With the growth and development of the new literature movement, more and more writers have formed their own unique ideas and artistic styles in different artistic fields through different creative channels and made great contributions. At first, it was the May 4th storm that shook and inspired their thoughts and stimulated their interest in new literature. From the middle and late 1920s, they devoted themselves to literary work. In the 1930s, he became a popular and famous writer. Their literary thoughts and creative practice inherited and carried forward the fighting tradition of the May 4th literary revolution, adhered to the political requirements of anti-imperialism and anti-feudal democracy and the realistic artistic principle of calling for the insulted and injured, and pushed the new literary creation to a new height. Among them, Ba Jin, Lao She and Cao Yu have made outstanding achievements.
Ba Jin, formerly known as Li Yigan,/kloc-September 0/9? Born into a bureaucratic landlord family in Chengdu, Sichuan for four years, he witnessed the decadent and ugly life of the ruling forces in feudal families, the experience of young people being oppressed and sacrificed, and the extremely tragic fate of "servants" in youth. This made him deeply angry. Under the impact of the May 4th Movement, he woke up from the initial obscurity, and then formed a strong demand for the democratic revolution. These early life and ideological experiences are reflected in his later works. 1923, he fled the feudal family and went to Shanghai and Nanjing to study. 1927 When I went to France at the beginning, I was exposed to various social thoughts in a wider world. Among them, what attracted him most was the democratic ideal revealed by the French bourgeois revolution. Later, he said, "We are all children of the French Revolution". He was also inspired by the views and actions of some Russian nihilists. In his works, we can see different impressions of these complex thoughts.
Ba Jin's creative career began with 1927' s trip to France. At that time, just as the first revolutionary civil war was betrayed by the big bourgeoisie, it suddenly fell into the abyss of failure from a prosperous situation. The revolution was at a low ebb. He was even more shocked and saddened by the news that the American government ignored the protests of world public opinion and executed the anarchist who was regarded as "Mr." by Ba Jin. All these have brought a special uneasy and turbulent atmosphere to his initial creation. Early works such as Death, Rebirth, and Love Trilogy all describe the activities of a group of young intellectuals under the rule of warlords. The author exposed the cruelty and injustice of feudal warlords' rule, created Du Daxin, Wu Renmin and Li with great enthusiasm, and praised their spirit of hating the dark reality, pursuing a bright future and being brave in self-sacrifice. This ideological theme is consistent with the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal tasks of the people's revolution. Therefore, the work aroused great repercussions among young bourgeois readers at that time, which helped to stimulate readers' enthusiasm for changing the old reality; Through the fate of failure and sacrifice of the above characters, the tragedy of personal resistance is also objectively demonstrated. However, these positive images have some defects in ideological character, such as claiming to be "saviors", being divorced from the masses, being fanatical and extreme. They are free and loose, affirm personal terrorist means such as assassination, and regard sacrifice as the only sacred responsibility, which highlights their weaknesses and mistakes. In his description, the author took an uncritical attitude towards them. In fact, he praised the petty bourgeoisie's fanaticism and extreme democracy and freedom. This tendency is extremely obvious in Electricity, the third part of the love trilogy. The work intricately describes the anti-warlord activities of a radical group in a small town from trade unions, women's federations, schools and other aspects, focusing on the life, struggle and death of a group of young people within the group. Although compared with the earliest works such as Death, the gloomy atmosphere has been reduced, but from the activities of this revolutionary group, which entrusted the author's ideals, we can more specifically see the ideological weaknesses and defects in life. There is no strict organizational discipline, no strong mass base, only some young people who are close to each other, with their enthusiasm and courage, try to open the situation immediately under the cruel reactionary rule. The author also praised the pure dedication, which is only out of fanaticism and cannot bring tangible benefits to the revolutionary cause. These are some works with different viewpoints, which mainly encourage readers to fight against the dark reality, but at the same time, they will inevitably have some negative effects.
