1846 On February 4th, Thoreau went to Concord as planned to give a lecture entitled "Thomas Carlyle and His Works". At the end of the speech, the audience was still full of ideas. Please tell the speaker about his life in the forest. Relatively speaking, they seem to be more interested in this. In order to meet everyone's requirements, Thoreau prepared a topic, "My own history", which was given at 10 that month. I didn't expect the audience's enthusiasm to be unprecedented. They asked him to speak again in next week's class, so that more people would listen. Inspired by this lecture, Thoreau sorted out his lecture outline, and after a long period of writing, he finally finished the masterpiece Walden Lake (also known as Life in the Woods). Walden by henry david thoreau, published in 1854, is the most popular American nonfiction book in19th century. So far, this book has appeared in nearly 200 versions and has been translated into many languages. It is puzzling that this book has been regarded as an imitation and received a cold reception in the author's lifetime. The first edition of 2000 copies took more than five years to sell out. It was not until the author's death that people paid more and more attention to this book, and its evaluation began to change, and Thoreau's ideological significance was realized by us. 18 17

12 In July, Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts. 1837 graduated from Harvard University, and is a student with excellent academic performance. After graduation, he returned to his hometown to teach. From 184 1, he stopped teaching and turned to writing. With the support of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau lived in Concord and began his transcendentalism practice. During this period, Thoreau gave up poetry writing and began to write prose. At first, he wrote for the transcendental publication Dial. Later, his articles appeared in newspapers and magazines all over the country.

1845 On July 4th, American Independence Day, 28-year-old Thoreau came to Walden Lake, two miles from Concord, and built a small house to live in. After that, based on my observation and thinking about my life in Walden Lake, I compiled and published two books, namely A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and Walden Lake.

While living in Walden Lake, Thoreau was arrested and imprisoned for opposing black slavery and refusing to pay poll tax. Although he only stayed in prison for one night and his friends paid taxes for him without his own consent, this night inspired him to think about many problems. After he came out, some citizens asked him why many people would rather go to jail than pay taxes. In order to explain this problem, he combined his own personal experience and wrote a famous political theory, Resistance to Civil Government, which was later renamed Civil Disobedience. The form of "non-violent resistance" that he advocated by relying on personal strength had a great influence on Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King, the black leader in the United States.

1947, Thoreau ended his lonely life and returned to his original village. He still maintains a simple lifestyle, devoting his main energy to writing, giving lectures and observing local animals and plants. Sometimes, in order to get extremely meager living expenses, I occasionally leave the village to work in my father's pencil factory for a few days. Thoreau died on May 6th, 862 at the age of 44. At that time, in the eyes of his contemporaries, he was just a paranoid and eccentric person, an admirer of Emerson. It was not until the turn of the century that he and his works were widely and profoundly recognized.

As one of Thoreau's major works, Walden recorded his life and thoughts in Walden for two years, two months and two days. In view of the failure of his first book, A Week of Concord and Merry Malik, he was extra cautious this time. He didn't rush to publish, but settled down to rewrite it to make it more perfect. In the next five years, he repeatedly revised, supplemented and perfected, and sometimes even changed the whole paragraph in order to make the content more harmonious and unified.

In Walden Lake, there are many pages about the observation records of animals and plants. Thoreau spent a lot of time and energy observing the changes of birds, animals, flowers and trees here, so that his contemporaries mistakenly understood this book as a document about nature and ignored the content about philosophy. In fact, Thoreau's contribution is based on these two aspects. In natural observation, he has published natural works by Guibert White and john james audubon. But it was not until the publication of Thoreau's works that people realized that he was the founder of Essays on Nature. Before him, works describing nature only appeared in the form of letters, narratives and magazine articles, reporting their discoveries of nature. It was Thoreau who made natural prose an independent portal and endowed it with new concepts. If we compare Thoreau's words about birds in Walden with audubon's American Birds, we can easily find that audubon's book is only a scientific report, while Thoreau's article is about the artistic creation of nature.

It is the truly lovely place of Thoreau's book to record the observation and experience of nature in detail and give it popular philosophical significance. Thoreau actively advocated a concept of life, a simple way of life, which is contrary to the increasingly rich modern material life. He is a practitioner of transcendentalism.

