New Readings of Famous Essays

Author: Sun Qin'an
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: Hu Shi—Natural and fluent, without the need for heavy strokes. It is undeniable that Hu Shi was also a literary master who was knowledgeable in both ancient and modern times and integrated Eastern and Western learning. His theories and contributions to promoting vernacular Chinese have been widely recognized by many. Beyond academia, he delved more into poetry and prose in literature, with prose being his primary focus. He has compiled several prose collections such as Forty Autobiographical Sketches, Hu Shi’s Southbound Journey Notes, On Confucianism, The Issue of Chastity, Preliminary Discussions on Literary Reform, Notes on Studying Abroad, Hu Shi’s Study Abroad Diary, The Biography of Ding Wenjiang, Methods and Materials of Scholarship, and Which Path Should We Take. Additionally, there are numerous works such as Collected Writings of Hu Shi, Selected Works of Hu Shi, Hu Shi’s Vernacular Prose, Selected Speeches of Hu Shi, Academic Works of Hu Shi, Selected Correspondence of Hu Shi, and Selected Essays of Hu Shi. No need for categorization, but judging by their titles, it is evident that the scope of Hu Shi’s prose is quite broad. His new poetry excelled in conveying arguments, and in fact, his prose was also adept at doing so, often expressing opinions. It can be said that most of his prose was argumentative, covering topics ranging from politics, literature, philosophy, and history to life, religion, and morality. He fiercely criticized false ethics and morals, both Eastern and Western, without hesitation. For example, in the essay Ibsenism, he opposed the hypocrisy within religion. One passage reads: "The original purpose of religion was to serve humanity, as Jesus said, 'Worship was created for humanity, not humanity for worship.'" However, later religions often contradicted human nature and defied human emotions. In the play The Ghosts, the priest forces Mrs. Alvin to return home and endure the treatment of her unfaithful husband, suffering nineteen years of unbearable torment. The priest claims that religion forbids people from seeking happiness; to seek happiness is to be under the influence of demons. He says that religion forbids a wife from criticizing her husband’s actions. He insists that religion teaches women to always obey their husbands and fulfill their duties. The priest’s constant pronouncements of "right" are met with Mrs. Alvin’s inner conviction of "wrong." Later, Mrs. Alvin carefully studies the priest’s religion and suddenly realizes that those doctrines are all fake—they are all "machine-made!" In this way, Hu Shi exposed in many of his writings the false, corrupt, and ugly social and human phenomena he believed to be false, with clear reasoning, but his writing style was far less sharp than Lu Xun’s. Hu Shi did have clarity in his writing, but his tone was much gentler compared to Lu Xun’s fiery and incisive prose. For some reason, Hu Shi’s writings rarely contained harsh words, but this does not necessarily mean he lacked depth. Sharpness and depth are not always proportional, and sharpness is not necessarily a prerequisite for depth. Hu Shi’s essays often carried a gentle tone, making them easy to accept and sometimes creating a sense of closeness, without imposing his views on others. He also used satire, but it was always gentle, as seen in a passage from Mr. Almost Right: Mr. Almost Right looks very much like you and me. He has two eyes, but they don’t see very clearly; two ears, but they don’t hear very well; a nose and mouth, but he pays little attention to smells and tastes;