Chen Yuan, zi Tongbo, pen name Xiying, a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, is a major member of the modern critics. Chen Yuan was one of Lu Xun's main enemies, and Lu Xun wrote as many articles as he returned to Chen Yuan. Most of Chen Yuan's articles scolding Lu Xun were published through the magazine Modern Review, and later people said that Lu Xun scolded the modern critics, but in fact, they mainly scolded Chen Yuan.
The main contributors to Modern Review are Hu Shi, Chen Yuan, Xu Zhimo, Wang Shijie, Tang Youren, etc., and Hu Shi is the leader of this journal.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, modern commentators were mostly considered reactionary and anti-people, but in fact, the main reason for this understanding was that modern critics were more complex in their political positions and literary and artistic views--the modern commentaries were formed by the merger of the Pacific Society and the Creation Society.
Among the members were supporters of the proletarian revolution, such as Li Siguang, Ding Xilin, and Chen Hansheng; there were also communists and literati with progressive tendencies, such as Chen Qixiu, Tian Han, And Hu Yipin; and there were also some people who were on the right at that time, such as Hu Shi and Chen Yuan, and even Wang Shijie and Tang Youren, who later became enemies.
Because the political ideological tendency is relatively open-minded and there is no sectarian view when publishing articles, modern critics are full of strong liberal colors, and the ideological composition is very complicated. He preached both Marxism and opposed the Communist Party. It can be said that it is difficult to come up with a single person to represent modern criticism, because its composition is diverse and complex. Therefore, Lu Xun's scolding of Chen Yuan cannot be simply equated with scolding other people in the modern critics.
First, the controversy of the great storm of female teachers
The battle between Chen Yuan and Lu Xun began because they had different positions in the great wave of female teachers. Lu Xun, on the anniversary of yang yinyu, the principal of the female normal university, made a big fuss about the national shame, and after expelling six students, he showed his side on the side of the students, and could not bear to accuse the supporters of the school as "fierce beasts and sheep": when he met a fierce beast more fierce than him, he appeared as a sheep; when he met a sheep weaker than him, he appeared like a fierce beast. Chen Yuan was involved in the trend from the beginning, although he put himself in the cloak of "fairness", but his words and voices were on the side of Zhang Shizhao, the chief education officer of the Beiyang government, and Yang Yinyu, the principal of the female normal university.
As early as February 7, 1925, Chen Yuan published an article in the ninth issue of modern criticism to accuse the student movement; on March 21, he published an article reiterating his views, reprimanding students, and secretly provoking right and wrong, saying:
"The students who attacked Yang's in the Female Normal University were only a very small number of students; and the emergence and development of this trend, there are still no one inside and outside the school who are in charge."
Who does "there is no one inside or outside the school" refer to? From the very beginning, the trend of female teachers has received support and solidarity from the cultural circles and the Beijing-Shanghai student circles, and not only standing on the side of the students, but also being able to become a person "inside and outside the school", that is, serving in the school and having a significant relationship with the cultural circles outside the school, does not it refer to Lu Xun?
Since one side attacked first, Lu Xun naturally did not flinch and began to fight back.
On May 27, Lu Xun and six other professors jointly issued the "Declaration on the Trend of Beijing Women's Normal University" issued by seven professors, indicating that the series of statements issued by the university were "false accusations" and firmly sided with the students.
On May 30, Chen Yuan published an article entitled "Painting The Toilet" in the 25th issue of Modern Review. He says at the beginning of the article:
In the past, when there was a storm in the school, the students were almost not right; now the students are making a storm, and the students are almost not wrong, and these two ideas are superstitions for people like me--so to show his "fairness".
After the "fairness" was over, he also said that this great wave of female teachers was actually instigated by "people of a certain nationality and a certain department who have the greatest advantage in Beijing's educational circles," and that he originally did not believe that "people respected by Ordinary People will secretly criticize the trend," but as soon as this manifesto came out, it was inevitable that people would have such thoughts; Chen Yuan also said that this kind of disturbance was already like a "stinky toilet" and that "everyone has the obligation to sweep away." The Education Bureau should thoroughly investigate and not perfunctory and tolerate it any longer, which is the intention of hoping that the government will intensify its suppression.
Chen Yuan has already compared the female teacher to a "stinky toilet", his tendency is actually very obvious, if you simply show that you are on the side of Zhang and Yang, you are still a gentleman, but you have to put on a false gentleman's face and take sides with the banner of justice.
