Lu Xun: How to Write (One of the Night Notes)

This article was originally published on October 10, 1927 in the 18th and 19th issues of the semi-monthly magazine "Mangyuan" in Beijing. Later included in the "Three Idle Episodes"

What is written is a problem, and how to write is another problem.

This year, I didn't write much, and especially not much of it was written for Mangyuan [1]. I understand why. It's ridiculous to say, just because it's good paper. Sometimes there is a little bit of miscellaneous feelings, a closer look, I think there is no big meaning, do not go to fill in the black so white paper, it is abolished. Okay and not. My head was so barren, shallow, empty.

There are naturally many problems to talk about, from the universe to the social state, and there are also civilizations, literature and art. Many people in ancient times have talked about it, and the number of people who will talk about it in the future will be endless. But I won't talk about it. I remember hiding on Xiamen Island last year[2], because it was too annoying, I finally got the treatment of "worshiping ghosts and gods and staying away" and was offered to a room on the upper floor of the library. During the day there were librarians, book studners, and students reading books, and after nine o'clock in the night, everything was scattered, and in a very large western-style building, there was no one else but me. I calmed down. The silence is as thick as wine, and it is slightly drunk. Looking out the window at the many white dots in the bone-like mountains, there are clusters of mounds; a dark yellow fire is the glass lamp of Nanputuo Temple. In front of it, the sea and sky are faint, and the black night seems to be about to pounce on the heart. I leaned against the stone railing and looked out, and I could hear my own heart voice, and it seemed that there was an infinite amount of sorrow, distress, scattered, death, and death in the distance, all mixed into this silence, so that it became medicinal wine, adding color, flavor, and incense. At this time, I used to want to write, but I couldn't write, I couldn't write. This is what I call "when I am silent, I feel full, I will open my mouth and feel empty at the same time" [3].

Could this be a little bit of "world distress"[4]? I sometimes think. However, it is probably not, this is just a faint sadness, with some pleasure in the middle. I wanted to get close to it, but the more I thought about it, the more it became so vague that I was almost about to see that I was alone leaning against the stone railing, and there was nothing else. I had to wait until I forgot to make an effort before I felt a faint sense of sorrow.

The result was not very clever. With a spike in my leg, I unthinkingly slapped my palm straight down to the sore spot, only to know that mosquitoes were biting me. All sorrows, no night, flew out of the cloud of nine clouds, and even the stone fence that had been leaned on was no longer in mind. And this is still the case now, then, in retrospect, I didn't even think of the stone fence in my heart. Still without hesitation, he went into the room and sat down on the only half-recliner, the rattan chair that could not lie straight, and caressed the beak of the mosquito until it turned from pain to itch and gradually swollen into a small pimple. I switched from caressing to scratching and pinching until it turned from itching to pain and was relatively able to boil.

After that, the results are even less sophisticated, often sitting under the electric lamp and eating grapefruit.

Although it is only a bite of a mosquito, it is always a matter of its own. It is naturally faster to be able to write without writing, and if you have to write, I think you can only write some of these small things, and you must not write as deeply as you felt on that day. And the situation is thousands of dings, and the situation is a knife and a gun, it cannot be written.

Nietzsche loved to read books written in blood[5]. But I think that the article written in blood may not be finished. Articles are always written in ink, and blood is only blood. It is more thrilling and straightforward than the article, but it is easy to change color and easy to consume. At this point, it is necessary to let literature do its best, just like the white bone in the tomb, from ancient times to the present, always with its perpetuity to proud of the light red on the girl's cheeks.

It is faster to be able to write without writing, if you have to write, I think, even if you write casually, horizontal and vertical can only be so. All this should pass with time, and if it will be more vivid than blood, it will only prove that the literati are lucky and obedient. But real blood-written books, of course, are not in this case.

When I think about it this way, I feel that "what to write" is not a problem.

