From the end of 1921 to the beginning of 1922, Lu Xun serialized the novel "The True Biography of Ah Q" in the "Morning News Supplement". Set in the countryside of Zhejiang in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, the novel depicts the fate of a bankrupt farmer, Ah Q. From the perspective of intellectual history, this novel profoundly reveals some of the basic characteristics of the Xinhai Revolution.
Originally, the landlord gentry represented by Zhao Taiye were in a dominant position in Weizhuang, and Ah Q was like a grain of dust in their eyes. However, when the news of the revolution reached Weizhuang, Ah Q was surprised to find that although he was deeply influenced by the GangChanglun Sect and felt that "the revolutionary party is a rebellion, and rebellion is to be difficult with him", the revolutionary trend "made the famous old man of the hundred miles so afraid, so he was inevitably a little 'fascinated'." He was convinced that the landlords and gentry would be punished in this revolution and that they would be able to turn themselves over, so that "I, too, would surrender to the revolutionary party." In Ah Q's concept, the essence of revolution is "what I want is what I want, and whoever I like is whoever I like." Lu Xun: The True Biography of Ah Q, in The Complete Works of Lu Xun, vol. 1, Beijing: People's Literature Publishing House, 1981, p. 513. It can be seen that although the revolutionaries, who were mainly intellectuals on the eve of Xinhai, used various new media to propagate the revolution, these new "high-level classics" filled with all kinds of new theories did not have any influence among the low-level peasants such as Ah Q. The revolution he understood was a simple rebellion, a "feng shui rotation of social status, this year to my home." Lu Xun: The True Biography of Ah Q, in The Complete Works of Lu Xun, vol. 1, p. 513.
However, the revolution did make the "superior people" of Weizhuang nervous for a while, after all, in the revolutionary propaganda of the late Qing Dynasty, there were also ideas such as "equal land rights". Therefore, when Grandpa Zhao saw Ah Q, he changed his arrogant face in the past, greeted him very politely, asked him if he had recently "made a fortune", and even reduced himself to Ah Q's "poor friend". This surprised Ah Q. In his dream, he even envisioned that when overthrowing the township order dominated by Taiye Zhao and others, "the first damned ones were Xiao D and Grandpa Zhao, as well as Xiucai, and fake foreign devils", Lu Xun: "The True Biography of Ah Q", in The Complete Works of Lu Xun, vol. 1, pp. 514, 515. He was with the "revolutionaries", who wore white armor and carried plate knives, steel whips, bombs, and cannons. Why wear white armor? Because it was to give the Chongzhen Emperor of the Ming Dynasty Dai Xiaoxiao. In terms of "anti-Qing restoration" and blood "shame of Jiashen", it may be the only resonance between Ah Q and the revolutionary propaganda of the late Qing Dynasty.
But when Ah Q woke up from his dream, he found that weizhuang after the revolution was "business as usual". The old nun in the nun's temple told him that he thought he would become a showman and a fake foreign devil who was the object of the revolution, "they have already come to revolution." The reason for this is as follows:
It was still morning. Zhao Xiucai was well informed, and as soon as he knew that the revolutionary party had entered the city at night, he put his braids on the top and went to visit the Qianyang devils who had never been able to do so in the morning. It was time for the "Salty and The Restoration," so they talked speculatively, and immediately became comrades of mutual agreement and agreed to go to the revolution. They thought and thought, and then they figured out that there was a dragon tablet in the ashram that read, "Long live the emperor," which should be quickly removed, so they immediately went to the nunnery to make a revolution. Lu Xun: The True Biography of Ah Q, in The Complete Works of Lu Xun, vol. 1, p. 516.
Not only that, Ah Q realized that the storm of the revolution had passed, and "the hearts of the unzhuang people were getting quieter and quieter." According to the news that came, it was known that although the revolutionary party had entered the city, there was nothing unusual about it. The grand master of Zhixian County is still the original official, but what has been renamed, and what the old man has done--these names, the people of Weizhuang can't understand--the official, the leader of the soldiers is still the previous boss." This is very similar to the overall appearance of the whole country after the Wuchang Uprising, that is, the old Qing court officials changed their appearance in a short period of time and continued to hold positions in the new regime. The revolutionaries at the end of the Qing Dynasty hoped that the "middle society" at that time would take the mission of saving the country as its own responsibility, use its identity and status to mobilize the people, communicate with the "inferior society", and achieve "civilization exclusivity". Sang Bing, "The Rejection Movement and the Self-Consciousness of Middle Society", in: The True Colors of History: Politics, Society and Culture of the Late Qing Dynasty, Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2016, pp. 63-84. And Zhao Xiucai and the fake foreign devils are also precisely a member of the "middle society", so they are naturally in line with the previous revolutionary tactics.
