Nankai Middle School.

Early in the morning, Zhou Weilie came to the classroom with a heavy suitcase, dragged him up to the podium and shouted, "Come and get the autographed book!" ”

The iron buckle of the suitcase was opened, and there were more than 40 copies of "The Little Prince" inside, and each title page had Zhou Hexuan's autograph.

Lu Wanzhen and several other classmates immediately rushed over, happily found their own book, and said with a smile: "Thank you, little brother Zhou." ”

"Nothing." Zhou Weilie wiped the sweat from his forehead.

After getting the book, the students in the class got together to continue reading the newspaper and argued about the different interpretations of "The Little Prince" in the newspaper.

"Hey, the page of literature and art ("Xinhua Daily" supplement) and "Pingming" ("Central Daily" supplement) have different interpretations of the image of 'drunkard', which is more in line with Mr. Zhou's original intention?"

"I think "Pingming" makes more sense, 'drunkard' should refer to traitors. The reason why drunkards get drunk all day long is because they want to forget about the embarrassment of alcoholism. This is undoubtedly a satire of the traitor Wang Zhaoming and his henchmen, who betrayed the country under the slogan of saving the country and trying to survive, drunk on life and death, and deceived themselves and others. ”

"No, no, the page of literature and art is more reasonable. 'Drunkard' generally refers to a person who is unwilling to face reality, whether he is a traitor, a bureaucrat, or a lord and faction who try to negotiate for survival. ”

“……”

Since Ma Jue published that interpretation commentary, various related comments have emerged in endlessly, and there are often multiple different interpretations of the same character.

Some people say that "desert flowers" allude to capitulationists, while others think that it refers to pessimists who do not report hope for the war in general.

Regarding the "lamplighter", the Kuomintang royal literati believed that they were praising the great leader Chang Kaishen, the left-wing literati believed that they were praising all the heroes who sacrificed their lives for the Anti-Japanese War, and the liberal literati believed that they were praising ordinary people who contributed to the Anti-Japanese War.

The interpretation of the "king" was even more divided, with the Kuomintang newspapers believing it to be a satire of the Japanese fascists, and the Communist Party newspapers believing that it was exposing the dictatorship of the Nationalist government.

Almost all the images in the book "The Little Prince" have been interpreted over and over again, and the situation is the same as studying and analyzing "Dream of Red Mansions".

No one criticizes Zhou Hexuan anymore, and "The Little Prince" is recognized as a work of patriotic literature. Because it is already very moving, once it is interpreted in the direction of patriotism, it can be substituted into the reader's national feelings in minutes.

A fairy tale that made countless people cry.

For undergraduate students in the Department of 21st Century Literature, there is a compulsory course called "History of Modern Chinese Literature", which covers the period from the late Qing Dynasty to the founding of New China.

In this professional course, Zhou Hexuan received the same treatment as Lu Xun, Mao Dun and others, and they all occupied a chapter. And Zhou Hexuan's chapter has as many as five sections, "The Goddess", "Dog Official", and "The Biography of Dog Official" are all in one section, and "The Little Prince" is a separate section.

The following is an excerpt from "A History of Modern Chinese Literature" - Chapter 10 Zhou Hexuan - Section 5 The Little Prince:

"The Little Prince" was published in February 1942, which is a fairy tale and fable created by Zhou Hexuan during the Anti-Japanese War, and it is also a patriotic literary work with outstanding achievements and great influence in the history of modern literature in China......"

"The Little Prince" has two ways of interpretation: one is to take the perspective of children, to see through the emptiness, blindness, ignorance and dogma of adults, and to write about the loneliness of human beings and the fate of drifting with the waves in simple and naïve language, and at the same time criticize the materialism of money and praise truth, goodness and beauty. Second, from the perspective of patriots, it reflects the Chinese society in a period of national crisis, and uses metaphors to praise the anti-Japanese heroes, criticize the fascist invading forces and traitors, and condemn the dictatorship and brutality of the Nationalist Government......"

This dual emotional expression, which expresses the author's love for truth, goodness, beauty and the motherland, is unique in China's literary creation during the Anti-Japanese War, and has always been a key research object in the field of literary criticism. For quite some time, there have been a variety of interpretations of The Little Prince, and these interpretations have even contradicted each other. In the eyes of a thousand readers, there are a thousand Hamlets, and Zhou Hexuan later said: The little prince can be anyone, it's you, it's me, it's him, and every reader's understanding of the imagery in the book is correct......"

Regardless, "The Little Prince" has become one of the favorite works of students in the Department of 21st Century Literature. Because the final exam often asks subjective questions, listing one of the characters for students to interpret, the degree of freedom is very high, as long as you don't scribble, you can basically score.

Let's go back to 1942, and the sales of "The Little Prince" were surprisingly good, and many students had to buy a copy of it to save money. It can meet the dual needs of readers for personal emotions and patriotism, and it can also allow parents to buy it home and tell it to their children.

Just as the French regard "The Little Prince" as a classic, even printing the author, the Little Prince and the star on a 50-denomination franc, Chinese readers also regard "The Little Prince" as a classic. Ordinary people's love for it far exceeds that of "The Goddess", etc., and is recognized as Zhou Hexuan's representative work.

At the same time, "The Little Prince" also sparked a wave of fairy tale creation. Some of the content that the national government did not allow to be written, and the writers used fairy tales as metaphors, so that Lao Jiang didn't know how to ban the banned books.

As far away as the United States and the United Kingdom, although there is no aura of patriotism, "The Little Prince" also detonated the book markets of the two countries.

There is a saying that "The Little Prince" is second only to the Bible in sales, but it is difficult to say, but there are several books that claim to be second only to the Bible in sales. Strictly speaking, the world's second-best-selling book should be "Mao Language", the third is "Xinhua Dictionary", the fourth is "Mao Poetry", and the fifth is "Mao Xuan".

However, "The Little Prince" definitely made it into the top twenty, with sales far outpacing the Harry Potter series.

And because the original author died too early and piracy was rampant in various countries, the book's sales statistics are difficult, and conservative estimates are more than 80 million copies, and some say 200 million copies—if it is 200 million copies, then it will surpass "A Tale of Two Cities" and "The Lord of the Rings" to rank in the top six, becoming the second best-selling non-Chinese book after the Bible.

Because this book is so beautifully written, it has the power to touch the soul.

Zhou Hexuan's version of "The Little Prince" sold 400,000 copies in the United Kingdom and the United States in just one month after its release, followed by another 30,000 copies in the Indian market. I heard that the English version has quietly spread to France, and the French writers have spoken highly of it, so they almost didn't give Zhou Hexuan another award.