He is an exception
© Xu Erxin|text
Xu Zhimo
Chinese who don't know Xu Zhimo's "Farewell to Kangqiao" are estimated not to be many. The opening verse: "Gently I go, as softly I come." I beckoned softly, and made a cloud of the western sky. "The verses are as clear as words, but there is a magic to them that can be remembered no matter what. This is his poem. Regarding his marriage and love, if he has a mobile phone in his hand and likes to read, there is probably no one who does not know the story between him and Zhang Youyi, Lin Huiyin, and Lu Xiaoman.
For a long time, the evaluation or appreciation of Xu Zhimo by Chinese people has generally focused on his poetry and marriage. As for his other side, his observation and analysis of current affairs and society have been ignored for a long time. However, in fact, Xu Zhimo's profound political insights and sharp judgment far exceed the short-sightedness of many contemporaries.
One of the biggest events of the last century was the October Revolution in Soviet Russia. Many social elites at that time gave enthusiastic cheers and heartfelt praises to this earth-shaking change, thinking that they had seen the dawn of the new century.
Unlike other people's interviews and reports, Xu Zhimo's newsletter "European Travel Records", written in 1925, has already seen the truth behind the Soviet Union.
In that year, Xu Zhimo got on the bus from Manchuria, went to Moscow via Siberia, and stayed in Moscow for three days. In addition to observing, chatting, and watching plays, Xu Zhimo also visited Tolstoy's daughter, contacted some intellectuals, and visited Lenin's mausoleum and Chekhov's cemetery.
When passing through Siberia, Xu Zhimo saw along the way and found that "the deeper the entry, the more obvious the suffering of the local people." At Chita Station, "ragged children, from three or four to five or six years old, begged for money from guests on the station, and it was not polite, as if their hands were stretched out and would not go back empty." Not only on the platform, but also in the restaurant on the station, countless adult men and women, who do not know what to do, leaned against the wooden railing of our dining place, obliquely watching their unmoving gaze, watching your steamy hot soup or the long strip of bread beside your elbow. Their appearance is not evil, nor fierce, but obscure and gloomy, looking at their faces, you can't help but wonder if the people here know what is natural and happy smiles. ”
When he arrived in Moscow, Xu Zhimo visited Tolstoy's daughter and learned a shocking piece of information - after the October Revolution, the books of Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky and others were almost extinct. The reason why the Bolsheviks banned these books was that they represented the decadent ideas of the bourgeoisie.
In Moscow, Xu Zhimo found that "the beautiful and luxurious shops here are invisible, and at most the most lively are the eateries, which are probably also owned by the government managers; But what is terrible is the market price here: stockings are also sold for 15 or 20 yuan a pair, some shoes are about 40 yuan, oranges are big 7 cents and 5 cents, and small ones are 5 cents; The four of us had breakfast in the inn, and we paid a total of twenty yuan including taxes; And so on". "I met a university professor, and his shirt was probably his bedgown, and his coat was like a leprosy black dog skinned ......."
Later, Xu Zhimo went to an intellectual's home, "He is a professor. When I knocked on the door and entered, he was lying on his 'marching bed' reading a book or making up handouts, and he saw the guest jump up quickly. He was wearing only a plush sweater, his elbows and chest were rotten, his hair was full of mess, and he had a mottled beard. His room resembles a loofah, rectangular. The house has a small wooden table and a chair...... Diagonally opposite there was another bed, and in the corner there was an alcohol stove, where gas was discharged, about his meal...... But it's not easy for you to turn around in the house and not touch something without hitting someone."
Xu Zhimo also wrote about Lenin: Lenin did not admit that his thinking was wrong; Iron is not only his hands, but also his heart...... He is a holy hand who makes aphorisms and slogans; There's magic in his words – that's how dangerous he is.
In the article "European Travel Records - Blood, Memories of Lenin's Remains", Xu Zhimo wrote that he went to Red Square to visit Lenin's tomb, and as soon as he entered the door, he saw a blood-red globe with an equally blood-red sickle and hammer next to it. It feels like from the North Pole to the South Pole, from the East Pole to the West Pole (let's put it that way), all of them are bloody. It was a terrifying sight to him.
As early as 1920, Russell also accompanied a delegation of the United Kingdom Labour Party to the Soviet Union. Russell was a Celtic socialist in United Kingdom, and out of his identification with Soviet values, he took advantage of the excitement and returned disappointed. Later, he wrote his views on the Soviet Union as "The Theory and Practice of Bolshevism". Russell believed that the human price to be paid for achieving communism by Bolshevik methods was too great; And even at such a cost, it is impossible to believe whether the results it wants to achieve are as it says. In the latter sense, the Bolshevik ideal was a utopia. But in order to achieve it, it would require the use of brutal violence, which Russell feared. Russell was a reformist who opposed the bloody radicalism of Soviet Russia. In his view, the only way for humanity to survive is a gradual "peace to peace". Once a revolution occurs, violence can only produce violence.
Xu Zhimo shared Russell's view, saying that revolutionaries "believe that heaven exists and can be realized, but between reality and that heaven there is a sea of blood, a sea of blood." Mankind has to swim through this sea of blood before he can reach the other side. So they decided to realize the sea of blood first. ”
Xu Zhimo had this realization in 1926, when he was only 29 years old.
In the twenties and thirties of the last century, the Chinese intellectual society's view of the Soviet Union at that time took into account the concept and vision of every intellectual who was concerned about the fate of China. At that time, there was an atmosphere of "turning to the left", and the recognition and affirmation of the Soviet Union by the intelligentsia, including the youth, was not only the majority, but also the mainstream at that time. This later determined the future direction of China. And Xu Zhimo, who is only regarded as a poet, is a more sober exception.
Resources:
1. Kong Xiangxin, "Comparison of Xu Zhimo, Lu Xun, and Hu Shi's Vision"
2、Aus《徐志摩对苏联的看法》
3, An Lizhi "Soviet Russia in the Eyes of Lu Xun and Xu Zhimo"
4. "From the View of the Soviet Model, Comparing the Visions of Xu Zhimo, Lu Xun, and Hu Shi"