Text / Zhang Jieyu
For Lu Xun, such a "true" writing is not only a way of writing "for life" that conforms to the ideals of enlightenment and the main tide of the times, but also the deepest and most sincere internal need of his personal literary life. Looking at the whole of "Weeds", the in-depth exploration of life and literature is almost everywhere. The philosophy of life is Lu Xun's exploration of "what to write", and the concept of literary writing is the thinking of "how to write" that he is always concerned about. And these two are closely intertwined and inseparable in his life.
As he emphasized in the Inscription, "the mud of life is abandoned on the ground, and no trees are born, only wild grasses", which "the wild grass, not deep at all, the flowers and leaves are not beautiful, but absorb the dew, absorb the water, absorb the blood and flesh of the dead, and each takes its survival". But, he said, "I love my weeds, but I hate this ground adorned with weeds." Here, Lu Xun has made it very clear that "weeds" represent the spiritual characteristics of his prose poetry collection.
Corresponding to all the beautiful flowers, leaves and trees, the "weed" is not "beautiful", not pleasing to people, and does not have any decoration, but it is nurtured by Lu Xun with the mud of his own "life", and in exchange for the "death" and "decay" of "past life", it can even be directly equivalent to the life of the writer. Therefore, Lu Xun said: "I testify with this weed, in the light and darkness, life and death, the past and the future, before the sacrifice of friends and enemies, man and beast, lovers and unloving." This sentence contains Lu Xun's most fundamental view of writing and his belief in literature.
Because the "concept of writing" here is by no means a concept in a purely literary sense, but has been deepened into a way of life: Lu Xun uses "writing" as a way of struggle and practice, as a way of practicing "life"—life and life—and his life is almost completely intertwined with his writing. Writing is the proof of his "living", the driving force and result of "living", and it is also the greatest comfort that supports him to continue to "live". That is, as he said in "Written Behind the Grave":
A part of my life, just like that, is to do this kind of work. Yet I still don't understand what I've always been doing. For example, if you do geotechnical work, you do it, and you don't know whether you are building a platform or digging a pit. What is known is that even if you build a platform, you will not have to fall off it or show old death; if you dig a pit, then of course you will only bury yourself. In short: passing away, passing away, everything, passing away with time and yin, passing away, going to pass away. - But so, but I am very willing.
This emotional text reveals a very real side of Lu Xun's heart. Indeed, Lu Xun has never been a writer who "works for art's sake", his writing is almost integrated with his life, and his writing is also the process of irrigation with his life's painstaking efforts. It can be said that the question of "poetry and truth" has become not only an artistic question for him, but a special philosophical inquiry that casts the writer's life and writing. It is also in this sense that Lu Xun's understanding and practice of "poetry and truth" has surpassed the knowledge and understanding of many Chinese and foreign artists in ancient and modern times, reached a more lofty realm, and also has a more powerful and unique life force and historical significance.
"Wild Grass" is Lu Xun's most concentrated text on the philosophy of life. "A Clump of Weeds" contains many major topics of life, such as "light and darkness, life and death, past and future", "friends and enemies", "man and beast", "lovers and unloved". And between "life" and "death", which he most often discusses, Lu Xun creatively introduces the question of "living" and "acting".
"Life", as opposed to "death", is an objective physiological state, but this "life" is not equal to what Lu Xun said about "living". In Lu Xun's view, surviving is not "living", only "doing" is the way and proof of "living". For Lu Xun himself, this "line" includes writing, translating, lecturing, editing, etc., in short, it is a kind of struggle practice that is in contact with social reality. Without such practice of struggle, it cannot be regarded as a state of "living.".
That is, as he wrote after compiling "Chao Hua Xi Shi" in Guangzhou in May 1927: "Look at the green leaves, compile the old manuscript, and finally do something." Doing such a thing is really the day of birth, the year of death, and it is very easy to dispel the heat. This sentence seems plain, but it hides pain and helplessness. In Guangzhou after "April 12", Lu Xun was still unable to speak out even if he was painfully determined, and the old manuscript seemed to be "finally doing something", but in his heart, he soberly classified it as a non-"living" state of "although he was born, he was still dead".
