Shi Zhecun’s “Elegy for Master Lu Xun” and its preface, written around the end of 1956, clearly express his understanding and evaluation of Lu Xun, and his attitude toward Lu Xun has always been respectful. At the same time, they also display his reflection and introspection on his controversy with Lu Xun, not only reviewing his own short-sightedness of being a “well frog presuming to measure the sea”, but also insisting on his consistent position of “I aspire to promote essay”. As for Lu Xun’s “frowning at the evil young men” and its adverse effects, Shi’s heart still hurt despite his efforts to downplay them. Previously, commentators paid little attention to this poem, thus ignoring its significance to the study of Shi and his relationship with Lu Xun. Since this poem is a long five-character poem in ancient style, the preface is written with pianwen (parallel writing), and it contains many allusions, I will try to annotate it for the benefit of readers and researchers.
Different versions of novels in the new era through the writers’ revision or rewriting has not been paid due academic attention. Different versions of novels are produced in three periods particularly. Among these revisions and rewritings, the “substantive textual variants” center round expressions that are politically sensitive or that are concerned with sex scenes. Other changes are made concerning artistic perfection and socio-historical requirements. Apart from political factors, literary awards, commercialization, film and television adaptation, copyright, regional culture, network and new media, as well as changes in the context of globalization, are also contributing reasons for textual modification and variation. Textual criticism of novels in the new era is of great academic value in promoting the collation and indexing of contemporary literary texts and documents, enriching the awareness of problematization and methodologies in contemporary literary research, and advocating accuracy in literary history research.
In the era of “after theory”, it is always a heated scholarly issue to debate over the future of Western literary studies. Recently, Rita Felski and Joseph North respectively advance their arguments as to how literary studies as a discipline can overcome its methodological and disciplinary impasse. After a scrutiny of the inherent flaws of contemporary criticism, Felski suggests that we choose to practice “post-critique” so as to avoid the restraints of the “hermeneutics of suspicion”. She is much in favor of Latour’s “Actor Network Theory”, which in her view is a significant new tool to reorganize literary criticism. North’s study starts with a new periodization of literary theory, followed by a poignant critique of the so-called “scholarly turn” in literary criticism dominated by neo-liberalism. He concludes with a prediction about the possible paradigm shift of criticism, after reviewing all sorts of new trends in the twenty-first century literary studies. The two scholars, in spite of their obviously incongruent positions, offer some insightful observations regarding the future of Western literary studies, and in doing so they might unwittingly hold an interesting dialogue.
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasty, Mao Jin paid much attention to celebrated works, which was embodied in the selection and compilation of his Sixty Plays. It included the classic dramas of the Yuan dynasty such as Romance of the Western Chamber and Tale of the Pipa, which had been canonized since the late Ming dynasty. The book also included more contemporary works such as The Peony Pavilion, which became noted as they were circulated among greater audiences. The selection of “potentially” famous dramas such as Xilou Ji and Feiwan Ji was in line with Mao Jin’s consistent pursuit of rare and secret editions, and manifested his deep understanding of the internal characteristics and standards of celebrated dramas. Mao Jin’s attentiveness to celebrated dramas reflected his sentimentality as a literato as well as his conception of drama. His perception of lyricism and didacticism, textual reading and stage performance, as well as wencai (literary grace) and bense (true qualities) were important embodiment of shared understanding about drama after the controversy between Tang Xianzu and Shen Jing in the late Ming dynasty. Such predispositions were also collectively reflected in the dramatic production and fashion of performance during the late Ming dynasty.
