In 1927, the reactionary forces turned against each other and encircled and suppressed the revolutionaries, resulting in the final defeat of the National Revolution, and Mao Dun, who was active in the front line at that time, had to turn to the shadows after being on the wanted list.
As an idealist, Mao Dun deeply deplored the defeat of the Great Revolution and suffered a lot of blows as a result. During his hiding in Shanghai, Mao Dun recalled various past experiences, and finally wrote three novels in succession, "Disillusionment", "Wavering", and "Pursuit", in order to show the whole process of modern aspiring petty-bourgeois intellectual youth from being excited to forge ahead, dedicating himself to the revolution, to wavering, and finally facing failure and shattering dreams.
The trilogy ends in a collection, included in Eclipse. As a work published in succession, the three novels have their consistency and relevance in content.
As Mao Dun himself said, "Disillusionment" is written about the female college student Ms. Jing who has encountered the misfortune of love and the setbacks of her career, and finally looks forward to happiness, but her lover has to go to the front line again, thus creating a sense of disillusionment in the future. "Shake" truthfully reflects how the peasant movement has been frustrated and how the former camp has split under the changes in the revolutionary situation. As for "Pursuit", it is written that a group of intellectual young people pursue their ideal paths, but they have returned one after another, and their future is bleak.
The three works actually reflect the uncertainty before the revolution, the complex situation when the revolution is facing a crisis, and the struggle and decline of the youth after the defeat of the revolution, layer by layer, and the level of the three articles is also raced by one.
However, it is worth noting that in these three novels, Mao Dun spent a lot of ink on women, and the women prominently depicted were mostly debauchery and freedom, informality, and fear of the world. These new-age women are passionate and energetic, but they have no scruples in gender relations, which can be described by the word wandering.
Mao Dun not only expended a lot of energy to create such a highly unified image of the prodigal woman, but also obsessed with the depiction of female flesh, and the narrative gaze was often aimed at women's graceful curved hips and full and towering breasts.
The most damning thing is that Mao Dun's depiction of the female flesh is highly repetitive, and in his pen, although each woman's body is equally seductive, it seems that there is no difference between them. The lack of refined depiction, but the focus on creating a male gaze scene, made "Eclipse" controversial at the time. Some people criticize it for being bold and explicit, describing all vulgar content, and even some critics believe that this phenomenon may be related to Mao Dun's fascination with women. Even now, some readers have expressed difficulty in understanding Mao Dun's female carnal writing.
Mao Dun prominently created a number of female images, in his own interpretation, because of the experience of the past few years, he has seen a lot of "new women's decadence, pessimism and depression", but in fact, the prodigal women mentioned above do not have a little decadent and pessimistic color.
Although Ms. Hui in "Disillusionment" lost confidence in love because of the betrayal of men, and was willing to exchange her flesh for career success, this is not a decadent performance. And Sun Wuyang and Zhang Qiuliu in "Shake" and "Pursuit" show a detached and optimistic mentality at all times. Sun Wuyang was still coping with the defeat of the revolution, and Zhang Qiuliu suspected that he was suffering from syphilis, but he could also live for a few days, so he lived for a few days. Perhaps Mao Dun's own understanding is that their indulgent behavior is decadent, but in fact, these women are still more optimistic.
If we have to talk about the decadence of women, then Mao Dun's portrayal of another type of traditional women may be more suitable. For example, Ms. Jing in "Disillusionment" is not guarded just because of the departure of her lover, and she often loses her passion and confidence in the revolutionary cause. In "Shaken", although Mao Dun positioned Mrs. Fang as a new-age woman with a traditional oriental atmosphere when she appeared, she still said pessimistic words such as "The world has become too fast, too complicated, too contradictory, and I am really lost there" through Mrs. Fang's mouth. As for Zhang Manqing's wife in "Pursuit", although she is not debauched, she is also an extremely conservative woman.
Still, male characters are more decadent in comparison. Fang Luolan in "Shaken" lingers in the ambiguity of the alien, and hesitates and cowers in the revolutionary camp. The history of suicide attempted in "Pursuit" is not to mention more.
In short, although Mao Dun set up two types of women for internal comparison, in order to show each other's strengths and weaknesses. But if you compare men with women, you will find that the gap between women is really nothing, and the conservative negativity of traditional women and the promiscuity and indulgence of new women are not worth mentioning in the face of the various behaviors of male characters.
As mentioned earlier, Mao Dun spent a lot of perspectives writing about women's flesh, creating a scene where women's sensitive parts were peeped. Unlike many opinions, I privately believe that Mao Dun is set up precisely because of the need for peeping.
What I call necessity does not mean that it is necessary to spy on women's sensitive parts, but that Mao Dun's intellectual youth is always unconsciously obsessed with women's bodies, so they have to fall into a peeping situation.
Descriptions of sensitive parts of women often occur when men and women meet for the first time, or when they are alone. In any case, always holding on to women's breasts and buttocks is not a commendable act, enough to see the desires of men's hearts.
