Reference article:
After midnight reading
Mao Dun didn't think much about Midnight at first, but he was a little idle, or lazy, and did something else, so he found a big brick to kill time, but he didn't expect to read it.
I thought it was only a dozen pages, dozens at most, and I surrendered my gun. Unexpectedly, when I realized it, I had finished reading it.
Midnight marks that Mao Dun's creation has entered a new mature stage, and it is an excellent revolutionary realistic novel in China's modern literature. It was written in 193 1 year1month and completed in 19321February. Before I started writing, I went through a long process of preparation and conception.
(youtheme.cn welcomes your contribution)
The contradiction and struggle between Wu Sunfu, a national industrial capitalist, and Zhao, a comprador financial capitalist, is a main thread throughout the book. Around this main line, Midnight reflects the development of revolution around 1930 and the social outlook of China where a single spark can start a prairie fire. 1930 One night in May, Shanghai's industrial tycoons Wu Sunfu, Fu Fang and Miss Wu Er, an uncle's financial chaebol Du Zhuzhai, were waiting for Mr. Wu who escaped from his hometown Shuangqiao Town at Dashengchang Steamship Bureau. Mr. Wu, who has never left his study for 25 years, relying on the book "Mountain Feeling" as his spiritual pillar, is actually an ancient zombie. As soon as he arrived in Shanghai, the smell of capitalist cities immediately corroded him. Mr. Wu breathed a sigh of relief that night because of cerebral hemorrhage caused by excessive stimulation. The next day, the Wu government held a grand funeral, and all kinds of people gathered in the Wu family. Wu Sunfu, the hero, was very sad because the peasants in his hometown Shuangqiao Town rebelled and the workers in Yuhua Silk Factory in the city went slow. However, when he heard Du Zhuzhai talk about the financial comprador Zhao and monk Zhongli trying to pull them to organize a secret "multi-head" company to speculate in government bonds, Ma Bi's eyes shone with excitement, leaving the funeral behind and immediately negotiating with Zhao, with a big plan in mind: to annex all small and medium-sized industrialists and become industrial hegemons. He, Sun Jiren, general manager of Pacific Company, and Wang, general manager of Daxing Coal Mine Company, finally succeeded after several plans, and formed an industrial consortium of trust and investment companies. Wu Sun-fu succeeded in speculating in government bonds, and "Zhong Yi" swallowed eight factories with an estimated value of 300,000 yuan for only 50,000 yuan or 60,000 yuan. Wu turned all the assets raised into public debt, first as a "short" and then as a "long". Zhao is the devil in the Shanghai bond market, with American support and contacts in military and political circles. He wants to set up a financial trust to control industrial capital, and threatened to "force Wu Laosan to close down and force Zhong Yi Company to close down!" Wu Sun-fu wants to expand his factory, engage in industry and speculate in government bonds, so he is short of funds. Tu Chu-chai withdrew from the charity performance at this juncture. Some depositors ask for early withdrawal. In order to fight Zhao to the end, Wu bought Zhao's lover and agent Han as an insider. However, the Yanjun suddenly attacked all fronts and will hit Jinan within four days. Public debt plummeted and bulls faced the threat of fiasco. In order to pass on the crisis, Wu Sunfu ordered to deduct 80% of the workers' wages and suppress the troublemakers by force! Tu Yuewei, a scab, tried her best, but to no avail. When the strike started, Wu Sunfu was trapped in the factory, and like a frightened bird, he slipped out the back door in a panic. In order to get rid of their troubles and seek excitement, Wu Sunfu and his party took social flowers to the river to play. They knocked over a sampan because of full power. Zhao came to you and threatened to implement a comprehensive economic blockade. Zhong Yi finally lost to the western "foreign firm" and the eastern "club". Wu Sunfu felt that he was desperate. But he still put all his eggs in one basket, wanted to have a final contest with Zhao, and even put all the land of Wu Fu out. It's time for the bull to kill the bear, and Zhao has mastered the details of Wu Sunfu and his gang. Wu finally threw out 1.5 million "slimming" bonds. At this time, if Du Zhuzhai can unite with Wu, Wu will win, but Du Zhuzhai took advantage of their low price to stand on Zhao's side and stole a lot. Wu Sunfu was defeated and tried to kill himself with a pistol, but he didn't shoot. Wu Sunfu and his wife finally left the dock in the middle of the night for the summer.