Lu Xun found Chen Yuan hypocritical and ridiculous, and in his letter to Xu Guangping, he wrote that he "pretended to be an outsider and really played tricks." Lu Xun went on to say that when Chen Yuan said that "a certain nationality was instigated by a certain department of teachers," it would be better to say that he was a "Zhejiang teacher of the Department of Chinese Literature." Isn't this a reference to being the culprit himself?
However, since Chen Yuan raised the issue of nationality and lineage, Lu Xun treated him in the same way as a human being. Since Chen Yuan and Yang Yinyu were both from Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, Lu Xun said sarcastically, rumoring that this kind of ghostly means should not have been believed, but some people use this weapon to use their place of origin to say things, then as long as they check their own place of origin, they see that they are speaking for people of the same nationality, even if they pretend to be fair, it is easy to make people suspicious, and also said that this mentality of self-esteem is like:
"The husband of a woman who steals a man is always willing to say that the world has forgotten eight, and only when he is the same is that he feels comfortable in his heart."
The pungency of the words can be described as three points into the wood.
Lu Xun used this trick to make the rumor-mongers feel the grievances of being slandered. Chen Yuan said rather helplessly about this, Lu Xun said that I have relatives and friends with Yang Yinyu, and also said that I ate a lot of her wine and dinner, there is really no ah, I and Yang Yinyu are not relatives, simply do not know, the year before I was in the female teacher's university substitute class, in the meeting only saw five or six faces, after I did not substitute class, I have never seen again.
In addition to the question of "nationality", there is a "department", and Lu Xunyou went on to write in another article, "My "Nationality" and My "Department":"
What "department" am I? Think about it yourself, neither the "research department" nor the "transportation department", I really don't know what is going on.
The "Research Department" was some political opportunists at that time, and the "Department of Transportation" was a group of politicians who supported Yuan Shikai's dictatorship. Lu Xun once pointed out that if the Northern Expedition is successful, this group of people will certainly turn around and win over the Kuomintang, pointing out that the "Research Department" is inflamed and opportunistic.
And some of the main members of the "modern critic school" are really closely related to this "research department," so is Chen Yuan, who is in the "modern critic school," related to them? Chen Yuan originally wanted to say that Lu Xun was engaged in factions, but as a result, he was pointed out that he had an inextricable relationship with the "research department", and not only did he not take advantage of it, but he also lifted a stone and dropped it on his own feet.
II. Lu Xun's "Plagiarism Case"
From the end of 1925 to the beginning of 1926, there was a "plagiarism" incident of Ms. Ling Shuhua in Beijing. The first thing was that Ling Shuhua plagiarized the picture, the Morning News Supplement was edited by Xu Zhimo since October 1, 1925, and the masthead used a black and white portrait of a Western woman, that is, there was no signature, and the editor-in-chief did not declare the source of the painting, but in the same day, Ling Shuhua's novel was incidentally mentioned "The pattern of the first advertisement of the supplement is also Ms. Ling's."
On October 8, the painting was accused by Chen Xuezhao of plagiarizing the British painter Biazley. The second thing was that the forty-eighth issue of the second volume of the "Modern Review" published Ling Shuhua's novel "The Temple of Flowers", and a week later, someone in the "Beijing News Supplement" implied that this "Temple of Flowers" was a copy of Chai Huofu's "In the Summer Villa", and Liu Bannong and others also published articles exposing Ling Shuhua's plagiarism.
At that time, Chen Yuan was in love with Ling Shuhua. He neither criticized the plagiarism nor remained silent, but suspected that these two articles were deliberately made by Lu Xun to embarrass them.
So Chen Yuan published the article "Plagiarism and Plagiarism" in the fiftieth issue of the second volume of the "Modern Review", first to excuse Ling Shuhua, he said that many emotions are common to human beings, and it is inevitable that there are many commonalities in making poetry. This is obviously a sophistry, and according to him, then all plagiarism in the world can be interpreted as "emotional similarity".
Not only that, Chen Yuan went on to say that the crime of plagiarism and plagiarism can only overwhelm ordinary stupid people, but it cannot hurt genius writers, because great writers are great because they have been influenced by the ideas of the great writers of the past. In other words, Chen Yuan steals the concept here, because writing articles must be influenced by predecessors, so he equates being influenced by others with plagiarism, deliberately saying that ordinary people are blamed for plagiarism, and geniuses are great because of plagiarism, and he wants to prove that plagiarism is justified.
