Originally:

The end of the old calendar is, after all, most like the end of the year, and in the villages and towns, needless to say, even in the sky the weather of the coming New Year is apparent. The heavy gray-white evening clouds in the middle of the flashes, followed by a dull sound, is to send the stove firecrackers; close to the burning can be even more intense, ear-splitting loud sound has not yet been rested, the air is already full of subtle gunpowder scent. I am returning to my hometown of Luzhen on this night.

Though my hometown is my hometown, I don't have a home anymore, so I have to stay in the mansion of Mr. Lu. He is my family, a generation older than me, I should be called "Uncle Four", is an old scholar of science. He did not change much than before, only a little older, but also the end of the beard, a meeting is pleasantries, pleasantries, after saying that I "fat", said I "fat" after that is to scold its new party.

But I know, this is not the subject in scolding me: because he scolded or Kang Youwei. But the conversation was never congenial, and I was soon left alone in my study.

The next day I got up late, and after lunch went out to see some of my family and friends; and the third day was the same. They hadn't changed much, they were just a little older, but they were all busy at home preparing for the "blessing". This is the end of the year ceremony in Luzhen, to pay homage and greet the God of Fortune, and to pray for good luck in the coming year.

Kill the chickens, slaughter the geese, buy the pork, and wash them carefully, the women's arms are dipped in the water and red, and some of them have silver bracelets with strings. After cooking, the horizontal and vertical insertion of some chopsticks in such things, can be called "blessed gift", five days to display up, and light incense and candles, and invite the gods of blessing to enjoy, worship is limited to men, worship is still naturally firecrackers.

This is how it is done every year, every family - as long as they can afford to buy the blessings and firecrackers and so on - and naturally this year as well.

The sky is getting darker and darker, and in the afternoon it started snowing, with snowflakes as big as plum blossoms, flying all over the sky, interspersed with smoke and mist and a busy atmosphere that messed up the town of Lu. When I returned to my fourth uncle's study, the corrugations were already snow-white, and the room reflected brighter.

It was very clear to see the large Zhu Tuo "longevity" character hanging on the wall, written by Chen Tuan Laozu, one side of the couplet has been detached, loosely rolled up and placed on the long table, while the other side is still there, it says, "the matter of understanding the peace of mind". I was bored again to the desk under the window to turn over, only to see a pile of may not be complete "Kangxi Dictionary", a "near Si Lu Jizhi" and a "four books lining". In any case, I'm definitely leaving tomorrow.

In addition, until yesterday, I met Xianglin's wife's matter, also makes me can't settle down. It was in the afternoon, I went to the east end of the town to visit a friend, and when I came out, I met her by the river; and seeing the sight of her staring eyes, I knew that she was coming towards me. Of all the people I have seen in Luzhen this time, I can say that none has changed more than she has.

Five years ago, the white hair, that is now all white, will not be like forty or so people; face thin Pikan, yellow with black, and eliminated the previous sad look, as if it is a wooden carving; only that eyeballs occasionally a round, can still indicate that she is a living thing. She carried a bamboo basket in one hand. In one hand was a broken bowl, empty; in the other a bamboo pole, longer than she was, cracked at the lower end: she was clearly purely a beggar.

Source: from Lu Xun's short story "Blessing".

Expanded:

Background:

The 1920s was a period of development of the New Culture Movement in China. Lu Xun hailed the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution with great enthusiasm, but soon he saw that after the Xinhai Revolution, although the imperial regime was overthrown, it was replaced by the rule of the warlord bureaucrats of the landlord class, and the foundation of feudal society was not completely destroyed.

The Chinese people in general, and the peasants in particular, lived a life of hunger and cold, and the patriarchal concepts and feudal rites were still the spiritual shackles that weighed on the heads of the people. Against this social background, and driven by a sense of personal responsibility to society, on February 7, 1924, Mr. Lu Xun wrote this novel.

Through the depiction of the tragic life of Xianglin's wife, the article reflects the social contradictions after the Xinhai Revolution as well as the real face of China's countryside, profoundly reveals the destruction and persecution of the landlord class against the working people, especially the working women, and the cannibalistic nature of feudalism, and points out the necessity of a thorough anti-feudalism.