As the old saying goes: "Heroes are born in a chaotic world, and mediocre officials are produced in a prosperous world", under the situation of the Republic of China in which warlords are divided and society is turbulent, it can always inspire the creative inspiration of some intellectuals.
These sharp-writing intellectuals not only use sharp knife-like pens to write articles criticizing reality, but also sacrifice themselves and uphold justice for the great national righteousness.
Among them, there is not only Lu Xun, a literary representative who is concerned about the revolutionary cause and criticizes the hypocrisy of human nature, but also Xu Zhimo, a representative poet of the Crescent Moon Sect who is affectionate and has outstanding literary style.
There is not only Hu Shi, an ideological master who is imaginative and has advanced ideological taste, but also Guo Moruo, a writer who is familiar with ancient and modern history and culture and is good at creating modern literature.
These literati rioters are all representative figures who are more active and well known in China's modern literary circles.
This is like the scene of "a hundred schools of thought" in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.
It is just that in the chaotic world, there are fewer "Confucian" exchanges between literati and inkers, but more ideological impacts at different levels.
And these shocks will naturally lead to some verbal disputes, which are colloquially "scolding wars" with each other.
These scolding battles are no less intense than the "fights" on the battlefield.
Under the mutual "fighting" of these literati and inkers, the literary and art circles of the Republic of China have become a battlefield without smoke of gunfire.
The most prominent of these is the "struggle" between Lu Xun and Xu Zhimo for a poem by Baudelaire, which was translated by Chinese.
On December 1, 1924, Lu Xun, together with Qian Xuantong, Sun Fuyuan and others, founded a literary magazine called "Yusi".
At that time, the poet Xu Zhimo had a work, which was translated from Baudelaire's "Flowers of Evil" poetry collection "Dead Corpses".
Lu Xun and his friend Sun Fuyuan
It just so happened that this work was to be published in "YuSi", and Lu Xun was the main contributor of the magazine, and Lu Xun had other views on Xu Zhimo's translated poem:
First, the translation of this poem basically has little to do with the original work.
Second, Xu Zhimo exaggerated the meaning of the words in the original work with Chinese, and even misinterpreted the original meaning.
Lu Xun has always pursued the truth of realism, and he scoffed at Xu Zhimo's practice of pursuing poetry with musicality.
Out of the "maintenance" of truth and the criticism of exaggerated works that distort "reality", Lu Xun naturally did not give softness to Xu Zhimo.
After Xu Zhimo learned about it, he should be furious and his blood pressure soared.
For the representative poets of the Crescent School, poetry is full of musicality, not only pursuit, but also yearning.
Xu Zhimo handwriting
"I deeply believe in the bottom of the world, the bottom of everything related to the tangible and the intangible, and they are all made of music."
It is not difficult to see from Xu Zhimo's words that he is a person who pursues extreme spiritual freedom and even favors invisible theological colors.
The so-called contradiction between them, in the final analysis, is the friction between the realists and the abstract, but this is only the first step in the friction between the two, and the wonderful is still to come.
At the end of 1924, Lu Xun made another poem "My Lost Love", which was also a poem by Lu Xun to satirize "a certain" character.
The poem was originally published by Sun Fuyuan in the Morning Post Supplement, but Sun Fuyuan was violently opposed by the person in charge of the supplement.
In desperation, Sun Fuyuan had to leave his post and go to the "Beijing News Supplement", and the "Morning News Supplement" became Xu Zhimo's "world".
"Morning News Supplement" compiled by Xu Zhimo
At this point, Xu Zhimo began to manipulate the Morning Post Supplement, and even more resisted the output and publication of Lu Xun's works, pushing the hostile relationship between the two to a climax.
I think that both of them are readers, both are the founders of Chinese literary works, if it were not for the fact that each other's works interfered with the rational thinking of ordinary people, they would not be ridiculed for no reason.
When Lu Xun once chatted with Ye Gongchao, he bluntly criticized: "Xu Zhimo is a rogue, and the things he writes are all disease-free and chaotic groans."
At this point, I immediately understood what Lu Xun meant by "My Lost Love", which was intended to satirize his love history of entanglement with Lin Huiyin despite his pregnant wife.
"My beloved is on the mountainside, I want to find him the mountain is too high, I can't cry my robe, my lover gave me a butterfly scarf, and I returned to her what: owl."
"From then on, I turned my face and ignored me, somehow confused me, my love is on the riverside, I want to find her the depth of the river, tilt my head and can't cry." 」
This is an excerpt from Lu Xun's poem, which contains no flowery rhetoric, or even simple vernacular, seemingly powerless but hidden in the needle.
Lu Xun and George Bernard Shaw
And Xu Zhimo also unceremoniously returned the gift:
"I rarely read Lu Xun's works, and I publish some sporadic remarks on weekdays, even if I read them, they are equivalent to reading them in vain. If you want to see it, you need a lot of patience, and you won't be able to understand it after reading it again."
