The Complete Works of Xu Zhimo's Classical Prose

Chapter 47 Laughing at Life's Hibiscus Bird (19)
We all see this clearly; we don't want to change direction, but where do we start?This is the difficulty.Mr Russell was not pessimistic.He thought it was a question of psychological ethics.The old-fashioned ethics, which distinguish between good and evil and right and wrong, mostly failed to recognize psychological reality, and often focused on the individual.Russell's proposition is to recognize the reality of psychology, and to use the advantages and disadvantages of society as the standard for judging the good and evil of behavior.According to Russell, human behavior is just a habit, and there is no innate goodness or evil.Those habits, whether mental or physical, which tend to produce a good society, are good;Russell's so-called good society is a society with the four conditions mentioned above; his so-called bad society is the opposite, suffering due to instinctive oppression (replacing natural happiness), hatred and jealousy (replacing friendship and sympathy); vulgarity Less creation, no love of beauty, and weak intellectual curiosity.To reward habits that benefit all, you can take advantage of new psychological findings.Now that we understand that people are fundamentally selfish, we can use people's psychology of praise and punishment to create an absolute morality (Positive Morality), that is, certain behaviors should be rewarded and certain behaviors should be blamed. disgrace.But it is only a compromise of the interests of the society, rather than a priori assuming that certain behaviors are good and certain behaviors are evil.In the past, the natives of Taiwan had a custom: If a man wants to marry a wife, he must kill at least one head and bring it to the wedding venue; our civilized society rewards self-mutilation of the same kind, which is called bravery, and it is considered a virtue. Isn't it just as ridiculous?
Such an ethics of judging behavior by its consequences is not very different in nature from the ethics represented by Bentham and Mill; Russell himself said that his proposition is not new, but no matter how ordinary a principle, if However, the whole society recognizes its importance, and if it is put into practice, it will produce astonishing results.Judging the good and evil of behavior based on the interests of the public: this principle is certain, and of course there will be extremely important changes in our education, criminal law, and our standards of reward and responsibility.

eleven
In the final analysis, the existing industrialism, mechanism, competition system, and the superstitious psychology and habits caused by these phenomena are all enemies of our ideal society and obstacles to a reasonable life.Now, as far as China is concerned, the only hope lies in the leaders of the society, who wake up early, take advantage of their role models, reject external temptations, and change the direction of suicide, otherwise the future is only darkness and traps.Russell said that the Chinese are relatively the least enlightened, and they can be regarded as the most promising nation on the ground.By saying this, is he deliberately lying and deceiving us, or is it really his insights from observing modern civilization?But Mr. Wu Zhihui once told us that Russell only treats us as children, and he is a big swindler!

原刊1923年12月10日《东方杂志》No.20卷No.20三期
about women

Suzhou!Who can imagine that the second place name has the same crisp sound and can evoke the same beautiful association, except for the city of Venice or Fei Leng Cui in southern Europe, which are far away in a foreign country, otherwise we have to recall Jinling and Guangling in the Six Dynasties era Maybe as if?Of course not Hangzhou, although Suzhou and Hangzhou are often mentioned together; even if Hangzhou is somewhat beautiful, unfortunately it is taken away by the landscape, and even more unfortunately, that is also a problem: you have not heard of Leifeng Pagoda. What kind of martial arts has been taught to smash the strong man, and the water in the West Lake has also been taught to be so big. Has the electric light of the meeting dried up?No, it's not Hangzhou; when it comes to Hangzhou, we can't help but feel a little rusty on the tip of our tongue.So there is only one Suzhou that allows us to speak out boldly and get started with confidence.Compared with the Shengxiao among musical instruments, some have the curling aftertaste.Compared with the green cypress, some have a refreshing fragrance.Here, unlike other places, people and land are relatively worthy; they complement each other; the bells of Hanshan Temple and Wu Nong's soft words are as fascinating; It is nostalgic.

But Suzhou is ashamed to say that this is the second time I have been here. The first time I came, I only spent one night in a hurry. I took away only a few jars of candy from Caizhizhai and some blurred images.It won't be easy just this time.If it weren't for Mr. Chen Shu's hospitality.Clever Mr. Chen Shu, she knows the weakness of a poet. Her letter only said lightly that when you don’t come again, the maple leaves of Tianping Mountain Jingshuang will wither. I had to sneak here to come here, although I have to go to and from Shanghai and Nanjing twice a week for the past six months, and every week I have to feel the melancholy of being elusive.I have to thank her for coming to Suzhou again.But Mr. Chen's letter did not only mention Shuangfeng from Tianping Mountain. What she wrote below was about my worries in the past half month: She wanted me to come and talk to the female students in Suzhou!How can I not be sad?Of course, I am not worried about seeing you classmates, what I am worried about is that I am now alone, standing on the stage talking alone!What we, the so-called professors who are used to sitting on cold benches and talking nonsense every day, are most annoying. To tell you the truth, it is our own helpless post talking (I dare not say lectures anymore, such stupid words cannot be uttered in Suzhou) ).

