lunar month, the "New Year's holiday" for officials in the late Qing Dynasty also began. Except for important departments, most government offices began to seal on this day, that is, they stopped working until the 20th of the first lunar month of spring.
Resume office.
The specific time may deviate by one or two days, because people nowadays pay attention to an auspicious day and need Qin Tianjian to choose the date.
Like the system of the Ming Dynasty, the annual leave for officials is one month, which is quite long when you think about it (of course, it will be much less during the Hongwu period of the "model worker" Zhu Yuanzhang, after all, Lao Zhu practiced 996 personally).
All in all, officials in the Ming and Qing Dynasties had about fifty days of holidays each year, which was almost half of the holidays in the Song Dynasty.
It's just that this is a holiday for officials, and people will not completely follow it.
The Beiyang Armed Forces Crash Course will not abide by it. It is called "crash course" in the first place. It must be because time is precious and there are so many holidays to play.