In 2021, Professor Qian Liqun, a senior Lu Xun research expert at Peking University, completed two new books and one course - "Qian Liqun's New Edition of Lu Xun's Contemporary Reader" and "Qian Liqun Talks About Lu Xun".
Using Lu Xun as an ideological resource to respond to the issues of the times and promoting Lu Xun to carry out spiritual dialogue with generations of Chinese youth is a remarkable feature and fundamental pursuit of Professor Qian Liqun's decades of Lu Xun's research.
Today, let us follow Professor Qian Liqun to solve the eternal question in the heart: "Lu Xun, who has tortured" us for so many years, what is special about him?
Lu Xun's 50th birthday commemoration, photographed by Smedley
Qian Liqun, born in 1939. He is a well-known contemporary scholar and a senior professor of the Department of Chinese of Peking University. He is mainly engaged in the study of the history of modern and contemporary Chinese literature and the spiritual history of Chinese intellectuals in the twentieth century. The summary and reflection on China's experience and Chinese road in the twentieth century have been highly valued at home and abroad. His major works include "Biography of Zhou Zuoren", "Exploration of the Soul", "Thirty Years of Modern Chinese Literature", "Autobiography of My Spirit", "Vicissitudes of Time", "Rich Pain", "Between The Big and Small Stages", "1948: Heaven and Earth Xuanhuang", "Encounter with Lu Xun", "Lu Xun and Contemporary China" and so on.
On Lu Xun's special features
(This article is excerpted from "Qian Liqun Talks About Lu Xun")
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Qian Liqun
When we discuss "why do we need Lu Xun", the first question to discuss or clarify is: Who is Lu Xun?
Regarding "who is Lu Xun", there are actually two popular sayings. One theory I was told when I was in middle school may also include the View of Mao Zedong's Lu Xun that you have heard of— that Lu Xun was a great writer, thinker, and revolutionary.
These "three houses" are not bad, and there is a certain reason. But there is a problem, such a lecture puts Lu Xun in a lofty position, far away from us, respectable, but not dear, nor cute, so there is no need to talk about it.
In fact, many teenagers today are isolated from Lu Xun, and a very important reason is that they are frightened by these "three families".
Over the years, there have been new sayings, emphasizing that Lu Xun is a good father, a good husband, and a good son.
There are also many facts to base this on. But in the face of this new "three good", I can't help but have a doubt: there are so many good fathers, good husbands, and good sons in the world, why do we need Lu Xun? Maybe someone is better than Lu Xun as a father, so using "three good" to explain Lu Xun is also not convincing.
I have a saying about this myself:
On the one hand, Lu Xun is not a god, he is a human being, an ordinary person like us, so we can approach him;
On the other hand, Lu Xun is different from us, and most of us, he is a special person, because he is special, so rare, because rare, so we need Lu Xun.
I remembered that Lin Yutang gave Lu Xun a nickname and said that he was a "white elephant" - most elephants are gray, and Lu Xun's "elephant" is a bit special, it is a "white elephant".
It is said that Lu Xun liked this nickname very much, when the baby was just born, Lu Xun went to the delivery room for the first time as a father to pick him up, and said "little white elephant, little white elephant, little white elephant" as he walked. He passed on the nickname lin Yutang had given him to his beloved son.
Lu Xun's family took a group photo with Feng Xuefeng's family
Lu Xun gave a lecture at Guanghua University, photographed in Shanghai on November 16, 1927
Many people think that Lu Xun is telling the truth, but Lu Xun said:
"I don't want to tell lies, but I don't say everything I want to say. I say part of it, and people say it's too cold. If all the coldness in my heart is spoken out, and someone is willing to approach me, then this person is my true friend. ”
It can be seen that Lu Xun has said something and not said something, and has not spoken out all the words he wants to say; moreover, Lu Xun has also openly admitted that under certain conditions, he still has to "deceive people."
Lu Xun told a true story: One winter, he came out of his house and met a little girl at the door. There were floods in many places at that time, and this little girl was collecting donations for the victims. When she saw Lu Xun, she grabbed his hand and asked for donations.
