Chapter 11 Zhou Zuoren and Lu Xun

Talking about Zhou Zuoren with Mr. Shen Qiwu, he said: Mr. Zhou is very solemn in his daily life—not serious, but solemn.The atmosphere of his life was hardly Chinese, but foreign.If one compares Chinese philosophy, he would rather be similar to Taoism, but the Confucian spirit he advocates is actually what he lacks. He also said: His hobby of Ming people's prose is also the atmosphere of that era, but somehow, he later turned prose into short essays. The two articles I wrote "Zhou Zuoren and Louis" and "Talking about Zhou Zuoren" said: You are right when you say that he only wants to be an ordinary person.You can also see the melancholy in his old age.Really, he seemed disappointed in his later years, feeling that China would never get better.

So he sighed and said: being separated from Lu Xun had a great influence on him, and Lu Xun's death was even more a loss to him! Because when Lu Xun was there, he was one of his opponents, and it can be said that he was his only opponent. Without Lu Xun, he would feel even more desolate. Although the above passage was casually said at a banquet because the two of them were sitting together, it was very simple, but it was a very profound and simple statement about Zhou Zuoren.When I came back from the banquet, I suddenly thought of explaining it. I don't know when the Chinese people's life became so trivial, chaotic, and broken.All cruelty, boredom, greed, and obscenity are all due to boredom of life, and this boredom does not lead to pessimism, but only to numbness, not tired of the world but cynical.In this way, Zhou Zuoren's solemnity in daily life must make people feel that it is not Chinese.If it is foreign, it is more properly Greek.

But the clarity of the Greek style, like clear sea water, is actually accompanied by the force of the storm, the anger and sorrow of the storm. Zhou Zuoren after the "May Fourth Movement" only loved his sunny side, so his solemnity could only be combined with Taoist philosophy.Taoism and Greek life are similar in worshiping nature and using natural splendor to eradicate silence, terror, and darkness.However, Taoism is about returning to nature, like "at the end of the song, no one is seen, and there are many green peaks on the river", even people are gone, while the Greek one is to live in nature, just like the mountains and plains are full of reds during the Qingming Festival. Love, singing, and fighting.

Taoism is neither sea water nor storms, but it is like a pool of water, with four mountains completely clear.Its majesty is but a ripple.Because it is pure, it will be lonely, and it will not be solemn or serious, but cold. Legalism, which has degenerated from Taoism, is this kind of loveless and very cold thing.But people can't live like this, so another branch of Taoism has transformed into the Five Dou Rice Religion, which combines with folk customs and superstitions to make itself lively. Zhou Zuoren didn't like that kind of coldness, and the combination with folk customs and superstitions also conflicted with his scientific spirit, so he turned to the prose of Ming people, because the life of Ming people was real and human after all.But this was a hasty choice, because the atmosphere in which Ming people lived was not necessarily good, and it would be unbearable if they were unearthed, so I had to discuss their prose in terms of words.Prose has become an independent existence in this way, and it has fallen into the fate of essays.

Still lonely, so I grasped the spirit of Confucianism.The Confucian spirit that Zhou Zuoren loved was more human than Taoist philosophy, and more robust than the living atmosphere of the Ming people.But the truth of the Confucian spirit is a fait accompli that makes people feel at peace with power relations. This peace of mind is actually unreasonable, and it still conflicts with Zhou Zuoren's philosophical outlook on life.The so-called "respecting the sky and respecting people" is serious rather than solemn, although it is not cold. Zhou Zuoren loves the majesty of the Greek style, the clear side of the sea, because he avoids the other side of the majesty, the power of the storm, the anger and sorrow of the storm, so he is close to the coldness of Taoism, but he is also afraid of this coldness. Surprised, he came to the seriousness of the Confucian spirit.Recently he has had an indistinct desire to transform Confucian philosophy and make its seriousness solemn.In any case, it would be futile.

I thought that Zhou Zuoren and Lu Xun were two sides of the same person.Lu Xun also liked the bright Greek style. Because the sprightly Greek style was the living atmosphere of the Renaissance era, the atmosphere of the May Fourth era, and the living atmosphere of the Russian October Revolution.However, in the changing period of the times, this kind of brightness is not manifested in the calmness of the sea, but in the power of the storm, the anger and sorrow of the storm.This power, this anger and sorrow, is a picture of a more palpable majesty.Lu Xun's career is shining here, but Zhou Zuoren's shadow has faded to nothing.

People can see that Zhou Zuoren and Lu Xun are almost indistinguishable from each other in terms of their views on life in many aspects of their writing. Lu Xun lived in the world and had greater love in life.