The five ways to read Lu Xun's works are discussed in "The True Biography of Ah Q"

The five ways to read Lu Xun's works are discussed in "The True Biography of Ah Q"

Speaker: Zhang Mengyang Speech Venue: Lu Xun Research Institute of Shaoxing University of Arts and Sciences Speech time: July 2021

This year marks the 140th anniversary of Lu Xun's birth, as well as the 100th anniversary of the publication of his most important work, The True Biography of Ah Q.

"The True Biography of Ah Q" was published for a hundred years, and Ah Q's funny and pitiful bitter face lived in people's hearts for a hundred years, and the reading and debate about Ah Q also lasted for a hundred years. From the history of reading and controversy of "The True Biography of Ah Q", I think that five ways to read Lu Xun's works can be summarized.

The "Second Lu Xun Printmaking Exhibition" sponsored by Lu Xun Cultural Foundation, Printmaking Art Committee of China Artists Association, Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism was exhibited at The Jinling Art Museum in Nanjing, and the audience was visiting. Photo by Song Ning \ Guangming Pictures

Deep reading

Ten years ago, I published a lecture entitled "Deep Reading lu xun and learning to think" on the "Guangming Pulpit" of Guangming Daily, which was well received by young readers. Today, we must first emphasize deep reading, because "The True Biography of Ah Q" seems to be different from Lu Xun's other works, and some places are like popular novels, but in fact, it has the deepest meaning, and it needs to be read deeply.

Starting from the original intention of the writer and the original comments of the insiders, it is the correct way for writers and works to study. Typical studies of AQ in the 1920s and 1930s mainly progressed along this path.

From December 4, 1921, "A Q Zheng Biography" was serialized in the "Morning News Supplement", published once a week or every other week, and when it first appeared in the fourth chapter, Shen Yanbing, who was then the editor-in-chief of the "Novel Monthly" and also a reporter (that is, Mao Dun, who later became a modern literary giant), with the insight of a great critic, insight into the great value of the "Ah Q Zheng Biography" that had just come out of the four chapters, clearly pointed out in answering the reader's question:

As for Mr. Dengba Ren's "Biography of Ah Q" published in the "Morning News Supplement", although it only reaches the fourth chapter, in my opinion, it is really a masterpiece. Your husband thought it was a satirical novel, but it was not the most important. Ah Q this person, to be realistic in modern society, can not be done; but when I read this novel, I always feel that Ah Q this person is very familiar, yes, he is the crystallization of Chinese character! I read these four chapters. Can't help but think of the Russian Gongalov's oblomov!

Mao Dun's earliest comment on the "A Q Zheng Biography" essentially contains the main aspects of the study of the "A Q Zheng Biography" in the following hundred years, and it is pertinent to the true meaning of the "A Q Zheng Biography". Among them, the so-called Ah Q is the "crystallization of Chinese character" is actually in line with the later view that Ah Q is "a collective" and "the embodiment of the inferior root of the nation". The association with the Russian writer Goncharov's character Oblomov has enlightened researchers to find that Ah Q and the figures of famous figures such as Oblomov in world literature belong to the same artistic model. The phrase "I always feel that Ah Q is very familiar with this person" reflects the typical universal characteristics of this type of art.

Feng Zikai painted the illustrated data picture of "A Q Zheng biography"

After more than a month of serialization in the Morning News Supplement, Zhou Zuoren, who directly understood Lu Xun's creative intentions, published an article in the name of Zhongmi entitled "< AQ Zhengchuan >" in the column of "Morning News Supplement : His Own Garden", which emphasized the main purpose of "Ah Q Zheng Biography": "Ah Q This person is the crystallization of all the 'spectrum' in China - the new term is called 'tradition', and who has no will of his own will and takes the practice of social inheritance as his will. So in the present society it does not exist and it exists everywhere. "Aq" is a type of nation". "Like the mythical 'pandora', he endured all the rules of the 'spectrum' created by the nightmare-like experience of four thousand years, including various opinions on the morality of life's happiness and reputation, refining the essence and condensing it into an individual, so that it is really a 'mixed photograph' of Chinese character." The article also reveals the archetype of Ah Q's life - "a shrunken and really cute Ah Gui, although he is still alive today".

The writer's own statement is the most reliable basis for understanding the original intention of the work. In 1926, when Lu Xun stated the main theme of the creation of "A Q Zheng Biography" in the Preface to the Russian Translation of "A Q Zheng Biography", he also said that it was necessary to "write out the soul of a modern Chinese" and "it is really a difficult thing in China." He "had to rely on his own awareness and write these things lonely as a chinese life in my eyes."

