Lu Xun, a great writer in modern Chinese history, used the pen as a gun to awaken many people who were immersed in insensitivity and left behind a series of unique and shocking works.
Mr. Lu Xun is well known to us as a writer, and his sharp words are like sharp knives, piercing the barrier of people's self-paralysis and awakening people to think deeply and reform. He once said: "Abandon medicine and follow literature, fight Confucianism with tongues, and expose social injustice and human weakness." ”
In that special era, it took incomparable courage to criticize society, and the cost of awakening the era was incomparably huge, but he still persevered and stood at the forefront of history.
His words appeared in various newspapers and books, but in an interview with the public, he publicly uttered a controversial remark, which made him the focus of ** for a while.
Like a stone thrown into the lake, stirring up a circle of ripples, instantly attracting countless criticisms, but he was in the center of the whirlpool, still insisting on himself and being his own Lu Xun.
How could he say such a thing, with such convictions? This requires us to go back in time and understand the true meaning of this sentence. At that time, China was in modern society, and foreigners used opium and guns to open the door to the Qing Dynasty, and modern history was also branded with humiliation.
Our backwardness has caused us to suffer from artillery fire, land reparations, and frequent wars; Our backwardness has brought us to stagnation, with a low level of education, limited education, and poor livelihoods.
At that time, although there were many masters of Chinese culture who are known for their talent and reputation to this day, the illiteracy rate among the general public was incredibly high. Many peasants were illiterate in large characters, but it was not their fault, because during that period, Chinese society could not stabilize, develop the economy and education, and did not have a perfect education system, resulting in the majority of people not being able to receive education, and the proportion of illiterate people occupied an overwhelming position.
Before the door was forcibly opened by the Western powers with guns, China had already experienced a feudal society that lasted for more than 2,000 years. Under this system, measures such as class domination deprive most people of educational opportunities.
Moreover, Chinese characters have been used for nearly a thousand years, and traditional Chinese characters and obscure and complex classical Chinese have erected insurmountable obstacles for ordinary people to learn culture in such a social context.
During the ** period, China adopted the Merriam-Webster Pinyin method founded by the British, but because it was not very friendly to the common people, Chinese culture was relatively backward at that time.
The "Chinese characters" proposed by Mr. Lu Xun that "need to be destroyed" are actually the pinyin system of Chinese characters in old China, not the Chinese characters themselves.
Lu Xun was not the first to notice this problem, as early as the 19th century, the suppression of Western powers made the society at that time miserable, and the public was deeply dissatisfied but could not change.
At that time, some people put forward the idea of "mastering the art of mastering the art to control the country", although the idea was not mature enough, and the implementation of total Westernization seemed too radical and not suitable for the Chinese society at that time.
However, this proposition has already planted the seeds of cultural reform.
In the 20th century, intellectuals have criticized this issue with a keen eye and sharp pen and ink. Qian Xuantong, as the first pioneer to put forward this idea, once wrote in a letter to Hu Shih: "In order to prevent China from perishing, and to make the Chinese nation a civilized nation in this era, the key solution is to abandon the doctrines of Confucianism and Taoism, and at the same time abandon the Chinese language." ”
Hu Shih, a leader of the New Culture Movement and a well-known writer, had already published an article in the New Youth Daily on simplifying the text, advocating the abandonment of obscure classical Chinese in favor of clear and understandable vernacular.
After some time, many scholars began to argue, most of whom believed that using a simpler vernacular script could help the average person understand it more easily. Mr. Lu Xun may have spread his words more widely simply because of his keen insight and influence.
In fact, Mr. Lu Xun's first vernacular text** "Diary of a Madman" was published as early as 1917, which had a significant impact on the traditional Chinese that was prevalent at that time.
Around the thirties, more than 600 people with lofty ideals collectively wrote a book and put forward suggestions for simplifying the text. China has tried a variety of methods on the path of Chinese character reform, including Latinization reforms borrowed from the Soviet Union and other places.
However, defects in Latinization were found in the process. For this reason, simplified Chinese characters were born and eventually became the Chinese Simplified Chinese that we still use today. Three years ago, in April, he dared to challenge the established rules of the ancient era, never succumbed to difficulties, and always stood on the cusp of the times, even if his words caused a storm. Although Mr. passed away, his spirit lives on, his backbone is like the ancient celebrities, not burdened by the world, like Mr. Lu Xun, even in the face of thousands of people, he still maintains a cold attitude.
Reading his articles and quotations, we can still see Mr. Lu Xun wearing a cultural shirt and standing in front of the stage, and his words have been circulated for a hundred years.