Walden is a unique art and one of the earliest prose works in modern American literature. Compared with the great writers of his time, this book has a unique style, even richer than the 20th century prose of talented writers such as Hawthorne, Melville and Emerson. This feature is embodied in its directness and conciseness, which is not as sloppy, meticulous, melodramatic, concise, hazy and abstract as Victorian prose. Reading this book, we will be surprised to find that this work, written in the19th century, is very close to the works of Hemingway, Henry James and others, but Thoreau's style is richer.

Thoreau is a responsible social critic. His purpose is to expose the shortcomings of the times. It is pointed out that people are becoming more and more complex, which will eventually lead to the decline of life. Relatively speaking, human life in primitive society is happier and more fulfilling than that in modern times. Some readers often have the wrong impression of Thoreau, thinking that he is just a retro who advocates returning to nature and abandoning modern civilization. However, we should note that Thoreau lived alone in the forest near Walden Lake for just over two years, accounting for only 5% of his life. During this time, the tourists who come and go have never stopped. He himself often visits his family and friends in the village. More importantly, after he left Walden Lake, he repeatedly opposed others to imitate his behavior. In his words, the reason why he lived in Walden Lake for a period of time was entirely out of personal interest. If one yearns for a simple life, he can do it anywhere, whether in new york, London, Mumbai or Tokyo, as long as he is sincere. With Walden Lake, our life will become more meaningful, more purposeful and happier. This is the true meaning of Walden Lake. Thoreau himself returned to Concord and continued to live a simple life, writing until his death.

Thoreau does not exclude the material enjoyment brought by modern scientific and technological civilization, but criticizes us for not making good use of it. "Improvement means the purpose of not improving", as he commented. "We connected the transoceanic cable, but we used it to ask Princess Adelaide if she had cough and asthma, and we didn't use it to communicate human thoughts. We built the railway, but we took it to the city to kill time. " From this point of view, Thoreau's significance to society lies not only in criticism, but also in guidance. He will not hesitate to expose the problems existing in society and point out the solutions responsibly. If we find that we can't resist the temptation of today's complicated material world at all, then the best way is to "simplify, simplify, simplify." (Simple, simple, simple. This is Thoreau's mantra. The objective world and human society are complicated, but our knowledge enables us to choose the right way of life, and we have enough courage to abandon other superfluous things, no matter how contemporary people tell us what to do.

Thoreau said when 1837 first entered the university that he would change the biblical doctrine of working six days a week into working six days a day. His life experience in Walden Lake realized this wish. There, he spent a little more than 28 dollars to build his own hut, and 27 cents a week was enough to maintain his life. In order to maintain such a simple life, he only needs to work for six weeks each year to earn enough living expenses for one year, and the remaining 46 weeks to do what he likes. Instead of wasting this precious time, he devoted himself to writing and natural research. Some people may say that Thoreau was too lazy to make any earth-shattering career in his life, but if you can notice that he created more than 20 first-class prose collections in his short life, you will sincerely appreciate his talent and diligence.

With the rapid development of the world economy and the improvement of material civilization, people's desires have also expanded, and Thoreau's worries have become a grim reality. In this regard, we might as well dig out Walden, read and understand its ideas carefully, and change some of our attitudes towards life, which is of great guiding significance to real life. )

Ba Lao's Random Thoughts

Ba Jin faced the disaster and personality distortion brought by the "Cultural Revolution". He is willing to fill the spiritual gap that has appeared with real writing. In his later years, he finally wrote "Random Thoughts", which had great influence in contemporary China, in order to fulfill the historical responsibility of an intellectual and reach the final peak of literature and thought.

Random thoughts is a great book. This was created by Ba Jin with his life experience. Without the pursuit of a beautiful ideal, a perfect personality and a highly serious historical attitude, Lao Ba Jin would not write. He recalled painfully in Random Thoughts. He reflected deeply in Random Thoughts. He resumed his pursuit of youth in Random Thoughts. He completed the shaping of a real personality in Random Thoughts.

