The Complete Works of Xu Zhimo's Classical Prose

Chapter 39 Laughing at Life's Hibiscus Bird (11)
By the way, I recall a recent example.For example, Mr. Cai Zimin declared in the Peng Yunyi era, and implemented his non-cooperation, withdrew from the turbid Beijing, and is still submerged in foreign countries today.At the beginning, some people criticized him as a negative behavior.Mr. Hu Shizhi published a very wonderful article "Is Cai Yuanpei Negative? "shows that Mr. Cai's attitude was the possible positive attitude under the circumstances at that time, and it contained an aggressive and protesting spirit, which was a wake-up call in the twilight era.From a practical point of view, Mr. Cai's departure did not produce any visible effect; the question is how much the current politics can be cleaner than that of Peng Yunyi, and how much cleaner the current university is than when Mr. Cai was there is a question.No, Mr. Cai's non-cooperation did not have any social effect.But from this we can conclude that Mr. Cai's departure, such as Mr. Liang Juchuan's suicide, was a mistake?No, at least I alone don't think so.I also spoke on "Efforts" at that time, and I said: "Cai Yuanpei is what people in the south call 'dumb', a stupid bookworm, and the most out-of-date idealist in a dirty society. So his words are not true. People can understand his actions; only a few people dare to sympathize with his behavior; his ideas, his ideals, especially a pot of charcoal fire that is flourishing, everyone is afraid of being burned, so how dare they catch it?" "Little How many people can understand these words, and how many people Dare to understand?Such an idealist must fail, because idealists always fail.If the ideal wins, then the humble society and politics fail, and that is too extravagant a hope.

I thought so before, and I still think so now.In the final analysis, human behavior cannot be generalized; some, such as Mr. Liang Juchuan’s suicide, and even Mr. Cai’s non-cooperation, are spiritual behaviors, and their origins and possible effects are by no means our common sense. What can be measured, let alone what social or scientific evaluation criteria can be criticized.As a group of idiots who believe in (you can say superstitious) spiritual life, we must not let the weight of materialism completely overwhelm the expression of human spirituality, let alone tolerate the superstition of a certain era (in The shadow of religion in the Middle Ages and science in modern times completely submerges the unchanging value in the universe.

Second Discussion on Mr. Liang Juchuan's Suicide
Shimo:

You are being too sarcastic about sociology.I don't care if my worthless old work is a sociological or scientific view, but if you say that a sociologist's scientific outlook on life is "simple", "comfortable", and "convenient", I don't care. Dare to echo, I feel a little grievance for social scientists.I don't have time to be an apologist for the social sciences yet, so let me say a few words for myself first.

Before I read your masterpiece in today's (October [-]th) "Morning Supplement", I was also reading the suicide note that Mr. Liang Shuming gave me.After I read Mr. Ju Chuan's Chronicle, the postscript of Xin Renlei's manuscript, Fu egg record, and Bie Zhu Ci Hua Ji, I am very loyal to Mr. Ju Chuan's indomitable character, prudent and honest conduct, The sincerity of my friends is even more admirable.In today's era where everything is commercialized, it is really rare that there is such a person as Mr. Juchuan.Although I respect Mr. Ju Chuan very much, although I hope that I and others can be as self-disciplined as Mr. Ju Chuan, and be as loyal to parents, family, friends, country or doctrine, but I always feel that suicide should not be the responsibility of his elders. The method adopted by Mr.

Zhimo, in the future, you will have some profound and subtle views on suicide or something. A shallow person like me always thinks that suicide is not a means to save the world.What I disapprove of is passive suicide, not death.If a man is killed by the world for a belief, that is the glorious death of a struggling martyr.This is what I admire. If a person is not believed by the world because of his own beliefs, he kills his own life. This is a negative behavior and a way to wash away anger after failure. Although the suicide himself Often stated that this death is to wake up the compatriots.If a doctor died because microorganisms invaded the body because he could not control the microorganisms, this is the spirit of sacrifice of scientists, and this is the most admirable behavior.If an officer, because his soldiers do not obey his orders, tries to persuade them to obey by his own death, he is a little wrong in his method.I think Mr. Ju Chuan's death falls into this category.

