This novel is written with the first person "I"-a boy of 12 years old from a unique angle, which makes the whole text authentic and has a strong appeal. "Children's words are unbridled", a boy of 12 years old, has no prejudice or scruples about all people and things, so he writes freely, which is convenient for expressing the author's warm and cold thoughts and feelings. I am both a bystander and a participant. From a child's point of view, he is a comedy character that is extremely out of harmony with his surroundings. Writing sadness with joy makes sadness even sadder.
At that time-1918 the feudal imperial examination system has been abolished, the social environment in which Kong Yiji lived no longer exists, and the characters and story lines cannot be unfolded. Stories written 20 years ago can better express the theme, thus "attracting medical attention".
With extremely frugal pen and ink and typical details of life, the author created the image of Kong Yiji, a scholar who was cruelly abandoned at the bottom of society, lived in poverty and was finally swallowed up by powerful dark forces. Kong Yiji's pitiful and ridiculous personality and tragic ending are not only vivid portrayal of the unfortunate fate of the broad masses of lower-class intellectuals in old China, but also the concrete expression of the "cannibalism" essence of the feudal traditional cultural atmosphere in China. It reveals the indifference of feudal society, the indifference and numbness of people, and the cruelty of society to the unfortunate, which reflects the decay and morbidity of feudal society from one side.
Feudal order is the foundation of feudal society. Under such a hierarchical feudal rule, the people's vitality, enthusiasm and sympathy were stifled and they became insensitive, selfish and indifferent. In the short coat gang's mind, it is also believed that since "learning to be excellent is an official", Kong Yiji, who can't even catch half a scholar, is of course a rotten product, which is only worth mocking and making fun of. They didn't realize that they were at the bottom of the oppressed society like Kong Yiji under the feudal order, which was also very tragic, so they didn't sympathize with and help such an unfortunate person as Kong Yiji. On the contrary, they only know how to laugh in a tired and depressed life and seek a moment of happiness.
Kong Yiji was a weak person who couldn't find his place in the society at that time. He used everyone's laughter to run through such a sad story, which set off and strengthened the tragic effect of the novel. This kind of guffaw is a numb laugh, which adds a suffocating sadness to Kong Yiji's tragedy. On the one hand, it is tragic experience and pain, on the other hand, it is not sympathy and tears, but boring jokes and fun. It is even more sad to write sadness in a happy environment, which shows that Kong Yiji's tragedy is not a personal tragedy, but a social tragedy, and the anti-feudal significance of his works is far-reaching.
Lu Xun's symbolic realism is an important reason why his realistic novels are more complicated and profound than other contemporary novels. Unfortunately, at present, most people only pay attention to Diary of a Madman and Medicine. This novel is short of breath and not the best. Another representative work of Lu Xun symbolizing realism is Hometown, in which the symbol of hometown is also a powerful symbol of old China. These two symbols become a matching pair. "Hometown" takes hometown as a microcosm, and people's events take place in the house, while "Luzhen" focuses on hotels that are open, and the tragedy takes place at the counter on the street.
In his life experience, Lu Xun combed out some characteristics related to Kong Yiji, a typical image of the old intellectuals, among many related figures, and then shaped a series of symbolic images, scenes and dialogues. It is precisely because of this structure that this novel with only more than 2,000 words can produce a powerful explosive force.
When reading Kong Yiji, the first impression is that its visual image is particularly strong. Lu Xun condensed Kong Yiji's complicated life into a series of sculptures from the narrative discourse that should have been used. Kong Yiji appeared only four times in the novel, and Lu Xun replaced many narrative words with statues every time. Kong Yiji first appeared in Xianheng Hotel in this image: worse.
The first sentence "Kong Yiji is the only one standing drinking and wearing a gown" is the main feature of this statue. It is a portrayal of Kong Yiji's life, including his identity, life experience, personality and social background of his life. He is a striking tall man, because he used to be an educated man, and only fell into poverty after failing to catch half a scholar, so that his legs were broken when stealing. Finally, he appeared, broke his leg, and crawled along. No one in the counter could see him. It was a symbol that he was trampled and knocked down. His rags are a sign of his inner consciousness, and he can't forget the noble status of a scholar and a gentleman. He is tall (strong) and works, poisoned by old ideas, and let him be trampled by people of the upper and lower classes.
