There are many Lu Xun researchers, and Xue Linrong is one of them. Unlike professional scholars, in the past 20 years, Lu Xun has not only been an object of study for him, but also a witness and example for his life. "Lu Xun's research has come to the present, the road is relatively narrow, a lot of research is for academics' sake, self-amusement in the circle, and there is no connection with the concerns of the public." I want to write about his connection to ordinary people and reduce him to a flesh-and-blood man. ”
Lu Xun's Meal Bureau is Xue Linrong's second collection of Lu Xun's "micro studies", which delicately reconstructs the scenes of Lu Xun's life between 1912 and his death in Shanghai from 1912 to his death in Shanghai.
At different times of his life, the significance of Lu Xun's research to Xue Linrong was different. At the age of 20, as a Chinese student, "Lu Xun is a compulsory course." He had perused Lu Xun's diary over and over again, initially because "he wrote beautifully, his language was white, and he wanted to learn his words and sentences." After working, he wrote Lu Xun mainly to earn writing fees in his spare time. At that time, he was working in the CPPCC system and submitted articles to the Spring and Autumn Weekly of the People's Political Consultative Conference Daily, and a 3,000-word manuscript could receive 300 yuan in writing fees. "At that time, 300 yuan was still very important to me, and when I was 20 years old, I stayed up late at night to write, and my body could still support it." On the other hand, he felt that he and Lu Xun were both civil servants and both were readers, so he wanted to find some references and resonances from this civil servant of the Republic of China. With the change of work position, Xue Linrong became more and more busy, and reading and studying Lu Xun gradually became a regulation of intense work, an additional spiritual enjoyment: "When writing articles, you must first coax yourself to be happy, in order to make others happy." ”
Although it is not an academic study of the Eight Classics of Zheng'er, Xue Linrong's writing of Lu Xun is also a must have a source, which is very rigorous. In his home, there are seven or eight versions of Lu Xun's complete works, and the two bookcases are full of Lu Xun's materials, including photocopies of manuscripts. He said he hardly looked up information about Lu Xun on the Internet because he "didn't trust the authenticity of those materials, nor did he quite agree with some of his ideas." In Tianshui, Gansu, "it is not convenient to go to the library of the big city to inquire about materials, and you can only rely on your own collection to make a Library of Lu Xun."
Now, he has compiled the manuscripts he has written in the past 20 years into 4 books: "Lu Xun's Grass and Wood Spectrum", "Lu Xun's Meal Bureau", "Lu Xun's Cover" and "Lu Xun's House Number" are about to be published. Xue Linrong's tone was like Lu Xun's neighbor for many years, watching the life of this literary hero, and then turned around and told outsiders.
First Finance: There are many aspects of Lu Xun's life, why did you focus on Lu Xun's eating?
Xue Linrong: I happened to see a dinner invitation written by Lu Xun himself. It was an invitation sent to Yao Ke by Lu Xun on April 19, 1933, and the original was in the collection of the Lu Xun Museum in Beijing. The dinner was where Lu Xun helped the translator Yao Ke meet with some celebrities in Shanghai's cultural circles. It was this invitation to the dinner bureau written by Lu Xun himself that gave me an idea: If the dinner party that Lu Xun participated in, especially those he personally organized, were sorted out according to a certain style, it would be very interesting. So I wrote this book.
CBN: From his meals and contacts, we can see what the economic situation and living conditions of the literati were at that time?
Xue Linrong: In Beijing, Lu Xun worked as a civil servant in the Ministry of Education. For the first three months of employment, $60 per month. After that, the salary slowly rose and stabilized at 240 yuan. By 1914, it had risen to 280 yuan per month; by 1916, it had risen to 300 yuan, reaching the highest level of the salary of the servants. A piece of silver ocean is equal to seven dollars and two cents of silver, 0.7 two, one or two is 50 grams, and the price of one gram of silver is about 5.3 yuan now. Therefore, the purchasing power of an ocean is equivalent to about 185 yuan. Lu Xun's 300 yuan of silver is equivalent to 55,000 yuan. This salary level is on par with the salary of Chen Duxiu, the dean of liberal arts at Peking University, and is 20 yuan higher than the monthly salary of Hu Shi, who takes the "highest salary of a professor". It can be seen that Lu Xun's salary is higher than that of professors at Peking University.
Lu Xun's monthly salary for departmental and bureau-level cadres is 55,000 yuan, which is much higher than the salary of civil servants at the same level now. He also teaches part-time in various schools and is also paid. These incomes fully guaranteed that Lu Xun could support himself and insist on his free thinking and independent personality. When Lu Xun received a salary of 300 yuan, Li Dazhao, director of the Peking University Library, took 120 yuan, and Mao Zedong, the librarian of Peking University, took 8 yuan.
CBN: What is Lu Xun's taste?
