The life of Lu Xun

Lu Xun is a great modern writer and thinker in my country. His original name was Zhou Shuren, and his courtesy name was Hencai. "Lu Xun" was the pen name he used when writing for "New Youth" in 1918.

Lu Xun was born in 1881 in a large and dilapidated family in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. Shaoxing is a place with profound cultural traditions and retains many scenic spots, such as the mausoleum of the ancient flood control hero Xia Yu, the relics left by the Yue King Gou Jian where he lay down on firewood and tasted gallbladder, and the Xuantingkou where the modern anti-Qing heroine Qiu Jin calmly died, etc. There are also various folk drama performances and legends. The two "ghosts" that the folks talk about the most are: one is "a ghost with a vengeful nature, more beautiful and stronger than all other ghosts" - Nv Diao; the other is a straw rope tied around the waist and worn on the feet. Straw sandals, banana fans in hand, compassionate "impermanence". Local traditions and folk culture deeply influenced Lu Xun's life.

Lu Xun has shown a lively character since he was a child. Because his grandmother's family was in the countryside, Lu Xun also had a group of peasant children. Together they rowed a small white boat under the hazy moonlight and rushed to see a play. On the way home, when he was hungry, he "stole" his family's children. Beans from the fields were boiled and eaten. Lu Xun also discovered the infinite interest of nature in the back garden called "Baicao Garden": green vegetable beds, purple mulberries; crickets playing the piano, oil flies singing low; the human-shaped Polygonum multiflorum that can become an immortal when eaten; The legend of the "Beautiful Snake" with the head of a snake and the body of a snake... It was this kind of free childhood life that developed and cultivated the creativity and imagination of the future writer Lu Xun.

When Lu Xun was 6 years old, he bid farewell to Baicao Garden and went to the "Sanwei Bookstore" to become a student of Mr. Shou Jingwu, a very upright and knowledgeable man in the city. He studied there until he was 17 years old. Here, he was familiar with Confucian classics, and extensively read various miscellaneous books outside of Confucianism in his spare time: novels, unofficial histories, notes... He not only paid attention to history and human affairs, but also paid attention to observing nature. This opened up Lu Xun's vast spiritual space and laid a broad and profound knowledge foundation for the development of Lu Xun's later thoughts and literature.

Lu Xun's childhood also had shadows: when he was 13 years old, his grandfather was imprisoned for some reason, and he had to follow the family to seek refuge with relatives; later, his father became seriously ill, and his family life fell into difficulties. As the eldest son, Lu Xun had to frequent pawnshops and pharmacies. He felt the coldness and snobbery of society amid the discrimination and insults from people around him. In the end, his father died prematurely due to the delay of quack doctors, which deeply stimulated the young Lu Xun. From this, he began to think about Chinese society, culture, human world and people's hearts.

In 1898, 18-year-old Lu Xun left his hometown with 8 silver dollars raised by his loving mother and sought a new way out. He first entered the Nanjing Naval Academy, and later changed to the Road and Mining School. During his studies, Lu Xun began to be exposed to modern natural science knowledge such as physics, mathematics, and chemistry, and read foreign literature and scientific works. In particular, Yan Fu's translation of British Huxley's "On the Evolution of Heaven" brought him a burst of surprises. From the theory of evolution introduced in "On the Evolution of Heaven", he accepted a self-reliant, self-reliant, and independent spirit. philosophy of life, and at the same time strongly feel the crisis of the backward Chinese nation in a world of fierce competition.

In 1902, Lu Xun traveled to Japan. Two years later, with the dream of "saving the country through science," he entered the Sendai Medical College, hoping to return to China after graduation to treat patients who were mistakenly treated like his father. In Sendai, although he also met teachers who cared about him like Mr. Fujino Genkuro who taught anatomy, he was also discriminated against from time to time. Especially once in class, a slideshow recording the Russo-Japanese War was shown, and he saw a man who was representing the Russian army. The Chinese who was working as a detective was captured and beheaded by the Japanese army, while a group of Chinese stood nearby and watched. Lu Xun was greatly stimulated, and he realized that curing mental numbness was more important than curing physical weakness. The first important thing to change China was to change the spirit of the Chinese people, and those who were good at changing the spirit should promote literature and art. So Lu Xun decided to abandon medicine and pursue literature. He and his friends discussed enthusiastically: What is ideal human nature? What is lacking most in Chinese national character? What is its root cause? He published the first batch of papers in 1903, 1907, and 1908, proposing that He understood the idea that “building a country” must first “build people” and called for “spiritual warriors”.

