Literary Master 1918: Starting with New Youth

Sunday arrived as scheduled.

Autumn in Yanjing is neither too hot nor too cold, making it the best time for students to do anything.

But Ma Yu didn't want to get out of bed in the morning. She stayed in the east wing of the courtyard house, only peeking her head out from under the covers. She looked utterly dejected, as if she was thinking about something.

When it gets cold in the future, how will we go to school? We'll freeze into popsicles...

"Little Jade! The postman has arrived with the mail!"

"Your parents said it wasn't their child!"

Grandma shouted from outside the door, but her voice easily slipped into the covers.

letter?

Ma Yu suddenly felt motivated:

"Okay! I'm up, wait a minute!"

After saying that, he quickly got up. Since he was staying at home during the holiday, he was only wearing pajamas. He opened the door and went out to the main living room.

My family members were having breakfast, which was quite bland: steamed buns, porridge, and pickled vegetables. It didn't look appetizing at all.

Without brushing her teeth or washing her face, she ladled out a bowl of thin porridge and reached out to ask her grandmother for a letter:

"Grandma, where is my letter?"

"Ma Yu! Can't you have any manners?!"

When Ma Yuzhao, a professor of Chinese literature at Yenching University, saw his daughter in this state, he was immediately furious.

He joined Yenching University a few years earlier than Cai Yuanpei, making him a senior member of the university.

In addition, he was close to Cai Yuanpei, not to mention that he was a child of Japanese scholars. The academic and family atmosphere was actually very relaxed. In terms of his daughter's education, he never restricted her to traditional learning. But at least he should be more clean, right?

He ate without washing his face or brushing his teeth, and even asked his grandma for things with a straight face. He didn't act like a student at all.

Ma Yu knew her father wasn't really angry with her, and chuckled.

"Dad, you don't understand! If I wash up before eating, there will still be food residue between my teeth, and my breath will smell terrible by noon; but if I eat first and then wash up, I'll be clean all morning!"

"..."

Ma Yuzhao lost the desire to communicate.

Grandma took out the letter at that moment, and Ma Yu hurriedly snatched it away. Then, carrying the bowl of porridge, she headed towards the study, as if afraid that if she was a second late in reading it, the letter would run away on its own.

Seeing his daughter's joyful figure, Ma Yuzhao couldn't help but wonder—could his daughter be dating someone?

She's only just turned eighteen and hasn't even graduated from middle school yet!

Which young man kidnapped his daughter?

Thinking of this, he was so angry that his teeth itched, and he hissed:

"etc!"

"What's wrong, Dad?"

Ma Yu stopped in her tracks and, seeing her father's unpredictable expression, felt utterly bewildered.

"I heard you've been a bit absent-minded lately, spending all your time waiting for letters. Once you get one, you hide in your room as if you're afraid someone will see you..."

Hearing her father's words, Ma Yu was speechless for a moment, because it was really true!

Ma Yuzhao was still babbling on:

"I respect your freedom to date, so I won't ask who it is."

"But I must remind you, this is a crucial time. You need to focus more on your studies and not get caught up in romance. You'll regret it for the rest of your life!"

"I've heard from my friends in the education sector that there will be major changes at Yenching University next year. The Women's Normal School will definitely be upgraded to a Women's Higher Normal School, and three church-run universities will be merged. You should seize this opportunity for reform."

He kept nagging and pleading with great earnestness.

Ma Yu became more and more confused. She wasn't in a relationship!

She was about to explain that it was Zhu Junzi, but then she remembered that Zhu Junzi was at Yanda University. What if her father came to her door and said something nonsensical?

Thinking that Zhu Junzi wouldn't reply to her letters because of this, she stamped her feet and explained:

"Dad, you've got it wrong! I'm just... chatting about literature with a pen pal!"

Where did you meet your pen pal?

"A classmate recommended it!"

"Who can your classmates introduce you to? I can find you a pen pal, someone around your age, you can have him come over... Hey! Don't go! That's Old Qian's apprentice!"

Ma Yuzhao didn't expect that his daughter would immediately lose patience upon hearing that he wanted to arrange a pen pal, turn around and rush into the study, and then lock the door from the inside.

Are young people these days so restless? They won't even have a face-to-face meeting with Zhu Junzi from "New Youth" magazine, but insist on finding all sorts of pen pals...

He secretly resolved to find an opportunity to invite Wu Zhu home for dinner, so that his daughter could see a role model that young people should learn from!

......

Inside the study, separated by a door.

Ma Yu finished his warm bowl of porridge in one gulp, wiped his mouth clean on his sleeve, and then sat down at his desk to open the letters.

He became more and more agitated at times like this, and his hands trembled as he unfolded the letter. The calming incense smoke had no effect whatsoever.

I asked you a lot of questions last time, how will Zhu Junzi answer them...?

[To Huaijin, your letter has been received.]

We are all human, and as humans, we are not immune to worldly concerns. I am no exception; I possess all the characteristics of a human being.

I'm not exactly a patient person, so don't let your feelings of natural affinity for writers cloud your judgment just because of a letter. Otherwise, you'll be very disappointed when you actually meet them in person.

Ma Yu touched his chin and thought it made a lot of sense!

But Zhu Junzi said that he was not patient, but Mingming was very patient with her. She would reply to every letter he sent. You couldn't find her even if you looked for her with a lantern!

Having just been told off by Ma Yuzhao, she couldn't help but have some strange thoughts now...

Huaijin, am I really that charming...?

[Getting back to the main point, the fact that you can feel anger towards Xiangzi, and even satirize your own thoughts, shows that you have a conscience and can see the difference between yourself and Xiangzi.]

