Chapter 336 - The university rankings are out! (1/2)
At night.
It was already past 8PM after cla.s.s.
Walking out from the backdoor of the auditorium, Zhang Ye did not head back to the office, nor did he go home. Instead, he found a spot in the auditorium’s staff room and lit a cigarette. The school did not explicitly state that teachers were not allowed to smoke, but in front of the students at school, it would definitely not seem right to smoke. So every time Zhang Ye smoked in school, he had to do it sneakily. Sometimes, he would do so in the toilet, sometimes he and a colleague would go to a spot where there was no one else.
He crossed his legs.
And sat on a chair.
Zhang Ye took out his cell phone and surfed the net.
Today’s public lecture video had been posted online very quickly. When he clicked on Peking University’s website, the video was already up. Other than the part where he spoke about the cla.s.s a.s.signment, the whole lesson had been posted. It was probably uploaded after the cla.s.s had ended, so everyone could watch it quickly.
As it had just been posted, there were no comments below.
Zhang Ye checked his Weibo and as he expected, there were people already doubting the content of his lecture. Regarding such doubts, Zhang Ye had already gotten used to it in the past few days.
“Winsome Colonel’s issue was not explained correctly!”
“Praising Fourth Sister Lin was simply a general praise to a virtue, how could it be correlated to the anti-Qing issue?”
“And according to research, because of Cao Xueqin’s family relations, he could not possibly write anti-Qing topics!”
“The explanation of the structure of 108 chapters is too far-fetched! The conclusion of this research can only be used as a reference and is not set in stone yet. For example, in the middle chapters, if we apply Zhang Ye’s rule of the unit structure, there isn’t any real distinction in there. You cannot simply use where there is an obvious distinction in the story and apply it to everything!”
“Jia Zheng would never be anti-Qing. According to Zhang Ye’s views, the ending plot would never have developed in that way!”
“Everyone, don’t watch Peking University’s public cla.s.s videos. Don’t listen to Zhang Ye talking blindly. He’s talking rubbis.h.!.+”
After so many days, many of the Redologists and literary world members who were left speechless earlier started to fight back. Included in them were Ma Hengyuan, Meng Dongguo, and a few others. They had been staying up for many days to prepare for this battle. They all worked together to find all the problems and issues of Zhang Ye’s argument, and used it as a basis to continue disproving Zhang Ye’s lectures. At the beginning, they had all fallen into Zhang Ye’s rhythm. They could not make their way around something that they were unfamiliar with, but slowly they managed to find their way through. These people were not fools and had seen the many problems in Zhang Ye’s lecture. Now they were agitated and were charging straight for him with their spears!
But somehow, many people from the community sided with Zhang Ye!
“Who says that it was just simply a general praise to virtue? How do you know that Cao Xueqin did not have any other intention?”
“How can you apply Cao Xueqin’s family situation on the novel? You guys don’t even know who Old Cao’s sons were, so how can you be so sure? And Old Cao is an author, does he necessarily need to apply his family background into the novel? Isn’t this an international joke!?”
“Even if Jia Zheng was not anti-Qing, how do you know that Jia Baoyu was not? So when he saw that Jia Zheng had suggested to praise the Winsome Colonel, he spared no effort in doing so? On the problems of this poem, Teacher Zhang basically explained it very clearly! What do you mean by utter rubbish?”
Both sides countered each other’s arguments!
There were still many points of contention!
But there was one point that could not be disputed. It was the fact that Zhang Ye’s public lecture videos’ views never slowed down. Those Redologists had all urged people not to believe what Zhang Ye said, but everyone simply ignored them. There was no other way, everyone simply enjoyed what Zhang Ye had said!
Finally, the whole Redology world was stifled until there wasn’t even a trace of temper left!
What was worth mentioning was that within the Redology world, there was an increasingly different school of thought now. A minority of Redologists generally began agreeing with Zhang Ye’s claims and even went to the public lectures that Zhang Ye held. It went as far as them taking up and carrying on the study of Vestige Forensics that Zhang Ye had started. They had already begun to slowly research in this area of study!
It was a mess!
Because of Zhang Ye alone, because of those few lessons by Zhang Ye.
The whole Redology world, literary world, and history world were now in a mess!
Zhang Ye had not had much hope for everyone to agree with his claims. Everyone’s doubts and debates were the moving factor of Redology research and Zhang Ye’s objective had been met. Although in his previous world, the fact that someone else continued the writings after the first 80 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ was already recognized as a fact, in this world, there still wasn’t enough proof, so this was not something that could convince people in the short term. A longer time was needed for the verification process to take place. It might take a few months, a few years, or even a few decades or centuries.
Let’s not look at this anymore. Hur Hur. Let’s move on to something else.
Zhang Ye had smoked half his cigarette and was still browsing through Weibo.
Suddenly, an official Weibo account had caught Zhang Ye’s attention — “The new year’s university ranking are complete and will be announced shortly!”
Below, many people began commenting.
“There’s no suspense again this year, right?”
“Yea, every year is about the same.”
“No, this year’s Peking University’s Chinese department is somewhat of a suspense!”
“Oh, that’s right. The industry insiders are all saying that Peking University’s Chinese department has declined and is going downhill. Didn’t an expert and industry insider predict a while ago that only Peking University’s Science faculty would be able to continue dominating it’s rank? Their Chinese department will have done well if they can retain 2nd place this year. Nanjing University and Tsinghua University have been improving this year. Even Beijing Normal University has been catching up these past two years, but then, Peking University’s Chinese department has become one of the favorites after all the commotion that Zhang Ye caused with his lectures on ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’!”
“I wonder if they will take into consideration Zhang Ye’s lectures. If they really take that into consideration, the result would not be that predictable anymore.”
“It’s going to suspenseful. Zhang Ye’s lessons have not yet been recognized by many in the industry yet. They are all claiming that he has been uttering nonsense, so the evaluators might also consider that point.”
“They shouldn’t. In terms of academics, many things are controversial. They cannot just deduct points off because of this, right?”
“It’s hard to say.”
“Right, let’s wait for the results.”
“Quickly, release them. Why is it taking so long?”
“I can’t wait to see what our department’s ranking is!”
“Long live Foreign language department! Hail to our Alma mater!”
“Supporting Beijing Film Academy! Death to Central Academy of Drama and Shanghai Theater Academy!”
“Support Nanjing University’s Chinese department! We must get number 1! Crush Peking University and Tsinghua University! Hoho!”
The post attracted mainly university students who were either discussing or showing their support for their inst.i.tutions.
At this moment, Zhang Ye’s phone rang. It was a call from his colleague, Su Na, “Teacher Zhang, come over quickly. The university rankings are going to be released soon!”
“Sure.” Zhang Ye went back to the office.
When he got back, Zhang Ye saw the other Chinese department’s lecturers and professors seated in there. The three offices’ teachers had all gathered together and the atmosphere felt tense and highly pressured. A few of the female teachers could not bear to watch.
Su Na breathed deeply.