Chapter 70 On Lu Xun with Su Xuelin

On October 19, 1936, Lu Xun, the pioneer and founder of Chinese new literature, passed away in Shanghai.The people of the whole country were immediately immersed in deep and great sorrow.The people held a very solemn national funeral for Lu Xun, and his coffin was covered with the flag of "National Soul" in black on a white background.For the evaluation of Mr. Lu Xun, these three words may be more practical, nobler and more weighty than a paper of thousands of words.Lu Xun's great thought and spirit will forever radiate indelible brilliance in the history of the Chinese nation.

However, Su Xuelin, who was in Wuhan University at that time, wrote to Hu Shi not long after Lu Xun's death, announcing that he would "challenge the Lu Party" and viciously attacked Lu Xun.Like an uneducated shrew, she abused Lu Xun as "a cruel and vicious bureaucrat, an incomparably sinister, despicable and incomparably villain". ① Su also sent a draft of a letter she wrote to Mr. Cai Yuanpei to Hu Shi for his opinion.This letter complained and reprimanded Mr. Cai that he should not have participated in Mr. Lu Xun's funeral committee, presided over Lu Xun's funeral, and should not have been a member of the preparatory committee for Mr. Lu Xun's memorial committee.Among them, he openly attacked the Communist Party and left-wing culture, defended the Kuomintang government, and defended the modern critics criticized by Lu Xun as "honest men" and Hu Shi.And the attacks on Lu Xun are all-encompassing, such as "the waist has been tired for a long time", "the body has millions of property"; Shilin's scum in clothes, the 25th history of the scholar's biography is not a villainous villain"; even Lu Xun, who was under the oppression of the Kuomintang and "encircled and suppressed", was described as "when he occupied the Shanghai literary world, he was full of minions and cleverly set up "Snare", "The secret of Wenwang is better than Zhou Lai's prison, and the coolness of killing and hoeing is no less than the copying of melons and vines."All of these are nothing more than spreading rumors, slandering, and cursing, which are shameless despicable ways for literati with a little conscience. ②

In early December of this year, Hu Shi came back from the United States.When passing through Nanjing, I heard people talking about Su Xuelin's letter to Mr. Cai Yuanpei.After returning to Peiping, I picked up these two long letters from the Su family, read them carefully, and wrote a long reply letter.Hu Shi thought of Lu Xun's frequent criticism of him in the past ten years, and he was naturally very unhappy; especially when Lu Xun scolded him as a "military adviser of the Japanese imperialists" and "sold his soul" to the invaders, he felt a little aggrieved and indignant. ③Therefore, for Ms. Su's indignation, it also aroused sympathy and sympathy.But Hu Shi is a person who pays attention to personal cultivation.He felt that he should not attack the other party's private behavior, so he criticized Ms. Su's attitude of abusing Lu Xun in the letter.He wrote:

I sympathize with your outrage, but I don't think it is necessary to attack his private conduct.Lu Xun’s attack on us does not harm us at all. He is dead, so we can put aside all the details and focus on discussing what his thoughts are, how many times he has changed, what he believed in, and negation. What is there, some of which are valuable, and some of which are worthless.Criticism like this will surely produce results.As you said in Cai Gongshu's book, "I have been tired for a long time", "If you are sick, you go to the Japanese doctor, and if you are recuperating, you want to go to Kamakura",...all of which are not worth mentioning by my generation.As for the words and phrases in the book, such as "sincerely insulting the scum in the clothes of the scholars, the villainous villains that are not seen in the biography of scholars in the 25th history", they are too angry (the second half of the sentence is especially unspeakable), this is the bad tone of the old writing. , we should abstain from it deeply. ④

Not only did Hu Shi himself never publish any words attacking Lu Xun; even in this private letter, he only used the sentimental word "狺狺", and he focused on blaming Su for his "bad tone" and advised her to be objective. Fair people. Talking about Lu Xun, Hu Shi thought of Lu Xun's novel creation and novel history, which he had always admired, and also remembered the case of Chen Yuan accusing Lu Xun of plagiarizing Lu Xun's novel history as plagiarism. ⑤Although he recognized Lu Xun as an "enemy party", he felt that his argument should also be "equal", saying:

Anyone who talks about a person must always be equal.It is fair to love to know its evil, and to know its beauty when it is evil.Lu Xun has his own strengths.For example, his early literary works, such as his research on the history of novels, are all top-notch work.Tong Bo (press, that is, Chen Yuan) Mr. Zhang mistakenly believed the words of a villain, Zhang Fengju, saying that Lu Xun’s history of novels was plagiarized by On Shioya, which made Lu Xun never forget this hatred for the rest of his life! Today, Gong Sun’s literary history of Shioya On has been translated, and his book is I haven't seen Lu Xun's novels and I have studied previous works, and the textual research part is ridiculous.It is extremely unfair to say that Lu Xun copied Yan Guwen.

Regarding the Yangu case, we should clean up for Lu Xun.It would be best for Mr. Tong Bo to write a short article. This is a "gentleman's stinky airs", which is worth putting on.Such an argument can then convince the enemy party. ⑥ Generally speaking, private correspondence is more reflective of people's true thoughts and feelings.In this letter written by Hu Shi after Lu Xun's death, his criticism of Su Xuelin and his evaluation of Lu Xun are sincere, although they are based on the insights of official scholars.As a bourgeois scholar, his personal cultivation is indeed admirable.