In "Pursuit", there is even such a scene, after Zhang Qiuliu took off his clothes in the apartment, Cao Zhishun suddenly came to visit, and broke the door, Zhang Qiuliu did not have time to get dressed, and could only cover with a quilt. Unexpectedly, Cao Zhishun actually lifted the quilt when he sensed that the situation was special, so that Zhang Qiuliu's graceful body was presented in front of his eyes. It can be said that the reason why Mao Dun wants to spy on women is because the men in his pen are eager and eager to spy on women, which is definitely not his own unique habit.
It is precisely for this reason that Mao Dun's radical women have become a mirror that reflects the evil and incompetence of men. Let's talk about why women have come to this step, among the three typical women, why Zhang Qiuliu and Sun Wuyang have come to this point, and do not elaborate, but the reason why Ms. Hui is so there is.
According to the original text, Ms. Hui is obsessed with carnal desires and informality, because she has been deceived by men's feelings, and she is angry and wants to retaliate against those men. It can be seen that the degeneration of radical women may also be attributed to the search for flowers and willows of some men in the text.
In fact, even men who seem to be honest and honest on the surface, or serious and reliable, can hardly resist the charm of women. In "Shaken", although Fang Luolan was initially portrayed as a positive image in the revolutionary camp, he gradually abandoned his wife and fell to Sun Wuyang. The most ridiculous thing is that in this process, Mao Dun meticulously described the hypocrisy of men. That is, on the one hand, he told himself in his heart that this was not love, but only a friendship relationship, on the other hand, he irrepressibly moved closer to her in his heart and was ambiguous.
Sun Wuyang took advantage of Fang Luolan's easy to wavering characteristics, played it between the palms of his hands, rejected Fang Luolan's final confession, and let him be deeply hit.
Therefore, these new age men did not overcome their selfish desires with moral ideas, so they created a group of equally debauched women. But before we accuse these women of "not keeping women's morality", should we ignore the fact that men do not keep male morality first?
In fact, the men in the text are deeply infatuated with these women. Ms. Hui in "Disillusionment" does not care to let the man rub the oil at the banquet, so as to meet the source. Sun Wu in "Shake" is dazzling, and although the criticism behind her is full, I am afraid that no man can ignore her flesh. As for Zhang Qiuliu in "Pursuit", he is the object of a group of men's pursuit of care.
Women have become the focus and center, which reflects that men are only addicted to carnal desires and have no fighting spirit. However, if so, it may also be said that men are only blinded by lust for a while. In reality, however, Mao Dun portrays these female demigods, which leads to women far surpassing men even in terms of actual ability.
Sun Wuyang in "Shaken" not only emotionally toyed with Fang Luolan between the palms of her hands, after the rebels arrived, she was even more in danger, leaving the town with ease, which was much calmer than Fang Luolan's panicked escape. Zhang Qiuliu in "Pursuit" deeply observes the inner thoughts of others, and has a unique vision, before Zhang Manqing got married, he secretly hinted that the person in front of Zhang Manqing was not suitable, but Zhang Manqing did not listen, and the result was that Zhang Manqing was disillusioned with love after marriage, and had to face the double blow of career and love.
Although Zhang Qiuliu seems to have contracted syphilis in the end (I have always been skeptical about this ending). Because from the original text I read, Zhang Qiuliu did not have sex with Shi Xun, and since this is the case, it seems that there is no way to talk about suffering from syphilis. However, if it is a disease, it is even more abominable to see the inferior male in the text.)
All in all, whether Zhang Qiuliu suffered from syphilis or not, the optimism she finally showed gave this woman more divinity.
"I am not afraid to know the truth, and I am by no means sad that my life is coming to an end; even if I were to say that I had only one day left to live, I would not be afraid, as long as the words were true. If I knew that I really only had one day to live, I would use that last day most efficiently and efficiently. If I knew that there were still two days, two weeks, two months, or even two years, then I had another way of life, another means of using those times. ”
However, in any case, the composition of women as intellectuals is also a failed generation, a generation of disillusionment. Combining women's indulgence with men's greed, there is not much exploration of the revolution itself, and the reasons for the failure are certainly complex, but in the end there are problems with the bourgeois intellectuals themselves.
At that time, Mao Dun was in the trough of his life, coupled with the early influence of naturalistic literature, so he did not shy away from the tragic situation of life. All three are tragic endings full of a sense of decadence and disillusionment, especially the one in "Pursuit", which longs for love and cannot be asked for; those who have just been newly married will encounter disasters; some who commit suicide, those who are sick, in short, it is a big tragic scene.
But in any case, this trilogy finally reveals an answer for us. Under the wave of the rise of individualism after May Fourth, selfish desires eventually eroded the cause of the revolution and dissolved the noble pursuits and hopes of individuals, and what remained was naturally disillusionment, wavering, and pursuit.