At the same time of writing the love trilogy, Ba Jin lived in a mining area for a short time in the winter of 193 1. Two years later, he wrote "Germination" ("Snow") with the materials he obtained. Because of the ban, he changed his name twice and published it at his own expense. The previous novel "Sardinia" has written about the suffering of miners; In "Germination", it further describes the miners' strong desire to change the status quo and the course of unity and struggle. Facing the new theme of life, the author didn't have time to fully understand it, so some characters are not real enough. However, in these works, the author not only opens up a new field of description, but also combines the passion of hating dark reality with sincere concern for the fate of workers' life struggle, showing more realistic content. This is a development of Ba Jin's creation.
His masterpiece is the Riptide Trilogy, including Home (published in The Times in193/kloc-0, first edition in 1933), Spring (first edition in 1938) and Autumn. First edition), the content is to write the collapse of feudal patriarchal clan system and the agitation of revolutionary thoughts among the younger generation through the decline and differentiation of a large family. The author exposed the feudal forces with great enthusiasm and praised the awakening, struggle and break of the family of young intellectuals. The author who is familiar with the subject matter is deeply touched, which makes this work have a strong appeal. The torrent trilogy, especially Home, has played a great role in educating young people against feudalism.
The work is based on the May 4th wave which spread to Chengdu, Sichuan, which is closed inland, and truly describes the decline and fall history of Gaos, a representative feudal family. In the writer's own words, what he "wants to show readers is to describe a picture of the past ten years" (note: preface to torrent). On the surface, the high giants are famous for their poems and rituals, but behind this scene, they are infighting, infighting, decadent, filthy and shameless. Those defenders, represented by Mr. Gao and Ke Ming, tried their best to maintain the moral codes and family precepts and suppress all new things, even at the expense of young people, in order to maintain this family, which was the pillar of the feudal system and was facing collapse. This has deepened the contradiction between the old and the new, between the ruling forces and the oppressed, and caused great pain to young people. In Home, there are Mei's melancholy death, Jui-chueh's tragic fate, Ming-feng's tragedy of throwing herself into the lake and her forced marriage. All these young women's misfortunes are the result of feudal system, ethics and superstition persecution. Through these descriptions, the author expressed deep sympathy and indignation and issued a call for "I accuse" to the dying system.
However, the contradiction between the old and the new in this family has already occurred in the May 4th Movement. The May 4th wave aroused the enthusiasm and ideals of the younger generation and deepened their hatred of the old system and old life. Chueh-hui, an important figure in Home, is the representative of this new democratic force which is impacted by the new ideological trend. He resolutely opposed the "philosophy of bowing down" and "non-resistance" of the eldest brother Chueh-hsin, with simple beliefs and "fearless and uncompromising" to the old forces. He is really "naive" and can't make a scientific analysis of everything around him. He even thinks that "everything in this ancient family is simply a complicated knot, and his frank and enthusiastic heart can't untie it." But based on the spirit of doubting and denying everything during the May 4th Movement, he knew that this family was "hopeless". He doesn't want to place any hope on his "home", but he is keen on making new friends, discussing social issues, editing publications, starting newspapers and other social activities, and "exaggerating the responsibility of improving society and liberating the people." Even when he was madly in love with Ming-feng, he "really forgot Ming-feng" outside, and only when he returned to his desert-like lonely home could he "worry about missing Ming-feng". Finally, Chueh-hui left home without any scruples. Through Chueh-hui, the author wrote about the agitation of revolutionary thoughts among young people and the growth of new forces contained in old families, and also criticized Chueh-hsin's "bowing down" and other people's cowardly character through Chueh-hui. In "Spring" and "Autumn", we can see the great influence of Chueh-hui's actions on this family from the growth of Shuying and Shu Hua. This character really inspired readers and brought "fresh air". Chueh-hui went to Shanghai, longing for "unknown new activities" there, "the masses and the new culture movement"; The works do not specifically describe Chueh-hui's road after leaving home, but rebellion against feudal families is often the starting point for intellectuals to embark on the road of democratic revolution. According to the logical development of Chueh-hui's personality, under the specific historical conditions in China, he may find the mainstream and leading force of the people's revolution through long-term exploration. Although the torrent trilogy did not fully show the environmental atmosphere and the spirit of the times, people could not really feel the connection between that family and various social relations at that time, but the work was written about the influence of the May Fourth Revolution, the harassment of the people by the warlords in Sichuan, the struggle between students petitioning the military and political supervision bureau and the striking class, and the landlord sent people to the countryside to collect rent. All these show that this is an era when the people's revolutionary forces are struggling and growing, and this background provides a realistic basis for Chueh-hui's rebellious character and way out.
