Sail across the sea

Chapter 562 What you said makes a lot of sense

Yuan Xiaoyan ordered two coffees. After the waiter, speaking in a local dialect, brought the coffees, she took a sip and then said to Zou Guohong:

"Professor Zou, please allow me to first introduce our magazine. Our magazine is a private current affairs journal sponsored by Beijing Fourth Dimension Culture Communication Co., Ltd. The purpose of the publication is to provide in-depth analysis of current affairs, politics, economics, society, culture and other issues. In today's era of intense ideological clashes, we aim to provide the public with diverse perspectives, guide public opinion, build consensus, and serve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

"Oh, that's wonderful. Our era truly needs excellent magazines like yours."

Zou Guohong nodded in approval, but what he was thinking was:
All that cryptic talk is just the most common political journals these days, isn't it? In the past few years, I've probably seen at least eighty, if not a hundred, of these kinds of journals.

The characteristic of these journals is that they all sing higher and higher tunes, but in reality, they either jump on social hot topics or engage in bizarre and superstitious activities. In short, they will do anything to attract attention, which is an open secret in the industry.

I just don't know why this woman who claims to be the editor-in-chief came to my door. What do I have to do with her magazine?

People who do historical research generally have a certain degree of composure. Zou Guohong only gave a few perfunctory replies and did not rush to ask Yuan Xiaoyan's purpose, but waited for her to speak on her own.

Sure enough, after introducing her journal, Yuan Xiaoyan began to talk about Zou Guohong:
"Professor Zou, we have learned from various sources that you are an expert specializing in comparative history, with profound knowledge in both European and Chinese history. We have found your articles published in academic journals and some cultural supplements, and we greatly admire your scholarship."

Zou Guohong waved his hand modestly and said, "Editor-in-Chief Yuan, you flatter me. I only have some knowledge of comparative history and can hardly be called an expert. As for the articles published in the cultural supplement, they were just commissioned articles by some friends in the cultural circle, and were just occasional works. I hope you will forgive my poor writing, Editor-in-Chief Yuan."

He became somewhat embarrassed as he spoke.

He was quite confident about the articles he published in academic journals. Although they weren't groundbreaking, they were at least rigorous, and their quality was worthy of his associate professor title.

The articles in those cultural supplements were simply cobbled together to earn some money. These newspaper supplements bore the word "culture," but their audience consisted of ordinary people with little cultural background. These people had no patience for academic research; they were just looking for novelty.

When Zou Guohong wrote articles for these supplements, he initially made a habit of quoting classical texts, fearing that he might be inaccurate or misleading in any way. However, after the articles were published, he discovered that the classic parts had been deleted by the editors, leaving only anecdotes and unofficial historical accounts.

Later on, he became too lazy to write seriously, and just used the knowledge he had accumulated over the years of academic study to write some jokes to cater to the editors' tastes.

Zou Guohong was too embarrassed to show such articles to his colleagues, feeling it was beneath his dignity. Normally, writing these kinds of articles wouldn't have been difficult for him; he could earn money simply by writing them—a cost-effective endeavor. But Zou Guohong lacked the courage to write a large number of these kinds of articles, precisely because he felt ashamed.

Now that Yuan Xiaoyan brought it up so seriously, even saying she admired his knowledge, he felt it was mockery no matter how he listened.

Yuan Xiaoyan smiled slightly and posed a question:
"Professor Zou, I've heard some historians say that China lacks a scientific, democratic, and cultural tradition in its history, and that China's level of civilization lags behind the West by more than 1000 years. They say that if China wants to become a civilized country, it must comprehensively learn from Western culture. What is your opinion on this view?" Zou Guohong frowned, thought for a moment, and then replied, "Learning from Western culture is not wrong. Culture needs exchange. The fact that Chinese culture has developed to this day also has its own factors in drawing on the strengths of others."

"However, the claim that China lacks a scientific, democratic, and cultural tradition in its history is debatable. I don't know much about science, but when it comes to democratic and cultural traditions, I think China is no less advanced than the West in these aspects. Or to put it more bluntly, I think it is much more advanced than the West."

A strange light appeared in Yuan Xiaoyan's eyes. She looked at Zou Guohong and asked with a smile, "You said that China's democratic traditions and cultural traditions are much more advanced than those of the West. Can you give an example?"

“Of course,” Zou Guohong said. “Take China’s imperial examination system for example. Many people think that the imperial examination system is a feudal and backward system, but they don’t know that the creation of the imperial examination system was a very great revolution in human history.”

"The purpose of the imperial examination system was to break the monopoly of feudal aristocratic families on state power and give children from poor families the opportunity to enter officialdom. It can be said that it achieved institutional fairness in talent selection."

"The imperial examination system was proposed in our country during the Sui and Tang dynasties, and it has existed for more than 1300 years. At that time, Western society was still under the rule of the church and the nobility. It would not be until 1000 years later that a similar selection system appeared in the West. It can be said that in terms of political fairness in society, the West was at least 1000 years behind China."

"You've put it so well!" Yuan Xiaoyan clapped her hands twice, then asked, "Have you ever written an article elaborating on such a brilliant point?"

Zou Guohong shook his head with a wry smile and said, "What brilliant viewpoints are these? They're just unorthodox. Everyone's talking about how to learn from the West these days, and the views you're talking about are the mainstream. If I wrote these things down, people would laugh at me."

"I think what you said makes a lot of sense, so why would it be laughed at?"

"Now everyone thinks that foreign things are the best. Even our students are keen to dye their hair yellow, saying it's fashionable. But it's just because yellow hair makes them look like foreigners. Think about it, even black hair looks rustic. If I were to say that China's imperial examination system is more advanced than foreign ones, wouldn't I be laughed at?"

"We're not laughing at you. Would you be willing to write down the points you just made?"

"What do you mean?"

"In other words, our publication desperately needs the viewpoints you just mentioned. If you'd like to write these viewpoints into an article, you can publish them in our publication. Let me think about it. Ideally, you could write an article of about 3000 words, roughly in the same format as the articles you used to write for those cultural supplements. We can offer you a fee of 200 yuan per thousand words."

"How many?"

Zou Guohong's eyes widened.

(End of this chapter)