Talk about myself: Wang Furén's Selected Academic Essays

Author: Wang Furén
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-04-01
Features: In the eyes of theorists, "academic essays" are considered quite significant. However, in the author's view, "academic essays" are merely a genre that scholars use to engage with the socio-cultural realm for survival. The author states that these essays were written merely for a little extra income to buy cigarettes or books, yet these writings, like scattered brocade and pieces of jade, convey the author's free thinking. The book is titled "Talking About Myself" because the author places himself within the historical coordinates to examine issues. Starting from his personal experiences, he discusses himself, his era, the literature of his time, Lu Xun, the May Fourth Movement, profound reflections on Chinese culture, and deep insights—all of which are deeply moving and authentic.
Excerpt: Me and the May Fourth Movement / Wang Furén
I learned about the May Fourth Movement through Lu Xun, and I learned about Lu Xun through the May Fourth Movement. The earliest I encountered the term "May Fourth" was in my primary and secondary school textbooks, which described the May Fourth student movement of 1919. For some reason, I don’t have a strong impression of this "May Fourth," and it didn’t seem to have a significant impact on me. I grew up in the countryside and was naturally timid and cautious. From primary school to university, I rarely participated in student movements, whether positive or negative. My deep impression of the May Fourth Movement came after reading Lu Xun’s works in high school. That’s when I realized there was more to the May Fourth Movement than just the 1919 student uprising—it was also the May Fourth New Culture Movement, which actually began in 1917, not on May 4th. I found it strange that people called it the May Fourth New Culture Movement, but it was precisely this "May Fourth" that didn’t fit the name that had such a profound and far-reaching influence on me. At the time, after reading Lu Xun and liking him, I also grew to like the May Fourth Movement. I thought, "The May Fourth Movement gave China Lu Xun, and Lu Xun wrote works like these—clearly, the May Fourth Movement was truly great."
Why do I like Lu Xun? As mentioned earlier, I grew up in the countryside. In the countryside, there are few people, and relationships are simple. The elders taught me Confucian rituals and laws. Later, after reading The Analects and Mencius, I realized that I had already understood most of their principles without even reading them—that was learned from my life in the countryside, from the elders setting an example for me. But when I moved to the city and encountered more people and knew more things, I found it hard to keep up. I was weak and small then, unable to fight back in conflicts, and had no way to deal with setbacks. I always felt that the world was a bit chaotic, and many people in it were too. It wasn’t like the elders, teachers, or leaders made it seem. At that time, I desperately wanted to understand people better and grasp things more deeply. I had read other books and often heard teachers and leaders talk about the of being a good person, but it always felt disconnected, like a. It wasn’t until I read Lu Xun’s essays that my mind became clearer. From then on, I learned how to observe people, how to understand them, and what people would say or do in different situations. In the past, society, life, and even myself—things I couldn’t easily control—were a heavy burden on me. After reading Lu Xun, I realized that although the world was absurd, it wasn’t without interest; and although I was small, I wasn’t entirely useless. This gave me a sense of purpose and the courage to be a person.
In my life, I’ve experienced many hardships, but they haven’t completely crushed me. The more difficult the situation, the more the world performs before me, and the more interesting things I see. I also become clearer about the path I need to take, and my courage to be a person grows. I believe this is the spirit reflected in Lu Xun’s essays. That’s why I’m grateful to him. He taught me how to live and be a person in this complex modern world.
At the time, I didn’t read Lu Xun with the intention of becoming a writer or a professor. It wasn’t until after the Cultural Revolution that I became a graduate student and began studying Lu Xun and modern literature. That’s when I learned more about the May Fourth New Culture Movement. Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, Zhou Zuoren, Li Dazhao, New Youth, New Tide, vernacular poetry, modern fiction, traditional culture, foreign culture, humanism, individual liberation, and so on. But I still understood all these things through Lu Xun’s perspective. Their demands for freedom, democracy, science, reform and opening up, cultural revolution, and literary revolution seemed natural to me. In Confucius’s time, as long as the emperor’s rule was maintained and officials didn’t act corruptly, everything was fine. If officials could hold onto their positions, the people would have a peaceful life. But our society today is different. Modern society depends on the collective efforts of everyone. How can people live without freedom? How can politics be undemocratic? How can we ignore science? How can we lack a basic understanding of the world? The world has changed, and people’s ideas must change too. If people’s ideas change, culture and literature must change as well. What’s to fear about cultural revolution or literary revolution? The only ones to fear are those who already have privileges. What do we ordinary people have to fear?
Even now, many people dislike the May Fourth Movement and Lu Xun. I think they’re not thinking about how Chinese people can survive and thrive in the modern world. They’re thinking about other things. Of course, the May Fourth Movement didn’t solve everything for us, and Lu Xun didn’t tell us everything either. If people back then had solved everything for us, what would be left for us to do? They raised the ideas of freedom, democracy, and science, things modern Chinese people need to pursue. As long as we recognize that these are things we must have, the May Fourth Movement is very important to us. Confucius didn’t tell us this, Han Yu didn’t, and Zhu Xi didn’t either. It was the May Fourth Movement that taught us this. I think that’s enough. As for how to achieve these goals, when to achieve them, what difficulties might lie ahead, whether we’ll take detours, or make sacrifices—these are things for us, the later generations, to think about. This is the May Fourth Movement in my eyes.
April 14, 1999, Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University