On April 27, 1924, Lin Zixuan went to visit Lu Xun.

The reason why this day was chosen is because it is a Sunday, and Lu Xun works in the Ministry of Education and has only one day off a week.

This system of seven days off and one day off was introduced from the West, and in ancient China officials generally took ten days off and one day off.

In 1882, the Fuzhou Shipmaster School implemented a Sunday holiday in order to take care of the living habits of foreign teachers.

In 1906, the central ministries of the Qing government had successively implemented the Sunday public holiday system, and by 1911, the seven-day holiday had become a common practice in government departments.

Lin Zixuan brought Lu Xun a little Shanghai specialty, which was not worth much, mainly because of his heart.

He originally wanted to give the book he wrote to Lu Xun, but after thinking about it, he still forgot it.

First, there is a suspicion of display, and second, these books were copied by him, so there is no need to show them in front of real writers, it is enough to brush up on the sense of existence in Western society.

Lu Xun is a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and everyone is from the south, and there is little difference in living habits.

To be honest, perhaps because of the influence of later generations, in Lin Zixuan's mind, Lu Xun is the kind of fighter who catches and scolds whom, and he was quite apprehensive when he came to visit.

In the literary world during the Republic of China, there were only a handful of literati who had not been scolded by Lu Xun.

Guo Moruo once said: "Of course, Lu Xun doesn't scold anyone except himself." ”

Lu Xun is different from Hu Shi, Hu Shi gives people the feeling that he is a more modest person, even if he has an opinion about you, he will put it in his heart, and only when he is extremely angry will he make accusations, and this situation is very rare.

At this time, Lu Xun was forty-three years old, which basically matched the image in the photos of later generations.

Lin Zixuan came to visit as a student, and in later generations he studied Lu Xun's articles, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he was a student. This is also basic etiquette.

Lu Xun chatted with Lin Zixuan in the study for nearly an hour, and most of the topics revolved around new literature.

He was more interested in the current situation of Shanghai's literary scene, criticized the old literature of the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School, and hoped that Lin Zixuan would write more new literary works that reflected real life.

He had reservations about Hu Shi's advocacy of "sorting out the country's history."

Finally, when talking about this new literary series, Lu Xun seemed a little worried.

He felt that the new literature had only just developed and was not very mature. If I show it to people abroad now, I am afraid that it will not be able to play a good role in introducing China.

"You know that Western literature has only been developed for hundreds of years, and new literature has only been explored for a few years, and it is still groping in terms of content and form. Lu Xun said.

Lin Zixuan believes that cultural exchange is mutual.

While Chinese understand the West, it is also necessary for Westerners to understand China. Literature is undoubtedly the best way to communicate and let the Western community know what is happening in China.

The two did not talk about Tagore, avoiding this hot topic that was discussed in Beiping.

Because on this day, Tagore went to the Forbidden City at the recommendation of Fu Yi's English teacher, the Englishman Zhuang Shidun, to meet Fu Yi, the abolished emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and visited the Imperial Garden.

This undoubtedly gave Chen Duxiu a new reason to attack.

In his article "What is Tagore? The article said that Tagore "never said a serious word" when he went to Beijing, but only dealt with people like the Qing Emperor Puyi, the monks of Fayuan Temple, the young women of the Buddhist world, and Mei Lanfang......

"What is he?"

He also said, "Tagore barked in Beijing for a while, in fact, his great oriental spirit." Compared to Beijing's society, it is still a small thing......"

In fact, Lin Zixuan also wanted to go into the Forbidden City to have a look. Be curious to find out how the emperor lived.

In later generations, the Forbidden City was the most visited place in Beijing, and the main reason for competing with the Badaling Great Wall was people's curiosity about palace life.

But Lin Zixuan didn't go.

The year before, Hu Shi entered the palace and talked with Fu Yi for half an hour, and after coming out, he was scolded by those progressives for half a year. has become a stain on Hu Shi, and he doesn't want to follow in Hu Shi's footsteps.

In the afternoon, Lu Xun found someone who translated the novel collection "The Scream", and the translator was called Lin Yutang.

Lin Yutang was a native of Fujian, and went to Harvard University in the United States in the fall of 1919 to study literature.

Studied for a year. The bursary was suspended, so he had to go to France to work, and later to Germany, where he studied at the University of Jena.

In 1922, he received a master's degree from Harvard University by transferring credits, and went to the University of Leipzig to study comparative linguistics, where he received his doctorate in 1923.

In the same year, she returned to China and served as a professor at Peking University, dean of Beijing Women's Normal University, and dean of the Department of English.

Lu Xun also taught part-time at the Women's Normal University, and Lin Yutang was a colleague at the school, and he knew that Lin Yutang was proficient in English, so he introduced Lin Yutang to Lin Zixuan.

Interestingly, Lin Yutang was also one of the people who attacked Tagore.

He once said: "I don't think Tagore has anything to do with my spiritual life, I don't think he means anything, what impulses he gives me." ”

He also concluded that Tagore's talk of a painless spiritual life "was a reaction to the circumstances of the country's demise."

Lin Zixuan has no prejudice against Lin Yutang, anyway, it is Lu Xun's introduction, anyone can translate, so he talked to Lin Yutang about the translation fee.

In this era, copyright laws are not perfect, everyone is negotiating and then acting according to the contract.

There are generally two types of translators' fees.

One is that the translator gets paid in a lump sum, or the publisher buys out the translator's royalties.

The other is that the translator takes royalties, and the money is calculated according to the sales of the book, and the payment time is relatively long, if the book cannot be sold, then the translator has no income at all.

Lin Zixuan felt that the sales of the book abroad would not be good this time, so he gave Pearl Race a high remuneration for translation.

In the process of promoting the new literary series, Lin Zixuan can only be regarded as a middleman, and he has to negotiate with foreign publishers to determine the final distribution of royalties.

Lin Yutang has lived in the West for several years, read literature, and has some knowledge of the Western Copyright Law.

He does not accept a lump sum payment, but opts for royalties.

And felt that he should negotiate royalties with foreign publishers, which meant that he did not believe Lin Zixuan, thinking that Lin Zixuan had collusion with foreign publishers.

Lin Zixuan was quite speechless about this, he would rather pay a high salary for translation than do so many things.

Although both of them are surnamed Lin, he doesn't have a very good feeling for Lin Yutang.

This time the meeting did not go well.

He can't blame Lin Yutang's request, this is a legitimate request after all, the question is whether foreign publishing houses are willing to talk to you.

Lin Zixuan didn't want Lin Yutang to contact foreign publishing houses, and Lin Yutang was more and more convinced that there was something wrong with it, and hinted that Lu Xun was unreliable.

Coupled with Lu Xun's concerns about publishing, this matter was put on hold for the time being.

Lin Zixuan remembered that in the end, Lu Xun and Lin Yutang also broke up, and to the extent that they scolded each other in public.

Before Lu Xun died, he left a paragraph that can explain Lu Xun's character very well.

"I only remember that when I had a fever, I thought that when Europeans were dying, there was often a ritual to ask others for forgiveness, and to forgive others themselves. I have many enemies, and if someone of the new style asks me, how will I answer them? I thought about it for a while, and what I decided was: let them resent it, and I will not forgive any of them. (To be continued.) )