Examples of Zhou Zuoren's Prose Characteristics

Many people think that the reason why Zhou Zuoren's prose art is hard to reach lies in the fact that he has achieved blandness, and blandness is the extreme state of prose art.

First of all, I think that Zhou Zuoren's prose is not bland, the impression of blandness may be derived from some of his early masterpieces, such as "Crow-top Boat", "Drinking Tea", "Wild Vegetables in the Hometown" and so on, which are so eye-catching that they give readers the illusion of blandness. In fact, in zhou zuoren's prose, like the "black-top boat" such from the text to the thought and feeling of the bland examples are very few, in addition to these early in the late years of the collection of wood pieces can also be said to be bland prose. Zhou Zuoren's most of the prose is seemingly bland, but its inner thought and feeling is really worry and anger and depression, even if he was ridiculed by Lin Yutang in his later years, "specializing in copying ancient books, the more copying the colder," copying the body of the book articles, can not get rid of the bottom of the depression and anger, if only to see these essays as an intellectual sketches, it would be too bad. For example, for example, in the "Look at the clouds set" in the "grass, trees, insects and fish small introduction", named "grass, trees, insects and fish", should be very leisurely and calm, but a closer look is not, almost the whole article is to say the opposite, ridicule the speech of the time there is no freedom of speech. The last sentence "in case it is not possible to talk about grass, trees, insects and fish, then it is not out of the question, we can talk about the weather," the more deliberate relief, the more apparent that there is no relief, seemingly bland but painful, Zhou Zuoren's customary penmanship. Some people are not familiar with Zhou Zuoren, often read these words as positive words,

Secondly, Zhou Zuoren also admitted that he could not write a bland article, in his own article, he said: "blandness, this is what I am most lacking. Although it is also my ideal, but in fact never be able to do a minute, cover all the ideal originally that is the most lacking and can not be done." This is not a deliberate self-effacement, but the truth, Zhou Zuoren's mind of the plain state and what he achieved is not the same. In the "medicinal flavor collection - preface", he said: "I seem to be idle, often mislead people, only two old friends know its bitter taste." Here he has clearly stated the inherent bitterness and uneventfulness of his own writings. Interestingly, Zhou Zuoren himself seems to regard "blandness" as the ultimate state of the art of prose, Shu Wu thinks that the reason why Zhou Zuoren denied himself on a large scale and refused to include nearly half a million words in the anthology (most of these half a million words are more combative articles) is that he falsely suspended an ultimate state and put himself in a desperate situation, which is a very reasonable point of view. This point of view is very reasonable. Chinese literati, can get rid of the "extreme realm consciousness", probably only a Lu Xun, he denied eternity, longing for quick death, which contains the spirit of free and deep far beyond the ordinary people can understand, which is Lu Xun's hard to reach, poor now there are still a lot of people cursing Lu Xun's "narrow-minded", it seems, Lu Xun's "narrow-minded", it seems, Lu Xun's "narrow-minded", it seems, Lu Xun's "narrow-minded". The fact is that the people in the country are still criticizing Lu Xun for his "narrow-mindedness", and it seems that Lu Xun is ultimately a lonely man.

Once again, the plain is definitely good? Not necessarily. For example, some of the articles in the "wood chips", indeed bland, but due to the influence of political factors, the idea is very difficult to put, can no longer be like the previous quotes, the language is also deliberately leaning towards the vulgar and shallow style, so its artistic level than the previous "medicine taste collection", "corner of the study" but a big drop. I think, prose, even from the aesthetic point of view, its influence factors are also multi-faceted, very often, thought is also a kind of beauty, depth is also a kind of beauty, and beauty is not another form of thought and depth? It is far from enough to merely grasp an abstract temperament, or blandness or somberness. Zhou Zuoren's prose is higher than that of Lin Yutang, Liang Shiqiu, Feng Zikai, etc. In general, there are two main points, one is, as Huang Development said, lies in the seemingly "bland" and the essence of the "can't be bland" between the artistic tension; the second is the style and the complexity of the style. The complexity of the style, early, middle and late, each has its own world, and even between the same period of the article there are also great differences, and Lin, Liang and others are not inevitably lost in a single, the so-called masters of the first essay only a flavor, but everyone is a mixture of flavors, used in Zhou Zuoren, a great prose is very reasonable, Dufu's higher than that of other poets, is not it also the "The first thing I want to say is that I'm not going to be able to do that. In addition, there are some details of the line, such as elegance, awkwardness, simplicity, astringency, heavy and thick, clear and clear, through the middle, mediocrity, have a different choice, etc., in the realm of Liang Shiquiqiu's subtlety, Lin Yutang's light and smooth, there is also a difference between the high and the low.

