Lu Xun and Ba Jin were two of the most important writers in the history of Chinese literature in the 20th century. The two did not know each other early, but the two had always trusted each other and worked closely together for more than 3 years from the first meeting to lu Xun's death. Not long ago, at the opening ceremony of the "Salary Transmission - Lu Xun and Ba Jin Photo Exhibition", Chen Zishan, professor of the Department of Chinese of East China Normal University and vice president of the Ba Jin Research Association, introduced the birth and end of Lu Xun's last collection of essays, "Night Notes" (unfinished), and told the deep friendship between the two literary giants.
"Lu Xun's evaluation of Ba Jin has always been very high"
On October 3, 1927, Lu Xun came to Shanghai and soon made a decision to settle in Shanghai. In early December 1928, Ba Jin came to Shanghai from France and also decided to settle in Shanghai.
At first, Lu Xun and Ba Jin did not have any intersection, and they were busy with their own work. Ba Jin first mentioned Lu Xun in March 1931. Enlightened Bookstore published a collection of translations, The Ship of Happiness, a collection of ailuoxianke's novels and essays, which was compiled by Ba Jin and collected some of the works translated by Lu Xun, Xia Junzun and others, as well as Ba Jin himself. In the preface to the book, Ba Jin writes: "Special thanks to Lu Xun and Zun Zun..."
Lu Xun authorized 4 translations to be published in this book at that time, which is the translator with the most articles in this book. Ba Jin once said that Lu Xun's translation was directly translated from the original Japanese manuscript. This is the initial literal contact between Ba Jin and Lu Xun that we can see.
Later, I found out from Lu Xun's collection that Lu Xun also had this "Happy Ship" in his collection at that time. As for how the book came to Lu Xun's hands, there is no record at present.
I once wrote an article about how many times Lu Xun and Ba Jin had met. In fact, they don't see each other much, and every time they meet, they basically eat at a restaurant. Many of Lu Xun's important literary and publishing matters were decided at the dinner table. According to verifiable written records, the earliest meeting between Lu Xun and Ba Jin was on April 6, 1933. It can be seen that from the time they met until Lu Xun died, there were only a few short years.
However, Lu Xun's evaluation of Ba Jin has always been very high. Lu Xun greatly admired Ba Jin's attitude of publishing in a down-to-earth manner and writing articles conscientiously. Lu Xun later wrote in an article entitled "Answering Xu Maoyong and Questions About the Anti-Japanese United Front": Ba Jin was a writer with enthusiasm and progressive ideas, and a writer among the few good writers. Lu Xun's evaluation of Ba Jin is quite high, and Ba Jin himself is very grateful for Lu Xun's support.
It is precisely because of this appreciation and trust that Lu Xun published translations in his later years, and the Cultural Life Publishing House, chaired by Ba Jin, became the first choice. In August 1935, the Cultural Life Publishing House published Lu Xun's translation of Gorky's "Russian Fairy Tales", which was listed as the third type of "Cultural Life Series" edited by Ba Jin. In November of the same year, the Cultural Life Publishing House published Lu Xun's translation of Gogol's novel "Dead Souls", which was listed as the first type of "translation series" edited by Huang Yuan. In January 1936, the Cultural Life Publishing House published Lu Xun's last collection of novels, "New Edition of Stories", which was listed as the second of the first episode of the "Literary Series" edited by Ba Jin. In addition, Lu Xun's reprint of "One Hundred Pictures of Dead Souls" was also commissioned by the Cultural Life Publishing House. All these show Lu Xun's appreciation and trust in Ba Jin and the Cultural Life Publishing House.
Professor Chen Zishan
"Barkin's Memories of the Night"
There is a collection of Lu Xun's essays, proposed by Ba Jin, and Lu Xun also intends to submit it to the Cultural Life Publishing House, but due to Lu Xun's sudden death, the book was not written in time, and it was later edited by Xu Guangping before it was completed, that is, the "Night Record" that is now little known.
