The book, “The True Story of Ah Q” was written by Lu Xun. It is a form of historical fiction, which “is a literary genre that takes place in the past. The setting is drawn from history.” The historical events and social phenomena will be presented in the story though it is a historical fiction. It can impress deeply historical frames in people’s mind and plays a significant role in history. It is another way to record history. Additionally, the author, “Lu Xun (1881-1936) is widely regarded as one of modern China’s most prominent and influential writers.” Lu Xun has enough patriotism. He advocated “literary movement”. “He concluded that a “literary movement” was needed to build awareness and incite action amongst the oppressed.” Moreover, he published many books and articles, which have had significant influence for Chinese society. “The True Story of Ah Q” was one of the most outstanding opuses. It was published in December 1921. The book was around by one person who is Ah Q. Also, satire and humor language were used by Lu Xun in order to portray the characters of Ah Q and mental activities, Lu Xun attempted to illustrate the condition of China and the story insinuated the social activity and people’s ignorant during the primary stage of new China and Revolution. Lu Xun tries to state that internal problems are vital for China. Moreover, “ The True of Ah Q” insinuates several aspects of the state of Chinese society during that period: ignorant and pathological Chinese masses, corrupt and cowardly officials and unhealthy social ethos. These are the core meanings of Lu Xun’s writing.
First of all, due to revolution overthrew the two thousand years of feudal monarchy, so it deeply rooted the concept of a democratic republic, but it...
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...es his pride. When Ah Q meet Whiskers Wang who are accustomed and wears loafers, he thought he is a lot better than Whiskers Wang, and tries to provoke him. When they start the fight, Ah Q realizes he cannot compete with Wang, and got pouched. Before Wang leaves Ah Q whispers and swears at him. However, Ah Q also gets some luck. When Ah Q saw a Buddhist nun, he swore to her said “Baldhead! Go back quickly, your monk is waiting for you”, then Buddhist nun ran away with tears. Ah Q watches the view of her back and laughs. As these stories people at that special period have abnormal mentality. They are willing to bully weak people and satisfy people with power.
In conclusion, The True Story of Ah Q exposes the social phenomena. People were illiteracy and unenlightened. They use “winner a psychological victory” to hind the pains of being oppressive inside their hearts.
“The Death of Woman Wang”, written by Chinese historian Jonathan Spence, is a book recounting the harsh realities facing citizens of Tancheng country, Shandong Province, Qing controlled China in the late 17th century. Using various primary sources, Spence describes some of the hardships and sorrow that the people of Tancheng faced. From natural disasters, poor leadership, banditry, and invasions, the citizens of Tancheng struggled to survive in a devastated and changing world around them. On its own, “Woman Wang” is an insightful snapshot of one of the worst-off counties in imperial Qing China, however when taking a step back and weaving in an understanding of long held Chinese traditions, there is a greater understanding what happened in
Jonathan D. Spence weaves together fact and fiction in his book The Death of Woman Wang. Approaching history through the eyes of those who lived it, he tells a story of those affected by history rather than solely recounting the historical events themselves. By incorporating factual evidence, contextualizing the scene, and introducing individual accounts, he chronicles events and experiences in a person’s life rather than episodes in history. Spence pulls together the narrative from a factual local history of T’an-ch’eng by scholar Fenge K’o-ts’an, the memoir of magistrate Huang Liu-hung, and fictional stories by writer P’u Sung-ling. The book closely resembles an historical fiction while still maintaining the integrity of an historical reconstruction.
The Cultural Revolution in China was led by Mao Zedong, due to this Liang and many others faced overwhelming obstacles in many aspects of their life such as work, family and everyday encounters, if affected everyone’s families life and education, Liang lets us experience his everyday struggles during this era, where the government determined almost every aspect of life. The beginning of the book starts out with Liang’s typical life, which seems normal, he has a family which consists of three children, two older sisters and him the youngest, his two sister’s reside in Changsha 1. his father has an everyday occupation working as a journalist at a local newspaper. Things start to take a turn early in life for Liang Heng, his family politics were always questioned, the mistake made by one of his family members would impact his entire family and it would be something they would have to suffer through, it was impossible for them to live down such a sin.... ...
There is no better way to learn about China's communist revolution than to live it through the eyes of an innocent child whose experiences were based on the author's first-hand experience. Readers learn how every aspect of an individual's life was changed, mostly for the worst during this time. You will also learn why and how Chairman Mao launched the revolution initially, to maintain the communist system he worked hard to create in the 1950's. As the story of Ling unfolded, I realized how it boiled down to people's struggle for existence and survival during Mao's reign, and how lucky we are to have freedom and justice in the United States; values no one should ever take for
Chapter one, The Observers, in the Death of Woman Wang demonstrates the accuracy of the local historian; Feng K'o-ts'an, who compiled The Local History of T'an-ch'eng in 1673. The descriptive context of the Local History helps the reader to understand and literally penetrate into people's lives. The use of records of the earthquake of 1668, the White Lotus rising of 1622 and rebels rising vividly described by Feng the extent of suffering the people of T'an-ch'eng went through. Jonathan Spence stresses on how miserable the two-quarter of the seventeen-century were to the diminishing population of the county. The earthquake claimed the lives of nine thousand people, many others died in the White lotus rising, hunger, sickness and banditry. P'u Sung-ling's stories convey that after the loss of the wheat crops there were cases of cannibalism. On top of all of this came the slaughtering of the entire family lines by the bandits. The incredible records of women like Yao and Sun in the Local History present the reader the magnitude of savagery the bandits possessed. All of these factors led to the rise of suicides. The clarity of events Spence given to the reader is overwhelming.
