Just like talking about China's modern short stories, we have to talk about Lu Xun. When it comes to China's modern prose, we have to mention a generation of prose master-Zhu Ziqing. Perhaps Zhu Ziqing did not become the focus of literary attention at that time, but he was recognized by the world for his unique creative talent and legendary life experience. As we all know, in the May 4th New Culture Movement, Zhu Ziqing made his mark in the literary world with his poems, and even established his position as a new poet with his long poem "Destruction". Then, his prose creation began with Qinhuai River under the shadow of oars and lights, which showed his outstanding literary talent. Later, he collected prose collections: The Back, Miscellaneous Notes on Europe and Miscellaneous Notes on London. After War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression finished, he began to study China's classical literature and wrote many works, such as Edited by Yan Shizhi and Classic Chang Tan. His critical works on the history of China literature also attracted the attention of later generations. It should be said that Zhu Ziqing's legend lies not in his life experience as a poet-writer-scholar, but in his outstanding achievements in these three fields. Because we usually pay attention to his side as a writer, that is, we pay more attention to his works themselves, this paper tries to talk about his theoretical criticism of prose from the perspective of creation.

(A) on the definition of prose

As we know, China's modern prose originated from the May 4th New Culture Movement. Since then, prose creation and prose criticism have been carried out simultaneously. At that time, a group of May 4th new culture fighters with rebellious spirit lashed out at the concept of "writing carries Tao" for thousands of years and established a new concept of prose, which was first put forward by Liu Bannong, a pioneer of the May 4th revolution. He put forward the concept of "literary prose" in my view of literary improvement. He said: "The so-called prose is also a prose of words, not a prose of words." His view should be said to draw a clear line between "literature" and "non-literature", which makes modern prose obviously different from the concept of ancient prose as opposed to verse. But his prose also includes novels, essays and so on, so the concept of literary prose is not very clear. Later, Zhou Zuoren put forward the concept of "prose beauty". Compared with Liu Bannong's prose view, Zhou Zuoren's prose view strictly distinguishes between prose and novel, and confirms that prose has irreplaceable artistic expression function. Therefore, he and Hu put forward the concepts of "pure prose" and "prose poetry" respectively. They reached a consensus with Zhou Zuoren on the aesthetic function and special position of literary prose, and consciously regarded prose as a literary form with independent existence value alongside poetry, novel and drama. So, as a great prose writer, how does Zhu Ziqing define prose? He mentioned it in some sporadic articles.

Zhu Ziqing made the following summary in the article "On Prose Writing-Answering Editor's Questions": "Prose in a broad sense is for verse. Prose in a narrow sense seems to refer to prose with literary nature, so novels, essays and essays are all the same. Prose in the narrowest sense is a branch of literature and art, juxtaposed with poetry, novel, drama and literary criticism. It seems that both prose and essays should be included in prose in this sense. Some people think that prose in this sense only refers to prose, which is independent. Besides literature and art, I feel that prose is a change of prose. Whether it is satire or criticism, they are always literary. They should be regarded as a kind of prose and placed in the literary and art department. " It can be seen from this exposition that Zhu Ziqing's exposition of prose is multi-angle and multi-faceted. No matter from the broad sense, narrow sense or the narrowest sense, the prose he defined always covers prose and essays. Compared with Liu Bannong and Zhou Zuoren's prose theory, this view is consistent to some extent, that is, prose is regarded as a literary form alongside poetry, novel and drama, which confirms its unique position. But at the same time, we can also see from his exposition that his prose concept was developed by inheriting others' prose concept and made it more concrete, which is actually similar to our prose concept today. For example, today we talk about the style of prose, as well as prose, essays and essays.

