Lu Xun's views on traditional ethics

Lu Xun's views on traditional ethics

Author: Qian Liqun

Let's look at Lu Xun's views on traditional ethics and morality, which is also meaningful today. For example, we have great filial piety today, and there is a concept called "repaying the grace of parents." Lu Xun questioned this, he said very frankly, I think today will still make some people feel difficult to accept.

He said that there are two reasons why parents have children, one is to continue the offspring, to continue life, and the other is to satisfy the desire for sexual intercourse. It can be said that children are born out of human instinct, what "grace" is there to talk about? To put it bluntly, behind the emphasis on "grace", there is an implicit logic of "because I gave birth to you, so I have the power to dominate you".

I have "grace" for you, so you must obey Me. This is entirely a patriarchal mindset that turns the paternity relationship into a power relationship. This is exactly what Lu Xun wants to question.

Lu Xun said that when you go to see a housewife in the countryside, she will never think that she is giving grace when she is nursing a baby. A farmer loves his children and never thinks that he is lending money, and that in the future the children will have to pay off their debts when they grow up.

So Lu Xun said that in fact, this is not true love, and true love is love beyond the nature of exchange relations and interest relations. The love of parents for their children, the love of children for their parents, is out of human nature, and there is no reason to talk about it. The so-called retribution is actually a concept of power.

This kind of talk may still make many people feel rebellious now, but this is precisely to resist the erosion of the relationship between father and son and mother and daughter by the omnipresent power consciousness in today's society. What Lu Xun has to do is to defend and restore the natural relationship between human nature and instinct.

What many people find more difficult to accept is Lu Xun's statement about love. There is an article in "Weeds" called "Passerby", and there is a detail that is very interesting. There was a man who kept walking forward, and there was something in front of him that he was going to pursue, and he walked and walked, and finally he was tired and bleeding. At this time, he met a little girl, and out of sympathy and love for this passerby, the little girl took out a rag to him and said please bandage the wound.

Let's see how the passerby reacted: he was very touched at first, immediately accepted the rag, and said thank you. Because such a lonely warrior as a passerby longs for the sympathy and love of others for him. But after a moment's thought, the passerby resolutely returned the rag to the little girl, saying that I would not only refuse you to be gracious to me, but also circle around you like an eagle, wishing you a speedy death. This is incomprehensible, he longs for love, he rejects love, and he wants the person who loves him to die sooner.

There is also a story about Lu Xun's good friend Xu Shousheng. When Lady Xu died, Lu Xun sent a telegram of condolence. He first expressed his condolences for the death of Mrs. Xu, which is a common human feeling, but then said a sentence, he said that on the other hand, he thought that the death of Mrs. Xu so early may be beneficial to the future growth of your children. This is puzzling. Later, a college student wrote to Lu Xun, saying that he did not understand why he should refuse love, or even curse love.

Lu Xun said, very simple, for example, the two of us do not know each other, there is no emotional entanglement between each other, one day when fighting on the battlefield, I can shoot you without hesitation. But now that we know each other and have feelings, I can't bear to shoot when we meet in the future.

Such emotional entanglements, including parental love for their children, can prevent a person from being alone and preventing a person from making their own independent choices. For example, my old mother is in Beijing, and she is always concerned about my safety, so I have to consider my mother's reaction in everything I do. Originally, I could do a lot of things I wanted to do in Shanghai alone, but with my mother's love, I had a bondage, and I couldn't hesitate when making a choice.

Lu Xun said that people's independence often falls in love, which is also a very strange proposition. But we should be able to understand this very well. I noticed a very interesting phenomenon: when middle school students reach high school, especially in the second and third stages of high school, when they want to say goodbye to childhood, they often have a desire to get rid of their parents and want to get rid of their parents' constraints on themselves, and the relationship between children and their parents will be very tense.

From the child's point of view, he demands independence; from the parent's point of view, the parent has an excessive love for the child, and this love is often based on not understanding the real needs of the child, but instead becomes a constraint on the child.

There is a saying called "the despotism of love", which holds that love has an affinity side and an authoritarian side. In this sense, the desire of middle school students to get rid of their parents is actually an internal rebellion against the "tyranny of love", and the parents do not understand the child's desire for independence.

Such a "despotism of love" proposition and thinking, it seems difficult for ordinary people to accept, in fact, it confuses everyone at all times, which is the most difficult life proposition for adolescents in the growth stage to bid farewell to childhood and enter adulthood. But no one dared to touch it, and it was too late to avoid it, only Lu Xun dared to face it squarely and openly reveal it. His good intentions are to elevate the love of human nature to a rational height. We can also see from this that Lu Xun truly understands human nature, as well as the complexity and richness of human nature.

press:

In fact, Mr. Lu Xun's article has been said very thoroughly, and the author would like to make a supplement on this basis.

Looking at the ethical relations in china's tradition, the author believes that it must be viewed dialectically.