I'll answer you section by section; please read on patiently.

Ma Yu became more serious and began to read.

In my opinion, the mystery surrounding Tiger Girl is precisely a manifestation of contradiction.

On one hand, she made a living by exploiting rickshaw pullers, treating them as less than human beings, and even Xiangzi was merely a tool for satisfying her lust. Her skills existed solely to exploit others; this is the root of her seemingly hateful nature, and there's nothing admirable about her.

On the other hand, she was also seen by Master Liu as a tool for managing the rickshaw depot. For the sake of profit, she even lost her freedom of marriage, making her a victim of feudal ethics as well. Marrying Xiangzi meant betraying her class, losing her economic privileges, and rendering her exploitative skills useless.

[But during her time at the rickshaw factory, she had developed a twisted personality, and her fate was essentially sealed by her relationship with Xiangzi, the rickshaw puller.]

Ma Yu thought about it and realized that it really was true!

Tiger Girl's only strength lies in exploiting the rickshaw pullers, something one could spit on. The crucial point is that Tiger Girl is also Liu Siye's tool; no matter how strong she is, she will die after escaping her cage, which is why she seems pitiful.

The "mystery" surrounding Tiger Girl is nothing more than the intertwined contradictions of her being both an exploiter and the exploited.

It really is you, Zhu Junzi!

As for Xiao Fuzi, I don't want to comment on her, because there are too many female characters like her in novels these days.

Her character is less complex than Tiger Girl's; the oppression she suffered in the old society is starkly displayed, revealing the evil within her, which is why you feel such direct hatred for the world.

But what I want to say is that in today's world, Tiger Girl and Little Lucky's predicaments are more specific and more common than Nora's. Aren't you curious about what happened to Nora after she left? These two are examples that are very worthy of your consideration.

Ma Yu strongly agrees with this.

She used to think that all a woman needed to do was be strong and brave. But after talking to Zhu Junzi about Nora, she added the requirement of having the ability to make a living. However, Zhu Junzi's interpretation of "Rickshaw Boy" made her feel that this was far from enough.

Tiger Girl had the ability to make a living, but in the end she still died...

The key lies in the ability to make a living—whether it requires exploiting others to be effective, or whether it can be effective simply through one's own labor...

If it's the latter, wouldn't that make him like Xiangzi? In the end, it's not much better than death...

The more Ma Yu's thoughts wandered, the more chaotic her mind became, and it took her a while to recover from this mental lapse.

You feel sorry for Xiangzi, but I want to say that Xiangzi's tragedy is not due to personal fate, but rather to an inevitability.

What kind of inevitability is this? He possessed the skills to make a living, yet he still ended up like that; this is the inevitability of a laborer.

He thought he could earn a good life with just his physical strength. But his hard work and sweat were drained by Liu Siye and his gang; the more customers he brought, the more they drained him. While he earned more, he struggled on the verge of poverty.

Until one day, a sudden change occurred, and lo and behold, he lost everything, falling from the brink of poverty into utter destitution.

In this day and age, no one can pull him up; he can only rely on his willpower to rise again. But willpower eventually fades, and he will ultimately become a living dead, a thug, wandering the streets. Another wave of change will bring him physical death.

This isn't because Xiangzi didn't work hard enough, but because the world today requires the bloodshed of millions of Xiangzis to support the comfort of a few.

His life is a vivid history of the poverty of the working class, a poverty that is not merely financial, but also includes the erosion of the soul.

I recommend a few books to you. You can ask your parents to find them at the Yenching University Library; one of them is *Capital* by the German philosopher, which presents a complete theory on this phenomenon.

Seeing this, Ma Yu seemed to understand why Yanjingke wrote it this way.

They also realized it—

After leaving home, simply having the ability to make a living is not enough. This has nothing to do with the individual, but rather with the world exploiting laborers.

Capital...

She silently memorized the book title, but could an economic theory written by a philosopher be reliable?

No one can answer her question for now; we can only wait and see.

Therefore, it's normal for people to feel both hope and despair after witnessing the shattering of Xiangzi's struggle.

One of the functions of literature is to sing the most poignant elegy for the old era. By dissecting the rotten body of the old age, the world sees the pus and blood, and thus refuses to endure it.

But this is not the end. If all one can see is darkness, it only deepens despair. I think the author is posing this question: Xiangzi proves that individual struggle is a dead end, so where is the way out?

As I said before, roads are made by walking. The book depicts Xiangzi's downfall, and in reality, there was the outcry from *New Youth* magazine. These are not contradictory; who wants to be crushed by the world?

We are composing a morning song for the world in elegy.

When Ma Yu saw the last sentence, he seemed to see a spirited young man before him, wielding his brush with great vigor, as if all obstacles were mere bubbles in front of him.

Hope suddenly appeared, just as the letter said, "The road is made by people walking it."

How can one be so confident...?

Finally, regarding the argument between your classmates.

One side is pessimism, the other optimism; seemingly opposed, but in reality, both are quite blind.

The former believes the world's ways cannot be changed, while the latter believes the world's ways need not be changed.

One faction covers their left eye, the other covers their right eye; they're both blind...

Hope does not lie in waiting for a savior to descend from heaven.

The weather is getting colder, take care.

【Bamboo Gentleman】

October 3, 1918

Ma Yu laughed out loud when she saw the final evaluation of her classmates.

That's incredibly swearing! I've never seen such a vivid description before.

The letter, though not long, has now answered all her questions, and she has decided to share this lesson with her classmates after school tomorrow!

However, replying to the letter was the priority for now. She opened the drawer, took out Ma Yuzhao's fountain pen, and wrote two lines:

【Sir, are you available on weekdays?】

I really want to see you!