Chapter 23 silent china

——Speaking at the Hong Kong Youth Association [2] on February 16. With such a boring speech that I have nothing to listen to, and in such a heavy rain, there are so many gentlemen who come to listen. First of all, I should declare that I am Solemn thanks. The title of my talk now is: "Silent China". Now Zhejiang and Shaanxi are at war. [3] Whether the people there are crying or laughing, we don't know.Hong Kong seems to be very peaceful, and no one knows whether the Chinese living here are comfortable or not. To express one's thoughts and feelings to everyone is to use articles, but using articles to express ideas is still not possible for ordinary Chinese people.This is no wonder to us; because the characters are, first of all, the terrible heritage left to us by our ancestors.People have worked hard for many years, but it is still difficult to use.Because it is so difficult, many people ignore it, and they can't even write their surname clearly whether it is Zhang or Zhang, or they can't write it at all, or they say: Chang.Although it can speak, only a few people hear it, but people in the distance don't know it, and the result is equal to silence.And because it is difficult, some people treat it as a treasure, as if playing a trick. In other words, only a few people understand it—in fact, they really understand it if they don’t know it, but most people don’t understand it, and the result is nothing.

The first difference between civilized people and barbarians is that civilized people have writing, and can convey their thoughts and feelings to the public and to the future.Although China has writing, it is irrelevant to everyone now. It uses difficult and ancient Chinese, and speaks outdated ancient meanings. All the sounds are from the past, and they are all equal to zero.Therefore, everyone cannot understand each other, just like a big plate of loose sand. It may be interesting to treat articles as antiques, so as not to make people understand, but to make people understand.But what happened?It's that we can no longer say what we want to say.We have been hurt and insulted, and we are always unable to say what we should say.Take recent events, such as the Sino-Japanese War, [4] the boxer incident, and the Yuan Revolution. Until now, have we had a decent book?Since the Republic of China, no one has said anything.On the contrary, in foreign countries, there are often people talking about China, but those are not the voices of the Chinese themselves, but the voices of others.

This inability to speak was not so severe in the Ming Dynasty; they were relatively able to say what they wanted to say.When the Manchurians invaded China with alien races, those who talked about history, especially those who talked about the end of the Song Dynasty, were killed, and naturally those who talked about current affairs were also killed.Therefore, during the Qianlong period, the people were even more afraid to use articles to speak. 〔5〕The so-called scholars have no choice but to read scriptures in hiding, to publish ancient books in school, and to write some ancient articles, articles that have nothing to do with the time.Some new ideas are still not enough; either learn from Han, or learn from Su.Han Yu, Su Shi[6] and others used their own articles to say what they wanted to say at the time, of course it is all right.We are not from the Tang and Song Dynasties, so how do we write articles that have nothing to do with us?Even if it is done like it, it is the voice of the Tang and Song Dynasties, the voice of Han Yu and Su Shi, not our modern voice.However, until now, the Chinese are still playing this old trick.There are people, but there is no sound, and it is very lonely. ——Do people have no voice?No, so to speak, dead.To put it mildly, it would be: already dumb.

It is not easy to restore China that has been silent for many years, just like ordering a dead human: "You come back to life!" Although I don't understand religion, I think it is like wanting a so-called "miracle" in religion. The first to try this work was the "Literary Revolution" advocated by Mr. Hu Shizhi in the year before the "May 4th Movement" [7]. The word "revolution" is scary if you don't know it here, and in some places you are afraid as soon as you hear it.However, this "revolution" combined with the word "literature" is not as terrible as the "revolution" of the French Revolution[8]. In Chinese characters, there are many such tricks.The general idea is not terrible, but it is just saying: We don't have to go to great lengths to learn the words of the dead in ancient times, but the words of the living people in the present; don't treat articles as antiques, and make articles in vernacular that are easy to understand.However, literary innovation alone is not enough, because corrupting ideas can be done in ancient Chinese as well as in vernacular.So later some people advocated ideological innovation.The result of ideological innovation is the emergence of social innovation movements.As soon as this movement occurs, there will naturally be a reaction on the one hand, and then a battle will ensue....

