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LU XUN, AH Q, "THE TRUE STORY OF AH Q" AND THE NATIONAL

CHARACTER DISCOURSE IN MODERN CHINA

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate

School of the Ohio State Universi té'

Paul Brendan Foster, B.S., M.A

The Ohio State University

1996

Dissertation Committee: Approved by

Hao Chang

Xiaomei Chen

Kirk A Denton, Advisor Advisor Eugene W. Holland Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures UMI Number: 9639235

UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Copyright by Paul Brendan Foster 1996 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This dissertation is the culmination of years of fescination with China, her people, histoiy, and literature which propelled me through a long and unending maze of language training, course work, research, and travel. It has been an exciting and fulfilling process. Throughout the course of this dissertation I have enjoyed the support and encouragement of numerous professors, family members and fiiends, as well as the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Ohio State University.

Many thanks to Luo Jianlong for refining my Chinese, and to Jesse for helping me juggle the various elements of this project I would like to express to my thanks Professors Chang Hao and Xiaomei Chen for their valuable comments and insight My sincere gratitude goes to Professor Eugene W. Holland who helped me see the forest through all the trees. Professor Timothy C. Wong has been a reality check and concerned reader throughout, in addition to being a guiding mentor. This dissertation would not have been possible without the commitment, perseverance, and incredible attention to detail of my advisor.

Professor Kirk A. Denton, to whom 1 am deeply indebted. Bill deserves much credit for my initial interest in international affairs. To my mother and brothers I wish to offer my thanks for their comments upon reading "The True Story of Ah Q." I thank the always gracious Ed and Evelyn for their srçporL Most of all. Jazz has my eternal gratitude and admiration for hanging in when the going was toughest, through a tour in Taiwan, travel through China, endless hours in Chinese bookstores, and remaining a soul mate through it all. VITA

October 3, 1960 ...... Bom - Sedro Woolley, Washington

December, 1982 ...... B.S., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

1983-1984 ...... Associate Engineer, Product Engineering, Oldsmobile Division, General Motors Corporation, Lansing, Michigan

1985 -1986 ...... Rqjublic of China - University of Arizona Fellowship, Chinese Language Student, National Taiwan Normal University, Mandarin Training Center, Taipei, Taiwan

1987-1989 ...... M. A, East Asian Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University, Columbus

1990 - Present ...... Doctoral Student, East Asian Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University, Columbus

1992 -1993 ...... Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies in Taipei, Taiwan. Administered by Stanford University.

Oct. 1993 - Aug. 1996 ...... Doctoral Candidate

Sept.-Nov. 1995 ...... Instractor: "Modem Chinese Literature between Revolutions." Emory Senior University, Atlanta, GA.

Feb. - March 1996 ...... Instractor: "Modem China: The Gate of Heavenly Peace." Evening at Emory, Atlanta, GA.

PUBLICATIONS

Foster, Paul, and Sherry Mou, trans. "Tbe Bygone Age of Ah Q." By Qian Xingcun. Modem Chinese Literary Thought: Writings on Literature 1893-1945. Ed. Kirk A. Denton. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1996. Trans, of "Siqule de A Q shidai." 1928. 276-88.

Foster, Paul, and Sherry Mou, trans. "My Opinions on Creativity." By Lu Yin. Modem Chinese Literary Thought: Writings on Literature 1893-1945. Ed. Kirk A. Denton. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1996. Trans, of "Chuangzaode wo jian." 1921. 235-7.

ru FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: East Asian Languages and Literatures

Studies in Modem Chinese Literature, Professors Kirk A. Denton and Xiaomei Chen Studies in Traditional Chinese Literature, Professor Timothy C. Wong

Minor Fields:

Studies in Modem Chinese Intellectual Histoiy, Professor Chang Hao Studies in Comparative Studies, Professors Eugene Holland and Xiaomei Chen

IV TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...... ü

VITA ...... iii-iv

CHAPTER...... PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION...... 1

A. Genealogy of the National Character Discourse in C hina ...... 5 B. Theoretical Frameworic: Imagining the National Character ...... 14 C. General Theories of Nation, Nationalism and National Character ...... 18 D. Literature Review...... 28

n. THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF NATIONAL CHARACTER IN C H IN A ...... 33

A. Studies of Nation and Nationalism in China ...... 34 1. The Problem of "Traditional Culturalism" and "Modem Nationalism" ...... 34 2. Social Darwinism and the Discourse of Race in Modem C h in a ...... 36 3. Interaction of National Character and Essence in Construction of the National Identity ...... 39

B. Chinese Discourse of Nation, Nationalism, National Essence and National Character.. 41 1. Late Qing Translations and Journalism ...... 41 2. Pre-May Fourth National Character, National Essence and Neo-Confucianism. . . 47

C. National Character Discourse in the May Fourth ...... 63

m . LUXUN'S LATE QlNG ESSAYS: THE FOUNDATIONS OF HIS ENGAGEMENT WITH THE NATIONAL CHARACTER DISCOURSE...... 71

A. Xu Shoushang's Recollections ofLuXun's Interest in National Character...... 74

B. Lu Xun's Late Qing Writings: The Lexicon of Nation and National Character ...... 77 1. The Spirit of Nationalism: "The Soul of Sparta" ...... 80 2. On Evolutionism: "The Histoiy of Humanity"...... 82 3. Critique of National Essence: "Lessons from the History of Science"...... 83 4. Extreme Individualism; "Aberrations in Cultural Development"...... 86 5. Towards a National Poet: "On the Power of Mara Poetry" ...... 92 6. A Brief Summary of National Character in Lu Xun's Early Works...... 95 rv. THE TEIAJECTORY OF NATIONAL CHARACTER IN LU XUNS MAY FOURTH AND POST-MAY FOURTH WRITINGS (1918-1936)...... 97

A Lu Xun's Consistent Critique of National Character across Genre, Time and Target. . 99 B. Spiritual Warriors: Lu Xun's View of the Role of Writer...... 107 C. Lu Xun's National Character Research...... 110 D. National Essence Muddledness and the Cure of Science ...... 118 1. Muddledness ...... 121 2. Science as a Cure...... 124

V. AH Q AND THE CRITIQUE OF NATIONAL CHARACTER: LU XUNS ATTACK ON NATIONAL ESSENCE AND CHINESE SPIRITUAL CULTURE...... 128

A National Essence...... 129 1. Depiction of the Decrepit Literati: Representative of National Essence ...... 140 2. "Doctrine of the Mean" (zhongyong cfj Jjg ) or fence-sitting? ...... 142 3. "The ancients alreatfy had it" (g u yiyo u zhi ^ ) ...... 145 4. "Upright Gentlemen" (zhengren Junzi IE 148

B. Barbarism/Cannibalism...... 152

C. Ah Q's Method of Spiritual V ictory ...... 157 1. Self-denigrator (ziqingzijian de ren g ^ È^ÈIJA) ...... 160 2. "To be beaten by one's son" {pei erzi da le ® T) ...... 161 3. "We used to be much richer than you." (y/omen xianqian bi ni kuode duo la ...... 163 4. The Ability to Forget (yvangque ...... 164

D. Slave Mentality (W ; 168

E. Face {timian^'^) ...... 176

F. Acting 179

VI. LU XUN AND THE AH Q DISCOURSE: 1922 TO 1949 ...... 183

A History of "True Story" Reception...... 186

1. Currency of Discussions on the Relationship between Literature and National Character just Prior to Publication of "Trae Story"...... 190 2. Critical Reception of "True Story" Immediately after Pubhcation (1922) ...... 192 a. Lack of Volume of Early Response to "Tme Story"...... 192 b. "True Story" as a Satire...... 193 c. National Character: The First Imphcation of Ah Q's Status as a Universal and/or National Type ...... 194 d. Ah Q's Class Status ...... 196 e. Lu Xun's Artistic "Failure" with "True Story"...... 197

VI 3. Critical Reception of "Trae Stoiy" after Its Reprint in Battlecrv in August of 1923.. 197 a. Ah Q Image ...... 198 b. Discussion of Ah Q's Status as a Universal and/or National ly p e ...... 200 c. Polemics between the Literary Research Societj'and the Creation Society. . . 201 d. Expanding the National Character Discourse ...... 204 e. Origins of "AhQ [Style] Revolution" ...... 207 f. Method of Spiritual Victory (/;ngsÂensAewg//yâ iff 207 4. Developments in Late 1920s M Q Discourse ...... 208 a. LuXrm's Earliest Comments on "True Story"...... 209 b. Internationa] Reception of "Trae Story": Romain RoUand's Comments. . . . 210 c. Lu Xun Addresses Ah Q: '"A Q zhengzhuan'de chengyin" (The reason for writing "The True Story of Ah Q"; 1926) ...... 217 d. Critiques Stimirlated by Lu Xun's "'Ah Q zhengzhuan' de chengyin" ...... 221

B. Sun Society Declares Ah Q (and Lu Xun) Dead: Debate over Revolutionary Proletarian Literature — Periodization and Social "Reality" ...... 227

C. 1930s AhQ Research ...... 238

1. Lu Xtm's Assessment of "True Story" and Its First Systematic Literary and Political Critiques...... 238 2. Ah Q Used to Attack Lu Xtm...... 253 3. Don Quixote, Ah Q and Lu Xun...... 257 4. AhQ as Example in the Debate over Type ...... 258 5. Ah Q Finally Appears on S ta g e ...... 259

D. 1940s Ah Q Discourse ...... 263

Vn. CONCLUSION...... 268

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 277

vu CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Ah 0 (the protagonist o f Lu Xun's "The Official [True] Story o f Ah 0") and the discourse formulated on the basis of Ah Q's personality are now reshaping many Chinese people's mentalities. By the use o f this discourse, they feel embarrassed by their Chineseness. Moreover, I believe that this ideological "avalanche" has just begun. In the near future. Ah Q's discourse will more deeply influence the Chinese and thus, encourage radical changes in their concepts. (Li Tuo, 1990; trans. Lu Tonglin 200)

Why is it that AhQ, a fictional character who appeared in a serialized story in late 1921 and early

1922, still holds such an important place in Chinese intellectual discotnrses? How is it that Ah Q became a prominent symbol of the Chinese national character in the modem Chinese intellectual consciousness,

as indicated by over 1000 articles and monographs devoted to Lu Xun's "A Q zhengzhuan" (The true story of Ah Q; hereafter "True Story") and the attendant concepts of "Ah Q-ism," "Ah Q spirit," and "Ah Q thought"? Why has Ah Q been kept "alive" in print through voluminous research, been adapted for stage, film, and even ballet, and been illustrated and rendered in woodcuts over and over even though his spirit has been pronotmced "dead" so many times? What discourse is Ah Q keeping alive, or what discursive fimction does the Ah Q discourse perform? How does the extratextual symbol of Ah Q function in

intellectual and literary discourses of nation, nationalism, and modernity of Lu Xun's times, and indeed

even today? How are Ah Q and "True Story" to be evaluated? Is Ah Q a wholly negative symbol of

Chinese national character? How did Ah Q contribute to the construction of modem Chinese national

identity? 2

I believe these questions nay be productively addressed through examination of the complex interplay of two of the fundamental discourses new to China in this century - nationalism and modernity.' These discourses of nationalism and modernity may be ôuitfuUy examined through the study of the formation of the discourse on national character and the reception of Ah Q and "True Story." While reference to Lu

Xun immediately provokes an association with the repudiation of the national character, I will argue that through his negative and iconoclastic portrayal of national character in Ah Q, Lu Xun ironically played a critical positive role in the construction of the modem Chinese national identity. How Lu Xun, "Trae

Story," and Ah Q contributed to the construction of the emergent Chinese national identity is the primary concern of this dissertatiotL I believe the irony of Lu Xun as a "destroyer," an iconoclast, actually playing a role in the "construction" of the national character would not be unacceptable to him because he was writing to save China's soul. Situated at the crossroads of the discourse of modernity and tradition, and of nationalism and culturalism. Lu Xun was both an agent shaping the modem national consciousness and a product of it. I will attempt to show how his most femous character. Ah Q, is also such an agent-product.

During the transitional period firom the late Qing (1895-1911) through the May Fourth era (1915-

1925),' China was becoming consciousness of itself as a nation, constructing a national identity. The rise of this new consciousness of nation, nationalism, and national identity among Chinese intellectuals is generally congruous with the rise of the nation state and the discourse of modernity. The narrative logic

' These "new" discourses presuppose the presence of "old" discourses of tradition and culturalism which will be addressed in Chapter 2.

' Chang Hao refers to this "transitional period" firom the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) to the early Republic as the zhuanxing shidai demarcated 1^ the year 1895 when a creeping imperialism, fomented by Great Britain, gave wjy to a rampant imperialism, dominated by Japan, in which imperial powers began the dismemberment of China, guafen , and the year 1925 when we see intellectual priorities shift firom advocacy of an intellectual movement to a socio-political movement in the wake of the May Thirtieth movement ("Xingxiang yu shizhi" 33). Indications of this are the shift firom a literary revolution (wenxue geming to revolutionary literature{geming wenxue ^ ^ ^ # ) movement in the literary circles, and an alliance between the Communists and Nationalist Parties in the political realm. of "modernization"^ suggests that the consciousness of the "nation" came with the industrial revolution, print capitalism, rising middle-class economic and political power, and the adoption of the vernacular language in the West - similar, but not the exact, historical circumstances in which Lu Xun wrote "True

Story." Lu Xtm, China's most highly revered modem writer, spent considerable intellectual and creative energy addressing the problem of Chinese national character (guomin xing during this transitional period. His close fiiend, Xu Shoushang, reported that as a student in Japan from 1902 to

1909, long before he had gained renown. Lu Xtm e^qpressed his concerned with national character in the form of three cracial questions: "What is the ideal nature of man? What is lacking in the Chinese national character? What lies at the root of China's illness?" (qtd. in Lee, Voices 14). The last two of these questions form the crux of Lu Xun's intellectual and literary critique of the national character which, as I will show, extended throughout his career.'’ Central to this dissertation is the idea that literature, particularly Lu Xun's literary critique of the national character, is instrumental in the discursive construction of a national identity.^ Lu Xun and his literary oeuvre may be related to the Western

"national tradition" of writing epitomized by some of the pantheon of "national poets," such as Byron,

Shelly, and Bums, whom he invokes in his early works, "Moluo shi li shuo" (On the power of Mara poetry, 1908) and "Wenhua pian zhi lun" (On aberrations in cultural development; 1908).® Lu Xun's critique of Chinese culture and society, which came to be articulated in terms of the "national character" discourse,’ also permeates his later essays and creative works, such as "Suiganlu 38" (Impromptu

" Itis important, as Paul Cohen notes, to keep in mind that "modernization theory" itself is a Westem constmct for societal analysis (57-96).

In Chapter 3,1 will argue that Xu Shoushang himself refutes his own assertion of Lu Xtm's early concern with the "ideal natiue of mam" In Chapters 4 and 5,1 argue that Xu's commentary on Lu Xtm was part and parcel of the wholescale valorization of Lu Xtm after his death, legitimation of China's first world-class writer, as well as one of the elements of the Ah Q discourse. Thus, on this point 1 bring into question the idea that Lu Xtm was somehow concerned with the greater universal problems of humanity as his posthumous legacy contends, and expose a small part of the Lu Xtm myth.

® See Jusdanis (122-59); and Anderson (37-46).

6 Though published in 1908, these two works were written in 1907. 4

reflections no. 38; 1918), "Kuangren liji" (Diary of a madman; 1918), and "Kong Yiji" (1919), but is

most fiiUy delineated in his longest creative work, "True Story." The humorous and bitingly sarcastic

depiction of Ah Q was immediately interpreted symbolically by Chinese readers and critics as the "the

crystallization of Chinese qualities,"* a "national type"® and a '"composite photo' of Chinese qualities."'®

Examination of the discourse of national character and the function of the Ah Q discourse will help us

better understand Ah Q as a symbol of Chinese national character and how Ah Q and the Ah Q discourse

contributed to, and continue to function in, the construction of modem Chinese national identity (and, as

well, the construction of Lu Xun as the Chinese modem writer of supra-national stature).

I will lay the groundwork for my analysis of Lu Xun's discourse on national character and the Ah Q

discourse in three preliminary steps. First, in Section C of this chapter 1 will analyze relevant theories of

nationalism, national character, national identity and the intercoimections between these concepts and

literature and literary theory. Then in Chapter 2 ,1 will review the scholarly work on the origins and development of national identity and character in China from the late Qing through the early Republican period, focusing on Liang Qichao's Xinmin shuo (New citizen; 1902-1904). I wül argue that the concept of national character is indeed applicable to China. And finally, I will situate Lu Xun and his works within the greater discourse of national character, national identity, and ultimately, nationalism.

Chapter 3 will be devoted to an analysis of Lu Xun's late Qing essays in order to establish the foundation of his cognition of the issues of nation, nationalism, and national character. Then in Chapters

4 and 5 ,1 will explore the extent to which Lu Xun was concemed with the national character issue, and

" In Chapter 4,1 note that it was only in 1925 that Lu Xun started directly discussing "reforming the national character" in these exact words, and I will ejqrlore the reconstitution of Lu Xun's attacks on Chinese spiritual culture as "national character critique" in retrospect in order to raise questions about the nature of this discourse.

* Mao Dun, "Da Guotang xiansheng" (5).

® Zhou Zuoren (27-29).

“'ZhouZuoren (27-29). 5 the variety of ways that this concern was e^qpressed in his works by focusing on the lexicon of national character that emerges in his essays and in "True Story." This lexicon includes Lu Xun's critique of national essence, self-aggrandizement. Ah Q's method of spiritual victory and its component parts.

Chapter 6 will focus on the reception and critical discourse of "The True Story of Ah Q." I will analyze the critical response that occurred in the immediate aftermath of the piiblication of "True Story" and establish how (and to what extent) Ah Q became a vehicle in the construction of a dimension(s) of the national character discourse, and consider Ah Q's trajectory in the critical and intertextual record by examining some of the numerous interpretations and reinterpretations of AhQ and "True Story" on stage, in film, as a ballet, and through illustrations.

The conclusions of my research should provide insight into the function and role of AhQ and Lu Xun in the discursive construction of a modem Chinese national identity. More generally, I will explore the part that narratives play in the construction of national tymbols and national identity, by providing an introduction to the seminaliy important discourse of Chinese national character from the perspective of discourse analysis. Are these narratives a result of some "universal" process of modernization? If so, how should we evaluate the considerable energies "modem" Chinese intellectuals. Lu Xtm in particular, put into the task of writing them? Using Ah Q as a focal point, I expect to be able to unravel some of the complexities of the general discourse of national character, itself a dynamic and ongoing process, and to better address the complex issues of modernity, nation, and cultural change in China.

A. Genealogy of the National Character Discourse in China

In his early period in Japan and during the May Fourth period. Lu Xun was clearly informed by the writings of Liang Qichao and Chen Duxiu, two seminal modem intellectuals. Consciously or unconsciously, he integrated their ideas into his critique of the national character, beginning with "Diary of a Madman" and eventually created what was to become the epitome of national character in his Ah Q.

As a writer and intellectual. Lu Xun was situated within synchronous discourses of nationalism, national 6 character, and eventually Marxism. It is clear that these discourses are interwoven throughout Lu Xun's works, and informed more fundamentally by the discourse of "modernity," perhaps the crucial discourse in early twentieth century China" It is equally clear that the discourses presuppose an "other" discourse of

"culturalism" and "tradition" which are ever present and often the target of Lu Xun's attack.

I am employing this idea of "discourse" as a way of viewing complex historical situations, as a heuristic device which can open up interpretive possibilities by providing an analysis of the variety of lenses through which literature, history, and the history of ideas are viewed. As an author. Lu Xun stands at a "node," an intersection of discourses, acting not only as a consumer but also as a producer of discourses, and his works are complex products functioning within these overlapping discourses. The concqpt of discourse is difficult and slippery. I want to stress that this dissertation would ideally map out the national character discourse and Ah Q discourse in such a wty- that would describe the multiferious linkages between power, knowledge, institutions and intellectuals.’* However, this remains an aspiration that would take numerous dissertations to fulfill. I will take steps towards this goaL however, by mapping the debates and discussions about national character and the reception of Ah Q fiom a variety of perspectives in order to establish how the language of the national character discourse was constmcted.

Discourse analysis is concemed not with the essentialist "meaning" of a particular social situation or literary text, but with asking how a discourse functions and what are its social, or literary, ramifications - a way at getting at the question of "how" the text means versus "what" it means. This viewpoint is based on the premise that a better understanding of a particular text or intellectual theme is possible through

examination of the complexities of the production of power, knowledge and legitimation involved in

" Paul Cohen notes, '"Modernity may indeed denote a condition with enough uniform characteristics and cross-cultural regularities to enable people who inhabit modem societies to feel themselves, in some sense, part of the same imiverse. Tradition,' however, refers to no correspondingly uniform condition, in either a subjective or an objective sense" (94).

’"In a post-stmcturalist sense, analysis of a discourse ideally aims "to describe the surface linkages between power, knowledge, institutions, intellectuals, the control of populations, and the modem state as these intersect in the functions of systems of thought" (Bové 54-5). 7 producing the text or intellectual theme, and an analysis of how the text or idea fimctions within the greater context. Description of a discourse would ideally outline a frame of reference in which "truth" is made possible, and through the coimections of the criteria of knowledge and power, how "truth" is legitimized, maintained and perpetuated, within those institutions of knowledge and power, or as Bové puts it, how the discourse "makes possible disciplines and institutions which, in turn, sustain and distribute those discourses" (57). The term "genealogy" is used to describe the "history of a discourse"

(Bové 56), and thus, the genealogy of the national character discourse is a description of the complex history of discourses that enabled and still perpetuates its existence. The monumental changes that took place in late Qing and Republican China in intellectual knowledge, values, and world view can be productively analyzed by viewing effects of the complex interaction of concurrent discourses and the

"truths" mediated throughout these interactions.

Lu Xun's works and thoughts about national character can be viewed as cultural products contributing to the construction of his country's national character, legitimized by Lu Xun's fame as a leading author and the institutional functions he performed in the academy as professor, in the publishing world as editor and publisher, and in literary circles as leader of various writer's associations. The widespread dissemination of the symbol of Ah Q in the process of what I call "the imagining of the national character" (see section B below) must be read against the background of Lu Xun's attacks on conservative supporters of national essence, Westem educated liberal critics, Marxist critics and Communist Party cultural authorities, in order to gain a more complete picture of the forces operating in the construction of national character. It is significant that, even after death. Lu Xun's ideas, or semblance of his ideas, were raised as the standards for "truth" and insight into the national character as the Ah Q discourse expanded

(albeit appropriated for legitimation of the revolution).

Lu Xtm's function in the national character discourse is described by his literary works and the ideas engaged in them, particularly in the famous manifestation of national character in the figure of Ah Q. In general, Lu Xun's concept of national character is constmcted in terms of lack and deficiencies, as the 8 questions Xu Shoushang rqx)rted indicate. A s this dissertation will endeavor to show, the Ah Q discourse and the national character discourse grew out of Lu Xun's critique of Chinese spiritual culture(Zhongguo jingshen wenming the targets of which were Conhician ideolog}' in general and its

"national essence" proponents, or anyone who manifested what Lu Xun saw as the defects of the national essence thought. I will show that it was through the Ah Q discourse that Lu Xun's concerns with national character transcended the shift firom the May Fourth to the leftist (Marxist) period of the 1930s and 1940s, and have survived until today, despite the eventual displacement of the theory of national character by the theory of class character after 1949. In Lu Xun's leftist period, the Chinese national character, as portrayed in the Ah Q discourse, was gradually interpreted more sympathetically, as Marxist analysis saw

Ah Q as a victim of feudal ideology and class relations. Cast as a worker or peasant. Ah Q even took on positive qualities in some critics' views. Lu Xun's status in literary circles, his own comments on Ah Q, his comments on national character in general, and his posthumous canonization as culturaL intellectual, and literary spirit of the revolution by the Chinese Communist Party [hereafter CCP] combined to produce and perpetuate the issue of national character and keep Ah Q alive to the present day.

The Ah Q discourse, which by the 1930s occiqried more type-space than Lu Xun's own writings on national character, functioned within a complex web of discourses, being the site of debates over class nature, human nature, literary type, and revolutionary nature, to rrame a few, as it was appropriated by

Marxist literary critics. The function of Ah Q changed firom the demystification of the negative national character. Lu Xun's critique, to the valorization of Marxist truth, the construction of the theory of class nature, class struggle, and literary production, as exemplified by Marxist analyses of the work.'^ As already mentioned, in an ironic twist of Lu Xun's intent. Ah Q began to be interpreted positively, but at other times Ah Q was used to attack Lu Xun, who was even occasionally called "Ah Q." Moreover, to

These analyses were dominant in the 1950s, but an early example of this is Ba Ren's revision of his assessment of the problem of Ah Q's type in 1940 when he argued that Ah Q was a class ^ e , not a national one and that all types are class types, given that a national type which transcends class is a fantasy (307). 9 show how fluid the symbol of Ah Q as national character could be, in his posthumous canonization. Lu

Xun himself came to represent the essence of new national character, a positive national spirit

(constructed in large part through his canonization by the CCP, materially becoming the representative of the "national soul" at his funeral when a banner was draped over his cofBn by Song Qingling and others bearing the words TOznza Awn the "national soul" (Huang 3). This may be viewed as an ironic contrast to his caustic critique of the defective Chinese national character, for which national soul was at times a synonym. While he was alive. Lu Xtm was a recognized leader in May Fourth literary circles, and his reputation became even more enhanced as "True Story" supposedly gained international renown.

However, he was continually involved in struggles and debates with literary and cultural authorities of all stripes. In fact, since writing "Diary of a Madman" in 1918, his negative portrayal of the national character had put him at odds with various groups and individuals. Lu Xun's critiques were aimed at a variety of groqps and individuals: the conservative, anti-New Culture "National Essence" circle represented by Liu Shipei's journal, Guogu (National heritage) in 1919; the conservative, anti-New

Culture revisionist Xueheng (Critical review) circle led by Huang lie and Mei Guangdi based at

Southeastern University in Nanjing in 1922; the liberal "upright gentleman" school headed by Chen Yuan and Hu Shi centered around the journal, Xiandai pinglun (Contemporary review), with which

Lu Xun exchanged polemics in the early 1920s; the rising Communist literary establishment led by the

Taiyang she (Sun society) and the Chuangzao she fy js t t (Creation society) from 1928-1930 over the issue of Ah Q's representativeness and Lu Xun's leadership of the literary world during the revolutionary proletarian literature debates; and the Communists in control of the League of Left-Wing

Writers throughout the 1930s and during the Two Slogans Debate (1936).

Describing the national character discourse is quite complex, and I want to insist on this complexity in order to avoid the danger of reductionist essentialism. Identifying how Lu Xun's works relate to historical events will demonstrate some of the discursive realities of Lu Xun's situatiorL Lu Xun's critique of national character is an iconoclastic attack on the actions and essays of the National Essence supporters 10 who struggled against the tide of cultural change in the May Fourth period. This critique was informed by a multitude of influences, from Liang Qichao's writings to Arthur Smith's Chinese Characteristics (1894), from the stories of Gogol and Sienkiewicz, to his own personal experiences of racial humiliation and national discrimination as a student in Japan (Larson 101), as well as his own close readings of Chinese history and literature. To unravel the discourse of national character, then, it is necessary to examine the ideas underlying it in Lu Xun's works and influences.

Unraveling Lu Xun's discourse of national character is fascinating and complex because fundamental ideas informing "modernity," like social Darwinist evolutionism, were assimilated by Lu Xun and show up repeatedly in his works. The origin of these ideas is indisputably in the West, as Lu Xun's various references to Darwin and works like Arthur Smith's Chinese Characteristics indicate, often mediated by the Japanese language. Smith's work, an Orientalist critique of Chinese character, may have been the locus classicus for some elements of the national character critique which appear in Lu Xun's writings, as

Lydia K. Liu has argued, but was certainly not the primary influence on him. Indeed, my reading attempts to move beyond Liu's analysis by fleshing out more fully the multiple influences on Lu Xun, particularly from the Chinese point of view. Lu Xun was steeped in the discourse of nation and national character through his reading of Liang Qichao's journals, Zhang Taiyan's Minbao (People's report), and the translations of Yan Fu, as well as his situation in the general miheu of Japanese nation-building of the time. Liang's Xinmin shuo (New citizen), in particular, as I will demonstrate in Chapter

2, prefigured some of Lu Xun's ideas and language on national character and sets the basic contest of the national character critique. Yet Liang and Yan Fu's views came in turn from some of the basic Westem sources for national character conceptualization, such as works by Rousseau and Herder.’^ Being intellectually influenced by thinkers from a different, dominating culture raises the problem of

The impact of Japanese nationalist thinkers must also be considered, though it is difficult to gauge. Chang Hao notes that Japanese thinkers whom Liang Qichao read, like Fukuzawa Yukichi, Kate Hiroyuki, and Toutomi Soho, may have had an impact on his writings (Liang 147). This is an area that should be explored in more detail elsewhere. 11

"Orientalism," which involves the power relations between the cultural interpreter (Occidental) and the

inteipreted (Oriental) object as conceptualized by Edward W. Said in his book. Orientalism (1978).

Simplifying the argument for the sake of discussion here, Orientalism involves the hegemony of interpretation of cultural phenomena by occidental interpreters in a dominant position vis-à-vis a

subordinate Oriental object This problem is particularly relevant since the idea of national character analysis is largely tied up with eighteenth and nineteenth century inroerialist drive towards colonization and imperialist domination of the world; a Westem projection of meaning onto the Orient and a will to govern the Orient, of which Arthur Smith's book may be a good example. It is coimnonly recognized that

China went through a century or more of upheaval in part as a response to imperialist ambitions from the early nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. China's recognition of itself as a nation among many nations is only one indication of its assimilation of a foreign world view. When China went through a transvaluation of values resulting in the assimilation of foreign views and ideologies such as evolutionism (in the form of social Darwinism), historicism (the idea of a linear view of history and linear trajectory of progress), and science and democracy, the picture of Orientalism, not simply a cause-and- effect relationship in the first place becomes much murkier.

Addressing the issue of what happens when Orientalism is appropriated by the oriental culture, Chen

Xiaomei has explored the idea of "Occidentalism," which refers to "a discursive practice that, by constructing its Westem Other, has allowed the Orient to participate actively and with indigenous creativity in the process of self-appropriation, even after being appropriated and constmcted by Westem

Others" (5). Lu Xun's attacks often identify a Confiician target, some of whose negative features are exposed and critiqued according to "assimilated" standards of evolutionary principles and logic, which, unsurprisingly. Lu Xun finds lacking in his target Here is Lu Xun, the Occidentalist, at work.

Conceivably, Lu Xun operates in a space where both a positive Westem Other and negative Chinese Other are presupposed and implicitly opposed. Lu Xun's appropriation of Westem values attendant with the discourse of national character does indeed appear "Occidentalist." In feet, there is an essentialism 12

operating here in which Lu Xun presupposes Westem standards for national character, whether from his

reading of Smith or Liang Qichao (among others), and critiques Chinese national character &om that

vantage. Given the confluence of influences on Lu Xun, Westem as well as Chinese, the idea of

Occidentalism may help us reconcile and or at least recognize the contradictor)' voices that occasionally

appear in his essays.'^ However, while he manipulated the Westem idea of national character as a

weapon to strike at the perceived negative Chinese national character, his critique was also informed by traditional, probably Neo-Confucian,'® ideas which are informed by the concept that literature should act as a means of bettering society, quintessentially expressed in the formulation, wen yi zai dao

(literature is the vehicle whereby the Way is conveyed).' ' In any event, by criticizing Chinese national character he functioned to help create a space for the construction o f a new national character. He broadened the discourse of national character by contributing what would become its representative symbol. Ah Q, and through his narrative explication of the symbol in "Trae Story." In this way he opened a space for a new, yet undefined, positive national character. As my analysis in Chapters 4, 5, and 6 will show. Lu Xun both explicitly advocated Westem values such as scientific reason, rationality, logic and

"truth" in his critique of the negative national character, and prestqaposed them through his method of

It remains to be seen if Lu Xun's Occidentalist national character discourse might have had a positive effect on China, as Xiaomei Chen's analysis suggests is possible for some Occidentalist discourse depending on their local function (167).

Lu Xun's views seem to have some Neo-Confucian roots. Merle Goldman notes that "[Writers like Lu Xun] were rebelling against their Confiician heritage, but they were a part of it because they believed that as literati they had a re^onsibility to lead. At the same time, their view of themselves was also inspired by the Westem image of the writer standing outside of society so that he can criticize and reform it. Also, like their Chinese predecessors, they assumed that society's essence was found in its culture and literature. If the revolution were to succeed, cultural change was even more important than political and economic change. As intellectuals and writers, they regarded themselves - and were regarded by their contemporaries - as the primary molders of society. They used their literary works as weapons to win personal, national, and revolutionary change" (5). Paul Cohen also paraphrases Edward Friedman, Backward Toward Revolution (1974): "Revolutions are complex mixtures of return and advance, of old and new. No mere restorations, they offer 'another opportunity for the renewed community to come to grips with and try to solve the most basic problems of life'" (83).

' ' See Kam-Ming Wong, who notes that Lu Xun appears to have this traditional objective, but his agenda is "a radical re-evaluation of Confucianism by way of Darwin and Nietzsche" (191). 13

critique. But by not explicitly stating these in any totalizing, formalistic way, this indeterminacy left open

a discursive space in which the discourse of national character could be engaged by the critics at large. To

this indeterminacy I attribute part of the longevity of the national character discourse, even after the

concept of national character was invalidated by orthodox ideologues of the CCP, being replaced by "class

character" after his death in 1936. In a sense, indeterminacy protected his view from complete

obliteration by the censors in the late 1940s and after liberation in 1949 because his views could be more

easily accommodated in the prevailing orthodoxy. In the fluid and complicated intellectual environment

of the transitional period before liberation, however, the complex symbol of Ah Q was transformed into a

linguistic instrument to criticize anyone exhibiting such characteristics, including oneself. As Lu Xun

puts it. Ah Q should serve "to open a road to self-reflection" ("Da zhoukan bianzhe yan" 144-5), and

thus he presupposes the imagining of a nev/ national character.

The symbol of Ah Q as the national character in its "Çpical typicality" refers to nobocfy in particular,

but at the same time refers to everybody, a tactic to which Lu Xun admits in "Da % zhoukan bianzhe yan"

(Reply to the editor of Theater weekly). 1 picmre "True Story" functioning in the "imagining" of the

national character as follows: the national character is reified (made substantial) in the collective and individual imagination gradually through reading "True Story," debating its merits and faults, engaging in examination and criticism of the work, introducing and manipulating the vocabulary of Ah Q, "True

Story," and Ah Q-ism, leveling charges of Ah Q-ism against one party or another, reflecting on the interpretation of the work, reading the work again and hearing the vocabulary over and over, perhaps even seeing it in a play, until gradually an imagined national character is constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed, individual by individual, traversing the collective readership. The symbol Ah Q is appropriately empty as no real person could ever perfectly meet the plethora of national character faults

Lu Xun narrates so well. Yet it is also full, filled by a presence of multiple "other" voices calling out firom

Lu Xun's works: the national essence supporters, the "upright gentleman" school, the warlord government, and Communist Party's "cultural authorities." The discourse of Ah Q functioned in the space 14

created by Lu Xun in his destructive attack on national character, and Lu Xun's comments on Ah Q were

only part of this discourse, albeit a central referential part, which took on a life of its own. The multiple

responses of the critics and participants in the discourse of national character initiated by Lu Xun were

appropriated by the hterary interpretive community at large, and were thereupon subjected to the

machinations of the greater political discourse outside Lu Xun's authorial control. This does not mean

that Lu Xun did not maintain his critical stance vis-à-vis the national character issue. Indeed, Lu Xun's

interpretation of the issue becomes clearer through his explanations of and reactions to and against the

criticism of "True Story." Moreover, I will demonstrate that Lu Xun's explanations in the years following

the publication of "True Story" are probably influenced by the critics, particularly his brother Zhou Zuoren

and Mao Dun, and shaped by their criticism and interpretation of "True Story." Furthermore, Westem

writers, particularly Sienkiewicz and GogoL influenced him, and ideas of the literary ejqjression of

national character found in their works appear in Lu Xun's writings.

B. Theoretical Framework: Im ^ning the National Character

National character, a concept popular in nineteenth and early twentieth century Westem social- psychological analysis, is a part of the development of the modem concept of "nation" and its attendant

nationalism and national identity. Literature, as scholars have come to recognize, plays a decisive role in the formation of the concept of nation, national identity, or identification with the nation. Benedict

Anderson identifies the rise of print capitalism as the primat}- vehicle for consolidating the concept of

nation and nationalism through the construction of an abstract sense of unity between people who hve

separated by spatial, temporal and communicative barriers (Imagined Communities 37-46). Crucial to

"imagining the nation" is the rise of the press and the literary establishment (Anderson's so-called print

capitalism), a phenomenon resulting from the industrial revolution and the broadening of the educated

class, which symbiotically linked readers with authors (and other readers indirectly) and shaped the views

they had of themselves and the greater group, and their views of other groups - resulting in the

psychological and social construction of the "nation." Late eighteenth and nineteenth century views of 15

literature, which saw literature as an expression of national essence, national genius, and national

character, descend from ideas of cultural individuality inqjired in part by a broad array of thinkers like

Rousseau, Hume, Bacon, and Herder, thus disseminated during the concomitant development of

readership and print technology within the greater movement of industrial and political revolutions.

Social, political and economic changes roughly corollary to those of the Etnopean and American

modernization were begirming to develop in the late Qing dynasty, including, (1) the first Altering steps

toward industrialization which began during the self-strengthening movement (Schwartz 16-8), (2) an

attempt at political reforms during the Hundred Days Reform of 1898, and (3) the proliferation of journals

and vernacular literature (Dolezelova 17-35); all of which contributed to making the "imagining of the

nation," along the lines of Anderson's conceptualization, a very concrete act. In fact, the relative infancy

of industrialization in this period probably intensified the differences readers perceived between China

and the West, thus increasing the effect of literature in imagining the natiotL China entered the "modem"

era by establishing diplomatic missions abroad, promoting and developing industry, building the beginnings of a modem military force, reforming education, and developing print capitalism in the form

of newspapers and journals. The rise of the print market, journalism, and the serially published novel

opened up the new vocation of being a professional "writer."’® During the last years of the Qing,

thousands of students were sent abroad, mainly to Japan, but also to the United States and Westem

Europe, to receive modem education and training with the hopes that they would retum and use their

skills to strengthen and eiuich the Chinese nation. When these students returned to China many became

the leaders of the New Culture movement and engaged in a literary "revolution" advocating the use of the

vernacular language {baihua ^ #§) in official and public communication. Literature written in the

vernacular language was intelligible to a vastly greater audience than that written in classical Chinese

(though only a small minority of Chinese were literate even in the vernacular), and this was the initial

For a detailed account, including numbers of presses and readership, see Lee and Nathan, "The Beginnings of Mass Culture: Journalism and Fiction in the Late Ch'ing and Beyond." 16 step toward radically reforming the public's access to official and unofficial discourse. One of those students. Lu Xun, participated in an increasingly radical public discourse criticizing Chinese culture and society in hopes of enlightening the younger generation and bringing salvation to a China besieged by foreign imperialist and domestic warlord powers. The issues they debated were disseminated widely for the first time, and the market for their works, whether polemical, philosophical, literary or simply reportoriaL burgeoned as the domestic and international political crises continued unabated firom the late

Qing through the 1930s. The prospect of racial extinction through the mechanisms of social Darwinistic

"natural selection" was more and more real in the minds of intellectuals given the concrete manifestations of the struggle for survival seen all arotmd them, particularly vis-à-vis the imperialist powers.^®

The issues of nafion, national essence and national character permeated intellectual discussion &om the late Qing through the May Fourth periods. Discussions of national character appear consistently in the newspapers, journals and novels during this transitional period as I will elaborate in Chapter 2. The view of national character from the late Qing until the New Culture movement of 1915 is quite complex because it is shaped by tensions between varying currents of radicalism (Liang Qichao 1895-1902) and neo-traditionalism (including Liang Qichao from 1903 on). Dining the May Fourth period the national character discourse appears in the form of journalistic exchanges between iconoclastic May Fourth intellectuals and neo-conservative National Essence scholars until 1919, and then between a new national essence group and the iconoclasts from 1922 until the late 1920s. During the final decade of Lu Xun's life, 1926-1936, the Ah Q discourse occupied much of the space of the national character discourse and became intertwined with leftist politics. This began with the debate over the "death" of Ah Q in the inifial voile}' of the revolutionary proletarian literature debate (1928-1933), and continued in the Two Slogans debate over literature for national defense (1936), and the debate over literary type between Zhou Yang and Hu Feng in 1936.

"Extinction," termed miejue, or miewang, is a concern that can be found at a glance throughout journals of the May Fourth, particularly in New Youth. 17

Though Lu Xun's May Fourth depiction of a negative national character can be seen as an attack against what cultural conservatives considered an essentially positive national essence, national character and national essence are intercoimected through their various conflicts, reflected in debates, articles, and literature. Both the national character critique and the national essence advocacy were instrumental in constructing the modem Chinese national identity. National essence supporters were a convenient target for Lu Xun. I will argue that Lu Xun saw the national essence as the negative national character. There is ironically a national character that both the national essence group and Lu Xun assume, but they just have radically different evaluations of it. Lu Xun's distaste was backed up by the force of rational deduction and logical argument, while the national essence based its ideas on the valorization of history as transmitted through the Confucian canon and the "ancients." The legitimation of Ah Q as a symbol of the

Chinese national character marks the last stage in the process of appropriation of the discourse on national essence by the May Fourth iconoclasts and the subsequent subversion of the positive view of national essence.

Common themes in modem Chinese intellectual history include the idea of discontinuity from

"tradition to modernity" and the notion that modem nationalism is a radical break from the cultuialism of the traditional period (Levenson 108-28). However, there is a trend to re-evaluate the transitional period in question and see its completely terms in order to better grasp the dynamics of the change of values.'®

The period saw the growth of faith in science and democracy as a solution to the problems besetting the nation. Examination of the interaction between national character and national essence in what I refer to as the "national character discourse," highlights continuities and discontinuities between the apparent dichotomies of tradition and modernity, and culturalism and nationalism. National essence advocacy embraces nationalism by appealing to culturalism in an instrumental step to resurrect a primordial essence

For example, Chang Hao has written on the unraveling of Confucian thought through the direct loss of basic value orientation, and the consequent indirect loss of cultural identity orientation and the orientational meaning of existence due to the crisis of internal conflict, imperialist invasion, and nationalism (Crisis). Paul Cohen succinctly deals with this problem (Discovering Historv). 18 by valorizmg the glories of a "golden" past The national character critique cor 5 acted by Lu Xun, as I

•will show below, resisted such recollection of a golden past, and thus presents a special challenge, to the theorization of literature's' role in the construction of national identity. Journals, newspapers and literature throughout the period record the interaction between national character critique and national essence advocacy and in telling this story they contribute to the narrative construction of modem Chinese national identity.

C. General Theor ies of Nation, Nationalism and National Character

Nationalism was one of the primary discourses to have shaped the sociaL political and intellectual en'vironment in China during the period in which Lu Xun became a writer and in which "Tme Story" was written, interpreted and reinterpreted. Indeed, national character is part of the larger discourse of nationalism. The degree to which national character itself can be considered a discursive construction within the greater discourse of nationalism, a discourse within a discourse, producing its own logic and means of existence and the mechanisms to ensure its perpetuation, will be contemplated throughout this dissertation in order to begin to form an understanding of the linkages between power, knowledge and institutions involved in the production of the language of national character.

The origins of nationalism are complex. There are various views on the emergence of nationalism which, according to Anthony D. Smith, "tell us a good deal about their different definitions of nationalism but not so much about its emergence": Lord Acton traces nationalism to the early partitions of Poland;

Benedict Anderson sees its roots in the American Revolution; Hans Kohn finds its roots in the English

Revolution; and Elie Kedourie traces it to Fiche's 1807 Addresses to the German Nation (85). For many scholars, nationalism as a doctrine or ideology dates back to the French Revolution and is derived from an eighteenth century notion of popular sovereignty (democracy) which arose as the middle class demanded political rights commensurate with their ejqsanding economic power during the early stages of the industrial revolution. 19

One might discern two general strains of nationalism, the first based on the civic model of nation ascribed to the relatively industrialized Westem European countries of the eighteenth century, and the second based on the ethnic model ascribed to the relatively non-industrialized eastern Europe including

Germany. As the discourse of nationalism developed in the last two hundred years it is clear that the two strains share features and have been mutually assimilative despite divergent political and philosophical origins.

Scholars who identify the French Revolution as the origin of modem nationalism often point to

Rousseau as the fether of the civic pattern of nationalism. This view of nationalism saw that "sovereignty

should reside in the will and institutions of 'the people'" (Jackson 8), and that the "people" had to be

defined in the legal terms of states, citizenship, democracy, and thus nation. In Rousseau's version of the

evolution of a nation, culture was subordinated to individual rights, liberal humanist values were primary, and the power of the state subjugated to them. But along with this emphasis on individualism, Rousseau

also saw the need for a collective personality, as Anthony D. Smith puts it in his book National Identity:

"it was Rousseau who made the idea of'national character' central to the political life of a community and

who sought to translate it into a practical programme of national preservation and restoration" (88).

Smith identifies Rousseau's view of national character with a cultural pattem that is "neo-classical,"

"inspired by Westem rationalism and enlightenment," and argues "it is often associated with

republicanism and its virtues" (90).

A second cultural pattem of nationalism, the ethnic pattern, developed concurrently in the eighteenth

and nineteenth centuries out of the ideas associated with the German philosophers Herder (1744-1803)

and Fichte (1749-1831) who, as a reaction against domination by the French empire during the late

eighteenth century, tied nation closely to culture and ethnicity in contrast to Rousseau's emphasis on the

citizen's rights and the state's authority (Copleston 6: 174-9). Herder proclaimed that the nation was a

"'cultural' entity defined by attributes such as language, religion, customs or traditions, and sometimes,

'race'" (Jackson 7). Herder established language as the basis for differentiation of cultures, and by 20

extension, literature, religion, race and then nation. Calling Herder "in some ways, the first important

philosopher of modem nationalism," Kwame Appiah aptly points out:

Herder's notion of the Sprachgeist - literally, the "spirit" of the language - embodies the thought that language is not merely the medium through which speakers communicate but the sacred essence of a nationality. Herder himself identified the highest point of the nation's language in its poetry: both the popular lyrics of the folk song, which he collected, and the work of great poets. The emergence of nationalism, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, depended upon the imaginative recreation of a common cultural past that was, in no .«mall part, crafted into a shared tradition by literary scholars like Herder.... From its inception, literary history, like the collection of folk culture, served the ends of nation-building. (284)

Nation-building on the basis of common language, the mother tongue, presupposed a biological lineage of

the nation, itself an imagined fiction, which was characterized by its people through their ideas, actions

and deeds and formed into a collective imagination and reified in the oral and written record. The

linguistic group was observed to have certain characteristics which were histoiicized in literature and

circularly defined the nation and the race as one, underlined by the common denominator of shared

common language. The individual could imagine himself or herself as belonging to the society, and as a

representative example of the whole society.

The concept of biological evolution led to the fiction that human beings could be divided into "a small

number of groups, called 'races,' in such a way that all the members of these races shared certain fundamental, biologically heritable, moral and intellectual characteristics with each other that they did not

share with the members of any other race" (Appiah 276). When Darwin's theory of evolution was appropriated to e?q)lain the idea of national and cultural division by race, the idea that national character was tied to biological lineage or race was reinforced. In the hands of some interpreters, Darwinism itself was further popularized with its application to social formations, known as social Darwinism, and became a theory which offered a kind of "scientific" evidence validating the notion that race is a "natural"

endowment of a nation."' Indeed, Graham Wallas noted in Human Nature in Politics (1908) that it was

Peter Jackson and Jan Penrose discuss the idea of "natural" and the problem of essentialism in the introduction to their anthology. First, "natural" implies humanity is separate firom nature by the logic that natural things are beyond human influence. And second, it implies that if something is natural its legitimacy cannot be called into question: "Social construction theory argues that many of the categories 21

Darwin's Origin of the Species (1859) that made us able to represent the human race as a biological group

(298). This, Wallas argues, should have mitigated antagonism between states by stressing the

commonality of peoples, since after all, people of different states were in the end all human beings.

Instead the opposite occurred and human beings were perceived to be locked in a ruthless struggle for life between states (and nations) that would continue in perpetuity."

Thus, when the ideas of differentiation of cultures by linguistic and literary means met the scientific theories of evolution proposed by Darwin (and his contemporaries), cultural differentiatedness became analyzed through the lenses of "biological determinism." This meant that "cultures" could be hierarchically ranked by race with supposedly scientific legitimacy. Along with evolution came a new view of history, called "historicism," which revolutionized the conceptualization of social history.

According to Smith, historicism means, "the belief in the birth, growth, efflorescence and decay of peoples and cultures... as a framework of inquiry into the past and present and as an ejq)lanatory principle in elucidating the meaning of events, past and present" (87). Historicism and evolutionism complemented one another logically to popularize a so-called "racialist" view of the world in which there existed a

"scientifically" fixed hierarchy of races.^ Once scientific Darwinist theories of evolution were applied to that we have come to consider 'natural,' and hence immutable, can be more accurately (and more usefully) viewed as the product of processes which are embedded in human actions and choices" (2).

“ Wallas argues that this unfortunate application of Darwinism is an act of biological retrogression since it sanctions actions such as the slaughter of millions of Germans fighting English and vice-versa (302): "...it was the intellectual tragedy of the nineteenth century that the discovery of organic evolution, instead of stimulating such a general love of humanity, seemed at first to show that it was forever impossible. Progress, it appeared, had been always due to a ruthless struggle for life, which must still continue unless progress was to cease. Pity and love would turn the edge of the struggle, and therefore would lead inevitably to the degeneration of the ^ecies" (299). "Darwin made it clear that the difficulty [of skin color] could not be so glossed over. Racial variations were shown to be unaffected by education, to have existed for millions of years, and to be tending perhaps towards divergence rather than assimilation (299).

The term "racialist" refers to the widely held views in the nineteenth century regarding a hierarchy of races. As Appiah points out, it was believed by "... most educated \Tctorians by the mid-century, that we could divide human beings into a small number of groups, called 'races,' in such a way that all the members of these races shared certain fundamental, biologically heritable, moral and intellectual characteristics with each other that they did not share with members of any other race. The characteristics that each member of a race was supposed to share with ever}' other were sometimes called the essence of 22

hiiTTian society (i.e. social Darwinism) they could in turn be used to justify competition between nations in

racial terms and the expansionist activities of the imperialist nations.

The basic expression of national essence and character was thus found in a nation's "national'

language and "national" literature, as well as in its music, art history, archeology and so forth. Further,

Smith says:

It is the intellectuals - poets, musicians, painters, sculptors, novelists, historians and archaeologists, playwrights, philologists, anthropologists and folklorists - who have proposed and elaborated the concepts and language of the nation and nationalism and have, through their musings and research, given voice to wider a^irations that they have conveyed in appropriate images, myths and symbols. (93)

In the cultural matrix of nationalism. Smith calls national character an early factor in the development toward the full-blown "core doctrine" of nationalism: "By the middle of the eighteenth century the concept of 'national character' was widely accepted" (84-5). Early ideas of national character and genius, such as those exalted by Lord Shaftesbury, were confined mainly to the first two estates, the nobility and clergy, because the middle class had yet to grow in size and power. But with the advent of the Age of

Reason (Enlightenment), the rationalization of the state was underway, concurrent with industrialism, and the eventual rise of the third estate (commoners) led to identification of the "state" with the "population" in terms of the "nation" (Smith 86). The ethnic cultural pattem of nationalism was in turn adopted in differing degrees by nations associated with the civic cultural pattern, and vice-versa. Evidence of the split between the two patterns of nationalism and then their mutual assimilation is found in Ernest

Renan's 1882 article, "What is a Nation?" Renan laments the phenomenon of naturalization and racialization of culture:

that race; they were characteristics that were necessary and sufBcient, take together, for someone to be a member of the race" (276). "Racialist" should be distinguished fiom the term "racist," which although probably a product of nineteenth century racialism, is complex and confounded by the particular experience of a variety of diaspora in the US and elsewhere. Racialist in my usage here is analytical, whereas racist is instrumentaL an active part of a doctrine of superiority. My analysis of national character in this dissertation is viewed descriptively and analytically, and only incidentally might provide a comment on the motivations and uses of nationalism and the related effects such as racism. For an in- depth analysis of the concept and vocabulary of race in China, see Frank Dikotter (Discourse of Race! 23

Nowadays... race is confused with nation and a sovereignly analogous to that of really existing peoples is attributed to ethnographic or, rather linguistic groups. (8)

There is thus created a kind of primordial right analogous to the divine right of kings; an ethnographic principle is substituted for a national one. This is a very great error, which, if it were to become dominant, would destroy European civilization. The primordial right of races is as narrow and as perilous for genuine progress as the national principle is just and legitimate. (13)

The truth is that there is no pure race and that to make policies depend upon ethnographic analysis is to surrender it to a chimera. (14)

Although rejecting race, language and religion as the basis on which a nation is founded, Renan stresses the idea that the psychological foundations of the nation take nation as a "spiritual principle":

A nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things, which in truth are but one, constitute this soul or spiritual principle. One lies in the past, one in the present One is the possession in common of a rich legacy of memories; the other is present-day consent the desire to live together, the will to perpetuate the value of the heritage one has received in an imdivided form. (19)

National character and national identity are overlapping terms. On the surface, "national character" would appear to be only a part of the larger "national identity," but the term national identity seems to be a recent, twentieth century coinage, perhaps emerging out of behavioral psychology in the early part of the centur>’.‘"' The term national character, on the other hand, has a long legacy dating back to at least the eighteenth century. According to Smith, the terms national character, national genius, and national will, pre-dated the concept of nationalism itself (94). Smith calls national character a "philosophical and anthropological concept that was developed in the eighteenth century":

It stems from the idea of "national genius" found in the writings of Lord Shaftesbury, among others; he speaks, for example, of die "rising Genius of our Nation" (Britain) and prophesies that it will become the "principal seat of the Arts" [1712]. The idea of a national identity, or more

It is possible that the term national identity supplanted national character in the twentieth century as a result of the dreadful experience of nationalism in two world wars. If fervent nationalism of the type that dominated Germany early this century was to be supplanted by respect for individual freedoms and human rights protected by law, it is not unexpected that some of its terminology would be changed to reflect this, as a shift from national character to national identitj' could possibly indicate. Nevertheless, the structural systems of the nation - its laws, constitutions, economic distributions, etc. - have not changed despite the wars (with some qualification necessary to account for the cold war period), and neither has Âe welding force of nationalism or the dominant concept of "nation" as an organizing principle of political, economic and cultural life. The nuance of the term national identity is seemingly separate and not so blatantly hegemonic as national character. 24

often, national character is common to eighteenth-century writers, notably Montesquieu [1689- 1755] and Rousseau [1712-1778], The latter, indeed, declared: "The first rule which we have to follow is that of national character: every people has, or must have, a character; if it lacks one, we must start by endowing it with one. " (75)

Definitions of national character are not static and vary with the discourse in which it is used. A list of eighteenth century writers who commented on national character would read like a "who's who" gallery of eminent thinkers of the time, including Rousseau, Hume, Bacon, Herder, and Fichte. For example, in his essay "Of National Characters" (1748), Hume sets out some of the prejudicial views held by a wide range of people of his time. Hume refers to Bacon for observations of differences between peoples of southern and northern climates (253). These observations are interesting only for the dating of stereotypes and biases associated with particular "nations." The presuppositions informing theories of national character are much more complex than can be explained by pointing to the stereotyping of national or cultural group, as Hume does in his essay.

Consider for a moment the definition of national character in the field of social psychology. Inkeles and Levinson define national character in their article on the subject in The Handbook of Social-

Psvchologv (1969) as the "relatively enduring personality characteristics and patterns that are modal among the adult members of a society" (4: 173). Significantly, the authors note that confusion about the term is "pervasive and enduring." Inkeles lists related meanings and terms like "people's character, folk character, national (or 'racial' or popular) ptychology" (173), and then describes four main types of definition of national character:

1. National character as an institutional pattem which is described by the "dominant, or typical and representative" institutions in a nation. 2. National character as a cultural theme which "gives prime emphasis not to political and economic institutions but to femily, friendship, the local community, and to values, attitudes, philosophy of life, religion and the like." 3. National character as action, which is described by the behavior and consequences of a nation. 4. National character as a racial psychology in which the traits are considered genetic.

The authors argue for the emphasis of research on national character to concentrate on "modal adult personality characteristics," an expression which means those personality characteristics or patterns which occiu in statistically significant modes (i.e. high frequency). 25

This dissertation concerns itself with the construction of national character as a discourse, or how the relationship between the cultural forces that combine to produce a particular national character and how this national character is symbolized, reified and nçfiiologized, as in the form of Lu Xun's character. Ah

Q. While psychologists such as Inkeles and Levinson may propose a definition of national character separable into four predominant treatments, the discourse of national character in China is as an amalgamation of these analytical patterns, all four of which have a voice in the national character discourse. The task here is to identify the national character discourse in modem China, analyze Lu

Xun's role in its construction, and to determine how it fimctions synchronically, in the highly contingent historical contexts in which it appears. As such, it will be crucial to examine not only Lu Xun's views of national character, presented in Chapters 3,4 and 5 below, but also the critical reception of Ah Q, found in Chapter 6. Before proceeding to these analyses, it will be necessary to explore the theoretical components of national character and how it relates to literature, or how literature functions in the national character discourse.

Because national character and national identity are overlapping concepts, it is useful to examine the late twentieth century perspective of national identity in order to understand the elements of national character. Smith lists the following common elements of national identity:

1. an historic territory, or homeland, 2. common myths and historical memories, 3. a common, mass public culture, 4. common legal ri^ ts and duties for all members, and 5. a common economy with territorial mobility for members. (14)

Theoretically, the extent to which a nation can lay legitimate claim to each of these points should be directly related to the degree of consciousness of a national identity in its citizenry. I am not interested in the apphcation of a "formula" to gage the development of a Chinese national identity, or national character, at any particular point in history. However, it is relevant to this dissertation to examine the underlying assumptions necessary for a cohesive national consciousness in order to tmderstand the relationship between hterature and national identity. In fact, "consciousness" {zijue g is a topic of 26

much interest to intellectuals of the May Fourth period and an important indicator of modernity, as

articles in the very first issue of Oinenian zazhi (Youth magazine; later renamed Xin oingnian

New youth) in 1915.^ In his discussion of May Fourth realism Marston Anderson sees zijue as

the diametric opposite of national character "May Fourth thinkers used this term to denote the state of

intellectual and spiritual independence that th ^ wanted to see replace the 'slavish' mentality inculcated in

the Chinese people by Confucianism" (32-3)."® The second element, common myths and historical

memories, is of direct interest to this analysis because literature deals with the play of myths and the

creation and perpetuation of historical memories built upon successive generations of readers and

narratives. It should also be noted that the other elements are in some measure constructions arising out

of a nation's myths and historical memories.

National identity and the nation are complex constructs composed of a number of interrelated components - ethnic, cultural, territorial, economic and legal-political. They signify bonds of sohdarity among members of corrununities united by shared memories, myths and traditions that may or may not find expression in states of their own but are entirely different firom the purely legal and bureaucratic ties of the state. (Smith 15)

Smith states: "The external functions [of national identity] are territorial, economic and political" (16).

The members live in the territory which situates them in time and space. The economy of the nation defines its well-being in terms of allocation of resources and restriction of access to those resources to the members. Basic political processes like participation in elections are restricted by both the electorate and

^ An example of this in the first issue is Gao Yihan's "Gonghe guojia yu qingnian zhi zijue" (The republican nation and the self-consciousness of the youth).

“ Other articles are Chen Duxiu, "Wu ren zuihou zhi juewu"; in Tao Lugong's "Lun zisha" there is an English gloss for juewu (awakening) as "consciousness." Vera Schwarcz notes that the mental transformation implicit in zijue, which she translates as "genuine autonomy," was in danger of becoming substituted by social activism in the patriotic fervor of the May Fourth: "Although most of their contemporaries were ready to embrace the cause of national renewal, few were willing to trace the causes of China's weakness to her own native traditions. May Fourth intellectuals who did so were fi:equently accused of being "un-Chinese'" (96). Also see Duara who notes: "David Kolb has shown that the unified subject, self-consciousness ofhis or her fi^edom, is one of the most important premises in the conception of modernity.... Thus, modem thought [for Max Weber] recognizes what traditional societies had failed to recognize, namely that values are self-chosen, and not grounded in a larger cosmic scheme.... Modem subjectivity has grasped the fundamental trath of its own emptiness and is thus tmconstrained in its power to know" (Rescuing 87). 27 the candidate's nationality. A national identity is the basis on which political rights of the individual are endowed, which in turn work to maintain the social order through the process of socialization of the citizens. Smith points out the social and social-psychological functions of national identity:

The nation is also called tqjon to provide a social bond between individuals and classes by providing repertoires of shared %'alues, symbols and traditions (16).

Finally, a sense of national identity provides a powerful means of defining and locating individual selves in the world, through the prism of the collective personality and its distinctive culture (16).

Here in the interstices of social bonding and shared values, symbols and tradition, the individual becomes conscious of his or her "national identity." This comes in part through the medium of print.

A common feature of the various views regarding nationalism's emergence is that the discourse of nationalism and its attendant cultural products, myths and symbols, arose in concert with print capitalism, which in turn acted to disseminate the ideology, artifacts and narratives of nationalism and the nation. In his influential book. Imagined Communities (1991), Benedict Anderson stresses the important link between nationalism and literature through his description of a nation as "an imagined political community" with a mythologized past established through the print media (46). Anthony Smith, like

Anderson, sees the nation as an imagined community constructed by myths and memories in which national identities "are constituted, not by lines of physical descent, but by the sense of continuity, shared memory and collective destiny, i.e. by lines of cultural affinity embodied in distinctive myths, memories, tymbols and values retained by a given cultural unit of population" (29). Because biological heritage is constructed within the collective myth, "actual" biological heritage is not as important as the sense of continuity, shared memory and collective destiny. Narratives of all kinds, be they literary, oral, legal, or historical, figure largely in the construction of the concept of collective myth. Anderson explains part of the historical relationship between literature, the nation, nationalism and national identity; print capitalism meant the rise of media (newspapers, magazines, journals, and novels) which not only created a growing vernacular reading community, but also acted to homogenize the readerships' views of the nation through large scale ideological insemination (44-5). 28

Besides concrete shared experiences such as war, political movements, government relations, the collective national myth, and the symbols associated with them, a collective consciousness of nation is instilled and reified in the minds of people through the press, news media and novels. This is the product of two types of modem innovations: technological innovations in printing and the crucial social-political innovation of adopting the vernacular language as the language of government During the modem period, the vernacular replaced the sacred languages of Latin, Arabic, and Examination Chinese in its respective societies (Anderson 25). Thus, a complex interaction was underway: the vernacular language replaced the previously dominant and sacred classical religious languages; literacy rose; the technology of printing vastly improved with the industrial revolution; the readership became richer with more leisure time to read; the demand for works increased; the readership indulged in political discourse and cultural discourse through their purchases, consumption, and production of books, papers and magazines. In the process, this readership came to "imagine" the nation. The novel served to historicize the nation (an initial step in the rise of nationalism):

The novel's created world allowed for multitudinous actions occurring simultaneously within a single, definable community, filled with 'calendrical coincidences' and what Anderson calls (after Benjamin) 'traverse, cross-time.' Read in isolation, the novel was nevertheless a mass ceremony; one could read alone with the conviction that millions of others were doing the same, at the same time. (Brermen 52)

Hence, the individual came to a "national" consciousness - the consciousness of nation - through reading literature, presumed national by virtue of the knowledge and faith that one's supposed compatriots were also doing “he same. Moreover, concurrent with this process is the construction of the consciousness of other nations.

D. Literature Review

A comprehensive overview of the study of Chinese national character is b^ond the scope of this dissertation, which focuses on Lu Xun's function in the discourse and the construction of Ah Q as a symbol of national character. However, a brief review of the significant contemporary works on national 29 character will be mentioned here. There are two types of works on Chinese national identity which are not relevant to this dissertation. One example of such recent scholarship is an anthology of articles edited b>' Ditmer and Kim, China's Guest for National Identity (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1993). The editors aspire to

"reconceptualize" (as if there has ever been a conceptualization) a definition of Chinese national identity based on identification with cultural myths and symbols, and the political and historical processes of transition to the "modem" nation state in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Though this work seems to promise a theoretical analysis of the national-ptychological level of the construction of national identity (the first chapter introduces the concept of the influence of cultural myths and symbols), in fact it focuses primarily on national security issues, "national interest," and foreign policy. The present study, in contrast, focuses primarily on the much more amorphous and abstract role that literary and cultural artifacts play in the construction of national character. Another recent study with a promising title is by

Germaine A. Hoston, The State. Identity, and the National Question in China and Japan (Princeton 1994).

Examination of this work shows it is dedicated to the analysis of China's Marxist identity and the ideological ramifications of the national question as they relate to the theory of the Marxist state. Like

Ditmer and Kim, Hoston does not explore the role of cultural products like literature in the construction of national identity. These examples point out the need for a cultural/literary approach such as 1 aspire to in this dissertation.

The Chinese literature on Ah Q is immense, books and articles numbering over 1000. There is even a recent compilation firom Taiwan by Lu Jin, which collects seven decades of critique of Ah Q, including comments from both Lu Xun's contemporaries and writers in Taiwan today. Articles from mainland

China, not surprisingly, constitute the bulk of materials on Ah Q. Miscellaneous works on Lu Xun usually devote a chapter or section to the national character issue with Ah Q as the focus. However, works that explore the Ah Q and national character as discourses, as distinguished from those that participate in these discourses by analyzing facets of Ah Q, "True Story," and national character, are practically non- 30

existent^ Most mainland works that can be placed in the category of "Ah Q research" or "histories of Ah

Q research" are bountiful compilations of data on Ah Q, but inevitably address the many issues revolving

around Ah Q from a Marxist standpoint, and do not tie together the critical material in relation to the

historical contingencies. Works like Jiang Chao's A 0 lungao (Draft thesis on Ah Q; 1986) and Shao

Bozhou's "A O zhengzhuan" vaniiu zongheng tan (Broad ranging discussions on "The True Story of Ah

Q" research; 1989) are examples of this, but still provide excellent background material for my analysis of

the Ah Q discourse. '"A Q zhengzhuan' yanjiu shi" (Ah Q research history) in Lun Xun vaniiu xueshu lun

zhuzuo ziliao huibian ('1913-1980') (A corpus of data of academic theses and works on Lu Xun (1913-

1983), 1985, vol. 5,651-92; hereafter Corpus), provides a summary and the variety of issues that

mainland Chinese critics have explored in Ah Q research:

1. The Problem of Ah Q's Typicality (A 0 de dianxingxingwenti 2. The Problem of Ah Q's Method of Spiritual Victory (A 0 de Jingshen shengli fa wenti Q

3. The Problem of Ah Q [style] Revolution {AOdegemingwenti^Q^'^apf^^) 4. The Problem of Lu Xim's Intention in Creating "The Tme Story of Ah Q" {Lu Xun chuangzuo "A Ozhengzhuan"de b e n y i- w e n ti (R'QIE#)

This smnmary from Corpus provides a basis for establishing the history of critical perspectives of Ah Q in the ideological environment on the Chinese mainland from 1922 to 1985. However, this research history, and others like it, do not address the study of Ah Q as a discourse, nor do they address the issue of Lu Xun or Ah Q's function in the discourse of national character and the construction of national identity. In this way, they become part of the discourse, providing cmcial historical details, without being involved in discursive analysis. In other words, they do not get at the relationships between "power, knowledge, institutions, intellectuals, the control of populations, and the modem state as these intersect in the functions of systems of thought" (Bové 54-5), insofar as the Ah Q discourse relates to the canonization of

LuXtm.

^ An exception to this is Lydia H. Liu's work discussed below. 31

One recent work that examines Ah Q as a discursive product is Lydia H. Liu's fascinating study of the transvaluation of values in modem China through the interaction of discourses crossing national boundaries of Europe, the US, Japan and China, Translingual Practice: Literature. National Culture, and

Translated Modernity-China. 1900-1937 (Stanford 1995). Liu's chapter, "Translating National

Character: Lu Xim and Arthur Smith," raises many theoretical issues relevant to this dissertation, including the use of post-modern theory of discourse to analyze cross cultural transaction. Liu also provides an etymology of the concept guomin xing (national character), and an examination of

Lu Xun's obsession with the problem in relation to Arthiu Smith's Chinese Characteristics. Most pertinent to this dissertation, Liu notes the following:

Drawing mainly on Lu Xun's own desire to transform the national character of the Chinese, critics hail "The True Story of Ah Q" as a quintessential text about the Chinese national character. They cite much evidence from Lu Xun's own works in support of that view, and their evidence generally afnrms the character of Ah Q as an embodiment of Chinese national character. But little attention has been paid to the equal contribution to the myth of national character made by the body of hteraiy criticism that aims to legitimize the reading of national character. The criticism is inescapably contaminated by the same intellectual predicaments with which Lu Xun himself had to struggle. (65)

My dissertation is addressed directly to the point of examining the "contribution to the myth of national character made by the body of literary criticism" and working out the extent to which these readings legitimize, or perhaps subvert. Lu Xun's concept of national character in modem China. Indeed, my reading will attempt to demystify, to some extent, the process of making Lu Xun into a myth, the "god" of modem Chinese literature. By way of demystification my analysis in the following chapters will suggest the following: (1) Lu Xun was not the creator of the national character discourse, but was participating in an already active discourse on national character that can be traced directly to Liang Qichao; (2) Lu Xun's own interpretation of "Tme Story" was influenced in part by its critical reception and his readings of

Westem works, rather being a product of some romantic or revolutionary genius; (3) the elevation of Lu

Xun and "True Story" to world literary status was ironically a function of Ah Q-ism; (4) reminiscences by

Xu Shoushang with respect to Lu Xtm's early thinking on national character were highly influenced by contemporary politics and Lu Xun's canonization; and (5) Lu Xun's canonization was a repudiation of his 32 critique of national character. As contemporary critic Li Tuo sums rqp. Ah Q goes well beyond Lu Xun to function in multiple discourses;

The word "Ah Q" never used to exist in the Chinese language It was the pure invention of Lu Xun. However, once the idea escaped from tmder the pen of its creator, it took on a life of its own and traveled among hundreds of thousands of people whose repeated evocations and citations helped generate further topics and discourse, (qtd. in Liu 64-5)

Approaching Ah Q as a discursive product, indeed a discourse itself, it is clear that I am examining the discourse of modernity in China through my analysis of the national character and Ah Q discotuses. By examining the Ah Q discomse in detail I hope to go beyond Liu's analysis to show why and how Ah Q has maintained his relevance iq) to today, and attenqpt to demystify the process of mythologization that raised

Lu Xun to the status of larger than life cultural hero. CHAPTER n

THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF NATIONAL CHARACTER IN CHINA

In order to situate Lu Xun and Ah Q in the national character discourse and examine the intellectual

forces that inform the construction of national character in modem China, it is necessary to graq) the

complex historical relationship between the concepts of the nation, nationalism, national identity and

national character and evaluate their relationship with literature and literary production. 1 will argue that

these concepts in their distinctive symbiotic relationships inscribed in the discourse of modernity are part

of a Westem discourse that was initially alien to the Chinese but eventually assimilated and particularized

in modem China. In Chapter 1 above, 1 outlined the foundation of Westem theories of national character.

In this chapter 1 will show how these ideas were received in the Chinese historical context. 1 will sketch the origins and development of ideas of nation, nationalism, national identity and national character and their relation to intellectual and political developments in Chinese history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Generally speaking, China during the late Qing and early Republican period was in the process of developing modem nationalism and national identity as it made the transition from a dynastic to a republican system. The Chinese discourse of national character is situated within an envelope of the greater historical context of the rise of nationalism and national character in the West.

This background discussion is imperative in order to situate and evaluate the role of Ah Q and Lu Xun's

"Tme Story" in the constraction of national character that will be addressed in Chapters 4,5 and 6. 34

A. Studies ofNation and Nationalism in China

1. The Problem of "Traditional Culturalism" and "Modem Nationalism"

Discussion of the study of nationalism in China should begin with consideration of the problematic

issue of "culturalism and nationalism" - a paradigm elaborated by Joseph R. Levenson in his stucfy of

Liang Qichao.^ This relationship is tied directly to the equally problematic paradigm of "tradition and

modernity," as the pairing of "tradition" with "culturalism" (traditional culturalism) and "modernity" with

"nationalism" (modem nationalism) in Levenson's language demonstrates (Levenson 109).

"Culturalism" was articulated long before "nationalism" in the "modem" era, and it implied cultural

lojalty with no sense of rivalry for, as Levenson asserts, "Chinese civilization was all the civilization there

was: I think; therefore I am Chinese. When so much could be assumed, what need was there to insist (as

is the case with nationalism]" (110). In Levenson's analysis, "the intrusion [of nation] put an end to

Chinese pretensions of universalism" (111), the movement ôomtiarcria^~P (all under heaven-world)

to guojia (nation-state);

The nationalist proposition that the world is divided and that the world's divisions are nations has a corollary - that China must be undivided, that only in its wholeness can it be a natiou As Liang wrote in 1911, "Therefore, nationalism, in re internal considerations, is incompatible with localism; in re external considerations, it is incoirçatible with universalism." Liang had to dramatize the idea of one China, the sum of its parts, if he was to make China distinguishable as one part of a sum. (114)

This conception of a radical split at a point in history, marked by the oppositional terminology of culture and nation, culturalism and nationalism, tradition and modernity, is reflected in the writings of late Qing intellectuals like Liang Qichao, and continued through the May Fourth. This split is bridged to the extent that proponents of national essence appropriated the language and myths of culturalism, thus creating a

cultural nationalism. Culturalism could not exist by defirtition upon the consciousness as a nation in a

^ Liang Qichao (1873-1929) was a late (Jing political reformer who, with Kang Youwei and others, proposed far reaching reforms to the Emperor in what became known as the "Hundred Days Reform" of 1898. Liang escaped to Japan when Cixr, the Empress Dowager, reasserted her political control. There he became the leading journalist and political thinker who introduced China to Westem ideals of government and political tystems from exile. He returned after the collapse of the Qing Dynas^- in 1911 to take positions in the Repubhcan government 35 world of nations. The issue is problematic given that advocacy of the second term of each opposition was conducted from the viewpoint of "modernity." This exposes the essentialism of nationalism which has to locate its roots in an imagined historical national uitity. Prasenjit Duara has strongly critiqued Levenson in his book. Rescuing Historv from the Nation: Questioning Narratives of Modem China (Chicago 1995), proposing the concept of "bifurcation" of history to deal with this paradox:

I will critique the increasingty popular characteri 2ation of the nation as representing a radical discontinuity with the past This view, in which histories are nothing but retroqrective constructions to serve present needs, presumptuously privileges the present over the past and itself succumbs to a Hegelian metaphysics of the self-conscious, modem subject Thus, in order to chart our path between the evolutionary and the reductionist models of history, 1 will suggest a bifurcated history which seeks to grasp both the dispersal of the past and its transmission over time in the same moment. (52)

Recognition of a radical spht is situated in the idea of modernity that holds that "the unified subject, self- conscious of Azs or Aer freedom, is one of the most important prerrtises" (Duara 87). Narratives, be they polemical or hterary, that reflect the "truths" of modernity, such as the validity of evolutionism, social

Darwinism, science and nation, valorize the concept of modernity which, in itself, enables the discursive constmction of national identity. This is a circular construction. These narratives are complicated by the need of nationalists to draw on "tradition" to legitimize their advocacy of the nation. As Duara puts it:

"tradition [in the nationalist discoirrse] is a reconstructed image and one that is selected and reorganized by the modem nationalist for certain ends" (88).^ The situation is further complicated by the differing degrees to which tradition is reconstracted for various ends. An example of this is the difference between

Lu Xun's implied view of Chinese cultural tradition (re)constructed in his attacks on it, and the National

Essence view of Chinese culture (re)constructed in their defense and promotion of it Both operated with the assumption that there was a "national essence," though they each had a radically different view of its value (Lu Xun saw it as a [negative] national character while its sqrporters saw it as a [positive] national essence).

