What is the stalk of fennel in Kong Yiji?

Lu Xun's short story Kong Yiji is often used to describe his disdain and satire for ostentation and extravagance.

As an intellectual in the old society, Kong Yiji was deeply poisoned by the feudal system and the imperial examination system. Mentally pedantic and numb, life is falling apart and poor. He drinks in Xianheng Hotel and always shows off his knowledge to the little ones, such as "there are four ways to write fennel beans".

Kong Yiji? After learning that the bookkeeper knew the word "fennel", he asked the clerk if he knew the four ways to write the word "fennel". This fully exposes Kong Yiji's pedantry in reality, which is supported by his strong belief in writing.

In fact, it is a rule that characters change from complex to simple. There are four ways to write fennel beans, but these four ways are just uncommon words with no practical use except fennel. Kong Yiji, on the other hand, remembered them all and showed them off. This pedantic and backward thinking and behavior is bound to be disgusted by people. No wonder the waiter is not enthusiastic and wants to "shut up and walk away". Even the children laughed at his cliche of "too much, not too much" and walked away with a smile.

Kong Yiji is a novel in the collection of Lu Xun's novels "Scream", and also the hero of the novel.

This novel is the second vernacular novel written by Lu Xun after Diary of a Madman before the May 4th Movement. This novel describes that Kong Yiji, as a scholar who has not been admitted to a scholar, lacks practical skills and only knows pedantic "learning" such as "how to write the word fennel in fennel beans". He lost his dignity as a man and became the object of ridicule in the pub "Xianheng Hotel". Later, his leg was broken because he stole books. According to the content of the novel, because his surname is Kong, others gave him a nickname, called "Kong Yiji", which comes from the semi-understood word "Shangdaren Kong Yiji" on red paper. The novel exposed some social problems at that time-the imperial examination system created a large number of scholars who only knew how to drill old paper piles and had no practical business skills. The novel portrays Kong Yiji as a ridiculous and pathetic figure at the bottom, exposing the indifference between people.