On June 7th in 2021, the professor of Chinese Department of Fudan University, Professor of the Chinese Ancient Literature Research Center , Doctoral Supervisor, Senior Professor of Liberal Arts, Chairman of the Chinese Literature in Tang Dynasty of China , Mr Shang-jun Chen gave a lecture titled "My Transformation on Academic Atmosphere-- Taking Literary Researches on Tang Dynasty As the Core " in the library of BFSU. The lecture was hosted by Professor Zhan Fului, Dean of School of Chinese Language and Literature.

       Mr Chen started with his own educational experience. He was born in Nantong, Jiangsu Province. After graduating from middle school, he worked on a farm for eight years. In 1977, the college entrance examination was resumed and he was lucky enough to be admitted to the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Fudan University. In the following year, he was admitted as a graduate student and taught by Professor Zhu Dongrun. Thus he established an indissoluble bond with the literature of Tang Dynasty. Since the 1970s and 1980s, the academic idols respected by Chinese academia have gradually changed from Chen Yinque, Guo Moruo, Wen Yiduo, etc., to Cen Zhongmian, Xia Chengtao, Fu Xuancong, etc. The change of academic idols reflected the replacement of academic thoughts and the innovation of academic research methods, which meant that many old problems needed re-recognizing. For example, the famous poet Du Fu's departure from the area of Shu was a controversial issue. Since the ancient times, people agreed with the recording, "Wu died, Du Fu has no family", of the Old Book of Tang Dynasty. They believed that Du Fu left Shu because of the death of Yan Wu, a good friend he relied on. But Mr. Chen, based on a large number of first-hand documents, found that "Du Fu may not have left Shu because of Yan Wu's death". After a series of textual research, he came to the conclusion that "the time between Du Fu's trip and Yan Wu's death was just an accidental coincidence", which overturned the historic recording. Mr. Chen sorted out and perfected this problem and formed the article "Du Fu left Shu for Lang". This academic attempt in his youth was praised by Mr. Zhu Dongrun, who said: "Chen Shangjun will bring glory to Fudan University." Under the guidance of Mr. Zhu, Mr. Chen gradually made up his mind on the study of literature based on academic documents. Mr. Chen pointed out that learning was to find the most concrete things from materials and outline the main line of ancient people's life. Ancient literature has its particularity. Many literature materials were hearsay and fabrication of later generations. Under this circumstance, researchers needed to make empirical research and identify the false to restore the historical truth to the greatest extent.

Mr. Chen, who has devoted himself to the research on literature and history of the Tang Dynasty, dedicated to his work as an addendum to "The Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty" and "The Complete Prose of the Tang Dynasty". He said that much of his work was done in the "pre-digital era," when literature retrieval relied entirely on manual browsing of printed books. Since the beginning of the 21st century, with the development of electronic document retrieval technology, new technologies, new methods, new data and new documents have affected and even subverted the traditional academy, and provided great convenience for the current literature and history research. At the same time, new social and cultural trends are also affecting the contemporary academic development to a great extent. Living on Fudan Campus and being exposed to the "Shanghai School" culture, Mr. Chen also began to create some "short articles" with the buzzwords, which were published in publications such as "Chinese Literature and History" and "The Knowledge of Classical Literature", such as "Tang Poetry liked by the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty", "Love Debt and Real Life of Rong Yu, a humble Poet", "The Moral Integrity of the Poet LingHu Chu and his moments". Compared with the academic articles with boring theory, these essays were relaxing, bright and fashionable. More importantly, these articles reflected the living history and life vividly, and could better show the academic temperament of a scholar. Mr. Chen said to himself that no matter what kind of articles he wrote, he always said, "This life is not wasted.".

During the Q&A session, the students enthusiastically asked questions, and Mr. Chen responded positively. After the lecture, Dean Zhan Furui spoke highly of Professor Chen Shangjun's lecture. He concluded: firstly, Mr. Chen Shangjun is a respectable person. He can sum up the length of a generation of study, start a generation of academics, and achieve a new academic era. This kind of mind, ambition, aspiration and hard work are worth learning. Secondly, Mr. Chen is also a "lovely" person, a true and lovely scholar. From being a man to doing scholarly research, return to his authentic self. In regard to Mr. Chen's short article, Dean Zhan said in particular: "The article is short but not simple, which reflects Mr. Chen's profound understanding of literature and history." Mr. Chen's lecture was so brilliant that won long-lasting applause from students.