Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T01:05:14.557Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Lu Hsün and the Communist Party

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Extract

In terms of his impact on the young intelligentsia of China, particularly in the 1930s, and of the emotional symbolism as patriot and reformer with which his name is charged, Lu Hsün (1881–1936) was the most powerful figure in modern Chinese letters. For the last seven years of his life he was openly identified with Communist-led left-wing cultural movements in China. Today he is honoured by the Chinese Communist Party as the great cultural hero of the Chinese Revolution. His homes have become museums, jiis tomb a shrine. He is presented as a Communist in everything but name.

Type
Literature
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1960

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Hsün, Lu, Lu Hsün Ch'üan Chi (Lu Hsän's Complete Works) (Shanghai: Lu Hsün Ch'üan Chi Ch'u-pan-she, 1938) 6;25.Google Scholar

2 Hsün, Lu, Lu Hsün Ch'üan Chi (Lu Hsün's Complete Works) (Peking: Jen-Min Wen-hsueh Ch'u-pan-she, 1957) (annotated), 9:299.Google Scholar

3 Hsün, Lu, C.W. 3:43.Google Scholar

4 Ibid. 3:92; 3:307; 1:249–259.

5 Ibid. 3:438.

6 Yuan-k'an, Wu, ed., Lu Hsün Shu Chien Pu Yi (Lu Hsün: Supplementary Letters) (Shanghai: Shanghai Ch'u-pan Kung-ssu, 1953) (letters to Japanese), pp. 7273.Google Scholar

7 Takeo, Oda, Lu Hsün Chuan (Biography of Lu Hsün) Fan Ch'üan trsl. (Shanghai: Kaiming, 1946), p. 73.Google Scholar

8 Hsün, LuLu Hsün Jih-chi (Lu Hsün's Diaries) (Peking: Jen-min Wen-hsueh Ch'u-pan-she, 1959), passim.Google Scholar

9 Hsüeh-feng, Feng, “Ke-ming yü Chih-shih Chieh-chi” (“Revolution and the Working Class”) from Holin, Li, ed., Chung-kuo Wen Yi Lun-chan (China's Literary Polemics) (Shanghai: Pei Hsin Shu Chü, 1930), pp. 78.Google Scholar

10 Lu Hsün recommended Jou Shih as editor of Yu Ssu in late 1928, a move which would have been illogical, given the background and general orientation of the magazine, had he known Jou was a Communist. Lu Hsün himself says that it was not until after the formation of the League of Left Wing Writers that he knew Pai Mang was also the poet Yin Fu, indicating that it was highly unlikely he knew of his Communist affiliation.

11 The League, affiliated with the International Union of Revolutionary Writers in Moscow and the most important of several front associations in cultural fields organised by the Communist Party at this time for the purpose of advancing its cause in the revolutionary struggle, rallied the support of most major liberal authors in its first two or three years. Branches were established in various parts of China and in Tokyo, a publication programme was undertaken, secret theoretical discussions on Marxism were held and a secret workers' and peasants' correspondence movement organised. However, constant and often brutal pressure against it drove it completely underground thereafter and it was finally dissolved early in 1936 in response to the less partisan united front line.

12 Hsüeh-feng, Feng et al. , Tang Kei Lu Hsün ti Li-liang (The Strength the Party Gave Lu Hsün) (Honan: Honan Sheng Wen-lien Ch'ou-wei hui, 1951), pp. 45.Google ScholarShou-shang, Hsü, Wang Y u Lu Hsün Yin-hsiang chi (Impressions of a Lost Friend, Lu Hsün) (Shanghai: O Mei Ch'u-pan-she, 1947), pp. 9192.Google Scholar

13 Chü-jen, Ts'ao, Lu Hsün Ping Chuan (A Critical Biography of Lu Hsün) (Hongkong: Hsin Wen-hua Ch'u-pan-she, 1956), p. 102.Google Scholar

14 Hsüeh-feng, Feng et al. , op. cit., p. 9.Google Scholar

15 Smedley, Agnes, The Battle Hymn of China (New York: 1945), p. 74.Google Scholar

16 Hsüeh-feng, FengHui-yi Lu Hsün (Remembering Lu Hsün) (Peking: Jen-min Wen-hsueh Ch'u-pan-she, 1952), pp. 9395.Google Scholar

17 Ibid. pp. 122–142.

18 T'ao, T'ang, “How Lu Hsün Lived in Shanghai,” China Reconstructs, 06 1953, p. 32.Google Scholar

19 Hsüeh-feng, Feng, Remembering Lu Hsün, p. 144.Google Scholar

20 Lu-feng, Tsou “Tang Tsui Ch'in-mi ti Chan Yu” (“The Party's Closest Comrade-in-Arms”) in Yin-mo, Shen ed., Hui-yi Wei-ta ti Lu Hsün (In Remembrance of the Great Lu Hsün) (Shanghai: Hsin Wen Yi Ch'u-pan-she, 1958) pp. 168174.Google Scholar

21 Hsün, Lu, C.W. 6:584591.Google Scholar

22 Hsün, Lu, Lu Hsün Shu Chien (Lu Hsün's Letters) Kuang-p'ing, Hsü, ed. (Shanghai?: Lu Hsün Hsien-sheng Chi-nien Wei-yuan-hui, 1948), pp. 946947.Google Scholar

23 Letters, p. 190.Google Scholar

24 Hsün, Lu, C.W. 4:240.Google Scholar

25 Hsün, Lu, C.W. 4:250.Google Scholar

26 Ibid. 4:339–341.

27 Ibid. 4:197–198.

28 Ibid. 5:142–144.

29 Ibid. 6:119.

30 Letters, p. 682.Google Scholar

31 Letters, p. 952.Google Scholar

32 Jen-shu, Wang, “Lu Hsün Hsien-sheng ti ‘Chuan-pien’” (“The ‘Turn’ in Lu Hsün's Life”) in Lu Hsün Hsien-sheng Chi-nien Chi (Memorial Collection on Mr. Lu Hsün) Lu Hsün Hsien-sheng Chi-nien Wei-yuan-hui, ed. (Shanghai: Wen-hua Sheng-huo Ch'u-pan-she, 1937), Section I, pp. 102105.Google Scholar

33 Hsün, Lu, C.W., especially 5:2532, 5:127, 4:295, 7:789–790.Google Scholar

34 Ibid. 6:481–485.

35 Hsüeh-feng, Feng, Remembering, p. 161.Google Scholar