To commemorate the 140th anniversary of Lu Xun's birth, on October 30, the Consulate General of Niigata held a Sino-Japanese online exchange meeting with Lu Xun and Mr. Fujino, and the People's China Magazine was one of the supporting units for this event. Wang Zhongyi, editor-in-chief of the company, was invited to be among the four speakers as a media person. The following is the text of the speech at the exchange meeting, with slight changes by the author.
Mr. Lu Xun's "Mr. Fujino" created in 1926 was studied in high school classes more than 40 years ago. Impressive, but not deeply experienced. Many years later, when I engaged in cross-cultural exchanges between China and Japan in People's China, I had a deeper understanding of this experience that can be called Lu Xun's understanding of the origin of China and the world, as well as the historical and practical significance of this work.
More than a decade ago, when Sino-Japanese relations encountered difficulties, a Japanese friend in Shanghai sent a wall calendar with portraits of Lu Xun and Mr. Fujino printed on it. This made me realize that the topic of "farewell and handshake" between China and Japan has always been haunting the hearts of people of insight in China and Japan! I began to think about the historical and practical significance of this work.
In 1904, a young man named Zhou Shuren came to Japan to study at the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. Two imperialist countries were fighting on Chinese soil, but Chinese involved and killed. Lu Xun, who originally came to Japan with the dream of studying medicine, saw a shocking scene in the slide screening of the class: Chinese was executed as a Russian spy, and a large group of Chinese spectators watched numbly. On the other hand, the Japanese students around them are shouting long live one by one. This stimulus made him wake up suddenly: it is useless to just be physically strong but mentally numb, and it is not as good as learning medicine to strengthen the body of the Chinese people than to enlighten the spirit of the Chinese people. This experience shows that Zhou Shuren, an international student, has the awakening of national consciousness, at this time he realized that enlightenment of people's wisdom and cultivation of a sound personality are the first, and the leap from the aspiration of medical treatment to the aspiration of healing the country laid the ideological foundation for Lu Xun in the future.
As an international student from a poor and weak country, Zhou Shuren suffered from the blank stares and slanders of chauvinistic and inflated Japanese students in school. Therefore, the appearance of Fujino Yanjiuro in the eyes of Zhou Shuren naturally radiated a different color. His earnestness, rigor, tolerance and goodwill allowed the Zhou shu people to find a trustworthy object in the Japanese. The commemorative photo of Mr. Fujino with the words "Farewell Fujino Respectfully Presents Zhou Jun" on the back has always accompanied Zhou Shuren - Lu Xun and has never abandoned. After more than 20 years of fermentation, this trust and friendship have finally been presented as an immortal work at the end of the pen.
I think it is precisely because of Lu Xun's experience in Sendai that he has a broader mind. The awakening of national consciousness led him to grow into a staunch patriot, and his study of medicine and his encounter with Mr. Fujino made him believe in the beauty that exists between man and man, and this must have played a positive role in promoting his future as a humanitarian, a cosmopolitan and even an internationalist. I boldly speculate that it is precisely this firm belief that Lu Xun wrote at the end of "Mr. Fujino" more than 20 years later in the days of great setbacks: "Whenever I am tired at night and I am trying to be lazy, I catch a glimpse of his dark and thin face in the light on my back, and it seems that I am about to say something that is depressed and frustrated, so I suddenly find my conscience again, and I increase my courage, so I light a cigarette and continue to write some words that are deeply hated by the likes of 'upright gentlemen'."
Fujino's later situation also proves that although he and Lu Xun did not meet again after parting, their hearts were always the same. After the publication of "Mr. Fujino", Lu Xun inquired from many sources about the recent situation of his mentor who had been sorry for more than 20 years, "Among the teachers I think I have, he is the one that makes me most grateful and gives me encouragement." And fujino knew that after the great writer Lu Xun had written his own story, he never contacted Lu Xun because of his predicament. In October 1936, news of Lu Xun's death reached Japan. According to Mr. Fujino's nephew, looking at the photo of Lu Xun in the newspaper, Fujino held the newspaper above his head and prayed a few times. When he learned that Lu Xun not only hung his own photographs on the wall and wrote them in his works, but had also been looking for him over the years to see him or his descendants, Mr. Fujino was deeply remorseful and wrote a short essay "Remembering Zhou Shurenjun" which was published in the Japanese Progressive Magazine.
