Chapter 31 Preface to the biography of an unknown youth

Hu Shi in the May Fourth era was young and elegant, so he naturally understood and loved young people.Needless to say, he has a close relationship with Fu Sinian, Luo Jialun, Yang Zhensheng and other students from Xinchao Society of Peking University.He also loved, encouraged and helped some unknown young people who had never met before. In the winter of 1919, Hu Shi once wrote a biography for a poor short-lived female student.The main character, Li Chao, is an ordinary student of Beijing National Higher Normal School for Women, from Wuzhou, Guangxi.The family property is quite rich.Her parents had died long ago; an adopted brother, who had no heart, treated her very badly.Dissatisfied with the life of the old feudal family, Li Chao went out to study angrily and came to Beijing after a while.But because of this, she was persecuted even more by her old family and traditional forces. Later, she completely cut off her tuition fee, "not sending any money", which made her worry, anger, poverty and illness.In August of this year, the young woman who was just 20 years old finally died of a short life.Li Chao's life was very ordinary and tragic.After she died, her stepbrother didn't even send a letter; the coffin was parked in a ruined temple in Beijing, and the family didn't come to ask.The funeral is all thanks to her fellow countrymen and friends.When they sorted out Li Chao's relics, they found many correspondences, sorted and compiled them, and sent them to Hu Shi.

Hu Shi did not know Li Chao, and had probably never met him.But after reading these manuscripts, he felt infinite sympathy and regret for this unknown short-lived woman.He felt that the deeds of Li Chao's life are very valuable to write a detailed biography, "not only his personal ambition can make people feel pity and admiration, but also the difficulties he encountered can attract the attention and discussion of interested people all over the country."Therefore, Hu Shi said: I think the biography of this woman is much more important than the epitaph of some warlord. Therefore, Hu Shi wrote a biography for this unfortunate woman who had never met before, as a well-known professor at Peking University and an advocate of new culture. ①Relying on Li Chao's letters and manuscripts during his lifetime as materials, he clearly expressed her "hardships and aspirations she had suffered in her life" one by one.When writing about Li Chao’s illness, her brother-in-law wrote to persuade her to settle the matter, and said a very sad and funny saying: “My sister’s situation today is similar to that of my elder brother. But it can’t be used.” Hu Shi was very aggrieved, and used this to comment and question:

Li Chao "had money but didn't use it", so he suffered all kinds of hardships and hardships, so that he became sick and even died... Whose fault is this?... What kind of system is this fault? For the misfortune and fate of Li Chao and countless Chinese women, Hu Shi lodged a strong complaint against the entire "patriarchal social system" and "the autocracy of patriarchs and patriarchs". On November 29, 1919, the Beijing education circle held a memorial service for Ms. Li Chao.Peking University President Cai Yuanpei and Hu Shi attended the meeting and gave speeches. Apart from expressing condolences, they also talked about solutions to such unfortunate social problems as Li Chao; they were only limited to education and the education of fertile children. ②

Hu Shi's Biography of Li Chao is one of the vernacular biographies he wrote during the Literary Revolution.In addition, there are "Biography of Xu Yisun" and "Biography of Wu Jingzi". ③The biographies written by Hu Shi in his early years all have positive and healthy ideological content, and the writing is fresh and clear, without false carvings, and has a style of diluting nature.The "Li Chao Biography" was written for an unknown youth, which contains Hu Shi's love for young people and pity for their unfortunate fate, showing a very strong spirit of opposing patriarchal clan traditions.

Hu Shi loves, cares and supports those young people who are devoted to new literature.Kang Baiqing and Yu Pingbo had just published a few new poems in "Xin Chao", and Hu Shi soon fully affirmed them in his long essay "Talking about New Poems", praising their poems, "It is the most optimistic poem after the liberation of the poetic style. a phenomenon". ④Their collections of poems "Cao'er" and "Winter Night" were published by the Yadong Library, and Hu Shi wrote a review article to criticize and introduce them. ⑤He affirmed that Kang Baiqing's "Cao'er" was "the most important creation" of early new poetry, saying:

Bai Qing has created the most and had the greatest influence in the new poetry world in the past four years; however, he only wants to make poems, not intentionally create styles.At that time, we intended to liberate the poetic style, aspiring to liberate ourselves and others; Bai Qing just wanted to "spit out what's in his heart freely"; As for Yu Pingbo, he is sure that he is "best at describing", but he is also dissatisfied with his "preferring to reason", so that "the more he talks, the less he understands, and his good poems are buried by his philosophy".This specific and sincere comment is very beneficial and helpful to the young people.