Qianlong’s education started at a very young age and was said to have been a child prodigy that by the age of six had learned Chinese characters, and commence his study under a tutor at the age of seven and studied all the Chinese classics with Hanlin scholars. As well as legendary rulers of the Chinese antiquity, Qianlong’s models were those of highly educated, usually referred to literati. Literati were scholars with high intelligence that aimed for ‘ya’, which meant elegance of thought, strong sense of character with the goal of living a simple life . Dressed in tradition Ming style clothing and headwear, Qianlong is portrayed as what he fantasies himself to be, a scholarly literati with an identical portrait of him in the background,
In conclusion, religions not being accepted by other people and unequal distribution of land led to a small decline in a democracy being formed. Although, there were many small and minor improvements, they did not make that period more democratic. In fact, in the Connecticut Gazette, it showed that the people were yearning and in many ways begging for a democracy and wanted independence (Doc L). Even though that happened, the democracy they wanted did not get as far as they hoped for. Yet, it created doors for more to be done later.
Jonathan Spence tells his readers of how Mao Zedong was a remarkable man to say the very least. He grew up a poor farm boy from a small rural town in Shaoshan, China. Mao was originally fated to be a farmer just as his father was. It was by chance that his young wife passed away and he was permitted to continue his education which he valued so greatly. Mao matured in a China that was undergoing a threat from foreign businesses and an unruly class of young people who wanted modernization. Throughout his school years and beyond Mao watched as the nation he lived in continued to change with the immense number of youth who began to westernize. Yet in classes he learned classical Chinese literature, poems, and history. Mao also attained a thorough knowledge of the modern and Western world. This great struggle between modern and classical Chinese is what can be attributed to most of the unrest in China during this time period. His education, determination and infectious personalit...
The French Revolution having been a key change in promoting democratic republics across Europe. Europe has seen the rise, success and fall of diverse types of governments, all who have made a lasting impact on history. Monarchies that have passed down power through family names for centuries, Republics that have focused on putting the power in the hands of the people, nationalism and fascism that have laid strict hands on its subjects to radicalized a country. Socialism from the east made its way in and even evolved into its own form of European socialism3 that is still in place today. Murder, war, freedom and oppression all stem from the changing governments that have laid throughout the rich history of
Cao Xueqin’s Story of the Stone is a classic in Chinese literature, showcasing the life and exploits of the wealthy Jia clan during the feudal era. Through Cao’s depiction, the reader is afforded a glimpse into the customs and lifestyle of the time. Chinese mode of thought is depicted as it occurs in daily life, with the coexisting beliefs of Confucianism and Taoism. While the positive aspects of both ideologies are presented, Cao ultimately depicts Taoism as the paramount, essential system of belief that guides the character Bao-yu to his eventual enlightenment. As was the case in China, Cao depicts the two forms of belief existing alongside one another, and not necessarily practiced exclusively to one another.
There is a fundamental difference between a democracy and a republic as it concerned the political entitlement of the citizenry. The citizens of a republic do not participate directly with governmental affairs. The citizens of a republic can however have a say in who does participate. The Roman republic has two prefect systems to prevent dictatorship which didn’t work.
The Republic is a political, and a work dealing with what traits or virtues one must have, as its whole purpose is to show that the one cannot be separated from the other. Politics is nothing more than the attempts of man to put order or disorder in his social life or regime. Th...
The way the Chinese have conceived of their past - and thus of themselves - was profoundly shaped by a book written in Han times, the Historical Records (Shiji) of Sima Qian. Before Sima Qian was able to complete his history, he made the political mistake of defending a general who had surrendered to the Xiongnu. Given the choice between death and becoming a palace eunuch, he chose the humiliation of castration and servitude rather than leave his history unfinished. He wrote to a friend that he had chosen to live in disgrace "because I have things in my heart that I have not been able to express full." (Cambridge Illustrated, Pg. 67) Qian lived a life marked by devoted piety, rightness, and dedication to a cause; however, he still felt worthless. In a letter to his friend, Jen An, he explains why he is unable to recommend anybody to the imperial service. Sima Qian did not requite his offense by suicide, as would have been appropriate, customary, and in most ways honorable. Instead, driven as he was to complete his private project of writing a comprehensive, universal history, he accepted the alternative punishment of castration. Sima Qian tells us this quite clearly in a letter to his friend Jen An, one of the most moving and poignant of Chinese writings ever: "If I concealed my feelings and clung to life, burying myself in filth without protest, it was because I could not bear to leave unfinished my deeply cherished project, because I rejected the idea of dying without leaving to posterity my literary work." Sima Qian cites many examples of famous historical figures who, in their time of crisis, wrote books that ultimately brought them their due recognition by posterity. At base Sima Qian wished to embed his personal philosophy i...
In the China that Yu Hua grew up in, many people read banned novels, copied novels, and read novels that were in the worse conditions. From an early age, children knew the power of writing; it was evident through the big-character posters. The posters would turn neighbor against neighbor and, rarely, families would fall apart, and the victim would occasionally take his or her own life. Teachers resorted to asking school aged children to defame their character. In China in Ten Words, Yu Hua writes, “…if you don’t write, then you won’t know what you’re capable of creating” (Hua 80). He wrote and he read even when he had nothing and in doing that, it has made all the difference in his
In conclusion, revolution is an important reform tool that should be used only when needed. Making revolutions’ decisions should be taken carefully to avoid any harmful consequences. In addition, when things go wrong, there should be a higher organization to protect people.