First, from the ideological content, the novels in Scream and Wandering are often the further exploration and deepening of the theme of A Madman's Diary.
Diary of a Madman reflects Lu Xun's experience in studying China's morbid society for decades. Its content is profound and highly concentrated. For the first time, the feudal monologue of "benevolence and morality eat people" was put forward: "I look at history, which has no age, and every page is written with the words" benevolence and morality ". I can't sleep anyway. I read it carefully for a long time before I saw the words through the gap. The paper is full of two words, which are' cannibalism'! " Through the illusion of a madman, the novel depicts "white and sharp teeth" everywhere under the cover of "benevolence and morality", and depicts the characteristics of a cannibal society: cannibals whose lips are coated with human oil have arranged "countless human flesh feasts" for thousands of years with "the fierce heart of lions, the cowardice of rabbits and the cunning of foxes", and fabricated the truth of cannibalism under various excuses.
Human history. This monologue has a high degree of artistic generality and strong political color, and is the ideological key to understanding Diary of a Madman and many later novels. This is a sharp conclusion in studying the history of China. Lu Xun believes that the official history of China is "painted too thick and full of nonsense, so it is difficult to find out the details. Just as the moonlight shines on the moldy moss through the dense leaves, only a little broken shadow can be seen. But if you look at unofficial history and Miscellaneous Notes, you will have a better understanding-"(Lu Xun's" Gai Hua Ji Si Si ") He clearly realized the true face of China's history covered by" benevolence, righteousness and morality "and deepened his hatred of feudal system and its ideology. China's history of exploiting society for thousands of years is profoundly attributed to the history of "cannibalism", which played an enlightening role in the May 4th Movement.
Under the theme of "benevolence, morality and cannibalism", Diary of a Madman focuses on exposing the evil of feudal family cannibalism. Subsequent novels deeply explored and visualized the idea of "cannibalism in virtue and morality" at all levels, and Kong Yiji and Bai Guang accused the "cannibalism" intellectuals of their feudal education view. "Medicine" and "The True Story of Ah Q" reveal the evil of feudal orthodoxy and hierarchy "devouring" the national soul; Fu accused feudal society of "eating" working women Brothers satirizes the feudal concept of filial piety and "eats people"; Hometown shows the oppression of feudal system on farmers; Social drama shows the destruction of feudal thoughts on children; The ever-burning lamp and medicine show the persecution of revolutionaries by the ruling class; Wait a minute. If Diary of a Madman is a general bombing of the whole feudal camp, then the subsequent works are the key blasting of various Ming bunkers. In particular, blessing makes the theme of "ethical code eats people" in Diary of a Madman particularly profound. 1925, Lu Xun sadly pointed out in "essays under the lamp": "Since civilization, countless feasts of human flesh have been arranged. People eat people and are eaten in this field. Cover up the crying of the poor weak with the stupid cheers of the murderer, not to mention women and children. " Sister Xianglin is the representative of the woman who was eaten in this "meeting place". This image is a complete and concrete tragic figure, and its typical feature is Lu Xun's profound observation of the fate of the unfortunate people in Qian Qian in the old society. Through this model, Blessing profoundly and concretely reveals the whole process of the feudal class making up various reasons for eating people, such as "dirty", "immoral" and "fallacy", covering up Xianglinsao's tragic cry and then swallowing it step by step. At that time, Xu Shoushang commented: "Blessing describes a female victim in the old society, which is extremely profound. The tragedy of knowing the world is not that Amao is unpalatable, but that Xianglinsao is ethically unpalatable. " It really hit the nail on the head. If A Madman's Diary expresses the theme of cannibalism with angry cries, then Blessing is full of blood and tears when discussing this theme, with more delicate thoughts and more mature art. ..
As for the contents in Medicine and The True Story of Ah Q, which summarize the lessons of the failure of the Revolution of 1911, it is also the development of the contents of criticizing feudalism in Diary of a Madman. These works vividly tell readers that the main lesson of the failure of the Revolution of 1911 is that the ignorant and numb people have not been awakened, and the reason why the poor are ignorant and numb is Mr. Gu Jiu's "old running script". It is the "benevolence, righteousness and morality" in the "old running water book" that distorts people's souls, makes them unconsciously "eat" and even join the ranks of "cannibalism" intentionally or unintentionally, and has hatred for sober people in the "iron house". From another point of view, the revolutionaries failed to heal the mental trauma of these poor people, and failed to awaken those who still had some spontaneous resistance demands to join the revolutionary ranks, but only a few brave people "galloped in loneliness", and their failure was of course inevitable. This is precisely the incomplete reflection of the anti-feudalism of the Revolution of 1911. In the storm of revolution, the masses were ignorant and insensitive to revolutionaries, which also reflected the tragic degree of feudal ideas poisoning the people. Numbness and lack of consciousness expose people's mental and physical injuries in order to arouse people's "healing attention" from shame and make people study the social roots of this "shame" and "disease", so as to rise up and refresh the national spirit, change the miserable situation of working people being oppressed, exploited and enslaved, and change the poverty of the whole country. These are the expansion and deep excavation of the cannibalism essence criticized by Diary of a Madman on feudal "benevolence, righteousness and morality".
