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 the Nobel Prize in Literature. The winning works of the Second Lu Xun Literature Prize National Outstanding Theory and Criticism 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 Yangxiang, "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 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 single-authored papers. Under the chairmanship of Zhang Jiong, Vice President of the China Writers' Association and a renowned theorist, the jury met on August 8. The 10 jury members carefully read the 21 recommended works (monographs and papers) selected by the preliminary evaluation team and, in accordance with the regulations, three members proposed additional works, which were then submitted. The jury held in-depth discussions on the 23 works that entered the final evaluation. The 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 jury members participated in a vote, first conducting two rounds of preliminary votes to select 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 procedure agreed upon beforehand, if 5 works were not selected in the final vote, a supplementary vote could be held. The jury then conducted a supplementary vote, and 1 work reached the required two-thirds majority. In the end, 5 works were confirmed as winning entries by the jury. The jury believed that the evaluation process throughout was fair and impartial. Many members felt 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 make up for this oversight, we have specially selected a number of works that participated in the final evaluation for this winning works collection.
From Literary News:
Excerpt: "1903: The Surge of the Eve" (Excerpt)
Wang Guowei: Another Thought Source of the 20th Century
Wang Guowei was another extraordinary figure at the beginning of the 20th century. His emergence seemed purely accidental, but it was a historical miracle of the early 20th century! In 1903, when Zhang Taiyan was reading Buddhist scriptures in prison, and shortly after Su Manshu had finished writing The Tragic Society and taken up monastic life in the mountains, Wang Guowei was reading 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 outcomes, we discover that it was from here that Wang Guowei pioneered another thought 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 tells a story of desire in search of liberation. To argue that Dream of the Red Chamber is about desire, one of his key justifications was that the character name "Jade" () in the novel is a homophone for "desire" (): "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 "one obvious 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 way to liberation' as the basis for his criticism of the book, even attaching significance to the name 'Baoyu'." She argued, "This claim, when viewed from Dream of the Red Chamber itself, has many contradictions and inconsistencies." Because "Baoyu in Dream of the Red Chamber is by no means a representation of desire." And Wang Guowei's identification of "jade" as "desire" "falls into the common flaw of Chinese traditional literary criticism, which forces conclusions by comparing words." Domestic modern literature 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 in ancient Chinese characters, shows that he was a highly rigorous scholar. It can be said that Wang Guowei's academic achievements are closely tied to his rigorous scholarly attitude. Today, although we can still bestow several honors on A Review of the Dream of the Red Chamber, such as one who introduced Western aesthetics to China, one who used aesthetic methods to study classical masterpieces, and one who conducted a systematic exploration and evaluation of the 'spirit' and 'aesthetic value' of Dream of the Red Chamber, representing a clear advancement over the earlier school of red studies, etc., we cannot say that A Review of the Dream of the Red Chamber achieved significant academic accomplishments 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 his own views. 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 rather read Wang Guowei, his thoughts and reasoning at the time, and through him, the early 20th century, and even the 20th century.
First, we must enter Wang Guowei's problem. Desire, for Wang Guowei, was 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 Eastern Language Society founded by Luo Zhenyu for study, but a severe case of athlete's foot forced him to interrupt his studies. 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 "athlete's foot worsened severely," forcing him to return to China for treatment as advised by Luo Zhenyu. Wang Guowei recalled that at the time, he was "frail in body and melancholic in nature, with the problem of life recurring in his thoughts day and night. From then on, he resolved to pursue philosophy." It was under such circumstances that Schopenhauer entered his field of vision. This "entry" opportunity seemed to be a coincidence. While studying at the Eastern Language Society, the teachers were Japanese literature scholars Fujiwara Toyohachi and Takeda Sadayoshi. One day, he happened to see a passage in Takeda's writings that quoted Kant and Schopenhauer's philosophy, which he greatly admired 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 learning 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 the Nanyang Public School through Luo Zhenyu's connection and soon later was recommended by Luo Zhenyu to teach at Tongzhou Normal School. From the 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 in mind. In that turbulent era of fluctuating thoughts and restless society, people's minds were consumed by heated issues, but his thoughts and ，. The questions he raised were: What is the essence of life? It was in this questioning that he found resonance with Schopenhauer. He eagerly 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 a discussion of life. He believed that because humans have life and desire life, it follows that humans