This year is the 140th anniversary of Lu Xun's birth, and it is also the 100th anniversary of Lu Xun's novel "Hometown". From September 24th to 25th, in Lu Xun's hometown of Shaoxing, under the background of the "2021 East Asian Cultural Capital , China Shaoxing Activity Year" and the establishment of the "East Asian Cultural Capital City Alliance", the "2021 Master Dialogue - Hometown Dialogue Conference" was held by Lu Xun Cultural Foundation and other units. Under the theme of "Lu Xun's "Hometown" and "Our Hometown", experts and scholars from China, Japan and South Korea warmly spoke and discussed to explore the literary and ideological value of Lu Xun's creation, as well as historical and practical significance. Wang Zhongyi, editor-in-chief of this magazine, as an invited guest, made a keynote speech entitled "A Hundred Years of 'Hometown' 'Road'", the text of which is as follows.
Wang Zhongyi made a keynote speech entitled "A Hundred Years of 'Hometown' Centennial 'Road'"
100 years ago, in 1921, when Lu Xun created "Hometown", China and the world were on the eve of great changes. The world was in the middle of two world wars, and there seemed to be some hope at the time, but also full of confusion. In East Asia, the Korean Peninsula has become a japanese colony, the "Trinity" independence movement has awakened the national consciousness of Koreans; the New Culture Movement in China is surging with turmoil, various ideological currents are stirring, and the ideological awakening of new young people is being nurtured; Japan is in the taisho period of the democratic movement is declining, and the sensitive Ryunosuke Wasagawa has already felt a little uneasy about the prospects of the world.
Lu Xun entered 1921 in the context of such an era, ushering in his unquestionable year. This year Lu Xun entered a prolific year of literary creation, and it was also a prolific year for him to translate Japanese and Western literature and ideological works.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="13" > three hundred years related to translation</h1>
From a translational perspective, three seemingly unrelated but symbolic events took place during the year.
The first is the originator of modern Chinese translation, and Yan Fu, who translated the "Theory of Heavenly Speech", which had a profound influence on Lu Xun, died in this year. This marked the end of the era of the pioneers of Translation in China, which created countless translations in the beautiful Tongcheng school style to translate Western Enlightenment works into China.
Yan Fu (1854-1921)
Yan Fu's translation of "The Theory of Heavenly Speech"
At the same time, the "groundbreaking event" in Chinese history, the birth of the Chinese Communist Party, also occurred in this year. A year before that, Chen Wangdao completed the full vernacular translation of the Communist Manifesto for the first time, referring to the Japanese version of the Communist Manifesto that Dai Jitao had translated for him by Xingde Qiushui and others in 1904, and the English translation of the Communist Manifesto provided by Chen Duxiu.
Chen Wangdao (1891-1977)
Chen Wangdao's translation of the full Communist Manifesto
In this year, on the one hand, Lu Xun translated Mori Ouwai's "Tower of Silence" and Ryunosuke Wasagawa's "Nose" and "Rashomon" into Chinese, on the one hand, literary creation was able to explode, completing the creation of the novel "Hometown" at the beginning of the year, and completing his representative work "A Q Zheng biography" at the end of the year. These two novels, completed a hundred years ago, became the first Chinese literary works to be translated into Japan a few years later, setting a precedent for modern Chinese culture to go to the world.
Lu Xun (1881-1936)
Cover of Hometown, published in China
Judging from the background of the changes of the times and the exchange of translators and intermediaries, it is no accident that Lu Xun's two works were completed in 1921. From April 21 to 24, 1921, Lu Xun's translation of Sen Ouwai's novel "The Tower of Silence" was published in the Morning News Supplement. The Tower of Silence was published after the pre-trial verdict of the Japanese socialist Yukitoku Akimizu for the "Great Rebellion"; Lu Xun's translations of Ryunosuke Wasagawa's novels "Nose" and "Rashomon" were published in the Morning Post Supplement from May 11 to 13 and June 14 to 17, 1921, respectively.