Among the various types of prose, Zhu Ziqing created a large number of essays and expounded his theory. He said in "Writing Miscellaneous Talks": "The so-called prose is the' frequent talk' in English. Although prose also has narration, scenery writing and comments, it is mainly lyrical. " At the same time, in his essay On Modern China, he also pointed out: "Compared with poems, novels and dramas of pure literature, lyric prose is more free, while the latter is more cautious: the words and syllables of poems, the description and structure of novels, the tailoring and dialogue of dramas all have various laws, and it must be carefully written to succeed. Prose is different, the selection and performance are more casual; The so-called' gossip' is a good interpretation of it in a sense. " Here, Zhu Ziqing compares prose with poetry, novel and drama, and thinks that it is equivalent to "constant talk" and "gossip" in daily life, especially "freedom" and "freedom". In other words, regardless of the content and form, prose has no fetters or rules. He emphasized that the fundamental feature of prose lies in the word "three". Of course, the word "three" here is not synonymous with chaos, but a symbol of beauty, a leisurely beauty, a quiet beauty and a wandering beauty. In fact, what I mean is the same as what we said today, that is, "the form is scattered but the spirit is not scattered" and "the form is scattered but the spirit is gathered". At the same time, it can be seen from Zhu Ziqing's exposition that Zhu Ziqing's point of view is to inherit the prose theory of Lu Xun's Beichuan Shirakawa. We know that in 1924, Mr. Lu Xun interpreted the English essay as: "If you sit in an easy chair by the fire in winter, if you are in summer, you will put on a bathrobe, sip bitter tea, chat casually with friends, and move these topics to paper as usual. This is an essay ... He compared prose with poetry, novels and drama to highlight the unique aesthetic characteristics of prose as an independent literary style, that is, to emphasize that prose is the most leisurely style and its structure is very free, which is very helpful for us to understand and accept prose as a literary style.

(B) About prose creation

1. Writing content

Since prose is mainly lyrical, you can talk about it at will. What people and things should you talk about, what should you write and what feelings should you express? In What is Prose, Zhu Ziqing expounded his own views based on the situation of China's literary world at that time and combined with his personal writing practice.

He thinks: first, "trivial things around us." Zhu Ziqing himself has written many such articles. His well-known and long-circulating "Back", "Children", "To His Dead Wife" and "Moonlight on the Lotus Pond" all describe trivial things around him. For example, "Back" is about the back of my father who sent me to the train in my memory, and "Children" is the writer's remorse for his rudeness to his children at ordinary times. But if you only write these, the road of prose will be too narrow and monotonous.

Second, write travel notes, autobiography and read a secretary. For example, there are 19 Zhu Ziqing's travel notes in European Miscellanies and London Miscellanies, most of which are Venice, Rome, Switzerland and Paris. They are all impressions of tourist attractions and works of art. Although the words are plain, they are more worthy of taste. As for studying as a secretary, the author has also written a lot, such as Miscellaneous Feelings of Mr. Lu Xun, Collection of Ye Shengtao's Short Stories and Bai Cai's Poems. This essay-style comment enriches the content of writing to a certain extent, which is a step further than just writing "trivial things around us".

Third, he advocated "writing about public life". That is, write works that keep up with the times and reflect people's lives at that time.

As can be seen from the above, Zhu Ziqing proposed to expand the scope of essay writing, which was actually put forward in view of the literary situation at that time. As we know, in the 1930s of 19, freelance writers represented by Zhou Zuoren and Lin Yutang advocated humorous sketches and leisure sketches, and advocated that the writing of essays should be "self-centered and leisure-oriented", completely treating essays as pure entertainment and pastime. But at the same time, left-wing writers influenced by Lu Xun's essays, such as Mao Dun and Qu Qiubai, began to use the viewpoint of class analysis to create essays and criticize the society, thus writing essays with strong political nature. This concept can easily regard prose as a literary style and a tool to serve politics. It is precisely because of this that the debate about essays has been triggered, but Zhu Ziqing did not follow these two trends. He insisted on what prose should be written. In the 1940s, Zhu Ziqing further pointed out: "In the past, prose was mainly about personal likes and dislikes, while in the background of cities or schools, it was generally about the so-called trivial things around. At this rate, the pen may be too greasy and the road may be too narrow. It seems that the description of the mainland can help the poor. " In his view, essays should further expand the scope of writing, or they will come to an end one day.

