When Lu Xun Was a Child
Wang Shijing

As a child, Lu Xunwas in the charge of a nurse called Mama Chang. She was an honest countrywoman. At first she must have been a young widow in the countryside, who wentto town to seek a living for herself after her husband died and she lost herland. Nobody knew what her name was. As Lu Xun’s grandmother called her “AChang”, other people also called her by the same name. but the children usuallycalled her “Mama Chang”. She was so full of mysterious lore and had so manyrules of behaviour that the children sometimes found her quite puzzling. Forinstance, if someone died, you not say he was dead but “he has passed away”.You should not enter a room where someone had died or a child had been born. Ifa grain of rice fell to the ground, you should pick it up, and the best thingwas to eat it. On no account must you walk under the bamboo pole on whichtrousers or pants were hanging out to dry. She would not let the children getup to mischief. If they pulled up a weed or turned over a stone, she would saythey were naughty and threaten to tell their mother. In the beginning, thechildren did not think much of her. Lu Xun was especially angry with her whenshe inadvertently stepped on and killed his favourite little mouse. However,one thing which unexpectedly made Lu Xun feel respect for her was that sheoften told the children stories of the “Long Hairs” (the Taiping Rebellion)another thing which inspired Lu Xun with a still greater respect for her wasthat she was able to produce from nobody knew where an illustrated edition ofthe Book of Hills and Seas(1), which Lu Xun had been longing for day and night.

Lu Xun had beenlonging for an illustrated copy of the Book of Hills and Seas for sometime. Thewhole business started with a distant great-uncle named Yutian, who was livingin the same compound. A fat and kindly old man, he liked to grow flowers suchas chloranthus and jasmine. The old man was a lonely soul with no one to talkto, so he like the children’s company and often even called them his “youngfriends”. He owned a big collection of books, one of which was called TheMirror of Flowers(2) with many beautiful illustrations of flowers and trees.The children found this book most attractive. But the old man told them thatthe illustrated edition of the Book of Hills and Seas even more attractive,with pictures of man-faced beasts, nine-headed snakes, three-footed birds,winged men and headless monsters who used their teats as eyes… Unfortunately,he happened to have mislaid it. Eager as they were to look at the book withsuch strange pictures, the children did not like to press him to find it. Noneof the people the children asked knew where to get it, and the children had noidea where they could buy it them- selves. The main street was a long way fromtheir home, and the New Year holiday was the only time in the year when theywere able to go there to look around, but during that period the bookshops wereclosed. As long as the children were playing, it was not so bad, but the momentthey sat down they would think of the Book of Hills and Seas. Probably becauseLu Xun harped on the subject somuch, even A Chang got wind of it and startedasking what this Book of Hills and Seas was. Lu Xun then told her about it.

About a fortnightor a month later, Mama Chang came back after some leave at home and the momentshe saw Lu Xun, she handed him a package. “Here, son!” she said cheerfully.“I’ve bought you that Book of Holy Seas with pictures.” What an unexpectedpiece of news! To young Lu Xun it was even more thrilling than the New Yearholiday or a festival. He hastened to take the package and unwrap the paper.There were four small volumes and, sure enough, the man-faced beast, thenine-headed snake… all of them were there. Although the paper was yellow andthe drawings very poor—so much so that even the animals’ eyes were oblong, andboth the engraving and printing were very crude, nevertheless, it was Lu Xun’smost treasured book. Later, in a highly impassioned essay Lu Xun paid tributeto this country woman of peasant origin and described his own deep affectionfor her.

The book wasindeed something extraordinary. Lu Xun received it from Mama Chang’s handsalong with her incomparably deep affection for him. It touched the young Lu Xunmore deeply than any other book he had read.

Of all thechildren at home, his grandmother loved Lu Xun most. On summer evenings when LuXun was lying on a small wooden table under an osmanthus tree to enjoy theevening cool, she would sit by the table with a palm-leaf fan in her hand.Waving the fan, she would tell him stories or ask him riddles. She was veryfamiliar with folk tales. The cat, she said, was the tiger’s teacher.Originally the tiger couldn’t do any thing, so he turned to the cat for help.The cat taught him how to pounce and catch his prey the way that he caughtrats. After these lessons the tiger said to himself, “Now that I’ve masteredall the skills no other creatures is a match for me except my master the cat.If I kill the cat I shall be king of the beasts.” He made up his mind to dothis, and was about to pounce on the cat. But the cat knew what he was up toand he leaped up onto a tree. The tiger was left squatting below and glaringupwards. The cat had not taught all his skills: he had not taught the tiger toclimb trees. His grandmother also told Lu Xun the story “Flooding JinshanMonastery”. A man named Xu Xian rescued two snakes, one white and one green.The white snake changed into a woman to repay Xu’s kindness and married him,while the green snake changed into her maid and accompanied her. A Buddhistmonk by the name of Fa Hai saw from Xu’s face that he had been bewitched by anevil spirit, so he hid Xu behind the shrine in Jinshan Monastery, and when LadyWhite Snake came to look for her husband the whole place was flooded. In theend Fa Hai trapped Lady White Snake, and put her in a small alms-bowl. Heburied this bowl in the ground, and built a pagoda over it to prevent hergetting out. This was Leifeng Pagoda by West Lake. The story made young Lu Xununcomfortable. He was deeply concerned at the injustice done to Lady WhiteSnake, and his one wish at that time was for the pagoda imprisoning Lady WhiteSnake underneath it soon to collapse. Later, Lu Xun used this folktale in anessay opposing the reactionary rule of the forces of darkness.