How to understand Lu Xun's or Bai Yang's criticism of nationalism?

Abstract: Lu Xun, a master of literature in China, used literature as a medium to critically reflect on tradition and inquire about people's external behaviors and their internal psychological mechanisms, with the intention of awakening the overall self-awareness of the society and realizing the reconstruction of the ideal national personality by "saving the heart". In this paper, we start from the concept of "national character" and the idea of "national character analysis", and discuss the causes of Lu Xun's idea of "national character analysis". Keywords: Lu Xun, nationalism, cannibalism, slavery, see Lu Xun, a master of modern Chinese literature, as a great representative of our nation, is recognized by academics as one of the world's top ten cultural celebrities. There are thirty-three novels by Lu Xun, twenty-five of which are modern subjects, collected in two collections, "Scream" and "Indecision". The content is mainly anti-feudal - thoroughly anti-feudal, exposing the man-eating feudal society. Lu Xun's novel writing realized a historically significant innovation of the Chinese novel with the ideological theme of the spirit of the times and the creation of new forms, giving the novel a modern content and form, so that the new literature of the May Fourth Period completed the transformation from the old novel to the modern new novel. Inheriting the tradition and borrowing from foreign countries, he fused and recreated the traditional methods and foreign rules to create a brand-new modern new novel, which pushed the realism of the Chinese novel to a new stage of revolutionary realism. The creation of "compliant literature" for the improvement of life, the liberation of the people and the transformation of society is the core of Lu Xun's novel realism. Lu Xun's profoundness lies in his life, first with his revolutionary democratic ideology, and later with his ****productivist worldview, is closely linked with his profound observation of history, sharp perspective on reality, sensitive reflection and close analysis, which makes Lu Xun's novels grasp the major historical and social issues, with the depth of history and reality, and melted into a profound work of connotation, truly reflecting the realities of the world. This makes Lu Xun's novels grasp major historical and social issues, have historical and realistic depth, and fuse profound and profound connotations, truly reflecting the aspirations, demands and historical destiny of the Chinese people. Nationality, in general, contains two levels of meaning: one is the concept and embodiment of the spiritual qualities of the national culture; the other is the characteristics of the personality of the national group. In contrast to the individuality of the whole nation, "national character" has historical, national and group characteristics. From a structural point of view, national character is systematic, and generally speaking, it involves several levels of structure, namely, behavior, culture and social psychology. The development of the idea of "national character" into the idea of "analysis of national character" is an important phenomenon in the process of modern Chinese thought, and it is also an opportunity for thinkers such as Yan Fu, Liang Qichao, Hu Shi and other thinkers to analyze China's "national character" from the level of social culture and humanistic consciousness. It is also a reflection of Yan Fu, Liang Qichao, Hu Shi and other thinkers who, from the level of social culture and humanistic consciousness, reflected on and criticized the problem of China's "national character" in order to reform the national personality and improve the spiritual character of the nation. They pondered over the problems of the national spirit and how to improve the quality of the national ideology and culture, which undoubtedly belonged to a kind of exploration of the problem of "national character". Lu Xun succeeded his predecessors and made a profound analysis of the problem of "national character" from the dimensions of ideology and cultural traditions. Lu Xun succeeded his predecessors and analyzed "national character" from the dimensions of ideology and cultural tradition. The reality of the motherland's peril, the infiltration of "national character" ideas by previous thinkers and foreign countries, and the unique life experience of individuals contributed to the development of Lu Xun's idea of "analyzing national character": in the early days, he advocated "establishing a human being" and called for the independence of personality, and he also advocated "the independence of the people". In the early stage, Lu Xun advocated the "establishment of the human being" and called for independence of personality; in the middle stage, he reflected on the tradition and launched a social and cultural criticism of the inferiority of the national character to save the sick national character; in the late stage, he adopted the class analysis method to analyze the national character of different classes in order to cast a new "national soul". For Lu Xun, "national character analysis" is not only an ideological concept, but also a weapon and a means for him to reflect on and criticize tradition. This makes Lu Xun's "analysis of national character" have both rational depth and sharpness of thought. Lu Xun discloses the external manifestations of national character, such as "concealment and deception" and "inferiority and cowardice", and probes into the deeper structure that nurtures it, i.e., traditional Chinese ideology and culture, with special emphasis on analyzing its intermediate level, i.e., the psychology of the society, and then launching introspection, analysis, and critique. As a literary scholar and thinker, Lu was a great scholar and thinker. As a literary scholar and thinker, Lu Xun integrates literary art with philosophical thought. "A work of art is rich in wisdom and contributes to the realization of truth if it profoundly reveals the logic of real life and provides trends and possibilities for its development. In the works of great writers, the realm of art and the realm of philosophy can reach unity." It is through novels, essays, prose and other literary styles that Lu Xun portrays real-life characters at the ideological and cultural levels, reveals the trajectory of the historical development of "human beings", inspires and guides people to recognize their own situation, reflects on the connection between national character and national danger, and seeks to perfect the national personality and the spirit of the nation. In his novels, Lu Xun's criticism of national character