Through the above description, Midnight reveals Wu Sunfu's duality as a national industrial capitalist: there are contradictions between him and the imperialist and comprador financial capitalists under his egg wings, as well as between him and the working people, especially the workers. Under the rule of imperialism, China's national industry will never develop, and semi-feudal and semi-colonial China will never embark on the capitalist road. This is an inevitable law of history, and no one can change it or shake it. At that time, Trotskyites tried their best to spread imperialist aggression and promote the development of capitalism in China during the debate about the social nature of China. China's social economy is dominated by capitalist economy, and China's social nature is the reactionary argument of capitalism. They obliterated the difference between Chinese and foreign capitals, covered up the fact that imperialism strangled China's national industry, and tried to use "Left" words to oppose the ongoing anti-imperialist and anti-feudal democratic revolution of the people of China, so as to achieve their ulterior motives. The description of Wu Sunfu's character and fate in Midnight strongly answers this fallacy of Trotskyism.
Apart from Wu Sunfu, Mao Dun also created a series of characters with distinctive personalities in Midnight, and their respective ideological outlook and mental state were deeply branded by the times and classes. Tu Yuewei is Wu Sunfu's effective eagle dog. Just as the author deliberately exaggerated Wu Sunfu's talent and courage, he also exaggerated Tu's "alertness, calmness and courage" with a lot of pen and ink. Wu Sun-fu can't change his fate of failure, and Tu Wei-yueh's intrigues can't destroy the avalanche of the workers' movement. Yue is a comprador financial capitalist supported by American imperialism and a unique product of semi-colonialism. With the strength of Chiang Kai-shek's fascist regime, it has the advantage of overwhelming Wu Sunfu politically and economically. He not only manipulated the bond speculation market in Shanghai, but also seized the throat of the national industry. He is cunning, cruel, fierce, playing with women, dissolute and shameless. Although the work does not fully reveal the political and social relations of this character, it vividly depicts and exposes his rogue nature from a few pages of description. Feng Yunqing fled to Shanghai as a "field-eating mound" under the storm of agrarian revolution. He traded the blood and sweat of farmers for a "public house" life in the metropolis, while speculating in the public debt market. Through an ugly drama in which he used his daughter as a "honey trap", the work sharply exposed the shameless spirit of the feudal landlord class, and on the other hand highlighted Zhao's despicable image. Although Feng Yunqing's activities occupy a small space, they are an indispensable part of the book. In addition, the so-called "professors" and "poets" like Li Yuting and Fan Bowen, who sold themselves and lived on the capitalist's purse, also wrote their own characteristics. The author once said that he intended to "link the New Scholar of 1993 to the overall structure of the present book". Although this plan was not fully realized, Li Yuting, Fan Bowen and other figures somewhat showed the decadent and empty mental outlook of some bourgeois intellectuals at that time.
Mao Dun is particularly good at depicting the psychological state of characters. He did not make a static and isolated analysis and description of them, but made a detailed and profound description of them in the torrent of the times and in the sharp contradictions and conflicts. He made Wu Sun-fu fight on several fronts at the same time, making him feel excited, worried, resolute and impatient in the ups and downs of victory and defeat. In this way, Wu Sunfu's mental state and mental outlook are completely exposed to the readers. Du Zhuzhai's mercenary character is particularly obvious in the decisive battle stage of the bond market. At the height of the infighting between Wu and Zhao, the hearts of our powerful people were exposed. Mao Dun also used the description of natural scenery in many places to render the atmosphere and set off the changes of the characters' emotions, thus vividly expressing the characters' personalities. He never writes about scenery for the sake of it. He writes about scenery, so he writes about people. Sometimes it's because of feelings, sometimes it's because of scenery, and the scene is mixed, which is irrelevant.
The language of Midnight is concise, delicate and vivid. It has no over-Europeanized language, and occasionally uses ancient idioms, which is just right and interesting. The characters' language and the narrator's language can have different characteristics with the development of stories and characters' personalities, so that readers can feel at home when they hear their voices and see their people.
