Chapter 312: French Faction
A young man in his early twenties walked in and bowed to Zhang Xingjiu, saying hello, "I am Li Yuying, your humble disciple, to meet you, Mr. Zhang."
"Please take a seat, Stone Monk." Zhang Xingjiu quickly returned the greeting, and then the host and guest sat down.
Li Yuying was the son of former Grand Councilor Li Hongzao, and later changed his name to Li Shizeng. He was one of the four founding fathers of the Kuomintang and a representative figure of the French-student faction during the Republic of China. From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, several waves of studying in France were triggered by him.
By the way, Li Hongzao and Li Hongzhang are not brothers. One was born in Hefei, Anhui, and the other was from Baoding, Hebei. The similarity of their names is just a coincidence. In fact, the ranking of Li Hongzhang's generation is Zhang, not Hong. His brothers are named Li Hanzhang, Li Yunzhang, and Li Fengzhang respectively.
Li Hongzhang is not a generation name, but a name used to indicate seniority in the family. His generation name is Zhang Tong, and his brothers are Zhang Tong, Zhang Jun, Zhang Quan, Zhang Zhao, etc.
After a few pleasantries, Li Shizeng told his story. The year before last, when the Eight-Nation Alliance entered Beijing, he trekked more than a thousand miles and fled to Kaifeng, Henan. After this ordeal, he was determined to do something. Considering the decline of China and the rise of European powers, he planned to study in France.
This person is somewhat similar to Cai Yuanpei, with a progressive side and a reactionary side. However, studying abroad is a good thing after all, so Zhang Xingjiu took the initiative to ask, "Has Shi Seng decided which university he wants to attend? I have some reputation in France, so maybe I can help recommend him for admission."
Li Shizeng responded politely, "Thank you for your kindness, Brother Zhouping, but you don't need to bother me with this matter for now. I have some connections with Sun Baoqi, the former attaché of the embassies in Germany, Australia, France and other countries. I heard that the court intends to let Mr. Sun serve as the minister to France. I plan to go to France with him. I will try to find a suitable one myself first. If I can't find a suitable one, it won't be too late to ask Brother Zhouping for help."
"He is not an outsider. My father-in-law and Minister Sheng are old friends, and Mr. Sun and Minister Sheng are in-laws. So there is no need for Shi Seng to be too formal with him." Zhang Xingjiu said with a smile.
Zhang Xingjiu himself came from an ordinary family, but Ma Xiangbo was different. He had been engaged in diplomacy and foreign affairs for many years and had friendships with many bigwigs in the court. These bigwigs had various relationships with each other, such as fellow villagers, in-laws, and classmates, so it was easy to establish connections with them.
Sun Baoqi had 5 wives, 8 sons, and 16 daughters. He had many in-laws. His daughters married the sons of Prince Qing Yixin, Sheng Xuanhuai, Yuan Shikai, and Zhang Peilun. Among them, Zhang Peilun's son was Zhang Tingzhong, and Zhang Tingzhong had a daughter named Zhang Ailing.
With this relationship, Li Shizeng suddenly felt closer to Zhang Xingjiu, so he asked about the customs and culture of France, as well as the universities there and the differences between these universities. This was why he made a special trip to Shanghai to visit Zhang Xingjiu. When it comes to understanding of French universities, there is probably no one in China who knows better than Zhang Xingjiu.
Seeing that it was time for dinner, Zhang Xingjiu invited Li Shizeng to his home. After dinner, he took him to the study and introduced the situation in France to Li Shizeng while drinking tea.
He was fascinated by Rousseau's theories, Lumière's films, Pasteur's microbiology, and the world's tallest Eiffel Tower. He couldn't help but praise, "After hearing what Brother Zhou Ping said, the vitality of France is right in front of us. Looking at the Qing Dynasty, it seems a bit decadent. When I go to France, I must learn as much as you did."
"Nowadays, there are too few people like you who are willing to open their eyes to the world. I should fully support your idea. When you go to France in the future, no matter what trouble you encounter, you can send me a telegram! If the matter is urgent and you are afraid that telegrams will waste time, you can also go to the Sorbonne University to ask Professor Lippmann, the Curies and Lang Zhiwan for help. I will write you a letter later. When they see the letter, they will know that you are my friend and will definitely be willing to help."
"I have a house in Paris, you can live there, I will tell them in advance. If there are other Chinese going to study in France with you, they can also live there."
Li Shizeng did do some wrong things in the future, but he also made an indelible contribution to promoting Chinese study in France. Feifei, Xixian, 501, Qian Sanqiang and others were able to study in France thanks to his pioneering spirit. Now that Zhang Xingjiu has met him, he will definitely help.
If he went to other places in the country, Li Shizeng would not need Zhang Xingjiu's help at all. Relying on the connections left by Li Hongzao, he could travel all over the country without a penny, and would be treated as a distinguished guest wherever he went. But it was different to go to France. His father's face was not useful with foreigners, so after listening to Zhang Xingjiu's words, although he was a little conflicted, he hurried to thank him.
Li Shizeng lived in Zhang's house for a few days and learned a lot about France. He also went to Aurora College to attend a few classes. Seeing that French was taught in the school, he simply applied to audit the class, preparing to take this opportunity to learn French well.
A few months later, news came from the capital that Sun Baoqi had been appointed as the Chinese ambassador to France. He quickly took his leave and returned to Beijing to make preparations, and then traveled across the ocean to France with Sun Baoqi.
When he arrived in France, he was quickly attracted by the country's vigorous vitality and came up with the same idea as Zhang Xingjiu, which was to allow young people with patriotic aspirations in the country to come to France to learn advanced Western science and technology.
After staying in France for a while, Li Shizeng entered the Montargis Agricultural School to study agricultural knowledge and began to study soybeans. In 1908, he obtained a patent for modern tofu technology and published an academic monograph "Soybeans" in Chinese and French. He proved that the nutritional value of soy milk is no less than that of milk.
After obtaining the patent, he opened a tofu factory in Colombes, a small town on the outskirts of Paris, and recruited a group of rural youths from his hometown of Gaoyang County, Hebei Province as workers. In order to improve the cultural literacy of the workers, Li Shizeng personally wrote teaching materials, teaching Chinese, French, mathematics, physics, chemistry and even moral education courses, working during the day and taking classes at night.
Inspired by the Chinese workers' night school, he, together with Cai Yuanpei and Wu Zhihui, launched a work-study movement, recruiting young people with financial difficulties but ideals to go to France to work and study.
What he didn't expect was that this movement to study in France changed the fate of many people and rewrote the course of Chinese history.
It was for this reason that Zhang Xingjiu provided so much help to Li Shizeng. With this relationship, he would not forget himself when he launched a movement to study in France in the future, and Zhang Xingjiu could also take this opportunity to get to know Feifei and others.
Of course, these are all things that happened more than ten years later. What Zhang Xingjiu needs to do now is to continue to engage in education and scientific research.
(End of this chapter)
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