The "May Fourth" failed to erase Han Yu's brilliance

Tang Xiaomin

　The May Fourth New Culture Movement was characterized by anti-tradition, focusing on Confucianism, and Han Yu was the inheritor of Confucian thought, so it was natural that Han Yue was criticized and criticized during this period.

　　People who were fiercely anti-traditional culture at that time often criticized Han Yu. For example, Chen Duxiu said in "On literary revolution": "The two things that my people are dissatisfied with today are Changli: One is that Wen Yu is a teacher of ancient times. Although it is not a classic text, it does not depart from the aristocratic style, and its content is far less than the richness of the novelists of the Tang Dynasty, and the result is the result of the new aristocratic literature. Second, it is mistaken in the fallacy of 'the text carries the tao'. Literature is not based on the Tao, and the so-called Texts of the Tao from Changli to Zeng Guofan are only extremely superficial and extremely empty facade language since the copying of Kong Meng. ”

　　The most critical of Han Yu was Zhou Zuoren, who wrote many articles criticizing Han Yu, criticizing both Han Yu's Taoism and Han Yu's articles. Zhou Zuoren almost completely denied Han Yu, saying that Han Yu "was a representative of the feudal literati, hot and restless, stubborn and timid, dry and arrogant, teaching his sons with snobbery, and full of etiquette", Han Yu's articles "are really vain and arrogant and rough", "Although Han Yu claims to be the decline of the Eight Dynasties, the style of the Six Dynasties was indeed overthrown by him, but his articles, even the most famous "Pangu Preface", according to our opinion, are really not doing well." He even said, "I look for bad articles, and I look for representatives in his place." He also picked faults in Han Yu's articles, such as believing that the "Preface to Sending Meng Dongye" had so-called literary unreasonableness.

　　The writer was a student of Zhou Zuoren, and like Zhou Zuoren, he criticized Han Yu, believing that it was simply a mistake to select "Send Dong Shao Nan Sequence" to the textbook.

　　In contrast, Lu Xun criticized Han Yue as less direct, although he also did not appreciate Han Yue either. Lu Xun attached great importance to the legends of the Tang Dynasty, but the legends were not respected in the Tang Dynasty, so he said: "Every commentator humbles him and degrades him, he degrades the 'legend' to distinguish him from the Gao Wen of Han Liu's generation", which is slightly ironic.

　　However, during this period and thereafter, there were also many people who praised Han Yu, mainly in praise of Han Yu's articles.

　　Critic Li Kengo said: "All of Han Yu's articles, from the perspective of prose, are the most rich in prose rhythm. His writing is not flat, and what he pursues always belongs to a kind of ups and downs. In order to obtain this precious anti-poetic rhythm, he would put a short sentence under a long sentence, and he would suddenly present an unexpected surprise in the midst of a monotonous statement. It doesn't mean much, and it's not a novelty. But something tempts us, and we can't bear to throw him away. He added: "The success of Hanyu's article depends on his enthusiasm, such as to what Tolstoy called the sincerity of art." "This should be a high rating.

　　Wu Mi defended Han Yu's way of doing things, saying: "Han Changli is said to be 'the text carries the tao'. This way is not only the way of Confucianism and the way of Confucius and Mencius, but also the source of all things and the truth of life. It is therefore the psalm that carries the word, and the sermon. If a person who reads poetry gets light from a lamp, warms the hearth, and takes care of the light in the lamp and the heat in the furnace, but is only a part of the light and heat of the universe, it is temporarily placed in this lamp and this furnace. Longitudinal or radiative deformation will not be eliminated in the end, but the circulation cycle, the division and combination are looming. From this metaphor, we can see that the truth will never die. And the poet's sermon is indeed ordained by heaven, and the counselor has done the work of cultivation. ”

　　Interestingly, Lu Xun did not have a good feeling for Han Yue, but some people compared Han Yue to Lu Xun. Such as Guo Moruo and Wen Yiduo.

　　Guo Moruo said in "Written Under the Vegetable Oil Lamp": "Considering the position in history, and the concise, powerful style, and the ability to do twists and turns, I feel that Lu Xun is a bit like Han Yu of 'The Decline of The Eight Generations of Wen Qi, and the Drowning of the Daoji World'."

　　Wen Yiduo wrote on the occasion of Lu Xun's death: "Mr. Lu Xun is dead, and in addition to his grief, we must also observe him from the perspective of a literary historian. Let us imagine who is the character in the history of Chinese literature who has dominated us the longest and most profoundly, with an attitude of fighting resistance, who makes us think of his personality first, not his articles first? It's Han Yu. ”

　　Another foreign scholar also said: "If you want to cite which person Lu Xun is comparable to in Chinese history, it should be Han Yu." They all have intelligent minds, excellent ability to master words, fierce eloquent personalities and literary creativity; In addition, both of them can sometimes write with great humor. ”

　　Zhang Dainian compared Hu Shi to Han Yu, believing that Hu Shi's position in the history of Chinese culture and thought was similar to that of Han Yue: "Han Yue advocated ancient Chinese, 'the decline of the eight generations of Wen', and achieved great achievements. Hu Shi advocated vernacular literature, making vernacular and stylistic literature the main forms of academic and political articles, and its influence was very significant. ”

　　Many others said that they gained writing skills by studying Hanyu articles. For example, Cai Shangsi once recalled: "When I was studying at Yongchun Middle School, I paid special attention to laying a good foundation for learning, starting with literature first, and reading Korean and some books such as "Shi Ji" and "Zhuangzi" well. Practice makes perfect, and later went to Beijing to apply for an essay by the World Journal, and was rated by Zhang Hexhui as 'I know that this jun has studied Korean for a long time', and Mei Guangxi also had a comment that "the style of writing is very similar to that of Han Wengong". They all saw that I was heavily influenced by the Korean language. ”

Han Yu was an important historical figure, a cultural giant. Even in the days of intense criticism of Confucianism, his brilliance could not be erased.