«Raccogliendo la veccia» di Lu Xun

Abstract

The present article focuses on a short story written by Lu Xun in 1935, «Gathering Vetch», later included in Gushi Xinbian (Old Tales Retold). In this text the author has been faithful to the official biography of the two legendary hermits Boyi and Shuqi, as it was recorded by Sima Qian and commented by Confucius, while on the other hand he could not fail to contaminate it with his irreverent wit, as well as with a variety of unmistakably modern narrative devices. Through a close reading of this single work, the article aims at analyzing Lu Xun’s ambivalent yet vital relationship with the Chinese tradition and folklore; it shows how the writer mingled the most authoritative historical texts (zhengshi) with the unofficial history (yeshi) and oral culture. This mixture between orality and the sacred written word of the Classics was not intended to demystify the canon for the sheer pleasure of it; rather, as this article tries to prove, Lu Xun engaged in a profound and radical rethinking of the Chinese past by retelling it in a new way.

Keywords

• Cai Wei. Gushi Xinbian. Lu Xun. Rewriting history. Sima Qian