Zhou Zuo-ren: The Finding Of 'Traditional Scholars'

After the climax of the "May 4th" period,Zhou Zuo-ren found that nothing have been changed except the prosperity of some new words.It is to say,New Literary Movement,whose aim is to rebel itself,only changed in the "words" and the final results was the appearance of some writers who often used the "new words".Their thoughts and feelings had nothing to do with tradition,but they thought they were "new people" and the new thoughts,only changed in the "words",turning into the tools that could seek exorbitant profits for themselves.So,with the emergence of revolutionary literati,Zhou Zuo-ren doubted that whether "people" only were their signboard.On one side,Zhou Zuo-ren reminded the revolutionary writers that in China,ordinary people didn't have their own thoughts,and their thoughts were scholars' thoughts;On the other side,he come into "tradition" to look for what was true thoughts and feelings of traditional scholars.Through learning from tradition,Zhou Zuo-ren pointed out that the essence of the scholars' thoughts was eight-part essay and Neo-Confucianism.The former was the spirit of opportunism and changing and the later was the spirit of the three cardinal guides.Both of them caused Chinese upheaval.The real "Principle"(the "rule of human beings")should be resulted from the deep observation of the ways of the world,upon this point Zhou Zuo-ren asked himself:whether what we spouted during the 'May 4th' period was out of the observation of human being principles instead of making eight-part essay? From then on,he determined not to be a "Didactic Spurer",but strived to be an observer of the ways of the world,this was what the researchers called "the Direction Turn"of Zhou Zuo-ren beginning in 1924.His devoted investigation into the real life behind the secular faith of the mass was one of the cases.The Direction Turn of Zhou Zuo-ren was also reflected in his articles,which were required by himself to "start from trifles" and "take the irrelevancy as the purpose".The reason for him to advocate 'starting from the.trifles' when composing articles was that Zhou Zuo-ren noticed that there were authentic living creatures among trifles,which were neglected by the traditional article composing rules dedicating to apply principles to assist education without saying anything about the trivial things. Further more,those 'starting-from-the-trifles' articles conveyed Zhou Zuo-ren's blessing to the 'true' lives of the common mass.Knowing this,it will be helpful for us to understand the essence of the "May 4th New Literature" or "Modern Literature".The reason for Zhou Zuo-ren to propose " take the irrelevancy as the purpose " was that he has found the secret that "Orthodoxy Literature" was instead not so reasonable."Orthodoxy Literature" was only to conjecture the subject topic(containing principles),but not to experience and observe the ways of the world(speaking ideals).It was unreasonable but on the contrary,it also aimed to defend the conventional moral principles and avoid evil spirits,so it had to bravado,which would make the article arrogant and rough.However, if not made an issue of the subject but spoke out the understanding of the worldly wisdom directly,the article would appear insipid and natural.Knowing this,it can help us comprehend what Zhou Zuo-ren had been persuing in his "insipid and natural" compositions.What Zhou Zuo-ren provided us was an opportunity to face ourselves:every Chinese should struggle out from the "inherited scholarism".