begins with Diary of a Madman, and what the madman sees and hears is in fact Lu Xun's criticism of national character. In Diary of a Madman, it is revealed that the essence of scripture is "cannibalism", and "cannibalism" is essentially the mutual enslavement of people. "Is it right that it has never been so?" I looked up the history, and the words "benevolence, righteousness, and morality" were written on every page of the history. It took me half a night to scrutinize it before I could make out the words from the cracks in the text, which were all filled with two words, "cannibalism"! It is a questioning of the thousands of years of slave history, and a criticism of "killing people with rituals". Therefore, the "madman" is a normal human being in the revolutionary sense. The wildness of "madman" is the behavioral rebellion against the traditional slavery of the masses; the madness of "madman" is the spiritual and psychological subversion of slavery. The critical significance and revolutionary value of Lu Xun's "madman" personality lies in the fact that after the slavish masses have been "normalized", there should be an abnormal mind to make them get rid of the slavish consciousness. The novel "The True Story of Ah Q" is representative in criticizing the national character, such as the method of spiritual triumph and the ideal of "revolution", as well as the psychological pattern of always posing as "previously rich" and taking ugliness as beauty. The essence of Q's method of spiritual triumph is to transform the defeat of reality into an illusory victory of spirituality. This is not the same as the general psychological stability, he used the method of climbing to speak of his own identity, with the fictional method of his past glorious history, as well as the assumption method, the method of transferring and so on, in a word, he is trying to do everything possible to maintain his own face and self-esteem. In Q, there is indeed a need for revolution, which is the only way to turn around in a desperate situation. What Q wanted to pursue in the revolution was power, money and women. At that time, Q had not gone through the baptism of "Cultural Revolution", and the idea of "having power is everything" was not very clear, but he dimly understood that if he joined the revolution, he would have power, and if he had power, he would be powerful, and he could kill whoever he wanted to kill, and if he had power, he would have money, and he would also have women. His "dream of revolution" was clear. His "revolutionary dream" was very sweet. However, AQ's revolution was blind and flawed, and his revolution was carried out under the feudal system, which would not play any role in the feudal hierarchy, so AQ could not make any sense of it even after his death. From Lu Xun's works, we can find a series of novels in the mode of "seeing/being seen", such as Showing the People, Medicine, Diary of a Madman, Kong Yijie, Tomorrow, Hair Story, The True Story of Ah Q, Blessing, The Everlasting Light, Forging the Sword, The Risk of Water, and Cai Wei, etc. The novels of Lu Xun's works are all about "seeing/being seen". The mode of "looking/being looked at" means that the characters in the work have only one action, which is to look, and only one character relationship, which is to look at and be looked at by others. Behind the "curious" viewer looking and being looked at, there is often an implied author looking on, mocking the viewer's numbness and cruelty with compassion and indignation, thus creating a kind of ironic distance. Another type of see/be seen opposition occurs between the pioneer and the masses, the enlightened/enlightened, and develops into a pattern of being eaten/eaten, which takes on a symbolic character. One of the important ideological roots of the phenomenon of the "beholder" is the Taoist idea of "non-action" and "no right or wrong". Although "seeing" is also "doing" to a certain extent, it is not the "doing" of actively pursuing a goal. Rather, it is a passive, retiring, and solitary act of spectatorship. Taoism advocates the idea of "doing nothing" and the relativistic view of right and wrong of "no right and wrong", which provides the theoretical basis for the spectator's "seeing" but not "doing". provides the theoretical basis for the seeker's "seeing" without "doing". The idea of mediocrity is also an important source of it. Thousands of years of slavery rule, the master class fierce and brutal, for the slaves will have two extreme results: or harshly beaten and suppressed, on the courage to resist; or completely obliterate self-consciousness, lose self-personality, subject to the master. The first choice is to pay the price of blood; the latter is too depressing and suffocating. However, "Chinese people are not all 'slavish' or 'dare to rebel' these two extremes, this time the 'middle way' and play a role! "Thus, "they chose more often the 'neutral' way out: to be 'spectators' who seemed to have nothing to do with everything." Chau Lu Xun has repeatedly mentioned that "the middle ground" is very influential in China. He said: "China is also a country that loves the middle ground", for example, "China is the most artistic country, the most moderate nation. However, the small people are not satisfied, woo-hoo, the gentleman's mediocrity: the small man of the anti-mediocrity also!" Prevention of "spectators" is a neutral category that can not be encompassed by "sexual goodness" or "sexual evil". The act of watching is just watching, and it does not impose friendliness or "benevolence" on the watched; nor does it impose "evil" on the watched. It does not act on moral judgments such as good and evil, right and wrong. In essence, it reflects the "nothingness" in the depths of the spirit and mind, the absence of consciousness and morality, rather than the integration of human beings. The "seeing" of the "spectator" is the separation and division between people, and it is the root cause of such mental states as numbness, indifference, complacency, and selfishness. Lu Xun seeks a way out for the transformation of Chinese culture by exposing and criticizing the inferiority of our Chinese people and identifying the root causes of national decay. The main feature of Lu Xun's criticism of national character is that while criticizing, he always thinks y about the situation and fate of the nation. He was essentially a thinker, fervently and unremittingly concerned about people, thinking about universal issues such as mankind, life, and human nature. In him, the exploration of life and philosophical reflection are consistent, and the shaping of literary archetypes coexists with the reflection of the nation's ****ness.