Although this is an understatement of the heart like water, it contains a full smell of gunpowder.
As a writer of the realism school, Lu Xun's writing is like a sharp knife and his style is like an iron gun, and he is good at using sharp words to peel off the cloak of dark forces for people.
He sympathized with the sufferings of the world, praised the warriors who dared to fight against the evil forces, and provided spiritual support for the poor people who were in the depths of the waters.
In contrast, for Xu Zhimo's ramblings and surrealist poetry, Lu Xun's feelings are more "flashy and unrealistic".
In particular, Xu Zhimo announced his divorce when his wife Zhang Youyi was pregnant, and he made good friends with Lin Huiyin, and later entangled lu Xiaoman, the husband of the wife, and then fell into the name of "scumbag".
And the poetry produced by Xu Zhimo in his intricate feelings made Lu Xun even more scornful.
Lu Xun said in the "Three Idle Collections":
The reason why I wrote "My Lost Love" was because of the popularity of love poems such as "Ah, Oh, I'm going to Die."
"So I deliberately made a poem to give comfort to the 'lost lover', and second, it was purely for jokes."
As for lu xun's type of poetry of "Oops, oops, I'm going to die", Xu Zhimo has a slight "similarity" in "Ai Mei Xiao za" written to Lu Xiaoman.
"My liver and intestines are broken inch by inch, and if I don't give you a good letter tonight and show you my heart, I won't be worthy to love you, I won't be worthy of your love."
"In disappointment, my vitality should also be extinguished, and the last sentence: Only death is the only beneficial true friend", this is part of the sentence in Xu Zhimo's letter to Lu Xiaoman.
One is a realist writer with an iron hand, and the other is an amorous romantic poet.
One is disappointed by the "diseaseless groaning" of the "pretentious" poets full of male and female love, and the other is dissatisfied with the prevalence of feudal bad habits and the lack of "freedom" of emotions.
Although the two contradict each other, they are shining in their respective fields.
Later, Xu Zhimo was killed in a plane crash, and Lu Xun also put aside all his past prejudices about him and cut out the article on Xu Zhimo's death published in the newspaper as a souvenir.
Although the Tao is not the same, Lu Xun always has a place for Xu Zhimo in his heart.
Both are outstanding figures in the history of Chinese literature, and there are countless literati and heroes who secretly "compete" with each other, including Guo Moruo and Hu Shi.
The two of them, one was a staunch revolutionary, a historian, a writer, a supporter of Marxism.
One is the thinkers and philosophers who traveled around the world during the war and chaos to frantically refresh their academic qualifications.
Obviously, these two people are writers in two different spiritual worlds, and both have unique insights and persistence in their own persistent worlds.
So how do these two unique living beings rub out sparks? It's intriguing.
First of all, both of them are representative figures of the "May Fourth" movement, but Hu Shi is ahead of Guo Moruo, who just graduated from high school, in terms of literary achievements.
At that time, Hu Shi, as a pioneer of new literature, was already a professor at Peking University, and Guo Moruo had just begun to study in Japan.
Guo Moruo is famous because he published a new style of poetry in the Shanghai "Current Affairs New Newspaper Learning Lamp" and published a personal collection of poems "Goddess".
The feud between the two began with a not-so-pleasant "meeting", although the two later disagreed, but in the end they wanted to gain the upper hand over each other.
It was 1921, Gao Mengdan invited Hu Shi to the Commercial Compilation Office to take over his work, Hu Shi knew that he could not take the olive branch, so he politely refused.
Later, Gao Mengdan invited Hu Shi to do short-term cooperation, and this time Hu Shi agreed.
In July 1921, Hu Shi arrived in Shanghai, and Gao Mengdan and the people in the Commercial Press greeted him.
Hu Shi naturally will not miss such a "hype" opportunity to show his face.
Within a few days, the Shanghai Business Daily published an article entitled "Boss Hu's Debut".
The articles are full of "new literary giants", "monthly salary of 5,000", "the prime minister is secondary", "the director and the director of various departments are afraid of the future", "his class is not more interested than the political world", and so on.
Although Hu Shi told outsiders that this was just an exaggerated "naughty remark" of the word.
But these published words, the horse ass shooting is quite layered, even to the point of pure fire.
So much so that Hu Shi could not bear to miss this issue of the newspaper, but cut out the part containing it and posted it in his diary.
For such "touting", Hu Shi is quite "adaptable".
It should be known that Comrade Guo Moruo, who was depressed at that time, once recommended himself to the commercial host transliteration institute in order to recommend his own transliteration works, but he was rejected.
Because he was still a student at that time, few magazines were willing to publish the works of the student group, but preferred those who were already famous, such as Hu Shi.
In desperation, there was a small book library in Shanghai, "Taidong", which offered low-cost and poor working conditions, and accepted the publications founded by Guo Moruo and his friends.