The reason why Lu Xun was so kind to international students, Mr. Fujino once said to people, "Although in the past many years of the Sino-Japanese War, many Japanese people insulted Chinese as 'braided monks' and said bad things about Chinese. The Sendai Medical College also had a group of people who looked at Zhou Jun blankly and regarded him as a dissident. I was a teenager... Having studied Chinese, he has great respect for China's sages, so he should cherish people from this country. That's why I feel so kind and grateful to Zhou Jun."
Mr. Fujino's belief in justice was reflected in his attitude during the war. In 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident broke out, and the Japanese army invaded China in an all-round way. Drug prices have skyrocketed as a result of a surge in military purchases of medicines. Mr. Fujino has a lot of medicines in the clinic in the countryside, but in the face of the high prices of the drug dealers, he speculates that these drugs are stored to meet the needs of local villagers and have not been sold to each other at all. He told his sons, "Remember that China is the gentleman who taught culture to Japan."
It was in this way that Fujino Resisted the unjust war of aggression against China. But he did not live to the day his homeland shook hands with the country he respected. Mr. Fujino's eldest son, Tsuneya Fujino, was forced into the army and died of illness in Hiroshima in January 1945. Mr. Fujino, who was 71 years old at the time, endured the grief of the white-haired people sending the black-haired people and returned to the clinic to resume his old business to maintain his life. On 11 August, four days before the end of the war, he died of overwork.
Before his death, Lu Xun died a year before the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance, and before his death, on the one hand, he was deeply concerned about the situation of the War of Resistance, and on the other hand, he still firmly believed that China and Japan would always have a day when they would "cross the waves of robbery and brotherhood, meet each other and smile and have a vendetta."
Against the backdrop of unfortunate history, the stories of Lu Xun and Mr. Fujino are precious. This personal friendship, which transcends national prejudice and is based on respect and goodwill, sows the seeds of people-to-people friendship and trust and reconciliation between the two peoples.
In his lifetime, Mr. Lu Xun made friends with more than 160 Japanese friends who loved peace, respected China, and made progress in their thinking. In 1931, Masuda, who came to Shanghai to study, worshiped Lu Xun as a teacher. Lu Xun took extra care of the Japanese student as Mr. Fujino did to himself. Masuda once recalled that once Lu Xun showed him a picture of Fujino and told him, "I don't know how the teacher is doing." Probably...... possible...... Already dead? I don't know if he has any children, or if he can find his children...".
In the last 9 years of his life in Shanghai, Lu Xun met a japanese friend he trusted all his life. Based in the Neishan Bookstore, Lu Xun completed many of his plans in his later years, leaving behind countless touching stories. It can be said that during the period in Shanghai, China ushered in the most fierce period of domestic and international struggle, and Lu Xun also completed the final formation of his thinking, firmly stood on the side of progress, justice, peace, and the people, and completed his life of fighting and shouting. In the face of the changes in the times, he "had a vast heart and a vast expanse of hearts, and listened to thunder in the silent place"; in the face of the continuous escalation of Japanese militarism's invasion of China, he firmly condemned it, and on the other hand distinguished between the nationalist elements and the Japanese people, believing that "the masses in Japan and China are originally brothers"; in the face of the end of his life, he revealed the broad mind that concerned mankind: "The night that is going on outside, the infinite distance, and countless people are all related to me." In the process, the help provided to him by Uchiyama was great and selfless.
