Yulu Poetry Class Lecture 13: Mr. Lu Xun's "Self-Titled Little Portrait"_Liu Yulong's Two Hearts Collection_Sina Blog
A photograph of Mr. Lu Xun wearing two pieces of hair. Photographed in Shanghai at the age of 53. According to her son Zhou Haiying' recollection: This is Xu Guangping's favorite photo, and the sweater was knitted by her.
The children:
The poet who is most special to my father is Mr. Lu Xun, who I want to talk about today.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="01" data-track="4" why do > must be called "Mr. Lu Xun"? </h1>
In the past, we talked about Li Du, Su Shi and other great literary scholars, and my father also called them by his first name and was at ease, but today this literary father must call him "Mr. Lu Xun". Li Du and Su Shi were gods in the literary heavenly kingdom, and Dad did not dare to count them as his own husbands. Mr. Lu Xun's honorific title contains great trust and closeness: Mr. Lu Xun is his father's strict teacher, close friend, and dear elder.
Yu: "Mr. Lu Xun is an elder, like Grandpa and Grandpa. ”
"Very right: but he is more than grandpa and grandfather, and if he lives to be exactly 140 years old, he is 12 years older than Chairman Mao."
Mr. Lu Xun's life spanned three dynasties: he was born in the Guangxu year of the Qing Dynasty, formally wrote and became famous during the Beiyang warlord period, and spent his old age during the Nationalist government. Mr. Lu Xun's life is only 55 years old, and his life coincides with the most chaotic and national decay in China's modern history: at the age when today's children have just graduated from primary school, they encountered a crushing defeat in China in the Sino-Japanese War; when they were just in high school, the Eight-Nation Alliance rushed into Beijing and China was almost destroyed; just two years after going to work, the Qing Emperor stepped down, and the nature of the country changed dramatically; in middle age, a Beiyang military leader surnamed Zhang Mingxun found a deposed emperor to stuff into a dragon chair, and the city of Beijing was full of paper paste dragon flags; later, the military leaders fought fiercely. In the last few years of his life, he kept hearing the bad news that his comrades and friends had been thrown into a black jail or even killed directly by his Zhejiang compatriot who had won the war of the military, and that Japan's all-out invasion of China was in a dense cloud...
When he set out to study abroad, Lu Xun was still a childish teenager's face. He was born in the late Qing Dynasty, shi in Beiyang, and died in the Republic of China. All my life in China's most chaotic times.
Yu: "Is that military leader Chiang Kai-shek?" ”
"Exactly. Later, several of Mr. Lu Xun's students, Chairman Mao, were sent to Taiwan. This is where we have the People's Republic of China now. ”
Why is Dad most special to Mr. Lu Xun?
Lu: "Why Daddy?" ”
Mr. Lu Xun's works are very popular with his father and have almost all read them. Mr. Lu Xun's life was not long, but he left a large number of works: novels, essays, lectures, treatises, plays, letters, diaries... And the poems—we'll read a few more, adding up to at least eight or nine million words. What concept? Mr. Lu Xun began to write formally around the age of twenty, and until his death, he had only thirty-five years to write, and he had to write seven or eight hundred words a day: still in his spare time. Mr. Lu Xun's job is a government civil servant, a university professor, a newspaper editor, and after becoming famous, he often has to participate in social activities, as the eldest son of the family and the mentor of all the Young people in China, he has to deal with countless chores, and he has to write seven or eight hundred words a day... Iron Man also survived, and it is no wonder that he died at the age of fifty-five.
Mr. Lu Xun has a lot of social activities. The picture shows the entrance of Song Qingling's residence on Molière Road in Shanghai, taking a group photo with George Bernard Shaw, Smedley, Cai Yuanpei, Song Qingling and others.
