Lin Zixuan, a writer who wrote fairy tales during the Republic of China, knew one, that is, Zheng Zhenduo of the Literary Research Association.

In July 1921, Zheng Zhenduo became the editor-in-chief of Xuedeng, a supplement to Shanghai's Shishi Xinbao.

He opened a new column of "Children's Literature" in "Xuedeng", mainly publishing foreign fairy tales translated by members of the Literature Research Society he presided over, so as to meet the needs of domestic children to receive literary enlightenment.

This is the first children's literature column in the history of modern Chinese newspapers and periodicals.

This column ran for more than two months and was very popular with young readers, so Zheng Zhenduo decided to take advantage of the situation and simply run a weekly "Children's World".

On January 7, 1922, China's first children's periodical, Children's World, published by the Commercial Press, was officially published.

"Children's World" is a publication for Primary 32, published once a week.

The content of the first few issues was almost all written by Zheng Zhenduo alone.

In addition to his own fairy tales and picture stories, he also rewrote and imported many foreign children's literature.

From the ancient European "Aesop's Fables" and "The Tale of Lena Fox", to the Japanese folk tale "The Tale of Taketori" and the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Wilde and others.

He also invited other writers from the Literary Research Society to co-create Chinese fairy tales.

Among them, Ye Shengtao made the greatest achievement, he wrote the fairy tale "Scarecrow" in 1922.

The story looks at the tragic world through the eyes of a scarecrow: the poor peasant woman, the poor fisherwoman, the poor suicide, the poor crucian carp, and so on.

However, for the tragedy of the world, the scarecrow cannot save or change anything.

Ultimately. The scarecrow, torn between guilt and powerlessness, "fell in the middle of the field" and slept with the tragedy.

Lu Xun once wrote: ""Scarecrow" opened a way for Chinese fairy tales to create their own. ”

Lin Zixuan didn't agree with this.

Writers of this era may have a strong sense of responsibility. When I was writing, I always thought that I was burdened with the responsibility of saving the country and the people, and I must write about the reality of this era.

Even fairy tales are the same. Written so darkly, so tragically.

This is not for children, but for adults, and Ye Shengtao is not a children's story, he put the tragedy of the world together, just to expose how dark the world is, and he didn't think about how children felt after reading it.

From an adult perspective, "Scarecrow" is undoubtedly very well written.

But Lin Zixuan would never read this story to his children.

Lu Xun likes this kind of dark text, which is similar to his style. It is extremely critical, but he does not consider from the perspective of children what shadow this story will leave in the hearts of children.

Fairy tales preach truth, goodness and beauty, and criticize falsehood, evil and ugliness.

It's not that you can't write about tragedy, but in the end, you must leave a little hope and light for your child.

For example, Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl" is very tragic, and the little girl is frozen to death on Chinese New Year's Eve, exposing the cruelty and unfairness of society.

However, the author arranges the little girl's final fantasy. I went to a world without hunger with my grandmother.

The little girl died with a smile on her face, which left a sense of hope for the children who read the story.

The world of children is still a little more innocent.

The purpose of the Literature Research Society is to promote realist literature and believe that literature is life. From this, we can see what kind of fairy tales they create.

Although there are some excellent works among them, they are used to expose reality. Most of them are satirical about society.

It's more of an advocacy role than a child's perspective on the world.

When they write children's stories, they always want to express their dissatisfaction with society. Such children's stories have literary value, but they lack a childlike innocence.

Lin Zixuan didn't say that those fairy tales were bad. It's just different from his view of fairy tales.

His purpose in founding the children's magazine is to "see the world through the eyes of children and maintain a good childlike heart".

Of course, there will be people who sarcastically ridicule Lin Zixuan This is the idea of a rich man.

There are so many oppressed child laborers in Shanghai, so many children in China have no food, there is still a war in the north, and the society is so cruel that it is necessary to let children realize the real world.

The children's stories you write are so innocent and cute that they don't correspond to reality at all and will only make children fall into unrealistic fantasies.

Lin Zixuan has nothing to say about this kind of person, he can only say that this kind of person has lost his childlike innocence.

You yourself are dissatisfied with life and want your child to be like you, thus depriving your child of the illusion of a good life.

Being able to let children smile after reading fairy tales and retain a little hope for life in their hearts is the role of fairy tales, showing the real world to children is too cruel.

He can't solve the problems of the whole society, he can only try his best to tell every fairy tale well.

The magazine founded by Lin Zixuan is called "Fairy Tale King", which is also a 32-page publication, once a week.

He contributed the entire magazine, and he was not very relieved about the fairy tales written by the literati of this era.

The first issue has three stories, the first is "The Adventures of Shuck and Beta", the second is "The Wizard of Oz", and the third is "Sheriff Black Cat".

Shuck and Beta is the story of two little mice who go on adventures together, and it's a long series.

In later generations, it can be said that he grew up with Lin Zixuan, but he actually didn't finish reading it, mainly because the story was too long, and he could only see where it was written.

"The Wizard of Oz" is a classic American fairy tale and Lin Zixuan's childhood memories.

It tells the story of a little girl named Dorothy in the land of Oz in search of courage, kindness, and wisdom with lions, robots, and scarecrows.

However, this fairy tale had already been published in 1900, and the original author had passed away, so Lin Zixuan could only be regarded as a translator.

"Sheriff Black Cat" was originally a comic, the content of which is the story of Sheriff Black Cat fighting against various evil forces that endanger the forest in order to protect the forest, which is both informative and interesting.

In addition, Lin Zixuan also left several alternative stories.

For example, "Hulu Baby" and "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf", Japanese fairy tale "Little Doudou by the Window", Belgian comic "The Adventures of Tintin" and so on.

"The Fairy Tale King" has not only stories, but also beautiful illustrations, which are the responsibility of the three students of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Now the three of them are familiar with the style of comics, and are creating more comic characters according to Lin Zixuan's setting, and it is not a problem to draw illustrations in fairy tales.

Zheng Zhenduo welcomed Lin Zixuan's creation of fairy tales, and there was little competition between them.

In 1923, Zheng Zhenduo did not have an editor-in-chief of "Children's World" after the editor-in-chief of "Novel Monthly", and the editor-in-chief of "Children's World" at this time was Xu Jingchang.

But the Commercial Press doesn't think so, and the "Fairy Tale King" released by Vientiane Books is obviously competing with the Commercial Press's "Children's World" for the market.

The competition between the two sides is already fierce, and this time it is even more incompatible.

In fact, the children's magazine also has "Little Friend" under Chung Hwa Book Company, which was released on April 6, 1922, but it is inferior to "Children's World" in terms of content and sales.

Lin Zixuan's strong entry into the field of children's books naturally caused the other two bookstores to take precautions. (To be continued.) )