In January 1949, the three major battles of Liaoshen, Huaihai, and Pingjin were all over. The victory of the Communist Party was determined. The People's Liberation Army was rushing to the Yangtze River, and the Nanjing government was about to collapse. It was under this situation that Zhou Zuocai, who was sentenced to prison for traitor, was released. But at this time, people in Nanjing were already panicking. The day Zhou Zuoren was released from prison, the owner of the residence fled to Shanghai overnight, leaving Zhou Zuoren to live alone in his room. Fortunately, the next day, Zhou's students You Bingqi and his son came to pick him up and go to Shanghai. But the station was also in chaos. Zhou Zuoren climbed in through the train window with the help of You and his son. He stayed in the train for twenty-four hours without eating, drinking or defecation before arriving in Shanghai. , the situation is quite embarrassing. After arriving in Shanghai, Zhou Zuoren stayed at You Bingqi's house for 198 days. During this period, the most important thing for Zhou Zuoren was to consider where to go. On the eve of the liberation of Shanghai, Hu Shi stayed in Shanghai and made two appointments with Zhou Zuoren, but he refused both times. Hu Shi also asked someone to tell him, suggesting that he go to Taiwan and Hong Kong, and ensuring that he would have a professorship, but he did not accept it. But this is not because Zhou Zuoren has knowledge and feelings for the Communist Party, nor is it because he has patriotic feelings and is reluctant to leave his hometown, but for other reasons. A few years ago, some people linked Zhou Zuoren's crimes with the underground work of the Communist Party of China. If he doesn't want to leave, there is no basis for that. It is true that Zhou Zuoren helped Li Dazhao's descendants many times. This was due to personal friendship rather than belief in doctrine. Zhou Zuoren also had a relationship with Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist Party of China, but that was many years ago. At that time, Zhou Zuoren was a famous professor at Peking University and a prominent figure in the New Culture Movement. Mao Zedong was just the librarian of Peking University and a new youth baptized by the New Culture Movement. Therefore, Mao Zedong visited Zhou Zuoren in Badaowan to express his admiration. . Now, Mao Zedong has become the commander-in-chief of the victorious army, and Zhou Zuoren has just been released from prison wearing the label of traitor. The situation is no longer what it used to be. Although the Communist Party opposes the Kuomintang in everything, supports whatever the Kuomintang opposes, and opposes whatever the Kuomintang supports, it will not treat traitors who have been sentenced by the Kuomintang as guests of honor. What's more, Zhou Zuoren has always been opposed to the left-wing literary and artistic movement led by the Communist Party. Now that the Communist Party is about to win national victory, how will it treat him? This is really unpredictable. It was not that Zhou Zuoren did not want to leave the mainland. In fact, before he was released from prison, he wrote to Lin Yanqiu in Taiwan through You Bingqi, saying that after his release, he wanted to go to Taiwan and asked him to find a way to resettle him. Later, the reason why he did not accept Hu Shi's suggestion and did not go to Taiwan through other means was because: first, he thought that Hu Shi's words were unreliable and he would forget what he said; second, he was completely disappointed with the Kuomintang government. I feel that if I leave the mainland, I will inevitably end up like the exiled Belarusians, become Baihua, and even become political garbage. ——These thoughts were later recounted by himself in letters and memoirs. He also considered settling down in Shanghai, but renting a house in Shanghai to accommodate such a big family was too financially burdensome. Fortunately, there are always houses to live in in Beijing. After weighing several times, he decided to go back to Beijing. Zhou Zuoren returned to Beijing on August 14, 1949, and moved back to his old residence in Badaowan on October 18. Housing has been solved, but food and clothing are still a big problem. Although Zhou Zuoren has always had a good income since he became a professor at Peking University, he failed to manage his family well and allowed his wife and son to squander it, so he never had much savings. After being convicted, most of the family property was confiscated, so he had to worry about making ends meet. With his current status, it was not suitable to teach; some people advised him to sell calligraphy, but he thought that he was not a calligrapher, and there might not be many people who would buy it; the only way left was to make a living by selling calligraphy. Fortunately, Zhou Zuoren had many acquaintances in the literary world, and others were willing to help him, so he translated some works and wrote prose for newspapers and periodicals. Zhou Zuoren was originally a master of prose, and he was well-informed and read a lot, so he naturally had a lot to write about. However, at that time, his brother Lu Xun was in a high position, and only he knew his early life best, so he was a rare commodity. After Zhou Zuoren broke with Lu Xun in 1923, he has always been in an antagonistic position. When Lu Xun died, he had only written two so-so articles and refused other people's invitations to contribute, saying that because of his status, it was not convenient for him to do so. who writes articles like this.