Li Du and Su Shi left the works that Dad did not read in its entirety, and did not dare to call them teachers. Mr. Lu Xun's published works have almost all been read by his father, so he is his father's teacher—or a strict teacher. Every time Dad wrote, he always felt that Mr. Lu Xun was standing behind him with his hands behind his back, and a charity smile hung from the corner of his mouth, but the air was filled with the sighs in his heart: There is no successor, no one... Such Lu Xun often guides me as a teacher and often accompanies me as a friend. As an elder, he never nagged about almost all the problems encountered by his father, and had prepared at least one penetrating point of mention to let his father step on the past.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="02" data-track="67" > Mr. Lu Xun's points</h1>
Leaving your age and carefully reading a little book, My father was confused about what kind of person he wanted to be, and Grandpa Lu Xun said to me: "Since ancient times, there have been people who have buried their heads in hard work, people who have worked hard, people who have asked for the people's lives, and people who have sacrificed their lives to seek the law,...... Although it is equivalent to the so-called 'correct history' of the emperors and generals, they often cannot hide their glory, and this is the backbone of China" ("And Jieting Essays Chinese Have Lost Their Self-Confidence"). Therefore, Dad decided not to dwell on it anymore: to broaden his horizons, to strive to become one of these four kinds of people, and to do something for the country and society.
How is it so hard to do something? Dad sometimes falls into self-doubt: Do you want to stick with it? Grandpa Lu Xun immediately found his father: "The cause of the Chinese people is mostly a successful operation of the monopoly of the times, and a sneer at everything... Therefore, I am often afraid, may the young people of China get rid of the cold air, just go upwards, and do not have to listen to the words of self-destructive and self-abandoning people. Do things that can be done, make a sound that can be heard. If there is a point of heat, a point of light will make it like a firework, and it can also emit a little light in the dark without waiting for the torch" (Hot Wind: Forty-One). - What else is going on? If you can't do things for the time being, you will make a sound, and continue to do things after making a sound. Don't give up. Whoever blows air conditioners on the side, when others want to be cool and cool - who taught me that the fire in my heart is so hot?
When you two were born, Dad was once in a state of joy and didn't want to come out, and he was afraid that he was too out of the ordinary? Mr. Lu Xun reassured me and enjoyed your new life, which has nothing to do with whether I can go out or not:
Ruthless may not be really heroic,
How does mercy not husband?
Know whether the wind is roaring,
When you look back, you can see that it is smaller than Su.
You should be full of affection for your children, and you should be generous in loving your children. Do you know that the tigers who reign supreme in the mountains and forests still look back at their little tigers from time to time? Mr. Xu Shousheng once said in the article "Nostalgia" in memory of Mr. Lu Xun that the writing of this "Answering The Question" was "probably for his beloved son Hai Bao, who is lively and lovely, and the guest refers to it for coddling." - How's it going? It was exactly the same as Dad's situation at the time. It is also a shame to think that I love it frankly, and I also need Mr. Lu Xun to teach him in his busy life: Dad is really a foolish junior.
Mr. Lu Xun did not hide his love for his son Zhou Haiying.
More examples aside, too many are too many. Today, Dad will introduce this teacher, friend, and elder to you, and when you read more of Mr. Lu Xun's works in the future and become familiar with him, you will decide your fate with Mr. Lu.
Yu: "Daddy loves Lu Xun." ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="03" data-track="75" > good poems have temperatures</h1>
"Answering the Question" is the first poem of the gentleman that children meet, and there are many more words: there are not many such poems that begin with firm negation, and negation will produce eloquent momentum, and those who blow air conditioners will be deadly: You are all wrong, of course, pity is really a husband! The third and fourth sentences are followed by self-questions and self-answers, let alone give the "righteous gentleman" room to continue to blow air: Do you know that the tiger is the honor of a hundred beasts, and how mighty is the Wuthering Mountain Forest? Only parent-child affection can make it look back step by step. In fact, how to write is also secondary, and the key source of strength in this poem is really sentient in Mr. Lu Xun. Sun Liankui's "Poetry Hypothesis" said: "There is true feelings, so there are true poems... But the pride of the spirit is the poetry of extravagance." We will focus on reading Yi's "Self-Titled Portrait", although it is not written in a negative way, but it is the same as this "Answer to the Question": from the truth, it has its own arrogance.
