Volume 1: A sound on Wall Street, Xinxiang City is busy copying books Chapter 161 Can't Lose
The subtitle of this chapter: Two hu swords are so powerful that they can break the sky; a young man must be romantic... and 18 points of physique.
"Visiting prostitutes and gazing at bamboos were considered elegant by scholars in the old times. During the transition period between the old and the new era in the Republic of China, many celebrities in the cultural and ideological circles were still very interested in these two things.
The two most famous among them are Yuan Yanshu and Hu Shizhi, who are known as the "two monkeys of the Republic of China".Coincidentally, both of them are liberals and both have PhDs from the United States.
Let's start with Mr. Hu. He was quite disapproving of the Mahjong craze that swept the world in the 1930s, and even wrote an article criticizing it, saying, "We travel around the world, but we see that those advanced nations and civilized countries are just as addicted to the wasteful Mahjong as the Chinese."
However, Hu Shizhi was a famous card addict in his early years. In his diary in the first two months of 1910, there were 16 records of playing cards. He was also very upset about wasting time, and once wrote in self-blame: "Hu Shizhi, Hu Shizhi! How could you be so decadent! Have you forgotten the study plan you set before?"
As for drinking and visiting prostitutes, they were also a big hobby of the young Master Hu. Once, after getting drunk, he had to spend a night in the detention room because of a fight with a policeman.
Mr. Yuan Yanshu was a famous and open-minded person in the Republic of China. He was called "the last madman in China" by later generations. He often said that he was born with two things. One was "a straight and level tongue".", and the other one is "King Hui's illness".
The so-called "fair and fair tongue" refers to his love of cursing people, just like the mad scholar Ni Heng in the Three Kingdoms period. After often liked to write monthly reviews in Chinese and foreign newspapers, and he was very blunt when criticizing Chinese and foreign figures at that time.
King Hui's illness was naturally the "I am lustful" mentioned in "Mencius - King Hui of Liang, Part 2".
As for the origin of Mr. Yuan and mahjong, it is well known. The reason why mahjong can become an international modern competitive sport is precisely because of his great promotion during his study in the United States, which makes mahjong occupy an important position in today's sports world.
Not only did he establish the first mahjong club, the first mahjong school, and the first mahjong association in the United States, he also personally formulated a complete set of competition rules for mahjong that were both competitive and entertaining, making it a formal modern competitive sport.
But what is puzzling is that Mr. Yuan Yanshu rarely played mahjong with others after that. Some people once asked him why he did so. Mr. Yuan said that he popularized mahjong in the United States just to promote the national quintessence, and he himself felt that playing mahjong was a waste of time.
However, when he returned to China in the early 1920s, he and Mr. Hu Shizhi had an interesting story because of mahjong.
Mr. Hu, who was teaching and writing books in Nanjing and Shanghai at the time, repeatedly invited Mr. Yuan to play cards with him, but the latter politely declined.
"This old monkey from Anhui (Mr. Yuan's words)" is indeed a wonderful person. He actually teamed up with two famous Shanghai girls who were good at hand-playing to issue a challenge to Mr. Yuan in the newspaper.
The letter of challenge said that they wanted to have a friendly mahjong match with Mr. Yuan because he promoted Chinese culture overseas and they admired his style. No matter how much Mr. Yuan lost, it would be used as a night's accommodation for the two sisters; and if he won, the two famous concubines would accompany him for a month for free.
The letter of challenge was published in major newspapers and immediately caused a sensation in Shanghai. According to onlookers, Mr. Yuan laughed out loud when he saw the letter of challenge and immediately wrote back to accept the challenge. He also said in the letter that they didn't need to accompany him for a month, but just one night, because after that night, the two female schoolmasters would not be able to receive guests for a month.
At that time, the mature people thought that this was really insulting. Mr. Yuan was a PhD student in the United States, a good friend of the President of the United States, a secretary to the German Emperor, and a world-renowned scholar. He should never lower his status and get involved in such a ridiculous farce.
