People who have seen Lu Xun's "Kong Yiji" are deeply impressed by the four ways Kong Yiji taught children to write the word "fennel".
Illustration of Kong Yiji
The "I" in the text is not satisfied with this, but Lu Xun has a difficult study of Chinese characters.
Lu Xun was very fond of playing word games, or praising or expressing sarcasm, and sometimes just joking.
Lu Xun and Qian Xuan were friends with each other. Because Qian Xuantong was active in class, Lu Xun ridiculed him for "crawling around", and called him "Mr. Miao" because "Xuantong" and the Kangxi Emperor "Xuanye" had the same Xuan character.
Qian Xuantong
Lu Xun and Gu Jiegang had a bad relationship. Gu Jiegang's nose is red all year round, and Lu Xun referred to him as "nose".
And because Gu Jiegang examined "Yu is a worm", Lu Xun made an interesting literary invention: Xun is a hole, and it is precisely the hole that is a falcon's stick figure, so Xun is a bird. That is, Lu Xun is a kind of bird. ”
Gu Jiegang
Therefore, many literati at that time easily did not dare to provoke Lu Xun, because Lu Xun was so fierce that he even blackened himself.
Lu Xun loved word games so much that in a letter to Xu Shousheng in 1919, he proposed that "The Chinese language should eventually be abolished."
By the 1930s, Lu Xun was more adamant that Chinese characters were "tuberculosis that hinders the spread of intelligence, the "tuberculosis" of the toiling masses.
In May 1936, Lu Xun told a reporter from Shanghai's "Salvation Intelligence": "If chinese characters do not perish, China will die." ”
In the spring of 1936, Mr. Hong Ye, who was then teaching in the history department of Yenching University, said to the students: "The Japanese said that the world sinology center is in Japan, and we must fight for breath and snatch the sinology center back to Beijing." ”
Hongye
Hong Ye is a famous writer and a humble scholar; one is in Beijing, one is in Shanghai, one is facing journalists, and one is facing students.
Why do two people of the same era have very different views on Chinese characters? Let's find out the roots!
Shaoxing, the hometown of Lu Xun, is a famous city in eastern Zhejiang with a long historical and cultural tradition. Lu Xun's family is a family of scholars who hang on to the "hand-picked Hanlin".
Lu Xun, who grew up immersed in traditional culture, entered the Sanwei Bookstore, the most severe school in Shaoxing City, at the age of 12, read the Four Books and Five Classics, and received systematic cultural education.
In the long process of reading the scriptures and learning characters, knowledge and culture such as Chinese characters, exegesis, and rhyme were injected into Lu Xun's life like blood.
In 1908, Lu Xun, who was studying in Japan, participated in the "Chinese Studies Seminar" organized by Zhang Taiyan especially among international students and became a disciple of Zhang Men.
Zhang Taiyan
Zhang Taiyan is a person who studies philology, Lu Xun studied very carefully, and his notes were remembered in quite detail.
Since childhood, Lu Xun has been interested in collecting antiquities such as stone carved rubbings and Jijin Wadang. After returning from Japan, Lu Xun shifted more of his energy to this due to his confusion about society.
Zhou Zuoren wrote in the "Memoirs of Zhitang" that he also received a little gold stone for his relationship with Lu Xun to collect the Golden Stone Tuoben. The things received were metal ancient coins and ancient mirrors, stone ancient bricks, and the writing and patterns were very delicate.
Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren
Opening the "Lu Xun Diary", from 1915 to 1919, the purchase of antiquities and the purchase of gold and stone books became the most recorded matters in Lu Xun.
In the long process of collecting and examining, Lu Xun came into contact with a large number of ancient characters, and his understanding of Chinese characters deepened step by step.
Yang Shoujing
He once rearranged and edited the loose pages of Yang Shoujing's "Huanyu Zhenshi Tu" lithographed book, and then used the stone carvings he collected to check and survey Wang Chuan's "Golden Stone Compilation", Weng Fanggang's "Two Han Golden Stone Records", and Luo Zhenyu's "Jin Shi Zhi Compilation and Correction Character Record", and made mistakes and filled in the gaps, and sorted out the "Golden Stone Compilation and Proofreading Text".
