The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Beiping, No. 30 Chunshu Hutong.

A simple courtyard house, this is where Gu Hongming lived in his later years.

The French doctor took off the needle of the syringe, carefully put it into the iron box, and said regretfully, "Mr. Gu, I can't do anything, this is the last injection."

"Doctor, what's wrong with my father?" Gu Shouyong asked worriedly.

The French doctor said: "At first it was just a common cold, but now it has turned into pneumonia."

Gu Shouyong was very angry immediately, and asked, "What kind of quack doctor are you? After taking your medicine and injections, not only did people not get better, but their condition got worse and worse!"

"Mr. Gu is too old, and his physical functions have degenerated. Even if he didn't have this cold, he would have..." The French doctor didn't finish his sentence, but his meaning was already expressed clearly.

Gu Shouyong seemed to have lost all strength, and said in a low voice, "Is there really no other way?"

"Cough cough cough..."

Gu Hongming coughed repeatedly on the bed, opened his eyes and said, "Everyone is mortal, and it's just death sooner or later. Why do you have to cry? Come on, baby, give your father a laugh!"

Gu Shouyong grinned, but that smile was uglier than crying.

"No prospect," Gu Hongming scolded, "Go away, what should you do, I won't die for a while!"

Gu Shouyong didn't dare to take half a step away, he was reprimanded by his father a few more times before he said: "I'll send a telegram to call Neng Yi and Wen Jin back."

Gu Hongming stopped immediately: "Don't go, they all have their own business. I will die as soon as I die, don't delay my children and grandchildren."

"Then I'll cook Chinese medicine for you."

Gu Shouyong found an excuse, and immediately ran to the telegraph office to inform his children, telling them to come to Peiping to perform their last filial piety.

When Gu Shouyong came back from the outside, he saw his father lying on the bed struggling to read a book. He called his servant and yelled at him: "Master is sick like this, and you still let him read? Who got the book?"

"Yes... it was sent by a professor at Peking University." The servant replied.

"Ahem," Gu Hongming made a weak voice, "Shouyong, come here and read for me. I'm dizzy and can't see clearly."

Gu Shouyong was about to cry, and persuaded: "Father, you can rest easy and recuperate, and read books after you recover from your illness."

Gu Hongming said: "For me, books are the best medicine. Read it quickly!"

Wiping his tears, Gu Shouyong took the book from his father, only to see that it was titled "Guns, Bacteria, and Steel", and he immediately opened it and read it aloud: "Preface——Mr. Gu's question. For different parts of the world For all the nations of the world..."

Gu Hongming has been running a fever and his head is dizzy. But at this moment, he regained his clarity in an instant. He closed his eyes and listened carefully to his son's reading. He didn't cough for several hours.

Gu Shouyong's throat was dry from reading, he looked at the sky outside and said, "Father, let's eat first, I'll serve you a bowl of porridge."

"Well, let's go. Keke cough cough..."

Gu Hongming coughed loudly again, coughing endlessly, spitting out a few mouthfuls of bloody phlegm from time to time.

The father and son just listened to it, read it together, and recited some key points repeatedly.

After three full days, when Gu Shouyong finished reading the book, Gu Hongming suddenly laughed hoarsely: "Hahaha, good book, good book! Cough..."

Coughing and coughing, suddenly there was no sound.

...

Liang Qichao was also in poor health. He had suffered from uremia for many years and had to go to Xiehe Hospital several times a month.

In the Tianjin Concession, the Italian-style street of later generations, there is a small white western-style building. Liang Qichao gave this building a nice name-ice drinking room.

Liang Qichao had already resigned from his professorship at Tsinghua University, because his health could not support him, so he simply retreated to Tianjin to recuperate in peace of mind, and at the same time wrote the last book of his life, "The Chronicle of Xin Jiaxuan".

Another morning, Liang Qichao took the train to Peiping. After a routine checkup at Union Hospital, he leisurely went to Tsinghua Garden to meet old friends.

"Mr. Ren, you came early today!" Wang Guowei said with a smile while cupping his fists.

Wang Guowei should have committed suicide by diving last year, but the appearance of Zhou Hexuan brought changes. His son did not die of illness, his daughter-in-law was not taken away by his in-laws, and Wang Guowei did not completely fall out with his in-laws Luo Zhenyu because of this.

So, he is still alive, without the slightest idea of ​​suicide.

Liang Qichao sat down to drink tea and said, "I finished reading Mingcheng's new work yesterday, and I was quite impressed."

Wang Guowei shook his head and smiled wryly: "That "Guns, Germs, and Steel" is even more bizarre than "The Rise of Great Powers". It actually talks about the evolution of human society. It seems like history but not history. I don't quite understand it."

"It's not that you don't understand, it's just that you're not interested," Liang Qichao said with a smile. "The wonderful thing about Mingcheng's professional works is that he stands on top of the sky and overlooks the earth. The books you and I write are a glimpse of the leopard. Books control the overall situation. Mingcheng's talent is rare in the world, and he has to be admired."

Wang Guowei waved his hand and said, "Anyway, I can't read well. There are all kinds of foreign names, people's names, place names, country names, clan names... and each of them is so long that it makes me dizzy."

"Hahaha, when I was studying oracle bone inscriptions, I didn't see you getting dizzy before," Liang Qichao said with a smile, "What I admire most about Mingcheng's book is his understanding of the highly complex civilizations evolved by humans in Eurasia. Gives a long chain from geography, ecology, production, medicine, to system, culture and technology to explain. In the last chapter of the book, he analyzes and predicts China's future."

"Oh?" Wang Guowei was surprised, "I didn't see the end, what did he write?"

Liang Qichao said: "He talked freely about China's future system, one-party dictatorship, and centralized democracy. He said that China is too big, has too much population, and is too backward in economy, military, technology, and education. If China wants to develop rapidly, it must have a A strong centralized government. But centralization does not mean dictatorship, but there must be a... how should I put it, a power center like the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty."

Wang Guowei frowned and said, "Why can't it be a multi-party republic like the United States?"

Liang Qichao said: "In his book, he analyzed the current situation in the United States, saying that the United States is actually a deformed oligarchy. No matter how many political parties there are, they serve a few capitalists. If China implements a multi-party system, it will inevitably have endless disputes and cause serious internal friction. As for the specific argument, you can read the book yourself, and you can’t explain it clearly in a few words.”

"It sounds like he is looking for the Kuomintang party in the south, won't it arouse Zhang Zuolin's dissatisfaction?" Wang Guowei worried.

"That's not enough, it's just a purely academic point of view," Liang Qichao said with a smile, "It includes not only the political system, but also the economic aspect. What state capitalism did he propose, saying that free capitalism in Europe and the United States has serious loopholes, and that the Soviet Union The model of the two will eventually collapse, and the best choice is to get the essence of both... Haha, anyway, the absurd words in the whole article, judging from the current situation, are absolutely impossible to realize."

"I'm afraid this book will cause a lot of controversy." Wang Guowei said.

More than controversies, as soon as "Guns, Germs, and Steel" was published, Zhou Hexuan was sprayed bloody by countless scholars. The reason is the last chapter about China's future.