Searching For New Voices

In the early years of the 20th century, Lu Xun, as a civilian of China, shouldered such a historical fact: the European civilization in the 19th century forced itself on the traditional Chinese one; while as a thinker, what he really observed was that there emerged a criticism of the "19th century civilization" at the end of the era, which provided the "20th century civilization" with both theoretical and spiritual basis. To Lu Xun, the traditional civilization, that of the 19th century and of the 20th century were labeled relatively as "ancient civilization", "old civilization" and "new civilization", forming a typological sequence in an on-going criticism with the passage of time.The 19th century civilization stood in between the traditional Chinese one and the 20th century civilization: it is the old one to the 20th century what a new one to, accepted and spread in the traditional Chinese civilization. To Lu Xun, what came into being was a continuous age disorder - as Europe pictured an integral world from its internal structure by means of a "19th century civilization", China, yet, witnessed that its traditional civilization was finalized. And as Europe was experiencing the transformation of thoughts at the end of 19th century, while in pursuit of a switch into the 20th century, the revolutionary individuals in China started to see the "19th century civilization" as their new prospect. China was treated unconsciously by Europe as "the other who lagged behind" in the former century, yet voluntarily served as a past to Europe during the latter process.The gap in age and the space conflict must be eradicated, as Lu Xun put it, in the way of preoccupying the future, that is, to pre-structure the "20th century civilization" to be a new one. Thus, Lu Xun never ceased to criticize the traditional Chinese civilization, though, in his self-awareness, the key issue lay between "19th century" and "20th century". He determined himself to make criticism about the 19th century civilization over its erosion, so as to prevent China from the crisis Europe had already experienced in the "19th century civilization", to get himself involved in the theories of 20th century civilization in advance and to prepare for a new China, an entity of the 20th century civilization.The 20th century civilization was supposed to be an outcome of the criticism about the 19th century civilization. Yet according to Lu Xun, these two were firmly contradictory, as he put it, a contradiction between "object" and "subject", or one that stood between "illusion" and "disillusion". The transformation from the 19th century to the 20th century was, in Lu Xun's view, a transformation from the "objective world of illusion" to the "subjective and self-conscious life".The 19th century civilization was made up of both the "material" and the "mass", displaying itself in the political realm as follows: individual becoming the real "individual" as a "civilian", while constituting a political "society" with the "state" as its center. In the 19th century, the "state" was absolutely subjective over the "individual", assigning the latter to be a "civilian" and claiming that "the civilians and I would conform us to its will".In the 20th century, however, "non-materialism" and "individualism" are the principle of constitution. Lu Xun, via "non-materialism", finally overturned the ruling relation of material over the spirit. Not only did he confirm the superiority of "the internal spirit of subjectivity" over the "material world of objectiveness", but he also established a form of the "interior of subjectivity" with "will" as its focus. As for Lu Xun, the establishment of "will" held key to "individualism". It was due to the power of "will" that a "human" in the 19th century civilization eventually turned into a real "individual" in the 20th century civilization. Individual differed from human because a human or a civilian referred to the state as the criterion of value, and an individual took itself as the source of significance. The appearance of individual altered the image and organization of politics - the political "society" in the 19th century civilization was turned into a "mass" with "collective self-awareness"; the "state" was then escalated as a "state of individuals". In the former, people subscribed themselves to the state; but in the latter, "free will of individual" was fully displayed in the nation of individuals.Domination of the state over civilians was eradicated in the 20th century civilization. The rupture and contradiction between "material" and "spirit" in the 19th century were also overcome with the "objective world of illusion" being toppled down. The object was driven to submit to the subject in the 20th century civilization, which took back all the subjective internal relations, thus changing the whole world of life into self-recurrence, self-presentation and self-recognition.