Capturing Chinese — Lu Xun

Here is another story about the crazy amount of trouble a hairstyle could cause in imperial Qing dynasty China and in the early years of the Republic of China.  This week's story is A Passing Storm, also translated as A Storm in a Teacup.  If you missed the introduction to Lu Xun, then follow this link to An Introduction to Lu Xun.

A Passing Storm

风波

Fēngbō

 

风波 was published in September 1920 in New Youth (新青年 Xīn Qīngnián).

Revolutionary China was filled with rebellions, revolutions, and on occasion reinstatement of the previous dynasty.  These constantly changing environments put strain on the common people who found themselves in the middle of this power struggle.  During the Qing dynasty, males had to wear a queue, which involved shaving the front half of the head and growing the back part long and braiding it.  (See A Story About Hair for more information)  During the Tàipíng Rebellion, the rebels grew out their hair in defiance of this law.  The government troops would execute those who did not have the mandatory queue.  The Tàipíngs would kill those with a queue for thinking they were loyal to the Qing dynasty.  The common villager only stood to lose in this situation. After the Qing dynasty was overthrown, queues were no longer mandatory but some loyal to the previous dynasty decided to keep them.  This is when A Passing Storm takes place. Some of the villagers had cut their queue (or had them forcibly cut) while others preserved them by coiling them on top of their head.  However the situation changed again on July 1, 1917 when the northwest troops supported by Zhāng Xūn (张勋) occupied Běijīng.  Zhāng Xūn and his troops announced the restoration of the Qing Dynasty by reinstating the last emperor, Pǔyí (溥仪), onto the Dragon Throne.  After twelve long days for the villagers Zhāng Xūn and his troops were defeated on July 12^th. During this brief occupation of Beijing, the villagers worry whether or not they will have to begin wearing queues again.  One character, Seventh Master Zhao, is a Qing loyalist and insists that Qī Jīn, who had his queue cut off in town, will face execution for being in violation of the law.  Fighting breaks out as the villagers release their anxiety upon each other.  Twelve days later, life resumes back to normal. A Passing Storm 风波

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I never knew how much trouble hair could cause until I read this story by Lu Xun.  Wow!  How your hairstyle could affect your life so dramatically.  To learn a bit about the hair style of Qing dynasty China check out this week's story, A Story about Hair.  If you missed the introduction to Lu Xun, then follow this link to An Introduction to Lu Xun.

A Story About Hair

头发的故事

Tóufà de Gùshi

  头发的故事 was first published in October 1920 in Shànghǎi's New Journal of Current Affairs, the Lamp of Learning (时事新报·学灯 Shíshì Xīnbào·Xué Dēng). In this story, Lǔ Xùn discusses his experiences with his hair.  While the story's main character is named Mr. N, the story is really about Lǔ Xùn's own experiences and frustrations with hair. Controlling people's hair style has a long history in China.  Not so long ago, shaving of the head was considered punishment for petty criminals.  When the Manchus came to power and formed the Qing dynasty in 1644, they brought their unique hair styles with them.  Men had to shave the front half of their head, while keeping the back half long and braided in a queue (辫子 biànzi).  This imposed hair style met strong resistance in the first years of the Qing dynasty, but was eventually accepted and worn throughout China. When Lǔ Xùn went to study abroad in Japan, he cut off his mandatory queue.  While such an act would have been reactionary in China, the officials let the rules slide for foreign students.  Upon returning to China though, he was the object of many people's ridicule as he did not have a queue.  He bought a fake queue in Shànghǎi, but decided not to wear it for fear of it falling off or worse being pulled off.  Instead he wore western style clothes and sported a mustache, which earned him such nicknames as "fake foreign devil." Even in Běijīng, Lǔ Xùn was ridiculed for lacking the proper hairstyle.  Spending time out of the capital would only have been worse. A Story About Hair 头发的故事

Would you like to read this Chinese short story with pinyin, footnotes with definitions, historical summaries, and cultural references, as well as Chinese audio files of two native speakers, one male and one female, reading the story? Get your copy of Capturing Chinese today! See the Capturing Chinese Catalog

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This week we would like to introduce A Small Incident.  The story is very short and one of Lu Xun's easier stories.  If you haven't dived into the stories yet, then start with this one.  If you missed the introduction to Lu Xun, then follow this link to An Introduction to Lu Xun.

A Small Incident

一件小事

Yí Jiàn Xiǎoshì

一件小事 was published in November of 1919 in Beijing's Morning Post – Anniversary Commemorative Edition (晨报·周年纪念增刊 Chénbào·Zhōunián Jìniàn Zēngkān). The story is about Lǔ Xùn traveling to work by rickshaw one morning in Beijing.  While he has been working in Beijing for six years already, no important official affairs comes readily to mind.  Instead he remembers clearly the morning his rickshaw driver hits a pedestrian causing her to fall and hurt herself.  Lǔ Xùn doesn't think the woman is seriously hurt and in any case no one saw it happen, so he thinks it best for the rickshaw man to just keep going.  Otherwise, Lǔ Xùn might be late.  Instead, the rickshaw driver gets out and helps the old woman find help at a police station.  Seeing the generosity of the rickshaw driver to a complete stranger, Lǔ Xùn is dumbfounded and waits in the carriage until a police officer tells him he better get going. Lǔ Xùn first moved to Beijing in 1912, during the first year of the republic.  Like many people at the time, he held high hopes for the newly established republic founded by Sun Yat-sen (孙中山 Sūn Zhōngshān), but quickly became disillusioned as Yuán Shìkǎi (袁世凯), a man with military authority, usurped power and formed the republic in ways not much different from the Qing dynasty before him.  The foreign powers of Japan and western Europe continued to encroach upon China's sovereignty and Yuán Shìkǎi actually declared himself emperor near the end of his life.  During this time, Lǔ Xùn served as an official in the Ministry of Education and was rather depressed about the state of affairs.  This story takes place in 1917, six years after Lǔ Xùn moved from Nanjing to Beijing. A Small Incident 一件小事

Would you like to read this Chinese short story with pinyin, footnotes with definitions, historical summaries, and cultural references, as well as Chinese audio files of two native speakers, one male and one female, reading the story? Get your copy of Capturing Chinese today! See the Capturing Chinese Catalog

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This week we would like to introduce Tomorrow, a sad, but very good story.  If you missed the introduction to Lu Xun, then follow this link to An Introduction to Lu Xun.