However, in China, as soon as literary innovation was mentioned, there was a reaction.However, vernacular Chinese has gradually become popular without much hindrance.so, what happened?It was because at that time Mr. Qian Xuantong advocated the abolition of Chinese characters and the replacement of them with Roman letters [9].This was nothing more than a literary innovation, which was very common, but it would be a big deal if it was heard by Chinese who did not like reform, so they let go of the relatively peaceful literary revolution and tried their best to scold Qian Xuantong.Taking advantage of this opportunity, the vernacular actually lost many enemies and became popular without hindrance.

The Chinese temperament always likes to reconcile and compromise.For example, if you say that this room is too dark and you need to open a window here, everyone will definitely not allow it.But if you advocate removing the roof, they will come to mediate and are willing to open the windows.Without more drastic proposals, they are always unwilling to implement even peaceful reforms.At that time, the vernacular became popular because there was talk of abolishing Chinese characters and using the Roman alphabet. In fact, the discussion on the merits and demerits of classical Chinese and vernacular should have passed away long ago, but China is always unwilling to settle it early, and there are still many unnecessary discussions.For example, some people say that the ancient Chinese can be understood by people in all provinces, but the vernacular is different in different places, and on the contrary, they cannot understand each other.Little do they know that as long as education is popularized and transportation is developed, then everyone will be able to understand the relatively easy-to-understand vernacular Chinese; as for ancient Chinese, it is true that everyone in every province can understand it, even in a province, not many people understand it.Some said: If vernacular is used, people will not be able to read ancient books, and Chinese culture will perish.In fact, people nowadays don’t need to read ancient books. Even if there are really good things in ancient books, they can be translated in vernacular, so there is no need to be so frightened.Some of them said that foreign countries even translate Chinese books, which is good enough, why don't we read them ourselves?Little do they know that foreigners also translate Egyptian ancient books, and African black myths, but they have ulterior motives.Recently, there is a saying that ideological innovation is more important than writing reform, so it is better to use plain classical Chinese to write articles on new ideas, which can save one objection.This also seems reasonable.Yet we know that a man who will not even cut off his long nails will never cut off his braid.

Because we are talking ancient words, words that people don't understand and don't hear, it has become like a mess of loose sand, and the pain and pain are irrelevant.If we want to come alive, the young people must stop talking about Confucius, Mencius and Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan[10].The times are different, and the situation is also different. Hong Kong was not like this in the time of Confucius. The "Hong Kong Theory" in Confucius's tone is impossible to start. We want to speak modern, our own words; express our thoughts and feelings frankly with living vernacular.However, this is also subject to the criticism of Mr. Senior.They say that the vernacular is mean and worthless; they say that the works of young people are childish and laughable.How many of us in China can speak classical Chinese, and the rest can only speak vernacular. Could it be that these many Chinese people are all despicable and worthless?As for childishness, there is nothing to be ashamed of, just as children have nothing to be ashamed of when they are old.Childishness will grow and mature, as long as it doesn't get old and corrupt, that's fine.If it is said that you can't do it until you are proficient, even a village woman would not be so stupid.Even if her child learns to walk and falls down, she will never let the child lie on the bed until he learns how to walk before coming down to the ground.

Young people can first turn China into a sound China.Speak boldly, proceed bravely, forget all interests, push away the ancients, and express your sincere words. ——Really, of course it is not easy.For example, attitude is not easy to be true. When I give a speech, it is not my true attitude, because my attitude is not the same when I talk to friends and children. ——But you can always say something real and make some real voices.Only a real voice can move people in China and the world; only with a real voice can we live in the world with people from all over the world. Let us try to imagine the ethnic groups that have no voice now.Can we hear the voice of the Egyptians?Can you hear the voice of Annan and North Korea?Apart from Tagore [11], are there other voices in India?