Rousseau's Confessions

Of the countless autobiographical works in history, few have real literary value, let alone become literary masterpieces. As for its ideological, artistic and stylistic significance, it establishes the writer's literary position-not an ordinary literary seat, but a lofty position that has been admired for a long time, perhaps only confessions. Rousseau, a figure who opened up a new era in social and political thoughts, literary content, literary style and emotional appeal, mainly promoted and inspired French literature in the19th century through this autobiography, making it, in the words of an authoritative critic at that time, "make the greatest progress since Pascal" and "the greatest revolution". Critics modestly admit: "We19th century people came out of this revolution.

Writing an autobiography is always in his later years, usually when his success and troubles are over. However, for Rousseau, how old he was to write an autobiography!

1762, when he was 50 years old, Mark Mescher Rey, the bookseller who published his works, suggested that he write an autobiography. There is no doubt that a man like him, who came from a civilian background and went through a long and bumpy road, became a giant in the intellectual world through self-study and personal struggle, and his reputation spread all over France. What's more, his life experience is full of colorful and dramatic works. But Rousseau didn't accept this suggestion, obviously because autobiography would involve some people and things at that time, and Rousseau didn't want to do so. After the publication of Emile, the situation changed. Dali University ordered the burning of this work, which angered the feudal ruling class, and arrested the author. From then on, he was persecuted as a "madman" and a "barbarian" and began to flee. He fled to Switzerland, and the Swiss authorities ordered his books to be burned. He fled to Motia, the territory of Prussia, and the church announced that he was an enemy of God. He couldn't stay any longer and was exiled to St. Peter's Island. For him, the official judgment and the condemnation of the church were harsh enough, and a heavier blow came: 1765, a pamphlet called "Citizens' Feelings" came out, attacking Rousseau's personal life and personality. Sadly, the attack did not come from the enemy's camp, but was obviously carried out by friendly forces. Rousseau saw that he was in danger of being blacked out and becoming a sinner forever, and he felt an urgent need to defend himself. So in this year, he was exiled to Motia and began to write an autobiography with indignation.

The whole autobiography was completed intermittently in the wandering life. When he was in Mortiere and Pierre Island, he only wrote the first chapter. After he fled to Wutong, England, he completed the first half of the first chapter to the fifth chapter. The fifth to sixth chapters are postmodernism, Comte and positivism, and on freedom. 1767, when I lived in Fort Tribute, this was the first Confessions. After two years' interruption, he began to write chapters 7 to 12 of his autobiography on 1769, that is, the second part of Confessions, most of which was written during his escape from other provinces. Only the last chapter was completed after he returned to Paris, and the final "completion" date was 1777 1 1 month. After that, he lived in loneliness and misfortune for nearly eight years, and continued to write the sequel to his autobiography, Dream of the Lonely Traveler.

Confessions is the product of Rousseau's tragic old age. If you want to cite the most important or even the only content in his unfortunate years, it is this book mixed with bitterness. How can such an autobiography written under cruel persecution, an autobiography defending its existence under siege, not be filled with a kind of grief and indignation that people have to regret? Its famous opening shows the shocking power of this grief and indignation at once. Faced with all kinds of accusations, slanders and misinterpretations, Rousseau was confident that he was more noble, pure, honest and natural than the adults and gentlemen who persecuted and attacked him. From the very beginning, he challenged his society bravely: "No matter when the horn of the doomsday trial sounded. I dare to take this book to the Supreme Court and say boldly,' Look! This is what I do, this is what I think, this is what I ... please call countless beings to me! Let them listen to my confession ... then, let each of them show their hearts in the same sincerity before your throne and see who dares to say to you: I am better than this person. "

This set the tone for the debate and confrontation in the book. Behind the tone of this confrontation, there is obviously a fierce conflict, that is, the conflict between Rousseau and society. This kind of conflict is by no means caused by accidental events and entanglements, but has profound social class roots.

