Gao mengdan

Gao mengdan

Gao mengdan (1870-1936), named Fengqian, is a Longmen native of Changle. He was born on January 28, 1870. There are two brothers in mengdan. Fengqi, the eldest brother, is famous for the ancient literature of Tongcheng school and was admitted to the imperial censor. Erqian, the second brother, studied at the University of Paris in France and was proficient in Westernization. Mengdan took the names of the two brothers and named himself Fengqian. Shaocong, the eldest brother, studied in jiucaiyuan in Fuzhou and was a scholar. After the Majiang sea war between China and France, the Qing government became weaker and weaker, so it had no intention of official career and was tired of eight part essay.

Life of the characters

In 1890, his cousin Wei Han served as the chief supervisor of Mawei shipyard and invited Gao to be a tutor. At that time, most of the shipyard technicians were English and French students. Gao often communicated with them and read a lot of western translation books. After reading the major political discourses of building officials, setting up schools, managing money, clarifying punishment, training Agriculture, making soldiers, trading and persuading workers, he realized that he could not be self-improvement without following the example of the west, so he began to devote himself to the discussion. In the 22nd year of Guangxu, with his elder brother Fengqi, he helped Hangzhou magistrate Lin Qi (duchen, from Fuzhou) to establish "Qiushi academy" and "sericulture school". At that time, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and others advocated reform and reform. Meng Dan was very much in favor of it. In his spare time of teaching, he wrote "on Abolishing kneeling and worshiping anecdotes", signed "Chongyou", and submitted to "Shiwu Bao", which was praised by Liang Qichao and formed a relationship of forgetting years. He paid attention to the new deal and new method of sericulture, and the sericulture school was very successful. In the 28th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, Qiushi Academy was expanded into Zhejiang University, with Fengqi as the chief teacher and mengdan as the teacher. The next year, Zhejiang University sent students to Japan for further study. Mengdan was the supervisor of studying abroad. He took the opportunity to inspect the political, cultural and educational facilities in Japan after the Meiji Restoration. At that time, Liang Qichao was also in Japan, and mengdan presented his old manuscript of Gaili private discussion, which was based on song Shenkuo's proposal of changing the calendar in Mengxi Bi tan. After reading it, Liang believed that the new calendar of the 13th month was a new theory of changing the calendar in the modern world, and published it in Xinmin congbao. In the winter of the same year, Meng Dan returned home and talked with Zhang Yuanji, director of the compilation Institute of Shanghai Commercial Press, that Japan's prosperity was due to its emphasis on education, which was based on primary schools. Therefore, it is urgent to compile primary school textbooks. Zhang Yuanji hired Meng Dan to be the director of the Department of Chinese culture of the Institute, and later succeeded the director of the Institute. After taking over the post, mengdan made great efforts to expand the business of compiling, recruited talents from all sides, and published textbooks in secondary, primary and normal schools according to the school system. At its peak, the Institute had more than 20 departments with hundreds of employees, making it the most complete and influential compiler in China. In the process of compiling textbooks, Meng Dan once again felt that the structure of Chinese characters was too complex, difficult to recognize and write, and it was difficult to popularize. He once compared the similarities and differences between the complex and simple forms, evaluated the advantages and disadvantages, tried to make a choice, and then studied the reform plan of Chinese characters with Lao Naixuan and Wang Zhao. At the same time, he decided to innovate the method of checking characters with radical radicals in Kangxi dictionary. After a long time of hard thinking, he combined the 214 radicals listed in the old dictionary into 80 radicals according to the feature that Chinese characters are mainly in shape, and determined their upper, lower, left and right subordinates, which became the rudiment of "four corner numbers" later. In 1919, the May 4th Movement broke out, and mengdan was 50 years old. He humbly thought: "the current situation is increasingly innovative, and the compilation work must adapt to the trend. Standing on the front line, I will not be suitable for the strong points of the compilation Institute, so I should find a suitable person for the company to replace myself." Therefore, Wang Yunwu was elected to take over the post of director of the compilation Institute, and he was transferred to the post of director of the publishing department, but he still tried his best to assist Wang Yunwu in his work. In November of the 13th year of the Republic of China, Wang Yunwu began to study the number checking method of Chinese characters. Meng Dan actively helped him and sent his painstakingly studied manuscript to him for reference. Wang Yunwu then improved and supplemented it and finally completed the "four corner number checking method". In the 15th year of the Republic of China, a separate edition of the four corner number character checking method was published. Wang Yunwu solemnly declared at the beginning of the book: "Mr. Gao mengdan is the inventor of the additional angle of this character checking method. And for all kinds of problems of this method, it can solve many problems for Yunwu. Thanks for Mr. Gao's help, I am very grateful to you In the 17th year of the Republic of China, mengdan asked the library to resign as the director of the publishing department in his 60s. He was only a director, but his concern for the library affairs remained the same. Therefore, the commercial press became the largest publishing organization in old China, which was inseparable from mengdan's fatigue. On July 23, 1925, Meng Dan died of illness in Shanghai. At the age of 67, he was buried in the Wanguo cemetery on Hongqiao Road.

Gao mengdan who cherishes talent like fate

In the modern history of the Commercial Press, it is generally recognized that there are "two booms": first in Zhang Yuanji, and then in Wang Yunwu. However, behind these two dazzling names, there is an often overlooked but indispensable "virtuous minister" -- Gao mengdan. After the May 4th movement, Gao mengdan, 51, admitted that he didn't know much about the new learning. He voluntarily resigned from the post of director of the compilation Institute of the Commercial Press, and went to Beijing in person to invite Hu Shi, a professor of Peking University under 30, to take the lead. Although Hu Shi did not take office, he recommended his teacher Wang Yunwu. Wang Yunwu was not well-known at that time. People who doubted his talent "had it both inside and outside the business library.". However, Gao mengdan spent three months helping him get familiar with all the work in the museum. After Wang took over, he tried his best to help him. Some business elders were puzzled, and Gao mengdan explained: "companies are just like countries. Those who plan for the country should not be dead. They should seek virtue for the country The Chinese side can last for a long time. " Not surprisingly, after the January 28 Incident in 1932, the commercial press was bombed by Japanese planes and almost destroyed. Wang Yunwu only took half a year to restore the vitality of "business". Many years later, Hu Shi recalled this period of history and said, "he took a fancy to a young scholar and entrusted his life-long business to him. Later, he listened to the young man's words and entrusted his important business to a person he didn't know. This is the painstaking effort of an old man to entrust a great cause to others, and this is the demeanor of a great statesman to seek the country. " Gao mengdan knows and loves talents. He promoted Shen Yanbing, a young man, to be the editor in chief of the novel monthly, but the latter put forward three harsh requirements to him: first, none of the existing manuscripts can be used; second, all the manuscripts should be changed to five characters; third, the library should let him have full authority and not interfere in the policy. Gao mengdan all agreed.

Publishing works

In the 15th year of the Republic of China, the monograph of the four corner number checking method was published

Character relationship

In 1920, academician Hong Chaosheng was born in Beijing. His father, Hong Guantao, joined the alliance in his early years. Later, he went to France and Belgium to study for 8 years, specializing in railway engineering. After returning to China, he served as director and chief engineer of Engineering Bureau of Tongguan Xi'an section of Longhai railway, and technical chief of Railway Administration Department of Ministry of railways. His grandfather Gao mengdan was a famous modern publisher.

Chinese PinYin : Gao Meng Dan