The eldest mother is the "wet nurse" of Lu Xun's spirit.
Should "Ah Chang" be pronounced as "a′cháng" or "a′zhǎng"? After checking some information, I found that both pronunciations were mentioned. According to the Ah Chang (zhǎng) faction, Lu Xun was the eldest son, and his nanny was also called Ah Chang (zhǎng). The Chang (cháng) faction quoted the original text as evidence, "There is no one with the surname Chang there; she was born yellow, fat and short, and 'long' is not an adjective. ... Previously, there was a female worker in my family who was born very tall. This is the real A Chang. Later she went back, and...she became the eldest mother from then on."
Ordinary people like to name people based on their physical characteristics, such as Zhang Daguo, Fatty Li, and Wang Mazi. The eldest mother was “yellow, fat and short”, so “long” should not describe her height, neither her surname nor her given name. Obviously, “long” has nothing to do with her at all. She originally had her own name, but it seemed like she didn't have one. It was so vague that no one could tell clearly. "Ah Chang" is the name of a female worker from "previously". She came as a substitute. Because everyone was used to it, "she became the eldest mother from now on."
I prefer the latter.
In short, the name is just a code, it doesn't matter what you read. Lu Xun wanted to say a few more words about his name because Chinese names represent rich content and are sometimes symbols of status. By speculating on the nanny's name, it is revealed that Chang's status is so lowly that she doesn't even have a name. The so-called name belongs to someone else. She is just a substitute, just a habit of the master.
In it, faintly, delicate and profound sadness flows.
If it is pronounced as "a′zhǎng", it has a grade, which dilutes the tragic color.
The same technique is also used in "The True Story of Ah Q" and is described vividly. A rich person can have several names, but a poor person can have none. If you want to fight, your life is in danger.
However, the eldest mother is the "wet nurse" of Lu Xun's spirit.
Lu Xun also mentioned his mother many times in his works, including "Hometown", "She Opera", "A Chang and the Classic of Mountains and Seas", and "Preface to the Scream", but they all faded into the background, without any emotional color, far away. It's not as vivid and plump as Ah Chang's image. The emotional gap between his mother and Lu Xun, the mother-child complex, Lu Xun's heart is full of emotions, and readers may only discover it occasionally from Lu Xun's works. In 1934, Lu Xun wrote a letter to his mother when he was in Shanghai: "My dear mother, I bow down to you...three days ago I bought twelve volumes of "The Golden Fen Family" and three volumes of "Beauty's Grace", all of which were written by Zhang Henshui. Written in two packages, sent by World Book Company, I have thought about it, but I have never read it, so I don’t know what the content is..." After reading this, we know that Lu Xun’s mother is a "novel fan" of Zhang Henshui. But Lu Xun didn't even look at it.
Among the ten articles of "Morning Flowers Picked at Dusk", four of them mention Ah Chang, namely "From Baicao Garden to Sanwei Bookstore", "Twenty-Four Filial Piety Pictures", "Cat, Mouse and Dog" and "Wuchanghui". There is also "A Chang and the Classic of Mountains and Seas" which is specially recalled and commemorated. In this way, Ah Chang became the first heroine in "Morning Blossoms Picked Up at Dusk".
Lu Xun used light language to express his very tender and deep memories to Ah Chang, such as "Ah Chang and the Classic of Mountains and Seas".
People who read this article for the first time would think that Lu Xun didn’t like Ah Chang, but later he liked Ah Chang again because she bought "The Classic of Mountains and Seas". If so, the work loses any meaning.
The key to understanding the work is to read that there are two subjects in the text. One is Lu Xun as a child, and the other is Lu Xun at the age of forty-five. The latter is the main theme of this article. Five or six-year-old children, being disciplined by adults, cause complaints and anger, which truly reflects an innocent and simple child's judgment and feelings about people and things. I'm disgusted that she caused "little troubles" by "checking and checking". I'm angry that her sleep takes up my room to turn around and make an ugly "big one". I complain about her trivial rules. What's even more disgusting is that she actually murdered Mole. Rat, the young Brother Xun resented her.