In order to wake up a person, a person who is closely related to oneself, using "corpse remonstrance" may be effective for a while.As for saving people's hearts in the world, it is not something that a dead body can do.

There was once a great leader in the world who accomplished his great deeds through death, and he was Jesus.But Jesus didn't commit suicide.His death on the cross was a testament to his faithfulness in defense, and his disciples adopted a rational interpretation that he was atonement for the sins of mankind.

Generally speaking, physical life is a major condition of psychological life.How can ideals exist without a body?It is true that there are times in the world when the annihilation of the body allows the ideal to survive.Socrates drank poison and his philosophical thoughts prospered.Wen Tianxiang was killed and his loyalty lasts forever.But the so-called "sacrificing one's body to achieve benevolence" is only limited to the time when killing one's body is the inevitable result of struggle.There are various situations and methods for killing one's body, and not all killing one's body is considered benevolent, let alone killing one's body is necessary for becoming benevolent.

However, Zhimo: You must not think that this view means cherishing life, not cherishing doctrine or ideals.Cherishing life is precisely because of cherishing a doctrine.Zhimo: If you have an ideal that you think is infinitely higher than the value of your life, how do you think about that ideal?Do you use suicide to achieve that ideal?Are you still alive and using various methods to achieve that ideal?Suppose you or any man is in love with a woman, as in Dante's Avatris, or in the Gothic novel Young Werther's Ai Charlotte (I will use this example, but don't forget that Werther's troubles are only a novel , and his love is complicated), does the man win the woman's love by committing suicide, or does he win the woman's love by using various behaviors and expressions of love?Sometimes this man thinks that even if he himself loses his own life, if the woman can love him, he is willing, and he has achieved his ideal, but a layman like me, you may call it a Utilitarians always feel that this is just the comfort of the disappointed person, which is different from the original intention of love.

I am not fundamentally opposed to suicide. I admit that everyone has the freedom to commit suicide. However, if one wishes to improve society, save the morals of the world, or be loyal to a kind of doctrine, belief or spiritual life, one should not commit suicide, because suicide has nothing to do with these These wishes are contradictory.Those who wish to live can only achieve hope through hard work. For example, Mr. Ju Chuan’s noble behavior of saving the world has not yet attracted the attention and imitation of many people. Will the death of his old man wake up the whole world?Even if his old man's suicide can temporarily wake up many people, it is only a temporary expression of ordinary people's emotions. What does the expression of human instinctive love for life have anything to do with the hearts of the world?Regardless of whether Mr. Ju Chuan's wish is to save the world or awaken the world, he must work hard, starting with himself, and unite countless people to do it.There is no shortcut to saving or awakening the world, only persistent and unremitting efforts.In addition to admiring Mr. Ju Chuan, I have to say that his old man's suicide is really a pity.This may be because I have entered the law department of the university!
Menghe October [-]

Mr. Tao Menghe is a hermit among our friends: his home is far north of Beixinqiao; if I hadn't accidentally picked out his old papers from the dusty pile of books to provoke him the day before yesterday, his modesty It is not easy for the expensive ink to drip outside Xuanwumen.I think we are all very happy to have the opportunity to read Mr. Tao's articles. The clarity of his thinking and the ease of his style will always be a beneficial pleasure for readers.There is no need for my ignorant snake feet here.I don't need to reply either; most of Mr. Tao's views are with which I most agree.Live hard, live hard, Mr. Tao said so, and I said the same.I'm not a fool, who advocates fighting after death?Unless the world below is as incomplete as the world above.No, Mr. Tao, don't get me wrong, I never said that suicide is a reasonable way to "improve society and restore people's hearts".I just want to say that Mr. Liang Juchuan saw something that forced him to commit suicide; and to him, this negative means did express his positive purpose; as for the actual social effect, not only Mr. Tao could not see it, but I sympathized with his suicide. One is also invisible.My faith, I am not afraid of Mr. Tao making jokes with readers, I think I will always be in the void.