Rousseau, the son of a watchmaker, went from Geneva, a democratic country, to Paris, the capital of feudal autocracy, and entered the French ideological circle from the lower class. A tramp like him, who often has no food and clothing, and the whole aristocratic society are of course two different worlds, and they are the objects of scientific research; The latter is the original existence, but it is very different from other enlightenment thinkers in the same camp, such as Montesquieu, Voltaire and Diderot. Montesquieu, as a nobleman who owned his own manor and managed industry and commerce at the same time, lived a comfortable life all his life. Voltaire himself is a big bourgeoisie with a rich family and has been active in the upper class of society; Diderot was also born in a wealthy family. Although he also lived in poverty, after all, he did not have Rousseau's experience directly from the bottom of society. Rousseau worked as an apprentice, a servant, a man and a servant, and went to a shelter like a beggar. After a long period of diligent self-study and personal struggle, he gradually took off his servant's clothes and became a music teacher, secretary and professional writer. This enabled him to bring the mood, desire and spirit of this class into the literature of the eighteenth century. In his first paper "On Science and Art" (1750), which attracted the attention of France, didn't the rebellious mentality of denying the courage of feudal civilization, daring to oppose the fighting spirit of "what everyone respects" and despising traditional ideas reflect the intense emotions of the lower classes? On the Origin and Foundation of Human Inequality (1775) and Civil Contract (1762) established his lofty position in the whole history of European thought, criticized social inequality and slavery, praised equality and freedom, and publicized the principle that "sovereignty belongs to the people". Don't they reflect the political demands and ideals of the common people in the18th century? His novel New Heloise, which made Luoyang paper expensive, fought for the basic human rights of outstanding civilian figures through a love tragedy, while Emile, which brought him tragic fate, regarded civilian workers as human ideals. Therefore, when Rousseau stepped onto the historical stage of ideology and culture in the18th century, he also filled the seat of civilian thinker that had been vacant for a long time in history.

But Rousseau lived in an era and society that was completely hostile to civilian thinkers. From the 1950s when he published his first paper to the 1970s when he finished Confessions, it was the last struggle period of French feudal absolutism, and the bourgeois revolution broke out eleven years after his death. During this period, the feudal rule with a history of hundreds of years has reached the end of its tether. For a long time, the inherent contradiction of feudal production relations and heavy feudal oppression have made people miserable and agricultural production low; The religious persecution of Protestants drove away a large number of skilled craftsmen, leading to the decline of industry and commerce; In Louis XIV's later years, a series of foreign wars and extravagance of court life made the national treasury empty; Louis XV's extravagance pushed the feudal country to the brink of complete bankruptcy, so that by Louis XVI, some reformists' attempts could not save the doomed fate. This last era is decadent and crazy, and the more the feudal aristocratic ruling class is about to perish, the more stubbornly it wants to safeguard its privileges and rule. After Durkheim became the chief financial officer, he put forward some improvement measures aimed at saving the crisis, which violated the interests of the aristocratic privileged class and was quickly ousted. His successor, Neck, only made public the huge expenses of the imperial court, which angered the court dignitaries and was also dismissed. Since top-down reformism aimed at safeguarding the fundamental interests of feudal rule is not allowed by the privileged class, bottom-up opposition and confrontation will of course be suppressed. Although the heyday of feudal absolutism is gone forever, the arrogance of absolutism has not diminished at this time. Voltaire and Diderot were both in prison and persecuted. This is the fate and symbol of18th century thinkers. It is this social and class inevitability that awaits Rousseau, a thinker. What's more, this folk figure is more intense in thought and aloof in attitude: he refused the king's interview and gave him an annuity; He actually expressed his disgust at the prosperity of Paris and the luxury of the upper class; He also dared to criticize the "aristocratic class" so fiercely: "Noble, this is just a harmful privilege of a country. What's so respectable about your noble title? What contribution has your aristocratic class made to the glory of the motherland and the happiness of mankind! You are sworn enemies of law and freedom. Any country with a prominent aristocratic class has nothing but autocratic violence and oppression of the people? "

Confessions of the Sea is the result of the fierce conflict between such a radical civilian thinker and reactionary rule. It is a work by a civilian intellectual who defends his human rights and dignity not only as a human being but also as an ordinary person in the face of feudal autocratic oppression, and it is a counterattack against the persecution and slander of the ruling class. First of all, what makes us feel valuable is that it is full of confidence, self-esteem and pride of ordinary people. In short, the civilian spirit is high.

