Lu Xun Complete Works/en/Jiwaiji

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Collected Works Outside the Collection (集外集)

Lu Xun

Section 1

"Editor's Note"

In October 1936, Lu Xun passed away in Shanghai. The Lu Xun Memorial Committee, chaired by Cai Yuanpei, spent nearly two years to "expand the influence of Lu Xun's spirit, awaken the national soul, and strive for light," publishing the first edition of "The Complete Works of Lu Xun" in June 1938. The editorial committee included Cai Yuanpei, Ma Yuzao, Shen Jianshi, Mao Dun, and Zhou Zuoren.

The master table of contents was based on the catalogue of writings personally determined by Lu Xun during his lifetime, with the addition of a translations section. The content is roughly divided into three parts: original works, collation of classical texts, and translations, arranged essentially in chronological order.

The complete set totals over six million characters, published in twenty volumes of approximately equal length.

The present edition of "The Complete Works of Lu Xun" was edited based on the 1938 edition, with every effort made to preserve the original during the editorial process.

Section 2

"Reminiscences" (Zhou Chuo)

Before our house stands a paulownia tree, perhaps thirty feet tall. Each year it bears fruit like a sky full of stars. The children throw stones to knock down the seeds, and the stones often fly into my study window, sometimes striking my desk directly. The moment a stone enters, my teacher — Old Baldy — rushes out to scold them. The tree's leaves are a good foot in diameter; wilted by the summer heat during the day, they revive in the night air like a person opening his palm. Our household gatekeeper, old Wang, sometimes fetches water to cool the ground, or takes a broken chair and holds his pipe, chatting with old Mrs. Li about old stories. Sometimes, when the moon has set and the stars of Shen hang at the horizon, one can see only the glowing ember in his pipe, yet they chat on still.

While those people took their evening cool, Old Baldy was teaching me the art of parallel couplets. He gave me "red flower" as a theme. I answered with "blue paulownia." He waved dismissively: the tones don't match, and sent me away. I was nine years old then and did not know what tones were — and Old Baldy did not explain either.

Section 3

"Ah! Teacher! Next time I shall apply myself..." A wave that mirrors the previous text and is indispensable.

"Ah! What is it? A dream?... Your nightmare has disturbed my sleep too... A dream? What dream?" Old Mrs. Li hurried to my bed and patted my back several times.

"Just a dream... it was nothing... What did the old lady dream?"

"Dreamed of the Long Hairs... Tomorrow I'll tell you about it, it's nearly midnight now, sleep, sleep."

Where there is something concrete, one can exert effort; where it is abstract, one cannot. Yet if the first step is not wrong, natural talent is something everyone possesses — no difficult matter. I have seen young people who could barely hold a brush yet already discoursed on style and rhetoric, inevitably producing pages full of patchwork quotations, utterly worthless. One should urgently administer such texts as medicine to them. (Postscript by Jiaomu)

(The emphasis marks and marginal notes in the text are...