Sen Ouwai and Ryunosuke Wasagawa
Shortly before that, Ryunosuke Wasagawa met in Shanghai with Li Renjie (Han Jun), one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party. Judging from the selection of translated works, Lu Xun's literary creations have ideological resonance with them. Although the creation of "Hometown" was slightly before this, the interaction between this period of time is definitely there, especially in the later "A Q Zheng biography".
Stills from the NHK TV series "Aliens - Ryunosuke Wasagawa in Shanghai"
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="102" > the influence of "Hometown" in East Asia in the past century</h1>
The narrative structure of the novel "Hometown" presents the author's multi-centered gravity in a three-dimensional way. Nostalgia corresponds to the departure of a teenager and the warm memories of childhood. This part presents the hometown in Lu Xun's memory. And the narrative of grief corresponds to the return after many years of absence, seeing the reality of his disappointment. However, Lu Xun's feelings of hope in the end correspond to leaving his hometown, which Lu Xun has pursued in his ideal hometown all his life. This narrative structure reflects the maturity of Lu Xun's literature and thought, and the emotions conveyed by the novel cannot but resonate with the times at that time, and thus resonate in East Asia.
Impression of His hometown Shaoxing in Lu Xun's mind
The importance of "Hometown" in China can be seen in its history of entering textbooks. Since 1923, "Hometown" was selected into the Commercial Press edition of the "New School System Chinese Textbook", in addition to the "Cultural Revolution" decade, has always been a must-read text in the middle school era of Chinese, and has become a famous article in the history of modern language education, and its historical significance has always been the focus of school teaching in China.
"Hometown" in chinese Chinese textbooks
"Hometown" quickly attracted attention in Japan after its publication. In 1927, the Representative Writer of the Shirakaba Sect of Japan, Shigetoshi Takeru Koji, published the Japanese edition of "Hometown" in the magazine "Great Harmony" edited by him. In January 1932, the magazine Chuo Koto published "Hometown" translated by Haruo Sato, and in 1935, Iwanami Shoten published a library edition of the "Lu Xun Anthology" translated by Haruo Sato and Masuda, and Lu Xun entered the homes of ordinary readers as an East Asian literary hero. Lu Xun's works thus began to attack the city in the east Asian literary map.
The Great Harmony (1927), the magazine that first published Hometown
Catalogue page of the magazine The Great Harmony
The translation of "Hometown" published in the magazine "Major Harmony" has an unknown translator
Haryu Sato's 1932 translation of Hometown
"Hometown" in Japanese Chinese Textbook
In 1953, a publishing house selected Takeuchi's translation of "Hometown" into Chinese textbooks and designated junior high school students to read it. After the restoration of diplomatic relations between China and Japan in 1972, a number of publishing houses compiled takeuchi's translation of "Hometown" into the third grade textbook of Japanese middle schools. It can be said that Japanese people who have received compulsory education since 1953 have read Lu Xun's "Hometown". The composition of "disappointment-frustration-hope" in the work has brought positive force to many progressive Japanese people. Director Masahiro Shinoda quotes a sentence at the end of "Hometown" at the beginning of his epic work "Sorge": "Hope is nothing to have, nothing to have." This is like the way on the earth; in fact, there is no road on the earth, and the more people who walk, the more it becomes the road. ”
The Complete Works of Great Lu Xun published by the Reform Society
Thinking about the road and hope also made Lu Xun's literature and thought profoundly influence Koreans. The painful history of Japanese colonial rule has made Koreans highly resonate with Lu Xun's ideas. Lu Xun had a great influence on Korea during his lifetime, and the Willows translated Lu Xun's Diary of a Madman into Korean in 1925. It was published in 1927. During the Japanese colonial rule of the 1920s and 1930s, Korean resistance activists and poets Such as Wu Sang-soon and Lee Lu-shi visited Lu Xun many times to discuss their perceptions of literature and life. South Korean independence activists Kim Joo and Lu Xun met many times in Beijing, Shanghai and other places to talk about literature, art, and life, and discuss the independence movement on the Korean Peninsula and the translation of Lu Xun's works in South Korea. After World War II, South Korea's 1949 edition of "Chinese Chinese • Readings" included Lu Xun's novels "Medicine" and "Hometown". It is said that Lu Xun's works are the most included in Korean textbooks.
