A few days ago, I read the last words of into thin air before Li Dinggan, an interpreter of Qidan literature, published in The Paper Shanghai Book Review on June 24th, 2017. Hereinafter referred to as "Gao Wen"), this paper introduces his collection of seventeen old files of Zhonghua Book Company, reveals Li Dinggan’s little-known experience, and commends his research on Qidan characters, which makes people feel deeply.
Li Dinggan’s entry into the public’s field of vision is inseparable from his study of Qidan characters. Gao Wen’s introduction to Li Dinggui’s life mostly comes from Liu Fengkui’s "Li Dinggui’s Life and Study on the Fine Print of Qidan" (see The Compilation of Qidan Characters), with occasional supplements. Previously, several articles introducing Li Dinggan’s life were mostly due to the study of Qidan characters. Due to various factors, the introduction of Li Dinggan’s life is sometimes incorrect. Due to the limitations of materials, such as his family background, study experience, research interest and style, it is difficult to see Li Dinggan’s true face, which makes people feel sorry.
I don’t study the Khitan characters, but I like reading articles about the study of unpopular characters. Although I swallowed the dates, I can feel the academic spirit of my predecessors. The life of Mr. Luo Fucheng, Wang Jingru and Li Dingzhuo, as well as their course of governing the Khitan script, were gradually understood in such an unsophisticated reading. In particular, Li Ding-gan, who was unlucky, had a rough half-life, and his learning was actually annihilated, which made people feel deeply. Reading Gao Wen, I read that "it can be said that it is the responsibility of our oriental language and literature researchers to collect historical materials about Li Dinggan’s life and restore his legendary but unfortunate life". Inspired by him, he spent two days trying to trace Li Dingzhuo’s life clues, but unexpectedly he gained a lot.
At first, taking advantage of the convenience of the E-era, I searched in the newspapers and periodicals of the Republic of China, and got dozens of articles about Li Dingzhuo, covering religion, translation, poetry, western learning and other fields. It’s surprising that it covers a wide range of fields. Following the clues, we found two issues of Integration, edited by Li Dinggan, in the periodical library of the Republic of China of the National Library of China, and copied a copy of A Record of the Scar of Crimson in the Microform Center. Walking down like this, I suddenly found that Li Dingji is not far from us, and the materials about him are not as scarce as before. This batch of materials is very valuable for us to understand Li Dinggan’s life and spirit.
In the late 1940s, Li Dinggan founded Integration magazine at his own expense. According to the examples listed on the cover of the inaugural issue, the contents of the magazine mainly focus on four parts: writing, learning skills, philosophy and ethics, with the aim of "knowing the past and the present from the outside, saving oneself and saving the country and the world". Although the inaugural issue is a thin volume, the catalogue is divided into more than ten categories, such as treatises, literary records, poetry records, ci records, music records, quotations, Shi Shuo Xin Yu, letters, poetry talks and ci talks. The authors are famous scholars such as Chen Yinque, Meng Sen and Lu Qian. In the inaugural issue, Li Dingzhuo published eight works of political theory, ci poetry and poetic talk under the pseudonyms of Li Xingzha, Yi Mei and A Tong respectively, and in the second issue, nearly 20 articles of Li Dingzhuo were published. It can be seen that Integration magazine has become Li Dingzhuo’s own "mouthpiece" (when he founded the Chinese Society in Shanghai, he also used Sinology Newsletter as the mouthpiece). Two issues of Integration, with more than 20 articles, opened a door for a new understanding of Li Dingzhuo.
Li Dinggan, editor-in-chief of Integration No.2.
