In the end, Lu Shi rejected James.
This is a carefully considered decision.
It's not that he feels he's not qualified, but that he's worried about getting angry.
In the first few years of the Nobel Prize, in order to attract the favor of various big shots, the Nobel Committee was quite unscrupulous and did not care about human affairs.
Their only principle is to do as much as they can.
The "ru" here refers to rub traffic.
For example, the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Theodor Mommsen the following year.
This German has many identities:
Classical scholars, jurists, historians, journalists, politicians, archaeologists, writers...
Only there are no writers.
The reason for the award given by the Swedish Academy is also quite strange: "The greatest master of history writing in this world, which is undoubtedly reflected in his immortal masterpiece "History of Rome"."
Very outrageous.
Many people suspect that Monson won the award simply because he is too famous and has a high status in the field of history.
This is in line with the principle of "take it if you can".
Lu Shi was worried about being taken advantage of.
Try to imagine that the Nobel Committee "accidentally" revealed Lu Shi's evaluation of a certain writer or work:
"Lu Shi, visiting professor of London Political and Economics, author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and "Roger Mystery" and famous historian, believes that XXX is not enough to qualify for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and gave a comment of XXX... "
The picture is too beautiful to even think about.
The Nobel Committee made enough gimmicks and generated enough traffic, but Lu Shi fell in love with others.
This business is too bad.
Therefore, it is better not to step into the muddy water for the time being.
In the following time, Lu Shi's main focus was on the preparation of "Mirror".
But it's just a fool's errand,
With two professionals, Scott and Cooper, coupled with the influence of Wodehouse, and the name of the University of London Alliance, there was no resistance to running the newspaper.
Everything is going on in an orderly manner.
Lu Shi became an idler.
Fortunately, Gu Hongming never left London after he came to London. He visited from time to time and helped fight landlords.
This time, Lu Shi would not give in to him like last time.
"bomb!"
"I'll blow it up again!"
"Well, let's go."
…
After playing a game, Lu Shi smiled and said, "Okay! Shuffle the cards!"
Natsume Soseki shuffled the cards helplessly.
On the other side, Gu Hongming couldn't stand it anymore.
"How come you win as soon as you take the landowner?"
He put the cards together,
"I won't play anymore! I won't play anymore! It's so frustrating. Even if I'm not as good as you in writing articles, I can't even play cards... Huh! If Zhengxiang hadn't returned to China, I would have let him join us. The four of us Rub it together a few times."
Lu Shi laughed loudly,
"Okay, I can also play mahjong, and I have all the five poisons."
Among the famous scholars in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, 90% liked entertainment activities such as playing cards and playing mahjong.
Many people should have heard of "Hu Shi's Diary".
The content inside is very classic:
July 21st: Chemistry quiz 2...playing cards.
July 22: Play cards. Read several American short stories.
July 24th: Class. Dede Zheng a book. play cards. Evolutionary math problems.
…
In short, all kinds of card games have become memes on the Internet.
Lu Shi stretched himself.
"If that's the case, then we won't play anymore."
He turned around and straightened the manuscripts on the table.
Gu Hongming looked at Lu Shi, then at Natsume Soseki, and finally at me who was yawning there, and couldn't help but said: "The atmosphere here is so good, it reminds me of the days when I was a student."
Lu Shi was curious,
"How do you say this?"
Gu Hongming gently twirled his beard and said: "Students can draw on each other to help create."
He often visited Lu Shi during this period, not only to play cards, but also to do business——
Reading and drafting.
Gu Hongming couldn't help laughing,
"To be honest, I thought I didn't like popular works, but after reading your works, I feel that I like them all, whether they are mystery or fantasy."
Lu Shi joked: "You like it more than playing cards?"
Gu Hongming waved his hands repeatedly,
"That's not the case."
The three people in the room laughed at the same time.
I looked at them curiously, "Meow~" and got into Natsume Soseki's arms.
Gu Hongming asked: "Lu Shi, how many manuscripts have you written?"
Lu Shi spread his hands,
"Mr. Gu, you said that you come here every now and then, how much do you think I can write? People are chasing newspapers and magazines to catch up on updates. It's better for you to come directly to the author's house to catch up on updates. Is the next step going to be? Are you going to lock me up in a dark room?"
Gu Hongming chuckled and said harshly: "Actually, I prefer "I Am Cat" to your "Lord of the Rings"."
This is not all nonsense,
Because "I Am Cat" depicts Japan, it is definitely more friendly to read.
