Lu Xun: The current situation of the literary and art circles in dark China

——Written for "The New Masses" in the United States

Now, in China, the revolutionary literary and artistic movement of the proletariat is in fact the only literary and artistic movement. Because this is the germ of the wilderness, there is no other literature and art in China. The so-called "writers and artists" belonging to the ruling class have long since decayed to the point that even the so-called "art for art" and even "decadent" works cannot be produced, and the only people who resist left-wing literature and art are slander, oppression, imprisonment and killing; the only people who come to oppose left-wing writers are hooligans, detectives, lackeys, and executioners.

This has been proved very clearly by the facts of the past two years. The year before, when the literary and artistic theories of Plekhanov and Lunacharsky first entered China, a Mr. Bai Bide (Mr. ProfAIrving Babbitt's disciple, feeling the indignation of the sharp "scholar", thought that literature and art were not proletarian things, and that if the proletarians wanted to create or appreciate literature and art, they should first accumulate money and climb up to the bourgeoisie, rather than everyone going to this garden in rags and clamoring. And he created rumors that those who advocated proletarian literature in China were the rubles of Soviet Russia. This method was not without effect, and many Journalists in Shanghai fabricated the news from time to time, sometimes listing the number of rubles. But the discerning readers do not believe it, for they see in fact only guns from the imperialist countries to the killing of the proletariat than in this kind of paper news.

The bureaucracy of the ruling class feels a little slower than the scholars, but last year it became more and more pressing. Forbidden periodicals, forbidden books, not only slightly revolutionary in content, but also written in red letters, the author is Russian, A. Serafmovitch), V. Ivanov Ivanov) and N. Ognev Ognev) Needless to say, Even Chekhov (A. Chekhov) and L. Antruf Some of Andreev's novels are also banned. So make the bookstore good out of arithmetic textbooks and fairy tales such as Mr. Cat and MisRos talk about how cute spring is—because translations of fairy tales by Zhi'er Miaolun have also been banned, so they have to praise spring as much as they can. But now another general is angry, saying that animals can actually speak and call them Mr. , a loss of human dignity.

It was not a fundamental way to ban it, so this year five left-wing writers disappeared, and after the family went to inquire, they knew that they were in the garrison headquarters, but they could not meet each other, and when they asked again half a month later, they said that they had been "liberated" - this is the mocking name of the "death penalty", and all the Chinese in Shanghai and the Western newspapers are absolutely not recorded. Then there was the closure of bookstores that had published new books or sold new books on their behalf, and for a long time, five ,—— a day, but now they are opening again, we don't know what is going on, but looking at the bookstore advertisements, we know that we are trying to print some English-Chinese contrasts, such as Robert Stevenson, Oscar Wilde and other articles.

However, the ruling class is not without active construction of literature and art. On the one hand, they drove the original owners and clerks of several bookstores away, and secretly replaced them with their own gang who were willing to listen to the advice. But this immediately failed. Because it is full of running dogs, this bookstore is like a majestic yamen, and the Chinese yamen is the most feared and hated thing by the people, and naturally no one goes. I like to run or run a few running dogs. In this way, how can it make the store lively? But, on the other hand, it is to make some articles, to print magazines, to replace the banned left-wing publications, which so far have been ten. However, this also failed. The most obstructive thing is that the presiding officers of these "literature and art" are a member of the Shanghai Municipal Government and a detective captain of the Security Command, and their reputation for "liberation" is much greater than that of "creation." If they do a "killing method" or a "detective technique", there are still people who want to see it, but unfortunately they want to draw and chant poetry. It's just as surprising that Mr. Henry Ford of the United States didn't talk about cars, but came to sing to everyone.

The bureaucratic bookstores are not visited, the publications are not read, and the way of relief is to force well-known and unbiased left-leaning authors to make articles and help their publications circulate. As a result, there were only one or two nonsense tricks, most of whom had not yet written, and one of them was so frightened that he hid out of nowhere.

The most precious writers and artists among them now are a few people who, when the left-wing literary and artistic movement began, were not persecuted and were supported by the revolutionary youth, called themselves the left, and now climbed under their swords and turned their heads to harm left-wing writers. Why are they precious? Because he had been on the left, they had several publications, and some of them were red, but the pictures of the peasants and workers in them were replaced with pictures of Aubrey Beardsley who looked like patients.

