Qian Liqun, a famous contemporary scholar, returned to Lu Xun's research in his later years and used the method of lecturing to talk about Lu Xun to the public. In the newly published book "Qian Liqun Talks about Lu Xun", from the text to the history comb, from why to how to read, seven speeches, three dimensions, deeply restore Qian Liqun's lifelong Lu Xun thoughts, and outline a sketch of Lu Xun's life for contemporary youth.
"Qian Liqun Talks About Lu Xun"
Qian Liqun
Contemporary World Press
Talking about Lu Xun is not just a "mission",
It is also the need of one's own life
Wen | Qian Liqun
On June 27, 2002, I finished my last class at Peking University and officially retired from my teaching position at the university. Students ask me, where do I go in retirement? I replied that I wanted to return to my family, to my "second hometown" Guizhou, and to go to middle school to talk about Lu Xun and "always keep Lu Xun."
After nearly two years of preparation, in 2004 and 2005, I opened the "Selected Reading of Lu Xun's Works" elective course in the Attached Middle School of The Southern Normal University, the Affiliated Middle School of the Peking University and the Experimental Middle School of the Northern Normal University.
At the same time, from December 2002 to 2005, for three and a half consecutive years, I was invited to give lectures throughout the country, including Nanjing, Xuzhou, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, Liaocheng, Yantai, Xiamen, Fujian, Shantou, Shaoguan, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Gansu, Xi'an, Baoji, Shenyang, Hunan, Changsha, Huaihua, Guizhou, Anshun, Duyun, Zunyi, Kaili, as well as Shanghai, Tianjin, and Beijing in Guizhou.
The year 2006 marks the 70th anniversary of Lu Xun's death, and I did not want to participate in any commemorative activities, but there were constantly young people —middle school students, college students, self-learners of the University of Electricity and Television, young volunteers, and young middle school teachers who came to invite me to talk about Lu Xun. I have said, "As long as there are young people who are willing to listen, I cannot but talk about it, because this is the 'rule' I have set for myself, and it is also my 'mission'." Therefore, this year, I gave a special lecture on Lu Xun at schools in Beijing, Nanchang, Nanjing, Shanghai, Xi'an and other places, at the summer reading meetings held by the Television University, the Volunteer Forum, and the Sanlian Bookstore, and finally gathered into the book "Lu Xun's Nine Lectures". Can't stop.
In 2007, he went south to discuss the "ideal primary and secondary education" with primary and secondary school teachers, and then told middle school students "Who is Lu Xun" at Dongguan Middle School, Fuzhou No. 1 Middle School, and Suzhou No. 1 Middle School.
After a year off, in the second half of 2009, he was recruited as a chair professor of the "National Science and Technology Commission" in Taiwan, and opened the "Selected Reading Course of Lu Xun's Works" for undergraduate students in the department of Chinese of Tsinghua University in Taiwan: this was the first time Lu Xun entered the classroom of National Taiwan University. I have also lectured on "Lu Xun's Left-Wing Tradition" at many academic forums and conferences in Taiwan.
The year 2010 was the year I wrote behind closed doors, but at the invitation of Shanghai Baoshan Iron and Steel Company, I gave a study and counseling report on "Lu Xun on Chinese and the Transformation of Chinese Society" to the leaders and backbones of the departments there. This is an attempt to provide Lu Xun's ideological resources for the construction of China's contemporary "corporate culture".
In 2012, he also pushed "Speaking of Lu Xun" to the world pulpit and delivered a keynote speech on "Lu Xun's Destiny in Contemporary China" at the "Lu Xun International Symposium" held in India.
2013 was the "closing year" of my writing, that is, the compilation of "Analysis of Lu Xun's Works in Middle School Chinese Textbooks" and "Lu Xun Volumes" in the "Volunteer Culture Series". This is my final service to primary and secondary school language education and youth volunteer movements.
In 2014, some young friends told me that in recent years, there have been book clubs spontaneously organized by young people all over the country, and the participants are college students and graduate students, and there are young people from all walks of life who have already worked and are still eager to learn, who have idealistic feelings, are not satisfied with the status quo, and want to seek new and deeper spiritual resources, so they organize, read and think together, and after forming a certain consensus, they try new ways of life according to their own values, and at the same time serve society. I immediately felt that this is a new trend in the thinking and culture of the young generation in China at present, which has important and long-term significance, and as an intellectual who cares about China's future development, I must also participate in it, read and discuss with them. And the only thing I can offer to my young friends is Lu Xun. As a result, there were new attempts to "read "Weeds" together" and "read Lu Xun's essays" with friends in the book club.
I still remember that inside and out of that small room, crowded with young people who had heard the news, stood motionless for three or four hours, and the last heated discussion lasted for a long time and could not stop.