Naturally, he would not forget these words. However, for the sake of food, he did not care about his status or previous statements, so he wrote an article about Lu Xun in Yibao. Two books were published under his name: "Lu Xun's Hometown" and "Characters in Lu Xun's Novels". These articles are naturally of great information value, but in order to get more royalties, a lot of water is inevitably mixed into them. Until 1956, when commemorating the 20th anniversary of Lu Xun's death, he wrote many related articles and later published a book under Zhou Qiming's name: "Lu Xun's Youth". Zhou Zuoren never refused to write an article commemorating Lu Xun, but then he wrote in capital letters and in close-up. This was a 180-degree change, which would inevitably cause ridicule to the world. Xu Guangping mocked him for scolding Lu Xun at first, but now he hates Lu Xun. At this time, Zhou Zuoren was forced by life and had no choice but to do this. At that time, he almost used the Lu Xun materials he possessed as banknotes. Zhou Zuoren himself said that the Lu Xun materials he had at hand were like limited banknotes, and every time one was used, there would be one less. So he refused to show it to others easily. I once heard Mr. Tang say that he once mobilized Zhou Zuoren to donate the Lu Xun cultural relics he had collected to the country, but Zhou Zuoren refused. He wanted to slowly take them out in exchange for money. Once, Zhou Zuoren took out some Lu Xun cultural relics and arranged for his son to work in the Beijing Library as a condition. However, the Communist government still made arrangements for Zhou Zuoren's life. First, he was asked to translate books for the General Administration of Publishing, and later he was asked to translate books for the People's Literature Publishing House, which enabled him to get some royalties. At that time, the standard of royalties was the highest after liberation. Since 1966, the People's Literature Publishing House has paid him 400 yuan a month for living expenses in the form of advance royalties. At this time, professors still belonged to the "high-paid class". In Shanghai's eighth-category area, the salary of a first-level professor was 360 yuan, and that of a sixth-level associate professor was 165 yuan and 50 cents. Beijing was in a sixth-category area. Slightly lower than this number. This means that Zhou Zuoren's living expenses at that time exceeded the salary of a first-level professor, and there were only a handful of first-level professors in the country. In his letter to Cao Juren, Zhou Zuoren also admitted: "In fact, the government is generous enough to my brother." However, he still did not have enough expenses, so he made up for the shortfall by submitting articles to Hong Kong newspapers and earning some royalties. Later, the publishing house reduced Zhou Zuoren's living expenses by half to two hundred yuan on the grounds that his patient had died and prices were low. Of course, this is not unrelated to the situation in which the strings of class struggle were getting tighter and tighter at that time. Zhou Zuoren was naturally even more embarrassed and had to submit more articles to Hong Kong newspapers. However, Hong Kong newspapers are about fun, and Zhou Zuoren's writing style, which always values ??dilution, is difficult to adapt to, and manuscripts are often suppressed and unable to be published. Fortunately, with the help of friends such as Cao Juren, I was able to continue to publish some articles. Although the more than 400,000-word "Reminiscences of Zhitang" could not be serialized in the newspaper, with Cao Juren's efforts, a single volume was still published. During several years of difficult material life, friends in Hong Kong continued to send him sugar, oil, seafood, medicines and other items. Zhou Zuoren's living standard was, of course, much lower than in the past, and he was quite strapped for money, but compared with the average high-level intellectuals at that time, it was still relatively good. For Zhou Zuoren, the saddest thing is not the difficulties in life, but the psychological burden. There are two things that have always been an inextricable knot for him: one is the break with his eldest brother Lu Xun, and his brother Yiyi became a virtual businessman; the other is that he served as a puppet during the Japanese occupation and the end of the Anti-Japanese War He was later arrested and sentenced for being a traitor. Lu Xun valued brotherhood above all else. His deep affection for his brothers can be seen in the "Poem of Farewell to My Brothers" written when he was studying in Nanjing: "I have no choice but to make a living, and my brothers are separated from each other. The most desolate place is to be alone all night long. When the rain comes." When he was young, Lu Xun always acted as Zhou Zuoren's guide. Later, he sacrificed his studies to support Zhou Zuoren's life and returned to China early to find a job. Zhou Zuoren came to teach at Peking University and was recommended by Lu Xun. After the house in Badaowan was bought and repaired, Lu Xun gave the main courtyard to Zhou Zuoren's family, while he lived in a house with a poor front yard. During the May 4th Movement, their brothers became New Culture Warriors together, and two weeks were equally famous. However, Zhou Zuoren listened to the slanderous words of the hysterical woman and drove Lu Xun out of Badaowan. He was extremely ruthless. From then on, the two took different paths: Lu Xun continued his advocacy of social reform and became the leader of the left-wing literary world; while Zhou Zuoren advocated leisurely sketches, turned from a traitor to a hermit, and eventually became a traitor.
