Author | Acacia Book
Source | Confucius old book network dynamics
Nineteenth-century Russian writer Chernyshevsky's "What to Do" is a novel that all the intellectual youth of thoughtlike love to read. The image of the protagonist of the novel, Rakhmetov, the thoughts and actions of Rakhmetov, is an example of the hot discussion and emulation of the youth of the past era. That generation of lovely young people did not think deeply, and to follow Rakhmetov's path, there was no such historical condition.
"What to Do" is a political and social work depicting the blueprint of utopian socialism in the form of a novel. Che designed the ideal love, marriage, family, and harmonious interpersonal relationships; advocated women's independence, and called on women to go to society and do a big cause. His views will, of course, be endorsed by Chinese female readers, because since the May Fourth New Culture Movement, women's liberation has formed a social trend. Vera's sewing workshop, which involves entrepreneurship, production, distribution, consumption, and workshop organization, is an aerial pavilion for the future society. If you can work in Vera's workshop, how happy life is! Lenin liked the novel, and presumably che's fantasy of utopia was attracted to him by the pictures on paper of what social organizations should "do" after the success of the revolution. If you look at it artistically alone, the novel is crude, even simple and ridiculous. This work should be classified as a social and political work, not a literary one. The true value of "What to Do" is that russian intellectuals in the middle of the nineteenth century pondered the future of the motherland. In order to overthrow the serfdom system and the system of dictatorship, they were not afraid of sacrifice, not afraid of imprisonment, not afraid of exile; they wrote the legend of human history with their collective fearless action! One need only look at the thoughts and actions of the Decembrists at this historical stage, their suffering by their thoughts, their fidelity and perseverance after they and their noble wives were exiled to the icy siberia, and the enthusiasm of the Che clan in outlining the future society can be felt. When I went to Petersburg that year, I went to the fortress where Chernyshevsky was imprisoned, and it was a snowy day, and I stepped on the snow of Russia, but my mood was like a forest rushing at night.
I read "What to Do", I am not very relieved about my feelings after reading, I don't know if my feelings are right? Later, when I read the Russian historian Berdyaev's evaluation of this work, I was pleased to know that my opinion was consistent with Berdyaev's! In Russian Thought, Berdyaev says: "'What to Do' is a utopian novel, a novel that has no artistic achievements and no talent for writing. The social utopias articulated through the mouth of Vera Pavlovna are completely superficial. "I am so happy that my opinion of "What to Do" actually coincides with Berdyaev's view!
To depict an ideal society in a novel, China's "Mirror Flower Edge" has such content. The eleventh time in the novel, "Guan Yahua Idle Travel Junzibang / Mu Renfeng Mistakenly Entered the Liangchen Mansion", it is written that Tang Ao and Duo Jiugong arrived at the Junzi Kingdom, where the market transactions, the buyer and seller prices are fair, the customer sees that the goods of the owner are of high quality, and they have to pay more, the merchants do not agree, and they also say that their goods are not as good as the other. The goods here are not shoddy, the goods are genuine, the children are not deceived, it is a market for commodity exchange, and it is also a royal place. Li Ruzhen fictionalizes such novels, which have both elements of utopian socialism and criticism of the fraudulent behavior of profiteers in society. Kang Youwei's "Datong Shu" is not a rigorous academic work, and this Kang sage is also depicting a utopia and proposing a blueprint for an ideal society. From the ideological roots, the Datong Shu is consistent with the ideals of communism. The European Renaissance humanist Thomas More's Utopia is the most famous of all the works of utopian socialism, and latecomers who talk about beautiful utopians are synonymous with "utopia." In fact, in this pamphlet, More has his theoretical system, "property public ownership", which is the initial idea of public ownership. Mohr also proposed his urban planning, with an almost actionable set of ideas for the size of the city, the population limit, the width of the road, and the greening goals. I wonder if Chernyshevsky read Mohr's Utopia? He conceived of his utopia, which was ultimately a dream bubble, but the characters he created, which had inspired Chinese readers, as literary works, could also be regarded as completing their historical mission.
In ancient and modern China and abroad, all the eras with ideals, ambitions, and pursuits have made the young people of that era boil with blood. They have advanced under the banner of collectivism for at least the first half of their own life history. Their dissatisfaction with the existing social system gathered under the great yoke of doctrine and truth, and they did not hesitate to shed blood and sacrifice. Rakhmetov rolled over the nails for a conviction. If you don't join a group, you conceive of a utopia with your own mind, which is why people have walked through the world as human beings. People of the twenty-first century, what are we busy with all day? Thoughts? Say what? I walked down the street, I couldn't see the people and landscapes I wanted to see, I still had my own fort, the study, and opened an old book, "Seeing people over a thousand years, if you talk to them on the knees", this is my happy life. Although, my reading of the books of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign utopian socialists is also a beautiful utopian dream, the dream has color, the book has heat.
