Selected Essays of Lu Xun

Author: Lu Xun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-02-01
Features: MY VIEW ON CHASTITY
"Theworldisgoingtothedogs!Menaregrowingmoredegenerateeveryday!Thecountryisfacedwithruin!" such laments have been heard in China since time immemorial. But "degeneracy" varies from age to age. It used to mean one thing to me, now it means another. Except in memorials to the throne and the like, in which no one dares to make wild statements, this is the tone of all written and spoken pronouncements. For not only is such carping good for people; it removes the speaker from the ranks of the degenerate. That gentlemen sigh when they meet is only natural. But now even murderers, incendiaries, libertines, swindlers, and other scoundrels shake their heads in the intervals between their crimes and mutter, "Men are growing more degenerate every day!" As far as morality goes, inciterstoevil are not the only degenerates. So are those who simply condone it, delight in it, or deplore it. That is why some people this year have actually not contented themselves with empty talk, but after expressing their horror have looked round for a remedy. The first was Kang Yu-wei. Stamping and sawing the air, he declared "constitutional monarchy" the panacea. He was refuted by Chen Tu-hsiu,2 who was followed by the spiritualists who somehow or other hit upon the weird idea of inviting the ghost of Mencius to devise a policy for them. However, Chert Pai-nien, Chien Hsuan-tung, and Liu Pan-hung3 swear they are talking nonsense.
These refutations are enough to make anyone's blood run cold. This is the twentieth century, and dawn has already broken on mankind. If New Youth were to carry an article debating whether the earth was square or round, readers would almost certainly sit up. Yet their present arguments are pretty well on a par with contending that the earth is not square. That such debates should continue to this day is enough to make anyone's blood run cold! Though constitutional monarchy is no longer discussed, the spiritualists still seem to be going strong. But they have failed to satisfy another group, who continued to shake their heads and mutter, "Men are growing more degenerate every day!" These, in fact, have thought up a different remedy, which they call "extolling chastity." For many years now, ever since the failure of the reformists and the call for a return to the past, devices like this have been generally approved: all we are doing now is raising the old banners. Moreover, in step with this, writers and public speakers keep singing the praises of chastity. This is the only way to rise above those who are "growing more degenerate every day."