Chueh-hsin and Chueh-min are the figures throughout the torrent trilogy, especially Chueh-hsin, which is the main part of the layout of the whole work. This is a young man who lost his rebellious character because of the old system. Although there is a boundary between right and wrong in his heart, he also knows that "the whole ethics, the whole tradition and the whole superstition" have taken away his happiness and future, and his favorite Mei and Jui-chueh, but he is unable to struggle and can only cry and endure mental pain. He was a victim of the old ethical code system, but at the same time he unconsciously played the role of defender. The author criticized him a little (through Chueh-hui, repeatedly criticized his cowardice), but more was sympathy and forgiveness. If readers regard him as a victim, they can only feel a little sorry; This kind of emotion is often denied by the characters' own actions. Chueh-min is calm and rigid; The author arranged a relatively smooth encounter for him, which enabled him to win love and overcome his struggle to escape marriage. He is also changing and developing, but all along the same road. He is confident that he can control his own destiny. In "Spring" and "Autumn", he has been at the forefront of the struggle, arguing face to face with those elders without compromise, and defending the growth of Shuying and Shuhua. In a letter to Chueh-hui, he said, "I am too radical now. You are the first radical in our family, and I am the second radical. I want to do a lot of things that make them hate, and I want to create a third' radical'. " The third is Shu Ying. Shuying's growth and departure is the main thread running through Spring, and Chueh-min's activities prepared the conditions for the development of this matter.
Among young women, in addition to some of the victims mentioned above, the author also wrote about Qin and Xu Qianru in Home, which is the bud of positive power, although Xu Qianru is only a shadow, and Qin is still in the process of awakening. In "Spring", this positive force has grown, not only the character Qin has been further developed, but also Shu Ying has appeared. Her departure from Chueh-hui caused a wave in her heart, and she deeply felt the immediate crisis from what happened to Chueh-hui. With the encouragement of Chueh-min, Qin and others, she gradually strengthened, finally embarked on the road of Chueh-hui and understood the meaning of the sentence "Spring is ours". What happened in spring and autumn is more contradictory than what happened at home. With the hypocrisy and depravity of elders as the background, Spring mainly describes the activities of some young men and women with pure hearts, which provides conditions for the growth and awakening of Shuying's character. The plot is slower than Home, but the spirit is consistent. Shu Hua's activities are mainly in autumn. This is a simple and cheerful girl. Her frank and happy voice often relieves the melancholy mood in some scenes and brings some clear atmosphere to her works. Finally, she grew up, had a "desire to fight" and had a face-to-face argument with the old forces. In stark contrast to her, Shu Zhen's fate, when Shuhua got the opportunity to enter this school, Shu Zhen committed suicide by jumping into a well. This is a heartless girl, living in the midst of stupidity and stupidity, and never happy. Through her own experience, she exposed the hypocrisy and ugliness of those elders and explained to people the serious destruction of feudalism on people's spirit and body. The activities of these girls, including Qixia, Qianer and Cuihuan, are an important part of the work.