How did Lu Xun react? Lu Xun knew that the Kuomintang government at that time was already quite corrupt, and the money that the little girl had worked so hard to raise would not fall into the hands of the victims, and would definitely be embezzled by the masters of the water conservancy bureau. Therefore, in his view, the little girl's fundraising is meaningless. This was what Lu Xun wanted to say in his heart.
But Lu Xun asked himself: Can you say these words? Can you tell the little girl that it is meaningless and worthless for you to do this? Seeing her longing, eager eyes, I really couldn't say it. Not only will you not tell the truth, but you will also lie to her, you have done a very good job, and I am grateful to you.
So Lu Xun took a large amount of money out of his pocket and gave it to the little girl. The little girl held Lu Xun's hand tightly and thanked her. Watching the little girl's figure go farther and farther, the warmth of her hand could still be felt; but Lu Xun clearly felt that the warmth of this hand burned his heart like fire -- he had deceived this girl!
Lu Xun asked himself again, can I not deceive her? In those days, was I able to tell the truth everywhere and all the time? He remembered that his mother, who was far away in the north, was more than eighty years old, and she was talking all day long about immortality. Can he say to the old mother, you will not live long, you will die sooner or later? Not only could he not say this, but he also comforted her: Mother, you have done so many good things in your life, you must live a long life! But he knew in his heart that what he was saying was not true. Lu Xun thus concluded: Now is not the time for Phi Li to be true, "I want to deceive people"!
I don't know what you think after hearing this story, but I was very shaken. I think that people who can openly tell the truth are great, but to be able to admit so sincerely and frankly that they are also deceiving people like Lu Xun should probably be respected by us.
This brings us to a very serious question that each of us encounters every day – how should we "speak"? This brings us to an article in Lu Xun's "Weeds", the title of which is "The Theory of Establishment".
In fact, we speak every day to "make an argument", the question is: how to make a statement?
Lu Xun imagined a dream scene: a teacher was teaching students how to make arguments in composition, telling a story: a family had a child, and invited relatives and friends to drink during the full moon. One guest said that the child was going to die, which resulted in a good beating; another guest said that the child would be rich and promoted in the future, which was cheered by the crowd. This shows that telling the truth is to be beaten, and lying is welcome. The student asked, teacher, I am not willing to tell a lie, but I am also not willing to tell the truth and be beaten, so what should I do? The teacher said to him, you just answered: "Oh, this child, look how he is..., hahahahaha..."
Three ways of speaking are proposed in the article:
The first, speak according to the facts, tell the truth;
Second, speak according to the needs of others, tell lies;
There is also a kind of ambiguity.
Lu Xun's apartment in Jingyunli. March 16, 1928
I was also shocked to read this. Because of myself, each of us is faced with these three choices every day, and in the end there are not many who choose to tell the truth, to tell the truth, not to say what we want to say, and most of the time, we are telling lies, saying things that are not marginal, ambiguous, everyone says so, and we may not necessarily understand and believe it.
But no one thought about it, did not dare to face it squarely; but Lu Xun faced it squarely, thought about it, and seriously put it forward. Lu Xun's special is here.
Related books
"Qian Liqun Talks About Lu Xun"
Qian Liqun
Movable type culture planning and production
Contemporary World Press
November 2021
Qian Liqun's Newly Edited Selected Works of Lu Xun
Qian Liqun, ed., eds
net
The plutonium plate is stamped with two seals of the rich old man:
"Qianli Group Seal" and "Forever Attack"
(The four words that Lu Xun said "always attack" are also one of Qian Lao's mottos)
Transferred from the history of the paper
Why does contemporary China need Lu Xun?
This book is a brand new work by the famous scholar Qian Liqun to retelleuate Lu Xun's relationship with contemporary China!
Lu Xun is the cultural coordinates of modern China, a cultural giant with nationality and originality, and still has great significance and value for the social trend and cultural development of contemporary China; and Qian Liqun is a well-known Lu Xun research expert in China, and the integration of the two ensures the classicism and authority of the content.
At present, China's social trend of thought and humanistic development need us to re-understand Lu Xun, and we also need to obtain new supplies from Lu Xun; the new thinking that Professor Qian Liqun has made in recent years is just in line with the needs of society and the times.