Li Dingzhuo’s most complete work is "The Record of the Scar of the Red Clouds", which is a learning record. On the right side of the cover of the book collected by the National Library of China, there is the words "courtesy of the author of the National Beiping Library", which should be written by Li Dinggan. The book "Origination" in front of the book said that it "didn’t have a good career and didn’t achieve fame", "I was deeply grateful for my teacher’s kindness, but I was disappointed and infinite", and "the articles of teachers’ Taoism were full of voices and smiles, but there were too many reporters", so it "sent the day as a text and cataloged it into a book", describing what the teacher inherited, and it was ". From primary school to university (especially the teachers in the eighth provincial middle school), the events of Mr. Ding Shanzhi, Yu Guiyan, Li Gengsheng, Zhuang Hongxuan, Ye Yigu, Dong Bodu, Liu Boming, Shen Shangqi, Du Zuoliang and Mei Disheng are recorded separately. At the end of the book, there are four appendices. Don’t remember the deeds of Wang Boqin (Winter Drink), Li Xiang (Trial Speech), Huang Kan (Ji Gang) and Master Hongyi.
Li Ding is the author of "A Record of the Scar of Crimson Clouds"
The back page of the cover of "The Record of the Scar of a Scar" is the catalogue of Li Dinggan’s works:
A Brief Introduction to the Credentials of Qidan (printed on Taoist Paper) A Textual Research Record of Shakespeare (the manuscript was deposited in the National Compilation Hall and was destroyed by the Japanese invaders)
Three major problems in material construction (the first half contains Tunxi China People’s Daily)
A Record of the Faithfulness of the Catastrophe (published in Zhenjiang New Jiangsu Newspaper in several chapters)
A discussion on the communication of Chinese studies and Chinese studies (poetry anthology) Yi Mei Ci (ci anthology)
Disgusting language (anthology)
When Li Dinggan wrote down these memories, most of the teachers had already passed away. Every time he read the teacher’s kindness, he was often disappointed and even shed tears, which led to the publication of such a moving learning record as "The Record of Crimson Scars". In the book "Mr. Zhuang’s Persuasion", Li Dinggan recalled that when he was a child, he studied with Mr. Zhuang Qichuan, and because he was "never working hard" and "stubborn and playful", he failed his teacher’s painstaking efforts and often felt guilty. As a result, I thought of the students I had taught, "Even though I saw my books from all my disciples, I forced them to take notes from my mouth to submit them. If they were as I like, the class would be only two or three people, which would make my heart ache inexplicably." I thought this was "the present report for my teacher." He fancied it, "I don’t know my students, but now there are university professors (such as Chen Dinghong), and their disciples can be as enthusiastic as their predecessors, and their disciples’ transcripts can also do their best." In "A Brief Introduction to the Purport of Integrated Compilation Society" (the first issue of Integration), when referring to the students who taught in Yangzhou Sinology Specialized School, he wrote proudly: "There are Cheng Yunqing, Fei Mingluan, He Minglong and Chen Hengpu."
In the book "A Record of the Scar of a Crimson", the friendship between Li Dinggan and his teacher can be seen everywhere from time to time, and his style of being a man and studying is also revealed from time to time. "Mr. Li’s Loan for Gold" is about Li Gengsheng, who teaches in the eighth provincial middle school. When he heard that Li Dingji was "short of money, and he didn’t have enough room and board, and he didn’t feel enough", he asked the client to transfer ten gold. Unexpectedly, Li Gengsheng was later killed in the village by vendetta, and Li Dinggan was obsessed with Mr. Li’s loan, always trying to raise money to find opportunities to return his philosophical heirs. Later, I was transferred to the client, and my heart began to be a little safe. In "Mr. Li Shenyan’s Personal Experience", Li Dingji recalled Li Shenyan’s remarks about "leaving his relatives to be beautiful" and aroused his indignation at the plagiarists. "Literati’ painstaking efforts are condensed into articles, and ghosts and gods should be cared for, so that we can kill such thieves."
