Autumn" is a novel written by the Chinese writer Ba Jin. It is one of the Torrent Trilogy. This novel is famous at home and abroad. It depicts the feudal patriarchal system through the decline and differentiation of a large family. The collapse of the Communist Party of China and the revolutionary trend set off among the young generation to change the old life story. [1]?
Title of work
Autumn
alias of work
Riptide
Era of creation
1940
Literary genre
Novel
Author
Ba Jin
Number of words
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426000
Table of contents
1? Content introduction
2? Creative background
3? Character introduction Gao Juehui, Gao Juemin, Gao Juexin Shuhua Shuying Keming, Ke'an, Keding
4? Work Appreciation Theme and Artistic Characteristics of the Work
5? The Influence of the Work
6? Introduction to the Author
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Introduction
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"Autumn" is the third and final part of Ba Jin's Torrent Trilogy. It mainly talks about the Gao family. The final outcome of the family: Jue Xin's wife Rui Yu died in childbirth, and his son Hai Chen also died of convulsions. Juemin and Miss Qin got married and moved outside. Shuying escaped with their help. Keming, the third master of the Gao family, finally came to his senses after his daughter left, but his two younger brothers were as usual. They always fought at home, and sometimes even argued to separate the family. In the end, Keming died of anger from his two younger brothers. The Gao Mansion was sold, the Gao family property was torn apart, and everyone looked at each other like enemies. [1]?
Creative background
Editor
In July 1929, Ba Jin’s elder brother Li Yaomei came to Shanghai from Sichuan to visit Ba Jin and talked about various issues in the family. things, angry and distressed. Ba Jin told him that he wanted to write a novel that reflected the life of a large family and the unfortunate experiences of the young men and women in the family. The author does not want to just write a special history for their family. What he wants to write is the history of a general feudal family. The protagonists here should be those who are often seen in those families. He wants to write about how this kind of family inevitably Walking on the road of collapse, walking to the grave that it dug with its own hands, he wanted to write about the strife, struggle and tragedy contained therein, and he wanted to write about how some lovely young lives suffered and struggled in it, and finally inevitably Destruction, this is the creative motive of "Autumn". [2]?
Character introduction
Editor
Gao Juehui
He is a typical example of a new man. This image is vivid and rich. Realistically, his strengths and weaknesses are unique to the advanced youth of that era. He is patriotic and pursues science and democracy, so he does not believe in God and opposes authoritarianism. He usually does not ride in a sedan chair, and is able to fall in love with the maid Mingfeng. In the final analysis, it is due to the guidance of the democratic spirit. However, he is not a hero who has completely established a proletarian worldview and completely betrayed the landlord class. There are still things in his thoughts that are less exploitative. For example, his love for Mingfeng is far less than Mingfeng's love for him. Steadfast and loyal. [3]?
Gao Juemin
The second brother of Juexin, his character is actually between Juexin and Juehui. He is calm but yearns for a new life. He was also confused before, but he finally chose to resist. He actively participated in community work and chatted with like-minded friends. He is a warm-hearted person. When his second sister Shuying encountered difficulties, he desperately helped her and saved a young man who was wandering on the edge of the cliff at a loss, allowing her to accept a new life and re-understand the value of life. In that society, it took courage to do this, but he did it. Falling in love with cousin Qin. [3]?
Gao Juexin
The eldest grandson of the Gao family, he is the hope of everyone in the Gao family, but his "dual" personality makes him dream about changing the world that destroys his life. The old forces were submissive in front of the old ethics, and the contradictory contradictions made his life miserable. Although he was dissatisfied with the tyranny of his old family, his special position as the eldest son of the eldest son and the strict constraints of feudal ethics made him develop a cowardly and submissive character. As a result, his thoughts and actions were always contradictory. The result was Adhere to the principle of "commitment" and "non-resistance". [3]?
Shuhua
The third daughter of the Gao family, the eldest daughter. He is outspoken, loves to talk and laugh, has a strong sense of resistance, and also has an innocent side. But I always say hurtful things unintentionally. He likes to make fun of Juemin and Qin. At the same time, he often quarreled with his brother Juemin and cousin Jueying. At the same time, she also has a sense of responsibility as a sister. She is very dissatisfied with Jueying's naughty temper and often scolds him. [3]?
Shuying
The second lady of the Gao family, the daughter of the third brother-in-law. She was originally an outspoken girl like Shuhua, who loved to talk and laugh, but because of what happened in recent years (such as the death of her sister-in-law Ruijue, the death of her grandfather), especially her marriage to Chen Wenzhi, the second son of Chen Ke's family, Making her sentimental and slow. Although she was dissatisfied about marrying Chen Wenzhi, she had nothing to do. She was very negative at first and felt that she could only accept her fate.
However, with the encouragement of cousin Qin, cousin Juemin Juehui and the influence of new magazines, especially after the tragic death of cousin Hui, he finally became determined to escape from the family. Finally, with the help of Jian Yun, Qin, Juemin, Juehui, and Juexin, he escaped to Shanghai. He received good care from Juehui and escaped from his tragic fate[3]?
Keming, Ke An and Keding
The three brothers are the heirs of Mrs. Gao, but they have different personalities. Ke Ming's style is more upright, while Ke'an and Ke Ding are typical examples of the "wasteful sons" of the landlord class. Under the protection of their father, they eat, drink, whore, gamble, smoke cigarettes, support actors, spend money like water, and completely inherit their father's obscene behavior. , followed the example, and usually feared that they would not show enough respect to Mrs. Gao, but just after Mrs. Gao passed away, these people started arguing endlessly for wealth and family power, performing scenes of scandals. [3]?
