Key High School Chinese Guide (Revised Edition)

Author: / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1998-11-01
Features:
Author integrates short comments and lyrical passages into the landscape descriptions at any point. How should we understand the author's intention in writing this way? In this prose, each depicted scene portrays natural scenery merely as a background, while the activities of the characters are placed in a prominent position. After describing each scene, an interjection of commentary and lyricism is inserted to highlight the author's own thoughts and emotions, believing that only "human activities filled with lofty spirit" can make the natural scenery truly a "landscape."
From a horizontal perspective, the author provides a concise and rational analysis of the depicted scenes, guiding readers to grasp the profound meanings hidden within. From a vertical perspective, these comments and lyrical passages unfold layer by layer, progressively deepening, like a red thread connecting the six scenes into an integrated whole. This structure allows the article to be both expansive and focused, with the central idea progressively deepening and becoming more distinct through the layers of commentary and lyricism. The purpose of writing in this manner is to reveal the essence of the "great" human beings in the process of "discussing" the scenery, thereby making the theme that the author could not directly address under the circumstances—praising the Communist Party of China and the anti-Japanese people under its leadership—clearly understood and easily grasped by the readers.
Preface to "Child Tower" by Bai Mang
1. What was the background in which Lu Xun wrote this article? Lu Xun devoted a great deal of effort to nurturing progressive literary youth, and Bai Mang (Yin Fu) was one of the most important representatives. On January 17, 1931, five "Left League" young writers—Bai Mang, Rou Shi, Li Wei Sen, Hu Ye Pin, and Feng Keng—together with He Meng Xiong and Lin Yu Nan, held a secret meeting at the Oriental Hotel in Shanghai. Due to betrayal, they were arrested by the British Imperialist Bureau and subsequently handed over to the Shanghai Luohua Garrison Command of the Nationalist Party. Lu Xun was also forced to leave his residence to seek refuge. On February 7, Bai Mang and the others were secretly executed by the reactionary Nationalist Party. The crimes of the reactionary forces in slaughtering the five martyrs provoked immense anger among the revolutionary masses, and revolutionary writers internationally also raised protests. To commemorate the martyrs and overcome numerous difficulties, the "Left League" secretly published the special issue of "Vanguard" on April 5, titled "Special Issue for Commemorating the Fallen," which included the "Left League's Manifesto Against the Reactionary Nationalist Party's Massacre of Revolutionary Writers." Lu Xun wrote an article titled "The Blood of the Precursors of the Proletarian Revolution in China" for the special issue, calling on people to "remember that the history of the proletarian revolution in China is recorded on its pages by the blood of comrades, forever revealing the cruelty and brutality of the enemy and inspiring our continuous struggle." In May, Lu Xun was invited by the American journalist Agnes Smedley, who was then in China, to write an article titled "The Present Situation of the Literary World in Dark China" for the progressive American magazine "New Masses," exposing to the world the news that the five martyrs had been executed by the reactionary forces.
On February 7, 1933, the second anniversary of the martyrs' sacrifice, the nation was facing a crisis, and the white terror of the reactionary forces in killing revolutionaries was intensifying. Unable to suppress his grief and longing for his comrades, Lu Xun wrote "Remembrance for the Forgetful" to express his deeper emotions. Afterward, Lu Xun never forgot the five martyrs, and they were mentioned in many of his works. Especially in the preface to Bai Mang's "Child Tower," written five years later, the martyrs were given high praise. In the five years that followed, China experienced many major events, such as the "September 18th Incident," the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the "January 28th War," the Nationalist government's lack of resistance abroad and brutal military suppression and cultural suppression at home; in October 1934, the Red Army began the Long March of 25,000 li to the north to fight against Japan, arriving in Shaanxi in the following October. Despite his illness, Lu Xun remained at the forefront of the cultural front until spring 1936, when his condition worsened, and he often had to stay in bed. On March 10, Lu Xun received a letter—"a letter sent from afar"—asking him to write a preface for Bai Mang's poetry collection "Child Tower." According to "Postscript to the Collected Works of Ju Wei Ting," Lu Xun "was only able to sit up after recovering from his illness" and wrote a short essay that night "despite the drizzling rain and his sorrowful reflections." The preface was sent out on March 12. However, "Postscript to the Collected Works of Ju Wei Ting" also revealed that someone claiming to be a former classmate of Bai Mang from Tongji University wrote to Lu Xun from Wuhan, asking him to write a preface for "Child Tower." It was later discovered to be a fraud, with the intention of deceiving Lu Xun into writing a manuscript to promote a magazine published by the person. At the time, driven by revolutionary ideals, Lu Xun, with his boundless affection for the revolutionary martyrs, still wrote this preface.