Mao Dun's first novel, Disillusionment, was published in the 9th issue and 18+00 issue of Novel Monthly, edited by Ye Shengtao, and the time was between 1927 September and 10 June. During this period, as Mao Dun himself said, "I experienced the most complicated life scene in China and finally felt it. The trilogy "Eclipse" was written in this pessimistic and confused state of mind, describing the ideological situation of petty-bourgeois intellectuals before and after the rise and failure of the Great Revolution. The author has a grand narrative attempt to show the style of the Great Revolution. According to the plot of the trilogy, the main process of the Great Revolution from launch, development to failure is launched in turn. Some important events during the Great Revolution are often written into works as necessary functions to promote the transformation of plots and characters. The novel objectively and truly shows the life experience and mental state of many young intellectuals before and after the Great Revolution, including pain, confusion, disappointment, reflection on the revolution and suspicion of violent revolution.
The "social analysis novel" represented by Midnight often shows three characteristics: first, the characters have distinct class characteristics, and the main characters are often representatives of a certain class; Second, they all have a broad social background, and the characters and events in the works are closely related to society. The change of characters and the development of stories are the result of the intensification of various social contradictions; Thirdly, the works all show the author's profound understanding of society, with bright rationality, clear creative intention, questions and answers, and the characters created also have certain social and theoretical significance. Midnight is the tragedy of industrial capitalist Wu's struggle, development and failure.
Mao Dun is a novelist who thinks he is a "social scientist". His literary criticism practice and political activities for many years before he started writing novels, especially his rich theoretical accomplishment in social science, are of special significance to his creation of "social analysis novels" In terms of the breadth and depth of social generalization, the grandeur and complexity of artistic structure, the diversity and vividness of task creation, the beauty and richness of literary language, and the vitality and fluency, novels are far from being comparable to ordinary writers. Mao Dun's talent, skill and endurance in managing large-scale works are unparalleled in the history of modern literature.
From 1932 to 1933, Mao Dun also published short stories Lin Jiapu, Spring Silkworm, Autumn Harvest and Dong Can. In the 1940s, he published a long diary-style small tree "Corrosion" (194 1), a novel "Frost Leaf Red December Red" (1942) and "Exercise" (1948). Looking at Mao Dun's creation, we can see that he is concerned about the social reality of China.
The characteristics of Mao Dun's social analysis novels are related to his literary ideas. Mao Dun is a writer with a strong sense of mission, and he is most easily influenced by the "mainstream trend of thought" of the times. Therefore, Mao Dun's literary thought has actually been changing. In the early stage, Tanner's sociology of literature and art began, and in the later stage, Marxist literary theory began. Mao Dun entered the literary world as a spokesman for history, which inevitably led to the landlord Zhang Wenxue's reflection on the times and society. Mao Dun was an advocate of "Life School" literature in early spiritual literature. His basic core is to ask literature to express and guide life and make it meaningful to life, which is also the basic point of the development and change of his literary thought.