^ Xiaobing Tang fiâmes the circularity succinctly: "Nationalism, as a historicizing narrative of modernity, provided Liang with a useful ideology for change. It gradually replaced what Levenson called a syncretic culttualism largely couched in traditional values, whose foundation was an ahistorical universalism" (Global Space 34). 36

The value of a discursiv'e approach to viewing the construction of national character is that it can recognize the complexity of the issues without tiying to homogenize them, and thereby open up space for greater understanding. It is not so important to argue if China embraced nationalism and discarded culturalism in coming to some self-consciousness as a nation in the modem era as it is to try to understand how Chinese intellectuals came to grips with the new situation they feced in their "crisis of orientational order" and how that brought them to embrace what kind of a nationalism and participate in the construction of conceits of nation, national character, etc. The ideas of intellectuals like Liang Qichao,

Chen Duxiu, and Lu Xun, expressed in pohtical tracts and debates in late Qing journals, are clues to how the construction of national identity took place in early twentieth century China.

2. Social Darwinism and the Discourse of Race in Modem China

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, social Darwinism and its implicit racialist view were embraced in China by important late Qing reformers like Liang Qichao and Yan Fu for the express purpose of building the citizenry and enriching and strengthening the nation in order to resist imperialist intrusions. Thus, the imported idea of social Darwinism became an intellectual catalyst driving the late

Qing reform and also informing the attitudes of late Qing revolutionaries. This was in part due to the concern that the Chinese race was heading for extinction tmder the onslaught of competition from foreign races (Dikotter 107-15). In his article, "Social Psychology in the Late Qing Period," Sim Ltmg-kee discusses the general acceptance, or assimilation, of the ideas of social Darwinism, brought to China in the "immensely popular" work by Gustav Le Bon, Lois Psvchologioues de l'Évolution des Petrples (1894):

Extending the biological metaphor of the natural to the historical races, he [Le Bon] argued that each historical race, or nation, possessed "a mental constitution" as imvarying as "its anatomical constitution." A nation, "a p^chological species," was determined by its biological heredity. A nation thus inherited certain shared "moral and intellectual characteristics" that not only formed the fotmdation of all its institutions, arts, and beliefs but also determined its course of evolution. Together these characteristics formed "the soul of a race." A racial soul was "the synthesis" of a nation's "entire past," or "the inheritance of all its ancestors." (241) 37

In view of the preceding discussions of the Westem origins of national character, exemplified by Anthony

Smith's analysis, the shared moral and intellectual characteristics Sun refers to above are what came to be

known as the national character. National character was thus seen as a function of biology or heredity,

and thus implies an organismic conception of social psychology, which was Jfirst encountered by Chinese

intellectuals in Japan during the late Qing era "under the guise of'political'theories" (Sun 236). While

Liang Qichao's thinking with regard to social psychology has varied and complex roots, including

Spencerian liberalism and Bluntschli's organicism, he eventually came to a position similar to Le Bon's, by "simulating mental constitution, and thus the moral character of a nation, to anatomical constitution"

(242). This resulted in the view of "psychologized 'heredity* as a cultural bequest to one's descendants that

could be puiposTvely produced" (242). Sun traces Bluntschli's ideas back to Herder's concepts of

"national spirit" and "national will" (244). Viewing the lineage of social psychology in Liang's thinking, it is evident that in addition to his embrace of Rousseau's civic pattem of nationalism, Liang also was deeply influenced by the ethnic pattem of nationalism epitomized by Herder. Chang Hao points out that

Liang "regarded Rousseau's democratic doctrines as the most effective antidote not only to traditional despotism but also to the slavish mentality of the Chinese people" (192). These ideas led to Liang's advocacy of a "new citizen" based on Westem democratic ideology, which could "help the Chinese people shake off the incubus of a servile character and rejuvenate themselves" (Chang 192). Though according to Sun, Bluntschli's organicism "was largely pre-Darwinian" the racial psychology of Le Bon obviously drew heavily on social Darwinist concepts. Thus, Liang's complex thought regarding nation includes the organicism of Bluntschli, which "advocated nation building from above" (Sun 239), as well as Herder's ethnic and Rousseau's civic elements of nationalism, and the social psychology of Le Bon, who was informed by social Darwinist ideas of evolutioa

In his study China and Charles Darwin (1983), James Pusey analyzes Liang Qichao's views of history and struggle and concludes that Liang saw history as racial: "He insisted that history was racial - and thereby made it racist. 'What is history?' he asked. 'It is simply the story of racial development and racial 38

strife. Aside from races, there is no history'" (Pusey 196). It is not clear to me that Liang was "racist" in

the contemporary American sense of the word, as Pusey seems to imply. However, it is clear here that

Liang is using a definition of race that equals "nation." This was a general phenomenon of the time, as

Dikotter notes, which is common currency in print both in China and the West throughout the period

under examination (86). Dikotter observes that the number of students in Japan increased to 10,000 from

1900 to 1906, and "they were quick to develop a strong feeling of national identity and group loyally":

The concept of nationalism was couched in terms borrowed firom the Japanese. Minzuzhuyi firom the Japanese minzokushugi, exerted a lasting influence on the political terminology of the Chinese students. This term literally meant "racism," and expressed a nationalist vision based on race. Race and nation overlapped in the term minzu (108)

Liang Qichao was one of the more eloquent translators of the racialist notion of nation for the Chinese.

According to Pusey, he saw that the only way to survive racial extinction in semi-colonial China was to

beat the imperialists at their own game. Liang was sure that China could do just that:

If imperialism was the Way of the fit, then to be fit China too must become imperialist And China coa/

Liang had an impact upon the thinking of many intellectuals of the time, including Lu Xun.^° One of the political figures Liang also influenced was the revolutionary Sun Yatsen, a prominent leader in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and establishment of the Republic in 1911. Pusey argues that Sun Yatsen saw race as a revolutionary instrument to be used against the Manchu dynasty, and his concept of minzu zhuyi , first conceived as racism, was argued firom the Darwinist writings of Liang, who ironically, as a reformer in support of the Manchu Qing dynasty, was an enemy of the nationalist's (319).

After the revolution was accomplished. Sun Yatsen insisted that other races would not be wiped out, but rather, according to Wang Jingwei, assimilated into the Han race, and thus the concept of minzu zhuyi would be redefined as nationalism (Pusey 332). Pusey comes to the conclusion: "Darwin inspired, or

30 See Zhou Zuoren, "Guanyu Lu Xim" (91). 39 helped inqiire, a radical reappraisal of everything Chinese, and his theory, therefore, became an tmprecedented weapon for change; and much of that change, it surely cannot be denied, was for the good"

(449).

3. Interaction of National Character and Essence in Construction of the National Identity

At least one critic, Prasenjit Duara, has asserted that the claims of Anderson and others to the crucial significance of print capitalism in the development of national consciousness are exaggerated. In his cogently argued article, "Deconstracting the Chinese Nation," Duara asserts that there was alreatfy a

Chinese consciousness of "nation" engendered in part by a rich oral tradition which in itself had complex and subtle links to written Chinese:

For instance, in pan-Chinese myths, such as that of Guandi, the god of war, not only were oral and written traditions thoroughly intertwined, the myth also provided a medium whereby different groups could announce their participation in a national culture even as they inscribed their own interpretation of the myth through the written and other cultural media, such as folk drama and iconography. (7-8)

Duara's point appears to be that a political consciousness existed in pre-modem times, and this offers an interesting challenge to Anderson's view of "national identity as a distinctive mode of consciousness: the nation as a whole imagining itself to be the unified subject of history" (8). Significantly, Duara's problem is not with Anderson's conceptualization of how the nation is "imagined" - in great part through the agency of the print media - but rather with the "general postulate of a cohesive subjectivity" and a temporal exclusivity (8). Actually, Duara expounds on Anderson's basic principle of "imagining" or identifying with a community by arguing that the citizen identified with numerous communities simultaneously (e.g. gender, ethnic, local, provincial), and when these communities became "politicized they came to resemble national identities" (8). Thus the citizen has multiple identities, mediated in a variety of discourses simultaneously.

While Duara's concerns regarding the capability of pre-modem societies to create and possess self- conscious political communities are insightful, they do not preclude the imagining of a modem nation- 40

State from possessing peculiar features o f national consciousness and "national character" distinct from the pre-modem states. It is precisely at the intersection of the discourses of nation, nationalism, national identity and character, with the discourse of modernity, that the concept of "nation" is defined. In this sense Duara's assertion of a pre-modem national consciousness is problematic, perhaps even essentialist, because he fails to recognize his appropriation of the modem language and conceptualization of nation to discuss a pre-modem discourse. Leo Lee’s view of modem Chinese historical consciousness as a discontinuity with past consciousness clarifies this crucial point. Lee argues that a new historical consciousness is what makes the May Fourth period different from the past: "the notion and value of

'newness' are defined in a context of unilinear time and a unilinear sense of history that is characteristically untraditional and Westem" ("Search" 111). Lee comes to the following conclusion:

"[M]odemity" in China was loosely defined as a mode of consciousness of time and history as unilinear progress, moving in a continuous "stream" or "tide" from the past to the present; it also contained the valorized notion of the present as a new "epoch," not only unprecedented and qualitatively different from previous eras but better, which leads prophetically to a purposeful future. (122)

Modernity is thus a temporally conditioned concept related to a change in consciousness from the cyclical to the linear concept of history that developed in China with the reception of evolutionism and with the sprouts of industrial development, proliferation of literacy and education, vemacularization of written communication, and the first reforms of the political system, all of which began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries after contact with the West. Applying the term "nation" to China becomes significant in the context of modem society only after Westem contact in the middle of the nineteenth century. The volume of discourse on nation is ever increasing from the late Qing through the Mty Fourth period, as indicated by the vast number of treatises on related subjects, from discussions of nationalism, national character, nation and republic, found in works from Liang Qichao's New Citizen, to Chen

Duxiu's New Youth.

Duara's conceptualization of the multiple identities that people enjoy in society is nevertheless illuminating. 1 accept his conceptualization in spirit by choosing to view national identity as one of many 41 concurrent multiple identities. Taking this concept as a theoretical point of departure, Chinese national identity be read not exclusively along Lu Xun's negative assessment of national character, but as operating in a process of mediation and exchange with a concurrent, competing "positive" assessment of

Chinese national essence embraced by the stcpporters of "national essence."^'

On another level, Duara points out that what is new about modem nationalism "is not political self- consciousness, but the world system of nation-states" (9), because the nation presupposes the distinction between itself and the "world." One of the features of the discourse of modernity and of nation is that there is a nerw political self-consciousness. The significance of this point becomes clear when one considers the role of imperialism in engendering modem Chinese nationalism, and even in Lu Xun's discourse on national character. Duara makes the forceful point that, "The shape and content of national identities in the modem era are a product of negotiation with historical identities within the ftamework of a modem nation-state system" (11). Modem national character is not just a product of the nationalist rhetorician's imagination, but has some cmcial linkage to the historical discourse. Thus, in terms of the discourse of national character, Lu Xun's position as an intellectual in a period of transition and his characterization of Ah Q can productively be seen from the vantage of the negotiation of historical identities. This must be considered after further investigation into the concepts of national character and national identity as th ^ developed in China.

B. Chinese Discourse of Nation, Nationalism, National Essence and National Character

1. Late Qing Translations and Journalism

In this section I will briefly examine the late Qing rise of journalism, translations of foreign novels, and the valorization of fiction, all of which played an important role in the process of "imagining the nation." It has been mentioned above that the catalyst for Chinese self-consciousness as a modem nation

Of course, the May Fourth iconoclasts decried the national essence, but this does not mean that they did not operationally identify with certain aspects of it (e.g. Lu Xun's fascination with ancient Chinese characters and ancient stone rubbings). 42

came through contact with Westem and Japanese imperialism during the latter half of the Qing ^nasty.

The Chinese defeat at the hands of the British during the Opium War in 1842 is a watershed that

generally madcs the beginning of the so-called "Hundred Years of Humiliation" during which China was

manipulated and partially colonized by imperialist powers." However, it was many more years before

China completed the process of establishing itself, in its own mind, as a nation among a global femily of

nations.

In his book China's Entrance into the Family of Nations: The Diplomatic Phase 1858-1880 (1960),

Immanuel C. Y. Hsu investigates China's diplomatic interfece with the West, and chronicles the direct

political, economic and military motivation for entering the "family of nations." Hsu concludes that when

China "accq)ted the fact that it was more profitable to act like a nation-state than a universal empire" by

deciding to formally establish diplomatic missions abroad, she finally entered the family of nations, and that China entered the femily without involving nationalism: "[A]fter China's entrance into the family of

nations, her new position gave rise to a new sense of national entity, hence it helped to stimulate the growth of nationalism in the long run" (209). Without delving deeply into the arena of intellectual history, Hsu establishes a general point in time firom which to begin to observe the emergence of national consciousness in China, beginning with her entry into the family of nations by 1880.

The new national entity, as Hsu puts it, was to be enriched in the following decades. Works such as

W. A. P. Martin's translation of Wheaton's Elements of International Law were of great importance in convincing the Chinese Foreign office of the usefulness of knowledge of foreign ideas and representation

in foreign nations to protect Chinese interests, especially when read in concert with bitter contemporary

experience dealing with the imperialist nations. Chinese participation in international diplomacy behes the instrumentalist view that Chinese leaders were to take by promoting the wealth and power of the state

in order to fight the imperialists. Elements of International Law was only one of the first of many

In "Chinese Intellectuals' Notion of 'Epoch' (Shidai) in the Post-May Fourth Era," Lung-kee Sun writes of Chinese intellectual's obsession with "modernity" in the last century and a half, and China's incomplete transition to the modem world. 43 important Westem works to be translated into Chinese which would contribute greatly to the gradual transformation of the Chinese world view. Later works cf critical importance were both practical and philosophicaL such as Yan Fu's publication of translations of Huxley's commentary on Spencer's

Evolution and Ethics in 1895, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations in 1900, Mill's On Liberty in 1903 and

Logic in 1905, Edward Jenks' History of Politics in 1904, and Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws in 1909.^^

For proof that journalism and literature were seen to serve the ends of imagining the nation, it is instructrve to look at the following comments of the self-strengthening reformer, Zhang Zhidong, an early patron of Shiwu bao (Chinese progress), the influential late Qing newspaper to which Liang

Qichao was a major contributor. Despite Zhang's opposition to some of the rq>orters' ideas he notes:

After 1895, literary men of patriotic spirit began to publish journals. They translated widely from foreign papers and added sweeping discussions of Üieir own. Their efforts began in Shanghai and spread to every province. Internal politics, foreign affeirs, academic knowledge - all were within their scope. Although their arguments greatly varied, they shared a common aim: to spread information, arouse unselfish spirit, wash clean the poisonous apathy of those who seek only their own peace and contentment, and break down the blind arguments of those isolationists who would still lock out the world. As a result, gentry from the most obscure pockets of the realm, and isolated peasants, learned for the first time that there was a China. Ignorant, petty officials and the whole multitude of would-be scholars learned for the first time that there were "current affeirs." One cannot say that this was not an aid in the education of men who wanted to help their country, (qtd. in Pusey 85-6)

Without a public education system in the late Qing, journals and newspapers became the informal media of modem education. Journalism, Pusey points out, "provided the only modem education available. For at least two decades they were miles ahead of the schools. And almost all China's most femous intellectuals helped write them" (87). Not only were "national" affairs discussed in these journals and newspapers, the print media became the means of education and introduction of Westem ideas to the

Chinese readership, particularly the concept of Darwinism: "It was in these journals that Darwinism flourished, especially after those 'who wanted to help their country' began their violent arguments as to how to help it. For more than twenty years, almost everyone who had anything to say mentioned Darwin or used his slogans" (Pusey 87). Darwinism, however, was an underlying theory that contributed to the

See Schwartz for a complete discussion of these works (Search). 44 legitimatioii of the "natioii" in the fece of imperialist encroachment, and thus informed discussions of nation, nationalism and national character, as I have argued in Section B above. Xiaobing Tang notes that "[i]t is not an existential accident that Liang first became a popular journalist and then a dedicated nationalist historian. A persistent urge to q>eak to a new national community runs throughout his voluminous writings and effectively unites his two separate careers (52).^

Literature also introduced Chinese readers to the concept of nation, among other Westem views.

During the late Qing and early Republican era, Lin Shu's translations of 180 works of Westem hterature, including those of Scott, Dickens and Tolstoy, had perhaps a greater audience than the works of Yan Fu and should thus be credited for offering the Chinese reader a narrative introduction to various Westem world views. Chow Tse-tsung lists among Lin Shu's most popular translations: Alexander Dumas' La

Dame aux Camélias. Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. Harriet Beecher Stowe's

Uncle Tom's Cabin and Washington Irving's The Sketch Book, and Shakespeare and Cervantes (65 u).

His translations were based on works &om ten nations; England, the United States, France, Belgium,

Russia, Spain, Norway, Greece, Sweden and Japan (Qian, Wan Qing 182-3). Additionally, Lin must be credited for playing a large role in augmenting the status of the genre of fiction (Huters 250). In fact, Lin

Shu was quite convinced of the social fimction of the novel, as revealed in his "Preface to Oliver Twist":

[T]he reason for England's strength resides in its ability to accept good advice and reform itself accordingly. If we Chinese could also accept good advice and reform ourselves, it would also be easy for our society to change. What I regret is that there is no one like Dickens who can cite age-old malpractice and dramatize them in novels in order to inform the government of their existence. If there were, the transformation of Chinese society might be possible. (83)

While Lin Shu evidently didn't see his own role as "transformative" merely through his translations, this quote reveals the belief that literature did have the power to change society. Interestingly, though he recognized the need for social reform, this view of the power of literature did not translate into advocacy

^ This link between journalism, literature and national identity must be kept in mind as I situate Lu Xun in the discourse of nationalism, especially considering the fact that many early novels were published in serial installments in important newspapers (for examples see Lu Xun's Zhongguo xiaoshuo shi lue 286, 290), including Lu Xun's "Tme Story," and the feet that Lu Xun's most prolific writing is done in the essay form and often pubhshed in newspapers as well as journals. 45 of vernacular literature for Lin Shu. Later scholars, however, recognized Lin Shu's importance, as Leo

Ou-fan Lee points out, saying that he fired the imaginations of the youth: "there was hardly airy May

Fourth writer who did not first come into contact with Westem literature through Lin's translations"

("Literary Trends I," 490).^^

The rise of the vernacular is a crucial component of modem Chinese history. May Fourth nationalism followed Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu's promotion of a "hterary revolution," nr vernacular movement (paihuaymdong Ê However, as Milena Dolezelovâ-Velingerovâ points out: "The written form of northem baihua, called baihuawen â |S;Sl, had become a well-established and sophisticated language by the middle of the last century, principally because it was used in novels, drama, and storytellers' written narratives" (19). The call to use the noveL and thus vernacular, for promotion of national consciousness, however, came later fi-om the late-Qing reformer, journalist and publicist, Liang

Qichao, in his 1902 article, "Lun xiaoshuo yu qunzhi zhi guanxi" (On the relationship between fiction and the government of the people), where he contends:

If one intends to renovate the people of a nation, one must first renovate its fictiom Therefore, to renovate morality, one must renovate fiction; to renovate religion, one must renovate fiction; to renovate pohtics, one must renovate fiction; to renovate social customs, one must renovate fiction; to renovate learning and arts, one must renovate fiction; and to renovate even the human mind and remold its character, one must renovate fiction. Why is this so? This is because fiction has a profound power over the way of man. (74)

Liang's call came on the heels of calls by Qiu Tingliang to use the vernacular rather than classical language in 1898 (Dolezelova 22), the merging of written vernacular and spoken vernacular into one language (Dolezelova 24), and ending of the civil service examination in 1905. This eventually resulted in a shift in the traditional hierarchy of genres to favor fiction (Dolezelova 26). The widespread acceptance of the vernacular as the valorized form of writing, however, had to wait until the hterature revolution of the larger New Culture movement sponsored by New Youth magaTîne Regardless of whether or not the production of hterary works was intended to directly serve the ends of nation-building.

It is estimated that about two-thirds of the fiction published between 1898 and 1911, somewhere between 1100 and 1500 works, were foreign translations (Liu 387 J5r77). 4 6 as Liang Qichao advocated, it is clear here that Liang believed they could have that effect: the power of

"shaping the world as well as establishing and nurturing the various norms of society" in order to "bring benefit to milhons of people" ("Relationship" 78). Literature as a cultural product reified and promoted the abstract idea of nations separated by linguistic botmdaries when written in the popular idiom, as opposed to the language of the earlier empires of Europe, which transcended such boundaries and ruled using LatirL Literature in the vernacular was accessible to a far larger audience than that in classical dictioiL

Discussing the "enormous popularity" and influence of works of translation, criticism, and literary theory that were introdirced from the late Qing through the May Fourth, Bonnie McDougall identifies four shifts in the hterary outlook of writers: the first in 1898, when "Liang Qichao argued the propriety of a statesman openly engaged in writing fiction, and not more respectably, poetry and classical prose" (38); the second by 1907 when Lu Xun cotrld imagine the writer remaining outside the institutions of officialdom; the third when the May Fourth writers "generally based their attitudes to life and society on roles or models described in Westem hterature" (38); and the fourth in the thirties when "writers redefined their roles in terms of the nature and need of a maw audience" (38). McDougall concludes:

"The impact of Westem hterature in China in the twenties and thirties above ah fostered a sense of internationalism among Chinese writers" (59). But significantly, this internationalism was "'inter national' rather than cosmopohtart That is, Chinese writers envisaged a family of nations in which each country contributed in its own unique way to a world culture" (60), and due to the Westem hterary impact on China, "by the twenties, China had become tied to the rest of the world, subject to whatever social changes affected it" (46).

Translations initiaUy provided the Chinese reader with a markedly different view of the world through introduction to Westem ideas and the values associated with them and provided a forum for the differentiation of China firom the other nations of the world on this basis. These ideas and values were simultaneously being introduced in pohtical tracts by writers such as Liang Qichao, who advocated the 47 instrumental use of literature to achieve social and political reforms, beginning with the national character

(as I will discuss in greater detail in the next section). The popularization of hterary expression through the use of vernacular language in the late Qing presaged the wholescale onslaught of experimentation with vernacular forms during the hterary revolution in the May Fourth It also prepared the readership, which had just seen the devaluation of the classical hterary language by abolishment of the civil service examination ^stem in 1905, to become erver more receptive to the idea of using the vernacular language.

Creative hterature and translations m ^ be thus seen as a step in the gradual change in consciousness of nation firom the late Qing to the May Fourth, as well as performing crucial fimctions in im ag in in g the nation. The issue of national character was raised by Liang Qichao in pohtical and social critiques of

China contemporaneously with his promotion of translations of foreign hterature and the writing of vernacular hterature of the late Qing. I wiU now flesh out in greater detail what kind of national character was in such urgent need of renovation through the renovation of fictioa

2. Pre-May Fourth National Character, National Essence and Neo-Confucianism

It was not Lu Xun, after ah, who invented the problem of China's national character. Prior to the radical iconoclasm of the May Fourth movement, the issue of national character was of concern to a wide range of inteUectuals. Liang Qichao (among others) made a radical critique of Chinese national character in Xirunin shuo (New citizen) long before Lu Xun's most active engagement with the issue during the

May Fourth.^® In fact, most elements of Lu Xun's negative views on national character can be foimd in the works of other inteUectuals, spanning the period from Liang Qichao in the late Qing, to Chen Duxiu in the nascent May Fourth. The analysis of Chinese national character can be divided into two sections for convenience, the pre-May Fourth and May Fourth As I wiU show in this section, pre-M^' Fourth commentators (late Qing through 1915) harshly judged China's national character, but it was not

Chang Hao notes that before his trip to America in 1903, Liang recognized of the need for the dramatic destruction of the pohtical order in order to achieve change (Liang 222). 4 8

combined with an all out assault on Chinese cultural values as in the May Fourth (c. 1915-1925). Liang

Qichao's initial critique of national character iq) until 1903 was a radical réévaluation of the needs of the

Chinese nation for a new citizen, but after 1903, Liang began a reassessment and his critique of national

character may then be considered to fall into the category of "neo-traditional conservative" alternatives to

radical change.

From the perfective of May Fourth radical iconoclasts, intellectuals of the late Qing and early

Republican era who were trying to change China, with the prom inent exceptions of the early Liang

Qichao, Tan Sitong and the anarchists like Wu Zhihrri,^' were considered "conservative," even though

thQT manifested a deep concern with reforming or transforming Chinese politics and society. As Schwartz

notes, their conservatism was a cultural conservatism informed by nationalism, entailing "a conviction

that China can survive and flourish as a national entity only if it can somehow draw on its own

sociocultural heritage" ("Notes" 16). Drawing iqjon a selectively reconstructed history to legitimize the nation is a fundamental step in imaging the nation, as discussed above. Pre-May Fourth cultural

conservatives who drew on "history" using the rhetoric of "nation" exemplify this aspect of imagining the natioru Charlotte Furth identifies three "neo-traditional conservative currents" present between the 1898 reform and the May Fourth movement which constitute a culturally conservative nationalism: national essence, national character and neo-Confucianism. These three currents dominated the intellectual discourse of nation until the May Fourth movement. All of them were suspicious of Westem values, embraced a balance of evolutionism and revisionist essentialism, and saw contemporary Confucian values as immune to the fluctuations of history. Liang Qichao represents the national character current; Liang Ji, the father of the famous Confucian philosopher Liang Shuming, represents the neo-Confiician religious current; and the Guoxue baocun hui (Association for the preservation of classical Chinese learning), a group founded in 1905, including the scholars Zhang Binglin, Deng Shi, Huang lie and Liu

Peter Zarrow notes that Wu Zhihui and other progressives of the May Fourth era shared the common enemy of "old China" and "could unite in a kind of fiiendship of sarcasm" (198). 49

Shipei, represents the national essence current Of course, these are analytical distinctions only, not totalizing definitions, as indicated by the use of "current" in Furth's vocabulary, and indeed there are mutual influences and shared ideas among them which indicate the complexity of neo-traditional thought

All these currents were influenced by the issue of national character, primarily through the writings of

Liang Qichao, the representative of the national character current

Liang Qichao's view of national character is complex and punctuated Ity a disjunction between his early period in exile in Japan (1898-1903), when he wrote passionately of the need to "invent" a national character for the purpose of nation-building, and the period after his return to Japan from America in

1903, when he stressed "the importance of traditional "private morality"' (Chang Hao 272). By his return to China in 1912, he was writing of the national character as an essence that needed to be preserved. The bulk of his Xiimrin shuo (New citizen), written between 1902 and 1904 while he was in exile in

Japan, is basically a handbook promoting the need for constructiiig or inventing a national character and analyzing the impediments of Chinese character that would need to be overcome in order to do so. T.iaug sees national character as a function of public morality informed by the relationship between the individual and state, and constituted by the rights and responsibilities that the new citizen of the new

Chinese nation must embrace in order for China to take its place in the world of nations. Despite the emphasis on new, Chang Hao points out that xinmin is "a central concept in the Confucian Classic, Great

Learning." which "embodies the idea that the core of Confucian statesmanship consisted in moral education and renovation of the people" (150). Liang appropriated the idea of xinmin and, under the influence of Westem ethics, he identified "what China needed most was public morality, or rather civic virtue, to balance the overemphasis of traditional Chinese ethics on private morality... to formulate a new personality ideal for Chinese people to follow" (Chang 154). This new personality ideal that Liang called the "new citizen" was based on a new national character, guomin zhi xingzhi as I discuss below. The language of the New Citizen shows not only Liang's knowledge of Westem ethics, but also his thorough embracing of the theories of evolution in starkly social Darwinist terms, which are fundamental 50 to the discourse of national character.^* In the context of Westem imperialism, social Darwinism meant the struggle between individual races,^® and Liang found that the best way to compete successfiilly in this struggle was to "develop Chinese nationalism" (Chang 164). He thus became committed to the ideal of the nation-state as "terminal community," a position reinforced by "a new view of the world order dominated by social Darwinism" (157).

Liang can be construed as an active participant in the construction of national character through his advocacy of new civic virtues for the new citizerL'*° Appropriation of the Confucian ideal of xinmin - moral education and renovation of the people - for the purpose of constructing a new national character situates Liang on a continuum within the discourses of tradition and modernity, culturalism and nationalism, and subverts the idea that these are totalizing dichotomies separated by a discrete period or moment in history, such as the late Qing or the 1911 Revolution. The Confucian spirit of moral education and renovation was put to use in theorizing and advocating the process of nation building through Liang's journal. New Citizen consists of an introduction and sixteen essays, a third of which deal directly with national character. From the very beginning in "Xu lun" , which by its position should be translated

"Introduction," but more literally means "Narrative Discussion," Liang ejqpresses a racialist view of nation and defines the establishment of a nation in negative terms of the national character "If the people are not stupid and vulgar (yulou # ^ ) , cowardly and weak {qieruo j^§§), lacking in organization

(teo n g so n ^ ^), muddled (AwKzteojg^), then the nation maybe established" (I). In subsequent essays he discusses the urgency of creating a new citizeruy based on the need to compete with "occidental" nations, and furthermore advocates adoption of the form of government and particular civics of the West

An important exception is Liang's essay on private morality, written after his return from America in 1903, in which he begins to argue for traditional Chinese values.

It mzy be the case that the ideas of social Darwinistic struggle was readily acceptable at the international level because this kind of struggle was familiar to Chinese at the domestic level, albeit without the name or "scientific" pedigree given by Darwiru This remains an open area for research.

As 1 will argue in the following chapters, Lu Xun, on the other hand, was involved in the reform, or remolding, of the national character as opposed to Liang, who was cognizant of the need to invent it. 51

by narrating the history of success of the imperialist powers. The third essay, "Jiu yousheng liebai zhiliyi

zheng xinmin zhi jieguo er lun ji zufe zhi suo yi" (Discussion of the theory of survival of the fittest as

proof of the new citizen's result and the suitability of adopting laws), presents Liang's historical

evolutionist narrative of how the Anglo-Saxons, superior among the Tutonic race, rose to the top of a

hierarchy of races. Liang concludes that it is their national character, based on their "most vigorous sense

of independence and mutual assistance {duli zizhu zhi feng zui sheng H ÿ t g # 2 . # , # # ) " (11), that is

responsible for their success. Accordingly, they have a fortitude of character (qizhi which they

draw tqxm to persist in their endeavors in the face of continuous hardship and fitistrations. Liang asserts

that this is why they could colonize America and Australia and become the most victorious race/nation

iminzu) in the nineteenth century. In contrast with this narrative of the successful Anglo-Saxon national

character, Liang asks the reader to look at the national character of China;

But we reformers {qufazhe know ourselves. Observe the weaknesses of that race and the prosperity and strength of this race, and self-reflect (zixing on them! What are the differences between our national character (wu guomin zhi xingg:hi and that of the declining and weak [nations], and that of the flourishing and strong [nations]? What are the general defects (quexian in it? What are the ^ecific weaknesses (boruo ##§) init? Investigate (Aon them one by one. Examine (/ioM one by one. Change (gm % ) them one by one, and repair (bu them one by one. And doing this a new citizen (xin guomin can be formed. Now, if you please, I will take this outline and particulars of the self-renewal (zixin g $ r ) o f our citizen, divide and analyze, and in the next section discuss it in detail. (12)

The final line of this quote refers to Liang's next essay, "Lun gong de" (On public morality). In this essay

he discusses public morality as what the citizen "most lacks" (zui que zhe ^ @ ^ # ): "that which makes

the group a group and the nation a nation" (12), and he calls for a "discourse on moral revolution" (daode gemingzhilun to achieve the change (16). Liang explains that people must have both

private and public morality, but that without public morahty it is not possible to unify and become a

nation, and though China developed morality early on, it is mostly private morality, as one can tell by

looking at Confucius' Lunvu # # (Analects) and his disciple's M engri^-?- (Mencius), which "contain

ninety percent private morality and less than ten percent public morality" (12). Liang says the new

morality is one between the individual and the group, as opposed to the old morality between individual 52

and individual and thus he eschews China's few thousand years of "self-restraint and self-discipline-ism"

{shushen guoguo zhuyi ; 13), and claims that "the obligation of the person to society is

the same as that of the son to his parents" (14). In feet, he claims that "of our citizens there is not one

who sees the affairs of the nation as his own and this is the reason public morality has not been invented

(/ôffîîKg^lS)" (15). Liang sees national character based on the lack of public morality which is

something that must be invented! Through his "discourse on moral renovation" Liang appears to believe

that the first step is to "narrate" public morality and then implement institutional changes. Liang valorizes the public morahty, saying that "the spirit (jingsheri) of morahty comes entirely from the benefit to the group" and that the "pubhc morahty is the origin of all morahty" (15): "That which is beneficial to the society {qun # ) is good and that which is not beneficial to society is evil. (That which is not beneficial and is also harmful is great evü; that which is not harmful but not beneficial is small evil)"

(parenthetical remafics in original; 15). He complains that "if the slavishness {nuxing $% #) from the hterati (educated) world {xuejie ® ^ ) is not eliminated, then the love of society, love of nation, and love of truth wih not be sincere {cheng g^)" (16).’’ FinaUy, Liang sees a way to realize pubhc morahty and delves into this in his fohowing essay, "Lun guojia sixiang" (On national ideology), which basically narrates the concept of a nation in a Darwinist world while lamenting the lack of national ideology.

National ideology doesn't exist because of the hegemony of loyalty {zhong Jg,), a relationship between master and slave (20),''' which services one's own power, one's own profit, and which is the "root character of slavishness" {nuli genxing Loyalty thus "creates a kind of morahty that has a pretty name to cover up its ugliness" and because of the pretty name it is very difBcult to change (23).

Unlike the May Fourth iconoclasts who wih be discussed in the next section, Liang both criticized

Confucianism and drew upon it to provide analogies of what the relationship between the new citizen and

Lu Xun will identify the lack of sincerity, along with love, as one of the two elements the Chinese most lack in the national character.

Liang even includes a table in which he enumerates the reign years and ethnicities of foreigners who occupied China. This will also be echoed in Lu Xim's works. 53 the nation should look like: "the obligation of the person to society is the same as that of the son to his parents" ("Lun gong de" 14). His attack on Confucianism is in part an attack on the current state of

Confucianism,^^ and thus to build the nation it was necessary to eliminate the slavishness of the literati world dg "Lun gong de" 16). Chang Hao points out that Liang "disengaged

himself from the canmaign to exalt it [Confucianism]" (228), but although he didn't directly attack

Confucianism, he accepted that "there is bound to be some destruction" (239). Thus, Liang's attack on

Confucianism is instrumental in his view of nation building.'” Liang elaborated a number of

characteristics necessary to build the nation and national idea in his following essays in New Citizen, such

as the "adventurous character " (maoxian zhi xingzhi # ^ it.'IÊ # ), the lack of which is again blamed on

Confiician ideology (28). The theme of "slavishness" appears frequently because it is the characteristic

that stood between the old order and the new. Liang lamented that the Chinese were always "being a

slave to the ancients" (guren zhi nuli ' é ' in "Lun ziyou" (On freedom; 49-51), and he lamented

that "our people haven't the characteristic (xingzhi % # ) of self-respect," and this is the "absolute crux of

being a slave" in "Lun zizun" (On self-respect; 71).

One final essay in New Citizen. "Lun si de" (On private morality) rotmds out Liang's thought on

national character.^^ Chang Hao notes that this essay signals Liang's promotion of traditional private

morality, and was followed by two books to this effect (272). Although "Lun si de" is aimed towards a

reconstruction of traditional morality (after Liang had rethought his radical national character view in

light of his observation of American democracy in action), and is thus at odds with the spirit of the earlier

Chang Hao continues to point out: "He may have believed, as he often claimed, that the blame for the failures of Chinese moral tradition could not be put entirely on Confucianism, but he could not dissociate Confucianism completely from the feilures of Chinese cultural tradition" (227).

Part of this destruction was inherent in Liang's attack on the central Neo-Confiician moral ideal of ren fZ (benevolence), which "must be imderstood, paradoxically enough, as a shift from the moral value of solidarity and harmony to the political value of national cohesion and power" (Chang 198).

Lu Xun mentions the immutability of Chinese private morality and public morality in passing in a letter to Zhang Yanqian (LXOJ 11: 606). 54 works, its language still attacks the negative manifestation of character, albeit with a view towards Neo-

Conhician self-cultivation. In this way it appears to complement the national character critique. In this three part essay, Liang shows that public and private morality are not oppositional but complementary aspects of morality, and "in order to forge the citizen the first principle is that individual morality must be nurtured" (109 ). Liang points out five reasons for the backwardness {duoluo of private morality: an autocratic form of government, destruction tty modem warlords, continual frustration of losing wars, poor economic conditions and pressures, and the powerlessness of the academic framework for saving morahty. Quoting the Confucian philosopher Mengzi as an authority, Liang stys that under an autocratic form of government "in order to make any progress the people must use deceit {zhcMei and in order to remain whole they must use stibmissiveness {beiqu ^J^). Those most rich in these two characteristics

{xingzhi are the ones in society who occupy the most successful (youshengde positions.

Those who shghtly lack this are extinguished as inferior {liebai (110). Note that Liang refers to these characteristics in pure Darwinist terminology in Chinese translation. These characteristics are shaped through the struggle for the "survival of the fittest," as indicated by the parallel construction of the phrase, yousheng liebai. As for the frustrations of losing wars, Liang says there is a negative impact tq)on the "moral character of the race" {minzuzhi pinxing Accordingly, six evil characteristics {exing ^ '[^ ) are produced: [reliance on] chance {fiaoxing # # ) , cmelty{canren xing ^

^'lÊ), infighting {qingya xing #$L'IÊ),treachery (jiaowei xing %#),indifference {liangbo xing ^

% ), and apathy {gouqie (113)."” Inverting the concept of civilization andbaibarity,

Liang says these are "characteristics of barbarians who know no future" (113). He foresees that after a civil war the people have two evil characteristics: terror {kongbu xing ^ # % ) and transience (fudong xing ^ # % ) . Most interestingly, Liang states that, according to foreign philosophy "war is an

" A formulation that is used in the May Fourth

Apathy leads to the inability to "love" when one cannot even protect one’s self (113). Lu Xun also discusses "love" as what the Chinese national character most lacks. 55

educational condition of the citizen" (114), and through the process of war with a foreign countiy these

characteristics can be changed. Liang concludes that war can "change luck into honor, cruelty into shared

hatred of the enemy, infighting into self-consciousness {zijue xin § ^ '|)'), treachery into strategy against

the enemy, indifference into willingness to die, and apathy into a sense of self-protection" (114).

Asserting that economic pressures have been a pereimial problem over the past few thousand years, Liang

quotes unnamed foreign sociologists who say that this produces the following effects in character: greed

and covetousness (tanbi z h ix in g -^ ^ i_ ^ ) , narrow-mindedness {bianxia zhi xing indifference {liangbo xing hypocrisy {?atwei zhi xing # # 2 # ) , fawning{chana zhi xing #

despair {baoqi zhi xing and licentiousness {tougouzhi xing (115).

Liang tacitly acknowledges these characteristics saying.

The relationship between economics and the people's morality is quite close like these [above characteristics]. Our citizenry has been pressed to the south, besieged by catastrophes and armies for a few thousand years. Not one generation has enjoyed peaceful habitat and occiqjation. The so-called hypocrisy, narrow-mindedness, greed and covetousness, indifference, faw ning, despair and licentiousness have already been accepted as a religion like ancestry for twenty or thirty centuries (115).

The final "source of evil morality," according to Liang, is that "the academic fiamework of saving the morality is powerless" (116). The basic problem, complains Liang, is the conflicting views of

Confucianism heldby Hanxue scholars, Songxue scholars, Zhuxue scholars, and Wangxue scholars.

Liang asserts that in this regard, what has been studied during the last couple hundred years is a lot of junk (117).

Chang Hao points out that, "Liang regarded Rousseau's democratic doctrines as the most effective antidote not only to traditional despotism but also to the slavish mentality of the Chinese people," and even wrote to Kang Youwei in 1900 and "urged him to recognize the need of the Chinese national character for Rousseau's ideal of liberty" (192):

Today we see the catastrophic culmination of the corruption and degeneration that have afflicted China in the past few thousand years. The prime source of this corruption and decay must be traced to the slavish character (nuli xing [of the Chinese people]. [If this character is not eliminated, China will never be able take a place in the world of nations.] And this so-called liberty is what is needed to make people conscious of their own character and thus to enable them 56

to shake free from control by others. This illness [of slavishness] cannot possibly be cured without taking the medicine of liberty, (qtd. in Chang 192)

This slavishness is a direct product of not only imperialist encroachment in China, but also Chinese

autocracy throughout its history. Note that this slavishness must be overcome in order for China to take a

place in the world of nations {neng liyu shijie wanguo zAi yian In addition to

slavishness, Liang also included 6milism, provincialism, selfishness, incapacity for self-rule, and

autocracy as defects of the national character (Chang 241-2). The new national character Liang proposed

was drawn from the qtiiit and ideals of the citizen, citizenship, and liberty following the civic strain of

nationalism discussed above. As Chang Hao points out, "ty spelling out civic virtues [in the New Citizen]

he was aiming at a moral revolution" (daode geming, 224).

Liang's view of nation and national character is complex and not static. Indeed, after traveling to the

US in 1903, reflecting on the defects of national character he saw among the most progressive Chinese

community, and making contact with Bluntschli's theory of statism, he rejected Rousseau's civic

conceptualization of nation for China, and enibraced a version of the ethnic model based on Germany.

Bluntschli's theory held that "the state was a moral and organic entity which had its own individuality

independent of and superior to its constituent individuals" (Chang 258). Liang then had adopted an

ethnic, or racial view of the nation defined by territory and ancestry, as well as language, religion,

customs and livelihood (260). This view was informed, as noted above, by Liang's return to promotion of

traditional Confucian moral values.

Though his intellectual dominance waned after the first part of the 1900s, Liang continued to discuss

the national character issue after his return from exile in Japan in 1911. His attitude towards it had

changed, however, as indicated by his desire to preserve the national character instead of inventing or

changing it. In "Guoxing pian" (On national character"; 1913), published in the first issue of his new journal, Yongvan (Justice), Liang states:

The nation has a character as the human has a character. Although people may strongly resemble one another, in the end thQ^ caimot be difiêrentiated by appearance but rather by their different characters. If a man loses his essential nature (benxing 2^'ü ), then he loses that which makes him human. The nation is also like this. Its character is particular, that is each goes with 57

its own territory. If there is a territory without national character iguoxing ) then it will never become a nariorr The nation is not secure if it is established without a mature national character. If after founding the nation the national character dies, then the nation will perish. (I)

In this section Liang makes an analogy between the human character and the national character, sounding as if the national character (guoxing) is not something with which the citizen is endowed, but something that only the nation has. But the cormection with the citizen is implicit in that citizenry are the common lirik holding the nation together with their character

When the national character wanes, the people of that nation will doubt, scorn, and discard all the classics and documents, the bonds and legal system, and even the legacy of historical successes.... None of the behavior of individuals toward individuals and the individual toward society will be standard, and although one m ^ desire to strengthen the standards, the power of social sanctions will have not be enforceable. The base of common life will weaken daily until it is extinguished. When the clan loses its center it will be unable to become a clan again. When the town loses its center it will be unable to become a town again. When the nation loses its center it will be unable to become a nation again. (4)

Liang continues, saying explicitly that the national character is "deq>ly imbedded in the people";

Our nation was founded five thousand years ago. It has cycled through countless dynasties and our spirit is responsible for it This is the deep accumulation and long nurturing of our singular national character, which is deq)ly imbedded in the people. This goes without s^ing. Furthermore, there must be good amidst it and it is sufScient to victoriously survive in the world. Our predecessors worked hard to create it, and the obligation to our descendants is infinite. Today our kind is being oppressed by foreigners and what 1 fear is that the foundation of our national character which has been passed down over a few thousand years is being shaken and is falling.... 1 have presented the greatness of our national character and discussed it in order to open a way to improve it (5-6)

1 read the first section quoted above to indicate that Liang sees the national character as a biological reflection of the individual character. Interestingly, based on the idea that the national character is the center of the nation, as he says in the second section, Liang echoes the formulation of the Daxue

Paradigm,'^ "cultivate the individual, regulate the femily, govern the state, and pacify the world" (xiushen, qijia, zhiguo,pingtianxiaj$-^ > in a negative analogy, saying: "When the clan loses its center it will be unable to become a clan again. When the town loses its center it will be

* * Daxue Paradigm (Daxue moshi is a term coined by Chang Hao (Youan 31). 58 unable to become a town again. When the nation loses its center it will be unable to become a nation again" (4).^

Liang's shift in language discussing national character, referring to it as an asset accumulated over thousands of years, aligns him with the national essence group. In fact, Liang had often drawn examples from history to legitimize his views of national character, and paid "magnificent tribute to China," and urged that the Chinese be "proud of its national essence" (Levenson 142-30). However, this national character was valorized in the later period while it had been criticized in the earlier one. EmphasiriTig the change in Liang Qichao's position on national character, Charlotte Furth points out that Liang's post-1911 journals "became forums for debate in which the admirable and faulty qualities of the national ptychology were extrapolated from contemporary social evidence" ("Intellectual" 353).^° With his change in view regarding the national character, Liang appears to have conflated the national character and national essence issues, making national character a valorized part of the positive national essence.^* This idea that national character is the valorized national essence will be elaborated in my discussion of Lu Xun's conception of national character and the idea that the target of his instrumental attack on national character is the national essence grorp. In short, as I see it. Lu Xun equates national essence with national character, making national character an analytical elaboration of national essence.

Liang's essay, "On National Character," in which he advocated preserving the national character

(guoxing influenced Liang Ji, the representative of neo-Confucianist religious currents (Lin Yù- sheng 163). Liang Ji's view of national character, as Lin Yü-sheng points out, "contained essentially the moral tradition of the Chinese people as he understood it, the major elements of which were jen

Criticism of zhiguo ping tianxia (govern the state and pacify the world) will be a focus of satirical attack on the national essence grotp by Lu Xun during the May Fourth.

Liang was by this time, however, predisposed to look for an admirable national character.

This tallies with Liang's emphasis on character discipline continued to take "for granted Confucian family ethics, which centered on the moral value of filial piety" (Chang 225), and self-examination along Confucian and Buddhist lines (226). 59 lien ch'ih %, ch'eng ching % , chxmg and hsin # (roughly translatable as 'humanity, righteousness, incorruptibility, sense of shame, sincerity, req)ectfulness, loyalty, and faithfulness')"

(164)/- Lin points out that Liang Ji saw these as "innate human nature" (minyi g ^ ) of the Chinese people, quoting him as saying minyi is "the original character of our nation, and the foundation upon which our nation has been established" (164). Hiough these characteristics are moral ideals, standards or norms, rather than any attempt to analyze the Chinese attitudes and behavior, they were elements of

Confucian ethics that Liang Qichao criticized in his early period, and that Lu Xun would scathingly attack in his satiiic essays and stories. Liang Ji's view of Chinese national character basically consists of the ideals of Confucian values, what he calls the essential elements of Confucian orthodoxy (zhengtong sixiang 165). Lin concludes that under the influence of Liang Qichao, Guang Sheng, and other commentators on national character, Liang Ji "reduced Confucian moral values to their most general level and issued a tmiversalistic claim for them" (167). This indicated their inability to "create new social referents for traditional or traditionalistic moral ideals and values" and thus the difBculty of finding a

"socially viable moral conservatism in modem China" (168). This is an example of how the idea of national character was appropriated by the Neo-Confiician current

Prior to the May Fourth, siroporters of the national essence are best represented by the Guoxue baocun hui (Association for the preservation of classical Chinese learning). This is generally referred to as the early National Essence group. Furth points out that this group "preached anti-

Manchu revolution as an attractive alternative to reform modernism and accommodation with the West"

(355). Furthermore,

Although national essence advocates acknowledged that the West was a source of world civilization in its own right, and that some interrelation between centres of civilization was a necessary pattern of world history, much of their scholarship, in feet, appeared motivated by a search for historically rooted native alternatives to the crumbling imperial Confucian orthodojty. (355)

52 The pinyin romanizations for these are as follows respectively: ren, lion, chi,jing, chong, and xin. 60

The nationalist discourse in which these scholars engaged was "heavily influenced by anti-Manchuism," and their worics all "defined the Chinese nation {minzu) in terms of racial nçdh: they presumed conunon

descent of the Chinese people firom the legendary Yellow Emperor" (Furth 356). The basis on which the

Chinese nation was mythologized racially is found in the works of the national essence group, particularly

Zhang Binglin's Qiu shu (Book of Raillery; 1904), Liu Shipei's Rang shu # # (Book of the expulsion; 1903) and Huang Jie's Huang shi (Yellow history, 1905). These works provided a

"national history" for the Chinese and, in Furth's words, "offered a definition of the Chinese people as a

'nation' (jninzu) - an organic collectivity based iqjon common ties of place, blood, custom and culture"

(356).

Laurence A. Schneider elaborates on Furth's analysis of the tensions between conservative alternatives of intellectual change in late Qing and early Republican China by focusing on the problem of national essence. Like Furth, Schneider sees the problem of national essence consisting of two distinct time flames, pre-May Fourth and May Fourth manifestations. However, Schneider elaborates points out that the pre-May Fomth national essence group consisted of both the Association for the Preservation of

Classical Chinese Learning, who published the Guocui xuebao (National essence journal), and the Nan she % (Southern Society), a grotç founded in 1909. Schneider points out that the national essence scholars repeatedly expressed the "cmcial need to perpetuate the national soul (zuo hun or____ national learning (gaoxwe g ® ) " (59):

True to traditional Chinese immanentist proclivities, the basic national essence argument suggested that (like the Confucian tao) essence required a medium through which to manifest itself. This medium was the stream of traditional scholarship, poetry, and to a lesser degree, painting of which National Essence scholars approved and made the core of their own studies and teaching. These patriots did not believe that the national essence could save them; it was required that they do the saving by way of the publications, libraries, and educational efforts that overlapped their subversive activities. (59)

Much of the early thrust of the national essence group was anti-Manchu nationalism, often in connection with Sim Yatsen's Revolutionary Alliance {Tongmeng hui ( W J M ' ^ ) - Their works were often instrumentalist, "Both literary societies offered anti-Manchu propaganda, sometimes of a very similar 61

nature, and both, by extension, aimed at destroying the monarchy and instituting a republic" (63). On the

other band, much of their work was "devoted to scholarly and educational ends directed not at subversion of the Manchus but at keeping alive Han' culture" (63). Schneider points out that although national essence was first raised by Zhang Zhidong, the National Essence group differed firom Zhang in that it was anti-Manchu, actually emphasizing Ming loyalism. The later National Studies (Guoxue # # ) school of the 1920’s used early national essence works for culturally iconoclastic and subversive purposes

(Schneider 64). But like Zhang Zhidong, the National Essence groiq) promoted the concept of Zhongxue

■wei ti, xixue v>ei yang c j : # # fg > (Chinese learning for moral purposes and Westem science for utilitarian purposes).

The National Essence Journal serialized Huang Jie's "Yellow History." Based on adaptation of the ideas of the French scholar. Tertian de Lacouperie, this work "represented the most extreme expression of

National Essence reliance on race and ethnicity in coming to terms with Chinese identity":

Where it does not sketch biographies of scholarly leaders of resistance to barbarian invasions, the "Yellow History" is p rim arily a kind of philosophical ethnography. Each of its many installments deals with the peculiar historical Chinese forms of government, marriage, burial, alimentation, clothing, housing, and the like. The Yellow History" sought to trace the source or origins of each of these in order to see guiding Chinese essences in all their purity. (Schneider 66)

The nationalism of national essence was directed against two elements: the Manchu regime and the imperialists. After the fall of the Manchus and the beginnings of the iconoclastic New Culture and May

Fourth movements, national essence turned its energy toward fighting Westernization promoted by the

New Youth intellectuals.

From the above discussion on the three currents of neo-traditional alternatives to intellectual change, it is apparent that each tried to adapt Confucianism to meet modem conditions, and that each drew on both traditional Confucian ideas and new evolutionary and nationalistic ways of looking at the world.

While Liang Qichao called directly for the remaking of the national character, the national essence group wanted to protect the national traditions, and both tied these ideas closely to a nationalism that by definition was new because it was defined and defended by appeals to evolutionary organicism couched in 62 the language of social Darwinism and grounded in the concept of a cultural collectivity as a natioiL Each neo-traditional alternative had a similar purpose; to change the Chinese in order to meet the threats of imperialism and social disintegration.

With the advent of the literary and cultural revolutions of the May Fourth movement and the promotion of use of the vernacular language in literature, education, and government, the whole of

China's culture came under attack by young intellectual iconoclasts and the earlier National Essence group faded. The May Fourth movement was not entirely responsible for the early National Essence group's fall.

The group was politically split after the 1911 revolution when leading members like Liu Shipei supported

Yuan Shikai's attempt to reestablish a Manchu monarchy and others supported the anti-Yuan second revolution of 1913 (Schneider 71). The national essence sipporters tried to attack the New Culture movement directly through Liu Shipei's short-lived joumaL Guo eu (National heritage), in March

1919. Once again citing Schneider: The dominant fear which the National Heritage expressed so eloquently was that an abrupt engorgement of Westem culture would destroy the integrity of Chinese culture and the continuous filiation with the past would be lost" (72). The Guo gu published onlv four issues before it closed after the death of Liu Shipei, but a new association grew up to support national essence under the directorship of Huang Jie and other former advocates. This association published the

Xueheng (Critical review) at Southeastern University in Nanjing in 1922:

The CR rCritical Review! and a significant element of Southeastern University were rather self consciously setting themselves tp as an intellectual counterforce to the New Culture movement centered in Peking Uitiversity. By this means national essence thought came to be understood as the antithesis of the New Culture (that is, the Vernacular Literature movement, the iconoclastic new history, philosophic pragmatism, and the like). (Schneider 73)

The Critical Review group's attack on May Fourth iconoclasm was different in mode than the earlier national essence group's promotion of Chinese culture. As Schneider notes: "While traditional Chinese scholars and poets continued to be cited as its authorities and models, classical and recent Westem authorities had gained a prominent if not preeminent place. Matthew Arnold and Irving Babbitt, and 63 numerous Westem writers of all fields, were thrust before its Chinese audience" (74). Although the

Critical Review saw itself as using Westem philosophy to buttress Chinese learning, they embraced what they thought to be the best of Westem tradition, which reinforced Westem views of the world in terms of nationalism and national character.

To sum up, national character critique and national essence promotion existed simultaneously in the late Qing. Liang Qichao held up the ideals of the New Citizen and advocated the remolding of the national character, and the early national essence leaders planted the seeds of the organic nationalism by laying claim to a mythological racial, cultural and national origin fiom the Yellow Emperor. After the

1911 Revolution, Liang Qichao turned to emphasize national essence and reinterpreted national character as a positive element of the national essence. Other cultural conservatives, like the Neo-Confucian Liang

Ji, embraced Liang Qichao's post-1911 Revolution interpretation of national character as a national essence and idealized it in the form of traditional Confucian concepts of morality, thus appropriating the idea. The National Essence groi^ itself, which had advocated anti-Manchu racial revolution before 1911, was split after 1911 as members joined or opposed the new government In the May Fourth, when the iconoclastic intellectuals of New Youth and Xinchao (New tide) attacked the basis of Chinese culture and national character, the earlier national essence supporter, Liu Shipei, feebly attempted to defend the national essence with the short-lived publication of Guo gu. In 1922, a new national essence group formed the Critical Review to further oppose the New Culture tide, armed with Westem philosophical ideas of Irving Babbitf and Greek culture and Renaissance humanism, but it did not survive the 1920s (Schneider 87).

C. National Character Discourse in the May Fourth

The issues of nation, nationalism, national essence, national character, and national consciousness were discussed intensely in print during the New Culture and May Fourth, as the primary journals of the

May Fourth movemenf New Youth and New Tide demonstrate. Lu Xun's vocabulary of nation and 64 national character, as well as his concern for saving the nation, is shared with the New Culture intellectuals writing for these journals. From the very first issue of New Youth in 1915, "Jinggao qingnian" (A warning to the youth), Chen Duxiu connected the issues of slavishness, conservatism and eremitism in a critique of national essence and he advocated liberty, progress and engagement Urging the readers to be progressive and not conservative, Chen says, "I'd rather suffer the loss of national essence than the extinction of our race {minzu) for not being able to adapt to the world" (3).

Conservatism is related to Chen's third warning, to be engaged and not withdrawn: "One of the reasons for Eastern races' national weaknesses is the basic flaw of eremitism {tuiyin zhuyi # ^ ^ # ) , " the resort of choice for Chinese faced with difBcult situations as opposed to the Westem emphasis on struggle and competition (3). Also in this issue Gao Yihan discusses the concepts of nation, self-consciousness, and free and general will in his article, "Gonghe guojia yu qingnian zhi zijue" (The republican nation and the self-consciousness of the youth). Gao argues that the youth have self-consciousness with respect to the nation and society as well as themselves, and that this self-consciousness is predicated on the formal and spiritual aspects of the republican nation. Accordingly, Gao asserts that the youth bear the burden of reforming morality {gaizao daode % ^ ^ ^ ) , following the logic that "morality is based in natural instincts {tianxing ^ 'fe ) , the development of natural instincts depends on freedom, and freedom is expressed as public opinion," the base of the republican nation (3). I read Gao's language here as implicitly recognizing the concept of discourse in constracting the nation. So-called natural instincts are formed through a discursive process of the ejqiression of public opinion and this provides the basis of morality, which must be reformed in order to create the republican nation. In other words, morality changes with the form of government (4), but the youth will have to reform morality to make the republican form of government possible.

Gao's articulation of the need to "reform morality " and the relationship of reforming morality to establishing a republican nation bears strong resemblance to Lu Xun's belief that reforming the national character (gaizao guomin xing was essential to save the nation, which will be discussed in 65

Chapter 3/^ Lu Xuu’s term for national character, guomin xing was used in many essays in New

Youth, such as Chen Duxiu's "Dikang li" (Power of resistance; 1915), which has a section titled

"Dikangli yu wu guomin xing" (The power of resistance and our national character ^

ft)- Not only are the terms identical, but the context of criticism of the national character is also the

same, suggesting Lu Xun may have inherited the phrase and discourse of national character from Chen as

well as Liang Qichao as discussed above. Basically, Chen argues in terms of evolution and survival of the

fittest that the power of resistance is necessary for biological survival, saying that having a weak power of

resistance is the root sickness in the people's character which makes China the laughing stock of every

nation.^ Quoting a conterrçorary Japanese article critical of the Chinese national character, Chen also

attacks the Chinese national spirit (yvumin jingshen ), national morality (piinde g # ) ,

national will (m;nzA/\g,^) and national ^irit (jninqi'§^^). The "able and upright men" {xianren junzi

a fimdamental Confiician moral ideal, have a weak power of resistance. Once they become

depressed they commit suicide, escape the world to Zen Buddhism, retire and become hermits, or lose themselves in drink. This kind of "tricky and shck national character," according to Chen, is the root of the sickness that will lead to the fall of the state and extermination of the race {wangguo miezhong t #

Chen Duxiu's attacks on the negative aspects of Chinese national character appear in many other important early articles in New Youth. In "Dongxi minzu genben sixiang zhi chayi" (The basic differences in thought between eastern and Western nations [races]), Chen compares the national character of the two hemispheres:

Western national character (minzu xing S S l'f t) detests humiliation and would rather fight to the death than suffer it; whereas Eastern national character detests fighting to the death and would rather suffer humiliation. How can a race with such a despicable, shameless root character

See "Liang di shu (8)" (Letters between two places no. 8). RpL in LXOJ Vol. 11. 44-7.

^ Here Chen exhibits a common concern with the "free" of the entire nation.

Chen also mentions zhengren junzi IE , a term used by Lu Xun for attacking the Contemporary Review chque in the mid- to late 1920s as I discuss in Chapter 5 below. 6 6

(genxing ^S‘|4) have any kind of face to talk loftily about Confiician ethics and civilization withoTit feeling ashamed? (1)

Other differences pointed out by Chen are Western individualism, individual freedom and rights, equality, all of which are based on constitutional law. In contrast, in Eastern society the individual with no rights because society is based on government religious law with the clan as the basic unit Chen asserts that

Eastern feudal society is organized on the principles of loyalty and filial piety, giving the head of the femily control, and is characterized by the destruction of the individual, independent and self-respecting personality, the suffocation of the freedom of individual thought, the stripping of individual legal rights and equality, and the mnturing of dependence. Whereas Western societies take the rule of law and practical benefits as fimdamental elements, Chen underscores the idea that Eastern societies take emotion and empty letters as fundamental elements. These characteristic features of social structure and organization are seen to have a direct effect upon the national character.

Chen's critique of national character seems to become more detailed and harsh in successive articles.

Appearing in the October 1916 issue of New Youth is Chen Duxiu's "Wo zhi aiguo zhttyi" (My patriotism), an article which is basically a manual about the problems of national character. Chen caustically criticizes his compatriots for their lack of "industriousness" iqin %), "frugahty" (jian fê),

"honesty" {lion # ) , "cleanliness" (Jie ^ ) , "sincerity" {cheng # ) , and "trustworthiness" (xin ff), many of the same elements of national essence trumpeted by Liang Ji discussed above. Chen criticizes the Chinese on each count, saying the nation may be saved by improving the national character and behavior (guomin zhi xingwei xingzki, guomin xingzhi xingwei zhi gaishan

In each of these cases Chen positively contrasts the Western to Chinese national character. He also points out the origin of unenlightened, sordid national character (wu guomin ... bu zijue. Beibi y/ochuo zhi guomin xing ° # # |l# ^ Z .^ .^ 'lÊ ) is to b e found in the Chinese pursuit of profit and lack of religious belief (which the Europeans have) and lack of respect for the Emperor (which is found in Japan). 67

New Youth ran translations or articles either devoted to or with sections on French, English, Italian, and American national character. For example, Li Yimin, the editor and translator of a column in New

Youth called "Shijie shuoyuan" (Talk of the world), published a translation of an essay by Kaiser Wilhelm n in September of 1915 which contains one section titled "German National Character" (Deyizki zhi guomin xing and discusses some customs and characteristics of Germans in contrast with those of the English, French and Romans. The "Talk of the World" column in the December issue of

New Youth has a section titled "The Special Character of the French" (Falanxi ren zhi texing

which contrasts some French characteristics with the English and the Germans. Besides Li

Yimin's column, an article devoted to England's youth groups by Xie Hong is critical of the waning of

English character, comparing it to the waning of the Roman empire, and describes how the English are trying to rebuild the national character and national qpirit by instilling a patriotic and military spirit, patience, power of observation, spontaneous ability, in the English youth through groups like the Bay

Scouts.

In addition to articles on European and American national character. New Youth ran an essay specifically on Chinese national character by Guang Sheng, "Zhongguo guomin xing ji qi ruodian"

(China's National Character and Its Weaknesses; Feb. 1917). Guang Sheng sets forth a definition of national character as the "spirit of the citizeiuy":

A nation's political state of afiairs is a snapshot of the spirit of its people. The nation founded within the universe takes tpon the plans Qihua ff-S ), beliefe (chixun j # # ) and demands (xuqiu H ^ ) of its citizens, and the nation's political state of affairs is the result of these. These plans, beliefs and demands are unnamed, but can be called the national spirit (guomin zhi jingshen )• Political scientists may otherwise call this national character (guomin x /n g S g Ê ) . This is the thought of a nation's citizeiuy. The thought of a citizenry is built (gai # ) b y such factors as the race, geography, climate, theories, and politics of a nation. (1)

Guang then contrasts Chinese with Western national character based on three characteristics: racial nature (zhongxing # # ) , nature of state formation(guoxing ^ % ) , and religious nature (zongjiaoxing ^

# # ) . Citing evolutionary principles, the author traces the historical roots of the Chinese race to the

Yellow Emperor and discusses the assimilation of barbarian tribes. The nature of state formation of the 68

Chinese nation is dependent igion size, geographical features, and the political machinations implicit in the rise and fall of djnasties. The religious nature of the Chinese, he argues, was weakened by the varying record of persecution and support of religions at different times by different emperors. Despite the weak religious nature, Guang views these characteristics positively because they allowed for the linguistic, literary, historical, and ideological unification of the Chinese nation for centuries.

However, after lauding the national character of the Chinese people for its longevity, the author embarks on a long disquisition of its weaknesses firom the perspective of democratic principles of the nation and nationalism, beginning with the relationship between the state and the individual and its attendant individual freedom, rights and obligations. Guang argues that the Chinese lack fiee thought, the ideology of the rule of law, and the ideology of democratic govemmenL He blames such shortcomings on Confucianism, which emphasizes humanity and righteousness {j’enyi rather than rights, humbleness and modesty rather than competition, clan-ism rather than individualism, and autocracy rather than democracy. This essay leaves the reader with the impression that though China had its good points, as demonstrated by its longevity in comparison to empires such as Egypt and Rome, Confiician morality, which might have been good at one time, had deteriorated to the point of empty expressions, and that if the tystem doesn't changed, China's existence in the contemporary world is endangered.

Articles on national character are not limited to New Youth. The other influential iconoclastic May-

Fourth joiunal, New Tide, for instance, published an article by Kang Baiqing in 1919 entitled, "Lun

Zhongguo zhi minzu qizhi" (On the Chinese national temperament). Kang cites an array of Western philosophers and psychologists in his discussions delineating national character (e.g. Hume, Lacouperie,

Comte). But while he acknowledges that national character is formed by influences of race and climate and geography, pointing to regional differences and the mixing of bloods of other races, he argues that there is no general Chinese national character, and moreover, one cannot even generalize about a Han character. He seems to have a theoretical grasp of the fiction of national character, but despite the contention that one cannot generalize, he does just that, conducting an analysis by making a chart of Han 69 characteristics, among which are vanity, self-satisfection, shrinking from diffictdty, superior creativity and modeling, worshipping the past and scorning the present, entrenchment in custom, strong in passive resistance. Kang's solution to the problem of national character lies in the dissolution of the family system and the free development of the individual, education and élimination of the religion, ceremonies and ancestor worship, development of industrial incentives, imification of language and education, reduction of the population rate, and in general promotion of a renaissance. In addition to Kang's article. New

Tide ran a positive critique of New Youth in which it pointed out four lines of thought, or “-isms" {zhityï), that it e^qjressed:

1. Remold the citizens; thought (gaizao guomin sixiang 2. Discuss women's problems. 3. Reform ethical concepts [gaige lunliguannian 4. Advocate the literature revolution. (353-4)

Numbers one and three relate directly to the national character as conceived by Liang Qichao, Chen

Duxiu, and eventually Lu Xun. For exançle, the reporter who wrote this article says, "The thought of the

Chinese citizen today is muddled Qiunhun tuntun and he praises New Youth for its clear-sighted critical analysis (354). Regarding the reform of ethical concepts, the reporter says New

Youth has attracted people's attention to it and widened it to "trending toward research to establish the new morality" (354).

The examples presented above are but a few of the many May Fourth writings on national character.

The discussions of national character in the intellectual journals of the May Fourth period went on for five or six years before Lu Xun's quintessential summation of the national character in Ah Q. Indeed, many of the articles cited above were written before Lu Xun made his debut with "Diary of a Madman" in 1918.

Lu Xun'szawen ( # ^ miscellaneous essays) and creative works like "Diary of a Madman" and "Kong

Yiji," which touch on most of the major characteristics of national character found in Ah Q (e.g. slavishness, self-deception and bullying the weak), are also found in the pages of New Youth. It should be noted here, though, that Lu Xun's critique of national character overlaps with Chen Duxiu and Guang

Sheng's critique, and in fact the ideas relating to reform ing the national character, the ethical and moral 70 foundations of Chinese society, were ejqjressed in very similar terms and nearly identical spirit by T.iang

Qichao in New Citizen. Thus, most of the ideas and vocabulary of national character were extant prior to

Lu Xun's writing of "True Story," with a particular debt owed to Liang Qichao. I will show in Chapters 4 and 5, how Lu Xun developed the ideas in his May Fourth essays and stories, building to a crescendo with

"True Story" and then extending b^ond into the formation of the Ah Q discourse. The seeds of Lu Xun's lexicon of nation and national character, as well as his view of the writer as a spiritual warrior, the national poet with the mission of saving the nation by enlightemnent through literature, are found long before the May Fourth in his late Qing writings to which I now turn. CHAPTER in

LU XUN'S LATE QEVG ESSAYS: THE FOUNDATIONS OF HIS ENGAGEMENT

WITH THE NATIONAL CHARACTER DISCOURSE

In the previous chapter I described the general formation of the national character discourse in the late Qing, early Republican and May Fourth periods and noted how this discourse was situated in relation to general theories of national character, nationalism, and modernity in eighteenth and nineteenth century

Europe. During the late Qing period, Tokyo was the center for Chinese intellectual and revolutionary actrvity, especially after the failed Hundred Days Reforms of 1898 when Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao fled to Japan to escape persecution and they debated the merits of reform with revolutionary nationalist supporters of Sun Yatsen. As a young student during this period. Lu Xun was influenced by the nationalist rhetoric, and wrote a number of essays that incorporated the language of nationalism. In this chapter 1 will show how Lu Xun's early essays incorporate and develop the lexicon of nation, national character, national essence, and their relationship to literature, and how they are informed by his initial concern with the national character issue. Furthermore, 1 will show how these essays prefigure Lu Xun's critique of the national character by describing some themes later developed in "True Story," including superstition, self-deception, self-aggrandizement, and the quintessential characteristic articulated by Lu

Xun, the method of spiritual victory. More generally, it is in these late Qing essays that Lu Xun ejqpresses

his view of the role of the writer as spiritual warrior, or national poet, with the mission of healing and

saving the nation.

There is not much autobiographical information on Lu Xun while in Japan since he apparently only

started his diary in May of 1912, a few years after his return to China. What biographical information

that Lu Xun himself provides comes in the form of reminiscences in works like the often quoted "Nahan

71 72 zixu" (Prefece to Battleciv'). where he explains his conversion from medicine to literature, or from occasional comments in essays. An important source for biographical information on his late Qing thought and activities are the reminiscences written after his death by his closest associates in Japan, Xu

Shoushang and his brother Zhou Zuoreit Before discussing Lu Xun's essays, I will briefly introduce pertinent elements of their reminiscences in order to contextualize Lu Xun's works. In general, these reminiscences have been accqrted uncritically by Lu Xun scholars. Because they were written in the euphoria eulogizing Lu Xun after his death in 1936, my discussion in this section will emphasize the need for caution with regard to their veracity. It is difBcult to take Lu Xun's own writing about his attitudes during his youth at full free value since they form part of the narrative that rides the wave of his May

Fourth popularity and could be indirectly shaped to fit the political and cultural contingencies of that later period, just as essays eulogizing him after his death may be prqudiced.

The five essays I discuss in this chapter indicate particular parts of Lu Xun's recognition oft and engagement with, the issues of nationalism, evolutionism, science, individualism, and democracy current in the context of his student days in Japan. Social Darwinism is the common coimection between the national character discourse, the discourse of nation and imperialism in the nineteenth and early twentieth century China. As 1 discussed in Chz^ter 2, the process of nation-building, the differentiation between cultures on the basis of race (read as "nation" in the nineteenth century) in Europe, was intellectually rationalized by reference to a common language, the mother tongue or Herder's Sprachgeist, which essentialized a biological lineage of the nation based on ancestry in reaction against the domination of foreign conquerors. The rhetoric that was used to discuss these problems etched the concept of difference into the minds of people who saw their linguistic solidarity as the common denominator distinguishing them from their enemies. The nation was characterized ly people's ideas, actions, and deeds which ioformed a collective imagination reified in the oral and written record and essentialized by projecting an

"authentic" history back into time. The nation defined in terms of ancestry and linguistic affiliation was observed to have certain characteristics which were historicized in literature and then used circularlv to 73 define the nation and race as one. The individual could imagine himself or herself as citizen of the nation, not only through political and economic participation, but also through imaginary participation in a fictionalized microcosm of the world by identification with characters and situations in literary plots.

The reader could imagine himself or herself as member and rq>resentative of the whole society through the very typicality of character presented in the literary wodcs. The national character became the

"essential" expression of the nation's hterature. The idea of national divisions by "race" was further legitimized by "scientific" theories through the application of Darwinism to social formations, known as social Darwinism, which offered a kind of "scientific" evidence and further reinforcing the notion that race is a "natural" endowment of a nation.

At the confluence of the self-strengthening movement in late Qing China, the defeat of China by the

Japanese in 1895, and Yan Fu's timely translation and commentary on Huxley's Evolution and Ethics.

(1898), the theory of evolution provided an intellectual and visceral ejqplanation of the pressing problem of Western imperialism and Chinese weakness. The language introduced by Yan Fu was taken r p and used by Liang Qichao in his subsequent writings.^® Assimilation of the theory of evolutionism is one of the fundamental elements of a radical change in Chinese world view which led to both a new linear view of history (rather than cyclical) and a corresponding new historical consciousness, which, as Leo Ou-fen Lee notes, is "based on a new conception of time and human progress" ("Search" 110). In what follows, 1 will read "The Soul of Sparta" as Lu Xun's earliest elaboration of the spirit of nationalism, "The History of

Humanity" as his valorization of evolutionism, and "Lessons from the History of Science" as his valorization of scientific spirit and initial critique of national essence. 1 interpret "Aberrations in Cultural

Development" as his initial call for chang in g the national character, and "On the Power of Mara Poetry" as his call for a national poet, a spiritual warrior (or warriors) who would take up the weapon of literature

For a discussion of Liang's use of Darwinian concepts in Shiwu bao (Chinese progress), see Pusey (83-126). Pusey later notes that evolution was used as justification for revolution based on a mistranslation, perhaps by Liang Qichao, of a sentence in Darwin's introduction to The Origin of Species (209). 74 to save Chinese society from annihilation But first I will address the issue of using the recollections of Lu

Xun's associates, recorded decades after the feet, as "factual," a practice virtually universal with regard to

Lu Xun's intellectual bearings in the late Qing.

A. Xu Shooshang's Recollections of Ln Xun's Interest in National Character

Xu Shoushang (1883-1948) was a close friend and schoolmate of Lu Xtm's at the Kobun Institute in

Japan fi^om 1902 to 1909, as well as the editor at Zheiiang chao (Zhejiang tide) in which two of Lu Xun's early essays were published.^' He collaborated with Lu Xun on their abortive attempt to publish the literary JoumaL Xinsheng (New life) in 1907 and attended meetings of Zhang Taiyan's Minbao she

(People's news society) with him in 1908. After their return to China, Xu recommended Lu Xun for positions at Zhejiang Normal School and with the Mixtistry of Education under Cai Yuanpei.^* Xu wrote two collections of reminiscences of Lu Xun between 1936 and 1948^® and is most "femous" in Lu

Xun studies for articulating three questions concerning national character with which Lu Xun was concerned during their days in Japan:

1. What is the ideal human nature {Zenyang cai ski lixiang de renxing '&)? 2. What does Chinese national character most lade {Zhongguo guomin xing zhong zui quefa de

3. What is the root of its illness (Ta de binggen hezai ("Huai wangyou Lu Xun" 8).

I do not discuss one of these essays, "Shuo ri" (On radium), Zheiiang chao 8 (Oct. 1903), which is relevant only in the opening lines where he attacks the ancient scholars unchangeable views and says that radium, discovered in the new world, "destroys the siqxerstitions of scholars of the past" (2).

In addition, in 1922 Xu Shoushang hired Lu Xun as lecturer at Beijing Normal Woman's Higher School where he was piindpal. Xu also taught with Lu Xun at Guangzhou's Sun Yatsen University and resigned with him in protest over the University's feilure to support arrested students (ZGWXDCD 4: 2357-8).

