Siheyuan: Spring and Autumn

"Professor Ran, of course you can. The country is in great need of talent, especially talent with higher education, so education is highly valued. The guiding ideology of the country in establishing higher education institutions is to better meet the needs of national construction. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, colleges and universities in the capital were merged and adjusted. Among them, Fu Jen Catholic University was merged into the Normal University. In addition to comprehensive universities such as Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Normal University, eight professional science and engineering colleges were merged and newly formed, namely geology, mining, steel, aviation, petroleum, agricultural machinery, forestry, and medicine. Each of them has its own disciplinary focus to safeguard the take-off of our Chinese industrial economy. Now that there is a lot of work to be done in China, the conditions will be more difficult, and it will definitely not be as comfortable as abroad. Professor Ran should be mentally prepared for this."

Ran Jingxuan laughed and said, "If I was afraid of hardship, I wouldn't have agreed to let my old friend return to China to teach."

Qin Zheng nodded, agreeing in his heart.

"Who is the old friend that Professor Ran mentioned?"

"Chen Yuan."

"Oh, it's Principal Chen."

This Principal Chen is an extraordinary person. He is called a "national treasure" by the leader. He has written many books, which have been translated into many languages ​​and published. He is an outstanding historian, religious historian, and educator.

"Do you know Principal Chen?"

"Yes, we met once."

"Principal Chen invited me to return to China twice, but I had concerns."

Qin Zheng did not respond, but looked at him, waiting for him to continue explaining.

Sure enough, Professor Ran said: "Many people think that liberal arts are useless and advocate that industry should be used to save the country. When I went abroad, I was also influenced by this view. Just now, you also mentioned that the country established eight colleges, which were mainly science and engineering that were urgently needed for national construction.

Qin Zheng understood that Professor Ran was worried that he would not be taken seriously after returning to China, which was understandable. He also knew that his worry was not unnecessary.

This debate between literature and science can be traced back to the 1940s, when the Qing court had a debate on the "debate between form and function". Many of the famous officials in the late Qing Dynasty became famous in history by founding military and civilian enterprises.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the country only retained a very small number of comprehensive universities, and humanities and social sciences such as sociology, political science, and psychology were cancelled. The focus was on science and engineering disciplines urgently needed for national construction, and on specialized or single-discipline engineering colleges, which were not large in scale.

"Professor Ran, although I majored in science, I don't think you need to worry. In my opinion, the most basic role of liberal arts is to promote the cultivation of personal cultural accomplishment, moral accomplishment, and moral character. We might as well use a dialectical perspective to find the answer from history."

Ran Jingxuan's interest was piqued: "Oh, what's the answer?"

Even Qi Wei and Ran Qiuye perked up and wanted to hear what he had to say.

Qin Zheng said: "The internal driving force of the Western Industrial Revolution is indeed science, but the development of Western capitalism started from the Renaissance. What was the internal driving force of the Renaissance?"

Seeing that Ran Jingxuan didn't say anything, Qin Zheng continued, "It's the liberal arts. The Renaissance was a revolution in the spiritual realm. It resolved people's ideas. History has proven that only by resolving human thoughts can human creativity be unleashed. If human thoughts are not liberated, human innovation and progress cannot be achieved. In my opinion, the contribution of the Renaissance to mankind is far greater than that of the Industrial Revolution. So, how can liberal arts be useless!"

Ran Jingxuan smiled, nodded with satisfaction and said: "What you said makes sense, it is more profound than I thought."

Hearing his words, Qi Wei and Ran Qiuye also smiled, and Ran Qiuye even looked at Qin Zheng with admiration.

With this media knowledge, the two of them became more excited to talk, and the topic expanded. They talked about everything from literary and historical research to literature, and from literature to art.

Ran Jingxuan said: "Although the fundamental principle of literary and historical research is to seek truth and facts, we must also pay attention to interest, that is, literature and art. Confucius once said that those who know are not as good as those who like it, and those who like it are not as good as those who enjoy it. The integration of knowing, liking and enjoying is appreciation, and appreciation is based on interest in literature and art."

Qin Zheng said: "The biggest challenge in knowing, doing well and enjoying is actually knowing. Only when you know can you do well, and only when you do well can you enjoy. When our country was first founded, 2% of the people were illiterate, and the illiteracy rate in rural areas reached over %. However, the country has recognized this situation and is promoting literacy. Literacy classes have been set up in various places. Two years ago, the country began to promote Mandarin. In February of this year, the "Chinese Pinyin Scheme" was passed. These measures are the country's efforts to popularize national education, and they are also to solve the problem of 'knowing'."

Ran Jingxuan exclaimed: "Qin Zheng, I can't believe that at your age, you know so much. It's completely beyond my expectations."

At this time, Su Heyi interrupted and said, "Professor Ran, you don't know Chief Engineer Qin yet. He is indeed extraordinary. He graduated from high school at the age of fourteen, joined the army for three years, and made countless contributions. After retiring from the army, he took the college entrance examination and became the top scorer in Beijing with a score of four points away from a full score. He entered Beijing University and completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in four years. He graduated from the Department of Physics of Beijing University and then went to the Red Star Steel Rolling Mill as the chief engineer. It has been a year now."

Following Su Heyi's introduction, Ran Jingxuan's family of three all looked shocked and looked incredulous.

Waking up from the shock, Ran Jingxuan laughed out loud: "I didn't expect that I would meet such an outstanding genius just after returning to China. It seems that I will not be alone in the future."

Qin Zheng smiled and said, "Professor Ran, you are too kind. I am just an ordinary person."

If he was not a time traveler, if he had not been blessed by God with a space bead, he would have been just an ordinary person with a physical fitness slightly better than that of ordinary people.

Therefore, he never dared to be proud, let alone look down on others or look down on others.

Looking at Qin Zheng's calm and natural expression, Professor Ran admired him even more and said frankly, "It is said in The Mirror of Life that a modest gentleman humbles himself; being arrogant and self-centered is the root of trouble. A person's good self-cultivation must start with being modest, polite and approachable."

This sentence means that a gentleman with good self-cultivation treats the world with a humble attitude to achieve his own goals, while arrogant and arbitrary people often bring disaster upon themselves.

Qin Zheng did not continue the conversation, but changed the subject. Any further talk would be just self-praise.

Two days and two nights passed, and at noon on the third day, we arrived at the capital.

As they walked out of the station, Hu Dingbiao, a driver from the steel mill, came up to them and said, "Chief Engineer Qin, I'm here to take you home."