著书亦为稻粱谋——物质文化视境中的鲁迅与茅盾

对鲁迅与茅盾这样以正直、正义和正大品格名世的作家,人们分析其文学创作、文化活动时可以有许多角度,但却普遍忽视了他们与物质文化的密切关系,他们的理性思考和文学想象背后隐含的诸多动机,也必然有其物质或金钱方面的追求。他们受益于物质和金钱,却也曾受限于物质或金钱,但他们终生都在努力成为物质或金钱的主人而不是奴隶,他们对金钱取之有道,用之有法,作为现代职业化文人的他们,始终是在“物质”与“良知”之间努力维持和发展自我生命的。对于作为人而非神的他们来说,建构自我人生、追求文化创造和“我以我血荐轩辕”的血源与命脉自然都不会凭空而来,也都需要起码的物质条件来,由此“卖文为生”便构成了他们长期的基本生活方式。

Lu Xun and Mao Dun Seen in the Perspective of Material Culture

While the literary creation and cultural life of Lu Xun and Mao Dun, reputed for their honesty, justice and uprightness, can be approached from various angles, the relationship between them and material culture has been universally neglected. As there were numerous motives behind their rational thinking and literary imagination, they were bound to pursue material or money. They benefited from but were once constrained by material and money, however they strained themselves to be masters rather than slaves of material and money. They earned money legally and spent it properly, thus having striven to sustain and develop their self life between "material" and "conscience". As for them--mortals with basic human needs, their life aspiration, literary creation and other cultural activities could not be conducted without fundamental material conditions, hence they had assumed the long term basic lifestyle of"living by their pen