(Take a break)
Let's read "Self-Titled Portrait" together:
Lingtai has no plan to escape the god arrow,
Wind and rain like a rock dark old garden.
Wishing that the cold star Tsuen did not notice,
I recommend Xuanyuan with my blood.
Regardless of what the poem means, do you feel that it is very heavy and cold when you read it again?
Lu: "There is blood. Is it bleeding? ”
Lulu found it very accurately, and Dad would talk about it next.
Good poetry has a temperature. For example, this "Self-Titled Portrait": whether it is bloodshed, cold stars, or the rhythm of the whole poem... Together, we give it to the people: this is a cryogenic poem. What about hot poems? You will all recite Du Fu's "Wen Guanjun Collects Henan hebei"...
Fool: "Yes! Outside the sword, it was suddenly rumored that thistle was collected, and the first smell of tears filled his clothes..."
This poem is hot, right? The officers and soldiers defeated the rebels, and the author's family cheered and sweated with them. There are also less hot, warm poems, such as Su Shi's "Evening View of Huichongchun River":
Bamboo peach blossom three or two branches,
Spring River Plumbing Duck Prophet.
Artemisia annua full of short buds,
It's when the puffer fish wants to get on.
What the author wrote is the scene of spring and the earth warming up. The chosen imagery: peach blossoms, spring water, ducks, aquatic grasses, puffer fish, all endowed with a "warm" word. It reads like taking a sip of white water with a moderate temperature, not like silently drinking ice like reading "Self-Titled Little Portrait", nor drinking like "Wen Guanjun Collects Henan Hebei". The most important reason: the temperature of the heart that the author hid behind the poem at that time was different. At that time, Du Fu was hot, Su Shi was warm, and Mr. Lu Xun was cold. Otherwise: even if it is also written in the spring, how can Du Fu's "Spring Hope" be colder than late autumn: "The country is broken by mountains and rivers, and the city is deep in spring and the grass and trees are deep..." It is more complicated: even if they are warm or warm poems, the degree of warmth and heat is very different for poets. Don't expand on that. Zhang Yizhi's "Traditional Chinese Culture" said it well: "Ruthless and unspeakable." There is no love to write hard, pretending to be affectionate will only be full of embarrassment. In turn: where feelings arise, poetry is natural; when feelings are different, poetry is different.
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="04" data-track="87" > "Self-Titled Portrait" is difficult to read at first</h1>
Back to Mr. Lu Xun's "Self-Titled Portrait". What does that mean? My heart could not escape the pain of the arrow: Alas, the country was in turmoil and disaster. The stars that this emotion pinned on the sky were drowned in the cold light, and I vowed to repay the nation and the motherland with all my blood.
Dad said earlier: Mr. Lu Xun's life is all entangled in the accumulated scars of China's modern history. Especially for the gentleman who was only 22 years old at the time of writing this poem: Following the fiasco of Jia Wu, the Gengzi national disaster almost crushed China, as a trivial scholar whose homeland was ruined, "Geometry does not die from Ru"? The 22-year-old Mr. Lu Xun resolutely published "The Soul of Sparta" to urge the Chinese nation to wake up quickly. I took the initiative to cut the braids that symbolized old China, and proudly took a photo to send to my friend Xu Shousheng: this poem is mentioned behind the photo. This poem has no title, and Xu Shousheng added the title of "Self-Titled Portrait" according to its origin. We now know the general meaning of this poem, which is actually Mr. Lu Xun's incomparably resolute heart: for the country and the people, do not die endlessly. There is no trace of Dad's confusion about the general direction of life at a similar age.
A group photo of Mr. Lu Xun with his friends Xu Shousheng and Jiang Jiejie.