Because of the author's experience, he has the conditions to show a civilian world in this autobiography, so that we can see maids, page servants, farmers, shopkeepers, lower-class intellectuals and Rousseau's own civilian family: clockmakers, technicians and petty-bourgeois women in the18th century. Before Rousseau, only Lesari brought so many civilian images into the literature of18th century. In Gil Brass, Le Surrey often regards these characters as only a part of spreading stories, and is limited to describing their external images. Rousseau's Confessions is completely different from Gus's Dialectics of Nature, which discusses the dialectical nature and realistic roots of mathematics. 20, he is concerned about the thoughts and feelings, quality, character and personality characteristics of these civilian figures. Although the description of these characters in Confessions is not sufficient, it is enough for readers to understand the mental state, moral level, hobbies, interests, wishes and pursuits of this class in18th century. Here, Rousseau devoted himself to exploring all valuable things in the field of civilian spirit: natural and simple human nature, commendable moral sentiments, excellent intelligence and healthy life interest, and so on. He described how touching the kindness and quiet gentleness in his civilian family are, making it like a warm island, calling him forever under the background of ruthless social ocean. The farmers in his works are all simple images, especially the farmer who risked being driven out of bankruptcy after seeing it, showing how noble and generous he is; The small shopkeeper he met was very honest and compassionate. He allowed a stranger to trick him into having a meal in his shop. His close companion, Mrs. Warren's footman Anai, is not only noble in character, but also knowledgeable and talented; In addition, there are the "kind young man" civilian musician Le Maertel, his young tramp friend "smart Bachle" and the poor maid "kind, smart and absolutely honest" Marion, all of whom exude fresh breath in the dirty social environment, which makes Rousseau keep a good memory of them. On the other hand, Rousseau described all kinds of characters he met in the ruling class and upper class with undisguised disgust and contempt: Mr. De Penville, the descendant of the "spoon" aristocrat, was an "immoral man"; Mr Simon, the Chief Justice, is "a little monkey who keeps courting ladies"; Almost all church figures have "hypocrisy or brazen ugliness", among which there is no lack of lewd eroticism; The habit of ladies is frivolous and shameless, and some have a "bad reputation"; As for the dignitaries in Paris, they are all heartless, grumpy, hypocritical and insidious. In Rousseau's eyes, the civilian world is far superior to the upper class. As early as in his first paper, he made such a comparison: "Only under the coarse clothes of the tiller, not under the embroidered gold clothes of the courtiers, can we find a strong body. Decoration and virtue are incompatible, because virtue is the power of the soul. " This kind of praise for "Buyi" and derogatory to the dignitaries is once again staged in Confessions. He concluded: "Why did I meet so many good people when I was young, but so few good people when I was old?" Are the good people extinct? No, this is because I need to find a good social class today, which is not the social class where I met good people in the past. Among ordinary people, although they only show enthusiasm occasionally, natural feelings can be seen at any time. In high society, even this natural emotion is completely suffocated. They are only dominated by interests or vanity under the guise of emotion. "Rousseau's autobiography has a strong civilian spirit, which makes him gain his unique characteristics in the history of literature. The French themselves put it well: "No writer is so good at expressing the poor in an extraordinary way. "

Of course, the confidence and pride of ordinary people in Confessions are mainly reflected in Rousseau's description of self-image. Although Rousseau has been criticized and attacked, he is convinced that there is more "soul" and "strength" under his "cloth clothes" than under the "embroidered gold clothes of courtiers". In our opinion, it is true. In that vain society, he dared to openly express his deep affection for the lower classes and the common people, and declared that it was his happy time, without being ashamed of his "humble" background and past poverty. He regards simplicity and nature as the most precious wealth in his poor life. He proudly shows the healthy and shining things that noble life does not have in his life, as well as what he has gained and maintained in his poor life.