Luo Zhenyu
Lu Xun also copied the Qin-Han Wadang Script and a large number of golden texts.
Guo Moruo, who studied oracle bones and jinwen, once gave a high evaluation to Lu Xun's rewritten "Huanyu Zhenshi Map".
Guo Moruo
It is believed that this book explains the evolution of Chinese characters in detail and is an excellent reference book for learners of ancient characters.
In 1927, when Lu Xun went south to Guangzhou to teach at Sun Yat-sen University, he also listed "The History of Chinese Font Changes" as an elective subject in the Department of Literature.
It can be seen that Lu Xun and Chinese characters have a deep relationship, and have a very deep understanding of the important role of Chinese characters. The more deeply we know, the more we understand the drawbacks.
From 1934 onwards, Lu Xun published articles such as "Talking about Foreign Languages", "Chinese Characters and Latinization", and "On New Characters", focusing on philological issues such as the origin of Chinese characters and forming his own concept of philology.
Ancient texts generally believe that Cangjie made characters, and romantically imagined: after Cangjie made words, corn rose up in the sky, and ghosts cried at night.
Cangjie made words
Lu Xun held a negative attitude toward this, believing that "Cangjie created characters" is just that the "hypothesis" of ordinary scholars is not artificial, but originates from the social practice of the masses of the people.
The famous philologist Qiu Xigui also deeply believed in Lu Xun's views, believing that Cangjie's creation of characters was nothing more than an unfounded legend.
Qiu Xigui
However, it is said that Cangjie was the emperor's historical official, and people associated the historical official with the creation of characters.
As Lu Xun, who has been in contact with antiquities for many years, there are a large number of extremely pictorial forms in oracle bones and gold texts that are physical examples.
Since the basis of Chinese characters is pictograms, are pictures words?
Lu Xun summed it up this way: "The achievement of words should be popularized through the years, and it should be used by all hands and the whole group."
Lu Xun
That is to say, the leap from picture to word must go through a long process under certain social conditions.
It has gone through three stages: from the creation of individual symbols to the conventional original text, and then to the unified and organized systematic writing system.
This statement succinctly and clearly describes the process of the formation of the Chinese character system, which is still used by paleography researchers today.
Lu Xun believes that the law of the development and change of Chinese characters is: simplification and sounding. ”
In the process of simplification of Chinese characters, from the seal book to the Lishu, from the Lishu to the Kaishu, the Chinese characters are constantly lined up and stroked, completely losing their pictographic meaning and becoming symbols composed of strokes.
Soundization is the main change in the structure of Chinese characters, and it is also a breakthrough in the method of making characters.
If words are created without the help of sound, then everything will be created endlessly, and there are many invisible words in the language that can be imitated and unintentional.
Lu Xun believes that what solves this problem is harmonic sound, meaning and image are disconnected, and they embark on the road of recording sounds, and as soon as this road is opened, it is out of control.
From the analysis of Chinese characters themselves, many Chinese characters are difficult to write, difficult to recognize, difficult to read, and so far they are not simple.
For example, if you ask a child to write the words '鷪' or '鷪', it is difficult to write in a half-inch square grid without practicing for a year and a half.
Lu Xun summed up the reasons that are not conducive to the popularity of Chinese characters: "Monopolized by the privileged. "Writing sprouted among the people, but later it must have been collected by the privileged.
The privileged, who feel particularly dignified because of their literacy, try to make writing more difficult.
In Lu Xun's view, the consequences of the difficulty of Chinese characters are very serious.
First, it has led to a phenomenon of inconsistencies in speech from ancient times to the present. Written and spoken language are inconsistent.
Second, it hindered the development of literature and affected the dissemination of the works of illiterate writers who were "strong and fresh".
The most important thing is to influence the popularity of writing.
If a script is not known to the public, it is equivalent to no writing.
The vernacular newspapers at the end of the Qing Dynasty were called the "Literary Revolution" at the time of May Fourth, but they had not yet encountered a fundamental problem: China had no writing.
Lu Xun was not very angry at the terrible Chinese characters themselves.
