Ni Huanzhi

"Ni Huanzhi" is Ye Shengtao's masterpiece and his only full-length novel. Ni Huanzhi is a young man who eagerly pursues new things. After the failure of the Revolution of 1911, Ni Huanzhi, like many progressive intellectuals, put "all hope of saving the country in education" and expected to use "ideal education" to wash away the darkness of society. He also longed for a marriage relationship of mutual help and love, and loved and pursued Jin Peizhang, a woman with similar thoughts and interests as himself. However, the harsh reality shattered Ni Huanzhi's fantasy. He encountered obstacles in his educational career many times, and his family life was far from his original intention. After marriage, Jin Peizhang was immersed in trivial family affairs and was no longer interested in his future, ideals, education, and books. This made Ni Huanzhi deeply feel the loneliness and pain of "having a wife, but losing a lover and a comrade." With the arrival of the May 4th Movement, Ni Huanzhi was involved in the revolutionary wave, and began to turn his attention to the "public masses" and devote himself to social transformation activities. During the May 30th Movement and the climax of the Great Revolution, Ni Huanzhi participated in intense revolutionary work. From the initial reformist nature of "education to save the nation", it later turned to revolution. However, after the "April 12" counter-revolutionary massacre, Ni Huanzhi did not persist in the heroic struggle like Wang Leshan. Instead, he felt fragile that "it had changed too much" and became pessimistic and disappointed. He drank and cried bitterly, and died with the question and hope of "when will we see the light?" This ending of the protagonist is a whipping for all petty bourgeois intellectuals who cannot truly integrate with the masses.