Because in his eyes, a writer who is not angry, does not speak up, does not write, is not "alive". Similarly, he woke up from his sickbed that night and lamented, "Infinite distance, countless people, all related to me." I exist, I live, I will live, I begin to feel more tangible, I have the desire to move", his line of thinking is still so consistent, that is, only the "real" "action" and "action" prove man's "existence" and "life".
Similar expressions appear most intensively in Weeds. In "Passerby", the image of passerby not only reflects the spiritual characteristics of Lu Xun himself in terms of sobriety, stubbornness, silence and exhaustion, but also makes the best interpretation of Lu Xun's philosophy of "living" and "acting" with his "I have to go" philosophy of life. Passers-by have been "walking" all their lives, "from the time they can still remember", all the way to "go to a place, this place is in front". This seemingly beginningless and endless "walk" cancels the specific conditions of time and space and becomes an action in a philosophical sense, that is, "resisting despair" and overcoming the "action" of nothingness. This act clearly has a tragic spirit in a philosophical sense.
It is through "action" (action) that man enters a tragic dilemma in a philosophical sense and demonstrates the will and strength of human pursuit. The "walking" of passers-by thus obtained a metaphysical philosophical ascension, showing a strong temperament of questioning and accusation, and uneasy about bearing and mourning. Like the characters such as the Man in Black and the Ruler Between the Eyebrows in "The Forge of the Sword", and the Mozi in "Non-Attack", they do not, like the Greek classical tragedy, can only prove the finiteness and loneliness of man and eventually turn to the conversion of God, because Lu Xun's tragic philosophy does not seek the peace of the soul, nor the transcendence or liberation of tragedy, but a spirit of insisting on fighting and "eternal revolution".
The passer-by philosophy of "I have to go" is precisely the figurative expression of Lu Xun's "action" to give human life the meaning of "living". The period of "Wild Grass" is the period when Lu Xun translated the white village of kitchen chuan, and the white village of kitchen chuan once said: "If you don't drown, you can't swim." If you don't try to hit the wall, you won't see a way out. Sitting in silence in secret may be the first priority of safety, but isn't it impossible to go out of the bright world even after many years? People who are not completely mistaken cannot be completely enlightened. "As the saying goes, poor is the same." In both action and advance, those who do not have enough vitality will certainly not go to the point of poverty, but they will not pass because of it. It is consolidated by attack and appeasement, and it is walking the road of safety first, so it is impatient to teach people. ”
With such a translation, it is almost impossible to distinguish whether it is the thoughts and language of Ji chuan Baicun or Lu Xun himself. Their view is clearly very consistent, that is, that only "action and progress" is the embodiment of vitality, and all inactive fantasies cannot be regarded as truly meaningful "living". The kind of "half-dead" that is "due to attack" and "safety" is the biggest "mistake" in life. This is the core foundation of Lu Xun's philosophy of life, and it is also an important factor that determines his own way of life and writing.
Similar to the passer-by philosophy of "I have to go" is the dead fire philosophy of "I might as well burn it out", he chooses to burn between burning and freezing, rejects the gentle and stubborn, realizes the completion of life like a red comet, and gets rid of the state of not burning, not dying, not dying and not living frozen in the ice valley. Although the writing time of "Passerby" and "Dead Fire" is nearly two months apart, and the styles and writing styles and writing styles of the two texts are also very different, they are completely consistent on the most critical issues- "thinking about living" and "walking".
Dead Fire decided to help "me" out of the ice valley in its own way by "burning", and passers-by will eventually cross the "grave" of individual life and walk out of a real "road" in the way of "walking". These two approaches are, in the final analysis, exactly the same, and it implies a desire to combine the life of the individual with the actual history, to give the meaning of "living" the life of the individual through "action", to perpetuate the power of life and obtain the true value of life in a way that integrates into the future of the nation and culture.
