On October 12, 1925, the "Beijing News Supplement" published a translated poem titled " mourns the death of ". What people read from the poem is a deep condolences for brotherly love:
I walked into the distance. The long journey, crossing the vast sea, brother, I came to your tomb to offer you some sacrifices as a final offering. Say goodbye suddenly to your silent dust, because her goddess of fate, who gives and takes away suddenly, has taken you away. I follow the ancient tradition and display these sad sacrifices on your tomb: Brother, please accept these things. They have made me cry. From now on, we will never be separated from each other. Brother, I only ask you. A word of 'Cherish'!
In August 1926, a collection of novels called "Wandering" was published, in which people read a short story also titled "Sorrow". At the end of the novel were the following lines:
I am still only able to sing. Zijun's cries were buried in oblivion. I want to forget; I am doing it for myself, and I will no longer think about using forgetfulness to pay tribute to Zijun. I want to take the first step towards a new life. I want to hide the truth deeply in the trauma of my heart, move forward silently, and use forgetfulness and lies as my guide... October 20, 1925 Finished in one day.
The translator of the previous poem is named Zhou Zuoren. He is also called "Qimeng" in his brother's diary. The author of the latter novel is named Zhou Shuren . He is more respectfully called "Mr. Lu Xun", but he was eventually recorded as "L" in his brother's diary.
Mr. Lu Xun
The initial growth paths of Lu Xun and his second brother Zhou Zuoren were almost the same. In that unfortunate family where the grandfather was in jail and the father died young, it was the tough and strong mother Lu Rui who sent their brothers out of the house one by one with hard-working hands.
The two brothers who left their hometown in Shaoxing went to the same city (Nanjing) and studied in the same school (Jiangnan Naval Academy). Later, the young brothers successively became government-funded students and got the opportunity to study in Japan at public expense.
Lu Xun entered Tokyo Hongbun College in 1902 and transferred to Sendai Medical College two years later. Two years later, he gave up medicine to pursue literature and stayed in Tokyo to focus on literary translation.
Zhou Zuoren entered Hosei University in 1906 to study naval technology, and then transferred to Tokyo Rikkyo University to study foreign languages, and finally embarked on the path of studying literature.
During this period, the brothers collaborated to translate some Eastern European literary novels and published them under the name " Foreign Novels Collection ". This collection of foreign literary works translated from classical Chinese was said to have sold only more than 20 copies when it was first published, but this did not dampen the brothers' literary enthusiasm.
"Collection of Foreign Novels"
When they were in Japan, they made a living by proofreading manuscripts for others, supporting their life journey of pursuing their dreams in foreign countries, and writing articles that echoed each other from time to time. For example, the elder brother wrote " Cultural Parts on " to call for spiritual strength, and the younger brother wrote "Reading Miscellaneous Collects (2)" to sing with his brother; the elder brother wrote " Moro Poetry on " to explore cultural values, and the younger brother wrote "Ai Xian" Chapter "Sing harmony with my brother.
In 1909 and 1911, the two brothers left Japan and returned to China. People have observed and commented on the ideological experience of Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren studying in Japan, and believed that Lu Xun's in-depth experience of "entering into self-awareness" represented the ideological height of those studying in Japan at that time. Zhou Zuoren also reached the same depth, but he also gained an additional cultural experience that was "in harmony" with Japan.
This so-called "Concord" is Zhou Zuoren's almost forgetful cultural investment and recognition of Japan.
However, this kind of immersion and appreciation of Japanese culture is undoubtedly extremely dangerous when viewed from the perspective of the entanglement between China and Japan in the modern history. It can even be regarded as the early root cause of the two brothers eventually taking different paths.
Why do the two brothers have such different experiences? Zhou Zuoren personally told the whole story in his later memoirs:
"I had a very happy life studying abroad in Tokyo in the past few years. I did not encounter any bullying from the apartment owner or the police, or anything bigger. International events, such as the excitement of the killing of Chinese detectives in the Russo-Japanese War, were encountered by Lu Xun. In the first few years of Xiang's career, Lu Xun handled most of the foreign affairs on my behalf, so it was even more peaceful and uneventful. The reason for the good impression. "
The current situation and his brother created a calm and peaceful comfort for him. It was this comfort that allowed him to leisurely enter the depths of Japanese culture. Even Hu Shi once said with envy: "How many people can appreciate the true culture of Japan like Mr. Zhou Zuoren?"