Xue Linrong: The Zhou brothers actually know a lot about eating, are very picky, and are also exquisite. Zhou Zuoren also said in "Tea in Beijing" that there is nothing to eat after living in Beijing for more than ten years, which makes Beijingers unhappy. Lu Xun's taste is relatively heavy, he always said that something has no taste, just like the beginning of "On the Restaurant": "The hotel I live in is rented and does not sell rice, the meal must be called separately, but it is tasteless, and the entrance is like chewing dirt." ”
First of all, Lu Xun likes his hometown cuisine, called Shaojiu Yue Chicken Rice. Childhood eating habits determine a person's taste buds. In the general context, Lu Xun seems to be only suitable for drinking Shaoxing yellow wine, not liquor, let alone foreign wine. Xiao Hong's article "Remembering Mr. Lu Xun" wrote: "Mr. Lu Xun likes to eat a little wine, but not much, eat half a small bowl or a bowl. Mr. Lu Xun ate Chinese wine, mostly flower carvings. ”
Shaoxing's stinky tofu and plum dried vegetables carry Lu Xun's nostalgia. When Lu Xun first arrived in Beijing, he had several small drinks and small gatherings, some of which were invited by Shaoxing people, and some of which were attended by Shaoxing people, so they were all carried out in Shaoxing restaurants. The specialty dishes of apricot blossom spring are eel slices, grilled eel back, etc., and the specialty dishes of Yixiang Zhai are braised fish lips and braised sea cucumber, all of which are relatively advanced. The frequency of Shaoxing cuisine in Lu Xun's novels is also very high. For example, in the "Blessing", it is mentioned that there is a dish called "Stewed Shark Fin Soup" in Fuxing Lou in Shaoxing City, which is a large plate for one yuan and one large plate, which is cheap and good, and it is indispensable to eat. Fuxing Lou is a place name in the novel, but the dish of stewed shark fin soup is real. "A Q Zheng Biography" wrote: "Fried big head fish, unshared to add half an inch of green onion leaves, but in the city to add finely sliced shallots." "Shaoxing cuisine and fish do put some finely sliced green onions, although it is a novel, it is completely realistic. Although it is realistic, it uses an almost exaggerated brushwork to distinguish the differences between the city and the countryside from the "half-inch long green onion leaves" and "finely cut green onion wire". There is no idle pen everywhere, and it reflects the nostalgia on Lu Xun's taste buds with great cleverness.
Lu Xun loves snacks, especially sweets. His snack-loving habit was developed around the time he was studying in Japan to relieve stress and fatigue at work and ward off drowsiness and hunger. There is a famous tea in Japan that is related to the tea ceremony, called "yokan soup", which is very popular with him. It was precisely because of his preference for snacks that in 1934, Lu Xun wrote an article called "Snacks". In the article, he wrote that Shanghai's residents and snacks are inseparable from death. In such a city where snacks are flourishing, Lu Xun finally found a theoretical basis for his liking to eat snacks: "That effect, it is said, is in the leisure, get the benefit of health, and taste good." ”
Lu Xun likes to eat fried foods, including fried dishes, such as fried yellow croaker. Henan cuisine is also Lu Xun's favorite, when in Beijing, Lu Xun often went to the famous Yu cuisine store Hou Defu. After arriving in Shanghai, I found a new yu cuisine famous building - LiangYuan Zhimei Building. In the last 9 years of Lu Xun's reign in Shanghai, the two restaurants he paid the most attention to, in addition to the zhiwei concept of hometown flavor, were this Yu cuisine restaurant Zi Liang Yuan Zhimei Lou.
Lu Xun also did not like to eat things, such as Gong Delin made of soy products enough to mess with vegetarian meat, vegetarian chicken, vegetarian fish, etc., he believes that this is a restaurant borrowed from the hypocrisy of vegetarian people who never forget to eat meat, and developed a mutated dish. Lu Xun did not like the Min-style restaurant, saying that it was "all Fujian-style, not very palatable, and the so-called red and bad people are not beautiful." An interesting phenomenon is that Lu Xun always seems to have some views on people, things, and things related to Fujian. He did not like Fujian cuisine, did not have a good feeling for the Minke who lived near the Shaoxing Guild Hall, and even went to Xiamen to teach, and the conflict was directly exposed. He also wrote a three-sentence essay focusing on the Hokkien clan, which is very rare in the history of Lu Xun's personal polemics. This article is the April 1935 "Born Brute Nature", the full text is: "Born Brute" - praise for Mr. Gu Hongming, who is not understood by "Jiangsu and Zhejiang people"; Mr. Zheng Xiaoxu talks about the royal way; Mr. Lin Yutang talks about sexual spirits. This attitude of Lu Xun certainly reflects his consistent style of fighting, but from his deliberate summarization and amplification of the "innate brute nature" of the Min people, it seems that there are also some regional prejudices related to his own experience.
"Lu Xun's Meal"
By Xue Linrong
Guangxi Normal University Press, March 2021
CBN: Moving from Beijing to Xiamen and Guangzhou, and finally living in Shanghai, how has Lu Xun's communication with his friends changed?
Xue Linrong: If you want to talk about the difference between the literati, it is the difference between being single and starting a family, or the difference between before and after becoming famous, not the difference in region.
