Abstract
An archaic tradition as old as a score of centuries, like the dirt that gathered upon tombs, weighed heavily on the coffin lids of dead women. In the fierce thunderstorms of the May Fourth Movement, this land, like a giant jailhouse, dark as iron and stinking with blood, suddenly cracked, and a generation of young women rebels of “Young China” crept out of it to emerge in history. They were so young and so exhilarated, yet at the same time so anxious and bewildered. They were “Noras” who ran away from home, among whom we find Lu Yin. The door that slammed heavily behind them was not the door to their Husband’s house where they were treated as dolls. It was instead the door to the house of their Father, where they had been brought up, “caged” and cared for, raised only to change hands once a marriage was offered.
Lu Yin, the first important woman writer in modern Chinese literature, acclaimed as one of “The Talented Three from Fuzhou,” Fujian, enjoying equal fame with Bing Xin and Lin Huiyin.
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Notes
- 1.
“Iron house” or “iron room,” a metaphor coined by Lu Xun for the political situation in early twentieth-century China. Lu Xun invented it in the preface to his short story collection, Call to Arms, 1923: “Suppose in an iron house without windows, absolutely unbreakable, many people, sunk in sleep, will soon die of suffocation.”
- 2.
A famous bridge in Hanzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, named after a tragic love story between a young man and a fairy snake woman, later a popular analogy for destined failures.
- 3.
A long epic written by Guo Moruo (1892–1978) in 1920, representative poem of his collection, Goddess, Nüshen. Guo Moruo, penname of Guo Kaizhen, was a leading poet, writer, historian and archeologist of twentieth century China.
- 4.
Qin Zhu, leading character in Lu Yin’s 1930 novella, “Ivory Rings,” Xiangya jiezhi, based on the love story of Shi Pingmei (1902–1928), a well-noted woman writer and activist in the May Fourth era.
- 5.
Zhu Lifen, leading character in Lu Yin’s three-act play The Conflict, Chongtu, a Western drama written in 1929.
- 6.
Traditional Chinese curtains on widows were rolled up or pulled down.
- 7.
Yaxia, protagonist in Lu Yin’s epistolary short story, “Somebody’s Lament,” Huoren de beiai, 1924.
- 8.
A collection of diaries and short stories by Lu Yin, published in 1927.
- 9.
Shalü, protagonist of “Where Shall She Return,” Hechu shi guicheng, a short story by Lu Yin.
- 10.
An essay by Mao Dun, written on June 7, 1934 on Lu Yin’s death in May, 1934, publicized in his monthly journal, Literature, Wenxue, in July, 1934.
- 11.
Danko, the epic hero in the 1895 short story of the great proletariat Russian writer Maxim Gorky (1868–1936), “Danko.” Set in the ancient time when a clan were driven into the deep darkness of the primeval forest, Danko held his heart burning like a torchlight and led his people out of the forest, and died. His heart was sanctified as a star in the sky.
- 12.
The line contains the source of the Ming Poet, Li Zhi’s poem from his collection Burn Books–Various Opinions in 1590: “Grab other’s wine cup/To wash down my own angst.”
- 13.
Daiyu, the tragic leading female character in A Dream of Red Mansions.
- 14.
Claude Bremond (1929–2021), French professor of Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, author of the influential monograph, Logique du Récit, 1973.
- 15.
Songwen, protagonist in Lu Yin’s short story “The Fall,” Lunluo, 1924. Most of her works were publicized in Short Story Monthly, Xiaoshuo yuebao, a very important literature periodical in 1920s and 1930s, edited successively by Mao Dun, Zheng Zhenduo (1898–1958) and Ye Shengtao.
- 16.
Lantian, protagonist in Lu Yin’s short story “Lantian’s Confessions,” Lantian chanhui lu, 1927.
- 17.
Xinfang, protagonist in Lu Yin’s 1925 short story “After the Victory,” Shengli yihou.
- 18.
Quote from “After the Victory.”
- 19.
Quote from “Dust of Dreams,” Qian chen, Lu Yin’s 1924 short story.
- 20.
Lishi, heroine in Lu Yin’s “Lishi’s Diary,” Lishi de riji.
- 21.
Le Nozze di Figaro, a play written by French playwright Beaumarchais (1732–1799) as one part of his Figaro Trilogy, adapted by Italian librettist Lorenzo da Ponte (1749–1838) with music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1971) and premiered in 1786. Le Barbier de Séville, another play of Beaumarchais’ Figaro Trilogy, and also adapted into the popular opera of the same title by Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868), premiered in 1816.
- 22.
Yunqing, character in “Seaside Friends.”
- 23.
Shi Pingmei named her dormitory as Plum Nest when teaching in Beijing Normal University Middle School.
- 24.
Probably the name Lu Yin gave to her studio with the allusion to the famous poem by the great Tang poet, Du Fu (712–770), “My Cottage Unroofed by Autumn Winds.”
- 25.
Zongying and Lingyu, characters in “Seaside Friends.”
- 26.
Jia Baoyu, leading character in Cao Xueqin’s novel A Dream of Red Mansions. His dream in Chapter Five is the topical dream of the novel, in which he travels in a fantasyland and reads all the verdict poems for the fates of many female characters in the novel.
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Meng, Y., Dai, J. (2023). Lu Yin: “Wimps Standing in Front of Life’s Diverging Paths”. In: Emerging from the Horizon of History. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4004-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4004-2_3
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