Appreciation of the work
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Theme of the work
"Autumn" shows the disintegration of the old family. The ending of "The tree falls and the hozen scatters". This is mainly shown through the description of the accelerated moral corruption of the second and third generations of the Gao family and the fact that the entire Gao family has no successors. The work naturally focuses on the fate of the third generation and describes the Zhou Dynasty. The tragedy of Mei and Gao Shuzhen and the fall of Jueying and Juequn. Here, it focuses on criticizing the sins of authoritarianism and feudal ethics that corrode and destroy young people. With the death of Keming, the second-generation head of the family, no one can be found to shoulder the burden of the entire extended family, because even Sun Juexin, the head of the eldest family, rose up in rebellion. The theme of "Autumn" can be said to emphatically reveal feudal despotism. The breakdown of spiritual support. [2]?
"Autumn" is desolate from a seasonal perspective. It often gives people a sense of desolation. It often represents the decline of things, which is often seen in poetry and prose. . So, because this novel is about the autumn of a large feudal family, does it also mean its decline? I think the answer is yes. This kind of decline, despite the reluctance of those involved in it, is that the trend of history is unstoppable, and the torrent of revolution is always moving forward, and no one can change this! The decline of the old world means that a With the arrival of the new world, let that declining home disappear with the wind along with the fallen leaves of autumn! What greets us will surely be a brand new future.
Ba Jin created this work to show readers how the torrent of life organized by love and hate, joy and suffering is turbulent. The work expresses exactly this kind of life. Torrent: On the one hand, with the collapse of the feudal patriarchal system, the dying feudal ruling power crazily devoured young lives; on the other hand, the young generation deeply attracted by the revolutionary trend began a tragic process of awakening, struggle and struggle. [4]?
Artistic Features
"Autumn" is mainly about family life, with strong autobiography and diversity of themes. This characteristic reflects Ba Jin's creative personality: he prefers and is good at expressing family life themes, reflecting the style of the times in miniature. The language of the novel "Autumn" is simple, clear, European, friendly and natural, genuine and passionate. Tragic stories are narrated through distinctive language, expressing sincere and strong emotions, thus forming unique aesthetic characteristics. [4]?
Ba Jin was a fanatical anarchist in his youth and had a strong sense of participation in politics. His novel creation was more of a social or political activity than a literary activity. . "Autumn" is a weapon used by Ba Jin to criticize the feudal patriarchal autocratic system, so he chose Juehui, the most energetic person in the work, as the agent to carry out the criticism. Occasionally, the subject of the narrative changes, but most of the time he uses The third generation looks at the family that is about to collapse, uses his perspective to describe and evaluate the characters in the book, and uses his ideological monologue to express his views on social life. [4]?
Ba Jin had a clear social utilitarian purpose in creating "Autumn", which is to criticize the powerful feudal patriarchal autocratic system in Chinese society and try to point out a way for young people to survive. The novel is written for the young people represented by his eldest brother who have suffered from feudal autocracy. It has a strong realistic relevance and can be said to be another manifestation of the Chinese literary tradition of "writing to convey the Tao". Therefore, in a sense, "Autumn" is a "political criticism" novel with strong lyricism.
Influence of the work
Editor
Among the many character groups created in "Autumn", Gao Juehui is undoubtedly the most important one. He is the epitome of a new man. He started from his simple love for workers and hatred of the feudal system, then moved to bourgeois reformism and democracy, and finally moved to social struggle. Through this ideological development process, the author shows the ideological process that China's advanced intellectuals have experienced together in the past hundred years. "Autumn" is a precious artistic record of the social changes in China in the early 1920s. As a message to repay blood debts to feudal forces and a clarion call to encourage young people to take control of their own destiny, it played an enlightening role in inspiring many educated young people in the 1930s and 1940s to break out of the barriers of their old families and move toward revolution. To this day, it still thrills the hearts of many Chinese and foreign young people. [3]?
"Autumn" is Ba Jin's most distinctive banner calling for freedom, democracy, respect for personality, and the liberation of humanity. It occupies an important position and plays a huge role in the history of modern Chinese literature.
"Autumn" is not only a monument in Ba Jin's literary path, but also one of the best realist masterpieces in the history of modern Chinese literature. [3]?
About the author
Editor
Ba Jin, whose original name was Li Yaotang and whose courtesy name was Fu Gan. Male, Han nationality, born in November 1904, from Chengdu, Sichuan, without party affiliation. The 1930s was the first peak period of Ba Jin's novel creation. During this period, he successively completed novels such as "The Dead Sun", "Dream Under the Sea", "Sand Sand", "Autumn in Spring", "Snow" (i.e. "Grudge"), "Rebirth", and "Three Loves". "Parts" ("Fog", "Rain", "Electricity"), "Torrent Trilogy" ("Home", "Spring", "Autumn"), etc. Among these works, "The Torrent Trilogy" represents the highest achievement of his creation at this time. In the 1930s, Ba Jin also wrote a large number of short stories, including short story collections such as "Revenge", "Light", "Electric Chair", "Rag", "General", "Silence", "Gods, Ghosts and Humans", " "Sink", "Fa's Story", etc. Ba Jin's short stories have a wide range of themes and cover a wide range of life aspects. They widely reflected the social reality at that time and expressed the voice of the people.