There are many other words in the book, which can supplement the biography of scholars. For example, "Mr. Wang Dongyin’s Personal Experience" describes that when Wang Bokun was teaching Southeast University, he was "dressed in cloth, similar to Mr. Liu Yimou, and indifferent to elegance" and "what he taught was poetry and neo-Confucianism. For example, "The Book of Songs" also selects hundreds of poems from a literary perspective, "Mr. Wang is good at poetry and respects Lao Du". It is also mentioned that there were three Du Shi lecturers in Southeast University at that time, namely Hu Xiaoshi, Li Shenyan and Wang Boqin. Also remember the characteristics of their respective lectures: "Mr. Hu Xiaoshi likes to attach the words of the new school of rhetoricians, Mr. Li Shenyan takes the words of the Selected Works as evidence, and Mr. Du discusses poetry." "Mr. Huang Jigang’s kiss", Huang Kan to Southeast University to give lectures, Li Dinggan went to attend, "Mr. Sit established, enter the room, everyone is awed. And Mr. looks very ugly, dental caries sound Chu, not easy to distinguish. " Remember what he said, "I will continue to talk about the following letters in the stream group, and take the sentences in the Book of Songs as an example; Occasionally or slightly turn over the books, and at least what is written on the blackboard. However, a quiet and profound attitude is imperceptible and calm. "
The Record of the Scar of the Red Clouds also recorded Li Dinggan’s opinions to many scholars at that time. Such as "Mr. Mei’s Papers", that is, Hu Shi had a fierce criticism:
Gai Hu is a philosophy of life. In the United States, he caters to his countrymen, but when he returns home, he relies on the United States to respect himself. The loneliness of not being willing to teach is to put forward political opinions in Hard Weekly and Reading Magazine. Mr. Mei congratulated him by saying, "Mr. Mei is very good at talking about politics, which is better than advocating experimental philosophy and vernacular writing." Hu mouqiang has always explained himself with his studies. However, I think Hu Mou later worked in China College, and talked about his constitutional human rights in the magazines he edited. He was in cahoots with Luo Longji, but his knowledge of political science was really shallow, which was beyond Roche’s. When the national disaster broke out, the Anti-Japanese War broke out, and Hu was appointed as the ambassador to the United States with American Express, and Mr. Mei was also appointed as a political commissar with a professor from Zhejiang University. So far, the situation has changed, and Mr. Hu’s contribution to China is geometric, which is unknown to us, but we know that Americans love Hu Shi very much and despise Chinese in general! Whoo! Is it true that the ambassador is so unworthy?
Except for two relatively complete works, A Brief Introduction to the Letters of the Khitan and A Record of the Scar of the Red Clouds, and dozens of articles scattered in newspapers and periodicals, most of the works listed on the back cover of the Record of the Scar of the Red Clouds are missing. From the order of these works, we can also see Li Dinggan’s emphasis on his own research results of Qidan characters. Seeing this catalogue of works, we can’t help asking, since Li Dinggan’s interests involve religion, translation, poetry and western learning, what is the opportunity to turn to the study of Qidan characters?
According to LIU Feng-kun’s Life of Li Ding-gan and Study on the Fine Print of Qidan, Li Ding-gan first came into contact with the fine print of Qidan, and read the rubbings attached to the article Nine Kinds of Postscripts and Tails of Liao Monuments by Professor Meng Sen (History of Word Heart, 1868~1938). There are nine kinds of Liao Monuments, of which the eighth and ninth kinds are the eight. After reading it, Meng Sen recommended it to Sinology Quarterly, which was published in Volume III, No.4.
According to Meng Sen’s "Postscript on the Credentials of Qidan", it is said that:
After the discovery of Liao stele in Jehol, I only got a photocopy of its rubbings … Li Junxiaotong, eager to learn and ponder, touched his curiosity and love of the ancient times, and made books thousands of miles away, making up for ignorance. It is not only a textual research on the book tablet of Khitan in Jehol, but also an enlightenment. A few days later, it was integrated into "A Brief Introduction to the Letters of Qidan", and there are quite a few literal examples to be found. Taking the Khitan script as a script without books to read, if you get enough, you will have enough Khitan script.