Hu Shi's preface for young people began with Wang Jingzhi's collection of poems "The Wind of Hui". Wang Jingzhi is from Yucun, Jixi.Yucun and Shangzhuang are only separated by a small Changxi River, only a few hundred steps apart, and the sounds of chickens and dogs are heard.He and Hu Shi are not only fellow villagers, but also neighbors. In the autumn of 1920, Wang Jingzhi transferred to Zhejiang No. 1 Normal School in Hangzhou to study. Influenced by the new culture of the "May Fourth Movement" and agitated by the literary revolution, he began to write new poems in vernacular.At that time, Hu Shi was already a celebrity of the new culture and the initiator of the new poetry.Wang Jingzhi, who was only seventeen or eighteen years old, naturally admired this famous fellow from his hometown.Many young poets at that time imitated "Hu Shi's style", and Wang Shi was no exception.He was a beginner in poetry, and even imitated the tone of some of Hu Shi's early poems.For example, "How Dare You Love Iraq" written in 1920 says:

I loved Ee very much,-- Twelve love Yi. Although I love Yi in my heart, I dare not love Yi on the face. If I love Yi, how can I arrange Yi? He forbade me to love Yi, how dare I love Yi? ⑥ Not only the shallow content, but also the wrapping of the text, can be seen the obvious traces of "Experimental Collection". In July 1921, at the invitation of Gao Mengdan, Hu Ying went to the Shanghai Commercial Press to investigate and draft an improvement plan on his behalf.Mr. Wang Tiyu, who lives in the same village as Yucun, built the "Yucun Garden" in Shanghai.On the first day of moving in, Wang Jingzhi and several young people from Jixi came to visit Hu Shi. ⑦ From then on, Hu Shi got to know Wang Jingzhi and regarded him as "my young friend".

In the autumn of this year, Wang Jingzhi, Pan Mohua, Feng Xuefeng and other 20 people formed the "Chenguang Society" to create literature after school.At the beginning of April of the following year, they visited West Lake with Xiuren Ying who came all the way from Shanghai.Four poet friends formed the "Lakeside Poetry Club" by "walking on the Baidi, writing poems under the peach trees, reciting poems beside the Leifeng Pagoda, singing poems and prose in harmony, and enjoying endless happiness".From then on, the four young people "really devoted themselves to making love poems", forming a genre of their own.And they are very lucky to have the love and support of many well-known writers in the contemporary literary world.Zhu Ziqing, Ye Shengtao, Liu Yanling and other teachers from Zhejiang First Division acted as their advisors; Lu Xun, Hu Shi, Zhou Zuoren, etc. read manuscripts for them, guided and supported the creation of these young people.Therefore, "Hupan" was quite successful and influential in the Chinese poetry circle at that time.

Not long after Wang Jingzhi visited Hu Shi in Shanghai, he compiled a collection of his poems, named "Hui's Wind", and sent it to Hu Shi; the poems he wrote at any time in the future were also sent one after another.Later, "Hui's Wind" was about to be published.Zhu Ziqing and Liu Yanling both wrote prefaces; Hu Shi also wrote prefaces, which is the longest of the three prefaces. ⑧ He gave very enthusiastic and pertinent criticism and encouragement to the poems of this "young friend".He said: When I read Jingzhi's poems, I often have a feeling: I think his poems are much more thorough in terms of liberation than those of us who have done old poems.When we advocated writing new poems five or six years ago, our "new poems" hadn't achieved the word "liberation"... Until the past one or two years, another group of young poets came out; The influence is weaker, so their liberation is more complete.Jingzhi is the most promising of these young poets.His poems are sometimes childish, but childishness is far better than obscurity; his poems are sometimes too revealing, but too revealing is far better than obscurity.What's more, childishness is always full of a fresh flavor, which often has a fresh flavor that we who call ourselves "old-fashioned" can never imagine.