From now on, we really have only two paths: one is to die with the ancient prose, and the other is to live without the ancient prose. BB [1] This article was originally published in a Hong Kong newspaper (the name and date of the newspaper are unknown), and was reprinted in the supplement of "Central Daily" in Hankou on March 23, 1927.According to "Lu Xun Diary", this speech was made on February 18th. 〔2〕The YMCA is the YMCA, one of the Christian organizations that carry out social and cultural activities. [3] The war in Zhejiang and Shaanxi referred to here refers to the Beiyang warlord Sun Chuanfang’s attack in Zhejiang from the end of 1926 to the beginning of 1927 on the ministries of Chen Yi, Zhou Fengqi and others who were connected with the Nationalist Government in Guangzhou, and on December 1926. In July, the National Army under Feng Yuxiang fought against the Beiyang warlord Wu Peifu in Shaanxi.

[4] The Sino-Japanese War refers to the war caused by the Japanese militarism's invasion of China in 1894 (1894-1894).The boxer incident refers to the struggle of the Boxers against imperialist aggression in 1900.The Minyuan Revolution was the democratic revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen in 1911 (1911) to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and establish the Republic of China. 〔5〕Refers to the literary prisons that the rulers imposed on the Han people many times in the early Qing Dynasty. Among them, the more famous ones are the "Zhuang Tingyi Prison" and "Dai Mingshi Prison" in the Kangxi period, and the "Lv Liuliang Zengjing Prison" in the Yongzheng period. "Hu Zhongzao Prison" during the Qianlong period, etc.These literary inquisitions were all caused by the fact that their works recorded the fact that the Han people resisted national oppression in history (especially in the late Song and Ming Dynasties), or involved some political events at that time, so they were persecuted and massacred. 〔6〕Han Yu (768-824), courtesy name Tuizhi, was born in Heyang (now Meng County, Henan Province), a writer of Tang Dynasty, and author of "Han Changli Collection".Su Shi (1037-1101), courtesy name Zizhan, nicknamed Dongpo Jushi, was born in Meishan (now Sichuan), a writer of the Song Dynasty, and author of "The Complete Works of Dongpo" and so on. [7] Hu Shizhi (1891-1962) was born in Jixi, Anhui Province.During the "May 4th" period, he was a representative figure of the right wing of the New Culture Movement.The term "literary revolution" he advocates here refers to his article "On the Literary Revolution of Construction" published in the fourth volume of the "New Youth" magazine, No. 4 (April 1918).

[8] The French Revolution refers to the French bourgeois revolution from 1789 to 1794.This revolution destroyed the French feudal autocracy, promoted the development of French capitalism, and promoted revolutions in European countries. [9] Qian Xuantong (1887-1939) was born in Wuxing, Zhejiang, a philologist, and an active participant in the New Culture Movement during the "May 4th" period.In January 1918, in the article "On the Phonetic Alphabet" of Volume 4, No. 1 of "New Youth", he stated that "advanced dictionaries and advanced books above middle school should use Roman letters for phonetic notation"; in the same year In the "Correspondence" of "New Youth" Volume 4, No. 4 "China's Future Writing Issues", it was proposed to "abolish Chinese" and replace it with Esperanto. 〔10〕Confucius (551-479 BC), named Qiu and styled Zhongni, was born in Zouyi (now Qufu, Shandong) in the state of Lu at the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, and was the founder of the Confucian school.His main words and deeds are recorded in a book.Mencius (about 372-289 BC), named Ke, styled Ziyu, was born in Zou (now Zou County, Shandong Province) in the middle of the Warring States period, and was a representative of Confucianism after Confucius.His important words and deeds are recorded in the book "Mencius".Liu Zongyuan (773-819), styled Zihou, was born in Hedong (now Yuncheng, Shanxi). He was a writer of the Tang Dynasty and wrote "Liuhedong Collection" and so on. 〔11〕 Tagore (RATagore, 1861-1941) Indian poet, Zhong Xing*, and novels, etc.