A Study On The Evolution Of Lu Xun’s Early Thought(1881～1909)

Lu Xun is one of the founders of modern Chinese literature.His early thought serves as a wellspring of his fully-fleged scaffolding of ideas.In Lu Xun’s childhood his previously well-off family fell from grace due to finacial plight.He chose a different path,fled away from hometown and went abroad in his youth,and finally crossed paths with “special people”such as Yan Jidao,Liang Qichao,Lin Qinnan,and Zhang Taiyan.With unmatched enthusiasm he soaked up new knowledge and ideas as well as new literature and art,and searched ways to enlighten his kinsmen’s minds and transform their society.Lu Xun deeply realized that both the backwardness of China and the power and wealth of the West are all "rooted in people",and,as a result,he put forward the idea of "cultivating the people with a reformed national character " as the goal throughout his career.The paper highlights Lu Xun’s early life,learning experience and the development of his thought between1881 and 1909.With the help of the mutual argumentatation of detailed historical theories instead of simple historical materials,it systematically examines the evolution of Lu Xun’s early thought and the inner expression of his literary works,and thus helps explore and recover the historical scene where young "Lu Xun" constructed himself.The paper puts young Lu Xun in the social and political context of the late Qing inhabited by Zhang Taiyan,Liang Qichao,Yan Fu,and Lin Shu.By connecting literature,history and philosophy,it further enriches the academia’s understanding of young Lu Xun’s spiritual and cultural ontology.In view of a whole wealth of earlier research on the Western learning in Lu Xun’s early thought,this paper mainly focuses on the "transitional era"(quoted Liang Qichao),the period when the ideological and cultural resources are abundant and complex.Taking Liang Qichao,Zhang Taiyan and other great thinkers as a frame of reference,who were active around Lu Xun at that time and had an important influence on him,employing interdisciplinary analysis methods such as field theory and psychology,the paper tries to present complex and critical archetypal issues such as Lu Xun’s early thought formation,literary creation,psychological growth,etc..This paper consists of five chapters,the main parts are about Lu Xun’s artistic temperament and literary talent,the transition from “renovation” to “revolution”,and the transition from “revolution” to “revolution of heart”.Three main issues are discussed as follows:First,the formation process of Lu Xun’s artistic temperament and literary talent when he was young.Born in an enlightened family that did not put too much emphasis on "orthodox" education,he could fully develop his hobbies and enjoy extracurricular reading,through which he cultivated his artistic temperament and aesthetic accomplishment,and from which he develped an important relationship with national culture and people’s creational thoughts in ancient times.All became a good source for later works.Unfortunately,Lu Xun became a son of an impoverished family after he was thirteen years old.Compounded by the unhappy experience during his studies in Japan,he formed a strong sense of rebellion and a fierce character of resistance against the ugly reality of society.Second,Lu Xun’s acceptance and alienation of Liang Qichao’s new thought.After Lu Xun arrived in Nanjing,he took the initiative to study Western learning and read new books and newspapers such as Evolution and Ethics,which prompted him to stay in the field of reformation advocated by Liang Qichao,Yan Fu,and Lin Shu in the early days of his stay in Japan.In his reflection on national culture,he accepted Liang Qichao’s thoughts of national character and novel enlightenment,and opened the new way of translating and introducing Western literature.After the Slide Incident during his study in Sendai Medical College,Lu Xun began to reflect on the "Xinmin" thought,with "group" as the core and the national imperialism with the evolution theory as the core,which resulted in the preliminary study of "cultivating people with reformed national character ".He finally got out of Liang Qichao’s reform thought field.Third,Lu Xun’s acceptance and development of Zhang Taiyan’s ideological resources.Because of his fiery national feelings and high revolutionary enthusiasm,Lu Xun was attracted by the ideological field of Zhang Taiyan,a fellow in Zhejiang,and became a student of Taiyan.Under the multiple influences of Zhang Taiyan’s revolution,culture and morality,Lu Xun developed a strong sense of consciousness toward national traditional culture,formed a strong cultural tension between the East and the West,tradition and modernity,and cultivated a rigorous academic attitude and tenacious fighting spirit.On this basis,Lu Xun absorbed the thoughts in Zhang Taiyan’s two unique modernity critical essays,Theory of Coevolution of Kindness and Evil and Pro and Con of Representative Democracy,as well as his profound insights into major philosophical propositions such as "Discrimination of Group and Self" and "Discrimination of Righteousness and Profit".His cognition of material and spirit,and individual and multitude went beyond the level of reform and revolution.Finally,he completed the ideological construction of "cultivating people with reformed national character ",and put forward the literary proposition of improving "people’s mind".Lu Xun,the "Spiritual Warrior",was born as well.