LIU Feng-ti’s account of Li Ding-gan’s study of the Khitan script coincides with Meng Sen’s postscript. Li Dinggan also talked about his experience in the study of Qidan characters in the preface to disgusting words (the first issue of Integration), which has a more detailed description:
At the age of 18, I worked as a member of the National Compilation Museum, and the more I encouraged myself to learn. Shi Chengming ordered the translation of Shakespeare’s Textual Research Record, referring to hundreds of books, and taking its essence as a note. The rubbings in Qidan in Liao Mausoleum of Shire River were exhibited and transmitted to the National Peking University Institute. Scholars in France and Japan failed to distinguish its structural grammar. Yu Nai spent a few days first writing a tablet test, which was published in Sinology Quarterly, and then synthesized into a Brief Introduction to the Letters of Qidan, which was called the help of my mother for sixty years. My mother took Changji as a warning, so Mr. Meng Xinshi of Wujin gave a poem saying: "It shows the mysterious power, and it introduces the longevity words. I want to play with Nanya and talk about the North Hall. Turbid times are perverse, and the door is clear and filial. Nausea turns over the ring, and the hand is not exhausted. " Gai Documentary also. Yu Xuan resigned due to illness and went back to his hometown. What he learned all his life was forgotten for a while. After that, although he gradually recovered, his memory eventually lost.
Li Ding wrote "A Brief Introduction to the Credentials of Qidan" (for Tsinghua University)
According to Li Dinggan’s self-report, it was accidental that he turned to the study of Qidan characters. It was after he became an interpreter in the National Compilation Hall in 1933 that he was transferred to the Khitan script. We will be curious, in just a few days, how can Li Dinggan make a breakthrough in the interpretation and reading of strange Qidan characters?
Li Ding-gan has a basic knowledge of elementary school. In "Mr. Huang Jigang’s Personal Notes", he once said that "Yu Zhi’s primary school was introduced from western comparative literature, which is similar to what Wang Zhou’s father said", but he did not take Huang Kan’s ancient sound theory for granted. Since then, he has taught Jiangdu County No.3 Middle School, and once wrote "On the Confusion of Ancient Phones", including a section devoted to Huang Kan’s ancient phonology. It can be seen that it is no accident that Li Dingji can make rapid achievements in the interpretation and reading of strange Qidan characters.
In the preface to the language of disgusting words, "My mother admonishes me with long-term nausea", and this half sentence can also be seen that Li Dingji’s mother is a sensible person, not comparable to the vulgar village. Previously, we didn’t understand that Li was actually a "Yizheng clan". The article "Mr. Zhuang’s exhortation to learn" describes the literary influence of Zhuang Qichuan (word Hongxuan) on Li Dinggan when he was teaching in No.8 Middle School. Among them, an interesting thing is described in particular. Li Dingzhuo was gifted and intelligent, and Zhuang Qichuan was very fond of him. He specifically told him that "when he returned home after class, he should take supplementary reading materials, such as Records of Historical Records, and study them from time to time". Li Dinggan replied that he did not prepare this book. However, Mr. Zhuang said, "Otherwise, my son belongs to Yizheng clan, and there will be plenty of books. Why not have this book?" Then, when Li Dinggan got home, he asked his mother if there was this book in her home. Her mother took out six volumes of Zhu Mo’s overprinted Records of Historical Records from the bookcase. Li Dinggan said, "See the weekly review of his commentary, which enlightens people’s sanity and makes them forget their tiredness." Six volumes of Records of Historical Records will be finished that night. Through this incident, we can also see that, indeed, as Zhuang Hongxuan said, the Li family in Yizheng is a "clan" with a rich collection of books, and Li Dingzhuo is not without family origins.
In order to outline Li Dinggan’s life experience in an all-round way, this paper, based on the original materials, such as Records of the Scar of the Red River and Integration (mainly, a Brief Introduction to the Purport of the Integration Compilation Society and a Preface to the Disgusting Language), refers to Li Dinggan’s Life and a Study on the Fine Print of Qidan, and the Interpretation of Qidan Literature.
Li Dinggan, born on October 14th, 1907, whose name is Xiao Tong (also called Xiao Tong, Xiao Tong) and name is Xing Cha, and whose pen names are Chang Sheng, Yi Mei, A Tong, etc. (Preface to < Nausea >): "Fu Yu’s life is a text, and his signature is related to the topic, which is uncertain at first. On learning and politics, each is called the star hawthorn. Talk about trivial language, or be a smoker. And poetry rhymes, many memories of plum. " ), Yizheng, Jiangsu Province. When he was five or six years old, he entered Li primary and secondary school (the school was located in the teacher Wang Shu’s east home). Not long after, my father died.