He told the readers that he got "a deep heart" from his sincere and warm civilian family. Although he regards this as "the root of his life's misfortune", he has always been proud of his "tenderness" and true feelings. He got "immeasurable benefits" from "simple rural life" and "his heart suddenly opened up and he understood friendship". Although he didn't have enough friends later, he chose the former between friendship and utility more often, and even sang "Goodbye, Capital, Goodbye, Palace, Ambition, Vanity, Goodbye, Love and Beauty" for the friendship with Bachle, a wandering teenager.

He lives a poor life, but he has his own rich spiritual world. He has a "rare interest" in reading for a long time. Even when he was an apprentice, he insisted on studying at the risk of being punished, and even pawned his shirt and tie to get books. He read a lot of books and materials, but only saw one, not the other, only trees. From classical works of ancient Greece and Rome to contemporary enlightenment works, from literature and history to natural science books, his long-term reading life aroused his "higher feelings" and formed his spiritual realm above the upper class.

He loves knowledge and has an admirable studious spirit. He studied hard and showed "unbelievable perseverance". In wandering, he persevered; He didn't stop when he was ill; The approach of death not only did not weaken my interest in learning, but seemed to make me study and study with great interest. In order to gain more knowledge, he always makes full use of his time, reciting while working and thinking while walking. After long-term efforts, he has accumulated extensive knowledge in mathematics, astronomy, history, geography, philosophy and music, which has created the necessary conditions for himself to become a thinker and cultural giant. He was full of enterprise, studied the basic theory of music, further tried to compose music, read Voltaire's works, and had the desire to learn to write articles in an elegant style. He climbed so hard that he finally reached the peak of contemporary culture.

He lives in a social environment full of vanity and luxury, but he keeps a lofty attitude, ignoring the rich and the poor. "At any time in my life, I have never been elated or worried because I have considered the problem of the rich and the poor." He is many times higher than those mediocre people, and he does not admire wealth, fame and wealth, and does not pursue literacy. "In the unforgettable bumpy and impermanent experience of his life," he also "remained unchanged" and "all the truly magnificent scenery" in Paris disgusted him. After becoming famous, he "didn't want to live in this city for a long time". The reason why he lived here for a while was "just using my stay to find out how to get out of here." Although he could not completely get rid of the dirt in the filthy social environment, he showed noble moral integrity at critical moments and on major issues. Because of his "noble personality, he never wanted to get rich by despicable means", he lost his future as a litigation lawyer. He was invited to the court performance of his musical Country Merchant. He deliberately ignored his appearance and revealed the true colors of "cloth clothes". The king wants to see him and give him an annuity. In order to lead an honest and clean life and maintain his independence, he refused to accept it.

He was under the reactionary and dark feudal rule, but he had a "stubborn and heroic character, refused to be bound and enslaved" and dared to "become an opponent of absolute monarchy and a firm pacifist in Paris". He saw that "unfortunate people suffered" and "those who oppressed them" were full of "unstoppable hatred". He advocated "don't be free, but stop learning" Pay attention to the identification of perceptual experience, oppose slavery, and declare that "restraint and submission are unbearable in any case." "Although he opposed the feudal autocracy in France and was madly attacked by the government, judges and writers of this country, he always had deep feelings for the history and culture of France and a strong belief in the French nation, firmly believing that' one day they will save me from the shackles of danger'".

/kloc-The aristocratic society in the 0/8th century was a scene of debauchery, and Rousseau drew a clear line with the hedonistic life of shameless and debauchery. He appreciates women as a kind of beauty, as an object of admiration, rather than an object of play and possession. He also expressed a new understanding of love. He advocates sincere and deep feelings between men and women, paying special attention to the nobility and purity of feelings. He believes that the relationship between them should be like this: "It is not based on lust, gender, age and appearance, but on everything that makes people become people, which will never be lost unless they die", that is, it should contain all the beautiful and noble things of human beings. What he pursues in life is a deep and lasting tenderness that transcends utilitarianism and sensuality, and sometimes even borders on innocence, purity and transparency. When in love, his feelings are rich and warm, while maintaining love, respect and consideration for each other. He and Mrs. Warren lived a pure love life for a long time, and that sincere nature was hard to see in the social life of the eighteenth century.