There is an ancient Chinese saying that literati are contemptuous of each other, which means that literati are not convinced by each other, after all, there is no first in literature, no second in martial arts, and the good and bad of literature are all in their own eyes, which has caused such a situation.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the ranking of modern writers in the mainland was "Lu Guo Maoba Lao Cao", and it can be seen that Mr. Lu Xun deserved to be the first, and Guo Moruo was second.
These two people can't look down on anyone, and they often "criticize each other" and have a "literary fight".
The strange thing is that these two pen and ink rivals who have been fighting each other for half a century have never met, which fully reflects the arrogance of the literati.
But when Lu Xun died, Guo Moruo sincerely wrote a pair of fleshy couplets, reflecting his respect for Lu Xun.
1. Entanglements in the early years
Lu Xun is more than ten years older than Guo Moruo, and the two also have the experience of studying in Japan, and Lu Xun has been famous for a long time, and he is also willing to promote his juniors.
According to common sense, in such an era when left-wing writers are united, Lu Xun and Guo Moruo should be able to form a deep friendship, but they were hostile for a long time.
In 1920, at the age of 39, Lu Xun had already become a teacher at Peking University, and "Diary of a Madman" had been published for two years, and his status in the Chinese literary world had risen rapidly.
Especially after the May Fourth Movement, the new youth ushered in an ideological revolution, and it became a trend to read Lu Xun's articles and study Lu Xun's thoughts.
On the one hand, after the abdication of Emperor Xuantong, the emancipation of the mind has become an irreversible trend, and all the readers in the country are thinking about where China should go, and Lu Xun's articles are very sharp, which has allowed him to capture a large number of readers, and young students have taken Lu Xun as the spiritual banner.
But Guo Moruo doesn't think so, it was also in 1920, compared to the flourishing Lu Xun, Guo Moruo had just emerged in the literary world, and he was working on translating "Faust" at that time, perhaps because he was deeply influenced by Western literature, Guo Moruo was a little uninterested in Lu Xun's articles.
He believes that Lu Xun's portrayal of the people at the bottom is too sharp, which is completely a sense of class superiority, and Mr. Lu Xun's novels are also very boring, and Guo Moruo can't even read them.
This is very understandable, those low-level people in Mr. Lu Xun's pen are all living in the old feudal society, and only by completely breaking the reality in front of them can these people react a little bit.
The reason why Lu Xun's pen is so spicy is because he hates iron and steel, and for this young literati who are not confused, the more critical he writes, the less ignorant Chinese people can be.
Guo Moruo is too young, and too early to become famous, at this time he felt that he could have a better tomorrow by relying on personal efforts, so Lu Xun's thoughts he completely disagreed, the following year Guo Moruo founded the Creation Society, the first shot aimed at Lu Xun.
The Creation Society wrote a large number of articles criticizing Lu Xun's "Scream" as a "gimmick", which also made the Creation Society quickly open up its popularity.
In the face of the "means" of the juniors, Lu Xun seemed very generous, he just said that Guo Moruo was too radical and unscrupulous for the sake of "traffic".
Lu Xun's indifference made Guo Moruo feel guilty, in view of Lu Xun's identity as the big brother of students studying in Japan, he proposed cooperation, and the two ran "Creation Weekly" together.
2. Relationship breakdown
When "Creation Weekly" was first born, there was a small episode between the two, because of Guo Moruo's status as an international student, the newspapers and periodicals he ran naturally attracted many students who returned from studying in Japan, but among these students, some people were very disgusted with Lu Xun.
In fact, it is still a matter of style, in the revolutionary era, understanding and getting close to the toiling masses is the only way to go, and if we talk about saving the country without talking about rescuing the toiling masses, it is not a revolution.
Lu Xun's articles and novels write the bottom of the old society too realistically, and Ah Q, Xianglin's sister-in-law, Runtu and others are all successful images of the old society.
The students thought that Lu Xun was satirizing them and looking down on them, even if he wanted to reflect the style of the old times, he could not use it in this way.
Guo Moruo first admonished these international students, after all, Lu Xun is a big brother and can't do this.
But as there were more and more opponents, Guo Moruo had no choice but to end the cooperation between the two.
But these are all trivial matters, and Lu Xun will not really take it to heart, and it was the "4.12 coup" that led to the final breakdown of the relationship between the two.
Guo Moruo wrote an article criticizing Lao Chiang, saying that his various actions were betrayal of the country and the revolution, and he went into exile in Japan because of this.
It happened that the members of the Creation Society choked Lu Xun by writing articles during this period, and Lu Xun was a person who was not convinced by anyone, so he immediately wrote two articles and ridiculed them back.
After Guo Moruo in Japan learned about it, he was so angry that he felt that Lu Xun was falling into a well, so he shouted that Lu Xun was a counter-revolutionary, and the scolding war between the two officially began.
In fact, before the "4.12" coup, Mr. Lu Xun had already had contact with our party, and after the coup d'état, he actively rescued the students involved, but unfortunately he did not succeed, and then resigned angrily to make his position clear.
It can be seen that in the face of the righteousness of the family and the country, in fact, Lu Xun and Guo Moruo's attitude is the same, both of them are good literati who love the country and the people, and they are both treasures of the Chinese nation.
3. Guo's elegiac couplet
In 1930, after the founding of the Left League, Lu Xun established his position among left-wing writers, and many people who had written articles criticizing Lu Xun before came to reconcile with him, but Guo Moruo did not.
In the previous scolding war, Lu and Guo attacked each other from the beginning, to picking words in each other's articles, scolding each other for being uneducated, and then attacking their private lives, ending with Lu Xun's "talent and hooligan".
If Guo Moruo is defeated, in terms of quarrels, Lu Xun has not lost.
It is precisely because of this that Guo Moruo does not want to see Lu Xun, Guo Moruo has a lonely and courageous attitude, he believes that the current China can only continue to move forward and use development to solve problems.
Lu Xun didn't see it that way, he went from rich to poor, and from poor to rich, and read all the sufferings of the world along the way. Therefore, he believes that the development of everything is regular, and if he wants to build a new China, he must not be in a hurry, let alone believe in heroism, and vainly try to rely on the strength of a few elites to lead the people to a republic.
In 1936, Mr. Lu Xun, who had fought all his life, died of illness, and after Guo Moruo learned about it, he felt a little lonely for the first time, this man was like a dark cloud, and he couldn't surpass it in his life.
In the end, he wrote an elegy for Lu Xun: "Lu Xun is a rushing stream, a waterfall, and a rapid, but there will always be Lu Xun's sea in the future; Lu Xun is frost and snow, hail, and constant cold, but there will always be Lu Xun's spring in the future. ”
Some people think that this pair is too numb, but they don't know that this is the last sympathy for their confidants.
Source: China National Knowledge Network "Guo Moruo's Handwriting Treasured in Shanghai Lu Xun Memorial Hall" Wu Changhua