Chapter 46 Literati without literature

In the supplement of a newspaper with the surname "Da", there was a "surname Zhang" who "asked promising young people in China not to use the guise of 'literati have no practice' to commit evil habits that can be criticized." [ 2] This is really true.But the definition of "no action" is extremely strict.It is said: "The so-called non-action does not necessarily refer to irregular or immoral behavior, but also includes all unkind and bad behavior." Then I cited some examples of the "evil habits" of Japanese literati as a lesson for promising young people in China. One is "Miyaji Karoku [3] likes to scratch his hair with his fingers and claws", and the other is "gold Foreign language (4) likes to lick lips".

Naturally, dry lips and itchy scalp, ancient and modern sages did not call it a virtue, but it seems that they did not condemn it as a vice.Unexpectedly, as soon as I arrived in Shanghai, China, loving to scratch and lick, even my own lips and hair, has become an "inhuman and bad behavior".If you feel uncomfortable, you have to endure it.To be a promising young man or a literati is becoming more and more difficult day by day. But the "evil habits" of Chinese literati are not actually these. As long as he can write articles, it doesn't matter if he scratches or licks. No text".

Two or three years ago, we saw in publications that a certain poet had gone to the West Lake to recite poems, and that a certain writer was writing a novel of 500,000 characters, but until now, except for one that was not announced[5], None of the other masterpieces appeared.There are those who pick up trivial matters and make essays; some who revise ancient prose can be regarded as self-made.Talking nonsense is called a review; there are some who edit a few periodicals and secretly praise themselves.There are some who collect obscene talks and write them down; gather old articles and print them as critical biographies.It is even possible to read some news from the foreign literary world and become a historian of world literature; there are also people who compile a dictionary of literary scholars and include themselves in it, and become world literati.However, now, after all, they are all "literati" who are China's gold-lettered signs.

Literati are uneducated, and so are warriors.Those who said they were "waiting for the next attack" did not leave at night, and they said they were "resisting to the death", and fled when they saw more than a hundred enemy soldiers.It's just a telegram declaration and the like, but it's a parallel style, and the "literature" is unusual. "Yanwu Xiuwen" [6], there are Ming Xun in ancient times, and Wenxing [7] all went to Yingzi.Therefore, our "literati" have no choice but to stop licking their lips or scratching their hair, and try to figure out human feelings, and just settle for a "good" and finish the job.

March twenty-eighth.