Second Lu Xun Literature Prize Winning Works Series. Theoretical and Critical Essays

Author: He Shaojun (Editor)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: The Lu Xun Literature Prize is a national high-level literary award, and its status among domestic writers is comparable to that of the Nobel Prize in Literature. The winning works of the Second Lu Xun Literature Prize National Outstanding Theoretical and Critical Award are: "Re-evaluating the May Fourth Cultural Revolution" by Chen Yong, "1903: The Surge of the Eve" by Cheng Wenchao, "12: Children of 1998" by He Yangyang, "Western: Literary Writing in Remote Provinces" by Han Zi Yong, and "The Modernity of Literary Theory" by Qian Zhongwen. In addition, this book also selects and compiles 8 works that participated in the final evaluation.
Editor's Note: A total of 110 works were recommended for evaluation by writers' associations, publishing houses, and newspapers, including 41 theoretical monographs and 69 individual papers. Under the chairmanship of Zhang Jiong, Vice President of the China Writers' Association and a renowned theorist, the selection committee met on August 8. The 10 committee members carefully reviewed 21 recommended works (monographs and papers) from the preliminary selection group. In accordance with the regulations, three committee members proposed additional works, and two more works were submitted. The committee conducted in-depth discussions on the 23 works that entered the final evaluation. Committee members generally felt that the works submitted for this year's evaluation were of high quality, reflecting the encouraging trend of steady improvement in theoretical and critical standards in recent years. On August 10, all 10 committee members participated in a vote. The process began with two rounds of preliminary votes, selecting 10 and 6 works, respectively. During the final vote on the 6 works, 4 reached the required two-thirds majority (7 or more votes). According to the voting agreement, if 5 works were not selected in the final vote, a supplementary vote could be held. The committee conducted another supplementary vote, and 1 work reached the required two-thirds majority. In the end, 5 works were confirmed as winning works by the committee. The committee believes that the selection process throughout was fair and just. Many committee members agreed that the works submitted for this year's final evaluation were generally of high quality, but due to limited slots, some equally outstanding works were not selected. To compensate for this oversight, we have specifically selected and compiled a number of works that participated in the final evaluation for this winning works collection.
From Literary News: He Shaojun, September 2, 2001
Excerpt: "1903: The Surge of the Eve" (Excerpt)
Wang Guowei: Another Intellectual Source of the 20th Century
Wang Guowei was another extraordinary figure at the beginning of the 20th century. His emergence seemed purely coincidental, yet it was a historical miracle of that era! In 1903, when Zhang Taiyan was reading Buddhist scriptures in prison and Su Manshu had just finished writing A World of Suffering before becoming a monk again, Wang Guowei was studying Schopenhauer under a lamp at the Tongzhou Normal School. The immediate result of Wang Guowei reading Schopenhauer was that he soon wrote A Review of the Dream of the Red Chamber. Looking beyond the specific achievements, we discover that it was from here that Wang Guowei pioneered another intellectual source of the 20th century. Yet this fact has been excluded from research and has never been discussed until now.
