Many scholars evaluate Zhou Zuoren with a scientific attitude and talk about his attitude towards life, literary attainments and historical achievements. No one can deny his many contributions to the New Culture Movement, and what is more commendable is his outstanding achievements in prose creation. His prose is nearly a thousand, which is rare among modern prose writers in China. This makes people think of "essays" when they mention his name, which goes deep into readers' hearts.
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Zhou Zuoren's prose creation can be divided into two categories: lyrical and narrative-oriented "personnel comments" and "beautiful essays" Accordingly, there are two different artistic styles: "impetuous and sharp" and "peaceful and dilute". Each style has its own characteristics, which shows his profound artistic attainments.
(A) impetuous and sharp
The so-called impetuous and sharp style is obvious in Zhou Zuoren's Personnel Review. This mixture of discussion and criticism touches reality and criticizes current politics, and the edge of fighting is hidden in the plain narrative of "Zhan Ran's kindness". This is the difference between him and others. In the literary and art circles at that time, many people wrote impassioned words with impassioned and angry words, and accused all unreasonable things with sharp words. However, Zhou Zuoren did not change his usual style of writing because of the different things he wanted to express. Still so gentle, but I judge the current politics between the lines and feel deeply. Let's see how he behaves:
First, the criticism of feudal traditional thought is well written and harmonious. In 1000-word essay Ancestor Worship, Zhou Zuoren rightfully criticized "in natural law, this is obviously a feudal ethical concept that reverses right and wrong". However, his criticism and resistance are different from others, and he sees moderation, peace and harmony in his attitude of challenge and judgment. Zhou Zuoren also rudely mocked the hypocritical so-called "discipline education" advocated by feudal ethics. For example, at that time, the Hunan-Shanghai police department in Shanghai explicitly prohibited girls under the age of/kloc-0 from entering the bathhouse on the grounds of "discipline". Zhou Zuoren wrote in the article "The softness of discipline":
With this passage, Zhou Zuoren regarded this absurdity and hypocrisy of Taoism as particularly ridiculous and hateful. Moreover, China people have been bound by this hypocritical ethics for a long time, resulting in a more hypocritical and abnormal psychology. The malpractice and inhumanity of ethics can be seen.
Secondly, in the article satirizing the tyranny of warlords, he borrowed the "humorous irony" written by Yasunari Kawabata, a modern Japanese essayist, which made the satirized person uncomfortable, but he couldn't pick out the thorn. This is a very implicit article. Therefore, he compares this sarcastic feeling to mustard instead of pepper, which shows that his writing style is not "dagger" and "gun throwing" like Lu Xun, but shows his sense of justice as a humanist. Under normal circumstances, Zhou Zuoren is gentle and eloquent, full of a simple, light, chic and elegant style. However, for the words and deeds of the Kuomintang government, Zhou Zuoren showed a side of his personality that could not be ignored: sharp and pungent. Especially for ethical codes and women's issues, Zhou Zuoren always changed his indifferent attitude and became particularly sensitive and intense.
Third, Zhou Zuoren's comments covered a wide range of social phenomena. Touched every dark corner of society and touched all kinds of chronic diseases of "morbid society". For example, Zhou Zuoren made unremitting efforts to liberate women from the bondage of ethics and the oppression of men. He pointed out that the concept of women cultivated by feudal morality for thousands of years is a very serious problem with great influence. After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the bondage to women became heavier. In his article "The Old Woman's View", he listed all kinds of false slanders against women in feudal society and made incisive comments. He expressed great affirmation and appreciation to some intellectual women who took the lead in awakening, boldly pursued freedom and liberation, and launched the feminist movement. At that time, Zhou Zuoren's artistic tentacles were quite sensitive to reality. It is precisely because he sensitively accepted the stimulation of life that the ordinary meaning can be fermented and the social experience that people are used to can be sublimated into artistic creation. His essays, with a clear attitude and thorough reasoning, had a great influence after the publication of the most prestigious Weekly Review and New Youth at that time, and were regarded as the model works embodying the spirit of the May 4th literary criticism.