When Lu Xun first arrived in Beijing, he was a bachelor, one person was full, and the whole family was not hungry, so he rubbed rice and went to many restaurants. Guangheju near the Shaoxing Guild Hall has almost become a working restaurant for Zhou Shuren, and has been to it more than 20 times. Lu Xun's early diners were mainly Xu Shousheng, Qian Daosun, Qi Shoushan, etc., and the most fixed diners were the translator Qian Daosun and the educator Xu Shoushou. After life settles down, the Zhou government will also bury pots and make rice. The Zhou Dynasty has always been a city-like city, and a large number of familiar names in the new cultural history of "May Fourth" have more or less intersected with the Zhou Dynasty.
From Xiao Hong's description, it can be seen that Lu Xun was almost like a reception office director in Shanghai in his later years, he began to accompany the guests from two or three o'clock in the afternoon, accompanied by five or six o'clock, if the guests ate at home, after eating and drinking tea together, the first group of guests had not left, the latter group of guests had already come, so they accompanied him again, often until twelve o'clock. For such a long time, Lu Xun sat on a rattan recliner and smoked a cigarette continuously.
CBN: What do you think is the relationship between Lu Xun's meal and his writing?
Xue Linrong: It is closely related to his writing. The dinner table is a cultural salon. There were an endless stream of people visiting the Zhou Mansion, and there were many people who ate, and the meal strengthened their friendship and witnessed his "peace" and "separation" with his friends. Moreover, the meal reflects the daily life of a cultural leader in semi-colonial society. Treating guests at home is Lu Xun's highest attitude towards hospitality. In Lu Xun's diary, there are 34 cases of treating guests. Among them, there were only 6 cases in the Beijing period and 28 cases in the Shanghai period. During the Shanghai period, when the Zhou Government invited guests, most of them were Xu Guangping cooking. Sometimes it is to buy books, run errands, and meet friends to come to the house. Sometimes it's a birthday for a baby sea. Sometimes it's a celebration of a holiday. After the Mid-Autumn Festival, "cook a duck and ham, and invite Pingfu, Xuefeng and their wives to eat together at night." After Chinese New Year's Eve, "cure a little dish, invite Xuefeng to dinner, buy more than ten flowers and pops, and go up to the roof with the sea baby to set it off, so old that those who can't get it have been two years."
CBN: Chinese has always paid attention to the culture of wine tables, and the same is true of literati. What do you think is unique about Lu Xun's wine table?
Xue Linrong: What Chinese is, Lu Xun is what he is, he is not special, it is no exception, but he is exceptionally sober and profound. His critique of national character is based on the people around him and even himself. The difference between literati and ordinary people eating is that there is a controversy behind it, there is harmony, there is also a difference, there is a collision of ideas, and there is also a plan for art.
First Finance: Lu Xun and people eat, generally who orders, who pays the bill, is there a certain law?
Xue Linrong: Who invites guests, who orders, who pays the bill. In the early years, when he lived in the Shaoxing Guild Hall in Beijing, he and his friends often ate each other, and there was a situation under the AA system: "Late money Rice Sun Lai, the same season of the city to drink in Guangheju, each person contributed one yuan." ”
In October 1933, Lu Xun invited guests at Zhiweiguan and invited the president of Fumin Hospital. Fumin Hospital is not only a hospital where Lu Xun often sees a doctor, but also a hospital where Hai Bao was born, and a hospital that helps his friends treat their illnesses under his recommendation. The president of Fumin Hospital in Japan was invited to thank him for curing Zhang Xiehe's son. During the banquet, Lu Xun personally ordered Hangzhou famous dishes such as "Call flower chicken" and "West Lake lettuce soup", and also introduced the origin and practice of "calling flower chicken" to the guests.
It is said that Lu Xun's introduction aroused great interest from Japanese friends. After returning to China, the president of Fumin Hospital widely publicized the "flower chicken" and "West Lake vinegar fish" in Hangzhou cuisine in Japan, and these dishes have a far-reaching influence in Japan. In the early 1980s, when members of the "Japanese Chinese Cuisine Delegation" and the "Friends of Japanese Housewives" visited Shanghai, they also pointed out that they would go to Zhiweiguan to taste famous dishes such as "Chicken Called Flower" and "Vinegar Fish in the West Lake".
CBN: Which of the meals you write about in your book are related to major events in China's modern and literary history?
Xue Linrong: Lu Xun's meal includes acquaintances, intersections and separations between writers of the Republic of China, artistic cooperation, conceptual conflicts, and literary controversies. The dinner contains many major literary events, showing the magnificent appearance of modern Chinese literature in the past 30 years from one side.
There are many literary historical events involved, to name a few:
Gu Yangwu Beckons Drinking – Contributing to the Publication of Charcoal Painting (January 16, 1914)
He drank a lot with Sun Fuyuan and talked for a long time: "The First Old Shop" of The Supplement of China Daily (January 27, 1922)
Drinking with the second brother Koji-ryū - The Last Supper of the Three Brothers of the Zhou Clan (May 10, 1923)