Prologue
Lu Xun once wrote, "As long as you can cultivate a flower, you may as well make it a decaying rotten grass" (Collection of Short Stories in the Modern World, 1929).
Looking back on Lu Xun's life now, this sentence comes to mind. This short sentence contains a way of surviving. What I want to elaborate is the specific connotation of the way of survival presented by this sentence. In other words, there are several conceivable perspectives when thinking about Lu Xun's life, and the foothold I am trying to think about is how he, as a person who regards transitional intermediates as his own destiny and bears it, how he survives in this only one life.
In our human history, there will be an era that, in its literal sense, can be called a "transitional period." For three thousand years, China, located in eastern Asia, has been proud of its culture, which is unmatched by its neighbors. However, since the Opium War in the middle of the 19th century, China has wavered, suffered, and groped under the impact of Western Europe, and this century-long turbulent history may be a typical representative of this transitional period. Lu Xun, born in 1881 and died in 1936, lived precisely during this transitional period. In Lu Xun's life, rather than being aware that he was a transitional intermediary, he took the initiative to live with his fate as an intermediary.
As a literary scholar, Lu Xun consciously began to create in 1907 (Meiji 40), when he was studying in Tokyo at the age of twenty-six. Lu Xun's masterpiece of this period was The Poetic Theory of Moro (1907), which for the first time introduced the poems and lives of eight European Romantic poets to the Chinese system. At the end of the article, Lu Xun talks about the imagery of flowers.
The Russian scholar V. Korolenko wrote the book "The Last Light", which records that the old man taught the children to read to the Xianbei, which said that the cherry blossoms and yellow birds were described in the book, and the Xianbei Washan, and there was no such thing. Weng Ze xie, this bird stops at the cherry tree, and the ear of the good sounder is introduced. Youth is contemplation. However, the young man is in the midst of a depression, that is, he does not sincerely hear his good sound, and he deserves the interpretation of foresight; and the voice of foresight does not come to break the depression of China. However, we are also contemplative, and they are only contemplative!
The Last Light is an essay in Korolenko's Siberian Tales based on his experiences during his exile, depicting the life of an exiled family. As the verse "The mountains are depressed and there are no beasts, and the wild is lonely and deserted" ("Chu Ci Yuanyou"), "depression" and "loneliness" both represent the desolate feeling brought about by the lifeless desolate scene. In Lu Xun's works, the word "lonely desert" appears frequently. Although loneliness is the background color hidden in Lu Xun's early works, the loneliness and longing of the young Lu Xun when he sought new sounds and light in order to break through the closed China at that time overlapped with the figure of the teenager in desolate Siberia, thinking of the unseen cherry blossoms and birdsong, making the reader think deeply. Immediately after, in The Theory of Breaking the Sound of Evil (1908), Lu Xun expounded his hope for a new voice and light.
"I have not had a great hope for Fang Lai, but I think of the voice of the knower and look at its inner obscurity. The obsidian, the one who breaks the darkness; the voice of the heart, the one who is out of the hypocrite. The crowd is like thunder in Meng Chun, and Bai Hui is moved by it, and the dawn is made in the east, and the night is gone. "Voice of the heart" means the cry of the spirit, and "inner voice" refers to the light emitted by the spirit. The concise and powerful words of "heart voice" and "inner voice" were the most fundamental definition of literature by Lu Xun at that time. And the season of "Hundred Hui for the Germination" is the scene after breaking through the loneliness depicted in his heart. However, their literary movement in Tokyo died prematurely. Full of sorrow, Lu Xun chose to return to China. In the nearly ten years that followed, except for a few articles published before and after the Xinhai Revolution (1911), Lu Xun remained silent. Breaking this silence was his first novel, "Diary of a Madman," written in 1918 under the name "Lu Xun." In a letter to the Japanese Aoki Masao (December 4, 1920), Lu Xun left a passage directly about the motivation for writing The Madman's Diary. Since 1917, Masao Aoki, who was in Japan, has paid great attention to China's "literary revolution", and his "Literary Revolution with Hu Shi swirling at the center" published in 1920 details the literary creation in the early days of the birth of New Chinese literature, which is a memorable review article. Masao Aoki presented Lu Xun with the magazine "Chi Na Xue" that published this article, and Lu Xun's letter was a letter of thanks for this. In his letter, he also spoke of the imagery of songs and flowers.
