Daily intention insight into the subtlety and brightness of human nature ID: Luobin · meiriyitu
Zhao Yannian
Qian Liqun, born in January 1939, is a native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Professor of the Chinese Department of Peking University, a famous contemporary scholar, is mainly engaged in the research and teaching of modern Chinese literature.
This paper is an excerpt from Professor Qian Liqun's lecture at Southeast University.
How to understand Lu Xun
Qian Liqun
01
Lu Xun himself once said, "what I think is different from what I write", "what I write for myself is different from what I write for others."
So how do we know what he means?
Lu Xun himself has an explanation. He said that many people said that I was telling the truth, but I didn't fully say what I wanted to say; many people said that I was cold, the first was cold, the second was cold, and the third was cold.
If one day I say what I want to say in my heart, that is, the darkest, saddest and most terrible words, and one person willing to listen to them, then this person is my true friend.
02
Before Lu Xun died in 1936, he wrote an article "I want to cheat". He said something like this:
One winter morning, "I" walked out of the house and met a little girl who came to collect money for the victims. Lu Xun knew very well that the money raised by the little girl could not have fallen into the hands of the victims, and her collection was totally meaningless. But in the face of this passionate and naive child, can you tell her that it's pointless for her to do it? No. Not only can't say, but also must say to her: "little child, you work very valuable, I will support you."
So Lu Xun took the girl's hand and went to a shop. He exchanged big money for small money, and then gave the small money to the little girl. The little girl held Lu Xun's hand tightly and said, sir, you are so kind. On behalf of all the victims, I would like to thank you.
Lu Xun watched the little girl go further and further. He could feel the warmth of the little girl's hand on his hand, but it was the warmth that burned Lu Xun's heart like fire, because he cheated the child. But Lu Xun thought on the contrary, can I not cheat the child? Can I not cheat? He then thought, is today's China the real time? Can we put our real ideas out? No. So "I want to cheat.".
03
Lu Xun said that he wrote for three kinds of people. One is the people with lofty ideals who have worked hard for China's independence, democracy, equality and prosperity. One is the young people who are having good dreams. He will cheer for these people.
The third kind of writing object is very special, Lu Xun said, I write for my enemies. Since we are writing for the enemy, we should not talk too much about our inner pain and show it in front of the enemy. Therefore, he must be covered.
That is to say, Lu Xun's works are like icebergs, which have surfaced, but there are more hidden things under them. His meaning lies between emergence and concealment. And fundamentally, one's thoughts, especially one's own unique life experience, cannot be expressed in words. Once expressed in words, the idea is simplified and may even be misinterpreted.
So Lu Xun said, "when I am silent, I feel full; I will speak, and I feel empty."
The real Lu Xun is silent, the silent Lu Xun is real.
Today's most talked about and read Lu Xun's works, such as "shout", "hesitation", and most essays, are basically written for others. What Lu Xun really wrote for himself was weeds.
04
In weeds, Lu Xun created many literary images with a large amount of space, and these images symbolize some aspects of the deep predicament of human beings. Here I would like to give a few examples.
Dead fire is an article with Lu Xun's imagination. People have all kinds of imagination about fire. Generally speaking, people regard fire as a symbol of life. But what Lu Xun imagined was "dead fire", which concentrated the two meanings of life and death.
Let's see how he unfolds his unique imagination. He said, "I dream of running and running among the mountains. Suddenly, I fall into the ice valley from the mountain. Looking down, it's blue and white, which is the color of death.". But in a blue and white, I suddenly saw a lot of coral like red shadows. The color of life appears in the color of death, which is the fire of death. So there was a philosophical discussion between me and the dead fire. Dead Fire said to me: Sir, please hurry to save me, or I will freeze out. I said, I'll take you out of the ice valley. And the dead fire said, take me out of the valley of ice, and I will burn it. I can only choose between "freeze out" and "burn out".
What does that mean? "Freezing out" means "waiting for death"; and "burning out" means "dying struggle". Although the last thing waiting for everyone is death, is there any difference between "burn out" and "freeze out"?
There are differences. This freeze out, he never does anything in his life, his life has no light and shadow at any time, this is an empty shell of life. This burn, although the last is also finished, but his burning moment is brilliant, his life is full.
This is actually a philosophy of life, that is, the value of life is not the result, but the process.
