On November 20, 1922, Lin Zixuan began his first class at Shanghai University.

He also brought gifts to the students, all of which were books written by him.

Including the poetry collection "A Generation", the novels "The Old Man and the Sea" and "Border City", the fairy tale "The Little Prince", the drama scripts "Thunderstorm" and "Sunrise".

These books were all published by Vientiane Bookstore, and in order to curry favor with Lin Zixuan, Ping Banya printed 20,000 copies each, but in fact, the best-selling "Generation" only sold 8,000 copies.

In order to make up an integer of 10,000 copies, he insisted on sending 2,000 copies to all parts of the country for free, which can be described as a loss of money and making money.

The sales of other books are basically around two or three thousand copies, and the sales of "Thunderstorm" and "Sunrise" are even less than 1,000 copies.

This is still in the name of Lin Zixuan, which shows that there is basically no market for new literary books.

This kind of acclaimed situation may improve in a few years, but at present, even Lu Xun's novels can't sell much, and the situation in Beiping should be better, and Shanghai is still the world of old literature.

These books are also moldy in the warehouse, so it is better to take them out and distribute them to the students, which can be regarded as free publicity for themselves.

As for why you don't bring "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "Gone with the Wind", of course, it is because these two novels belong to popular literature, and they don't have that lofty feeling.

And the sales are so good, the price is so expensive, it's a pity to give it away for nothing.

There are only 42 students in the Department of Chinese Literature at Shanghai University, including two female students.

However, today is Lin Zixuan's lecture, and there are almost seventy students in the auditorium, but fortunately, his books are brought over according to one hundred, and the rest of the books are donated to the school.

In order to show the importance of Lin Zixuan, Vice President Shao Lizi introduced Lin Zixuan this time.

Shao Lizi was born in 1882, a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, in 1902, he passed the township examination, entered Fudan Public School in 1905, and later went east to Japan to study.

At the end of the summer of 1910, he returned to Shanghai and founded the "Minli Bao", advocating the spirit of national independence and actively promoting the Northern Expedition.

In 1913, Minli Bao ceased publication, and he went to Fudan Public School as a teacher of Chinese literature, and later served as the director of the Chinese literature department of the private Fudan University.

In January 1916, he founded the "Republic of China Daily" in Shanghai.

This person is an old-timer in both the field of education and the newspaper industry, and he also has a pivotal position in the Shanghai literary circle, and is the initiator and organizer of the Southern Society, Lin Zixuan does not dare to slack off.

After the introduction, Shao Lizi sat at the end with some professors from Shanghai University to listen to what Lin Zixuan had to say.

Not only the students, but even these teachers were a little curious about Lin Zixuan.

The main reason is that Lin Zixuan is too young and too famous, he lectured on "Dream of Red Mansions" at Fudan University, and directly finished the lecture on Red Studies, I don't know what magical performance he can have at Shanghai University this time.

Lin Zixuan was not in a hurry, and found a few students to distribute the books they brought, everyone had them, and those teachers were no exception.

"These are all books I wrote, and we met for the first time today, which is a welcome gift for everyone." Lin Zixuan stood on the podium and said with a smile.

"Mr. Lin, no, "Thunderstorm" and "Sunrise" were written by Mr. Cao Yu." One student asked, puzzled.

Yes, he is a good actor, Lin Zixuan looked at the student and secretly praised.

"Oh, Cao Yu is my pen name." Lin Zixuan said lightly.

Suddenly, the audience burst into discussion, and the students and teachers were a little shocked.

Cao Yu is known as the founder of modern drama, and the two dramas "Thunderstorm" and "Sunrise" swept away the bad habits of civilized drama in the past, causing a great sensation in the drama world.

Even Lu Xun praised "Thunderstorm" and "Sunrise", but he didn't expect that this Mr. Cao Yu was just Lin Zixuan's pen name.

Thinking about it, although Mr. Cao Yu is famous, he has never appeared, no one knows who Mr. Cao Yu is, and some troupes that want to ask Cao Yu to write scripts can't find this person at all.

Some people have long speculated that Mr. Cao Yu is the pen name of a certain literary person, but there is no result in guessing.

Now that the answer is revealed, it is difficult for the students below to accept it for a while.

Lin Zixuan's reputation in the field of new literature can be said to be mixed.

Those who like it like it very much, and those who don't like it think that Lin Zixuan is a moth in the field of new literature, and he is a representative of the Western bourgeois reformists.

Because Lin Zixuan's works are either with Western backgrounds or love poems, there are few works that expose the suffering of the people in China, even poems such as "One Generation" and "Dead Water" are written in a symbolist way.

Therefore, for literary young people who pursue progress, Lin Zixuan has no revolutionary spirit.

Those members of the Creation Society also used this viewpoint to attack Lin Zixuan, believing that Lin Zixuan's background determined his position, and he could not write, nor did he dare to write new literature full of revolutionary spirit.

This is the evaluation of Lin Zixuan by some progressive newspapers and periodicals.

However, today, when Lin Zixuan admitted in this understatement way that he had written "Thunderstorm" and "Sunrise", some students below were quite ashamed.

They weren't actually here to listen to Lin Zixuan's lectures, but to pick on them.

They wanted to uncover the true face of Lin Zixuan's hypocritical bourgeois reformists, and they also prepared some tricky questions for this, and even if they could not drive Lin Zixuan out of Shanghai University, they would embarrass him.

At this time, the students all had a free spirit, and they all had a little unruly.

Unlike later generations of students who were oppressed by their studies and employment, they did not even have the most basic sense of resisting authority, and only knew how to cultivate talents with their own thoughts.

Lin Zixuan looked at the people below, feeling quite complacent.

"Thunderstorm" and "Sunrise" have a great influence among progressive youth, and many school drama troupes have rehearsed them, believing that they are the best scripts to expose the old society.

even compared these two dramas with Lu Xun's novels, and regarded Cao Yu as their revolutionary mentor.

Happy now!

Lin Zixuan thought a little mischievously.

Anyway, these two dramas have been performed, and "Sunrise" has also been filmed into a movie and has been widely accepted, and the impact of saying your identity at this time will be much smaller.

When the students below calmed down, Lin Zixuan didn't continue to talk about this matter, as if it was just a trivial matter and not worth mentioning at all.

In this way, his image in the hearts of students is a little taller, just like a hidden master, if he doesn't make a sound, he is a blockbuster.

"In this class, let's talk about literary creation." Lin Zixuan said calmly, "I don't know about the others, so let's talk about how I got on this creative path." ”