During his school days, Li Ding’s homework was excellent, and teachers often rewarded him. In the summer of 1916, after graduating from primary school, he entered the eighth provincial middle school. At that time, literature was divided into branches, and Li Dinggan was divided into real branches (that is, mathematical and physical branches) because he was still young. In Provincial No.8 Middle School, Li Dingzhuo was taught by Li Gengsheng, Zhuang Qichuan and Ye Weishan, which had a great influence on the later transfer of literature and history.
Li Dinggan was good at arithmetic since childhood and devoted himself to mathematics, physics and engineering. In 1923, he was admitted to the National Southeast University. He planned to enter the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, traveled to Britain, France and Germany, and then returned to China to work. (Notes on Mr. Du’s Calculation, Notes on Mr. Ye’s Gift) After entering National Southeast University, I took the courses of "Introduction to Engineering" and "Introduction to Fire Prevention" in my first year as a preparatory course. In the first year, the courses offered were simple, but Li Dinggan was uninterested. A year later, the school closed engineering, and the professors of science resigned one after another. Li Dinggan had to be demoted to enter the arts and sciences, which gradually deviated from his initial willingness to take the exam. ("Mr. Ye’s Message")
At that time, the National Southeast University followed the ideal of former American President Wilson, with arts and sciences as the center and agricultural and commercial education as the assistant. For this helpless choice, Li Dingzhuo "had to stay in the arts and sciences for a year until the next year’s division" ("Mr. Du Bu Shu Ji"), and took courses such as philosophy, western history, English literature history, word selection, and German, French and Japanese. When the school was divided into departments, there was no choice, so I switched to foreign languages. Li Ding-gan is selfish, still studying mathematics and physics, and taking advanced physics, calculus, probability and other courses. At this point, Li Dinggan’s expectation for himself in mathematics and physics is, "In the subject of mathematics, I am self-reliant and intelligent, and I have not made deep efforts. I thought that after that, I only wanted to understand the mathematical part of China’s old book, and it was enough "("Mr. Du Bu Shu Ji ").
In 1927, after Li Dinggan graduated from National Southeast University, he worked as a teacher in Ren Zhongxue for many years. During this period, he and Lu Qian, Fan Cunzhong and others founded Di Lv Society to introduce western culture, enrich the content of Chinese studies, and made concerted efforts to translate the Encyclopedia Britannica. Later, when the revolutionary army arrived in Nanjing, the political situation changed, the school was reorganized and the members were scattered. In 1933, he was hired to compile by Nanjing National Compilation Museum, where there was a plan to translate The Complete Works of Shakespeare. During this period, Li Ding-gan undertook to translate Shakespeare’s Textual Research Record, referring to hundreds of books, taking its essence as a note, and the manuscript was destroyed by Japanese artillery fire. At this time, Li Dinggan read Meng Sen’s Nine Kinds of Postscripts on Liao Monuments, and began to contact the fine print materials of Qidan, and there were such publications as A Study on the Monument of the Khitan in Jehol and A Brief Introduction to the Khitan Letters, which led to the study of the Khitan characters. Later, due to encephalopathy, he helped to run Yangzhou Sinology Specialized School, taught Historical Records as a full-time teacher in Yangzhou, and opened three other subjects: modern literature, western literature and mathematics.
In 1937, when his mother died, Li Ding-gan was in great pain, touching the hardships of his life and drawing on the door of conversion. Li Hongyi, a master, was recorded as a disciple and became a layman (No.1 and No.2 in Volume 6 of Sensibility, Li Xingcha’s Why I Believe in Buddhism). After the July 7th Incident, the National College was closed, and Li Ding returned to his hometown to avoid chaos and founded Wucheng College of Arts and Sciences. In the spring of 1941, he went to an isolated island in Shanghai, established the China Society, attached the China Institute, and founded the magazine Sinology Newsletter. After the fall of the island, he took his family to southern Anhui, still focusing on promoting Chinese studies and introducing western learning. During this period, Li Ding-gan taught in the middle school attached to Fudan University (moved to Jingxian County, Gannan) and Guangyi Middle School (Maolin Town, Jingxian County). He returned to Shanghai and set up the Compilation Society of Integration.
