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2. The Illegitimate Preface
- University of Hawai'i Press
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37 2 The Illegitimate Preface When writing meets with persecution, And protest at the world only annoys, Enough abuse will pulverize the bones, And leave behind a pointless, paper noise. Poem inscribed by Lu Xun on a copy of Call to Arms1 In “Liberation of the Preface”(Xu de jiefang,1933),Lu Xun in his typical satirical manner pokes fun at his contemporary men of letters.2 Alluding to the commercial transactions that formed the economic backbone of Shanghai’s foreign concessions, he portrays certain types of writers as literary “compradors,” skilled more in the arts of self-advertising than in literary practice. While intellectuals deployed slogans such as the “liberation of poetry” (shi de jiefang) and “liberation of the lyric” (ci de jiefang) to advocate for new forms of writing unfettered by onerous classical language and conventions, Lu Xun held a more cynical view: in his eyes, attempts to “liberate” a genre of writing were more often than not associated with schemes in shameless self-promotion. Lu Xun points to Zeng Jinke’s (1901–1971) collected poems, Two Stars (Liang ke xing, 1933), as an example of the “liberties” writers take with traditional conventions.The writing of prefaces, either by the author himself or by another, is an established literary practice. The preface to Two Stars illustrates how literary conventions were being manipulated to meet new market demands. In a published dispute, Cui Wanqiu (1904–1990), whose name is attached to the highly laudatory preface to Two Stars, stated that he did not in fact write the preface in question. Zeng Jinke’s rebuttal was to place a notice in Shenbao explaining that the preface consisted of “quotes” extracted from letters written by Cui Wanqiu to the poet himself.3 Since conventional prefaces could not meet 38 Chapter 2 the commercial imperatives of the new age, Lu Xun suggests that the poet Zeng Jinke had no choice but to “liberate” his preface and raise his own literary cachet by means of this ingenious act.4 As sardonic and facetious as the tone of the essay might appear, Lu Xun’s contempt for writers who capitulated to market-driven imperatives nevertheless betrays a modicum of anxiety on his part. His disillusion with the current state of literary affairs was accompanied by a very palpable sense of nostalgia for a golden age of writing.In a lament he repeats twice, both at the beginning and end of his essay on prefaces, he invokes the words of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian (145–86? BCE): “Writing a book, ‘hiding it in a famous mountain and transmitting it to others,’ is something that happened in the feudal age, that era has long gone.”5 Citing Sima Qian in “Liberation of the Preface” was hardly coincidental ; the Grand Historian has been widely regarded as the originator of the convention of preface writing.The original source of the phrase is also significant. “Hiding it in a famous mountain and transmitting it to others ”is derived from the Gongyang commentary of the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu zuozhuan),which concludes that Confucius “established the [principles of] righteousness in the Annals to await later sages and so that gentlemen might also take pleasure in them.”6 Invoking the name of the Grand Historian and tracing a line of descent back to Confucius were familiar gestures in literati culture for legitimating one’s authority . Yet this gesture seems somewhat peculiar given the antitraditional sensibilities of the New Culture movement, especially from a writer later canonized as “the father of modern Chinese literature.”What purpose is served in invoking the name of Sima Qian? This chapter examines Lu Xun’s engagement with the classical convention of preface writing and his uneasy relationship with its progenitor, Sima Qian. Common characterizations of Lu Xun as a radical iconoclast overlook his intimate connections with traditional literati culture and aesthetics.7 In spite of the seemingly dismissive reference to Sima Qian’s era as “the feudal age,” strands of that “feudal” culture nonetheless continued to structure Lu Xun’s worldview and informed his sensibilities as a writer. Indeed, his reconstruction of writing in Sima Qian’s time—as a moral endeavor approached with solemnity, sincerity, and a sense of its grand mission—anchored Lu Xun’s own undertaking in the chaotic atmosphere of his time.Identifying with literati figures from the past may have given him a means of making sense of his predicament as a modern [54.205.243.115] Project MUSE...