However, when Chinese characters are monopolized by the privileged, artificially isolating Chinese characters from the public, and the people are mostly illiterate, they cannot but make people angry and then want to reform.
Reform Chinese characters and give them to everyone.
The reform of Chinese characters has a long history in China, and Lu Xun also said: "The fact of handing over the script to the masses has existed since the last years of the Qing Dynasty."
After the fiasco in the Sino-Japanese War, traditional knowledge elements turned their attention to the West and began to reflect on tradition in the process of the west wind and eastward wind.
In the view of reformist intellectuals at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the strength of Western capitalist countries was due to the popularization of culture and knowledge.
And this popularity is due to the ease of pinyin writing, so the root of China's backwardness is attributed to the difficulty of writing. This was a representative insight at the time.
The difficulty of writing is the foundation of the people's wisdom and stupidity, and the key to the strength and weakness of the country.
Therefore, at a time of national crisis in China, the political reality of enlightening the people's wisdom and saving the people and trying to survive forced some intellectuals to begin to improve Chinese characters with cut-tone characters, enlighten the people's wisdom, and revitalize the nation.
Lu Xun's position on Chinese character reform is clear and firm. His early years of studying Chinese characters and translating Japanese and German led him to see that Chinese characters could and must be reformed.
However, the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty's syllable character movement had limited utility and could not solve the problems of Chinese characters:
Just like a prison, it is true that it gives a person a piece of land, but it has restrictions, and it can only walk around in this circle, and it is absolutely impossible to run out of the set iron fence.
How to change chinese characters, where to change, at this time Lu Xun had no better way than to pay attention to it.
In April 1918, Qian Xuantong published "The Problem of Chinese Characters in the Future" in the fourth issue of the fourth volume of the New Youth, advocating the abolition of Chinese characters and the use of pinyin characters instead.
Cover of New Youth
Chen Duxiu's "Reply to Qian Xuantong" pointed out: "However, Chinese characters are difficult to convey new things and new theories, and they are also a nest of corrupt ideas, and it is not a pity to waste their sincerity."
Chen Duxiu
In January 1923, the seventh issue of the Chinese Monthly magazine published a special issue of "Chinese Character Reform", and Hu Shi, Cai Yuanpei, Qian Xuantong, Li Jinxi, Zhao Yuanren, Fu Sinian and others published articles.
Hu shi
They believe that Chinese characters are barbaric and backward, which is an obstacle to universal education, and agree to abolish Chinese characters and adopt new pinyin characters.
The radical attitude of scholars made the trend of literary reform reach its peak for a while.
Zhao Yuanren
The result was the advent of the Roman alphabet. For the call for reform at this time, Lu Xun only paid attention to it, but did not rush to participate in it.
He felt that roman characters were still too complicated to use, and it was not the right way. Simple and not ugly words are what Lu Xun expected.
This expectation did not materialize until the Latinization movement of the 1930s.
The Latinization reform movement was initiated by the Chinese Communists Qu Qiubai, Wu Yuzhang, Lin Boqu and others, who formulated the "Chinese Latinization Alphabet Program", which was strongly supported by people in the cultural circles.
Qu Qiubai
After repeated comparisons, Lu Xun believed that the new Latinized script was a "simple but not ugly" script. ”
He believed that as long as the new Latinized script knew twenty-eight letters, learned a little spelling and writing, except for sloths and low energy, anyone could write and understand.
Moreover, it also has the advantage of writing fast.
Once the direction of Chinese character reform was clarified, Lu Xun immediately threw himself into research and promotion.
Mao dun
In December 1935, he and 688 people, including Cai Yuanpei, Guo Moruo, and Mao Dun, put forward the "Our Opinions on the Implementation of the New Script" to vigorously promote the new text.
Cai Yuanpei
They believe that the new script that the Chinese public needs is the new character of Pinyin. In the process of promoting the new script, Lu Xun put forward many practical suggestions for the Latinization of Chinese characters.
For example, the dialect problem, or the progress problem, Lu Xun advocated that it should be gradual, not too radical, not overnight, and fully realize the long-term and complex nature of Chinese character reform.