Fourthly, when he lashed at the ignorant and backward national character, he was deeply prejudiced against China people because of his "gentlemanly demeanor". Therefore, there is a lack of enthusiasm for transforming the national character like Lu Xun. Especially in the later period, he was pessimistic about social reality, so even if Zhou Zuoren focused on it, he never wrote a good article.
These argumentative essays have a fighting power in plain narration. Although they can't kill people unabashedly, they show strong social consciousness and full fighting spirit in the fierce.
(2) Peace and dilution
Zhou Zuoren's early prose does have a lively and powerful rhythm, but all of them present more lyrical and narrative essays characterized by dilution. When people mention Zhou Zuoren, the first thing that comes to mind is this "peaceful" writing feature that shows his calm embrace. His writing style is not as sharp as Lu Xun's, but presents readers with a different style. From the perspective of pure artistic aesthetics, these essays have indeed reached the extreme, even reaching the extreme of China's modern leisure writing. Among them, no matter from his own attitude, materials or various writing techniques, he showed his unique style and led a fresh writing feature in the literary and art circles at that time.
1, peace and desalination in your attitude
Zhou Zuoren formed a simple and natural style with a sincere and casual attitude. Early essays, from the aspects of material selection, conception, writing, etc., all reflect the characteristics of starting from one's true feelings, following one's inclinations and talking freely, and only use plain language to create a quiet and distant state of mind.
The equal and peaceful attitude also makes the objects he mentioned "eclectic" and inclusive. This has formed the characteristics of "wide" and "miscellaneous" content in his prose, which regards both natural creatures and human beings as friends. For example, in the article "Flies", Zhou Zuoren once spoke highly of the poems of Kobayashi, a Japanese haiku poet, because he could "treat all living things as brothers and friends, and flies are certainly one of them". And specially quoted several poems about flies as examples. It can be seen that he is "affectionate" to any creature in nature, and puts them on an equal footing with human beings to express them. When dealing with readers, Zhou Zuoren can also maintain his equality with readers in personality and psychology, forming the characteristics of euphemism, peace and gentleness in his prose.
On the basis of equality and peace, Zhou Zuoren broadened the creative horizon of China's modern prose. He wrote his prose into a "sketch" that can be tasted and thought about. The article did not point out the main idea, but became a process of taste, not a result. When introducing his own writing experience, Zhou Zuoren often calls it "irrelevant", that is, let the pen flow naturally to the place it likes as much as possible. He explained: "It seems like a flowing water. Whenever there is a bend in the estuary, it must be swirled. If there are rocks and water plants, you must caress them before you can move forward. " This is not only the nature of writing, but also a sloppy, circuitous and slow way of writing, showing a kind of "pen and ink interest". From this sentence, we can also deeply understand the essence of his article.
However, it is undeniable that Zhou Zuoren had a certain negative attitude in politics in his later period. Therefore, some people attribute the beauty of leisure in his later prose to a kind of negation, thinking that he stifled the fighting spirit of Tao Zhu youth in the most critical and darkest era of China with a kind of beauty of leisure. This kind of comment, which was quite popular in the 1920s and 1930s, directly linked his artistic pursuit of "peace and dilution" with his political struggle against reality. Today, with the change of time and the progress of history, readers' views will naturally be different. This kind of prose with expressive spirit and interest, out of the need of lyric expression, contains profound meaning in the most plain words. Under the art of life, he shows a carefree mood, which embodies Zhou Zuoren's unique demeanor and calm embrace.
