Lu Xun's work - "Pseudo Freedom Book"

"Pseudo-Freedom" by Lu Xun (From Satire to Humor)

From Satire to Humor

A satirist is dangerous.

If what he is satirizing is the illiterate, the murdered, the imprisoned, the oppressed, then that’s fine, because it can provide education to the so-called educated people who read his article. The wise man laughed, feeling even more brave and wise. However, the reason why today's satirists are satirists is that they are satirizing this first-class society of so-called educated intellectuals.

Because the irony is that in this first-class society, each member of it felt as if he was being stabbed, so they came out one by one secretly, and used Their sarcasm wants to kill the sarcastic person.

First they said he was sarcastic, and gradually they said he was abusive, witty, mean, hateful, a school bandit,

Master Shaoxing, etc., etc. . However, satire that satirizes society often remains "astonishingly long-standing". Even if foreigners who have been monks are promoted [2] or a tabloid is created to combat it, it is still ineffective. How can you not be angry

It’s like a dead man [3]!

The key is here: what he satirizes is society, and if society remains unchanged, this satire will continue to exist, and what you are stabbing is his individual. If his satire exists, Your sarcasm falls flat.

So, in order to defeat such hateful satirists, we have no choice but to change society.

However, social satirists are dangerous after all, especially in an era when some "literary writers" have become "the king's minions" [4] openly and covertly. Who of us is happy to be the protagonist in the "literary prison", but if we don't die, there will always be half a suffocation in our stomach, and we want to spit it out under the guise of laughing. Smiling will not offend others.

There is currently no legal requirement that citizens must cry with a sad face. It is not "illegal", Geike asserts.

I think: This is the reason why "humor" has become popular in writing since last year, but of course there are also a lot of them just "laughing for the sake of laughing

" .

However, I am afraid that this situation will not last long. "Humor" is neither domestically produced nor Chinese people are good at "humor"

And now it is really difficult to be humorous when. Therefore, although the person is humorous, he will inevitably change his appearance and become more inclined to satirize the society, that is, he will fall into the traditional "joking" and "seeking benefits".

March 2nd.

[1] This article was originally published in "Declaration·Free Talk" on March 7, 1933, signed by He Jiaqian.

[2] The foreigner who was a monk may refer to the international spy Trebicher Lincoln (TLincoln,

1879-1943), a Jew born in Hungary. He was active in Shanghai at that time, appearing as a monk with a Buddhist name.

〔3〕Yemo Ge is a commonly used lining word in Yuan music, which has no literal meaning; some are also written as Yebo Ge and Yemo Ge.

[4] The phrase "the king's minions" comes from "The Book of Songs·Xiaoya·Prayer to the Father": "To the king's minions." This refers to the accomplices of the reactionary faction.