For Mr. Hu Shi, Su Xuelin, who claims to be "received", even in this respect, he is not as far as his teacher.Although she also admitted that her letter to Mr. Cai Yuanpei was "as Mr. Hu Shizhi said, it was full of 'old literary bad accents'"; but she still insisted on her own opinion, published the letter in a magazine, and even angrily argued: " However, it is appropriate to criticize Lu Xun's crimes and ask yourself." Since it is a "bad tone", why is it appropriate? Later, Su fled to Taiwan Island and treated ancient literature, as if he was a scholar; The bad tone of the 1930s,⑦doesn’t it fail the teachings of Mr. Hu Shizhi!

① Su Xuelin sent a letter to Hu Shi on November 18, 1936, contained in "Hu Shi's Correspondence and Selected Letters", Beijing Zhonghua Book Company, May 1, 1979, volume 2, pp. 325-331. ② Letter from Su Xuelin to Cai Yuanpei, the first draft was written on November 12, 1936.On a draft letter to Hu Shih, Su Zi noted: "The text of this letter still needs to be modified, and it is also the first draft." (See pages 331 to 335 of the above letter.) The revised draft is published in the semi-monthly "Ben Tao" Volume 1, Volume 2 At the end of the letter, there is Su's postscript, which says: "This book was written in November last winter. Because I didn't know Mr. Cai's Shanghai Communications Office, I asked a certain Mr. Nanjing to forward it on my behalf. A certain Mr. said that the wording in the book was too straightforward, and he was afraid of hurting me." Mr. Cai's intention was that he had been suppressed for more than a month, and Mr. Cai was ill, so he sent a letter to persuade Yu to think carefully. Not long after Xi'an changed, Yu also completely forgot about Lu Xun, so this book has never entered Mr. Cai's eyes. This book is as it is. Mr. Hu Shizhi's words are mostly "bad accents of old literature", but it is still appropriate to criticize Lu Xun's crimes and ask himself, so the incomplete manuscript is published here, and we will save a public case from that day."

③ Lu Xun's criticisms of Hu Shi in his later years were correct and persuasive, while others were one-sided or incorrect.For example, in October 1931, Hu Shi was called to pay a visit to Jiang. Lu Xun once wrote an article "Knowing Difficulties and Doing Difficulties", linking Hu Shi's meeting with Chiang Kai-shek and seeing the deposed emperor Puyi, saying that one "calls the emperor" and the other "calls the chairman". There is vigilance and persuasion in humor.However, the article "The Secret of Selling Your Soul" in March 1933 denounced Hu Shih as "the military adviser of Japanese imperialism" and "sell your soul" to the aggressors, which is a completely out of context and wrong attack.This article was written by Qu Qiubai and published under Lu Xun's pseudonym. Although Lu Xun had read it, it was clearly a product of Qu's ideological and political ultra-left line. Naturally, it can be seen that Lu Xun was also somewhat influenced by Qu's thoughts. (Third Edition Note)

④ Hu Shi wrote a letter to Su Xuelin on December 14, 1936 (draft), contained in the second volume of "Hu Shi's Correspondence and Correspondence", p. 339. ⑤ Chen Yuan (Xi Ying) published "Gossip" in "Modern Review" Volume 2, Issue 50 (published on November 21, 1925), saying: "However, unfortunately, our Chinese critics are sometimes too ambitious. They stooped down, opened their eyes wide, and looked for the thief on the ground, so that they often turned a blind eye to the plagiarism of the whole book. Do you want to give an example? Let's not say it, I really dare not offend the "thinking circle" authority'." See "Xiying Gossip", Shanghai Xinyue Bookstore, February 3rd Edition, 1931, p. 210. Later, Chen Yuan said in "Zhi Zhimo": "He often ridicules other people's plagiarism. A student copied a few lines of Moruo's poems, and his old man scolded him heartily. But his own is just According to the "Novel" part of the "Introduction to Chinese Literature Speech" by On Shioya, a Japanese. In fact, you can be forgiven for using other people's writings as your own blueprint. As long as you have such a statement in your book. But Mr. Lu Xun did not. In our opinion, it’s fine if you have done something improper yourself. Why bother to ridicule a poor student, but he still tries to be mean to him. "Those who steal the hook will be punished, and those who steal the country will be honored." It has been the truth since ancient times." Contained in the "Morning News Supplement" on January 30, 1926.Lu Xun wrote "Not a Letter" to refute it.See, "The Complete Works of Lu Xun", Beijing People's Literature Publishing House, 1981 edition, Volume 3, pages 229-230. ⑥ same note as ④. ⑦ Su Xuelin’s letter to Cai Yuanpei, published in February 1937 in the second issue of Volume 1 of the semi-monthly "Ben Tao", entitled "On Lu Xun's Books with Mr. Cai Zimin". Change, there is still more than that.After fleeing to Taiwan Island, she published another book "On Lu Xun" to continue her anti-Lu cause.