The second question is about style.

In Man on a Journey, Huang developed a division of Zhou Zuoren's prose into three main categories: the affective style, the scribal style, and the note-taking style. The corresponding periods are the early, middle and late periods, and the post-liberation Wooden Pieces, Lu Xun's Home, and Zhitang Memoirs don't count. Emotional and Zhi Zhi bodies such as Books on a Rainy Day, copybook bodies such as Night Reading Copies, and notebooks such as A Corner of the Study, all have their representative collections. The crux of the matter is, is it a step forward, or a step backward, to go from the love-aspirational style, to the copybook style, to the notebook style?

Most people think it is a regression, which is the view of the general public and laymen in the academic world. For example, a general anthology of modern prose is to choose only Zhou Zuoren's early essays, and add at most one or two mid-career codicils, and late notebooks would be basically out of the question. And then Yu Yuangui's book "The History of Modern Chinese Prose", said Zhou Zuoren's late articles "from the ideological interest to the text style of the scholarly", which is only to see the external "old", but not to see the internal integration, can be said to be a great misinterpretation and distortion. It can be said to be a great misinterpretation and distortion. The more knowledgeable Ni Muyan (who wrote a biography of Zhou Zuoren) also holds this view, which is why Huang said that the biography he wrote had "a certain degree of detachment between the author and the spiritual world of the subject".

Only a small number of people insist that there has been no retrogression, and these are mostly experts and scholars in Zhou Zuoren's study, such as Shu Wu, Qian Liqun, Liu Xuyuan, and Huang Development. Liu Xuyuan, in "Interpreting Zhou Zuoren," clearly states that Zhou Zuoren's essays are better in the middle period than in the early period, and in the late period than in the middle period, saying, "The Collection of Medicinal Flavors and A Corner of the Study can be said to be two of the most artistically mature books in his entire creative career."

I agree with Liu Xuyuan. My view is the same: Zhou Zuoren's prose is best in the note-taking style, followed by the copybook style, and again the affective style. Early in the body of love, or bland and elegant, such as the "black boat", or harsh and spicy, such as the "curse", the personality of the literary style are more exposed, so it is easy to attract readers, but in general, a little bit too fickle; the middle of the body of the copy book on the quiet and sophisticated, such as the "talk about the notes", "read the forbidden book", "< five old small brief >" and so on, is a superb article, its knowledge of what they have seen both the blog, the excerpts cited will be particularly fine, text! Style natural ironing, but also a brilliant thought insights interspersed, these are general writers can not be compared, if the "black-top boat" of the line can be learned, "talk about notes" is really unlearned, but there are shortcomings, that is, too many quotations, length is too long, the line of work of the loss of loose ends, cohesion is not enough; these faults to the late notes in the body of the notes are gone, notes of the body of the page length is very short, usually only Three or five hundred words, the language is a shallow language, formally close to the notes of the ancients, but from the connotation, far from simple ancient and modern, new and old Chinese and foreign things can be caged, often in a few words, there is a surprising connotation, such as the "medicinal flavors set" and "corner of the study" in some articles, is really to achieve the "withered and old, pure fire".

Additionally, I think the point that should be seen in particular is: notes and copy of the book body in the prose style of innovation is of great significance. As I said earlier, there is no need to ask "how to go in order to lead to the best", to find a way out from a place where there is no road is a great ability. Zhou Zuoren is such a pathfinder, many people write prose is to use their own language to say other people's words, his copy of the book body is to use other people's language to say their own words, as for the notes to integrate ancient and modern, condensed and simple, is more unprecedented creation.

In fact, the reason why most people can not recognize Zhou Zuoren's prose in the middle and late stages of the main lies in their minds have formed one or several kinds of fixed routines - prose should be written this way, the lack of innovative consciousness makes it difficult for them to recognize Zhou Zuoren's complex and varied prose style implies - prose can also be written this way. -The prose can also be written in this way. In fact, plain or ornate, whether or not; whether or not the mood, copy book or whether or not; whether or not long, short and concise, as long as the writing is good, can be. China has always been the most developed prose, so in this regard, the traditional baggage is also the heaviest, difficult to innovate, in recent years, more innovative forms of prose is not common, "cultural prose" and "philosophical prose" is considered a recent emergence, but the pursuit of "Big", can not help but flow in the empty, philosophical talk more, but also nothing interesting, in general, and not boom, so, Zhou Zuoren that in literature, refused to lower the heart of the personality of the common people with great creativity, it is even more precious.