For those hypocrisy, debauchery and ignorance of the older generation, the author did not caricature, but still cast a deep hatred and ruthless curse. From Mr. Gao and Ke Ming who died in autumn, the essence of the seemingly hypocritical and stubborn defender of the old system was revealed. In "Spring", the author sketched the decadent activities of Ke 'an, Ding Ke and others. Their behavior of stealing property, hoarding prostitutes and playing with the maid's wet nurse was unsightly. Under their connivance and influence, the inferiority of the younger generation such as Juequn and Shi Jue gradually formed, which just shows that this system and education are decadent, barbaric and cruel. The scope of autumn writing has expanded, not only to the gaos thought, but also to Zhou and Zheng. Through the descriptions of Zhou Botao, Zheng Guoguang, Feng Leshan, Chen Kejia and other different figures, the hypocrisy, depravity and shamelessness of the so-called scholarly family are exposed from more aspects. This not only supplements the exposure of the spiritual degeneration of those "Ke" characters in the Gao family, but also shows that this is the product of a system, which fully shows the social significance of these images. Other vulgar, provocative and stupid women's activities, such as Mrs. Chen, Wang and Shen Shi. , has caused people to deeply dislike its ugly image. Through the sacrifices of some well-intentioned people, such as the death and burial of Hui, the death of Mei and the fate of some unfortunate maids, the "cannibalism" of the feudal ruling class and the author's extremely hateful feelings are more vividly displayed.
At the end of autumn, Chueh-min said, "There is no eternal autumn, and autumn may soon pass." The author once said that he "planned a gray ending for autumn, and wanted to end it with Chueh-hsin's suicide and Chueh-min's arrest", but inspired by his friendship, he decided to "wash away the color of the novel". This predetermined plan is closer to his repeated artistic arrangements in the trilogy of love or the works of extinction and rebirth; However, under the control of optimism and the encouragement of desire, he finally changed his predetermined plan and added healthy and bright colors to his works. The ideological influence of anarchism revealed in early works is hard to find here. Although the novel is still vague about the new forces and the new road, it is still inspiring and can attract readers to hate the decadent system and fight for a better future. The feudal society in China experienced a particularly long historical period. In modern times, under the continuous blow of the stormy people's revolution, its disintegration was still extremely slow; On the one hand, they continue to abuse, destroy and kill people from all walks of life, including members of the feudal class themselves. Therefore, the theme of "Riptide Trilogy" is to accuse the feudal family and feudal system of evil, which has a strong fighting significance and has excited the hearts of several generations of young readers.
Ba Jin also has collections of short stories such as Revenge, Light and General, which reflect the turbulent social life in more ways. For example, The Return of the Native describes the villagers' sharp struggle against bully villages. Its companion, Moonlight Night, describes the tragic scene of the bully killing the farmers who participated in the peasant association. "Coal Pit" describes the miserable life of coal miners through the feelings of a miner who first went down the kiln. There are also many articles that describe the different faces of intellectuals from different angles, such as "Intellectual Class" and "Sinking", all of which expose the despicable behavior and hypocrisy of some university professors. "Spring Rain" is about an intellectual who is dissatisfied with his brother's desire to make ends meet and bravely goes to the revolution. In addition, the author has written many novels with foreign social life as the background according to his rich experience and knowledge. The Night in Marseilles describes the evil and debauchery hidden in the luxurious capitalist city. The Death of Mara is based on an important historical event of the French bourgeois revolution. Several articles in the short collection of "Ghosts and Ghosts" describe the spiritual emptiness of some Japanese. General describes the decline of Belarusian nobles living in China. Generally speaking, these short stories are written on the basis of a fragment of life or the personality of one or two characters. They not only reflect the long and broad life, but also have their unique achievements in the concentration and refinement of ideas and artistic expression. Some works, such as Dogs and Ghosts, mainly depict the harsh contradictions and struggles in real life with symbolic brushwork. These short stories, which can be seen everywhere, show the writer's high sensitivity to human misfortune and suffering, which fascinates him with inner anxiety and pain, but at the same time arouses his yearning and pursuit for a better future: they are all ideological characteristics of Ba Jin's short stories. Most of these works are romantic.