Such enthusiastic encouragement, kind understanding and care, how beneficial to the growth of young people! The attack on the old ethics and morals in "The Wind of Hui" is extremely violent. Hu Shi estimated that some people might "feel that Jingzhi's love poems are suspected of being immoral" and use the old morals to blame young people for "should not do such things." A groaning love poem".Therefore, he warned people in advance, not to "put on old glasses to see new poetry", "don't let the prejudice in your mind bury this booklet"! As the first experimenter of new poetry, he called on the society to give these young poets We have "a right to try freely". Sure enough, shortly after the publication of "The Wind of Hui", Hu Menghua, a young man from Southeast University, published an article "After Reading "The Wind of Hui"", attacking the love poems in it as "degenerate and frivolous" and "immoral". Suspected of ", he was charged with the same charge; after being criticized by others, he published "Sorrowful Youth" to defend, but he couldn't make much sense, he just said "My unthinkable tears for the sad youth" Eyes full." Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren wrote essays to refute this "tearful critic". ⑨ Lu Xun's article is titled "Against the "Tearful Critic"".He denounced "moralists" like Hu Menghua and said: I think the nerves of the so-called Chinese moralists have been hypersensitive since ancient times. When they see the word "the person they like", they immediately think of it, and when they see the word "见", they immediately think about other things.However, the hearts of all young people are not necessarily so unclean;...⑩Lu Xun also encouraged Wang Jingzhi, regardless of the arguments of moralists, "You might as well write a poem of 'one step at a time and look back at the person I like'". Surrounding the growth of the "lakeside" poets, they have left a legacy in the history of new literature in our country: "the old brings the new", "the old helps the young" A good story, which fully embodies the fine tradition of the "May 4th" Literary Revolution and the pioneers of our country's new literature who care for the youth and reward the underachievers. ① "Biography of Li Chao", originally published in No. 2, Volume 2, of "Xin Chao", published on December 1, 1919; later included in Volume 4 of "Hu Shi Wen Cun", published in December 1921 by Shanghai Yadong Library.The note "December of the eighth year of the Republic of China" at the end of the article was obviously added according to the publication time of "Xin Chao" during the compilation, and it was wrong.According to the "Speech at the Memorial Service for Ms. Li Chao" collected in Volume 3 of "The Complete Works of Cai Yuanpei" (published by Beijing Zhonghua Book Company in September 1984), it is indicated that the memorial service was held on November 29, 1919, and Mr. Cai gave a speech. The Ci mentions the "Biography and Speeches of Ms. Li" written by Hu Shi, which shows that the "Biography of Li Chao" has been written before, and Mr. Cai has also read it. ② Cai Yuanpei's speech was published in the "Peking University Journal" on December 8, 1919, and is now included in Volume 3 of "The Complete Works of Cai Yuanpei". ③ "Biography of Xu Yisun" and "Biography of Wu Jingzi" are both included in Volume 4 of "Hu Shi Wen Cun". ④ "Talking about New Poetry", published in the 1919 Double Tenth Festival commemorative issue of Shanghai "Weekly Review", and later included in Volume 1 of "Hu Shi Wencun".Among them, several poems by young people are quoted and commented, such as Kang Baiqing's "Seeing Off Huangpu", Yu Pingbo's "Spring Water Boat" and "Late Autumn Yongdingmen Evening Scene" ("Late Autumn Yongdingmen City Upper Evening Scene"). ⑤ "Cao'er" and "Winter Night", both published in March 1922 by Shanghai Yadong Library.Hu Shi's "Comment on "Cao'er"" was written on August 30, and published in the first issue of "Dushu Magazine" as a supplement to the weekly newspaper "Efforts"; "Comment on "Winter Night"" was written on September 19 and published in "Reading Magazine" season2.The latter two essays were combined into "Comment on New Poetry Collection", which was included in Volume 4 of "Hu Shi Wencun Two Collections", published by Shanghai Yadong Library in November 1924. ⑥Wang Jingzhi's poem was quoted in Hu Shi's "Hui's Preface". In September 1957, "Hui's Wind" was published by Beijing People's Literature Publishing House, which was eliminated by the author from "Hui's Wind" (2/3 deleted) and "Lonely Country" (1/3 deleted ), the poem "How Dare I Love Iraq" was deleted. ⑦ "Hu Shi's Diary" on July 17, 1921, "Wang Jingzhi and Hu Hongzhao, both from Jixi, came to visit today; Cao□□, from Shexian County, all young." ⑧ Hu Shi's "Hui's Wind Preface" was written on June 6, 1922. It was originally published in the preface of the first edition of "Hui's Wind" in Shanghai Yadong Library in August of the same year; Wind", signed "Shi", published on September 24 of the same year.It was later included in Volume 4 of "Hu Shi Wen Cun II Collection". ⑨Hu Menghua, also from Jixi, Anhui, was a student at Southeast University in Nanjing at that time.His "After Reading "Hui's Wind"" was published in the supplement "Xue Deng" of Shanghai "Shi Shi Xin Bao" (October 24, 1922).Then, Zhang Hongxi published ""Hui's Wind" and Moral Issues" in the supplement "Consciousness" of Shanghai's "Republic of China Daily" (October 30 of the same year) to refute it.Hu Menghua wrote "Sorrowful Youth—An Answer to Zhang Hongxijun" (contained in "Enlightenment" on November 3 of the same year) to defend.Later, Zhou Zuoren wrote "What Is Immoral Literature" (published in "Xue Deng" on November 5); ).Later, Hu Menghua also wrote "The Defense of "After Reading Hui's Wind"" (contained in "Learning Lantern" from November 18 to 20); Criticism" (contained in "Xue Deng" on December 29).The debate on "The Wind of Hui" lasted for more than a month before it came to an end. ⑩ "The Complete Works of Lu Xun", Beijing People's Literature Publishing House, 1981 Edition, Volume 1, Pages 403-404.