Chinese Herald The Eastern Ying Years
Author: Yayoi
This year marks the 140th anniversary of Mr. Lu Xun's birth, and the Association of Chinese Women Writers of Japan invited Professor Li Dongmu of the Faculty of Literature of the Buddhist University of Japan to give a lecture to overseas literary writers on "The Birth of Lu Xun".
"Diary of a Madman", which pioneered the vernacular novel in modern Chinese literature, is a short story published by Lu Xun in the monthly magazine "New Youth" on May 15, 1918, Vol. 4, No. 5, and Lu Xun, whose original name was Zhou Shuren, began and became the greatest writer in the history of modern Chinese literature.
I often wonder if Zhou Shuren, who was at the end of the Qing Dynasty, had not entered the "Jiangnan Mining Railway School" (a total of 24 students from October 1898 to January 1902) that enrolled only one class of students, and that the school had not offered courses in Addition to Chinese, German, Japanese, Mineralogy, Geology, Chemistry, Smelting, Gezhi, Arithmetic, Cartography, etc., he would not have come to Japan to study after graduation.
In February 1902, the 20-year-old Zhou Shuren studied in Japan, and in the seven years from 1902 to 1909, he constructed an important part of lu xun's inner spiritual mechanism, which played a key role in the process of "feathering" Lu Xun, the pioneer of modern Chinese literature, which also played a key role in the process of establishing himself, completing the spiritual process of shaping personal subjects and becoming the starting point of the later "Lu Xun".
Professor Li Dongmu is a professor of literature at the Buddhist University of Japan, and a few years ago I listened to his research on "obscure poetry" in China in the 1980s and the campus literary journal "This Generation" at an international symposium on chinese literature in the 1980s. Among them, "Lu Xun's Spiritual History Exploration Source: Evolution and the People" and "Lu Xun's Spiritual History Exploration Source: Individual, Crazy Man, National Nature" all explore the spiritual evolution process of Zhou Shuren becoming Lu Xun, and this time his lecture entitled "The Birth of Lu Xun" uses the first-hand research materials he excavated in Japan to tell us "why Zhou Shuren became Lu Xun". Seven years of staying in Japan allowed Zhou Shuren to complete the intellectual preparation as a "modern" writer, which was a very important experience for getting rid of the traditional thinking of "ancient" and establishing himself, and then becoming the later "Lu Xun".
In February 1902, the 20-year-old Lu Xun went to Japan to study, and in April 1904, he graduated from the "Japanese Language and General Accelerated Course" of the Tokyo HirobunGakuin College, and chose to study medicine at the Sendai Medical College (reorganized into the Tohoku University Medical Department in 1912) far away from Tokyo, supposedly because some students who were also staying in Japan at that time put the long braids of the Qing Dynasty on their heads and shook them all over Tokyo, which disgusted him, so after graduating from the Japanese language school, he chose the Sendai Medical College, which rarely studied with international students. The most profound feeling of those who study abroad is that they cannot see that their compatriots who are also Chinese people have not consciously brought abroad the uncivilized customs and backwardness of their own country, and this is not distinguished between the past and the present, nor between Asia and Europe.
The most beautiful period of life should be this period from 20 to 30 years old, right? From youth to maturity, from confusion to wisdom, from the pursuit of bondage to responsibility, from the small self to the home country.
At the seminar on Chinese literature in the 1980s, Professor Li showed everyone a photo of the young Li Dongmu still in graduate school in front of Jilin University in the summer of 1985, when China's economic reform and opening up had not yet been fully launched, but Chinese universities and Universities and research institutions in Japan had gradually exchanged, and Lu Xun's research exchanges, because there were no taboos, were the earliest.
In the same photo, I saw a Japanese scholar I knew well, Professor Ito Toshimaru of Tokyo Women's University, who smiled heartily and made me miss it.
More than thirty years ago, I was fortunate enough to be a graduate student at Tokyo Women's University Professor Ito Toshimaru, but at that time, I didn't know how to cherish... Mr. Ito is a well-known expert in Japan on Lu Xun.
I was able to study with Mr. Ito because I was matched by a Mr. Yuan Ying, a writer who was the director of the literary and art department of the People's Daily at that time.
In 1986, Mr. Yuan Ying led a Chinese cultural delegation to visit Japan, and I, who was still studying Japanese at the Japanese language school, rushed to visit the New Otani Hotel where he was staying. Before coming to Japan, I used to publish poems in the literary supplement of the People's Daily, but I had never met Mr. Yuan Ying in China.
At that time, I came to Japan for more than a year, the huge life gap between Japan and China and the very different cultural environment made me very hard and haggard, although it was the first time to see Mr. Yuan Ying, his kindness made me like seeing my father, and I cried before I opened my mouth.
Mr. Yuan Ying handed me the tissue box on the table and quipped: Don't run out of money! Then asked me what help I needed from him.
In the face of the elders I met for the first time, I bowed my head and was embarrassed, but I also said that I was graduating from Japanese language school soon, but I didn't know where to go to school next...
When I took the letter of recommendation written by Mr. Yuan Ying to Mr. Ito with both hands, Mr. Ito opened his eyes from behind his glasses, looked at me, read the letter again, and said, Show me the poem you wrote...
Poetry was cut from newspapers and magazines and pasted on notebooks, and I handed the notebook to the teacher.
That spring, when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, I received permission from Tokyo Women's University, and Mr. Ito accepted me as his graduate student.
Therefore, in the acquaintance of people, many encounters seem to be accidental, in fact, where will there be no reason?
Mr. Ito taught me a lot of things to do, and in his place, I also learned what is called "rigorous learning." I always remember two sentences he said to me, one is "You don't understand Lu Xun because you are young and not well read enough; the other is, "Japan and China, friendship is easy, understanding is difficult." As time passed, little by little I understood what Mr. Ito had said.
Japan is a narrow land, a place where earthquakes and disasters can occur at any time, but it is also a magical place, at least, it makes Zhou Shuren come out of here and become Lu Xun.
Lu Xun needs to study well for a lifetime, only middle school or high school classes, how can it be?
I have not yet become a person who studies Lu Xun, because I have indeed not studied enough, but I should always understand what he has said and what he has written. The sadness and harshness in his eyes are hidden in the expectation and enthusiasm, and you will understand and understand it when you look for it slowly.
As a descendant of the Japanese study, as a latecomer who insists on the creation of Japanese Chinese literature, I myself must study hard.
I know that only by cherishing every opportunity to learn, people will grow.
If Ito-sensei were still there, he would be as usual, holding a cigarette in his right finger, smiling, and staring at us, with the kindness and sternness in his eyes...
April 8, 2021 in Tokyo