There is no doubt that "writing a modern soul of our countrymen" makes the reader feel the "spiritual pain" caused by "our traditional thinking" to the Chinese people from the author's "Chinese life in the eyes" - it is the main purpose and original intention of Lu Xun's creation of "The True Biography of Ah Q". From 1921 to 1922, when the "Biography of Ah Q" was published, the relationship between the "Zhou brothers" had not yet broken, and their views were unanimous.

However, the general reader's original intention to create "The True Biography of Ah Q" is not easy to accept. At that time, Sun Fuyuan wanted to set up a "Happy Talk" column for the "Morning News Supplement" he edited, which published and gathered some ridiculous and humorous words, so that people could get a relaxed and happy mood when reading the newspaper. Following the style of the "Happy Words" column, Lu Xun changed the pen name "Lu Xun", which had previously been used in works such as "Diary of a Madman" and "Medicine", to "Ba Ren" and "take 'Lower Riba People', which is not an elegant meaning". The discourse style of the first chapter" of "Prologue" is also different from the previous subtlety, condensation and somberness, and a lot of humor and humor are added. On the surface, according to the general rules of biography, but the specific content is completely vacated, and the surname, title, place of origin, etc. cannot be confirmed, which is ironic from the serious "sublime" generation of traditional historical biography, and is also very different from the previous severe and profound criticism. Therefore, after Lu Xun's death, the adaptation of "A Q Zheng Biography" added funny comics, gimmicks and his own things, making it superficial and vulgar, resulting in a distortion of Lu Xun's original intentions.

Picture of the manuscript of "A Q Zheng Biography"

This reminds me of a past incident. In May 1981, when I went to Yangzhou to attend the preparatory meeting for the centenary of Lu Xun's birth, passing through Nanjing, Comrade Sha Ting, who was then the director of the Institute of Literature, asked me to visit Mr. Chen Baichen on his behalf. When I went to Mr. Chen Baichen's house, Lei Kesheng and many other actors from the Central Experimental Drama Theater who were preparing to perform "The True Biography of Ah Q" were also there. After Comrade Dai Shatin said hello, everyone talked together. Mr. Chen Baichen said that after a female college student read his adapted script, she said that he copied Lu Xun and did not have his own things. Mr. Chen Baichen then said that he had accumulated decades of experience and lessons before he understood that it was the most correct compilation method to completely follow Lu Xun's original text and not add any funny comics, gimmicks, and his own things. As it turns out, Mr. Chen Baichen was very right. The film "The True Biography of Ah Q" and the Yan Shunkai of the starring Ah Q are more recognized by everyone, and they are also in line with Lu Xun's original intention.

In fact, Lu Xun mentioned before his death that he was worried that people would not understand his original intentions, causing all kinds of misinterpretations. As early as October 13, 1930, in a letter to Wang Qiaonan, he wrote: "My opinion, I think that "Ah Q Zheng Biography" really has no elements to adapt the script and the film, because once it is staged, there will only be funny, and I did not write this article for the purpose of being funny or mournful, and the scene in it, I am afraid that the 'stars' of China at this moment cannot be expressed. Nearly six years later, more than two months before Lu Xun's death, some people wanted to put "A Q Zheng Biography" on the screen, and Lu Xun put forward the views obtained after fourteen years of observation in his letter to Shen Xiling on July 19, 1936: "The original meaning of "Ah Q Zheng Biography", I pay attention to various comments, I think there are not many people who can understand, after moving to the screen, it is probably not exempt from the diaphragm, for people to laugh, quite boring, it is better not to do it. ”

From this, we are reminded to accurately understand the original intention of Lu Xun's creation of "The True Biography of Ah Q", and we must read it deeply. Only in this way can we get enlightenment from it and "open the way for introspection." Otherwise, if it is only superficial and vulgar to read as a comic novel, it can only be counterproductive and distort Lu Xun's original intention.

Zhang Mengyang, born in 1945, is a researcher at the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and a distinguished chair professor of "Jianhu Scholar" of the Lu Xun Research Institute of Shaoxing University of Arts and Sciences, with research interests in Lu Xun and modern and contemporary Chinese literature. He is the author of "The Complete Biography of Lu Xun and the Trilogy of Bitter Souls", "The History of Lu Xun in China", "The Story of Lu Xun", "A Q - 100 Years" and so on.

