-- A letter to the editor of the Literary Monthly: Brother (2):

The day before yesterday, I received the fourth issue of "Literary Monthly" and read it. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info I don't think it's because it's not as varied as other magazines, but because it's not as rich as before. However, it is very good to propose a few new writers, and I don't care whether the works are good or bad, but in the journals of recent years, if the names of the writers have not been typeset, there is a tendency to not publish them, and if this continues, the new authors will not have the opportunity to publish their works. Now that this situation has been broken, although it is only a monthly issue, it has also swept away some dullness, so I think it is a good thing. However, I was very disappointed with one of Mr. Yunsheng's poems (3). This poem, at a glance, was written after reading the satirical poem (4) of Bedena in the previous issue. However, let's compare them, although Bedenati's poems consider themselves "vicious", the worst of them is nothing more than laughter and scolding. How about this poem? There is name-calling, there is intimidation, and there are frivolous attacks: in fact, it is not necessary. For example, the beginning is a joke about the surname (5). An author's self-imposed alias, which can naturally give a glimpse of his thoughts, such as "iron blood", "sick juan" and the like, can be a little joke from this. However, the origin of the surname cannot determine one's merits and crimes, because this is passed down from the previous generation, and it cannot be left to him. I said this four years ago, when someone commented on me as a "feudal remnant", but in fact, I held on to such a theme, and happily thought that the winner was very "feudal". However, this kind of atmosphere has been quite rare in recent years, but now it has been resurrected, which cannot but be said to be a regression.

Especially unbearable is the insult at the end. Nowadays, some works often do not need to write a lot of scolding in the dialogue, as if they think that otherwise they are not proletarian works, and the more scolding they are, the more proletarian works they are. In fact, among the good workers and peasants, there are not many casual curses, and the author should not put the behavior of the Shanghai hooligans. smeared on them. Even if there are proletarians who like to curse, it is only a bad temper, and the author should correct it by literature and art, and never develop it again. In the future classless society, if there is a disagreement, the three generations of ancestors will be in trouble. Moreover, even if it is a pen fight, just like any other military battle or fist fight, you might as well take advantage of the gap. Suppressing the enemy's death with one blow, if you blindly make noise, it is already a "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" style of warfare, as for scolding a father and mother, walking away, and thinking that you are victorious, it is simply a "Ah Q" style of warfare.

And then there is some kind of intimidation such as "cutting watermelons" (6), which is also extremely wrong, I think. The revolution of the proletarians is for their own emancipation and the abolition of the classes. It is not because it is necessary to kill, even if it is a frontal enemy, if he does not die on the battlefield, there will be a public judge, and it is by no means a poet who can put pen to life and death. Although there are many rumors of "murder and arson", this is just a kind of false accusation. The Chinese newspapers do not tell the truth, but one can see the examples of other countries that the proletarian revolution in Germany (7) (although it did not succeed) did not kill people indiscriminately; Didn't Russia even burn down the emperor's palace? Our author, on the other hand, painted the revolutionary workers and peasants with a scary grimace with their pen. In my opinion, it is really reckless.

Naturally, in China's literary circles, it is common to be framed. Rumors, intimidation, insults, and a look at most of history, you can often come across such articles, until now. It's still in use, and it's even more powerful. But I think that this inheritance should be left to the dog writers, and if our authors don't try their best to abandon it, they will become "raccoon dogs" with them.

But I'm not advocating a smile and a bow to the enemy. I'm just saying that the writer of the battle should focus on the "polemic"; If it is a poet, he is angry because of his uncontrollable feelings, and he laughs and scolds, which is naturally okay. But it is the skill of the author of battle to stop at ridicule and scolding, and to "laugh and scold with joy and anger, all into articles" (8), so that the enemy is wounded or killed by it, and that he does not act vilely, and the viewer does not think it is dirty.

I just thought of some of the above, so I wrote it out and sent it, maybe it can be used as a reference in editing. In short, I wish there would be no more such works in the Literary Monthly in the future.

Dedicated to Buda and asked

Good.

Lu Xun. December 10.

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(1) This article was originally published in the combined issue of Literary Monthly, Vol. 1, Nos. 5 and 6, December 15, 1932.

(2) Zhou Yang, a native of Yiyang, Hunan, is a literary theorist and one of the leading members of the "Left Alliance". At that time, he was the editor-in-chief of the Literary Monthly.

(3) Yunsheng's original name was Qiu Jiuru, a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang. His poem "The Confession of a Traitor," published in Literary Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4 (November 1932), was intended to satirize the reactionary remarks of Hu Qiuyuan, a self-proclaimed "free man," but it contained serious shortcomings and errors pointed out by Lu Xun in this article.

(4) Beednayi's satirical poem refers to Trotsky's long poem "No Time to Spit and Scold" (translated by Qu Qiubai, in Literary Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 3, October 1932). (5) The joke about the surname The original poem begins: "Now I will write the confession of the traitor." It is said that he is also surnamed Hu, but he is not called Lifu". Hu Lifu was a famous traitor when the Japanese army invaded Zhabei in 1932.

(6) In the original poem "Cutting Watermelon", there are these words: "Beware, your head will become a cut watermelon!" ”

(7) The proletarian revolution in Germany, that is, the November Revolution in Germany. The bourgeois-democratic revolution of the German proletariat, peasants and the masses of the people carried out to a certain extent by the means and forms of the proletarian revolution in 1918-1919. It overthrew the Hohenzollern dynasty and proclaimed a socialist republic. Subsequently, defeat under the bloody repression of the Social Democratic government.

(8) "Laughter and scolding, all become articles" see Huang Tingjian's "Mr. Dongpo True Praise" in the Song Dynasty. Hi, the original frolic. (To be continued.) (To be continued.) )