Tsinghua Three Wits

Author: Xie Yong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: Xie Yong, author of The Three Wits of Tsinghua, was once known as one of the "Five Black Horses of the Grassland Tribe" alongside Yu Jie and Kong Qingdong. He is a renowned public intellectual in China, and his works such as The Gone Years and Southwest Associated University and Modern Chinese Intellectuals have had a significant impact on contemporary Chinese intellectual circles. Zhuangzi once described Xie Yong as someone who prescribes medicine for Chinese intellectuals and sets straight the bones and dispels phlegm of scholars. He acts swiftly and reacts quickly, excelling at judging unscrupulous scholars and deviant literary matters in the face of time. Xie Yong provides us with a mirror for scholars, and I am very willing to look into it to determine whether it is truly a face or a mask. Lin Xianzhi believes: Xie Yong creates portraits of intellectuals, especially emphasizing "free intellectuals." He values historical materials, excels at editing, has a profound style, and prioritizes substance over form. Tsinghua University is the cradle of modern Chinese intellectuals, and many of the early influential intellectuals in China came from Tsinghua. In the 1930s and 1940s, the group of intellectuals who devoted themselves most to China's liberal democratization were also those who had early ties to Tsinghua. The Three Wits of Tsinghua remains Xie Yong's work of "spiritual root-seeking" for Chinese intellectuals. The entire book portrays the tragic fates and unyielding spirits of Luo Longji, Wen Yiduo, and Wu Jingchao—three intellectuals known for their free spirits. In the form of critical biographies, it explores the difficult judgments and choices these intellectuals faced between ideals and reality, academia and society, in a specific era. It reveals the awkwardness and dilemmas, as well as the lifelong efforts and even the sacrifices of their lives, that 20th-century Chinese intellectuals encountered on their path to national strength. Awakening forgotten memories, summoning the spirit of freedom. As we dialogue with the author and the souls of free and unfree individuals, we too will sigh and be indignant at the interruption of freedom. Is it not the unyielding spirit, the courage to face reality, the concern for the current state of the nation, and the idealistic passion to raise one's voice against social ills that we lack today? Through The Three Wits of Tsinghua, we will discover that these past figures and events have become the very medicine for the intellectual anemia of contemporary Chinese thought.