Reading method

I thought that in order to understand the "Biography of Ah Q", it was not enough to read only this book and Lu Xun's works. It is necessary to read a large number of books and compare and associate "A Q Zheng biography" from the perspective of world literature. When Mao Dun first published four chapters of "The True Biography of Ah Q", he found that Ah Q was very similar to famous figures such as Oblomov in world literature, because he had read many foreign literary works.

In fact, "The True Biography of Aq" is more similar to Cervantes's Don Quixote and Shakespeare's Hamlet. Cervantes borrows the protagonist's mouth in Don Quixote and says: "Comedy, according to the opinion of Cicero (the Roman writer), should be a mirror of life, a look of the world, a manifestation of truth." Shakespeare also borrowed Hamlet's words: The purpose of acting is to "give nature a mirror, to show virtue to one's own appearance, to show absurdity one's own posture, to show one's own image and imprint to the times and society." "After a long period of time, artistic models such as Ah Q, Don Quixote, hamlet, etc., which focus on reflecting the weaknesses of the human spirit, have indeed become a kind of ironic mirror, from which people can reflect their own spiritual outlook. Aq reflects the general weakness of people in the hypothetical pursuit of spiritual victory after defeat, Don Quixote shows the absurdity and stupidity of subjectivism that lags behind the times, Hamlet plays the hesitant character that people are prone to commit at critical moments, and Oblomov embodies the laziness and laxity of the Russian landlords and aristocrats. Their most important philosophical enlightenment is to reflect on the logic and methods of people's understanding, to enlighten people to correctly understand themselves and the world, to correct shortcomings, and to act correctly.

Judging from the historical context, the spiritual phenomenon of the spiritual victory method is not isolated. Far from it, missionaries such as Matteo Ricci and Nan Huairen came to China with "Western Studies" in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, and some Chinese intellectuals at that time liked to understand "Western Studies" with a kind of "Lao Tzu Hua Hu" imagination. Even some of the best scholars think so, for example, Huang Zongxi once said, "The art of Pythagorean is the legacy of Zhou Gongshang Gao, and the posterity lost it, so that the Westerners can steal its transmission." When Wang Fuzhi talked about the Western calendar, he also said that "those who are desirable in the West are only the one technique of measuring the law from near and far, and the others are plagiarized against China's Xuyu, and there is no reason to keep it." Fang Yizhi said that although the Western calendar is accurate, it is actually something that has existed in ancient China, "all of which are the words of the saints", but the posterity has not been lost in contention, "the son of heaven has lost his official position, and he has learned in Siyi", which has been picked up by Westerners to carry forward. In modern times, the Opium War sounded a cannon, and the imperialist powers opened the door of China with cannons. As Marx pointed out in his article "The Chinese Revolution and the European Revolution": "The prestige of the Qing Dynasty ... The ground was swept away, and the superstitions that persisted for generations in the Heavenly Dynasty Empire were fatally dealt." However, in the face of the fatal blow, the Chinese feudal ruling class refused to face up to reality, admit defeat, sum up lessons, and revitalize the national style, but instead exaggerated the wrong, "using concealment and deception to create a wonderful escape route", relying on false spiritual victory to anesthetize itself and the soul of the people. As many researchers have cited, there is no shortage of examples of spiritual victory methods in modern China: in 1841, after the defeat of the First Opium War, the Qing general Yishan bowed to the British army and reported that he had won the battle against the imperial court, saying that "burning and suppressing, greatly frustrated its front", saying that the British were "poor and begging". The Daoguang Emperor actually said, "It is not worth worrying about the dogs and sheep that should be yi sex." Having been punished, the military has been demonstrated. Now, after the residents of the city have handed over their prayers, it is said that they should be exempted from the crown as a ceremony, and they are calling for the change of the beggar. Forgive Ru and other unavoidable hardships and allow him to trade. When the British invading army attacked Humen and sneaked into the northern coast without strict fortifications, and entered Tianjin to harass them on a large scale, in the Daoguang Emperor's "Holy Oracle", they said in a big way: "Because zhejiang and Fujian ministers failed to file grievances on their behalf, they began to submit their submissions in Tianjin, and they felt quite obedient." The colonists invaded with great ferocity, but they said that they were "submitting their submissions" and "filing grievances and suppressing grievances"; the colonists burned and plundered all the way, but they said that they were "quite obedient"; it was clear that they had suffered a fiasco in the face of imperialist aggression, signed treaties that humiliated the country, bent their knees to seek peace, and paid a large amount of indemnities; but in the relevant "holy oracles", they still pretended to be arrogant, saying that they were "properly appeased" and "entering the city to pay respects" and other nonsense. In the face of such a "spiritual victory method", Ah Q is inferior in comparison.