Tomorrow

明天

Míngtiān

明天 was published in October 1919 in New Wave (新潮 Xīn Cháo). The story is about a widow and her three year old son.  After the death of her husband, she supports herself and her child by weaving on the loom.  Recently, the child has contracted tuberculosis and is terribly ill.  While the mother is not the smartest woman, she tries her best to save her child.  She pulls supernatural bamboo slips (a Chinese superstition), makes a vow to Buddha, and gives the child his traditional Chinese medicine.  After the passing of the night and the child showing no sign of improvement, she takes him to a traditional Chinese doctor who has four inch long fingernails.  The doctor gives an esoteric diagnosis, claiming the child is suffering from fire overwhelming metal (see notes in story) and prescribes some medicine such as "preserve the infant's life pills."  The prescription and the doctor visit cost the mother her savings and the child nevertheless dies shortly thereafter. She sells some of her belongings and with the money holds a funeral for her deceased son.   She buys a coffin, buries her son, and holds a dinner for all those who helped.  After the sun sets and everyone goes home, the mother realizes she is now all alone with her loom.  With the earlier passing of her husband and now her son, her home seems much too quiet. As discussed in the preface to Nàhǎn, Lǔ Xùn was very critical of Chinese folk medicine.  His father died in 1896 of an illness, likely to be tuberculosis, which Chinese medicine and doctors failed to treat.  During his youth, he would pawn the family's goods so that he could buy exotic and expensive Chinese herbs and medicines.  The ingredients would be items such as sugar cane exposed to three frosts, and a pair of crickets who never had another mate.  While these items proved difficult to procure, they did nothing for his father's illness.  He died after four years of the expensive medicine.  His father's death was Lǔ Xùn's inspiration to study Western medicine in the first place (which he ended up quitting to pursue literature) and he always remained very skeptical of Chinese medicine. Lǔ Xùn also discusses the flaws of Chinese medicine in his story, Medicine (药). Tomorrow 明天

Would you like to read this Chinese short story with pinyin, footnotes with definitions, historical summaries, and cultural references, as well as Chinese audio files of two native speakers, one male and one female, reading the story? Get your copy of Capturing Chinese today! See the Capturing Chinese Catalog

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This week we would like to introduce Medicine, another one of Lu Xun's most famous short stories.  If you missed the introduction to Lu Xun, then follow this link to An Introduction to Lu Xun.

Medicine

药

Yào

  药 was first published in New Youth (新青年 Xīn Qīngnián) in May of 1919. The story is about a little boy who has contracted tuberculosis and whose parents go out desperately in search for a cure. According to a Chinese myth, human blood is a guaranteed cure to fight tuberculosis and therefore his parents seek out and find the blood of a young revolutionary who had recently been executed.  Even with the fresh human blood, the boy still dies shortly afterwards. The story takes place in Shàoxīng (绍兴城), Lǔ Xùn's hometown.  The revolutionary in the story refers to the real anti-Qing revolutionary, Qīu Jǐn (秋瑾) (1879?-1907). Her older cousin, Xú Xílín (徐锡麟), led a failed uprising against the Qing empire in July 1907 by assassinating the provincial governor of Ānhuī Province hoping to trigger a wider rebellion.  After Xú Xílín's capture and execution, Qīu Jǐn, who was planning a coordinated attack in Zhèjiāng Province, was arrested at her school (Dàtóng Academy for Girls), tortured, and then decapitated in her hometown, Shàoxīng, a few days later.  The father in the story buys a mántou filled with the blood of Qīu Jǐn. As discussed in the preface to Nàhǎn, Lǔ Xùn's father died in 1896 of an illness, likely to be tuberculosis, which Chinese medicine and doctors failed to treat.  During his youth, Lǔ Xùn would pawn the family's goods in order to buy esoteric and expensive Chinese herbs and medicines.  The ingredients would be items such as roots of reeds gathered in the winter, or Japanese ardisia herb that had formed seeds.  While these items proved difficult to procure, they did nothing for his father's illness.  He died after four years of using this expensive medicine.  His father's death from inadequate medical care inspired Lǔ Xùn to study Western medicine in the first place (which he later quit to pursue literature) and he continued to be very skeptical of Chinese medicine. Lǔ Xùn also discussed traditional Chinese medicine in his story, Tomorrow (明天). Medicine 药  

Would you like to read this Chinese short story with pinyin, footnotes with definitions, historical summaries, and cultural references, as well as Chinese audio files of two native speakers, one male and one female, reading the story? Get your copy of Capturing Chinese today! See the Capturing Chinese Catalog

Sample the book before you buy! Get Your FREE Sample Chapter

Don't take our word for it.  Take yours.  Download a FREE sample of "A Small Incident." [wp_eStore_free_download_ajax_fancy id=22]

Enjoy and 加油！