2. Theoretical guidance

The essays during the May 4th Movement emphasized the expression of the writer's personality, and Zhu Ziqing also inherited this view to write. At the end of his first collection of essays, Introduction at the Back, he said, "I only wrote what I thought I wanted to write. I intend to express myself and try my best. The concept of benevolence lies in scholars. " During this period, the fulcrum of his prose writing can be said to be six words "intended to express himself". At this time, his prose showed his feelings and soul without affectation. For example, the above-mentioned masterpieces "Back" and "Children" describe an intellectual's love for children and friendship for friends. Although they all write personal circles, they are full of affection and soul-stirring. However, in the face of the changes in the current situation, he felt that it was meaningless to write about trivial matters around him, leaving the branch of "expressing himself", which can be seen from a series of travel notes he wrote later. In Miscellaneous Notes on a European Tour, he "stands outside the text", neither writing about trivial matters of life nor romantic exoticism, but objectively describing places of interest in European countries and cautiously introducing western history, culture and art. From the initial transformation of Zhu Ziqing's creative theory from "expressing himself" to "avoiding himself", we can see that he is not limited to a creative idea, but is constantly exploring new ways of prose development.

3. Writing methods

Zhu Ziqing has made many expositions on how to write prose well. He believes that, in general, "knowledge is indispensable, and experience seems to be more important." "If you write and read secretaries, biographies, etc. Of course, you have to read more books and collect information first. " Zhu Ziqing doesn't believe in "the natural expression of emotion", even in the article "The Back". He said that this is not a "natural expression", but a "daily training". As for creative inspiration, he admitted, but what he said was the product of experience. In About Prose Writing, he said: "Writing seems inspiring, but I don't want to use the translation of' inspiration', but I would like to use the translation of' feeling'. Excitement is just a movement in my heart. This inner movement is a combination of experience, sometimes unconscious and sometimes conscious. " To sum up, Zhu Ziqing means that to write prose well, you must read more books to accumulate knowledge, expand your life and cultivate your ability of observation and judgment; Only with profound knowledge and rich experience will you naturally have inspiration.

To write a good composition, besides knowledge, experience and inspiration, the use of language skills is also extremely important. The essential feature of prose is "prose" in addition to "prose", which is largely manifested in the use of language.

Zhu Ziqing's experience on this issue can also give us useful enlightenment.

The language of Zhu Ziqing's prose is perfect, simple and fresh, natural and natural, which makes people feel that the author seems to be handy and careless, but it is not. He always pays great attention to the modification of words. The level, meaning and sentence pattern of a sentence are carefully scrutinized, especially the sentence pattern. "For example, when he was writing European Miscellanies, he made great efforts in sentence patterns. As he said in the preface: "I also spent some time on words when describing: I think it is the most difficult to arrange the words' yes',' you' and' in'." "To express the relationship between scenes, these three syntax are indispensable; But who has the patience to use this all the time! Besides, all three sentences are static and boring enough. So I tried to omit those three annoying words, such as' there is a big conference hall upstairs', which can be said to be' you-','you-'and'-in the middle of the building', but I used the first sentence, hoping to give readers an overall impression or a more specific impression. " From this speech, we can see that the author spent a lot of time on writing, but we didn't notice the trace of his deliberate work when reading.

Zhu Ziqing believes that the language of prose should be colloquial as much as possible, and when spoken English is not enough, foreign words and classical Chinese should be absorbed appropriately. His Children is a typical oral masterpiece. Now extract a paragraph:

You want a big bowl, he wants a small bowl, you say red chopsticks are good, he says black chopsticks are good; This needs dry rice, that needs porridge, tea and soup, fish and meat, tofu and radish; You said he had a lot of food, and he said you had something delicious. The wife comforted them as usual. But this is obviously too slow. I am a grumpy person. How can I wait? Needless to say, they were immediately conquered in the old way; Although some people cried, they quickly took the bowl with tears in their eyes.

This passage reads like the author and the reader sitting opposite each other, which has a homely meaning. This also shows that you can also write charming and beautiful articles in authentic spoken English. Of course, sometimes spoken English is inevitably not enough. Zhu Ziqing said: "Our life is Europeanized, and our language is also adapting and modernizing. This is actually a natural trend." This trend is always mixed with classical Chinese and Europeanization, but the main effort is to move towards a living language, which is the "living method" of prose.

Generally speaking, Zhu Ziqing has made painstaking efforts in the exploration of prose art, at least in terms of stylistic innovation and language creation, reaching a new height in China's modern literature.

Hu Yuanyuan, Master of Modern and Contemporary Literature, School of Literature, Huazhong Normal University.