There are at least two reasons why the poem is difficult to read at first. First, I dare not understand. The determination inside is too big, the emotion is too heavy, like Lulu said, "risking blood." Whoever gets this kind of text will be startled and ask the author over and over again why this is so. Second, it is not easy to understand. Almost every sentence is used. The first sentence of "Lingtai No Plan escapes the divine arrow" also has two canons: "Lingtai" is the ancient figurative heart, from "Zhuangzi"; "Shenya" comes from Greek mythology, saying that Cupid's arrow can control people's consciousness. The second sentence is not classic, but a "dark" word of "wind and rain like a rock dark old garden" precipitates the emotion of the whole poem: it is the switch for the cooling of the whole poem, and the words are clear. The third sentence and two canons: "Sending Intentions to The Cold Star" is used in Song Yu's "Nine Debates" to "Willing to Send Words to the Husband Meteor Xi", and "Tsuen Bu Cha" is used in Qu Yuan's "Leaving the Sorrow" in "Tsuen Does Not Detect Yu's Heartfelt Feelings". The fourth sentence is the most famous, and the emotion is extreme. Generally, poets do not use canons when they are lyrical, for fear of affecting the coherence of emotions, but Mr. Lu Xun is highly informal: "Xuanyuan" is one of the ancestors of Chinese civilization, the Yellow Emperor, referring to the nation and the motherland. "I recommend Xuanyuan with my blood" is a long rainbow, urging people to move.
How, did you understand a little?
Lu: "Lu Xun blood..."
Foolish: "Be patriotic! ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="05" data-track="92" > Mr. Lu Xun's poems can be compared with Tang poems</h1>
Very good, kids: very good. Today you know Mr. Lu Xun, and in the future, there will be opportunities to slowly become familiar with him. In fact, you can't hide if you want to, from elementary school to college, Mr. Lu Xun's works are the most selected language books. His works are a bit like today's "Four Books and Five Classics": must read and must be examined. Of course, the ancient "Four Books and Five Classics" must be read and tested today: the test is not so deep. But Mr. Lu Xun's works have been tested a lot and deeply. Mr. Lu Xun is the first writer in modern China, regardless of the standard or influence of his works. This is not what Dad said because he loved it: every time someone shouted to clean Lu Xun out of the language books, you see the fierce reaction of the whole society. Mr. Lu Xun personally wrote: I hope that I will "quickly decay", and I hope that China will just go forward and live in the ice cave of history as soon as possible. But he wrote something eternal, and the writing was so good that it could not decay.
Finally, just a few casual chats and then end the class. Children find out that there is none: "Self-Titled Portrait" is the closest to the poem we read today. Of course, the peak of poetry is in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and the poetry creation of nearly a hundred years or so - let alone than the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Ming and Qing Dynasties can not be compared. There is basically no place in the history of literature. But there are two modern people whose poems, whether artistic or popular, are not inferior to those of the Tang and Song dynasties: Chairman Mao and Mr. Lu Xun. Chairman Mao's poems can be memorized, right?
Fool: "Yes! Yes! The scenery of the northern country, the ice of thousands of miles, the snow drifting for thousands of miles..."
Mr. Lu Xun's famous passages are also many: "Ruthless may not be really Haojie", "I recommend Xuanyuan with my blood", etc. are placed next to The Tang poems and Song Ci: There is nothing to fear. Chairman Mao's "Qinyuan Spring and Snow" is not afraid to compare with the ancients: Today when we talk about "Qinyuan Spring", we will immediately mention "Qinyuan Spring And Snow", just as "Water Tune Song Head" is Su Shi Na Que, and "Slow Sound" is Li Qingzhao Na Que. Mr. Lu Xun's "Self-Titled Portrait" as the cover of all "self-titled poems", presumably there is no big controversy.
Let's get out of class.
Written at home in Beijing
Sunday, October 31, 2021