After the revolution, it is natural to re-establish order. "In the past few days, there has only been one fake foreign devil who has gone into the city. Zhao Xiucai also wanted to rely on the origin of the stored box to personally visit the old man, but because there was a danger of cutting the braids, he stopped. He wrote a letter from the 'Yellow Umbrella Grid', entrusted the fake foreign devils to take them to the city, and entrusted him to introduce himself to Shao to join the Liberal Party. When the fake foreign devils returned, they asked Xiucai for four pieces of foreign money, and Xiucai had a piece of silver peach hanging on the placket; the people of Weizhuang were all shocked, saying that this was the top of the persimmon oil party, worthy of a Hanlin; Zhao Taiye was suddenly broadened, far more than when his son Chu Junxiucai was, so his eyes were empty. "Lu Xun: The True Biography of Ah Q", in The Complete Works of Lu Xun, vol. 1, p. 518. In this way, these former privileged people still hold power today, and they have a beautiful and fashionable title of "Liberal Party". And when Ah Q, who had long aspired to revolution, went to visit the "revolutionary comrades" fake foreign devils:
Ah Q gently approached, standing behind Zhao Bai's eyes, thinking of greeting, but he didn't know how to say it: it was not okay to call him a fake foreign devil, it was not appropriate for foreigners, it was not appropriate for the revolutionary party, or it should be called Mr. Yang.
Mr. Yang did not see him, because he was speaking with white eyes:
"I was impatient, so when we met, I always said: Brother Hong! Let's do it! He always said No! - This is a foreign language, you don't understand. Otherwise it would have been successful long ago. Yet that's where he's careful. He repeatedly invited me to Hubei, but I still hadn't agreed. Who wants to do things in this small county. ......”
"Well... This..." Ah Q waited for him to pause slightly, and finally opened his mouth with twelve points of courage, but he did not know why, and he did not call him Mr. Yang.
The four men who listened to the conversation all looked back at him in amazement. Mr. Yang also saw:
"What?"
"I..."
"Get out!"
"I'm going to vote..."
"Get out!" Mr. Yang raised his mourning stick.
Zhao Baiyan and the idlers all shouted, "Sir told you to get out, don't you listen!" ”
Ah Q threw his hand over his head and unconsciously fled out the door; Mr. Yang did not chase him. He ran for more than sixty paces, and only then did he walk slowly, and sorrow welled up in his heart: Mr. Yang did not allow him to make a revolution, he had no other way; from now on he could never expect a man in white armor to call him, and all his ambitions, ambitions, hopes, and future were all written off. Lu Xun: The True Biography of Ah Q, in The Complete Works of Lu Xun, vol. 1, pp. 519-520.
In the eyes of Xiu cai and fake foreign devils who have traditional merits and retain new knowledge in the west, Ah Q, who has a humble identity, is not worthy of being with them at all. How can such a lowly person be involved in such a civilized cause as the revolution? The foreign text coming out of the mouth of the fake foreign devil symbolizes that he already belongs to the superior "civilized man". This group is the main planner and participant of the revolution, and the heavy responsibility of establishing a new order after the revolution should naturally be borne by such people. Therefore, Ah Q wanted to change his fate through revolution, but he was "not allowed to revolution". Revolutions also require qualifications, and this qualification is in line with the status and conditions of domination formed before the revolution.
In this regard, after Ah Q was deeply disappointed, he was ashamed and angry. Soon after, the Zhao family was robbed, and Ah Q was arrested as a criminal. In the gate:
Although Ah Q was a little nervous, he was not very depressed, because the bedroom in his Tugu Ancestral Hall was not more intelligent than this room. The two also seemed to be countrymen, and gradually got into a fight with him, one said that the old man wanted to chase after the Old Rent owed by his grandfather, and the other did not know what he was doing. They asked Ah Q, and Ah Q replied sharply, "Because I want to rebel."
The next half of the day, he was caught out of the fence door again, and went to the lobby, where sat an old man with a shaved head. Ah Q suspected that he was a monk, but when he saw a row of soldiers standing below, and on both sides stood more than a dozen figures in long robes, some with shaved heads like this old man, and some with a foot long hair draped behind his back like the fake foreign devil, all of whom looked at him with a face of horizontal flesh and angry eyes; he knew that this man must have some history, and his knee joints immediately relaxed naturally, so he knelt down.
"Stand and say! Don't kneel! The long-robed figures all shouted.
Although Ah Q seemed to understand, he always felt that he could not stand, and he squatted down involuntarily, and finally took advantage of the situation to kneel.
"Slavery! The long-robed figure said with disdain, but did not call him up.
"You have come from the truth, so that you may not suffer hardships. I already knew that. Recruit can put you. The bald old man looked at Ah Q's face and said quietly and clearly.
"Excuse me!" The long-shirted figure also spoke out loud.
"I was going to... Come and vote..." A Q Huli thought about it for a while, and then said intermittently.
"So, why didn't you come?" The old man asked kindly.
"Fake foreign devils don't allow me!"
"Nonsense! At this moment, it is too late. Where are your comrades now? ”
"What? ......”
"A group of people who robbed the Zhao family that night."
"They didn't come to call me. They moved away on their own. Ah Q was indignant when he mentioned it.