In such a situation, those readers, who have always loved to read old-style robber novels and new-style carnal novels, do not find it inconvenient. The more progressive youth, however, feel that there are no books to read, and they have no choice but to look at books with a lot of empty words and very little content—so that they will not be banned—and comfort their hunger and thirst, because they know that instead of going to the comprador of vomit-inducing poison, it is better to drink an empty cup, at least, not to be harmed. But a large part of the revolutionary youth, in any case, is still very enthusiastically demanding, supporting, and developing left-wing literature and art.

Therefore, in addition to the publications run by the government and its lackeys, the periodicals of other bookstores still cannot but set up various methods to add a few more urgent works, and they also know that the monopoly of empty cups is by no means long-lasting. Left-wing literature and art have the support of revolutionary readers, and the "future" belongs to this side.

In this way, left-wing literature and art are still growing. But nature is like a bud pressed under a large rock, growing in a tortuous way.

Unfortunately, among the left-wing writers, there are no writers from the peasant and labor background. First, because the peasant workers have always been forced to press, squeeze, and have no chance of education; second, because of the square characters of the Chinese pictograms, which have long since become invisible, the peasant workers, although they have been studying for ten years, are not yet able to write their opinions at will. This is a very popular thing for the "literary artists" who hold knives. They think that if they are educated enough to write articles, at least it must be the petty bourgeoisie, and the petty bourgeoisie should hold on to their petty bourgeoisie, but now they are inclined to the proletarians, which must be "hypocrisy". Only the petty-bourgeois writers who oppose proletarian literature and art are "genuine" in mind. "True" is better than "false", so their slander, oppression, imprisonment and killing of left-wing writers is better literature.

But this "better literature and art" with the knife proves, in fact, that left-wing writers are bearing the same fate as the proletarians who are being oppressed and killed, and that only left-wing literature and art are now suffering with the proletarians (Passion) and will of course rise up with the proletarians in the future. Killing people alone is not literature or art, and they have declared that they have nothing.

【Notes】

The disciples and "scholars" mentioned here all refer to Liang Shiqiu. See the book "Hard Translation" and "The Class Character of Literature" and "The Lost Family" and "The Lack of The Capitalists" and the related notes.

Surafi Movich (1863~1949) translated Surafimović and wrote the novel "Iron Stream" and so on. Ivanov (1895-1963), the author of the novella "Ironclad Train No. 14-69". Ognev (1888-1938), the author of the Diary of a New Russian Student, was a Soviet writer. Chekhov (1860-1904) wrote hundreds of short stories and plays such as "Seagull" and "Cherry Orchard". Antruve (1871~1919), translated by Andreev, wrote the novella "Red Laughter" and so on. They are all Russian writers.

Mr． Cat and Miss Rose English: Mr. Cat and Miss Rose.

See The Preface to the Translation of the Three Idle Works of Little Peter and its notes. In the sixth article of her book Little Peter (translated by Xu Xia, revised by Lu Xun), "The Story of The Snow-Breaking Grass", she compared the exploiting class and the system of exploitation to a curse in winter.

Refers to the Hunan warlord He Jian at that time. In his "message" to the Ministry of Education of the Kuomintang government on February 23, 1931, he advocated the prohibition of comparing animals to humans in textbooks, saying: "Recent textbooks. Every dog says. Pig said. Duck said. And Miss Cat. Big Brother Dog. Bull-in-law's word. Overflow between rows. Beasts can speak to men. Honorific titles are added to the beasts. Slang grotesque. Mo can not be said. ”

Stevenson (1850–1894) was an English novelist. He is the author of the novel "Treasure Island" and other works. Aylet (1856~1900), translated by Wilde, was an English aestheticist writer who wrote the play Salome.

Government commissioners refer to Zhu Yingpeng. He is a member of the Kuomintang Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, a member of the Shanghai Municipal Government, and the editor-in-chief of Forward Monthly. Detective Captain, referring to Fan Zhengbo. He is a member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Party Department of the Kuomintang, the head of the investigation team and the chief of the Military Justice Department of the Songhu Police Headquarters, and one of the editors of the Forward Weekly. They were all initiators of the "Nationalist Literary Movement".

Henry Ford (1863-1947) Was a monopoly capitalist in the United States who operated the automobile manufacturing industry and was known as the "king of automobiles".

In April and May 1931, the Standing Committee of the "Left League" issued the "Circular on the Expulsion of Zhou Quanping, Ye Lingfeng, and Zhou Yuying", exposing their following or participation in the "nationalist literary movement" and other reactionary acts (see Literature Herald, Vol. I, No. 2). The author here refers to several turned-by-turn writers who should refer to these people.

Piazley (1872–1898) Was an English painter. Mostly use patterned black and white lines to depict social life, often drawing people thin.