Shima PS
The original publication, "Morning News Supplement" on October 1925, 10, was included in "Falling Leaves"

Revisiting Suicide
Letter from Ms. Chen Hengzhe:
Shimo:

After arriving in Beijing, I was ashamed that I hadn't given a word of help.But your supplements are really good. I read Schopenhauer's On Women, Mr. Zhang Chenliang's Soviet-Russian Debate, and you and Mr. Meng He's discussion on suicide. Words won't work.Aren't these three topics all worthy of discussion?But the two topics of Soviet Russia and Women's Theory are too big; although they are forcing me to speak, I still have to endure it.Now let me copy an old work about suicide for you and the readers of the supplement.You and I should remember that Shuyong's brother, Ren Jipeng, died for Yuan Shikai to become emperor and threw himself into Gehong Well in West Lake.This poem is my opinion on the matter; the meaning has not changed to this day.Please note that my focus is on the desire to commit suicide; because the desire to commit suicide does not necessarily equal the act of suicide.For example, if you are willing to perform this behavior without such a wish, the result will inevitably be like Qian Muzhai's joke; if you have this wish but do not have this behavior for a while, the result will not be able to kill one's life, but at least it will increase a lot of fearlessness. At least you can not be afraid of death.What do you and Mr. Meng He think of this?The original poem is attached.

Heng Zhe Jinbai
I heard Ren Zi,

Cynical.

If Ren Zi is not dead,
Who does this life belong to today?
Liuyang Tan Zi once said:

"My dead have survived so many times,
This life should not return to me. "

It's not my existence,
He Tang does not go to the fire or leave?
Alas!

Suicide is not enviable,
A suicide wish can be recited:
For example, everyone can wish like a child,

Is there any small person who is afraid of being shy in the world?
I don't quite understand the meaning of Ms. Chen's "suicide wish".The daughter-in-law of a country family cursed her mother-in-law and wanted to jump into the river to die; is this considered a suicide wish?The business went bankrupt, the property was shameless, and people wanted to take poison and commit suicide; isn't this the desire to commit suicide?There are Indians who go naked to feed the crocodiles in the Ganges; some jump off the Sacrificial Rock of Pudu Mountain to be smashed to pieces; there are all kinds of devotion and martyrdom that follow the emperor to die for their husbands; there are literary Rivett's suicide; Desdemona's suicide, Rumio's suicide in love, Jolia's suicide after waking up from the coffin... If the meaning of suicide is only the automatic abandonment of life, then all the things mentioned above are suicides , from the daughter-in-law jumping into the river to Jiuliya taking poison, everything is true.But how much of a difference there is: when a bride dies in the countryside, we at most feel that she died pitifully, or if we hear that something is wrong somewhere, we not only feel pity, but also feel angry: "Hey, etiquette has eaten another one." life!” But we are moved when we see Giulia’s suicide in Shakespeare’s play or Werther’s in Gerd’s novel (people who are not born to be moved can’t think, and this There are many happy people in the world!) The part is not our superficial emotions, let alone our reason, but a little bit of our spirituality that is easy to hide.In such a situation, all the principles and judgments of pure reason have completely lost their effectiveness, just like the dwarf trees at the foot of the mountain can never reach the white clouds on the top of the mountain.Julia may be crazy.But she has to die; if Giulia wakes up from the coffin and sees Lumio poisoned beside her, if she gets up and goes home to listen to her parents to choose a mate for her, will you agree?Although you know (in your imagination) that such a lovely girl died in vain is a pity for society's loss!Another example is that Werther may be stupid, really stupid, but he, bound in his passionate logic, has to die, if Werther is Mr. Menghe's ideal and reasonable lover instead of Gerd writing him as such a passionate love Or, after he gets the proof that Charlotte really loves him (kiss once), he should ask her husband to divorce formally, or try to ask Charlotte to elope with him, so as to fulfill their love on the ground. Promise or not?Of course the method is the method, but Werther is no longer "Werther". If Gerd's little book had a more "reasonable" ending, we can affirm that it would not have caused a sensation in Europe back then, and it will never be firmly established at this time. firmly imprinted in people's memory.

