Chapter 135 - Extreme Validation from Beijing University’s Professor! (2/2)
Of course, the doubtful voices were also catching up.
“This Zhang Ye, what does he know about the Three Kingdoms! Zhuge Liang was not a military genius? What the heck! He dares to insult my idol?”
“The empty fort strategy does not exist? Hahahaha. What a joke!”
“Borrowing the east wind was a historical event, right? How could it not exist?”
“To find someone who doesn’t know a sh*t about the Three Kingdoms to speak about it? What is wrong with the television station!”
“That’s right! With this kind of standard, he can appear on TV? With those kind of looks, he can appear on TV? I am laughing. Alright, I will admit that Zhang Ye can write poetry well. In Beijing, the number of writers and authors who dare say that they can write better poetry than him can be easily counted. That ‘Lyrics to Remembering Your Charm – Remembrance of the Tale of the Crimson Cliff’ and ‘Shuidiao Getou’ can be considered as incomparable. Zhang has such capabilities, and no one can question that. But to speak about history? He is far from it!”
But just as these people were scolding, suddenly, a Weibo verified account belonging to a Peking University history professor commented. He presented today’s “a.n.a.lysis of the Three Kingdoms” examples cited by Zhang Ye in its original form and said, “It’s true that there are too many people in our country these days who do not know enough about the Three Kingdoms history, but they write books and appear on TV to speak about it. This is getting too common and it is also our history world’s sadness. But I must tell everyone that the kind of person that you guys are discussing about is not Zhang Ye. With just the first episode’s ‘Lyrics to Remembering Your Charm – Remembrance of the Tale of the Crimson Cliff’, I also have to address Zhang Ye as Teacher Zhang!”
“Uh.”
“History professor?”
“That is a professor of Peking University!”
“Let’s not talk first, we should listen to what the professor has to say.”
Finally, someone from the field with authority has spoken. The netizens on Weibo had also quietened down.
The history professor said, “I can tell everyone that, as a history professor, what Teacher Zhang Ye has said can be fully backed by facts, records and has good historical logic. Of course, some of that is Teacher Zhang Ye’s personal opinions; I will not comment on those. But since this is a discussion, everyone has their own thoughts. They can add their opinions and a.n.a.lysis into it. A little deviation is normal. But even so, the deviation cannot be too much. Like the empty fort strategy and borrowing the east wind? These are not recorded in history. In fact, many history experts and I share the same a.n.a.lysis as Teacher Zhang Ye. These two events did not exist. Even if they did, they couldn’t be so exaggerated, nor could they have happened because of Zhuge Liang. This is totally cooking up facts or embellishment, but it is not the true history. Zhuge Liang is also not a military genius; at most, you can say that he was a military pract.i.tioner. Zhuge Liang can also be called a political genius, but his true achievements were not with the military!”
Below, a lot of people immediately Liked the comment and followed it.
Within them, there were a number of history scholars, including the Peking University professor’s colleagues, his students and postdocs. Even other university’s professors began to start commenting to argue for Zhang Ye, to let this historical truth dawn upon the ma.s.s audiences.
“What?”
“There was really no empty fort strategy?”
“F**k! Zhang Ye was the one who spoke the truth? Those other lecturers were the ones who were bulls.h.i.+**ing?”
“I’ve been enlightened! I nearly scolded the wrong person!”
“That’s not right. I recall that there was a professor on the scene during the program’s recording. He was even given a shot. I know him. That person went on Central TV before. He had doubted Zhang Ye!”
The Peking University’s professor clearly knew Ma Hengyuan, “You are talking about Ma Hengyuan, right? I also saw him. However, you have to know that Professor Ma is an elite in the realm of literature. But if you want to talk about his research and contribution to the realm of history? Sorry, but he doesn’t exist in our history circles.” He was probably long aware of Ma Hengyuan’s spread of misinformation about the Three Kingdoms, so he was not pleased with him. Hence, his tone was not very polite.
“So that’s the case.”
“Sh*t, that means this Zhang Ye is so good?”
“No way. I must watch the next episode!”
“Are there tickets to the live recording? My dad loves this new segment so much. I want to get a ticket for my dad to let him watch it live and also see with his own eyes Teacher Zhang Ye’s awesomeness!”
Public opinion quickly changed. Not many people doubted Zhang Ye anymore. With so many history professors and scholars affirming it, who could say a thing?
Finally, that Peking University professor and a few history professors recommended “Lecture Room”, “I had not thought of the subject for my upcoming lesson for graduate students, but now I have thought of it. I will get them to do a thorough a.n.a.lysis of ‘Zhang Ye’s a.n.a.lysis of the Three Kingdoms ‘. This is a good program. This is a program with real history mixed in with Zhang Ye’s personal views that agree with historical reasoning. If I have a chance, I really want to have an exchange with Teacher Zhang Ye, face to face. I will watch every episode in the future.”
Upon seeing this, Zhang Ye quickly replied, “Professor, you are too kind. There’s no exchange to speak of. I should be the one learning from you.”
The Peking University History professor said, “You are being humble, Teacher Zhang. Just with your historical standard and lecturing ability, even in Tsinghua or Peking University, you will at the minimum obtain a t.i.tle of a.s.sociate Professor!
a.s.sociate Professor?
Man, I can even be an a.s.sociate Professor?
But why was that impossible? Zhang Ye recalled that there were several famous hosts in his world who went to universities to become a.s.sociate professors to lecture after quitting their jobs. Some of them even took hosting as a sideline, while they had an internal position in the university. This direction into academia was not bad.
Zhang Ye was slightly tempted, but he knew that the professor was just making a remark. He did not have the credentials yet. He had to prove himself.
“Teacher Zhang is impressive!”
“Teacher Zhang Ye, I love you!’
“I have three televisions at home! Every ‘Lecture Room’ episode in the future, I’ll turn on all three televisions! Well, but it seems that the television station ratings are calculated through sampling statistics. Three televisions would probably be of no use!”
“I don’t really like the Three Kingdoms, nor did I read the novel. But as long it’s Teacher Zhang’s work or segment, I will unconditionally support it!”
“Because of that line, ‘The river and mountains today’s landscapes paint; Where once there were many courageous and heroic men’, I have become Teacher Zhang’s hardcore fan!”
“Well said. Every one of Teacher Zhang Ye’s poems are so cla.s.sic. It was too fast when shown on TV, so I didn’t see it clearly. I’m hoping that Teacher Zhang Ye will post the original text!”
With the doubts ending, what was left were the cheers from Zhang Ye’s fans.
Zhang Ye responded to his fans’ request. He posted “Lyrics to Remembering Your Charm – Remembrance of the Tale of the Crimson Cliff”!
Immediately, everyone began to forward it and Like it. Furthermore, all of the comments were full of praise, drowning out everything else!
Initially, people were unsure or did not understand Zhang Ye’s a.n.a.lysis of the Three Kingdoms, so there were many criticisms and doubts. But with this poem, not a single person issued a statement criticizing it!
This poem was too good!
The romance, warring and the appearance of heroes in the era of the Three Kingdoms was vividly embodied in this piece!
Many people even believed that amongst all the poems on the Three Kingdoms, this poem was the best, and.. that there was nothing that could compare!
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