From "Cultivating Oneself" to "Building the Nation"—An Analysis of the Thought of Cultivating People in Zhao Shuli's Early Novels
Abstract
Since the May Fourth New Culture Movement, responding to the call of enlightening the public, Zhao Shuli became an intellectual who truly cared about farmers. His works focus on issues of personal freedom, individual liberation and self-realization among the peasant group, permeated with a profound thought of "cultivating people" throughout. From discovering and understanding farmers to relying on them, Zhao Shuli transformed his ideological concepts into the spiritual awakening of farmers, their struggles for survival, and the practical construction of New China. As an intermediary between intellectuals and the grassroots, he successfully converted grand and abstract theoretical language into specific and accessible popular language, enabling the thought of cultivating people to take root in the grassroots soil.
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