"Out-of-Court 'Trial' of Yu Qiuyu"

Author: Gu Yuanqing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Cultural celebrity Yu Qiujiu has been feuding with Gu Yuanqing ever since he sued him. Although the legal verdict in their dispute has been reached, few people know the details. This book records the "boxing match" between these two renowned scholars in a Shanghai court. Author Gu Yuanqing states, "I am not afraid of Yu Qiujiu suing me again, as the evidence I have listed in the book is very substantial." Although the book is newly published, it is clear that it is based on old news, and the new attacks do not have any "fatal blows." It is reported that Gu Yuanqing hopes Yu Qiujiu will "take the bait."
Excerpt: What Can Save You—The Cultural Merchant Yu Qiujiu (1) The reasons why Yu Qiujiu's "series of lawsuits" have completely failed are as follows:
First, poor legal knowledge. Yu Qiujiu sued the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Publishing Company, claiming that three articles signed by journalists were his own works. It seems he did not even understand what copyright is, and thus the court dismissed the case. He sued me, claiming that my use of the word "sly" in quotation marks constituted severe libel, which introduced grammatical and rhetorical knowledge into the court and became a laughingstock when the word was valued at 160,000 yuan. He also sued me for praising his academic achievements in the past, which was legally unfounded. He sued Xiao Xialin because of his lack of jurisdictional knowledge, sending the complaint to the wrong court, and made a fool of himself. Yu Qiujiu always sues others on the grounds of infringing on their reputation, but he fundamentally does not understand that damaged reputation cannot be replaced by personal feelings with social evaluation. Because he does not understand this, the three lawsuits he fought never presented evidence of his reputation being damaged to the court. Even if he understood this, he would likely not be able to provide such evidence. Look, I pointed out that he participated in the Shanghai Writing Group controlled by the "Gang of Four," and Xiao Xialin said that Yu Qiujiu's fame for Shenzhen was due to a quid pro quo for benefits. His reputation was not damaged as a result. He is still publishing books, collecting royalties, appearing on TV, and serving as an "image ambassador," and even if he is chosen as a judge for the Jiangnan Beauty Contest, people will not forget to ask him to participate. How has his reputation been damaged?
Yu Qiujiu's severe lack of legal knowledge is also reflected in his tendency to portray himself as a "sacred messenger who upholds the dignity of the law and the dignity of culture" when he sues. The implication is that if he loses or draws in the lawsuit, the dignity of the law and culture will be completely lost! As netizen Bu Mang said, "But wait, is the dignity of the law maintained by the plaintiff? It is clearly the duty of the judge, what right does Professor Yu have to claim it for himself?"
Second, his motives for suing others are impure. Yu Qiujiu sued me, trying to intimidate me and even all "Cultural Revolution" literature researchers from discussing his "Cultural Revolution" issues, or else he would threaten to bankrupt me or even put me in jail. This is a typical act of retaliation. He sued Xiao Xialin not simply to prove that he had not accepted a luxurious villa, but because Xiao Xialin edited a critical anthology of him titled "Autumn Wind and Rain Sorrow—About Yu Qiujiu." Let us hear Marx's view, who believed that demanding punishment for the accused was an "illegal act." Yu Qiujiu's lawsuits are an attempt to demand punishment for those with different opinions. Marx also said, "If the government prohibits the publication of any 'insulting or personal attacks,' it 'deprives the possibility of supervising any officials (public figures as well) in any way.'" If there is a scandal about a public figure, the public figure should be investigated, not the public figure suing others" (He Jiadong). Yu Qiujiu does not understand and cannot understand this, so he had to spend years thinking about how to find a flaw in a sentence in someone else's article and use it as a starting point. He thought this was clever, but it ended up harming himself, gloriously "sacrificing" himself on the "legal journey." The court's ruling that he lost the lawsuit is the best proof.
Another motive for Yu Qiujiu's lawsuits is to use legal means to create cultural rumors and hype himself. He always wants to be in the news and remain the focus of global Chinese-language media. However, his academic work has become worse day by day, and his books are of increasingly low quality. Suing has just provided him with free advertising for his "watered-down" new book. With such a nearly supernatural method of fighting lawsuits, how could he not lose?
Third, intimidation failed to achieve its goal. In my case, I did not stop researching and critiquing Yu Qiujiu because he sued me. Instead, after the lawsuit concluded, I continued to deeply analyze Yu Qiujiu's unhealthy cultural personality through writing and publishing. Xiao Xialin remained unchanged in his intentions and wrote numerous articles criticizing the "cultural terrorist" he saw in Yu Qiujiu. In the lead-up to and aftermath of the lawsuit, Xiao Kaiwei edited a book titled "Confession or No Confession," which included an album titled "Siege Yu Qiujiu." Xiao Xialin also edited a book titled "Enemies of Yu Qiujiu." Additionally, a new critic of Yu Qiujiu, Pandora, emerged. His recent articles, "Is Yu Qiujiu a Delusional Person?" and "Can Yu Qiujiu Be 'Freely Insulted'?" have been widely circulated. Especially noteworthy is the rising Shanghai dictionary expert Jin Wenming, who "gnawed" at Yu Qiujiu with his gold teeth, picking out over a hundred historical and literary errors in Yu Qiujiu's cultural prose and exposing his plagiarism. As a result, Yu Qiujiu could not sue him and had to resort to lamenting his "weakness" and "what can I do" in overseas media, losing the ability to respond to his opponent.
Fourth, he plays with the law, treating it as a game. Yu Qiujiu said in Singapore that suing me was "deliberately making a big deal," and from this "deliberation," it can be seen that he is playing with the law. Due to this attitude of treating life as a game, not only are there countless historical and literary errors in his prose, but even his over-1,000-word complaint is full of typos. For example, when he sued Xiao Xialin, the complaint had many typos: he misspelled Xiao's witness "Li Ming" as "Li Ming," wrote "faking" as "faking," and misspelled "continuous" as "continuous." If he had made a few typos, it might be forgivable, but he kept making mistakes, which shows his eagerness to sue and his lack of basic writing skills. A "cultural master" like him making so many typos in a complaint is clearly not respecting the law but instead mocking the court and ignoring the authority of the law.
Fifth, public opinion is very unfavorable to him. If you search online, it is difficult to find a high-profile author supporting Yu Qiujiu's lawsuits. It is worth noting that those who previously supported Yu Qiujiu and criticized Yu Jie have remained silent this time. Some, like Professor Hao Yu of Shanghai University, have shifted from supporting Yu Qiujiu to supporting the defendant. This means that in the battle of public opinion, Yu Qiujiu has completely lost. He himself felt this too. In "Borrowing a Lifetime," he lamented, "We can't beat them."
A typical example is a professor from the Department of Chinese at Peking University who wrote "Counterfeiting within the Authentic," denouncing the work of Liu Dong, Yu Qiujiu's former graduate student, as "plagiarism" and this behavior is even more deceptive than Wang Mingming, a fraud in academia (see "China Reading News" on August 21, 2002). If he had not fought this lawsuit, such fierce and sharp critiques would not have been "provoked" and the spectacular scene of "a court trial outside the court for Yu Qiujiu" would not have emerged. Truly, with today's situation, why did he start it in the first place!