The second volume is full of glory and splendor in the capital, and the spirit is full of vitality in the foggy city. Chapter 192: The Banquet of Eight Horses (Part 1)
Subtitle of this chapter: May I ask what this person is? People call him a master.
To be clear, Tang Yongtong, Wu Mi and Chen Yinke came here to the banquet tonight naturally to meet our protagonist - Yuan Yanshu.
However, our Master Yuan’s protagonist halo has not yet been so strong that it can allow them who are not in America to appear here.
In fact, in April 1921 on the original timeline, the three Harvard geniuses were indeed all at Harvard University.
After this point, Wu Mi would return to China and become a scumbag... After that, Chen Yinke would go to the University of Berlin in Germany to study ancient Oriental and Central Asian scripts, as well as ancient Mongolian languages. Only Tang Yongtong would remain in America, earning a Master of Philosophy in 1922 before returning to China to become a professor of philosophy at National Southeast University.
Master Yuan once again looked at the three Chinese students studying at Harvard University in front of him, the three future masters of the Republic of China, and nodded with great satisfaction in his heart.
Now it’s all done. I’ve gathered the three Harvard heroes. Next, I can summon... well, to eat.
But there is one thing I have to do before eating, and that is...
"Everyone, it's a rare occasion for us to get together, so how can we not take a photo to commemorate it?"
Yuan Yanshu now has to start thinking about his posthumous reputation. In order to facilitate future "Yuan scholars", he decided to take more photos as long as conditions permit.
Well, actually this is a sequelae of smartphone users a hundred years later. Seeing celebrities is like taking a selfie with them.
He called out, "Someone come here..."
A male servant holding a camera and a spotlight came in from outside. After everyone sat down, he took a famous group photo which was later called "Eight Horses Picture" with a "snap".
Therefore, this meal was later called the "Eight Horses Banquet".
"Everyone, please take your seats."
Yuan Yanshu naturally took the main seat, and the other seven Seres people took their seats after some courtesy.
According to Seres custom, the oldest person, Chen Yinke, took the chief seat. Born in 1890, he was 31 years old this year. In fact, he was also the tallest person in the room, considering his grandfather was Chen Baozhen, the governor of Hunan.
Next came Tang Yongtong, born in 1893, and then Wu Mi, born in 1894, the same year as Yuan Yanshu. Yuan's three card partners sat next to him as companions. Huang Zongyi, not only the youngest but also Yuan Yanshu's junior, resolutely took the last seat.
Our Master Yuan naturally felt that this process was very troublesome, but he knew that he would have to face this kind of situation frequently after returning to China, so he decided to get used to it first.
The host, Yuan Yan, suddenly picked up a glass of wine, stood up, and said, "It is a great honor for me to meet these two outstanding men, Brother Xiyu and Brother Yuseng, today."
"It's a great pleasure to see Brother Heshou again, whom I haven't seen for a long time."
"Shuzhi came all the way from London to New York to see me. It must be a great pleasure anyway."
"As for the three of you..." He pointed at his three partners and said, "Finally, you're not playing mahjong with me anymore. That's a good thing..."
When everyone heard this, they naturally laughed out loud in unison, "Hahaha..."
Yuan Yan suddenly smiled and said, "Come on, brothers, let me toast you all first. Cheers!"
"cheers!"
After this glass of wine, the atmosphere at the table became lively. Everyone was toasting each other and the atmosphere was very harmonious.
As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together.
Some of the eight present were renowned masters of the Republic of China, while others were obscure historical backdrops. Yet, they were all exceptional individuals, the cream of the crop, the cream of the crop in Seres at the time.
In the late Qing Dynasty, after the Chinese finally realized their shortcomings and began to send students to the West, the new intellectuals can be roughly divided into four classes:
At the bottom are students from normal schools and local universities like Tianmo Chuanren; above them are students from famous Chinese universities, such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, Southeast University, and St. John's University; above them are students studying in Japan; and at the top are naturally students studying in Europe and the United States.
So what if Luo Puxiang studied veterinary medicine, a profession that takes care of livestock? He graduated from Cornell University.
So what if Lu Yan only studied for six years for undergraduate studies? He graduated from Harvard University.
So what if Yang Jingbang calls himself Yang Jingbang? He is an auditor at Columbia University Medical School.
Of course, these three wealthy students came to the United States to study at their own expense mainly to gild their reputations, not to rely on their diplomas for a living. Huang Zongyi, who was more special, also attended a military academy in the Netherlands.
When the three Harvard geniuses returned to China, they immediately became professors at famous universities, with a monthly salary of at least one or two hundred silver dollars.
Looking at the backgrounds of these people, none of them are outside the top 1%. Tang Yongtong's father was also a Jinshi in the Qing Dynasty.
And even though they are now full of Western knowledge, their foundation in Chinese studies is very solid. Even the Four Gentlemen of Plum, Orchid, Bamboo and Chrysanthemum and Huang Zongyi's childhood knowledge were learned from the Four Books and Five Classics.
To be honest, if our Master Yuan didn't have the memory of his great-great-grandfather, he probably wouldn't be able to open his mouth while eating this meal.
President Yuan's three poker partners could be considered uneducated, but if they were just socializing and chatting instead of talking about academic matters, they would still have a lot in common with the three Harvard geniuses.
Sadly, the masters of the Republic of China only had common language with people in their own circle.
Tang Yongtong, the least famous of the three Harvard geniuses, was also a master of ancient Chinese religious history and philosophy. The term "well-versed in both Chinese and Western culture" is not enough to describe him; it would be more accurate to add the term "Asian".
Not to mention Wu Mi and Chen Yinke.
The former's knowledge is so broad that he can teach dozens of courses, ranging from ancient Greek literature to classical Chinese and Dream of the Red Chamber. In the humanities and social sciences, it is difficult to define which subject he is an expert in.
Fu Sinian called the latter, "Mr. Chen's knowledge is the best in the past three hundred years." Wu Mi, who was already very knowledgeable, said of his classmate, "I must regard Yinque as the most knowledgeable person in all of China." Although Yinque was my friend, he was actually my teacher.
However, what use is such a learned scholar in today's chaotic world?
Why didn't the surviving Seres of the 1950s and 1960s embrace a national studies craze, or yearn for the Republican era? Then, in the 1970s, 1980s, and finally the late 1990s, did the saying "there are no more great masters after the Republic of China" begin to emerge?
The first and most important reason is that some Seres people ate too much and felt bloated, so they needed something to help them digest their food.
The second is a truth: all history is contemporary history. Some of these people who are in a panic want to use the past to satirize the present.
Finally, I have to admit that the style of the Republic of China is indeed beautiful.
Just watching these eight people eat a meal, they can speak eloquently, eat in a lavish and elegant manner. If you can drink with them at the same table, it is truly a refined experience.
As the saying goes, a full stomach brings peace of mind, and a full stomach brings invigoration. That year, there was a drought in the south of the Yangtze River, and people in Quzhou resorted to cannibalism.