Now, Lu Xun is praised by Mao Zedong as a modern saint, the standard bearer of the cultural revolution, and the direction of the new culture of the Chinese nation, and is revered by people; while Zhou Zuoren is regarded as a sinner of the nation and is criticized by people. He wrote in the May Fourth New Culture The gains made in the movement were also wiped out. Two brothers who were originally equal in status, now one is in heaven and the other is in earth. The contrast is really huge. Lu Xun has passed away, and he can no longer perceive the changes in the world. However, Zhou Zuoren is still alive, and his mentality is difficult to balance. In his letters, Zhou Zuoren often criticized the research works on Lu Xun at that time, but he only admired Cao Juren's "Critical Biography of Lu Xun", especially the theory that Lu Xun's thoughts were basically nihilistic. This can be said to be a difference in academic views, but not enough. It was strange, and he said about the statue on Lu Xun's tomb: "That can really be regarded as the biggest insult. Isn't the person sitting high on the chair the image of wearing a paper crown on his head?" It is inevitable that people will feel it. The commentator has some psychological barriers. There are so many memorial statues of literati and writers in the world, including sitting and standing statues. Do they all wear paper crowns on their heads? Zhou Zuoren regained the attention of the literary world because he had first-hand information about Lu Xun and wrote many articles recalling Lu Xun. However, the existence value of this kind of attachment to Lu Xun is undoubtedly a kind of value for him. Satire. Therefore, on the one hand, he kept writing articles recalling Lu Xun for life issues, but on the other hand, he never admitted his wrong behavior towards his brother. Not many people knew about this matter, and Lu Xun was unwilling to mention it in his articles and letters. He even kept it vague in his diary, so those who didn't know the inside story might not pay attention. The matter could have been left in ambiguity, but old friend Xu Shoushang and Lu Xun's wife Xu Guangping both brought up this old account in their reminiscence articles, which could not but make Zhou Zuoren feel embarrassed and angry. In the summer of 1960, two classmates and I went to Beijing to conduct research on Lu Xun. Zhou Zuoren was naturally included in the interview, but I heard that he was writing for the section "So-called Brothers" in Xu Guangping's "Memoirs of Lu Xun" He was furious about the incident and refused to see the guests. We found him and Lu Xun's former students, led by Mr. Chang Hui, who later had contacts with both of them, and then accepted the interview. But everything he talked about was already written in the book. Because of the new content, he had to save it for another article. Later, I read "Reminiscences of Zhitang" and his letters to Cao Juren and Bao Yaoming, and found out that he had always been worried about this matter. He said he did not defend himself, but in fact he defended it in many ways. For example, in Chapter 141 of "Reminiscences of Zhitang" "Speak without Defending", Xu Shouchang was criticized and said: "Xu Jun is the one who understands the content of this incident with Xu Zhang Erjun. Although he is relatively 'honest', But how can he create rumors and be like a gentleman?" He also said: "Xu is Xu Yaochen and Zhang is Zhang Fengju. They were both professors at Peking University at that time, and they were not 'foreign guests.'" The terminology here is quite confusing, and it is not the same as Zhou Zuo. His writing style is completely different. In fact, when Lu Xun rebuked Xu, Zhang and others recruited by Zhou Zuoren's wife, he said that this was their Zhou family's business and you outsiders should not interfere. The so-called outsiders here refer to people outside the Zhou family, not the foreigners who were later commonly called "foreign guests". Zhou Zuoren said that they were professors from Peking University and were not "foreign guests", which was obviously a way of substituting concepts. Moreover, if Xu Shoushang expresses a slightly different opinion, why is it "making up rumors" and "just like a