The question of "how to write" has never been thought of before. I first knew there was such a problem in the world, only two weeks ago. At that time, I happened to go to the street, stumbled into the Dingbu Bookstore, and came across a stack of "Do This" [6], so I bought a copy. It is a periodical with a picture on the cover of a young soldier on horseback. I have always had the prejudice that publications with such soldiers and peasants with iron hoes painted in writing are not much to be omitted, for I always suspect that they are propaganda materials. Expressing my opinions, the result was that the works of Ibosson [7] and other generations with some propaganda smells were not bothered by them. However, for literary and artistic works that first have the title of "propaganda" and then issue arguments, they are always a little out of place, and the appearance that cannot be swallowed directly is the same as when Luo Recited [8] taught literature. But "Do It" is a little special, because I remember saying in the daily newspaper that it was related to me. It is also an example of personal concern for everything, and I am no longer afraid of the written hero on horseback, and buy it. When I came back, I checked the cut old newspaper, and it was still there, and the date was March 7, but unfortunately the name of the newspaper was not indicated, but it was either the Republic of China Daily or the National News [9], because I was reading only these two at that time. The following is a bit of a newspaper sentence: "Since Mr. Lu Xun came to the south, sweeping away the loneliness of Guangzhou literature, the founders have successively published two publications, "What to Do" and "Do This". "Doing This" is one of the regular publications of the Revolutionary Literary Society, focusing on revolutionary literature and art and the propaganda of this party. ......”

The opening two sentences are a bit vague, saying that I can also talk to those who have heard about it, and that because I "came south" and others founded it. But I didn't know it at all. When I first cut the daily newspaper, I probably wanted to investigate it, but then I forgot it and put it aside. I still remember that after the publication of "What to Do"[10], he gave me five copies. I think this group was presided over by communist youth, because among them were the signatures of "Jianru" and "Three Stones", which should be Bi Lei [11], and he was also in the Communications Office. He also gave me a dozen copies of the Young Pioneers[12], and these publications were clearly written by communist youth. Sure enough, Bi Leijun, who was probably a communist, was arrested from Sun Yat-sen University on April 18. According to my speculation, he must have long since ceased to be in this world, and this looks like a very thin and lean young man from Hunan.

"Do This" only met two weeks ago, and it has already come out of seven or eight volumes. The sixth issue was not, or was banned, or unpublished, and I bought a seven-eight volume and a fifth issue. If you read the daily newspaper's notes, you know that this should be against or in opposition to "What to Do". I took it back, and it looked like the newsletter column said, "When the general CP [13] is in full swing,...... And as soon as you wake up, immediately quit cp, not only just quitting, but especially worthy of CP's anger and death, is the groundbreaking withdrawal from the Communist Party newspaper statement one after another. Well, that's exactly what happened.

Here's another problem. Why are there two kinds of publications so big and opposite, because I "came south" and "founded one after another"? This is easy to answer in myself: because I am new and gray. However, if you want to talk about it, I am afraid that it will be a little long, so I will keep it for now and will talk about it when there is a considerable opportunity.

This time I said I watched "Do It." After reading the newsletter, I didn't bother to turn it upside down, so I looked at the table of contents. Suddenly, I saw a title: "Mr. Yu Dafu [14] Hugh", so I became curious again and immediately read the article. This is still an old example of self-inflicted trivia always being more concerned than the sorrows of the world, Mr. Duff is what I know, how can I ask him to "rest"? Eager to know. If I were talking about Zhang Long, Zhao Hu, or a great man in my life, to be honest, I would never have paid so much attention.

It turned out that Mr. Daf had an article in "The Flood" [15] "On the Way to a Change of Direction", saying that this revolution was the realization of the theory of class struggle, while the reporter thought it was the realization of the theory of the national revolution. There are probably also words that heroism is not suitable for today's category, so it is considered "slander" and "provoking dissension", and it is necessary to "rest".

I recalled under the electric lamp, Mr. Duff, I have met several times, talked about it several times, only to feel that he is steady and peaceful, not to offend people, let alone offend the country. Why is it so "extreme" all of a sudden? I'd like to see Flood.

This journal, I heard, is banned in Guangxi, but there are still in Guangdong. What I got was volume III, issues TWENTY-NINTH to XXXII. The usual bad temper, from the thirty-two issues, soon turned to the first "Diary Literature", which was also made by Mr. Duff, so he stopped looking for "On the Way to The Direction Change" and became a discussion of literature. I know that this kind of vague view of mine is not correct, but the question of "how to write" is out there.

The author's meaning is roughly to say that the works of all writers always have a bit of autobiographical color, and if they are written in the third person, they are often mistaken for the first person. Moreover, when the psychological state of the protagonist in the third person is described in too much detail, the reader will be suspicious of the thoughts of others, how can the author know so finely? So that sense of disillusionment made the authenticity of literature disappear. Therefore, the most convenient genre in prose works is the diary style, followed by the simplified book.