Natsume Soseki said: "Mr. Gu won the prize, and my work will definitely not be comparable to Lu's. How can the fluorescent light of rotten grass compare to the bright moon of Tianxin?"
Gu Hongming waved his hand,
"We Chinese are humble enough, but you Japanese..."
The next words were not clearly spoken.
Natsume Soseki blushed slightly and felt a little embarrassed.
Gu Hongming turned to Lu Shi and said: "Of course, popular books are endlessly interesting, but I still want to read the book on the history of the Ming Dynasty. Your writing style is very bold. Nowadays, most people no longer use the biographical style when writing history. You Do you want to imitate Tai Shigong?"
Lu Shi waved his hand,
"That book is not a history book, and it is not accurate to classify it as a biography."
Gu Hongming nodded,
"The Fifteen Years of Wanli" is easy to understand and can be read by people without any historical knowledge.
It is obviously not a history book with this characteristic.
Gu Hongming said: "By the way, the last time you called "Guns, Germs and Steel... popular science..."
Lu Shi said: "Popular science readings."
Gu Hongming nodded,
"Yes, yes! It's a popular science book. Is this "Fifteen Years of Wanli" also considered a popular science book?"
"Fifteen Years of Wanli" is more serious than popular science books, otherwise it would not be used as a teaching material in so many universities in the United States.
But it also has loose ends.
Overall, this book is somewhere between a monograph and popular science, and is not easy to categorize.
Lu Shi didn't answer.
Seeing that he stopped talking, Gu Hongming continued: "You wrote very well, but the subject matter... Well, you said that you are not using anything good when writing history textbooks. Why do you choose to use Ming history? The resistance here is extremely huge."
He paused and asked: "Do you know why the later dynasty took the initiative to compile the history of the previous dynasty?"
Lu Shi replied: "This is China's historical tradition."
Gu Hongming did not expect to get this answer.
In his mind, Lu Shi had always hit the nail on the head, so why was he so naive and pedantic about this issue.
He asked back: "You just said, tradition?"
Lu Shi nodded,
"This is a great tradition. Later dynasties compile history for the previous dynasty. It is the victor's respect for the history of the loser, and it is also cultural identity. Although dynasties change, the nation, culture, and civilization have always continued."
Gu Hongming was speechless.
Indeed, the Chinese people’s habit of compiling history is a civilization inheritance habit. This is a rare habit in the world that has been throughout the entire history of civilization development.
He thought of Lu Shi's speech in Cambridge,
That speech has been compiled by the University of Cambridge and the University of London Alliance, and published in the campus magazine.
Lu Shi firmly stated in his speech that Chinese civilization is continuous and originated from ancient China.
Gu Hongming sighed: "How wonderful it would be if our dynasty were filled with young people like you..."
This is a sincere compliment.
Lu Shi shook his head and returned to the subject.
"I actually know the answer you want to get to the question Mr. Gu just asked me. You want to say that later dynasties compile history for the previous dynasty, on the one hand, it is a lesson from the demise of the previous dynasty, and on the other hand, it is to prove one's own Legitimacy.”
Gu Hongming nodded,
Sure enough, Lu Shi was still as sharp as ever.
Lu Shi said: "History can indeed be described in your own way, but if you don't even have the act of describing and organizing, then everything is out of the question. No dynasty can arise out of thin air, and recording history is the starting point."
Gu Hongming nodded his head.
"Okay! Okay, okay! Lu Shi, I once told Zhengxiang that you were a 'young talent', but now it seems that I am being conservative. You are much better than us old scholars."
Lu Shi shook his head,
"That's not the case."
He pointed to the original manuscript of "The Fifteenth Year of Wanli" and said, "I have almost lost a few locks of my hair because of this."
Natsume Soseki snickered as he heard this.
Lu Shi ate well and slept well, but he didn't lose a few hairs.
Gu Hongming said: "Yes, this kind of article is the most difficult to write, because it requires a lot of historical data to support, otherwise it will appear very unrealistic. However, I think your book has been written in a rough way, and the big framework has been set up. , it shouldn’t take long to complete the book.”
With that said, Gu Hongming picked up the manuscript and
"I don't really like that you listed Li Zhi as a character in a separate chapter."
Gu Hongming studied in the West, but he was conservative in many concepts.
For example, in marriage, he is a firm supporter of polyandry and polygamy, and he looks down on the current situation in the West where monogamy is monogamous in the open but fornication behind the scenes.