Just talk, let's go a step further, say talk casually, I can't imagine anything more embarrassing!I want you to talk, but I don’t need to specify what I want you to say. “You can say whatever you want,” Mr. Chen said on the phone that day.You give a hibiscus or a lark the bright morning sun, and it will say something very beautiful to you, even if it says your "speech" is really good after your rash compliments, it won't. If you are angry, you will not be ashamed, but unfortunately I am not Furong, let alone Bailing.There is a saying in our village that one would rather listen to Suzhou people quarreling than Hangzhou people talking.Unfortunately, my hometown is in Zhejiang, which is close to Hangzhou and far from Suzhou.Talk whatever you want, you can say whatever you want, sure enough, I followed Mr. Chen to talk about my hometown, I am afraid that in less than 3 minutes, you will all miss the Bagua Dan or other headache pills in your room!
But Mr. Chen insisted on forcing me to come, forcing me to make a fool of myself. It was not enough to write a letter, so he came to Shanghai to invite me himself.I can't refuse to come. "But what should I talk about, Suzhou, another female classmate?" That day I put down Mr. Chen's phone and began to hesitate.Don't be busy, I comforted myself by saying that I would not be free in Shanghai, and I could think about it in an afternoon when I went to Nanjing.In the car that day, I was lucky enough to see the snowy leaves west of Zhenjiang, especially around Qixia Mountain.Although it was foggy that morning, snow is always a good thing. It covers the unevenness and ugliness of the ground, and it also opens up a more refreshing realm in your heart. The mountain has become a silver mountain, the tree has become a jade tree, and the window is piercing. It was cool, bone-chillingly still, not a single creature was seen, the birds were hiding there, and the snowflakes were spinning in mid-air.The big stone lion in Qixia area, the strange thing that sits majestically in the grass field and opens its mouth to the sky, looks whiter, stronger and more energetic in the snow.Nearby there is a pagoda, architectural sculptures, all of which are first-class art, most reminiscent of the romance and leisure of the Six Dynasties.At that time, there was no unified careerist in politics. The south of the river and the north of the river formed their own families. There were also Han and Hu, and each created its own culture.Not to mention Longmen, not to mention Yungang, just some relics of Qixia, just this big stone lion in the grass field, are enough to remind us of the calm life, grandeur, and handsome emotion of that time.

All we feel in the modern age is cramped and rushed.We are really busy, everyone is busy.Tired of busy, tired of busy.But what is busy?Why are you busy?After 1000 years, if our nation lives another 1000 years, looking back at our time, can they understand our haste?What do we have left for them to make them proud, precious, worthy of their preservation, to witness our existence, to know our value, and to make them stay forever as a memorial of their love, like that big stone lion sitting majestically in the grass field?What great poems and articles have our poets and literati contributed?Our buildings and sculptures, not to mention anything else, can survive for 100 or even 15 years and still be worth seeing?How do our painters describe the wonders of the universe?Which of our musicians is explaining the mysteries of our nation's spirituality?But at this time, the snow field beside the river that I was looking at had transformed into a disaster area thousands of miles away from the red land in the north like a scene. Between the yellow sandy sky and the yellow land, there was only a gloomy wind and cloud, uninhabited villages and branches here and there. A tree without a dead leaf.I can also see tens of millions of people who are dead, dying and not dead leaving eternal shame on the earth of the Creator in unspeakable suffering.In their dull eyes, they clearly say that even though their hearts are still beating, they have lost the ability to feel or even feel, and the cries of life or death have already been forced to die in their dry throats; they clearly say that life, life, Even simple survival has reached an absolute desperation, and the future is nothing but desert-like vast nothingness and extinction, waiting for them, tempting them, like spring, like a smile, like beauty.I also see regions and people's livelihoods that are intertwined in serial wars; I also see those few demons, sitting in a well-guarded magic den, fighting each other for profound doctrines that no one understands. The setting and plot of the next scene are to show their greed, poison, ambition, and mighty spirit. They hold the fate of the entire nation as a desperate bet.I also saw the boredom and poisonous gas of this era covering the air without any barriers, and the sacrifices were countless young people like spring flowers.Everything in this longing points to a destination, a desert-like vast nothingness and extinction, a death that never sees light regardless of boundaries.

Am I still nostalgic for the decline of culture?Culture, culture, before this terrible longing, just like the distressed cry of the disaster victims, has long been forced to die in the dry throat, and can no longer make a sound.But this silent cry has caused strange echoes around me, like crying, like laughing, like owls, like ghosts...

But the source of the sound was the majestic yawn of a fat fellow traveling next to me.In the yawning sound, my overlapping dreamlike longing disappeared, and I saw the snow outside the window again, and heard the sound of the wheels.Shimonoseki station has arrived.

