Chapter 2 "Wild Grass" epigraph

When I am silent, I feel full; when I speak, I feel empty. Past lives are dead.I rejoice in this death, for by this I know that it lived.Dead life has decayed.I rejoice in this decay, for I know by it that it is not yet empty. The mud of life is abandoned on the ground, and no trees grow, only wild grass. This is my sin. Wild grass strikes no deep roots, has no beautiful flowers and leaves, yet it imbibes dew, water and the blood and flesh of the dead, although all try to rob it of life.As long as it lives it is trampled upon and mown down, until it dies and decays. But I am frank and glad.I will laugh and I will sing.

I love my weeds, but I detest the ground decked with weeds. The ground fire runs underground, rushing; once the lava erupts, it will burn all the weeds and trees, so there is nothing left to decay. But I am frank and glad.I will laugh and I will sing. The world is so still, I can't laugh and sing.If heaven and earth were not so serene, perhaps I would not be able to either. I use this clump of wild grass to testify before friends and foes, man and beast, those whom I love and those who do not love, at the time of light and darkness, life and death, past and future. For my own sake, for the sake of friend and foe, man and beast, those whom I love and those whom I do not love, I hope that the decay of this wild grass will come quickly.Otherwise, it means I have not lived, and this would be truly more lamentable than death and decay.

Go, wild grass, with my inscription! April 26, 1927 Lu Xun's Notes on the Baiyun Tower in Guangzhou