05
There is also a farewell to shadow in weeds.
As we all know, the physical feature of shadow is that when the sun shines directly at noon, or when it is completely dark, the shadow will not exist. The shadow can only exist between the light and the dark. Lu Xun used this kind of shadow image to symbolize his own historical destiny as a kind of "historical intermediate".
What does "historical intermediate" mean? Lu Xun said that we should resist the darkness and make trouble with it. Of course, it is not compatible with the darkness, so when the darkness comes, such shadow will disappear. At the same time, the significance of historical intermediate only lies in making trouble with the darkness. His life value is closely connected with the darkness and is realized in the resistance against the darkness. Therefore, when the darkness really disappears and the light really comes, the value of historical intermediate will not exist and the shadow will also disappear.
So for historical intermediate like Lu Xun, he not only has no position in the dark, but also has no position in the light. He can't find his own foothold, he can only wander in the nowhere. In fact, the four words of "wandering without land" say all about the deep predicament of intellectuals.
06
The third example is passer-by.
"Passer-by" kept walking forward, and met an old man halfway. The old man asked three questions: first, what's your name and who are you? Second, where are you from? Third, where are you going? His answer is: I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
How does one's life come into the world and leave? You are thrown onto the earth by a force you can't control, and then taken away by a force you can't control, which is beyond your control. This is a kind of absurdity, darkness and tragedy of human existence. All of these are a kind of deep predicament of human existence.
Lu Xun's aim is to face up to such a deep dilemma and lead to his realistic philosophy. Lu Xun is against three things.
First, he opposed "absolute". There is no absolute and perfect thing. The history, society, human nature and reality of the world on this shore are all flawed.
Second, he opposed "completeness". There is no such thing as a complete, disease free life. The history, reality, life and humanity of the world on this shore are all biased.
Third, he is against "permanence". Permanent life, permanent human nature, are short-lived. He emphasized the imperfection, defect and transience of human existence, reality and history. He wants us to face up to the reality of such a world.
It is in this point that we speak of Lu Xun's sober spirit of realism. He stressed that "now" is the most basic proposition of Lu Xun. 07
Lu Xun has a high generalization of the masses in China, which is called "the spectator of drama".
He gave an example and said, we might as well do an experiment. For example, if you run to the street, you spit a mouthful of phlegm underground. If you squat down to look at this mouthful of phlegm, in less than ten minutes, you will be surrounded by a dense crowd of people, probably all watching, looking at others, and being watched by others at the same time. This is a phenomenon that can be seen everywhere in China, and this is the unique "spectator" phenomenon in China.
As another kind of person to be seen, just like Xia Yu in medicine. They fought and sacrificed with their own ideals, and as a result, they were transformed into the materials discussed in the teahouse in medicine. That is to say, such Chinese people with lofty ideals and lofty ideals are transformed into a kind of performance in the phenomenon of spectators, thus losing its significance and value.
When Lu Xun was discussing the relationship between himself and the other, he saw a kind of terrible dispelling power of the matrix of nothingness. He saw the dispelling power that the one who loves me might produce. He saw the dispelling power that the masses as the spectators of drama might produce. He has come to very desperate conclusions.
So we say that Lu Xun was very desperate. But when a person is desperate to the top, he will have a thorough understanding. This is what Lu Xun called "being saved in hopelessness" and "despair is vanity, just like hope".
There are many things you are disappointed in because you have so much hope. So in the beginning, you've seen through all the problems, thought through them, and you won't despair. This is called "to be saved from hopelessness.". To the end of despair is to realize.
The so-called great enlightenment is to see through the limitations and limitations of life, society and history, and the limitations of self choice. After the great enlightenment, people may have two attitudes.
One kind of attitude is: since everything is like this and I have seen through, then I will do nothing and know that I can't do it.
There is also an attitude of knowing that it can't be done, knowing that the grave is in front of us, but we should strive to move forward, resist and fight. Therefore, Lu Xun's philosophy is to "resist despair".
People are not all living in reality, many people walk into the gap between reality and fantasy. The real wise man saw all this clearly, so he turned his pen into a knife, cut off all kinds of magic barriers, and made the world clear: aggressive, uncompromising and unavoidable in the cruel reality.
(caption: Zhao Yannian)