This is certainly worth discussing. But I think the genre doesn't seem to matter. The first shortcoming of the above is the carelessness of the reader. But as long as you know that the work is mostly the author borrowing from others to describe himself, or to speculate on other people's things, he will not feel disillusioned, even if sometimes it is not true, but it is still true. Its authenticity is no different from when using the third person or misusing the first person. If there are readers who only cling to the genre and only hope that there are no flaws, then it is appropriate to read the news and chronicles, and for literature and art, they should be disillusioned. And its disillusionment is not a pity, because it is not really disillusionment, just as it is impossible to find the remains of the Grand View Garden, and those who are dissatisfied with the Dream of the Red Chamber [16]. If the author so sacrifices the freedom of lyricism, even a very small part is tantamount to cutting it to the fullest.

The second flaw is already an age-old problem in China. Ji Xiaolan attacked Pu Liuxian's Liaozhai Zhiyi,[17] at this point. The two secret words will never be leaked, and they are not heard by the third person, how does the author know? Therefore, his "Notes on Reading Wei Caotang" tried to write only the facts, and avoided thoughts and secret words. But sometimes they fell into their own traps, so they had to use the "Noise in the Dreams of Hun Liangfu" in the "Spring and Autumn Zuo Clan Biography" to solve the ridicule. [18] The reason for his support is to convince the reader that everything written is a fact, and to rely on facts to obtain truth, so that when it is contrary to the facts, the truth will perish. If he first realized that all this was creation, that is, his personal fabrication, there would naturally be no obstacle.

The general sadness of disillusionment, I thought it was not false, but false as true. I remember when I was young, I liked to watch the tricks, the monkey rode a sheep, the stone became a white pigeon, and finally stabbed a child to death, covered with a sheet, and a person with a Jiangbei accent pretended to be a money thrower to the audience: Huazaa! Ｈｕａｚａａ！ [19] Presumably everyone knows that the child is not dead, but spews out sumu juice contained in the handle of the knife[20], and as soon as Huazaa is enough, he will jump up. But he still watched in amazement, knowing that this was a trick, and immersed himself in this trick. In case the trick is bound to be done really, buy a small coffin, put it into the child, cry and carry it away, but it is tasteless. At this time, even the truth of the trick disappeared.

I would rather read "Dream of the Red Chamber" than read the new "Diary of Lin Daiyu" [21], which can make me uncomfortable for half a day. "Itabashi Family Letter" [22] I don't like to read it, so I might as well read his "Taoist Feelings". What I don't like is that he inscribed the family letter. So why is it carved out for many people to see? It's a bit pretentious. Disillusionment comes from seeing the truth in the false, but seeing the false in the truth. The diary, the book in simplified form, may be much more convenient to write, but it is also very easy to feel disillusioned; and together is more or less powerful, because it is at first pretending to be real.

"The Diary of Yue Man Tang" [23] has become very popular lately, but I always feel that he has to leave me a little uncomfortable every time. Why? The first is the edict on the banknote. Probably influenced by the story of He Zhuo [24], he was wary of one day being "imperially watched". The second is a lot of ink coating. If you have written it and scribbled it, how many should not write it? The third is to show it to others early, banknotes, and think that it is a work. I don't think I can see Li Ciming's heart from it, but I see some contrivance from time to time, as if I have been deceived. Flipping through a novel, although it is very absurd, shallow, unreasonable, never feels like this.

I heard that Later, Mr. Hu Shizhi was also making a diary and gave people a view. According to the theory of literary evolution, it must be much better. I hope he prints it out in advance.

But I think that the genre of prose can actually be casual, and it is better to have flaws. I am afraid that there are still flaws in the contrived letters and diaries, and when there are flaws, they are broken to the point of being unmanageable. Instead of preventing flaws, it is better to forget the flaws.

【Notes】

[1] Mangyuan was founded in Beijing on April 24, 1925, initially as a weekly magazine, with the beijing newspaper issued and edited by Lu Xun. In January 1926, it was changed to a semi-monthly publication, which was published by the Unknown Society. After Lu Xun left Beijing in August of the same year, it was edited by Wei Suyuan and ceased publication in December 1927.