These are Wo suo renshide Lu Xun (The Lu Xtm that I knew, Beijing, 1952), which contains a series of essays he wrote about Lu Xun between the time of Lu Xun's death in 1936 and 1947, and Wangvno Lu Xun vimdang ii (Impressions of my deceased firiend Lu Xun; 2nd. ed., Hong Kong: Shanghai shuju, 1957), which is a more well thought out and detailed collection containing a large number of short reminiscences of his friend and their mutual associates in Japan, as well as the issues that concerned them at the time. 75

Deqjite the feet that Xa's recollection of these questions was written thirty years later in the midst of widespread euphoria eulogizing Lu Xun into an icon after his death, these questions have been uncritically accepted as "feet" and provide the point of departure for literally dozens of essays and theses

on Lu Xun’s views of Chinese national character. In a second essay written in 1944, Xu repeats the three

questions with a slight change in the second: "What does the Chinese race most lack (ZAonggao minzu zhongzui quefa de shi ("HuiyiLuXun" 18). Deq)ite this

minor change of focus firom national character {guomin xing) to race {minzu), the spirit of the question is

the same.^ However, in this later article Xu clarifies the nature of Lu Xtm's interest by elaborating on

their investigation of these three questions:

One day we started talking about [the idea] that throughout history Chinese fives were [regarded as] quite worthless, especially when they were slaves of the foreign races. We were relatively sad about this. From then on we became closer and every time we met we would talk of the shortcomings in Chinese national character. Because we were in a foreign land, and the stimuli were numerous and extreme, we often talked about three related problems: (1) What is the ideal human nature? (2) What does the Chinese race most lack? (3) Where is the root of the sickness?" As for (1), because it was diligently pursued by Chinese and foreign philosophers both past and present in voluminous quantities, we followed their good works and didn't say much about it"®' As for the ejqploration of (2), at the time we felt our race most lacked sincerity {cheng Wh) and love {ai § ) . In other words, we were deeply afflicted by numerous defects of hypocrisy, shamelessness, and mutual suspicion (xu wei wuchi he caihi xiang zei de maobing It only mattered that slogans sounded good, signs and propaganda looked good, and that books were high-sounding and exaggerated, when reality was not like this. As for the crucial problem of (3), we of course explored firom history, and although the causes are many, we believed the most important and deepest root of the sickness was due to being enslaved twice by foreign races. Where is there a place for people who are slaves to qieak of sincerity and love? The only method of cure is revolution. Every time we talked we lost track of time. From this I admired the loftiness of his ideals and the scope of his view. The reasons he decided to study medicine and then later determinedly gave it up for the study of literature both originate firom this, (my emphasis, 18-9)

®° In a third, later article in which Xu raises these three questions, "Ban zazhi, yi xiaoshuo," published in the collection, Wangguo Lu Xtm vittxiang ii. the second question is stated exacfly the same as that written in 1936 in "Hui wangyou Lu Xtm."

®' The pinyin and characters for this are as follows: Duiyu (1), yinwei gujin zhongwai zheren suo zizi zhuiqiu de, qi shuo haohan, women jinsan er cong bing bu duo shuo © -^(1) > 76

In this citation there are six important points regarding both Lu Xun's initial engagement with the national character discourse and its siibsequent development that I want to point out:

1. Lu Xun didn't pursue the question of "ideal human nature." 2. He and Xu Shoushang concluded that the Chinese most lacked love and sincerity. 3. Enslavement by foreign races was the primary cause for the lack of sincerity and love. 4. Lack of sincerity and love was ejqpressed by the defects of hypocrisy, shamelessness and mutual su^icion. 5. Attention to superficial appearances in books, signs and slogans was a consequence of these defects. 6. Revolution was the only cure and Lu Xun took tq) literature as the means toward it.

Point one clearly indicates that they did not pursue the question of ideal human nature, a fact that both

contradicts and repudiates Xu's early assertion that Lu Xun did. This has either been ignored or gone unnoticed by Lu Xun scholars, who often quote Xu's three points as a prefece to their analysis of Lu Xun's views and unconsciously promote the misconception that Lu Xun was engaged in intellectual inquiry of a universal nature. It is conceivable that this is overlooked because point one in fact subverts Lu Xun's

status as a thinker of "universal" merit and challenges his image as canonized by the Communist Party.

The theory of human nature was eventually discredited by Marxist theorists in favor of the theory of class

and class struggle, thus Lu Xun's engagement with the universal aspects of human nature were put aside.

In Chapter 6 ,1 will consider this point in relation to Ah Q's elevation as a universal symbol of backwardness and "Trae Story's" elevation to the ranks of world literature.^ Points two through five are

important parts of Lu Xun's discourse on national character and are discussed by Lu Xun in his writings

of all three major periods - the late Qing, the May Fourth and the "Marxist" periods. Point six implies

“ In feet, elimination of this question could call into question the basis for a large number of critical works investigating Lu Xun's so-called research into national character, considering that probably three quarters of the articles on Lu Xun's national character research take these three questions as a starting point, and rely on the first in order to legitimize their own stucfy. This could indicate that they were not delving deeply into the philosophical aspect of this issue, but may have instead been more concerned with the visceral question of China’s specific ills. Xu, however, appears to contradict this point in a later article where he comments on Lu Xun's continual occupation with all the questions, and goes on to discuss at length what the most "ideal" human nature would have meant to Lu Xun and its origins in Lu Xun's thinking; humanism ("Ban zazhi, yi xiaoshuo" 20-1). Note that Xu uses a Marxist lexicon, indicating the possible revision of Lu Xun's ideas in this regard and leading me to suspect revisionism when compared with the earlier statement above. 77 that Lu Xun viewed literature as a tool for revolution - in this context revolution would be directed against the Manchu rulers of China - and in feet is a reiteration of Lu Xun's own statement to such effect in "Nahan zixu." Chapters 4 and 5 will show that these ideas were indeed developed in Lu Xun's critique of the national character. This should also show that Xu Shoushang could have extrapolated Lu Xun's views from his May Fourth and later writings, back to the late Qing.

Xu Shoushang's memories about Lu Xun's early concern with the national character in the early period, which he supports by citing Lu Xun's works from the May Fourth, suggest revisionism.® While we may tacitly rely on Xu's memory for this uncorroborated interest in the three questions, I think it would be better to go beyond Xu's unconvincing reminiscences to actually show if and how Lu Xun's early works do bear out his interest in at least the last two of the three questions: "What does the Chinese national character most lack?" and "What is the root of its illness?"

B. Lu Xun's Late Qing Writings: The Lexicon of Nation and National Character

Rather than simply relying on Xu Shoushang's reminiscences that may be influenced by contemporary politics, we need to look at Lu Xun's late Qing writings themselves to determine with any sense of sureness the degree to which the issue of national character influenced his intellectual concerns and literary works. For this purpose, I will look at the portraj’al of nation, national character and nationalism in Lu Xun's late Qing essays: "Sibada zhi hun" (The Soul of Sparta; 1903), "Ren zhi lishi"

(The history of humanity, 1907), "Kexue shi jiao pian" (Lessons from the history of science; 1907),

® There is a reasonable possibility of revisionism in Xu's recollections, written thirty to forty years after he and Lu Xun were in Japan and in a period when the literary world was increasingly dominated by political censors and the dictates of socialist realism were being propagated (not to mention the immediate general glorification of Lu Xun after his death). Xu could easily have reached the same conclusions by reading any number of Lu Xun's later works, such as the discussion of Lu Xun's change from medicine to literature in "Nahan zixu," or Lu Xun's essay, "Kan jing you gan" (Feelings upon looking in/at the mirror, 1925), where Lu Xun refers to the Chinese being enslaved after the Song dynasty by the Jin and Yuan (199). In fact, another indication of possible revisionism by Xu, relying on later works for his evaluation of Lu Xun's attitudes, is the juxtaposition of Lu Xun's later "fiction^" story "Tu he mao" (The rabbits and the cat; 1922) to the events from 1902-1907 he was just recalling. For a discussion of the mythologization of Lu Xun see David Holm. 7 8

"Wenhua pian zhi lun" (Abenations in cultural development; 1907) and "Moluo shi li shuo" (On the power of Mara poetry; 1907). I will refer to these essays hereafter as "Sparta," "Humanity," "Science,"

"Aberrations," and "Mara" respectively. The four e s s ^ written in 1907 were slated, according to Zhou

Zuoren for publication in Lu Xun's joumaL Xinsheng ("Guanyu Lu Xun [2]" 91), but when the journal folded before the first issue they were published in the provincial JoumaL Hunan, organized by Chinese students in Japan.

Writing in 1936, Zhou Zuoren provides crucial information about early intellectual and literary influences that informed Lu Xun's initial understanding of nation in late Qing China.^ Zhou says, for example "when he was in Nanjing, Yan Fu's works of translation came to Yucai's“ attention. From

[Huxley's] Evolution and Ethics to (Montesquieu's] Spirit of the Laws, he purchased them all in succession" (90). In addition to these political and social theses, Zhou notes that Lu Xun also read all of

Lin Shu's translations of Western works of literature in succession starting with Dumas' La Dame aux

Camélias (90). Liang (ÿchao's journals and essays were also quite influential:

[We] indeed read and were very influenced by the journals edited by Liang Qichao; Xin xiaoshuo (New fiction), Oingvibao (Journal of disinterested criticism), and %nmin congbao (New citizen journal). Moreover, the influence of New Fiction was invariably greater, not smaller [than the latter two]. When we first read Liang Qichao's "Lun xiaoshuo yu qunzhi zhi guanxi" (On the relationship between fiction and governing the masses) it really had a great efiect, and although his [Lu Xun's] opinions regarding the nature and classification of fiction later changed a little, gradually for the most part firom scientific or political fiction to a more purely hterary work. However, not just emphasizing literature's direct edifying function, the original intent still hasn't changed, he still to advocated using literature to change society, to invigorate the nation's spirit {minzu jingshen or, using later terminology, he can be said to have belonged to the "literature for life's sake" school. (91)

As discussed in Chapter 2, Liang Qichao's journals were the medium by which the initial formulations of the problem of nation, national spiriL and national character were introduced into China from Japan (with

^ Zhou's essay must be viewed with caution given thaL like Xu Shoushang, he was writing in the aftermath of Lu Xun's death. However, Zhou's recollection of the works they read are probably more reliable given he and his brother’s close relationship, living together in Japan, and the idea that they probably shared many of the works.

65 Yucai ^ is Lu Xun's style name. 79 the exception of Shiwu bao. which was published in Shanghai; (Chang 63-4]). Zhou thus provides the basic connection between Lu Xun's views of national character and Liang Qichao. Zhou furthermore asserts that he believes nationalism {minzu zhuyi was the focus of Lu Xun's thought of that early period (93). Although this is also a recollection of events long after the feet, it contrasts with Xu

Shoushang's indication that Lu Xun was more specifically and fimdamentally concerned with national character at the time. In works written after the establishment of the republic. Lu Xun indicates his femiliarity with nationalist revolutionary journals of the late Qing. For example, the prefece to Fen (The grave), indicates he was also influenced by the anti-Manchu joumaL Minbao. to the extent that he "liked making strange sentences and writing ancient characters" ("Tiji" 4). Elsewhere he said "I love reading

Minbao... because of their struggle with the advocate of preserving the emperor, Liang Cÿchao"

("Guanyu Taiyan xiansheng er san shi" 541). And in "Yi shi zhi xueshuo" (One such theory). Lu Xun notes that the Guocui xuebao (National essence journal) "naturally contained a lot of revolutionary spirit" because of its relationship to the times (391).“

In a nationalistic gesture of multi-dimensional significance. Lu Xun made Xu Shoushang the recipient of a commemorative photo taken when he cut off his queue in Japan in 1903. On the back of the photo was a poem, or inscription, by Lu Xun entitled "Ziti xiaoxiang" (Personal inscription on a photo).

This simple poem is Lu Xun's earliest record of ethnic nationalism, as indicated by the last line which reads, "1 oSer my blood to the Yellow Emperor (Xuan Yuan # )." ^ Lu Xun's nationalism is symbolized in four distinct acts of rebellion associated with the photo: cutting off the queue required to be worn by the people of the Qing Dynasty since its founding by the Manchu's in 1644; making a visual record of his symbolic act of rebellion; poetically pledging the sacrifice of his own blood to his

“ Lu Xtm also tells of femiliarity with Liang Qichao's Oingvi bao in "Zai xiandai Zhongguo de Kongfirzi" (313); and says he was ^ o aware of the debates between Minbao and Xinmin congbao in "Zhongguo wentan de beiguan" (253).

^ Ethnic nationalism is also referred to as racial nationalism dming the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. For an example of the conflation of the words race and ethnicity dming this period, see Wang JingweL "Minzu de guomin," Minbao 1 (1905): 1-31. Also see Dikotter (123-5). 8 0 mythological ancestor, the progenitor of "all" the "Chinese"; and publicizing his rebellion by sending the photo to his friend (perhaps ■with hopes that Xu would follow his example). Moreover, a fifth act of rebellion could be construed in the fact that he did all these in Japan, a foreign country and victor over

China in the humiliating war of 1895. In this sense. Lu Xun was embracing the Japanese as ■victors while rejecting the Manchu "occiq)iers." As we will see in Chapters 4 and 5, Lu Xun returns to the issue of the queue on numerous occasions as a point of departure to discuss and analyze the national character. Here in this 1903 photo, literature and action become a strong synibolic indicator of Lu Xun's early nationalist thinking which is also elaborated in his essays of the period. The earliest essay, "Sparta," was written the same year that the photo was taken and in it we find an elaboration of the spirit of nationalism through a portrayal of heroic Spartan "nationalism" as an example for his compatriots to follow.

1. The Spirit of Nationalism; "Sibada zhi hun" (The Soul of Sparta; 1903)

Written at the age of twenty-three, "Sparta" is the earliest of Lu Xun's works in Japan. This ess^ was published in Zheiiang chao. the student journal of his home province, and by Lu Xun's own admission its difficult classical language was influenced by Yan Fu (Jiwai iL LXOJ 7: 5). This ess^ is an expression of the spirit of nationalism through the telling of the tale of valorous Spartans who willingly fought to the death defending Greece against the Persians in a bloody battle at Thermopylae. The

Spartans, Lu Xun recounts, died for the principles, the law of the nation {guofa g ^ ) iqjon which the nation was founded, fundamental among which was the "fight to the death" (10). Lu Xun emphasizes this point by quoting the words of a dying soldier on the battlefield: "I fought to the death follo^wing the laws of the nation; tell this to my Spartan compatriots" (12). It is this qtirit, the spirit of the Spartans, that Lu Xun says "■will eternally exist" (12). Lu Xun uses the resistance of the Spartans who fought fer ournumbered against the invading Persian army to symbolize the spirit that a nation should have in meeting its enemies - fight to the death, to die for the people (we; guomin s; "Pointing to the funeral procession someone said: 'If rrq; husband could die for the people, what honor, what glory that 81

would be!'" (13). Lu Xun ejqplains that the will to fight to the death for the nation is instilled in the

people by mothers who remind their sons of the law of the nation when they send them off to battle,

saying, "on the day of your funeral ceremony your concubine will be allowed to attend with permission of

your wife, and the people {guomin) will think of you, your ffiends will think of you, your parents, wife and

children will think of you, and you will return to life nine times! " (14). The individual warrior is thus

connected to the abstract idea of national community composed of family, ffiends, and compatriots united

by the idea of dying for the nation by which he will be "reborn nine times" through the thoughts of all his

compatriots. Thus, national qtirit hes in imaging the nation embodied in one's own immortali^ and

reified through the telling of one's spirit in the face of death.

The glory of (tying for the people echoes Lu Xun's pledge to spill his blood for the Yellow Emperor in

the inscription on his photograph that same year. Leo Lee points out that this essay "followed in general

Liang Qichao's injuncfion of citing Western history for purposes of political inculcation" (Voices 14). Lu

Xun's rhetoric of sacrifice for the citizen/people more specifically echoes Liang's call to invent a "public morality," exemplified by a corrunitment between the individual citizen and society in which "the obligation of the person to society is the same as that of the son to his parents" ("Lun gong de" 14), and

"the person looks upon the nation's afffirs as his own" (15).

Also published in Zheiiang chao in 1903 was an article by Feisheng entitled, "Guohun pian" (Treatise on the national soul), which Lu Xun probably read, and which can serve as to highlight the issues of national characteristics and national essence, and point out the extent of discussion of these issues in the same journal in which Lu Xun published his first work in 1903. Like "Sparta," Feisheng's article is also about a national souL but instead of offering a foreign example for Chinese to emulate, he criticizes the

Chinese national soul, making an analogy between comq)t social customs that indicate a lost national sold, and the individual's sickness of the brain that indicates the lost individual soul. In language criticizing the national essence that Lu Xun will echo in future works, Feisheng places the blame for corruption, lack of patriotism, and a lost national soul on stçporters of the national essence: 8 2

China's protectors of the national essence {guocui # % ) protect their private profit This has always been an evü habit which goes without saying.... One type of evil custom in China is the worship of the ancient, and this evil custom and so-called national soul have been nurtured through history and rooted in q>ecial characteristics {texing #% ).... If the ancient customs are not eliminated, the national soul [i.e. patriotism] will not be realized. (16)

Feisheng pits the development of a national soul against the entrenched ancient national essence. As we will see below, the issues of preservation of the national essence, private profit at public expense, and worship of the ancient will be addressed by Lu Xun in his later works in a somewhat similar vein.

Furthermore, national character is surtuned iç here much as Liang Qichao did in New Citizen and as Lu

Xun does in the essays below.

2. On Evolutionism: "Ren zhi lishi" (The History of Humanity; 1907)

The theory o f evolution stems from the ancient Greek philosopher Thales and only upon the arrival o f Darwin is it officially established. The German Haechel, like Huxley, is an extoller o f Darwin's theory, however he didn't just complacently accept old ideas but in many aspects elaborated Darwin's ideas, constructing a chart o f the system o f biological evolution.... (Lu Xun, "The History of Humanity" 44)

In "Humanity" Lu Xun discusses the rise of theories of natural science, fossil interpretation, classification of species, and their competition for interpretive dominance from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, and presents what Pusty calls "one of the most sophisticated accounts (fer surpassing anything written by Yen Fu or Liang Ch'i-ch'ao) yet written in Chinese of human evolution and the evolution of evolutionary theory" (205). According to Lu Xun, evolution theory was established in the process of dispelling the myths of creation. As seen in the quote above. Lu Xun opens this essay with reference to Darwin and Huxley. His statement that Huxley extols Darwin leads me to believe that his understanding of Huxley’s views on social Darwinism is flawed, since it has been duly noted by Benjamin

Schwartz in his acclaimed book. In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West that "Huxlty's lectures are decidedly not an ejq)osition of social Darwinism. They actually represent an attack on social

Darwinism! (100).®

® Lu Xun's opening lines in "The History of Humanity" thus indicates that he probably misreadYeia. Fu's translation of Huxley's Evolution and Ethics, in which Yan Fu in fact attacks Huxley in support of 83

One striking aspect of Lu Xun's discussion of evolution in "The Histoiy of Humanity" is his reference

to some German reticence, on the part of one of its philosophers, Friedrich Paulson, to accept the theory of

evolution. He compares this reticence to that of many Chinese of the time:

Recently in China people frequently talk about the theory of evolution. Those happy with the new borrow it to decorate their vocabulary, and those Icyal to the ancient (dugu zhe hate the parallel made between humans and monkeys, and normally do their utmost to obstruct it. The German philosopher Paulsen has said that the popularity of reading worics by Haechel is a shame to our Germany. Germany is the center of philosophical research and Paulsen is also a philosopher, so if he can unergectedly say this kind of thing, then it is no wonder that China's generation that holds onto deficiencies and protects shortcomings {baocan shouque zhi bei iiS D will run aw ^ as soon as they hear a new theory. (45)

Lu Xun's terminology, "the generation that holds onto deficiencies and protects shortcomings" is repeated in "Aberrations" and will subsequently be identified with the national essence preservationists in

"Science," where Lu Xun directly links this concept and terminology to the idea of national essence.®

3. Critiqueof National Essence: "Kerne shi jiaopian " (Lessons from the History of Science; 1907)

While "Humanity" demonstrates Lu Xun's critical attitude toward the defenders of the ancients,

"Science" is the first time Lu Xun uses the term "national essence" to refer to these people. I read this essay as Lu Xun's manifesto on "scientism," the religion of science, in which he presents a pseudo-history of natural science in the West to the Chinese reader by tracing its development firom classical Greece and

Rome, through the modem era when scientists like Bacon, Descartes, Newton, Watt and Carnot made

Spencer's views of social Darwinism. Lu Xun probably took Yan Fu's ogosition of Spencer's essential views against Huxley as the views which Huxley himself held regarding social Darwinism. This is not so surprising since, as Schwartz points out, Yan Fu's translation is two works, a paraphrase of Huxley's lectures and exposition of Spencer's essential views against Huxl^ (103). Schwartz continues to note: "Huxley's overwhelming preoccupation is that of protecting human ethical values against the efforts to create an 'evolutionary ethic'" (100).

® Lu Xun also says in "Humanity" evolution doesn't violate the idea that humans are the spirit of the myriad of things (22). This may be developed into a case that Lu Xun recognizes the difiSculty of getting these ideas across to the reader who holds the behef by calling on some old ideas himself (perlmps this "myriad of things" comes firom Daoism? It is also related to the Neo-Confucian view of "the unity of the universe and humans" tian ren heyi A o ’—)• 8 4 stunning developments. In the process of tracing the "history of science," besides implicitly denying any claim to a role in this history by China, Lu Xun rails against the siçporters of national essence, whom he calls "the scholars who hold tightly onto the national essence to the end" {sibao guocui zhishi i ü ) by comparing them to similar types of people in India:

In the past, the English wanted to build an imderground aqueduct in India but the Indians felt this detestable and refused. Somebocfy said that imderground aqueducts were originally a creation of ancient Indian sages but the technique was lost over time. The white people have merely pilfered this kind of technique and improved it a bit In this way, underground aqueducts were finally widely built Those people who wont release their hold on the old idea in ancient nations frequently reach the point where they willingly delude themselves. Most of those who put forth these kinds of views in China, those who hold tight onto the national essence to the end, seem to believe that todty’s academics and literary arts are all things that our country has had for a few thousand years. I don’t know what their intention is, whether it is to learn fi-om those who enjoy creating lies in India and rely on tricks to feke new learning, or if they truty worship the past and believe perfection cant be transcended. Although this mty be the case, they still are guilty of holding an uncooperative and unaccqitmg attitude toward new learning (83)’°

Here we see the first explication of Lu Xun's argument against the national essence that will be elaborated in his essays and stories during the 1920s. Citing Roger Bacon, who analyzed fom causes for the loss of science and technology in the Middle Ages in Europe, Lu Xun asserts the same causes are relevant to

China: "imitating the ancients, false wisdom, stuck in old customs, and being deluded by convention"

(87). He further developed these faults by borrowing firom the English idealist philosopher, William

Whewell (1794-1866), who blamed the lack of progress on "unclear concepts, trivial methods, inability to hypothesize firom facts, and stubbornness and fervor" (87). Lu Xun also points out that although some people said science and morality should be separated when engaging in scientific inquiry, but he thinks this is wrong since the force of morality is one of the reasons there can be important discoveries in science

(87). I believe the "force of morality" referred to here is related to the spiritual culture he advocates at the end of the essay.

In tracing the development of modem science. Lu Xun emphasizes that it takes a long time to harvest the firuits of scientific theory by pointing out that Francis Bacon thought it would be one hundred years

'° This marmer of critique is reiterated in Lu Xun’s May Fourth essay, "Suiganlu 42" discussed in Chapter 4. 8 5 before the developments in science and math would affect national development and improvement. Bacon was overly optimistic because it in fact took over two hundred years, as Lu Xun notes, for scientific and mathematical developments to be realized in the West in the form of industrialism and the "so-called nineteenth century material civilization" (91). But after taking root, "scientific developments rolled in like waves and the spirit of the people was invigorated ly it, leading to a new general mood among the

{jingshenyiyizhen, guomin fengqi, yin eryi xin » 13#—$f;65).

What interested the scientists, however, was the pursuit of truth, and while the people praised scientific advances, they did not praise the scientists themselves. Lu Xun seems to suggest that the scientific spirit of the scientists was more important than the scientific advances, but that this was not recognized by the people, and thus acted like a brake on progress, becoming one of the "aberrations" in cultural development that he elaborates in the next essay discussed below (i.e. materialism). Lu Xun l^ s the groundwork in

"Science" for future essays, such as Suiganlu 38" (Impromptu reflections no. 38), that call for a new scientific qpirit which can cure the woes of the nation and national character and invigorate the nation.

Concluding this essay. Lu Xtm theorizes on the relationship between science, industrial, and military development, and the spirit which is necessary to compete successfully in the Darwinistic world he perceives around him. Although development of industry and the military is the "talk of the town," and indeed appears on the surfece to be an enlightened position. Lu Xtm sees this as a fecade and claims that

"people are really only confused by material things in front of their eyes, and don't really tmderstand the true theory behind them" (67). It is crucial, however, to nurture the scientific spirit, because that is the only way that the nation will survive regardless of the level of industry and military readiness achieved.

In order to make this point. Lu Xun uses the example of the French whose survival dqwnded on science and patriotism (94). Like an elixir. Lu Xun sings the praises of science: "Science is the glory of the gods shining on the whole world; it can stop decline and encourage people's hearts" (94). But paradoxically.

Lu Xun sees that science must be balanced with spiritual culture in order to continue to flourish, and concludes: 86

Therefore, what humanily should hope for and demand is not only Newton but also poets like Shakeqjeare; not only Boyle, but also Raphaelo, not only Kant, but also Beethoven, not only Darwin, but also Carlyle. In order to attain holistic development of human nature (renxing \ % ), none of these people deviate from it, and only thus can we see modem civilization (jinri zhi yvenming-^B'^'k.^k)- (94-5)

Thus, it is necessary to cultivate the spirit and develop human nature in order to develop a modem civilization on the basis of science. The new civilization requires a new human nature based on both the qtirit of science and the spirit of poets (and presumably their works). This idea is ftuther developed and discussed in two other late Qing essays, "Aberrations" and "Mara."

4. Extreme Individualism: "Wenhua pian zhi lun " # (Aberrations in Cnitural Development; 1907)

The German Nietzsche used the words ofZarathustra to say: "I've traveled very far all alone without a companion and I turned my head looking back at the modem world, civilized nations, glittering society. But this land o f society has no solid faith; the masses have no creative initiative regarding knowledge. How can a nation like this remain long? I have been exiled by the land o f my ancestors! I can only place hope in the generation o f my descendants. " Thus, through deep and long contemplation Nietzsche was able to see the hypocrisy and bias o f modem civilization, and without any hope for the people o f today, he could only think o f the future. (Lu Xun, "Aberrations" 127)

I read "Aberrations" as Lu Xun's first assessment of the defects in Chinese national character and as a proposal of the intellectual orientations necessary to change it and save the natiort Writing in the idiom of "nation" and evolutionism seen in journals such as Minbao and Xinmin congbao. Lu Xun presents a critique of China's contemporary spiritual ills and a warning to her self-strengtheners about the dangers of adopting the materialist practices and democratic institutions of the West.’' Though most of this essay is devoted to explaining late nineteenth century European philosophers' views of the aberrations of Westem culture spawned by the extreme manifestations of industrialism and democracy, Lu Xtm in fact uses the mirror of these philosophers' views to reflect on the path that China should take to save the nation (jiuguo

'' Some of the terms he uses are pirblic opinion (minyi 101); selfishness (zili g fij ; 99); new group of nations (xin guolin 97); characteristics (xingzhi ; 103); and self-consciousness of the nation (guoren zhi zijue HI). 8 7

His first lines indicate a tension between two diametrically opposed views of the road China

should follow:

Because China enjoys a reputation in the world as egotistical and conceited, some of those skilled at slander say she is obstinate. Furthermore, they say she will embrace deficiencies and preserve her shortcomings {baodan shouque right down to her extinctioiL Lately some celebrities have heard a httle open discussion of new studies {xinxue and feeling ashamed [of Chinese culture] they want to reform it immediate^. If the discussion doesn't accord with Westem theory they won't participate. If the wofic doesn't conform to Westem methods they \ron't do it The only thing they fear in attacking old things is that they don't have enough strength. They say that actions like theirs are taken to correct past mistakes and to work for the wealth and power (faqiang of the nation. (120)

Here Lu Xun has presented a third person report of China's national characteristics (egotistical, conceited,

obstinate), and the ultimate consequence of those deficiencies (extinction) and indicates that those who held this view are "skilled at slander." Ironically, Lu Xun used almost exactly the same terminology as these "slanderers" for the "cultural preservationists" in "Humanity," where he complained of "China's generation that holds tightly onto deficiencies and protects shortcomings to the end {baocan shouque zhi bei saying they will run away at the first sign of a new theory. He also used related

Term inology in his essay "Science," where he criticized "the scholars who hold tight onto the national essence {sibao guocui zhishi for their imwillingness to change.’^ Juxtaposed to the

"preservationists," referred to in the first two sentences of the citation above, is a group of self- strengtheners striving for "wealth and power" who repudiate Chinese methods and embrace only the

"new" Westem methods and theories.

So here in "Aberrations" we see a tension between preservationists and self-strengtheners. Lu Xun will ultimately take a middle ground between the two groups, but first he critiques them both as

"abenations" wrought by the extremes of cultural development in the West and China. Over the centuries since the reign of the Yellow Emperor China, Lu Xun explains, because of her great achievements and a long lack of cultural competition, China developed an exaggerated sense of cultural stqjeriority {zi zun da

This could refer to the reformers, the anti-Manchu revolutionaries, or even some preservationists who may be a third group as yet not discussed (Manchus or Manchu loyalists?). 88 g ^ ^ ; 96). When, new Westem nations brought their technology to China in the late nineteenth century "she went down on her knees," and because of the threat of annihilation she sought material and martial technology from the West Lu Xun decries not the importation of technology, but the feet that it was being done without concern for the problems associated with it in Westem nations, problems he fears will be exacerbated in China given the Chinese national character. Lu Xun divides the self-strengtheners into categories of those who just advocate military modernization, those who pursue industrial and business modernization, and those who advocate democracy. Then he lumps them into one category, saying they are all merely opportunistic, seeking to profit firom the state of national emergency. Lu Xtm's solution to save the nation is to emphasize the spirit and the individual in order to overcome superstition and muddledness (pilû cushu

If we really want to figure oirt what to do for the present, then we must investigate the past and forecast the future. We must attack the material and develop the spirit, stress the individual and reject the majority. Now that the individual will and qjirit have come into pl^, the nation can come to prosper fiom it (123)

Implicit in Lu Xun's words is a lack of individual will and spirit in the Chinese character, for once the individual will and spirit are developed, the nation as a whole would survive and prosper. Lu Xun's forceful attack on the self-strengtheners and simultaneous critique of the preservationists, whose advocacy of cultural siçetioiity led China on the road to extinction, suggests a third altemath'e, giving play to individual will and spirit, in order to treat the spiritual illness of China, in other words, reforming the national character.

Throughout his rhetorical argument. Lu Xun makes the reader aware of defects in Chinese q)irit and national character. First, Lu Xun says acquisition of military weapons is not the solution to China's weakness because "the citizeiuy is very weak and cowardly so even if you gave them a whole lot of weapons, there is no way they could win, they'd just die there on the spot" (121). Second, the wealthy industrialists, merchants and constitutionalists, are just opportunists who "would live comfortably even if the nation perished," or go into hiding, or delude themselves into thinking that they would be the ones to 89 survive the catastrophe, "because there always are people who are lucky enough to avoid disaster" (122).’^

Third, democracy is of no use to a superstitious and muddled people who instead of using methods of medicine and sanitation, blindly go to a shaman or beseech the spirits when they are sick. If these muddled people were the governing masses. Lu Xun fears their oppression would be more tyrannical than that of a single tyrant because they would unthinkingly muddle about without reason, just blindly following the general opinion (122). Furthermore, even worse than those who would give the authority to the masses in the name of saving the nation are those self-serving people who use "saving the nation as a pretext to satisfy their own desires" (122), or who "enrich themselves in the name of enriching the masses" (123). "Regardless of the tme situation," says Lu Xun, "thQ^ would give managerial and authority and the authority to criticize to those who curry favor or are just the stqpid rich people" (122).

Lu Xun makes it clear that the people's weaknesses (renmin zhi ruodian A .K ^ H I S ) "originate from the corrupt practices of past civilization and are instilled in their nature and soul" (jin g^an xingling ^

; 110) and the adoption of Westem materialism and democracy without changing their nature and soul would be even more disastrous for China. Thus, there is a clear linear relationship in Lu Xun's view between historical cultural practice and national character weaknesses which would impede successful self-strengthening, industrialization, and democratization.

Lu Xun's sjmopsis of Chinese history is an analysis of the evolutionary, or perhaps devolutionary, process through which the people's weakness (what are later defined more explicitly as weakness of the national character) arose. Lu Xun is highly critical of the extremities of Westem materialist civilization, and believes that Westem material, martial, and political development cannot solve the fundamental problem of Chinese spirit, but rather can only "make the Chinese fall out of the old dream into a new dream and run around bellowing as if drunk on wine" (128). In his advocacy of individualism (gerew zhuyi ) and attack on the masses Lu Xun cites Stimer, Ibsen, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, and

This kind of delusion is mirrored in Ah Q's mind as he is to be thrown into jail without protesting, made to unconsciously sign his own confession, and is paraded through the streets unaware that he is going to the execution ground. 90

Nietzsche, all of whom he says were late nineteenth critics of the extremes of Western materialism and

democracy. Ibsen is credited with rejecting "the narrow biases of democratic society, be they customs,

beliefs, or morals" which he regarded as the source of a litany of defects in moral character {qiyu piradng

hiding behind the term "equality": ugliness and filth {ezhuo mediocrity (yongfan

/L), indifference {liangbo and hypocri^ and treachery (yvei zha The individualism

promoted by Lu Xun is perhaps best seen in his reference to Nietzsche's superman (chaoren ^ A)> ^

concept which reappears in "Mara," as the embodiment of greamess and talent (fiançai ) who would

lead the nation (131). Lu Xun calls for the discarding of the aberrant parts of culture - materialism and

the masses - in order that the people be enlightened and the individual personality be developed (ze guoren zhi zijue zhi, gexingzhang ’ # # # ) , and a nation of people(renguo A ^ )

can be established (111). He advocates attacking the material and developing the spirituaL stressing the

individual and rejecting the masses, and makes the acute observation that the Western culture being so

fervently adopted, assimilated, and worshipped by the self-strengtheners is based on a spiritually

degenerative and excessively materialistic culture in the late nineteenth century. Lu Xun rhetorically asks

if culture and civilization are equivalent to "road construction," "republican institutions," "weapons and food stores" (137). To each of these his answer is no. Instead, he relates culture to spiritual development and respect for the individual which is apparently summed up in a concept Lu Xun calls liren lY A /^ without which "the nation would completely lack vigor and perish" (138):

Note that Lu Xun seems to have an expression sim ila r to that which Sun Yatsen used to refer to China as a federation of loose sand. Lu Xun's version is sAayKzA; , 111). Lu Xun also has an essay entitled "Sand" (sha %^) in which the opening sentence appears to be a quote of Sun Yatsen's idea: "Recent readers often sigh that the Chinese people resemble a sheet of loose sand (yi pan san sha —# # [ ^ ) , and lacking any idea to deal with this they place this unlucky reqjonsibility r i^ t back on everybody. Actually this is wronging most Chinese people. Although the common people are uneducated, and they perhaps don't understand things they see, they know when something relates to their own interests, so why won't they unite. Before there was beseeching the gods, mass action and rebellion; now there are things like petitioning. That they resemble sand is a success of the ruler's 'rule,' which in classical Chinese is called 'continuing rule' (LXOJ 4: 545). Lu Xun concludes that the sand is the rulers, not the common people.

Liren is originally a Confucian concept, firom Lunvu- "to help others establish," but this is not one of the so-called "three imperishable virtues of man" - Me ligong liyan~tl^ - the last of 91

So if we want to survive in the world and compete internationally, the first thing we must do is cultivate talented people Qiren Qt A), and having cultivated talent then everything may proceed; as for the method of cultivating talent, it is necessary to respect the individual personality and develop the qtirit If we dont do this, in less than a generation the nation will be conqtletety out of steam and perish. In the past, China originally worshipped the material and detested talent, passing down the old methods of the ancestors, and day by day her situation became more untenable. When she came under oppression fiom abroad, she was so weak that she could not preserve herself. There are some half intelligent, superficial fellows who unrestrainedly promote the use of the material to strangle the q)irit and use of the majority to restrain the minority, resulting in the conçlete stripping away of the individual nature (geren zhi xing ■f@ hi the past we paralyzed half of our own body [by embracing deficiencies and preserving shortcomings], and now because of the developments in tranqmrtation, new pestilences have been spread. When these two kinds of diseases cross, China's withering away will be quickened. Ah, look into the future and see what is to be done! (137-8).

The new pestilence is extreme Western materialism, the old disease is self-paralyzing Chinese cultural siqieriority. I think Lu Xun's call for the cultivation of talenti}ireri) by fostering a climate in which the individual nature and spirit are respected may perhaps be a synthesis of the Neo-Confiician concept of

"cultivating the self' {xittshen # # ), and giving firee reign to a Western style extreme individualism, in order to "make humans all the masters of creation" (130).

In my reading of this essay. Lu Xun rejects the extremes of materialism, not necessarily materialism itself, and calls for the spiritual development of men of talent who would then in some unspecified way be able to save the nation. Out of fear that Western defects of moral character caused by extreme materialism and democracy (which in his analysis leads to defects in the moral character by promoting muddledness, indifference, hypocrisy and treachery of the masses) would be replicated in China, Lu Xun calls on

Western philosophers and poets who advocate individualism in order to counter these extremes. He uses some of the same words that Liang Qichao used in his discussions of national character and public morahty in the New Citizen journal (e.g. pinde [moral character] and liangbo [indifference]). And his solution is to "assimilate the best that the West has to offer" and "assimilate the strengths of the present

which Lu Xun mentiorrs in the first sentence of "The True Story of Ah Q." Recently, scholars have identified liren as the kernel of Lu Xim's humanist philosophy (see Bao Jing). 92

and past" in order to "establish a new school [of thought]" (136), rather than assimilate the "most

hypocritical and aberrant things of material culture as has already been done" (137).

5. Towards a National Poet: "On the Power of Mara Poetry" (1907)

In "Mara," Lu Xun Anther develops his early "vocabulary of nation," a vocabulary he will use

extensively in his May Fourth writings, and presents a rationale for engaged literary enterprise by tying

together the concepts of cultural evoltrrion, national character, literature, and saving the nation.’® Calling

for "warriors of the spirit" (jingshen jie de zhanshi 165, 182,183), poets who would

reinvigorate the race and culture and speak for the nation. Lu Xun builds the image of what is essentially

the "national poet" (guomin shir en 183). He offers a multitude of examples of such Western

poets including Byron, Shelley, Pushkin, Lermontov, Middewiz, Slowacki, Goethe and Petofi. In

addition, quoting Carlyle, he says "the citizens raison d'être" (guomin zhi shouyi 141), is to

articulate the voice of the nation, a voice that must be heard so that the culture may survive even if the

state has collapsed. But how can poetry and the poet have such unifying power? Because poetry can

situate human nature in the realm of "Sincerity (cheng |g ). Goodness, Beauty, Grandeur, Strength, Power

and Daring," Lu Xtm says, "it can be used to change human nature" (yi shiyi ren xingqing JJ[,

; 147). Moreover, poetry has power because of its ability to "nurture our imagination" (hanyang miren zhi shensi and "nurturing the human imagination is the task and function of

literature" (149-50). To nurture the imagination, is necessary to "open one to the wonder of life and

'® The "vocabulary of nation" presented in "Mara" includes "national character" (guominxing 160, 169), "national soul" (guomin zhi ling 140), "national voice" (guomin zhi sheng 142), "national spirit" (guomin jingshen 142), "national poetry" (guomin jie shi 148), and "national poets" (guomin shiren 183), "national essence" (guocui 175), "national characteristics" (guo zhi tese # # ' 6 ; 141),"Geist der Zeif (shidai jingshen ; 147), "self-consciousness" (zijue g 149), "renovation of the spirit" (xin qi jingshen 163), "new spirit of reform" (gaige zhi xin jingshen ; 165), "liberation of the people" (jiefang guomin # 175), "national theater" (guomin juchang 179), "new life of the people" (guoren zhi xinsheng ^A 2#A ;182), and "patrioticpoets" (aiguo shiren ## # A183). ; 93 allow one to intuit the facts and laws of life, something science is unable to do" (trans. Tsau and Holoch

106).

The rhetoric of "Mara" is steeped in the idea that literature is tied to the evolutionary struggle of nations. Lu Xun makes a clear statement that self-knowledge comes through a process of both reflection and consciousness of the Other, and points to India, Poland, and Israel as &llen cultures as warning of what h^pens when the nation loses its voice. The fates of Poland and India, enslaved by foreign nations, were particularly poignant for China, being on the verge of enslavement herself. But through a twist of national character she denies the fact:

Let's walk the thoroughfares of China where soldiers amble through market squares bawling army songs that damn the servility {mocing % % ) of India and Poland; national anthemers do the same. China these days would love to recount its illustrious past but has not been able to, claiming instead that this neighbor's a slave and that one's a corpse, flexing itself against conquered nations in hopes of looking superior. Regardless of who comes off worse, Cathay or the other two, if this be panegyric, if this be the voice of the nation piterally "voice of the citizen" guomin zhi sheng although people everywhere chanted it, it must be the first of its kind. (99)

Lu Xun's complaint here is that in the struggle to assuage the national pride, Chinese look for oppressed nations in worse shape than China and by virtue of a relative superiority th ^ puff out their chests. Here we see an early manifestation of the kind of ironic self-decqrtion, fooling oneself into thinking one is strong because the measure of comparison is weak, that will later be expressed as Ah Q logic. Lu Xun is sine that these citizens are deceiving themselves with this kind of posturing because of a lack of introspection and paucity of knowledge of others: "To praise the true greatness of your native land takes introspection and knowing others - awareness comes from careful comparison. Once awareness finds its voice, each sound strikes the soul, clear, articulate, unlike ordinary sounds" (99). "The nation's [citizen's]

spirit [guomin jingshen ^ . ^ # # ) , " he says, "depends on how much one knows of the world" (99). In

another example of self-deception of the type immortalized later in Ah Q with the words "we used to be

much richer than you," Lu Xun laments: "'An ancient civilization' (gw wenmingguo is just a

dismal name, a mockery! The scion of a fallen house babbles on that in the days of his incomparably wise

and mighty ancestors, they had storied mansions, jewelry, horses, hounds, and more honor than common 94 men. Can you blame his audience for laughing?" (98). This type of backward looking view that informs

Chinese philosopher's "wisdom" is seen by Lu Xun as running "counter to the fects [of the history] of human evolution" {renleijinhuashishi,shizhengbeichiJ\,^^^'C$.‘S.,'^lEM W .', 100). Lu Xun seems to see "looking to the past" as an idealization and justification for "weak and incapable" thinkers who "live out their lives as hermits" (yinyi zhong 101).

In a prefiguring of another Ah Q trait, the method of spiritual victory. Lu Xun says "Such were the thinkers whom society praised as above it aU, although th ^ themselves said 'I'm a rq>tile, a reptile' (wo chongshou wo chong shouye 101).” Even Qu Yuan, the legendary poet hero of

China, who was banished by the king of Chu for daring to speak his mind, could not live up to the spirit of resistance and defiance of the Mara poets, and thus "the power to stir posterity [by his example] was weak" (103). Lu Xtm searches for China's poets who would have "character {pinxing no “lÉ), words, deeds, and ideas" in common with the Mara poets despite the diSerences in nationality (107), but he finds only the defects and inadequacies of the nation: "smug isolation and a sense of being beyond reproach"

(108). Despite the recognition that the national character (guomin xing S S 1 Ê ) of nations is different

(169), Lu Xun sees a common link between the national poets, a spirit of resistance which can influence poets of other nations. Byron inspired the Greeks, says Lu Xun, despite their "sordid national character

(guomin xing zhi loulie 160)" and he "renewed the spirit of the Slavs (xin qi jinshen

& # # ) " (163).

As Lu Xun sees it, the fate of China is dependent upon evolutionary progress, for if China had "gone along with world trends to have constant irmovation in thought and action, then conceivably it could now be standing tall on earth, not ashamed among other nations" (107). Looking around at the present condition of the nation, he sees material wealth as "insufficient to revive the nation (buzu yi xing guojia

' ' In another section discussing Lermontov and his novel, A Hero of Our Time. Lu Xun makes a comment that was to become one of the criticisms of Ah Q years later: "At first it was thought the protagonist was the author's self-portrait, until the second edition retorted" Tlte hero is not a single individual but indeed a portrait of all the vices of our time.' In fact his book was modeled on his contemporaries" (trans. Tsau and Holoch 36). 95

^ 148-9)," and thus calls three times for the •warrior of the spirit (read "national poet")

who could save the nation &om extinction:

Now survey China: where are the warriors of the spirit? Is there a genuine [sincere, cheng Wi] voice to lead us to goodness, beauty, and vigor? Is there a warm voice to deliver us from this barren winter? Barren homeland, without a Jeremiah to compose a final lamentation as a legacy to the world. Unborn perhaps, or murdered by the public, or both - thus China has become desolate. (108-9)

Here we see the quintessential dilemma of the poet genius of the old nation speechless at the intersection

of ancient times and the modem, looking for a voice but murdered içon speaking out Although this

q)irit (jingshen) is common to poets without regard to nationality, they in fact do speak for their req>ective

nations, and how they say what they say expresses their national character and situates them in the

discourse of nation. Lu Xun's rhetoric of nation and his application of the ideas of evolution to explain

China's lack of a national voice or degenerate national character and to warn against impending doom,

place him squarely in the discourse of modernity.’® With this article. Lu Xun employed the term "national

character" for the first time in his works, developed the relationship between literature, the poet and the nation, and employed the evolutionary theory elaborated in "Science," "Humanity," and "Aberrations " in

a critique of the old nation and old philosophers from the perqtective of the new nation and modernity.

6. A Brief Summary of National Character in Lu Xun's Early Works

Lu Xun's late Qing works stand as an introduction to his lexicon of the discourse of nation and national character. The spirit of nationalism, to fight for the nation and its people until death, can been seen in his earliest essay, "The Soul of Sparta." Lu Xtm expresses his initial tmderstanding of the theory and process of evolution in "The History of Humanity" and hints at a cormection between Lu Xtm's view

Recall that Leo Lee defines modernity saying: "Thus, 'modernity in China was loosely defined as a mode of consciousness of time and history as unilinearprogress, moving in a continuous 'stream' or tide' from the past to the present; it also contained the ■valorized notion of the present as a new 'epoch,' not only unprecedented and qualitatively different from previous eras but better, which leads prophetically to a purposefiil future. The influence of Darwinian strains of evolutionary thought in China led to the emergence of this new perception" ("Search" 122). 96

of science and critique of the national essence group which "holds onto deficiencies and protects

shortcomings" (22). "Lessons firom the History of Science" expands on his belief in science and evolution

and further reveals his critique of the national essence supporters, now naming them directly as "the

scholars who hold tight onto the national essence" (83), and criticizing them for "imitating the ancients,

felse wisdom, [being] stuck in old customs and deluded by convention" (87). He raises the idea that the

spiritual must be developed and that it rests on the firm basis of true science, and that the holistic

development ofhmnan nature depends on both the existence of scientists and poets, Newton and

Shakespeare (94-5). Lu Xun's earliest surmnation of the defects in Chinese national character and critique of Western extremities of materialism continues in "Aberrations." Again he attacks the national essence sipporters who would "embrace deficiencies and preserve shortcomings right down to her

[China's] extinction" (96). And finally, " Mara" sets forth Lu Xun's vocabulary of nation and national character which he uses extensively in later works during the May Fourth period. Not only does Lu Xun's vocabulary of nation begin to emerge, but his view of the role of the writer as purveyor of the national spirit and literature as tool for reirrvigorating the race and culture of the nation and giving the race its tongue are soundly elaborated. CHAPTER IV

THE TRAJECTORY OF NATIONAL CHARACTER IN LU XUN'S MAY

FOURTH AND POST-MAY FOURTH WRITINGS (1918-1936)

In the last chapter I analyzed five of Lu Xun's late Qing essays and argued that his intricately connected lexicon of evolutionism, nation, and nationalism form the foundations of what would become his critique of national character, culminating in his call for a national poet in an attempt to legitimize the role of the writer as agent for changing in the national character. This was directed toward the grander goal of saving the nation. Lu Xtm exhibited his consciousness of the tension between traditional values and the newly developing materialism of the self-strengtheners, both of which he viewed as fatally flawed

in light of his analysis of the Chinese qtiriL His tentative answer to the crisis of racial and national

annihilation was to urge development of the individual qtiiit and the "qtiiit of science" (an orientation

toward scientific inquiry) as a compliment to the material culture assimilated fiom the West. At the same

time. Lu Xun sought to counteract the extreme aberrations of stagnant old Chinese culture, and the

spiritually and morally vacuous Western material culture. Lu Xun valorized the poet of the nation as a

spiritual warrior who could give spiritual guidance and shape the national character into a form able to

successfully compete in the modem social Darwinistic world. In addition, his late Qing writings

prefigured some flaws in the national character that would reappear in his May Fourth essays and stories,

and finally crystallize in the character of Ah Q.

In this chapter, 1 will first challenge the notion that Lu Xun's analysis of national character changed

with his intellectual transformation to Marxism around 1930. In fact, my discussion throughout Chapters

4 and 5 will draw attention to the language and terms of Lu Xun's critique of national character and show

how ideas of nation and national character fiom Lu Xtm's late Qing essays appear in his stories, essays,

97 98 and prose poetry throughout the May Fourth and leftist periods as a constant theme, transcending the boundaries of both genre and politics, time and target To this end. Section A will present an overview of works that transcend these boundaries which will be discussed in detail in Chapter 5.

After the first section, the rest of the chapter is devoted to delineating how Lu Xun perceived his role in the national character discourse and what he saw as the overarching problems that constituted the general critique of national character. In Section B, 1 will examine Lu Xun's elaboration of his late Qing romantic view of the role of writer as spiritual warrior in order to draw attention to Lu Xun's focus on changing the Chinese "spirit," terminology that is crucial to linking his attack on national character to the general iconoclastic critic of Chinese spiritual culture in the May Fourth. I will also argue that Lu Xun considers himself that spiritual warrior, and I will put forth the idea that as such, he was implicitly offering himself as an example of the new national character that he hoped would replace the old. In

Section C, I will present Lu Xun's own view of his engagement in "national character research" in order to set the stage for my analysis of how his view was constructed in part through the critical reception of

AhQ.

Finally, in Section D, I will discuss how Lu Xun's attack on national essence in "Suiganlu 38" complements his satirical treatment of Confucianism in other works like "True Story," and forms a general critique of "Chinese spiritual culture" (Zhongguo jingshen wenming Moreover,

I will argue that "Suiganlu 38" exhibits Lu Xun's language and thought as he savagely critiques the national characteristic of muddledness (unenlightened lack of clear thinking) and expresses his faith in science as a cure. Each of these four sections serve as background for analysis of the specific aspects of national character that form Lu Xun's "lexicon" of national character which I will analyze in detail in

Chapter 5, and then integrate into the Ah Q discourse discussed in Chapter 6. 99

A. Lu Xun's Consistent Critique of National Character across Genre, Time and Target

In 1945, Xu Shoushang wrote that "Lu Xun's creative works and translations, altogether six million words, are the prescription he has written in remonstrance of the national character" ("Lu Xtm yu guomin xing yanjiu" 50). Can there be such a tmifred vision in Lu Xun's mind or is this merely reading into his oeuvre a concern that was evident in the iconoclastic May Fourth period? How can these works be considered a prescription rather than merely a negative assessment? If they are a prescription, then can this be considered Lu Xtm's contribution to the construction of modem Chinese national character? Even if Lu Xtm's assessment is negative can it be a part of the construction of national character (how does this prescription help us imderstand how national identity and character are constructed)? Is Lu Xtm's criticism of national character consistent throughout his career as a writer and critic? In this section I will briefly analyze the trajectory of the national character discotirse in Lu Xtm's Mty Fourth and post-May

Fourth works to show that his concern with national character and view of it was relatively consistent throughoirt.

First, I want to challenge the recent Marxist critique of Lu Xun's view of national character. From my own observation. Lu Xun's critique of national character can be divided roughly into three periods:

(1 ) the M ^ Fourth iconoclastic period, 1915-1925, when he didn't explicitly use the term "national character" to describe his attack on Confucianism and national essence; (2) a transitional period from

1925 to 1929 when he eq>licitly stated his writing was intended to change the national character, emphasized "slave mentality" as a primary component, and attacked both the "upright gentlemen" of the

Contemporary Review group and his Marxist critics in the Creation Society and Sun Society, and finally

(3) his leftist period from 1930 until his death in 1936, when his critique of national character extended to leftist political opponents in literary circles (as well as the rightist government). This periodization for the most part follows that of Lu Xun's general intellectual transformation presented Leo Ou-fan Lee in

Voices from the Iron House (119). 100

Mainland scholars describe Lu Xun's intellectual transformation with similar periods. However,

some mainland scholars, as Jiang Chao notes in his recent work on Ah Q, assert that Lu Xtm cast aside

his thought of reforming the national character after his embrace of Marxism in the 1930s (52). Jiang

Chao himself doesn't agree, however, and says that Lu Xtm deqtened his analysis of national character with the help of Marxism and the theoiy of historical materialism (52-3). Jiang describes four periods of

Lu Xtm's development of national character critique: from 1902 to the eve of the May Fourth, from the

eve of the M ^ Fourth to 1923, 1923 to 1927, and 1928 to 1936. These periods are reqrectively distinguished by an emphasis on enlightenment idealism, cultural and social critical idealism, initial transformation from idealism to materialism, and the final transformation from evolutionism to the theory of class and from idealism to materialism (Jiang 50-61). While Jiang's book contains valuable information and insights into the historical background of Lu Xun's views of national character, he overstates his assessment of Lu Xun's application of the theory of materialism to national character. This is readily evident tqpon examination of the example he uses to substantiate his claim. Jiang cites a very short letter from Lu Xun to You Bingqi, "Zhi You Bingqi" (1936), in which Lu Xun says national character defects were due in part to the damaged inflicted by foreign nomadic tribes upon Chinese farmers throughout history. Admittedly, Lu Xun was influenced by Marxism in the 1930s, however it appears that merely by virtue of the mention of farmers, Jiang reads Marxist analysis into Lu Xun's comments by way of proof that he used Marxist theory in his analysis of the defects in the national character. In fact, his letter praises Japanese national character and suggests a reason for its difference from the Chinese, as the Japanese historically freed no foreign invaders.’® So whereas Jiang correctly disagreed with other scholars who read Lu Xun's intellectual embrace of Marxism as a repudiation of his prior critique of national character (meaning that anything he wrote after 1930 complied with Marxist

'® Lu Xun noted the influence of foreign incursion on the national character in numerous essays, particularly in terms of his analysis of the problem of slavishness, such as in "Dengxia manbi" and "Kan jing you gan," both written in 1925, well before his supposed conversion to Marxism from 1928-1930. 101 views), he contrives Lu Xun's adherence to the theoiy of materialism in order to read Marxist views into his comments.

Lu Xun's concern with and critique of the national character cuts across boundaries of time, despite his intellectual orientation. Following a decade of virtual silence since the publication of his late Qing essays,*® Lu Xun published "Diary of a Madman," a sturming critique of Confucian ethics generally considered the first piece of truly modem Chinese fiction.*' From this literary "debut" in May 1918 we see a gradual unfolding of his critique of national essence supporters. Moreover, Lu Xun was concerned with the critique of national character firom this first piece all the way up until his death, as by one of his very last articles, "Li ci cun zhao (3)" (Leaving a lasting picture [3]; 1936), when upon his deathbed he says:

Up to today I still hope that somebody will translate Smith's Chinese Characteristics.*^ Read this and self-reflect, analyze, and understand those points that are correct; reform, struggle, malfe work for yourself, don't beg others for apology and approvaL but rather come to prove what is, after afi, a Chinese persoru (620)

Between "Madman" in 1918 and "Leaving a lasting picture (3)" in 1936, Lu Xun's writing consistently contains themes critiquing the Chinese national character. At times he stresses one aspect more than another, such as his criticism of national essence in 1918 and 1919, or his fixation on the issue of slave mentality in a large number of essays around 1925, or his critique of the Doctrine of the Mean in 1933.

But these seem to be within the range of his understanding of national character. His criticism was directed at various opponents and detractors of diSering political stripes, firom the conservative national

*° After returning fiom Japan, Lu Xun was involved in translating fiction, collating works fiom the Tang and Song eras, collating classic works, translating works on education fiom Japanese (particularly children's education), collating Xi Kang's works, researching Buddhist thought, and collecting and copying Han dynasty portraits and Six Dynasty's stone rubbings. In addition, he wrote one piece of fiction and one eulogy poem

*' Reading this work against his essays of the time, 1 will argue that Lu Xun sees Confucian ethics as the fundamental cause of the negative Chinese national character.

** Lydia H. Liu points out that this work had in feet been translated into Chinese in 1903 published by the Zuoxin she in Shanghai, but that Lu Xun apparently didn't read it since he was in Japan at the rimp (53). 102 essence supporters who touted Chinese spiritual culture, to the "liberal" upright gentlemen of the

Contemporary Review during the May Fourth; and from his Marxist critics in the revolutionaiy literature debate in 1928 to his Marxist adversaries in the Two Slogans debate in 1936. Lu Xun's use of the vocabulary of his national character critique against these opponents, particularly the idea of slavishness, is remarkably consistent despite the variety of targets.

Lu Xun's critique of the national character cuts across genre as well as time and target His short stories and prose poems often deal with issues of national character and national essence that compliment his essays; that is, some of the stories can be read as fictionalized critiques and expressions of the inner workings of the negative features of national character that Lu Xun ejq>licitly criticizes in his essays or discusses in letters. Before "True Stoiy," Lu Xun's explicit target of attack was the national essence's

Confucian ideals and the institutional practices which supported them, the so-called "Chinese spiritual culture." This was a way of thinking that Lu Xun saw as perpetuating the cycle of destruction of the

Chinese people. Chinese spiritual culture and its explicit agents, the national essence supporters, were the primary focus of Lu Xun's social and cultural critique in the May Fourth, but eventually amidst the debates and conflicts in literary circles he found the same wzy of thinking in opponents who were not national essence supporters, but who were liberal allies or leftist with whom he had conflicts later in life.

The sickness of national character afflicted even fellow iconoclasts and revolutionaries. So before "True

Story," Lu Xun's critique focused on the champions of national essence and their allegiance to

Confucianism*^ and Chinese spiritual culture, sarcastically portrayed as a "spiritual disease" (jingshen bing # # # ) directly related to the "racial essence"{minzu gertxing ) in "Suiganlu 38." Lu

Xun's works leading up to "True Story" contain many elements of his portrayal of Ah Q, and demonstrate that the character Ah Q was also a critique of the national essence. His early worics written in Japan from

1902-1909, as shown in Chapter 3, demonstrate that he was familiar with the vocabulary of nation and

** Perhaps "Neo-Confuciaitism" would be better used here, as Lu Xtm sometimes refers to this group, but 1 think that using "Confucianism" is probably better since Lu Xun doesn't really seem to differentiate that often. 103 national character and had a clear view of the role of literature and the writer in influencing the national character. Recall that Liang Qichao's New Citizen had clearly delineated some basic national character standards for the new citizen in the late Qing from a negative perspective, as he called for a citizenry which was "not stupid and vulgar (yulou cowardly and weak (qieruo %#§), lacking in organization (hucmgsan [or] muddled Qiunzhuo # # ) " ("Xu lun" 1), Moreover, as I showed in

Chapter 2, discussion of the national character was common in the pages of journals of the May Fourth with which Lu Xun was familiar. Lu Xun clearly demonstrates that before he wrote "True Story" he subscribed to the idea that literature reflects the national character ("Suiganlu 59"). In addition, prior to his declared intent to change the national character in 1925, it is clear that Lu Xun believed in trying to change the national character through his attacks on national essence and Chinese qairitual culture. This is demonstrated by the feet that many of Ah Q's specific characteristics, and characteristics of the other characters in "True Story," were present in Lu Xun's stories predating "True Story." An example of this is the protagonist of "Toufa de gushi" (The story of hair), who tells of how upon his return from Japan he bought a false queue and people on the street called him "Bogus Foreign Devil" (jia yangguizi

•?•), until he started carrying a walking stick with which to beat people who heckled him. This same plot element shows up in "True Story" as Ah Q’s "second humiliation." Ah Q's muddledness is somewhat prefigured by the character Kong Yiji who was unable to understand the cause and effect connection between his crime of stealing and his punishment.

For three years after writing "True Story" Lu Xun maintained the tenor and nature of his critique of

Tiatinnal essence and Chinese spiritual culture in the same mode as the years from 1918-1922. During this three year post-Ah Q stage (from 1922 to 1924), Lu Xun appears distanced from what would become the critical discourse surrounding the work by (perhaps intentionally) not commenting on Ah Q. At the same time, he wrote some of his most important essays that maintain elements of his pre-Ah Q level of satirical critique of the national essence, but which could now be read as national character since the 104

critics had already identified it as siicL For example, in "Nuola zou hou zenyang" (What happens after

Nora leaves?; 1924), Lu Xun elaborates (among other things) on an Ah Q trait - the ability to forget

In late 1924 and early 1925, Lu Xun explicitly acknowledged his engagement in the critique of

national character and the idea that literature should be used as an instrument to reform (gaige)^ or

remold {gaizaof^ the national character. In 1925, Lu Xun demonstrates a new emphasis on "slave

mentality" with woiks like "Lu zhaoxiang zhi lei" (On photography), his nine essay series, "Huran

xiangdao" (It suddenly occurred to me) and the essays "Kan jing you gan" (Feelings tçon looking in/at the

mirror), "Dengxia manbi" (Notes written by lamplight) and "Congming ren he shari he nucai" (Clever

people and fools and slaves). More explicitly, in 1926 he discusses the issue of national character and the

use of literature to try to change it in letters to his future wife, Xu Guangping, "Liang di shu ( 8)," in his

explication of "True Story" and Ah Q's character, in his postscript to the translation of Kuriyagawa

Hakason's Chule xiangva zhi ta. and in one of his diaries, "Mashang zhi riji," where he critiques Smith

and Yasuoka's comments on Chinese national character.

The year 1927 appears to mark the beginning of a transition in Lu Xun's thought and work sparked by the political terror of the Guomindang coup, which caused his move to the relative safety of the foreign, concessions in Shanghai.*® Lu Xun found himself increasingly under attack firom Marxists, such as those in the Sun Society, formed in 1928, who chastised him for being an antiquated obstruction to the revolutiorL By 1930 Lu Xtm had made a conversion to Marxism and become enmeshed in the machinations of the literary debates within the Zuoyi zuojia lia n m e n g (League of left- wing writers), but he still confironted the ideologues with language firom his national character critique.*’

*" See "Liang di shu ( 8)" (45).

*® See "Hou ji" (246).

8 6’ ,Lu Xun says that he was "shocked by the blood in 1927 and left Guangdong" for Shanghai ("Xtryan," Sanxian ii 5).

*^ An example of this is in "Ruma he kongxia jue bushi zhandou" where he criticizes militant writers to a League of Left-Wing Writer's publication for Ah Q style tactics (451). Another is his use of the term "slave" to criticize the "fotu huskies," the leaders of the League of Left-Wing Writers, during the 1936 105

Ah Q and national character were by this time being analyzed and re-analyzed, and wielded as an

instrument of political attack, sometimes on Lu Xtm himself Also during this period the Ah Q discourse

continued to plaj" a role in literary debates as Lu Xun came tmder attack from the Marxists in the Creation

Society and Stm Society who saw Ah Q as dead and Lu Xtm as a relic of a past era. Lu Xtm and his Yusi

group debated Ah Q and Lu Xun's relevance to the contemporary era with the Marxists, and although

insisting that Ah Q was alive and kicking, Lu Xun did eventually embrace a Marxist stance. While he

made it quite clear in "Zhi Wang Qiaonan" (Letter to Wang Qiaonan; 1930), that he believed 'True

Story's" message would be reduced to farce if put on stage, referring to the debate over Ah Q's

contençKjrary relevance from 1928-9, Lu Xun even suggested letting Ah Q "die" in this letter because

there was no actor skilled enough to pull of the act. It ironic that Lu Xun viewed no actor as good enough

to portray Ah Q even though China was a nation of actors. He complains about the national characteristic

of "acting" and being "good at propaganda" in "Xuanchuanyu zuoxi" (Propaganda and acting; 1931),

attacks Confucianism in a number of essays, for example, " Wangdao shihua" (The kingty way and talks

on poetry, 1933), and negatively compares Chinese to Japanese national character in "Cong haîTî de

zhaoxiang shuoqi" (Starting from photographs of children; 1934). In "Shuo 'mianzi'" (Speaking efface";

1934), Lu Xun associates face with the method of spiritual victory, play acting, the Doctrine of the Mean,

the Kingly Way, and "self-deception and deception of others." In 1935 he even supports his student Xiao

Hong in starting the "Slave Society" {Nuli she % # # ) and its associated journal in order to emphasize the condition of Chinese people as "slaves" to warlords and imperialist powers and to call for a revolution to liberate them. While Lu Xun may mention the masses or classes occasionally in these essays, he does not address them in a doctrinaire way, and instead continues on a critique of various aspects of the national character much in the same critical marmer as in the May Fourth period. Moreover, in the 1930s

Two Slogan's debate. In an open letter to Xu Maoyong, after upbraiding them, Lu Xun suggests Xu read his own translation of The Life of Stalin. "Otherwise, with this banner in his grasp, he will feel superior to everybody else and lord it over them like a slave-driver whose sole task is cracking a whip. In that case he will be incurable, not only of no use to China but downright harmful too" (trans. LXSW 4: 300). See Leo Ou-fan Lee for this debate (Voices 182-6). 106

Ah Q's role in the discourse of national character, and what became the Ah Q discourse (how the literary community received and interpreted Ah Q and what they did with him), also became an element of Lu

Xun's national character critique.

Throughout the May Fourth and beyond, Lu Xun seemed to construct a national character based on the negative view of national essence and its biological transmission from generation to generation, in order to e>q)ose and destroy its flaws. What becomes known as Lu Xun's critique of national character started as a critique of national essence, the national essence promotion of Chinese spiritual culture, and developed into the character of Ah Q, the later focus on slave mentality, and the manipulation of the language of national character in his general project to change the Chinese mentality. The term

"reforming the national character" (gorge ) is used by Lu Xun in 1925 to describe what he saw as the second step after overthrowing the Qing Manchus ("Liang di shu [ 8]" 45).

His works show that he thought national character could be affected by literature through exposure of its depravity and 1^' enlightening the reader to science (by which he meant scientific reasoning, rationality, logic and criticism).

Confucian values, national essence and Chinese spiritual culture are not systematically addressed by

Lu Xun in a formalistic, totalizing, philosophical way in arty single ess^. "Tme Story" is perhaps the most comprehensive expression of morbid national character because it is portrayed indirectly through the medium of literature and subsequently becomes a point of departure for this discourse in its own right. I read Lu Xun's works, however, not as a totality or unity representing any one discourse, as Xu Shoushang would have it, but a struggle to shock the Chinese into realization of the fundamental obstacles to national survival and an attempt to participate in and influence the historical contingencies of the discourses of nation, modernity, nationalism, and evolutionism. This implies simultaneous and corrçlex tensions and conflicts between old and new ideas, Confucianism and science, forward-looking progressive utopianism and backward-looking conservative revisionist utopianism, culturalism and nationalism, modernity and tradition Lu Xun's critique of national essence and Chinese qriritual culture and Confucianism, as I will 107 show in Section D of this chapter, eventually becomes defined as his critique of national character, and it becomes so defined within the linguistic constructs of nation that were built iq) and practiced Lu Xun since the late Qing. This critique of national character subsequently lays a foundation for the Ah Q discourse, launched by Lu Xtm but carried on by critics and writers other than Lu Xtm.

B. Spiritual Warriors: Lu Xun's View of the Role of Writer

In the "Preface" to his first collection of short stories, Nahan (Battlecry, 1923), Lu Xtm eqtlains his purpose in abandoning medicine and taking up literature in 1906; "...‘our first priority was to change their spirit (jingshen iff ^ ) and at that time I believed that promoting literature would be good at changing the spirit" (416). In Lu Xun's view, with a spiritual disease (jingshen bing # # # ) ^ which was exhibited by their valorization of the sick Chinese qtiritual culture (jingshen -wenming They manifested their sickness in the "method of spiritual victory" (jingshen shengli fa # # IJ S ) . So it is no wonder that Lu Xun called for the "qjiritual warrior" (jingshenjie de zhanshi poets like Shellej' and Bjron whom he eulogized in "Mara," to try to change their spirit

A May Fourth reiteration of his late Qing view that writers are needed to cure the national spirit is found in "Zheyang de zhanshi" (Such a fighter), written on December 14,1925. This is a prose poem that metaphorically expounds on the desolation of the spiritual warrior fighting for change in the fece of deeply imbedded instimtionalized cultural formations - Chinese spiritual culture. In "Zheyang de zhanshi," Lu Xun describes a situation in which warriors face a "non-material formation" (wuwu zhi zhen

a formation in which "peace" (taiping is the unheard war-cry of the "things non material" {vntwu zhi ). In my analysis, peace is a reference to the last part of the Daxue

Paradigm, "pacify all under Heaven" (ping tianxia ^ ^ ”F). Thus the fighter makes war on the Neo-

Confucian ideology:

^ "Suiganlu 38."

"Suiganlu 38." 108

He walks into the lines of nothingness pL "non-material formation" (vwvra zhi zhen where all that meet him nod to him in the same manner He knows that this nod is a weapon used by the enemy to kill without bloodshed, by which many fighters have perished. Like a caimon-ball, it renders ineffective the strength of the brave, (trans. LXSW 1: 354)

The "non-material formation" is a metaphor for the traditional Confucian ideological formations that the

warrior (in this case the "spiritual warrior" Lu Xun) is trying to kill with his spear (a metaphor for

writing). The warrior repeatedly raises his spear, five times in all throughout this short piece, against this

non-material formation. Although he is continually defeated, in the final line the fighter raises his q)ear

again, with an exclamation mark, thus indicating his intention to persist in his attack on the non-material

formarinn This non-material formation is not only Confucian ideology, but a broader fabric woven of all

elements of Chinese spiritual culture and national essence:

Above their [the enemies'] heads hang all sorts of flags and banners, embroidered with all manner of titles: philanthropist, scholar, writer, elder, youth, dilettante, gentleman (junzi •?•) Beneath are all sorts of surcoats, embroidered with all manner of fine names: scholarship, morality, national culture p i "national essence" (guocui # !|^)], public opinion logic, justice, oriental civilization .... (trans. LXSW 1: 345)

Given the list of people who belong to the non-material formation (the flags) and the corresponding ideas

(surcoats) associated with them, it is remarkable that the target of Lu Xun's attack, as indicated by this poem, is restricted to the educated or intellectual class.®® The workers or peasants are nowhere to be seen in this list. This prose poem echoes Lu Xun's earlier call in "Mara" for poets, "warriors of the spirit," to fight in the struggle to change China's spirii and it also demonstrates how Lu Xun's attack on national character was carried out in not only his essays but also in the prose-poetry geme of his works. The breadth of his attack was indeed all of Chinese high culture, as exhibited here. But how did Lu Xun

conceive of the poet's ability to fight this battle using the weapon of literature? This is most clearly

spelled out in "Lun zhengle yan kan" (On opening the eyes to see; 1925).

®® The "intellectual" in China of the period was anyone who had any formal education, including high school and university, regardless of field of study. 109

Written four month before "Zheyang de zhanshi," the essay "Lun zhengle yan kan" is Lu Xun's clearest ejqpression of how literature, the writer and the national character (here expressed as the national spirit) are related. He perceives literature as an expression of the national character, which needs new ingredients to change itself and in turn to change society. Conversely, he sees that the characteristics of concealment and deceit {mm he pian # % # ) would continue the cycle of production of a literature of concealment and deceit leading to the eventual destruction of society. Lu Xun criticizes the lack of courage of Chinese literati, by complaining of their stooping posture and how th ^ keep their eyes on the ground, both features which were "taught by the sages." Concealment and deceit are said to explicitly prove that the national character is cowardly {qieruo fë if), lazy {landuo ® ‘t^) and cunning {qiaohua I5

^ ) , which results in the devolution of society even as "we imagine we are advancing from glory to glory"

- an operation akin to Ah Q's method of spiritual victory (trans. LXSW 2:202). The way to combat this devolution of society in which literature and writers are complicit agents is to use literature to reveal the conspiracy, and show how it perpetuates the evils of the national character:

Literature is the qjark of fire from the national spirit {guomin jingshen ^ ^ # # ) and the torch that lights our way forward. Literature and the national spirit also act upon each other in the same way as sesame oil and sesame seeds. The oil is pressed from the see^, but the seeds steeped in this oil become more oily. If you want ofl, weU and good; otherwise, you should add other ingredients like water or soda. Because we Chinese have never dared to look life in the face, we have to resort to concealment and deceit {man he pian # % :^ ) ; hence we have produced a literature’^ of concealment and deceit; and with this literature we have sunk more deeply than ever into the quagmire of concealment and deceit, to such an extent that we do not know it ourselves. The world is changing from day to day; it is high time for our writers to take off their masks, look frankly keenly and boldly at life, and write about real flesh and blood. It is high time for a brand-new arena for literature, high time for some bold fighters {xiongmeng de chuangjiang |2(IS8950#) to charge headlong into battle! (trans. LXSW 2: 203)

Lu Xun sees a major flaw in the national character: a vicious, spiraling cycle of concealment and deceit and being unwilling to look life in the face, both of which are perpetuated by the "men of letters" of the day. Finally, concluding this quote he repeats the theme from his late (Jing writings, demonstrating his view of the instrumentality of literature - literature is the instrument by which the national character can

” While LXSW translates this as "hterature," it literally says "zr^'{yishu # ^ ) , thus raising the possibility that Lu Xun was ironically calling "concealment and deceit" an "art." 110 be changed, when he says, "[i]t is high time for our writers to take off their masks, look ffankly, keenly and boldly at life, and write about real flesh and blood. It is high time for a brand-new arena for literature, high time for some bold fighters to charge headlong into battle! " He calls for the wairior-poet:

"Without bold fighters (chuangjiang who will charge clean through our traditional ideas and devices there can be no genuine modem literature in China" (trans. LXSW 2:204). This implies that a literature of truth will lead to truthful behavior on the part of the Chinese. While Lu Xun implies here that literature can change national character, he correqiondingly indicates that this truthful, bold literature would be representative of the new national character - and by extension, the writer would become an example of the new national character. V^th this example we see a concrete expression of how literature may guide the reader to think in terms of a new national character, or imagine it Note that Lu

Xun's exposure of negative aspects of the national character are set within the context of "opening the eyes to see," the title to the essay. Imagining the new national character implies both the step of destroying the

old and adding something - the truth. New national character is thus conceived in terms diametrically

opposed to the old.

C. Lu Xun's National Character Research

Many of Lu Xun's essays are satirical and ironical pieces which ejqx)se the hypocrisy and weakness of

the national character and attack the national essence by citing qiecific defects. Lu Xun siçplemented his

satire with straightforward pieces that express the sincerity of his concern with the issue of reforming the

national character. The first of these is a letter to his future common law wife, Xu Guangping, written in

March of 1925. Lu Xun writes that after the 1911 Revolution he had high hopes for China, but following

the feilure of the second revolution of July 1913, China's pohtical situation got worse, and continued to

worsen tmtil reaching its present condition (44). Lu Xun qualifies his earlier hope with realistic

hindsight:

Actually, the worsening of the situation isn't new. It is just that the newly painted facade has flaked off, and the same old form has come out agairr How can making slaves run the government look good? The first revolution was to expel the Manchus and it was easily I l l

achieved. The second reform necessitated the people reforming their own evil base character (guomin gaige ziji de huai genxing Ê 2 % # # % ) , but they were unwilling. So, from there the most important thing is reforming the national character (gaige guomin xing ), otherwise no matter if there is autocracy, a republic, or whatever, although the label is changed the goods are the same old ones and none will do. However, in this kind of reform there is really "nowhere to start" (ww cong cuoshou ^ ) . In addition, it is extraordinarity difScult just to improve the "political appearances" a little. In China there are two types of "isms" that are active whose exterrral appearance are quite new, however, in my research of their spirit (jingshen # # ), they are still the same old thing ” ("Liang di shu [ 8]" 44-5)

Here we see Lu Xun's first direct explanation of what must be done, in his mind, to successfully reform the government - reform the national character.” Reform of the institution or system of government is thus secondary at best Lu Xun admits the difficulty of this task, and he defines his own observations of this kind of spirit as "research" (yanjiu - which is research into the spirit of the new "isms." Lu

Xun's "research" concludes, however, that the new "isms" are just the "same old thing" - i.e. the same old national essence. Lu Xun goes on to critique the general political situation, pointing out the hypocrisy of infighting among the universalists, and the need for bcxfyguards among the anarchists, while saying that the bandits only know carrying guns. The basic motivation of all these groups is really only "get rich- ism" (facai zhuyi and the mihtary merely sits on the fence (qiqiang ^ # ) . His response is to say that he only hopes they will enlighten and improve themselves, and all he can do is write and attack the "so-called entrenched old culture" (genshen digu de suowei jiu wenming with only a one in a million hope of success of influencing the future. After eight years of satirical criticism, Lu Xun cogently summed up how he thinks he can influence change in the national character as a writer. We also get a sense that he regards his activity as "research" into national essence and national character, the spirit of the times. Although all the pieces of his view of national essence and national character were present in his earlier essays and stories, this is the first time he ties them together in a

"political" and social mission, as it were.