And Li Zhi was a man of God. In the context of the Ming Dynasty, he actually hated all kinds of ethical restraints, advocated equality between men and women, and never took concubines in his life. After resigning, he ran out all day to promote his doctrines and ideas, and even became a monk.
It’s no wonder that Gu Hongming criticized Li Zhi.
Lu Shi did not expand on this topic, but instead said: "Mr. Gu touched on the key point - historical materials. I am going to go to the British Museum library, which has a lot of history books."
Gu Hongming was surprised,
"How come the British Museum has our...um..."
He didn't ask any more questions because he already had the answer in his heart.
War is always accompanied by the looting of cultural relics,
Napoleon fought for Milan. In order to let the Directory in Paris know how much he had done for the cause of the Republic, he frantically snatched cultural relics, paintings, and handicrafts;
Toyotomi Hideyoshi fought for Korea and brought a large number of monks with him to rob scriptures and classics;
More recently, there are Egypt, India, and China;
…
Among them, the worst one should be Egypt.
Due to long-term occupation, colonization, and civil war, cultural relics are often looted by tomb robbers in this "combination boxing".
There is an ancient Egyptian cultural relic called the Wishing Cup. After research, it was found that it was most likely that the tomb robbers thought it was worthless, dug it up and threw it aside. It took decades for it to be discovered by local residents and included in the Cairo Museum.
To sort out the country's cultural relics, we have to rely on foreigners to eat the leftovers, which is not a miserable situation.
Gu Hongming asked: "Are you qualified to enter the museum's library?"
Due to space constraints, the British Museum was divided into two parts:
The first time was in 1880, when the museum separated natural history specimens from archaeological artifacts, and the museum specialized in collecting archaeological artifacts;
The second time was in 1900, when the museum separated books, manuscripts and other contents to form the new British Library.
Because the project is complex and grand, the separation has not yet been completed.
During this period, the library and reading room are temporarily closed to the public.
But Lu Shi did not have such restrictions.
He no longer belongs to the category of "public".
James, Cavendish, Wodehouse, and George Bernard Shaw have all contacted me for help.
With so many big guys cooperating to provide insurance, there will definitely be no problem.
Lu Shi replied: "I can enter."
Gu Hongming pondered,
a long time,
"I...can I go too?"
Although he had an official position in the Qing court, he was still a marginal figure. There were some things he had never seen before, so he wanted to see them with his own eyes.
Lu Shi looked at Gu Hongming,
"Mr. Gu, you don't need to say much, just come with me. It's just that I'm going to the museum's library, so there may not be anything you want to see. Do you mind?"
Gu Hongming waved his hands repeatedly,
"Of course, of course I don't mind."
Lu Shi nodded again to Natsume Soseki and said, "If you have a chance to see the collections of books from various countries, why don't you leave quickly?"
Natsume Soseki quickly put me down and packed his things.
The three of them took a carriage to the British Museum.
The British Museum is in the core area of London, next to the famous Russell Square, and across two main roads is the main campus of University College London.
It didn’t take long to get there from Burya Road.
The three people jumped out of the carriage and could see the huge Greek Revival building in the distance, which was very spectacular.
They passed the statue of Queen Victoria and headed toward the concierge.
Lu Shi introduced himself to the doorman: "Hello, I am a visiting professor at London Economics and Political Science. My name is Lu Shi. I am here to borrow the reading room."
The guard raised his eyebrows.
"You said you want to use the reading room? Did you know that the collection of books is not open to the public now?"
Lu Shi said: "You just need to report it."
The guard looked at him doubtfully, and his eyes wandered on Gu Hongming and Natsume Soseki for a moment, then nodded and said: "Okay, then I will go in and inform you, please wait here and don't move around."
After saying that, the guard left quickly.
Gu Hongming muttered: "This man's words are really annoying. How can he guard against us like he guard against thieves?"
Lu Shi chuckled,
"They themselves are thieves and steal cultural relics. When they meet the rightful owner, they will inevitably feel guilty~"
"Tsk..."
Gu Hongming gasped in disgust.
The three of them waited for a while, and a well-dressed white British man walked quickly and rushed forward to shake hands with Gu Hongming.
But soon, he stopped hesitantly and communicated with the guard in a low voice.
The two whispered for a while.
The British man changed his target, walked towards Lu Shi, and said, "Are you Professor Lu from the London School of Economics and Political Science? I am the manager of the Printing and Painting Department of the British Museum, Shadney Cowin."
(End of chapter)