Therefore, this period is of great importance to the Chinese, and someone needs to shout a loud cry, make them wake up violently, and realize spiritual self-consciousness. The historical role played by Lu Xun is precisely to undertake such a heavy responsibility.

Only through the extensive reading of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign historical classics and literary classics through the reading method can the above background understand the original meaning of Lu Xun's creation of "The True Biography of Ah Q" in the historical background at that time.

Provincial reading method

On November 14, 1934, Lu Xun summed up his original intention in summing up his original intention in "Reply to the Editor's Letter of the Weekly Magazine of Drama": "My method is to make the reader feel who is not writing about himself, and suddenly he will prevaricate and become a bystander, and be suspicious to the point that he is writing about himself, and it is like writing about everyone, thus opening up the road of reflection." The so-called "road of reflection" is essentially the way for writers to try to convey their spiritual intentions to the reader, and to make the reader gradually accept and reflect, in the terminology of Western literary and artistic theory, that is, it contains the aesthetics of acceptance.

Although Lu Xun did not use this terminology, he expounded such a principle in the "Moro Poetic Theory" earlier: everyone "has poetry" in their hearts, but most people "fail to speak", relying on "the poet to speak", for it to "hold a bullet", the reader is "heart strings", and "the beauty of the benefit is strong and noble", which produces positive repercussions. This enlightens us: in order to understand the "True Biography of Ah Q", we must put ourselves in it, reflect on ourselves intimately with Lu Xun, and achieve "provincial reading". Only in this way can there be some awakening.

In the past 100 years, "The True Biography of Ah Q" has almost become a touchstone for testing a person's reading ability, comprehension and self-reflection, and a warning device for inspiring people's spiritual reflection. Frankly speaking, when the Spiritual Victory Method encounters individual setbacks and has no choice, it may also be used as a method to forgive oneself, not that it cannot be used slightly, otherwise, Ah Q may not be able to reach the view like that for a long time, but directly go crazy. However, if the method of spiritual victory is regarded as a long-term philosophy of life, it is absolutely not possible, because if so, people may be trapped in a dream forever without awakening, and finally die like Ah Q and do not know how to die.

Hard reading

Mr. Mao Dun said in lu xun nearly a hundred years ago: "If the modern bored youth wants to find a little stimulation (the stimulation they need) in the Scream, get a little comfort, and ask for a way to get him out of the 'boredom': that is nine times out of ten. Because what "Scream" can give you is only the gray life of the children of old China that you spit on every day, like a foreigner's spit on Chinese. If you"' refuse to admit that there is a shadow of yourself in it, it is best to read the "AQ Zheng Biography." "Don't you have your 'magic weapon for spiritual victory'?" Haven't you ever been good at forgetting the pain you've suffered like Ah Q? Have you ever been in the middle of the night of your life, 'My son will be much wider', a q-style conceit? Forget it, don't ask more. In short, Ah Q is the crystallization of the 'lack of' Chinese; although Ah Q cannot eat big dishes, cannot speak foreign languages, nor does he know Europa, Amerika, does not know..., but will eat big dishes, speak foreign languages... The 'lacking' 'new sons and daughters of old China' are mentally and ideologically just one or a half Ah Q. Not only now, but also in the future — and I hope it won't be long in the future — too. ”

As Lin Xingzhai said: Ah Q's spiritual victory method is a kind of world absurdity of the entire "prehistoric era" of mankind, and it is impossible to disappear in a short period of time. In order to avoid this absurdity of Ah Q as soon as possible in ourselves, it is necessary to read more "Ah Q Zheng Biography". Wang Yeqiu described this reading process: "This national masterpiece is by no means something that can be digested by looking at it once: look at it the first time: we will laugh and our stomachs hurt; the second time: only to smack out a little element that is not laughing; the third time: despise Ah Q's person; the fourth time: contempt turns into sympathy; the fifth time: sympathy turns into tears of deep thought; the sixth time: Ah Q or Ah Q; the seventh time: Ah Q pounces on himself... Eighth: Unity into One; Ninth Time: Become Your Relatives' Past; Tenth: Expand to Your Neighbors; Eleventh: Expand to the Whole Country; Twelve Times: Even to the Land of Foreigners; Thirteen Times: You Think It's a Mirror; Fourteen Times: Maybe an Alarm. At least fourteen times to read it, in order to get close to the original meaning of Lu Xun's "A Q Zheng Biography", it can be described as a kind of "hard reading". Among middle school students, it is popular to say "three fears" - "one is afraid of literary language, the second is afraid of writing, and the third is afraid of Zhou Shuren". There are problems such as Lu Xun's articles themselves are difficult to read and improper teaching methods, but there are also students who are afraid of hard reading. As a teacher, if you only use the "fun" side to attract students to read Lu Xun, this is probably not OK, we admit that Lu Xun's articles may be difficult to read and understand, often say some contrarian words, but also contain profound significance. To understand Lu Xun, you must make a hard effort, and you can't try to be easy. Because reading Lu Xun and "The True Biography of Ah Q" is extremely meaningful for me to better understand the world and know myself in my life.