2. From the material calm and dilution.
His prose is based on random materials, and he can write whatever he wants, such as flies and lice, drinking tea, talking about foxes and ghosts, commenting on ancient books, playing with antiques and so on. Moreover, the writing is casual, arbitrary, not artificial, not exaggerating feelings and pen and ink, which has far-reaching implications and needs readers to savor it carefully. Famous articles such as Eating Tea, Talking about Wine, Wu Pengchuan and Hometown Wild Vegetables are all common things. Although ordinary life has no ideological significance, it has another kind of interest and philosophy in it. The so-called "the meaning of drunkenness is not in wine, but between mountains and rivers." What he values is to express his feelings through the description of ordinary things, which is the expression of Zhou Zuoren's life art in his essays. This leisurely and diluted artistic interest of appealing to both refined and popular tastes is the personality and soul of Zhou Zuoren's prose. Everything is focused on Zhou Zuoren's artistic interest, and everything is diluted and peaceful because of the refinement of art. Even "worrying about the sky" is only a touch of worry, and even writing the first love is only a touch of acacia. This is Zhou Zuoren's "art of life" independent of life, an art with distinctive style and self-expression. In this kind of prose, it also shows the author's rich knowledge. Imagine how you can write such an interesting work without a certain cultural background and extensive life contact. Although the late prose is suspected of "losing the book bag", it shows that the author is knowledgeable.
Anyone familiar with Zhou Zuoren's prose will find that there is a most striking theme in his prose, that is, the images of "wind" and "rain", and feel the gloom of "rainy day" and the bitterness of wind and rain. These philosophies of "water" made Zhou Zuoren think and worry all his life. Many of his essays are the crystallization of this kind of thinking and anxiety, and the external sound, color, internal character and temperament of water have also profoundly influenced Zhou Zuoren. The clarity of his prose thought, the lightness of color and smell, and the tenderness of emotion are all related to "water". To some extent, Zhou Zuoren's prose has been integrated with the "water" in Rainy Days, and this article with "moisture" shows the author's detachment and dilution. Zhu Guangqian commented: "Among the prose writers at that time, apart from Zhou Zuoren, it was difficult to find a second person who could write such a light prose." And this cold and harmonious charm comes down to three characteristics: clear, cold and simple. Among them, "cold" is his most striking feature. The coldness of the article is a portrayal of the author's cold mood and attitude towards life, which is inseparable from Zhou Zuoren's cultural mentality. In his thoughts, there is a denial of all kinds of "enthusiasm", denying the blood and enthusiasm at that time, which indicates his future seclusion.
3. A special pen that complements peace and dilution.
The first is the characteristics of Jane Su. This artistic prose was summarized as "true and concise" by Zhou Zuoren. "Truth" means telling the truth and saying your own words; Conciseness is the requirement of writing. Since it is called a sketch, most chapters must be short and pithy. In the essay of Tang Zhi Shuo, including punctuation marks, the full text is less than 140 words. The text is unadorned, but it does have the implicit and readable "simple taste" that he has always admired. Simple, peaceful and harmonious. Zhou Zuoren himself once said that he appreciated Japanese people's "natural hobbies in life and advocating simplicity". These eight words are also his own literary ideals. There are many things here, no fancy, no makeup, natural colors, no exaggeration, no posturing, no grandstanding. Another example is not to talk about abstruse theories, but to talk about ordinary truths, but to have a broad atmosphere. For another example, don't fine lines, don't fine needles and close lines, and cut them big and big, sloppy. These are the natural and simple beauty advocated by Zhou Zuoren. He concluded: "There is no other trick to writing an article, only one word is simple."
Memories of first love are usually strong, but the first love recalled by Zhou Zuoren should say, "My emotion is just a faint admiration." This effort to dilute feelings is rooted in his whole aesthetic standard of life. This aesthetic standard, manifested in literature and art, is to love nature and advocate simplicity.
Secondly, it is full of moist characteristics. The style of achieving extremely light beauty in extremely short words has enabled him to create many excellent works.
However, this dullness does not mean withering. On the contrary, it is necessary to be wet, and write something that is not wet with a wet pen. First of all, in terms of content, he integrated the generosity and tolerance of his heart into his works, and integrated his extensive interest in life and extensive knowledge into his works. In the book "Birds in Rainy Days", even the shriveled birds' songs are very emotional. For example:
"Old crows, called old crows in rural areas, can be heard every day in Beijing. But it's not elegant at all. It's noisy all year round. I don't know what season he is in. Although sparrows and woodpeckers can't sing beautiful songs, there is still a bit of spring in the trivial dryness. Alas, alas, it's enough for an old crow who doesn't listen well. Let's welcome these birds to sing in spring and listen to their laughter. "
This is the author's heart of welcoming the spring and looking forward to spring, which makes him moist. Another example is "Tang Zhi said", which is just 150 words, which is almost a turning point. Writing is low-interest, short and not monotonous. The lightness and richness of Zhou Zuoren's articles are also reflected in Shen Feng's grace and elegance. He is good at using long sentences. If it is intermittent, the loose structure can best show euphemistic and tortuous tone, rippling artistic conception and graceful and elegant charm. The unity of opposites between light and fullness is a unique style feature, light but not thin, full but not fat.
