Ba Jin and His ＂Torrents Trilogy＂

Ba Jin (1904-2005), with the original name of Li Yaotang, was born in a big feudal family in Chengdu, Sichuan. In his literary career of more than 80 years, Ba Jin completed the "Torrents Trilogy" (The Family, Spring and Autumn), famous novels such as A Garden of Repose and Cold Night and prose works such as Travel Notes, Confessions of Living and Random Thoughts, and translated and introduced a lot of famous foreign works such as Fathers and Sons by Turgenev and The Happy Prince by Wilde.

Families are the society's cells, and in China's traditional patriarchal system, some special cultural meanings are attributed to "families." Ba Jin planned to write a novel to accuse old families' crimes and show his social ideals and life ideals in several years, and finally finished the "Torrents Trilogy" after a course of thinking and creation as long as ten years. The Family was written in 1931, Spring was written in 1938, and Autumn was completed in 1940. Because the original title of The Family is "Torrents," the three works are collectively called "Torrents Trilogy." The whole book with a length of more than one million Chinese characters established Ba Jin's important position in the history of Chinese modern literature.

p style="text-align: justify;"> Through describing the decline and split of the Gao family - a big feudal one, the "Torrents Trilogy" strongly accuses and attacks the crimes of the feudal patriarchal system and the old society with great anger and passion, exposes the decadence, degeneration, dissolution and shamelessness inside the dark feudal kingdom represented by the Gao family, and expresses the righteous call of those slaves at the bottom of the Gao family: "I want to be a man." The novel warmly eulogizes the increasing enlightenment and bold resistance of the Gao family's young generation represented by Gao Juehui, and reveals the historical development trend of the inevitable extermination of feudal families and the whole feudal social system through their break with the old family. Since The Family was published, more than 10 million copies have been sold! In The History of Chinese New Literature, the Hong Kong scholar Sima Changfeng praises The Family as "the most read novel in the history of new literature."

 

The most important artistic achievement of the "Torrents Trilogy" is that it successfully shapes various typical images in the big feudal family, among which the images of the three brothers in the Gao family (Juexin, Juemin and Juehui) are most representative. In particular, Juexin and Juihui have different personalities and destinies. They live under the same roof, but finally choose different lifestyles and ways of life. From them, people can see not only the common influence of the "family," but also the difference between their salient and unique personalities.

Juehui is a "childish but bold traitor." Many traits of Ba Jin himself can be seen from him. Juehui is the first person in the Gao family to accept new thoughts and the first person in the Gao family to rise up in resistance. He dare ignore autocratic parents' authority and diametrically oppose "grandfathers in the Gao family." He actively participates in progressive students' movements, and openly supports his second elder brother Juemin to flee and resist arranged marriage. He opposes his eldest brother Juexin's "bow philosophy," sees his eldest brother obey his grandfather's will all the time, and scolds him as a "coward." He also breaks with the feudal family's idea of strict hierarchy, and boldly falls in love with the maid Mingfeng... At last, he cannot take it anymore, breaks with the suffocating family with great sadness and anger, devotes himself to the torrents of the times and society, and begins his new life.

Ba Jin showed not only the rebellious side of Juehui, but also the inherent weaknesses of Juehui as a young master in the feudal family. He is the Gao family's offspring after all. No matter how violently he resists, he unavoidably shows his inseparable ties with his family. Juehui's bold and rebellious character often contains immaturity and frailness, he is often impulsive rather than sensible, and he often overestimates the effect of individual resistance. Juehui under Ba Jin's pen is multi-faceted and complex. As a result, this image is lively and vivid.

Juexin is a "sacrifice buried with" the big feudal family. His archetype was Ba Jin's eldest brother. He is the most meaningful character with the most complex personality. Though Juexin is the Gao family's eldest young master, he is also influenced by the times and new thoughts, has

his own pursuits and yearns for future life. He is emotional, sensitive and sympathetic, but he is a sick soul in great emotional distress under heavy pressure of feudal autocracy. Under the long-term influence of feudal ethical codes, Juexin appears extremely timid and forbearing. His own love is thoroughly ruined by his grandfather's words; he sympathizes with and understands the pursuit of his younger brothers and sisters and understands their dissatisfaction with the feudal family because he often has such dissatisfaction himself, but he becomes obsequious after his grandfather speaks; he often bumps into walls between feudal rulers and resisters very embarrassedly and painfully. In the eyes of both sides, he is an unprincipled, pathetic and useless person! He practices the "bow doctrine" throughout the big family, but in fact nobody is grateful to him. He consciously or unconsciously maintains the feudal family and feudal order. Readers also angrily denounce him sometimes, regarding him as an accomplice of feudal rulers!

The whole "Torrents Trilogy" analyzes a big family's prosperity and decline with its grand and meticulous artistic structure, and thus shows a cross-section of China's historical and cultural development. The work is full of enthusiasm and youthful energy, and has great momentum and strong tragic color. The "Torrents Trilogy" occupies an important position in the history of literature. More importantly, it has inspired several generations of Chinese people to think about the value of life and choose ways of life. It is both a literary classic and a classic about li