"From Baicao Garden to Sanwei Bookstore" has clear artistic conception, bright colors and joyful emotions, which are rare in Lu Xun's works. Nanny Ah Chang, Runtu's father, and mentor Shou Jingwu were all Lu Xun's favorites. The story of the eldest mother was so magical and confusing that it deeply attracted Brother Xun's attention and disturbed Brother Xun's dreams from time to time. "Of course I can't sleep. In the middle of the night, it really came, rustling! It seemed like there was wind and rain outside the door. "Sound." I was so frightened that my soul was about to come out. "What happened next? Later, the old monk said that this was a flying centipede that could suck the brains of snakes, and the beautiful snake was killed by it." This was a conversation between an old man and a young child. When Lu Xun became an adult, he always asked "what about in the future" in everything? It was probably his eldest mother who trained him at that time. After telling the story, we must also draw lessons, "So if a strange voice calls your name, you must not answer it." It had a profound influence on Lu Xun and enlightened Lu Xun's literary talent.
The eldest mother has a very good storytelling ability. Lu Xun mentioned it many times in his works and expressed his deep admiration for it. "Twenty-Four Filial Piety Pictures" "Even illiterate people, such as Ah Chang, can tell the story of this period just by looking at the picture." It can be seen that Ah Chang is also an extremely smart woman. If you were alive now, you must be a storyteller. To be a teacher, you must also be an excellent Chinese teacher.
However, there are times when a eldest mother is useless. "I'm going to Dongguan to see the Wuchang Festival. This is a rare event in my childhood... I laughed and jumped, urging them to move quickly... Mother, worker, eldest mother is A Chang , are unable to rescue..." ("Wuchanghui") Faced with his father's strict test, he "just waited silently for me to learn it well and memorize it" so that Lu Xun almost lamented more than thirty years later. asked: "When I think about it, I am still surprised why my father asked me to endorse it at that time."
Compared with the eldest mother, my father is such a rotten scholar who "doesn't understand current affairs". , in the heart of young Lu Xun, he was simply a devil.
Lu Xun was lonely in his childhood. The dull family atmosphere and the lifeless private school studies could not satisfy Lu Xun's thirst for knowledge and imagination at all. It was the eldest mother who decorated this lonely night sky with countless stars and beautified Lu Xun's childhood dream. The stars are bright and will accompany you throughout your life. "When I look up at the flowing clouds someday," these dew-bearing flowers "will twinkle before my eyes." (Quotation from "Morning Blossoms Plucked at Dusk") When the current situation is "bizarre" and "my heart is so complicated", I hear "there are still voices in front of me that are always urging me, calling me, making me unable to rest", "my feet are too early" It was torn, there were many wounds, and there was a lot of blood." But "I had no choice but to leave." ("Passenger")
Soon after, the family declined. Lu Xun had more contact with the working people at the bottom, saw the true face of the rich, and formed his social outlook - "lower class people" are pure and sincere , the "upper class" are dirty and hypocritical. These further prompted him to completely betray the class he was born into when he became an adult and became a "hero raised on animal breasts" (Herzen's words). Herzen was a revolutionary thinker of noble origin in Russia in the first half of the 19th century. He praised The Decembrists, who aimed to overthrow the feudal rule of the Tsar, were "a large group of heroes raised on animal breasts... These are heroes made of pure steel from head to toe, and they are brave warriors who consciously go through fire and water to achieve their goals." Please awaken the younger generation to a new life, and wash away the dirt on the children who grew up among executioners and slaves.")
Lu Xun paid attention to the people at the bottom, and what affected his emotions was exploitation. Oppress the weak.
His works are the most powerful proof. In narrative works, the protagonists mainly include:
Female workers—Ah Chang and Xianglin’s Wife;
Helpers—also the so-called marginalized people in society today—Ah Q and Kong Yiji , Wei Lianshu;
Monks and nuns—Master Long, Little Nun;
Farmers—Runtu;
Urban poor—Hua Laoshuan, Juansheng ;
Those who were killed—Xia Yu and Zijun;
Lu Xun felt pain and sorrow for them.
This kind of pain and sorrow is completely different from the compassionate feelings of feudal literati, such as Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Su Shi, etc., who looked down on the people and sympathized with all living beings. Sympathy is selfless and has no subject. The subject stands outside the circle and watches. Lu Xun's pain is "I" integrated into it, "the pain penetrates the bone marrow and affects the heart and lungs." Whenever I think of these characters, the pain that penetrates my hands and feet will become "softer" and become "comfortable". ("Revenge Part 2")