Regarding the typicality of Ah Q, from the first reading under the guidance of teacher Han Shaohua in high school, to the repeated reading of modern Chinese literature classes at the university level, to the later reading at any time in research and writing, and the careful reading of the English version of "Selected Novels of Lu Xun" translated by Yang Xianyi and Dai Naidi, in the past 60 years, I have personally read "The True Biography of Ah Q" more than fourteen times, more than one hundred and forty times. Some young friends do not quite believe this number when I talk about this paragraph, in fact, I have been using this book as a mirror image to constantly reflect on myself, and I still feel the need to continue to read and introspect, and some places have not read thoroughly, and I still need to read, revisit, and think again. Under this demand, hard reading is of course necessary.

Enlightenment

Gorky praised Chekhov's work as "capable of abstracting oneself from reality and attaining philosophical generalizations." The philosophical realm is the most difficult peak for literary works to reach. Lu Xun's writing of "The True Biography of Ah Q" is also abstracted from the real life of Ah Gui, and the vulgar and simple words such as "I have finally been beaten by my son" express the absurd logic of the spiritual victory method and achieve philosophical generalization.

When we read the "True Biography of Ah Q", we cannot detach ourselves from reality, but we cannot be too realistic. When Lu Xun created "The True Biography of Ah Q", the reason why the specific content was completely emptied, ah q's surname, name, place of origin, etc. could not be confirmed, and the unzhuang was also vague, which was to guide the reader to get rid of the excessive reality, carry out transcendent imagination, and realize the profound philosophy hidden behind. "The True Biography of Ah Q" does write about Ah Q's "revolution", but its main purpose is to expose and strike at the weakness of national nature or national diseases. Through Ah Q, he not only criticized the "revolution" of the Xinhai period, but also broadly covered the entire history of mankind on how to end the vicious circle of dynastic change and enter political civilization. To understand this deeper philosophy of history, it is necessary to have a more transcendent understanding and a greater emphasis on "enlightenment."

In the final analysis, "The True Biography of Ah Q" is a philosophical novel created by Mr. Lu Xun, a great philosopher, who inspires spiritual reflection and opens up the road of reflection. It is the most important work in the history of Lu Xun and even modern Chinese literature, and it is also the first modern great classic to enter the world literature gallery. The "spiritual victory method" named by Lu Xun reveals the mystery of the deep mystery of the human spiritual mechanism - there is a certain "interval" and "diaphragm" between the human spirit and the matter, and it has the "special function" of retreating from the outside world to the heart and turning the failure of the material world into a spiritual illusion. Lu Xun, for the noble purpose of changing the human spirit, after a long and arduous study of the human spirit, vividly discovered and revealed this weakness, and named it and expressed it in a clever way.

Dostoevsky once said of Cervantes' Don Quixote: "There is no deeper and more powerful work in the world. This is the latest and greatest text produced by the human mind at present, and it is the most tragic satire that man can display, such as coming to the end of the earth and asking people, 'Do you understand your life on earth?' How do you sum up this life?' Then one can silently hand over Don Quixote and say, 'This is my summary of life, can you blame me for this?' ’”。 Lu Xun's creation of the artistic model of Ah Q from "refining the essence and condensing it into an individual" to writing the image of Ah Jin, the obscure urban aunt, was to summarize the way of life of the Chinese at that time from a fundamental point, enlighten the Chinese nation he loved from the dream of spiritual illusion, break free from the "big ze of concealment and deception", dare to face life squarely, face the difficult material reality, and correctly understand himself and the world. This is the most fundamental spiritual enlightenment and philosophical enlightenment. If today, a hundred years after the birth of Ah Q, someone asks us, "Do you understand how you live?" We may, as Dostoevsky said, silently pass over the Aq Andeography and say, "This is the summation of our awakening, and we will continue to raise our awakening as a 'mirror image'." ”

This newspaper is sponsored by the Ministry of Education

Guangming Daily (2021.07.31. 10th edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily