The Origin of the Publications of Chaohua Society

Wang, Rou Shi and Cui Zhenwu have no fixed income. 1one day in June, 928, Wang put forward a motion to run a publication and publish a book in partnership, saying that there are many cultural celebrities, and my brother's educational supplies agency can help advance ink and paper, and can also help sell them on behalf of others. Cui Zhenwu and Rou Shi were very interested and went to consult with Mr. Lu Xun. 1925 When Lu Xun was in Beijing, he helped Wei Suyuan's brothers, Li, and other young people to set up Mangyuan Weekly and Weiming Society, so he also expressed his support for this matter. After several discussions, we decided to create a literary society and publish a publication, each with a share capital of 50 yuan. Rou Shi couldn't afford it at the moment, but Lu Xun paid it for him. In order to make money and handle affairs easily, Lu Xun invited Xu Guangping to join us. In this way, Lu Xun actually paid three-fifths of the funds of the whole society with his own manuscript fee. Lu Xun thought of the words "Xie Chaohua is wearing clothes, but the evening beauty is weak" in the Selected Works of Lu Ji, and proposed to name this literary and art society Chaohua Society, and the proposed publication is Chaohua Weekly.

The first issue of Chaohua Weekly was published on February 6th, 1928. Although this is only an 8-edition small publication of 16, Lu Xun devoted a lot of effort to it. He carefully selected a painting by British Arthur Lackham to decorate the masthead, and he also wrote exquisite calligraphy for the title "Morning Flowers". He guided Rou Shi hand in hand, saying: To run a publication, it is necessary not only to have solid articles, but also to have a lively layout and arrangement, and not to be crowded and oppressive. He also advocated that a foreign artistic work with woodcut as the main part could be selected in the layout, which was a pioneering work in domestic literary and artistic publications at that time. Under the guidance of Lu Xun, Rou Shi began to edit, and often went to stationery shops and printing houses to do chores such as drawing proofreading, with high enthusiasm.

As early as when he was a student, Rou Shi loved fine arts. Now, seeing that Lu Xun personally wrote the elegant artistic word "Chaohua" and found a suitable famous painting to decorate the title, a sense of surprise with the same tone arises spontaneously. He tried to collect and sort out foreign language materials about woodcut and devoted himself to being Lu Xun's assistant. The eighth issue of Chaohua Weekly was published on 1 October 24th, 1929. The first series of Modern Woodcarving edited by Rou Shi and Lu Xun (1) and the second series of Chaohua Society were also printed on 26th. The publication of these two collections opened the introduction of foreign progressive woodcut art in China.

On one occasion, Rou Shi heard from Lu Xun that R. GIB-Bing, a famous woodcutter in Britain, often had a unique and meaningful view of black and white. In order to make the printing effect realistic, he wrote to Gibbings to discuss business. As a result, Mrs Gibbings replied to three black and white woodcut rubbings. Rou Shi happily handed the rubbings and letters to Lu Xun. Lu Xun kept it properly. This precious historical relic witnessed the achievements of Lu Xun and Rou Shi in advocating woodcut movement in China.

According to the plan at that time, the literary series "Art Garden Facing China" of Chaohua Society will be published in 12 series, namely, Selected Paintings of New Russia, Selected French Illustrations, Selected British Illustrations and Selected Modern Woodcuts. It's a pity that Rou Shi doesn't know how to operate. Wang's brother, who runs an educational supplies agency, supplies paper to Chaohua Agency, mostly from auction houses, and the ink is also cheap, which is used to print woodcut plates, affecting the quality and sales. He sells books and periodicals for Chaohua Club, and often makes excuses not to pay for books. Chaohua Society suffered great economic losses, so Rou Shi had to pay off his debts with a little money. Mr. Lu Xun once said indignantly, "I was finally cheated this time." Finally, he "compensated Chaohuashe 120 yuan for the deficit."

1930 65438+ October Flower Club "The End of Social Affairs". But Rou Shi's personality charm won the praise and trust of Lu Xun. His evaluation of Rou Shi is: "No matter from the old morality or the new morality, as long as it is unfavorable to others, he will choose and carry it by himself." Rou Shi has been more "loyal to literature and art" since he was cared for by Lu Xun. 1929 is the most fruitful year for Rou Shi's translation. He wrote 20 short stories such as February, 3 essays, 2 one-act plays, 3 poems and 7 translated works/kloc-0, with about 300,000 words. 1930 published the collection of short stories Hope and the new collection of short stories Slave Mother.