The novels I write are extremely naïve, only sad that there is no singing or flowers in my country like winter, and I am written to break through this loneliness...
In order to break through the loneliness of China at that time, which was like a cold winter, there was neither singing nor flowers, Lu Xun began with this "Diary of a Madman" and continued to write until his death.
Lu Xun left behind more than 7 million words in translations. Here are the following (the time in parentheses is the year of publication, and the * sign indicates publication after death):
(1) Three kinds of novel collections, "Scream" (1923), "Wandering" (1926), "New Compilation of Stories" (1936);
(ii) A collection of prose poems, Weeds (1927);
(3) A collection of reminiscence essays, "Picking Up Flowers and Nights" (1928);
(4) 16 kinds of commentaries and miscellaneous collections, "Hot Wind" (1925), "Huagai Collection" (1926), "Huagai Collection Continuation", "Grave" (1927), "Only Collection" (1928), "Three Idle Collections", "Two Hearts Collection" (1932), "Pseudo-Free Book" (1933), "Southern Cavity North Collection", "Quasi-Wind Moon Talk" (1934), "Collection of Outside the Collection" (1935), "Lace Literature" (1936), "And Jieting Miscellaneous Essays*", "And Jieting Miscellaneous Essays II*", "and Jieting Miscellaneous Essays Final Compilation*" (1937), "Collection of Collected Works* (1938);
(5) More than 70 poems;
(6) Recording and proofreading more than ten kinds of ancient books, "Legends of the Tang and Song Dynasties (Upper and Lower)" (1927-1928), "Ji Kang Collection*", "Ancient Novel Hook Sink* ( 1938), etc.;
(7) Two kinds of academic works, "Outline of the History of the Chinese Novel (I. II)" (1923-1924) and "Outline of the History of Chinese Literature* (1938);
(viii) Translation of 33 volumes;
(IX) A collection of letters, The Book of Two Places (1933, a collection of correspondence with Xu Guangping).
In what is recognized as a period of transition or enlightenment, there will always be some "giants" who will be born. In general, these giants are not limited to a narrow and specific field, but point to society and history as a whole. The same is true of Lu Xun. The themes of Lu Xun's commentaries and essays involve literature and art, fine arts, thought, history, folklore, natural science, society, current affairs and other aspects. Translation is the most important job that Lu Xun attaches to since he was young. Through his translations, the works of nearly 100 writers from 14 countries and nearly 100 writers have been introduced to China, and the genres involve novels, fairy tales, essays, literary and art theories, art history, and even scientific books such as "Medicinal Plants". In his later years, Lu Xun also planned to translate Fabre's Insects. There are more than 20 kinds of magazines edited or co-edited by Lu Xun. Not only that, but he is also the theoretical guide of the most fruitful woodcut (printmaking) movement in the Chinese art world.
After Lu Xun's death, the collection of works entitled The Complete Works of Lu Xun was published four times in 1938, 1958, 1973, and 1981. In 1973, China was in the midst of a "great cultural revolution," and although the Complete Works of Lu Xun published that year were only reprints of the 1938 edition, they were also driven by the needs of the time. In any case, the complete works can be published four times in the 45 years since his death, and nothing can better illustrate Lu Xun's position in China. In particular, the latest edition of the Complete Works of Lu Xun (all 16 volumes), released in 1981 to commemorate the centenary of Lu Xun's birth, not only includes all works in the above list of works except (6) (8) [only the preface and trepidication of the works in (6) (8) are compiled into one of the volumes], but also adds Lu Xun's diary from 1912 to 1936 (missing 1922) and 1456 letters. A total of 23,000 annotations were added to all of Lu Xun's works, including letters and diaries, and it took about a decade to complete the work. Lu Xun's articles are widely quoted, covering ancient and modern China and foreign countries, and most of the wording is overtly literary, so that the younger generation will stay away from Lu Xun's works. The characters, groups, historical events, publications, and allusions to quotations involved have become customs and customs of the past, but after annotating these contents, the reader may be able to easily walk into the work and think with it as long as he is willing to spend some effort.