Lu Xun (third from left) during his stay in Japan
Brothers after returning to China The two life journeys were roughly the same. Lu Xun taught at Zhejiang Normal School and Shaoxing Middle School, while Zhou Zuoren taught at Zhejiang Provincial No. 5 Senior High School. Later, the two brothers worked respectively in the Ministry of Education of the Beiyang Government and the School of Liberal Arts of Peking University. The family eventually left Shaoxing and moved to Beijing.
Lu Xun entered Beijing on May 5, 1912. During the next four years and seven months, Zhou Zuoren worked as an English teacher in middle schools in Zhejiang. The geographical distance actually became a catalyst for the brotherly relationship, and the two maintained a high frequency of correspondence during this period.
By the time Zhou Zuoren arrived in Beijing on March 27, 1917, Lu Xun had written 445 letters to his younger brother in these four years and seven months, while Zhou Zuoren had written 443 letters to his elder brother. The two of them combined 888 letters. It is no exaggeration to say that these two brothers are either writing letters or on the way to send letters, either reading letters or on the way to get letters. So much so that Xu Guangping mentioned this period of time in "Memoirs of Lu Xun" and said with emotion: "The friendship and brotherhood in the world are so joyful and extraordinary."
This should be the best brotherly relationship between Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren. 4 years and 7 months. If you don’t believe it, you can take out your mobile phone and look through your contact records to see how the relationship between the person you have been in contact with for the past four or five years is like.
In the next two years, the brothers probably lived in rented houses in Beijing. It was not until 1919 that they sold their ancestral home in Shaoxing and bought a larger house in Badaowan, Beijing. In November 1919, Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren's family moved into their new residence. On December 29, the whole family including the old mother Lu Rui, the third brother Zhou Jianren left Shao for Beijing, and a big family was established in their new home in Badaowan.
Badaowan Lu Xun's Former Residence
This is not only to make up for the debt to the mother and the third brother, but also for the eldest and second eldest son to fulfill their promise to "never separate the family".
According to the recollections of Lu Xun’s neighbor Yu Fang in his early years, Lu Xun’s mother, Mrs. Lu Rui, once said this about her three sons:
“They have said in front of me more than once that in the future the three brothers will never We separated. Mr. Eldest and Mr. Second went out to study. Mr. Three had been weak and sick since he was a child. I didn’t trust him to leave me, and the family really didn’t have any money at that time. So, Mr. Eldest and Mr. Second decided after discussion. They go out to study, so you three gentlemen can stay in Shaoxing, take care of the housework, and accompany me. Then they can find some work in Shaoxing and study on their own. The eldest, second and third sons naturally refer to her three sons Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren and Zhou Jianren. Growing up is a very cruel thing. Children and brothers are only one family when they are young. When they grow up, they inevitably separate and set up households. It is not uncommon for them to even have hatred and resentment and not interact with each other.
As a mother reaches her twilight years, it is probably the greatest gratification for her to see her adult sons living together as one family, without distinction between you and me. It was this dream that prompted Lu Xun to form a big family in Badaowan, Beijing.
But the process of realization was not smooth sailing. According to Xu Guangping's recollection, when he sold his ancestral home in Shaoxing, his second brother Zhou Zuoren had different ideas about the use of the money obtained. At that time, Zhou Zuoren had been married to his Japanese wife Nobuko Hata for ten years and had three children. Therefore, Zhou Zuoren hoped to allocate a share of the money to run his own family of five.
Zhou Zuoren
In fact, with Zhou Zuoren's social status as a writer and professor at that time and his considerable salary income, he was able to purchase real estate and support his wife and children, even without paying for the sale of his ancestral home. Of course, it is reasonable and understandable for him to make such a request.