The artistic structure of Midnight is grand and precise. Chapter 19 * * *, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the book explain the characters and reveal clues; Since then, chapter 17 has all kinds of clues, is orderly, has its own description focus, and obeys the center of the book. The fourth chapter describes the peasant uprising in Shuangqiao Town. Although this clue has not been further developed, which makes people feel a little divorced from the whole book, it reflects the face of rural areas in China in the 1930s, shows Wu Sunfu's close relationship with rural feudal economy and his irreconcilable attitude towards peasant uprisings, and is still an important part of the whole book. This article comes from the secretary channel component of the civil service examination network. The main thread running through the book is the contradiction and struggle between Wu Sunfu and Zhao, but at the same time it is either true or false, showing the vigorous development of revolutionary forces in various places. Finally, it shows the growing strength of the Red Army of Workers and Peasants, and points out the real way out for China by comparing the fate of Wu Sunfu's failure.
The success of Midnight is by no means accidental. Like all successful writers in the history of literature, Mao Dun paid special attention to the study of people and the relationship between people. He has rich social experience, and tries to analyze various phenomena from the perspective of Marxism, reveal their great significance and form the theme of his works. The birth and production of Midnight is just like this. Mao Dun has a special liking for China's classical novels "The Water Margin" and "The Scholars", and he has widely read the works of famous foreign writers. He can absorb excellent literary heritages at home and abroad by chewing and digesting, and "digest the essence of old works of art and create new techniques". This is also the key to the success of Midnight. This article comes from the official examination network-secretary channel.
(youtheme.cn welcomes your contribution)
The description of the mass movement of workers and peasants in Midnight is not a successful place. Especially describing the workers' strike struggle, the shortcomings are more obvious. The author used a lot of space to describe this struggle, on the one hand, he wanted to show the contradiction between the national capitalist Wu Sunfu and the working class, on the other hand, he wanted to criticize the wrong leadership of "Left" adventurism at that time through this description. However, because the positive image is too thin to express the spirit of revolutionary heroic struggle, the author's creative attempt has not been successfully realized. The author later pointed out the reason for this shortcoming: "This novel is written from three aspects: comprador financial capitalist, reactionary industrial capitalist, revolutionary activist and worker. Of the three, the first two directly observe people and their affairs, while the latter only relies on' second-hand' materials, that is, people and their affairs and even the dictation of a third party. The source of this theme makes the part describing comprador financial capitalists and reactionary industrial capitalists more vivid and true, while the part describing revolutionary activists and workers is much worse. "
The appearance of "Midnight" is the time when the proletarian revolutionary literature movement in China is advancing in the "encirclement and suppression" of counter-revolutionary culture. It shows the fighting achievements of the left-wing literary camp and proves that proletarian literature is an invincible and most promising creative force.
Midnight reflection
Midnight marks that Mao Dun's creation has entered a new mature stage, and it is an excellent revolutionary realistic novel in China's modern literature. It was written in 193 1 year1month and completed in 19321February. Before I started writing, I went through a long process of preparation and conception.
(Dr. www.eduboss.com Education Network welcomes submission)
The contradiction and struggle between Wu Sunfu, a national industrial capitalist, and Zhao, a comprador financial capitalist, is a main thread throughout the book. Around this main line, Midnight reflects the development of revolution around 1930 and the social outlook of China where a single spark can start a prairie fire.
The characters in Midnight are active in such a broad historical background. Moreover, through the development of character and destiny, it clearly and powerfully shows the development trend and grandeur of the whole era. It takes Shanghai as the center and reflects the whole picture of China society. It said it was 1993? The events of two months (May to July) in 2000, which covered up the context of the past and future of China society. It is the most important place for Mao Dun, as an outstanding realistic writer in China, to show various complicated life phenomena with great historical and social significance through a rigorous and grand artistic structure.