From a positive point of view, Chinese society has a traditional family relationship thinking, China from the Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, has always been the continuation of the family world, there is a family and a country, no country and no home, including in the Republic of China, the social relations Chinese are mainly family society, which is the conclusion agreed by Professors and scholars such as Wang Defeng.

In Chinese society, from the marriage between the king and other countries, down to the doll relatives of the farmer and the friend of the door, all maintain the stability of their social relations through the family, including now, Chinese society is also a society that pays attention to human feelings and sophistication, and the focus of the meal is not on the meal, but on the bureau.

Just as you can't deny Guo Qilin's efforts, but you can't ignore Guo Degang's influence, in the so-called fair choice, some directors and media have put on a colored eye because of their family lineage, which is from the perspective of historical development and social relations.

In addition, from the perspective of Chinese culture, China has been a nation that emphasizes "filial piety" since ancient times, this filial piety is not single, but mutual, in the process of a person's growth, family atmosphere, family education is always the biggest factor affecting a person, family support is always the biggest and strongest support behind a person, it is precisely because of the strong concept of the family Chinese, the inseparable understanding of home and country, creating a person's success and the unity of a country.

On the flip side, as parents, we must look at the filial piety and foolishness of our children from the perspective of doting and pampering. In the seventies and eighties, because the country was under construction, the slogan at that time was "I am a brick of the revolution, and I will move wherever I need it", so there was a policy of assigning work, that is, people at that time did not decide themselves according to their own preferences, but chose themselves according to the needs of the state and the needs of the family.

Fathers often choose to sacrifice their dreams and pleasures for the sake of the country and their families, but it is also very easy to base the "right" values on this.

Lu Xun said a sentence that the author thinks is very classic:

"My historical mission is to 'shoulder the floodgates of darkness, let the young people go to a wide and bright place, and live happily after that, and behave reasonably'.

The author believes that it is precisely because of the construction and hard work of the previous generation that young people after 90 years have more time to think, have more time to cultivate some hobbies, and have more opportunities to make trade-offs, which is the most valuable wealth given to us by the country and our parents.

People's self-improvement time is really very small, an ordinary person from primary school to high school, mostly in the mechanical competition mode, especially in the cultivation of thinking and methods, very few, and after college suddenly less visual competition pressure and teachers' supervision, most people will be confused for one to two years, coupled with the current social work karma is also increasing, many people in addition to working hours even the minimum rest time can not be satisfied, let alone improve themselves, When a person lacks thoughts, his psychology is very easy to distort, and young people mainly rely on shopping and multimedia entertainment to soothe this mood, but this way is only temporary, and when the psychological burden increases again, the pressure is suddenly struck again.

This is different from the construction era, when more need is "more people are powerful", with the development of society, all walks of life are more and more refined, complex and diverse, so more need for an independent, learning, professional talent, and in such an era background, it is necessary to have more time to improve their professional knowledge and ability, and a deeper level of ideological depth and cultural accomplishment to face this extremely distorted world, which is different from the kitchen at that time.

A friend of the author, who has a stable job, a rich salary, an independent residence, and is ready to talk about marriage and marry, is a good time to improve his teaching ability and cultural literacy, and his age and body are also in a time when he can support a certain intensity of learning, but every day he has to face the quarrels and all kinds of idle complaints of retired parents in his hometown, the same minute, one is a minute of learning in a rich and powerful and good time, and one is a minute of enjoying his old age but really having nothing to do with each other The two cannot be exchanged equally.

The current ethical relationship should be more of a relationship between independence and support, and the author very much supports mr. Yang Dai and Mr. Qian Liqun's concept of life - although retired, it does not represent the beginning of a chaotic life, but seizes the time, exerts residual heat, or summarizes their own decades of experience, or continues their own work and research, or complete the regrets of their youth, and harmoniously solve the family ethical relationship in the life of their children and support their children.

Want to do but dare not do, can do and afraid to do, such behaviors and ideas are worthy of our reflection.

Finally, adapt a song of Long Yingtai's "Eye Sending" as a conclusion:

The end of one thing is always the beginning of another,

As soon as the bell rings at the end of class, the shadows are mixed,

As soon as the bell rings at work, the shuttle is chaotic,

As soon as the twilight bell rings, the sunset maple reds,

I slowly, slowly, slowly,

Understand,

The so-called parents and children,

It means you and his fate,

It is this life and this life,

Watching his back,

Drifting away,

You're standing at this end of the path,

Watching him disappear at that end,

He tells you with his back,

No need to chase.

Gradually, gradually,

Feel,

The so-called parents of children,

It means your fate with them,

Just watching the black devouring come at you,

You're standing at this end,

Little by little, back down,

But he looked ahead unwillingly,

He tells you with thick palms.

Don't be afraid,

She tells you with a warm smile,

Don't panic.

Silently, silently,

Aware,

The so-called father-son mother-daughter one,

It is he who throws a confident and grateful look at you,

He holds you and holds you

He looks at the paper cut you just made,

He looks at the pictures you take while you're playing,

He watched you become a stingy and playful naughty boy,

He gently told you in his ear

There is no rush.