Xu Zidong
This year marks the 140th anniversary of Lu Xun's birth and the 85th anniversary of his death. In Xu Zidong's new book, Rereading the Chinese Novel of the 20th Century, there are several interpretations of Lu Xun and his works. In this video, we let Teacher Xu Zidong talk on the spot, he understands Lu Xun as a writer and Lu Xun's spirit, and answers questions from netizens.
10:43
Video loading...
Xu Zidong on Lu Xun (10:43)
From a literary point of view, what kind of literary scholar is Lu Xun?
Lu Xun was one of the 10 most important people in China in the 20th century, and Lu Xun's significance extends far beyond modern literature. But on the other hand, Lu Xun is said to be a thinker and a politician, and in the final analysis he is a writer. The best example is that in the controversy between the two slogans in 1936, lu Xun, as the nominal leader of the Left League, was unwilling to obey the instructions of the Comintern to dissolve the Left League, which means that the nature of the writer surpasses others.
Lu Xun
I often feel that the tradition of Lu Xun that we are talking about now is a tradition in which many Chinese intellectuals in the 20th century participated in the construction together. In a sense, when we talk about Lu Xun, generation after generation of people have integrated their ideals, beliefs, ambitions, and hearts into their understanding of Lu Xun. Therefore, in my opinion, the spirit of Lu Xun no longer belongs to Lu Xun alone, it belongs to the group of Chinese intellectuals throughout the 20th century, and it is a banner for them. This is from the perspective of the great literary history or the development of Chinese culture throughout the 20th century, and from a specific point of view, Lu Xun is also a writer, thinker, and politician who lives with us every day. The core mission of Lu Xun's works is actually the song in our national anthem, "Rise up, people who are not willing to be slaves", that is, I hope that Chinese cannot be slaves forever and are willing to be slaves. Lu Xun's pen analyzes in detail the four different dividing lines between slaves and slaves. If you feel that you are comfortable doing it, like Ah Q, you can be psychologically cathartic, or if you become a slave, you have to beat others, or you want to have your own slaves, and so on, in Lu Xun's view, it is the national nature that we must find a way to transform. Of course, many contemporary writers have constantly raised questions, saying that Lu Xun's ideal of transforming the national nature is too difficult, because it wants to change the secular nature of Chinese society, but Lu Xun pursues such a far-reaching goal, just like everyone says that there are infinite distances, countless people, such a big black house, everyone is sleeping - now there are many people who pretend to sleep, how can Lu Xun wake people up? Also, how do you know you're awake, and how do you judge that you can wake up others?
Despite so many questions, we still try our best to follow Lu Xun's tradition and inherit Lu Xun's spirit, although no one can do it, but everyone is yearning for it.
We have just talked about Lu Xun's influence on China's political development as a thinker, but I have to repeat that Lu Xun is a literary scholar in the end.
In the late 1920s, Lu Xun was criticized by the young revolutionary writers of the time, and one of the harshest criticisms was to ask him: Are you revolutionizing for literature's sake, or are you writing for revolution's sake? In fact, this question, for more than half a century and now nearly a century, will always be asked, and we must all reflect on it, according to the original meaning of Li Chuli's question at that time, if you are literature for the sake of revolution, then literature is the instrument of revolution; if you are revolution for literature's sake, you are just using revolution to achieve your literary goals, which seems to be not pious enough at that time.
Li Chuli (April 1900 – May 15, 1994) was a major member of the Later Creation Society
Another example is that when Lu Xun explained his famous novel "Medicine", he said that in order to obey the "general orders" at that time - referring to Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, and Li Dazhao, everyone now knows them when they read "The Age of Awakening". —— At the end of "Medicine", a wreath was deliberately added to the martyr's grave, indicating that Xia Yu was actually Qiu Jin, and the descendants of her tomb would also give her flowers. Why did Lu Xun specifically explain this? First, Lu Xun wanted to explain that his art had been used in this place to serve the revolution and politics; second, Lu Xun specifically explained that this was deliberately added, and the next sentence" showed how far my work is from art" in his meaning, so adding a bright garland, actually lost artistry. Later citations, the last paragraph is unintroduced, stuck out. Everyone must understand Lu Xun's loyalty to the revolution, this sincerity, as well as his sober observation and heartfelt heart for art.
Stills from The Age of Awakening
What is the point of rereading a novel or literary work today? And among ordinary readers today, do you think Mr. Lu Xun has been mythologized?
The first thing it means to reread a novel or to read literature is the same today as it is at all times: to discover yourself. Literature is a solemn lie, it is a false thing, but there is something real behind it, there is yourself that you don't know, so its meaning is unchanged.
Whether Lu Xun is mythologized or not is not available to today's ordinary readers. Today's ordinary readers, I often see that Mr. Lu Xun is not respected, and there are many people who are very ignorant and fearless, and scold them indiscriminately. Lu Xun was once mythologized, but today it is not, but the respect of the intellectual circles for Lu Xun is enough.
Teacher Xu, I am your little fan, "post-95", just graduated from college for a year, in the "Gong Gong Xing Tianxia" to see Teacher Zhou Yijun said a sentence called "the antonym of happiness is happiness", until now still did not understand this sentence, I want to ask Teacher Xu to point it out.
I think the context they're talking about is about family, basically about a family after marriage. In the case of the married family, happiness represents a pursuit, behind which is love and love, but this pursuit may break the existing stability, so its antonym is happiness, happiness actually refers to the existing stability, or loyalty and righteousness - Wang Anyi likes to use the word. It means that the relationship between people is often one is loyalty and righteousness, one is love and love, you have to emphasize loyalty and righteousness, your relationship must be lasting, it must be stable, reliable, loyal, this will bring happiness. And you are constantly pursuing, maybe you have happiness, but at the same time this happiness, there will be risks, and it may destroy your existing stability. Presumably. The common sense of happiness should be pain, as I understand it. Of course, we can also explain this statement again, human nature is the pursuit of pleasure, according to Freud, the original I am the pursuit of pleasure without limit, but the superego and the ego will control this self, why? Because in addition to pursuing happiness at this moment, life also wants to be happy tomorrow, and I want to be happy forever. Well, then the problem comes, if you want to be equally happy tomorrow, and always be so happy in the future, today's happiness has limitations, there are many conditions. There is a movie in the United States called "Smelling Women", (among which) there is a man who is dying, so he rents a wonderful hotel and rents a very expensive car. We all want to have a luxury car, even if it is once in a lifetime, but if you know that driving today, tomorrow will be bankrupt, the day after tomorrow the house is gone, then this car will not bring you happiness. Therefore, I think life is these two things, one is to pursue happiness, infinite happiness, and the second is to ensure that you can still be happy in the future. According to the British theorist Hobbes, man's instinct is two, one is to pursue pleasure infinitely, and the second is to fear sudden death. He said that because man has a second characteristic, he needs a modern state, a policeman, and an emperor, otherwise man will fight with people indefinitely, and his dissection of human nature basically implements the concept of understanding human nature.
Stills from "Smell the Woman"
Editor-in-Charge: Gu Ming
Proofreader: Liu Wei