Even if Zhou Zuoren's wish had been true and the three brothers had separated and established families, then perhaps the two literary brothers of the Zhou family would not have taken such a decisive different path three years and eight months later.
At that time, Lu Xun insisted on his dream of building a big family and rejected Zhou Zuoren's request. So, on December 19, 1919, at the Zhou family's new home in Badaowan, Beijing, the mother and son seemed to have returned to the days when they lived together in Shaoxing. They were accompanied by three sisters-in-law and five grandchildren.
The three sisters-in-law are Zhu An (Lu Xun's legal wife), Yuta Nobuko (Zhou Zuoren's Japanese wife), and Yuta Yoshiko (Yu Taixinzi's sister, Zhou Jianren's wife). Among the three people, Zhu An is probably a woman who lives in peace with the world. Her most passionate job is to serve her mother-in-law and fulfill the filial duty of a daughter-in-law. And Yoshiko followed the lead of her sister Nobuko, so this strong-willed wife of Zhou Zuoren became the general housekeeper of the big family.
Regarding the personality and deeds of this second sister-in-law, the third brother Zhou Jianren once recalled: "In Shaoxing, my mother was the head of the house. After arriving in Beijing, Zhou Zuoren's wife was the head of the house. Japanese women are known as docile and frugal. , but unexpectedly, Zhou Zuoren encountered an exception. . She was not from a wealthy family, but she was very wealthy, had a lot of arrogance, and spent money like water. "
The operating model of this big family is that Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren are responsible for making money, and each pays their salary. It was given to Yuta Nobuko for management and use, and everyone else, including Zhou Jianren, had no source of income.
In 1920, the year after the big family was established, the Ministry of Education of the Beiyang government was unable to pay salaries due to financial constraints. Even in 1921, Lu Xun did not receive a salary from the ministry for most of the year. At the same time, Peking University, where Zhou Zuoren worked, could not pay his salary.
Lu Xun's calligraphy
What's worse is that at this time, Zhou Zuoren fell ill again and was admitted to Yamamoto Hospital, and needed a lot of medical expenses. In order to raise this money, Lu Xun successively borrowed money from , Xu Shoushang, , Qi Shoushan, etc., and went around selling his manuscripts.
It was during this period that on the night of May 4, 1921, a strange "story" happened between the eldest brother Lu Xun and his sister-in-law Yuta Nobuko, and it was "passed" to his younger brother Zhou Zuoren two years later on July 17, 1923. in the ears.
's only two financial pillars could not receive their salaries at the same time, which accelerated the pace of division of this already very disharmonious family.
The third brother Zhou Jianren originally had a good job in Shaoxing. After arriving in Beijing, due to the increasing difficulty of finding a job, he has not been able to find a suitable job. Lu Xun loved this younger brother very much. He introduced Zhou Jianren to Peking University to study philosophy, general science and other courses, which gave him something to do.
But having no income is always a problem, and this is even more of a big problem in the eyes of second sister-in-law Hata Nobuko.
Zhou Jianren's good times only lasted for a few months in this big family. The eyes and cold face of his second sister-in-law Yu Taixinzi appeared in front of him. Nobuko Hata even scolded her children, warning them not to get close to Zhou Jianren and letting Zhou Jianren "die in isolation." Lu Xun and Zhu An also enjoyed this treatment.
And Zhou Jianren's wife Fangzi was also influenced by her sister, complaining and ridiculing her husband's incompetence and inability to make money.
This was naturally unacceptable to 32-year-old Zhou Jianren. In order to get rid of this embarrassing situation, he urged his two brothers to help find a job as soon as possible.Finally in October 1921, Zhou Jianren found a position at the Shanghai Commercial Press. After that, he successively taught at Shanghai University, Jinan University, Anhui University and other places, and then left the big family in Badaowan, Beijing.
Zhou Jianren's departure alone marked the failure of Lu Xun's efforts to protect his younger brother, and also marked a major crack in his dream of a big family.
Later, the financial difficulties of the Beiyang government probably eased, and the Ministry of Education where Lu Xun worked was able to pay part of his salary every month. Zhou Zuoren's situation is a little better. He not only teaches at Peking University, but also holds concurrent teaching positions at Beijing Women's Higher Normal College and Yenjing University, and can receive three salaries a month.