For the collection of essays "Night Notes", Barkin's "Mr. Lu Xun is Such a Person" written on July 13, 1956 has quite specific and vivid memories:
A few months later, I asked Mr. Lu Xun for a manuscript at a banquet, and I said that I wanted one of his collections in the fourth episode of the 'Literary Series,' and he happily agreed. After some time, he asked Comrade Huang Yuan to bring a message and tell me the name of the collection: the prose collection "Night Notes". Soon he became ill, and after his illness he became well he wrote several articles. I heard that he had put aside the four articles of "Half Summer Collection", "This Is Also Life", "Death", and "Female Hanging", and was already preparing to compile "Night Notes", but illness and sudden death interrupted his work. He also visited his Japanese comrade Shikachi on the afternoon of October 17, and died in his apartment on the morning of October 19. The "Night Notes", which is included in the fourth episode of the "Literary Series", is also a collection compiled by Mr. Xu Jingsong (i.e. Xu Guangping) for Mr. Lu Xun after his death. Every time I look at these two small books, I feel his sincerity and enthusiasm for people, serious and responsible for his work, and I seem to see his all-encompassing and loving heart. ”
Barkin's words are full of emotion. Two months later, in his article "Lu Xun - Commemorating the Seventy-fifth Anniversary of Lu Xun's Birth" for the Soviet newspaper "Literature", he specifically mentioned "Night Notes":
"After a few months, I met Lu Xun once, and I asked him to write something for the publishing house again, hoping that there would be a volume of his work in the fourth episode of the 'Literary Series.'" He happily agreed. After some days, Lu Xuntuo's writer Huang Yuan relayed to me that this volume was titled "Night Notes" (夜記). Soon he fell ill. After his recovery, he wrote several articles in a row. I heard that he devoted himself to compiling the Night's Notebook..."
These two memories of Barkin are important because they reveal the following information:
First, the title of "Night Record" was personally drafted by Lu Xun, and this is a collection of essays.
Second, "Half Summer Collection", "This is also life", "Death", "Female Hanging" 4 articles, Lu Xun deliberately "put aside", ready to be compiled into the "Night Record". Barkin is "heard", listen to whom? It was Xu Guangping. "Half Summer Collection" was written in 1936 "between August, maybe the beginning of September", "This is also life" on August 23, 1936, "Death" on September 5, 1936, and "Female Hanging" on September 19-20, 1936, all of which were indeed written after Lu Xun "recovered from illness", and these 4 articles were also selected by Lu Xun himself in the "Night Record".
Cover of the first edition of The Restored Night's Notebook
"The collection of essays is closer to Lu Xun's original meaning"
After Lu Xun's death, "Night Notes" was first published by the Cultural Life Publishing House in April 1937 and listed as the tenth of the fourth episode of the "Literary Series". According to the practice of "chronicles" compiled by Lu Xun in his later years, the whole book is divided into three series and a total of 13 articles, and the table of contents is as follows:
1934: "Miscellaneous Talks After Illness", "Miscellaneous Talks After Illness"; 1935: "Confucius in Modern China", "Undetermined" Grass (1-5),""Dostowsky's Affair", "Undetermined" Grass (6 to 9);1936: "I Want to Deceive People", "The "Guan" of "Out of Customs", "Half Summer Collection", "This Is Also Life", "Death", "Female Hanging", "About Mr. Taiyan Two or Three Things".
It is worth noting that at the end of the book, there is Xu Guangping's "Afterword" written by Xu Guangping in "Three months and five days after the death of Mr. Lu Xun". In her Afterword, she makes it clear:
"I checked those manuscripts, of which "Half Summer Collection", "This Is Also Life", "Death", and "Female Hanging" were written after last year's serious illness, and placed in another place. It seems that he has heard him say that the materials prepared for the "Night Record" have unfortunately not been completed. I had to choose two of the unpublished "Miscellaneous Essays" compiled in 1934, four from the "Two Collections of Essays" in 35 years, and four more in the "Last Compilation of Essays" in 36 years, in addition to the four parts of "Night Notes", for a total of fourteen articles. ”
Xu Guangping wrote 14 articles in the "Afterword", but when it was actually printed, it was 13, and it is possible that one was extracted when it was finally printed, and who pulled it out and which one was drawn is not clear. In short, the actual FuZi "Night Record" is a merger of Lu Xun's original self-determined articles (that is, 4 articles such as "Half Summer Collection") and 9 essays added by Xu Guangping.