After Lu Xun returned to China in 1909, he had been thinking painfully and remained silent for nearly ten years. It was not until the eve of the May 4th Movement in 1918 that, with the encouragement of friends, he wrote "Diary of a Madman" and published it in the magazine "New Youth". This is China's first modern vernacular novel. Through the mouth of a "madman", the novel raises bold questions about thousands of years of old traditions: "Is it right that this has always been the case?" It reveals that the history of China's feudal society is a history of "cannibalism" and sends out " "Save the children" cries. After the novel was published, it caused a great shock in society. Lu Xun couldn't stop it and wrote many novels in succession, which were later compiled into two novel collections, "Scream" and "Wandering", which were published in 1923 and 1926 respectively.

Lu Xun later explained his creative pursuits, saying that his purpose in writing novels was to awaken the Chinese people and "improve this life." Among the unfortunate people, it means to expose the suffering and draw attention to cure." He was most concerned about the "unfortunate people" in the lower class society, and created many novels with farmers and intellectuals as the main subjects, opening up the descriptive themes of modern Chinese literature. When Lu Xun observed and expressed the protagonists in his novels, he always paid attention to the mental "suffering" of people (peasants and intellectuals) in the "sick society". Therefore, in "Medicine", he only used a "patch-covered quilt" to hint at the poverty of Hua Laoshuan's family, and the frontal description was their mental ignorance of eating steamed buns with human blood. In "Hometown", the most shocking thing is not Runtu's poverty, but the spiritual distance shown by his "Master". The profoundness of "Blessing" lies in the description of the terror Xianglin's wife felt under the feudal theocracy. Lu Xun also grimly revealed the mental trauma and crisis of intellectuals: During the Revolution of 1911, the heroes who fought against the majority alone, under the pressure of the powerful feudal tradition, flew like a fly in a small circle, and then came back to stop at the same place. Life is wasted in decadence and depression ("At the Restaurant"); young men and women who bravely broke out of their old families during the May Fourth Movement limited their vision to the solidified peace and happiness of small families. They were unable to withstand the pressure of social economy, and their love also lost its power. , can only return to the old family ("Sadness").

Lu Xun also said that he wrote novels because he could not forget many painful memories in his youth. Therefore, the numb Chinese people who were watching in the Japanese slides (Lu Xun called them "spectators") continued to appear in his novels: in "Kong Yiji", the misfortune of the protagonist ( Including his leg being brutally broken by Ding Juren), it did not arouse any sympathy from the people around him, everyone just watched and laughed at him; in "Blessing", people rushed to listen to Sister Xianglin's story about "Amao was eaten by a wolf" The "story" is not out of sympathy, but just to satisfy one's curiosity and seek some excitement in a boring life. After these people got tired of hearing this, they immediately spurned her and gave Mrs. Xianglin a cold and sharp smile. This is how people appreciate the pain of others. This is not only numb, but also shows a kind of cruelty of human nature. In "Medicine", the real protagonist of the novel, Xia Yu, consciously sacrificed her life with the belief that "the Qing Dynasty belongs to all of us"; but the common people hurriedly rushed to "see" it. He was killed, and the patrons in the teahouse used his victimization as a source of gossip. All the lofty ideals and bloody sacrifices of the pioneers became meaningless performances. Behind these descriptions, it is not difficult for readers to feel that Lu Xun is "looking" with a compassionate eye. His novels are a great interrogation of the souls of modern Chinese people. Lu Xun exposed human mental illness so ruthlessly in order to expose the "sick society" that caused mental illness. Lu Xun thus developed the theme of "cannibalism in feudal society", which not only destroys the human body, but also poisons and chews the human soul.

The one that most fully embodies the characteristics of "national self-criticism" (which is commonly referred to as "transforming national character") in Lu Xun's novels is undoubtedly his masterpiece "The True Story of Ah Q" .

