| Arishima Takeo(1878-1923)is one of the core representatives of the Japanese Shirakaba-ha.The Shirakaba-ha not only advocates individual liberation and new idealism but alsoboosts the humanitarian spirit in the practice of literature to a climax.Due to its notable achievements in aspects including honoring human rights,emphasizing on human liberation and advocating anti-feudal and anti-oppression thoughts,the Shirakaba-ha once became a synonym for humanitarianism in modern history of Japan.The writers of the Shirakaba-ha are deeply sympathetic to the underclass,trying to awaken the unexplored people with literary works that represent spiritual life to help them liberate themselves from all kinds of bondage of society and family.Being a core representative of the Shirakaba-ha,Arishima Takeo is undoubtedly an active advocate and practitioner of humanitarianism.Unlike some ideologists and philosophers,Arishima Takeo did not directly and systematically elaborate his own thoughts on humanitarianism,but many of his works indirectly reflect his thoughts.Almost all scholars have recognized that he is a humanitarian writer,but few of them have done a systematic,comprehensive and in-depth interpretation of his humanitarian thoughts.As a result,the analysis of the humanitarian spirit in his works can greatly help us to comprehend the Shirakaba-ha literature and even Japanese literature.More importantly,it can fill in the blank of studies on the humanitarianism of Arishima Takeo in both China and Japan from a certain point of view.To accurately grasp his humanitarian thoughts,in this thesis,the main study text is complete works of Arishima Takeo.The thesis is aimed to grasp the background and reasons of the formation of his humanitarian thoughts based on the existing studies in China and Japan,combined with the concrete meaning and manifestation of humanitarianism,such as respect for people's personalities,sympathy to the underclass,care for women and children,being against war,etc.Humanitarianism involves a number of areas,such as political doctrine,social ideals,creation and study of literary and art,philosophy of life,education theory and practice and so on.However,no matter in which area,human is ultimately the emphasis.In a word,human is the source of everything and the premise of humanitarianism.Therefore,respect for people and human personality is an indispensable part of humanitarianism.In his works,Arishima Takeo urges women to liberate themselves,be true to their personalities and fight against the obsolete feudalism to the end;he urges the public to break the moral,ideological,secular shackles,be their own masters,follow their hearts,and ultimately achieve the harmonious world of mankind;he urges the reader to be aware of human dignity.He stresses that compared to God and other creatures,human is the most important one.He asserts that human should not put the cart before the horse.Instead,they should establish contact with the outside world via instinctive life,absorb the energy from other creatures to enrich themselves and retrieve their personality.As "official second generation" and "rich second generation",he did not take the privilege of privileged and rich class to bully others.Instead,he is deeply concerned about the living quality of the underclass.He lives his life with idealism and humanitarianism and the reader can easily smile his sympathy to the underclass in his works.For the rustic workers at the bottom of society,he sympathized with the hardships of their labor,the relentless exploitation conducted by the bourgeoisie and the inhumane treatment they went through.He demonstrated his contempt for class oppression and the hatred of the society of hypocrisy and intrigue.He urged the working class to stand up bravely and fight back against the bourgeoisie.For the inhabitants of the Hokkaido slums,who suffered from horrible death of their families caused by social issues like economic depression,he showed a strong denial of the disparity between the rich and the poor of capitalism and the inequality of human rights.For the young people who love art but had difficulties in pursuing their dreams due to poverty,he sympathized with their distress and lent a humanitarian aid to them.For the Japanese workers' movement,he warned the working class that if they wanted to change their destiny,they would have to rely on their own hands,not to be influenced by the intellectuals.He liberated their private farms in Hokkaido to distribute the land to tenants,trying to get them out of economic debt.He indicated that people should help and care for one another,and ultimately embrace a harmonious world,where there is no gap between the rich and the poor.In feudal Japan,under the supremacy of men,women were the accessories of men with no dignity.Moreover,the patriarchy was deeply rooted and long standing.So,children's right was often overlooked.Arishima Takeo as a man and father,put the focus on the women and children in need,showing his humanitarianism totally.He expressed regret for the helplessness of the teenage women who represented by Ahmu for the tragic fate,and regretted the outcome of her suicide.He expressed his sympathy to Miss M who represented women in marriage under the control of men.After that,he resolutely stepped forward to speak for women and scolded the serious inequality between men and women in Japanese society,so as to awaken ignorant women to defend their own rights and be masters of their own destinies.He asked his three sons to take him as a pedal,moving forward behind his footsteps,and he always regarded children as the first and could do anything for them.Furthermore,he respected their children's personalities,gave his sons unrequited love,and taught them to try to fill the gap between the rich and the poor.He also taught them to try their best to help others and to be beneficial to the society;He personally created fairy tales and hoped that Japanese children would be positively affected.He expected schools and parents to pay more attention to the problems of children's education,and children could face failure and setbacks,learn to distinguish between good and evil,get along with good person and become outstanding people.Religion and theology have always been the spiritual shackles to control human freedom.As a noble class,Arishima Takeo took precedence over being enlightened by Christianity and had been believing in Christianity for nearly a decade.During that time,he was strongly restricted by the precepts of discipline and was tortured by asceticism,which made him completely painful.With his own experience and painful price,he warned the world to recognize the hypocritical nature of Christianity,stay away from the deception,maintain the unity between soul and body,and do not wish to have a happy life through religion and theology.For those who preach the virtues of sacrifice,devoting,duty and etc,they must remain vigilant.In addition,war is the issue that has been existing since the beginning of mankind.When the contradictions within each era intensified to the vertex or any state wanted to invade and occupy others,there would be a war.War has always been anti-humanitarian.If there is a war,there would be massacres and sacrifices of human.Arishima Takeo was strongly against the war and,unlike other writers who tried to avoid state and social problems,he criticized the government's abominable acts of starting a war for its own selfish interests.He believed that the state had no right to put the people in danger of death.At the same time,he was also against the morbid capitalist society,warned people to get rid of the oppression of the bourgeoisie.The idea of anti-war,and anti-capitalism of Arishima Takeo was very advanced at that time.Everyone has different understandings and practice of humanitarianism.Mushanokoji Saneatsu of the Shirakaba School was a humanitarian propagandist and founded the ‘New Village” that pursued the equality of human subsistence rights.But in the latter stage,he stood in support of the war and ignored humanism.However,Shiga Naoya was opposed to the suppression of feudal patriarchal power,religion and war.And he gave his sympathy to the weak.But all these humanitarian thoughts were self-centered and regarded individual profit as the priority.Compared to humanitarian ‘dying halfway 'of Mushakoji of the Shirakaba-ha and strong ‘self-consciousness' of Shiga Naoya,Arishima Takeo incorporated his life experience into his works and conversely,his works could spur his own life at the same time.Therefore,humanitarianism is definitely not just a hollow slogan in his works;it is actually carried out in his life.Humanitarian thoughts run through his works and his life.Although there may be certain class limitations,we have to admit that he is a veritable,genuine and conscientious humanitarian writer. |
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