” Lu Xun is referring to "universalism" and "anarchism," both of which he says are really just "get rich-ism," another way of saying "opportunism" (45).

” Note that this echoes Zhou Zuoren's 1922 assertion in his article, "A Q zhengzhuan", which I wifi discuss in Chapter 6 , that Lu Xun's aim in writing "Tme Story" was to defeat the Ah Q type. 112

In '"Guanzhao xiangle de shenghuo' Yizhe fuji" (Translator's postscript to "Observing a happy life";

1924), written for a chapter of Kuriyagawa Hakason's Chule xiangva zhi ta. Lu Xun suggested that readers use his translation of Kuri^gawa's work as a tool for reflection on the Chinese national character:®"

The author's method of ferocious attack of the shortcomings of his nation is truly a thunderclap strike (pili shou And probably because this nation [Japan] is likewise part of Asia, the situation lookssimilaT in the main I often feel the weaknesses he snipes at are also weaknesses of China's painful sickness. This is really worth borrowing and reflecting deeply on.®® (252)

Lu Xun also wrote "Chule xiangva zhi ta hou ji" (Epilogue to Leaving the ivorv tower), an epilogue to this work in which he addresses Kur^agawa's ideas on national character. About the book in general, and the idea of social criticism, Lu Xun says that such a social critic as Kuriyagawa wouldn't easily survive in

China (244), explaining that without a lot of old cultural baggage, Japan can easily adapt and survive.

However, he notes that some Japanese characteristics criticized Kuriyagawa are also applicable to

China:

The author points out many features that makes one suspect he is speaking of China: lukewarmness{wehven % ^ ) , middle-of-the-roadness {zhongdao cfiol), conçromising {tuoxie § f ô ) , felseness ( x u j i a ^ ^ ) , stinginess {xiaoqi /j\# ) , self-aggrandizing (pda g ÿ^), conservative (baoshou #4§=) and other assorted wsys of the world. All these things, from the spirit to the flesh, especially doing things with mediocrity, without any basic strength, stem from the dark soul of life. If all these things weren't passed on our China, then its just that all the people from Eastern cultures are like this. Just like the saying, "comparing nice flowers with beautiful women isn't only a Chinese concq)t; Westerners and Indians also have the same concept." But we don't have to discuss the origins. The author believes this is a serious illness, and after examining it, has written a prescription for it, and in China which has the same illness, we really can supply the prescription for the reference of our young boys and girls, and just like quinine, th ^ can both cure the Japanese malaria and also be able to do the same for the Chinese. (246)

Most interesting is Lu Xun's comments on the May Fourth and national character:

®" Kuriyagawa's work has a section titled "Gaizao yu guominxing" (% ^#% S S 'S Reform and national character), a theme in which Lu Xun was deeply interested and which perhaps influenced his thoughts on national character as he translated it.

®® This is Lu Xun's earliest direct reference that I can find to indicate a general interest in "research" of national character, per se, given that the idea that such "research" indicates more than a critique but also an active investigation into the subject, such as comparing Japanese and Chinese national character. 113

As for Chinese reform, the first is naturally to sweep clean the waste and create momentum to give birth to a new life. The May Fourth movement was basicalty the start, but unfortunately there were too many things inçeding it Our people were mostfy lukewarm in their criticism and merely spouted off a bit. It was foreigners who regarded the May Fourth as rather significant at first, but there were also those who attacked it, and it is said that it didn't accord with national character and history, so it had no value. For the most part this is the same nonsense the majority of Chinese spoke about it because they weren't reformers either. Wasn't this reform? History is a bygone relic and the national character can be remolded in the future (guomin xing ke gaizao yu jianglai In the view of the reformers, the things of the past and present are conq>letely irrelevant. This book contains such kind of thought (243-6)

Here we see Lu Xun use the formulation "remold the national character," an expression similar to the one he used a few months later in his most direct explanation on the topic made in "Liang di shu ( 8)" quoted above.®® He also assigns that task to the May Fourth, but ejqrlains that by virtue of the fact that the practice of criticism didn't accord with the Chinese national character, it was rejected. This is a catch-22 that prevents the reform of national character, and the reason the negative aspects of the national character must be ejqjosed first, before a new one could be imagined: because the national character impeded recognition of its own morbidity.

Despite these references to research of the spirit of the times, 1926 was the year Lu Xun began to frame the issue of reforming the national character as "research" in his writings (this does not preclude the possibility that he talked about it as research much earlier, as Xu Shoushang reported in his reminiscences). The term research implies that Lu Xtm was using a "scientific" method to examine the

Chinese people in his search for a solution to the problems of national character. In late June and July of

1926, shortly before making the decision to go to teach in Xiamen, Lu Xun wrote a number of diary-like articles recording spirr of the moment responses to thoughts or letters titled "Mashang riji" (Spontaneoirs diary) and "Mashang zhi riji" (Spontaneous branch diary). In "Mashang zhi riji," 2 July 1926, Lu Xun relates how he came to purchase Yasuoka Hideo's Shosetsu kara mita Shina no minzokusei (China's national character as seen firom its fiction; Tolyo, 1926). In commenting on Yasuoka's work, and its debt

®® Recall that it was noted in "Xrn gingnian zazhi" fNewvouth magazine), a review of New Youth written by a reporter at New Tide and published in February of 1919, that one of the "isms" of New Youth was to "remold national thought (eaizao zuomin sixiang g .^ # 1 " (7). Perhaps Lu Xun took his formulation of remolding the national character fiom here? 114 to Arthur Smith's 1894 book, Chinese Characteristics and its Japanese translation,®’ Lu Xun records these impressions:

He [Yasuoka] appears to really believe Smith's Chinese Characteristics, often quoting it as encyclopedic proof. The first chapter is Smith saying that he believes the Chinese are a race that has a rather theatrical style (zaoxz qiwei and a slightly overbearing spirit - every word and sentence, every movement of hand and foot, all are theatrical. Those actions which come from the heart are few while those which are artificial are maity. AJl in aft, "fece" (fimian ^ 0 ) composes the unifying crux of China's important national character (guomin xing). (326)

Lu Xun lists Yasuoka's table of contents andindicates his concurrence with the items by saying first that i ^ n seeing it he "could not help breaking into a sweat," and second that "p aten tly we Chinese have not paid much attention to it":

Mr. Yasuoka says most politely in his introduction, "The Chinese are not the only people like this. There are Japanese of this type, too, I am afraid." But when he goes on, "Seeing how strong and wide^read these habits are in China, we need not scnq)le to call them Chinese characteristics," as a Chinese I cannot help breaking into a sweat One glance at the table of contents wiU show you why:

I General Remarks n Undue Enq)hasis on "Face" and Appearances m Fatalism and Resignation IV Patience and Endurance V Cruelty and Lack of Synçathy VI Selfishness and Servility v n Miserliness and Greed Vm A Passion for Empty Conventions and Ceremonies IX Extreme Superstition X Licentiousness and General Lechery

Mr. Yasuoka seems to have great confidence in Smith's Chinese Characteristics, judging by the number of times he quotes it. This book was translated into Japanese twenty years ago, but apparently we Chinese have not paid much attention to it" (trans. LXSW 2: 284-5)

Lu Xun implies that if the Chinese had indeed paid heed to Smith's book, at least in Japanese translation, they would have changed the Chinese characteristics that Smith notes, and Yasuoka would not have needed to follow him so closely. In a recent comparison of Smith's book with Lu Xun’s various essays,

Zhang Mengyang asserts that Lu Xun "conscientiously read" Chinese Characteristics when he was

” This is the earliest reference to Smith in Lu Xun's works, but Lu Xun possibly encountered him in Japan, because he notes that the Japanese had a translation of Chinese Characteristics twenty years earlier. 115 studying in Japan during the late Qing (213). While parts of his argument overstate his case,®* I agree

•with Zhang's assessment that Lu Xun was influenced by Smith, though there is only inferential evidence that he read Smith's work during the late Qing. However, at the same time I disagree with Lydia H. Liu who also overstates the importance of Smith's work to Lu Xun's formulation ofnatinnal character, saying,

"On the basis of an earlier Japanese translation of the Smith book, he 'translated' the missionary theory of

Chinese character into his own literary practice and became the foremost architect of modem Chinese fiction" (60). The discussion of Lu Xun's influences is much more complex than Liu portrays. In

Chapter 2 ,1 presented the general milieu in which Lu Xun was writing, and pointed out the general discourse of national character that was prevalent at the time from the essays of Liang Qichao's New

Citizen to the pages of New Youth. Recall that more than fifteen years before Lu Xun became an active participant in the May Fourth movement, Liang Qichao was calling for reformers to analyze, reflect on, and act on the national character in China;

But we reformers {qufazhe %%&#) know ourselves. Observe the weaknesses of that race and the prosperity and strength of this race, and self-reflect (zixmg g ^ ) on them! What are the differences between otu national character (yvu guomin zhi xingzhi and that of the declining and weak [nations], and that of the flourishing and strong [nations]? What are the general defects {quexian ® ^^) in it? What are the specific weaknesses {boruo ^ f | ) in it? Investigate (Aom # ) them one by one. Examine (/zoR # ) one by one. Change (gm % ) them one by one, and repair {bu ) them one by one. And doing this a new citizen {xin guomin can be formed. Now, if you please, I will take this outline and particulars of the self-renewal (zixin g ff) of our citizen, divide and analyze, and in the next section discuss it in detail. (Jiu yousheng 12)

®* For example, Zhang points to Smith's Chapter 8, "The Talent for Indirection," and translates "indirection" as "concealment and deceit" (man he pian # # ] ^ ) , apparently working backward from Lu Xun's use of these epitaphs in "Ltm zhengle yan kan." Compare Smith's sentence, "It is a trait which the Chinese share with the rest of the race, to which to keep back bad news as long as possible, and to communicate it m a disguised shape" ( 68 ), with Zhang's translation, "The Chinese are 'good at concealment and deceit, th ^ mostly hope to conceal bad news as fer as possible, and report the situation falsely (Zhongguoren 'shanchang man he pian, tamen daduo xiwangjin kenengyinman huai xiaoxi, baigaojiaqingkuang'à^MK “ ” )" (210). Smith's original is not nearly as offensive as Zhang makes out in this particular quote, nor are Smith's comments on Chinese character nearly as caustic as Lu Xun's. 116

While Liang and Chen Duxiu's discussions may have been influenced fay Smith, given that Liang Qichao cited the Western sources of the national character discourse, including Rousseau and Herder, Liang probably had much greater influence on Lu Xun's thought than Smith’s work.®®

Departing from his analysis of Yasuoka and Smith, Lu Xun takes the opportunity to attadk the champions of national essence, theretty adding his own analysis to that of the two foreigners by pointing to their aberrant play-acting;

In generaL I've never believed the bitter crying and tears of the types of national essence supporters (guocui jia and moralists (daode Jia were from the heart. Even if the tears are definitely pouring from the comers of their eyes, you must inspect their handkerchiefs for hot pepper juice or green ginger juice. In their hearts do they truly believe in preserving the national culture (guogu g % ) , rejuvenating morality, maintaining truth, and recdtying studies? Once acting {zuoxi the swagger on stage is generally not the same as the J^e offstage. Yet, although the audience is clearly aware of the act, if one pltys it well thty win still be able to be sad or happy about it, and so the act will continue; whoever uncovers the act win be thought of as a spoil sport, (my translation, 327)

Not only is acting an accepted and acknowledged behavior, as Lu Xun points out here, there is tacit agreement that the players win not expose the act (lest they be censured as a spoü-sport). In the next diary entry, July 4,1926, Lu Xun continues to discuss the issue of national character and Yasuoka's book.

He takes up where Yasuoka left off and provides an Ah Q-like example of the trumped rp view of Chinese food held by his countrymen: "Recently I've heard our countrymen and foreigners praising Chinese

cuisine. Thty say how appetizing it is, how healthy, and that it is the Number One food in the world and the Number-N food in the universe" (329-30). However, Lu Xun asserts this refers only to food eaten by

some upper-class Chinese. In his usually sardonic manner he reverses the logic to counter the idea: "I've

always felt that we can't say Chinese food is the best because they [the rpper class] eat this way. That

®® I have yet to establish if Liang read Smith. But besides Smith, those influences on Lu Xun included Liang, a wide variety of journals from the late Qing through New Youth, and Lu Xun's own ptychological reaction to being a foreign student in Japan at the time. The temporality of Smith's translation is prominent in Liu's anatysis, but Pan Guangdan, the translator who pubüshed Smith's work in 1937, had also translated Ellsworth Huntington's The Character of Races in 1928. This work includes four chapters on China (Huntington was also a missionary there). Lu Xun knew of Pan and, in feet, his little brother, Zhou Jianren, wrote an essty on eugenics in 1923 that was included as an appendix for Pan's fust collection of essays on eugenics published in 1930. 117 would be like asserting that although last year two or three 'high-class Chinese' emerged, all the rest are

'low-class'" (330).’°° Although Lu Xun takes issue with some of Yasuoka's conclusions,’®’ he supports the idea that the national character is a good topic of stuefy; "But clearing this point [regarding the shape of bamboo shoots] is certainly not sufBcient to prove that the Chinese are a moral citizenry. If a conclusion is desired we must still expend a lot of time to get one. But the Chinese perversely are unwilling to study themselves" (my trans. 331). Lu Xun refers to the Chinese unwillingness for self stiufy again nearing the conclusion of this piece: "The Chinese are always unwilling to study themselves.

Looking at national character from fiction is a good topic" (332).

In the year and a half from late 1924 through 1926, Lu Xun's essays, letters and diaries discussed in this section demonstrate that he finally began to discuss the issue of national character directly. He notes the similarity between some negative features of the Japanese and Chinese national character referring to

Kuriyagawa's book, but indicates that a Chinese critic along the lines of Kuriyagawa wouldn't easily survive in China. This indirect comment on the Chinese political situation was directly reinforced when he tied the issue of national character to the abysmal political situation in letters to Xu Guangping in which he insists, albeit pessimisticalty, on the need to reform it Finally, in one of his diaries he critiques

Yasuoka's analysis of Chinese national character indicating his general concurrence, laments the unwillingness of the Chinese to study themselves, and lauds the study of national character from the perspective of fictiort Thus, by 1926 he undoubtedly considers himself to be involved in the research of national character.

’ °° This reversal of logic used to refute the ideas of his opponents is a hallmark of Lu Xun's essay technique, and probably marksthe humor that gave birth to the character of Ah Q.

’°’ Lu Xun also addresses Yasuoka's assertion that some foods, like bamboo shoots, are valued for their phallic shape, saying that he never had an inkling of the shape connection in more than a decade eating them (330-1). 118

D. National Essence Muddledness and the Cure of Science

Lu Xun's critique of "national character," a term applied by critics beginning with the reception of Ah

Q and "True Story," is present in works eqx)sing Chinese mentality long before Ah Q's appearance. In

1925 he stated explicitly that since the 1911 Revolution the "most important thing was to reform the national character," and he commented on his own role towards this end;

I have no fists or courage and there is really nothing I can do. The only thing in my hand is pen and ink, and all I can do is write this kind of trivial letter. But I still will attack the entrenched, so-called old culture (genshen digu de suowei jiu wenming and make public its wavering in hopes that in the future there will be a smidgen of hope. ("Liang di Shu [8]" 45)

In the following letter to Xu Guangping, "Liang di shu (9)," Lu Xun again pledges to continue to attack the root ailments (pinggen # # ) of short-sightedness, cowardliness and greed. In this section I will investigate Lu Xun's general perception of the national character in order to set the stage for a detailed analysis in Chapter 5. Lu Xun saw the Chinese mentality as muddled by unscientific logic and reasoning perpetuated biologically through the valorization of Chinese "spiritual culture" or "spiritual civilization," which for the most part meant the moral and ethical doctrines of Confucianism and championed by

Confucian siçporters of the national essence. Lu Xun's critique was informed by the theories of evolution as well as his study of science and his own observation and reflection on society. He often took a piecemeal approach in his various attacks on aspects of the Chinese mentality, but their common denominator was scientific logic and reasoning, in contrast with what he saw as the muddled (illogical or unscientific) thought of the advocates of national essence. For example, in "Suiganlu 33" Lu Xun vitriolicly attacked the Confiicians as critics of science:

Now there is a group of people who like to speak damned lies (guihua ^ # § ), who hate science because science can make theory understandable, enable people to think clearly, and not allow them to fool around (guihun ). Therefore, quite naturally, it becomes the enemy of the people who speak damned lies (guihua ^ |§ ) . Thus, the people who speak damned lies (guihua want to think of a way to eliminate it (298) 119

Actually, since China's so-called reformation (weixin where is there really aiQ^ science? All the Confucian princes {nidao zhugong now directly place all the blame for the historical nnresolved evils of men on science. They dont adc what morality is, or what science is, but just talk nonsense creating rumors and causing problems. This makes the people of our country especially deluded, as society is engulfed in an air of evil (301)

Lu Xun dqjicts the Confiicians as fools and liars, imclear thinkers who just want to fool aroimd, and subsequently compound the nation's problems by their nonsense. They caused even greater trouble

(daoluan #@L), according to Lu Xun, when they try to use science without understanding it, and come up with ideas like the "qiirit (jingshen if f # ) can remold the flesh" to misinterpret the discovery of germs as rqjudiation of the discovery of germs by the discoverer (298).

Lu Xun's call for science as the cure for muddledness, the disease of the mind that afflicts the national essence supporters, is presented succinctly in "Suiganlu 38," which I will discuss her in more detail. He classifies the national essence supporters by five types of "patriotic self-aggrandizement," dividing the arguments th ^ use to defend the country as follows:

1) "China is a vast land of great material abundance, the first to be civilized; it is first in the world in morality."

2) "Although foreign material civilization is advanced, Chinese spiritual civilization {Zhongguo jingshen yvenming is far superior."

3) "AU things foreign existed first in China: this particular science or that philosophical precept, for exartçle." (These last two schools of though are branches of the larger Ancient- Modern Chinese-Foreign School, which foUow Zhang Zhidong's "Chinese learning for the essence. Western learning for practical matters".)

4) "Foreign countries have beggars too." Or alternatively: "Th^, too, have mud and huts, prostitutes, and bedbugs." (This being a negative argument)

5) "China is better off with barbarisnt" O r "So you say Chinese thought is muddled (sixiang hvnluan fine, but it is the crystallization of the enduring efforts of our race. It has been muddled since the ancestors and wiU continue to be muddled down through our descendants, muddled from the past to the future.... We are four hundred million strong, can we be armihilated"? (This is a level deeper than the fourth category, instead of dragging others down with us, it revels in our own ugliness....), (trans. Denton 90-1)

It is not clear to me whether he means the Hundred Days Reform of 1898 or the 1911 Revolution here, but the language comes from Japan's Meiji Restoration (weixin), which probably means he is referring to the 1898 reforms. 120

For the sake of abbreviation, IH call these five national essence types by the labels, "Nmnber One-ism,"

"Chinese Spiritual Cultuialism," "First-ism," "No-Worse-ism," and "Muddled-ism." Lu Xun's criticism of these concepts appears repeatedly in the form of anecdotes and examples in his later essays, and takes literary form in "True Story." Lu Xun considers all these arguments to be muddled, "fimdamentally alike," informed by the principle that "Nothing the ancients (garew ’È'A ) ever said or did was wrong"

(90). But it is the fifth argument that is most muddled. These characteristics, particularly muddledness

(sixiang hunluan arehereditary, according to Lu Xun, passed down from generation to generation in an evolutionary process he explains by citing Gustave le Bon on the operation of evolution in shaping the national character:’®^

The patriotism of category five [muddled-ism] is the last to make an appearance and most disappoints me when I hear it, not only because its intentions are awful, but because it comes closest to the truth. Muddle-headed ancestors raise muddle-headed descendants, (hunluan de zuxian, yangchu hunluan de zisun this is a principle of heredity. Once the racial essence (minzu genxing has been created, for good or for bad, changes are difficult to come by. In his Lois psvcholomoues de l'évolution des peuples, the Frenchman Gustave le Bon says (I present the gist of the original wording, which I have forgotten); "Our every movement and action, though it may appear to be self-motivated, is in fact restrained by the ghosts of the dead In sheer numbers, the living today are no match for the ghosts of their ancestors, (trans. Denton 91)

Though le Bon would argue that a nation's mental constitution is as "unvarying" as a race's anatomical constitution (Sun, "Social Psychology" 241), and Lu Xun recognizes that "change is difficult to come by," he specifically has hope for changing the inherited national p^chology through science, saying: "We have discovered a 606 medicine to cure syphilis of the bodfy. I hope that there is also a 707 to cure the disease of the mind. Indeed, this medicine has already been discovered, and it is science" (trans. Denton

92). I want to emphasize that Lu Xun saw science as a cure for the disease of the "mind" as distinguished from the seK-strengtheners who appropriated Western science and technology for nation-building using the first four of these five arguments above as justificatiorL The science to which Lu Xun refers is not manifested materially, but intellectually and spiritually, exhibited both by his call for and his use of

103For- a discussion of le Bon's ideas in China, see Lung-kee Sun, "Social Psychology in the Late Qing Period." 121 logical, rational, and calculating approach to problems feeing the nation, and his appropriation of the theory of evolution as an explanatory principle for the state of China's physical and mental well-being/

1. Muddledness

"Suiganlu 38" establishes Lu Xun's view that muddledness perpetuates the Confucian ideology through hereditary transmission. In this sense, muddledness is a fundamental characteristic informing all of Chinese spiritual culture promoted by the National Essence group. Here I will examine the language

Lu Xun uses to discuss muddledness. In this essay Lu Xun also used the terms "collective self- aggrandizement" Qiequn de zida and "patriotic self-aggrandizement" (aiguo de z/Vfa g g

69 Ê to describe the national essence {guocui ^ Jjsf ) supporters. They fundamentally rety on the

"ancients" {guren "è" A ) as the source of all truth, and the National Essence siçporters promote "Chinese spiritual culture"{Zhongguo jingshen v/enming cju # # # ; $ [ % ) as the principle manifestation of value, the "first in the world in morahty" {daode tianxia diyi ^ —). The "muddled people" {hunluan de ren #@ L69A) are "Neo-Confucians"{rusheng imÊ.) as weU as "Daoists" fild r) and "actors" {xizi

Lu Xun's essays and works often use the terms muddledness, self-aggrandizement, the ancients, and references to Chinese spiritual culture to attack his marty targets, but muddledness is seemingly used with a greater firequency than any other.

Because in Lu Xun's view muddledness informed the Confucian (and Daoist) thought upon which

Chinese culture is based, it is primary to his critique of national essence and character. Accordingly, muddledness resulted in the enslavement, or slave mentality of the Chinese people at numerous periods in its history, and resulted in the stagnation of the Chinese spirit leaving the Chinese unprepared to meet the challenges of foreign nations. Recall that in the introduction to New Citizen Liang Qichao included

Lu Xun's solution was not the most radical May Fourth proposal to cure the mental illness ingrained by the thought of Confucianism and Daoism. Qian Xuantong and Chen Duxiu went so fer as to advocate eliminating the Chinese system of writing and promoting Esperanto in order to get rid of the ingrained thought of Confucianism and Daoism. If this was achieved it would have hterally changed the terms of the discourse - the language. 122

"muddled" Qmnzhuo # ^ ) a s one of the characteristics that a citizenry must not have in order for the nation to be established (1). In his late Qing essays. Lu Xun also engrossed his concern with muddledness. In "Aberrations" he emphasized the spirit and the individucd in order to overcome superstition and muddledness and save the nation (99). In numerous May Fourth essays Lu Xun continues to attack this characteristic, for example, his counter-attack on the national essence in "Cum tie" (An inch of iron; 1919):

Spreading rumors, telling lies, framing people, and doing injury, these are all part of China's national essence {dazong guocui Examples of this are quite numerous since ancient times, though works of evil influence have all been wiped out Unworthy descendants haven’t been enlightened, but rather publish many of these [works]. I dont know if after theyVe written them whether they themselves realize their worthlessness. If th ^ realize it, this is truly pitifully depraved Qiede kelian # ) . If they dont realize it, this is also truly alarmingly muddled Qiundekepa^^'o^^). (84)

Lu Xun's use of "muddled"Qiun # ) here is not exactly the same terminology as in "Aberrations," but his theme is consistent as this passage from "(Dun tie" shows: "Those who are first to realization have historically been oppressed, squeezed out, entrapped, exiled and massacred by treacherous villains and the muddled masses. China is exceptionally brutal [in this regard]" (84).

The contrast between rationality and muddledness is noted in other essays as well. Shortly before writing "True Story," Lu Xun wrote "Zhishi ji zui'e" (Knowledge is a sin; 1921), in which the narrator has a dream where he dies and goes to hell for the sin of knowledge, the only cure of which is muddledness

Qiun # ; 371). Given the temporal proximity of its writing to "True Story," this idea of muddledness connects the national essence champions to Ah Q and his muddledness. This explains how Lu Xun can conceive of the idea that science can cure the national character - science focuses on knowledge rather than history or tradition as a value.

Lu Xun saw national character as a function not only of literature and the spirit of the writer, but also as a fimction of the legacy of ofidcial history and customs passed down through time. "History" was perverted by the historian, being merely a record of the deeds of the victors of various battles and an erasure of any record of ideas explaining events, as described in "Suiganlu 59," and discussed in 123

subsection 2 below. At the end of 1925 Lu Xun wrote "Zheige yu neige" (This and that), in which he

continues his discussion of the relationship between history and the national character. Lu Xun says he

still hasn't seen any improvement since the fell of the ()ing dynasty:

Ifistorical books in the first place are account books of the past {chen zhang bu and have nothing to do with radical warriors {jijin de mengshi And as I've said before, if we're still unable to forget our debt to intonation, we can page through [history books] and know how miraculously similar the situation of those days is to now, and how the muddled, absurd, and confused thou^ts Qmtu sixiang of tiie present were alreatfy experienced in the past And know how it was all screwed tq). (139)

As he expHcitly states, the problem of muddledness lies in the national character which, in historical

imitation of the past, repeats itself and works its way into custom:

In sum: reading histoiy better enables one to come to the realization that China's reform must not be slackened. Although it is the national character {guomin xing # g % ) , what must be reformed must be reformed {gaige % ^ ) , otherwise what's written in the miscellaneous histories and swings are the precursor of things to come. Once reformed, it isnt necessary to fear that the granddaughters will imitate their grandmothers in those things, for example, if the grandmother's foot is triangular, and her gait is a difficult, the little girl has natural feet and can run like the wind.... (139)

Here is a concrete example of how Lu Xun saw the analysis of history of national character to be

constructive to the Chinese national character: concrete changes in customs would allow the girk to be

fieed fiom the handicap of tradition (i.e. bound feet). In an evolutionary fiumework. Lu Xun has again

analyzed the effect of historical legacy on the national mentality. The muddled, absurd and confused thoughts {hunwangjudong, hutu sixiang > & § # ,# # ) are continued out of respect for the past. These thoughts concretely translate into the physical handicapping of at least one groiç of people,

women, in the form of foot-binding. Lu Xun perceived history as the vehicle of transmission of the

aberrant national character in large part because the history books are written by the victors and leave out

the complexity of cause and effect and ideas.

The madman in "Kuangren riji" refers to having stepped on the "account books of the past" {chennian liushui buzi as a reason that Mr. Antiquity {Gujiu xiansheng ^ ^ ^ ^ ) was upset with him, accoimting for his perceived persecution (LXOJ 1:422). 124

2. Science as a Cure

By "science" as a cure for the mentality of the Chinese people. Lu Xun does not mean the material reforms popularly promoted by the self-strengtheners, but rather the orientation toward critical, logical and rational thinking that informs scientific ideas and their application, and towards critical thinlHng in general of which his essays are an example. In "Suiganlu 59: 'sheng wu'" (Impromptu reflections no. 59: sagacious and martial; 1919), he laments that the few ideologies and ideas that find their way into rhina firom abroad in translations are warped btyond recognition to the point that the Chinese reader and critic either misunderstands them or carmot understand them:

I think our China is neither a place that can produce new ideologies (zhuyi nor a place that can tolerate new ideologies. Even if there are occasionally a few thoughts from abroad, they immediately change in appearance. Furthermore, many commentators will use it [the foreign idea] to attain feme. We only need to pay attention to the prefeces and postscripts of translations, as well as all kinds of critical discussions of foreign aflfeirs, and we will find that there are surely a few kinds of iron walls between our thought and other peoples' thongbt (sixiang .^ 0 ) . They speak about femily problems and we think they are advocating a war, they write about social inadequacies and we say they are telling jokes; what they think is good we say is evil. Again, if we attentively look at the national literature and national character (guomin xingge of other nations, and again page through a critical biogr^hy of the man of letters, we can even more so understand that the tenq)erament (xingqing and thnnghtc written by the authors of other nations are almost completely lacking in China. Therefore we cannot understand, carmot sympathize, and carmot be influenced by them; even to the extent that our sense of right and wrong, love and hate, unavoidably reach an opposite end. ( 35 3 )

This citation indicates Lu Xun's femiliarity with the May Fourth currency of natinnal character. His exaggeration of the lack of influence of foreign thoughts on China must be taken in the context that the

May Fourth was just reaching its height of iconoclastic activity and he wished to get his readers to open tq) to foreign ideas. Asking why the Chinese cannot understand ideas and ideologies. Lu Xun answers that they don't have a scientific/mathematical historical memory for detail: "because of the historical settling of accounts, [the Chinese] are not able to be detailed as in mathematics, where numerous small amounts are recorded, but rather are only able to use the techniques of unrefined people who round ofiFand

Except for "Suiganlu 38," where Lu Xun refers to problems of racial essence (minzu genxing), a word I also translate as "national character," this is the first time in the May Fourth period that Lu Xun refers to national character (guomin xing § ë l É ) in these exact terms. 125

record a whole number" (354). This results, says Lu Xun, in the "lack ofany thoughts or ideologies in

the 'whole numbered' Chinese history" (354), Subsequent^, there only being two things, swords and fire,

what Lu Xun also calls the "martial and sagacious," which are recorded. These kinds of "histories without

any ideas," are histories of "sword and fire," séys Lu Xun, sarcastically calling them histories of "th^'re

here" (/ai/e ^T), which only transmit the "highest ideaL" the "satisfying the purefy' animal nature"

(shouxing 354). The only solution is to resist the mentality of "they're here." But who is to resist

this mentality? Lu Xun asserts that those who will resist are the believers of ideology (zhuyi ^ # ) "who

will sacrifice everything else for the ideology," including their lives (355). In an allusion to the new

ideologies coming into China, he concludes that the light of a new century is in the sky: "but if we dont

raise our heads, we will eternally only be able to see the glitter of material wealth" (355).^°’ "Raising our

heads" is a metzqrhor for enlightenment, or waking up to the new possibilities, which contrast to the

cowardice of Chinese men of letters whose stooping posture and lowered eyes were both features "taught by the sages," as Lu Xun told us later in "Lun zhengle yan kan." The new ideologies would ostensibly

change the Chinese view of history to include the details of thoughts and ideas which Lu Xun sees as

imparting a scientific view of life.

Lu Xun's scientific view of the world is fifamed in terms of evolutionism and social Darwinism,

exhibited most cogently in a piece attacking the Confucian hierarchical practice of valorizing the old and discounting the young, "Women xianzai zenyang zuo fuqin" (What is required of us as fethers today, OcL

1919). In this essay. Lu Xun discusses of the principles of evolution and, out of a great concern that the

Chinese race will be exterminated in the Darwinian struggle for survival, he argues that the Chinese must

change in order to preserve, propagate and improve life. This work represents an exposition of Lu Xun's views of the relationship between human society and the scientific principles of evolution - social

This is a repetition of his criticism of Western material culture being adopted by China in his late Qing work, "Aberrations." 126

Darwinism. Lu Xun is firm in his belief that human behavior must change in order to preserve, propagate

and improve life, and this is what is required of fethers today:

What strikes me as sound at the moment is something extremely simple. That is, judging by the anim al world, OUT first duty is to preserve life, our second to propagate it, our third to improve it (in other words, evolution). All hving creatures behave in this way, and fethers should be no exception, (trans. LXSW 2: 58)

Consequently, Lu Xun attacks the logic (or illogic) of the Confucian way of thinking in which the young

are sacrificed for the old, calling it contrary to natural evolution and the reason "our people's strength has

been sapped and society has come to a standstill" (60), and asserting that this is the road to ruin. He

would reverse the hierarchy of old and young, putting the young first as is the natural way of evolution.

Here in "Women xianzai zeiçang zuo fuqin" the Confucian way of thinking and Confucian spirit, which

put the old first,'®* are passed from parent to child, in a repetition of the medical metaphor of "Suiganlu

38": "[s]yphilis is not the only fearful congenital disease, though. Many other spiritual and bodily ailments can be handed down, untU, as time goes on, the whole of society suffers" (63). Lu Xun argues these spiritual ailments {jingshen shang de quedian later known as defects in the national character, are passed firom generation to generation, and it is only through teaching of a new life, along the principles of natural evolution which put the young ahead of the old, that the vicious cycle of

Confucianism can be broken and the race perpetuated.

In summary, this chapter addressed some of the aspects of Lu Xun's attack on national essence and

Chinese spiritual culture, such as the national characteristics of deception and cheating. Discussing Lu

Xun's "research of national character," I examined Lu Xun's view of literature as a tool to change national character, his conception of how national character is transmitted through historical and literary works, and his conclusion that in order to reform the national character literature should be reformed. I discussed his view of the writer as the spiritual warrior through which the national character will be attacked and changed, and at how the writer was an example of the new national character. The general

Kam-Ming Wong discusses Lu Xim's revaluation of Confucian ethical principle of the "three bonds," that between fether and son being most fundamental ("Dotting 193). 127

problem of the sickness of national character, muddledness, was most illuminating]^ described by the

national essence supporters who practiced what Lu Xun called "patriotic self-aggrandizement " So far I have suggested that Lu Xun's view of national character was feirly consistent throughout the May Fourth

and beyond. In Chapter 5 ,1 wiU continue to make that case by focusing on the "lexicon" of national character. CHAPTER V

AH Q AND THE CRITIQUE OF NATIONAL CHARACTER: LU XUN’S ATTACK

ON NATIONAL ESSENCE AND CHINESE SPIRITUAL CULTURE

In the last chapter I examined Lu Xun's general analysis of the issue of the sickness of national character and showed how he saw this tied to Chinese qjiiitual culture defined negatively by his critique of national essence muddledness. I discussed his broad view of the writer as ^iritual warrior who could effect change in the national character through promotion of science as a cure. In this chapter 1 will flesh out Lu Xun’s view of national character through his attack on national essence and on Chinese spiritual culture by a more detailed examination of the nuances of the language he uses to critique them. Some terms he repetitively uses to attack the attitudes of national essence siqiporters (and those whom he saw as consciously or unconsciously falling into the same kind of mentahty) in his essays and stories include

"q)iritual culture"(jingshen wenming "the ancients" (guren "é'A)» "national studies scholars" (guoxue jia “restoring the national culture" (zhengliguogu # # # % ) , the "soft knife" (man daozi ^ ) , the "Doctrine of the Mean" (zhongyong ffi), "the ancients already had it"

(guyiyou zhi "upright gentlemen" (zhengren junzi IE A S ’’? ), "self-deception and deceiving of others" (ziqi qiren g ^ % A ) , "acting" (zuoxi and "method of spiritual victory"

(jingshen shengli fa Appearing in "True Story" in association with the method of spiritual victory, and no less important than the other terms listed above, are "self-denigrator" (ziqing zijian de ren

Ê # Ê # 8 9 A ) , "number one"(diyi% — ), "be beaten by one's son" (pei erzi dai^% ^'^),ih&

"ability to forget" (yvang que ), "we used to be much richer than you" (women xianqian bi ni kuode duo la ^t uJtor simply "richer in the past (xianqian kuo "look on angrily" (numu er or "dirtylookism" (numuzhuyi jg @"slave nature/mentahty"

128 129

(nuli xing "fence-sittmg" (qiqiang # # ) and "muddledness" (huli hutu # ) - There are some variations on these terms that will come out in the discussion below. The characteristic of slave mentality itself constitutes a significant part of Lu Xun's critique firom 1925 onwards and will be examined in qtecial detail.

A. National Essence

First I want to examine Lu Xun's direct attack on the "champions of national essence" {guocui jia ^

As noted above, in his "Nahan zixu," Lu Xun relates how he quit medical school and took up literature in order to change the spirit of the Chinese people. His initial literary project, beyond a few translations, was the abortive attempt to publish the journal Xinsheng (New life) in 1907, which appears to have in fact been influenced in part by the early national essence movement, perhaps in conjunction with his attendance at Zhang Taiyan's Minbao she.^°^ After he returned to China in 1909 and saw ejqpectations for a new society raised during the 1911 Republican revolution quickly dashed by warlord politics. Lu Xun went into a kind of reclusion, copying old stone rubbings and immersing himself in ancient culture in order to inure himself to the pain and loneliness of life:

It was only that my own loneliness had to be dispelled because it was too painful for me. So I used all kinds of methods to numb my soul {mazui ziji de linghun # # § 6 6 9 ^ ^ ) , to sink myself among the citizenry, to return myself to the ancient times {shi wo huidao gudai qu^fg Then I personalty experienced or saw firom the sidelines a few even lonelier and even more tragic events, but my numbing method {mazui fa # # & ) appeared to have taken effect, and I no longer had the magnanimous thoughts and ardor of my youth. ("Nahan zixu" 416-7)

Thus, it may be viewed as ironic that Lu Xun broke out of this "ancient period" to become one of the leading critics of the national essence - whose champions advocated going back to the past and flaunted the glory of ancient Chinese values, not unlike the kind of ancient "scholasticism" in which he was

Indeed, Lu Xun indicated in "Nahan zixu" that he and his fellow founders were "inclined toward a revival of the ancient past" (416), which was one of the themes discussed by Zhang Tatyan. In addition. Lu Xun attended Zhang Taiyan'sMndao she (People's news society) with Xu Shoushang in 1908 (ZGWXDCD 4: 2357-81. 130 engaged. The champions of national essence, however, certainly didn't recognize or advocate the

"numbing effect" sought by Lu Xun, probably because this inçlied need for critical distance, or enlightened mentality.” ® I suggest that Lu Xun's personal ejçerience with the "numbing" effects of immersing himself in the past, put him in a privileged position, in his point of view, from which to critique the national essence.” ' Lu Xun came out of the numbed past into the alive present, and hoped that his writing would wake iç the youth and perhaps serve as example for the champions of the national essence to follow to awaken them from their muddled state. In this sense. Lu Xun criticizes the national essence from the point of view of a past-practitioner turned re-bom champion of reform.

Lu Xim's most general view of national essence is exhibited in "Suiganlu 35" (Impromptu reflections no. 35), published in the November 1918 issue of New Youth. Here he identifies two national essence agendas during the late Qing;

From the end of the Qing Dynasty right up until now we frequently hear people say "preserve the national essence" {baocun guocui # # # # ) . From the end of the Qing Dynasty there were probably two types of people saying this: one was patriots {aiguo zhishi g ^ ) and the other great officials making tours ^road. Each had a hidden agenda at the back of this theme. When the patriot said preserve the national essence, he meant to restore the Han to the throne. When the great official said preserve the national essence, he meant that the students stu d ^g abroad shouldn't cut off their queues. (305)

To the Manchu Qing court, cutting off one's queue was a rejection of Qing custom. Lu Xun cut his off on

March of 1903, eleven months after arriving in Japan. This act was a demonstration of Han nationalism, as my discussion of his 1903 photo and inscription in Chapter 3 demonstrated, placing Lu Xun directly in the camp of the patriots who supported Han nationalism against Qing loyalism, though there is no evidence that Lu Xun thought he was "preserving the Han national essence" in his act. What is evident, however, is that when he wrote this essay in 1919, he recognized two different groups of advocates of national essence and had a humorous and critical understanding of the semantics of the term. Lu Xun

” ° Lu Xun could have been reading this back into his own histoiy, after the fact, however, so caution is advised when reading Lu Xun's reminiscences.

' ” Lu Xun also refers to the citizenry as "numb"{mamu ^7fc) in "Liang di shu (12)" (59-62). Numbness is probably also related to Lu Xun's criticism of muddledness, perhaps even a precursor to it. 131 asked; "What is 'national essence'? From the characters it must mean something distinctive to one nation that other nations don't have, in other words, it is something special. But being q)ecial isnt necessarily good, so why should we preserve it?" (305). His often quoted conclusion is put in the third person:

A friend put it well: "If we want to preserve our national essence, we must have a national essence that can preserve us" {yao -women baocun guocui, ye xu guocui neng baocun -women ^

Preserving ourselves is actually the first duty."^ We only have to ask if it has the strength to preserve us, regardless of whether or not it is national essence. (306)

Obviously, Lu Xun didnt believe his queue had the strength to preserve the Chinese. Preservation of the nation is wrapped trp inthe generally widespread fear during the late Qing and early republic of cultural and physical annihilation, or racial extinction, that 1 discussed in Chapter 2. Lu Xun's next essay in this series, "Suiganlu 36" (Impromptu reflections no. 36) makes the coimection between national essence and the fear of racial extinction quite clear, at least in Lu Xun’s mind, and he criticizes the chanqnons of national essence for hanging onto it to the detriment of the race. Playing a semantic game in which he expresses his fears for the life of the nation. Lu Xun says.

Many people are greatly fearful today, I am also greatly fearful. Many people are afiaid that the name "Chinese" will be wiped out; what 1 fear is that the Chinese people will be squeezed out of the "world of peoples" (shijie ren # ^ A ) - 1 beheve the name "Chinese" absolutely will not be wiped out (xiaomie # ^ ) ; as long as humanity exists there will be Chinese people. For example, no matter whether or not Egyptian Jews have "national essence" (guocui they are still called Egyptian Jews in modem times, the form of address hasn't changed. Obviously preserving a name doesn't expend the least amoimt of energy.” "* But if you want to cooperate, grow, and struggle for a place in today's world, you must have quite progressive knowledge (jinbu de zhishi # # " % ^ # ) , morality{daode l if ê ) , moral character {pinge g i# ) , and thought {sixiang . # # ) , and then you be able to gain a foothold. This requires a great ejq>enditure of energj'. A citizenry with a lot of "national essence" (guocui ^ i|^ ) must especially expend a lot of energy because their "essences" are too numerous. With too many essences one is too special. Being too speciaL it is difBcult to cooperate with all kinds of people and grow and struggle for a place.

See J. Levenson on Liang (Jichao as a possible source of this statement (122 fii91).

For "duty" or "obUgation" Lu Xun uses the word>7 ^ , which Liang Qichao used firequently in New CitizeiL for example where he claims that "the obligation {dayi x ^ ) of the person to society is the same as that of the son to his parents" (14).

” "* This is what he accuses the National Essence champions of - merely being concerned with a name or appearances. 132

Some people say: "We must grow specially, otherwise how can we be Chinese people!" Because of this, we will be squeezed out of the world of people. Because of this, Chinese people will lose the world, but still temporarily live in the world! This is what I fear greatly. (307).

Lu Xun thus identifies some criteria for successful competition in a Darwinistic world, but the criteria are diametrically opposed to the "special" "national essences." Accordingly, national essence is viewed as a bmden for successful evolutionary struggle. Because many people believe that Chinese must assert their q)ecial differences. Lu Xrm beheves that the Chinese will be squeezed out of the world of people.

Implying an alternative, he articulates the idea that the Chinese must cooperate with people and struggle for a place, exerting a tremendous amount of energy to overcome so many special national essences. This essay shows that he has no illusions about the difficulty faced by the Chinese to struggle for a place in the world, and he sees the supporters of national essence as unwilling to e>q)end this energy, and thus predicts that a Chinese people following their views would meet the fate of the Egyptian Jews: survival in name but not in nation.

Lu Xun's comments here indicate a tension between radically different visions of community based on radically different sets of values and views of tradition and modernity. Ironically, the valorization of the

"imagined" ancient past, an instrumental part of the construction of modem national identity, is at odds with the contemporary historical reahty perceived by Lu Xun and his colleagues, who were situated in the

midst of crises of international hegemony (imperialism) and domestic chaos of civil war (warlordism).

Invoking an idealized golden past is a fundamental concept of modem nationalism and the Confucian

supporters of national essence readily accommodated this into their view, but as Lu Xrm points out, they

did so to the exclusion of the q)irit of modem ideologies of science and democracy which, as he saw it,

would assure the nation's survival in the modem period.

How does Lu Xun perceive the situation of the national essence scholar's confrontation with

modernity? He gives an indication of this in May of 1919 in another series of "Suiganlu" (Impromptu

reflections; nos. 57-59) which again attack the national essence. In "Suiganlu 57: Xianzai de tushazhe"

(Impromptu reflections no. 57: butchers of the present). Lu Xun cormters the "cultured gentlemen" 133

(gaoya de ren the promoters of the national essence who attacked the vernacular language movement:

They are humans but want to become gods; they live on earth but want to go to heaven; they are clearly modem people, they breathe the present's air, but they perversely want to strangle us with rotten Confucian morality and stif^ dead language, completely humiliating and scorning the present These are all "butchers of the present" They are killing the "present" and they are also killing the "future." (349)

Although they "breathe the present's air," thQr reject the modernity in which they find themselves in fevor of the cultural traditions of Confucianism. Not only are th ^ not awake to the new age, in Lu Xtm's view, but tUQT also seek to kill the new age of the present Moreover, Lu Xun perceptively identifies the ramifications of this mindset: th ^ would kill the future. Lu Xun looks toward the future, thus demonstrating a view that the national essence promoters, their sights a lw ^ set on the past, are unable to comprehend: how their present actions affect the fate of the nation.

Lu Xun attacks the national essence sigiporters' ingrained habit of looking to the past in "Suiganlu

58: renxin hen gu" (Impromptu reflections no. 58: people's hearts are very ancient), quoting their language: "Impassioned and indignant men say, "The customs of the world are deteriorating, people's hearts are not as of old, the national essence is about to die {renxin bugu, guocui jiang wang ’

); this is why we look toward heaven, wring our hands, gnash our teeth and sigh over and over!"' (350). Then he "discovers" through his reading Sima Qian's (c. 145 - c. 85 B.C.) Shiji (Records of the historian) that the contemporary national essence argument opposing reform is in fact a very old one, raised two milleimia ago when Chinese were also worrying about the loss of national essence:

When first I heard this [that the national essence was about to die]. I, too, was very shocked. Later, glancing through old Sima Qian's Records of the Historian, in the "Chronicle of the House of Zhao" I found this statement made by Lord Cheng to oppose his sovereign's decision to wear Hunnish dress:

"I have heard that China {Zhongguo^^) is the abode of the intelligent and wise, where all resources and riches are to be found, where sages teach, where benevolence and justice prevail, where the classical caimons of poetry, histoiy, ceremony and music are observed, where talents and skills are tested, towards which distant peoples turn, and which barbarians imitate. But you are abandoning otu ways to wear an outlandish costume. You are changing

115 This is an allusion to Lin Shu (ZGWXDCD 5: 3559). 134

the ancient customs {bian gu zhi jia, hi gu zhi dao against the people's wishes, offending scholars and alienating yourself from China. I therefore beg you to reconsider this matter."

These are precisely the arguments used today by those who oppose reform, (trans. LXSW 2: 45).

In the conclusion. Lu Xun suggests that if the Chinese realty could ever go back to the ancient past, neither having interaction with, nor being influenced by other races (minzu), the Chinese would gradually become extinct, like the Vedda tribe in Sri Lanka. At the heart of Lu Xun's critique is the inappropiiateness of national essence thinking in the &ce of the contemporary crises of racial and national extinction. Lu Xun and his fellow iconoclasts feared, as forward thinking intellectuals had since the late

Qing, that national essence advocacy of the past and unwillingness to adapt to the present would result in extinction of the Chinese people. Thus, the subtitle of this essay, "People's Hearts are Very Ancient," indicates not only that arg um ents for national essence made two thousand years ago are still being repeated, but that resistance to change leads to extinction.

Lu Xun prestq)poses his readers' understanding of the slogans and attitudes of the national essence supporters. Exactly what kind of thinking or logic do the champions of national essence use that Lu Xun ciiticizes so harshly as unsuitable to the contemporary situation? The commentary in these "Suiganlu"

(Impromptu reflections) reveals, of course. Lu Xun's general attitude toward the national essence siqtporters but not what th ^ actually advocated (in detail). Lu Xun demonstrates the mental processes of the national essence supporters in October of 1924 by using an alleged event from earher in his life to highlight the difference between the character of the Chinese and Japanese, as well as to allow him to elaborate on the irrational logic of the national essence group. The essty in question is "Shuo huxu" (On mustaches), where Lu Xun recounts how he was mistaken for a foreigner iqwn return to Shaoxing from

Japan by a boatman who said he spoke Chinese very well (Lu Xun tells the disbelieving boatman that his

Shaoxing dialect is perfect because Shaoxing is in fact his hometown). Departing from this anecdote. Lu

Xuntangentially relates his mustache to the national essence group (guocui jia ^ # ^ ) b y satirizing a scholar who claimed a Song painting was a forgery because of the "Japanese style" mustache sported by 135 the subject of the painting. The scholar, of course, mistakenly used the contemporary feshion of mustaches to judge the ethnicity of the subject in a thousand year old painting without thinking that styles could have changed. This example of the national essence's irrational logic is thereupon applied analogously to Lu Xun's adversaries who use similar ethnocentric logic in their attacks on him-

Didn't Mr. X, a student patriot returned &om Germaigr - iVe forgotten his name so 111 just call him X - say that I was slandering China because I have a Japanese wife, and thus I was propagating the defects of our nation for them? That time alll did was raise a few of China's feults and got my "slutty wife" implicated in a change of nationality. What will hzppen this time regarding the question with Japan [Le. his mustache]? (177)

Lu Xtm claims that his national loyalty was in question due to his wifè's [mistaken] Japanese identity, and tiirthermore indicates that his own nationality was about to be changed ly the national essence stqtporters because of his mustache. The national essence advocates use the logic that if he really was Chinese he would have married a Chinese and naturally not propagate China's defects. So what Lu Xtm is really getting at is that these national essence people tout not only a biologically deterministic connection between nationality and patriotism, or loyally to the cultural essence, but also a national essence that is reliant on arbitrary and illogical distinctions of traditional style. Lu Xtm neatly turns the analogy on its head by e>q)osing its illogic:

Now I think that the boatman's changing of my nationality is probably not the same as the high opinion of Mr. X. The reason is only with the mtistache, and becatise of it I have often suffered since. The nation may perish, but the national essence siqiporters {guocui jia are many, and only if the national essence supporters are many, the nation can't be coimted as perished. The supporters of the national essence are preservationists of the national essence. And the national essence is my mustache. Although I dont know what kind of "logical" method this is, nevertheless, the situation of the time really was like this. "Why are you trying to look Japanese, your body so short and your mustache like that.... " was the conclusion reached by a supporter of the national essence and patriot after giving voice to his lofty argument. (178-9)

Lu Xun implies that the "logical" method of the preservationists is self-deceiving because they think that their fervent advocacy of preserving the national essence will actually preserve the nation. He alludes to this chimera by sarcastically concluding that after he stopped using pomade to groom his mustache, the tips naturally drooped down, and "[t]hen the siqjporters of the national essence didnt say anything. 136 perhaps China was already saved" (179). Not only does Lu Xun then " ^ e a r" Chinese, but he insinuates that the national essence supporters believe that if foreign products were to disappear from China, then

China would be saved.

Behind many of Lu Xun's attacks on national essence, there are real adversaries and ideas against which Lu Xun reacts. It is not always clear who Lu Xun's target is. Lu Xun identified the target, Mr. X, in the example above only as a supporter of national essence. This doesn't necessarily mean Mr. X belonged to a particular group, per se, but just that he exhibited characteristics Lu Xun found to coincide with the National Essence group. On the other hand. Lu Xun is sometimes quite explicit about whom he is attacking, as in "Gu Xueheng" (Appraising Critical Review: 1922),“ ® an ess^ written just as he was writing the final installment of "True Story." In this essay he appraises the new national essence group, the neo-traditionalist Critical Review group, which was established in January of 1922 in order to:

"expoumd on national essence, assimilate new knowledge, and uise the correct views of China to conduict a critique of affairs" (changming guocui, ronghua xin zhi yi zhongzheng zhi yanguang, xing piping zhi zhishi, > frmepzm#; 378,64). The ideas that this new group promoted were similar to those of the earlier national essence champions,” ’ though they based their

On the founding of the Critical Review see Schwartz, "Themes in Intellectual Histoiy: May Fourth and After" (437-8). Also see LXOJ 1: 378 64.

6 July of 1927 Lu Xun wrote "Lue tan Xianggang" (A few words on Hong Kong), an article which discusses 6 e ideas of Han racial revoluition popular m Japan when he was a stuident, notmg how 6 e national studies group uses 6 e same slogans twenty years later. Lu Xum says that when he was a student m Tokyo many o6er students had revoluitionaiy ideas, hurt it was "actuially racial revolution(zhongzu geming wantmg to take the land back firom 6 e hands of a foreign race and return it to its old master" (431). This essay tuims ouit to be one of his most explicit critiques of 6e champions of national essence and national studies, even quotmg articles m 6eir newspapers at leng6 to prove his criticism. Lu Xuntalks of his difficulties m Hong Kong. Some are related to personal safety duie to 6 e Guoimndang "cleansing of 6e Party" {qingdang ^ ^ ) activities, some related to 6 e fact that he "offended some people becauise he attacks 6 e national essence" (gongfi guocui 426). Nominally, Lu Xum's essay is a coumter-attack on 6 e national essence and national studies becauise of some Hong Kong newspapers spread lies abouit his actions m an attempt to disparage him He reprmts selections of 6ese lies foumd m 6 e newspapers, mcludmg 6 e advocacy of rectitymg 6 e national culture {zhengliguogu # # # % ) (430). He also talks abouit 6 e situation of imperialism m Hong Kong, comparing it to 6 e situation wi6 6 e Mongols ruling China, and also comparing 6 e British w i6 6 e Chmese m 6eir arbitrary me6od of rule, 6ose who say "its this way because I say it is" (428). 137 neo-traditionalism on the ideas of the Western philosopher Irving Babbitt Accordingly, their views included concqjts like "classical" as a representation of "metahistorical aesthetic and ethical standards," and "romantic" as a representation of "the dissolution of all standards, the unbridled domination of passions in individual and collective life." These ideas led them to tqthold a kind of cultural nationalism in which "Confucian values and classical Chinese literature represents that which was most classical in

China" (Schwartz. "Themes" 438). Lu Xun refers to the members of this group as "all the princes"

(zhugong ^ ^ ) , and calls them "felse antiques" (jiagudong # '6 '^ ) with "false grandiose views" (jia haoguang^^^y.

In summary, all these princes (zhugong attack the new culture and promote old scholasticism. If this isnt internally inconsistent, then it is indeed a platform. It is a pity that the old studies have no channels, and that the platform [they advocate] isnt suitable [to new Chinese culture]. If people who cant communicate their meaning with words and sentences are considered the intimate associates of national essence (guocui de zhiji then national essence will embarrass and stifle people even more! So they do a "review" and sirtçly come up with a "review" of their own obtuseness and does no harm to the new culture. It is also very distant from the national essence. The only thing I admire about these princes is that they surprisingly have the courage to publish these kinds of things (377)

Lu Xun is thus of the opinion that though these new national essence champions, these "princes," not only cannot get their ideas across because they use the obtuse classical language, but also because, quite curiously, thej^ promote something which is very fer from the national essence, hr this statement Lu Xun implies he knows what the real national essence is, and it is a "positive" one, but to rtty knowledge never expounds on it anywhere in writing.

Recalling his advocacy of the spiritual warrior, the national poet praised in "Mara," Lu Xun repeated the theme that China needed an environment conducive to the production of geniuses in a lecture given in

January of 1924, "Wei you tiancai zhi qian" (Before there were no geniuses). These geniuses are cast in

stark contrast to the national studies scholars (guoxuejia g # ^ ) and advocates of "restoring the 138 national culture"{zhengli guogu like Hu Shi, whom Lu Xun berates as less intelligent than

"cuiio-dealers”;"*

First, take "restoring our national culture." Although the new ideas have never made much headway in China, a pack of old men - young ones too - are already scared out of their wits and ranting about our national culture. "China has many good things," they assure us. "To run after what is new instead of stucfying and preserving the old is as bad as renouncing our ancestral heritage." Of course, it carries enormous weight to trot out our ancestors to make a point; but I cannot believe that before the old jacket is washed and folded no new one must be made. As things stand at present, each can do as he pleases: old gentlemen (Jao xiansheng who want to restore our national culture are naturally at liberty to pore over dead books by their southern windows, while the young can have their living studies and modem art. As long as each follows his own bent, not much barm will be done. But to rally others to this banner would mean cutting China off for ever from the rest of the world {yu shijie gejue To demand this of every one is even more fentastic! When we talk with curio-dealers, they naturally praise their antiques, but they never berate painters, peasants, workers and the rest for forgetting their ancestors. The feet is they are fer more intelligent than many traditional scholars (guoxuejia (trans. LXSW 2: 96)

Lu Xun appears to be holding a double standard here. The national studies scholars have the right to their point of view, but not to rally others to their point of view because it would cut China off from the rest of the world. On the contrary, Lu Xun would readily rally others to his point of view that hterature should be used to fertilize the soil for the growth of a genius. Cutting China off from the rest of the world, as we saw above in "Suiganlu 36," was exactly what Lu Xun asserted the national essence supporters wanted to do. From this 1 conclude that he also sees a loose similarity between the national essence group and the

Western educated scholars like Hu Shi who were advocating restoration of the national culture during the

May Fourth period.” ® Responding to the critics of the literary revolution, Lu Xun concludes that in an environment dominated by the national essence, no geniuses could be produced or survive: "When such a vicious circle exists between writers and readers for the abohtion of all that is different and the glorification of the national culture [essence guocui ], how can genius be produced? Even if one were to appear, he could not survive" (trans. LXSW 2: 97). Thus, supporting national essence means

Jerome B. Grieder translates "restoring the national culture" as "systematize the national heritage" (161).

” ® Grieder discusses Hu Shi's leadership of the movement to "systematize the national heritage" (zhengli guogu-, 161-6). 139 both condemning the nation to a leadership of the mediocre and the promoting the self-destruction of the nation itself.

How can it be that Lu Xun portr^s the national essence champions as less intelligent than curio- dealers in Lu Xun's mind? Lu Xun entered a period of renewed vigor in attacks on the national essence and national character in 1925 with the publication of essays like "Lun zhaoxiang zhi lei" (On photography). Here Lu Xun sarcastically ties national essence and slave origins in a savagefy funny analysis of what seems to be a common practice of framing diptych photographs of the time. Lu Xun raises the commonly held idea that a person's spirit, their "noble Hght" could be stolen by a camera, which in turn made him realize why some scholars never bathed:

Only recently have I learned that there are renowned scholars who never wash themselves for fear they will lose their "vital essence," the vital essence being no doubt equivalent to the noble light How much wiser I now am: the Chinese spirit, that vital essence and noble light {Zhongguoren de jingshen yi ming weiguangji yuanqi 4* S can be stolen the camera or washed aw ^ with water, (trans. Denton 199)

When Lu Xun relates the idea that the Chinese spirit can be stolen away by a camera with the idea that the vital essence can be washed away with water he is imphcitly critiquing the national essence champions, the so-called "renowned scholars" who hold such superstitious ideas. This is all the more clear when in another section of this essay he juxtaposes these ideas to an ironic description of a rather gruesome aspect of what he calls the "glorious 'national essence,"' the method of execution by chopping a body in half (199). The effect could also be achieved by means of the camera if the person was photographed from the waist iç. Thus, for the national essence siq>porters, the camera can be the means by which the "glorious national essence," an action in this case, is replicated because taking a picture of one half of a person "cuts" them in half (presumably since half the spirit is stolen). Of course, to the imagined national essence supporters whom Lu Xun liked to satirize, the camera also represents the idea that the Chinese spirit is threatened by a new foreign technology seemingly capable of stealing the spiritual essence of being Chinese. And ironically, the foreign technology is also a tool with which the national essence may be reproduced - torture execution. Here we return to Lu Xun's critique of the 140

Chinese "spirit," which now we leant can be stolen by this imported foreign technology. The attack on stqterstitions using the logical method can be interpreted as both creating space for, and demonstrating the new mentality necessary to imagine a new national character.

1. Depiction of the Decrepit Literati: Representative of National Essence

Many of Lu Xun's essays attacking national essence were published in New Youth, the leading journal of the Mjy Fourth movement These essays were sometimes published side 1^ side with Lu Xun's fictional stories, which also had a strong component of attack on the national essence. With the exception of "Madman" to be discussed below. Lu Xun's stories were still much milder and indirect in attacking old ideas like Confucianism. Lu Xun's "Kong Yiji" ?L Z13 (Confucius himself),published in April of

1919, though written in the winter of 1918,'*' is an example of this kind of artistic treatment of the treasures of old Chinese culture. This work depicts the hypocri^ of the old-style scholar through portrayal of a decrepit would-be literati who ekes out a living copying books, a job he has because of his good calligraphy. Calligraphy is traditionally thought to be a reflection of a person's inner morality and values,^^ but Kong Yiji ironically ends tp stealing some books and writing materials with which he is entrusted. I read Lu Xun's ironic portrayal of Kong Yiji, a petty thief clad in the robes of Confucian virtue

(measured by Kong's calligraphy), who is unable to tmderstand the cause and effect coimection between

Here I follow the translation of Conrad Schirokauer in his translation of Ichisada Miyazaki. These twenty-five characters were taught first:

-Ê Schirokauer*s translation goes: "Let us present our work to father. Confucius himself taught three thousand. Seventy were capable gentlemen. You yotmg scholars, eight or nine! Work well to attain virtue, and you will understand propriety" (Miyazaki 14).

See "Kong Yiji" (LXOJ1:437 fill). I will occasionally differentiate between dates written and published when significant in order to trace the chronological development of Lu Xun's thought.

In "Zuo guwen he zuo haoren de mijue" Lu Xtm discusses this common idea (LXOJ 4: 267-72). 141 his crime and punishment, as a critique of national essence supporters whose irrational advocacy of bankrupt Confucian morality hides the truth that the national crisis is deepening while th^r sing the nation's praises. Kong justifies himself by resorting to an old saying about stealing books and quoting

Confucius on the virtue of poverty:

"The purloining o f volumes, good sir, caruiot be counted as theft {qie shu buneng sum tou The purloining o f volumes is, after all, something that falls well within the purview of the scholarly life. How can it be considered mere theft?" Tacked onto that was a whole string of words that were difficult to understand, things like The gentlemm doth stmdfirm in his poverty [quoted from the Analects of Confucius 15.1.3], and verily this and forsooth that (trans. Lyell 44)

From the point of view of the other characters in the story, Kong Yiji speaks in unintelligible literary language and he quotes directly from Confucius to justify his theft of books. Kong Yiji's circumstances become progressively more dire as the narrative proceeds until, both legs broken, he ultimately drags himself back to the wine shop. The hands that produced the fine calligraphy that once earned him a living are now caked with mud accumulated as he crawled through the streets dragging legs that were broken as purtishment for stealing. That Kong Yiji receives absolutely no sympathy from the narrator, the manager or the people in the wine shop, all of whom gather around for a good laugh, recalls Lu Xun's complaint, alleged by Xu Shoushang, that the Chinese national character most lacks "love" ("Huiyi Lu

Xun" 19).'^ So here we see a tension between Lu Xun's portrayal of the hypocritical Confucian literati and a generally unsympathetic society represented by the social microcosm of characters in the tavern.

Read as a critique of the national essence. Lu Xun portrays not only the irortic situation of the irrational, muddling literati, unable to comprehend his crime and purtishment, but also the indifferent and unsympathetic populous which stands by watching the supposed "essence" of the nation, metaphorically represented in the body of Kong Yiji, degenerate and then finally just disappearing without a trace.

Xu Shoushang recollects that "at the time we felt our race most lacked sincerity and love. In other words, we're deeply afflicted by defects of hypocrisy, shamelessness, and mutual suspicion." 142

2. "Doctrine of the Mean" {Zhongyong

The Zhongvong (Doctrine of the mean cb 0 ) is a chapter in the Confucian Liji (Book of rites) chosen by Zhu Xi along with the Daxue (Great learning), Lnnvu (Analects), and Menszi (Mencius) to form the "Four Books," the central worics of Neo-Confucianism and the basic texts for the civil service examinations from 1313 until 1905 (Chan 95). This work discusses human nature as an underlying harmony of the moral self, humans, and nature bound by the quality of sincerity (cheng # ) , "an active force that is always transforming things and completing things, and drawing man and Heaven (T'ien,

Nature) together in the same current" (Chan 96). Lu Xun's criticism of Confucianism includes direct attack of the princçle of the "Mean" (short for "Doctrine of the Mean"), as well as oblique attacks through sarcastic and ironic references to it

Lu Xun frequentty criticizes the Confucians, by turning their own language or the language of

Confucius against them. One term Lu Xun uses in this regard is "the ancients" (guren 'è'A )- hi terms of the intellectual trends of the times. Lu Xun's attack on the ancients can be seen as in accordance with the promotion of the new which permeated radical culture of the May Fourth (e.g. New Youth, New Culture,

New Life). This is important within the context of imaging the new national character because of the implied sweeping away of the old, and all that was associated with it. Lu Xun was adept at finding historical information that predates, and thus could undermine, a particular point of advocacy by the

Confucians. An example of this is when he turns the principle of "the older the better" against the

Confucians while discussing the binding of women's feet in a 1933 essay.^^'* In this essay he coimects the

Confucians, the ancients, the sages, and their ejq)ression "the ancients already had it" (guyi you zki ■^'5

The long title to this is: "You Zhongguo nuren de jiao, tuiding Zhongguoren zhi fei zhongyong, you you ci tuiding Kongfiizi you weibing - 'xuefei' pai kaoguxue zhi yi" (Deducing that Chinese don't follow the doctrine of the mean from the feet of Chinese women, and from this deducing that Confucius had stomach trouble - an archeology of 'scholar bandits'). There is irony in the feet that this article was published in Lin Yutang's journal, Lunvu (Analects), which gets its name from Confucius' work by the same title, but, as Lu Xun points out in another essay, "Lunyu yi nian" (A year of Analects; LXOJ 4: 563- 9), Lin Yutang's journal was dedicated to humor. 143

# 2 . ) in his own "focused attack on the stmty of the 'ancient'" {zhuan gong kao "gu"xue “ 'É' ”

# ; 502). For Lu Xun the "Mean" is a manifestation of an "old illness" which has never been followed by the Chinese people who are in fact drastic and extreme (jiduan For example, he points out that it's not enough for the Chinese to kill an enemy but they moreover want to "eat his flesh and sleep in his skin" {shirou qinpi Going to the opposite extreme, they hold the idea that "If invaders want to invade, just let them invade. Maybe they'll kill a hundred thousand Chinese, but this is not important as we have a lot of people.” This idea, says Lu Xun, "really makes people unable to guess whether this is tme idiocy or felse imbecility" (502). He concludes:

So why do the sages cry loudly for the "Doctrine of the Mean"? This is exactly because nobody follows it People inevitably have their shortcomings and so they think up what they need. Poor teachers can't aSbrd a wife so they come to feel that it is reasonable to theorize that women consume their energy and then give a nod in passing to the theory of equal rights between men and women... (502)

Thus, the Doctrine of the Mean serves to assuage people's psyches m order to conqrensate for their urunet needs. Lu Xun ends this article making reference to the eight virtues (ba de A # ) , "loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, love, trust, justice, peace and equality" {zhongxiao ren ai xin hi he ping

^ ) being promoted by the Guomindang government which, he notes, even censors news references to letters to Song Ailing, the wife of the Guotrdndang Minister of Finance (drawing into question the applicability of these virtues to the government or the governments' insincerity with respect to the virtues).

In Lu Xun's mind the Doctrine of the Mean represents the Confucian disjunction between truth and appearances, exemplified by the art of "acting" (zaoxi %@S) discussed in "Zui yishu de guojia" (The most artistic nation; 1933):

The greatest, most eternal, and furthermore most universal "art" in our China is men acting as women. The value of this art is seen on two sides, perhaps call it "The Doctrine of the Mean" - men see "women being acted," and women see "men acting." On the surfece this is neutral, but in their bones they are of course still male. Yet if not acted, can this still be art?'^® (87)

Lu Xun elsewhere ironically plays with the idea that China is not a place of extremes, saying "China has a national system that extremely loves the Mean" ("Xu Maoyong zuo Da zaji' xu" 290).

This is almost verbatim from Lu Xun's 1925 essay, "On Photography" (see Denton, Modem 203). 144

This realm of acting extends from the stage to China's political world. Criticizing the Guomindang government in this 1933 essay. Lu Xun makes an analogy between men acting as women and an imperial government acting as a republic (with a constitutional government and citizens rights). Playing with the multiple meanings of the Doctrine of the Mean, he says "Ah, China is truly a most artistic nation, most mediocre {zhongyong 0 ) race." Lu Xun concludes quoting ôom the Zhongvong noting that people of différent classes have different relationships with the Mean: "But the little people will still not be satisfied, oh oh, the Mean of the prince is the non-Mean of the little person! " (88).^^

One of Lu Xun's funniest criticism's of the Mean comes in "Wo lai shuo 'chi zhong' de zhen xiang"

(I'll tell you about the true image of "maintaining the Mean"; 1924). This is a really good example of the relationship between the champions of the national essence, those who believe in China's "spiritual culture"(jingshen and the concept of "maintaining the Mean," which Lu Xun identifies as the equivalent of "today’s fence-sitting" (qiqiang # # ) . Lu Xun criticizes this philosophy which leads people to "appear to fight, appear to make peace, appear to protect, appear to die, appear to surrender, and appear to flee" (54). Here again Lu Xun criticizes the hypocrisy of the Confucians.

Finally, in "Tong xun" (Correspondence; 1925), Lu Xun explains that the Mean is a strategy produced from cowardliness used to cover up and console oneself when meeting a stronger enemy and not daring to rebel:

When the Chinese are confronted with the powerful, they dare not resist but use the words "taking the middle course" [Doctrine of the Mean] to put a good face on their real behavior so that thQT feel consoled. If they have power and realize that others carmot interfere with them, or if they are supported by the "majority," most of them are cruel, heartless, and tyxarmicaL just like despots; they then do not take the middle course. When thqr have lost power and carmot help taking the "middle course," they readily talk about its wisdom As soon as they are totally defeated, they are reatfy to resign themselves to fate. By the time they become slaves {nuli they do not feel moved by their plight. No matter what happens they would not then go astray from "the path of the sages." These traits can lead the Chinese people to perish, regardless of whether or not there is an enemy from without If we want to remetfy them, we must first of all expose them bytearing off their attractive masks ((/a (qtd. in Lin 128-9)

In 1934, not long after this essay was written, Jiang Jieshi's Nationalist government in fert launched the New Live movement the goals of which were "the Confucian virtues of //, /, lien and ch'ih, loosely translated as social propriety, justice, integrity, and sense of self-respect" (Eastman 146). 145

So the Doctrine of the Mean (the middle course) is looked tqjon by Lu Xun as a strategy of the slave that

dooms the Chinese to a fate of enslavement by foreign masters. Confucianism is thus perceived as

producing a slave mentality, which 1 discuss in a separate section below. Furthermore, the Mean is

related to both the method of spiritual victory and the characteristic of victim and victimizer which I will

discuss below. Lu Xun's criticism of the Mean is a direct attack on Confucian doctrine. His analysis of

how the mean is used coneq)onds almost exactly to Ah Q's use of the method of spiritual victory.

Moreover, the Mean is an essential element of China's spiritual culture. The person who follows the

Mean, however, is not the peasant or itinerant laborer whom Ah Q ostensibly represents, but the

Confucian gentleman (junzi). And what kind of Confucian gentleman? The fence-sitter, the one who

worships the ancients. As Lu Xun sees it, the Mean is only a front for extreme and drastic actions covered

IÇ) by acting. Ah Q may be thus seen as a representative of the Hterati, the Confucian, and the would-be

siq)porters of the national essence in Lu Xun's mind, rather than a peasant, for it is they who go along

with the inq)erial government acting the part of a republic by using the Mean as their method of spiritual victory to justify their position on the fence.

3. "The ancients already had it" (guyiyou zhi 2 . )

"The ancients already had it" is another expression of the national essence supporters that Lu Xtm used frequently to criticize them. The locus classicus of the expression is fotmd in the work of Song

Dynasty scholar, historiographer and promoter of ancient Chinese (guwen ’É’X ), Ouyang Xiu (1007-

1072; LXOJ 11: 100 fir4). In modem translation, this ejqtression is associated variously with national

essence, national character and with the "upright gentlemen (^hengren junzi IE A^ 'ÎF ), as I will

describe below. Lu Xun's earhest reference to "the ancients alreacfy had it" comes in "You shi 'gu yi you

zhi'" (Again it's "the ancient already had it") in September of 1924.^^ Here he associates the expression

However, the concept was expressed as early as "Suiganlu 38" as "First-ism," trait number three discussed above. 146 with Zhang Taiyan who "advised stu^dng historiography" in order to "preserve the national character"

(paocun guoxing B'IÊ), saying that in this way one could know that "the ancients alrea^ had it"

(222). In the context of a humorous discussion about the national essence proscription of modem poetry and foreign exclamation points. Lu Xun plays with the term "the ancients already had it":

Our patriotic defenders would s ^ this [using foreign exclamation points] is the voice of a slave. Sincerely, this is correct. Thirteen years ago I certainly was the slave of another race and the national character (guoxing # % ) was still being preserve^ so "now it still exists" (/in shang you Furthermore, because I didn't much believe in historical evolution {lishi de jinhua I still feared that unavoidably "afterwards it will still exist" Qiou rengyou zhi Old character will always come out Aren't there now are a few young critics in Shanghai who already advocate "the banning of literati" and not allowing "flowers" and "my love"? But they're still haven't singled out "darling" yet." If one s^s not singling out "darling" is more evolved than in the Song dynasty, then I guess I have evolved from being the slave of another race to the slave of the same race^^.... (223)

Basically, Lu Xun describes a context in which the idea of preserving the national character is tantamount to remaining a slave and he asserts that now under the republic he is a slave to his own race. What "the ancients already had" was slave status and slave mentality. This issue is amplified by Lu Xun during the

1920s and will be discussed in a section below. When Lu Xun invokes this expression, "the ancients already had it," he is referring to the unchanging negative nature that he sees in the Chinese people and it is directly tied to being a slave. His pessimism surfaces in his ironic play of words here about the ability to change the slavish national character. Moreover, Lu Xun speaks about historical evolution in the same way he talked about the existence of Ah Q persisting into the future in "A Q zhengzhuan de chengyin"

(The reason for writing "The True Story of Ah Q"). Both are thought to be around for a long time.'^°

Lu Xun brings up the issue of "being a slave of the same race" in "Ban xia xiao ji" : "Using the pen and the tongue to tell everyone the bitterness of being reduced to being the slave of a foreign race is naturally not wrong, but one must be very careful not to make everyone reach the conclusion: 'In that case, after aU it would be better to be like us and be slaves of our own people'" (589).

Lu Xun asserted: "The first year of the Republic has gone, never to return; but the next time there are reforms, 1 behever there will still be revolutionaries like Ah Q. 1 only wish that, as people say, 1 had written about a period in the past, but 1 fear what 1 saw was not from the past but the future - even as much as from twenty to thirty years from now" fLXSJ 2: 317). 147

Thus, Ah Q and slavish national character are pessimistically related in an evolutionary lineage to the ancients, who "alrea(fy had it"

When Lu Xun talks about "the ancients already had it" in "Htnan xiangdao (4)," five months after the essay above, he offers a bit of hope, albeit still conditionally, that the national character can be changed.