Lu Xun himself said that he wrote this novel to draw "the souls of the silent people" and said, "I am also afraid that what I saw (Ah Q) was not the predecessor of modern times, but the successor, or perhaps the second generation." Thirty years later”. As a result, Chinese readers will always remember and never get rid of Ah Q wearing a felt hat. What Lu Xun discovered in him was the "Spiritual Victory Method": Although Ah Q was at the bottom of Weichuang society and was always the loser in conflicts with Mr. Zhao, the fake foreign devils, and even Wang Hu and Xiao D, but However, he adopted an incredible attitude of defending and whitewashing his fate of failure and slave status. Or "close your eyes": not admitting your backwardness and enslavement at all, and indulge in unfounded self-esteem: "We were much richer than you before. Who do you think you are!" or "forget": just suffered After hearing the fake foreign devil's mourning stick, he forgot everything and became "somewhat happy." Or vent to weaker people (little nuns and the like) and get satisfaction from passing on the humiliation. Or "self-contempt," resigned to lagging behind and being enslaved: "I am an insect - why don't you let me go?" When these fail, you will deceive yourself and others, and turn your real failures into spiritual illusions in your self-illusion. Victory: Saying "son beats me" means "satisfied victory". He even slapped himself twice in the face with force, "as if he had hit someone else", and he felt calm and the world was at peace. And once they rebel, they are also dreaming of enslaving others to get whatever they want. Because of Lu Xun, people finally realized that this Ah Q-style "spiritual victory method" in themselves and others was one of the most serious ideological obstacles to the awakening and revitalization of the Chinese nation. Therefore, at the end of the novel, the moment before Ah Q walked to the execution ground, he suddenly felt the terrible wolf-like "eyes" "biting his soul" and shouted: "Help..." All Chinese people read At this point, everyone was shocked. The novel was later translated into many foreign languages, and many foreign readers also discovered Ah Q in themselves or their compatriots. The famous French writer Romain Rolland said that Ah Q reminded him of the farmers during the French Revolution. This may indicate that Ah Q's "Spiritual Victory Method" reveals a human spiritual phenomenon; Lu Xun's "The True Story of Ah Q" can be said to be a work "written for mankind". It is not only the first to be introduced to the world It is a modern Chinese novel and a great representative of modern Chinese literature that can stand on its own in the world of literature.

Lu Xun's "Scream" and "Wandering" not only shock people with their "profound expression", but also attract a large number of readers with their "special format". Someone has long pointed out that each of Lu Xun's novels experiments with a new form, with few similarities, which fully demonstrates Lu Xun's creativity and imagination. For example, his "Diary of a Madman" uses a "diary style" to organize the novel according to the flow of the "madman's" psychological activities. "Kong Yiji" also uniquely chooses the "boy" in the hotel to tell the story. As a bystander, he simultaneously observes and describes the sadness and ridiculousness of Kong Yiji, the numbness and cruelty of the onlookers (drinkers and bosses), and " "He" himself gradually participated in the story, first "laughing in agreement", and then coldly rejected Kong Yiji's kindness to teach him how to read, and finally became one of the "spectators". "Medicine" unexpectedly places the protagonist Xia Yu "behind the scenes" and uses the main space to describe people's various reactions to his sacrifice, allowing readers to complete his image in their own imagination. "First-person narrative" novels such as "Hometown" and "Blessing" all tell two stories: while telling the stories of "others" (the story of Runtu, the story of Yang Er's sister-in-law, the story of Xianglin's wife), they also tell the story of "other people". It tells the story of "my", so it has a strong lyricism. The two types of stories penetrate and influence each other, forming a complex structure. Lu Xun's conscious formal experimentation made him a "pioneer in creating new forms" and profoundly influenced subsequent authors.

While writing "The Scream" and "Wandering", Lu Xun also created the prose collection "Morning Blossoms Picked Up at Dusk" (written in 1926, published in 1928) and the prose poem "Weeds" (written in 1924). -1926, published in 1927). These are two modern prose classics with very different writing methods and styles.

When "Morning Blossoms Plucked at Dusk" was first published in newspapers and periodicals, it was always titled "Revisiting Old Things". Lu Xun probably recalled the summer nights in the water town when he was a child, enjoying the cool under the big trees and listening to the old people chatting and telling stories. situation. "Morning Blossoms Picked at Dusk" is also about talking about leisurely days, and is a recollection and retelling of the childhood period of life ("Morning Blossoms"). Therefore, in the course of Lu Xun's life, the people and things that left their mark all flowed out in Lu Xun's writings: "impermanence" in folklore, his father's illness, Baicao Garden and Sanwei Bookstore, Mr. Fujino, and other things we did not mention His childhood nanny "Chang Mama", his old friend Fan Ainong who had a rough life, and so on. Lu Xun recalled it with warm love, which revealed the softest side of Lu Xun's spiritual world and contained a deep sadness. "Weeds" is another type of prose, the product of "dreams": one-third of the chapters in the book begin with "I dreamed." What unfolds before the readers is a strange world: the sound of "eating" is heard in hallucinations in the middle of the night ("Autumn Night"); "when people sleep until they don't know the time", "shadows" come to "say goodbye" ("Autumn Night") "Shadow's Farewell"); "Dead Fire" is seen in the blue-white ice valley, "with a scorching shape, but it does not waver, and the whole body is frozen like a coral branch" ("Dead Fire"); "Dog" chases "people" ", asked loudly, and the "man" tried his best to "escape" ("The Dog's Refutation")... Lu Xun used his imagination of acting out fairy tales as a child to the extreme to express his subtle and indescribable feelings, emotions and psychology. , conduct deeper philosophical thinking about human life. Lu Xun said to others, "My philosophy is all in "Weeds", and readers have the opportunity to use "Weeds" to get a glimpse into the depths of Lu Xun's soul.

