On the topic of Lu Xun, last year wrote several articles, this year I feel that there is no need to write, but a few years ago in the reader group did a topic sharing about Lu Xun, talking about lu xun and Juan's feelings, the group of friends responded warmly, and finally reached an agreement on whether Lu Xun is a "scumbag", Lu Xun and Juan's marriage tragedy, can not only let Lu Xun alone carry the pot, Juan himself has a reason.
Talk about this topic now, nothing new, just repeat the old topic.
One
The marriage between Lu Xun and Juan, according to today's discourse, is a "feudal arranged marriage." While Lu Xun was studying abroad, his mother Lu Rui got him engaged, and Lu Xun became the fiancé of a woman named "Juan" without participation in the whole process.
Lu Xun was disgusted with this marriage from beginning to end, but his disgust was invalid. In Lu Xun's youth, the freedom of marriage had not yet entered the consciousness of the Chinese, and the arranged marriage of his parents was taken for granted by people.
Lu Xun and Juan were also forced to marry.
Lu Xun, who was studying in Japan, was recalled home by an urgent letter from "his mother's illness and quick return", only to see that the house was full of lights, his mother was smiling, and he was sent to the cave room and became the husband of a woman named "Juan".
On the second day of the new marriage, the servants of Lu Xun's family found that Lu Xun's face was dyed green with indigo. In the past, most of the pillows were dyed with indigo, and it was obvious that Lu Xun had cried on the pillow.
The bridegroom was crying on his pillow, and the bride's cave flower candle night must have been extremely embarrassing.
Soon after the new marriage, Lu Xun left home and returned to Japan. Later, when he returned to China, he hardly lived with Juan.
When Lu Xun was studying in Japan, he wrote a letter to his mother and proposed to withdraw from marriage, but his mother refused. Lu Xun's mother believes that retiring from marriage will affect Juan's reputation, Juan is not young, retired from marriage, who else will she marry? Lu Xun had no choice but to stop.
In 1919, Lu Xun's family sold their old house and went to live in Beijing, and Lu Xun asked Juan if she wanted to go to Beijing, and if she didn't want to go, she could give her a sum of money to stay in her mother's house or marry. Zhu An, in line with the concept of "marrying a chicken with a chicken and marrying a dog with a dog", expressed his willingness to follow Lu Xun to Beijing.
In Beijing, he fell out with Lu Xun and his brother and moved out of the Badaowan mansion where he lived with his brother, and Juan also moved out.
Two
Although Lu Xun resisted this "gift" that his mother gave him, after finding that he had been tied to Juan all his life and had no other choice, he once tried to make some idealized "transformation" of Juan, and he wrote a letter to let Juan put his feet down and let Juan go to school.
Lu Xunti's request has some difficulty, a girl in her twenties, put her feet can only be put into "half a big foot", and she is ridiculed when she goes out. It is not easy to go to school, not to mention the tuition fee, and it is not easy to find a girls' school.
But things are man-made, although it is not easy, it is not impossible to make up your mind to do it.
Lu Xun also wrote a letter asking his mother to put her feet, and Lu Xun's mother received her son's letter and let go of her feet. Some people said ugly things, calling her "Nanchi broom" and saying that she was going to marry a "foreign devil", and Lu Xun's mother did not care.
Lu Xun's mother also did not go to school, and after marriage, she had children, took care of housework, and took care of her sick husband, and did not have her own time. But when her son grew up, she taught herself at home, read the newspaper, and read novels, and there was no problem. When Lu Xun's family lived in Beijing, Lu Xun's mother was often the first to grab the newspaper of the day. Because she often reads books and newspapers, although she is an old lady at home, she knows all about national affairs and often expresses her opinions at home.
Therefore, the tragedy of Lu Xun's marriage with Juan cannot be attributed to an arranged marriage alone. Lu Xun's parents are also arranged marriages, and after marriage, she encountered many problems, she not only survived, but also read and read, keeping up with the pace of the new era.
If the example of Lu Xun's mother is not convincing, we can look at Hu Shi and Jiang Dongxiu.
Hu Shi and Jiang Dongxiu are also arranged marriages by their parents, Jiang Dongxiu is also illiterate, Hu Shi wrote a letter to let Jiang Dongxiu read, Jiang Dongxiu learned to recognize words, and also took the initiative to let go of his feet. Jiang Dongxiu stumbled and wrote a letter to Hu Shi, and although the typos were repeated, it still surprised Hu Shi. His fiancée, though not his ideal wife, is working in a good direction and allows him to see her efforts.