In the shaping of Wu Sunfu, a typical figure, the writer's meticulous artistic conception and outstanding creative talent have been fully reflected. Wu Sunfu, an industrial capitalist described by the writer, is not an insignificant figure. He used to be keen on developing industry in his hometown Shuangqiao Town, and planned to build his "Shuangqiao Kingdom" based on a power plant. However, Shuangqiao Town, with a population of only 100,000, is not a "place where heroes can come into play". His article comes from the Civil Service Examination Network-Secretary Channel to develop China's national industry. His "purpose is to develop enterprises, increase the number of chimneys and expand the sales market". He has such ambition to overthrow all "half-dead so-called entrepreneurs" and "hold the enterprise in his own iron fist". Not only that, he also knows that if this article comes from the civil service examination network-the secretary channel to develop national industries, it needs to come from the civil service examination network-the secretary channel "The country is like a country, the government is like a government". Therefore, in addition to never tirelessly looking at the interests of enterprises, he also "looks at politics with one eye." He gained knowledge of managing modern industry from his travels in Europe and America. He has courage, ability and bright eyes, and he can often arouse others' ambitious career and is willing to cooperate with him. But Wu Sun-fu, a knight in business, was born at an inopportune time. He did not live in Europe and America in the 18 and 9th centuries, but in semi-feudal and semi-colonial China. China's ambition to develop the national industry had to become an unattainable fantasy. He can't just live a "life of war", he fights on several fronts at the same time: his article comes from the infighting between the secretary channel of the civil service examination network and the financial capitalist Zhao, the agent of American imperialism; He could not put out the surging strike movement in the factory; Many small factories he bought wholeheartedly have become "wet shirts" that he can't get rid of. He, Sun Jiren and Wang Sanren painstakingly managed the trust company, which was inevitably destroyed under the conditions of warlord scuffle, rural bankruptcy, overproduction of factories and large-scale economic blockade of Zhao. The Zhong Yi Trust Company, which they initiated, was established less than two months ago, and its "ambitious plan" has become a bubble. Wu Sunfu, who is ambitious, headstrong and confident, has only one way to surrender. Through the above description, Midnight reveals Wu Sunfu's duality as a national industrial capitalist: there are contradictions between him and the imperialist and comprador financial capitalists under his egg wings, as well as between him and the working people, especially the workers. Under the rule of imperialism, China's national industry will never develop, and semi-feudal and semi-colonial China will never embark on the capitalist road. This is an inevitable law of history, and no one can change it or shake it. At that time, Trotskyites tried their best to spread imperialist aggression and promote the development of capitalism in China during the debate about the social nature of China. China's social economy is dominated by capitalist economy, and China's social nature is the reactionary argument of capitalism. They obliterated the difference between Chinese and foreign capitals, covered up the fact that imperialism strangled China's national industry, and tried to use "Left" words to oppose the ongoing anti-imperialist and anti-feudal democratic revolution of the people of China, so as to achieve their ulterior motives. The description of Wu Sunfu's character and fate in Midnight strongly answers this fallacy of Trotskyism.
Midnight highlights Wu Sunfu's personality characteristics from various complicated social relations. As a typical figure of the national bourgeoisie in semi-feudal and semi-colonial China, Wu Sunfu's character is a distinct and contradictory unity. On the one hand, he has "indignation from the standpoint of national industry", but on the other hand, it is "personal interests" that overwhelm him. He is "running an industry", and he takes the development of national industries as his own responsibility. He has always opposed people like Tu Chu-chai who have big capital and specialize in buying and selling land, gold and government bonds. But he can't help but fall into crazy public debt speculation. He hoped to realize his bourgeois ideal of "democratic politics" and hoped that the military action of the "Northern Enlargement Conference" organized by the Kuomintang and local warlords against Chiang Kai-shek would be successful at an early date. However, when the military progress in the north was not conducive to his public debt activities, he was "afraid that the military forces in the north would develop too fast." He is smart and tough, but he can't help showing the inherent weakness of the national bourgeoisie in China. He is sometimes decisive, sometimes suspicious, sometimes full of confidence, sometimes depressed; On the surface, he seems to have a plan, but in essence, it is a counterintuitive move. All this is so contradictory and naturally unified in Wu Sunfu's character.
