Understanding Wild Grass by Talking to Oneself: Lu Xun’s Yecao through the Lens of Ziyan Ziyu and the Prism of the Past

Abstract

This article makes a reinterpretation of Lu Xun’s acclaimed prose poetry collection Yecao (Wild grass), written between 1924-27, by reading it in conjunction with a rediscovered prototype consisting of seven pieces published in Guomin gongbao (The citizen’s gazette) between August and September 1919 under the title Ziyan ziyu (Talking to oneself). Lu Xun’s baihua prose style had advanced considerably in the interim, but the author discerns a degree of thematic overlap between the two collections, on the basis of which he proposes answers to key questions that have been asked about Yecao since its first publication, concluding that it is still as fresh and avant-garde a collection to readers today as it was nearly one hundred years ago.

Keywords

Lu Xun (1881-1936) / Yecao / Wild Grass / Chinese prose poetry / sanwen shi / modern Chinese literature / May Fourth / New Culture Movement

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2019 Higher Education Press and Brill