Zhu Ziqing lived in Yangzhou for 13 years and spent his childhood and adolescence here. His feelings about this life in the ancient city are subtle and complicated. Probably life is too monotonous, so he later said that only a "thin shadow" is left in his childhood memory, and "it's like being washed by the flood, and it's so lonely that it's shocking!" However, in the long and tortuous journey of life, childhood is, after all, the first "post station".
Yangzhou is a cultural city with beautiful scenery, with beautiful lakes and mountains and pleasant scenery. Many poets, such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Su Dongpo and Ouyang Xiu, once lingered here, and wrote many magnificent poems. Yangzhou is also a heroic historical city. In the history of resisting foreign aggression, it has written countless brilliant chapters and left many touching stories. The beautiful scenery of the ancient city and the rich culture-advocating atmosphere have invisibly cultivated the temperament of young Zhu Ziqing, and cultivated his peaceful and upright character and interest in natural beauty. And the beautiful landscape of Yangzhou, like rain and dew, moistens his mind, nurtures his feelings, enriches his imagination, and makes his feelings full of poetry and painting forever. Yangzhou, a famous historical and cultural city, has a subtle and far-reaching influence on him.
Zhu Ziqing has 27 kinds of works with about 1.9 million words, including poetry, prose, literary criticism and academic research. Most of them were collected in the four volumes of Collected Works of Zhu Ziqing published by Kaiming Bookstore in 1953. In 1988, Jiangsu Education Publishing House collected, sorted out and published six volumes of Zhu Ziqing's Complete Works. Although Zhu Ziqing began to write new poems after the May 4th Movement, the Qinhuai River in the Shadow of Paddles and Lights published in 1923 showed his talent in prose creation. From then on, he devoted himself to prose creation and made remarkable achievements. The collection of essays "Back" published in 1928 made Zhu Ziqing a famous prose writer at that time.
Zhu Ziqing's prose is mainly narrative and lyrical essays. The theme of his works can be divided into three series: first, a group of essays with the main content of writing about social life and attacking the dark reality. The representative works are The Price of Life-Seventy cents, White People-God's Favorite, and The Massacre of Executive Government. Second, a group of essays, represented by The Back, Children and Mourning Women, mainly describe personal and family life, show the human relationship between father and son, husband and wife and friends, and have a strong human touch. Thirdly, a group of lyrical sketches based on natural scenery, such as Green, Spring, Qinhuai River in the Shadow of Paddle Lights and Moonlight on the Lotus Pond, are his representative works. The latter two kinds of essays are the best written by Zhu Ziqing, among which "The Back" and "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond" are well-known masterpieces. His prose is simple and meticulous, clear and gloomy, famous for its refined language and beautiful writing, and full of true feelings.