A Reading History of Lu Xun's "Hometown": The Literary Space of Modern China

Author: (Japanese) Fujiwara Shozo
Translator: Dong Bingyue
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2002-06-01
Features: I entered the graduate program of the Department of Chinese Literature at Tokyo University in April 1976. During the specialized lectures by my mentors, Professor Maruyama Kaitaro and Professor Itō Toriomaru, my interest gradually focused on how British Romantic poet Lord Byron was accepted by figures such as Zhang Taiyan, Lu Xun, and Su Manshu, who had fled or studied in Tokyo at the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, I believed that the greatest challenge for China in the late Qing Dynasty was the formation of a nation-state, and literature was created as the driving force to achieve this goal. Two years later, I submitted a master's thesis titled "The Individual and the Nation" and entered the doctoral program. In September 1979, I went to China as a member of the Japan-China exchange student program and lived in Beijing and Shanghai for a year. During my studies, I had the opportunity to visit Mr. Zhou Haiyi, Professor Shan Yi, Professor Zhu Zheng, Professor Chen Shuyu, Dr. Hu Congjing, and Professor Wang Zilì, receiving guidance and meeting scholars who were then still graduate students or teaching assistants, such as Professor Qian Liqun, Professor Chen Fukang, Professor Chen Zishan, and Professor Chen Jianhua. Two years after returning to Japan, I joined the Department of Chinese Literature at Tokyo University as an assistant.
Dong Bingyue obtained his Ph.D. in Literature from the Faculty of Letters at Beijing University in 1998 with a thesis comparing Zhou Zuoren and Mushashi Kōjū. He is a sharp and promising researcher of modern Chinese literature, proficient in Japanese, and his translation will be excellent.
Fujiwara Shozo
April 5, 2002, Tokyo, Hongo
Editor's Note: This book is translated from the Japanese edition Lu Xun (Gujing) Xin Shu Shi—Modern Chinese Literary Space published by Japanese Kōdansha in November 1997. Considering the target readers of the translation, the author's consent was obtained to remove the Chronological Table Related to Gujing and the Index of Names and Organizations appended to the original book.
2. The footnotes in the original text have been converted into endnotes for the translation, listed after the main text for the convenience of readers. Unmarked notes are original notes. The original text references and quotes a large amount of Chinese material. In the translation, to preserve the completeness of the quoted text, some overly short omissions in the quotes have been restored.
3. Minor typographical errors or misplaced dates in the original text have been corrected. These changes were made with the author's consent and are not individually noted.
4. Most of the content related to the publication location, edition, and print run of language teaching materials in the Bibliography has been partially omitted in the translation.
Excerpt: When Lu Xun said that Chekhov "lacked depth of thought" and "was not as complex as others," he likely used Alesandr Pushkin (1878–1927), another Russian writer, as a reference. From 1920 to 1921, Lu Xun translated Pushkin's long novel The Worker, set in Russia after the 1905 Revolution and depicting socialist revolutionaries, among other works. Lu Xun's Translator's Preface was not only for Lianqiao but also for Zhengzhou, which was included in the same collection Modern Fiction Translation Series. Originally, Lianqiao was a work recalling youthful, ambiguous love and not directly related to "depth of thought" centered on revolution. Rather, Zhengzhou was a work, like The Worker, set in Russia after the 1905 Revolution and involving some intellectual themes. The plot of Zhengzhou is as follows: A revolutionary intellectual takes a boat down the Volga River, returning to his hometown after twenty years of separation. Strolling through the streets of his hometown, which has changed beyond recognition, he recalls his unforgettable youth and the revival of adolescent memories. After meeting his former friend, a newly appointed deputy chief of the police station, who was capable but suppressed the masses, he falls into disappointment. The plot of Zhengzhou is very similar to that of Gujing.
Combining this fact with the fact that translation and creation were carried out in the same year, it can be said that Lu Xun imitated Chekhov's Zhengzhou to create Gujing. However, Gujing is not a rewrite of Zhengzhou. Chekhov depicted the psychology of Russian intellectuals who, after the failure of the 1905 Revolution, easily escaped into nostalgia—nostalgia that included sweet youth and a hopeful past—when they found themselves in the dark political situation. In contrast, Lu Xun reconstructed the framework of Zhengzhou, thereby achieving a philosophical understanding of the spiritual world of Chinese intellectuals during the May Fourth period.