Front row from left: Zhou Jianren, Xu Guangping, Lu Xun
But for Nobuko Hata, these are still not enough for her extravagant expenses. So after forcing away the third brother Zhou Jianren who had no income, Nobuko Hata would naturally target the low-income Lu Xun. However, regarding the family's tight financial situation, Lu Xun, as the eldest brother, could not help but admonish his younger sister-in-law for improper management of the family.
The only effect this had was to make Nobuko Hata doubly dissatisfied.
For Nobuko Hata, even if the reason for money is not decisive, it is certainly direct. In the last six months of this big family's difficult maintenance, Lu Xun received a total of 1,398 yuan in salary and royalties from January to July 1923, while Zhou Zuoren received a total of 2,904 yuan in various incomes during the same period, which was Lu Xun's two More than twice as much.
In this situation, Nobuko Hata's mentality was extremely unbalanced. In July, she even asked Lu Xun to pay her money in person. It is said that she asked Lu Xun to pay money twice in the same month.
According to the records in Lu Xun's diary, he should have had no income during this month, so he had no money to pay. In desperation, Lu Xun was still seeking safety for his big family, but he had no choice but to "eat in his own room" on July 14.
This big family, which made Zhou Jianren willing to leave his wife and children behind, has completely revealed its cruelest face, and the person who contributed the final blow is Zhou Zuoren.
On July 19, Zhou Zuoren personally handed a letter to Lu Xun - the strange "story" about the night two years ago finally "reached" his ears. The letter was written very short:
Mr. Lu Xun: I only found out yesterday - but there is no need to talk about the past. I am not a Christian, but I am fortunate enough to be able to bear it, and I don’t want to blame you - everyone is a poor human being. The rose-colored dreams I had before turned out to be illusions, and what I see now may be real life. I want to revise my thinking and start a new life again. Please don't come to the back yard again, nothing else. May you feel at ease and respect yourself.
The so-called "past events" in the letter are the strange "story" about that night two years ago. At that time, Zhou Zuoren was a patient in the hospital. What happened between his wife and brother?
In the book "Memories of Mr. Tai Jinnong " by Shu Wu , Lu Xun's friend Tai Jinnong once told the truth about this "story" that is not a story. At that time, Lu Xun was busy raising medical expenses for Zhou Zuoren. And the money raised was delivered to Nobuko Yuta's room overnight.
Lu Xun was naturally upright and selfless at heart, and he was anxious to pay the money without thinking about other things. On the contrary, Yu Taixinzi had evil thoughts. When he later told his husband Zhou Zuoren, he imagined Lu Xun's behavior as "intention of incest", but Zhou Zuoren actually believed it.
Regarding this, Tai Jinnong said with regret: "Zhou Zuoren's articles are so wise, but in reality he is very confused."
Zhou Zuoren's calligraphy
Lu Xun felt confused after reading the text message, and then asked to meet Zhou Zuoren face to face. To make it clear, Zhou Zuoren, who had "revised" his thoughts, had hid in his "new life" and never came out again. Lu Xun had no choice but to leave. Zhou Zuoren wrote in his diary on August 2 that "L and his wife moved to Zhuanta Hutong in the afternoon."
years later, when Zhou Zuoren talked about Lu Xun's novel "Sorrow for Death", he once said: "I firmly believe that "Sorrow for Death" is not an ordinary love novel, but uses the death of men and women to mourn the severance of brotherly love... I also deplore this. The world is cut off, but what can be done? People only have the power of human beings."
Although Zhou Zuoren's statement has been rejected by many people, it is undeniable that among the diverse themes of the novel "Sorrow", It is that can accommodate a condolence of mourning for brothers.
I prefer to believe that after Lu Xun read the poem titled "Sorrow of Death" translated by his younger brother in the "Beijing News Supplement", he wrote a novel of the same name in a few days as a response, just like when he was far away in Japan. The two brothers sang in harmony with each other's articles.
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