How much suffering you endure, how much glory you deserve.
Natsume Soseki was born in Edo (now Tokyo) on February 9, 1867, and his real name was Natsume Kannosuke.
Natsume Soseki is known as a Japanese national writer, similar to Lao She is known as a "People's Artist". His head once appeared on Japanese ten-dollar banknotes. When his debut novel, I Am a Cat, was published, it sold the serialized magazine more than tenfold.
In 2000, Natsume Soseki ranked first in a survey of "The Most Popular Japanese Writers in a Thousand Years" conducted by Japan's Asahi Shimbun. Lu Xun once said that Natsume Soseki's works were "unmatched in the world", and he read many of his works during his study in Japan. Zhou Zuoren also translated Natsume Shushi's works into China.
American researcher of Japanese literature Michael M. K. Pohdas lists Natsume Soseki, Lu Xun, Kafka, and Joyce as the pioneers of 20th-century literature. In addition, he believes that Natsume Soseki's "Treatise on Literature", which uses psychology and sociology to think about "what is literature", is a pioneering work even from the perspective of the whole world.
Why was Natsume Soseki so widely loved and recognized as a Japanese national writer?
One important reason is that he was keenly aware of the collective emotions that arose in Japanese society during the Meiji Restoration under the impact of Western civilization: inferiority, reflection, nostalgia, and painful struggle, which he wrote about in his works.
And this kind of sensitivity is like a double-edged sword for himself, and the achievement of the work also brings pain.
Below, we will dissect several aspects of Natsume Soseki's life to see why he was in pain and how he went to glory.
<h1>A scholar of English literature who loves to write Chinese poetry</h1>
In the second year of Natsume's birth, the Meiji Restoration began, and Japan embarked on the path of modernization (Westernization). Therefore, he grew up in a cultural atmosphere where the old and the new alternate.
In April 1881, at the age of 15, Natsume Soseki entered the then famous private school of Sinology, Nimatsu Gakushe, to study Han culture. Before the Meiji Restoration, Han culture was a model for Imitation in Japan, and learning Han culture became a social trend, and private schools of Sinology were also very common.
During his studies at the Ersong Academy, Natsume Shushi read the Zuo Zhuan, the Records of History, and many Tang and Song poems, and became fascinated by Han culture. He changed his name to "Shushi", which is borrowed from the allusion "Shushi Pillow Flow" in the biography of Sun Chu in the Book of Jin, expressing gaojie's reclusive pursuit.
Natsume Soseki especially loved to write Chinese poems. In the preface to his Chinese collection of poems, "Wood Chips", he wrote: "When Yu was a child, he recited thousands of words of Tang and Song poetry, liked to write articles, or carved verses with great intention and began to be formed... So he wanted to stand up in writing. It can be seen that his love for Han culture has gone beyond the nature of a fan, and he once wanted to become a sinologist.
There are still more than 200 Chinese poems by Natsume Soseki, and during the Meiji period, he was not only a novelist, but also a master of Chinese poetry.
After entering Tokyo Imperial University, Natsume Soseki, who loved Chinese poetry so much, had to go with the times and learned an English major that was easier to employ because of the lack of family and the need to consider his future livelihood. Since then, he has also studied in London and worked as an English teacher several times.
At that time, in the frenzy of total Westernization, Japan began to regard Han culture as a symbol of obsolescence and backwardness, and abandoned it, instead, Western culture was enshrined as a guideline. Although Natsume Soseki made the choice to go with the trend, he felt a shock in his heart, and he felt the pain in the historical gap between tradition and innovation.
Domestic violence men
The relationship between Natsume Soseki and his wife Nakanaka Mirror has always attracted much public attention. Nakanaka Mirror was also rated by the Japanese media as one of the "Five Great Ghost Marriages in Japan" because of his poor appearance, and the "ghost marriage" is the ugly wife.
For a long time, there were rumors that "Natsume Soseki hated his wife for being ugly and often beat her". Is this true? Not all.
In his later years, Nakane Mirror collaborated with his son-in-law Matsuoka Toshi on a memoir called "My Husband Natsume Soseki". In the book, he admits that Natsume soseki did beat her, more than once, but not because of violent tendencies, but because of mental illness.
In 1900, Natsume Received a Government Grant and became one of the first students to study in England. He spent 2 years in London, and later in Treatise on Literature he recalled: "The two years I spent in London were the most unpleasant 2 years of my life, and among the British I was like a poor dog who fell into a wolf pack". As Natsume says, he suffers from mental inferiority and loneliness, as well as financial pressure. Because he was so uncomfortable among tall white people, he hardly went to class, spent a third of his scholarship buying books, and then read behind closed doors.
The life of depression and depression in London caused him to suffer from severe neurasthenia and delusions, manic and violent tendencies at the onset of the disease, unable to control himself, these diseases accompanied him until his death, and only writing could temporarily free him from torture.
<h1>Japan Lu Xun</h1>
Natsume Soseki was brilliant in his lifetime, and only engaged in ten years of creation, but left behind a series of masterpieces. His entire works generally reflect the painful and restless souls of the intellectuals of the Meiji period, reflecting his arduous exploration and bitter torture between Eastern thinking and Western civilization, between illusory ideals and cruel reality, and between pedantic conservatism and the tide of worship of gold.
Like Lu Xun, he shouted in the dark turning point.
Coincidentally, he also greatly influenced Lu Xun, who studied in Japan. Lu Xun had this confession in "How I Started a Novel": I remember that the most beloved authors at that time, Japanese, were Natsume Soseki and Sen Ouwai. And Lu Xun's younger brother Zhou Zuoren, in an article recalling his and his brothers' study experience in Japan, also wrote: At that time, the rest of the Japanese authors, such as Sen Ouwai, Lu Xun almost only read their literary theories or translations, only Natsume Shushi's "I Am a Cat" and "Yu MeirenCao", Lu Xun followed the newspaper serial from beginning to end, and later bought the entire volume collection.
From these details, Lu Xun's love for Natsume Shushi can be seen.
Natsume's trajectory of life developed almost with the meiji Restoration, and his many life choices allude to the identity problems faced by Japanese people in the process of transitioning to modernization. This is the reason why Lu Xun, who seems to be angry with King Kong, likes the astute and light Natsume Shushi. To a large extent, both of them are in the context of a society in which the nation-state is in the alternation of the old and the new, with strong national self-esteem, complex emotions about national nature, and profound reflections on modernity, so they both have a sense of powerlessness stuck in the cracks of history.
This is also the synaesthesia of almost all people living in the era of great change.
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