Y: Many Chinese intellectuals joined the crusade against the feudal ideology, why did Lu Xun come to be considered so important and so special?

Z: I think there's a range of factors that made him outstanding. For one thing, there was no one like him who had spent a lifetime focus on a single battle, the battle against the old feudal traditions. And for another, no one could be compared with him in making literature or the pen such a powerful weapon to achieve that purpose. But above all, there is this great power or strength to his personality. As Xu Shouchang (许寿裳)，a very close friend of his, said, the power of Lu Xun is based on his personality, or the strength of his personality. Lu Xun's works are great because he's got a great personality, because he is a great man.

Y: Do you think Lu Xun felt lonely in those days?

Z: I think so. That's what usually happens to great personalities, isn't it?  Being such a pungent critic, he was naturally subject to hostility. As a matter of fact, Lu Xun was the most vilified person in modern Chinese history.7 But like Engels's comment about Karl Marx, it's impossible for people who fight for a great cause to have personal enemies, for they have too many public enemies to have personal ones. The same thing can be said about Lu Xun.

Y: That probably explains why even those he criticized in those days could show great respect for him after he passed away.

Z: Yes, that's true. Lu Xun said, "It's true that I spend a lot of time examining and criticizing others but I spend more time examining myself." And he was aware of the fact that he could make people really angry. That's why he called himself an owl, the bird which predicts misfortunes and bad omen.

Y:  What do you think would happen to Lu Xun if he were able to survive and live in those days during the Cultural Revolution?

Z: First of all, it's a different age and world after the founding of new China. However, feudal traditions and feudal ideas die hard.8 China experienced another cultural dark age in the 1960s. I think Lu Xun would be heart-broken to see that so much of what he was fighting against was back, like the deprivation of democracy and freedom of individuality. Secondly, I think he would remain out-spoken. As Chairman Mao said, Lu Xun had the hardest bone. He was the most brave, the most firm, and the most honest. It was not like Lu Xun who would stifle his mind and muffle his voice.9 And thirdly, I think he would be relieved to see another round of emancipation of the mind across the nation as the result of China's reform and opening up.

Y: Can you comment on the so-called "the Ah Q temperament?"

Z: Ah Q is an image of the typical victimized Chinese peasant in old society of China.10 The so-called spiritual victory is a kind of self-comfort or self-deception in the face of defeat and insult; it's a way to escape from realities of the world. For example, Ah Q was beaten up by someone, and he was not strong enough to fight back, so he cheated himself into thinking that it was a case of the son beating his father. This way he felt better and even triumphant. When he tried to court11 Aunt Wu, he was turned down, so he comforted himself by saying that the woman had too big a pair of feet to be really beautiful, or to be worthy of his love. Even when he was going to be killed as a revolutionary, he still congratulated himself by saying that he would be reborn as a hero in 20 years time. Such mentality reminds us of the last days of Qing Dynasty when the rulers and the people continued to be blind to the fast changing world, to deceive themselves with falsely based arrogance. I remember Lu Xun said something like in China there was no personal arrogance, there was only collective arrogance.

Y: What do you think of Lu Xun's writing style?

 Z: There's a saying-style is the man. Lu Xun's style is so unique and it's recognizable without his byline.12  Lu Xun is a fighter. Fighters use different weapons. For him, short stories and short essays are most effective. His style is often described in figurative terms like dagger, sword, spear or woodcutting-three inches into the wood.13 In short, it cuts, it bites, it kills, and it hurts; it excites and it inspires. To use his own words, his writings were distilled from his blood and were the true voice of the awakened.

Y: Which is greater, Lu Xun the thinker or Lu Xun the writer?

Z: Lu Xun is widely considered the greatest writer in 20th century China and I think he remains one of the best writers of all times. But there's no doubt that he would not be a great writer without being a great thinker in the first place.

Y: What should we learn from Lu Xun today?

Z: Well, in a sense that's what we've been talking about. But I'd like to add two more points. Number one, it's crucially important for us to be closely connected with the changing world, to understand and to grasp trends of development of the whole world. And number two, which I think is more important, much of the legacy Lu Xun has left to us comes in the form of a mirror, and a mirror forever. To study Lu Xun is to understand ourselves. When we look into this mirror, probably we would feel that Ah Q continues to live among us or inside us. And if we keep looking into this mirror, we would better understand who we are, where we are from, and where we are going.

1. hold sb. in great reverence ：深深敬重某人。
2. 他认为鲁迅是现代中国一等一的圣人，其地位如同封建时代的孔子。
3. 众所周知，鲁迅的最高理想是推翻旧中国，彻底推翻其旧的体制与制度。
4. 鲁迅借狂人之口发出了他对旧社会的最强烈谴责。denunciation：谴责，痛斥。
5. emancipate：解放，使不受束缚。
6. shackle：[常作复数]<喻>枷锁，桎梏。
7. 事实上，鲁迅是现代中国历史上受诋毁最多的人。vilify：污蔑，诋毁。
8. die hard：（旧习惯、旧信仰）难消灭，难以改掉。
9. 那个藏匿起自己的想法和压抑自己声音的人绝对不会是鲁迅。
10. 阿Q是典型的深受残害的旧中国农民形象。
11. court：向……求婚，求爱。
12. byline：署名。
13. 相当于中国成语“入木三分”。

《英语学习》2002年第1期（J-O4）