Kong Yiji "often has some scars between wrinkles on his face", and these old and new scars contain a lot of social cruelty and his own lazy character. Kong Yiji's tragedy is twofold. On the one hand, he is the tragedy of an old scholar, and also the tragedy of oppression and humiliation of the bottom society.
The second time Kong Yiji appeared in the novel, he appeared with this statue, and there was a little buddy beside him: Kong Yiji just dipped his nails in wine and wanted to write on the counter. When he saw that I was not enthusiastic, he sighed again and looked sorry.
When Kong Yiji made his third appearance, he was even surrounded by a group of children. "He gave each of them an fennel bean." The statue is engraved with him and the children. This shows that there is a kind and sincere heart in his pedantic thoughts. He is better than others in Xianheng Hotel, honest and never in arrears. His sigh is not only because he realized his inferiority complex and became the object of contempt, ridicule, bullying and insult, but also because the younger generation actually joined the masses who took pleasure in the shame and pain of others. He thinks that adult society is ruthless, so he seeks comfort from children, but they are also realistic ("all eyes are on the dishes"), desperate (they dare not be shopkeepers, so they don't need to learn to write) and heartless ("Is a beggar worth testing me?" )。
On his fourth and last appearance, Lu Xun suddenly reduced the originally tall Kong Yiji to a beggar with a broken leg and walking with his hands: his face was black and thin, and his figure was out of shape; Wearing a shabby cotton-padded jacket, his legs crossed, and there was a cattail bag under it ... His hands were covered with mud, so it turned out that he walked with this hand ... Kong Yiji, who is tall, can't stand up now. Because he stole some books, paper, pens and inkstones, he was hung up and beaten, and finally his leg was broken. Lu Xun used this statue to represent Kong Yiji's eternal and final tragedy.
Sun Fuyuan said in a brief account of Lu Xun's love for Kong Yiji: "The main intention of the author of Kong Yiji is to describe cool thin, who is suffering in the general society." So when we read Kong Yiji, we may not always put it in the specific social environment of China to explain its significance.
In the past, most people explained it from the perspective of the poison of the imperial examination system to the Chinese people. Kong Yiji represented a typical old intellectual and became a victim of feudal society. But as Lu Xun said, "whoever enters the novel as a whole, if the author is clever and the work lasts forever, what the reader sees is the people in the book, which has nothing to do with the people who once existed." Therefore, he insisted that to understand A Dream of Red Mansions, we should not pursue Cao, but learn from him the significance of Jia Baoyu or his novels. Because "life is limited, but art is more eternal." Similarly, we can read Kong Yiji beyond the specific social background of China when writing, which is also of universal significance.
When we don't confine this novel to China's feudal society, it is "a sober reflection describing the suffering people in general society". This kind of bitter people, all over the world. This cool thin society, no matter ancient or modern, will not disappear today or tomorrow.
On the surface, Lu Xun wrote about the society and China people in China in the late Qing Dynasty. In fact, he also expressed an eternal tragedy of mankind and its society. On the surface, Kong Yiji was poisoned by the imperial examination system. "Everything is inferior, only reading is high", but he is also a universal symbol of the conflict between individuals and society. In any country, any society, how many people, like Kong Yiji, are not accepted by the society and laughed at, bullied and insulted by the masses, just for different reasons.
Kong Yiji represents the conflict between ideal or fantasy and real society, and his tragedy lies in his confusion between fantasy and fact. In the imperial examination era, stealing books was not a shameful or even a criminal act. After he got into this old habit, society changed. So Xianheng Hotel, a small society, will always be a trap to bury Kong Yiji and kill him.
Today, from the east to the west, how many people live according to their own thoughts, ideals, fantasies or values, but he doesn't understand or wake up. He lives in a dream, and the society he lives in simply can't accommodate such people. Reading Kong Yiji outside the framework of imperial examination, we can feel the richness and universal significance of this novel.