[Centenary of the May Fourth Movement] Lu Xun: To explode in silence, or to die in it
May 05, 2019
Peking University, May 5, 2019: The May Fourth Movement witnessed a large number of influential intellectuals, for example Lu Xun. On the centenary of this patriotic campaign, let’s review how Lu Xun became a leading figure of the May Fourth Movement and what influence he brought to the whole society.
Lu Xun
The intellectual giant in embryo
In contemporary Chinese literature, Lu Xun, the most well-known pen name of Zhou Shuren, is renowned as a writer and a critic. He was born into a family of landlords in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, in 1881. Due to foreign imperialism in China, young Zhou Shuren grew up in feudal Chinese society on verge of revolution and war. That experience drove him to seek scientific knowledge and political theory abroad and pushed him to reflect upon traditional Chinese culture. Thus, the beginning of enlightenment that would provide the ideological foundation for the May Fourth Movement in 1919 had already begun to take form in Zhou and other contemporary writers who were concerned about China’s future. Zhou believed that Chinese people were in more need of spiritual therapy than of physical treatment, so he started to challenge the suffocating darkness with the torch of emancipation by writing a number of editorials and giving up his study of medical science in Japan.
Pioneers in the New Culture Movement
Returning home after studying in several foreign countries, Zhou Shuren became one of the most significant figures of the New Culture Movement in the mid-1910s. He promoted Chinese vernacular literature with his astounding short story "A Madman’s Diary" published in New Youth, a radical literary magazine founded by Chen Duxiu. Although originally founded in 1915 in Shanghai, the headquarters of the magazine as well as the core group of literary activists relocated to Peking (now known as Beijing) in 1917. Among them, Qian Xuantong, enthusiastically invited his old friend Zhou Shuren to write for New Youth. Initially, Zhou Shuren was skeptical of publishing his writing alongside the radical slogans of this magazine. As he explained to Qian in a letter, “Imagine an iron house: without windows or doors, utterly indestructible, and full of sound sleepers – all about to suffocate to death. Let them die in their sleep, and they will feel nothing. Is it right to cry out, to rouse the light sleepers among them, causing them inconsolable agony before they die?” Qian, nevertheless, replied to Zhou, “There was still hope – the hope that the iron house may one day be destroyed.” To seize this “hope”, Zhou Shuren thus began to use the pen name “Lu Xun” and joined the fight pioneered by New Youth to construct a modern Chinese literature on the debris of traditional cultural dross. Consequently, the New Culture Movement led by these literati succeeded in spreading cutting-edge scientific knowledge as well as advancing new social theories and political analysis among young people. As a result, many students renounced outdated customs and embraced the new ideas promoted by New Youth, and these students eventually bravely joined in the movement. This became a tide of enlightenment in China, and formed the intellectual core of the later revolutions, laying the foundation for the May Fourth Movement.
Warrior with a pen in the May Fourth Movement
In 1919, at the end of World War I, the Paris Peace Conference produced the Treaty of Versailles which was an injustice to the Chinese nation. Instead of reverting to China, the former German colonies (Shantung including Kiaochow) were given to Japan.
In China, that result aroused indignation. The Chinese people had expected that the League of Nations would recognize and reward China’s contributions to the Allied victory and stop the imperial colonization of China. The shocking result of the treaty roused the Chinese people, enabling them to realize the fact that the destiny of a nation should not be constrained by external forces. That political awakening led to the May Fourth Movement which grew out of patriotic student protests in the streets of Peking. Soon, those demonstrations ignited the spark of nationalism among people from all walks of life. Zhou Shuren, along with other leading figures of the Chinese cultural enlightenment, also encouraged and supported student’s resistance against the government. In 1919 Zhou authored Medicine, his most prominent work from this period. The short story satirizes indifference to the sacrifice of revolutionaries and asks for responsibility from the whole nation. Once published, patriotic readers responded immediately, which helped strengthen the will to rebel against the imperialism. In addition, Lu Xun continued to translate foreign literature into Chinese, thus injecting fresh, intellectual blood into the movement.
Lu Xun’s immortal influence after the May Fourth Movement
Although the May Fourth Movement was short-lived, it sparked a series of revolutions fighting for a free, democratic Republic of China in the following decade. Meanwhile, Zhou Shuren never ceased to fight with the forces against people in the pen name “Lu Xun.” From 1920 to 1926, Zhou worked at Peking University, where he continued to enlighten the Chinese people with his writing. In 1925 he wrote “My View of Peking University,” in which he praised the righteous spirit of Peking University for the students’ rebellion against the dark social environment, regardless of external threats. In the follow year, he wrote “In Memory of Miss Liu Hezhen” which criticizes those who would not to look at the bloodshed of the revolution and instead stuck to the status quo with selfish indifference. In that article, Lu Xun spoke to the Chinese people with his usual warning tone, reminding them of the choice, “To explode in silence, or to die in it.” That insightful commentary on Chinese society has influenced plenty of revolutionaries, including the early communists in China. Even after his death in 1936, Lu Xun’s masterpieces remain a beacon of enlightenment that continues to shine today, even in this very moment.
Written by: Wang Nini
Edited by: Erin Dunne
Photo credit to: People's Daily
Sources: Wikipedia, Marxists Internet Archive
