Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.8, 2020

 

Literature Is an Attitudinal Response to People and Life—On the Literary Relationship between Lu Yao and Tolstoy

(Abstract)

 

Li Jianjun

 

Tolstoy was a writer whom Lu Yao respected and whose example he followed. Lu perused all the major novels of this Russian master and learned much from them. He gained an understanding of Tolstoy’s literary thought and improved his own literary appreciation and accomplishments by reading Tolstoy’s letters on literature. Tolstoy emphasized the significance of “attitude” and regarded it as the decisive factor influencing literary writing, a viewpoint with which Lu Yao identified and which he used it to guide the creation of his own novels. Summarizing the literary approaches of the two and analyzing their writing experience shows that the influence in their relationship had a vertical dimension, but their similarities ran along parallel lines in three respects: the idea of forming one’s own self-image; a passion for people and life; and a sympathetic and affirmative attitude to the creating of characters. This highlights some basic knowledge and conclusions: that is, literature is an attitudinal response to people and life. Without a positive and correct attitude, it is impossible to write positively and create great works. For contemporary Chinese literature, with its attempt to banish dilemmas and attain new heights, the experience of Tolstoy and Lu Yao is of inspirational significance, meriting in-depth understanding and full absorption.