Wild Grass

Name: Wild Grass
ISBN: 9787550235748

Lu XunBeijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. · ChinaSep 2015

4.5

Word count: 19K words
Chapters: 25
ISBN: 9787550235748

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Summary

This volume contains twenty-three prose poems Lu Xun wrote in Beijing between September 1924 and April 1926, together with the 'Preface' composed in 1927 when the pieces were gathered into a collection. Wild Grass runs through with stern self-examination and unremitting exploration of thought. Its artistic features are distinctive — the use of symbolism and metaphor, rich imagination, and singularly inventive conception. The artists Qiu Sha and Wang Weiqun devoted their lives' work to 'revealing Lu Xun's system of thought' through painting, exploring with persistence, conceiving with great effort, and creating boldly, in order to reproduce Lu Xun's world with 'accuracy of insight, depth of expression, and exquisite artistry.'

Editor's review

Wild Grass gathers 23 prose poems Lu Xun wrote between 1924 and 1926. It is the most profound and obscure of his works, and the most philosophical. Unlike the stories in Call to Arms and Wandering, which confront reality directly, Wild Grass turns inward: through symbol, metaphor and dream, it weaves a series of soul-scenes about despair, resistance, solitude and seeking. The collection praises the steadfast fighter in "Autumn Night" and voices the deep contradiction of one hovering between light and dark in "The Shadow's Farewell"; "The Passerby" embodies the spirit of unending exploration, while "After Death" exposes the world's coldness through the absurd. Written after the ebb of the May Fourth Movement, in a period of extreme anguish and inner conflict, it is Lu Xun's spiritual self-dissection. Its distilled language, startling imagery and sharp thought brought the modern Chinese prose poem to an unprecedented height. To read Wild Grass is not merely to read words but to enter the darkest and most incandescent core of a great thinker, and to experience the immense tension of struggling amid nothingness and seeking hope in despair. For readers who wish to understand Lu Xun's philosophy and inner world, it is a monument that cannot be bypassed.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary lovers who wish to go beyond surface readings and explore Lu Xun's inner world and philosophical thought.
Readers with an interest in modern prose poetry and symbolist literature.
Intellectuals in times of personal difficulty or intellectual bewilderment, seeking deep spiritual resonance and strength.
Students and researchers of modern Chinese literature, and secondary-school Chinese teachers seeking further reading.

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking only light entertainment or simple storytelling.
Beginners wholly unfamiliar with modern Chinese literary history and Lu Xun's life, and unwilling to learn.

Reading tips

It is advisable first to gain some understanding of Lu Xun's life, especially his intellectual state in the mid-1920s; this will greatly help in understanding the background of the texts.
On a first reading, do not insist on fully grasping the symbolic meaning of every piece; first feel the overall emotional atmosphere and power of the language, then read closely with the help of authoritative annotations.
Reading Wild Grass alongside Lu Xun's essays of the same period (such as Huagai Ji) allows a fuller grasp of his thought as a whole.

About the publisher

Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. China · Founded in 1993

Beijing United Publishing Co., Ltd. is a publisher known for its literature and history titles, with 2,065 books in the collection. Its publishing covers foreign literature, contemporary Chinese prose and essays, history, folk literature, and cultural books. Its list ranges from Sima Qian's complete edition of the Records of the Grand Historian to foreign classics such as The Book of Disquiet, All Quiet on the Western Front, Snow Country, The Stranger, and Jean-Christophe, as well as modern Chinese works including Teahouse and Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk. Its authors and translators include Yasunari Kawabata, Fernando Pessoa, Erich Maria Remarque, Jin Xinyi, Zhou Miao, and Chen Chao. Public information is limited, but its catalogue reflects a balance between Chinese and foreign literary classics and historical and cultural works.

版权信息
题辞
秋夜
影的告别
求乞者
我的失恋
复仇
复仇（其二）
希望
雪
风筝
好的故事
过客
死火
狗的驳诘
失掉的好地狱
墓碣文
颓败线的颤动
立论
死后
这样的战士
聪明人和傻子和奴才
腊叶
淡淡的血痕中
一觉

FAQ

How does Wild Grass differ in style from Lu Xun's fiction and essays?

Wild Grass is a collection of prose poems, more inward-looking and obscure, making heavy use of symbol and dream imagery and focusing on philosophical self-analysis and questions about the meaning of life. His fiction (such as Call to Arms) focuses more on depicting and critiquing external social reality, while his essays are more directly topical and polemical, sharp and plain in style.

Why is Wild Grass considered difficult? Are there ways to aid understanding?

Its difficulty lies in its highly personal symbolic system, dense philosophical metaphor and the specific emotional background of the time. Read an edition with detailed annotations (such as the annotated edition from People's Literature Publishing House) and consult studies by scholars such as Sun Yushi and Leo Ou-fan Lee, approaching it through historical context, the author's life and intertextual reading.

What is the core theme of Wild Grass?

The core theme is how the individual insists on resistance and forward movement in conditions of extreme despair, nothingness and solitude. It expresses the philosophy of "resisting despair": even knowing the road ahead may lead to the grave, one must still press on like the "passerby"—a profound interrogation of the meaning of existence.

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About the author

Lu Xun Author · China · 1881–1936

Lu Xun, originally named Zhou Shuren and styled Yucai, was a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and a leading modern Chinese writer and thinker as well as a representative figure of the New Culture Movement. With works such as "A Madman's Diary" and "The True Story of Ah Q," he laid the foundation of modern Chinese fiction. His writing often focuses on the spiritual condition of ordinary people and on social reality, in a cold, concise style rich in critique and self-reflection. His story collections "Call to Arms" and "Wandering" and his prose collection "Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk" are widely read, and his works are often classified as classics, social fiction, and documentary literature. The library holds as many as 499 editions of his works, showing that they continue to be read, anthologized, and circulated. Public information is limited, so this is only a brief account of his life's key points and creative character.