He sees the corruption and despotism of his own time as the same as at the end of the Five Dynasties,

Southern Song and Ming dynasties, exhibited particularly by the slaughter of innocent civilians by rebel leaders like Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. He conunents on the difticulty of changing the national character: "Can it be that those with the so-called national character (suowei guomin xingzhe

'lÊ #)are really this difficult to change? If so, we can think in general what our future fete will be, and that is one overworked sentence: the ancients already had it (gz/y/yow zAi (17). In this case the expression means that at the end of the Qing (fynasty the Chinese warlords would treat the people just like the ancients treated them, heiniously, even in comparison to the foreign invaders. Lu Xun juxtaposes the Ming (ÿnasw rebel leaders Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong with "those with the so- called national character," a juxtaposition which I interpret to be a critique of the national character directed both at the rulers and their national essence siqjporters. Though still pessimistic. Lu Xun offers hope that the national character can be changed in order to avoid annihilation-

Fortunately nobody dares to say for certain that national character certainly won't change. In this state of "being unable to know," although there is an unprecedented fear of annihilation (miewang (a situation that has never been seen before), there are also unprecedented hopes of rebirth. Perhaps this can give the reformers a little comfort (18)

This glimmer of hope, however, is stifled by the national essence group:

But this little comfort will also be canceled out by the pens of those many who brag about ancient culture(gu wenming " 6 " ^ ^ ), be drowned by the mouths of numerous slanderers of the new culture, and be exterminated (pumie ^ ^ ) by the words and deeds of the numerous who pretend to be new cultuiists. Because it looks like the same old thing, this is also "the ancients already had it" (gu yi you zAf )- (18)

In essence. Lu Xun says that the clever people (lingle ren # # A ) who dont attack the ancients are the ones who pass on the traits of the national character: "In China only they are most suited to survival, and when they survive, China will never be able to avoid repeating the fate of the past" (18). He derives this 148

idea firom his reading of history which, like literature, expresses the soul of the nation: "The soul of

China is written in all the histories and indicates her future &te, but because of too much distortion and

trivia, it is very difficult to discover through investigation of its record" (17). Not only should one be

vigilant against the outright sig>porters of the national essence, one should also guard against "the many

who pretend to be new culturists." These people are probably "upright gentlemen" members of the

Contempoiarv Review group, Hu Shi's clique, who were supporters of cultural change during the May

Fourth but became pro-govemment supporters as the May Fourth was ending in the mid-1920s.

4. "Upright Gentlemen" {zhengrenjunzi lE A # "?')

The expression, "upright gentlemen," was apparently used first to praise the Xiandai ninglun

(Contemporary review) groig) in an article in the pro-govemment Datong shibao (Great harmony news) in

1925.’^' Contemporarv Review was ajournai established in late 1924 in Beijing to engage in political

commentary, as well as literary discussiorr The group of intellectuals who formed it was headed by

Western educated scholars Wang Shijie, Gao Yihan, Hu Shi, Chen Yuan, Xu Zhimo and others, who were

critical of radical students and demonstrators, and apparently supportive of the government, even after the bloody May Thirtieth Massacre of 1925 and the March Eighteenth Incident of 1926. Lu Xun's dispute with these upright gentlemen stemmed from their taking sides with the Minister of Education, Zhang

Shizhao, who criticized the student demonstrators and urged them to read the Confucian classics. Zhang was the target of attack in Lu Xun's essays when he supported Yang Yinyu, the Principal of Beijing

Women's Normal University, against the students and a group of feculty in a conflict that eventually resulted in Lu Xun's dismissal (LXOJ 3: 6 fiiS). From 1925 to 1927, Lu Xun wrote numerous ess^s sarcastically employing the term "upright gentleman" to attack these people (LXOJ 1: 6 firSl. In prefaces to his collections of essays written during this period, Huagai ii (Unluclg star), Huagai ii xubian (Sequel

131 SeeLXOJl:6fii5. 149 to unlucky star) and Ervi ii (And that's that). Lu Xun reveals his loathing for them by referring to them as his enemies and as flies {cangying ^ f i|) . Foiling their tr^ s, he ejqpresses his unwillingness criticize the warlords directly, as they urge, instead of them ("Tiji" 5), or fell prey to the "soft knife" {man daozi

J] ■?■) they wield. Refining the identity of these people further. Lu Xtm notes in his "Xttyan" (Prefece) to

Sauyian it (Three leisure's) that along with the Creation Society and Sim Society, "upright gentlemen" of the Crescent Society {Xinyui she ^ ^ %t) also attacked him after be arrived in Shanghai in 1927 (5).'^^

How are these "rpright gentlemen" related to national character? Lu Xtm explains in his critique that in siqtporting Zhang Shizhao, the Minister of Education, and Yang Ymyu, the principal of Beijing

Woman's Normal University, they stand for a litany of negative national characteristics. Zhang Shizhao, as mentioned above, comes tmder attack as one of the tqjright gentlemen who advocates of reading the

Classics in a number of essays. "Shisi nian de 'dujing'" ("Reading the Classics" in the fourteenth year (of the Republic]) is representative of his attacks on Zhang and the various associated Confucian concepts,

Confucian sages, and terminology. Lu Xtm introduces the concept of "intelligent people" {congming ren

and "rich people" Qaio ren ^ A ) to refer to this new breed of advocates of reading the

Classics to "save the nation":

I dont know about the consciences of these pupils of reading the Classics, but I feel they probably are intelligent people, and their intelligence comes from reading the Classics and from ancient Chinese {gycwen ’è'üSZ)- In this great nation, which was alrearty civilized by the Classics and then welcomed the Mongols and Manchus, ancient books are really too numerous. If you're not a stiçid cow (the muddled old stiq)id cattle who really believe the Classics], you can read a

In "Zhanshi he cangying" (Warriors and flies; Huagai ii 1925), though he doesn't refer directly to "içright gentlemen," Lu Xun makes an analogy between the warrior writer (himseUO and his critics (flies). He concludes "Tiji" by telling them to go away, calling them by the same phrase with which Ah Q referred to himself in "True Story," "insects" {chongzhi ^ ^ ) . Lu Xun elsewhere uses insects as a metaphor for people. In "Fuchou" (Revenge) he uses the simile of caterpillars and ants to describe people rushing to see the action (LXOJ 2:167). Also consider "Sihou" where he describes an ant crawling on his dead body (LXOJ 2: 204-8). Also see "Xia san chong" where Lu Xun alludes to the "gentlemen of old and present" implying they are hunchong (muddled bugs) (LXOJ 3: 40).

Lu Xun also reports that HxtXinyue she also spent a lot of energy critiquing the League of Left- Wing Writers in 1930 and 1931 (LXOJ 4: 189).

In "Zheige yu neige" Lu Xun uses the term lingli de ren fp SlJ A to refer to exactly the same meaning, referring also to Zhang Shizhao and "rich" people (LXOJ 3:140). 150

little and know how to be perfunctory (fuyan live in abject misery {tousheng butter rq) {xianmei play power politics (nongquan # # ) , be selfish(zisi ^ # ) and still be able to fake righteousness (Jiajie dayi and steal a good rqjutation {qiequ meiming Even better, one can realize that the Chinese are sound forgettersOiamvang^;^). No matter how incongruous their words and actions or how conflicting name and reality, how preposterously they lie or g>read rumors, it is not important because after the passage of some time everything will naturally be cleanly forgotten (y/cmg de gmganjingjing The only thing left will be a few nice sounding words, so the future wont lack for "rq)right gentlemen." Moreover, even if there are no "tçright gentlemen" in the future, what harm would this be to profits in front of you? (129)

Along with this list of specific negative characteristics the Classics teach. Lu Xun concludes that these upright gentlemen know that the Classics wont save the nation, and just advocate reading them as a trick

{shua bœà "to make people become stupid cattle" (129). Thus, he ironically calls the

"intelligent people" (congmingren) "muddled stiçid cattle" Qiuli hutu de ben mzr In addition to their muddledness and herd mentality. Lu Xrm also notes their ability to "forget." This is a characteristic discussed in "True Story" (and elsewhere).*^® Furthermore, Lu Xun blames adherence to the

Classics for the enslavement of the Chinese by the Mongols and Manchus (which I will deal with at length below). This example thus shows the richness of the language of national character critique. Lu

Xun's sarcastic invective, and even his own complicity in the using the Classics as a tool of abuse of others, for after all, he admits, "I also got all these [sayings and examples] from the Classics; 1 seem to have read all the Thirteen Classics" (129).

Lu Xun also uses the term, "all the princes" {zhugong 0 ^ ) , to attack the Contemporary Review group which he believed to stqrport Zhang Shizhao. Zhugong was used earlier for criticism of the new

National Essence groiq) that appeared in 1922 centered arotmd the journal. Critical Review. Here he called all the princes "intimates of national essence (guocui de zhiji ("Gu Xueheng"

377). His application of the term to the Contemporary Review group tacitly places them in a category of

Recall that according to the narrator of "True Story," "Ah Q originally was also an tqrright man" {A 0 benlai ye shi zhengren Q ^ l E A) (497). Moreover, when trying to avoid a beating by the village idlers, he used the ejqrression, "the gentleman uses his mouth not his hands" (junzi dongkou bu dongshou indicating he imagined himself as a "gentleman" (494). Here in "True Story" we thus see the presentation of Ah Q as an "rgright gentleman" by the combination of these two terms. 151 supporters of national essence, particularly when viewed with their support of Zhang Shizhao's Confucian rhetoric. The iroiy is that the members of the Contemporarv Review groiç were allies of Lu Xtm early on in the May Fourth movement, but 1^ 1924 they appear to have split In fact, in "'Gongli' de baxi" (The trick of "universal truth"; 1925), Lu Xtm ejqtlains that the Contemtwrarv Review grotip at Beijing

University once opposed Zhang Shizhao (165-6). It appears that Lu Xun's attacks on the upright gentlemen, particularly his harsh criticism of professor Chen Ytian,'^® met with threats of retaliation against him, as he reported firom Xiamen: “In the last few days I've thou^t about compiling this years miscellaneous essays. Since I wrote these things, especially after those things regarding Chen Yuan, quite a few self-proclaimed "neutral" gentlemen have reported to me saying if I kept on writing them there would be trouble" ("Xiamen tongxin" 371).*^’

In summary. Lu Xun took mnbrage with the "upright gentlemen" because they were both political opponents of his by virtue of their sipport for the govenunent and the Beijing Women's Normal

University in its actions both against the students and also against himself, the student's supporter. In addition, the Contemporarv Review group published Zhang Shizhao's exhortations to go back to reading the Classics. This put the Contemporarv Review group in the category of national essence siqporters, for after aU, containing all the wisdom of Confucianism, the Confucian Classics were viewed as the epitome of national essence. For Lu Xun the iconoclast, these Classics and their ancient Chinese contained all the tricks the "rich" and "clever people" needed to insure that the people would remain muddled "stupid cattle. " The tricks intersect with a litany of Ah Q's faults and shortcomings that Lu Xun notes in the

In "Bing fei xianhua" (Definitely not idle talk) Lu Xun explains the initiation of his conflict with Chen Yuan, who supported Principal Yang Yinyu of Beijing Women's Normal University in an article in Xiandai pinglun against the demonstrating students whom Lu Xun supported. For more attacks on Chen Yuan see "Zalun guan xianshi, zuo xuewen, huise deng" (Miscellanea on minding your own business, doing scholarship, the color gray, etc; LXOJ 3:186-97). Lu Xun also refers to the siq)port of Yang Yinyu by the Xiandai pinglun group in "Liang di shu (9)" (LXOJ 11 ; 49).

In later years Lu Xun continued to use the term "iq>right gentlemen" to refer to Chen Yuan and the Xiandai pinglun group, such as the 1932 essay, "Zuo guwen he zuo haoren de mijue" (The secret to writing ancient Chinese and being a good person), and the 1933 essay, "Zai tan baoliu" (More mental reservations). 152 national character in the essays to be discussed in the remainder of this dissertation: how to be perfunctory, butter rç, p l^ power politics, be selfish, feke righteousness, steal a good reputation spread lies and rumors and be a sound forgetter. Those Lu Xun calls the "intimates of the national essence," "all the princes," would perpetuate this abysmal state of affeirs and thus Lu Xun attacks them with a vengeance.

B. Barbarism/Catmibalism

Lu Xun acted as the spiritual warrior armed with the weapons of scientific reasoning and evolutionary theory when he attacked the national character by ejiposing of the overwhelmingly negative legacy of

Chinese spiritual culture, beginning with exposure of Confucian virtues as carmibalistic in "Kuangren riji"

(Diary of a madman; 1918; hereafter "Madman"). The basic e^qjression of anti-Confiicianism in

"Madman" is the metaphor of "cannibalism" found in the passage where the madman recalls reading through history books on a sleepless night:

There were no dates in this history, but scrawled this way and that across every page were the words BENEVOLENCE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, and MORALITY. Since I couldn't get to sleep anyway, I read that history very carefully for most of the night, and finally I began to makeout what was written between the lines; the whole volume was filled with a single phrase: EAT PEOPLE! (trans. Lyell 32)

"Benevolence, righteousness, and morality" {ren y i daode is a commonly used expression referring to Confucian ethics, of which ren and y i are central virtues. Attacks on Confucian ethical thought were part and parcel of the May Fourth period, conducted in large part by the writers at New

Youth magazine where "Madman" was published, often more directly than Lu Xun's metaphorical attack 153 here.'^* However, it appears that "Madman" did not even make an impression on the champions of national essence, who not only foiled to see it as an attack on them, but didn't even read it^^®

In contrast to the metaphorical critique of Confocian values as cannibalistic in "Madman," Lu Xun directly critiqued the champions of national essence by e^osing the barbarism of Chinese spiritual culture in the essay, "Suiganlu 42" (Impromptu reflections no. 42). He begins this essay writing that he felt offended at first by a book written by a foreign doctor in Hangchou who referred to the Chinese as uncivilized {piren ih A), but after consideration of the facts he came to agree with the doctor, and even developed the doctor's point, explaining that the Chinese were v/orse than barbarians:

Try taking a look at Chinese society: cannibalism {chiren BgA), pillaging (jielue slaughter (cansha trade in human beings (renshen maimai )> phallus worship {shengzhiqi chongbai mysticism Qingaie g # ) , and polygamy (yifu duoqi —^ # # ) . All are so-called national essences{guocui ^ )|? ); all coincide \rith barbarian culture (if it can be called culture). Wearing long queues and smoking opium are exactly the same as the strange hair styles of the uncivilized and their eating of bean stalks. As for bound feet, this is an even more uncivilized ornamentation - the first class of new inventions {diyi deng xin faming H - # # # ^ ) . (327)

Self-aggrandizement {gida g A ) and love of the ancient Qiaogu are also special characteristics {texing # 'A ) of the uncivilized.... [Lu Xun relates a long example about aborigines in New Zealand here]... For example, if you want to build a railroad, and you tell the chieftains and shamans all the benefits, they ^solutely will not listen. If we take a nryth as the base and tell them that some great spirit pushing a solitary cart along the rainbow wants you to copy him by building a road, then you can do anything [you vrant]. (I've already forgotten the original text, but it goes something like this above). China's Thirteen Classics and Twenty-five Histories are exactly the governing {zhiguo ping tianxia de în 69 )texts the chieftains and shamans worship with all their hearts. (327-8)

For example, direct criticism of Confucianism as cannibalism can be found both before and after "Madman" was written, culminating in Wu Yu's article, "Chiren de lijiao" (Cannibalism and Confucian ethics; 1919). For a further discussion of anti-Confucianism in the May Fourth see Chow Tse-tsung, 300- 13. Note that Chow makes a highly relevant point saying that the Confucianism under attack at the time was "the currently orthodox interpretation of Confucianism" (311), and not necessarily accounting for Confucius' whole theory or spirit. Also see Lin Yù-sheng (114-124).

Mao says, "This [cannibalism] was the first time Chinese were angrily scolded as "shameless" in their ever self-regarded spiritual culture (jingshen -wenming iff ^5 C ^ ) ; but the panicked reports firom the champions of national essence weren't heard, probably because "Diary of a Madman" is [thought to be] only an illogical piece of fiction so they didn't pay attention to it, and right from the beginning to the end they just didn't read it" ("Du Nahan" 35). 154

Lu Xun places the blame for the barbarous and superstitious elements of Chinese culture, the characteristics of self-aggrandizement and love of the ancients, directly on the shoulders of the Coufucian canon and the "chieftains and shamans" (read "champions of national essence") who "worship it with all their hearts." He explicitly relates Confucianism to what he sees as the depravity of the Chinese people's

"special characteristics" (texing # % ) by equating the governing ideas of the Confucian Classics’ and the Twenty-five Dynastic Histories, with the religious and governing practices of aboriginal "chieftains and shamans" in New Zealand. In addition, he enumerates barbarous Chinese customs valorized by these classics and histories with the barbarous customs of aborigines, and furthermore, he indicates that the

Chinese practice of footbinding is even more uncivilized than barbarian practices - a "first class of new inventions" ! The reasoning used to win over the aboriginal chieftains and shamans is the same as that used by the champions of national essence who will accept the importation of Westem material culture into China as long as it can be justified by recourse to ancient myths and superstition.” ’ This ess^ is therefore a concrete example (albeit an exaggeration) of what Lu Xun sees as the illogicaL irrational mindset of the national essence group which would decry Westem material culture in China, but accept it with proper justification. In other words, this is what I earlier called "First-ism," the national essence justification that Lu Xun ridiculed in "Suiganlu 38":

3) "All things foreign existed first in China: this particular science or that philosophical precept, for example." (These last two schools of thought are branches of the larger Ancient- Modern Chinese-Foreign SchooL” * which follow Zhang Zhidong's maxim, "Chinese learning for the essence, Westem learning for practical matters." (trans. Denton 90-1).

Zhiguo ping tianxia , referred to in the quote above, is the principle of "governing the nation and pacifying the world," found in the Confucian Classic, Daxue (Great learning).

In one of his late Qing essays, Lu Xun also told a similar anecdote about how the British convinced the India leaders to accept the innovation of underground canals (see "Kexue shi jiao pian" discussed in Chapter 3, Section B3 above). Lu Xun also attributes this tale to Afiican origins (LXOJ 7: 302).

” ■ Xu Shoushang interestingly used the same formulation, " Ancient-Modem Chinese-Foreign," in "Huiyi Lu Xun" when he claimed Lu Xun and he didnt investigate the question of the "ideal nature of man": "As for (1), because it was diligently pursued by Chinese and foreign philosophers both past and present in voluminous quantities, we followed their good works and didn't say much about it" (duiyu (1), yinwei gujin zhongwai zheren suo zizi zhuiqiu de, qi shuo haohan, women Jinsan er cong bing bu duo shuo m f(i) ' (is). This may be further proof that Xu relied on Lu Xun's May Fourth essays to constmct his view of Lu Xun's 155

This is also corresponds to the idea Lu Xun called "the ancients already had it" (gu yi you zhi). This essay can be considered an attempt by Ln Xun to demonstrate in a less abstract sense than in "Madman" how cultural practices constructed by Confucian values within the narrative of Chinese history could be viewed as uncivilized even by the standards of those criticizing the "barbarian" foreign cultures. The attack on

Confucianism and Chinese culture as barbarous and uncivilized makes use of the Chinese concept of morality and civilization which implicitly hinges on what it means "to be a human" (zuoren A ) and what it means to be civilized (yven "X.), both concepts subverted by Lu Xun here. These ideas are connected to the national essence champions' feelin g of siçeriority of Chinese spiritual culture/civilization

(jingshen wenming over the Westem materialistic culture of the imperialists stpported by the

May Fourth iconoclasts.'^^

While Lu Xun was in Guangzhou in 1927 he wrote a number of significant works that expound his views on national character as barbarous. "Lue Inn Zhongguoren de Han" (A brief discussion of Chinese feces), written on April 6,1927, just before Jiang Jieshi's Nationalist Party's bloody purge of its

Communist Party members on April 12, may be read as a reconciliation of the conflict between the barbarism of Chinese spiritual culture exposed in "Madman" and "Suiganlu 42" and the appearance of

civility of the Chinese people. As in "Suiganlu 42" Lu Xun begins this essay with criticism of how

Westerners view the Chinese, in this case criticism of how illustrations in some Western works, like Hans

Christian Anderson's children's stories, stereotype the Chinese with disrespectful features. Upon second

glance, however, Lu Xtm finds Chinese faces not so satisfectory as before - a problem of "lacking

something in qtirit" (jingshen shang queshaozheyiyang shenme jijian 'fr)

- not related to physical but behavioral characteristics. The particular behavioral characteristic Lu Xtm

interests during the late Qing. Also see LXOJ 4: 190, for a reference to zhongwai gujin. I think this must have been a formulation that was popular at the time because Kang Baiqing's article on Chinese national character also uses this formulation (354).

In feet, Gtty S. Alitto points out that in 1919 Liang Qichao "called for the Chinese to rush to the West's spiritual salvation" because of their bankrupt material civilization (116). 156

criticizes is the dropping of one's jaw at the sight of something one has never seen before, or at the sight of

a beautiful woman, which, in Lu Xun's words, "is not completely respectable" {bushi shifen timian de shi

6 9 # ; 413).^“” He discusses the Japanese author, Hasegawa hfyozekan, who is "good at

satire" and has written on the subject of Chinese, Western, and Japanese feces:

The general idea is that when he [Hasegawa] first saw Chinese people, he felt that their feces lacked something in conçarison to Westem or Japanese faces. After a long time he became accustomed to [Chinese feces] and felt that they were already sufhcient, not lacking anything; and on the other hand when he looked at the feces of Westerners he noticed they had something extra: animal nature (shouxing Being human, Chinese faces didn't have this. Then adding on some extra thing yields the following fonnula:

human + animal nature = Westerner (ren + shouxing = xiyangren SÇ'IÉ = A)

He [Hasegawa] used this [formula] to praise the Chinese, degrade the Westerners, and satirize the Japanese. Arriving at it like this, naturally there is no need to s ^ again that this animal nature is not seen on Chinese faces, but was it never there or was it eliminated afterwards? If it was eliminated afterwards, then was it gradually cleaned sw sy leaving only human nature, or did it merely gradually change into docility? The wild bull becomes the ox, the wild boar becomes the pig, the wolf becomes the dog, and the wild nature is lost But this is onty enough to cause the shepherd to be happy, and has no advantage at all for the animals themselves. People, however, are people, and nothing could be better than not adding any other miscellaneous thing, of course. If there is no alternative, I think it would be best to have some animal nature. If it follows the formula below, on the contrary it isn't really very interesting:

human + domesticated nature = some kind of human (ren + jiachuxing = mou yizhong ren A + ~ ^ —@ A ) (413-4)

Demonstrating his understanding of the principles of evolution. Lu Xun uses the metaphor of the

domestication of animals here to describe the process of civilizing (domesticating) the human being. His implication, however, is that such a domesticated or enslaved human (as was the condition of the Chinese people in his view), was not as desirable as one with a little animal nature, the condition of Westerners.

Leaving himself some room for irony. Lu Xun even s^ s "there is some question whether the markof animal nature truly is on the Chinese fece, but let's stop this discussion temporarily" (414). With this

Lu Xun plays with the term "ümian” here, which means "respectability" or "face" and is the most prominent feature, as pointed out by Lu Xun in "Spontaneous Branch Diary," noted by Smith and Yasuoka in their books on Chinese national character. 157

essay. Lu Xun subverts the concept of "civilized," becoming "some kind of human,"'"^ by equating it with being "domesticated," or by extension "enslaved," a process which leaves the Chinese unequipped for

survival in the Darwinistic struggle for existence in which some animal nature is desirable.

A final example of Lu Xun's view of cannibalism in relation to national character, and with respect to

his own role as a writer in the carmibalistic Chinese culture of the time, is found in "Da Youheng xiansheng" (A reply to Mr. Youheng; OcL 1927). Here he illustrates his disillusionment with literature as a tool for social and political change by corrçaring the light sleepers whom he woke with his battlecry to a cruel dish of dancing shrimp which are eaten alive, "the ôiskier the tastier." Lu Xim's memories of his students massacred on March 18,1926, and the killings of Communists and su^ected Communists during the 1927 "cleansing" of the Nationalist Parly were the motivations for this essay. Political terror directed against the intellectuals, among others, brings him to question the role of literature in social revolution, and even the whole idea of enlightening the "light sleepers" as he suggested in his "Prefece to

Battlecrv." Notably, "Da Youheng xiansheng" is a response to Mr. Youheng who wrote Lu Xun to request a sequel to "True Story" predicated upon the assertion that since he portr^ed the 1911 Revolution so well with "True Story," he should be able to portray China during the May Fourth and May Thirtieth periods equally well with a sequel. In a show of psychological insight akin to that of the Madman, Lu Xun demurs, implicating himself in the caimibalism of the times by suggesting that with his literature he has unwittingly been the preparer of this gory feast.

C. Ah Q's Method of Spiritual \Tctory

At this juncture I will turn to "True Story" to develop a number of key aspects of Lu Xun's critique of national character that become Ah Q's trademark. The most important of these is the method of spiritual victory. The method of spiritual victory is a mechanism of psychological self-defense which Ah Q

The term, "some kind of human" (mou yizhong reri) reappears in 1933 in Lu Xun's "Yanyu" (Parable), where he connects the terms slave (nucai), some kind of human, and the examination candidates, xiucai and talented people, rencai fLXOJ 4: 538-41). 158

employs upon meeting any defeat, to turn it into victory. Ah Q's "method of spiritual victory" (jingshen shang de s h e n g l i is the key to Lu Xun's critique of national character. It is most

succinctly portrayed in the following scene of conflict between Ah Q and the village idlers;

Not content to let it go at that [merely teasing Ah Q], the Wei Vdlage idlers would keq: right on baiting him until it aH ended iç) in a fight aigway. From a purely formal point of view, Ah Q would be defeated: he would be grabbed by his discolored queue, and would have his head given four or five resounding thumps against a wall. Then the idlers would walk away, fiflly satisfied and fully victorious. Ah Q would stand there for a bit and then think to himself, "It's just as though I'd been beaten up by my own sons! What's the world coming to, anyway, when sons..." At this point Ah Q too would walk away, fully satisfied and fully victorious. Later on Ah Q took to saying out loud the various things he thought to himself. And so it was that before long every Ah-Q-baiter in the village was onto his schemes for winning psychological victories ("spiritual victories"]. From then on, whenever Ah Q's discolored queue was grabbed, his tormentor would steal a march on him as well: "Ah Q, this isnt a son heatin' up on his old man, it's a human being heatin' up on an animal (chmheng Let's hear you say it now, 'A human being heatin' up on an animal'! " Holding fast to the base of his queue with both hands. Ah Q would cock his head to one side and rejoin: "Beatin' up on a bug (chongzhi â ^ does that make you happy? Now give a guy a break, huh?" But even though he was only a "bug," the idlers still wouldn't let him off the hook. In the time-honored feshion, they would seek out the nearest wall and give his head four or five resounding thumps before walking away, fully satisfied and fully victorious - and convinced that this time they had done him in once and for all. But before ten seconds were out. Ah Q would also walk away, fully satisfied and fully victorious, for he was convinced that of all the "self- putdown artists" this old world has seen, he was number one. Take aw ^ "self-putdown artist" [self-denigrator (ziqing zijian de ren Ë#^#69A)]and what did you have left? Number one (diyige ^ —# ) - that's what! What was zMetropolitan Graduate? Number one - that's all. "Who the hell do these jerks think they are anyway! " (trans. Lyell 109-10)

This long quote shows some of the particular p^chological characteristics of the method of spiritual victory that work into Lu Xun's language of national character and, of course became the mainstay of the

Ah Q discourse: self-denigration. Number One-ism, being beaten by one's son, and being a bug. These paragraphs also explain the method of spiritual victory clearly. Below I will elaborate on how and where this language of spiritual victory is expressed in Lu Xim's other works, and how they thus relate to the

This also translates as "domesticated animal" or secondly as the curse "beast." Lu Xun addresses this idea that the Chinese are domesticated in "Lue lun Zhongguoren de lian" discussed below. Additionally, in many essays. Lu Xun criticizes the Chinese for treating each other as cattle, cows or horses, or not even being worth the value of livestock. This is a part of his criticism of the viscous circle of national character brought out in works discussed below. 159 national character critique. In Chapter 6 the method of spiritual victoiy will be discussed extensively as a part of the Ah Q discourse.

An element of Ah Q's method of spiritual victoiy not included in the quote above is "to look on angrily" {numu er shi ^ @ ÜD a term used so frequently in "True Stoiy" that it becomes a trope summed tç by the phrase, "dirtylookism" (numu zhtiyi @ The narrator explains that dirtylookism is related to Ah Q's inability to win a victoiy over an opponent, no matter how weak and small he was. Originally Ah Q would fight those who looked weaker than him , but after losing too frequently he would just resort to giving a dirty look; "Who would have etperted that after Ah Q adopted his policy of dirtylookism, the Wei Village idlers would take even greater pleasure in taunting him?"

(trans. Lyell 109). Dirtylookism was the first step in Ah Q's development of the method of spiritual victoiy. However, it was not effective. When dirtylookism failed, as indicated by Ah Q's head thumping against the waU, he would resort to another tactic, the thought that he was "beaten by his own sons," and then "walk away, fully satisfied and fully victorious" (109). The third tactic of ptychological defense described in the quote above follows the devolutionaiy progression from being his tormentor's father, to being an animal, and finally to being a bug, whereupon Ah Q was released. So the method of spiritual victoiy has a progression from dirtylookism, to "being beaten by one's own son," to being an anim al to being an insect, and finally, in an attempt to assuage being robbed at the gambling table. Ah Q resorts to an even lower depth by slapping himself in order to feel that victoiy was obtained. So the method of spiritual victoiy is tied to being able to lower oneself beyond even the expectations of one's tormentor.

This is called self-denigration.

14'' Lyell's translation. 160

1. Self-denigrator {ziqingzijian de ren g @ ^ # 6 9 A )

At the bottom of Ah Q's devolutionaiy spiral of psychological defense informing his method of spiritual victoiy is a tactic seen in the passage quoted above: being the number one self-putdown artist, or self-denigrator (ziging zzÿion de ren § @ § # 6 9 A)- Ah Q goes through a devolution ôom being a human being (a fether being beaten by his sons) to being a domesticated animal (livestock), and finally to being a bug. At least he can retain his self-respect by being number one at something - the number one self-denigrator. Lu Xun uses the example of the Metropolitan Graduate {zhuangyuan tc), the nmhber one candidate passing the civil service exams, as a standard of comparison. Comparing Ah Q to the

Metropolitan Graduate indicates to the reader that this humor is more than an attack on Ah Q but also a satirical attack on the Confucian examination system and Confucian cultural values. The reader readily recognizes that the most lowly insect-like Ah Q is obviously a fer cry both intellectual and social status

ôom the Metropolitan Graduate the most celebrated examination candidate. Ah Q is engaged in 'TJumber

One-ism." This type of "Number One-ism" was seen in "Impronçtu Reflections No. 38" where Lu Xun excoriated the defenders of China's spiritual culture for the trait of "patriotic self-aggrandizement," including the vainglorious argument that China has the "Number One morality."

Self-denigration is used by Ah Q as a technique to raise himself above the crowd. This technique also has precedents in Lu Xun's early works. In "Mara," Lu Xun discussed a type of backward looking view that informs Chinese philosopher's "wisdom" as running "counter to the facts [of the history] of human evolution" (100). Lu Xun seems to see "looking to the past" as an idealization and justification for "weak and incapable" thinkers who "live out their lives as hermits (101). Prefiguring Ah Q's self-denigration, he described the practice of false humility of these hermits, saying, "Such were the thinkers whom society praised as above it aU, although they themselves said 'I'm a reptile, a reptile' (wo chongshou -wo chong sAouyg 101).^'® Here we see that the idea of lowering oneself in false humility when

In "Zhanshi he cangying" Lu Xun makes an analogy between the warrior writer (himself) and his critics (flies), which he concludes telling them to go away, calling them insects (chongzhi ^ #"), the same phrase Ah Q called himself in "Tme Story." 161 one believes oneself si^erior is already present in Lu Xun's thought in the late Qing. Lu Xun pkQ3 with this idea of being "Number One" in other works as weU, beginning with "Suiganlu 38" and continuing in

"Mashang zhi riji" where he criticized the idea that Chinese food was Number One, discussed above.

2. "To be beaten by one’s son" {bei eni da le

Another tactic in the bailiwick of the method of spiritual victory is Ah Q's lament that he is being

"beaten by his son" (pel erzi da le Ah Q expresses this sentiment numerous times in

"True Story" in a slightly different formulation, "the son beats his father" {erzi da laozi %-?-).

This is an inversion of the Confucian principle of filial piety, one of the foundations of Confucian doctrine, which dictates corr^lete and unqualified respect and obedience on the part of children to their parents, with particular emphasis on the filial obedience of the son to the father.’"’® Ah Q's coimects this lament with the rhetorical question: "What's the world coining to?" {xianzaide shijie zhen bvxiangyang

In the scene where Ah Q is beaten by Master Zhao for claiming lineage with his clan, the narrator of "True Story" tells the reader that "Ah Q began feeling quite pleased with himself that such a prestigious man was now his son" (trans. Lyell 114). An attack on the family ^stem was fundamental to the May Fourth. A statement such as "what's the world coming to" can readily be seen to be a barb at the national essence supporters. This is the type of statement the champions of national essence no doubt would make firequently in reference to modemizatioa’®°

One reason that the ploy of claiming to be beaten by his son is plausible in Ah Q's mind is that the common linguistic usage of the term, "one's father" {jaozi # ^ ) , was used when one wished to assert one's moral or righteous superiority over another. This occurs when one is angry or arrogant to mean "old me" or "venerable me" {jaozi

Lu Xun writes on this problem in "Suiganlu 58: renxin hen gu" where he cites Sima Qian to prove that the national essence supporters have been using this argument, in the formulation, ren xin buguj^ 'è ' (men's hearts are not as of old), for centuries. In "Shuo 'mianzi'" (Speaking of 'Face'), Lu Xun also refers to this terminology: "So desiring 'face' can also be said to be not so good a thing - but I'm not saying people should be 'shameless' Now its hard to s^ . Ifyou advocate'unfiliality'there will be people who will say you are inciting children to beat parents {shandong Ifyou advocate equality between the sexes, there will be people who will say you are promoting wanton sex - the voices are infinite" (126). 162

One etymological precursor of this expression in Lu Xun's critical vocabulary appears in his 1919 essay, "Women xianzai zenyang zuo fuqin" (What is required of us as fethers today). Here Lu Xun brings tq) the fact that his attackers claim that he believes "grandsons should spend the day beating their grandfathers, and daughters must frequently curse their mothers" (133). Although he doesn't explain who these attackers might be, they are certainly advocates of the Confucian idea of filial piety and thus detractors of May Fourth iconoclasts like Lu Xun, who criticize this element of Chinese culture. They are probably what Lu Xtm calls "pupils of the Sages" {shengren zhi tu ® A ^ ^ ) , a reference made by Lu

Xtm in this essay to Lin Shu's advocacy in a letter to Cai Yuanpei of returning to Confucianism and defending the (141 fii2). The basic thrust of this essay is that the old oppress the yotmg through the anti-evolutionary Confucian concept of filial piety.’“ Lu Xtm finds anti-evoltrtionaiy oppression in the idea that the Confucians even advocate cannibalism by promoting the idea that the son should cut off a limb to feed his starving parents. Lu Xun, on the other hand, argues that it is the young who are the best hope for the futtue, and thtis the parents should sacrifice for the child. Such perverse cultural beliefr indicated to Lu Xun that the Chinese national character most lacked love. Lu Xun says, " [i]n the first place, although we pride ourselves on our virtue in China, in actual feet we are only too deficient in mutual love and aid" {shiji que tai quefaxiangaixiangzhu de xinsi ; trans. LXSW 2: 67). Here we find Lu Xun expressing an idea in 1919 that Xu Shoushang attributed to Lu

Xun's late Qing critique of national character - that the Chinese most lacked love and sincerity.

Lu Xun's prose-poem, "Fuchou (qi er)" (Revenge H), is reminiscent of Ah Q's complaint that he is being beaten by his son through a most interesting depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus with elements of

Ah Q-like method of spiritual victoiy:

Pusey notes that Lu Xim's attack on Confucianism and filial piety as "counter-evolutionaiy" in this essay was echoing a poem written fifteen years earlier and ptiblished in Liang Qichao's Xinmin consbao (New Citizen Journal), as well as another "thousand essays" (205). From this we can directly connect the late Qing attack on this fundamental aspect of Confucianism with Lu Xun's May Fourth attack on it.

Kam-ming Wong notes that Lu Xun is "in effect turning Confucian ethics inside out and upside down" with the relegation of his tormentor to the position of son (300). 163

Hammering is heard and nails pierce his palms. But the feet that these pitiable creatures are crucifying their Son of God alleviates his pain Hammering is heard, and nails pierce the soles of his feet, breaking a bone so that pain shoots though his heart and marrow. But the feet that these execrable creatures are crucifying their Son of God comforts him in his pain. " (trans. LXSW 1 : 324)

Here Lu Xun has apparently located what seems to be an equivalent Westem analogy to this aspect of Ah

Q's method of ^iritual victory. The reversal of hierarchical status of son and fether in Ah Q's case is somewhat equivalent to the reversal of hierarchical status of "men" persecuting the Son of God here.

In this subsection I have shown that Ah Q's tactic of claiming to have been beaten by his son's

(invoking the Confucian value system) in his effort to obtain a ^iritual victory, is found in Lu Xun's essays and prose poetry as well as fictiorL The allegorical significance of this Ah Q trait is that China viewed itself as a great old nation with a long and glorious history, and viewed the inq)etialist powers as new rqpstart nations who showed no respect for the elder. Thus, the new nations of the West were like the sons beating iç on their old father, or grandfether, the old nation of China. Voicing the complaint, "to be beaten ty one' son" (or grandson), the national essence supporters were essentialfy arguing for the moral superiority of China as a nation by analogy to the Confucian doctrine of filial piety which held that the younger (nations in this case) owed reverence to the elder). Lu Xun thus criticizes the Chinese mentahty that would demand respect from foreign nations based on age of the nationu His criticism extended bQ^ond age and hierarchy, however, as illustrated by another aspect of the method of qtiritnal victory:

"We used to be much richer than you. "

3. "We used to be much richer than you." {women xianqian bi ni kuode duo la S fflÆ lu

Another aspect of the method of spiritual victory is Ah Q's self-aggrandizement, revealed in his frequent claim "We used to be much richer than you." {women xianqian bi ni kuode duo

Lu Xun also refers to this feature using the abbreviation, "richer in the past" {xianqian kuo ^ iu !§)• This is an extension of the first and third categories of patriotic self-aggrandizement 164 enumerated in "Suiganlu 38," "Number-One-ism" and "First-ism."'^^ The idea that China had wealth before the West had wealth was an inçortant spiritual justification for the champions of Chinese q>iritual culture. Through Ah Q's claim that he was richer before, and a corollary claim that his sons will be richer. Lu Xun satirizes the sense of siçeriority of those Chinese who would make a similar claim wherj_ ^ feced with the superiority of the West In Ah Q's case, it is virtually inconceivable to the reader that he or his descendants could ever be rich and thus this statement is invoked merely to assuage their sense of self- respect.

During the late Qing, Lu Xun had ejq>ressed his disgust with the self-deception of the type immortalized later in Ah Q with the words "we used to be much richer than you," where he said:

"An ancient civilization" (gu wenming guo is just adismal name, a modcery! The scion of a feUen house babbles on that in the dtys of his incomparably wise and mighty ancestors, they had storied mansions, jewelry, horses, hounds, and more honor than common men. Can you blame his audience for laughing? ("Mara" trans. Tsau and Holoch 98)

So even in the late Qing, Lu Xun had alreaity articulated his disdain for this aqject of Chinese philosopher's "wisdom," which he saw as "running counter to the facts [of the history] of human evolution" (renlei Jinhua skishi, shi zheng beicki 100). Lu Xun viewed the practice of "looking to the past" as an idealization and justification for "weak and incapable" thinkers who

"live out their lives as hermits" (yinyi zhong "Mara" 101).

4. The Ability to Forget (wangque 7^gP)

Another aspect of the method of spiritual victory pointed out in "True Story" is "forgetfulness" or "the ability to forget" (wangque ^§P). This is a theme discussed in marty of Lu Xun's essays. It appears a

These are as follows: 1) "China is a vast land of great material abundance, the first to be civilized; it is first in the world in morality." 3) "All things foreign existed first in China: this particular science or that philosophical precept, for exarrçle." (These last two schools of thought are branches of the larger Ancient-Modem Chinese-Foreign School, which follow Zhang Zhidong's maxim, "Chinese learning for the essence, Westem learning for practical matters" (trans. Denton 91). 165 number of times in "True Story," but most pertinently when Ah Q suffers his second humiliation upon being beaten by the Bogus Foreign Devil:

In Ah Q's memory, this could probably be reckoned as the second real disgrace of an entire lifetime. Fortunately, however, by the time the whacking sounds had subsided, he had begun to feel somewhat relaxed. It was radier as if he'd just completed some pressing task that had to be done. What was more, "forgetfulness" - that priceless medicine handed down to us by our ancestors - began to take its effect too. He headed away toward the wineshop and by the time he drew near the door he had long since begun to feel quite happy again (trans. Lyell 119)

Not only is "forgetfulness" a priceless medicine, but as Lu Xun notes here it is also hereditarily transmitted. After "True Story," Lu Xun analyzed the consequences of this trait in "Nuola zou hou zertyang" (What happens after Nora leaves?; 1924), as noted in Chapter 4, in the context of discussing what parents needed to do to liberate their children for a bright future.*^ In short, one's descendants are condenmed to commit the same type of mistakes as their ancestors because of the ability to forget. This type of "forgetting" is brought out a few years later in "Lao diaozi yijing changwan" (Already finished singing the old tune; 1927), where Lu Xun also makes the observation that the Chinese keep repeating the same mistakes because they have no memory (fixing |2'I4). what Lu Xtm calls here one of the "qiecial national characteristics" (tebie de guoqing

The first [special national characteristic] is that the Chinese have no memory (fixmg #B%). Because they have no memory, what they heard yesterday they forget today, and when they hear it again tomorrow it sounds fresL They also do things like this. Yesterday's screwup is forgotten today and repeated tomorrow. This is the old tune of "following old customs" (rengjiu guan -(%

The second [special national characteristic] is that before the individual's old tune has been finished being sung, the nation has already perished (mieweng t ) quite a few times. Why is that? I think that all the old tunes should have been finished at some time, and every enlightened person with a conscience (you liangxin, you juewu de ren ^ A ) naturally knows that when that time has arrived the old tune should be discarded and not sung agairu But most of these self-centered people are unwilling to take the people as the sovereign body and only

I'll repeat Lu Xun's comments here: "A bad memory (fixing bu fia is beneficial to oneself but harmful to one's descendants. Because people are able to forget they themselves can gradually distance themselves from the sufferings they have experienced, and because they can forget they frequently commit the same mistakes that others before them committed ("Nuola zou hou zeryang" 163- 4).

The accompanying note says this ergression comes fiom an article by Yuan Shikai's American advisor on reestablishing the monarchy based on the idea that the Chinese are not suited to a democratic form of government (305fii2) 166

think of their own profit,*^* always singing them over and over without finishing Thus, even while they haven't finished singing their own old tune, the nation has already been sung to death. (300-1).

This "old tune" is Confucianism. The two qiecial characteristics, having no memory and the cyclical annihilation of the nation, are intricately connected by Lu Xtm in this quote. The people in power whom he criticizes here are the same old grotqt of Confucian stqtporters, as indicated by the ejqpression,

"following old customs" {rengjiu guan which comes fiom Confucius' Analects.'^’ Prior to the citation above, in terms reminiscent of "Mara," Lu Xtm analyzes the state of literary circles and asks where was China's new voice. He returns to the issue of China's defeat by barbarians, asserting that the cycle of dynasties follows this old time, and in feet, both the Mongols and the Manchus followed the tune, and it also eventually lead them to destruction. Lu Xtm notes that the assimilation of barbarians in this maimer is like passing a contagious disease to others (302): such is the power of Confucianism. Infect, he fingers the Song Neo-Confiicianists directly for their complicity in the destruction of the Song, Yuan,

Ming and Qing ^masties (301). From a Ming source he borrows the metaphor of the "soft knife" {man daozi ^ JJ ■?•) ’^ to sum tqi this old tune of Confucianism, represented by the eight-legged essay

This is a repetition of Lu Xim's criticism of opportunists in "Aberrations."

See the accompanying footnote (306 fii3).

In the preface to the collection of essays. Fen (The grave; 1927), Lu Xun explains that the soft knife is the one that can cut off someone's head without them feeling it (LXOJ 1:5). In "Lao diaozi yijing changwan" (Alrea^ finished singing the old tune; 1927), Lu Xtm uses "soft knife" {man daozi ■?■) as a metaphor for ancient things which kiU the people without letting them feel it (303). This soft knife is "old essays and old thoughts [like Confucianism], that have nothing to do with society anymore" (303). But the problem of national essence is still around, "Now you actually hear people often say that Chinese culture is very good and should be preserved. The proof is that foreigners also often praise China. This is a soft knife" (303). Lu Xtm concludes, "Preserving the old culture is to eternally be the stuff of a servant to one's master: scraping along, scraping along. I once wrote a miscellaneous essay saying something like: 'All those who praise old Chinese culture are mostly rich people who live in the foreign concessions or peaceful places. Because they have money they dont feel the pain of the civil war, and so they make this kind of praise'" (304). "Unlike during the Yuan and Qing, however," Lu Xtm points out, "the Chinese are not singing to the demise of others, but singing to the demise of themselves" (304-5). The metaphor of the soft knife is also used in juxtaposition with the "iron knife" in the "Tici" (Dedication) to Lu Xun's essay collection, Erviii (That's that), to refer to the butchers of the May Thirtieth who live fiee and urçimished (LXOJ 3:408). 167

{baguwen examinations (kaoshi # ^ ) , writing ancient Chinese (zuo guwen and reading ancients books (kan gushu # -6 "# ):

Now you really often hear people say that Chinese culture is really fine and should be preserved. Even foreigners often use this kind of praise. This is the soft knife. Perhaps we would be able to feel it if a steel knife was used, so consequently they use a soft knife. I think that the time for us to use our own old tune to sing ourselves to death has alreatfy arrived. (303-4)

So the Chinese national characteristic of forgetting leads to the rqjeated singing of the old tune of

Confucianism which in turn leads to the cycling of dynasties and death and destruction of the Chinese people in the same age-old feshiorn As noted above in "Shisi nian de 'dujing'" ("Reading the Classics" in the fourteenth year [of the Republic]; 1925), the ability to forget was also applied to the "upright gentlemen" whom Lu Xun so caustically criticized for advocating reading the Neo-Confucian Classics to save the natiom Reading the classics acts to transmit the pernicious national character. Here in "Lao diaozi yijing chang wan" it appears that Lu Xun has elaborated on that criticism to e^qplain in more detail how the soft knife of Confucianism kills the people and nation through the dynastic cycle of history.

Elsewhere Lu Xun elaborates on this point by relating the "ability to forget" to the lack of sympathy for others, which eventually perpetuates the cycle of cannibalism and slavery in Chinese society:

Because the hierarchy [of slaves] handed down since ancient times has estranged men from each other, they carmot feel each other's pain; and because each can hope to enslave and eat other men, he forgets that he may be enslaved and eaten himself. Thus since the dawn of civilization countless feasts of human flesh - large and small - have been spread, and those at these feasts eat others and are eaten themselves; but the anguished cries of the weak, to say nothing of the women and the children, are drowned in the senseless clamor of the murderers. ("Deng xia man bi" 157)

Here we see the cyclical nature of Chinese society, in Lu Xun's view, in which the abihty to forget numbs people's pain, alienates them firom other's pain, and thus perpetuates the violence, cannibalism and slavery, making it endemic to society.

Another dimension of the ability to forget is revealed in "Fengzheng" (The kite; 1925), where Lu Xun tells a personal story of the negative psychological consequences of forgetting. It seems that as a child he had mean-spiritedly broken up his younger brother's kite and the guilt stayed with him for years. As an adult, when he endeavored to relieve the burden of guilt by apologizing, bis younger brother didn't even 168 remember it had happened {guanran wangque X even though the kite had meant a lot to him at the time. Viewed from the perspective of Ah Q's ability to forget when suffering some mistreatment or defeat, this anecdote provides insight into another dimension of the "ability to forget": even after

"enlightenment" the victimizer will never be able to unburden himself of the guilt of past deeds (since the incident was forgotten by the victim), unless he himself uses the characteristic of forgetfulness, which would be to lapse into unenlightened mentality. Resolution is prevented: "The thing was completely forgotten, with no hard feelings. In that case, what forgiveness could there be? Without hard feelings, forgiveness is a lie. What hope is there for me now? My heart will always be heavy" (trans. LXSW 2:

332). Enlightenment entails the development of a historical memory, and moreover, as Lu Xun demonstrates here, the unwillingness to lapse back into forgetfidness, even if it means having to live with the truth of his evil deed.

D. Slave Mentality (nuli xing

When Ah Q was dragged into court in the final chapter of "True Story," the first thing he did was to go down on his knees. The judge yelled at him to stand, but he knelt anyway, eliciting the judge's exclamation: "Slave nature!" {nuli xing 105). Lu Xun's critique of slavish mentality of the

Chinese people goes back to his late Qing essay, "Mara," discussed in Chapter 3, where he wrote of the fate of Poland and India, both of which were enslaved by foreign nations.'T he example of these two enslaved nations was particularly poignant for China because she was, as Lu Xun saw it, on the verge of enslavement herself, but through the irony of a particular aspect of her national character she denies the feet:

Let's walk the thoroughferes of China where soldiers amble through market squares bawling army songs that damn the servility {nuxing % # ) of India and Poland; national anthemers do the

In "Wu sheng de Zhongguo" (Silent China), written in 1927, Lu Xun reiterates the theme that imperialism will lead to extinction of the Chinese, as in the case of the Egyptians, Koreans and Indians, by using the metaphor of silence (16). 169

same.'^ China these days would love to recount its illustrious past but has not been able to, claiming instead that this neighbor’s a slave and that one's a corpse, flexing itself against conquered nations in hopes of looking superior. Regardless of who comes oflF worse, Cathay or the other two, if this be panegyric, if this be the voice of the nation [literally "voice of the citizen" guomin zhi sheng although people everywhere chanted it, it must be the first of its kind. ("Mara"; trans. Tsau and Holoch 99)

Lu Xun argues that China deceives herself about her own strength by comparing its greatness to the weakness of these two conquered nations. In this citation Lu Xim uses the term nuxing, to represent the idea of "servility" or "slavishness." In his later writings he uses a variety of permutations of this term: nucai nuli , nuli genxing % # # # , and in 1935 he even founded a society and journal with his student Xiao Hong called the Nuli she (Slave Society).^®^ References to slave mentality abound in his writings starting around 1925. This mentality is often ejq)ressed in the duality of cowering before those stronger and bullying those weaker.

Lu Xun delves into a critique of "slave mentality" in a series of nine essays published firom January to

May of 1925. These essays, entitled "Huran xiangdao" (It suddenly occurred to me), rival or even surpass his 1919 "Suiganlu" in their ferocity of attacks on the national essence and character. In the first essay in this series. Lu Xun insults and derides eminent figures for odd and unscientific ideas, such as the idea of late Qing reformer, Kang Youwei, who allegedly said that the knees have the biologically determined function of kneeling. In the third essay Lu Xun addresses the topic of slave mentality talking about the

For another view of the impact of India on China, see Hu Shih, "The Indianization of China: A Case Study in Cultural Borrowing," Independence. Convergence and Borrowing in institutions. Thought and Art (Cambridge: Harvard College, 1937): 219-247. Hu discusses how the Chinese "unwittingly appropriated the spirit and essence of the very culture they had intended to uproot" (246), and concludes, "With the new aids of modem science and technology, and of the new social and historical sciences, we are confident that we may yet achieve a rapid liberation jhom the two thousand years' cultural domination by India" (247).

"Congmingren he shazi he nucai" (LXOJ 2:211-3).

Lu Xun and associates also edited a collection of modem literature called Nuli congshu (Collection of Slaves; Shanghai: Rongguang, 1935). In the armouncement of the Slave Society Xiao Hong and Ye Zi wrote: "We are trapped in the position of being 'slaves' and being 'allowed to be slaves,' at the minimum we should make a few cries of the slave and use all our might and all our perseverance.... This is how the name Collection of Slaves was chosen" (qtd. in ZGWXDCD 3: 1725). 170 idea that th; 1911 Revolution did not realty result in the establishment of a republic: "I feel that before the revolution I was a slave; not long after the revolution I was tricked by the slaves and became their slave" (16).^“

Concurrent with his new emphasis on ejq)osmg the slave mentahty of the Chinese people in the

"Huran xiangdao" series. Lu Xun wrote a number of other essays that echoed his analysis of this problem.

The duality of victim and victimizer runs quite deep in the Chinese mentality as Lu Xun saw it, and he demonstrates this quite poignantly in "Lun zhaoxiang zhi lei," where he discusses the apparently common practice of ftaming diptych photographs:

What was rather popular was to take two pictures of oneself, each with a different costume and ejq)ression, then put them together into a single photograph: two selves, like a guest and host, or a master and slave [servant]. This we called the "Picture of Two Selves." But a different name was used when one of the selves was seated imperiously above the other, which knelt before it depraved and pitiful: "Picture of Me Entreating Myself." (trans. Denton 200)

In China there is a common saying that gets right to the heart of the matter "He who is arrogant to his inferiors will be servile to those above." But nothing surpasses the "Picture of Me Entreating Myself in fully expressing this idea. (200)

Lu Xun sees an analogy between customary practices like the "Picture of Two Selves" and the weakness of

China in respect to the imperialist powers - both reflect the aspect of the national character in which the strong bully the weak and are bullied by those stronger.

Essay seven of the "Huran xiangdao" series discusses this dichotomy of victim and victimizer found in "Lun zhaoxiang zhi lei" by making a metaphorically comparing the Chinese people to sheep and savage beasts:

[The people] are sheep, and at the same time also savage beasts; but tq)on meeting savage beasts even more savage than themselves, they put on the appearance of sheep, and upon meeting sheep even weaker than themselves, they put on the appearance of savage beasts. Because of this, Wu Zhejun mistakenly takes them for two different things (58)

Lu Xun addresses the mentahty of slaves by comparing it to "clever people" in an prose poem written December 26,1925 called "Congming ren he shazi he nucai" (Clever people and fools and slaves). This term nucai was used by ministers to refer to themselves when speaking to the Emperor in the Qing (tynasty, but a related term, nuchai , was used during the Ming (Cihai 1:1298). 171

Recalling the actions of both students and government during the May Fourth, Lu Xun writes that they both act like sheep and savage beasts, depending on the enemy confronting them at the time. This contradictory behavior is not just limited to students and govermnent, but can cross the bounds of gender, as demonstrated when a woman, Yang Yinyu, became principal of Beijing Women's Normal University and hired men to threaten and coerce the radical female students who were involved in protesting against the government. Lu Xun concludes:

But before the arrival of the golden world. I'm afraid that it is generally unavoidable to have these two kinds of characteristics {}iang zhong xingzhi simultaneously. When the golden world is discovered then weH know who is courageous and who is cowardly. Too bad that the Chinese exhibit the appearance of savage beasts to the sheep and the appearance of sheep to the savage beast, and are still cowardly citizens. Continuing in this maimer is certain to be the end. (59)

This spht character of bullying and cowering is thus refined to being at once p r^ and predator (or victim and victimizer). Despite the consciousness of nation, the people are "still cowardly citizens," and the result of having such timid citizens is the perpetuation of an Ah Q trait, a national characteristic, that will lead to national extinction. Changing the national character is directly coimected with saving the nation, and Lu Xun does seem to have a "practical" solution:

I believe that if China is to be saved, it isn't necessary to introduce anything into her, the youth must just take these two characteristic ancient methods and put them to use as one method, and that's enough: towards savage beasts just be like a savage beast, and towards sheep just be like a sheep! (59)

Thus, here Lu Xun advocates a revolutionary change in personal behavior that could construct a new mode of inter-personal relations between the Chinese.

Lu Xtm also published a number of important essays connecting "slave mentality" and the national essence. The first is "Zai Itm Leifengta de daodiao" (Once again on the collapse of Leifeng Pagoda;

1925). This is a moral parable about the need for unified public service in the face of general selfishness.

Lu Xtm reflects on the cowardliness of the Chinese, making the point that they are always overrtm by foreigners. Once overrun, the foreigners were then asked to be rulers and the old traditions were restored tmder the new ruler's sword. The same happens when a Chinese rebel appears: he is asked to rule and 172 the old traditions are restored again. The problem with Leifeng Pagoda is that selfish people, out for their own gain, steal what are viewed as lucky bricks fiom the pagoda and this eventually causes its collapse and loss to everybody. But nobocfy is foresighted enough to view this as a concern to the general public. From this parable. Lu Xun makes an analogy to the Chinese nation explicit:

This kind of slavish (nucai shide destruction can only result in leaving behind a tile [ruins], and is unrelated to construction. It is not just the country folk and Leifeng Pagoda, but aren't the slaves who daily steal the foundation stones of the Chinese Republic now too many to know? The wreckage is not distressing, but repairing the old at the sight of the ruins is. We need destroyers (pohuaizhe that make reforms because their hearts have the light of a new ideal. We should know the difference between them and the rebel slaves (guandao nucai :ÿ"); we should guard against ourselves feUing into the latter category.... (195)

Continuing his diatribe against slave mentality, in "Kan jing you gan" (Feelings upon looking in/at the mirror, 1925), Lu Xun ostensibly attacks the national essence group for claiming that ancient bronze mirrors are more accurate than glass ones (presumably irrçorted or manufactured with Western technology). The decorations engraved in bronze on an old mirror he finds in a trunk reminds Lu Xtm of its Han rfynasty vintage and sets him to thinldng of analogies to his own tunes. During the Han, he tells us, such utensils were decorated with foreign objects, like the horse, pomegranate, or cherry, "new objects fiom abroad, without the least scruple" (198). In addition he says, "People of the Tang ^nasty were not weaklings" because like the Han they too used foreign images in artistic decorations (198). However, Lu

Xun sees an analogy between the present conditions and those when foreign enemies threatened during the Southern Song:

Song (fynasty literature and art, like today's national essence, assails the nostrils. But the Khitans, the Golden Tartars, and Mongols came in succession. This news is quite worth pondering. Although the Han and Tang also had border problems, their spirit was great after aU, and the people didn't come to have the self-confidence of slaves of a foreign race (yizu nucai de zbdmdn or perhaps it never in the least occurred to them. V,Tien they used something taken fiom abroad, they used it as if they had captured it, fieely and without the least misgivings. As soon as the state became weak and decadent, the nerves became weak and

This is an example of "pressing down or raising up" that Lu Xun pointed out as a characteristic of dealing with strong people in his essay, "Zhege yu neige": "Upon meeting an ominous person who makes them unea^r, Chinese people have two tactics: pressing him down or raising him up.... When they feil to press him down they raise him up, thinking that raising him high enough and keeping him satisfied can keep him fiom doing them no harm, and thus they are at peace" (140). 173

overly sensitive {shenjingkejiu shuaruo Every time they encountered something foreign, they felt like it was here to capture them, so they refused, feared, retreated and escaped, trembling in a group, trying to think tq> some rationale to cover-rç). The national essence (guocui ^ j|$ ) followed, and became the treasure of weak kings and weak slaves. (199)

Lu Xun asserts a relationship between the people's willingness to accept foreign influences, their strength and self-confidence, and the strength of the state. When the state was strong, as it was dining the Han and Tang, the people would accept foreign influences such as decorative motifs. When the state was weak and decadent, as in the Song and in Lu Xun's times, the people lacked the self-confidence to do so, and they thus developed the argument that accepting foreign things threatens the national essence. A weak and decadent people advocate the national essence in an attempt to cover up their weakness, which only backfires and allows them to be conquered and enslaved. Advocacy of the national essence, in Lu Xun's view, is thus an indicator of slave mentality and would inevitably result in the future enslavement of the

Chinese by foreigners. While a conqueror like the strong Manchu emperor Kang XL used Roman letters on a seal. Lu Xun notes, "no slave of Han ethnicity (kanzu nucai # 3 ^ % :^ ') would dare do that" (199).

Turning the national essence champion's phrase back on them, "the world degenerates more each day"

(shifeng ri xia B T ), Lu Xun draws the moral that:

If we want to progress, or not to regress, we must put forward some new ideas firom time to time, or at least take something firom abroad. If we have all kinds of taboos, all kinds of worries, all kinds of incessant chatter - in this way we go against our ancestors and in that way we are like the barbarians - and all our lives act as if we're on thin ice, we won't even have time to tremble. How will we be able to do aiything worthwhile? So in reality those who say "times are not what they were" (jin bum gu zhe « ” # ) are like this because of all the incessant chattering by these gentlemen that "times are not what they were." (199-200)

Lu Xun fibnishes with a final sarcastic punch at national essence champions: "He [Wang Rizhen] says that glass mirrors are not as accurate as brass ones in reflecting one's appearance. Can glass mirrors of his day really be as bad as this, or is it because the venerable gentleman was wearing the glasses of national essence {guocui yanjin (201)? This cuts to the heart of the issue, firom Lu Xun's point of view, that national essence ideology distorts one's perception of reality. 174

Another important essay indicating Lu Xun's increasing emphasis on the "slave" mentahty of the

national essence is "Deng xia man hi" (Notes written by lamphght; 1925). Framed as an anecdote about

the loss of value of paper currency after Yuan Shikai declared himself emperor and his own ensuing

economic insecurity as he endeavored to change his bills into silver at a loss. Lu Xtm talks of economics

and the value (or lack thereof) placed on human life by referring back to the Yuan dynasty when people

were valired only as much as horses:

There are despots who "treat men as less than human/' and not only as less than human but as even lower than cattle - as dirt - so that people envy cattle and lament that "a man in time of trouble is not as good as a dog in time of peace." If at this point the rulers treat people more like oxen or horses - for instance, the Yuan Dynasty law decreed that whoever killed a slave should give his master an ox as compensation - all citizens will be happy and contented and praise such a good, peaceful reigrr Why? Because though th^r are not ranked as human, at least they are equal to cattle.’®^ (trans. LXSW 2: 150)

Lu Xun sarcastically refers to this state as the "climax of spiritual culture"(jingshen wenming de gaochao

He asserts, however, that "on many occasions we were worse off than slaves" (150),

and takes pains to point out firom this that people were happy to be slaves, to be subjected to a "definite master" because in times of chaos th ^ would be killed by the armies of both sides. Interestingly, Lu Xun admits to this type of psychology himself: "But as 1 put the packet of silver in iry pocket, reassured by its very weight, in the midst of my joy a thought flashed into my mind: How easy it is for us to become slaves, and to revel in our slavery!" (trans. LXSW 2:150). He concludes that Chinese history is a cycle of two periods: (1) periods when people wished to be slaves but were unable to be, and (2) periods when they had temporary stability as slaves. Satirizing the orthodox Chinese interpretation of the rise and fall of dynasties, he says, "These periods form a cycle of what earlier scholars call times of good rule' and times of confusion'" (152). Although Lu Xun notes that "to create a third %)e of period, hitherto unknown in Chinese history, is the task of our young people today" (153), he is not convinced that such a thing can be done. Leveling his sights at the champions of national essence. Lu Xun s^ s he is not sure what period of Chinese history he is in:

1S5 This should be tied to "Lue lun Zhongguoren de lian." 175

I don't know which period we are in. Bnt seeing how the national studies groiq) (guocui jia ^ ) venerates the national essence (guocui g # ) , the literary groiq) praises the ancient civilization (guyou -wenniing and the Confucian's ardor for revival of the ancient it is obvious they are not satisfied with the present (my translation 214)

In the second part of "Dengxia manbi" Lu Xun links slavery and cannibalism in his most scathing critique

of the cannibalistic aspect of society since "Diary of a Madman" in 1918. Slavery, he writes, is

historically tied to cannibalism, as when Chinese sacrificed their children to invading barbarians. Lu Xun

sees that they are preparing the same type of banquet for the Westerners:

Men may be oppressed by others, but they can oppress others themselves. They may be eaten, but they can also eat others. With such a hierarchy of repression, the people cannot stir, and indeed thQT do not want to, because though good may come of it if they stir, trouble mty also result. (153)

Lu Xun identifies an ancient hierarchy of slaves lording over slaves: Gods, rulers, princes, knights,

gentlemen, all the way to the very lowest slaves. Below the slaves are wives and children and this

completes the cycle because the children grow up to be slaves with wives and children to serve them. He

then explains the psychological logic of this cruel system wherein people have the dual nature of prey and predator:

Because the hierarchy handed down since ancient times has estranged men 6om each other, they carmot feel each othar's pain; and because each can hope to enslave and eat other men, he forgets that he may be enslaved and eaten himself. Thus since the dawn of civilization countless feasts - large and small - of human flesh have been spread, and those at these feasts eat others and are eaten themselves; but the anguished cries of tihe weak, to say nothing of the women and the children, are drowned in the senseless clamor of the murderers. (157)

So here we have Lu Xun's ultimateanalysis of Chinese society - his connection of slave mentality, people’s dual nature as prey and predator (victim and victimizer), and the consequences of such a system in terms of the evolution of the carmibalistic feast This is juxtaposed with the national essence champions' veneration of national essence and Confucian ardor for renewal of ancient civilization and an

ejqplanation of why they are fence-sitters: because they are prey to the forces of both invading and defending armies.

Striking closer to the politics of the time Lu Xun wrote an essay responding to the death of his student, Liu Hezhen , on March 18,1926, who was killed in demonstrations near Tiananmen 176

("Jinian Liu Hezhen jun" [Memorial to Liu Hezhen]). As with the Thirtieth massacres of the previous years, this incident had a great impact upon Lu Xun, to the point where he felt his own personal safety a risk and left Beijing to take teaching positions temporarily in Xiamen (9/4/26 -1/16/27) and

Guangzhou (1/18/27 - 9/27/27) before eventually settling down in the relative security of the foreign concessions in Shanghai on October 3,1927. Before leaving Beijing, Lu Xun wrote a number of esstys that reflect his disgust and pessimism about the state of politics in Chinese society at the time. These essays continue the themes of slave mentality and the psychology of prey and predator. In his first article responding to the March Eighteenth massacre, titled "Si di" (Place of death), written on March 25th, Lu

Xun's opening lines address this criticism:

For most people, eqtecially for the Chinese who have long been trampled by foreign races and their slaves and hired ruffians {nupuyingquan % # # ^ ) , those who are the killers are usually the victors, and those who are killed are usually the inferior defeated. The facts in front of us are certainly this way. (267)

Lu Xun goes on to attack those who criticized the demonstrating students for asking for death. In this light all of China is such a "place of death," and the terror of death is used to enslave people, to "make the people into horses and cows" (267). Lu Xun sees sacrifice as necessary for reform but that the sacrifices should be careftdly considered, not lightly undertakerr And in his "Jinian Liu Hezhen jtm," he comments on the accusations that those killed were "violent elements" {baotu ^ ^ ) , invoking his deep concern for the fate of the Chinese race once again, saying, "I understand the reason for the silence of a waning race.

Ah, silence, ah, silence! If one doesn't ejqplode (baofa # # ) in the midst of silence one will perish in the midst of silence" (276). Here the "voiceless" theme of the society of slaves is raised again, and he calls

again for a voice for the people to fill this silence, as in "Mara."

E. Face (rW m # @ )

The issue of "fece," referred to variously as "respectability" (ftTOcwfg®), "fece"

action of "losing fece" (diulian ^ # ) , and by references to shame and humiliation, is intricately tied to 177 national character in Lu Xun's analysis. He may have been alerted to this aspect by his readings of foreign analyses of Chinese national character.'^ One indication of this is found in "Mashang zhi riji"

(Immediate branch diary; 1926), where Lu Xun notes that foreigners recognized the crucial ingortance of understanding fece in order to understand Chinese character. He notes that Smith wrote on this subject in

Chinese Characteristics to the effect that, "In a word, the conqjlex crux formed by the Chinese person's important national character is 'fece' (fimian # @ )" (326). Smith's observations on fece. Lu Xun notes, are still relevant to foreigners in 1926:

I don't know if the foreigners I've encountered have been influenced by Smith, or if th ^ know from personal ogerience, but quite a few have noticed what the researchers of Chinese say is so- called "respectability" {fimian ) or "face" {mianzi ® ■?■). Yet I feel they really knew firom experience early on, and furthermore apply it If they become even better at applying it, then not only will they certainly win in diplomacy, they will also obtain the good feelings of the upper class "Chinamen." At this time we won't say "Chinaman" {Zhinaren or Shinajin as a substitute for "Chinese" {Huaren ^ A) because this also concerns the respectabihly of the "Chinese." (327)

In addition to using the terms "req>ectabihty" and "fece" as synoiQuns here. Lu Xun also indicates that face is a strong tool for manipulation in Chinese culture in the game of international diplomacy. It is also clear that Lu Xun recognizes that face is linguistically constructed, to be given or lost in part on the basis of terms of reference such as the neutral "Chinese" or the pejorative "Chinaman." Eight years later in his essay, "Shuo 'mianzi'" (Speaking of "Face"; 1934), Lu Xun once again brings iq> the idea that foreigners are stu^dng fece for hegemonic purposes:

The term "face" {mianzi ®-?-) keqjs cropping up in our conversation, and it seems such a simple expression that I doubt whether many people give it much thought Recently, however, we have heard this word on the lips of foreigners, too, who seem to be studying it They find it extremely hard to understand, but beheve that "fece" is the key to the Chinese spirit {Zhongguo jingshen 4* P f f 1^) and that grasping it will be like grabbing a queue twenty-four years ago - everything else will follow, (trans. LXSW 4:131)

Lydia H. Liu points out, "In textual analyses. Ah Q's obsession with face is often cited as a central argument for Chinese national character. Ah Q's tendency to rationalize defeat has inspired some of the most entertaining episodes in the story..." (65). Liu briefty discusses the unintended use of Smith's missionary concept of fece in "True Story" and Lu Xun's other essays to demonstrate her thesis of the "translated national character" (66-9). 178

Thus, the foreign intention in studying fece was motivated by the desire to manipulate China, or control it like "grabbing a queue" sported during the Qing Dynasty. Here, Lu Xun ^ h e s a met^hor used in "True

Story," grabbing Ah Q's queue, to China's international relations, implying that what will follow is the butting of China's head, like Ah Q's, against the wall in the "time honored feshion."

"Shuo mianzi" ties the issue of face with many of the themes of Lu Xun's critique of the national character and plot elements found in "True Story"; the Chinese spirit {Zhongguo jingshen lice rafcbinp pulling the queue, children beating their parents, being told off by "Fourth Master," and particularly the method of spiritual victory, which is demonstrated in an example:

Tradition has it that in the Qing Dynasty some foreigner went to the Zongji Yamen to make certain demands, and so frightened the mandarins by his threats that they agreed to everything; but when he left he was shown out through a side door. Denial to the main gate meant that he had lost fece. If he lost fece that meant that China gained fece and came off the victor. Although I cannot vouch for the truth of this story, quite a few "Chinese and foreign gentlemen" have heard it (trans. LXSW 4: 131)

So fece is a method for understanding the Chinese spirit and the manipulation of Chinese ofScials by foreigners, but also a means for the Chinese to gain a victory in the wake of clear defeat - thus we have

Ah Q's method of spiritual victory once again in this article written 12 years later. Quoting the Japanese critic htyozekan Hasegawa, Lu Xun concludes saying that the secret to face is changing a name but acting the same:

It is a good thing that the Chinese want fece; the pity is that this fece is so flexible, so constantly changing that it becomes confused with not wanting fece. Nyozekan Hasegawa said of the Robber's Spring, "Gentlemen of old (gu zhi junzi 'è '2 # '? - ) , disgusted by the spring's name would not drink from it; but the gentlemen of today (jin zhi junzi ) have changed the firing's name and drink from it" This is the secret of the face of the "gentlemen of today." (trans. LXSW 4:134)

While he refers to the works of foreigners like Smith to provide a context for his discussion of face, he demonstrates his ability to apply Smith's observations by reading the problem of fece into a parallel example here. Importantly, the foreigners did not understand fece, however. Lu Xun shows here that he knows the "secret" to Chinese fece: actions and words need not accord in order for fece to be maintained, even if it means changing the words to maintain fece. Thus, Lu Xun goes well beyond Smith's 179 observations and shows that face is part of the general problem of national character, which is linked with the method of spiritual victory. Here, part of the orientalist discourse is magnified by Lu Xun, who surpasses the Westerner's analysis by his own e:q) 0sure of the "truth" (secret) of fece. In essence. Lu Xun is tipped ofFby the Orientalist's recognition of the problem of face, and he elaborates on a Chinese subjectivity, the national essence, that he finds negative and thus attempts to destroy through exposure.

One final aspect of this negative national character is instrumental to perpetuating the fecade of face:

"acting."

F. Acting (zzfoxf

In "Mashang zhi riji" Lu Xun explains Smith's idea that fece was related to the act or show {pioxi % gg) represented by the expression, "the whole world's a stage":

He [Yasuoka] appears to believe Smith's Chinese Characteristics, which is often cited as an authoritative source. They had a translation of this book twenty vears ago called Chinese Characteristics: however we Chinese for the most part didn't notice it In the first chapter Smith says that he believes the Chinese are a race that has a rather affected style (pioxx qiwei and a slightly overbearing spirit, which becomes acting. Every word and sentence, every movement of hand and foot, all are affected. Those actions which comes from the heart are few, while those which are put-on are many. In a word, the complex crux formed by the Chinese person's important national character is "fece" {timian fS® ). If we try to take a wide view and self-reflect, then we will know that this is not at all overly venomous. There is a good coiqrlet going around on stage that says, "The stage is a small universe, the universe is a big stage." Everyborfy after all looks on everything as an act. Whoever believes it is a fool. But neither is this exclusively applicable to positive fece ijiji de timian ^ @ 6 9 # ® ) . The heart contains indignation and fears retribution, which also makes everything a part of the thought of acting (xi de sixiang 69 S 5® ). Since everything is an act, then indignation is felse and not avenging [a wrong] is not cowardly. So even if one sees injustice on the street, one is unable to draw one's sword and fight it, and neither will one lose one's reputation as an upright gentleman {zhengren junzi IE AS""?)- (326-7)

Acting is thus intricately related to face and reputation, regardless of the truth of any situation, and fece and reputation are just an act which Lu Xun understands in the context of national character. Acting is face in action in spite of any kind of adversity or injustice. This, according to Lu Xun, results in national essence moralists and Neo-Confiicianists crying crocodile tears when th ^ advocate preserving the national culture{baocun guogu ^ # # % ) , rejuvenating morality{zhenxing daode # # ^ # ) , 180 maintaining truth (yveichi gongli and rectifying studies (zhengli xuefeng ###@ ,). In fact, the audience is aware and thus complicit in, the act:

Once [the national essence moralists and Neo-Confucianists] are acting (pioxi then the swagger on stage is generally not the same as the fece ofistage. Yet, although the audience is clearly aware of the act, if one plays it well they will still be able to be sad or happy about it, and so the act will continue; whoever uncovers the act will be thought of as a spoil sport (327)

To extend Lu Xun's logic one step, with the audience comphcit in the charade, aiyone like Lu Xun who uncovers the act is condemned because they will have disallowed the possibility of maintaining fece. This in eSect precludes the possibihty of maintaining the self-deception and deception of others {ziqi qiren g

all of which is part of the act carried on in the Chinese spiritual culture, transmitted through the absence of historical memory (jixing

China's spiritual culture was defeated by guns long ago and already has had numerous experiences that prove everything it has is destitute. The tabooed word "destitute" (yi wu suoyou — can naturally be spoken in self-consolation (zhvei g # ) ; if one wanted to say it a little more eloquently, it is like wanning oneself next to the stove on a cold day - it makes one so comfortable that one will doze off. But the retribution is eternally incurable and all sacrifice is a waste because while everyone is dozing the fox spirit will eat all the sacrifices and get even fetter. Most likely, people must from this have some memory (jixing), keep an eye out in all directions and completely sweep away all the previous hopes of self-deception and deceiving people they had talked about; tear off all the masks of those self-deceivers and deceivers of people no matter who they were; ostracize all those who use measures to deceive themselves and others no matter who they were; all in aU, they will get rid of all the clever toys of Chinese tradition (Huaxia chucmtong and give in to studying the foreigners who attack us. Only in this way are there sprouts of hope for new hopes. (95-6)

Lu Xtm singles out the characteristic of self-deception and deceiving others by repeating this ejqjression three times here, each time calling for the elimination, exposure, and ostracism of this feature of Chinese tradition. The only hope for hope, according to Lu Xun, is to have a memory, to get rid of self-deception and deception of others, and to smdy foreigners. Thus, the acting is over once a historical memory is valorized and engaged. The enlightened "truth" that national character is negative and must be discarded in order to make q>ace for a new one is expressed in Lu Xun's "hope for new hopes."