Last year (2020) I went to Guizhou, and I met a young man who participated in the lectures and discussions, and recalled the scene of that year, still shining with eyes and excitement, which is also an unforgettable memory of my life. The discussion was finally compiled into the book "Reading Lu Xun with Qian Liqun", which is a summary of my "Talking about Lu Xun".
It was also at the end of this year (2014) that I spoke at the symposium on the publication of "Qian Liqun's Works" and declared: "My time is over, all I have to do is to finally complete and improve myself, and to send blessings to my young friends." ”
In 2015, I moved into a nursing home and entered a new state of free writing "for myself and the future", no longer participating in academic activities and social activities. Even so, I made three public speeches about Lu Xun: "Lu Xun's Contemporary Significance and Transcendental Values" (May 2016), "Why and How I Study Lu Xun" (May 2016), "Why We Need Lu Xun Today" (July 8, 2017), and several prefaces to Lu Xun's research.
At the end of 2019, I returned to Anshun, Guizhou, and nearly fifty years ago, when I was teaching at the Anshun Health School, the students held a gathering for me attended by dozens of people, and I told them about Lu Xun again, as I did in those years.
In this way, I went from young to old, enough to talk about Lu Xun for fifty years. This is not only a "mission", but also a need for your own life.
This is entirely a conscious choice: to talk about Lu Xun incessantly, from the university to the middle school; from the school to the society, factories, non-governmental organizations, and book clubs; from the mainland to Taiwan; from the domestic to the foreign country. Enjoy this without getting tired, the more you talk about it, the more energetic it becomes, and the more self-conscious you become. To sum up, there are three concepts behind it.
First, it is determined that Lu Xun's thinking is not only aimed at the problems of his time, but also goes deep into the depths of Chinese history and culture, the depths of national nature, and the depths of human nature, and has eternity beyond the times. He is not a writer and thinker of the "past tense", but a "present progressive style", "Lu Xun lives in the current China". This makes it possible to have a dialogue with contemporary readers that span time and space.
Second, it is determined that for classic writers such as Lu Xun, researchers not only have the responsibility of interpretation, but also have the broad world and right to discover, play, and recreate. In the history of scholarship, the process of studying and interpreting classics and classical writers is the process of continuous enrichment and development; the "Confucianism" in the history of classics is no longer entirely the creation of "Kong Qiu" individually, but a collective creation of successive generations of Confucians, and each creative researcher has made his own unique understanding, play and addition to the classic text. In my opinion, the same is true of the rising "Lu Xue". To study Lu Xun, we must not only "talk about Lu Xun", but also "continue to talk about it", and even "do it down", and in this process, construct a personal one, that is, "××× Lu Xun". Such a personal branded "Lu Xun" not only has a unique discovery of the "Lu Xun ontology", but also has a cover, and itself has become the object of study, reference and questioning by future generations: this will enrich and deepen people's understanding of Lu Xun's ontology, which can be continuously approached without being completely exhausted, which is also the charm of Lu Xun.
Third, it is believed that Lu Xun's thought and literature are original and are one of the sources of the Chinese national spirit. Therefore, to tell the younger generation about Lu Xun and let Lu Xun's thought and literature take root in their souls is the basic work of national spiritual construction: My sense of historical mission of "stressing Lu Xun" has thus spontaneously emerged. For me personally, "speaking of Lu Xun" is still a process of constantly improving my spiritual realm; at the same time, it has the significance and value of academic research: it is through "speaking Of Lu Xun" that I have experimented with the organic combination of language appreciation and aesthetic experience in the careful reading of texts in my research methods, hoping to achieve a truly Lu Xun-style literary perception and grasp. On the other hand, it is an attempt to carry out "academic style" and create an academic work in the form of a "lecture record": such a text with a clear and specific object and a sense of reader and audience awareness with on-site reactions must be open-ended, and it will also show the original state of research to varying degrees, which is both "dressed up" (standardized) and shows the true appearance of "unruly" (unregulated), which is not a kind of anger and interest. I don't want to make academic research too dead, I want to make it more fun, lively, and somewhat touching humane, which is also my consistent pursuit.
Thanks to Yu Yang for compiling this book "Qian Liqun On Lu Xun" in his busy teaching work, I myself also compiled a "Selected Readings of Qian Liqun's Newly Edited Lu Xun Works". This is not only to commemorate the 140th anniversary of Lu Xun's birth, but also to commemorate the 140th anniversary of Lu Xun's birth, but also to return to Lu Xun after I turned eighty-two and entered the final stage of my life. My next research focus will be to focus on the history of political thought and the history of folk thought from the previous period to the study of Lu Xun.
"Keeping Lu Xun" is ultimately my academic root and the root of my life.
(This article is the afterword of "Qian Liqun Talks about Lu Xun", the title is added by the editor)