Midnight not only describes the character and fate of Wu Sunfu and Zhao in the contradictory struggle between trust companies and bond speculation market, but also describes Wu Sunfu's close connection with rural feudal economy and his irreconcilable attitude towards the peasant armed uprising. In his attitude towards the workers' movement, he also showed his reactionary face of desperately squeezing workers and hating the revolution. When he learned from the newspaper that Shuangqiao Town was occupied by the uprising farmers, "he stared at the sky and suddenly became poor and angry:' I hate that bastard! What do they do? There is a battalion and two machine guns! Don't they all kill people? Hey! ..... "Between the lines as if came the voice of his teeth. He was sometimes dissatisfied with the reactionary Kuomintang government because it could not effectively suppress the revolution, "because his iron fist power could not directly touch the person in charge." "He tried to save the enterprise from the worker depression caused by foreign goods dumping and warlord scuffle, and tried to absorb the blood and sweat of workers to make up for his losses in the speculative market. He used thieves, spies and reactionary military police to sabotage the workers' strike movement. In these places, the works successfully reveal the image of a reactionary industrial capitalist who hates the working people and enriches himself with blood. The work also highlights the ruthless soul of the bourgeoisie formed by greed and greed from Wu Sunfu's family life and the description of people around him. He can't resist the fate of failure arranged for him by the inevitable law of history. He can only hide his inner fears and anxieties by pretending to be calm, and never let others see that he is depressed, even his wife Lin. Relying on strong stimulation, he temporarily forgot "the bleak future of the current situation and the crisis of private enterprises that shook their bone marrow", so he could only use "dead dance" to alleviate the pain of failure and almost ended his tragic fate by committing suicide. Wu Sunfu is a typical image of the national bourgeoisie in China during the Second Revolutionary Civil War.
Mao Dun is particularly good at depicting the psychological state of characters. He did not make a static and isolated analysis and description of them, but made a detailed and profound description of them in the torrent of the times and in the sharp contradictions and conflicts. He made Wu Sun-fu fight on several fronts at the same time, making him feel excited, worried, resolute and impatient in the ups and downs of victory and defeat. In this way, Wu Sunfu's mental state and mental outlook are completely exposed to the readers. Du Zhuzhai's mercenary character is particularly obvious in the decisive battle stage of the bond market. At the height of the infighting between Wu and Zhao, the hearts of our powerful people were exposed. Mao Dun also used the description of natural scenery in many places to render the atmosphere and set off the changes of the characters' emotions, thus vividly expressing the characters' personalities. He never writes about scenery for the sake of it. He writes about scenery, so he writes about people. Sometimes it's because of feelings, sometimes it's because of scenery, and the scene is mixed, which is irrelevant.
The language of Midnight is concise, delicate and vivid. It has no over-Europeanized language, and occasionally uses ancient idioms, which is just right and interesting. The characters' language and the narrator's language can have different characteristics with the development of stories and characters' personalities, so that readers can feel at home when they hear their voices and see their people.
The description of the mass movement of workers and peasants in Midnight is not a successful place. Especially describing the workers' strike struggle, the shortcomings are more obvious. The author used a lot of space to describe this struggle, on the one hand, he wanted to show the contradiction between the national capitalist Wu Sunfu and the working class, on the other hand, he wanted to criticize the wrong leadership of "Left" adventurism at that time through this description. However, because the positive image is too thin to express the spirit of revolutionary heroic struggle, the author's creative attempt has not been successfully realized. The author later pointed out the reason for this shortcoming: "This novel is written from three aspects: comprador financial capitalist, reactionary industrial capitalist, revolutionary activist and worker. Of the three, the first two directly observe people and their affairs, while the latter only relies on' second-hand' materials, that is, people and their affairs and even the dictation of a third party. The source of this theme makes the part describing comprador financial capitalists and reactionary industrial capitalists more vivid and true, while the part describing revolutionary activists and workers is much worse. "
(Dr. www.eduboss.com Education Network welcomes submission)
The appearance of "Midnight" is the time when the proletarian revolutionary literature movement in China is advancing in the "encirclement and suppression" of counter-revolutionary culture. It shows the fighting achievements of the left-wing literary camp and proves that proletarian literature is an invincible and most promising creative force.