In 1945, he served as the clerk of the Jiangsu Provincial High Court. In 1946, he served as a member of the Personnel Office of the Civil Affairs Department of Jiangsu Province (according to the "Notice for Printing" attached at the end of the book "The Record of the Scar of the Scar", the address was "Zhenjiang Civil Affairs Department"). In May, 1947, I printed a thousand copies of the book "A Record of the Scar of the Scar". In July of the same year, the first issue of Integration, edited by Li Dinggan, was published. In September of the same year, the second issue of Integration magazine was published. From the autumn of 1947 to the spring of 1948, he taught in Yangzhou Middle School, Jiangsu Province. In 1948, he served as the head of the fifth section of the third department of the Anti-smoking Committee of the Ministry of the Interior. In 1949, he went to Shanghai Wusong Middle School to teach.
From the end of December, 1957 to the beginning of July, 1958, Li Dingji wrote back to the editorial department of Zhonghua Book Company for the publication of his manuscript "A New Comment on the Khitan Letters". At this time, Li Dingzhuo has been involved in the study of Qidan characters for more than twenty years. According to the letter from the Personnel Section of Shanghai Editorial Institute of Zhonghua Book Company, Li Dinggan was removed from Wusong Middle School because of "political problems". It is also said that the government found out that Li Dingzhuo was a military spy and was arrested in April 1958. On December 15th, 1958, he was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by Shanghai Baoshan People’s Court and detained in Shanghai Tilanqiao Prison. In the spring of 1959, he was transferred to Yeshan Mining Area, Shun ‘an Town, Tongling City, Anhui Province to serve his sentence. In July of the same year, he wrote to his family and transferred to Jitoushan Mining Area in Shun ‘an Town to serve his sentence. In August of the same year, the family sent a parcel and it was returned on the grounds that there was no such person. Since then, the whereabouts are unknown.
He is the author of a new account of the Khitan credentials, a textual research on Shakespeare (translated), a history of traffic between China and Europe (translated), a record of the shadow of the crimson owl, three major problems in material construction, and a record of faithfulness in the catastrophe. There is a collection of poems "You You Yin", a collection of words "Yi Mei Ci" and a collection of essays "Disgusting Words". There are also works on phonology, poetry and ci, which are scattered in newspapers and periodicals.
Restoring Li Dingzhuo’s legendary but unfortunate life makes us feel more deeply. Li Dingzhuo was originally devoted to mathematics and physics, and he had the ambition to go to Massachusetts Institute of Technology for further study and study in Britain, France and Germany before returning to China to work. However, fate seems to be playing tricks on him from the beginning. At first, the National Southeast University stopped offering engineering courses, which made him deviate from his original intention. In desperation, he turned to foreign languages and studied Chinese from famous teachers. At that time, Li Dingji didn’t know that there was a more severe test waiting for him.
After Li Ding entered the National Compilation Museum, he was entrusted with the translation of Shakespeare’s Textual Research, but the translation was taken care of and destroyed by Japanese artillery fire. He occasionally touched the Liao stele and came to the club, but the Qidan characters were actually interpreted, and then he was immersed in it for 20 years, which became a grand view. Unexpectedly, when he was trying to win the publishing opportunity for the manuscript, the disaster suddenly came. I couldn’t help myself, and the manuscript also dispersed. During that time when the literature was blank, he should be able to pray secretly. Praying for ghosts and gods can also protect the new theory of Qidan credentials, which condensed his efforts for more than 20 years.
If Li Ding has knowledge under the spring, it will be gratifying to know that half a century later, people still remember him, and remember his figure when the field of Qidan writing research was a wild hazel. However, he has set foot in so many fields, and those words full of talents are not good. He probably didn’t expect that when he was really rejected and forgotten by the world, no one would ever write a tearful account of his personality and his wonderful knowledge like he did when he wrote A Record of the Scar of Crimson.