Chapter 6 Chapter Two

Ji Zhuang, living everywhere, teaching as a career, it is very difficult to make a fortune; every time he buys a lottery ticket, he is proud of winning the last prize, showing his willingness to be humble.Twenty-seven years old, writing books angrily, knowing nothing about science and philosophy, so writing novels, making everyone laugh, is nothing special. Section 1 "May 4th" Because of my poor family, I went to earn money to support my family after graduating from junior normal school, so I was unable to go to higher education①.During the "May 4th" movement, I was working as the principal of a small school.

"May 4th" separated me from "students".I saw the "May 4th" movement, but I was not involved in this movement, and I had done something.Yes, I have almost never broken with the education cause, but after all I am a bystander to this big movement. As a middle school graduate like me (at that time, it took four years to graduate from middle school and five years to graduate from junior normal school), I had no education and had to earn money to support my family. How could I become a writer again and again?This cannot fail to thank the "May 4th" Movement!

-------- ① Lao She graduated from Beijing Junior Normal School at the age of 20 (1918) with excellent character and learning. If there had been no "May 4th" Movement, I would have been like this for the rest of my life: running a primary school conscientiously, serving my mother respectfully, getting married and having children, that's all.I will definitely not suddenly think of engaging in literature and art. This is not to say that a writer has a higher status and a heavier task than a school principal; certainly not!I mean, without May Fourth, I couldn't have become a writer.

"May Fourth Movement" created the conditions for me to be a writer. The first is: My thinking has changed. The "May 4th" Movement was anti-feudal.In this way, what I thought was right before became wrong.When I entered a private school when I was young, I knelt three times and kowtowed nine times to the wooden tablet of Confucius on the first day; later, I bowed to the wooden tablet every day when I went to and from school.When it came to the "May 4th Movement", the status of Confucius was greatly shaken.Since Confucius can be denied, what else cannot be denied?He is the most holy teacher of Dacheng!This suddenly disrupted the old rules of two thousand years.It's not easy!I am still me, but my heart has changed, and I dare to doubt Confucius!This is not bad!Without this trick, no matter how much I love literature and art, I would not think of subjects that are different from those of wits and beauties, mandarin ducks and butterflies, and I would not dare to criticize old things. The "May 4th" movement gave me a new pair of eyes.

The second is: the "May 4th" movement was against imperialism.I have known national humiliation since I was in primary school.However, it was not until the "May 4th Movement" that I knew how some national humiliations came about, and I knew what to resist and what to resist.In the past, I often heard discouraged words such as "China will not perish, there is no reason for it", and I didn't think it was surprising.After seeing the "May 4th" movement, I realized that "everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of the world".This movement allowed me to see the concrete manifestation of patriotism and understand some preliminary methods to save the nation.Anti-feudalism made me realize human dignity, and people should not be slaves to ethics; anti-imperialism made me feel the dignity of Chinese people, and Chinese people should no longer be foreign slaves.These two understandings are the basic thoughts and emotions of my later writing.Although my writing is not profound, I would not be able to write anything without the basic things given to me by the May 4th Movement.This basic thing forced me to write, that is, to spit out the bitter juice given to me by feudal society and imperialism!This is my inspiration, an inspiration dedicated to literary and artistic writing.

Finally, the May 4th Movement was also a literary movement.Vernacular has become a literary tool.This broke the shackles on the literati's wrists—classical Chinese.However, using only the vernacular will not solve the problem.Without new ideas or new feelings, very banal things can be written in vernacular.Only when a new mind gets a new tool of expression can it produce novel works with consistent content and form. "May 4th" gave me a new heart, and also gave me a new literary language.When it came to the May 4th Movement and the rise of vernacular literature, I couldn't help but be ecstatic.If at that time, anyone who could write a few words wanted to become a writer, I would be one of them.I started writing novels secretly.I didn't intend to contribute, and I didn't contribute.But what a joy it is to write in the vernacular, with new punctuation marks between the words!There are a hundred Wumei villages, and I can't stop me from trying to write new things!The ecstasy of the liberation of writing (replacing classical Chinese with vernacular Chinese) made me and thousands of young people spend so much effort and paper and pen at that time!

This kind of ecstasy does not necessarily make people clear their minds, on the contrary, it may make people confused and sad, intoxicated in a state where everything is poetry, but it is difficult to grasp the clear lines.I am like that.I imagined that the moonlight might be blue, and the stones had feelings, but I didn't have the guts to write about the blue moon and the living stones.The new poems are not handy, and sometimes I read "Li Sao" aloud late at night. Thanks to the "May Fourth Movement", it turned me into a writer, although not a great one.