On Lu Xun Image Theme

There are many juxtaposed or antithetic themes in the realistic novels of Lu Xun. Due to the diversity of the themes, the text is rich in flexibility. And how to set up and develop the themes can show whether a novelist is ripe or not. From the angle of the study of themes, the meticulously set images contain Lun Xun's judgements and texture. His novels have extensive themes and lively images. Proceeding from the themes of the images, this essay studies Lu Xun's novels from the perspective of the setting of images , the meaning they signifies or implies, the mechanism of formulation, their aesthetic value and the meaning in history and at present. Many images in Lu Xun's novels can be developed to such themes as "eat human", "road", "iron room", "steamed bun made of human blood "and"pigtail", all of which can be interpreted in several ways and can represent many things. "Eat human"shows the theme of opposing the kindred system and the harm resulting from the system of courtesy and religion; "road"signifies the topic that the author resisted desperation and his thought of existing problems; "iron room"means the hard road to enlightenment; "steamed bun made of human blood"hints the theme of death and "pigtail"suggests the theme of slashing slavery. In order to make these meanings come out, Lu Xun set up these images and used various kinds of principles of images. At setting up the image of "eat human", Lu Xun first stated the symbolic meanings of social reality and historical continuity of reality by putting emphasis on the image of "eat human". The image was converted to the symbolic image which contained his ideas. Then the "meaning of the images"was turned into realistic writing through "making a variation"and "exaggerate". At setting the image of "road", it was mostly arranged at the end. This is a type of arranging emphases. While setting up the image of 'iron room", the author expressed the subjective idea with the abstract method and found the correspondence between the author's idea and the metaphoric image of "iron room". At setting up the image of "steamed bun made of human blood", the author used the skill of overall arrangement of the text to set up the image in the topic of the novel and regarded the image as focus to connect the sacrifices of the revolutionaries and the practice of the mediocre to cure the disease with "the steamed bun made of human blood"together. In addition, through logical atmosphere, the symbolic meaning of images came out by contrast. The author resided the images in realistic writing. Meanwhile, the "pigtail"links the great political events in history. The meaning conveyed in these five images is very complicated. The mode of the images'setting is appropriate for the expression of the author's thoughts and affections. Hence, these images have achieved the aesthetical extent of "rich in meaning and lively in images". The generative patterns of these images are: first, the accepting pattern. Lu Xun adopted a taking attitude and method towards the cultural heritage of human beings, which is composed of the taking of the beneficial parts of Chinese classical image theories and methods and the borrowing of the western aesthetic theories and methods. Second, the thinking pattern. Lu Xun was good at image thinking, which could embrace the affections and ideas and make the works symbolic, if used in novels. Third, the psychological pattern. The images in Lu Xun's novels reflect his own thoughts. Among them, affections are the source of his writing motive, and become unique images in his works. Some ideas in his mind caused some affections, for example, the illness, the decoy, the high walls, caution, nationalism and so on result in affections of finding medicines, finding roads, being isolated, illusive lanterns, the braid and so on. These affections, in turn, become "men eating men"image, "road"image, "iron house"image, "the steamed bun made of human blood"image, "braid"image, etc. The aesthetical meanings of the image group which is composed of these above subjective images are: first, they can overcome the limitations of linguistic expression and embody rich meanings; second, they can improve, continue and repeat the feelings expressed in the tragedy; third, they can arouse the readers to the same feelings and lead their thoughts to the author's. Besides these, the subjective images also have meanings in literary history: 1. they turned images from the ancient to the modern; 2. they reflected the modern narrative writing techniques; 3. they influenced the modern and current writers. Of course, they also have obvious aesthetic meanings: first of all, to the writer, they express the life philosophy and his own affections; besides, to the life, they are instructive; lastly, to the works, they meet all the demands for the value and meaning of novels, which is the main symbol for the classical. At present, the globalization, modernization, and lustfulness have become prevalent in writing. Therefore, Lu Xun's subjective images are instructive to the cultural and literal construction, which is the value of my subject. In this article a synthetic way is employed in the study of themes. It is also a research centered on the themes of Lun Xun's style. That is to say, choose some of the special images in Lun Xun's texts after understanding them, then, in reverse, considering them as the sign and entrance, make a deep exploration into the thematic meanings. This research can demonstrate the specialty (i.e. how to write) of Lun Xun's thoughts and expressions.It can also provide a multi-layered (i.e. what to write) abstraction and sublimation of Lu Xun's specific,individual and special images, thus revealing the abstract ,general and universal meanings associated in them. In the research of the topic, the main methods employed are as follows: (1) Systematic research. Research concerning the thematic topic of Lu Xun's texts is carried out, with the aim of clearing up what issues are included in the topics of the images ,what are the relations between the issues and the topics and their interrelations and influences on each other in the process of Lu Xun's thinking on images. (2) Research combining case analysis and synthetic description, detailed criticism and macroscopic grasping. Analyze and explore the images and the topics related in each of Lu Xun's novels. Grasp macroscopically on the basis of case analysis and explore the main topics of the images with a view to grasp the "meaning network"in Lu Xun's works in a deeper and more accurate way. (3) Practical research. Actively seek the rules and characteristics ,ways and methods in the topics of images in Lu Xun's novels which can be applied to other modern writers and works, in order to provide a model and sample for the writers and works of modern literature. Therefore, there are three points of origination in this article: (1) Explore the thesaurus of Lu Xun's texts and form a newer, richer and more profound unscrambling—explanation—reception. The ongoing unscrambling and reception of Lu Xun's texts will promote the development and construction of China's future society and culture. It requires Lu Xun's thesaurus of literature to be explored more deeply and its meaning to be decoded. (2) Try to synthesize all theories in the study of Lu Xun's texts. The texts of Lu Xun's novels are a rare representative in the long river of Chinese literature which can withstand various theoretical analyses of literature. In the study, various theories may be used to achieve a varied unscrambling. (3) Achieve a breakthrough in "the internal study"of Lu Xun. The study of the topics of images is "the internal study"in the study of Lu Xun. In the internal study various "accurate theories"may be employed. Aside from using the theories of the study of themes, this article also applies extensively the study of arts ,linguistics, philosophy, aesthetics, psychology, the study of culture and cultural anthropology, etc.. Therefore, this article tries to change the perspective in the study of Lu Xun and promote its development, which will contribute to the writing of "the 21th century text"in the field of Lu Xun study.