What did Grandpa Lu Xun do to make the Zhou family quickly become poor from a well-off family?

As the saying goes, a starved camel is bigger than a horse, and there are 3,000 nails on the wrecked ship. This sentence is really reasonable. In society, there are often some illusions because of comparison, just like "the poverty of the poor and the poverty of the rich" are all poor, but the poverty of the poor is really poor, with nothing to gain and nothing to lose.

But the poverty of the rich means that they can't live the luxurious life they used to live. This kind of poverty is mostly compared by the rich according to their previous lives. At best, it can be declining, but it is far from poverty. In this respect, Lu Xun's Home is a good example.

The beginning of family decline

Lu Xun's ancestors used to be everyone in the feudal period. I live in a big house that ordinary people can't even think about. There are special maids and wet nurses at home, which is also a fancy home. However, in that era of alternating dynasties and turmoil, many aristocratic families in the old society were impacted by the changes of social system, and the Zhou family was no exception. The decline of Zhou family should be in the late Qing Dynasty, starting from Lu Xun's grandfather Zhou Fuqing.

Lu Xun's father, Zhou Fuqing, was originally a scholar. Although he is not the top scholar or the second, it should not be a problem to continue the glory of Zhou family only by his top scholar status and original family background. However, Zhou Fuqing is not suitable for being an official. He has a bad temper and has no discretion in speaking.

In today's words, emotional intelligence is relatively low. In officialdom, such people are doomed to be unpopular. It turned out to be true. In the process of becoming an official, Zhou Fuqing never lost money or made money. According to Lu Xun's memory, although his grandfather didn't need family relief, he never brought a penny home. However, one thing that Zhou Fuqing did later completely led to the decline of the Zhou family.

Take a wrong step

1893, Zhou Fuqing's son, that is, Lu Xun's father, wanted to take the provincial examination. It happened that the invigilator and Zhou Fuqing were old acquaintances. Zhou Fuqing, who didn't want to live to be a hundred years old, hoped that his son could seize this opportunity, climb high and look far, and complete his unfinished ambition, so he wrote to his old friends, hoping to "take care of" his son.

But the letter was not well hidden, and Zhou Fuqing was soon accused of bribing the examiner. All of a sudden, not only was his son's official position not caught, but Zhou Fuqing lost his job and even almost lost his life. In the end, the Zhou family exhausted all their wealth and saved Zhou Fuqing's life. Such a blow also caused the Zhou family to collapse and began to decline.

It is often said that it's none of your business. For the decline of such a big family as the Zhou family, most people around them are joking and taking part in the fun. In the eyes of the Zhou family, the extravagance and luxury of the past still no longer exist, and they are very poor. But most rich people can live for three years by sweeping the floor.

Although the family has gone downhill, many things have been accumulated in the previous prosperous period. Just go to the pawnshop and be a pawn or two, which is enough for the whole family to eat for a long time. This is also the work that Lu Xun often did when he was young.

Make a living by pawning

At that time, Lu Xun's father had contracted the bad habit of smoking opium, and the whole family lost its reliable pillar, so they had to live by pawning their wealth. Lu Xun was only ten years old at that time. But I have to go to the counter higher than myself from time to time, listen to the cynicism of the pawnbroker in the counter, criticize the local products, and finally get the few sources of life from the pawnbroker.

These experiences are the shadows of Lu Xun's childhood, leaving indelible scars on his young mind. At that time, the trauma was forced by trauma and life, and Lu Xun, who was only ten years old, often pawned his family's things in pawn shops. This is why the poverty of the rich is different from that of the poor.

The Zhou family has been in decline for a long time, and there have always been things at home that can be sold as pawns. For them, they just need to sacrifice a little dignity to get money now, instead of reaching out as before. The poverty of the poor is desperate. The Zhou family pawned the expensive fox fur coat until a few years later.

From the ridicule of the people around him, the young Lu Xun gradually realized that since the day of his grandfather's accident, his family has lost its scenery. Now Shaoxing is almost all about watching Zhou's jokes. Those so-called praises for their pawn items are also a kind of ruthless ridicule.

This childhood experience also made Lu Xun very sensitive to money in his later years. He often burns the midnight oil to earn his manuscript fee, and no one is allowed to default on his manuscript fee at any time. It's your own money. You have to get it back anyway.

The poverty of the rich is just like the poverty of Lu Xun's family. Even if it falls, you can live with a well-off family for a few years without worrying about food and clothing. The poverty of the poor is really poor, just like Kong Yiji written by Lu Xun, who has clothes on his body and no home. Without the capital to eat and live, we can only owe money everywhere and even do things to make a living. This is real poverty.

However, it is difficult for a family like the Zhou family, which has been rich for generations, to fall into such a situation overnight. To say the least, the Zhou family still has a big house. If it really reaches the point where there is no way to go one day, it can support the Zhou family's life for a long time. It's just that everyone who has made a fortune has finally fallen apart, leaving them alone in the disaster, which has to be lamented.

In fact, whether it is rich or poor, it is a test of life. The rich have more wealth than the poor, but at the same time their pursuit of living standards is many times higher than that of the poor.

After experiencing changes and setbacks, these rich people can only live like ordinary people, which is the decline of their quality of life and the gap in their lives, thus making them feel poor. Although the rich may live better than most poor people when they are poor, it is actually a challenge for them to accept this gap.