本文籍四位知識分子作家──京派詩人，《畫夢錄》作者何其芳(1912-1977)，魯迅眼中「中國最傑出的抒情詩人」馮至(1895-1993)，新儒學巨擘唐君毅(1909-1978)，「幽默大師」林語堂(1895-1976)──在二十紀中期的經歷，探討歷史風暴中知分子何去何從的處境。戰亂和政爭將他們拋出成有的生命軌道，讓他們對家國命運有了刻骨銘心的感受。發為文章，他們顯現與當下、與歷史對話的衝動：過去應該如何被留付記憶？記憶應該如何啟發未來？書寫成為這些知識分子感時知命的憑藉，也成為想像、扭轉歷史的嘗試。本乎此，何其芳為共產主義的天啟作見證，馮至思考人存在的本質意義，唐君毅以復興儒學道統為己任，林語堂則尋求天下一家理想實現的可能。 但文章是個人之事。這四位人物更將他們的文才與史識注入四所大學。作為現代中國一種菁英化的公眾領域，大學提供了鑒別歷史，儲藏記憶的獨特空間。何其芳所在的魯迅藝術學院強調革命戰鬥精神，馮至任教的西南聯大饒富自由主義氣氛，唐君毅協同創立的新亞書院傳承儒家書院風格，林語堂應聘出掌的南洋大學則致力華族價值在海外的延續。這些大學各是馮、何等人連接一己與世界的界面，也是他們述作的基礎。 但大學固然是菁英環境，卻從來不乏人間煙火，何況是在亂世。所謂的「大學之道」因此指的就是知識分子邀求真理的學問之道，也是問學環境消長變遷的時間之道。其中的信仰與懷疑，憂懼與救贖，無不張力十足，也再次說明現代中國歷史、政治、知識力量劇烈互動的一斑。

Through four case studies, this article examines modern Chinese intellectual writers’ modus vivendi in mid-twentieth century: He Qifang (1912-1977), leading Beijing School Modernist poet; Feng Zhi (1895-1993), “the greatest lyrical poet of modern literature”; Tang Junyi (1909-1978), one of the most respectable scholars of Neo-Confucianism; Lin Yutang (1895-1975), the “master of humor” of China. The article describes how wars and national catastrophes-from the Second Sino-Japanese War to Communist seizure of Mainland China-threw these intellectual writers out of the courses of their lives and careers, compelling them to rethink the meaning of the national fate and individual agency, writing as a way of remembering and re-membering history. The article observes how these writers’ literary and intellectual engagements during this period were closely related to the space of the university. He Qifang completed his transformation into Maoist propagandist during his tenure at he Lu Xun Academy of the Arts in Yan’an; Feng Zhi matured as a poet-thinker in an existentialist vein while teaching at the Southwest Associated Universities; Tang Junyi promoted Confucianism in diaspora by participating in founding New Asia College in Hong Kong; Lin Yutang served as President of the Nanyang University, Singapore, in hope of carrying out a self-styled cosmopolitanism. While there was little overlap among their intellectual and ideological trajectories, these four figures all resorted to writing, particularly writing with a lyrical bearing, to inscribe visions of history and knowledge, and their expectations and challenges when realizing these visions. As such, they redefined “the Ways of Learning” during a most tumultuous moment of modern China.