During this period, Ba Jin also had a collection of essays, such as Memories, Notes, Travel Notes and Confessions of Life, most of which were about his life, thoughts and creation. Among the modern writers in China, Ba Jin is probably the one who likes to talk about himself with readers most, and he is always so kind and frank and never hides his love and hate. These essays are beautiful and smooth, and they combine narrative and lyric: emotions echo in narrative, and facts unfold with the torrent of emotions, and they are full of charm and brilliance.
During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, Ba Jin wrote the novel Fire, which is divided into three parts. The first two books describe the anti-Japanese national salvation activities of young people in Shanghai after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, as well as the various anti-Japanese propaganda and organizing work of the field service group composed of these young people after the fall of Shanghai, vividly depicting the personality characteristics of some of them and showing the author's patriotic enthusiasm and indignation towards the aggressors. The third part was written in 1943. The political situation in Kuomintang-controlled areas in the late Anti-Japanese War brought disappointment to the author. So although the plot is still related to the first two movies, the atmosphere and emotional appeal are obviously different. Moreover, preaching "great love on earth" through a Christian has obvious weaknesses in thought and is relatively boring in art.
The author's gloomy disappointment is also reflected in his1several works written after 944. The stories written in the novels "Resting Garden", "The Fourth Ward", "Cold Night" and "Little Things" can be said to be some "little things" living in "Cold Night". The contents of these works generally reveal the evil consequences of the dark rule of the Kuomintang through the unfortunate experiences of those kind people, and show the author's complaints and protests against that society. In the introduction of the fourth ward, the author said: "A friend of mine just died of cholera, and the health director here (a veritable' health director' in our hometown dialect) is also responsible for announcing that no cholera has been found." He couldn't hold back his anger at the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang, but the writer's subjective enthusiasm, which is common in his early works, has been replaced by a detailed description of social life: the same attack on the old world, but in different ways. These novels are all plain and sad stories. Although the atmosphere is relatively low, they have not lost their confidence and hope in life, and the exposure of the dark forces is still quite powerful.
In the preface of Waterfalls, Ba Jin once said that all his works were written with "indignation". He said: "The attitude is consistent and the style is equally simple. No reserve, no humor, no skill, no tolerance. This may be regarded as shallow and vulgar by people like writers, but it strikes the hearts of young people in this era. I admit that I haven't fully expressed the voices of young people in this era on the positive side, but on the negative side, I finally did it: I drew the shadows they hated within the scope of scissors and calligraphy. " This passage can roughly summarize the characteristics of his works. When the author was young, he had a strong creative motivation. Most of the characters in his works were young people, and the readers of his works were mainly young people. In the postscript of Home, he said, "I always remember that youth is beautiful. This has always been my inspiration. " In fact, Ba Jin regards his works as hymns of youth: he praises the beauty and growth of youth and curses those forces that destroy life as the enemies of youth. This shows the characteristics of his creation, but it also contains the weaknesses of his creation. Young intellectuals are enthusiastic, brave, energetic and receptive to new ideas, which is naturally commendable; However, although these young petty-bourgeois intellectuals are eager for progress, their origins and education endow them with many shortcomings. The author failed to look at this progressive force from a higher level and guide them to overcome their own shortcomings, but often sympathized with them at the same level, which inevitably brought some negative effects. Ba Jin's creative attitude is also closely related to the style and characteristics of his works. Because it is enthusiastic encouragement and spiritual communication between young people, there is no need for subtlety, humor and room for artistic carving; What it needs is simplicity, enthusiasm, frankness and clarity, so as to communicate each other's feelings and impress each other's hearts. Coupled with Ba Jin's fluent language, it is easier for people to be quickly attracted by the fate of the characters in the works, and their sadness and joy naturally arouse people's excitement. The strong hatred of the old system and the spirit of advocating resistance and change throughout his works have inspired many young readers' sense of justice and passion for dissatisfaction with the old reality, leading them to the road of resistance and revolution. Generally speaking, the new literature after the May 4th Movement was mainly aimed at students and young intellectuals for a long time. Nevertheless, compared with many other writers, Ba Jin's works have made special achievements in their close relationship with young readers and their extensive influence. He has always been a writer deeply loved by young people.