Lu Xun's engagement in the national character discourse did just this, it opened up space for the construction of a new national character insofer as it provided a forum for national circumspectiorL

Although Lu Xun implied that national character should be rational, logical, scientific, honest, etc.. 181 through his critique of a set of opposite negative characteristics, he never specified exactly what it should be. Rather, he efiectively distanced himself from the exact formulation, perhaps recognizing that a

dogmatic e^giosition of such would have been less efiective than an ironic artistic critique which could keep the discussion of a new national character alive 1^ virtue of its artistic indeterminacy. A final prescription of exactly what the national character should be might have made his assessment vulnerable

to radical censorship. In retroq»ect, the national character discourse in which Lu Xun engaged was given

"life" through his "lack" of exact articulation of what it should be. If he was too exact, he could easily

have been refuted by orthodox political demands for literary and intellectual discourse. Indeed, he had

experience with the demands of orthodoxy firom his 1928 conflict with the Marxists in the debate over

revolutionary proletarian literature. He joined the leftists, embraced some Marxist views and theory, but

maintained a critical distance as exhibited by his consistent use of his national character critique against a

variety of adversaries, including those within the Marxist camp (the League of Left-Wing Writers), who

believed they had successfully co-opted him and could control his reading of the Chinese mentality.

The debate of national character still continues today, often referring to Ah Q and Lu Xun. I read

this as an indication of the success of Lu Xun's approach as I analyzed in the paragraph above. Even

though CCP orthodoxy efiectively suppressed national character debate by displacing it with a struggle

over "class character" (the theory of national character was deemed incorrect because it was based on

evolutionary humanism), throughout the 1950s and 1960s the issue of national character was kept alive

through a multitude of essays interpreting Ah Q in terms of vulgar Marxist class analysis, which often

necessitated mentioning the issue of national character in order to disprove it Thus, the Ah Q discourse

ironically nurtured the issue of national character at a low level of intensity, until it finally made a revival

in the post-Cultural Revolution period.

Given the intricately woven fabric of national character critiqued by Lu Xun in the many essays,

stories and prose poems discussed in Chapters 3,4 and 5, summarizing the elements of national character

and their interconnections is extraordinarily complex. In this regard the artistic merit of "True Story" 182 becomes readily evident as it weaves together Lu Xun's view of a vastly complex critical analysis of

China's national character into a relatively cogent whole. We see a description of Chinese mentality which includes muddledness, concealment and deceit, hypccri^, concern with face, self-deception and deception of others, self-denigration, and "Number One-ism." Chinese spiritual culture is portrayed as made up of people with the dual cannibalistic quality of prey and predator, its slavishness is a result of the

Confucian national essence, which promotes fence-sitting by dictate in the Doctrine of the Mean - a perverse sacrifice of young for old by the dictates of filial piety. Lu Xun's view of national character, as seen firom the chapters above, developed fiom the late Qing through the May Fourth. After writing "True

Story" his view of national character remained relatively consistent, as seen in the repetition of themes in his later essays, but was partially influenced by the critical reqronse to "True Story" itself as I will endeavor to show in my discussion of the origins and development of the Ah Q discourse in the following chapter. In Chapter 6,1 will integrate Lu Xun's own comments on Ah Q as the Ah Q discourse takes on a life of its own beyond the grasp of Lu Xun's interpretive domain. That life of its own includes the construction of an Ah Q lexicon with which to discuss not only the problems of interpreting "True Story" and discussing the relative literary merits of type, form and content, but also to explore the problems of national character in the highly volatile ideological environment of the late 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. CHAPTER VI

LU XUN AND THE AH Q DISCOURSE: 1922 TO 1949

Ah Q resembles the mythical Pandora, having suffered the rules concocted in all the "manuals" over the last four thousand nightmarish years o f experience. This includes all kinds o f ideas about life, happiness, reputation, and morals. Forged into an essence and consolidated into one body, he is therefore truly a "composite picture" o f Chinese qualities. (Zhou Zuoren, "A Q zhengzhuan"; 1922; 29).

This violent, stormy age can only be represented by a -writer -with a violent and stormy revolutionary spirit. This age can only be represented by an author -whose entire botfy is burning -with faithful and sincere emotion, -who has an intimate knowledge o f politics, and who stands on the front line o f the revolution! The technique o f "The True Story o f Ah O" does not have the power to do this! The age of Ah 0 died long ago! We need not be infatuated with skeletons. Let us bury Ah Q’s body and spirit together. Let us bury Ah Q's body and spirit together! (Qian Xingcun, "Siqule de A Q shidai"; 1928; 287)

Despite Qian Xingcun's declaration of Ah Q's death and his desire to bury his bo

Perhaps Zhou Zuoren's assessment strikes closer to home. Indeed, while this chapter focuses on the critical reception of Ah Q and "True Story," and how the debates of the literary world were played out in the "Ah Q discourse," there was a popular manifestation of the Ah Q discourse that intersected with the critical interpretation of "True Story" - the reenactment of "True Story" and Ah Q in other media. One of the fascinating aspects of the Ah Q discourse is the multitude of interpretations "True Story" received as it was rendered in the form of cartoon illustrations and woodcuts," adapted for stage, the screen and

183 184

eventually even put on as a ballet^®’ Since most of Lu Xun's readers were educated "new youth," it is

probable that Ah Q became familiar to a larger and relatively uneducated audience through illustrations

and stage productions. While Lu Xun was living there were three Chinese adaptations of "True Story"

written for stage although it appears that only one of these was performed."^ These adaptations and the

criticism of them are situated within my general discussion of the Ah Q discourse below. The popularity

of "True Story" as material for the stage was contemporary with Qian Xingcun's assertions at the start of

the revolutionary literature movement's attack on Lu Xun that Ah Q was already dead. However, that Ah

Q was to come "live" onto stage strongly refutes Qian's declaration that Ah Q and the age of Ah Q were

"dead."

The reenactments of "True Story" in the various media an international venues mentioned above

suggest a popularity of the work transcending the borders of time, geme, and nation. While my analysis of the Ah Q discourse and the construction of national character must note the breadth of Ah Q's presence, this chapter will account in detail for the pre-liberation (pre-1949) aspects of the Ah Q discourse, leaving the detailed analysis of post-liberation Ah Q discourse for future investigation. The richness of the Ah Q discourse is readily apparent, however, in both the amount of literaiy criticism, essays, and literary history devoted to Ah Q. The complementary dimension of reinterpretations of the work in other forms of media in China, as well as in foreign countries, is an additional dimension to the Ah Q discourse that demonstrates the vitality of Ah Q as a symbol in the Chinese consciousness.

So how and why did Ah Q manage to survive and apparently flourish through seven decades of traumatic sociaf political and economic içheaval in China during this century? How did Ah Q become entrenched in the Chinese imagination? Having described the national character discourse in China in the overall context of its Western origins (Chapter 2), Lu Xun's initial engagement with the discourse

Ballets of "True Story" were staged for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Lu Xun's birth in 1981 in Shanghai and Chongqing.

See Peng Xiaoling and Han Aili's "Zongguan 'A Q zhengzhuan' de gaibian, paishe, yanchu" (A comprehensive bibliography of adaptations, filming and performances of "The True Story of Ah Q"). 185 during the late Qing (Chapter 3), and his active participation in the it (Chapters 4 and 5), it is now time to turn to analysis of the construction of the Ah Q discourse itself and reflect on Lu Xun's contribution to it and its relationship with the construction of national character in China.

As I explained in Chapter 1, my view of national character and Ah Q in terms of the postmodern concq)t of discourse indicates that I aspire to demonstrate how Ah Q illuminates "the surfece linVagfts between power, knowledge, institutions, and intellectuals. While I aspire to describe an Ah Q discourse in these terms, I recognize that this dissertation makes only the first few steps in this directiort I therefore treat the postmodern idea of discourse as a heuristic device firom which to latmch my investigation into Lu

Xun’s role in the debates and discussion of the issue of national character. From my examination of Ah Q and national character as discourses in the sense that they encompass debates, discussions and critical analysis from all different angles, I will hint at the linkages between power, knowledge, institutions, and intellectuals which inform them. Furthermore, through examination of the critical reception of "True

Story," I will attempt to describe how terminology and ideas about national character and Ah Q was constructed by the contemporary critics. In other words, I will explore how a body of knowledge was constructed and how Ah Q and national character gain significance within that context. From the illumination of the issues and debates centered on Ah Q which form the complex texture of the Ah Q discourse, I will attempt to make sense of how Ah Q functioned in the Chinese consciousness, and the social and literary ramifications of this. I hope to come to a better understanding of "True Story," Ah Q and national character through examination of the complexities of its interpretations and how they offer

clues to the systems of power, knowledge and legitimation within the greater context of nationalism in

China in the first half of the twentieth century. Description of the Ah Q discourse would ideally outline a frame of reference in which the meaning of Ah Q is made possible, describe how Ah Q is connected to

systems of knowledge and power, and show how Ah Q functions to legitimize, maintain and perpetuate

particular institutions of knowledge and power. Toward that end, I will show how Ah Q became a

meaningful symbol and how a language of Ah Q was constructed and manipulated through the critical 186 debate about his inteipretatiou in relationship to the literary and political contingencies of the 1920s,

1930s, and 1940s.

A. History of "True Story" Reception

Lu Xun research can be separated into five general, sometimes overlapping categories: literary biographies, topical studies, literary critiques, political critiques, and, quite notably, "Ah Q research." The

Chinese literature on Ah Q is immense. In the eight decades since the publication of "True Story," over

1000 books and articles have been published on it There is even a recent compilation fiom Taiwan by Lu

Jin of seven decades of critique of Ah Q, including essays from both Lu Xun's contemporaries and writers and scholars in Taiwan today. However, mainland Chinese scholarship constitutes most of the analyses dedicated to Ah Q and "True Stoiy." In addition to the huge nurhber of works solely dedicated to "True

Story" and Ah Q, general works on Lu Xun often devote a chapter or section to Ah Q and the national character issue. In a section called "The History of Ah Q Research" in Lun Xun vaniiu xneshu lun zhuzno ziliao huibian ('1913-1980') (A corpus of data of academic theses and works on Lu Xun [1913-1983],

1985; hereafter Corpus), we find a general summary of the views of mainland Chinese critics regarding four basic "problems debated" in Ah Q research:

1. The Problem of Ah Q's Typicality (A 0 de dianxingxing-wenti^(^^& ^^f^^)

a. Common Peasant Type. b. Revolutionary Peasant Type. c. Backward Peasant Type. d. Drifter and Loafer Type. e. Come-down-in-society Type

2. The Problem of Ah Q's Method of Spiritual \Tctory (A O de jingshen shengli fa wenti Q

a. The place that the method of spiritual victory occupies in Ah Q's character. b. The nature of the method of qtiritual victory. c. The origins of the method of qriritual \ictory. 187

3. The Problem of Ah Q [style] Revolution (A 0 de geming -wenti Q

a. A relatively high appraisal and afBrmation of Ah Q revolution. b. Ah Q had a basicalty negative attitude towards revolution. c. Maintain an analytical attitude towards Ah Q revolution.

4. The Problem of Lu Xim's Intention in Creating "The True Story of Ah Q" {Jm Xun chuangzuo "AOzhengzhuan"deb e n y iw e n ti (P ^ Q IE # )

Each of these problems plays a part in the critical debate surrounding Ah Q and "True Story," but most became important only after Ah Q’s interpretation was increasingly politicized in the 1930s and especially after liberation in 1949. The roots of these problems lie of course in the text itself, but the critical debates are more related to the cultural politics of particular times and build iqwn previous interpretations of

"Tme Story" and the existing Ah Q discourse. However, as my analysis below demonstrates, the Ah Q discourse is much broader and deeper than these four categories suggest, and these categories are themselves products of the historical circumstances and political contingencies in which the Ah Q discourse was constructed. This summary from Corpus provides merely a basis for establishing the contemporary critical perspective on Ah Q and national character on the Chinese mainland in recent times, in contrast with the constructed discourses of national character and Ah Q that I will describe below. The record of interpretations, reinterpretations [misinterpretations?], recasting and debates about

Ah Q and "Tme Story" stretches from the time of its publication to the present, more than seventy-frve years. These provide abundant material for establishing the narrative discourse of Ah Q as a cultural construct/symbol/myth and ofier clues to the interpretation of Ah Q as an element of Chinese national identity. It is in this discourse that I wiU situate Lu Xun's own comments on Ah Q and "Tme Story" and show how his critique of national character, discussed in the preceding chapters, intersects with the critical reception of Ah Q, and can be seen as an attempt to create qiace for a new national character in the Chinese imaginatiorL

As I noted in the introduction to Chapter 4, Xu Shoushang exaggerated Lu Xun's obsession with national character beyond all proportion in 1945, saying "Lu Xun's creative works and translations. 188

altogether about six million words, are the prescription he has written in remonstrance {zhenbian

of the national character" ("Lu Xun yu minzu xing yanjiu" 50). Such exaggeration in itself suggests that

Xu had another agenda, that he was writing under the influence of some greater discourse rather than

merely providing a perspective of Lu Xun's analysis of national character or the Ah Q discourse. In this

instance Xu was mythologizing Lu Xun and his contribution to the revolutioiL This is an example of how

the Ah Q and national character discourses intersect with other discourses. However, Xu had important

things to s ^ about Lu Xun, despite his exaggerations. For example, he argued that because Lu Xun had

great love for the race he spared no effort and showed no merry in his critiques exposing the root illness

of the national character (50). To back up his argument, Xu quoted copiously firom Lu Xun's works,

citing his comments in "Mashang zhi riji" (Immediate branch diary) on Yasuoka Hideo's work on Chinese

national character: "The Chinese have never been willing to study (yanjiu ) themselves. Looking at

the national character through novels is a good topic" (51). Xu says Lu Xun "utilizes Ah Q as a foil for the Ah Qs among the gentry" (53). Ironically, Xu asserts in a backhanded way that Lu Xun's depiction of

the national character itself, being such a great depiction, could represent the crystallization of Chinese

culture: "The greatness of Lu Xun's depiction of our national character may represent the crystallization

of our national culture" (53). As I mentioned in Chapter 1 and will discuss in detail below, Mao Dun's fust criticism of "True Story" included a formulation about Ah Q as "the crystallization of Chinese moral character" in language quite similar to Xu's here. It is thus ironic that Lu Xun here becomes the focus of a positive evaluation of the national culture in Xu's statement, as opposed to his femous character. Ah Q, who is the negative assessment of the national character and culture. In this sense, Xu was viewing Lu

Xun as a national treasure, or perhaps a "national essence," by virtue of his incisive commentaries on, and

depictions of, the national character. It is obvious that Xu is operating in a discourse of legitimation of Lu

Xun as a national hero and intellectual. 1 suggest that much of the national character debate carried on in 189

Lu Xun's name in the decades following his death, often in the foim of the Ah Q discourse, may have been based on Lu Xun's constructed legacy, the myth, rather than on Lu Xun's own particular views.^^®

The twenties and thirties were important periods for Ah Q research because many of the basic themes, techniques of analysis, and even vocabulary of classification and criticism were established then. Some of the words and concepts used as basic categories of analysis were coined ly Lu Xun himself either drawn ftom the text of "True Story," such as Ah Q's "method of q»iritual victory," or found in his other writings, such as "evil root nature" Qmai genxing Other terms and categories of analysis come from the early readers and critics, such as Hu Qiigman's 1932 use of the term, "Ah Q-ism (A O zhityi ^

Other examples are Mao Dun's 1922 expression, "crystallization of Chinese moral character"

{Zhongguorenpinxingdejiejing^^X&iiau&/^BBŸ ^ ^ 1923 term "AhQ-image" (P^Q i#);' and Zhou Zuoren's 1922 use of the terms, "national character" (guomin xing SSIÊ), "composite picture of Chinese moral character" {Zhongguoren de pinxing de 'hunhe zhaoximg

“ ” ), and "national type" {minzu de leixing The high point of construction of a "lexicon" of Ah Q discourse comes perhaps in Zhang Tianyi's 1941 article, "Lun 'A Q zhengzhuan'" (On

Discussing the growth of the ofBcial Lu Xun cult. Holms notes that commemorative meetings were held every year from 1937 on October 19, the anniversary of his death. "There was an ou^ouring of obituaries and reminiscences in the press" and newspaper supplements were filled with articles on Lu Xun (160-1).

' As far as I can teU, this term, "national evil root nature" is cited by critics as "national depravity" {minzu liegenxing or in alternate translations such as those by Lydia Liu as "flawed national character" (50), or "negative aspects of national character" (64). I'm not sure why, other than for contemporary usage, the original usage of "huai" # (evil, bad) was changed to "lie" ^ (inferior, mean, bad, or low quality), since in "Liang di shu: 8" ( A ) (Letters between two places) Lu Xun actually uses the words "evil root nature" in the sentence, "citizens reform their own evil root nature" {guomin gaige ziji de Huai genxing ê but does not use the words liegenxing anywhere I can fed (I would like to be corrected on this if possible).

' Hu Qiuyuan's 1932 article is the earliest reference to Ah Q-ism that I have yet to locate in the critical literature.

"Da Guotang xiansheng" £5).

"DuNahan" (35). 190

"The True Stoiy of Ah Q"), where he manipulates an huge vocabulary of terms using Ah Q as an adjective. I close this chapter with a discussion of the terminology of national character and the Ah Q discourse in Zhang Tianyi's article.

Initial response to "True Story" as it was being written and just after completion in 1922 appeared in the exchanges between the readers and editors of Xiaoshuo vuebao /Jn|^ ^ ^ (Fiction monthly) and in the pages of Chenbao fukan iS W # ? ! (Morning gazette stqjplement). The second significant round of response to "True Story" is found in wake of the publication of Lu Xun's first collection of short stories,

Nahan (Battlecry) in August of 1923 (among which "True Story" is the longest piece). Until Lu Xun published his own explication of 'True Story," titled '"A Q zhengzhuan' de chengyin" (The reason for writing "The True Story of Ah Q"), on 18 December 1926, there were only seven significant articles addressing "True Story," though an additional 17 articles and letters can be said to mention "True Story" or Ah Q in one way or another.

1. Currency of Discussions on the Relationship between Literature and National Character just Prior to Publication of "True Story"

First, it should be noted that Mao Dun talked of the relationshÿ between literature and national character in 1921, shortly before the publication of "True Story," in "Xiaoshuo vudrao gaige xuarQun" fFiction Monthly reform declaration), saying;

Nfy colleagues and others deepty believe that a nation's literature is a reflection of the nation's national character (guomin xing ^ ^ % ) , and only literature that can cjqjress the national character has value and can occupy a place in world literature.’’^ As for this point, we're very willing to be reqxmsible for promoting it to the utmost ( 21)

’ These three are all found in Zhou Zuoren's commentary on 'True Story" called by the same name, "A Q zhengzhuan" (28-9).

’ Mao Dun is referring to his colleagues at Xiaoshuo vuebao. which was the publication of the Literary Research Association at the time. Lu Xun belonged to this association, but did not know Mao Dun at the time (LXOJ 1:227 fiaS). 191

Mao Dun also discussed the relationship between literature and national character in a 1922 letter, 'DaYun

Ming xiansheng" (Rqily to Mr. Yun Ming), in which he elaborates:

literature and a country’s national character (guomin Ting are closely related Because of their rdalionship to national character, numerous works of literature are often absolute^ unintelligible to people of other nationalities. We've often th o u ^ about this. People of the same race (zAongzw @ ), who bear the legacy of the same few thousand years of history, who live in the same kind of errvirorunent, should have about the same kind of national character. The wodcs they produce should also contain (hanyou ) this national character, and the people ftom their country should be able to read them and understand them. Ifthey haven't found their own [national character] and specialists imitate that of other people's, it is already unable to be counted as a true work of art, and naturally won't be able to attract the people's wide acdaim. Nevertheless, this is all based rqxm the basic condition that the reader usualfy has literary and artistic refinement In a society that'pursues foirlness and is fond of scabs" (zAucAoK sAÿra ) saying this is quite premature! What do you think sir? (3)

Mao Dun sums tqp here the Western notion of national character as a function of race, errvirorunent and history which can be reflected in literature. As I noted in Charter 2, further discussions of national character and literature are found throughout New Youth long before "True Story" was written. Recall, for example, in

"Gexing de wenxue" (The literature of individual character, 1921), where Zhou Zuoren asserts: "individual character ( g e d n g ^ ^ ) is something within the reahn of national essence (guocui ^ i|? ) that can be preserved, and new literature with individual character is the true literature of national essence of a people." Here Zhou

Zuoren asserts that there is a "true" national essence, but that it can only be eqnessed and preserved within the context of new literature and individual character.

While most of the essays by Zhou and Mao Dun dted above were written shortfy before "True Story," the concept of national character had wide currency in the journals of the Mw Fourth period, as I noted in Chuter

2. It is evident that the relationshp of literature and socie^ to national character was not rmfemibar to May

Fourth readers by the time that Lu Xun wrote "True Story." In a discursive sense, then, the readershp of literary and intellectual journals was conditioned to recognize, as Mao Dun puts it, "a true work of art" as a reflection of the national character. Mao's formulaticn is essentialist and biologically deterministic, based on the idea that only a work of the race can reflect the national character, and onfy a wotk that reflects the national character is

"a true work of art" that can "attract the people's wide acclaim " This means that the critics who hold this idea, if not the readership, could have been predisposed to read a work like 'True Story" as an allegorical erqxrsition of 192 the national character. But it also implies that th^r were primed to accept any woric of art as an expression of the national character so long as it was widely acclaimed. The degree to which a woric of art is valorized gives it status as a reflection of the national character, not any inherent essence. I think this process is clearfy evident in the build igj of 'True Story" as the seminal work of Chinese national character, as the rest of this chuter will demonstrate.

2. Critical Reception of "True Story" Immediately after Publication (1922)

a. Lack of Volume of Early Response to "True Story"

It is interesting, and perhaps suitably iroitic given the massive legacy of the Ah Q discourse, that there is only a very scant written record of response to "True Story" in the period immediately following its publication in the year 1922. This record includes an exchange between Mao Dun and Tan Guotang,

Zhou Zuoren's significant article, and an exchange on the issue of national character and literature between Mao Dun and Yun Ming in which "True Story" was mentioned in passing. Besides these, Hu

Shi, a leading "liberal" of the times, gives an "honorable mention" to Lu Xun in March of 1922, saying that two of his works, "Diary of a Madman" and "True Story," have achieved the greatest success in fictioiL Hu Shi does not elaborate on "True Story" beyond this simple statement. Chinese Ah Q researchers today, however, always quote this simple statement in reference to Ah Q's notoriety, apparently to invoke Hu Shi's authority as a leading figure in the New Literature Movement to lend legitimacy to "Tme Story's" status as a literary work. There is actually very little written record of response in the same year "True Story" was written. The short letter to the editor of Xiaoshuo vuebao

(Fiction monthly) firom Yun Ming, published in October, 1922, appears to have gone uimoticed in all the bibliographies on "Tme Story" that I have seert Yun Ming says, "I especially love Lu Xun's works. I've only read "The Tme Story of Ah Q" and "Hometown" but I feel that works in the satirical style are most able to make people deeply reflect The author's deep down concern for society has moved me deeply! "

(2). Given the paucity of immediate reaction to "True Story," even Yun Ming's rrtinor note must be 193 mentioned, and, I should say, it gives much more information about "True Story’s" reception than Hu

Shi's religiously cited article. For example, Yun Ming's assertion that the satirical style is most effective in making people reflect deeply is nearly identical to Lu Xun's stated intention of writing "True Story," as

I discuss below.

b. "True Story" as a Satire

The first reaction to "True Stoiy" came in a letter to the editor of Xiaoshuo vuebao written in January of 1922 after the fourth of nine serial installments was published. This letter firom Tan Guotang argued that "Tme Story" was "overly satirical," "afifected," and even "a little injurious to reality." In réponse, also written before "True Story" was completed, as editor of Xiaoshuo vuebao. Mao Dun published both the letter firom Tan and his own editorial rqrly, "Da Guotang xiansheng" (Rqtfy to Mr. Guotang).

Curiously, Mao Dun states that the work was not necessarily a satirical work, but that Ah Q rqtresented the "crystallization of Chinese qualities." Mao Dun says he thought immediately of Oblomov, the protagonist in a story by the Russian writer Goncharov, as an analogy of the national character type represented ly Lu Xun's Ah Q. Thus, in the first public written exchange of opinions on the work, Mao

Dun identifies Ah Q as a representative of the national character and takes a comparative stance by linking Ah Q with a femous Russian fictional character. One must wonder why Mao Dun didn't see the obvious satire to which Tan referred.

However, Zhou Zuoren's article, "A Q zhengzhuan" ([On] The true story of Ah Q), challenged Mao

Dun's view by unequivocally calling it a satirical work. Zhou also compared "Tme Story's" satire to the

Qing fictional narratives, Jinghua vuan (Flowers in the mirror) and Rulin waishi (The scholars), but said its satiric roots came primarily firom foreign short stories by Gogol, Sienkiewicz, Mori Ogai and Natsume

Soseki:

The satire in "The Tme Story of Ah Q" is most infrequently seen in the history of Chinese literature because it is mostly irony(fanyu that is the so-called cold satire - "cold ridicule" {lengchao ^ ( ^ ) . Among recent Chinese literature it only slightly resembles a small part of Jing hua vuan and Rulin waishi. Works like Guanchang xianxing ii and lErshi nian mudu zhil Guai xianzhuang are mostly heated castigation and their nature {xingzhi '|^ ^ ) is 194

veiy different, although these also belong to the genre of satirical ricrion. The origins of the technique of writing in "True Story," as far as I know, lie in foreign short stories. Most obvious of these works are those by Russia's Gogol and Poland's Sienkiewicz, and the influence seen by Japan's Natsume Soseki and Mori Ogai is not small. Gogol's "Overcoat" and "Diary of a Madman" and Sienkiewicz's "Charcoal Sketches" and "Sachem" and Mori Ogai's "Tower of Silence," all have been already translated into Chinese. Just from taking a look at these works one can see many traces. Natsume Soseki's influence is seen in his great iroity-filled, I Am a Cat However, national character is a tricky thing. This novel has picked iq) on these numerous foreign elements, but its result doesn't have that "tears amidst laughter" and atmosphere of great oppression found in the [works] of the Slavic race. Nor does it have the strange twists and "insincerity" of the Japanese [works]. (28)

Although Lu Xun's identity was not yet revealed as the author of "True Story," having used the pen name

Ba Ren, Zhou certainly was aware of his brother's identity and literary influences. It should be noted that

after Lu Xun's death in 1936,23rou Zuoren wrote an essay in which he reports that Lu Xun read a draft of this 1922 essay on "True Story" and that Lu Xun admitted to him that he had used Sienkiewicz's method

(90), the method of "using fercical {huaji ) technique to write of darkly tragic events" ("Guanyu Lu

Xun" 93). Mao Dun reversed his stand on the satiric aspect of the work by the time he published "Du

Nahan" in October of 1923, by this time calling it an "indirect satire about the Republican revolution of

1911" (36). Indeed, if Yun Ming's assertion that the satirical style causes people to reflect deeply is

correct. Lu Xun may have been using the appropriate technique to make people conscious of the negative

national character - the first step in creating space to imagine a new national character.

c. National Character: The First Implication of Ah Q's Status as a Universal and/or National Type

Apparently between the time of Mao Dun’s February 1922 editorial reply to Tan and Zhou Zuoren's

March 1922 article, there must have been some active unpublished debate about whether or not Ah Q was

a universal type. This can be inferred from the fact that although Zhou Zuoren agreed with Mao Dun that

Ah Q was "a crystallization of the moral character of Chinese people," he specifically denied that Ah Q

was anything more than a national type. Zhou's denial came in the form of comparison with Gogol's

protagonist from Dead Souls. Chichikov, whom Zhou asserted was "'an immortal universal type’ (yige btodu de

y/anguo de lebdng —Ü # 6 9 # ^ ) , whereas Ah Q is a national type (jnirmt de leixing 195

M)" (29). There is tmfortunately no record of this initial debate on ^ e , though Ah Q would subsequently achieve the status of both a national and a universal type in the view of a majority of Chinese critics. Zhou Zuoren went to pains to argue that Ah Q was not a universal type, calling him a national type and a representative of the "national character" (guomin xing S S Æ ) - Zhou may have thought that to admit to Ah Q as a universal type would detract from Lu Xun's critique of Chinese national character, or allow the reader to use the argument that "foreigners have fruits too," as Lu Xun pointed out in "Suiganlu

38," in order to justify rather than confront his own fruits. The idea of national character stems from the

West, the examples rqx)n which Ah Q was based also comes from the West, and the first critiques of Ah Q relate him to famous Western national characters. It is interesting that in two of the first three written works on "True Story," Mao Dun thought of comparing Ah Q to Goncharov's Oblomov and Zhou Zuoren thought of Gogol's Chichikov because both works which are examples of how a particular character can become a national character (deq>ite Zhou's assertion that Chichikov was a universal type). In this sense.

Ah Q seems to have become a national character 1^ trans-cultural discursive analogy

Zhou Zuoren notes in his 1922 article that the nature of the "national character" concept itself is paradoxical because as a "crystallization of tradition" (ckuantong de yityiMg Ah Q "doesn't exist in today's society, but exists everywhere" (28). I believe this is the literary brilliance of using the

"stereotype" (leixing ^ M ) to which Zhou refers. This type is everywhere but nowhere. It rings true, but is not essentially true in that it there is no concrete example of it I suspect that the reason the concept works on an artistic level is because it is based on theperception of a generality, and despite the fret that no single example of such an average "everyman" exists, the generality is vague enough to allow identification by a wide variety of readers. This is also perhaps what Mao Dun really meant when he said,

"When we have time for self reflection, we often suspect that we unavoidably contain some of the ingredients of the'Ah Q image'" ("Du Nahan" 351. Many years later. Lu Xun was also to argue in 196

similar tenns when he commented on his intention of writing "True Story," saying that he wanted the

reader to "subject that this may be a portrait of himself if not of everyman" (trans. LXSW 4:141).

d. Ah Q's Class Status

Mao Dun concludes his letter to Tan Guotang with the following analysis of Ah Q's class status:

"Furthermore, the Chinese moral character that Ah Q represents is also the moral character (pinxing nn

i^) of society's upper and middle classes. Attentive readers! Do you sympathize with my assertion?"

(25). This was written early in 1922, not long after the formation of the Chinese Communist Party when

the issue of class status was not yet a critical topic in literary circles. The record of debate regarding Ah

Q's class and Lu Xun's intention, however, is quite extensive in the Ah Q discourse of the thirties and

forties, when many critics read Ah Q literally as a peasant or worker. Most critics at that time place Ah Q

in categories of the lower strata of society and ignore hfeo Dun's assertion here, as well as Lu Xun's

statements that Ah Q was aimed at the reader. Zhou Zuoren's assertion that "there is a real [peasant] model of Ah Q in the countryside" (29), might mitigate against Mao Dun's reading of Ah Q as a member

of the middle and rpper classes. However, given the readership and his critique of national character described in Chapters 3,4 and 5 ,1 believe Lu Xun's target was the educated, the upper class. The issue of class eventually fed into the Marxist literary debate on type between Zhou Yang and Hu Feng discussed below. Moreover, I should point out that in the fifties there would be a major q>lit between critics who read Ah Q literally as a representative of the peasant class, and those, like Mao Dun, who read Ah Q figuratively as a representative of all classes in Chinese society, particularly the upper classes. The orthodox post-liberation interpretation valorized Ah Q as part of the oppressed peasants or laboring masses. 197

e. Lu Xun's Artistic Failure with "True Story"

Zhou Zuoren also ejg)resses some criticism of his brother's work by arguing that Lu Xun not only failed to achieve his intended goal of knocking down Ah Q, but he actually helped him up:

All inalL no matter how immature this piece of art is, the author was willing to honestly and inqwlitely ejq)ress his loathing, and in this respect the story is bitter medicine for Chinese society. I think Ah Q's existence is not insignificant It is only that the author apparently intended to castigate Ah Q, but at the last moment he felt that Ah Q was the only lovable (keai nj' g ) character in Weizhuang. Being just a little more tqtright {zhengzhi lEiË) than the other characters, in the end he was "executed" {zhengfa JE& ). Just like Tolstoy's criticism of Chekov, Lu Xun wanted to knock Ah Q down so he focused on him, but instead he helped him up. This can perhaps be said to be the point of author's failure. (29)

Zhou essentially asserts that Lu Xun undermined the work by making Ah Q lovable. This means Lu Xun would have had sympathy for Ah Q. One explanation of how this could be the case is that when Ah Q is reflected against the rest of Weizhuang society, he becomes the only pitiable character among the lot

Perhaps Ah Q as victim receives the sympathy of critics and readers (and maybe Lu Xun) through identification, and thus such a despicable character could be "lovable."'^® Indeed, this mtybe the primary reason why Ah Q still exists in the contemporary discourse - the reader is able to imagine the national character form the perspective of the victim, and thus sympathetically works the image into his consciousness. Naivete and lovability are in fact read as neutral or positive aspects of the national character.

3. Critical Reception of "True Story" after Its Reprint in Battlecrv in August of 1923

The second round of critical reception of "True Story" came in the wake of publication of Battlecrv in

August of 1923. Issues that arose during this stage were "Ah Q image," universal type, polemics betv/een the Literary Research Association and the Creation Society, Ah Q style revolution. Ah Q's class status. Ah

Sympathy for the victim is one possible explanation, but it is still not completely clear to me how Ah Q can be seen as "lovable" by so many readers. Li Changzhi argued: "Ah Q is very naive, and Lu Xun has depicted him as a rather lovable character" ("'A Q zhengzhuan' zhi yishu jiazhi de xin gu" 1298). The examples given by Li show how Ah Q is cheated at the gambling table and how he felt being put injaiL which was not much worse than his usual abode. It may in the end be a tribute to Lu Xun's success with "True Story" that many readers find Ah Q lovable, even if pathetically so. 198

Q's periodicity, and the method of spiritual victory. My contention that there was not much written criticism of "True Story" immediately after its publication is confirmed by Sun Fuyuan in an article he wrote in Chenbao in 1924 titled "Guanyu Lu Xun xiansheng" (Regarding Mr. Lu Xun);

Mr. Lu Xun's Battlecrv was published almost half a year ago and I've heard that although a lot of people have bought it, the criticism of it is not very lively. Even those self-appointed critics of China's future haven't taken arty action. Perhaps they have been muffled by Mr. Lu Xun's fine essays [worksyvenzhang and can't get a word out At least I'm one of these people, but althou^ I didn't want to criticize, I still thought I'd lift up my head and ask other readers like myself which story in Battlecrv thty liked the best According to my usual investigation, nine out of ten liked "The True Story of Ah Q." (43)

Sun was editor of Chenbao fukan and was responsible for soliciting Lu Xun's weekly submissions of "True

Story" in addition to being one of the co-founders ofYusi and the Yusi Society with Lu Xun fZGWXDCD. 4: 2453). Sun's following comments on "True Story" go no further than this; his discussions focuses on why he thought "Medicine" was the best work in the coUectiort Nonetheless, it is notable that "True Story" was the overwhelming favorite of all those Sun surveyed, but his conjecture that criticism was "muffled" {zhaozhu ^ & ) by Lu Xun's fine works/esstys is equally intriguing I read this as an oblique way of saying that because people were "cowed" (muffled) by either Lu Xun's essays or his prestige, or feared becoming the target of his attack, and were thus afiaid to engage in criticism of his short story collectiorL

a. Ah Q Image (A Oxiang^Q^)

The popularity of "True Story" is confirmed in Mao Dun's 1923 article, "Du Nahan" (Reading

Battlecrv! in which he attests to the currency gained by the name Ah Q:

Now there is practically no youth well educated in hteraiy arts who has never said the two words, Ah Q. We apply these words almost everywhere. When we come into contact with gloomy characters, or have heard their "story," pictures from passages in "The True Story of Ah Q" float into the front of our minds. We continuously encounter characters with "Ah Q image" (A 0 Xiang ^ ) in every aspect of society. When we have time for self-reflection, we often suspect that we unavoidably contain some of the ingredients of "Ah Q image." (35) 199

Mao Dun defines Ah Q image in this way: "The un-progressive characteristics latent in the marrow of the

Chinese race is 'Ah Q image'" (yinfu zai Zhonghua minzu gusuilide bu zhangjinde xingzhi #

36). Note that Mao Dun uses the word x/wgzAi (characteristics) which was used in the translated title of Smith's work in Japanese, and also became popularly used in discussions of national character during the May Fourth. Ah Q image is also given a biologically determined reading: latent in the marrow of the Chinese race.

On the other hand, the term "image" could have been taken from Zhou Zuoren's idea that Ah Q is a composite "photo" (zhaoxiang ), and thus be translated as "picture of Ah Q."'” In his earlier letter to Tan Guotang, Mao Dun merely said that Ah Q was very familiar to him Here in "Du Nahan" we see

Mao in a "confession" of sorts as he says that upon reflection, "... we often suspect that we unavoidably contain some of the ingredients of 'Ah Q image.'" This is possibly the precursor to Lu Xun's similar statement that Ah Q should be the source of "self-reflection" on the part of the reader.^’® Compare this

statement to that of the narrator in Gogol's Dead Souls, who relates a similar idea with regard to his main character, Chichikov, in an address to his Russian readers:

Which of you, full of Christian humility, not publicly but in peaceful solitude, in moments of solitary discourse with himselfi will look into his own soul and ask himself tbi<; painful question: "Is there not some part of Chichikov in me also?" (qtd. in Woodward 231).

Or perhaps this is "face" of Ah Q. Mao Dun has a 1933 article by this title, "A Q xiang," in which he says "'A Q xiang' cannot necessarily be said to be the Chinese race's national character {minzu xing)," but that the other name of "A Q xiang" is "sage image" {shengxian xiang ) or "important person's image" {dcren xiang 3^ A^§ '» 774). Mao Dun wrote in 1936 much more decisively and elaborately on the definition, saying: "I believe Ah Q can be said to represent the peasant's consciousness, but not just the peasant's consciousness. We can constantly find'Ah Q image'in the'grandee'(sAz£fa/«±A5^)- I believe 'Ah Q image’ is the summary of the Chinese 'national character' produced by a few thousand years of feudal Confucian religious (I use 'religious' here and not 'philosophical') environment" (Ye shi "Xiangdao shenmejiu shuo shenme"; 1390-1).

See "Da zhoukan bianzhe yan": "[My] method is to make the reader unable to tell who this character can be apart from himself, so that he cannot back away to become a bystander but is bound to suspect that this may be a portrait of himself if not of every man, and that may start him thinking [to self- reflect]. Not one ofrrç^ critics has spotted this, however" ftrans. LXSW 4: 141). 200

Given that Lu Xun was quite familiar with Gogol's works,'’® and eventually even translated Dead Souls in

1535180 ^ worthwhile considering if he came to a critical view of his own woric from the direct

influence of both Dead Soul's and Mao Dun's comments. Indeed, Lu Xun pre&ced his famous statement

on Ah Q with a reference to the main character in another of Gogol's works. The Inspector General who

greets his guests telling them to laugh at themselves. Lu Xun notes that he found it strange that the

Chinese translation censored this sentence, a point he made in order to emphasize that he saw "True

Story" as a vehicle by which to get the readers both to laugh at themselves and to begin the process of self

reflection.'*'

b. Discussion of Ah Q's Status as a Universal and/or National Type

Mao Dun saw a broader implication in Ah Q's characterization than merely a national type. He asserted that Ah Q was a universal type:

But perhaps because of the p^chology of eiqilaining less and embellishing, I also feel that "Ah Q image" is not necessarily a totally special jSxture of the Chinese race. It seems to be also a kind of universal weakness of humanity. At least in terms of being "fierce of mien but faint of heart," the author has depicted the universal weaknesses of human nature {renxing de pubian de ("DuNahan" 351.

Here Ah Q becomes a universal type in contradiction to Zhou Zuoren's strong assertion that Ah Q was only a national type.'*’

The debate over Ah Q's status as a universal type may be ironically attached to Lu Xun's criticism of the national essence for "No-Worse-ism" in "Suiganlu 38." Recall that he criticized the national essence

' ® Recall that Zhou Zuoren also mentions Chichikov in his 1922 article.

See LXOJ 10:414 fill.

'*' Of course laughing at somebody or being laughed at causes a great loss of face in the traditional view.

The debate over Ah Q's typicality was to be eiqianded in the 1930s as Marxist analyses viewed "True Story" and Ah Q as a realistic rdlection of a certain period of society (that period also debated) and a particular social class. This debate is represented by the exchange between Zhou Yang and Hu Feng in 1935 and 1936 discussed in section 5c below. 201 attempt to justify China's negative features by pointing out that foreign countries had negative features too. Taking Ah Q's method of spiritual victory and Lu Xun's critique of "No-Worse-ism" together, I find it inqjlausible that Lu Xun could see A i Q as a universal character. In my reading, as soon as a critic like Mao Dim claimed universal status for Ah Q character, he would be exhibitiag an aspect of the national character criticized by Lu Xun, using "No-Worse-ism" to assuage his sense of self-respect for having lost fece. Lu Xun's portrayal of Ah Q in "True Story" restricts the space for elevation of Ah Q to the status of universal everyman because doing so would be an attempt to shift the blame from oneself

(who identifies with Ah Q) onto another subject (all of humanity), and that is to fell into using an aspect of Ah Q's national character.

c. Polemics between the Literary Research Society and the Creation Society

"True Story" was the focus of a polemic between the Wertxue yanjiu hui (Literary research association) and the Chuangzao she f 0 (Creation society) regarding the theory of fypes in the mid-1920s. Speaking for the Creation Society, one of its founders, Cheng Fangwu,'^ piiblished

"Nahan de pinglun" (Critique of Battlecrv) in January of 1924, in which he attests to the popularity of the work saying, "After Nahan was published every kind of publication gave out a battlecry for it and it was

all everybody talked about, but 1 really spent the utmost energy just to get a copy" (45). This starkly

contrasts with Sun Fuyuan's assertion that the criticism of "True Story" was not very lively. Perhaps the

difference is that Cheng referred to verbal criticism and Sun referred to written?^*^ Nevertheless, Cheng

"No-Worse-ism" was formulated as follows: '"Foreign countries have beggars too.' Or alternatively: "They, too, have mud and huts, prostitutes, and bedbugs.' (This being a negative argument.)" (trans. Denton 91).

For brief bibliographical info on Cheng Fangwu see LXOJ 2: 338 fii3. Note that in the preface to San xianii (Three leisures; 1932), Lu Xun s ^ he named the collection as a shot at Cheng Fangwu who criticized him in the name of proletarian literature (LXOJ 4: 7).

1 find it heartening that "True Story" was a lively topic of conversation, and can only speculate that very little was written in its immediate aftermath because, perhaps, critics were afraid of being attacked as AhQs. 202 has a catalogue of complaints about Ah Q. He says "True Story" "is a work of the former era" (45), and comments on the problem of "typicality," glossing his Chinese words in English and German (as indicated by the italics below):

Works firom (Lu Xun's] early period [in Nahani have a commonality which is representational (zaixian de ^ # M ) description.... Practicalfy the only objective of this description is to build up every kind of typical character {dianxingde xingge The author appears to put his efiforts not into description of a world, but into the type of people that reside in this world. So each type is built iqj, but the world he lives in is veiy vague. People Think the author is successful for this reason, because his types are built up, but thty dont know the author's jhilure also lies at this point The author is too anxious to represent his types, and I think that if the author wasnt so anxious to pursue the "typical" (dianxingde) he could eventually find a universal (allgemein; puhiande # # 6 9 ) - (45)

To Cheng, these types are not recognizable to contemporary Chinese because it was out of date, "it was the work of an artist of half a century ago" (46).'*® Quite oddly, Cheng regards Lu Xun's works as naturalist

(z/ron zhuyi g # ^ # ) , based on the Creation Society's association of naturalism with darkness and pessimism, which Cheng evidently saw in "Tme Story."'*^ He says that although the description [of ty^e] in "Tme Story" is very good, the structure is poor, and then he asserts his view that writers act as a bridge between the countryside and the city in which Lu Xim's readers live, and their job is "making us know them [the people] and making them enlightened" (46). Finally, Cheng addresses the issue of national character and its ejqrression in literature by offering a critique that is directly at odds with Zhou Zuoren's assessment of "Tme Story":

But if we must depict them [peasants] we'd best pay attention to their environment and national character (guomin xing @^"|&). It's a pity that our author didn’t pay attention to this point, but turned it inside down and did his utmost to portray their type as abnormal and morbid characters. This is where his study of medicine has hurt him, where naturalism has hurt him, and is my greatest regret for the author, (italics gloss the original in English; 46)

'*® This is the same argument that Qian Xingcun was to use four years later to attack Lu Xun for being non-revolutionaiy and to assert that Ah Q was an out of date character.

For a general discussion of the debate over naturalist literature, see ZGWXDCD 4:2097-8. 203

Representing the Creation Society, Cheng argued for ejqpression {biaoxian as the ultimate technique of literature, as opposed to description {miaoxie ; 46), a buzzword for natiiTalisTu at the time. Interestingly, Cheng says it is most important to consider environment and national character when ejqpressing oneself artistically, but asserts that Lu Xun didn't pay attention to this and got the characterization wrong since he depicted an "abnormal, morbid character" [original in English]

Cheng apparently entirely misses the point that Lu Xun did indeed see abnormal and morbid character as the norm in China.

Cheng's comments here are a fascinating polar opposite of the message Lu Xun and his vast volume of writing on national character appear to be saying. That is, in his critique of national character I outlined in Chapters 4 and 5, Lu Xun argues that national character is a general critique of all Chinese, and q>ecifically addressed at the intellectuals, the literati, or the educated in power, rather than the peasant Moreover, Lu Xun insists over and over that the national character is indeed abnormal and morbid, and that this abnormality is shared by the Chinese people in general. The only way that Cheng could have the view that Lu Xun's critique of the national character was upside down is if he held the view that the Chinese had a positive national character. This would tacitly align him with the national essence supporters whom Lu Xun loved to criticize. The Creation Society, however, were iconoclastic allies of Lu

Xun's Literary Research Association during the May Fourth.B utting heads on Ah Q's interpretation reflects a shift of conflict in the national character discourse. Originally the May Fourth iconoclasts were opposed to the national essence siçporters. Now this group of iconoclasts are pitted against one another.

The national character and Ah Q discourses become the staging area for a part of the debate over particular means of literary expression, i.e. romanticism or naturalism. Lu Xun comments on Cheng's

Jiang Chao indicates that the Creation Society's position here was based on the popular trend of anti- naturalist expressionist literary thought in Japan and Western Europe of the time CAObmmo 4-5).

Marston Anderson discusses Creation Society rivalry with the Literary Research Association. In the early 1920s the Creation Society promoted the view of "art for art's sake" and the Literary Research Association promoted "art for life's sake." But after the Creation Society's 1925 conversion to Marxism, the two groups clashed over the Creation Society view that literature was propaganda (46-54). 204 criticism nf Nahan in the preface to Gushi xinbian. written in 1935, where his admitted defensiveness indicates he was still smarting from Cheng's criticism of his works as vulgar (LXQJ 2: 336-7).

Cheng also implies that Lu Xun's study of medicine is a cause of the naturalism that seems to have resulted in his misreading of Chinese national character. In fact, I would argue against Cheng that Lu

Xun's smdy of medicine actually helped him put the national character in perspective by giving him a scientific language and approach from which to launch his critique. Moreover, in contradiction with

Cheng's argument, "True Story" is allegorical and satirical rather than naturalist. Lu Xun's critique of the national character, which had been directed at the supporters of national essence, is used here polemically, by the self-proclaimed "progressive" members of the Creation Society, to attack Lu Xun, rather than by the conservative supporters of national essence. I read this appropriation of the national character critique for use against Lu Xtm by the rival Creation Society as the initial phase of polemics in the Ah Q

discourse. In addition, given that Cheng articulated these points so clearly, it is possible that Cheng

helped Lu Xun see how to articulate an interpretation of his own literature in stark contrast or reaction to

Cheng's critique. Since Lu Xtm didn't comment on "True Story" until 1926, the interpretive space was

open to the possibility that Cheng Fangwu influenced Lu Xun's interpretation of Ah Q by helping him

articulate counter-points.

d. Expanding the National Character Discourse

The discourse of national character surrotmding Ah Q and "True Story" was elaborated with Cheng's

article. It is important that this discourse is initially driven by the tension between assessments of Lu

Xtm's works by the Creation Society (Cheng Fangwu) and the Literary Research Association (Mao Dun

and Zhou Zuoren). This is verified by an article in March of 1924 by Zhong Hui entitled "Lu Xun de

Nahan yu Cheng Fangwu de 'Nahan de pinglun'" (Lu Xun's Battlecrv and Cheng Fangwu's "Critique of

Battieoy").'®° Zhong Hui lauds Cheng Fangwu's critique of Lu Xtm. He is so favorable to Cheng that he

Note that Cheng and Mao published their articles in Shanghai journals, while Zhou published his in a Beijing journal. I wonder if there is a split along the Beijing/Shanghai axis between these two groups. 2 0 5 was imdoüfatedfy also a member of the Creation Society. First of all, he said he really loved reading

"True Story" and he realty liked Cheng's critique because his criticism was "feir." But he also notes that some people see it in partisan terms as an attack 1^ the Creation Society on the Literary Research

Association. Zhong admits that the Creation Society had works that could be rebuked, but adds that this criticism would not be beneficial to the nascent development of modem Chinese literature.’®^ Zhong agrees with Cheng that the failure of the work lies in only creating a character type and leaving the background vague, and he also agrees that the type is not general and readers cant sympathize with it, another factor contributing to its failure. Like Cheng, Zhong doesn't like Lu Xun's works because he finds them cold and satirical, which he relates to Lu Xun's own manifestation of national character

To say it a little excessively, he [Lu Xun] seems to have absolutely no conscience, and perhaps this is rooted in our country’s national character {guomin xing such that our country's saying, "watching the fires burning across the river" (ge an guan huo # # # ; & ) can e^gress our country’s national character. Lu Xun inevitably is suspected of "watching the fires b u rn in g across the river." Although Lu Xun doesn’t go to the extent of expressing the attitude of enjoying or encouraging the practice of] "watching the fires burning across the river" like the Shanghai School of Fiction, he can't avoid watching the fires, and not putting them out, he instead sits there smiling at the scene. Some people s«y this is because individuals' style vary, and you can't force Lu Xun to write in a tragic tone. I strongly agree with this.’®® (49)

Thus, what we see here is an expansion of the national character discourse to the polemical attack on Lu

Xun himself as a representative of a traditional negative aqject of the national character - "to watch the

although this point becomes moot after Lu Xun moves to Shanghai in 1927. Michel Hockx writes that after the Shanghai branch of the Literary Research Association was formed in 1923, Shanghai became the locus of the organization's activities (unpublished paper). ShaoBozhou misses the feet that Cheng's critique is a dispute between the Literary Research Association and the Creation Society by lumping Cheng's article with the 1928 articles by both the Creation and Sun Society which attacked Lu Xun and "Tme Story" firom a Marxist standpoint (35). At the time Cheng wrote in January of 1924, the Creation society had not yet embraced Marxism, which happened only after the May Thirtieth massacres of 1925 (ZGWXDCD 4: 2131-21.

’®’ Zhong Hui does not appear in either of the pen name dictionaries by edited Chu Pao-liang or Xu Naixiang.

’®^ This would be perhaps an example of the kind of "No-Worse-ism" that Lu Xun depicted in "Suiganlu 38."

’®® On the expression, "to watch the fires burning across the river," see Gao Yuan (65-8). 206 fires burning across the river." Note that Lu Xun never referred to the national character n«ring this term, but this tjpe of mentality is criticized by Lu Xun as observer mentality.’®'* This type of attack on Lu Xun, accusing him of exhibiting the negative national character, will become more prominent later in the Ah Q discourse. Zhong also agrees with Cheng that Lu Xun's biggest fault is that his expression is limited to what he depicts, and thus doesn't express an era or life, in other words. Lu Xun's is naturalist instead of realist. He also says that Lu Xun's works won't be eternal, never transcending the period they "represent"

- the late Qing. In this respect, both Cheng and Zhong's attacks on Lu Xun anticipate that of the Marxist critic Qian Xingcun in "Siqule de A Q shidai" (The bygone age of Ah Q).

The attack on Lu Xun for exhibiting a certain negative aspect of the national character is fiuther proof of the extent to which his critique of national character struck home. That it was even turned against him is an indication of how widespread the national character was. One of the thrusts of my argument is that "True Story" played a substantial part in articulating the national character discourse in the 1920s, regardless of whether or not critics agreed with Lu Xun's assessment. To sum up, the introduction of the Creation Society critiques into the reception of "Tme Story" contributes the following new elements to the Ah Q and national character discourses: attack on Lu Xtm for exhibiting negative features of the national character, denial that T m e Story" represents the contemporary era; assertion that

"Tme Story" depicts the peasant; denial that the national character is abnormal and morbid; and critique of the concept of depicting the "typical" charaacr. These elements will see more discussion as the Ah Q discourse broadens. The Creation Society attack on Lu Xun with Ah Q as a focus marks the broadening of the critical reception of "Tme Storv" by relating it to the literary debates of the May Fourth and the struggle for leadership in literary circles between the Creation Society and the Literary Research

Association. There is a transformation of sorts in the analysis of "Tme Story" by which its themes are in turn applied to Lu Xun in the stmggle for interpretive and creative dominance in the literary world. The

’®“ Marston Anderson critiques this as "ritual \ictimization" and says "Tme Story" is the most developed treatment of this (80-5). 207 construction of the Ah Q discourse extends now beyond its critical recq>tion to debate about general approaches to literature and the valorization of realism over naturalism (as it was conceived at that time).'®^

e. Origins of "Ah Q (Style] Revolution"

With his 1923 critique of Lu Xun's Nahan. Mao Dan also laid the initial foundation for the reading of

"True Story" as a criticism of the feilures of the 1911 Revolution, later to be termed "Ah Q [style] revolution" (A O geming

One great event in Chinese history, the 1911 Revolution, is reflected in "The True Story of Ah Q," and oh, how it makes one depressed! Optimistic readers, perh^s you cant avoid blaming the author for being overly descriptive, appearing to intentionally insult the "sacred revolution." However, whoever persoiially experienced this great event in the "provinces" certainly will feel that the description in "The True Story of Ah Q" is realistic. We now see that in seven or eight , chapters we can probably know the origins and causes of the political chaos of the last twenty years, as if we've been enlightened ("Du Nahan" 35)

"Ah Q revolution" was to become a term in common currency later in Ah Q research history and will be discussed in detail below. However, Lu Xun also used this term referring to Gao Changhong of the Sturm and Drang Society as an "Ah Q like revolutionary" {A 0 ski de geming dang P^Q {jji. for his essays entitled, "Zou dao chuban jie" (‘"A Q zhengzhuan' de chengyin" 380). From this example we can see that regardless of whether or not Lu Xun intended to use Ah Q as satirical weapon when be wrote

"True Story" (and I argue he did), by the time he wrote "'A Q zhengzhuan' de chengyin" (The reason I wrote "The True Story of Ah Q") in 1926, he was using Ah Q as an instrument of attack.

f. Method of Spiritual Victory Qingshen shengli fa # # |^ $ l j & )

While other critics such as Zhou Zuoren had already noted that Ah Q's pirit is negative ("A Q zhengzhuan 28), the first critic to mention the "method of spiritual victory" in the written record was

195 For more discussion on naturalism verses realism, see Marston Anderson (42-4). 208

Yang Cunren^®® in "Du Lu Xun de Nahan (xu)" (Reading Lu Xun's Battlecrv [continued]), in June of

1924. While Yang says that Lu Xun "depicts the weaknesses of Chinese national character with 120% accuracy" (61), quotes Lu Xun (without crediting him) to that effe«: "'forgetting'(wongqae^gP) is a highly effective treasure passed down ly the ancestors" (62), and notes that the method of spiritual victory is a product of the Chinese "gentleman's nation" {junzi guo # - ? '^ ) , he wonders whether the

"method of q>iritual victory" is a bad thing or good [though] unorthodox symbol {hao de yizheng

# ) . Though he says he is not able to answer his own question, he does know who is being criticized with this term: "those people who promote spiritual culture (Jingshen wenming # # ! $ [ % ) unthinkingly say it is a good [though] unorthodox symbol" (62).

Who are these people who promote spiritual culture? Mao Dun tells us in "Du Nahan" they are the champions of the national essence (guocui jia 35). Thus, both Mao's and Yang’s statements connect the primary aspect of Ah Q's character, the method of spiritual victory, to the national essence group. This connection is made in many other forums in Lu Xun's writings discussed in Chapters 4 and

5, and here it is si^ported by the first critic to mention the method of qriritual victory.

4. Developments in Late 1920s Ah Q Discourse

Ah Q and "True Story" are mentioned in the essays collected in Corpus only once in the year 1925, and this mention is by a Russian sinologist, B. A. Vassiliev, who said he was in the process of translating

"True Story" into Russian and wanted to get Lu Xun to write a prefece for it (which he did). However, in

1926, "True Story" gained "international renown" (or the perception of it) with the publication of laudatory comments about it by the contemporary French author, Romain Rolland. In early 1927, critics engaged in another round of criticism of Lu Xun and "True Story" after publication of "Ah Q zhengzhuan

Though detailed information on Yang Cunren in 1924 is not available, he joined the Communist Party in 1925, quit the party in 1933, and was a member of the Sun Society in 1928, and he attacked Lu Xun and the League of Left-Wing Writers, and exchanged literary blows with Lu Xun in numerous essays fZGWXDCD Vol. 4:2575-6). 209 de chengyin" in December of 1926. And finally, in 1928, as Lu Xun was embroiled in a vitiq)eratrve debate with the Creation and Sun Societies over revolutionaiy proletarian literature, "True Story" and Ah

Q were used by Marxist critics to attack Lu Xun rçjon the initiative of Qian Xingcun in his article, "Siqule de A Q shidai."

a. La Xun's Earliest Comments on "Tme Story"

Despite the feet that "True Story" was highly praised. Lu Xun didn’t comment on it in writing for two and a half years after it was written.^®’ Generally speaking. Lu Xun's comments on Ah Q and "Tme

Story" are meager, but quite revealing of his stated intention in writing the work. I will show that these comments were not only are part of the overall discourse on national character and the Ah Q discourse, but that they were somewhat shaped by the critical response to the work (as I hinted above), as well as to the historical contingencies of the time they were made. Of course, these comments also continue his critique of national essence, Chinese spiritual culture, and related concepts discussed in Chapters 4 and 5.

In his preface to the Russian translation of "True Story," Lu Xun states that with Ah Q he wanted to illustrate the soul of the Chinese {Zhongguoren de hunling cja gX&tJ ), and comments on its critical reception:

After my story was published, it first received the censure of a young critic;^®* later some considered it sick,'®® some considered it comical,^®® some considered it satirical or perhaps ironicaL*®' and it even got to the extent that 1 suspected that in my heart lay hidden a terrible ice cube. But 1 also thought that views of life vary by author and so views of a woric vary by the reader. So, the eyes of a Russian reader without the least of "our traditional ideology" (yvomen de

'®^ His first comments on his character Ah Q appear in "Ewen yiben 'A Q zhengzhuan’ xu ji zhuzhe zixu zhuanlue" in June of 1925. However, Zhou Zuoren comments that Lu Xun saw a draft of his 1922 article, "A Q zhengzhuan," before it was published and agreed with his assessment of the foreign influences on Lu Xun.

'®* Cheng Fangwu, "Nahan de pinglun"

'®® Zhang Dinghuang "Lu Xun xiansheng" (see LXOJ 7:82 fii5).

-®® Feng Wenbing, "Nahan" (see LXOJ 7:82 fii5).

^®' Zhou Zuoren, "A Q zhengzhuan" 210

chuantong sixiang may perhaps illuminate another scene. This possibility is really interesting to me. (78)

Lu Xun is quite cognizant of the idea that the reception of the work will vary by reader and recognizes that the ideological content of Ah Q would probably be received differently Ity a Russian reader. Indeed, this dissertation showing the construction of the Ah Q discourse may be viewed as being situated in the self-conscious context of interpretive relationship between cultures that Lu Xun indicates in this quote.

b. International Reception of "True Story": Remain Holland's Comments

The international reception of "True Story" perhtps represents the point where the Ah Q discourse receives its greatest stimulus since Lu Xun first wrote the work. The intematicnal reception of "True

Story" pltys an important part in the legitimization of Ah Q's status in the national character discourse in modem China. Moreover, it plays an early role in raising Lu Xun to the ranks of internationally acclaimed writers, and catapults "True Story" into the ranks of world literature in Chinese view. Besides the letter to Lu Xun firom the Russian translator Vassiliev requesting a preface, the first significant international comments on "Tme Story" were made in 1926 by Romain Rolland (1866-1944), the anti imperialist French writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915.^°^ The manner in which

RoUand's praise was disseminated in China was third hand, through an article based on an alleged letter from a Chinese student in France. The report of RoUand's comments is complicated by the fact that certain items in it were refuted by Jing Yirtyu, the French translator of "True Story," and original source of RoUand's comments. However, the gist of the article, that Rolland praised the work, remains unchaUenged both by Jing Yinyu and other Lu Xun scholars up to this point.

RoUand was a leftist, feUow traveler, anti-miUtarist, anti-fescist, and anti-imperialist who corresponded with important Uterary and poUtical figures like Tagore, Nehru, and Ghandi. See David James Fisher. 211

The complicated series of events goes as follows. RoUand read a translation of "True Story" by a

Chinese student, Jing Yinyu.^“ Another Chinese student in France by the name of Qnan Fei‘°^ aUegedly heard of Holland's remarks and sent a letter reiterating them to his acquaintance named Bai Sheng in

China. Bai Sheng thereupon wrote a short article, "Luoman Luolan ping Lu Xun" (Romain Holland appraises Lu Xun), in which he quoted Holland's comments from Quan Fei's letter.*®^ Quan Fei is quoted as asserting that Holland "acclaimed it highly," saying, "This is a kind of realistic art full of satire.... Ah

Q's worried fece (kulian wiU be etemaUy left in my memory" (155).^°® In feet, Jing Yinyu reported Holland's comments directly to Lu Xun in a letter dated 24 January 1926 (Shao Bozhou 50), and said something similar ""The Story of Ah Q is a work of exceedingly high art. The proof is in reading it the second time felt it was better than the first. The wretched image of the pitiful Ah Q is left in my memory" (qtd. in Ge Baoquan, "Tan" 45). The differences between the two works are accounted for by the recoUection of Jing Yinyu's roommate in France, who sipposedly saw another letter written by Jing including comments from Holland that was submitted to the Creation Socie^ for publication at the same

According to He Kai, Holland's comments were aUegedly published in the American journal. Current History (764). However, I have searched this journal and been unable to locate therrn Jing Yinyu (Kin-Yn-Yu) is also the author of an article by written in French in 1927 discussing the influence of Romain Holland on modem Chinese Uterature in which Lu Xrm is mentioned twice without the mention of Ah Q (See Jing Yinyu, "Le Renaissance Chinoise et L'influence de Romain Holland").

^ Quan Fei is Sun Fuxi ® (1898-1962) according to Shao Bozhou (50), and that would make him the brother of Sun Fryuan. Sun Fuxi went to France to study in 1920 and closely corresponded with Lu Xun until he returned in the spring of 1925 (ZGWXDCD 4:2471). Moreover, Sun Fuxi returned in the spring of 1925 and the letter was supposedly received from France by Bai Sheng in March of 1926 initiating this publicity. There is a discrepancy somewhere here. However, I have not been able to corroborate Shao Bozhou's assertion in either bibliographies of pen names by Chu Pao-liang or Xu Naixiang.

Bai Sheng is one of Sun Frquian's pen names, and the article was published in Jinebao fukan for which Sim was editor. Sun published more than thirty of Lu Xun's worics in Jinsfoao fukan (ZGWXDCD. 4: 2453). In addition, with Lu Xun's support Sun founded the journal Yusi.

The original French in Quan Fei's letter, according to the reprint in Corpus, goes as follows: "C'est un art réaliste arevé D'ironje.... La figure misérable dâh 0 [d'Ah 0] reste toujour dans le Soicvenir” (155). Misspellings and misprinting of foreign words commonly occurs in Chinese works of the time. 212 time. The letter was never published and is suspected to have been destroyed because of animosity between the Creation Society and Lu Xun at the time (Ge, "Tan" 49-50).

The next mention of RoUand's acclaim for "True Stoiy" came in Tai Jingnong's preface to a coUection of essays about Lu Xun published in June of 1926 entitled Guanvu Lu Xun ii oi zhuzuo (Regarding Lu

Xun and his works):

There are two articles [in this coUection) that I personaUy feel are quite significant. There are also works from foreigners that I wanted to include: the words of appraisal of Romain Rolland, a letter fiom the Russian translator Vassiliev to Gao Jinghua, notes about him [Lu Xun] in the book Zhina de xin ren ii liming vundong (China's new people and enlighterunent movement) by the Japanese [author] Shimizu Yasuzo # 2 X ^ 5 .,^ as weU as the recent important discussions when the American Bartlett paid him a caU. However, foUowing Mr. Lu Xun's own idea, aU these were excluded and instead a letter from Professor Chen Yuan was included. (167)

Deqjite Tai's mention of these foreign "admirers," the articles in the anthology are aU critical of Lu Xun.

Tai points out in this prefece that such a critical coUection of ess^s ejqrresses the new spirit of the

Chinese. This new spirit is perhaps what Lu Xun was hoping to stimulate through his critique of national character. Lu Xun evidently was not perturbed at such a coUection of critical articles, as evidenced by his veto of the positive comments and suggestion of adding the letter of his enemy, Chen Yuan.

RoUand's critique of "True Story" was frequently mentioned in the two years foUowing the pubUcation of Lu Xun's second coUection of stories, Panghuang (Hesitation; 1926), in the context of articles commenting on Panghuang and comparing "True Story" to the stories in the coUection. One author, for example, compared RoUand's unforgettable memory of Ah Q with his own unforgettable memory of

Xianglin Sao (Ye Shengji 182). More significantly, Beixin Publishing (jk & # M )capitalized on

RoUand's positive comments on "Tme Story" by using them to promote the sale of Panghuang in the form of an advertisement. RoUand's praise became firmly fixed as a part of the critical discourse on Ah Q when the critic Li Jiannong quoted it in full m an article critiquing Panghuang in September 1926. Li noted

Shimizu Yasuzo (1891- ) was the author of Pekin seidan: Keikan no Chugoku : g | ^0 4’ (Clear Beijing pools: experiences of China; Tokyo: Kyoiku shuppan, 1975), so I suspect that this is the same person. 213 that the advertisement featuring RoUand's comments on "True Story" could also be seen in Yusi and other publications.

Ironically, the excitement over China's first work of modem literature to achieve "international status" somehow seems to have compensated for the negative critique of Chinese national character contained in the wodt itself. Indeed, in an article piiblished in January of 1927 appraising the publishing world in China, "Zou dao chuban jie - renlei dejibei" (Entering the publishing world - the backbone of humanity), Gao Changhong contends that the Chinese evaluation of "Tme Story" was elevated after

Holland praised it Complaining that Yusi had exaggerated Holland's praise, Gao points out that RoUand

"advertised for the Chinese in saying that True Story" is a work of realistic satire; and not long after that the Chinese elevated it into the highest art!" (236). Gao, a member of the Kuangbiao she (Sturm and Drang Society),^'® was writing in response to Lu Xun's denial of any association with their society and his denunciation of their use of his name to promote themselves.^ Gao's criticism here may be seen as an attempt to danqien some of the enthusiasm generated by the promotional use of Holland's praise by attacking the credibility of Lu Xun's literary authority and "Tme Story's" status as a work of Chinese and world literature. Conversely, Lu Xun's response was aimed at subverting the self-promotion of the Sturm and Drang Society.

In view of Mao Dun's assertion cited above that "only literature that can eçress the national character has value and can occiqjy a place in world literature," and that "we're very willing to be responsible for promoting it

The original Sturm and Drang Society was a nationalistic, anti-Enlightenment, anti-Classicist, revolutionary literary movement in Germaity in the late 18th and early 19th centuries which advocated Romanticism and influenced authors such as Goethe, Schiller, Herder and Lenz. See J. A. Cuddon, A Dictionary of Literarv Terms, rev. ed. (London: Penguin, 1979): 662-3.

See Lu Xun, "Suowei 'sixiang jie xianquzhe' Lu Xun qishi," LXOJ 3: 392. After their magazine, Kuangbiao zhoukan. reopened in Shanghai in October of 1926, Gao Changhong was engaged in attack on all those he saw as authorities in literary circles like Lu Xun, Guo Momo and Bing Xin (ZGWXDCD 5: 3067). In feet. Lu Xun was associated with Gao Changhong when he joined Lu Xtm's Mangyuan she # (Wildemess society). Lu Xun published a nurtiber of his works until 1926 when "the nurturing and guiding relationship with Lu Xun was broken" after the establishment of the Sturm and Drang Society (ZGWXDCD 7:4970). 214

to the utmost" ("Xiaoshuo -vnefcao gaige xuaiQgn"; 21), it is not smpdsmg that upon receiving international

acclaim, 'True Story" would be "promoted to the utmost," especialfy since Ah Q was alreacfy identified ty critics

as a representative ofthe national character. Intemational acclaim wodced to further legitimize Ah Q's status as

the representative of the Chinese national character in the view of Chinese critics, despite the feet that True

Story" was a negative critique of national character. This basically means that the recognition of 'True Story" as

a great work of literature in the international interpretrve community overshadowed the decidedly negative

content and intent of the work itself in the view of the Chinese hteraiy world. This could mean that critics took

Lu Xun's critique of national character seriously and felt that the intematibnal prestige of the work would help

persuade the Chinese reader that the national character had to be reformed. On the other hand, it could mean

that the Chinese were willing to overlook the loss of fece iirvolved in exposing the negative aqrects of their

national character to the world because it was offeet Iqr a greater gain in prestige perceived by the positive

international recqrtion of the work and elevation of a Chinese author into world literary ranks. Or it could mean

that Ah Q was not taken serious^ as a representative of the negative national character, but was rather seen as

lovable, as Zhou Zuoren had put it and thus not a loss of fece for the Chinese. Or perhaps this indicates that the

educated readers really did view Ah Q as a critique of the lower classes, a fermer or worker, and thus had no

reason to fed personalty ashamed to see a negative character like Ah Q achieve an international reputation Or

perhq)S this is the point when Ah Q became a syrribol of some "universal human nature" in the discourse of

national character, as Mao Dun had suggested in "Du Nahan." rather than a restrictive national type as Zhou

Zuoren had argued. Such a justification would mean that the Chinese reader could avoid the shame of exposing

Chinese weaknesses ty ssrying that people of other nations shared the weaknesses (this then would be an

exanqjle of Lu Xun's "No-Worse-ism" criticized in "Suiganlu 38"). Another possibility is an ironic

reading along the lines of Ah Q's pty^chology of the method of spiritual victory: "Tme Story" has gained

intemational acclaim as the number one work of modem Chinese literature even though it is a negative

critique of the Chinese national character. After all, if you just drop the content (negative critique of

national character) you're still left with "number one." 215

The hyperbole suiroundiiig Rolland's comments was contimied by Edgar Snow, who said in an article in the January issue of Asia in 1935, "Romain Rolland, a great admirer of Lu Xun's work, said that he was so moved by it ["True Story"] that he wept" (qtd. in Ge Baoquan, "Lu Xun" 86)."'° Snow's comments that Rolland wept are uncorroborated and seem exaggerated, probably based on the same earlier reports that fed the rumor mill Reporting on questionable sources often lead to assertions of authenticity based on the identity of a celebrity or foreigner who could be cited. For example, R. M. Bartlett, whom Tai

Jingnong referred to above, was a professor of Western philosophy and literature at Beijing University at the time and interviewed Lu X utl Bartlett highly praised "True Story" in an article in Current History in which he also quoted Roman Rolland's acclaim of the work (58). However, it is self-evident from the language in both articles that Bartlett quoted Rolland (without credit) from the same questionable sources that all the other commentators noted - Bai Sheng's article. In turn, Bartlett's article was translated by

Shi Fu in 1927, and Bartlett's quote of Rolland gained its second Chinese translation, a translation different enough from the first in Bai Sheng's article to imply that Bartlett was offering a "first-hand account" of Rolland's comments himself. This apparentty led to a later report by He Kai, which claimed that the origin of Rolland's quote was in Current History (764). Of course He Kai didnt specify Bartlett's article in Current History here, but it is most probable he mistakenly thought Bartlett's essay was quoting

Rolland. ■“

The key to this mystery hes in finding a record of Rolland's original comments. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a record of any comments except those reported by Jing cited above. In feet, Ge

Baoquan argues that there never were any comments written by Rolland, but rather they were orally

*'° Elsewhere, Ge Baoquan reports this quote of Snow's differently, saying that it was after Lu Xim's death in 1936 that Rolland wept on hearing the news ("Tan" 49). The misinformation is evidently quite thick here.

I have searched high and low for any reference by Rolland in Current Historv around this time without success. 216 passed on for Jing to transmit ("Tan" 49-50). Jing's translation of "True Stoiy," however, was indeed published by the recommendation of Rolland to his friend, the editor, in the journal Europe: Revue mensuelle in May and June of 1926 under the romanized name Kin Yn Yu, (77). Shao Bozhou cites

Rolland's letter to the editor of Europe at length, and argues that Jing rqjorted accurately on Rolland's comments by virtue of the similarity of Rolland's letter to Jing's report (49-51). The question thus becomes how Rolland's comments were used and by whom. It is even possible that Lu Xun directly or indirectly allowed Rolland's comments be known from Jing's letter to him That Sun Fityuan, the original editor who urged Lu Xun to write "True Story," published the original article under the pseudortym Bai

Sheng (Sun was editor at the paper in which it was published, Jindrao fiikant. and that the article was later used to promote Panghirang as an advertisement, indicates that Lu Xun was probably somewhere in the background and perhgqrs had leaked this information to his associates through Sun. Moreover, Xu

Shoushang reports in his reminiscences that Lu Xun told him of Rolland's comments ("Za tan zhuzuo

55).*'^ Furthermore, apparently as a result of his international acclaim and Rolland's comments, Tai

Jingnong suggested that Lu Xun shotrld be considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature.^'^ Lu Xun rejected this idea out of hand as recorded in "Zhi Tai Jingnong" (Letter to Tai Jingnong; 1927), where he says that he is not qualified and that "China still really has no person that should receive the Nobel prize"

(573). Lu Xun ties this assertion to the national character by arguing: "If we were given special consideration because of our yellow skin, this would be sufiBcient to promote the Chinese sense of false glory, to make us think we really could walk shoulder to shoulder with the great authors of other nations,

Xu also reports that Lu Xun told him that Rolland said there were characters like Ah Q in the French revolution, too (55). This has implications for the "universal" interpretation of Ah Q (verses the national character interpretation).

Xu Shoushang recalls that Lu Xun told him in 1925 that a Swede had asked about his works, "wanting him to sent them to the'Managing committee ofthe Nobel Prize for Literature'" (55). However, I think Xu mistakes this for recollections of Lu Xun's response to Tai Jingnong in 1927. Xu reports that Lu Xun told him a letter from Rolland to him which was entrusted to the Creation Society was destroyed without him ever seeing it "because at that time I was in the midst of a war of words with the Creation Society" (55). 217 and the result would be veiy bad" (573). Recall that Lu Xun satirized this element of national character in "True Story" in the scene where Ah Q was slapped by Master Zhao for claiming to be sumamed Zhao, and thereupon was "treated with qjecial respect" by all the Weizhuang villagers ("A Q zhengzhuan"

492). Is it possible that some of the reading public operated on Ah Q's principle of "reflected glory" by claiming that Lu Xun was qualified for a Nobel Prize in Literature by virtue of Rolland's praise of "True

Story"?