While Lu Xun was writing novels and prose, he also published essays in newspapers and magazines such as "New Youth". Around the May 4th Movement, the essays he wrote while in Beijing include "Hot Wind", "Grave" (part of which are essays written at the beginning of the century), "Huagai Collection", "Huagai Collection Sequel" and other collections. From August 1926 to October 1927, Lu Xun went south due to the persecution of the reactionary forces in the north, and taught successively at Xiamen University and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. The essays from this period are mainly collected in "Ji Ji Ji". At the end of 1927, Lu Xun settled in Shanghai and began his "last ten years" of life, focusing mainly on essay creation. He has published successively "San Xian Collection", "Er Heart Collection", "Nan Qian Bei Diao Collection", "Pseudo Free Letter", "Quan Feng Yue Tan", "Lace Literature", "Qie Jie Ting Essays", "Qie Jie Ting Essays", "Qie Jie Ting Essays" "The Last Edition", "Jiwaiji", etc.

Lu Xun once said that essays are the "nerves of induction". As a newspaper and periodical style, its greatest feature is that it can make the fastest response to the happening social, ideological and cultural realities, and get social feedback in a timely manner. response. Therefore, it is the most effective way for intellectuals like Lu Xun, who always pay attention to the destiny of the country and the people, and the suffering of the people, to maintain close contact with the times in which he lived. Lu Xun also said that the task of essay writers "is to immediately respond or fight against harmful things", and therefore divided essays into two categories: "social criticism" and "civilized criticism." Lu Xun has been fighting all his life. With the ideal of "building people", he directed his criticism towards any form and scope of enslavement and oppression of people (national enslavement, class oppression, male discrimination against women, old people against young people). the destruction of the weak, the strong against the weak, etc.). He said that what he did was not out of personal ambition, but for the "future" of China and mankind. Therefore, all his criticisms were "actually public hatred, not personal grudges." Lu Xun's 15 collections of essays are faithful records of Chinese society from around the May Fourth Movement to the mid-1930s, and are a history of ideological and cultural development. As a writer, Lu Xun paid more attention to people's thoughts, emotions, and psychological reactions and changes behind historical events. Lu Xun once said with confidence: "The 'soul of the Chinese people' is now reflected in my essays." In this sense, Lu Xun's essays are a living "human history" of modern Chinese people. If you want to truly understand Chinese society and history, especially the Chinese people, then read Lu Xun's essays.

At the last moment of his life, Lu Xun also dedicated a collection of novels "New Stories" (except for three stories written in the 1920s, most of the others were written in 1934 and 1935, and published in 1936. ). This is Lu Xun's "new interpretation" (new interpretation and inspiration) of "stories" (ancient myths, legends and historical facts) in the 1920s and 1930s. The ancients who entered Lu Xun's literary world were either heroes from ancient myths and legends: Nuwa ("Mending the Sky"), Hou Yi ("Flying to the Moon"), Xia Yu ("Managing Water"); or they were sages in history. Characters: Confucius, Laozi ("Coming Out of the Passage"), Mozi ("Fei Gong"), Zhuangzi ("Arise from Death"), Boyi, Shuqi ("Plucking Wei"), etc. In traditional texts, these people all live in high halls and temples, and are sacred and inviolable. However, in Lu Xun's writings, they all return to daily life situations, erasing the heroic glory and returning to the true nature of ordinary people. Therefore, "Flying to the Moon" does not describe the illustrious military exploits of Hou Yi, the hero who shot the sun, but strives to describe the "after" after he became famous, which became the experience of ordinary people: all the birds and beasts in the world were shot to death, and they had no use for them anymore, so they could only be punished. Running around for food every day; being neglected and forgotten by people, students also came to plot against him, and finally even his wife (Chang'e) flew away: this thinking and expression of "the fate of a pioneer" is thought-provoking. Mozi in "Fei Gong" did not become a hero "after" he completed the historical feat of stopping Chu and conquering Song. Instead, he encountered a series of unlucky things: he was searched twice and had to pay a lot of money. It rained heavily again, so I went to the city gate to take shelter, but was driven away by two armed patrols. I got soaked all over and had a stuffy nose for more than ten days." This last touch of bitter humor is truly unforgettable. The whole "New Story" is full of Lu Xun's humor, but there is still inherent sadness in his bones; at this time, Lu Xun was facing the threat of death and was in physical and mental exhaustion, but he was able to write such calm and free words. , which means that his thoughts and art have reached a new realm.

On October 19, 1936, this literary master of China and the world in this century put down his pen; this giant of thought stopped thinking. Thousands of ordinary people came to see him off on their own initiative, and his coffin was covered with a flag with three words on it: "Soul of the Nation."