On April 15, 2002, Li Fuwei and Yang Peng compiled "The Conversation That Yao Xueyan Hopes To Publish After His Death" and published it in the "Literature and Art Daily", which not only told yao Xueyao's life and the problems encountered in the creation of "Li Zicheng", but also described Yao Xueyu's attitude and views on Guo Moruo.
Some of these sentences can be described as a curse, which degrades Guo Moruo to nothing. Sentences like "Guo Moruo is the person I least admire in my life", "I think Guo Moruo is a poet of the 'May Fourth' era, not a historian", "Guo Moruo's historical and philosophical foundation is not thick, not as good as me", these sentences can be said to express their disgust for Guo Moruo to the fullest.
But in the beginning, Yao Xueyu was not Guo Moruo's "black powder", and it can even be said that he had a kind of admiration for Guo Moruo.
In the 1930s, Yao Xueyu once regarded Guo Moruo's "Study of Ancient Chinese Society" as a "beloved book", calling himself Guo Moruo's "private disciple", and also wrote a poem in Guo Moruo's former residence: "Guo Moruo's old man is invisible, and his career will stay in heaven and earth" to show his admiration of Guo Moruo.
But why did it change again?
In fact, as a paleographer and archaeologist, Mr. Guo Moruo is undoubtedly outstanding, Guo Moruo did leave many masterpieces in the early period, such as "Chinese History Manuscripts" and "Oracle Bone Collection", these two books can be said to be a milestone in Chinese history and oracle bone literature, which is why Yao Xueyu admired him at the beginning and admired him.
However, if we want to evaluate a person thoroughly, we cannot only start from a certain period of his life, but also compare and evaluate his life. One of the most important points is to look at the characteristics of the era in which he lived.
Guo Moruo was born in 1892 and died in 1978, and these seven or eighty years are the most turbulent years in China, and what has happened in these seven or eighty years cannot be said to be many. Especially at this point in time when new China was founded in 1949, this was not only a turning point in China, but also a turning point for Guo Moruo himself.
Before 1949, Guo Moruo could be said to be bent on moving forward toward literature. His pen shaft spits out ink only for himself. After 1949, however, it was a bit off the way.
In fact, Guo Moruo also created many excellent poems after 1949, which can also be said to be a precedent for modern Chinese poetry, but its political attachment is too strong.
In the years when the political situation was most volatile, he was like a "wall grass", as long as the wind blew, he would immediately fall to the dominant side, which was really no position at all.
After 1949, many of his poems were extremely political, and it was clear that literature had been used as a tool to seek his political status, and in one of his poems, his son died in the "cultural wave", and he wrote poems to praise in order to obtain a political position.
Among them, the various praises for the great man are even more heinous, saying that the great man is better than his own grandfather, this flattering attitude is too obvious, it is difficult not to resent, of course, whether Guo Moruo thinks so in his heart, only Guo Moruo himself knows it in his heart.
Since ancient times, the most important thing for the literati is Tao Yuanming's proud bone of "not bending his waist for five buckets of rice", and it is no wonder that Guo Moruo has changed his attitude towards him, saying that he has the least admiration for Guo Moruo in his life.
In fact, not only Yao Xueyu, but also many figures and literary heroes in the Chinese literary circles have also expressed their views on Guo Moruo, the most obvious of which is Lu Xun, Lu Xun, as a "cold-blooded" literati, criticizes everything without mercy, he once made his attitude clear that "looking at it from a distance is a dog; looking closely is a Dongying dog; if you look closely, it turns out to be Mr. Moruo." "
This sentence cannot be said to be non-harsh, but it is enough as a typical example to illustrate a common view of Guo Moruo by the literati at that time.
In fact, it is not just the time node of 1949. Before that, Guo Moruo had also done something similar to flattery. On March 31, 1927, Guo Moruo wrote a letter of appeal to Jiang at Zhu De's home in Nanchang, calling on the military and people of the whole country to rise up against Jiang. At the same time as publishing this article, it was printed into a pamphlet and widely distributed in Nanchang, and its reputation became famous for a time.
However, on September 24, 1937, after Jiang met with Guo Moruo accompanied by Chen Bray, Guo Moruo repented to Jiang with trepidation and repentance of his previous mistakes, wrote an article entitled "The Meeting of the Chairman of the Committee", and published it in the newspaper to praise him.
In addition to some of Guo Moruo's own practices of "wall-headed grass", another important reason why Yao Xueyu said that "Guo Moruo's historical and philosophical foundation is not thick and is not as good as mine" is the opposition in literary views.
Yao Xueyan spent nearly fifty years writing the book "Li Zicheng", Cao Xueqin painstakingly wrote "Dream of the Red Chamber", and Yao Xueyan wrote "Li Zicheng" almost exhausted all of his experience, and even the ending was hurriedly recorded by finding people in the hospital bed. He himself has won many awards for this.
However, in the same period, Guo Moruo also wrote a book called "Jiashen Three Hundred Years Of Sacrifice", in Guo Moruo's pen Wu Sangui was for Chen Yuanyuan to attract the Qing army into the customs. However, in Yao Xueyan's view, how could Chen Yuanyuan influence Wu Sangui, a fierce general, so he violently attacked Guo Moruo, saying that "this person is not academically rigorous enough."
This is also the so-called "literati are light", for the work that has gathered his fifty years of painstaking efforts, Yao Xueyu is naturally unwilling to make any concessions on this basic historical event, which also indirectly leads to Yao Xueyu's inevitable slight dislike for Guo Moruo.
The most direct consequence of this sentiment is that Yao Xueyu basically denied Guo Moruo's "Three Hundred Years of Jiashen Festival", saying that it was "produced in the special soil of China" and represented a "non-serious and imprecise style of study", "dross", "sediment", "dull works", and "anti-scientific historical works", and thus had to be "torn down".
In fact, Yao Xueyu's words are indeed excessive, no matter what, Guo Moruo's position in history cannot be shaken. His works have superimposed too much and too much aura on him, so much so that he himself has some conceit, and even said that his works surpass "Dream of the Red Chamber".
Such a disparagement of Guo Moruo's statement that "he is a poet of the May Fourth era, not a historian" also has some of his own prejudices.
But whoever, no matter what he did that disgusted everyone, it was black and black, white and white. It would be a great injustice to him to erase all his previous exploits because of his bad character or moral problems. Confucius also said, "A gentleman does not use his words to judge people, nor does he use people to speak in vain." This sentence should be observed, both in the past and in the present.