Narrating "Jade" as "Desire"
Wang Guowei believed that Dream of the Red Chamber used the story of desire to seek a path to liberation. To argue that Dream of the Red Chamber was about desire, one of his key justifications was that the character "Jade" in the name "Jia Baoyu" was a homophone for "desire" (yu): "What is called jade is merely a representation of the desire for life." This is clearly too forced. This weak justification made Wang Guowei's arguments based on an unstable foundation. Ye Jiaying, a Canadian-born Chinese scholar and expert on Wang Guowei, pointed out that "a clear error in A Review of the Dream of the Red Chamber is that he completely used the 'pain of the desire for life' and 'showing others the path to liberation' as the basis for his critique of Dream of the Red Chamber, even fabricating the name 'Jia Baoyu'." She argued: "This claim, when viewed from Dream of the Red Chamber itself, has many contradictions and inconsistencies." Because "Jia Baoyu in Dream of the Red Chamber is by no means a representation of 'desire'." And Wang Guowei equating "jade" with "desire" "falls into the common flaw of old Chinese literary criticism, which forces conclusions by comparing words." Modern Chinese literary history also points out that his arguments "are often forced." However, the issue can be considered from another angle. Wang Guowei was not an impulsive speaker. His other research, especially his studies of ancient Chinese characters, showed that he was a highly rigorous scholar. It can be said that Wang Guowei's academic achievements were closely tied to his rigorous scholarly attitude. Today, although we can still give A Review of the Dream of the Red Chamber several honors, such as being the first to introduce Western aesthetics to China, the first to use aesthetic methods to study classical masterpieces, and the first to systematically explore and evaluate the "spirit" and "aesthetic value" of Dream of the Red Chamber, representing a clear advancement over the previous old red school's, etc., we cannot say that A Review of the Dream of the Red Chamber made significant academic achievements in specific research on Dream of the Red Chamber. The greater value of A Review of the Dream of the Red Chamber lies in the fact that Wang Guowei used the topic to express what he wanted to say. For this reason, A Review of the Dream of the Red Chamber itself has become an excellent text through which we do not read Dream of the Red Chamber, but read Wang Guowei, read Wang Guowei's thoughts and ideas at that time, and through Wang Guowei, read the early 20th century, and even the 20th century.
First, we must enter Wang Guowei's problem. Desire, in Wang Guowei's view, is a life problem. Wang Guowei had an early fondness for philosophy, and his focus on life issues was a major reason for his interest in philosophy. In his youth, plagued by poverty and illness, he was troubled by life issues both materially and spiritually. In his pursuit of "new learning," he traveled widely. He joined the East Asian Literary Society founded by Luo Zhenyu but had to interrupt his studies due to a severe case of athlete's foot. In February 1902, he went to Japan for studies at the Tokyo Physics School. However, he only stayed there for about four or five months before his "athlete's foot worsened," forcing him to return to China for treatment as recommended by Luo Zhenyu. Wang Guowei recalled that at that time he was "frail in body and melancholic in nature," with life issues recurring in his thoughts. From then on, he resolved to pursue philosophy. It was under such circumstances that Schopenhauer entered his view. This "entry" opportunity seemed to be a coincidence. While studying at the East Asian Literary Society, the teachers were Japanese literature scholars Fujiwara Toyohachi and Takeda Sadayoshi. One day, Wang Guowei happened to see a passage in Takeda's writings that quoted Kant and Schopenhauer's philosophy, which he loved deeply and thus formed an unbreakable bond with Kant, Schopenhauer, especially Schopenhauer. He had originally thought that he would never have the opportunity to read the original German texts, but due to Schopenhauer's powerful appeal, he began studying German alongside English and Japanese, eventually able to read Schopenhauer with the help of reference books and by comparing them with Japanese translations. In 1902, after returning from Japan, Wang Guowei became an administrative staff member at Nanyang Public School through Luo Zhenyu's connection and was later recommended by Luo Zhenyu to become a teacher at Tongzhou Normal School. From Nanyang Public School, Wang Guowei began reading Schopenhauer and Kant. "Schopenhauer's works are profound in thought and sharp in writing," which had a powerful allure for him. He read them repeatedly, unable to put them down. The connection between Schopenhauer and Wang Guowei lay in the fact that Schopenhauer's theories resonated with Wang Guowei's perceptions and reflections on life. Wang Guowei was naturally a philosopher's mind. In that turbulent era of fluctuating thoughts and restless society, people's minds were ignited by some heated issues, but his thinkinged the superficial layers of politics and society, delving into the depths of life. The questions he raised were: What is the essence of life? It was in this questioning that he found resonance with Schopenhauer. He excitedly absorbed philosophical nourishment from Schopenhauer. Schopenhauer's views on desire, suffering, and liberation not only inspired him to grasp the essence of life but also provided him with concrete intellectual resources. A Review of the Dream of the Red Chamber begins with life. He believed that because humans are born and desire to live, it follows that humans