And Juan, neither the courage to put her feet, nor do she want to read and write, but she wants to please her fiancé, just on the day of marriage, put a pair of large shoes on the outside of the small shoes, pretending to have put her feet, did not expect that when she got out of the car, the big shoes fell off. Falling off shoes at the wedding is considered unlucky, and pleasing the husband is not flattered, but leaves a laughing stock.
Three
Many celebrities of the Republic of China have an original match with a mediocre appearance, and Juan is undoubtedly the most mediocre appearance of these wives, even Zhou Zuoren, who has always recognized Zhu An as Lu Xun's only main room, also said in the "Memoirs of Zhitang" that "the newcomer (Juan) is extremely short and quite underdeveloped."
This may be the reason why Lu Xun initially resisted the marriage.
But he never accepted Juan, not only because of her bad looks, but because they had a completely different inner world and couldn't find a point of communication.
For Juan, we are very sympathetic.
For Lu Xun, it is difficult for us to condemn, to be fair, Lu Xun did a good job, he wanted to dissolve the marriage contract, his mother did not agree (Zhu An's family will not agree); he wanted to give Juan a sum of money, let Juan return to her mother's house or marry, Juan did not leave; he wanted to help Juan become a cultured woman, Juan refused to learn.
What can Lu Xun do?
He could only raise Juan for the rest of his life.
Lu Xun was really blameless except for not wanting to sleep with Juan. He just saw Juan disgusted, and he couldn't force him to sleep with Juan.
In his later years, Juan said of himself, "like a snail, climbing up from the bottom of the wall little by little, climbing slowly." One day I'll climb to the top of the wall. But now I have no way, I don't have the strength to climb. No matter how well I treat him, it is useless. ”
I don't know if this was Juan's original words or if they had been transformed. This makes people sound very desolate and helpless.
I wonder what Juan meant by "climbing"? Is it day by day? Or did she treat Lu Xun well and did not receive the effect? If it was a day by day, then there was nothing to say, in her time, most women were staying up. If she treats Lu Xun well and Lu Xun does not appreciate it, then it is necessary to consider whether her so-called good treatment of Lu Xun is misaligned with Lu Xun's needs.
For example, Lu Xun wants Zhu An to put her feet, is to hope that she will be a free and sound woman, and she is afraid of pressure and does not want to let go, but put on large shoes on the outside of small shoes, pretending to have put her feet, this kind of "flattery" is obviously not what Lu Xun needs.
Four
The tragedy of Lu Xun's marriage with Juan was inevitable from the beginning.
In the popular parlance at the time, they were both "Taiwanese goods". "Taimen" is a mansion with a high gate, which is a symbol of non-rich or noble or ancestral non-rich and expensive, they and the small households in the cold door are two classes, and it is almost impossible to intermarry.
The marriage of Taimen's children is generally selected from Taimen or from squires like Lu Xun's mother's family.
But in the whole city of Shaoxing, how many gates are there? There are not many squires, and there are not many squires who can intermarry with the Taimen people in the city.
Their range of mate selection is very narrow.
Lu Xun and Juan's mate selection range is even narrower, almost unselectable.
Although Lu Xun is not tall, his appearance is still quite Zhou Zheng, and it is not difficult to marry a daughter-in-law, but doesn't he have an unlucky grandfather? His grandfather Zhou Fuqing was imprisoned for the science field fraud case, almost sentenced to death, in order to save his grandfather's life, his family sold the land property, up and down. Lu Xun's father was stripped of the title of Xiucai, depressed, addicted to smoking, entangled in the bed, bought him a big cigarette, asked a doctor to grab medicine, and spent a lot of money, the young Lu Xun had to run between the pawnshop and the medicine shop, and suffered humiliation.
A child who lost his father, his grandfather was in prison, his grandmother was elderly, and there were three younger brothers (one of whom died prematurely) and a minor uncle (Lu Xun's grandfather Zhou Fuqing's concubine had children, younger than Lu Xun), such a family, who would like to marry?
Zhu An's family, the door is innocent, but she looks poor, not ugly, but thin and not like an adult, which is a veto in the past of paying attention to birth and maintenance.
Juan is also not clever, and looks a little stupid.
Juan's family, compared with ordinary people's families, is of course good, in the middle of the taimen, but usual.
Initially, Juan's parents wanted to pick a good family for her, but the good people didn't like her, and when they came and went, they were in their twenties.
Juan's family was anxious, a girl in her twenties had not yet been engaged, it would be more difficult in the future, so lu Xun's family had a bad reputation, as long as they married their daughters.
Lu Xun's mother had similar thoughts. Her husband died of illness, her father-in-law was in prison, and her three sons and a little uncle were shoulder to shoulder. Lu Xun was the eldest son, and if he did not hurry to get engaged to the eldest son, he would delay the son behind him from marrying his daughter-in-law.