After Lu Xun's death, Uchiyama continued to travel to promote and popularize Lu Xun's works; after returning to China after the war, he served as the first chairman of the Japan-China Friendship Association, and bowed down to promote non-governmental friendship. After the war, Uchiyama also wrote a chapter in the story between Lu Xun's family and Mr. Fujino. In 1956, Lu Xun's widow Xu Guangping, during his visit to the World Congress on the Prohibition of Atomic Bombs, originally planned to worship the tomb of Mr. Fujino during his visit to Fukui. Due to excessive fatigue caused by the continuous activities, Xu Guangping had to entrust Uchiyama to complete the worship on his behalf. Uchiyama lived up to his promise and read Xu Guangping's letter aloud in front of Fujino's cemetery. This should be a great consolation for Lu Xun, who did not see that "the brothers who crossed the robbery wave were there, and met with a smile and a vengeance", and the spirit of Fujino Yankuro, who never forgot that "China is the gentleman who taught culture to Japan".
Relying on the strength of the people, the "Lu Xun Monument" was established in Sendai in 1960, and the "Farewell Monument" was established in Fukui Prefecture in 1964.
Relying on the dual efforts of the people and the government, and through the promotion of officials by the people, the two countries finally normalized diplomatic relations in 1972, and the leaders of China and Japan held hands together.
Lu Xun's family has never forgotten the commemoration of Mr. Fujino and the connection with Mr. Fujino's descendants. Needless to say, Mrs. Xu Guangping said that the eldest son, Zhou Haiying, also did a lot of work for this. Later, Lu Xun's eldest grandson, Zhou Lingfei, took over the baton.
In 1980, in Shimoban, Ashibara, the birthplace of Mr. Fujino, the "Fujino Yankuro Monument" inscribed by Zhou Haiying was established. Because of this relationship, Mr. Fujino's hometown of Awara and Lu Xun's hometown of Shaoxing city are also sister cities. The friendship between Lu Xun and Mr. Fujino has become a good story through these channels and forms.
In 2009, at Xiamen University, where Lu Xun wrote "Mr. Fujino," Lu Xun's eldest grandson Zhou Lingfei and Fujino Yukiya, the grandson of Fujino Yanjiuro, also clasped hands.
In 2017, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Nathan Bookstore, a commemorative event was held in Shanghai. In front of the former site of Shanghai Neishan Bookstore, "People's China" witnessed the historic handshake between Neishan's nephew Neishan and Lu Xun's eldest grandson, Zhou Lingfei.
Pioneered by Lu Xun, the personal friendship between China and Japan continues in the new era, bringing hope to the future.
Revisiting "Mr. Fujino" has a special significance today.
First of all, this article begins to textualize the personal friendship between China and Japan. At the beginning of the 20th century, many Chinese literati crossed to the east, but there were few people outside lu xun who recorded the friendship with people of insight in Japan and inspired future generations.
Secondly, Lu Xun was a pioneer in telling The Story of China and the World in the 20th Century. Lu Xun's novels and essays made modern Chinese culture actively introduced and circulated by the world for the first time, setting a precedent for modern Chinese literature to go out.
Third, Lu Xun's concern for "infinite distances and countless people" embodies the human feelings, as well as the sympathy between him and Mr. Fujino, transcending time and space and providing a humanistic height for us to promote the community of human destiny today.
The foundation of Sino-Japanese friendship lies in the non-governmental sector. Although there are many problems and even difficulties between China and Japan, there is a deep foundation for the people's desire to deepen understanding, watch over each other and help each other. Whether it is the selfless help of the Chinese people to the Fukushima disaster area during the "March 11" earthquake, or the encouragement from Japan's "wind and moon on the same day" and "Wuhan refueling" in the early days of the new crown epidemic last year, it shows the possibility of China and Japan working together. In the face of the century-old changes in the world, at the time node of the 50th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations, and in the context of building Sino-Japanese relations that meet the requirements of the new era, the story of Lu Xun and Mr. Fujino will inspire us to firmly promote people-to-people friendship, carry out people-to-people exchanges with confidence, and promote Sino-Japanese relations into a new realm.
(Text: Wang Zhongyi)