Can I use my mixed feelings along the way as my conversation materials for Suzhou? I was thinking about it when I entered the city from Xiaguan.Can innocent female students in beautiful Suzhou tolerate such absurd, even if not grotesque, ideas?Maybe because I teach literature, they want to hear some literary anecdotes or general knowledge about literature from me.But teaching is helpless, what I hate most is speaking the jargon.Perhaps they are expecting a poet's talk because I once wrote some poems, which must be full of moon and star splendor, scented with flowers and fresh grass, or else they might expect Shelley's mysterious sparrow or Keats' nightingale.Mine is like the night cry of an owl, isn't it too disturbing?This, I thought again, maybe it was my fault, they waited for me to talk just as they waited for others to talk every month or every week, just wanting to hear a few Coca-Cola gags and jokes (if any, then is good), an article, long or short, trite encouragement or instruction (that’s your chance to yawn or even fall asleep), or an explanation of a certain expertise (then you gentlemen say you should pay I took out a pencil and wrote it down in a small notebook) and wrote a few words that I humbly apologized for not having prepared well. At the end [and] when he bowed and stepped down, how many times did you give him some applause? What you say, just like the speaker, cannot hope (he doesn’t want to) to leave an impression in your mind for just one night. Didn’t someone come to you and talk about it, maybe someone will ask you every few days.Hey, yes, yes, what did he say?Who knows what he said, I didn't listen to a word, you didn't mention it, I forgot that I had heard him say it!
This is the end of a group of people who go around entertaining speakers.They really only deserved that.Poor, embarrassing, dry, and dry, students, are the lives of modern people.Dry, dry, embarrassing, poor, students, are the thoughts of modern people.Don't think too highly of the older people, those who have fame or status. Only they know their difficulties. It's normal to be apologetic these days.

Somehow I remembered to say some nonsense about women.It's not about women.I don't understand science, and I have no way to dissect the incredible phenomenon of "woman".I'm not a sociologist either, citing a set of ready-made nouns to clean up love, improve marriage or family.Nor do I have the authority of a moralist to condemn women to be good wives and mothers, or to reward them for being bad wives and mothers.I don't have any ability to solve or answer.All I know of myself is the flow of my consciousness, a power over which I have no command.It's like looking at the scenery of the distant mountains through the rain and fog, you can only recognize a rough idea.I don’t know where the light came from to illuminate a corner of my consciousness, giving me a chance to identify it. My difficulty is trying to convey the impression of the original microfiber with clumsy language, like trying to use a clumsy iron needle to Embroidered and traced detailed patterns.What I am going to investigate today, therefore, is not women, let alone women's issues, but a fragment of my own consciousness.

I said that somehow my thoughts turned to women.The most obvious reason, I thought, was, of course, that I came to speak at a girls' school.But there were other opportunities for hints as well.One day I saw an advertisement for a new book by Ms. So-and-so at the door of a bookstore. The title of the book was "The Silverfish Life".This is new, I think, these days there are women who are willing to be bookworms. In the past 300 years, most of the women are good wives and virtuous mothers, and most of them are poets and poets, but isn't the famous bookworm Mrs. Hao Wang Zhaoyuan?This is one thing, and then I saw an article written by a famous British novelist, she said that women must have at least two conditions to engage in writing: one is that she must have a room of her own , this is her freedom to close or lock it at any time; second, she has to have five hundred and one years of benefits (there is 6000 yuan in the Huayin).She is talking about the situation in foreign countries, of course it is far from ours, but the principles are still the same?You may say that foreign women are of course better than us, how can we compare with them; their environment is much better than ours, and their freedom is much greater than ours; well, foreign women, let our men compare first Let's talk about women after foreign men!

But don't be discouraged, come and listen to the difficulties of foreign women.In the time of Queen Anne, not to mention earlier, it was the time of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty. The talented noble women (not to mention the common people) couldn't help but wrote some poems and then piled them in the drawer. The moths enjoy it, and if they dare to show their works to the majestic and great men, it will not make them laugh out loud.Men are women's "opposition" (The Oppose faction), says Lady Winchilsea.Before it's too late, women, whoever dares to show off deserves to suffer, it's your part to learn!A woman picking up a pen is like a thief, who can stand the ridicule of men.Don't look at the British enlightenment, most of them are Zhang Shizhai who wrote "Gynecology".On the contrary, it is easier for Mr. Zhang to openly oppose women's pen and ink with his strict Taoist face.Their Pope, their John Gray, they called the literary and talented women Blue Socks, and they said that they ignored housework and "loved to scribble when itchy" (Mar garet of Newcastle).Another talented woman also said angrily that "women live like bats or owls, work like animals, and die like insects..." Not to mention the attitude of men, women's own humility is also acceptable. Dorothy Osburne, the elegant scholar, got angry when she wrote about the talented duchess. She said, "The poor woman must be a little partial. She doesn't do anything stupid to write a book, and what's more It’s poetry, it’s not so ridiculous, if I don’t sleep for half a month, I can’t reach that.” Osborne himself didn’t think that his book would still be read as a precious literary work thousands of years later On the contrary, it is bigger and longer than that "a woman who is a bit biased and dares to write a book" in the limelight!

(End of this chapter)