A building meets an era
104 years ago, a building and an era met.
This building is the First Academy of Peking University, located at No. 29, Wusi Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing.
It was completed in August 1918. It is built with red bricks and covered with red tiles, so it is called the Red Building.
Towering among the blue bricks and gray tiles, the red building of Peking University is solid and solemn, and advanced Chinese intellectuals once met here.
Visiting the "Red Prologue of Brilliant Great Work - The Red Building of Peking University and the Theme Exhibition of the Early Revolutionary Activities of the Communist Party of China in Beijing", historical scenes emerged in front of you.
In the Red House exhibition hall, all 63 issues of "New Youth" are lined up, forming a vibrant face of the era with new ideas and new culture in the early 20th century, still so frank, vivid and sincere.
On September 15, 1915, the inaugural issue of "Youth Magazine", "To the Youth", stated: "People in the country want to get out of the ignorant era, and they are ashamed of being shallow people, so they rush to catch up, and they should pay equal attention to science and human rights." In 1917, "New Youth" was settled in Peking University, and the combination of "one school, one journal", Peking University and "New Youth" became the main positions of the new culture movement.
An open book on the table is the center of everyone's sight.
Everyone was sitting or standing, as if they were discussing something heatedly - the relief sculpture "Eight Editors" in the red building is full and heavy.
In the small courtyard at No. 20 Arrow Shan Hutong, Beichizi Street, these Peking University professors, who have studied both Chinese and Western, threw heavy artillery shells at the feudal autocracy.
They shouted for women's liberation, raised the banner of democratic science, advocated vernacular and new punctuation, and opened up a new pedigree of modern Chinese literature...
The newspapers and letters in front of us bear the great event of the reform of Chinese language and writing.
The New Culture Movement, led by the vernacular, opened the gate to contain new ideas and set off a trend of ideological emancipation in Chinese society.
This period of history has a strong performance in the TV series "The Age of Awakening".
In the play, Cai Yuanpei said: "No matter what era it develops into in the future, it will eventually be guided by the new culture we advocate today."
On the second floor of the red building, near the stairs is the restored office of the dean of liberal arts.
In 1918, "Weekly Review" was founded, the editorial department was located here, and the distribution office was located at No. 79 Mishi Hutong, Luomashi Street, Beijing.
The Weekly Review, which "advocates justice and opposes power," complemented each other with the leading ideological enlightenment "New Youth". It was one of the most influential newspapers at that time, and put forward in-depth programs, slogans and methods of struggle for the May Fourth Movement.
The national first-class cultural relic "May 4th" in Hall 17 is the first book published in my country to introduce the May 4th Movement. quantity).
Cai Xiaozhou wrote in his preface: "The Battle of May 4th and 1st has two meanings, one for the country's sovereignty and the other for the common people's personality." In 1919, the number of national periodicals soared to more than 400, and the Red House exhibited "New Wave". "Yusi", "Education Tide", "New Journal" and other influential journals at that time.
The May 4th Movement sowed the seeds of democracy and science into the hearts of the Chinese people, and it still has appeal as the times change.
Choosing Marxism as an ideological weapon to save the country, transform society, and shape the "new nation" is an important achievement of the New Culture Movement.
"Weekly Review" started the discussion of "Problems and Doctrine" from the 26th issue, which accelerated the spread of Marxism in China.
During this period, "New Youth" published more than 130 articles introducing Marxism, the October Revolution and the Chinese labor movement.
The exhibition site displays the precious originals of Li Dazhao's "My View of Marxism" and "The Triumph of the Common People".
In November 1921, the first Central Committee document written by Chen Duxiu required that more than 20 kinds of communist books be published "before July next year".
3 basic knowledge of Marxism translated by Chen Duxiu - Marcy's "Introduction to Marx's Capital", Kautsky's "Class Struggle", Kirkapp's "History of Socialism"; a full set of 6 monthly "Communist Party" magazines edited by Li Da, Semi-publicly issued, 16 folios, with a maximum circulation of more than 5,000 copies; 7 full Chinese translations of the Communist Manifesto by Chen Wangdao, Hua Gang, Cheng Fangwu, Xu Bing, Xie Weizhen and others; 1921, Li Zizhou, Liu Tianzhang, etc. 11 issues of "Gongjin" magazine founded by progressive students of Shaanxi Province in Beijing; 8 issues of "Political Life", an official publication printed by Chen Qiaonian, the organization director of the Northern District Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1924... These precious cultural relics are gathered in the red building, reflecting the introduction of Marxism China and the basic appearance of ideological party building.
Zhu Yuehua