Reborn Bao Guowei, I really didn’t want to be a great writer!

Chapter 386: The Master's Master? The Origin of Science Fiction!
A journey on the sea may seem novel at first, but after a while, it becomes just like that.

Even if you look at the same scenery for a long time, it will make people feel irritated.

However, Bao Guowei was not very aware of this situation.

Because he met an interesting friend on the ferry.

Mr. Wu Mi is a famous modern Chinese writer and master of Chinese studies, and is also one of the founders of the Academy of Chinese Studies at Tsinghua University.

Bao Guowei never thought that he would meet this gentleman on a cruise ship.

According to Wu Mi, he originally planned to take a train from Peking to Europe to study.

But due to some delays, the trip was eventually delayed. I had to come to Shanghai for exchanges, so I simply took the ferry to Europe after the exchange ended.

Obviously, in this era, cruise ships are much better than bumpy trains and have become the first choice for scholars visiting Europe in this era.

After Bao Guowei and Wu Mi talked, they felt that they had met too late. Since the journey was long, they might as well communicate and discuss research together often.

In this era, Wu Mi was highly respected and talented.

This person is a versatile person in literature. He has served as a professor at various universities in China. The subjects he has taught include but are not limited to English, English prose, foreign literature, classical literature, research on ancient Chinese poetry and novels, world ancient history, etc.

Bao Guowei plans to go to Peking next year. It can be said that Wu Mi is also a legendary master who must be known.

Cruise ships during the Republic of China era were slow to move. Even though the ferry they chose was one of the fastest at the time, capable of reaching Europe in two weeks, it was still too slow for Bao Guowei, who had seen the means of transportation of later generations.

Therefore, every evening, Bao Guowei and Wu Mi would put a small table on the deck and set up a small shed, where they would drink tea and chat, enjoying themselves.

After the conversation, Bao Guowei was surprised to find that Mr. Wu Mi in front of him knew everything. As long as the topic involved literature and history, he could almost always come up with an opinion.

It is said that Wu Mi had a photographic memory. As long as he had read the texts and inscriptions once since childhood, he could write them down word for word.

After a few days of conversation, Bao Guowei finally learned something.

But he was not very surprised, after all, he was a "cheater".

Wu Mi had obviously heard that Bao Guowei was known as a child prodigy, and was also famous for his photographic memory and extensive knowledge.

At this point, Wu Mi was a little unconvinced. He was in his thirties and had never met an opponent in terms of memory.

Even at Tsinghua University and Peking University, where a brick could kill seventeen or eighteen geniuses, few could match Wu Mi's photographic memory.

Immediately, Wu Mi brought out an extremely obscure ancient Chinese text, and the two sides competed with each other.

Then flip through the pages and write them down from memory, which can be regarded as a small game during the journey.

But who would have thought that Wu Mi, who was originally full of confidence, was defeated after more than ten rounds of competition.

He looked at the manuscript in his hand, raised his glasses involuntarily, and said with his eyes wide open.

"The content above is exactly the same as before. This is simply impossible! Even if you have memorized this article, it is impossible to write it down completely!"

You know, even when transcribing, there may be some errors. How is it possible that someone will never make mistakes?

In order to prevent each other from reciting, the two of them even chose a few books and took turns reading them.

Bao Guowei had an unnatural expression on his face. He spread his hands and said, "Mr. Yusheng, maybe I am gifted?"

Upon hearing this, Wu Mi could no longer control his facial expression. Who could imagine how a genius who had been proud all his life would feel, being pinned to the ground and rubbed by a 17-year-old junior, unable to refute?
Wu Mi felt depressed, but he didn't know what to say. In the past few days, he had completely admired the young man in front of him.

In the past, I had doubts about whether the rumors were exaggerated, but such thoughts suddenly disappeared from my mind.

In fact, in Wu Mi's opinion, the young man in front of him was even more admirable than the rumors said!
After a long time, Wu Mi finally found an opportunity to change the subject. He turned his head and noticed the handwriting written by Bao Guowei.

This hard-pen calligraphy is very beautiful, and it is obvious that it is the result of frequent practice. In this era, most literati still use brushes to create their works.

It is very rare to be able to write such beautiful hard pen calligraphy, but it is not surprising at all when it happens to Bao Guowei.

What Wu Mi was most concerned about was something else. Unlike others, the text written by Bao Guowei was mostly simplified Chinese characters, with only some rare traditional Chinese characters.