Thirdly, it is the characteristic of humor. Zhou Zuoren's early prose can always achieve the unity of militancy and humor, which helps to make it plain, moist and humorous. He wrote about an opium smoker, "As poor as hell, there is only a melon hat with a big hole burned in the front. When he was drunk, he bowed his head and burned on the lamp, which showed his Tao Ran state. " This kind of humor makes people laugh and want to cry. Sometimes he makes sarcastic remarks, so he has a strong sense of humor. Between the lines of humor, readers feel the author's wisdom and skills, and realize the bitterness of Zhou Zuoren's works, which is sometimes hidden and sometimes present, sometimes thick and sometimes light. This is the revelation of Zhou Zuoren's self-mood.
Finally, the characteristics of spicy. Although Zhou Zuoren's prose tries to be peaceful and euphemistic, there are still many articles that are quick, sharp, provocative and nervous. Such as the obvious irony of extreme humor, it even goes beyond the scope of humor, but speaks bitterly. This spicy ingredient is different from the plain ingredients, and it is blended together, but it does not change the plain flavor. The secret is moderation. In other words, the whole story is often dull, sometimes there are a few words, a short paragraph, which is different from the opposite taste, but it can be recovered immediately. This is the golden mean. He is trying to pursue this gentlemanly demeanor. Although he often goes beyond "simple review" and says a few words or even curses when reviewing, he always pays great attention to sitting fast. This gentlemanly manner is not dull, monotonous, changeable and lively.
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(A) Influenced by Japanese haiku
Zhou Zuoren's simple, frank and leisurely and beautiful writing style is inseparable from the influence of Japanese harmony. The enlightenment of Japanese culture and art to Zhou Zuoren is to enrich his aesthetic ideal with oriental quality. He regarded Japanese culture as a part of oriental culture, belonging to the same culture, and compared it with China's traditional culture and art, drawing lessons from it, sealed it and inspired it, which effectively promoted him to melt the western influence and gradually complete the aesthetic ideal of oriental traditional art. The poetic realm and Zen flavor of haiku, which combined seclusion with free and easy interest, was sometimes expressed in Zhou Zuoren's idyllic "Beautiful Text". Zhou Zuoren once talked about three realms of Japanese haiku: "One is lofty and elegant, the other is absurd and ironic, and the third is the mysterious meaning implied in it." And he himself is obviously more committed to the third realm of "elegance" and "harmony" In his Letter to People, he described the "leisurely leisure" scene of Xiangshan Ancient Temple, which was intended to show the quietness of the temple and the idleness of monks. However, the description of "the temple does not seek quietness, and the monks do not seek idleness" made the artistic conception of idleness reach the extreme, showing a kind of anger. It may be said that sound is better than silence at this time. Can't help but remind people of Jia Dao's sentence "Monks knock on the moon door". It can be said that Zhou Zuoren's artistic aesthetic tastes are mostly leisurely, bitter, mysterious and melancholy, which are transferred from Japanese culture and art.
(B) the origin of Buddhist culture
"Bitterness" is listed as the first of the "four truths" of Buddhism, which is called "bitter truths" and is the essence of Buddhism.
In Zhou Zuoren's article, there is such a bitter taste. He described life with a depressed mind and wrote the beauty of poor and plain life. This is inseparable from the influence of Buddhist "bitter truths" on him. Although he did not directly talk about the bitter feelings brought by the negative experience of Buddhist culture, his intuitive impression is obvious, that is, he likes to name his collections and rooms with bitterness. In his self-proclaimed "Kuyuzhai" residence, he wrote essays on bitter tea, miscellaneous notes on bitter bamboo, bitterness and sweetness, and bitter rain. The appearance of every bitter word is soaked in the juice of bitter ingredients. It is not only an inner feeling, but also a gloomy value judgment, thus forming his unique cold and bitter style.