The extensive quotations of opponents in polemic articles are a major feature of Lu Xun's works. This is also the practice that Lu Xun himself tried in his collection of essays in his later years. Masuda Shige, who had been personally taught by Lu Xun, wrote, "He pinned his life meaning on writing and presenting his works to the world", "He did not publish the articles he wrote after selection, but threw everything he wrote into the world unchanged and word for word" ("Lu Xun's Impressions"). Lu Xun was such a literary scholar. If we combine the latest edition of the Complete Works of Lu Xun, the 1958 edition of The Collected Works of Lu Xun, and the works in the above list (VI), 10 Between Light and Dark: Lu Xun's Biography We can get close to the whole picture of Lu Xun's creative career. In addition, since many people have written reminiscences about Lu Xun, we can understand Lu Xun's lifestyle and the era in which he lived.
"Diary of a Madman" is an indiscriminate work of modern Chinese literature. In his above-mentioned essay, Aoki Masao commented on "The Diary of a Madman", arguing that "Lu Xun is a promising writer in terms of novels." The Japanese translation of the novel is less than 20 pages in the bunko, but over time, its epoch-making significance has become more pronounced. Lu Xun's masterpiece "A Q Zheng biography" has been translated into more than 60 languages in more than 40 countries, and together with Lu Xun's name, it occupies an unshakable position in world literature. His "Outline of the History of the Chinese Novel" is an academic work that opens the way for the study of modern Chinese novels, and as a general history based on an original view of history and empirical research, it has not been fully surpassed to this day.
However, none of Lu Xun's works were written under the condition of carrying the burden of life. In the face of the torrent of violent turbulence in history, he did not choose to escape, but constantly created in the whirlpool. As a result, his novels are short works, and several novels that he had conceived in his mind have not been realized. The writing plan for the history of Chinese literature has not yet taken shape, and the history of Chinese fonts that is difficult to give up in life has not been published in the end. About two-thirds of his articles are occupied by current affairs commentaries that he describes as essays and miscellaneous sensations. For this reason, it is even often ridiculed that he is an "essay expert".
Others have advised me not to make such a short review. I am very grateful for the kindness, and I am not unaware of the preciousness of creation. However, when I want to do such a thing, I am afraid that I will also have to do such a thing, and I think that if there is such a troublesome prohibition in the Palace of Art, it is better not to go in; or to stand on the desert and look at the flying sand and stones, le laughs, cries out in sorrow, and scolds in anger, even if he is beaten by the sand and rough, his head is broken and bleeding, and he always caresses his own blood, and feels that if there is a pattern, it may not be as interesting as following the Chinese scribes to accompany Shakespeare to eat butter bread.
This is a passage from the inscription of the collection of essays, The Huagai Collection (1925), which is highly polemical. There is a phenomenon in northern China called "sand dust" - the wind rolls up the gravel on the ground, forming sand that covers the sky. Lu Xun cherished these essays and called them "scars" of his own crawling in the "sand and dust" and being hit by flying sand and stones. In the mid-1920s, Lu Xun referred to his essays in his collection of prose poems from the "Wandering" period, Wild Grass, "The Tragic White Flowers on the Edge of Hell" (Preface to the English Translation of Wild Grass, 1931). A collection of commentaries compiled at about the same time as Weeds was named Grave by him.
Lu Xun believed that his article could not be a blooming rose, nor a fragrant orchid. And he was willing to endure this fate. In order to make the land of China one day usher in the season of a hundred flowers, he would rather choose to become dirt. And to turn into fertile dirt, it must first become a decaying weed, which is the sentence at the beginning of this article.