gentleman"? Zhou Zuoren said that Xu Shouchang was "the one who understood the content of this incident." Then, it must be because Xu Shouchang knew Lu Xun's personality well and had witnessed Lu Xun's love and care for Zhou Zuoren and his family for a long time, so he did not believe what Zhou Zuoren said. "The content of this incident" and have other opinions. As for Zhou Zuoren's analysis of Lu Xun's novel "Sorrow for Death" after this memoir, it seems that Lu Xun seemed to be repentant: ""Sorrow for Death" is not an ordinary love novel, but uses the death of men and women to mourn. "The severance of brotherly love." This is probably just Zhou Zuoren's own feeling. Although the literary and artistic circles and academia have different interpretations of the theme of "Sorrow", none of them agree with this view, because researchers have actually read it from the work. I don't understand this meaning. Regarding Xu Guangping's article, he expressed his opinions in his letters to Cao Juren and Bao Yaoming, but he did not make a positive defense, but completely rejected it with a "woman's opinion." For example: "She is a female normal college student. She has always corresponded in the name of her junior brother and has never had any objections. The reason why she is dissatisfied with me is probably because of her anger. Because my wife sympathizes with my ex-wife Zhu An, I often have problems with a certain lady." The disrespectful words come from an old family, so it is no wonder that he thinks so. But when the rumor reaches the other party, it is a big insult. It is no wonder that he is angry. The woman's opinion can be said to be insightful. Those who are at the crux of the matter are also.
"A letter to Bao Yaoming dated November 28, 1961. A dispute over right and wrong turned into a vindictiveness between the sisters-in-law. Zhou Zuoren lacked a bit of self-criticism spirit. To use the popular language nowadays, he just didn't have it. A sense of repentance. Therefore, he always refuses to admit the wrong things he has done, but has to find various "reasons" to maintain his face, even for such big mistakes as falling into the water and being a traitor. The letter to Bao Yaoming on July 18, 1964 stated: "As for the supervision, it is neither coercion nor initiative. Those who did make the effort to carry out their own movements later were certainly mobilized by the Japanese side and agreed after careful consideration. Because I believe that I am more reliable, I can be more proficient in education than others, and my behavior is less reactionary. "It seems as if he is sacrificing himself to save the common people by becoming a traitor. This reminds us of what Wang Jingwei, the leader of the traitors, said: "If I don't get into the fire pit, who will get into it? "They vented their anger at the same time. In his "Reminiscences of Zhitang", Zhou Zuoren talked about being attacked by Japanese military writers as "reactionary old writers", saying that his article "Ideological Problems in China" that caused the attack ", "I wanted to prevent the pseudo-New People's Association from establishing the central idea at that time and cooperating with the clamor for a new order in Greater East Asia." However, he never mentioned that he cooperated with the Japanese invaders in clamoring for a "new order in Greater East Asia" at various rallies, such as On September 13, 1942, he attended the founding meeting of the Pseudo-North China Writers Association and preached in a written precept: "The situation in the world today has changed greatly, and a new order in East Asia has been established. At this time, Chinese writers should He has worked very hard in his field of work." "He has made great contributions to the culture of North China by adapting to changes and making unremitting efforts. "Here, Zhou Zuoren's attitude of exaggerating his literary faults is very obvious. At the same time, in his letters, he often criticized the writers who were attached to the new regime, criticizing their articles for their stereotyped tone, and forgetting what he had written when he was attached to the Japanese and puppet regime. This is probably a way for Zhou Zuoren to achieve psychological balance!