Diary of a Madman conveys the grand intention of declaring war on the whole feudal autocratic system and fundamentally subverts the whole old spiritual and cultural system. 1919110 In October, New Youth published Wu Yu's Cannibalism and Ethics. This paper sharply and clearly grasps the spiritual core of A Madman's Diary, and conspicuously extracts and juxtaposes two seemingly opposite concepts, cannibalism and ethics. He also cited various examples of cannibalism in history, which was later attributed to the cruelty of ethical codes. At last, he shouted, "Mr. Kong Er's ethics is the ultimate. It's cruel to kill and eat people. Now, we should realize this! We are not born for the monarch! Not for the sage! Nor was it born for ethics! What "Wen" and "Zhong Lie Gong" are all traps set by cannibals to deceive us! We should understand by now! Eating people is about ethics! Ethical people are cannibals! " Wu Yu's crying proves the great spiritual shock of A Madman's Diary. Because Lu Xun fundamentally shook the spiritual foundation of the whole feudal absolutism and wanted to turn the whole history over, the response was also a declaration of war on the whole history of feudal absolutism, and it was by no means extreme.
Therefore, exposing the cannibalistic nature of feudal "benevolence and morality" is the ideological core of A Madman's Diary and the ideological outline of Lu Xun's novels during the May 4th Movement, which has "profound stimulation, great shock and lasting influence". (Zhang Mengyang's General History and Macro-reflection Volume of Lu Xun Studies in China).
Secondly, from the artistic image, the characters in A Madman's Diary are outlined with thick lines, which provides "rough characters" for other novels of Lu Xun to continue to "refine".
Diary of a Madman has created many artistic images, including Mr. Gu Jiu, Zhao Guiweng, eldest brother, doctor, tenant, people who have swung the county magistrate, slapped the gentleman's mouth, chiefs occupying their wives, and people in their twenties who were forced to death by creditors. These characters can be roughly divided into three series: anti-feudal awakening, stubborn and reactionary "cannibals" and ignorant and numb "sleepers". These artistic images have the characteristics of outline, fable and symbolism. Among these characters, except for the protagonist "madman", the rest are outlined with thick lines. But "they" provide "outline" and "blank" for Lu Xun's other novels. In the novels after A Madman's Diary, many fleshy models were created through "arrangement". We can explain this from three series of artistic images.
(1) The Awakened are the first intellectuals who consciously resisted feudal thoughts and feudal ethics. Madman is essentially the spokesman of the author's anti-feudal declaration, with a strong ideal color. The madness of a madman is actually a rebellion against feudal ethics. He was born in the old feudal camp, the situation was clear, and the rebellion hit the nail on the head. The third diary said: "They can eat people, but they may not eat me-they turn against each other and say that people are wicked. I still remember my big brother teaching me to talk. No matter how good I am, if I turn him over, he will go around several times and forgive the bad guys a few words. He would say,' magic hands are different'. I can guess what their thoughts are there; Besides, it's time to eat. " In the eleventh diary, the "madman" said, "I remember sitting in front of the hall to enjoy the cool when I was four or five years old. My eldest brother said that my parents were ill, and my son had to cut off a piece of meat and invite him to eat it when it was cooked. " Although these accounts also contain the delusions and allergies of the madman, they indirectly show his dissatisfaction with feudal education and Confucianism. "Never, right?" This significant proposition of his boldly expressed his doubts about the traditional concept, which has an anti-traditional tendency. He hit the nail on the head and pointed out the cannibalism of feudal ethics and kicked off the "old running account" These rebellious behaviors are manifested through the characteristics of mental patients, and make the artistic image with fable and cartoon color. This provides a concrete possibility for later works to create such images. Yu Xia is a "madman", and he lives and embodies on the basis of a madman. The revolutionary truth he preached is tantamount to "madness" in the eyes of "ordinary people". Compared with the madman, Yu Xia's ideological line is clearer. Instead of "those modest" talks about saving children (Mr. Lu Xun answered Heng), he shouted the revolutionary slogan "The world in the Qing Dynasty belongs to all of us" and died bravely for this ideal. The "madman" in the ever-burning lamp is to extinguish the "magic lamp" symbolizing feudal rule. Setting a fire to the temple is a radical revolutionary action to "sweep away these cannibals, tear up the feast and destroy the kitchen" (Lu Xun's Writing under the Lamp). After reading this novel, Li Dazhao, a proletarian revolutionary mentor, pointed out sharply: "I think this is a sign that he wants to' put out the magic lamp' and' set fire'. This is the battle horn immediately after he shouted' Save the children' in Diary of a Madman. "
(Liu Nongchao's "Fighting Friendship between Li Dazhao and Lu Xun") This comment is indeed a revolutionary's unique view of revolutionary literature and art, and it is the embodiment of thinkers' mutual affinity. These are typical mature revolutionary and democratic fighters. These images reflect the development of Lu Xun's thought.