Perhaps after determining that the object of the crusade was Lu Xun, Chen Yuan became more and more irrational the more he wrote, and his purpose was no longer to clarify the facts but only to fight back. He pointed the finger at Lu Xun and insinuated that Chinese critics "stooped down, grew their eyes, and looked for thieves on the ground", and they could pull out the "plagiarism" of a painting and a poem, "so that they often turned a blind eye to the plagiarism of Daben", Chen Yuan continued: For example, forget it, or do not give an example, I am afraid of offending the "authority of the ideological circles". The authority of this "ideological circle" refers to Lu Xun.
After insinuation that Lu Xun had "plagiarized the big book," Chen Yuan once again publicly slandered Lu Xun's "Outline of the History of Chinese Novels" in the "Morning Post Supplement" as part of the Japanese Shioya Wen's work, which was called "Speech on the Introduction to Chinese Literature."
Chen Yuan said that Lu Xun, as a great writer, took other people's writings as his own blueprints, did not make statements, and actually ran to ridicule an author who was not famous for plagiarism.
Lu Xun was initially puzzled by Chen Yuan's performance, but when he finally named himself, he stood up and responded. First, Lu Xun told Chen Yuan that the articles exposing Ling Shuhua were not written by himself. Lu Xun teasingly wrote:
"What the poor professor saw in his mind was not my shadow, and the jump was in vain."
Secondly, Lu Xun made the necessary defense for himself, and he explained in detail which of the points and which charts in his "Novel History" were referenced to Yangu Wen's book, and the remaining twenty-six articles were his own arguments, and many of the evidence was contrary to Yangu Wen's opinion. If we have to say that there is a blueprint, then everyone has used Chinese history as a "blueprint".
Lu Xun also told Chen Yuan that There were already Chinese translations of Yan Guwen's book, and if Professor Chen Yuan had read it, he probably wouldn't have said such a thing.
However, Chen Yuan's nonsense and barbarism caused Lu Xun to bear ten years of "plagiarism" crimes in a society that did not know the details, until ten years later, Lu Xun's book also had a Japanese translation, and Chinese and foreign readers could rely on their own reading to distinguish between the two books, Lu Xun said, "I have lost the notoriety of 'plagiarism' for ten years, and now I can finally unload and pay tribute to Professor Chen Yuan, who calls himself a 'righteous gentleman'." ”
Chen Yuan's act of injuring the enemy eight hundred and inflicting a thousand self-inflicted wounds was not at all to prove that Lu Xun had copied it, but to prove that Ling Shuhua had copied it justifiably. Lu Xun copied, how can I not copy? This mentality is exactly the same as Ah Q's "monk touches, I can touch" who has the spirit of Ah Q. But whether the monk touched it or not, it should not be touched in the end, not to mention that Lu Xun did not "touch"?
He has no patience to figure out the basic facts, but simply defines it by his own preferences: the person he likes, plagiarized, has many reasons to excuse him; the person he hates, without plagiarism, must also plagiarize for the person he likes. Later generations often think that Lu Xun is suspicious and loves to scold people, but this hat to Lu Xun is wronged him, and it is just right for Chen Yuan, not big or small, quite appropriate.
Third, the "A Q" of the one-leaf obstacle
Chen Yuan and Lu Xun are both important members of the modern critical school, both studied in the West, and are keen on Western-style democracy and freedom, so their ideas also have many similarities.
In 1915, Japan threatened China to accept the unequal treaty "Twenty-One Articles", under extreme indignation, the whole society was filled with agitated emotions and fanatical declaration of war, Hu Shi was very anxious about this, he wrote a letter to students from all over the country, warning them that this kind of "patriotic epilepsy" is very dangerous, because China currently has no military strength that can compete with Japan, and such national strength will only be destroyed in a series of wars.
Hu Shi's attitude was relatively rational at the time. In Hu Shi's view, to use diplomacy to carry out restraints and strive to postpone the outbreak of war, to save the country needs a strong country, and a strong country needs a process, it takes time.