The other party seems to be used to using simplified Chinese characters?

Simplified characters have existed since ancient times, but many literati do not advocate them.

This reminds me of the recent rumors about Mingkuai typewriters on the market.

Wu Mi couldn't help but smile and said, "It seems that Bingwen is also an active promoter of the simplification of Chinese characters!"

Bao Guowei studied under Zhang Taiyan. As a master of Chinese studies, it was naturally impossible for him to teach Bao Guowei to practice simplified Chinese characters during the teaching process.

Therefore, it is easy to infer that Bao Guowei practiced deliberately in order to support the simplification of Chinese characters.

"Simplified Chinese characters?"

Bao Guowei raised his eyebrows. He knew that there had been calls for the simplification of Chinese characters as early as the Republic of China period.

Whether it was Chinese characters, Latin characters, or broken characters, they all became one of the important controversial issues in the academic community at that time.

The related discussions it sparked have lasted for decades.

It was not until 1936 that Chiang Kai-shek, who had tried many times to promote the simplification of Chinese characters, finally followed the advice of the "national teacher" Dai Jitao and ended the process of simplifying Chinese characters.

Therefore, many disputes about the simplification of Chinese characters on the Internet in later generations are nothing new. As early as the Republic of China period, this debate was already very fierce.

Wu Mi drank a sip of the West Lake Longjing tea brought by Bao Guowei, squinted his eyes and said: "In the early years, many scholars believed that Chinese characters were the product of feudal society and a tool for oppressing the people. They advocated abolishing Chinese characters and using Western Latin instead. During this period, there were many famous scholars who agreed with this view."

"That's true." Bao Guowei nodded.

In his impression, there are quite a few masters who advocated the abolition of Chinese characters, such as Qian Xuantong, Hu Shizhi, Liu Bannong and so on.

Even Xun Ge'er once supported the idea of ​​abolishing Chinese characters.

It is true that the scholars of this period were so eager to save the country and make progress that they were willing to take drastic measures.

Of course, there is another point. The country’s successive failures completely interrupted the people’s self-confidence during this period.

So, they choose to deny everything.

However, Bao Guowei also wants to speak for these gentlemen.

"In the beginning, there were still many gentlemen who supported it, but later on, everyone realized the disadvantages of Latinization. Now I see that some people in the market, such as Qian Xuantong, have begun to support the simplification of Chinese characters."

Bao Guowei had a significant encounter with Qian Xuantong some time ago. I wonder if he was influenced by him.

Recently, when Bao Guowei read Qian Xuantong's articles, he found that the latter had begun to support simplified Chinese characters. "This really surprised me." Wu Mi couldn't help but sigh. "In the past, Qian Xuantong was a staunch supporter of abolishing Chinese characters. He may have wavered during this period, but he was still firm. At the very least, he also advocated the less standardized "broken characters".

I don’t know what the influence is, but now they have started to support standardized simplified Chinese characters. It’s really surprising.”

Bao Guowei touched his beard unnaturally, and of course he was too embarrassed to take credit in person.

He expressed his point of view.

“I think the reform of Chinese characters does not have to be so extreme. Traditional characters are not conducive to the dissemination of culture and knowledge.

Latin letters are too divisive, which is tantamount to completely abandoning the national history and culture. This is not a good thing for the country or the people.

Simplified characters are naturally the best. It is best to use the commonly used simplified characters first and make some adjustments without changing the original characters. "

Two years ago, Chen Denghao elaborated on some principles for improving simplified characters in "Specific Guidelines for the Reform of Chinese Characters".

The more they talked, the more enjoyable it became. During his conversations with Bao Guowei, Wu Mi always felt that they had met too late.

He couldn't help but reply: "That's right! But..."

Wu Mi paused for a moment and said with a meaningful expression on his face.

"But this idea didn't come about overnight! The idea of ​​abolishing Chinese characters has been around for more than 20 years, and there have been many debates, but no conclusion has been reached.

This matter was not really concluded until recently.”

"Conclusion?" Bao Guowei was a little confused. Even though Qian Xuantong had already stood on the side of simplifying Chinese characters, it couldn't be considered a conclusion, right?
If Qian Xuantong really had such power, then Chinese characters would have been abolished twenty years ago.

"Correct!"

It seemed that he had finally touched upon an area that Bao Guowei didn't know about. Wu Mi seemed very happy. He leaned forward slightly and spoke.