[2] In 1925, shortly after the "March 18 Massacre", the political environment in Beijing was harsh, professors often could not get their salaries, and in the face of xiamen university's high salaries that exceeded that of other universities at that time, more than 20 famous scholars such as Lu Xun, Lin Yutang, Gu Jiegang, Shen Jianshi, and Sun Fuyuan came to Xiamen, which was equivalent to "half of Peking University" coming to Xiamen University. On October 10, 1926, the National College of Xiamen University was officially established, and Lin Wenqing concurrently served as the dean of the National College, but President Lin Wenqing had two characteristics: one was to take Confucius as the "outline" of running the school, advocating retro and respecting Confucius, allowing students to endorse ancient books and make ancient texts; the second was to take "money is omnipotent" as the school policy. In Lu Xun's view, Xiamen University's focus is on "money", not on learning.

[3] These are the words spoken by the author in the Weeds Inscription.

[4] "Weltschmerz" was originally a phrase of the Austrian poet NALeMnau (1802-1850), which meant that people were distressed to live in the world; later some bourgeois writers and artists used it to explain literary and artistic creation, believing that creation stemmed from this feeling of distress.

[5] Friedrich Nietzschc (1844–1900) was a German philosopher and advocate of the "philosophy of the superman" and the philosopher of the "superman." In Zarathustra Says, Read and Write, he says, "In all the writings I love, I have written only in blood. (According to Xiao Gan's translation, published by the Commercial Press)

[6] The tenth issue of "Doing So" was first published in Guangzhou on March 27, 1927, edited by Kong Shengyi (a traitor to the Communist Party) and edited and distributed by the "Revolutionary Literature Society". Under the guise of "propaganda of striving for revolutionary culture", it cooperated with the white terror of the Kuomintang and was rampantly anti-communist and anti-people.

[7] In his works, HAIbsen was a fierce critique of the hypocrisy and vulgarity of bourgeois society, raising the question of marriage, family, and social reform. The scripts include "Doll's House" and "Enemy of the Nation".

[8] Luo Recitation, a luo recitation, see "Zhuangzi Grand Master", the meaning of repeated recitation.

[9] The Republic of China Daily, a newspaper founded by the Kuomintang in Guangzhou in 1923, was renamed Zhongshan Daily in 1937. The National News, a newspaper founded by the Kuomintang in Guangzhou in 1925, initially propagated the revolution, and after the "April 12" coup, it was controlled by the Kuomintang reactionaries and became the mouthpiece of counter-revolutionary propaganda.

[10] "What to Do" Weekly, an organ publication of the Student Movement Committee of the Guangdong District Committee of the Communist Party of China, was first published on February 7, 1927, edited by Bi Lei, and distributed by Guangzhou Guoguang Bookstore.

[11] Bi Lei (1902-1927), pen name Jianru and Sanshi, was a native of Changsha, Hunan. At that time, he was a student of the English Department of Sun Yat-sen University, and was the deputy secretary of the Student Movement Committee of the Guangdong District Committee of the Communist Party of China, and was arrested and killed in the "April 15" counter-revolutionary incident in Guangzhou.

[12] The Tenth Edition of Young Pioneers, an organ publication of the Guangdong District Committee of the Communist Youth League of China, was first published on September 1, 1926; Li Weisen and others successively edited and distributed by Guangzhou Guoguang Bookstore.

[13] CapA, short for English CommonistParty, i.e. Communist Party.

[14] Yu Dafu (1896-1945) was a native of Fuyang, Zhejiang, a writer and one of the main members of the Creation Society. He published "On the Way to a Change of Direction" in the third volume of The Flood, No. 29 (April 1927), arguing that the first revolutionary civil war was "the liberation movement of the whole Chinese people" and "the realization of Max's theory of class struggle", and that "the greatest danger sufficient to undermine our present revolutionary movement" was "the heroism of the feudal era". He also said: "It is impossible to use one or two heroes alone to direct and use the people." The revolutionary leader who is truly aware of the affairs of the times must not leave the people one step at a time, take the interests of the people as the stakes, take the enemies of the people as the enemies, and obey the commands of the people in everything. If there are one or two heroes who think this is a roundabout way, then you will look at and see how long your personal dictatorship of high-handedness can last. These words were a criticism of Chiang Kai-shek's counter-revolutionaries at that time, so the seventh and eighth issues of "Doing This" (June 1927) published Kong Shengyi's article "Mr. Yu Dafu Xiuyi", attacking Yu, saying: "I did not expect, I never expected, mr. Yu Dafu's argument, it was actually the chinese Communist Party's attack on our hard-working comrade Chiang Kai-shek's argument, what heroism, personal dictatorship of the high-pressure policy." "Mr. Uddhav! Are you now a tool of the Communist Party, or do you want to run to Wuhan to get promoted and get rich, and the special envoy to entrust the big foot of the Communist Party? ”

[15] Founded in Shanghai on August 20, 1924, Flood was originally a weekly magazine with only one issue; in September 1925, it was published semi-monthly and ceased publication in December 1927.