The point is that in raising "True Story" and Lu Xun to the ranks of world literary status on just a few sentences of praise by the famous Nobel Laureate, the critics were engaging in two aspects of the national character criticized Lu Xun in "True Story": "reflected glory" (or fame by association) and "No-Worse- isTTL" Granted, "True Story" was a well-written work deserving the praise of Chinese and international critics. Granted Lu Xun was already at the top of the Chinese literary world. However, when read against

Lu Xun's critique of national character, the attempt to raise him and "Tme Story" into the ranks world literature, to make them writer and work of universal merit, mitigates against Lu Xun's hope for self reflection on the part of the reader by invoking the national essence justification of "No-Worse-ism."

After all, if foreign countries have Ah Q's too, then China neednt work to reform its own national

character.

c. Lu Xun Addresses Ah Q: "’A Q zhengzhuan'de chengyin" (The reason for writing "The True Story of Ah Q"; 1926)

It is sometimes the unorthodox views of the Ah Q discotuse that are most revealing about the nature

of the discourse and its politics (and the struggle for orthodoxy). In addition, such views appear at times

to have stimulated Lu Xun's personal engagement in the discourse. For example, Gao Yihan wrote an

article called "Xianhua" (Gossip) for Xiandai pinglun (Contemporary review) in August of 1926 which

is one of the most important responses to "True Story." Recalling the situation when "True Story" was

published, Gao writes:

I remember when each installment of "True Story" came out there were many people who were full of fear, aftaid that later the castigation would fall on their heads. Furthermore, there were a 218

few friends who said to me directly that in yesterd^s "True Story" there was a paragraph that was castigating themselves. Because of this, they guessed that "True Story" was written by so and so. How so? That's because only a particular person knew about this private affair of his. This is realty like the saying: "the thief s courage is hollow," "The person bitten by a poison snake three years ago will be a&aid today when they dream of seeing a rope." From then on thqr will suspect the gods and suspect the ghosts, and everything castigated in "True Story" are all thought to be his private secrets. Everyone who submitted an article to the newspaper in which "True Story" was published was unavoidably suspected of being the author of "True Story," tg) until he finds out the name of the author of "True Story" and finally realizes that he doesn't know the author in the least. Because of this he is suddenly enlightened and explains to everyone he meets that the work isnt berating him (172)

It is notable that this article was published in ajournai whose contribirtors and editors, whom Lu Xun referred to as "rqrright gentlemen," were often at odds with Lu Xun and writers for Yusi.^^" Recalling Lu

Xun's metaphor of waking iq) the light sleepers in the iron house, Gao goes one step finther and says that the kind of castigation in "True Story" "will cause even the completely numb person's skin to crawl"

(172). Four months later. Lu Xun quoted Gao's article extensively in "'A Q zhengzhuan' de chengyin"

(The reason for writing "The Tme Story of Ah Q"; 1926), which 1 will discuss below.

Gao's article, and a later article by Zheng Zhenduo (1898-1958), "Nahan" (Battlecry), written in late November of 1926, may have been the prime factors motivating Lu Xun to write "'A Q zhengzhuan' de chengyin'" (both Gao and Zheng are cited by Lu Xun in the ess^ which is discussed below). Before turning to Lu Xun's essay, let us see what Zheng has to say. Upon publication of the

English translation of "Tme Story," Zheng writes that he has a few remarksto make about AhQ:

"The True Story of Ah Q" is certainly the most outstanding work in Battlecrv. Many people consider Ah Q to be the epitome of the Chinese person (Zhongguoren de suoying tfi # ). There are also many people that rather consider themselves to have some amount of Ah Q's qualities (qizhi Then the influence and success of this thing (zhe pian dongxi @ ) in China is similar to GonchoroVs Oblomov and Turgenev's Rodin in Russia

The important members of the Contemporary Review School were Wang Shijie, Gao Yihan, Hu Shi, Chen Yuan and Xu Zhimo. Around the time of the May Thirtieth Movement, the Beijing Women's Normal College Incident, and the March 18th Massacre, this groiq) "published essays in which th^- engaged in intense ddrate with Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren, the representatives of the Yusi school" (ZGWXDCD Vol. 6: 3509). Chen Yuan criticized both Lu Xun and the students who were protesting against the administration of Beijing Women's Normal College in 1925 and those students who "blindly followed the masses to a 'place of death'" in the March 18th Massacre (ZGWXDCD Vol. 6: 3509).

This is tme even today, as Li Tuo's quote at the begirming of Chapter 1 indicates. Furthermore, 1 have heard unsolicited declarations in two settings, in the seminar setting and at a literature conference, where the weaker claims either to be an Ah Q or to have part of Ah Q deep within the psyche. 219

That this thing is worth everyone's attention as such is not without cause. But there are some things worth discussing, like the final chapter, "H^>py Reunion" (da tuanyuan @ HI ). When I read this in the Morning Gazette I didnt agree with it because it seemed like fire author was in a hurry to finish off Ah Q. He didnt want to keep writing, and so casually like this just gave him a "happy reunion." It seems that at the beginning of writing the author himself also didnt e^qpect that a person like Ah Q would in the end become a revolutionary and in the end have such a conclusion as a happy reunion. It seems that in terms of character there are at least two [Ah Q's]. (208)

Zheng also mentions the French, English and two Russian translations saying they all took the author's

real name to be that of Lu Xun's brother, Zhou Zuoren, instead of his own (Zhou Shuren). When he wrote

"'A Q zhengzhuan' de chengyin" in December of 1926, Lu Xun was reacting to Zheng's article and argued

that Ah Q indeed would be just the person to join the revolution, if the revolution came.

Lu Xun's own assessment of "True Story" appeared in December of 1926. "'A Q zhengzhuan' de

chengyin," provides a "first hand" look at Lu Xun's own reasoning in the debate over the creation,

meaning, and significance of Ah Q (firom the notable distance of four years and 1500 miles between

Beijing, where he wrote the story, and Xiamen where he wrote the essay). In this essay Lu Xun explains

that he had an image of Ah Q in his mind for quite a few years but had no thought of writing it up until he

was asked to contribute to a humor column in Chenbao and suddenly just wrote it iqj. This is similar to

what he reported in the first chapter of "True Story." He was aware of some of the critical reception to

"True Story," as he states in this essay, and recalling some readers fears that they were the subject of the

author's attacks, he somewhat defensively cites Gao Yihan's article denying that he was attacking anyone

in particular, saying, "...it's regrettable that I can't make people see that I'm not so despicable as to do

that" (380).

"'A Q zhengzhuan' de chengyin" is ostensibly Lu Xun's answer to a letter ffom the critic Zheng

Zhenduo, who thought the final chapter "A Happy Reunion" (da tuanyuan too hasty and who

asserted that a person like Ah Q, as depicted earher in the story, wouldn't be likely to join the revolution

in the end. Lu Xun, however, responded that "it was inevitable that the problem of Ah Q becoming a

revolutionary would come iqj. As I saw it, if China didn't have a revolution Ah Q wouldn't be one. But

since there was a revolution he did become one. The fate of Ah Q could only be like this, so I'm afiaid 220 that he isnt two personalities" (380). An indication ofLuXnn's-view ofAhQ as a contemporary problem even after the May Fourth are his assertions that the "Ah Q type of revolutionary" (A O shide geming dang P9^Qfl^&tl^^#^)isnota thing of the past, and indeed, that if there was a revolution now, then "revolutionaries like Ah Q would still appear" (380), and that this type of revolutionary will be around in the future, perhaps for twenty or thirty years. Finally, Lu Xun explains directly that Ah Q's execution in the last chapter, the "Happy Reunion," was calculated and not "casually written," as Gao had suggested (381).

The issue of Ah Q's revolution and the period and class he was siq^sed to represent were to become focal points of the Ah Q discourse. Lu Xun's comments on the critical recqition of "True Story" indicate that he believed Ah Q was a character that transcended the time setting of the story, as well as the era in which he was writing. Secondly, the character Ah Q was not, according to Lu Xun, exaggerated:

I thought once I had exaggerated, but 1 do not think so now. If I were to describe events in China today exactly as they happen, they would appear grotesque to people of other cotmtries or those of a future, better China. 1 often have fancies which strike me as utterly &ntastic, until 1 come across similar events, even more incredible. With my mean intelligence, I could never foresee such happenings, (trans. LXSW 2: 318)

And so Lu Xun neatly asserted the legitimacy of the events and character of Ah Q with this fir.n1 assertion that &ct is even stranger than fictiort Speaking as an analyst of national character in this quote. Lu Xun notes that the people of a "future better China," a tune when the Chinese national character will have changed significantly from that represented by Ah Q, would also feel that events such as those in "True

Stoiy," as well as those he sees around him at the tune, are grotesque. This begs the question of when the

"better future China" will be realized, for the discourse of Ah Q is still active in China today.

Concluding his explanation of how "True Stoiy" was written. Lu Xun could not but make a few comments on the national character by using examples which indirectly highlight the idea that the

Chinese national character had not changed since the time he wrote "True Story." He quotes news reports telling of how certain bandits and murderers were executed by a flurry of bullets or by guillotine, a practice which Lu Xun notes extends back to the period of Judge Bao of the Song dynasty, and thus 221 implies that the diseased national character, represented by sickly exaggerated methods of execution, has been long in the making. Juxtaposed to Ah Q's denouement, death by firing squad. Lu Xun thus highlights his assertion that Ah Q had only one possible conclusion - execution.

d. Critiques Stimnlated by Lu Xun's "'Ah Q zhengzhuan* de chengyin"

Lu Xun's explication of "True Story" was finally recorded in Deceniber of 1926 while he was in

Xiamen, just before he left for Guangzhou. "'A Q zhengzhuan' de chengyin" set off a flurry of critiques of

Lu Xun and "True Story," particularly firom members of the Sturm and Drang Society whom Lu Xun criticized in his essay. Gao Changhong, for example, was criticized by Lu Xim as "China's 'Shevyrev"'*'® and called an "Ah Q like revolutionary" ÇA 0 shi de geming dang for his ess^s entitled, "Zou dao chuban jie" (380). In response, Gao Changhong wrote a derogatory ess^ calling Lu

Xun a "man of many small caps," a "dog leader," and played on an ejqiression Lu Xun commonly used to criticize the national, "the ancients already had it" (guyiyou zhi Gao called him "an authority of the intellectual world who is sincerely an 'authority who already had it'" (we/ y i you zhi

Other members ofthe Sturm and Drang Society stood up for Gao: Xrang Peiliang wrote to say he "hopes that Lu Xun doesn't become one of the masses chasing Shevyrev" (237), and Shang Yue used

Ah Q as an instrument to analyze and attack Lu Xun and his legitimacy as China's "Andreev" or

"Sologub.""^* Shang accepted the idea that "Ah Q is the soul of the Chinese people" (^hongguoren de linghun btit with a twist:

As for "understanding," 1 have thought of something: the Chinese imderstanding of literary art is very interesting. For example, Mr. Lu Xun's things (û?o«gxz^®).“^® We effortlessly

Sun Lung-kee notes that "In October 1920, he (Lu Xun] began translating into Chinese Mikhail Artsi bashev's '[The Worker] Shevyrev,' a story written after the feilure of the 1905 Russian Revolution about a terrorist who perishes in taking revenge against society" ("To Be or Not to Be 'Eaten'" 466). Douwe W. Fokkema gives a summary of the plot of this story, and a different spelling (Shevyiyov) (93).

See "Zoudao chuban jie - yi weijianjun qi yi Lu Xun hu," 239.

Fiodor Sologub [1863-1927] was is a representative of the Russian symbolists (LXOJ 4:435.8).

Lu Xun's critics apparently disdain to call his works pieces of literature, thus use this epitaph, "things." 222

encounter smooth (ninide M2S&5J) critics everyday who all seem to praise "The True Story of Ah Q" in the magazines, in the newspapers, or just in conversation. Eqjecially Ah Q's behavior after he pinched the young ntm. Indeed, I feel their criticism at most is rather smooth and that's all. This fact often rnakes me think that the ejq>ression, "Ah Q is the soul of the Chinese people" {Zhongguoren de linghun cja probably isnt mistaken! But what about Mr. Lu Xun's Yecao? I really feel it is very desolate, and I've heard practically nobo

Citing Ah Q's abuse of the young nun by pinching her cheek and becoming aroused by the feel of her smooth skin, Shang turns the national character critique represented by Ah Q back onto the critics who extol Lu Xun with their "smooth" praise. In his criticism of the recq>tion of Ah Q, Shang asserts what he. evidently believes is an element of the national character - "the Chinese arent a race that is able to understand invective (zhouma )" - which explains why "The True Story of Ah Q' is on everyone's lips." If the critics and readers had understood that Lu Xun's invective was addressed at them, they presumably would not be so "smooth" in their appraisals of Lu Xun or so laudatory of "True Story."

Indirectly, Shang reconfirms an important point made by Gao Changhong above: despite Ah Q's symbolism as the epitome of the negative national character, the response to Ah Q and Lu Xun after dissemination of Rolland's positive criticism was laudatory. The Chinese readership was apparently so excited that a Chinese work got into the ranks of world literature they could overlook the message of the work."* Is this perhaps a permutation of the method of spiritual victory, "Number-One-ism" or "No-

Worse-ism"? If so, it is ironic that the work itself perpetuates these aspects of the national character. The members of the Sturm and Drang society evidently saw themselves as the only ones who really understood

The reference is not clear here. Huadan is the vivacious female role in the Chinese opera. Perhaps Shang is sarcastically referring to Lu Xun as Huadan, the "feminine" Sologub?

"* I noted above that the references to Rolland's praise of "True Story" were replete in the critical literature. 223 that Lu Xtin was criticizing Chinese national character and such a negative critique was actually a shame for China.

A few short articles written after ’"A Q zhengzhuan' de chengyin" offer some creative commentary on

Ah Q, and demonstrate the way the Ah Q discourse was received by the reading community at large. For example, Shi Yi identifies with one of Lu Xun's characters, and in e^qtressing this identification he writes:

"I know Ah Q, I am not Ah Q, 1 am not Kong Yiji, not Chen Shicheng, and not Fang Xuanchuo. Only Lü

Weifu in the tavern is me: Lu Xun is also m e -la m in the tavern in S city" (253). Despite the fact that he doesn't consider himself to be Ah Q, he professes femiliarity with the character Lu Xun created (and denial) and demonstrates that he has at least thought about how Lu Xun's various characters are representative of those in Chinese society. Another writer, Li Jinming, asserted that Lu Xun was satirizing China's iqiper class with Ah Q:

We read his "True Story of Ah Q" and he seems to be satirizing this weak little Ah Q. It's not like this. He is satirizing Ah Q's enviromnent and Ah Q is merely an abnormal piçpet created by this environment. Because he detests China's rqjper society, and he really does detest it, he often indicates he is making fools of them. (256)

Li indicates sympathy for Ah Q and recognizes that such abnormality is a product of the enviromnent in which he was created. Ah Q is taken literally as a direct representation of the Chinese people, however,

Li notes that Lu Xun's creative method of satire was not directed at Ah Q at ah, but rather China's elite society. This is an insightful comment on the Ah Q discourse and when read in concert with Lu Xun's expressed intent of making the reader to self-refiect, it becomes apparent that Lu Xun was at pains to make sure that the reader understood that he himself was being satirized."

^ However, it was seven years later that Lu Xun e?q)ressed his idea that Ah Q would be the mechanism by which the reader would be forced to self-refiect. Perhaps in the intervening period Lu Xun himself reflected on his work and decided that "satire" could have this effect? Or perhaps this example shows 1 am correct in my suggestion that Lu Xun's late view was conditioned by what the critics had already said much earlier. 224

In addition to these two short articles, Youheng asks for a sequel to "True Story" saying that a fhnngTit revolution is still urgently needed, and decrying the feet that the spirit with which writers previously called for science and materialism, and with which Lu Xun called for a thought revolution and

"saving the children," is absent from essays he reads today (273). Youheng says Lu Xun's works now are

"colder than Rating ice cream" and asks that Lu Xun write again about saving the children, both invoking and quoting the "iron house motif "and Ah Q:

Mr. Lu Xun, 1 not only ask you to cohtinue writing such miscellaneous reflections on Professor Chen Yuan whose [e ss^ are] "not a one worth reading," but 1 also request that you write a "Sequel to the True Story of Ah Q" (A Odi er zhengzhuan hr the 1911 Revolution "The True Story of Ah Q" appeared. The present isnt a continuation of the 1911 Revolution, but after a long while I havent seen "The Sequel to the True Story of Ah Q" - oh, our Ah Q! (274)

While this piece accepts Qian Xingcun's idea that "True Story" represents a "bygone" age (which will be discussed in detail below), Youheng still views Lu Xun as the representative writer of the age (contrary to

Qian) and asks for another work that would represent the new age - a sequel to "True Story." This is an important confirmation that the Ah Q discourse was still relevant to the reader at large, and indeed demonstrates a desire by some of the readership to be shown Ah Q's fete in the contemporary revolutionary period, because he still sees Ah Q around (274). Thus, the reader has identified with the national character, and treats Lu Xun as a prophet who is capable of showing the reader what state the national character is in at this point in time. This indicates that the national character is imagined to be changing with time.

A few weeks after Youheng's essay. Lu Xun published a reply, "Da Youheng xiansheng" (A reply to

Mr. Youheng), thanking him for his good intentions and explaining to him his disillusionment with literature as a tool for social and political change by comparing the light sleepers he awoke with his battlecry to a crael dish of "dancing shrimp" which are eaten alive. Lu Xun's memories of his students massacred on March 18,1926 and the killings of Communists and suspected Communists during the

1927 "cleansing" of the Nationalist Party were the motivations for this essay. He questions the role that literature can have in social revolution and even the whole idea of enlightening the "light sleepers." Lu 225

Xun analyzes his own role in the killings and comes to the tentative answer that he him self is a "person who has eaten people," a cannibal like the Madman with whom he critiqued Confucian culture.

Moreover, he says that he is so scared he dare not open his mouth for fear of becoming one ofthe drunken shrimp himself (454-5). This is the low point of Lu Xun's analysis of the effectiveness of his critiques of

Chinese culture, and he gives himself low scores. Though he doesn't directly raise the issue of a sequel to

"True Story," it is clear that he feels his cultural critique, and this would include his national character critique, have all been a waste of words. In a sense, the politics of the time had indeed usurped the cultural critique and hope for changing China with which Lu Xtm engaged the national character discourse during the May Fourth. However, the Ah Q discourse continues as critics still talk of Lu Xun and "True Story" despite his temporary withdrawal from active writing.

In November of 1927 Mao Dun wrote a long critique of Lu Xun, "Lu Xun lun" (On Lu Xun ), wherein he restates his original analysis of "Tnre Story," and also seems to offer a reply to Mr. Youheng:

If depressed youths of the present think that theyTl find a little stimulation in Battlecrv (the stimulation that Âey need), obtain a little consolation, and find a road to lead them to cast off their "depression," then nine out of ten of them will have their hopes dashed. This is because what Battlecrv can give you is merely that which you show contempt for every day - just like a foreigner shows contempt for Chinese people - the discouraging lives of the boys and girls of old China. Maybe you'll see your own shadow in it! The works in Hesitation are also like this, only there are a few exceptions. Perhaps you definitely are unwilling to admit that what you see in it is your own shadow. Then ii is best to read "The True Story of Ah Q." The cold, calculating satire in this work will make people forget, or neglect the quintessential significance of the work and believe it is only "humorous." But if you read it twice, you will have to admit that your shadow is within it Don't you have your "method of spiritual victory"? Aren't you good at forgetting the suffering you've been through like Ah Q? Being down and out half your life, haven't you said deep in the night "my son will much richer than yours" in Ah Q style (A O shide P^Q ^ ) vanity? Forget it, don't ask anymore. All in all. Ah Q is the crystallization of "deficient" Chinese people. Although Ah Q doesn't eat expensive food, can't speak foreign languages, doesn't know Europe and America, or anything. Nevertheless, the "deficient" "new boys and girls of old China" who eat ejqpensive food and speak foreign languages are, in spiritual thought, unavoidably Ah Qs or half-Ah Qs, and that's all Not only is the present like this, the future will also be like this, but I hope this future won't be too long. So even if the jocularity of "The True Story of Ah Q" makes you laugh at first, we will immediately lose the courage to laugh and turn into an unsettled hemming and hawing. Moreover, let me make one point [regarding] the only great event in the book. Ah Q's joining the revolution, the 226

"literaiy children's" "uniting in national renewal":^ the ofBcers also joined the revolutionaiy party and in less than twenty days there were more than ten cases of robbery. The Venerable Selectmen (juren laoye # A % 0 ) helped out the people’s government, but the officers disdained him These are naturally all events of sixteen years ago, but appear to d ^ in front of our eyes as if they were new, as if history is again repeating itself, (my emphasis; 300)

Mao Dun's long essay took into account the critiques of Lu Xtm that had been made during the past few years, including that of Cheng Fangwu, whom he quoted copiously and whose analysis of Ah Q as a typical character I discussed above. He took issue with Cheng on a number of points, particularly Cheng's

assertion that Lu Xun's characters were foreign, and that Ah Q was a shallow piece of work (299).

Responding to Cheng and other critics in this quote above, Mao Dun engages in the numerous elements cortçosing the Ah Q discourse: class issue (the rich); period issue (the present and future); Ah Q style vanity, the ability to forget; the method of spiritual victory and Ah Q's revolution - the feilure of the 1911

RevolutiorL Mao Dun took the national character critique presented by Lu Xtm in "True Story" and reflected it against the contemporary society he saw aroimd him, concluding that the national

characteristics critiqued by Lu Xtm were still highly relevant. So he counseled the reader to consider the issues of the Ah Q discourse while re-reading "True Story" and to think about how they relate to themselves. Thus, Mao Dun uses elements of the Ah Q discourse developed in the five years since its publication to directly criticize and guide the readers - to cause the reader to self-refiect as Lu Xun later

contended in "Da % zhoukan bianzhe yan" that he was trying to do aesthetically through "True Story."

Furthermore, Mao Dun echoes another dimension to the Ah Q discourse, the idea that the way the

Chinese people treat one another in the same contemptuous maimer in which foreigners treat the Chinese.

Recall that Lu Xtm alluded to this in his commentary in "Suiganlu 42," where he elaborated on the book

^ Both expressions used in "True Story." This reads: "wentong"de "xianyu v/eixin" « ” ÈlJ “ ” • "Wentong" is a phrase meaning literary youth preparing for the fihst level of the official civil service exams, which Lu Xun uses in "Tme Story" to describe Ah Q's aloof attitude toward the Zhao and Qian sons as an example of his sense of self-respect (LXOJ 1:488). In addition. Lu Xtm describes Ah Q with this adjective in Chapter 5 saying: "Feeling every bit as wronged as a Young Literatus who had just feiled the civil service examinations {wentong luodi ^ # # # ) . . . " (Lyell 138). "Xianyu weixin," a phrase firom the Shang shu (Classic of history), is a reference to Chapter 7 of "Tme Story" meaning "people firom all walks of life unite in national renewal" (Lyell 154; LXOJ 1: 513). Ill of a foreign doctor in Hangzhou who referred to the Chinese as uncivilized people (turen ± A), explaining that the Chinese were in feet worse than barbarians. Perhaps these two examples e>q)lain why it was so eaQT for the Chinese reader to read Ah Q and Lu Xun's critique of the national character with universal connotations: because they did see foreigners abusing Chinese on a regular basis, just like

Chinese whom they regularly saw abusing Chinese. In this sense, the foreigners were indeed much like the ruling class Chinese whom Lu Xun attacked.

B. Sun Society Declares Ah Q (and Lu Xun) Dead: Debate over Revolutionary Proletarian Literature-Periodization and Social "Reality"

In "Siqule de A Q shidai" (The bygone age of Ah Q; 1928), directly contradicting Cheng Fangwu, his feUow Creation Society member, Qian Xingcun acknowledged that Ah Q was indeed the representative of

"the Chinese abnormal national character" {Zhongguo de bingtai de guomin xing ^

% ), but he attenqjted to logically argue that Ah Q was a character out of a different period in Chinese history. "Siqule de A Q shidai" goes ?gainst the prevailing critical assessment by asserting that "True

Story" was not a masterpiece and could not represent the present age because Lu Xun belonged to an earlier era.“ '‘ Instead, Qian asserted that "True Story" represented Lu Xun himself Qian was aware that the idea that Lu Xun was not the representative writer of the age was not common currency among critics and admits as much in a companion piece published in Taivang vuekan (Sun monthly) titled "Bian hou"

(After editing; 1928). Moreover, in "Siqule de Lu Xun" (The bygone Lu Xun; 1928), published one month after "Siqule de A Q shidai," Qian concludes that Lu Xun is also of a bygone era: he can't express the present age because he doesn't know the age and "both his thought and technique died long ago"

(362). These two works are excellent examples of Qian's historical essentialism which is driven by political desire to place "True Story" and Lu Xun into a context that will not conflict with Qian's aspirations for a revolutionary literature. Based on the idea that literature must represent both the age in

As noted above, there were other critics like those firom the Sturm and Drang Society who also viewed Ah Q as a representative of an earlier era. 228 which it was produced and the writer's political thought, Qian argues that since works like "True Story" are set in the late Qing era, they can only represent the thought of that era ("Siqule de A Q shidai" 279-

80). Q an follows the logic that since the present era is revolutionary, then literature of the era must be revolutionary and because Lu Xun's literature and thought are not revolutionary neither Lu Xun nor his literature can represent the age. Indeed, Qian says "nor can the ideas contained in his works represent the main trend in Chinese literature over the past ten years!" (277). This assertion in itself mitigates against the enormous volume of material in the Ah Q discourse that was produced in the six years between its pubhcation and Qian's pronouncement here.

However, in "Siqule de A Q shidai" Qian does consider "True Story" representative of the aberrant national character of a particular period, the 1911 Revolution, and he speciGes particular grotq>s of people represented by Ah Q, the peasants in the countryside and the masses in the city (285). In addition, Qian identifies two aspects of the national character expressed in "True Story":

After reading "The True Story of Ah Q," we are left with at least two deep impressions ftom which we can determine the special characteristics of Chinese of the past. The first of these so- called impressions is our recognition that from an attitude of passive fatalism the Chinese of earher ages became pitifirl and detestable beings who bore no opinions about life and merely lived and died in ignorance. The second impression is our recognition of the deceitfulness, mahciousness, snobbishness, and various other similar cold-hearted characteristics, of the Chinese people, as well as their use of social class and powerful coimections to bully others. These two absolutely opposed kinds of character, indeed the most significant part of the Chinese people's aberrant character, have been explicitly revealed in one of Lu Xun's short stories. We can therefore say that this work may represent the bygone, aberrant national character of the Chinese people. (285)

Qian argues, however, that since the times have changed, so has the national character. The peasants have been politicized, and "most of them belong to tightly knit organizations and are quite knowledgeable about politics," "[t]h^ have rebelled against landlords, joined the revolution," and "their struggle is politicaL for it is significant and purposefuL not just an outpouring of anger" (286). Qian concludes that the Chinese peasants of the last ten years have long since lost their resemblance to the naive peasant masses of Ah Q's time: "The age of Ah Q died long ago! We need not be infatuated with skeletons. Let us bury Ah Q's body and spirit together. Let us bury Ah Q's body and spirit together!" (287). 229

If we read Qian's last line as recognition that Ah Q's spirit still lives, not having been buried yet,

Qian's argument appears to subvert itself. Situated within the context of the Ah Q discourse as I have described to this point, and noting that his fellow Marxist, Mao Dun had only four months earlier validated the contemporary existence of the Ah Q characteristics in "Lun Lu Xun," I venture that Qian's last few lines subvert his argument that the age of Ah Q died long ago. I contend that Qian was attençting to appropriate the Ah Q discourse as an instrument for politicization of the literary world.

This is an important stqp in the discourse of national character because it puts Lu Xun's interpretation of the negative features in the foreground by raising Ah Q as the tacit representative; it acknowledges that prior to the May Fourth, Ah Q was an accurate symbol of the abnormal national character, it focuses debate on the changes taking place in the Chinese people's spirit; and it parallels the critique of Lu Xun - valorizing but appropriating it and him by putting it and him into a mythologized past distanced from the allegedly revolutionized "real" present

Qian's articles and the reqranses to it were part of a larger debate on "proletarian revolutionary literature," a debate that pitted the combined forces of the Sun Society and the Creation Society against Lu

Xun, as well as his Yusi groiq). The Sun and Creation Societies initiated the proletarian literature movement and targeted Lu Xtm as the 'best spokesman of the capitalist class," calling him China's Don

Quixote. Lu Xtm answered in two articles, "'Zui yan' zhong de menglong" (Mist in the "drunken eyes";

1928) and "Wenyi he geming" (Literary arts and revolution; 1928), in which he approves of the basic concept of revolutionary proletarian literature, but analyzes the mistakes of the leaders of the movement

As a result of this exchange of attacks, both sides apparently came closer in their pohtical positions and this paved the way for Lu Xun to eventually became a Marxist and leader of the League of Left-Wing

Writers (ZGWXDCD 4:21321.

An interesting third point of view that is overlooked in the official literature on Ah Q research in

Corpus, as well as in the discussion of the debate over revolutionary proletarian literature is that of the 230 nationalist, Chang Yansheng.^ Chang was a member of the Sturm and Drang Society who wrote a pertinent article, 'Yueguole A Q de shidai yihou" (After transcending the age of Ah Q; 1928). In general,

Chang agreed with Qian Xingcun that the age of Ah Q was past, but he departs from Qian's assessment by criticizing the age that followed it, calling it the "gramophone" era (liusheng jiqi de shidai

# ft) , baa direct reference to Qian's article and his comrade Guo Moruo's declaration that writers should be "'gramophones for the proletariat" (qtd. in Denton, Modem 49). Chang says it would be better to have the age of Ah Q for a while longer instead ofthe gramophone era, and he contrasts the "Ah Q sect" (A 0 pai P^Q ïli^) with the "gramophone sect" (Qian's Marxist group), whom he identifies as advocates of an

"era of dark religious autocracy of the middle ages":

The Ah Q sect represents the naive spirit of the eighteenth century enlightenment period and the gramophone sect represents only the primitive spirit of the dark ages in the eleventh or twelfth century. We're not satisfied witii the eighteenth century and should walk from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century. We cannot turn aroimd and drive back to the era of dark religious autocracy of the middle ages. (367-8)

Chang accepts the legacy of Ah Q's age as the historical basis of Chinese society, thus inçlying an instrumental view of the relationship between literary development and nation building in modem China:

"Furthermore, the use of the ejqiression, the bygone age of Ah Q,' is not very appropriate. In our opinion, the age of Ah Q should not die, but rather should stand as the fotmdation upon which a new life should be constructed" (368). Basically Chang rejects the idea that the past should be discarded. However, he sees both Lu Xun and the Creation Society as having backward ideology, and offers a profound view of the general debate about the age of Ah Q:

But "passing" [guoqu ^ ^ ) certainly is not "dying" isiqu Although the age of Ah Q has already passed, the spiritual legacy tlmt it has left us is something we will never be able to forget. This negative age necessarily still hasnt completely passed. China still has the need for the job of criticism and destraction. Because of this. Lu Xun and his followers should naturally have their place in the next ten years. But regarding the spirit of the age of Ah Q as the only spirit and making Lu Xun the only idol under the tall paper machete crown hinders the road forward and breaks the momentum of the newly emerging age. This makes the Chinese race eternally hesitant, indecisive, and negative. Taking the path of the broken down "old new party"

^ See LXOJ 4: 59 fii4, for the classification of Chang as a nationalist. Chang seems to be indirectly typed by Lu Xun as a "nihilist" (ZGWXDCD 5: 3067). 231

ideology shouldn't be done. Because of this we must shout out that we should transcend the age OfAhQ! (368)

Here again, as with Qian Xingcun, Ah Q is accepted as a symbol of the national character, but for Chang, unlike Qian, it is still valuable as a destructive device directed at old culture and old national character.

Chang asks if the shortcomings of Ah Q can represent the shortcomings of all the Chinese peasantry and the entire race, and he also asks if Ah Q and his compatriots have aiiy good points worth noting. In answer to the first point, Chang notes that Runtu, a character from Lu Xun's "Hometown," doesn't have

Ah Q's feults, which means that Chang is arguing that not all Chinese are Ah Qs. However, apparently unsure about this argument, Chang says that if the Ah Q spirit can represent the Chinese national character then the race is done for. But Chang says he doesn't think Ah Q qoiiit can represent the national character, instead. Ah Q's fault is "shrewdness" (jiqiao

This kind of shrewd character of course is not absolutely missing in the Chinese race, but in general one cannot say he is the general representative of the Chinese national character (jnirmt This is because our normal observations are mcorrect on two points. One is the mistake of professional character (zA/ye xing ® and the other is the mistakeof regional character {c^yu xing )• As for the perspective of profession, the shrewd character of the Chinese grandee society is extraordinarily developed. This is because of the cultivation of a few thousand years of autocratic government. But the great majority of the common people are not like this. As for the perqtective of region, the nearer to the capital a place is, the relatively more open the culture is, and the national character (minzu xing) tends towards more shrewdness. At places in the interior where the culture is relatively backwards this is not the case. What "The True Stoiy of Ah Q" depicts is the phenomenon of perhaps some career or some regional peculiarities, but not a general phenomenciL Furthermore, in the grandee class, on the one hand, we see all kinds of shrewdness of the opportunist sect (touji pai On the other hand, we still see many young people, or perhaps middle-aged and old people, who are willing to sacrifice their happiness, reputation, and lives for their ideals, even if the ideals are foolish. Isnt this the career of fools (zuoshazi de sAiyg And in the long culturally open area by the Qiantang River haven't we seen old fools like Lu Xun willing to fight for their fives and not be afraid of ofiending people, writing about society's ugliness, castigating the shrewdness of Ah Q? Because of this, although we should admit that the depiction of some part of "The True Story of Ah Q" is absolutely true, we cannot firom it draw out a completely pessimistic feeling and say that the Chinese race is all like this. (369)

Chang starts out saying that Ah Q's character represents only a limited segment of the truth about national character and is not a general phenomenon, and in the end he specifies that Ah Q only depicts the character of people in the Qiantang River (Shaoxing) area. Chang's argues that Ah Q's national character cuts across class in places where there is contact with foreigners. By "profession" (meaning class). Ah Q's 232 shrewdness is attributed to the whole of elite grandee society, regardless of region. In regions where the common people have contact with foreigners, they have Ah Q's shrewdness, regardless of class. While the upper class of society had Ah Q's character all along, Chang ejqrlicitty sees Ah Q's negative national character in the common people as a result of contact with the West in the modem period. Moreover,

Chang argues that although Lu Xun's ejqreiience is relatively broad and he writes realistically, like all the other writers of the time, he came out of the literati class and so can only represent the Chinese territory in part of Shaoxing. Chang concludes that Lu Xun will have to examine the oppression by the warlords, bureaucrats, bandits, hoodlums. Communists, and irr^erialists in order to truly be able to create a literature that transcends the age of Ah Q (369-70). Therefore, in Chang's estimation, we can safely assume, it will be a long time before a new national character will be im aged because Lu Xun by this time is too concerned about his personal safety to dare attacking the oppression of some of these groups directty.

Not only had the age of Ah Q not yet been transcended, numerous articles were written in response to the Sun Society’s pronouncement that Ah Q was dead, asserting that it was still alive. Articles Ity Chuan

Dao and Qing Jian take issue with the idea that the age of Ah Q is bygone. Chuan D a a ^ says humorously that Ah Q certainly hasn't died, and in feet. Ah Q sent him a telegram on January 30,1928:

"Included is a poem by a revolutionary writer associated with the Sun Society. Please recite it! Respectful salutations to my comrade in revolution! Sincerely, Your Foolish Little Brother, Ah Q" (390). The poem consists of two parts, the first was written by "Ah Q" and the second by the "great revolutionary writer" of the Sun Society':

We too can take concubines. We too can eat great food. We too can ride in personal cars. We too can spank your butt Ha, ha. Ha, ha. Ha, ha.

Chuan Dao is the pen name of Zhang Tingqian ^ ^ 0 (1901-1981), who founded the Yusi Society with Lu Xun and others in 1924 fZGWXDCD 2: 318). 233

Original Poem Attached: We too can live in luxurious apartments. We too can wear silken clothes. We to can wear awesome militaiy uniforms. We too can accompaigr beautiful womeiL Ha, ha. Ha, ha. H a ,^ (390)

This poem is obviously a satire of the Sun Society. Chuan essentially shows through juxtaposition of the two virtually indistinguishable poems that the "great revolutionary" writer, a member of the Sun Society, is an Ah Q, a false revolutionary. Thus Ah Q is not dead after all.

Qing Jian's article titled, "A Q shidai meiyou si" (The age of Ah Q has not died; 1928), denies that the Ah Q period is over. Qing invites Qian Xingcun to go north and see for himself if the peasants there are the organized revolutionaries he lauded in "Siqule de A Q shidai." Qing asserts they are " not organized, still naive, and lacking in revolutionary nature" and that these problems in the north "need at least five years before changing the Ah Q nature" (397).

Chang Pai asserts in "Xiegei sile de 'A Q'" (Written for the dead Ah Q; 1928), that by this time Ah

Q's story had nine printings and there was almost nobody who didn't know him. Mocking Qian Xingcun he also said: "After you died, Mr. Qian (of course he has nothing to do with the Bogus Foreign Devil) insisted in Sun Monthlv on stripping off your qualifications to represent the Chinese peasant How pitiful this is!" (430). Chang Pai thus considers the revolutionary Qian Xingcun to be in the same league as the

Bogus Foreign Devil in "True Story" - an opportunist

Notably, all these articles were published in Lu Xun's journal, Yusi (Spirmers of words), of which

Chuan Dao was a co-founder, thus indicating that Lu Xun's colleagues came to his defense against Qian

Xingcun's attack.

While Qian and the Marxist literary critics were fighting with the Yusi Society about whether Ah Q was dead or not, "True Story" was evidently put on stage for the first time. During Lu Xun's life there were three Chinese adaptations of "True Story" written for stage, according to Peng Xiaoling and Han 234

Aili's "Zongguan 'A Q zhengzhuan' de gsübian, paishe, yanchu" (A comprehensive bibliogr^hy of adaptations, filming and performances of "The True Story of Ah Q"). However, of these, only the six act play by Chen Mengshao was performed (1928). A teacher at a middle school, Chen Mengshao evidently wrote and staged "True Story" in Xiamen in 1928 at his Düamen Double Ten Middle School Modem

Drama Troiqje. The details are recorded in his memorial article after Lu Xun's death in 1936, where

Chen says he doesn't know if Lu Xun read his adaptation or not, and of course since he left JQamen before the adaptation was complete, he could not have possibly seen it performed.^ However, that Ah Q was to come "live" onto stage strongly refutes Qian's declaration that Ah Q and the age of Ah Q were "dead."

The first adaptation to be written, however, was set up as a film script in 1930 by Wang Qiaonan, who sent it to Lu Xun for review. Lu Xun was definitively negative about the prospect of staging "True

Story," as indicated in his reply, "Zhi Wang Qiaonan" (Letter to Wang Qiaonan) in October of 1930, where he states that none of his works are worth adapting to the stage and eqaresses concern about the loss of meaning that would result fiom an adaptation:

In my opinion, 1 believe "The True Story of Ah Q" hasn't the essentials to be adapted to the stage or cinema because as soon as it goes on stage all that will be left is the fercicai Qiuaji yf- # ) . 1 didn't write this work for the purposes of comedy or pity, and I'm afraid that China's "stars" at the moment have no way to e^gress the scenes in it Furthermore, true to that film director's [Wang Qiaonan's] words, adaptations written at this time must emphasize women's feet and my works are not sufficiently worth the attention of some audiences. So it would be best to let it "die" {siqu ^ ^ ). (52)

Thus, Lu Xun reveals that he didn't write "True Story" as a comedy or to engender pity either. In fact he was afinid that the meaning of the work would be lost because the result of staging would be to turn it into a farce. Here we can see that Lu Xun was weighing in on the general discourse of the work by attempting to protect its interpretation and not allowing it to be vulgarized as a comic piece. However, as indicated by his suggestion that "True Story" be let alone to "die," Lu Xun has also made comment on the recent

I have been unable to locate any further verification that the pity’ was actually performed in Xiamen. In fact, while criticism of the adapted scripts is available for most of the numerous adaptations, there is virtually no record of review of performances of these plays. To round out this area I must investigate local newg>aper reports of the time. 235

controvert in the Ah Q discourse engendered by Qian Xingcun's article, "Siqule de A Q shidai." This

comment indicates, at least, that Lu Xun was fed up with the debate on Ah Q's periodicity by this time.

Indeed, by this time Lu Xun had already joined with his adversaries to form the League of Left-Wing

Writers early in 1930, another indication that an accommodation of views had already been reached.

Ironically, there was evidently a demand for both movie and dramatic adaptations of "True Story"

since Wang sent Lu Xun a draft of his adaptation as a movie script and wanted to discuss copyrights, as

he notes in a letter to Wang the following November. Lu Xun says that there is no necessity to protect Ah

Q, or prevent Wang ftom publishing his adaptation, and that he isn't Europeanized to the point that he

cares about publication or film rights like American authors. Indeed, he notes that since Wang wanted to

change the title of "True Story" to "Nürenyu mianbao" (Women and bread), "just figure

that it has nothing to do with me" (53). He thereupon washes his hands of the affeir, telling him he is

returning the big draft of the film script because he doesn't understand the intricacies of movies.^

Interestingly, Lu Xun's language suggests that Wang's draft was a re-adaptation {chongbian S ^ ) of a dramatic script, which raises the question of what happened to the original "adaptatiorL"

The humor surrounding the debate over Ah Q's death was umelenting. There was even an article written by someone who took the pen name Ah Q in an essay called "Cong Liening dao Lu Xun" (From

Lenin to Lu Xun), which attacked Lu Xun as anti-MarxisL^ But interestingly, in 1930 Qian Xingcun found himself under criticism for changing the evaluation of Lu Xun he made in "Siqule de A Q shidai"

Qian responded in "Yige zhujiao" (A footnote):

Regarding the first article ["Siqule de A Q shidai "], here there is no need to say much. After the later article ["Lu Xun"] was published it raised quite a bit of misimdsTstaurimg As fer as I know, some people believe I repudiated my words in "Siqule de A Q shidai" with those in [the article] "LuX uil" Some believe I was too meaningless and flattered Lu Xun after having

^ He is listed in Peng and Han's bibliography as published, but I have yet to locate aiçf corroborating evidence to suggest that this was ever performed on stage or produced as a film.

^ The author is Chen Shaoshui according to Yu Yin 0 in "Lu Xun de touxiang wenti" # (The problem of Lu Xun's surrender. Corpus 1:618-9). 236

castigated him Some have even a higher view and believe that the reason for my change in attitude toward Lu Xun is completely a question of strategy. (572)

Then Qian proceeds to explain his intent in both these articles. In the first article he critiqued Ah Q as a representative of the 1911 Revolution, but in the second article he critiqued Lu Xun as a member of the supporters of proletarian literature. Qian doesn't hide the &ct that he rq)udiated his assessment of Lu

Xun in the earlier article because Lu Xun changed his stance and aligned himself with the Marxists to become one of the founders of the League of Left-Wing Writers.^®

However, the issue of Ah Q's death was not settled with this rqjudiation, as demonstrated by Jin

Xuan's article of July 1930, "A Q hou shi ruhe" (What happens after Ah Q?). Jin thinks it's ridiculous that Ah Q is considered dead and asserts that Ah Q is actually coming out of the cofBn and returning to life! He also notes that Ah Q's strength is the "method of spiritual victory" and says that "Scabby Ah Q is after all a man of talent" (600). It is evident, however, that Jin has read Ah Q's victories literally, as real victories rather than irortic victories.

In 1932, the critique of Ah Q's death took a serious political and literary turn with Hu Qiityuan's article, "Qian Xingcun lilun zhi qingsuan yu minzu wenxue lilun zhi piping" (Qian Xingcun's theoretical settling of accounts and the criticism of the theory of national literature). Claiming that Qian used criticism of Lu Xun to cause confiision in literary circles and wielded the banner of "Marxism" as if he were the only Marxist critic, Hu says that (Qian's criticism had nothing to do with Marxism, that he had erroneously and vilely used its banner, resulting in a caricature of Marxism (655), and a perversion of the concept of "era" (shidai ; 658). Among the examples Hu cites to support his contention that Qian is a mediocre critic are Qian's weak historical analysis in "Siqule de A Q shidai" (658). Pointing out that

Qian's criticism of Lu Xun was subjective and that Qian would force others to feel the same way he felt,

Hu said that Qian's criticism became just like that of the aesthetic school which cursed Lu Xun's grayness

David Holm notes that after Lu Xun's death Qian Xingcun was to join in the contributions to constructing Lu Xun's legacy by providing a number of rare articles from his former antagonist (158). 237

(659). It was Qian who would kill A hQ asa result of his dogmatic application of what he perceived to be

the Marxist theory of literature:

Naturally, we need not discuss the life or death of Mr. Ah Q todjo^, yet Ah Q is a symbol of the Chinese citizen {guomin a type, [the feet] that Ah Q has not died is quite comparable to the resurrection of Don Quixote. La feet, just according to Mr. Qian's understanding of the age of Ah Q presented in his great article on pages 20-21, Ah Q is not necessarily a past phenomenon. [Qian's contention that the age of Ah Q is] "unneeded" goes without Scrying, but is not necessarily the result of it being "bygone. " But because in Mr. Qian's subjective view he feels Ah Q truly insults the revolutionary peasants, therefore he curses him to death, that's alL In his opinion, when a writer writes a piece of fiction, he must depict the characters as Marx and Lenin [feeorize], (659)

In his excoriating criticism of Qian, Hu calls him a "copyist," a "compiler," a "journalist," and a "psuedo- proletarianist" as well as one who "can play around with Marxism" (665). From a Marxist standpoint,

Hu strongly challenged Qian's interpretation of Ah Q and the idea that the era of Ah Q is dead, insisting instead that Qian wants to "curse Ah Q to death" because he feels that Ah Q is an insult to the Chinese revolutionaiy peasants. Hu makes the important point that symbols can transcend time and be resurrected when he equates the symbolic Ah Q and the resurrection of Don Quixote. As the symbolic representation of the "typical Chinese citizen," Ah Q thus transcends the period of the 1911 RevolutiorL The ability to do so, however, was dependent on the greatness of the work and author, as Hu implied when he cited the transcendent value of Shakespeare's plays and Tolstoy's fiction which "havent obstructed Russian authors from worshipping Tolstoy" (659). Hu thus compared Lu Xun to Shakespeare and Tolstoy to defend him against Qian's attack.

Finally, Hu uses what 1 believe to be the first mention of "Ah Q-ism" when he argues that the courageous, the fallen, and even the Ah Qs should be depicted in literature because this is a true reflection of reality in the present and probably in the future. He concluded that if authors who want to belong to the avant-garde close their eyes to present conditions and complain of other authors being sentimental or tragic while demanding that happy smiling works "celebrating the success of the revolution" be written, that situation would be just like "[wjhen Ah Q suffers but still feel's the 'qjiritual victory' - we critics also appear to want everybody to cross the butcher's door and feel happy. We critics are in the end Ah Q-ists 238

(A Q zhuyi zhe # ) ! " (660). Not only does Hu Qiuyuan articulate the concept of Ah Q-ism, but he applies it to the Marxist literary critics who would demand ideologically correct worics that gloss over the realities of life as they celebrate the revolution. Here we see the writing on the wall - how the Chinese mentality (national character) unconsciously fit with the demands of Marxist ideologires that writers should acquiesce to portray a particular kind of reality, what later became promoted as socialist realism.

C. 1930s Ah Q Research

1. Lu Xun's Assessment of "True Story" and Its First Systematic Literary and Political Critiques

Ah Q research in the 1930s finally saw a systematic and relatively thorough analysis of "True Story" and the relationship between Ah Q, national character, and contenqmrary events in a 1932 article by Li

Changzhi,^’ '"A Q zhengzhuan' zhi xin pingjia" (A new appraisal of "The True Story of Ah Q").

Whereas most previous works on Ah Q took the form of impressionistic literary essays, Li's critique resenibles a modem work of literary criticism. Besides literary theory, part of Li's analysis of national character is based on a book he mentions. Pan Guangdan's translation and explication Chinese national character by the Yale missionary, Ellsworth Huntington, entitled, Ziran taotai vu Zhonghua minzu xing

(Natural selection and Chinese national character).^'

Li Changzhi (1910-1978) was a modem writer and hterary historian who was a student at Qinghua University fiom 1931 to 1936 and was a member of Zheng Zhenduo and Ba Jin's Wenxue iikan (Literary quarterly) association (ZGWXDCD 4: 2710).

Huntington's original title. The Character of Races, was changed by Pan. Note that Li Changzhi incorrectly identifies the Chinese title of Pan's 1928 translation as Ziran xuanzevu Zhonghua minzu xing #.B@E'IÊ), but the English translation is the same. I found this date based on Pan Guangdan reference to it in a 1930 article called "Renwen xuanze yu Zhonghua minzu" (Cultural selection and the Chinese race), in his 1936 anthology on eugenics, Renwen shengwuxue lun cons (Anthology of essays on cultural biology, n.p.: Shangwu yinshuguan, rud., 1936?): 215-243. Lu Xun did know who Pan was and could have read his translation of Huntington's book since it was translated in 1928, according to Pan's later article ("Renwen xuanze yu Zhonghua minzu" 218). 239

In this article Li argued that the value of "True Stoiy" lay in its content, rather than its literary technique, because "It is a feithful portr^ral of our country's national character" (701):

What we consider most difBcnlt is that the material provided by "True Story" is sufScient to make us reflect, be vigilant, as well as leave us with a question for stmfy that truly requires our serious solution. If the Chinese race is able to become healthy, what we can least afford to do is to forget "True Story." Because that is a page in the history of our race's/nation's illness, when we regain our health it is this illness that will have been cmed. To maintain our health we must not become afflicted with this disease agairr If in the near fliture the Chinese race still is unable to regain its health, we most daily examine the record of this disease and carefully think of a method of cure, (my emphasis; 701)

Li astutely recognizes that "True Story" must not be forgotteiL This indicates that Li has understood Lu

Xun's criticism of the national character defect of "forgetting," or the "ability to forget" As 1 discussed in

Chapter 5, Lu Xun satirized the abflity to forgetting as a hereditary trait in "True Story," calling it a

"priceless medicine." Lu Xtm beheved that because of the ability to forget, one's descendants are condemned to commit the same type of mistakes as their ancestors by numbing their pain. People would be alienated from sympathizing with other's also in pain, and thus perpetuate the cycle of violence, cannibalism and slavery, making it endemic to society, and precluding the possibility of changing the national character. Li argues for an enlightened approach to curing the national character begirming with establishing a historical memory. In this regard he attempted to put to rest the late twenties debate about the ideological era depicted in "True Story," arguing that Chinese national character was formed three thousand years ago in the time of the virtuous Three Kings and Five Rulers, not with Lu Xun himself, so the age of Ah Q is not dead:

Some people say the age of Ah Q is dead and that when Lu Xun wrote this novel it was not the age of Ah Q. 1 think this kind of talk should be changed to say that the age of Ah Q absolutely did not begin with the time when Lu Xun put pen to paper, but it is perhaps not too excessive to say that it was formed in the time of the three kings and five rulers (sanhuang wudi H M £ ^ ) - Nevertheless, the conclusion of an age can not be accomplished by closing one's eyes and saying a few words of official speech (guanhua This is the kind of talk that will not reform the enviromnent if Ah Q doesn't become enhghtened. From another angle, if in spite of the upheaval and great tides of the age Ah Q does not self-refiect, then Ah Q is still Ah Q, like a sick person or cripple who cannot regain health because of social reform. Ah Q has his own age and it certainly has not passed. No matter how narrow the definition of the age of Ah Q is made, rest assured, it has not passed. (701) 240

Indeed, Li points out that glossing over reality with a few official words cannot change reality and the reforms necessary cannot happen without enlightening Ah Q. An enlightened Ah Q with a historical memory could advance the cause of social reform and in essence reform the Ah Q character out of existence. In order to imagine a new national character, one must first imagine the old negative national character, establish a clear understanding of it in order to reform it.

Li characterized Ah Q and China's national character from his reading of "True Story": "What are the greatest special features of Ah Q as well as the people around him? Thty are a groiq) of muddled, forgetftd, feudaL un-thoroughgoing, unsound, and selfish idlers and observers who bully the weak and fear the strong" (701,705). Far surpassing any previous analyses of the defects in the Chinese national character and even approaching Lu Xun's own level of recognition of the problem, Li echoed Lu Xun by summing np the "historical legacy" that led to the illness of the national character:

Confused {piohu de # #69), not thorough Qju chedi de forgetfiil (jianwang de # ^69), unsound(bujianquan de ^ fê^ 69), feudal (fengjian de ##69), selfish and cruel observers {zisi er cemren de panguamhe g # # ^ ^69^ ##);because of their inabihty to adapt to the environment, their only alternative is the method of spiritual victory, because of the bad habit of a few thousand years of chewing on literary words, they subsequently enjoy formalism (pdnshi zhuyi ); because of a few fiiousand years of poisoning tty autocracy, they subsecpiently have slavishness in their bones and are addicted to emperors, ejqrress [these characteristics] but do not take responsibility for them and struggle for power. Because their lives are bound to the historical agrarian economy, their views of life are very smalL and they are tolerant of the conditions. (70S)

"Confused" is akin to Lu Xun's "muddled," which he uses later in the essay, and Li cites a litany of negative characteristics that Lu Xun discussed in his essays. Having established the historical factors determining the national disease, Li used his analysis of "True Story" and Ah Q to show that his contemporaries, like Ah Q, were observers ipcmgguanzhe ^ # # ) : "Ah Q is an observer, eternally watching the action {renao ^ ^ ), and so are the people who surround him" (702). Li argued: "This kind of "attitude of the observer" is the root of China's illness" (703). Most interestingly, the attitude of the observer is also viewed as tmiversal to human nature, and Lu Xun's recognition of this, according to

Li, is the reason for his greatness:

This is where we see Lu Xun's greatness, where he depicts Ah Q's ending [a muddlecf action watching, observing Ah Q being watched to death by muddled, action watching observers]. 241

There is a flavor of the trage^ of the general nature of humanity. Ah Q's maddledness Qmtu ignorance (yumei # # ) , and forgetfulness(jianwang is not in the least laughable, but rather pitiful, tragic and can stoke the fire of resistance. (702)

Demonstrating his mastery of the issue of the sick national character, and his familiarly with other works of Lu Xun, Li ejqpounds on the manifestations of national character in China by examining the concept of slave nature (moang $g'[^). echoing Lu Xun's depiction of the dual nature of the Chinese in "Lun

Tibanxiang zhi lei": "Basically everyone is an emperor, acting as a slave is onty the preceding act to usurping the emperor's position, that's alL" but the consequence of which this is "mutual destruction, annihilation" (705). Thus Li's article ends up being a manifesto of sorts aimed at changing Chinese aftimdes by relating Ah Q and national character to history and the need for reform of the national character (706). Li concludes, "This work of Lu Xun's really gives us a mirror. This is the true valire of

TheTrueStoyofAhQ'" (705).

Lu Xun's latercomments on Ah Q, though relatively few, are contemporaneous with those of Li

Changzhi and other critics in the 1930s. Because Lu Xun doesn't often talk about Ah Q, or any of his creative works, for that matter, each must be scrutirrized for clues to his imderstanding of Ah Q and national character. Coming long after he wrote "True Story," however, means we must pay attention to the possible influence of other critics on Lu Xun's interpretation of his own work. Comments by Lu Xun on "True Story" in the 1930s are found in "Ruma he kongxia jue bushi zhandou" (Abuse and threats are not fighting; 1932), where he revisited a tactic of critics at the time which he found similar to the method of spiritual victory: "To keep up a perpetual hubbub is the tactics used in the Romance of the Three

Kingdoms, while to abuse your enemy's father and mother and then swagger off thinking yourself victorious is purely an Ah Q style military tactic (A 0 shi de zhanfa « Q » ^6il#& )" (451). In this essay, originally a letter to Zhou Yang, the editor of the League of Left-Wing Writer's publication,

Wenxue vuebao (Literature monthly). Lu Xun criticizes militant writers of the League for Ah Q style tactics (451). Here the Ah Q terminology is applied to Lu Xrm's leftist allies by Lu Xun himself. 242

He did not only criticize his "allies" using Ah Q tenninology, however. Lu Xun makes reference to the method of spiritual victory in "Wanghua" (Change to monarchy, 1933). This essay, originally censored by the Guomindang, Lu Xun appears to attack the government and army for running around suppressing revolts of the Yao people in Guangxi, and the Mongols, Tibetans and Muslims in the Western territories, instead of meeting the real enemy - the Japanese.^^ Echoing the phrase he used in "True

Story," he calls fighting China's minorities rather than the Japanese a "spiritual victory" (jingshen shcmg de shengli fa # # ±. Ü ). Obviously, this is tied to the Ah Q practice of bullying those weaker and cowering before those stronger.

In "Zai tan baoliu" (More mental reservations; 1933), Lu Xun wrote of charges against him and problems with censors, referring to "True Story" in the third person:

Although he didn't clearly s ^ whether he himself was included within it, twelve years ago Lu Xun wrote "The True Story of Ah Q" with the general intention of ejqxDsing the national weaknesses(baolu guomin ruodian ). But this year there are a few people using "Ah Q" to refer to Lu Xun himself. This is suffering this-worldly karmic retribution for eviL (147)

Though he referred to his own work in the third person, he still couldnt even get it this essay published at the tim e.^ The criticism of Lu Xun as Ah Q referred to here was probably made in the context of his criticism of the "third category of person" {disan zhong ren H H S A ) , the writer who advocated "art for art's sake" and stayed out of politics, and could neither recognize reality, nor write about reality ("Ye Zi zuo Feng shou xu" 220).^^ The reference to Lu Xtm as Ah Q will be discussed further in Section 2 below.

This work was originally submitted to the Zivoutan section of Shenbao. but was suppressed by Guomindang censors. Later it was published in Yusi 18 (1 June 1933) (LXOJ 5:138 fill).

^ In another essay Lu Xun notes that he couldn't get this essay and three others published at the time ("Bao hu" [Mental Reservations] LXOJ 5:145).

Also see Lu Xun's "Lun di san zhong ren," rpL in LXOJ 4: 437-43, where Lu Xun calls them the "running dogs for the capitalists" (439). As Leo Ou-fen Lee notes. Lu Xun literary enemies included: "Chen Xiying and his gentlemen's clique, the theoreticians of the Crescent Moon Society and the Third Category of Men, and the proponents of national defense literature" (Legacy 29). The Third (Category of Men thus indicated those of the Crescent Moon Society. Also see Leo Ou-fan Lee, Voices 144-5. Marston Anderson describes the origins of this term in detail (59-60), and supplies a brief description of their type of hterature: "literature written fiom the perspective of neither the gentry nor the proletariat but 243

In addition to the minor references to Ah Q in these two essays, Ln Xun made detailed comments on his creative think process when he wrote "True Story" in "Da Jü zhoukan bianzhe yan" (Reply to the editor of Theater weekly). As "True Story" was being made into a dramatic script in 1934, Lu Xun reveals more of his technique involved in creating the character of Ah Q;

[M]y method is to make the reader unable to tell who this character can be apart form himself, so that he cannot back aw^ to become a bystander but is bound to suq)ect that this may be a portrait of himself if not of every man, and that may start him thinking. Not one of my critics has spotted this, however, (trans. LXSW 4:141)

This is one of the most widely quoted statements Lu Xun makes about his intention in creating Ah Q. Lu

Xun's concern that the reader will become an observer or bystander ipangguanzhe ^ ^ # ) ^ ^ is one of his criticisms of the Chinese national character. Lu Xun's logic seems to be that due to the defect of national character, the reader would immediately distance himself ftom Ah Q. But Lu Xun seems to think with "True Story" and the character Ah Q he fotmd a way to show the complicity of the observer.^'

This is perhaps best represented in the final chapter of "True Story" where Lu Xun used the eyes of a wolf as a metaphor for the crowd of observers following Ah Q's parade to the execution. The reader's own observer status would be called to attention by forcing him to identify with the soon to be executed Ah Q,

or identify with the rest of the wolfish crowd watching Ah Q be executed (fiom a distance as reader).

Neither of these options should be comfortable for the reader, in Lu Xun's view, and thus the self- reflecting reader would be kept fiom coming to the conclusion of one or the other. If the reader thought of the narrative logic of the entire work, he might instead concluding he was both Ah Q and the crowd.

fiom an independent critical standpoint" (57). Also see Denton who notes that this debate was essentially about "literary fieedom" (Modem 359-61).

23S This was also pointed out by Li Changzhi above.

Note how Lu Xim's intention that the reader self-reflect is quite similar to Liang Qichao's expressed desire for the reformers in New Citizen: "But we reformers (qz(/üzAe ^ ^ # ) know ourselves. Observe the weaknesses of that race and the prosperity and strength of tto race, and self-reflect {zixing Ê # ) on them! What are the differences between our national character (ym guomin zhi xingzhi and that of the declining and weak [nations], and that of the flourishing and strong [nations]? What are the general defects (quexian S^Pi) in it? ..." ("Jiuyousheng" 12). 244

"Da 2S ^hniikan bianzhe yan" also contains important information on Lu Xun's conception of Ah Q and his environment Lu Xun states that Ah Q's town of Weizhuang is not necessarily Shaoxing:

P]n very few of my stories are the settings clearly indicated. Nearly all Chinese like to defend their home-town and poke fun at other places, and Ah Q is no exception. I thought at the time that if I wrote a stoiy of e^gosure and described events h^pening in a q>eciSc place, the people of that district would hate me with a deadly hatred, while those of other districts would look on unconcerned at troubles elsewhere, neither groiq) relating the story to themselves, the first grinding their teeth in rage, the second remaining unruffled. Then not only would the story lose all significance and effectiveness, but there might even be futile complications involving every one in ridiculous quarrels, (trans. LXSW 4:140)

So in hindsight firom 1934, twelve years after writing "True Story," Lu Xun says he intended to write an exposure of Chinese society but he wanted to keep it general enough so that he could avoid being attacked personally by any particular group, and also make sure that no group could avoid being implicated by viewing Ah Q as an outsider. Ah Q practices "poking fun at other places" when he criticizes the people of the town from the point of view of the village (e.g. for doing things, sirch as cutting onions or shredding onions, differently than in the village). Conversely, Ah Q would poke fun at the people of the village for doing things differently than those in town. Lu Xun says he wants to remove the possibility that the reader could sit back and do this, that is, become an observer who merely criticizes the character because he is from a different place or because he has had different experiences. Lu Xun also took pairrs to generalize the names of his characters because being too qrecific could weaken his message:

Writers of literary gossip past and present nearly all believe that certain stories were written for personal vengeance, hence they go to great pains to discover the real individuals involved. In order to save such scholars trouble and to avoid urmecessary misunderstandings, 1 used the first two characters in The Hundred Surnames, Zhao and Qian; as for Ah Q's surname, no one is sure where that came from. Yet even so, rumors arose. Regarding position in the fam ily, because 1 am the eldest son and have two younger brothers, to forestall the poisonous tongues of rumor- mongers the villains of my stories are always the eldest brother or the fourth or fifth, (trans. LXSW 4:141)

The result is that he hopes to "make the reader unable to tell who this character can be apart from himself, so that he carmot back away to become a bystander but is bound to suspect that this may be a portrait of himself if not of every man, and that may start him thinking" (LXSW 4:141). However, he notes, "Not 2 4 5

one of my critics has spotted this" (145).^® On the problem of audience and putting the pltcy in Shaoxing

dialect. Lu Xun seems non-committaL ssrying the iqjper-class in opera q)eak Mandarin, while the clowns

qteak the local dialect He seems to be in fevor of changing the dialect depending on location where it is

pl^ed. "In a word, the best thing is not to make the play too particularized but capable of rather free

adaptation" (143).

It is impossible to tell if these thoughts were going through Lu Xun's mind in late 1921 and early

1922 when he wrote the work. In a following letter, "Ji % zhoukan bianzhe yan" (Letter to the editor of

Theater weekly). Lu Xun reacts to images he has seen of Ah Q in the magazine and comments on the

problem of putting Ah Q on stage: "In my mind. Ah Q is about thirty years old, common in ^pearance,

having the simplicity and foolishness of a peasant, but with a httle craftiness of the swindler." And he

continues, "Again, in your [adaptation of] The True Storv of Ah O. you say, "Young D is probably Little

Dong.' Actually he is not His name is Little Tong [[^ "same"], and when he grows up he will be just like

Ah Q" (trans. LXSW 4: 146). Asserting that Xiao D is going to grow iç just hke Ah Q further reveals

Lu Xun's comention that the national character was not about to change in the near future. The time of

this statement, however, is 1934, twelve years after he wrote "Trae Story," and in a literary atmosphere

dominated by the League of Left-Wing Writers, whose internecine conflicts already led Lu Xun to accuse

some of its militant writers of using "Ah Q style military tactics," as I mentioned above. Considering this and Lu Xun's reference to the Guomindang's method of spiritual victory, it is not difficult to conclude that

Lu Xun still perceived the relevance of the defects of national character.

After Li Changzhi's 1932 article. Ah Q research until late 1934 is limited to minor mentions of Ah Q

and "Tme Story" in numerous articles, some of which use the vocabulary of Ah Q and other related

^ Lu Xun may have thought that none of his critics had spotted this, but a number of his critics had already commented on the drive to self-reflect the reader should have reading "True Story." I discussed the possible origins of this assertion with both Mao Dun and Gogol's narrator from Dead Souls in Section 3a above. Perhaps Lu Xun was unconscious of his borrowing from the critics? 246 terminology to attack Lu Xun and proclaim the age of Ah Q dead or alive. This is a continuation of the basic debate started by Qian Xingcun in 1928, though Lu Xun is by now nominally on the side of the

Marxists promoting revolutionary proletarian literature. In November of 1934 however, Su Xuelin published the second important work in Ah Q research of the decade, and perht^js one of the most important critiques to date in the Ah Q discourse, '"A Q zhengzhuan'ji Lu Xun chuangzuo de yishu"

("The True Story of Ah Q" and Lu Xun's creative art).^® Su in feet made a systematic attençt to analyze and explain the development of the elements of national character from which Lu Xun drew his portrait of

Ah Q: cowardliness, spiritual victory, opportunism, and exaggeration mania and self-respect addiction.

Tying Western national character theory, "True Story," and Lu Xun's other works together. Su performs a contemporary analysis of Chinese national character which results in an ejqposiiiou on the building of the

Chinese myth of nation.

First, Su attests to the contemporary currency of Ah Q in 1934, twelve years after "True Story" was written, saying, "Now the words 'Ah Q' are on everyone's lips and written by everyone" (1035). She thus

\iews herself as operating in a highfy relevant discourse, partly based on her esteem for "True Story" as the preeminent work of modem Chinese literature since its inceptiori,^^® and her understanding of its accuracy as a "tme projection of the Chinese race's general depravity {Zhongguo minzu pubian de liegen xzMg (1035). Su's analysis draws examples from a variety of Lu Xun's works on national character and also quotes from the early critical response to "Trae Story" to argue the veracity of Lu Xun's depiction of national character. She cites Westem analysis of Chinese national character in Ellsworth Himtington's book. The Character of Races (1924), four chapters of which are devoted to the Chinese.*'” Moreover, Su goes beyond Huntington's assessment that key Chinese national

Su Xuelin (1899- ) is a modem author also known as Su Mei who studied in France from 1921-1925 fZGWXDCD 4:2677-81.

Su says: "There is no other work that has as much charm as 'The Trae Story of Ah Q' since the beginnings of new literature" (1035).

*■’' Pan Guangdan translated this imder the title, Ziran taotai vu Zhonghua minzu xing § (Natural selection and Chinese national character). I have not been able to locate this 247 characteristics of selfishness and greed are related to a long history of natural disasters, and integrates Lu

Xun's observations of national character fiom "True Story" into her analysis. This results in an analysis of the origins of the "depraved Chinese character which is more concise than Lu Xun's. She astutely uses key aspects of the national character depicted by Lu Xun and extends some of his metaphors beyond his usage.

The first characteristic Su raises is "cowardliness" (peiqie quoting Lu Xun on the idea that Chinese fatalism and the "Doctrine of the Mean" (zhongyong 4* )^) are not a result of inertia

(duoxing'ff'Ê);

They are not because of inertia, but because of cowardliness(Jbeiqie xing [Lu Xun says:] "Encountering the powerful and not daring to resist, but using talk like the Doctrine of the Mean (zhongyong # ) to console oneself. When he has authority and other people cannot do anything about him, then his attitude is cruel, as if he were an overlord (baojun The things he does then are not of the Doctrine of the Meam" (1035-6)

The Mean is thus a psychological mechanism backed by a philosophical orientation (Confucianism) invoked to assuage the psyche when confronted with an opponent stronger than oneself. Su takes this example further by citing the laments of some Chinese who welcome the fact that the Chinese military is so weak because they would treat the people much worse than the Westem oppressors (1036).

Second, Su discusses Ah Q's method of spiritual victory and relates it to Lu Xrm's hmnorous portrayal of Ah Q imagining he was being beaten by his own son. Su echoes Lu Xrm's view that the method of spiritual victory is a legacy of the humiliation the Chinese people have suffered over the centuries at the hands of foreigners, particularly flourishing since the fall of the Song to the Liao, and then the successive dynasties of the Jin, the Yuan and the Qing. Here we see another step in the discursive process of national work. However, a 1930 article by Pan states he translated it in 1928 ("Renwen xuanze yu Zhonghrra minzu"; 218). Note that Arthrrr Smith's Chinese Characteristics is cited, but not discussed, in Huntington's book.

Lu Xrm was at least aware that Pan was a eugenist and member of ih&Xinyue she (Crescent society), as he pointed out in "Yingyi' yu 'wenxue dejieji xing'" ("Hard translation" and "the class nature of literature"; LXOJ 4:196). If Lu Xtm was aware of Su Xuelin's article, then he should have at least been aware of Pan Guangdan's translation of Huntington's book, and perhaps he was even aware that Pan was translating Smith's Chinese Characteristics. 248 character in which the method of spiritual victory becomes a point of national identity, the origins of which are located in the humiliations suffered fay China in the past ten centuries at the hands of various invaders. Lu Xun had used such examples in his essays. Indeed, this is essentially the same as Lu Xun's own view of the origins of the method of spiritual victory, found in "Kan jing you gan" (Feelings upon looking in/at the mirror, 1925), where he refers to being enslaved after the Song dynasty fay the Jin and

Yuan (199)."^^ Here Su Xuelin tçpropriated this view and elaborated rqxrn it in the context of the Ah Q discourse. Su cites the example of rumors that the Manchu Emperor Qian Long (reign years 1736-1795) was actually the son of Han parents in order to illustrate the progressive development of the method of spiritual victory, which she says "belong to the depraved Ah Q style method of spiritual victory"

( 1036).^ ^

Third, Su calls the Chinese "good at being opportunist" {shanyu touji This characteristic is accordingty related to Ah Q's revolution. Su asks if this characteristic is irmate or determined by the envirorunent, and in this way leads into a discussion of evolirtion and the theory of national character, making references to Huntington's book. In this wide-ranging discussion. Su relates foreign occupation, evolution, and slavishness. However, she does not quote Lu Xun on the issue of slavishness directly, but rather uses terms like "slave of slaves" {nucai de nucai in the context of her own impassioned analysis of the historical and psychological process through which Chinese had sunk to their present condition (1037)."'*® Su describes the oppression of the Chinese under the Manchus, including

As I noted in Chuter 3, Xu Shoushang made this point in "Huiyi Lu Xun," saying, " we believed the most important and deepest root of the sickness was due to being enslaved twice by foreign races. Where is there a place for people who are slaves to speak of sincerity and love?" (19). In "Deng xia man bi," Lu Xun talks of the value placed on bnman life by referring back to the Yuan dynasty when people were valued only as much as horses, and before that even less. He contends the people are happy to be slaves and Chinese history is a cycle two periods: (1) periods when people wished to be slaves but were unable to be, and (2) periods when they had temporary stability as slaves.

The contemporary master of the wuxia (knight-errant) geme of modem Chinese literature, Jin Yong, uses this rumor as the basis for the plot of his popular novel, Shu iian enchou lu (Hong Kong, 1959).

Lu Xun uses asim ilar idea in "Ban xia xiao ji" : "Using the pen and the tongue to tell everyone the bitterness of being reduced to being the slave of a foreign race is naturally not wrong, but one must be very 249 the massacres of Chinese at Yangzhou and Jiading in the initial consolidation of Qing rule and the subsequent literary persecutions over the successive reigns, using the term "spiritual rape" (jingshen shang de qiangjian # # J % 6 tl# $ f) -th e same adjective formÇ'spinX 0 2 i" Jingshen shang de seen in Lu Xun's formulation of Ah Q method of spiritual victory.

The fourth characteristic Su analyzes is that of being afflicted with "exaggeration mania and sdf- respect addiction (Jcuada kuangyu zizun pcnug g illustrated in "True Story" when

Ah Q says his son will be richer than the sons of the other villagers and when he says that city expressions are better than those of the town (1038). Discussing this characteristic. Su give a conterrçorary analysis of national character myth-building and attitudes of the youth toward the West:

The Chinese at any opportunity used to call themselves a nation with a few thotrsand years of famous culture. They themselves were the flower of the Yellow Emperor with a precious spirituality. They saw Westerners as barbarian races without the least culture of which to speak. Continuously being defeated, they said the Westerners only have the benefit of battleships, and that's all. All that was merely siqrerficiaL and that's all. If you speak of rules of decorum and ethics, can they match even one ten-thousandth's of ours? Even to the extent that Gu Hongming,^'’’ who received a Westem education, still assert that the Chinese [practices of] spitting everywhere and taking concubines is a kind of spiritual culture (jingshen v/enming 0 # §9 ). How is this different from Ah Q regarding the scabs on his head as a mark of great nobility? Now most youth despise Westem culture, disdaining to be concemed about it, considering it to be old and comqrt, a capitalist culture about to collapse. This also stems fiom exaggeration and self-respect adiction, only changing a manner of expression, that's all. (1038)

For Su, it is the characteristic of aloofiiess to the rest of the world, exhibited by the need to claim that

Chinese "spiritual culture" is superior to the Westem cultural alternative promoted by the radicals, that easily leads to self-denigration, such as when Ah Q lowers himself and stys he is an insect, and finally

careful not to make everyone reach the conclusion: 'In that case, after all it would be better to be like us and be slaves of our own people" (589).

This may be related to Lu Xun's term "individual self-aggrandizement" (geren z/du A Ê ^ ) fiom "Suiganlu 38."

Gu Hongming (d. 1928) wrote pro-Confucian pieces, some in English, during the May Fourth period. He was a professor at Beijing University and apparently a supporter of the National Essence even though he was raised in Malaysia, educated at the University of Edinburough, and when he finally went to China he knew no Chinese and wrote in English, referring to the New Culture proponents as "imitation Westem merL" 250

concludes that he is at least the number one self-denigrator (ziqing zijian ren g @ g ^ A)- O î

course Su gives historical precedents for this, but she basically has no thorough explanation for this

characteristic other than to say that the Chinese desire to protect their own family’s lives and wealth ( and

thus presumably not caring about others' misfortune). Lu Xun, of course, analyzed this as Ah Q's method

of spiritual victoiy. And Su applies Lu Xun's analysis by noting that the young people view Westem

culture as discredited, on the verge of collapse (probably due to the Great Depression), and this is a result

of "self-respect addiction, only changing a manner of ejqpression."