The breeding of Zhou Zuoren's sense of hardship has accumulated many gloomy emotions in his life, as well as the intermittent infiltration of Buddhist culture. Buddhism created the theory of "suffering" from problems; The original intention is to free life from the misery of Wang Yang. Because it is rooted in life, it is easy to become people's attitudes, viewpoints and methods to observe and think about life and reality. Zhou Zuoren experienced and understood reality from the perspective of "human". With "bitter tea", he felt bitter in his heart. He felt bitter about the darkness of reality, and he also experienced the pain of leaving his friends. Throughout his life track, bitter feelings always weigh heavily on him, so that this negative experience under the influence of Buddhist culture eventually becomes an indelible shadow, which affects his later life path.
As a thinker and writer, his works of art often contain many values such as culture, social history and aesthetics. The decisive factor that forms the artistic features of Zhou Zuoren's prose is his aesthetics. As an important representative of Beijing School, he pursues the aesthetic ideal of Beijing School literature, that is, advocating harmony and moderation. All his prose creations embody distinct and contradictory aesthetic consciousness and pursuit of aesthetic ideal. He yearns for diluting leisure, loves nature, advocates simplicity, dislikes strong feelings, exaggerates, especially hates posturing, likes simplicity and broadness, and dislikes difficulty and narrowness. There are many things in these flavors, which are elegant, astringent, heavy, clear, humorous, euphemistic and smooth. However, it is his golden mean thought that controls all this, and it is this thought that unifies his two seemingly contradictory personalities. And he has repeatedly stated that his golden mean is not the golden mean of China Confucianism. The highest beauty in his mind is the beauty of balance and moderation in ancient Greece, which he thinks is an art of reconciling wisdom and beauty. He used the "golden mean", a philosophical category of China, to express it. In the art of prose, I have been pursuing this beauty of the mean all my life. And when he really chooses the road of life, it is not the beauty of the mean that he pursues. He has strong indignation in his chest, but he never expresses it in a radical way. When it was really necessary to take up arms and point at the enemy in a tit-for-tat manner, he seemed to flinch and return to rural life. He himself thinks that "literature is not a record, but a dream". It was with this philosophy of life that Buddhism and Confucianism infiltrated each other that Zhou Zuoren realized his dream of seclusion. At the same time, the sense of form and beauty embodied in the pastoral scenery he described is closer to the new writer who is not famous and avoids reality. All kinds of artistic features and artistic management in Zhou Zuoren's prose listed above can be unified in this extremely complicated and profound pursuit of the beauty of the golden mean. All his success is to realize the beauty of the golden mean, which has always had a great influence on the development of China's new literature.
conclusion
As an influential prose writer during the May 4th Movement, Zhou Zuoren infected many readers with his unique style. This paper aims at two characteristics of his prose: "impetuous and sharp" and "peaceful and diluted". His early prose mainly reflects the first feature. After the creation of American writing, his writing characteristics gradually focused on peace and dilution, and on this basis, he was intertwined with many characteristics such as simplicity, fluency, humor and acrimony, forming a fresh writing characteristic.
A preliminary study of his prose style will always wonder why there are two completely different styles in his prose. What is the dialectical relationship between the two. After exploring his cultural mentality, the influence of Confucian culture and the social background at that time, I learned the life path he took. There are two kinds of thoughts in his literary thoughts: "gentleman" and "rogue", which form two different styles: peaceful and impetuous. However, in other comments, the relationship between his works and foreign literature, especially ancient Greek literature and Japanese literature, is rarely introduced, and the influence of foreign literature on his literary thought and creation is only summarized, without detailed monographs.
Therefore, this paper discusses this point and analyzes the various influences that form its style. It can be seen that Zhou Zuoren's formation of this style is inseparable from the influence of Japanese haiku, the infiltration of Buddhist culture and his own cultural mentality.