"Where did you go?" Say it and let you go. The old man was more amiable.
"I don't know... They didn't come to call me..." Lu Xun: The True Biography of Ah Q, in The Complete Works of Lu Xun, vol. 1, pp. 522-523.
Not only did Ah Q not become a revolutionary party, but he was also regarded as a thief by the newly established power organs after the revolution. And even his fear of the government was regarded as "slavery" by the revolutionary upstarts who had been influenced by the new civilization. In this way, Ah Q was oppressed by a double oppression: both by the social structure dominated by the gentry in the past, and by the new discourse system in the name of the new, which had a high affinity with the power structure of the past. The "civil rights" proclaimed by the Revolutionary Party do not seem to include the poor and unsuspecting "people" like Ah Q.
In "The True Biography of Ah Q", Lu Xun, as a former revolutionary, uses literary expressions to portray the face of rural China before and after the Xinhai Revolution, revealing the affinity between this revolution and the domination of the gentry, and the participants and beneficiaries of the new regime are largely inextricably linked to the old regime. They have only changed their ideological rhetoric, not the basic structure of Chinese society, and exploitation is not only widespread, but also given new legitimacy. From this, he reflected on where the power base of the Republic of China regime lay and why the revolution did not benefit most of the bottom people in China.
For the Xinhai Revolution, in addition to seeing its end of the imperial system, it is also necessary to understand some deeper problems. Although the Provisional Law of the Republic of China, which is now praised, emphasizes that "the sovereignty of the Republic of China belongs to the whole nation". It is recognized that "the people of the Republic of China are all equal, without distinction between race, class or religion". "Provisional Law of the Republic of China", in Xia Xinhua et al., "The Constitutional History of Modern China: A Collection of Historical Materials", Beijing: China University of Political Science and Law Press, 2004, p. 156. But according to Feng Youlan, who was once a bystander of this revolution, he recalled:
I now feel that part of the driving force of the Xinhai Revolution was the overthrow of the official power by the gentry, that is, the overthrow of the landlord class by the improper power faction of the landlord class. The people's rights and people's livelihood in the Three People's Principles were not only not understood by the ordinary people at that time, but also not all the people in the revolutionary ranks at that time. I also advocate that the Xinhai Revolution was a bourgeois-democratic revolution. But I also think that the bourgeois forces at that time were very weak. The so-called struggle between official power and gentry power is precisely to express the contradictions within the landlord class at that time, and when the Xinhai Revolution came together, the gentry power naturally became an ally of the revolution, and together they opposed the rule of the landlord class in power, that is, the landlord class in power represented by the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Feng Youlan: Self-Introduction of Sansongtang, Shanghai: Oriental Publishing Center, 2016, p. 37.
Meng Wentong, who personally experienced the Xinhai Revolution in Sichuan, also recalled, "After the overthrow of Manchu Qing rule, the so-called civil rights appeared, and this civil rights were actually gentry rights." Meng Wentong: A Preliminary Study on the Relationship between Landlords and Tenant Farmers in Feudal Society in China, in Meng Mo, ed., The Complete Works of Meng Wentong, vol. 3, Chengdu: Bashu Book Society, 2014, p. 292. According to Wang Rongzu's research, during the Xinhai Revolution, "in many regions, revolutionaries had to rely on the political and economic support of the gentry to declare independence." As revolutionaries, "the revolutionary party failed to guide the mass movement, let alone mobilize the people." Even the most radical revolutionaries, most of whom come from humble backgrounds and are more sympathetic to the weaker groups of the lower classes, do not know the importance of organizing anger against the townspeople." On the contrary, "after the revolution, the local governments at all levels in the Republic of China relied on the economic support of the gentry and could not offend the gentry class, including the 'inferior gentry'." Wang Rongzu, "On the Three Main Driving Forces of the Xinhai Revolution", in Reading History in Three Editions, Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2019, pp. 260, 261. According to Zhang Pengyuan's statistics, the members of the first national assembly of the Republic of China are either rich or noble, belong to the upper class, and take the protection of their own economic interests and social privileges as the main political position. Zhang Pengyuan, The Dilemma of China's Democratic Politics, 1909-1949: A Discussion on the Parliamentary Elections since the Late Qing Dynasty, Changchun: Jilin Publishing Group, 2008, p. 103. In this context, as Li Jiannong, a witness to the politics of the early Ming Dynasty, said, all political groups at that time "were political groups without a basis for the people, and political groups were only special products of the gentry class." Thus the political parties in the Senate "have no relationship with the people, and have become rootless duckweeds on the water." Li Jiannong, Political History of China in the Past Hundred Years, Wuhan: Wuhan University Press, 2006, pp. 283-284.
It can be inferred from this that the overwhelming victory of the gentry power may be an important factor in why a veritable democratic politics could not be established after the Xinhai Revolution.
This article is authorized to be excerpted from Wang Rui's Ten Lectures on the History of Modern Chinese Thought, Guangxi Normal University Press.