As Lu Xun's widow, Xu Guangping added this supplement, of course, for its own reasons, but the original positioning of "Night Notes" should be a collection of essays. Not only is it specifically mentioned in Ba Jin's above-mentioned recollection, but there is also a strong evidence from Feng Xuefeng's recollection. On November 1, 1937, seven months after the first edition of "Night", Feng Xuefeng commemorated the anniversary of Lu Xun's death with the title of "O.V." In the article "The Unfinished Works of Mr. Lu Xun's Plan" published in the 50th issue of Cosmic Wind, he said of "Night Notes":
Mr. Lu Xun's "This is also life", "Death", and "Female Hanging" written after his illness are all prose of a type of poetry in a genre, and he said that he was ready to write more than ten of them and write a book to pay off the literary debt of a bookstore. If this plan could be completed, there would undoubtedly be one more masterpiece of the same kind as "Chao Hua Xi Shi", but he was too late to write it. ”
"The Value and Historical Significance of "Night"
Of course, Xu Guangping's "Night Record" has its own existential value and historical significance.
The first edition of "Night Notes" was divided into blue cloth hardcover and ordinary paperback, and since then it has been published in paperback, and the word "Night Record" on the cover has used three colors: light green, black and red. The first edition was reprinted that month, and the third and fourth editions were printed the following month. By October 1948, 10 editions of The Night Chronicle had been printed, not including the "Yu Yi Edition" printed by the Chongqing Cultural Life Publishing House in July 1942. It can be seen that this book has been well received by readers since its publication. Even when the first Lu Xun Complete Works were published in June 1938, the Night Chronicles were probably not included because the Chinese chapters of the book had been included in the first, second, and final editions of the "And Jieting Miscellaneous Writings", but for a long time afterward, the Cultural Life Publishing House edition of the Night Records was still distributed together with the Complete Works of Lu Xun and various single editions of Lu Xun's other works, in parallel. The 12th edition was published until May 1949.
After all, the title of the book "Night Record" was personally proposed by Lu Xun, and the compilation of 4 essays such as "Half Summer Collection" into the "Night Record" was also Lu Xun's personal determination, what reason did the book cease to exist? It is true that Lu Xun had several pre-conceived book titles before his death, and in the end he failed to publish a book. For example, "Yang Guifei", Lu Xun wanted to write but failed to write; for example, "Five Lectures and Three Boo Collections", it was only mentioned in the "Open Letter to Mr. Yang Estate", and it was not put into practice; such as "Three Books of Letters", which three books are also controversial. As for the novels he wanted to write about Chinese intellectuals and the history of Chinese literature, it was more of an idea. However, the situation in Night's Notebook is completely different. This book has a title, the first batch of four texts Lu Xun himself has long been written, Xu Guangping's "Night Record" has existed for a long time and produced greater social benefits.
Nowadays, "Night Chronicle" almost no longer exists, and there is no trace of "Night Record" in various versions of "Lu Xun's Complete Works", and it is a pity that fewer and fewer people know lu Xun's true thoughts and the deep friendship between Ba Jin and Lu Xun carried by "Night Record". Therefore, it is timely for Ba Jin's former residence to photocopy this "Night Record" to commemorate the 140th anniversary of Lu Xun's birth.
(Arranged by Xin Shichao)
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gong Danyun Text Editor: Xu Bei Title Image Source: Zhu Xuan Photography Photo Editor: Zhu Xuan
Source: Author: Chen Zishan