There are many similar expressions in "Weeds". For example, "After Death" has a deep fear of the "dead" and "unconscious" state of the body, that is, the fear of the non-"living" state of being half-dead and not living, wanting to move but unable to move. In "One Sleep", after experiencing the murder and sacrifice of young lives and witnessing the death of countless civilians in the chaos of war, Lu Xun refused to sink and decadence, but instead "deeply felt the existence of 'life'". This is exactly Lu Xun's unique thinking and consistent idea, that is, in the desperate and desperate situation, the strongest resistance suddenly arises, and in the face of the threat of death, the power of "life" and "battle" is more radiant.
As he put it in "Hope," which he wrote late at New Year's Day in 1925, although he knew that he was "late in the body," he said, "I have to fight this empty night by hand." He "laid down the shield of hope" and fought a deadly battle with this "dark night.". Here, the philosophy of "doing" reappears. Although "extremely lonely" and desperate, Lu Xun still chose to let go of doubts and struggles about hope and despair, break the dark night with hand-to-hand combat "walking", and explore a way out of "living in the human world". In his twilight, he is not unable to choose to sit and talk about the Tao, and to be a mentor to the youth, but he prefers to "shoulder the heavy floodgates", because he is only willing to lead the depressed youth with practical "actions" and tell them that this is the only way possible to get out of the dark night.
From "Hope" to "Must Read", from "Passerby" to "Dead Fire", from "After Death" to "A Sleep"... Lu Xun's thinking and writing always have such a main line about "walking" and "living". This main line determines the way he writes, that is, as he said in the "Inscription" of "Weeds": "For myself, for friends and enemies, man and beast, lovers and unloved, I hope that the death and decay of this weed will come quickly." Otherwise, I would not have survived in the first place, which is more unfortunate than death and decay. For Lu Xun himself, writing is his "deed", just like the "walking" of passers-by or the "burning" of dead fire, writing is his "past life", "not empty" and "testifying", and also gives his life the meaning of "living". More importantly, what he wrote, like the road under the feet of a passer-by or the light of a red comet emitted by a dead fire, will eventually break through his own life and death sorrows and become the voice of the entire era.
This also explains why Lu Xun left Beijing after "Wild Grass" and went to the essay. He must never live in a state of "six sides hitting a wall", and must respond to the requirements of the times with actual "actions", just like the explanation he himself gave: "In the era of change, such articles are no longer allowed, and even such feelings exist." He was bound to respond to that "era of change" with new writing and new practices of action.
This article is excerpted from "Intensive Reading of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literary Works" edited by Yang Lianfen and Zhang Jieyu, authorized by Chinese Min University Press)
Selected Chinese books
Intensive Reading of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature
Yang Lianfen Zhang Jieyu Editor-in-Chief
Chinese University Press
February 2022
The book "Intensive Reading of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature" consists of 11 editions and 40 chapters. The 1-9 editions take a single (volume) work as the object of intensive reading, and the style is novels, essays and dramas; the 10-11 editions are poetry topics, which briefly present the historical context of the development of new poetry while intensively reading the poems of representative poets.
This book breaks the conventional style of literary history, takes the text as the center, pays attention to case analysis, and pays attention to the "fine" and "deep" reading of the original work. The selected texts and topics are either important propositions with "origin" significance in literary history, or embody important literary trends or literary historical signs, or focus on the rheological history of a certain literary theme, and take this as a guideline to form multiple units that are independent of each other but have some echoes, and as a whole, form observation and reflection on the historical trend and artistic practice of modern Chinese literature. The authors of each chapter of this book are scholars who have made great achievements in related fields, so the textbook fully reflects the combination of classic selections and cutting-edge research. At the same time, because each chapter is relatively complete, it can enable readers to grasp the writing method of academic papers while grasping literary works, and learn to analyze the works and stimulate academic thinking.
Good books in Chinese
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