So suicide, in my opinion, can never be generalized, even though the result of its act is only the cessation of the life of a body.The motives and nature of suicide are too different, some are completely ignorant, some are partially unclear, some are purely emotional, some are martyrdom, some are martyrdom, some are martyrdom, and some are martyrdom.Some we absolutely despise, some we pity, some make us sad, and some make us worship.Some implicate the family or society of the suicide; some form the permanent inspiration of human beings. "Death is lighter than a feather and heavier than Mount Tai", this sentence sums it up.

But we haven't discussed by what standards we should judge suicide.Mr. Tao Menghe seems to advocate whether suicide can affect society as the standard (passive suicide is of course pure cowardice, which is not a problem).Ms. Chen Hengzhe seems to be advocating that the vow or determination to commit suicide has a character-enhancing effect on the person concerned.My answer to Mr. Tao is that society cannot be influenced at all. The saint has long since died, and we can do nothing even if we are alive, let alone after we die.Tao is right.Ms. Chen's vow is also not entirely true.You say that people who have thought about committing suicide but have never carried it out are less afraid of death and have more courage than those who have never thought about committing suicide?I said I wasn't sure about it.Just myself, and I think at least nine-and-a-half out of ten young people in this era have not only thought about, but actually prepared to commit suicide, more than once;No longer a "fearful little man".No, I think this vow alone is not enough, and we have to look at why we make the vow.Otherwise, there are almost no daughter-in-laws in the country who don't want to die. This is also a vow, but what's the value?On the other hand, Juliya and Werther did not intend to die beforehand, they both wanted to live seriously, but the situation they were in and their unique thought logic forced them to give up their lives in the end, so they would not be attached, What we spectators feel is a kind of purely spiritual excitement. You can also talk about morality, but here you can’t say whether you make a vow or not.The logic of the mind of a man in love is the simplest: I have come to life to woo, and now I have found in someone the great desire of my life, but because of some insurmountable resistance I cannot realize it while I am alive. Therefore, it is painful for me to try to live. It is better to seek peace in the realm of death, and I will commit suicide.He died because he had to die at a certain time and situation.Similarly, if your great wish in life is loyalty to the emperor or patriotism, or something else, when you can’t find a way out of your thinking, you just look at the most negative or the most positive direction to die.

Here I think we've got a little bit of judgmental news.That is, suicide must not only be conscious, but the suicide must reach a state of "have to" in his thoughts, and then this suicide deserves our sympathetic consideration.This conscious meaning refers to the relative purity of the suicide motive, that is, whether the suicide achieves the point of "more than life" he wants by means of suicide.I sympathize with Mr. Liang Juchuan's suicide because in his posthumous works, I found that his suicide was not only conscious, but also reached a state of "have to" in his thinking.In addition, I can't see the reason for the suicide of cynical people, or even the suicide of intentional influence, and I'm afraid we can only see it as a passive suicide, using excuses to cover up the hidden motives behind it. Because to be honest, life is much harder than death, and we cannot easily reward behaviors that are easy to asylum. I completely agree with Mr. Meng He on this point.

The original publication, "Morning News Supplement" on October 1925, 10, was included in "Falling Leaves"

Harrier Hawk and Hibiscus Finch
(By WH Hudson)
(I once asked Tagore who he liked the most among modern authors, and he said he liked Hesun.)
(End of this chapter)