[16] Dream of the Red Chamber is a novel by Cao Xueqin in the Qing Dynasty. The passage was originally one hundred and twenty times, and the last forty times are generally considered to be the sequels of The High Osprey. The Grand View Garden is the place where the characters in the book move.

[17] Ji Xiaolan (1724-1805), courtesy name Xiaolan, was a Qing Dynasty writer. He is the author of the note-taking novel "Notes on Reading Wei Caotang" (including "Luanyang Summer Record", "If I Smell", "Huaixi Magazine", "Gu Yu Listening", and "Luanyang Continuation"). His protégé Sheng Shiyan recorded his attack on "Liaozhai Zhiyi" in the "Gu Yu Zhi Zhi The novel not only describes what is seen and heard, that is, it is a narrative, it is no more than the theater, and it is casually decorated,...... The words of the present Yan nickname, the state of the cunning, the subtle twists and turns, the imitations are like life, so that the self-talk, it seems that there is no such reason; when the author speaks on behalf of the author, how to smell it, and it is not understood. Pu Liuxian (1640-1715), known as Songling, was a Qing Dynasty novelist from Zichuan (present-day Zibo), Shandong. "Chatting with Zhiyi" is a collection of his short stories.

[18] In his "Notes on Reading Wei Caotang and Huaixi Magazine", Ji Xiaolan recorded the story of a reader who was ridiculed by a ghost, and the last paragraph was: "Yu Yue: 'This gentleman's cynical allegory ear.'" Whoever has not heard this word himself, and who has not heard of it, is it not true that this man is ridiculed by ghosts, and is still willing to describe himself? The gentleman lifted his beard: "Brother Gonglu's words, the noise in Hun Liangfu's dreams, who smells it!" "The Noise in the Dream of Hun Liangfu", see "The Biography of the Left Clan of Spring and Autumn", "(Autumn, July) Wei Hou dreamed in the North Palace, and saw the view of the people climbing Kunwu, and was noisy by the long hair to the north: 'The void of Deng' Kunwu, the melon of long life. Yu is a hun liangfu, called heaven innocent! According to Hun Liangfu, who was originally a Wei courtier, he was killed by Prince Wei in the spring of that year, so the book says that Wei Hou saw him in a dream and shouted. The "Spring and Autumn Zuo Shi Biography" is a book that uses historical facts to explain the "Spring and Autumn", which is said to have been written by Zuo Qiuming, a Luguo man during the Spring and Autumn Period.

[19] Huazaa is a symbolic word spelled in the Latin alphabet, transliterated as "whoosh", to describe the sound of throwing money.

[20] Su mu juice Su mu is a small evergreen tree, the heart wood is called "Su Fang". Su mu juice is a red solution made of "Su Fang" and can be used as a dye.

[21] "Lin Daiyu's Diary", a diary-style novel based on the tone of Lin Daiyu, a character in "Dream of the Red Chamber", is a vulgar and clumsy content, published by the Shanghai Guangdong Literature Bureau in 1918.

[22] The Banqiao Family Letter, written by Zheng Xie in the Qing Dynasty. Zheng Xie (1693-1765), Zi Ke Rou, No. Banqiao, Jiangsu Xinghua people, writer, calligrapher and painter. His "Family Letter" contained ten letters. There are also ten songs such as "Dao Qing", including "Old Fisherman". Daoqing, originally a song sung by Taoist monks, later evolved into a folk tune.

[23] The Diary of Yuemantang was written by Li Ciming in the Qing Dynasty and photocopied and published by the Commercial Press in 1920.

[24] He Zhuo (1661-1722), a native of Changzhou (present-day Wu County), Jiangsu, was a Qing Dynasty school surveyor. During the Kangxi Dynasty, the official zhi was imprisoned for the incident, and the books he had stored (including his own writings) were confiscated. The Kangxi Emperor personally inspected these books, and because no evidence of the crime was found, he granted exoneration and returned the books.