The marriage between Lu Xun and Juan is a make-up marriage, just like two shoes that are not worthy of feet, put together into a pair, and there are hidden dangers buried from the beginning.
Five
Lu Xun is difficult to marry, Zhu An is difficult to marry, and they are combined into a pair.
But the main reason why Lu Xun is difficult to marry is not in himself, but is dragged down by his family. The reason why Juan is difficult to marry is that she has no personal appearance, not family problems.
The balance, which tilts at the time of their engagement. In the year they got engaged, Lu Xun was admitted to the official scholarship international student, and Lu Xun's grandfather was also released from prison in this year. Both Lu Xun and his family are changing in a good direction.
Therefore, Lu Xun did not return to Japan for a year, Lu Xun's family was safe, and Zhu An's family could not sit still. At the urging of Zhu An's family, Lu Xun's mother tricked Lu Xun into returning to China and forced him to become intimate with Zhu An.
After becoming a relative, the balance continued to tilt towards Lu Xun's family. Lu Xun and his younger brother Zhou Zuoren returned from studying in Japan and became celebrities. With the demise of the Qing Dynasty, Lu Xun's grandfather's cheating scandal dissipated with the wind, and it was no longer a great shame.
When the Lu Xun brothers moved their family to Beijing, they had become cultural celebrities and social celebrities, both in terms of income and reputation, surpassing Lu Xun's grandfather when he was admitted to the jinshi.
With the passage of time, the reputation of the Lu Xun brothers continued to expand, and by the 1930s, Lu Xun was almost an ally of the literary world.
Lu Xun is no longer the original Lu Xun, Juan, but has always been the original Juan.
In her long life, she had learned almost nothing.
Even if her mother-in-law reads books and newspapers, it does not arouse her enthusiasm for learning culture. She could not enter her husband's world, but could only watch from the outside of his world, pleasing him with what she thought was "good", and slapping the horse's ass on the horse's leg, arousing his greater disgust.
However, Juan had a good relationship with her mother-in-law, and throughout her life, she was more like a daughter of her mother-in-law than a husband's wife.
Six
We don't want to blame Juan, her life has been bitter enough, bleak enough.
But I have to say that she could have been less bitter and less desolate.
Unlike those original partners who were left in her hometown by her husband, Lu Xun, who wanted to help her become a new woman, she gave up.
If you want to be a new woman, you need to have a pioneering spirit. Whether it is to open up to the outside world or to the inside, we must step out of the comfort zone, face challenges, and solve problems independently.
Juan, the last thing you want to go out of your life is your comfort zone.
She would rather live a "parasitic" life than be an independent woman (the independent woman mentioned here is mainly spiritually independent). There were not many economically independent women during the Republic of China, and even new women like Lin Huiyin spent most of their lives spending money from their fathers and husbands. ）
She has been passively waiting for others to arrange her life, she has never taken the initiative to learn anything, she will always be the original Juan, in her body, there is no trace of "growth".
Seven
During the discussion that day, we said that Juan may have enjoyed this "very bitter" life. This kind of "suffering" is "loneliness", not the suffering of life, juan except for a period of time in his later years, most of the time life is very comfortable.
Lu Xun sent money on time, and the family hired servants and old mothers, and she did not have to worry about running out of money to spend, nor did she have to take care of housework.
Most of her relatives are in Shaoxing, and she lives alone in Beijing, without much socializing or cumbersome interpersonal relationships.
She had no children and didn't have to bother with her children's schooling, living, getting sick, finding a job, getting married.
This kind of minimalist and carefree life is simply a pleasure for a woman who does not want to worry and lacks the concept of planning.
Of course, after the death of her mother-in-law, she saw other families bustling, she lived alone with the nanny, Xu Guangping's living expenses were insufficient, and she would also be sad and resentful.
But for most of her life, she should be content with or accustomed to a leisurely life that doesn't have to worry about anything.
If it weren't for the lack of love, the lack of the warmth of affection, Juan's kind of life would not be too good. Not to mention that in her era when food and clothing are difficult to find, it is in our time that many people can't ask for it.
Eight
If we want to learn from Juan's life, it is that women must be self-reliant and not attached to others. When you are not financially, spiritually, independent, and dependent on people, your fate can only be pinched in the hands of others.
If Juan had not met the more generous Lu Xun and Lu Xun's mother, she might not have been happier, but more unhappy.
No matter how good a woman in the world is, she also has some capital, and it is impossible to have no original capital, nor have she accumulated capital the day after tomorrow, and she can still have a good life.