Mr. Lu Xun once praised "Ba Jin is a writer with enthusiasm and progressive thoughts, and he is one of the few good writers" (Note: Answering Xu Maoyong's Essays on the Antagonistic United Front). In the creative career of old China for more than 20 years, he has created more than 4 million words of works, which have a wide international influence; At the same time, Ba Jin has a large number of translated works, including Turgenev's literary masterpieces. The literary series edited by him has edited and published many excellent literary works, many of which are the first works of young writers. He also edited Literary Quarterly, Literary Monthly and other publications. All these have made positive contributions to the development of modern literature in China.
The history of modern Chinese literature
2003- 1 1-25 1 1: 14:50
Cold night-looking for light on a cold night
Author: Lang Yongfeng published on February 28th, 2006 at 23: 09: 55 popularity: 466.
The great literary master Ba Jin just left us last year. Although Ba Jin is gone, the immortal works he left us will always inspire us to move forward. Today, after reading Ba Jin's Cold Night with a pious heart, I feel heavy and complicated, partly for the novel and partly for the writer Ba Jin.
In the novel Cold Night, Ba Jin wrote us a family story of a poor shop assistant: the protagonist Wang Wenxuan worked hard for the livelihood of the whole family, but finally died of lung disease; The estrangement between his mother and his wife, Zeng Shusheng, made it difficult for him to adjust and was helpless.
The writing of "Cold Night" began one night in the autumn and winter of 1944, within an hour or two after Chongqing's air defense warning was lifted. The plot of the novel is almost synchronized with the author's life, both in Chongqing, the capital of the Anti-Japanese War, and the novel was written just when the air raid alarm sounded. By the time Ba Jin finished writing this novel, it was already1946 65438+February 31-a cold winter night in Shanghai, and the end of the cold night also ended with a cold night.
Compared with Ba Jin's early works, such as Home, Cold Night is not an impassioned work, but the text of the novel is extremely concise, concise and clean. Ba Jin mentioned "the chill of the night" many times in his novel Cold Night. The author has a purpose. This is Ba Jin's dissatisfaction and hatred for the surrounding environment, which fully shows his strong desire for light and warmth in the cold night.
What kind of world is the novel Cold Night? The future of national affairs is bleak, life is nowhere to be found, and everything around it is like a dark night without a glimmer of light; Everyone in the book, although talking a lot, is talking to himself more. Their hearts are lonely and their emotions are depressed, as if the whole world is shrouded in silence.
Reading the novel Cold Night makes people feel the most depressed mood. Faced with this environment, you want to open your throat and shout happily from beginning to end, but you can't make a sound. Rainbow Wenxuan, the protagonist, finally buckled his throat with his fingers.
As Ba Jin wrote in the postscript of the novel: "I only wrote some small things I heard and saw, but only the blood sputum of a lung patient, which is still deeply imprinted in my mind ..." The author refers to the fact that he lost a good friend and a brother in the middle of writing Cold Night, and they died alone after spitting out all the blood sputum.
The same experience and the same fate of the characters make Ba Jin very devoted to the creation of Cold Night, and he is always emotionally consistent with the characters in the works. Ba Jin said that when he wrote "Cold Night", he found the same feeling as when he wrote his first novel "Death", which was completed in a state of intense emotion. It is precisely because of the experience in the same novel that Ba Jin keeps looking for light in the cold night!
Cold Night is a novel saturated with Mr. Ba Jin's great sweat and emotion. After reading this novel, I deeply realized the difficulty of seeking light in that difficult time, in that suffocating cold night. By reading Ba Jin's Cold Night, I have a better understanding of our rich history and cherish today's beautiful life!