Parents suggested that "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond" be deleted from the textbookBecause these 8 words are referred to as "unhealthy".
Zhu Ziqing's "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond" is a beautiful prose set against the backdrop of the night view of the lotus pond in Tsinghua Garden. This article is full of emotion, and through the author's observation and feelings of the details in the lotus pond, he expresses his awe and praise for nature. However, the controversy is not about the content of the article as a whole, but about the eight words it contains, which some parents consider inappropriate for their students' textbooks.
These eight words, which are only a small part of the text, have become the focus of controversy.
The article "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond" describes the author's feelings when he admires the lotus flowers in the lotus pond, but the metaphor of "like a beautiful woman just out of the bath" has sparked a controversy about education and values.
For Zhu Ziqing, his metaphor is to express his praise for the delicate beauty of the lotus flower, and to describe its beauty vividly and appropriately. However, this metaphor is perceived by some parents as sexually suggestive, which may expose children to inappropriate content at a young age, and even lead to misconceptions and values.
In this controversy, parents emphasized that Chinese textbooks should guide students to form correct values, and emphasized the morality and appropriateness of educational content. They believe that students' exposure to content involving gender relations too early may have a negative impact on their healthy development, and therefore demand that such text be removed.
Zhu Ziqing did not anticipate the controversy that this metaphor might cause. For him, he just wanted to express his inner feelings and praise for the beauty of the lotus flowers through vivid metaphors, and did not intend to involve anything inappropriate. He may not have taken into account the different interpretations and educational backgrounds of his readers, leading to his expression being misunderstood and criticized.
Parents asked to delete the text because of the sentence "like a beauty just out of the bath" in Zhu Ziqing's "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond", which sparked controversy over the content of educational and literary works. But it is worth pondering whether it is necessary to ask for the deletion of the entire article just because of these eight words.
Mr. Lu Xun once ridiculed the characteristics of Chinese associations, mentioning that just looking at short sleeves can associate naked arms, and then extend to naked bodies. This phenomenon does exist in culture and cognition, but does it mean to erase the overall value of the work and reduce it to an existence dominated by sexual innuendo?
These modern scholars have very different views on "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond". Mr. Yu Guangzhong thinks that there is basically nothing to learn from the writing, and even every metaphor lacks excellent expression. For him, the metaphors in the text are not impressive, and they lack stunning imagery.
Teacher Mo Yan described it as revealing a morbid aesthetic. This kind of morbid aesthetics may lie in the fact that the pursuit of beauty deviates from reality, making the beautiful landscapes or images expressed in the works disconnected from daily life, lacking a sense of reality and observation. Perhaps, in his opinion, the beauty depicted in "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond" is too illusory or unreal to touch the depths of the reader's heart.
In the eyes of these scholars, the work is full of metaphors, but most of these metaphors are straightforward, prosaic similes, lacking thought-provoking metaphors. In particular, metaphors like "another beautiful woman fresh out of the bath" have been criticized for being too straightforward and lacking depth and metaphorical meaning.
Han Han believes that the article is full of flowery but empty wording, suggesting that the author's expression may rely more on flowery rhetoric than on deep emotions and artistic conceptions.
Yu Guangzhong's reference to Moonlight on the Lotus Pond is a plethora of female metaphors, suggesting that Zhu Ziqing may have been influenced to some extent by his own intellectual moral standards in his creation. This may mean that the author uses some metaphors for the female figure when expressing the beauty, and this choice may have something to do with his social background, moral values, and perception of female roles.
For Zhu Ziqing, the article "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond" was created in 1927, at the same time as his wife was pregnant with her fifth child. This may have added anxiety and uneasiness to his heart, which is reflected at the beginning of the article. The author went to the lotus pond alone at night to admire the moon, leaving his wife at home, which seems to show his inner anxiety and restlessness.
Freud's theory suggests that anxiety may be caused by the suppression of one's own sexual instincts. Applying it to Zhu Ziqing may imply that in the social context of the time, Zhu Ziqing, as an intellectual, was more or less influenced by his moral concept of sexuality and self-repression.
Zhu Ziqing is a well-respected university professor with a happy family and lovely children. In this social context, his actions and words are bound by strict moral standards. Therefore, his praise of beautiful scenery is also well thought out, and will not easily violate the moral bottom line recognized by the public. However, on the occasion of admiring the moon and lotus pond, he may have revealed his most authentic desires in the text.
When he admires the moonlight in the lotus pond, he may reveal a certain appreciation and yearning for feminine charm, and the use of female images to depict beautiful scenery may not only be a praise for natural beauty, but also an inner identification with a certain beautiful and feminine qualities.
At the end of the work, when he returns home, he finds that his wife has slept for a long time. This episode may imply a vague dissatisfaction or loss, and may imply a certain unsatisfactory feeling about family life, a feeling or complaint about the minutiae of life.
There are many different opinions and speculations on the interpretation of Moonlight on the Lotus Pond, some of which are later speculated by scholars, which may have a certain degree of subjective assumptions.
In addition, this essay was selected for inclusion in Chinese textbooks as early as the fifties of the last century, and was recommended by the modern Chinese writer Ye Shengtao, who was hailed as an "excellent language artist", which also reflects the different views of different scholars on the value of Zhu Ziqing's work.
Despite the different views, it may be too one-sided and unnecessary to remove "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond" from the textbook simply because of a few words in it.
Chinese parents may only see the superficial "beauty just out of the bath", but they do not deeply understand the purpose and deep meaning of this prose. Therefore, it is not comprehensive to deny the existence value of "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond" based on these eight words alone.
These words have certainly caused controversy, but "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond", as a literary work, is not just a few words in the literal sense. It is Zhu Ziqing's expression of natural beauty and human emotion, and is a reflection and depiction of life, beauty and human nature.
The influence of feudal rule may be deeply rooted in the cultural psychology of the Chinese, so that sexual topics are often seen as "talking about sexual perversion." But in reality, curiosity and exploration of sex are part of the growth process of teenagers. Avoiding talking about this topic may spark a stronger curiosity and lead teens astray without proper guidance.
If the words "like a beauty just out of the bath" appear in the textbook, parents may not be able to avoid being uneasy about it. But it may be a good opportunity to take the initiative to talk to your children about this topic. Especially for adolescent girls, it is important to provide the right sex education and guidance to help them better understand and cope with these emotions and curiosities.
Moonlight on the Lotus Pond has been selected as a textbook for a long time, which indirectly affirms its literary value. Good literature usually stands the test of time, and even when it comes to gender relations, it should not be dismissed altogether. The examination and understanding of literary works should be more comprehensive and in-depth, and the value of the whole work should not be denied because of a small part of the content.
Zhu Ziqing wrote in "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond": "It is not the one who sins that is guilty, but the one who creates darkness." This sentence reminds parents that they should face education and guide their children with an open and rational attitude, rather than avoiding talking about it, because the opening and closing of information often affects the correct cognition and development of children.
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