1. Why did Cao Yu dare not admit and object that he wanted to be Tolstoy?

Recently, I read My Dad Cao Yu written by Cao Yu's daughter Wan Fang, which mentioned that Cao Yu once confided in her and mentioned that she wanted to be Tolstoy. After she finished recording, she showed it to her father one day. Unexpectedly, after reading it, Cao Yu "was so anxious that he didn't sleep well all night" and said, "You really love me. I want to be Tolstoy. This is not a big joke, just Cao Yu. " It's convenient to say, "You can be whatever you want" and emphasize the word "think", which means that you don't say that you are lev tolstoy, but just want to be and think about it. However, Cao Yu still dare not admit it, and he is even more opposed to making this wish public. Finally, he declared that if it was made public, he would say that it was all made up by his daughter who was an editor.

Thanks to Wanfang for making Cao Yu's great wish public. Cao Yu not only has the natural right to become lev tolstoy, but also has the potential to become lev tolstoy. Thunderstorm, which he wrote in his early twenties, may be really naive. Then the sunrise became much more mature. As for Beijingers, it should be said that they have not only personal style, but also considerable depth. Although "Home" is adapted from Ba Jin's original work, it greatly sublimates the original work in art and is very complete. Vilen may not be very good, but he is very talented and aggressive. There was Metamorphosis in the 1940s, and the film Sunny Days was written and directed in Hong Kong, both of which were masterpieces to be reckoned with. If this vigorous creative momentum continues unchecked for decades, it is not only reasonable to want to be Tolstoy, but also impossible to become a reality!

Compared with his youth, Cao Yu's works in the latter half of his life not only decreased sharply, but also received great praise. Moreover, a great genius who was full of vigor and unrestrained artistic imagination gradually became unconfident, incredibly modest, and even sincerely belittled himself, occasionally revealing his lifelong ambition, or at least his lifelong regret, to his closest relatives, but he was afraid that once revealed, he would be ridiculed by "big jokes." This is really a great tragedy of a generation of gifted scholars!

Of course, there is more than one reason why Cao Yu's creativity declined in his later period. I just want to say here that if even people like Cao Yu "want to be Tolstoy" and have to bear the "guilt" of hosts, it will be really boring!

Suddenly thought of Ding Ling, who criticized her in those days. One of the allegations is that she hung photos on the wall of her home, and hung her own photos and lev tolstoy's portrait on a wall. At that time, Ding Ling was in the heyday of her creation, and there were many excellent works, which were expected to continue to erupt. If she declares that she "wants to be Tolstoy", it is really a good thing that our nation applauds and strongly supports her, so that she can finally get what she wants! However, when criticizing "Ding and Chen anti-party clique", her behavior of hanging her photo and lev tolstoy's portrait on the wall was regarded as "ironclad proof" of her arrogance and absurdity.

Even Ding Ling and Cao can't tolerate that they "want to be Tolstoy". What a "humanistic atmosphere" this is!

Of course, we should advocate modesty and prudence, and certainly don't support any wishful thinking, but do we sometimes suppress our self-confidence too much and create lofty sentiments? At that time, we always complained about writers, saying that there were no outstanding writers among them. This kind of complaint may have 1000 or 10000 "truth". However, I very much hope that the writers in China will be allowed to openly say that they want to be Tolstoy and Cao Xueqin as they are now, instead of being suppressed by their guilt, calling them "ridiculous" and criticizing them for "arrogance", they will be encouraged and urged!