Everything is difficult at the beginning, but why not accumulate steps to a thousand miles?
Although Guo Moruo was subordinate to "Taidong", he was very sensitive to the refusal of the "Commercial Hosting Transliteration Institute".
Coincidentally, this time Gao Mengdan invited Hu Shi to a banquet in Shanghai Dan, and Guo Moruo also received an invitation, along with him, as well as a classmate who studied in Japan.
Commercial Printing And Compilation Institute of the Republic of China period
Later, Hu Shi recorded the meeting in his diary as "Gao Mengdan intends to 'introduce'", and commented on Guo Moruo in his diary:
"Mo Ruojun studied medicine in Kyushu, Japan, but he was quite accomplished in literature, and the new poems were very unique and creative, but the theme ideas were vague and the skills were not good."
Obviously, Hu Shi's evaluation of Guo Moruo is not very satisfied, coupled with Gao Mengdan's introduction, Hu Shi does not seem to buy this account, this time guo Moruo was obviously put together.
For the "Story of Boss Hu's Appearance", not to mention, Guo Moruo must have been scornful, so that he later "criticized Hu Shi with his friends".
After the publication of the new edition of the poetry collection "Goddess", Guo Moruo also occupied a place in the literary and art circles, and repaid all the "oppression" he had received earlier here in Hu Shi.
In August 1922, Guo Moruo published a quarterly magazine in the Creation Society founded with his friends, written by Yu Dafu, and "fired" at the literary "monopolists" one by one.
Gao Mengdan (first from left) and Hu Shi and others
Hu Shi also could not escape his "pen", and in the article of the second issue of "Creation", one of them used the method of referring to the mulberry scolding and insinuation:
"We chinese news and magazine people are like maggots in Qingshui's dung pit, and although our bodies are very fat, we have no knowledge in our chests."
"A few people write a few books from foreign bookstores, and if they translate a few books, they are considered erudite."
"There are a few people who have followed the new foreign figures, who have run around a few times, and who have translated the crude speeches of several of them from foreign countries in a confused way, and they are considered new thinkers."
Although many literary scholars at that time studied abroad and translated major works, only Hu Shi could be called a "new thinker".
On the surface, this statement is aimed at most literary historians who are sublime and charming, but in fact, it refers to Hu Shi, a literary "capitalist".
Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu, cheng fangwu
Whether it is by name or not, Hu Shi is deeply uncomfortable anyway, and he bluntly hit back at the creator of "Creation" with an article "Scolding People".
The text is full of words such as "students who have just come out of the school", "shallow and boring", "ignorant and ignorant", etc., in response to the word "dung maggots" published in Guo Moruo's "Creation".
In November 1922, "Creation" also published Guo Moruo's "The Sound of Repercussions", as well as "The Attitude of a Scholar mr. Hu Shi< the criticism of insulting >" published by colleague Cheng Fangwu.
Hu Shi went it alone and "fought" with a magazine, but Hu Shi was not afraid, but he became more and more courageous, and the scolding war was still in full swing.
In 1923, Hu Shi published an article in the "Effort Weekly" entitled "Editor's Yu Tan", which continued to ridicule Guo Moruo, Yu Dafu and others in the tone of Qinggao's literary giants.
"In my publication of "Scolding People", some people who do not know English have come to discuss the translation with me, and I have no time to deal with such a strong and ignorant comment." Hu Shi said.
"If you don't have that much spare time, say less about the short!" Don't use your lofty fame to suppress people, don't use your peking university professor's name to suppress people. ”
"You must know that this kind of smokey, not much pound, is overwhelming, and if you want to overwhelm people, you have to ask Mr. Truth to come out, and Mr. 'Justice' to come out."
Guo Moruo once suppressed all the unhappiness in his heart in the past two years, and vented it in one breath, and it was inevitable that he would be happy for Comrade Guo Moruo!
It can be seen that no matter at any period of time, whether it is a literati or a high-ranking official, as long as it is related to interests and rights, it will become distorted.
In addition to the interests and power, it is difficult to simply be a simple writer and poet, and it is difficult to occupy a place in the chaotic world, and if you want to survive, you must be good at handling various "interpersonal relationships".
At this stage of scolding, the members of the "Creation" club have been overwhelmed by the pleasure brought by the text, while Hu Shi's side has taken the initiative to put down his posture and "shake hands and make peace" with him.
"I hope that this little pen and ink lawsuit will not completely damage our old or new friendship," and Guo Moruo and Yu Dafu would no longer confront Hu Shi.
This point Hu Shi is better than Guo Moruo, a humble and courteous white-faced student who covets fame and fortune, and a new type of literary scholar who is outspoken and dares to challenge the monopoly forces.
No matter how they "fight" with their writing, in the end they will leave countless masterpieces in the field of Chinese literary history, the literati will be quick to speak for a while, and the world will enjoy countless sharp masterpieces, and the advantages and disadvantages will be won.