In particular, Mr. Yuan's father was furious when he learned about it, and sent his second son to tell his eldest son that if he went to the appointment, he would publish an announcement in the newspaper to sever his father-son relationship with him. Mr. Yuan pondered for a moment, wrote a couplet, and asked his younger brother to take it back.
When Mr. Yuan opened it, he saw the words: Peach Blossom Fan in Peach Blossom Temple, Willow Poems on Willow Bank. There are four famous scholars in these two sentences, three of which are easy to guess. "Yang" refers to Yang Shen, who is known as one of the three great talents of the Ming Dynasty together with Jie Jin and Xu Wei. As a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, he naturally understood the meaning of these two sentences. He sighed and said to others, "I can't be a talented scholar, but I gave birth to a crazy student." So he stopped the matter.
Later, there was a proverb in Shanghai dialect that is still used in the 21st century: I would rather kill the old man than stand him up. The old man refers to the father, and standing up is Shanghai dialect, which means to break an appointment or a promise. However, this sentence should be read in the Wu dialect, which has a great flavor.
This card game is on Sima RoadThe game was held in a bookstore in Huileli, and the four of them agreed to play sixteen rounds. They played from noon until the early morning of the next day.
Mr. Yuan lost a lot at the beginning, while the other three naturally won a lot. Mr. Hu even teased him, saying that it was no wonder that Hongjian refused to play mahjong, because his card skills were so bad. However, the only big loser did not change his expression and just smiled.
In the last round of the North Wind game, Mr. Yuan happened to be the banker. At this time, the situation on the field suddenly changed. He won dozens of hands in a row and won back all the money he lost. According to the servants who served them at the time, his card playing was unpredictable and made the three people pale and their hands tremble.
Mr. Yuan Yanshu , who finally won the money back, deliberately split the cards to end the game. After counting the chips, he just won a single hand. After playing mahjong for more than ten hours, Mr. Yuan, who was still energetic, said to Mr. Hu, "I am not as good as you in terms of Chinese studies, and you are not as good as me in terms of Chinese quintessence."
After saying this, he left with the two beauties, looking like gods. And after one night, things were just as he said, the two beauties closed their doors to visitors for a month. Someone asked them what happened that night, but the two of them smiled without saying anything, just showing the kind of smile you know.
This incident was also an important reason why Mr. Hu Shizhi later vowed to quit gambling.
After this incident, it was said that the Yuan family had a secret book passed down from Ge Zhichuan and Tao Hongjing. Some people even paid a large sum of money to ask Mr. Yuan for the Huangchi technique, which made him laugh and cry. In fact, these two were both famous Taoists who were good at the "Huangchi technique". Coincidentally, Ge Hong was from Jurong (Zhenjiang) and Tao Hongjing was from Moling (Nanjing).
But it’s not over yet.
Later, Mr. Yuan was invited to Beijing to give lectures, and the academic community in the north was skeptical about his card skills and "you know". So Mr. Mei Yiqi, a physics professor at Tsinghua University at the time, one of the first Boxer Indemnity students to study in the United States and the future president of Tsinghua University, came forward and invited two famous northern girls to challenge Mr. Yuan under the same conditions.
By the way, Mr. Mei is also famous for his great drinking capacity and his love for mahjong.
Mr. Yuan accepted the challenge without hesitation. This time, the battlefield was set in Shaanxi Lane, the first of the Eight Great Hutongs. The whole game was completely different from the one in Shanghai. Mr. Yuan Yanshu started to win over Mr. Mei and the two northern rouges, but later he lost all the money he won. After a round of accounts, he found that he still won a Ping Hu.
After comparing the results of the two mahjong games, people suddenly realized that Mr. Yuan Yanshu was indeed a top mahjong master.
Later, someone even wrote a limerick for these two mahjong games:
"There is no harmony on the four roads.
The two female schoolmasters were very tired.
Mei is unlucky in the Eight Great Hutongs.
But he acted as matchmaker for Xiao Yuan."
——Excerpt from Anecdotes of Masters in the Republic of China
