The spirituality of human beings has created the nature of human thinking and made human beings evolve from primitive society to today's civilized society; The moldability of people makes people have different ideas, different looks and different world views; Strong viability has enabled mankind to survive in various wars and natural crises for thousands of years, and to survive better.
After thousands of years of reproduction, human beings began to have their own civilization, and the culture about people began to be passed down from generation to generation. With the continuous upgrading of human beings, the civilization about human beings is also changing. For thousands of years, as far as China is concerned, Confucius' thoughts and cultural ideas have been highly respected, and Confucian knowledge based on human nature is still the object of discussion.
What is human nature like? Different people have different understandings of this point. No matter how human beings interpret human nature, they can't get the most accurate answer objectively and emotionally.
Some people say that "human nature is good", some people say that "human nature is evil", and some people think that there is no distinction between good and evil. Whether there is a distinction between good and evil, no one can make an accurate conclusion, because different environments, different starting points, and different understandings of good and evil.
Discussion based on human nature has always been the object of people's attention. Morality and humanity have been interpreted by people of different schools with different ideas. Confucianism, Legalism and Taoism are the symbolic schools to interpret human nature and morality.
In modern and contemporary society, human nature is still a topic of discussion, and among them, the most sensational speech about human nature belongs to the famous writer Liang Shiqiu.
First, Liang Shiqiu's interpretation of human nature
Liang Shiqiu is a famous contemporary writer, literary critic and translator in China. Liang Shiqiu's position in the Renaissance society stems from his theory of human nature and his translation, and his Essays on Elegant Rooms was not praised until the 1980s.
Liang Shiqiu's thoughts and his own ideas have always been controversial, and this controversy is reflected in his own contradictions. Liang Shiqiu's theory of human nature is extreme but rational because of this contradiction that cannot be blended with himself.
It is hard to imagine that the author who wrote Essays on Elegant Rooms would have such extreme remarks and thoughts, but this is Liang Shiqiu. The fame of Liang Shiqiu's theory of human nature is directly related to the cultural celebrity Lu Xun at that time.
In that war-torn era, it was foolish for Liang Shiqiu, a fledgling newcomer, to have a pen battle with a literary master like Lu Xun. However, Liang Shiqiu did it for eight years.
In the past eight years, the two men have developed from the debate on literature to the debate on human nature, and finally to personal attacks. This war without smoke didn't stop until Lu Xun died. Because of this controversy, Lu Xun's distinctive literary style and Liang Shiqiu's literary thought were labeled as politics, and finally Liang Shiqiu had to live abroad.
It can be said that Xiao He lost and Xiao He lost. Liang Shiqiu harmed himself because of his extreme and immature contradictory thoughts, and has been called "capitalist's running dog" in later generations.
At that time, Liang Shiqiu thought: "The purpose of literature is to express universal and fixed human nature through various phenomena of natural life in the universe." Liang Shiqiu believes that literature is used to explore fixed universal human nature, and the universality of literature makes him controversial.
For him, the value of literature lies not in the spirit of the times, revolutionary theory and traditional ideas. What matters is whether it reflects universal human nature and shows infinite and transcendental truth.
Literature is everywhere and suitable for all mankind. Literature is born of people, people are exploring culture, and culture is advancing with the times. Culture and humanity are inseparable, but they exist independently of each other.
Liang Shiqiu's view that literary value reflects universal and fixed human nature is indeed correct, and his thought also has theoretical basis, but what Liang Shiqiu ignores is the personality of literature.
As the old saying goes, "Birds of a feather flock together", there are contradictions and differences between people, which are reflected in social status, cultural level, humanity and morality.
Different social status makes people have different understandings of literature, just like in ancient China, reading was the exclusive of literati, and those elegant and profound literatures were the existence of literati and the enjoyment of the upper class, while ordinary people were the luxury after literature as long as they could live.
In modern society, literature is universal and also a universal and fixed human nature. Everyone can read and learn, no matter how profound, some people write and some people watch.
However, whether in modern society or ancient feudal society, literature has never had any threshold. The only threshold is whether you have the consciousness of reading, which is something at the level of consciousness. So literature has no class, no right or wrong. The only way to distinguish literature is whether it reflects its usefulness to people and society.
Liang Shiqiu thinks that advertisements and articles praising leaders are useless, and literature that does not reflect human nature is not literature. However, literature is everywhere and people are different, so literature naturally has differences and different personalities, just like people.
In modern society, the word personality has become a hot topic. People's traditional ideas of pursuing individuality, advocating diversity and sameness have been abandoned. The reason why Liang Shiqiu neglected the individuality of literature is related to his own family background and his respect for traditional ideas.
Second, deeply analyze Liang Shiqiu and discuss the main factors that form Liang's thought.
Why can't Liang Shiqiu see people's personality and pay attention to literature's personality? In fact, many people have their own views on this. Influenced by Lu Xun, people are biased against Liang Shiqiu and even look at him with colored glasses. Just as you are labeled as a political leader in casual or simple thinking, no matter how well this person writes and how patriotic he is, he can't make up for his mistakes.
Is there anything wrong with Liang Shiqiu? Whether it is true or not, his fault lies in his outspoken, immature thinking and impulsive attitude. There is nothing wrong, because he is influenced by his own conditions. Traditional thinking made him stand still and unable to break through himself. He can only see these things, which makes his remarks very extreme.
