Subtitle of this chapter: Meiji Natsume, Taisho Tsubame.

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"There were not many outstanding writers in the Meiji era in Japan, and realism, romanticism, and naturalism emerged one after another. However, it should also be noted that these writers have a common problem: they attach too much importance to theoretical research and lack practical works.

Most of the few creations are also in the service of theory, limited by technique and artistry, and their influence can only be limited to the literary world itself, and cannot be recognized by the common people.

At that time, due to the influx of advanced theories and various schools of thought from the West in a short period of time, more and more writers focused on the study of theories and techniques, and few writers considered their own practice and creation, let alone using their works to influence the people.

This may have something to do with the fact that our Japanese nation is good at learning but is a little rigid in its national character.

Natsume Soseki was one of the very few practical schools in the Meiji period, and his reputation was much higher than that of literary theory, and the most famous works had a strong common folk flavor in their language style, and their influence on the people was great, which established his reputation as a "great national writer".

During the period when his works were serialized in newspapers and magazines, kimono shops and jewelry stores in Japan even sold their goods, which shows the great influence of his works on the people. This common influence may also be one of the reasons why Natsume Soseki wrote for the people.

The spirit of critical realism embodied in Natsume's works is also worth illustrating, and his works reflect the major contradictions and conflicts in the material and spiritual life of Japan's modernization. The characteristics and shortcomings of different classes are expressed through peculiar artistic ideas. The style of critical realism is highly respected all over the world.

The period from 1912 to 1926, after the Meiji era, was the golden age of Japan's modern history, as the European War made Japanese industry and commerce prosperous. Politically, it is called "Taisho Democracit", and in literature and art, it is "Taisho Romantic".

How romantic is it?

Take a look at the authors of this era, Takarazuka, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Junichiro Tanizaki, Osamu Dazai, Minoru Koji, Yumeji Takehisa, Izumi Kagamika, Haruo Sato, and Ryoshi Muroyu......

In the impact of Eastern and Western cultures, their works are not only delicate and sensitive, but also a little neurotic. Obviously, their works inevitably deviate from the tastes of the common people.

In 1916, Natsume Soseki died. Therefore, readers at that time had a question, will there be the next Natsume Soseki in the Taisho era?

However, what none of us Japanese expected was that it was not Japanese to succeed Natsume Soseki and become the "great national author" of the Taisho era. What's even more incredible is that he is even a Chinese who speaks not Japanese but Chinese as his mother tongue - Yuan Yanqi.

By the way, Natsume Soseki was a famous beautiful man in the Meiji era, and Yuan Yanqi was an epoch-making beautiful man. (note 1)

Both are writers, but Yuan Yanqian is a more pure writer than Natsume Soseki. He hardly touches on literary theory, and only verifies his "literary way" with his own works.

So what is his literary path? According to Yuan Yanqian himself, it is "the victory of the common people".

He was extremely dismissive of so-called intellectual literature.

He once said that people in this world who can write and hum poetry, even intellectuals, are simply ridiculous in the world, and their works are just the diseaseless moans of idle men and women who are full of food and know a few words.

During her tenure as a professor at the China Public School in Shanghai, Yuan Yanqian once taught a course on literary creation. In his first school year, he came up with a topic called "Farming".

He also really carved out a piece of farmland next to the Chinese public school, allowing his students to follow the old farmers to farm. It wasn't until the harvest was complete that the students began to write in earnest.

And the only student work he gave full marks to was only seven words plus a punctuation mark: Farming is really tiring!

Yuan Yanqian also gave the student fifty silver dollars per word, a total of four hundred silver dollars as remuneration, and the student's name was Xie Wanying.

It is precisely because of this simple, unpretentious, and down-to-earth attitude to literary creation that his works are almost all popular literary works, covering popular categories such as science fiction, horror, detective, romance, fantasy, etc.

Probably because of the limitations of language, he focuses on different categories when creating in different languages.

His English is mainly fantasy and science fiction, and his Chinese is history under the banner of time.

And in addition to being the most commendable detective in Japanese, he also has his own "lightness" and "sensuality". It's just that Yuan Yanqian is not very interested in the latter two, and just dabbles in it a little.

However, these two are very popular with our Japanese readers, and many authors have started to create them. Later, the advent of the Great Depression made the social atmosphere more serious, and the government intervened to ban it, which allowed this literary trend to subside a little.

In fact, Emperor Hirohito was a loyal reader of Yuan Yanqi, and he especially liked the faculties he wrote.

It is said that the most famous book of the late Taisho period, "The Noble Lady White Lotus", was drafted by Crown Prince Hirohito himself and then secretly asked another author to write it.

It is also said that the prototype of the protagonist of this book is Yanagihara Hakuren, one of the three beauties of Taisho, who is the cousin of Emperor Taisho, that is, Hirohito's cousin, and a famous female poet, known as the "Queen of Tsukushi". And this Queen of Tsukushi and Yuan Yanqian also crossed paths in the early twenties......

In the field of Japanese literature, another major achievement of Yuan Yanqian is the text scripting of various anime works. It can be said that he has elevated anime to a height that is difficult for predecessors and even future generations to achieve.

Until the 21st century, we Japanese have not produced a few works that surpass those of a hundred years ago.

It has to be pointed out that his talent and achievements in pure literature and poetry are also difficult for ordinary people to achieve.

When Yuan Yanqi learned Japanese in 1921 from a Japanese businessman named Hattori Heiji, the first poem he wrote was "Not Afraid of Wind and Rain", which is popular today.

Keep in mind that many historical figures, including Yoshizaburo Nomura, Isoroku Yamamoto, and Narumi Inoue, have testified to their own testimonies that before that, Yuan only greeted people in Japanese, even if she was not even a beginner.

However, after just a few months of study, he was able to not only speak Japanese fluently, but also write in Japanese. Such a talent for language is really hard to say.

We can only say that genius is not only ahead of its time, but also omnipotent......"

—Excerpt from Kato Kato's A Brief History of Modern Japanese Literature (note 2)

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Note 1: Natsume Soseki bears a bit of a resemblance to Lu Xun, especially their beards. Interested patients can compare their photos on Baidu. In fact, there is a saying that Lu Xun only kept a mustache because he worshiped Natsume Soseki.

Note 2: Kato was a big leftist on Monday, which is not surprising that many Japanese intellectuals in postwar Japan were leftists.

In his book "The Basic Characteristics of Japanese Society and Culture," he hit the nail on the head: "During the 15-year war, as an individual, Japan did not have a single person responsible for the war, that is, everyone was at fault. Responsibility for the war rests with all Japanese people, not with the leaders. The so-called '100 million total confession' means that both the proprietress of the cigarette shop and Prime Minister Tojo have a responsibility of 1/100 million. One in 100 million is in fact equal to zero, i.e., becomes unresponsible. Everyone is responsible, almost the same as no responsibility. ”

Naturally, this kind of big left will not hide Hirohito's "ugly deeds".