Wu Zhongjie comments on Lu Xun's letters

Author: Wu Zhongjie (Compiler)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-06-01
Features: The author believes that while Lu Xun's letters contain some routine content, they should absolutely not be dismissed as trivial domestic records. Reading these letters "allows us to gain a detailed understanding of Lu Xun's thoughts and mindset, which is very beneficial for understanding him and evaluating his works." "If we read Lu Xun's letters alongside his novels and essays, we can also see how life inspired him and how it further shaped the themes of his works." Therefore, the author carefully selected from the existing 1,455 letters those that best reflect Lu Xun's thoughts, character, and the "sensitive, passionate, persistent, and earnest" aspects of his personality. With his accumulated professional expertise, especially his profound understanding of human nature and the world, he provides annotations to these genuine confessions—"which are both his flaws and his strengths"—and thus brought him "endless suffering but also continuous literary inspiration." If his true intentions were not fully expressed elsewhere, they were laid bare in the exchanges of his letters, and these are what Professor Wu refused to overlook. Even if, for various reasons, some of them had been altered or edited by the author himself or others, he still included the original text to preserve historical facts. This allows us to gain a more authentic and comprehensive understanding of Lu Xun, a "rounded" rather than "flat" and vivid great figure.