How to summarize the three main reasons for Liang Shiqiu's extreme remarks;
The influence of family background and social status.
Liang Shiqiu was born in a scholar-bureaucrat family. His family's economic situation is good, and education is naturally dominated by traditional professors. Therefore, Liang Shiqiu has never suffered from hardships since he was a child, and his temperament is docile. He is the image of a modest gentleman.
Liang Shiqiu attended high school in Tsinghua and was sent abroad to study after graduation. It can be said that Liang Shiqiu's study and development are carried out according to the route customized by his parents. He himself is not disgusted with this traditional concept of life and future arrangements.
In the choice of personal marriage, free love has always been the mainstream of that era, but Liang Shiqiu still accepts arranged marriage and enjoys it, which reflects Liang Shiqiu's traditional thought.
It can be seen from this that being born in a family has a great influence on Liang Shiqiu's cognitive world. This subtle influence is not only reflected in life, but also in people's psychology, concepts and world outlook.
2. Respect Confucianism
Liang Shiqiu's traditional thought had a great influence on him, and what caused all this was his admiration for Confucianism. Liang Shiqiu was a believer in Confucian ethics all his life. He said: "In my opinion, Confucian ethics is generally good."
Liang Shiqiu likes Confucian ethics and recognizes Confucian understanding of human nature. Therefore, Confucian ethics made him unable to transcend these, and he could only interpret his humanity in this limited circle. His views lack his own exploration of human nature and the world, so his thoughts are immature and mostly influenced by others' thoughts.
Babbitt's theory has great influence.
If Liang Shiqiu was greatly influenced by Confucianism in his early days, after studying abroad, Liang Shiqiu, as a disciple of Babbitt, was deeply influenced by Babbitt and other western writers ideologically. He recognized Babbitt and other mainstream ideas in the western world, and also quite recognized their humanism and interpretation of human nature.
Babbitt's own thoughts are more inclined to understand reality, accept reality and improve society, and think that human society has equal and universal values.
Both Babbitt and Liang Shiqiu agree with Confucianism, so Confucianism and western literary thoughts have the same influence on Liang Shiqiu, resulting in his cognitive extremes.
4. Social status and self-advantage
Liang Shiqiu was born in a feudal aristocratic family and had a strong sense of self-superiority, so he was poisoned by aristocratic education and thought.
This sense of superiority is reflected in his belief that his achievements, his interpretation of literature and his expression of human nature are all hierarchical. This class comes from his own aristocratic family and aristocratic thoughts.
We can draw a conclusion that the reason why Liang Shiqiu was scolded for his tragedy comes from the above four factors. In that semi-feudal society, advocating literary value is a universal human nature, but it also emphasizes the class nature of literature. It can be said that Liang Shiqiu is such a contradiction.
When it is not suitable, it is immature, which also attracts widespread attention. Liang Shiqiu's courage and courage are really unparalleled. The sense of superiority and indomitable courage of the nobility made him dare to fight and fight.
Although Liang Shiqiu has repeatedly said that "all civilizations are the original creations of a few geniuses", "most people have no literature and art, and literature and art are not the majority". But we can't deny that some literary and artistic things can only be created by genius, but without literature and art, most people have offended the whole world.
Literature and art were born in the folk, and then entered the royal family and nobles in feudal society as elegant art. Liang Shiqiu abandoned the foundation of literature and emphasized the superiority of literature and his own. This is a big mistake and seems to put the cart before the horse.
In fact, Liang Shiqiu himself, except for his extreme remarks and immature thoughts, is quite modern in his outlook on life and literary accomplishment, which is worth learning.
After 1980s, people in literary circles preferred Liang Shiqiu's elegant prose, and Liang's mentality made people in a peaceful state after the war urgently needed it. Liang Shiqiu's own charm lies in his persistent life, carefree attitude and elegant humor.
I have to say Liang Shiqiu's literary prose "Elegant House", but the prose he wrote in his later years is more self-restrained, and the plain and substantial content makes people feel cordial and reminds people of it. Liang Shiqiu recalled the people who appeared in his life and the youth they walked with in the book "Time is an Unexpected Affection".
This book can be said to be the best book to understand Liang Shiqiu's youth. In the letter, he wrote about his high school, his friends and his love. He tried his best to describe his friends Xu Zhimo, Wen Yiduo and his lover Ms. Cheng.
The spiritual characteristics of cherishing limited life and enjoying life with fate conveyed in the book make us feel warm and deeply touched. We especially admire Liang Shiqiu's outlook on life. He despises life but loves it.
His Essays on Elegant Rooms conveys to people not only the dreamlike scenes of happiness, but also the idea of letting people learn to live. If you can turn poverty and misery into motivation and despise money and fame in your life, you can have a wonderful life even in a humble room without three meals.
Liang Shiqiu's attitude towards life, leisurely mood and understanding of human nature always surprise his literature. His profound literary foundation, the influence of traditional culture, careful choice of words and quotations are really incisive. Good literature, a good writer should be like this, able to write and live.
Liang Shiqiu's contribution to literature lies not only in his numerous and good prose, but also in his shocking translation of Shakespeare. His love for writing and persistence in literature make his writing more and more popular with people.