(2) "Cannibal" is the real "master" of feudal society and its ideological circle-the landlord class ruler. As a cannibal, the image of Zhao Guiweng is also sketched, vague and allegorical in Diary of a Madman. But as a "basic model", it runs through later novels.
Fine Carving has created many three-dimensional images with both form and spirit. For example, Master Zhao in The Storm, Master Zhao in The True Story of Ah Q, Master Lu in Blessing, Guo Laowa in The Ever-burning Lamp, Seven Great Men in Divorce and so on. Diary of a Madman highly summarizes the similarities of these characters: "the fierce heart of the lion, the cowardice of the rabbit and the cunning of the fox". They maintain their decadent and dark rule by suppressing the revolution and fooling the people's counter-revolution. For those who wake up, with the fierce heart of a lion, they will want to eat it, and then try to eat it with the cowardice of the rabbit and the cunning of the fox: "Prepare the name of the next madman", and then "Everyone starts to work together in Qi Xin, and they can't tell who hit the first one, and then there is nothing." For the ignorant and weak citizens, they "eat" their souls, making them empty shells of the body, "from lethargy to death" (introduction to Lu Xun's Scream). In the process of concretizing Zhao Guiweng's later novel Zhao Guiweng, Lu Xun paid more and more attention to shaping such characters from the class relationship between the characters and the oppressed, which reflected the ideological development of Lu Xun before and after accepting the class theory.
(3) "Sleeping" people, that is, all-round victims of feudal ideology and morality and all kinds of figures in the public opinion circles in feudal society, are people who have been deformed from physical to mental by decades of heavy oppression. They give in to life, accept their fate, and are loyal to the point of numbness. This is an image that Lu Xun tried to portray. There is always such a group around the tragic hero in Lu Xun's novels. These "unfortunate people in sick society" are "unfortunate" but "indisputable", and even participate in the ranks of "cannibalism". They are a huge group of society, which constitutes a great misfortune of society. They were treated cruelly in ridicule and ridicule, trampled by society, and even died. Lu Xun paid attention to shaping such an image to express his profound thoughts. This image involves many objects in A Madman's Diary: doctors, tenants, children, people who beat up judges and so on. However, these images are characterized by "roughness". In Lu Xun's later novels, these images reappear around the tragic protagonists as ignorant and numb people, such as people in Wei Zhuang and people in Xianheng Hotel in Luzhen. Or, as the protagonist of other novels, draw them with rich colors, such as spending old bolts and moistening the soil. If the images of these "sleeping people" in Diary of a Madman are imagistic and * * *, then in Lu Xun's later novels, the descriptions of these images are more and more clear and specific, and their personalities are more and more prominent. Mr. Lu Xun "pinned his spirit on the abused, so he began to shout and finally came to howl with us who were trampled and abused."
(Ouyang Fanhai talks about some basic understanding of Mr. Lu Xun) As he himself said: "My materials are mostly taken from the unfortunate people in a morbid society, which is intended to expose suffering and attract the attention of treatment." (Lu Xun, "How do I start a novel")
To sum up, we can understand the "outline" significance of Diary of a Madman to Lu Xun's novels from the perspective of ideological content and artistic image.
It is indeed an interesting literary phenomenon that one work becomes the general program of many works. Why does this literary phenomenon appear?
First of all, this accidental literary phenomenon is the inevitable development of Lu Xun's thought.
From the Revolution of 1911 to 19 18, the night is long, the wind and rain are like a rock, and Lu Xun's heart is as heavy as a rock. In loneliness and depression, he made unremitting exploration by studying historical and cultural heritage. His pain and exploration have profound ideological content. When the historical conditions are not yet mature, a great thinker like Lu Xun can't help but hesitate and have to spend his precious years in silence. However, when history advanced to the eve of the May 4th Movement, it was time for the people of China to decide to fight for their own liberation, and the literary revolution movement had already begun. History has put forward new tasks for writers, such as Diary of a Madman.