Korean edition of Hometown published in Korea
South Korean writer Park Jae-woo said: "In Korean intellectual circles, lu xun began to accept Lu Xun very early, and from Lu Xun's literature and thought, he found the resources that awakened people's feudal consciousness, the spiritual weapons of the anti-feudal struggle, and then found the sharp ideological weapons for fighting against imperialist oppressors or fascist powers." Social activist and thinker Li Yongxi believes that as long as American-style capitalism wants to dominate the world, and American materialism and power philosophy exist in various names and forms imposed on all mankind, Lu Xun's ideas will continue to be effective.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="103" > the ideological value of "Hometown" and "Road"</h1>
The topic returns to the three hundred years mentioned at the beginning of this article, which are actually not only three symbolic events in the translation industry, but also closely related to the century-old agitation of Chinese thought.
Yan Fu witnessed the bankruptcy of European civilization under the First World War, deeply reflected on the shortcomings of imperialism, and left a will before his death: "China will not die." The old law can gain and lose, but it must not be betrayed; the new knowledge is endless, and the truth is infinite. In one lifetime, it is advisable to encourage karma and knowledge; the two evils are right, the self is light, and the group is heavy. ”
In the new cultural movement a hundred years ago, Lu Xun, as the Chinese of the awakened generation, realized that hope lies in a new road that has never been seen before. His "In fact, there is no road on the ground, and the more people who walk, the more people will become the road" has become a proverb, lighting up the lamp in the hearts of Chinese generations and achieving the ideological value of the literary work "Hometown".
The advanced Elements of China, who started in 1921, have explored the road for a hundred years, gone through social revolution and self-revolution, and finally responded to Yan Fu's expectations with the vicissitudes of a hundred years later, embarked on a road to the future that Lu Xun aspired to, and proved the value of their actions.
Lu Xun in the TV series "The Age of Awakening"
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and at the beginning of the year, CCTV grandly launched the TV series "The Age of Awakening" directed by Zhang Yongxin, a post-70s director. This historical drama is quite innovative, and for the first time, it is a more comprehensive, three-dimensional, and accurate description of the new cultural movement that gave birth to the Communist Party of China. Among them, Lu Xun used more pen and ink, fully affirming his status as a standard-bearer and his unique contribution in the new cultural movement. This makes this work far more than the previous film and television dramas of the same genre. Lu Xun, who was once forgotten, is being revived in the minds of the younger generation, and people have a renewed understanding of Lu Xun's modern value to national culture.
100 years after the birth of "Hometown", the moonlight is like water, still shining on the ordinary alleys of Lu Xun's hometown (Photo by Wang Zhongyi)
Including "Hometown", Lu Xun's works dissected the suffering and misfortune of the Chinese nation in the era of the dual variation of enlightenment and salvation, and the questions he raised contributed to the awakening of China's progressive youth, also influenced East Asian countries, and crossed time and space, and still shocked our souls. The "road" issue raised by Lu Xun in "Hometown" is still of practical significance today in the face of major changes unprecedented in a century.
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Lu Xun researchers Dong Byung-yue, Fujii Sebu-san, and Park Jae-woo made keynote speeches to discuss the value of "Hometown" and its historical and practical significance.
Looking back at the century of East Asia, stimulated by the West, we have embarked on different paths to modernization. In the face of the poor and weak motherland, Lu Xun went out of his hometown to find different kinds of people, "I hope that the cold stars will not be noticed, and I recommend Xuanyuan with my blood", which reflects his will to fight for the awakening, liberation and rejuvenation of the nation all his life. Japanese and Korean educators included Lu Xun's novel in secondary school textbooks, resonating with Lu Xun in search of a spiritual homeland. Discussing their respective hometowns, searching for cultural nostalgia, and reconstructing the spiritual homeland of Oriental culture is of special significance to the three East Asian countries that have experienced 100 years of exploration on the road of modernization and have walked their own different paths. In the face of century-long changes, we should build a community with a shared future for mankind, starting from the construction of a regional cultural community. In this sense, today's discussion of the novel "Hometown" by scholars from China, Japan, and South Korea and the discussion of the "road back to hometown" to the future will undoubtedly have positive practical significance.
(Text: Wang Zhongyi)