Yu Dafu versus the Traditional Views on Ethics and Sexual Passion

In modern China, Yu Dafu was the first novelist to be related to sexual consciousness. However, controversy exists concerning the valuation of his contribution. For a scientific valuation of Yu, a sound understanding is essential of how he betrays the traditional views on ethics and sexual passion. The traditional views on ethics and sexual passion are classified into categories: controlling sexual passion with ethics, maintaining ethics by eliminating sexual passion, and indulging in sexual passion by abandoning ethics. The first two categories are predominant, which repress the human nature of the Chinese people. Marx, Engels, and Lu Xun oppose asceticism. Yu Dafu, in his novels and critical essays on literature, advocates the expression of sexual love. He challenges the traditional views on ethics and sexual passion, which is socially meaningful to some extent. Though some of Yus works are overly explicit in sexual description, this feature does not weaken his historical position.