The thunder of In Silence sounded the horn of the anti-feudal battle. The author said that it was "intended to expose the harm of family system and ethics" (Lu Xun's Preface to Two Novels of the Department of New Literature), and the so-called "family system" was also the feudal patriarchal clan system. In other words, this novel not only points to feudal ethics, but also demands to overthrow the foundation of the whole feudal system. Through the mouth of a madman, the author shouted out "the unprecedented loud voice of fighting: the feudal system of thousands of years is a man-eating system and must be completely eliminated!" " This is the first spring thunder on the eve of the May 4th Movement. "(Yan Jiayan's diary of a madman's thoughts and art)
The Madman's Diary contains profound thoughts with thirteen diaries, which has cast the decades-long experience of Mr. Lu Xun in studying China's morbid society, so it has a strong generality and political color, which makes it possible for Lu Xun to further explore and visualize the profound thoughts in the Madman's Diary in his later works. If Lu Xun's long-term study of China's history is compared to "ideological exploration", then the publication of A Madman's Diary is an "ideological blowout" caused by the breakthrough of underground ideological fire on the eve of the May 4th Movement. As Cao Juren said: "His disillusionment with the past and pessimism about reality all come from painful experiences. Instead of blurting out, he has reservations about the' optimism' of the future, faces the reality squarely and does not make empty optimistic thoughts." (Cao Juren comments on Lu Xun's research)
Diary of a Madman takes "exposing the evils of feudal family system and ethics" as the theme, and at the same time, it makes an all-round shot at various ethical principles of "an old running account". However, due to the need of the theme and presentation form of Diary of a Madman, some contents can only be described by a symbolic outline. This made Lu Xun explore and sort out the breakthrough of "ideological blowout" after Diary of a Madman. Therefore, Diary of a Madman has become the general program of Lu Xun, which is closely related to the development of Lu Xun's thought. Therefore, Mr. Zhang Mengyang said: "The ideological evolution of him (Lu Xun) reflects the development track of China Revolution and China's modern spiritual culture from one side. It can be said that Lu Xun is a mirror of China's modern spiritual and cultural development, from which some essential aspects of China's spiritual and cultural revolution can be reflected. " (Zhang Mengyang's General History and Macro-reflection Volume of Lu Xun Studies in China).
Secondly. This special literary phenomenon is related to Lu Xun's special creative experience.
Lu Xun had different understandings of the fighting function of literature in different periods. From the Revolution of 1911 to the eve of the May 4th Movement, it was Lu Xun's most lonely and depressed period, and it was also his period of calm exploration. The failure of the Revolution of 1911 brought great emotional pain to Lu Xun. The darkness in the late revolution, the change of doctors and the chaotic reality forced him to think more and more deeply. During this period, Lu Xun cooled the passion of saving the country through literature and art when he was young. Therefore, on the eve of the May 4th Movement, Lu Xun was not prepared to fight with literature as a weapon. The purpose of his diary of a madman is to "comfort those brave people who run in loneliness". However, when A Madman's Diary produced a huge "bombing effect", Lu Xun strongly felt the special fighting role of literature, and his revolutionary passion as an anti-feudal fighter and his creative enthusiasm as a writer were rekindled. Lu Xun knew that Diary of a Madman had a great bombing effect because of its profound thoughts, which created Lu Xun's experience in studying China's morbid society for decades. In a letter to Xu Shoushang on August 20th, 19 18, Lu Xun once said that the ideological motive of writing A Madman's Diary was: "I wrote this article because I read As a Mirror occasionally and realized that China people still eat people. This discovery has a lot to do with it, and those who know it are still embarrassed. " From the study of history, we have discovered the cannibalistic nature of the feudal system for thousands of years, which is of course "very worthy of attention", because without this discovery, "the anti-feudal flame in the May 4th period could not have been sprayed so violently." Moreover, "exposing the people's weaknesses" and "transforming the national character" are not just the author's personal subjective wishes, but "a combat task that has a profound objective reality foundation and can also be said to be put forward by the objective reality to the progressive revolutionary literary and art circles at that time." (Wang Jingwen's The True Story of Ah Q and National Character)
Diary of a Madman, as a short story in the form of thirteen diaries, is mainly used to announce Lu Xun's experience in studying China's morbid society in a political way. Therefore, Lu Xun got inspiration from the "bombing effect" of A Madman's Diary: to further explore the idea of A Madman's Diary through more concrete and vivid artistic images. As a result, the artistic models that came out one by one after the "madman" entered the gallery of world literary images.
Diary of a Madman became the general program of Lu Xun's novels during the May 4th Movement. This special literary phenomenon is determined by Mr. Lu Xun's special ideological development course and special creative experience. Understanding and studying this literary phenomenon is of great significance for us to understand Lu Xun's creative thought and style as a writer, the formation and development of his great thoughts as a thinker and the great personality spirit as a revolutionary.