"In the past few months, something has emerged that has completely changed the controversy over the reform of Chinese characters. From now on, no one wants to Latinize Chinese characters anymore!"

When Wu Mi mentioned this, Bao Guowei understood what he was talking about.

Isn't this a Mingkai typewriter?

With the Mingkai typewriter, Chinese characters can be deconstructed to enable convenient and quick typing and printing.

Most importantly, the method of splitting characters jointly created by Bao Guowei and Lin Yutang also provided the core idea for the simplification of Chinese characters.

Even for the sake of convenience and speed, many of Bao Guowei's radical typing methods are based on simplified characters.

After this news came out, the arguments for the Latinization of Chinese characters were refuted because the biggest problem had been solved.

Bao Guowei was a little amused. He thought that the gentleman in front of him only knew about the successful development of the Mingkuai typewriter through some friends, and did not know that he actually played an indispensable role in it.

Out of some bad taste, Bao Guowei decided not to tell the other party about the situation and allowed Wu Mi to show off in front of him.

When Bao Guowei thought of the expression on Mr. Wu Mi's face when he saw the detailed introduction to the Mingkuai typewriter in the newspaper after it came on the market, he couldn't help but smile.

"Bingwen, what are you laughing at?"

"No, no." Bao Guowei showed a pure and righteous smile on his face.

Wu Mi continued to chatter on, "You don't know, this Mingkai typewriter is amazing. Now only Mr. Lin Yutang and a few friends in the circle know about it. As a professor at Tsinghua University, I am fortunate to know a little about it. Have you heard about it? Li Congzhi wrote an article "Research and Proposal on the Promotion of Simplified Characters", which compiled 87 sets of simplified and traditional characters. It is really exciting. This is the first simplified character table."

"Awesome!" Bao Guowei nodded solemnly and cooperated by showing a happy expression, even though he had known the news for a long time.

However, there is still some new news about Wu Mi.

Finally, he said a result that surprised Bao Guowei.

"I heard that the simplification of Chinese characters has been put on the agenda. Mr. Qian Xuantong proposed it and the government has organized a meeting to discuss it. I believe that the simplification of Chinese characters will be successful soon!"

When talking about this, Wu Mi seemed very excited.

"It's actually on the agenda?"

Bao Guowei was very surprised.

He originally thought that even if he proposed the theory and improved tools such as the Mingkai typewriter, the so-called simplification of Chinese characters would still take some time to advance.

It is even possible that everything will proceed along its original trajectory, just like other things.

But what was unexpected was that through the conversation with Mr. Qian Xuantong and the launch of the Mingkai typewriter, the agenda of simplifying Chinese characters was actually promoted?
This made Bao Guowei happy, because he truly felt that his efforts had paid off.

Regardless of whether the agenda of simplifying Chinese characters will be abolished in the end, the efforts made during this period will provide great convenience for future generations!

The journey was long, and even with Zhang Nianyue, one couldn't help feeling a little bored after a long voyage.

Sometimes, when Bao Guowei woke up from his sleep, he would feel as if he had returned to modern society, and could play those 3A masterpieces that he had not yet completed, and even play the "Black Myth: Wukong" that he had longed for, and eat beef hotpot.

Unfortunately, all this is just an illusion.

Therefore, in order to relieve his boredom, Bao Guowei would often play mahjong in the cabin with Zhang Nianyue and others.

With Arnold included, there are exactly four of us, which is the best choice to kill time on the journey.

Over time, Bao Guowei seemed to have forgotten something important.

Until one morning, Bao Guowei was awakened by the chaotic knocking on the door. He walked out unhappily and found that it was Wu Mi.

He was holding a book in his hand at the moment and spoke excitedly.

"Bingwen! Bingwen! Look what I found!"

"what?"

Bao Guowei opened his eyes unhappily and looked at the colorful magazine, but he couldn't take his eyes off it.

Amazing Stories

Isn’t this the earliest science fiction magazine founded by Hugo Gernsback, the “Father of Science Fiction Magazine”?
In the first issue of this magazine, the concept of science fiction literature was clearly defined for the first time as "Scientfiction".

From then on, science fiction entered its golden age.

1930? The magazine was only four years old.

Even the legendary science fiction writer Isaac Asimov didn’t start his work until eight years later!
In an instant, an idea exploded in Bao Guowei's mind!

(End of this chapter)