Author | Acacia Book
Source | Confucius old book network dynamics
In my early years, I read Roushi's novels in order to explain the literary creation activities of the five martyrs of the Left League. Having read "Mother for Slaves" and "February", the outstanding feeling is that if Roushi does not sacrifice, he must be a great writer, because his literary genius has been revealed in these two works - this cannot be hidden. My attention to Roushi also comes from Mr. Lu Xun's description of Roushi's character and personality in "Memories that Cannot Be Forgotten".
A few years ago, I wanted to understand the township education in China during the Republic of China, and from the perspective of the creative themes of literary artists, I chose Roushi's "February" and Ye Shengtao's "Ni Huanzhi". In the past, I have seen the movie "Early Spring February", and last year I watched the drama "February", and the film and drama artists used their understanding to interpret "February", I read and watched both movies and dramas, as well as my understanding of Roushi and "February".
Roushi loved literature when he was young, and he ran from Zhejiang to Beijing and worked as an auditor at Peking University. His fate with Mr. Lu Xun happened when he was in Beijing—he had listened to Lu Xun's lessons. In his hometown, he worked as a primary and secondary school teacher and as the education director of their county. In the novel "February", Roushi does not write much about class and teaching, and he deals with the complex interpersonal relationships in the small society of Furong Town. In China, interpersonal relationships are more complex than expertise. In the small introduction of "February", Lu Xun outlined the small society faced by the writer: "The stormtrooper warriors, naïve orphans, young widows, enthusiastic women, the new-style princes with different doctrines, the old society that is lifeless and intertwined, it is not like a spider web, a tourist who is waiting to fly, but in the eyes of young people seeking quiet, it turns into a great pain of uneasiness, and this great pain is the poor pepper salt of society, and together with the warrior orphans and other generations, give some taste to the boring society. Keep them bored and go on. "When Xiao Jianqiu came to Furong Town, it was the Buddha who left the palace and walked into the human world, and as soon as he took a step, he embraced the great compassion of saving the world. The suffering beings of the world are waiting for him to save them. So, on the boat to the town of Hibiscus, where he was preaching, he met the poor young widow and her children. After arriving at school, he made home visits to gain insight into the unfortunate situation of the young widow, and he decided to sacrifice himself to give the widow a husband and a father to the widow's girl. This is the most effective poverty alleviation. However, the "widow's door is not much" created by Chinese society has been fulfilled in Xiao Jianqiu: the town of Furong, where the head and ear are exchanged, the moldy old morality, has been accusing him and her of their behavior behind his back. During this period, Tao Lan, who was dissatisfied with the life of the town and had a hazy love for Xiao Jianqiu, increased Xiao Jianqiu's psychological burden. If it is a mate, is it a young widow or a young Tao Lan? Rou Shi's literary creative genius is revealed at the joint, he is handling his story with tragedy, we see that the widow understands Xiao Jianqiu's true heart, and also perceives Tao Lan's affection for Xiao Jianqiu, so she commits suicide to break Xiao Jianqiu's sad wishes, and completes Xiao and Tao with personal sacrifice. It was the "old society that was dead and intertwined" who killed young widows.
The young widow is dead, and the boring society continues. Xiao Jianqiu embraced the ideal, thinking that education could save the country and save Furong Town, but the result was that he could not save himself. He chose to flee and fled to Shanghai. He left, and Tao Lan followed, fleeing the town of Furong, which had suffocated them. From the analysis of the structure of the novel's interstitial frame, if Roushi does not sacrifice, "February" will have the next part, Xiao Jianqiu and Tao Lan meet in Shanghai, which is the beginning of a new story.
The writers after the May Fourth New Culture Movement, especially the writers of the Left League, engaged in literary creation and used literature as a weapon to transform the suffering China. They call themselves revolutionary writers and are the responsibilities of an era. They saw the suffering of the people at the bottom and tried to awaken them with literature and rescue them from the sea of suffering. Among the five martyrs of the Left Alliance, Roushi is initially fulfilling his ambitions with mature works of art. Mr. Lu Xun's comment on "February" with "ingenious techniques" is to see the artistic skills in the works of revolutionary writers.
Among the five martyrs of the Left League, they were close to Lu Xun, and Lu Xun's highest evaluation was also Roushi. Seniors evaluate their juniors not by their talents that they have not yet fully demonstrated, but by their character.
"At that time, when I was in Shanghai, there was also the only person who not only dared to talk and laugh casually, but also dared to entrust him with some personal affairs, that is, to send books to The White Mang Roushi."
"I sometimes talk about how people can deceive, what kind of friends, how to suck blood, and he has a shiny forehead, and his eyes are wide open in disbelief, and he protests, 'Will this be the case?'" - Wouldn't it? ......’”
How meticulous Mr. Lu Xun's observation of Roushi is!
In "Memories for Forgetting", there is also a large paragraph, which is written about the character of Roushi and the loyalty of Roushi. The gentleman said that they went out on the street together, and if there were women with them, Roushi was always separated by three or four feet, "but when he walked with me, he could get closer, and he simply supported me, because he was afraid that I would be hit by a car or a tram." Mr. Roushi's general evaluation is: "No matter from the old morality or from the new morality, as long as it is harmful to himself, he will choose it and carry it himself." This is Roushi's personal virtue, and it is also The salvation spirit of Xiao Jianqiu in "February".
"For the Remembrance of Forgetting", the main content is to remember Roushi, write "Roushi Xiao biography", write "February • Xiaoyin", Mr. Lu Xun wrote for Roushi, is the good reward of Roushi's noble character.
The movie "Early Spring february", in the year of shooting, is a rare work with artistic charm. However, I always feel that the director's understanding of Roushi is still superficial, and the film does not dig deep into the tragic spirit of "February", but only successfully shows the style of the township primary school in the Republic of China. The drama is first-class in terms of lighting, costumes, and styling, but it feels inexplicable to me. I only saw a group of moving living sculptures, but the core of the novel was filtered.
In the period of agricultural society, township education was the foundation of Chinese education, as well as the regulator of grass-roots society and the small center of cultural dissemination. When society is divided and turbulent, it will certainly spread to the nerve endings of this education. The topic of "hand-to-head" in the educational circles of Furong Town, in addition to widows and Mr. Xiao, there is also new news from the outside world. Although Principal Tao's name is "Mu Kan", the primary school he manages is not Taohuayuan.
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