Liu Bannong
What I knew about Liu Bannong before was that he was a pioneer of the New Culture Movement. During the vigorous movement to promote vernacular writing, he wrote He wrote a lot of vernacular literature and was a true practitioner of the vernacular movement. After reading several articles in the tenth issue of "Human World", I have a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of Mr. Liu.
The articles I read are: "In Memory of Mr. Liu Bannong" by Mr. Li Changzhi, "Mourning Mr. Liu Bannong" by Mr. Cai Yuanpei, "Losing One of the Most Precious Dictionaries" by Wu Zhihui, Zhao Jingshen "Three Types of Liu Fu's Poems". Three of these four articles are commemorative articles, and one is an analysis and appreciation article of Liu's poetry collection.
We have an old saying in China called "The coffin is sealed", which means that when a person dies, the evaluation of that person is basically determined. I have always felt that as far as China is concerned, only after a person dies can we truly make an objective evaluation of this person. As long as a person is alive, people must take into account the person's status, power, face and many other issues, so when evaluating this person, they generally praise him more and criticize him less. Of course, there are exceptions. For example, if you have many "enemies", you will definitely be hit or beaten by the "enemies". Mr. Lu Xun is such an example. Of course, here we put aside such special examples (because such examples are still very few after all) and return to our previous topic. After the death of ancient Chinese emperors, there were posthumous titles, such as "Han Gaozu", "Tang Taizong", etc. These posthumous titles make people awe-inspiring at first sight, but this is not the case for other posthumous titles, such as Zhou King Li, if he had a spirit in heaven, no one would want others to call him "Li". Therefore, "death" has become, to a certain extent, the dividing line that defines a person's character. If a person can retain a good reputation after he is buried, he will definitely be remembered for eternity; on the contrary, he will be infamous for eternity.
After Mr. Liu Bannong unfortunately passed away on July 14, 1934, many people mourned him. Chinese people have a habit of mourning others and evaluating their life at the same time. Therefore, to see how a person's life was, just read the memorial articles after his death. "You can get the whole picture by just glancing at a glimpse." Each of the three condolence articles has its own characteristics and its own way of mourning. Among these three articles, Mr. Cai Yuanpei’s article should be recommended as the one with the best writing style, quick thinking and smooth writing. The article "Mourning Mr. Liu Bannong" stands tall and has a far-sighted momentum. Although the article is the shortest, it is the most authoritative. In his writings, Mr. Liu Bannong is a figure comparable to Bacon (Mr. Cai Yuanpei may agree with the ever-disputed view that "Bacon is Shakespeare") and Goethe, because he is not only a writer, but also a scientist. The author cited many examples based on his own interactions with Liu, making people disbelieve what he said. Among the three articles, the one with the most sincere feelings is Li Changzhi's "In Memory of Mr. Liu Bannong". As a young newcomer, although Li Changzhi's writing style is immature and plain, we can still feel Li Changzhi's affection for Mr. Liu Bannong between the lines of the narrative text. The respect and admiration of Mr. Liu Bannong, especially the posthumous praise for Mr. Liu Bannong’s personality and moral cultivation, allowed us to truly have a close “touch” with Mr. Liu Bannong across the century. Among the three articles, Mr. Wu's "Losing the Most Precious Dictionary" is the most vivid. I never thought that a memorial article could be written in such a solemn and humorous form. Although this article is a bit like making up a story or fable, after reading it, we really feel extremely regretful and saddened by the passing of Mr. Liu Bannong.
Mr. Zhao Jingshen used another form to mourn Mr. Liu Bannong: analyzing Mr. Liu’s works. I will not analyze it in detail here.
Through these articles, the image of Mr. Liu Bannong was created in my mind: a peaceful person, a peaceful person with a bookish temperament, maybe even wearing gold-rimmed glasses. I felt that he was looking at me with his wise and gentle eyes.