It can be said that Zhou Zuoren's life was tragic, because he had been a traitor and a traitor. This alone made him the only one among the 3 brothers of the Zhou family who was nailed to the column of historical shame. To this end, Qian Zhongshu also used the criticism of the novel character Lu Bolin in his book "Cats" to satirize Zhou Zuoren: "Except for sunflowers, the world is afraid that there is no pro-Japanese person or thing like Lu Bolin." He is even more pro-Japanese than sunflowers, and he knows Japan in peacetime and Japan in wartime! ”
Usually, Japan is passed, which is indeed saying that Zhou Zuoren. In 1906, after arriving in Japan, he first studied Japanese, studied naval technology, studied foreign Chinese, and then entered the preparatory department of Hosei University in Japan and The National University of Tokyo to study Greek, and studied the Expedition. During this period, Zhou Zuoren also married a Japanese woman as a wife, that is, Hata Nobuko. Since then, he has maintained a deep and complex connection with Japanese culture, and has devoted most of his life to the translation and research of Japanese academic literature and art, and has deeply grasped the essence of Japanese culture.
In this case, Zhou Zuoren regarded Japanese culture and art as a part of the Oriental culture that belonged to the same cultural community, paid attention to the comparison with Chinese culture and art, participated in the evidence, obtained new ideas, artistic enlightenment, and established a unique concept of Japanese culture, which is recognized as "Japan Communication" between China and Japan. Moreover, Zhou Zuoren was very disgusted with traditional Chinese Taoism, and his literary accomplishment and personal conduct, and even his personality and way of life, were closer to Japan.
To put it simply, Zhou Zuoren is closer to the Japanese in any way, and even his literature is very Japanese, revealing a Japanese atmosphere everywhere, and the same is true of calligraphy. Therefore, he was very disgusted with the person in power at that time, a national revolutionary who was obsessed with Confucian culture and was a traditional national revolutionary, who even wrote with a brush and was neat and neat. In fact, among Chinese writers, there is really no one who has such a close relationship with Japan and Japanese culture as Zhou Zuoren.
For example, Guo Moruo, although he studied in Japan and married a Japanese, later spent his life in Japan. But in the end, he abandoned everything and returned to the forefront of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Zhou Zuoren, on the other hand, loved Japanese culture from the bottom of his heart and attributed China's backwardness to not learning about Japan. From this point of view, it also makes sense why he wants to join Japan and become a traitor in the future. After all, a Chinese who is impressed by Japanese culture has no psychological burden to become a traitor.
In addition, Zhou Zuoren also had his younger brother Zhou Jianren marry the sister of his wife Yu Tai Nobuko, Yu Tai Fangzi. Of course, in addition to Zhou Zuoren's own reasons, the reason why he would be a traitor was inseparable from his wife Yu Taixinzi. Because after Lu Xun's mother and Juan moved out of Badaowan at that time, the actual owner of Badaowan was already Yu taixinzi. For this reason, Lu Xun also said: "There is only one Chinese left in Badao bay. In other words, Shusaku was effectively surrounded by japanese (Hatta Nobuko and her mother-in-law).
Coupled with Yu Tai Nobuko's fierce personality and Zhou Zuoren's cowardly personality, I don't believe it when I say that I am not subject to her. After the Outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, all the literati withdrew from Beiping, and only Zhou Zuoren remained there. After Hu Shi knew about it, he wrote a special letter to tell him: Go south and not be a traitor. Zhou Zuoren defended himself in his reply: I also want to go south, but the family is in Beiping, the family is too tired, and it is difficult to travel south. Although I stayed in Beiping, I would never be a traitor.
However, family fatigue is just an excuse for Zhou Zuoren, he just doesn't want to go south. Because at that time, many people were "tired at home", such as Zhu Ziqing, Wen Yiduo, and Lin Huiyin and so on. In the end, they did not all go south with a large number of sons, and they would never be traitors. To put it bluntly, Zhou Zuoren's ethics are not even as good as a woman's. In 1940, Zhou Zuoren became the pseudo-North China Education Inspector, completely becoming a traitor, from Japan to Japan.
In the more than 4 years of being a traitor, his little life was quite good, and he lived quite comfortably, not only paying off the debts he owed, but also becoming a famous literati in the han traitor circle, with fame and profit. During this period, he also led a delegation of commentators from the East Asian Cultural Association to Japan, publicly announced his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, went to the hospital to comfort the Wounded Japanese Soldiers, and donated money to the Wounded Soldiers of Japan. You know, that time was April 1941, the Pacific War had not yet broken out, and the Japanese wounded soldiers were wounded in the fight with the Chinese military and civilians!
In fact, how to say it, looking at Zhou Zuoren's attitude towards his mother Lu Rui, you can detect that this person will be a traitor. When everyone urged Zhou Zuoren to go south, he talked about the difficulties of moving his family south, such as: "Lu Xun's mother and his women both want me to support, and the old third family also depends on me to support." "You read that right, when Zhou Zuoren mentioned his mother, he actually said 'Lu Xun's mother', not once or twice, but often. After Lu Xun's death, his mother, Lu Rui, cried and said to Zhou Zuoren, "Second elder, I will rely on you in the future."
But Zhou Zuoren said, "I am miserable! My bitterness..." Mother Lu Rui cried and said to Zhu Guangping after hearing this: "Can he say that he is bitter and bitter, can he get rid of his responsibility of supporting me?" At the memorial service of his brother Lu Xun, whenever he talked about his mother, Zhou Zuoren used "his mother instead", which means "Lu Xun's mother" instead of "family mother". In the book "Lu Xun's Former Residence", there is a passage introducing Lu Rui: Mrs. Lu is Lu Xun's mother, her mother's family name is Lu, and she lives in Anqiaotou, Huiji.
If you don't look at the author, others will read this sentence, only when the author and Lu Rui should not have too much to do with each other, at most, they are acquaintances. But in fact, the author of this book is Zhou Zuoren, Lu Xun's brother, and Lu Rui's own son. The son described his mother in such polite language that he seemed to be a strange third person between the lines. He even directly wrote that Lu Rui was Lu Xun's mother, and seemed to have nothing to do with himself. Therefore, what is so strange about a person who is unfaithful and filial to be a traitor?