After the cut-tone character movement of the social reformists at the end of the Qing Dynasty, by the May Fourth period, Chinese characters were radically abolished and replaced by pinyin characters, constituting a complete historical process.
To sum up, the abolition of Chinese characters during the May Fourth period has two main purposes, one of which is to abolish Chinese characters, promote The pinyinization of Chinese characters, connect with the world, and import Western modern civilization.
The second is to cut off the transmission path of traditional culture, transform the old national nature, and cultivate new people with modern consciousness by abolishing Chinese characters, so as to fundamentally realize China's modernization and transformation.
These two aims complement each other and are closely linked, and boil down to one point is to transform the national character and shape the "new man".
Lu Xun believes: "After the national root nature is created, no matter whether it is good or bad, it is not easy to change. "
Chen Duxiu argued that China's "fundamental salvation requires improvements in the nature of the people." ”
In the view of the "May Fourth" intellectuals, Chinese characters are closely related to traditional culture, and they believe that Chinese characters cannot be applied to the new era of the twentieth century and cannot bear the heavy responsibility of shaping "new people".
Therefore, only Latinized writing "is the rebirth of Chinese literature and the new literature of modern China."
Only in this way can we cultivate a modern moral personality with rational value that is decisive with Confucian ethical thought and feudal autocratic thought, and a new youth who is consistent with the new era, new ideas, and new academic theories.
In the end, the Chinese nation will be realized as a civilized nation of the twentieth century.
The idea of "liren" is the core of Lu Xun's thought, and he believes that only by cultivating new people and establishing a "country of people" can China have a future and the nation can have hope.
This position is in line with the trend of thought that abolished Chinese characters in the May Fourth period.
Taking the road of Latinization and shaping "new people" should be the common cultural demand of people of insight, including Lu Xun, at that time.
Although this appeal is based on a cliff-like rupture to solve the problem, it ignores the continuity of the development of civilization and has great limitations.
But we can still realize the ideological value of the "May Fourth" generation.
May Fourth Movement relief
They keenly discovered the inability of Chinese characters to popularize and respond to new ideas and cultures, and actively sought a new way of expression and carrier, which was an unavoidable mission for them.
The way we promote and popularize Chinese characters now actually develops along this logic. There were also corrections and subversions during this period, but there is no doubt that the understanding of Chinese characters was promoted.
And Lu Xun's statement that "Chinese characters do not die, China will perish" is just an attempt made by the benevolent people of that period to save the decadent and backward China at that time.
China in this period was in a moment of national peril, and they ran to save China, and we have deep respect for this. But they fail to recognize the fundamental crux of China.
The backwardness of modern China is not the backwardness of writing and culture, but the backwardness of people and the backwardness of the system.
The rise and fall of a country's comprehensive national strength determines the influence of its writing.
For example, during the prosperous Tang Dynasty in China, various countries sent Tang envoys to China to study science and technology culture, and East Asian countries also formed a Confucian cultural circle.
In modern China, Japan's aggression against Taiwan and the three eastern provinces also began with language and writing.
Hu Qiuyuan once said that the reason why Japan's invasion of China failed was because of insufficient understanding of Chinese nationalism, and the basis of Chinese nationalism is Chinese culture, and the foundation of Chinese culture is Chinese characters.
Hu Qiuyuan
Western psychologists once conducted an intelligence test on Chinese children and found that Chinese children have a high talent in arithmetic, vocabulary, and image concepts, and this talent comes from Chinese characters.
Chinese culture, marked by Chinese characters, is the soul of the Chinese nation.
If there are no Chinese characters, then no matter how vast and populous we are, we will lose our vitality due to the lack of spiritual cohesion.
Nearly a hundred years have passed since the storm of history, and we are still using Chinese characters, but the country is richer and stronger.
Chinese characters are the pride of the Chinese nation, and they are the Great Wall of Eternal Hearts that cannot be pushed down, shaken, and broken. The world is not destroyed, the Chinese characters are not destroyed!
This prosperous world is as the revolutionary martyrs wished. If Lu Xun could see now, he should be able to smile at the Nine Springs.