How to be a father now(1)

How We Are Being Fathers Now is an essay by Lu Xun, published in November 1919 in New Youth, Volume 6, Number 6, and included in the anthology The Grave, dated October 1919, in which he writes.

On the reason for writing this article, Mr. Lu Xun said in the beginning

"My intention in writing this article is to study how to reform the family; and since parental authority is heavy in China, and paternal authority is even heavier, I would like to express my views on the issue of fathers and sons, which has always been regarded as sacred and inviolable. In short: it is just a revolution to the old man."

From this passage, it is not difficult to see that Mr. China's traditional family education for the criticism and for the Chinese youth care, Lu Xun in this article embodies the concept of kinship and education, whether it is for the society at that time or the present society is extremely useful.

In the beginning of the article, Lu Xun discusses why this essay is called "How We Do Fatherhood Now", which is summarized in two aspects:

One is because the relationship between the father and the son is inherited from generation to generation, and the father and the son don't know when the son will become the father in the course of the years;

The second is because the young people are always more prone to accepting new ideas, and in order to remove the traditional concepts of family education.

Secondly, because young people are always more receptive to new ideas, in order to remove the shortcomings of the traditional concept of family education, it is necessary to start with the young people who are still acting as "sons", and through their awakening to influence the thinking of the next generation, and then gradually change the traditional patriarchal society.

Mr. Kurtz is concerned about the youth of China, and he has his own understanding of the kinship between fathers and sons. He explains the kinship in terms of biological phenomena.

1. Preservation of life

In the old traditional values, parents are considered to be in control of all their children's affairs because their children's lives are given to them by their parents, and there is not only the connection of blood ties, but also the existence of a layer of "righteousness". In this article, Lu Xun wants to break down this barrier of "righteousness". He uses the comparison between "appetite" and "sexual desire" to explore whether there is any righteousness between them.

Organisms have a variety of instincts to preserve life, the most notable of which is appetite. The most notable is the appetite. Because of this appetite, food is consumed, and because of this food, warmth is generated, and life is preserved. But the individual creatures, always inevitable old age and death, in order to continue to life, there is another instinct, that is, sexual desire. Because of sexual desire, there is sexual intercourse, and because of sexual intercourse, there is a seedling, which continues life. Therefore, appetite is the preservation of oneself, the preservation of the present life; and sexual desire is the preservation of the offspring, the preservation of the eternal life. Eating and drinking are not sinful or impure; so sexual intercourse is not sinful or impure. The result of eating and drinking, which feeds one's self, is not gracious to one's self; the result of sexual intercourse, which produces children, is certainly not gracious to the children. --The first and the last, both go on to the long journey of life, and there is only a difference in the order in which they go, so that it is not possible to distinguish between those who receive the grace of the other.

This argument is very wonderful, in the traditional concept of education, the birth of a child from the moment the child landed on the body, this is not to publicize the "should not be filial parents", "do not remember the parents to pay" such views This is not to propagate the idea that parents should not be filial, or that parents should not be remembered for what they have done, but only to discuss the kinship between parents and their children from the perspective of their natural relationship. Mr. Lu Xun used the analogy of "appetite" to argue that "sexual desire" and "appetite" are the same, both are for the preservation of life, but the difference is that one is for the preservation of present life and the other is for the preservation of future life. The difference is that one is for the preservation of present life and the other is for the preservation of future life. But either way, it's all from the self, so a child born under such conditions can be said to have no relationship with his parents under natural conditions, but can be described more as a "lineage of his own blood".

So, since the parents are not bound to their children by nature, there is more of an emotional bond between them, which may be positive or negative, but it is much easier to get along with the children than with the inherent bond. The children who grow up in such an environment and the children who live in the "palm of their parents' hands", which is better?