Hu Shi: A Biography

Author: Li Ao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: This "Biography of Hu Shih" shouldn't just be a biography of Hu Shih himself; it's a biography of an era, and an era with Hu Shih as one of its main protagonists. Therefore, it's likely that many readers will be surprised and astonished after reading this biography. From the main text, it might seem literary; from the footnotes, it might seem historical; from the interstices, it might seem all-pervasive and shocking.
Li Ao: On "Biography of Hu Shih" -- On March 1, 1957, I published an article titled "Reflections on Reading (Collected Writings of Hu Shih)" (now included in "Hu Shih Studies" and retitled "On (Collected Writings of Hu Shih)") in the magazine Free China. One month and a year after the article was published, Hu Shih returned from the United States and invited me to Qian Siliang's home, saying, "Ah, Mr. Li, even I myself had forgotten and lost my own works, yet your body of work has still been found! You practically understand Hu Shih better than Hu Shih himself!" At that time, I had already been considering writing a biography about him, but I never brought it up with him. I only mentioned a few books critical of him, such as Li Ji's "Critique of Hu Shih's (Outlines of the History of Chinese Philosophy)," Ye Qing (Ren Zhuoxuan)'s "Critique of Hu Shih," and Tan Tian's "Hu Shih and Guo Moruo." Regarding Tan Tian's "Hu Shih and Guo Moruo," he was completely unaware that such a book existed. Regarding Ye Qing's "Critique of Hu Shih," he recalled, "Over twenty years ago, Ye Qing finished this book and sent me a copy, asking for my response. I had already written a letter to him, but then I reconsidered: Ye Qing said in the book that I didn't need to be buried to be judged, and in his eyes, I was already a dead person. What can a dead person say? So I never responded."
Now, seven years have passed, and Hu Shih has transitioned from being vibrant and lively to lying in the long grass of the grave, from having a voice and appearance to becoming a solitary skeleton in a coffin. However, whenever I stand at the high-voltage power lines in Nan and walk up to Hu Shih's grave, it seems as if I hear a familiar voice sighing to me: "I am already a dead person. What can a dead person say?"...