From this point of view, Chen Yuan's remarks during the "May Thirtieth Movement" can also be seen from Hu Shi's views. The "May Thirtieth Movement" began with Japanese imperialism and the suppression of workers' strikes by Beiyang warlords, and after the Japanese management shot and killed the worker Gu Zhenghong (a communist) on May 15, it triggered a protest and propaganda among Shanghai students, arrested more than 100 people, tens of thousands of people gathered to patrol the house to demand the release of students, and dozens of people were arrested and shot by the British patrol.
After the incident, Chen Yuan wrote "The May Thirtieth Massacre" to express anti-imperialist and patriotic ideas, angrily rebuking the officials and police officers who were in charge of the government. However, while publishing articles with patriotic enthusiasm, he also published "gossip" against the armed resistance of the great powers. He believed that it was not worth it for the students to put life and death afight and fight with the military and police of the Duan Qirui government, and he advocated "arguing on the basis of reason." Although he could not beat others, he should be able to judge with others in a straightforward manner, "I cannot be afraid that he will beat you again and shrink his neck and run."
In addition, he reiterated the view that war should not be fought, because "war is not won". This view seems to be very similar to the "spiritual victory method" that Ah Q is good at using in "The True Biography of Ah Q", when Xiao D, who has always been despised by him, seeks his job, Ah Q is very angry, raises his hand, and sings: "I will beat you with a steel whip!" ”
However, Lu Xun and Chen Yuan had similar views on the confrontation between students and the government, and he was also opposed to students conspiring with tigers. However, in opposing the conflict between students and the military and police, Lu Xun's understanding is much deeper. On the day of the "March 18" petition, Lu Xun deliberately left Xu Guangping in his home to copy things, reflecting his attitude towards this matter.
On the day of the petition, the "March 18 Massacre" occurred. Duan Qirui's guards massacred in front of the executive government, killing 47 people and wounding 199 people. Chen Yuan wrote articles denouncing the massacre of innocent students by feudal warlords and mourning the students who died. However, while condemning the warlords, he also nonsense that the massacre was to be borne by the mass leaders, slandering the death of the martyr Yang Dequn, which was driven by the female teachers.
However, he did not make nonsense for the sake of spreading rumors, but out of the belief that the initiators and instigators of this petition campaign instigated others to die, but he himself escaped and should be condemned.
Lu Xun believed that Chen Yuan's remarks were "more thrilling than knives and guns", and he denounced that Chen Yuan's accusations against the mass leaders were equivalent to acknowledging that it was reasonable for the executive government to shoot, so that the executive government was a "dead place", and the mass leaders led the dead to throw themselves into the net.
This is actually a matter of precedence, and the instigators should indeed be condemned, but in the first place, the executive government should not shoot the people at will, and instead of condemning the biggest crimes, it is equivalent to ignoring or even acknowledging this kind of behavior of torturing and killing students.
Since the "March 18 Massacre", Lu Xun has been the first to denounce the executioner. At such a time, Chen Yuan still did not forget his "fairness", but this "fairness", in a specific period, was really not fair.
However, Chen Yuan's "fairness" did not always exist, and it can be seen from Lu Xun's "plagiarism" incident that once it hurts him personally, he is not "fair" at all.
Dong Qiufang, a student studying in the English Department of Peking University at that time, wrote an essay reprimanding Chen Yuan, and Chen Yuan became angry and ashamed, so he abused his authority as the head of the English Department of Peking University and did not send Dong Qiufang English exercise books, so that he had no translation results and could not graduate.
Dong Qiufang posted a notice of appeal at the gate of the Third Courtyard of Peking University along the Beihe River and expressed solidarity with Lu Xun. Lu Xun not only encouraged his translations to be sorted out and published, but also personally recommended it to be printed in bookstores, and the book was "The Waves of Striving for Freedom". Lu Xun's support was not insignificant, and Dong Qiufang later became a famous translator.
Chen Yuan served as the first permanent representative of the Kuomintang to UNESCO in Paris in 1946, and in 1964 China and France established diplomatic relations, recognizing the People's Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China.
At this time, the "government" represented by Chen Yuan and Chen Yuan was no longer recognized, but he was afraid of the severe winter cold and water and food, like a Grande who held a broken broom and did not let go, stubbornly guarding alone, and finally being forcibly carried out by the French military police, desperately struggling, so that his blood pressure rose and fainted on the spot, since then he has announced his "resignation" and lived in London to recuperate.