Finally, Su lists a number of other miscellaneous character defects of the Chinese: licentiousness,

many taboos, slyness, foolishness, greed, muddledness, and so on (1038). Su alludes to the original

exchange between Tan Guotang and Mao Dun's about "True Story," and discusses the Ah Q reception at

some length, touching on the issue of "typicality" {dicardngxing # # # ) verses "individuality"(gexing

# # ) (1038-9). She agrees with Zhou Zuoren who said Lu Xun's feilure lies in the fact that he wanted

to knock down Ah Q but ended up helping him iq>:

Lu Xun's feilure is that he hales those "upper class people" too deeply. He not only nakedly propagates the clear ptychologjcal condition those "upper class people," but he also wants to expose their ugliness when they are in their dream (perhaps this is their real state), when their consciousness is asleep and thty lose their judgment (1039)

In summary. Su Xuelin is a milestone in the mid-1930s reception of "True Story." Her essay, along with

Li Changzhi's, really indicate that Ah Q and national character were starting to be systematically

researched. In this last quote she exposes Lu Xun's alleged hatred of the ipper class, but beyond that her

in-depth discussion of Ah Q indicates the high level of currency of the Ah Q discourse. She acknowledges that the fame of "True Story" is justified and reconfirms that the value of the work is in its projection of the depraved Chinese national character. Her discussion of those faults is conducted with reference to

Westem national character theory, which she surpasses in her analysis by showing, as did Lu Xun, that

Chinese feults, slavishness and the method of spiritual victory, were environmentally conditioned in part by centuries of foreign occipation. In fact. Su seems to give more weight to the impact of foreign

occipation than Lu Xun, who located the most important national character defects in Confucianism. All 251 this is cast against an array of Lu Xun's characters which Su argues demonstrate that Lu Xun was China's first nativist writer. Beyond indicating that national character was still a crucial problem in Chinese mentality, and that Ah Q was the Chinese national type, Su's analysis of "True Story," Lu Xrm's assessment of national character, and her reference to national character theory act to solidify Ah Q's symbolism as the "representative" of the national character by narrating the historical logic of its construction.

In 1935 Li Changzhi came up with a new appraisal of "True Story," "'A Q zhengzhuan' zhi yishu jiazhi de xin gu" (A new estimate of the artistic value of "The True Story of Ah Q"), that is almost a radical departure firom his seminal 1932 article on "True Story." In the earlier article Li said that the age of Ah Q would still be aroimd for a long time, having developed over three thousand years, and that only enlightenment would enable the reforms of Ah Q's negative national character. In this ess^, however, Li argues that Ah Q is not the target of Lu Xun's attack and in feet Lu Xun really loves Ah Q:

Ah Q is not the character Lu Xun is cursing, but rather the one he most cares about, about whom he is most unea^, most worried. To sum up, he is the most loved character. Others give Ah Q the cold shoulder, others make him feel desolate, others stab and wound his spirit, but it is Lu Xun who lovingly caresses him, although fi-om a distance. Others drive Ah Q aw^, but it is to Lu Xun's bosom Ah Q runs. Ah Q himself is puzzled, desolate and sad, but Lu Xun finds consolation for him, bringing him home to rest Ah Q's cleverness, intelligence, wiU, emotions, and personality are something the oppressed don't have. Excqjt for Lu Xun, nobocfy asks about him, cares about him, or pities him. (1298).

Ah Q had previously been muddled, superstitious, etc., but now Li says he is clever, intelligent and not oppressed. However, in a discursive move seemingly aimed at the critics calling for an orthodox revolutionary line, Li asserts that Lu Xun didn't necessarily sympathize with Ah Q at first, but because he

had the literary feeedom to honestly depict Ah Q, Ah Q came to life in a way that would not have been possible under oppressive political conditions:

Naturally, Lu Xun isnt without some intent to cold shoulder Ah Q. Lu Xun also didn't necessarily write sympathetically about him at first, or was he even necessarily conscious of this work's(zhe pian dongxi ) grand artistic and social significance. Nevertheless, it is unquestionable, and perhaps coincidentally because of this, that the eternal value of this work {zhe pian dongxi) has been established because of truth. Because of truth, this work {zhe pian dongxï) is a living thing, a living person's thing written by a living person. It has no extraneous 2 5 2

motivation, no contrivances and no scruples. The author wasn’t limited in any way, but finished his creation with much conçosure. Because of this, this work (zAe pian dongxi) is absolutely a thing with pure artistic value. (1298)

So Lu Xun merely depicted truth, perhaps unconsciously as Li argues here, and as a result "True Story" will be eternally valued as a grand artistic work of social significance. Li argues that such truth makes the work "a living thing " This kind of organic view of the artistic creation as a living article of truth is an idealization of the purity of art as a form of ejqtression. Furthermore, this article explains that Ah Q can be seen as lovable (keai in his naivete and his pitifulness. The example Li uses to show that Ah Q is lovable is that of him being cheated at the gambling table and how he felt being put in jail (which was not much worse than his usual abode). Using the example of Ah Q "not being permitted to revolt," Li surmises that "Lu Xun's tympathy for Ah Q by fer exceeds his satire of him" (1298). In conclusion, Li would completely revise the dominant interpretation of Lu Xun's intention in creating "True Story" as well as dominant readers' interpretations for 12 years (although there may be some feint basis for Li's reading in Zhou Zuoren's original comments on "True Story");

Ah Q is not a comic character. The author wasn't thinking this at all. At the time the author wrote "Ah Q" perhaps it was casual and because it was casual he could have such a natural and unforced success. But the story he wrote had no disrespect [to Ah (5] in the least [He] in all certainty is transmitting (chuan ]^) Ah Q, and in all certainty is not satirizing Ah Q. He has unlimited syrrçathy for Ah Q. Its special feature is in its composure, not scattered, because in all certainty it is the most complete work of art This is my present affirmation of "The True Story of Ah Q." (1301)

This seems to be the first major break in the reception and interpretation of Lu Xun and "True Story" in the 14 years of criticism of the work This is the first time since Mao Dun recanted his original impression that "True Story" was not a satire that a critic asserts that Ah Q is not being satirized. In feet, firom the very limited perspective that Ah Q is the agent of satire of Chinese behavior in general, Li may be technically correct in his assertion that Lu Xun is not satirizing Ah Q. Contemporary critics like Mao

Dun saw Lu Xun using Ah Q as an agent with which to satirize the Chinese national character. But Li is wrong in spirit because he would divorce the national character from Ah Q by turning the interpretation on its head in this essay. Of course Li's contention that Ah Q is not a comic character flies in the fece of 253 the humor of the work, and "True Story’s" original location in the humor section of Chenbao before it was moved to "fiction," but is technicalty "correct" Ah Q is both a comic and a pathetic character. From a textual point of view, Lu Xun is indeed using humor to ejqpose Ah Q's foibles, making him the subject of derision and scorn, and thus is indeed indirectly satirizing him The question thus becomes why did Li's view changed so radically? I can only speculate that it was in reqxinse to a general trend to view the peasantry and wodkers in a positive light against the Digressive ruling class. If this is the case, then casting Ah Q in a more sympathetic light could be seen as an attempt to draw on the Marxist vision of the workers (and in China the peasantry) as the source of revolutionary purity. This may indicate that the Ah

Q discourse vras in the process of being appropriated by the Marxists to valorize the peasantry, who would thus have been the source of a positive national character in opposition to the one critiqued by Lu Xun.

Perhaps this indicates that the process of imagining a positive Marxist national character had begun.

2. Ah Q used to attack Lu Xun

Ah Q has been used in the attadc of Lu Xtm beginning in the early 1930s in a number of ways. First, the idea of "Ah Q style" has been employed by a number of critics to try to turn Lu Xun's criticism back on him. The term Ah Q style can be applied variably. Ka Si for example, plays on the titles of Lu Xun's works and says "Lu Xun originally is an 'Ah Q style' (A 0 shide P^Q ^ ) 'wild grass' who is

'wandering' in the 'overgrown wilderness'..." (906). Ka says that aU that is "left" and "revolutionary" of

Lu Xun is false, while what is true is that Lu Xun is getting rich like a "merchant and thief (907). Su

Feng used the term "Ah Q style logic" (A 0 shi de luoji R 'Q ^ & Ü # # ), which he roughly defined as

"castigating without arçr reason." In a defensive reaction to Lu Xim's criticism of a poem of his. Su

Feng writes of two kinds of writers, one which flatters or is flattered, and one which castigates, and that

I am not sure of Su Feng's identity, but he may possibly be Su Wen a writer whom Lu Xun criticized for being the "third category of person" {disan zhong ren) which meant he was a running dog for the capitalists. See LXOJ 4: 442 fii3.4. and 5. For information on Su Wen (1906-1964) see ZGWXDCD 4; 2668. This is Shang Zhansi (a.k.a. Zeng Lingfeng 1919- ), a poet of the Yanan period according to Xu Naixiang (613). 2 5 4

Lu Xun is good at castigating but does it using Ah Q style logic. Su accused Lu Xun of attacking him as a

proponent of "nationalist literature" {jnimu zhuyi wenxue) because of a poem in which he wrote of soldiers

using their flesh as weapons because they lack guns. Accordingly, Lu Xun used Ah Q style logic because

he incorrectly categorized Su's poem merely because it was published in Minguo libao (or Minbao.

Republic daily news).^'” Su insists he isn't following any nationalist literature or proletarian literature

program, but rather representing life. Su rqjeated the term Ah Q style logic four times and said, "IfLu

Xun is truly 'very revolutionaiÿ then he should woric hard on his future! If he only wants to make a little

money writing and chaotically uses Ah Q style logic to castigate people, then 1 can only use his own words

to judge him as 'also of the bad temper of the middle-class intellectual' CEr xin ii zixu')" (714).

Fu Hongliao attacked Lu Xun for "Ah Q qualifications"(A O zige 3^fë), rqwrting that some people want to elect Lu Xun as Emperor for the following reasons: because he is the leader of the League of Left-

Wing Writers and has imperial odor, because he arrogantly believes his philosophy of life is the best and whatever he advocates is right; because by the transitive theorem^® he is going in the direction of the masses and thus has the qualifications to be Emperor, because he is pretty; and because: " [i]t is said that what is most &shionable now is proletarian [literature], and Lu Xun is using Ah Q's qualifications to

engage in the most fashionable proletarian literature. That he is welcomed by some people is within

expectations, so Lu Xun has the qualifications to be emperor" (787). This article, published in Minbao. like Su Feng's article above, indicates the animosity of the newpaper's contributors to the leftists and their revolutionary proletarian literature. Another writer. Wen Bai, on the other hand, attacked Lu Xun for

"Ah Q-ism" (A O zhuyi pq Q ), saying that Lu Xun made it to Shanghai and lived securely for three years, maintaining his authority in literary circles and receiving a large income: "If the communist party's

proletarian literature movement hadn't attacked the literary world, 1 would dare guarantee that Lu Xun

Minbao eventually became a Guomindang publication that promoted nationalist literature to vie against the Communist's promotion of proletarian literature in the early 1930s.

Lu Xun's use of the transitive theorem of algebra in his analysis of Chinese society and criticism of the Marxists is found in Guo Monro's "Wenyi zhan shang de fengjian yu nie" (Corpus 1: 413-7). 2 5 5

would still be a 'romantic' writer, sleq)ing in the embrace of 'Ah Q-ism' from beginning to end" (857).

That Lu Xun could be classified as a romantic writer is patently absurd, particularly in light of his

relatively utihtarian view of hterature and his participation in venomous criticism of the Creation Society

which held high the banner of romanticism during the May FourtL

Quite a few critics called Lu Xun by the name Ah Q. For example. Wen Zhong analyzed the politics

of Lu Xun's conflict with the Sun Society and the Creation Society and concluded that he eventually

maintained his status as leader of the hteraiy world in China by being made one of the heads of the

League of Left-Wing Writers, while all along he retained his own views which were close to the "Ah Q

thought" (A 0 sixiang of the anarchist schooP^ with which he gained his status. Wen Zhong

said the CCP basically co-opted Lu Xun by making him a leader,^' and that after the other leaders got

him to join as the leader "he no longer was 'Ah Q' but was transformed to [a proponent of] literature for

the masses {vienyi dazhong hita though he still firmly held on to his enmity for the

Creation society and venomously castigated them m "Shanghai wenyi zhi yipie" and Er xin ii" (852). In fact. Wen asserted Lu Xun reasserted the ascendancy of the Literary Research Society over the Creation

Society as head of the League ofLeft-'R^g Writers.^^

Other writers also decried Lu Xun as Ah Q. Yang Dong wrote that although he was leader of the

League of Left-Wing Writers, there was a movement to criticize Lu Xun because he hadnt written any hterature, but rather only did a few translations and edited a few journals; "Right now he is just like Ah

Q, drawing a large happy circle [hterally, 'reunion']. Having climbed to the number one position in the

Presumably he is called an anarchist by virtue of his participation in the iconoclastic May Fourth movement This is not a generally held label for Lu Xun.

Lu Xun was aware of this kind of tactic as noted in "Zhege yu neige": "Upon meeting an ominous person who makes them uneasy, Chinese people have two tactics: pressing him down or raising him up... When they fail to press him down they raise him iç, thinking that raising him high enough and keeping him satisfied can keep him fiom doing them no harm, and thus they are at peace" (140).

This view stands in contrast to other scholar's views that say Lu Xun was a figurehead of the League. An example of this is Leo Ou-fan Lee's discussion of the new leadership of the League by the Zhou Yang after 1933 fVoices 182). 256

League ofLeA-^Mng Writers he sits up there and just like always with 'mist in the drunken eyes' giving a

'battlecry'" (889). Yang says it is not worth settling accounts with Lu Xun, but rather his wake should be prepared. And finally. Ma Er wrote about how inseparable Lu Xun and Ah Q were: "'The True Story of

Ah Q' is the creative work for which Lu Xun won the crown. Everyone who talks about or criticizes Lu

Xun refers to Ah Q. When somebody brings up Ah Q you know it is Lu Xun. Lu Xun and Ah Q are inseparable, so flippantly speaking, you can simply call Lu Xun Ah Q" (1061). Their fates are so closely tied that their political assessments are the same:

Those who don't forget the anecdotes of the literary world all know that the likes of Qian Xingcun and the Creation Society used "The True Story of Ah Q" to seriously attack Lu Xun. At that time the mouths of the literary youth decried Lu Xun as counter-revolutionaiy, Mr. Lu Xun lost his tone, and his literary crown appeared to be stripped off. This can be said to be Ah Q's unlucky harvest (1061)

Ma concludes that "because of Ah Q, Lu Xun suffered a lot" (1062). But with the demise of Qian

Xingcun and the Creation Society, Lu Xun became a revolutionary again and the fate of Ah Q took a turn for the better. This is a demonstration of how the Ah Q discourse is tied up with Lu Xtm's stattrs and engagement in literary politics. Indeed, recall that 1 noted above that Lu Xun recognizes the literary politics of the Ah Q discourse, as he notes in "Zai tan baoliu" (More mental reservations; 1933), where he writes of charges against him and problems with censors:

Although he didn't clearly say whether he himself was included within it, twelve years ago Lu Xun wrote "The True Story of Ah Q " with the general intention of eq)osing the national weaknesses{baolu guomin ruodian ^ ^ ^ S Ü )• But this year there are a few people using "Ah Q" to refer to Lu Xun himself. This is suffering this-worldly karmic retribution for evil. (147)

So with the use of Ah Q to attack Lu Xun, his own writings on national character finally were given some of the attention he desired - the Chinese critics at least began to examine themselves and included Lu Xtm in the circle of examination as indicated by his lament here. Ah Q was being used instrumentally by a wide array of critics, as exhibited by the numerous articles cited above attacking Lu Xun. This is testimony to the currency with which Ah Q terminology had penetrated the contemporary imagination by the 1930s. 2 5 7

3. Don Quixote, Ah Q and La Xnn

In response to an article in which Lu Xun attacked the ideologues of the Sun Society and the Creation

Society in the context of the 1928 debate over revolutionary literature, Lu Xun was accused of being like

Don Quixote, blindly tilting at windmills, not knowing society, and critical of revolutionary literature (Li

Chuli 350). Lu Xun used this against his adversaries as well, referring to this "Don Quixote style" of some of the Marxists by saying that none of them have ever read Cervantes' book so their view is a little skewed from reality ("Benliu bian xiao houji" 152). "True Story" was only related to Don Quixote indirectly at first in that Ah Q was seen as one of the weapons which Lu Xun wielded when he was tilting at windmills. However, Ah Q was first compared to Don Quixote in 1932 on the basis that both were types that were alive and could be resurrected (Hu Qiuyuan 659). In 1934, Lu Xun wrote "Jiefangle de

Tang Jihede houji" (Postscript to The liberation of Don Ouixotel. a post-script to the ten act play by

Lunacharsky translated Ity Qu Qiiibai. Here Lu Xun defends Don Quixote's will to fight injustice, but criticizes his method, saying 'because of muddled thought Qiutu de ririong ^ ^ 69 ,^ ^ ), an incorrect method of fighting was used" (385).^ Mao Drm mentioned in "Ye shi 'Xiangdao sherune jiu shuo shenme'" (It is also "saying whatever you think of; 1936), how one critic of "True Story" used an analogy between Cervantes and Don Quixote to refer to Lu Xun as Ah Q (1391). It was not until 1982, however, that the characters Ah Q and Don (Quixote were compared directly by Qin Jiaqi and Lu Xiexin, who endeavored to prove that they were both immortal types (372-90).

^ Lu Xun talks of considering this type of person as a "lunatic" {fengren ^ A ) or "muddled person" {hunren #A ) (385). Lu Xun gives a short critique of this play which is a critique of humanism as "Quixote-ism" that seems to be a comment on the struggles between the Russian Bolsheviks and Trotslty- ites after the October Revolution. Some of the language Lu Xun uses includes a variant of "qiiritual victory" (jingshen shang shi shengli de 09), and he makes the point that after the revolution the society was still dark since Don Quixote was used by traitors. This may link into criticism of Lu Xun as Don Quixote. There seems to be an interesting commentary on Don Quixote as "a construction of numerous censured thinkers and writers of the October Revolution" (386). 258

4. Ah Q as Example in the Debate over Type

Representative of the conflict over Ah Q's typicality in the 1930s was the debate between Zhou Yang and Hu Feng on type, which used Ah Q as the prime example. However, the thrust of the debate, as

Denton ejq)lains, is that they were at odds over "the role they envision for ideology in guiding the writer in the creative process of making types" (Modem 262). Hu Feng argued that Ah Q universally rqjresented the peasants and r^resented only some particular aspects of the merchants, landlords and workers. He asserts that Ah Q is an ideological type, the type with "greatest universality" or "range of shared traits" still applicable to the contemporary conditions (353). Zhou Yang, on the contrary, saw Ah Q as a representative of peasants universally dining the 1911 period, as representative of only the backward peasants later, and not r^resentative of the merchant or landlord at all.^^ Hu Feng tries to correct his view in "Realism: A 'Correction,'" and makes a corollary conunent important to this dissertation - that the contengorary literary coirununity mistakenly saw type differently than either he or Zhou Yang:

[A]nother form of misinterpretation holds that a type embodies either eternal "human nature," as Hamlet represents a certain kind of human nature and Quixote another, or a "national character," as Ah Q represents the Chinese people. This is a very harmful misinterpretation, although it is the most prevalent and influential view, (trans. Campbell 355)

Hu Feng would deny Ah Q's status as a national character, instead defining him in other theoretical terms

- a combination of both universal character and particular character. Universal character refers to shared features of social class, and thus Ah Q cuts across social class in his estimation by virtue of some shared features. Particular character is the identification of Ah Q particular social class, and thus Hu Feng says

"Ah Q typifies the backward 'lumpen' Chinese poor peasant" (355). Hu Feng was influenced by Marxist literary theory of class, which he claims Zhou Yang misunderstands. Both Hu Feng and Zhou Yang, however, would change the terms of the dominant interpretation of "Tme Story" and Ah Q. Hu Feng admits that the "most prevalent and influential view" is that of national character. This is the view that was popularized by Lu Xun through "True Story." My analysis of the national character discourse and the

For an introduction to this debate see Zhou Yang, "Thoughts on Realism" (335-44); and Hu Feng "Realism: A 'Correction'" (345-55). 259

Ah Q discourse in the chapters above showed that Lu Xun made Ah Q the symbolic critique of the

national character, a critique of the mentality of the Confucian national essence stq>porters. Hu Feng and

Zhou Yang's debate over character type and typicality would push aside the dominant interpretation of Ah

Q as representative of Chinese national character. The Marxist reinterpretation of character was

beginning to assert itself. This will eventually change the terms of the Ah Q discourse in the 1940s and

1950s when that analysis of Marxist class character will siqjplant Ah Q's national character. But the 6ct

that the Ah Q discourse continued reveals unresolved tensions in the imagining of the national character.

5. Ah Q Finally Appears on Stage

As mentioned above, adaptations of "Trae Story" published after Lu Xun's death in 1936 were written by Tian Han and Yang Cunbin, and were to be staged in 1937 in order to "memorialize Mr. Zhou's [Lu

Xun's] unctying spirit" (Hong Xun 720). In a critique of the stage adaptation of "True Story," Hong Xun noted that Yang's adaptation was completely different than the original work because, among other incongruities. Ah Q was seduced and actually ended tp marrying Wu Ma and then Wu Ma had an afiair with Whisker's Wang. Hong Xun wrote this article before Yang's script was staged. Tian Han's five act

1937 adaptation, however, was actually performed in Wuhan (1937), Shanghai (1938), Guilin (1942), and for troops in Warman, Anhui Province (1938). Before the work was staged, however, numerous critics expressed their concerns with the feasibihty of transmitting Lu Xun's message on stage. Wei Yi said that it was a good thing to let people who don't read fiction have a chance to see it, but there are some small dangers in doing so. He is afraid that staging "True Story" will cause it to lose its effect as a work which

"is capable to attack the sicknesses obstructing the progress of the rration {minzu g ;^ )" of which Lu

Xun's "satire of the champions of national essence (guocui y/c g ^ ) in the first chapter is proof

(759). Thus preserving the spirit of the work is difficult because he fears that although the visual image of

Ah Q can be transferred to the stage. Ah Q's pirit may not be so easily captured (760). Ouyang Fanhai's

"Ping liangge 'A Q zhengzhuan' dejuben" (Critique of two adaptations of "The True Story of Ah Q"; 260

1937), is a much more sophisticated piece of literary criticism than Wei's work. Ouyang provides

concrete reasons why "True Story" would be difficult to adapt: "The True Story of Ah Q' is a novel without a fixed time and place, and it also has tight story development," so formally speaking, as a piece

of fiction it can skip easily between time and place, but a play could not do this so well (838). In terms of

content, Ouyang argues. Ah Q's background and ejqwrience are so common that th ^ wouldn't easily be

effective on stage.

Ouyang read both Xu Xingzhi^® and Tian Han's adaptations and concluded that Xu's was a feilure

and Tian's should be rewritten. I should note that Orgmig did not see either of the productions when he

wrote this 1937 article, but rather gleaned the depiction of Ah Q firom the scripts. Xu Xingzhi's Ah Q is

depicted as "stiff and unnatural," and a few prominent features are depicted but a whole picture of Ah Q

isnt presented (839). Furthermore, Xu didnt use the basic technique of having secondary characters act

as foils for the main character, which would have rounded out his character. Instead the secondary

characters are incidental and put in without any rhyme or reason (840). As a result, Oityang concludes

that Xu just didnt understand the important elements of the plot, and couldnt ejq)ress ideas like Ah Q's

bullying those weaker and cowering to those stronger. Otyang details the numerous aspects of the work

which Xu overlooked quite convincingly.

It is interesting, however, that although Ouyang argues forcibly that Xu Xingzhi didnt understand

"True Story's" plot. Ah Q's character, environment or the people surrounding Ah Q, he comes to the

conclusion that Xu would be unable to recognize a living Ah Q in his environment. The difficulties of

adapting a novel to the stage aside, Xu should have been a well informed reader who could ^predate the

intricacies of Lu Xun's critique of the national character. However, he seems to have missed the point and

written an adaptation that proved to be just what Lu Xun stated he feared - comical and pathetic. This

Xu Xingzhi (1904- ) joined the Social Science Research Association under the leadership of the CCP's Tokyo branch in 1929. He participated in the League of Left-Wing Writers and the League of Left- Wing Artists and directed films from 1934 to 1935. He participated in various Drama troiq>es as adapter, director and actor after 1938 fZGWXDCT) 4: 2360). 261 vDSÿ indicate that by 1937 the image of Ah Q was already trivialized, made comical. Perhaps it is indicative of a sense that "True Story” did indeed rq>resent the national character of a "bygone age."

While Tian Han gets a much better review from Ouyang, he was still criticized for not depicting the crowd watching Ah Q's execution, which results, in his view, in the "insufiBciently harsh censure of the cruel society" (841). Ouyang wants to see society censured for being mere observers even more harshly.

Tian Han's woiic was also criticized for failing to make the audience understand the important point that

Ah Q participated in the revolution in order to exact revenge and realize his fantasies of wealth. Oryang proposes his own reading of the peasantry and how to get arotmd the opportunism of their Ah Q nature by arguing that the adaptation needs to help people to understand that if the revolutionaries enlisted peasants like Ah Q and reduced their motivation for revenge, then the peasantry (and Ah (J) would get a better understanding of the revolution, they themselves would get rid of their fantasies of revenge and wealth, and then the audience would find Ah Q and the peasantry worthy of sympathy and respect (842). With this reading of "True Story," Oiyang thus offered a rather detailed analysis of the potential psychological effects of a stage version of "True Story" on the audience, if it was revised to address these points.

Despite the negative review Xu Xingzhi received from Ouyang in 1937, Xu evidently revised his adaptation a number of times, the fifth of which was in August of 1940, as Lin Bing reports in "Ping liangge 'A Q zhengzhuan' xi" (Appraisal of two staging of "The True Story of Ah Q"). In this article, Lin critiques both Xu and Tian's scripts and comes to the opposite conclusion of Ouyang, rating Xu's latest script the better of the two, based on the fact that it follows the original more faithfully and systematically.

For example, Lin considers Tian's adaptation, which includes more than forty characters from Lu Xun's other stories, as "ridiculous" (368). In fact, Lin thinks both of the adaptations commit the same stupid mistakes in their inaccurate depictions of Ah Q in jail (368). Lin quotes Xu's introduction to the fifth revision of his adaptation to show that he commits the mistake of writing in his own "policy":

The duty of the writer of an adaptation is not to be faithful to the original work, but rather in [trying to figure out] how to clarify the original, how to make the original story develop regularly, how to emphasize the characters' disputes and entanglements, how to open tq) a space for them to struggle, how to make their characters obviously typicaL how to make the whole 262

drama become an artistic stage phenomenon, how to make the drama attract an even greater audience than that attracted by the originaL (368)

Lin takes issue with this approach saying it will completely lose the spirit of the original and that would just make the "adapter" into the "creator" instead. From this example it is obvious that Xu saw a greater

instrumental use for "True Story" in the meditun of the stage. However, he makes the astute observation

that "the problems of performance are not the problems of reading" (370), reiterating a comment made by

Lu Xun in "Zhi Wang Qiaonan" (Letter to Wang Qiaonan) to the effect that the biggest problem of all will

be in getting an actor who can successfully rill the role of Ah Q on stage (371).^’

Xu Xingzhi's ideas of adapting "Trae Story" to the stage, as well as a history of his rive revisions, are

presented in what appears to be the introduction to the rifth revision published in 1940, "'A Q

zhengzhuan' de gaibian jingguo ji daoyan jihua" (The process of adapting "The True Story of Ah Q" and plan for its direction). Xu sees his work as performing the function of allowing "True Story" to break out

of the intellectual level and make contact with the broad masses. To accorrplish the effect of

"massirication" {dazhong hua ÿ ^ ^ ib ) he says "there are numerous places where I adopted the merits of

cultural drama, especially emphasizing or especially exaggerating its [True Story's'] narrative, to make it

easy for the masses to understand" (580-1). He repeats three times that he wants to "continuously broaden the intellectual class's appreciation of 'The True Story of Ah Q' to reach the city dweller's class, and even to reach to the hard-working masses who don't know how to read" (581). Furthermore, Xu also wants to introduce the drama to foreign audiences. Xu's view thus directly recognizes that the masses didn't have access to "True Story" because it was only available to the intellectual class. Here we see a dramatist consciously adapting "Trae Story" for the purpose of editying the masses. However, the critics took issue with the fact that "True Story" would be changed so dramatically that Lu Xun's intention would be diluted or misinterpreted entirely. If Ah Q was depicted as comical, as Lu Xun predicted and the

Lu Xun said, " I'm afraid that China's 'stars' at the moment have no way to express the scenes in it" (52). 263 critics confirmed (in their readings of the script, at least), his staging would not have the force to cany Lu

Xun's critique of the national character.

D. 1940s Ah Q Discourse

The critic Jiang Chao asserts that Ah Q researchers began in the 1940s to recognize Ah Q's social nature and class nature (6), but still didnt enter into aesthetic investigation of Ah Q's complexity, his commonality and individual character. In 1940, under the influence of Marxism, Duanmu Hongliang discussed "slave philosophy"; Ai Wu claimed in 1941 that Ah Q's method of spiritual victoiy was shared

1^ the West, since after all, Don Quixote and Hamlet have been around for hundreds of years; and in the same year Oityang Fanhai made Ah Q into a representative of the revolutionary peasant

Despite the plethora of accolades for Lu Xun after his death, one critic, Zheng Xuejia, boldly satirized

Lu Xun in his 1942 woric, Lu Xun zban^buan (The true story of Lu Xun). The book, from its title playing on the title of "True Story," is in part a parocfy of "Ah Q " to the extent that it uses chapter headings like "The Bogus Foreign Devil" and "Not Allowed to Revolt," both of which are right out of

"True Story." Zheng attacks the foreign educated intellectual leaders by comparing Lu Xun to the Bogus

Foreign Devil in "True Story" and denying Ah Q as a literary type equivalent in stature to Don Quixote, because Chinese national character wasn't "Ah Q style" (A 0 shide R"Q ^ 6 9 ). Zheng asserts, "Those who made this evaluation are all the political missionaries sent to China by the imperialist master school

{diguo zhvyi laoyepai ^ # ^ # # # # ) " (1166).

In contrast to Zheng Xuejia's negative critique of Lu Xun, most of the Chinese literary establishment was consolidating its positive view of Lu Xun at this time. David Holm noted that "one concrete method of fostering the 'Lu Xun spirit'" was the establishment of the I k XKnyany/aAM/ (LuXun research society) in 1941 (169). As Holm points out, the first special issue of this organization's journal was dedicated to Ah Q research and titled, Lu Xun vaniiu tekan divi ii: "A 0 lunii" (Lu Xun research 264 special issue no. 1: "collected essays on Ah Xiao Jun wrote a preface to this issue in which he calls Ah Q an immortal character type, representative of humanity, like Cervantes' Don Quixote and

Shakespeare's Hamlet (671). Xiao Jun notes:

Since Ah Q took the stage twenty years ago in Xin chenbao [sic], the turmoil he initiated has been great and numerous, and it continues right iç to the present and perhaps will still continue into the future. I'm afiaid Ah Q will cause chaos as long as the conditions that created him are not cleaned iq), and eveiyboefy will find it difficult to truly find peace. (671)

Despite the feet that Xiao mistakes the paper in which "True Story" was serialized, his assessment of the continuing role of Ah Q in the discourse of the Chinese hteraiy world is noteworthy - it has continued for twenty years and will probably continue until the conditions that created him are changed. Ah Q is thus both the representative of the conditions of the state and the state of the people. As Holm notes, however, by the 1940s talk of Ah Q by Xiao Jun as a "national hero" (jninzu yingnong was "not poUtically neutral" and Xiao Jun was criticized by even Mao Zedong himself for "his overly critical attitude toward bad phenomena'and for his lack of any qîirit of self-criticism" (171). This example shows the tensions within the Ah Q/national character discourse during the Yanan period, in which writers were to eventually be forced to eschew Lu Xun's techniques, though encouraged to somehow emulate his spirit, and adopt the dictates of socialist realism in their works (Holm 174). And indeed.

Holm makes a solid case illustrating the method by which the Communist Party appropriated Lu Xun as a leading spirit of the revolution. In this context, the national character discourse enters a new phase when it is confronted with the prerogative of socialist realism. Objective political realities in essence almost completely subjugated any objective social examination through literature, and the Ah Q discourse was to be appropriated for exploration of class struggle and other issues related to the Marxist discourse of revolution. Despite the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of the image of Lu Xun built by party appaiatcheks, the

However, though Holm quotes this in his article, I am tmable to locate a work by this title. There is a prefece to this work written tÿ Xiao Jun called "Liang ben shu di 'qianji' - Lu Xun yanjiu tekan diyiji: 'AQlunji.'" 265 appropriation of his image was significant in the discourse of legitimation of the Communist Par^ as the ruling governmental bo

Perhaps the most revealing work and the high point of Ah Q criticism and research in the pre- liberation Ah. Q discourse is Zhang Tianyi's "Lun 'A Q zhengzhuan’" (On "The True Story of Ah Q";

1941). Zhang raised the concept "Ah Q-ism" (A 0 zhuyi Q which was evidently first coined by

Hu Qiuyuan in 1932, and built (or documented) an entire vocabulary of Ah Q related words, including the idea of "Ah Q-Style Revolution" (A O ski de geming ^ 0^ j^ ^ ) . This work starts out as a personal confession from one of China's eminent modem writers that until he read "True Story" he was an adherent of Lin Yutang's school of thought and against the New Culture movement Zhang notes that he felt he knew Ah Q from the beginning, and that Ah Q made him feel uneaqr, that he was unable to dispel Ah Q's image^® and had to console himself into thinking that Ah Q was no "loss of face" {diit mianzi •?•) to the Chinese people (376). Zhang saw Ah Q in the people all around him:

In fact, among our group of acquaintances we frequently encounter this ridiculous character: He has a ridiculous {kexiao q ]'^ ) personality, views, style and so on, and does some ridiculous things. However, when we see these real people and real incidents at the time and place we don't feel they are ridiculous. But once depicted in somebody's hterary work we onfy then realize the ridiculousness of this kind of person. As for ourselves, that is especially the face of one who doesn't look in the mirror and never knows himself. Therefore, once we see this character in somebody's work, if it has some amount of our own shadow in him no matter how much or how little, although we can't help laughing, in this laugh there is unavoidably some uneasiness, or pain, or actually some embarrassment to the extent of anger, or some other kind of flavor. Furthermore, I still have self-respect, and because of this I fear that after others read this work they will actually recognize my face and see my ridiculous side. If a person doesn't know his defects, then he can be very h^ppy in his muddledness Qiuli hutu Once this defect has been discovered, it is embarrassing, and so he doesn't want to cure it but rather will taboo ijihui ^ ^ ) it But even if he wants to cure it at first he will always be very worried that it will cause some conflict in his mind. At this time he will often think of an excuse to console himself and furthermore be afraid that other people will bring up his defects, and fear that other people will clearly understand his psychology {jieixin /[,'), and fear that others will expose his soul {linghun ^ ^ ) . But now he has been exposed by others, and millions of readers understand clearly. (376)

259 He sounds like Romain Rolland here (376). 266

Ah Q is the mechanism by which Lu Xim exposed the personahty defects in the Chinese people that

Zhang Tianyi so clearly explains and confesses here. Ejq) 0sure through literature was a method of enlightening the Chinese people to their own defects, and Zhang virtually confirms each of the points of

Lu Xun's intention in writing "True Story," which were revealed in "Da zhoukan bianzhe yan," written seven years earher in 1934. Moreover, Zhang reveals his fear and embarrassment and presumes to speak for all readers, if not all Chinese people, in what he views as an expression of the Chinese p^chology.

Zhang saw the Chinese people as Ah Qs. Embarrassment and loss of &ce for oneself as well as for the character Ah Q is fundamental to Zhang's imputation of the psychology of the Chinese reader in reqjonse to "True Story." Zhang’s long and detailed analysis of Ah Q, "True Story" and Chinese society employed the following terms:

"atoms of Ah Q's soul" (A 0 linghun yuami 377) "Ah Q style" (A Ozuofeng R 'Q f#M ;377) "Ah Q illness" (A Q bing R"Q # ; 378) "Ah Q nature" (A Q xing P ^ Q # ; 378) "Wei village culture" (Weizhuang wenhua 378) "AhQunderstanding" (A Ojicmjie 379) "Ah Q style problem solving" (A Oshi dejiejuefa^Q ^'^^^^^-, 381) "Ah Q style revolution" (A O shi de geming 383) "Ah Q philosophy" (A 0 zhexue Q # # ; 381) "Ah Q life" (A O shenghuo P^Q 382) "Ah Q ethics" (A O lunli xwe P^Q # # # ; 382) "Ah Q image" (A Q xiang P^Q ; 383) "Ah Q-ism" (A O zhuyi P^Q 384) "Ah Q fate" (A O mingyun P^Q ; 385) "Ah Q type" (A 0 de dianxing P^Q 386) "Ah Q's behavior" (P^Q 386) "AhQnatured AhQ" (A 0 x in g deA 0 P^Q#69P^Q;386) "most Ah Q Ah Q" {zuiA Ode A 0 # I^ Q MP^Q; 386) "the elements of Ah Q nature" (A O xing de yuansu P^Q #% jE^; 386) "Ah Q's leprosy" (A Q zhi lai p^Q 388) "Ah Q type" (A 0 dianxing P^Q ; 390) "a new Ah Q" (yige xindeA O —##69P^Q ; 390)

Zhang's long analysis integrates the issues of type, class, method of spiritual victory, satire, and all the particular narrative elements Lu Xun used in "True Story." Importantly, Zhang concludes that it is possible for the Chinese to change and not be Ah Qs, but that some residue would still remain (389).

Zhang argues that some of Ah Q's characteristics are positive for the long term struggle, such as his 267

"indifference" {pian bvzaïhu and numbness {pianm ^Tfc), which can be beneficial in battle when ejqpressed as the unwillingness to yield, and thus turned into a kind of endurance (390). The result of this kind of change in Ah Q's character {bianle zhi ^ "J ^ ) , according to Zhang, is the development of a new Ah Q and a new Ah Q type, "an Ah Q who has stood up" "to do battle protecting the land of our ancestors" (390).

Thatig Tianyi's article redefines the parameters of Chinese national character in terms of Ah Q character or Ah Q nature (A O xing Q '{^. Zhang's commentary on Ah Q character describes a gradient of apphcability of the concept of Ah Q to a particular individual or to a grorç. Zhang goes beyond asserting that the image of Ah Q is deeply imprinted in the Chinese mind, to the extent of saying that the Chinese soul even has the atoms of Ah Q's soul. This is exhibited in the expression of the variety of national character defects illuminated by Lu Xun. Zhang argues, however, that some people are more

Ah Q like than others, some people less. This character is expressed in behavior as well as in a writer's literary work, as he states in the passage above. Zhang wields his olympic-sized Ah Q vocabulary in order to wake rç) the reader to his faults through embarrassment Evidently he hopes that consciousness of the shameful exhibition of these defects will urge the Chinese to change their behavior. And indeed, Zhang ends the quote above saying, "now he has been exposed by others, and million.;; of readers understand clearly" (376). Read in concert with my analysis of the Ah Q and national character discourses above,

Zhang article offers personal testimony to the construction of the Ah Q discourse in the consciousness of the Chinese reader. He describes the wty that "True Story" works like a medicine to enlighten the reader, who will look into his own psyche and confiront the national character defects. Zhang offers an explanation of how such a society exists in the grasp of muddled darkness. He also tacitly argues that it is only through exposure of the embarrassing defects that they can be confironted and overcome. In conclusion: "It is only when everybo^ can laugh out loud at Ah Q that without the least bit of psychological shame, then it will be proven that we are sound on the whole" (378). CHAPTER V n

CONCLUSION

Living under the rule o f the darkforces aid deprived offreedom ofspeech. Lu Xun used burning satire andfreezing irony, cast in the form o f essays, to do battle; and he -was entirely right. We, too, must hold up to sharp ridicule the fascists, the Chinese reactionaries, and everything that harms the people; but in the Shanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and the anti-Japanese base areas behind the enemy lines, where democracy cmd freedom are granted in fu ll to the revolutionary -writers and artists and withheld only from the counterrevolutionaries, the style o f the essc^ should not simply be like Lu Xun's. Here we can shout at the top o f our voices cmd have no need for veiled cmd roundabout expressions, which are hard for the people to understand When dealing with the people and not -with their enemies. Lu Xun never ridiculed or attacked the revolutionary people cmd the revolutionary Party in his "satirical essay period, " cmd these ess

Mao Zedong's 1942 comments in this speech represent a turning point in the interpretation of Lu

Xun's legacy as a writer. While commending the means by which Lu Xun attacked the dark forces of society in his essay period - fescists, reactionaries, anti-Conununists - Mao specifically situates Lu Xun against particular targets under certain historical circumstances. Lu Xun's satire is praised as a weapon for revolution, but in the same breath Mao proclaims his abusive style urmecessary, unwelcome, and unacceptable in liberated areas where freedom and democracy have been obtained in full. Reading between the lines, we can see that Mao set up an organic political determinism in which liberation (and the embrace of Marxist ideology) are the indicators of freedom, democracy, and revolutionary purity, and as such, literary expression must naturally follow step by discarding the techniques used against the counter-revolutionaries. Democracy and freedom "in full" did not apply to freedom of speech, and thus it

268 269 was predictable that criticism of the national character like Lu Xun's would not be welcome in liberated

China. Mao declared Lu Xun to have been a Mthful supporter of the revolution, never having used satire to ridicule or attack the revolutionary people or party. In the context of the national character and Ah Q

discourses discussed in this dissertation. Lu Xun's canonization here can be read as an act of flagrant

disregard of his numerous satirical attacks on Marxists and leftists in the context of the debates over the

issues of revolutionary literature and literature for national defense. Instrumental elements of his

canonization by the CCP may be clarified by demonstrating that Lu Xun did attack members of the

revolutionary literary establishment within the context of the national character discourse.

I have argued in the preceding chapters that the Ah Q discourse exists within a number of enveloping

discourses. First, I described the general theory of how national character was situated within the

discourse of nation and nationalism (both within a greater firamework of modernity). After describing the

roots of Western theories of national character in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, I analyzed Liang

Qichao's introduction of the issue to the Chinese readership in the late Qing through his essays in New

Citizen (1902-1904). I demonstrated that after Liang, discussions of national character were common,

involving both radical critique and the positive assessment of national character called national essence.

The discourse on national character continued into the May Fourth under the critical analysis of Chen

Duxiu (and others), and finally Lu Xun took it rp in earnest in his debut on the hterary stage with

"Madman." My analysis shows that Lu Xun engaged the discourse of national character using language

and ideas similar to those of the early Liang Qichao. Moreover, his critique was situated within a

consciousness of nation and nationalism that was expressed in his late Qing writings and defined his view

of the writer as a spiritual warrior (a national poet) engaged in the battle of saving China by curing her

spiritual illness (her national soul or national character) through hterature. Having situated Lu Xun

within the late (^ing and May Fourth national character discourse, I traced his engagement with the

national character discourse throughout his later period, showing that his national character critique

broadened, developing a terminology which Lu Xun used in attacks and counterattacks on various 270 enemies from all sides of the political spectrum. Numerous examples presented in Chapters 4 and 5 demonstrate that his engagement in the discourse was expressed in maiQr genres, including prose poetry, essays, letters and stories. Ln Xun's involvement in the national character discourse reached its zenith with publication of "True Story" and the popularization of Ah Q, who was interpreted as the epitome of the national character. Ah Q and "True Story" were products of Lu Xun's engagement in the national

character discourse, not just an isolated work of fiction created from his imagination Ah Q himself became a discursive site as critical reception of "Trae Story" initiated discussions on the veracity of Lu

Xun's depiction of Chinese national character and the ingredients of national character. Lu Xun became a permanent fixture in the national character discourse with the creation of Ah Q, and Ah Q became a

discourse unto himself, e^ganding through critical reception, analysis and research, as well as artistic reinteipretation in other media. A vocabulary of Ah Q grew, reaching a high point with Zhang Tianyi's analysis in the 1940s. This vocabulary indicates the currency of Ah Q in the contençoraiy Chinese intellectual imagination as a decidedly negative representation of the national character. At the same time, Zhang reinforces Lu Xun's idea that through ejqwsure of its negative aspects, the national character

can be changed.

Ivfy analysis of Ah Q and the national character discourse in China demystifies some of the many layers of orthodox interpretation of Lu Xun, which, like the banner laid over his cofSn reading "national souL" appropriated his image in order to lend legitimacy to the revolutiorL Lu Xun, Ah Q and "True

Story" became fixtures in modem Chinese hterature in the context of a pre-existing national character

discourse, but also became an elaboration of the national character discourse in the form of an extended

debate over "True Story's" critical reception, what I term the Ah Q discourse. Stated briefly, the trajectory

of the Ah Q discourse goes as follows: Ah Q and "Trae Story" were critically acclaimed during and

immediately after its ptibHcation in 1922. A small volume of criticism gradually grew with the

pubhcation ofNahan (1923), and with a few words of praise by Romain Rolland in 1926, Lu Xun and

"True Story" gained an international reputation in Chinese ^es, leading to speculation that Lu Xun 271

should be considered for a Nobel Prize. As every aspect of the interpretation of Ah Q was anaij'zed and

d^ated. Ah Q became an example o t or the cite for, debates over literary technique (satire and type), the

sickness of the national character, the revolutionary measure of the peasantry. Lu Xun's authority in

literary circles, the relationship between class nature and national character, and the universal defects of

human kind. A lexicon of terms associated with national character and Ah Q, some taken from "True

Story," and some developed throughout the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, culminated in Zhang Tianyi's

manipulation of a whole lexicon of Ah Q adjectives and associated ideas.

Through the course of this dissertation I have attempted to demonstrate that Lu Xun was not a romantic genius who concocted the national character discourse out of thin air, but rather was a product of enveloping discourses of national character, nationalism and modernity. Lu Xun took the valorization of the national essence by cultural nationalists as the target in a radical, iconoclastic critique of what he called Chinese q)iritual culture. He was neither alone in his endeavor, nor was he necessarily the most scathing of critics. Though he did not initially identified his essays and stories as a critique of national character per se, my reading of his oeuvre demonstrates the temporal development of his admission of the thrust of his cultural critique. After the critical reception of "True Story" and Ah Q, Lu Xun admitted his intent to use literature to change the national character. The Ah Q discourse was constructed through the critical reception of "True Story." Lu Xun's own interpretive comments on "True Story" must be situated within both the national character discourse and the intersecting Ah Q discourse in order to see that Lu

Xun was not the creator of the discourse, but an active participant in it. Lu Xun's view of national character was strongly influenced by not only the late nineteenth century missionary critique, but also by the writings of Liang Qichao. This links the legacy of the national character critique to the eighteenth and nineteenth century originators of the national character concept, since Liang was schooled in the works of Western and Japanese nationalist thinkers.

My analysis of the Ah Q discourse suggests that during the May Fourth period. Lu Xun's view of Ah

Q was shaped by the criticism of Mao Dun and Zhou Zuoren, who immediately identified Ah Q as a Ill representation of the national character. Cheng Fangwu's criticism of "True Story" in the context of polemics between the Creation Society and the Literary Research Association probably helped Lu Xun articulate his national character critique to counter Cheng's assessment I argued that Lu Xun's stated intention of getting the reader to self-reflect, coming twelve years after "True Story" was written, may have been influenced by Mao Dun's assertion that the reader may see Ah Q image in himself upon reflection ("Du Nahan 35),‘®° and closely resembles the words of Gogol's narrator in Dead Souls who asserts that the Russian reader would find Chichikov in himself rqjon reflectiort^®^ In feet even Liang

Qichao wrote that reformers should reflect on the defects in the national character. Lu Xun's ejqpressed intent was not unique or purely of his own creation. Lu Xun's status as leader of the Chinese literary world was surpassed when he was elevated to world literary status after a few words of praise by Romain

Rolland. This praise was highly exaggerated by the Chinese critical community which seemed eager to promote world recognition of one of its writers as proof of the greatness of the Chinese national character.

I showed that this international status was ejqjioited in part to advertise his second collection of short stories. Moreover, flouting Holland's praise of Lu Xun, the Chinese critical community ironically perpetuated Ah Q's characteristic of "reflected glorj'" (or feme by association) - one of the very negative

elements of the Chinese national character satirized by Lu Xun in "True Story." The idea that Ah Q represented a "universal" national character was confirmed through "True Story's" international receptioiL

This is another ironic aspect of the Ah Q discourse because Lu Xun was highly critical of the attempt to evade responsibility for features of the negative national character by pointing out that such characteristics were present in people of other nations. That is, the interpretation of Ah Q as a universal negative

character was an example of "No-Worse-ism," one of the elements of the method of spiritual victory

Mao Dun says: "When we have time for self-reflection, we often suspect that we unavoidably contain some of the ingredients of "Ah Q image" (35).

The narrator tells the Russian reader: "Which of you, full of Christian humility, not publicly but in peaceful solitude, in moments of sohtary discourse with himself, will look into his own soul and ask himself this painful question: 'Is there not some part of Chichikov in me also?"' (qtd. in Woodward 231). 273 criticized in "Suiganlu 38." Lu Xun was aware that the excited critical response to his "international acclaim" was a sort of expression of the national character he abhorred. He interpreted this, as I argued in

Chapter 6, as an attempt to assuage a racial consciousness. The fervor over his international feme thus inadvertently demonstrated Ah Q's negative characteristics. It is great iroiqr, after aU, that such a negative and derogatory depiction of the Chinese national character could be embraced and trunçeted by Chinese critics as truly great on the basis that it was the first piece of modem Chinese literature to make it onto the world stage.

Lu Xun's critique of national essence, Chinese spiritual culture, and Confucianism, as 1 demonstrated above, eventually became defined as his critique of national character within the linguistic constructs of nation established during the late Qing. This critique of national character subsequently laid the foundation for the Ah Q discourse, launched by Lu Xun with "True Story," but carried on by other critics and writers. Lu Xun's critique of national essence thinking indicates a tension between radically difierent visions of community based on radically different sets of values and views of tradition and modernity.

The national essence supporters attempted to re-legitimize an ideal Confucian spirit, while Lu Xun saw

Confucianism as the primary cause of spiritual defects in the national character and attacked it to his dying days. The valorization of the "imagined" ancient past by the national essence champions, an instrumental part of the construction of modem national identity outlined in Chapter 1, was at odds with what Lu Xun perceived as his mission - to remake the national character in the midst of crises of international hegemony (imperialism) and domestic chaos of civil war (warlordism), by exposing the character defects produced by the ideology of the imagined ancient past. Invoking an idealized golden past is a fundamental concept of modem nationalism readily accommodated into the view of Confucian supporters of national essence, but as Lu Xun points out, their accommodation of this past was a repetition of past mistakes, an embrace of morbid national character, and an exclusion of the modem spirit of 274 science and democracy which would assure the nation's survival in the &ce of internal and external threats.

Lu Xun's national character critique was aimed at changing the people's mentality and the thoroughness of his attack on old mentality seems to prohibit the possibility of a nationalism which could call on a golden past (or valorize a national essence), for the purpose of legitimizing its own existence. Lu

Xun argued for a historical memory for the purpose of avoiding past mistakes. Since he saw the whole of

Chinese spiritual culture as defective, he tried to close the door to the nationalistic valorization of the past

Lu Xun's negatively conceived national character critique thus breaks with the general theory of imagining the nation because it block out reference to the past It would proscribe not a historical memory, but the imagining of a golden past. After aU, if the Chinese mentality was not changed then the

Chinese were doomed, in Lu Xun's view, to repeat the catastrophic and inhumane cycle of mutual cruelty and oppression - essentially locked into a set of power relations described Iqr the dichotomy of slave and master, victim and victimizer, or prey and predator. This is the legacy that Lu Xun saw inscribed in the national character: Chinese spiritual culture promoted by the national essence champions perpetuated a set of social relations based on the cannibalistic ideology of Confucianism. Lu Xun could attack conservatives, liberals, and Marxists alike for exhibiting the slavishness that he saw as one of the key elements of the negative national character, because be saw it located in the Chinese soul and expressed in the Chinese spirit as a hereditary illness treatable only by science. Lu Xun's negative critique of the national character appears to compel Chinese intellectuals to reflect critically, rather than romantically, on the past in the process of imagining a new national identity. This space was appropriate with the consolidation of Marxism as the dominant ideology in the 1930s and 1940s. National character then was siçplanted by class character, and though the Ah Q discourse continued it appears to have begun to be used instrumentally to achieve an ideological consensus about the interpretation of Marxist literary theory 2 7 5 rather than constructing a national character.^^ The discourse of national character disappeared, but the

Ah Q discourse continued

Though altered the Ah Q discourse did not end with the liberation of China in 1949. As Jiang Chao asserts, there was a deepening of Ah Q research in the early fifties by rehashing old views and by reflecting on the new [socialist] view of society in the wake of liberation. This was a re-emergence of

Qian Xingcun's view firom the late twenties that liberation meant the peasants stood up, and that the period of Ah Q was over (Jiang 11). Other researchers saw Ah Q as a "1911 revolutionaiy peasant" type.

The method of spiritual victory was seen as a twisted means of resistance against old society, whereas real resistance could be seen in Ah Q's "rebellion" {zaofcm j a S ) , and his stealing and fighting, all of which reflect revolutionary demands (Jiang 12). This interpretation, according to Jiang, is a rehashing of

Guyang Fanhai's view. These are obvious attempts to make Ah Q and the interpretation of "True Story" fit into the vulgar Marxist conception that literature reflects class relations and the revolutionary correctness of its author. Leftist dogmatism and crude sociology firom the mid-1950s to mid-1960s that took Ah Q research off on a political tangent. The main feature of these tangents is an essentialism

(penzhi lun : $ :^ # ) which attempted to prove Marxist theology. Accordingly, Ah Q was seen as a peasant, the method of spiritual victory is seen as a ruling class phenomenon, and Ah Q's adherence to the method of spiritual victory is thus a reflection of the ruling class - all "proven" by the "fact" that peasant

"nature" is honest, thrifty, good optimistic and rebellious (Jiang 15). This led to a theory of types in which a common type was just an expression of class nature, or equivalent to class nature. Even Mao

Dun, who had been one of the primary interpreters of Ah Q's representativeness of the national character,

expressed these essentialist arguments in a 1961 article (Jiang 18), contradicting his previous critical

oeuvre. During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, the theory of essentialism was applied in even

more absurd ways (Jiang 20). It was combined with some "theory of bloodlines" (probably biological

determinism) and Ah Q research sank amidst slogans. Ah Q and "True Story" were used as a history of

262 See Jusdanis for theorization of this process (163). 276

class struggle and Ah Q was seen as a revolutionaiy peasant Finally, in the 1980s there was a revival of

national character research around the one hundredth anniversary of Lu Xun's birth. The dogmatic,

essentialist orthodox readings of the past forty years were swept away and the door was opened to new readings which are yet to appear (Jiang 21).

A broad range of readings of True Story" is possible in part because Lu Xun treated his critique of national character from a literary stanc^int Using humor, irony, and satire. Lu Xun was able to create an amount of indeterminacy in Ah Q that is not found in his e s s ^ (which often used natior^ character to directly attack the national essence, the upright gentlemen, or his Marxist critics). Thus, through a literary work about the national character, a point on which critics agreed. Lu Xun opened wide the debate on what national character was, and who was siq>posed to have it Critics who proclaimed Ah Q to be a universal representative of negative human characteristics fell into the mode of "No-Worse-ism."

Intellectuals who claimed Ah Q to be a representative of peasant mentality foiled to reflect on themselves, as Lu Xun advised - the peasants, after aU, could not possibly have been Lu Xun's readers due to a lack of education. The contemporary currency of "True Story" as a work of literature was constructed by the positive critical reception it received ty both readers and literary authorities. Lu Xim's own status as leader in Mzy Fourth literary circles, its entrance into the ranks of world literature through international acclaim, and the legitimacy accrued by Lu Xim being canonized by the CCP. However, through Ah Q and

"True Story," as well as his essays and stories. Lu Xun tried to focus the reader's attention on the national character defects of the Chinese people in order to try to begin to solve China's problems and save the

Chinese nation. Lu Xun's negative depiction of Ah Q as the representative of national character makes it possible to force the Chinese to continue to reflect critically on the national character, proscribe numerous methods of psychological self-protection and deniaL and thus create a space for a total renovation of the people. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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—. "Ewenyiben'AQ zhengzhuan’XUjizhuzhezixuzhuaiilue"®;5;^2^ (R " Q IE # > (Prefece to the Russian translation to "The True Story of Ah Q" and the author's autobiographical sketch). 15 June 1925. Jiwaiii# '^ '# . Rpt in LXQJ Vol. 7. 77-83.

—. "Fengzheng" (The kite). Yusi 12 (F^. 2.1925). Yecao. Trans. LXSW. Vol. 1. 330-2. LXQJ Vol. 2. 177-9.

—. ’Fuchou(qier)" ( ^ “ ) (Revenge D). Written 12/20/24. Yua 7 (29 Dec. 1924). Yecao. Trans. LXSW Vol. 1. 324-5. Rut in LXOJ Vol. 2. 169-71.

—. '"Gongli" debaxi" “ » É ljjS # (The trick of "universal truth"). 24 Dec. 1925. Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 3. 164-71.

—. "Gu Xueheng" (Appraising Critical review!. Chenbao fhkan (9 Feb. 1922). Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 1. 375-9.

—. "GuarçTi Taiwan xiansheng er san shi" gg (Two or three things regarding Mr. [Zhang] Taiyan). 10 March 1937. Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 540-6.

—, trans. "'Guanzhao xiangle de shenghuo'Yizhe fuji" (Translator's postscript to "Observing a happy life"). 13 Dec. 1924. By Kuriyagawa Hakason Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 10. 252.

—. "Huran xiangdao (yi)" ( — ) (It suddenty occurred to me [1]). 17 Jan. 1925. Huagai ii. Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 3. 14-15.

—. "Huran xiangdao (san)" ( H ) (It suddenly occurred to me [3]). 14 Feb. 1925. Huagai ji. Rnt in LXOJ VoL 3. 16-17.

—. "Huran xiangdao (si)" ( E3 ) (It suddenly occurred to me [4]). 20 Feb. 1925. Huagai ii. Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 3. 14-20.

—. "Huran xiangdao (qi)" ( -fc ) (It suddenly occurred to me [7]). 12 May 1925. Huagai ii. Rot in LXOJ Vol. 3. 58-9.

—. "Huran xiangdao (jiu)" ( % ) (It suddenly occurred to me [9]). 19 May 1925. Huagai ji. Rot in LXOJ Vol. 3. 61-2.

—. "Huran xiangdao (shiyi)" ( + — ) (It suddenly occurred to me [11]). 18 June 1925. Huagai ii. Rot in LXOJ Vol. 3. 91-9.

—. "Jinian Lie Hezhen jun" $ 5 (Memorial to Liu Hezhen). Yusi 74 (12 April 1926). Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 3. 274-9.

—. "Ji zhoukan bianzhe yan" ^ (Letter to the editor of Theater weeklvL Oieiieting zawen B 25 Nov. 1934. Trans. LXSW Vol. 4. 145-6. Rot, in LXOJ Vol. 6. 149-50.

—. "Kan jing you gan" # (Feelings upon looking in/at the mirror). 2 March 1925. Rpt. in LXOJ Vol. 1. 198-203. 286

—. "Kexue shi jiao pian" (Lessons from the histoiy of science). Henan 5 (June 1908). RpL in Lu Xun zaooi wu pian lunwen zhuvi (Notes and translations of Lu Xun's five early essays). Trans. Wang S h ijin g id r^ . Tianjin: Renmin, 1978. 56-95.

—. "KongYiji"JLZ. 3 (Confucius himself). Xin oingnian 6.4 (April 19191. Rpt. in LXOJ Vol. 1. 433-8.

—. "Laodiaoziyijingchangwan" (Alrea^finished singing the old tune). March 1927. Rpt in LXQJ Vol. 7. 299-309.

—. "Liang di shu, 8" ( A ) (Letters between two places. No. 8). 31 March 1925. RpL in LXOJ Vol. 11. 44-7.

— . "Li ci cun zhao (3)" ( H ) (Establishing an existing impression [3]). 5 OcL 1936. Rpt. in LXOJ Vol. 6. 616-20

— . Lu Xun ouanii (The complete works of Lu Xun). 16. vols. Taipei: Gufeng 1989. RpL ofLu Xun ouanii (lîte complete works of Lu Xun). 16. vols. Beijing: Reranin wenxue, 1981.

—. "Lue lun Zhongguoren de lian" (Short discussion of Chinese feces). 25 Nov. 1927. RpL in LXOJ Vol. 3. 412-5.

—. "Lue tan Xianggang" % # # # (A few words on Hong Kong). Yusi 144 (13 Aug. 1927). Rpt. in LXOJ Vol. 3. 426-36.

—. "Lun di san zhong ren" @ A (On the third category of person). 1 Nov. 1932. Rpt. in LXOJ Vol. 4. 437-43.

—. "Lun "ta made'" # « ” (On "your mother’s"). 27 July 1925. Rpt. in LXOJ Vol. 1. 232-7.

—. "Lun zhaoxiang zhi lei" (On photography). 12 Jan. 1925. Trans. Kirk A Dentoru Modem Chinese Literary Thought: Writings on Literature 1893-1945. 196-203. Ed. Kirk A Denton. Stanford University P, 1995. RpL in LXOJ Vol. 1. 182-91.

—. "Lun zhengle yan kan" (On opening the eyes to see). Yusi ^ (Spinner of words) 38 (3 Aug. 1925). Trans. LXSW Vol. 2. 198-204. Rpt. in LXOJ Vol. 1. 238-43.

—. "Mashang zhi riji" #2 (Spontaneous branch diary). Huagai ii xubian . 29 June 1926 - 6 July 1926. Trans. LXSW Vol. 2. 284-92. RpL in LXOJ Vol. 3. 321-40.

—. "Moluo shi li shuo" (On the power of Mara poetry). Henan 2 and 3 (Feb. and March 1908). RpL in Lu Xun zaoqi wu pian lunwen zhuvi (Notes and translations of Lu Xun's five early essays). Trans. Wang Shijing . Tianjin: Renmin, 1978. 139-247.

—. "Nuola zou hou zenyang" (What happens afrer Nora leaves?). Wenvi hui kan "V # 6(1924). RpL in LXOJ Vol. 1. 160-7. 287

—. "On the Power of Mara Poeby." Trans. Tsau, Shu-ying and Donald HolocL Modem Chinese Literary Thought: Writings on Literature 1893-1945. Ed. Kirk A. Denton. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1995. 96-109.

—. "R en zh ilish i"A ^ ® .£ (The history of humanity). Henan 1 (Dec. 1907). Rpt in Lu Xun zaoqi wu pian lunwen zhuvi (Notes and translations of Lu Xun's five early essays). Trans. Wang Shijing Tianjin: Renmin, 1978. 21-55.

—. "Ruma he kongxia jue bushi zhandou" (Abuse and threats are not fighting). Wenxue vuebao 1.5 and 1.6 (Dec. 15,1932). Trans. LXSW Vol. 3. 197-9. Rpt. in LXOJ. Vol. 4. 450-3.

—. "Shishi sheng yu xiong bian" (Facts win out over heroic defense). Chenbao fukan (4 Nov. 1921). Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 1. 374.

—. "Shisi nian de 'drying'" ” ("Reading classics" of the fourteenth year). 27 Nov. 1925. Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 3. 127-32.

—. "Shuo huxu" ^ (On mustaches). 15 Dec. 1924. Rot in LXOJ Vol. 1. 176-81.

—. "Shuo'mianzi'"” (SpeakingofTace'). Manhuashenghuovuekan)@ '34=^ HftI 2 (Oct 1934). Trans. LXSW. VoL 4. 131-4. Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 6. 125-8.

—. "Shuo ri" (On radium). Zhejiang chao 8 (Oct 1903). Rnt in Lu Xun zaooi wu oian Irmwen zhuvi ^ (Notes and translations of Lu Xrm's five early essays). Trans. Wang Shijing 3ElfcW ■ Tianjin: Renmin, 1978. 1-20.

—. "Sibada zhi hun" ^ (The Soul of Sparta). Zhejiang chao (Zhejiang tide) 5.9 (June 1903). Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 7. 9-19.

—. "Si di" (Dead place or "The dead"?). Guomin xinbao firkan iS (30 March 1926). Rpt. in LXOJ Vol. 3. 267-9.

—. "Suiganlu 33" (Impromptu Reflections No. 33). Xin qingnian 5.4 (15 Oct. 1918). Rnt. in LXOJ Vol. 1. 298-304.

—. "Suiganlu 35" (Impromptu Reflections No. 35). Xin oingnian 5.5 (15 Nov. 19181. Rpt. in LXOJ Vol. 1. 305-6.

—. "Suiganlu 36" (Impromptu Reflections No. 36). Xin qingnian 5.5 (15 Nov. 1918). Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 1. 307-8.

—. "Suiganlu 38" (Impromptu Reflections No. 38). Xin oingnian 5.5 (15 Nov. 1918). Rnt. in LXOJ Vol. 1. 311-6. Trans. Kirk A. Denton. Reniihlican China (Nov 1991V 89-97.

—. "Suiganlu 42" ES+Zl (Impromptu Reflections No. 42). 15 Jan. 1919. Rnt. in LXOJ Vol. 1. 327-8.

—. "Suiganlu 57: xianzai de tushazhe" (Impromptu reflections no. 57: the butchers of the present). Xin qingnian 6.5 (Mav 19191. Rpt. in LXOJ Vol. 1. 349. 288

"Suiganlu 58: renxinhengu" (Impromptu reflections no. 58: people's hearts are very ancient). Xin oingnian 6.5 (May 19191 Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 1. 350-2. Trans. LXSW Vol. 2. 45-7.

-. "Suiganlu 59: 'sheng wu'" - “MS” (Impromptu reflections no. 59: sagacious and martial). % n oingnian 6.5 (May 19191. Rnt in LXOJ VoL 1. 353-6.

—. "Tici" # # (Dedication). 1928. Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 3. 408.

—. "Tÿi"MI5 (Prefece). F e n # (The grave). 20 Nov. 1926. Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 1. 4-8.

—. "Tong xun" (Correspondence). 12 March 1925. Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 3. 21-8.

—. "T oufedegushi"##69% # (Story of hair). 10 Oct 1920. Rot in LXOJ Vol. 1. 459-64.

—. "Uchivama Kanzo zuo Hue Zhongguo de zitai xu" (Prefece to Uchiyama Kanzo's Expressions of Living China). Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 6. 267-9,

—. "Wangdao shihua" (The kingly way and talks on poetry). 6 March 1933. % t in LXOJ Vol. 5. 49-51.

—. "Wanghua" i- f b (Change to monarchy). Lunvu 18 (1 June 19331. Rnt in LXOJ VoL 5. 137-40.

—. "Wei you tiancai zhi qian" (Before there were no geniuses). Lecture given on 17 Jan. 1924. Trans. LXSW Vol. 2. 95-9. Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 1. 168-72.

—. "Wenhua pian zhi lun" (Aberrations in cultural development). Henan 7 (Aug. 1908). Rnt in Lu Xun zaooi wu nian lunwen zhuvi 7 7 (Notes and translations of Lu Xun's five early essays). Trans. Wang Shijing - Tianjin: Renmin, 1978. 96-138.

—. "Wo lai shuo 'chi zhong' de zhen xiang" “ Î# 4* ” 6^ (IH tell you about the true image of "maintaining the middle course"). 15 Dec. 1924. LXOJ Vol. 7. 54-5.

—. "Women xianzai zenyang zuo fuqin" (What is required of us as fathers today). Trans. LXSW Vol. 2. 56-71. Xin oingnian 6.6 (Nov. 1919). Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 1. 130-44.

—. "Wu sheng de Zhongguo" # ^ 0 9 4" ^ (Silent China). 23 March 1927. Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 4. 12-8.

—. "Xia san chong" (Three summer insects). 7 April 1925. Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 3. 39-40.

—. "Xu Maoyong zuo "Da za ji" xu" (Preface to Xu Mapyong's work, "Collected essays"). 5 May 1935. Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 6. 290-4.

—. "Xuyan" (Prefece). Jiwai ii (Addenda collection). Rnt. in LXOJ VoL 7. 4-8.

—. "Xipan" / ÿ # (Preface). Sanxianii = 8 1 # (Three leisure's). Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 4. 4-11.

—. "Ye zi zuo Feng shou xu" I f (Preface to Ye Zi's Abundant harvest!. 16 Nov. 1935. Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 220-3. 289

—. "Yi shi zhi xaeshuo"— (One such theoiy). 3 Nov. 1922. Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 1. 390-3.

—. "You shi 'guyi you zhi'" ” (Again it's "the ancient already had it"). 28 Sept 1924. Rpt in LXQJ Vol. 7. 222-5.

—. 'You Zhongguo nuien de jiao, tuiding Zhongguoren zhi fei zhongyong, you you ci tuiding Kongfuzi youweibing-'xuefei'paikaoguxuezhiyi" ’ XÈltb — (Deducing that Chinese are not of the Golden Mean from the feet of Chinese women, and from this deducing that Confucius had stomach trouble - an archeology of'scholar bandits'). Yusi 13 (March 16. 1933). Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 4. 500-6.

—. "Zalun guan xianshi, zuo xuewen, huise deng" ° (Miscellaneaon minding your own business, doing scholarship, the color gray, etc). 18 Jan. 1926. Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 3. 186-97.

—. "Zai lun leifengta de daodiao" (Once again on the collapse of Leifeng Pagoda). 23 Feb. 1925. Trans. LXSW Vol. 2. 113-8. Rot in LXOJ Vol. 1. 192-7.

—. "Zai tan baoliu" # # # @ (More mental reservations). Wei zivou shu# ^ 6 # (False freedom). 1933. Trans. LXSW. Vol. 3. 286-7. Rot in LXOJ. Vol. 5. 147-9.

—. "Zheige yu neige" (This and that). 8 Dec. 1925 - 20 Dec. 1925. Huazaiii# # # . Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 3. 138-47.

—. "Zheyang de zhanshi" (Such a fighter). Yusi 58 (21 Dec. 1925). Trans. LXSW. Vol. 1. 354-5. Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 2. 209-10.

—. "Zhi Tai Jingnong" S # # # (Letter to Tai Jingnong). 25 Sent 1927. Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 11. 572- 4.

—. "Zhi Wang Qiaonan " (Letter to Wang Qiaonan). 13 Oct 1930. Rpt. in LXOJ Vol. 12. 51-2.

—. "Zhi Wang Qiaonan" (Letter to Wang Qiaonan). 14 Nov. 1930. Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 12. 53.

—. "Zhi You Bingqi" (Letter to You Bingqi). 4 March 1936. Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 13. 706-7.

—. "Zhishi ji zui'e" (Knowledge is a sin [Crime]). 23 Oct. 1921. Trans. LXSW Vol. 2. 75-8. Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 1. 369-73.

—. "Zhongguo wentan de beiguan" (Pessimism of Chinese literary circles). 14 Aug. 1933. Rnt in LXOJ Vol. 5. 253-6.

—. Zhongguo xiaoshuo shi lue cjo ^ (A brief history of Chinese fiction). Rpt in LXOJ Vol. 9. 1-344.

—. "Ziti xiaoxiang" g # / | \ # (Personal inscription on photo). 1903. Jiwai ii shivi fè jg (A supplement to the addenda collection). 1938. Rpt. in LXOJ Vol. 7. 410. 290

—. "Zixtt Nahan" (Preface to Battle Crv). 21 August 1923. Rot, in LXOJ Vol. 1. 414- 20 .

—. '"Zui yan'zhong de menglong" « ” 4” (Mist in the "drunken eyes"). 12 March 1928. Rd L in LXOJ Vol. 4. 61-71.

—. "Zui yishu de guqjia" # # # 6 9 # ^ (The most artistic nation). Written 30 March 1933. Shehbao: ôyoutan(A piü2,1933). LXOJ Vol. 5. 87-90.

—. "Zuo guwen he zuo haoren de mijue" (The secret to writing ancient Chinese and being a good person). 26 April 1932. in LXOJ. Vol. 4. 267-72.

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M a E r # ^ . "A Q de shi yun zhuan le" psfQ T (Ah Q's luck has changed). 15 Jan. 1935. Rut, in Corpus Vol. 1. 1061-2.

Mao Dun ^ # . "Da Guotang xiansheng" (Reply to letter of Mr. Guotang). Xiaoshuo vuebao /l\g& R ^ (Fiction monthly) 13.2 (10 Feb. 1922): 5. Rot, in Corpus Vol. 1. 25.

—. "Da Yun Ming xiansheng" ^ A (Rq)]y to Mr. Yun Ming). 'Tong xin" (Letters). Xiaoshuo vudao/ l\ # 3 # (Fiction morrth^) 13.10 (Oct 1922): 3.

—. "Du Nahan" (Reading Nahan). Wenxue (8 Oct. 1923). Rut, in Corpus Vol. 1. 34-6.

— (Shen Yanbing [Fang Bi ]). "Lu Xun lun" (On Lu Xun ). 10 Nov. 1927. Rpt. in Corpus Vol. 1. 289-304.

—. "}Qaoshuovudaogaigexuairvan" BirS a~W (FictionMonthh^reformdeclarationl Xiaoshuo vudoo 12:1 (10 Jan. 1921). Rpt inMaoDun wenvilunü^ # 'T i@ # m # ((Collection of Mao Dun's discussions of literature). 2 vois. VoL 1. Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi, find date. 19-21.

—. "Ye shi 'Xiangdao shemne jiu shuo shenme'" » (It is also "saying whatever you think o f ). 30 May 1936. Rut in Corpus Vol. 1. 1390-1.

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OuçyangFanhai"PingIiangge'AQzhengzhuan'dejuben"^M fi (R'QIE#) (Critique of two adaptations of "The True Story of Ah Q"). 1 Aug. 1937. Rpt in Corpus Vol. 2. 838-42.

Pan Guangdan B.. "Renwen xuanzeyuZhonghuaininzu" (Human cultural selection and the Chinese race/nation). 1930. Renwen shengwuxne lun cons À '$ '4 = # # (Antholog)' of treatises on human cultural biology). Shanghai: Shangwu, ad. (1936?).

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QianXingcun . "Bian hou" (After editing). 1 March 1928. Rpt in Corpus Vol. 1. 331-2.

—. "Siqule de A Q shidai" T &tl P^Q (The bygone age of Ah Q). 1 March 1928. Rpt. in Corpus Vol. 1. 325-31. Trans. Paul Foster and Sherry Mon. Modem Chinese Literarv Thought: Writings on Literature. 1893-1945. Ed. Kirk A Dentorr Stanford: Stanford UP, 1996. 276-88.

—. "Siqule de Lu Xun" T % (The bygone Lu Xun). April 1928. Rnt in Corpus Vol. 1. 361- 3.

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Q inJiaqi^^i^ andLuXiexin#%^. "AQheTang Jihedexingxiangdebijiaoyanjiu" P^QfO^ ° (Comparativeresearch on the image of Ah Q and Don (Quixote). 1982. Rpt. in Corpus Vol. 5. 372-90.

Qing Jian "AQ shidai meiyou si" P^ Q (The age of Ah Q has not died). Yusi 4.24 (21 June 1928). Rpt in Corpus Vol. 1. 396-7.

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—. "Themes in Intellectual History: May Fourth and After." The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 12. 406-50. Cambridge: CarhbridgeUP, 1983.

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ShangY uej^^. "Suibi zhiyi" — (Anote). 30 Jan. 1927. Rpt in Corpus Vol. 1. 240-1.

ShaoBozhou "A 0 zhengzhuan" vaniiuzonghengtan (Wide- ranging discussions on Ah Q research). Shanghai: Shanghai weigd, 1989.

Shi Yi P — . "Lu Xun xiansheng zai chalou shang" (Mr. Lu Xun in the teahouse). July 1927. Rnt in Corpus Vol. 1. 253-4.

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Su Feng "Yi bian luo ye - guanyu Lu Xunxiansheng"— (A fallen leaf-regarding Mr. Lu Xun). 11/4/32. Rpt in Corpus Vol. 1. 713-4.

Su Xuelin # # # . '"A Q zhengzhuan'ji Lu Xun chuangzuo de yishu" “ P^Q jEf# ” S # S iÜ f^ 6 1 I # # ("The True Story of Ah Q" and Lu Xun's creative art). 5 Nov. 1934. Rpt in Corpus Vol. 1. 1035-44.

S u n F u y u an ^t^g (Zeng Qiushi #"%lcd:). "Guanyu Lu Xun xiansheng" (Regarding Mr. Lu Xun). 12 Jart 1924. Rpt. in Corpus Vol. 1. 43-4.

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Tai Jingnong . " X i ç ^ " (Prefece). Guanvu Lu Xun ii oi zhuzuo ISB (Regarding Lu Xun and his works). 20 June 1926. Rpt in Cornus Vol. 1. 167.

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Xiang Peiliang | % . "Weishemne tong Lu Xtm naode zheyang xiong?" M ? (Why are we so fiercely creating a scene with Lu Xun?). 30 Jan. 1927. Rpt. in Corous Vol. 1. 237-9. 294

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