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Abstract

Critical creative philosophical thinking internally transforms the concrete understandings of the world articulated in Confucian and Taoist philosophy. This mode of thinking constitutes the philosophical condition that makes Chinese literary classics possible, yet it also revels a blind spot in Chinese philosophical studies, which have often remained confined to cognitive interpretations of pre-Qin philosophy. Lu Xun consciously aligned himself with a tradition of literary-philosophical thinking represented by figures such as Zhuang Zi, Sima Qian, Su Shi, and Cao Xueqin. Taking The Classic of Mountains and Seas as a foundational text for understanding life, he undertook a critical reexamination of both Chinese and Western philosophy. Through this inquiry, Lu Xun identified the philosophical problem of the numbness of life among the Chinese people, a condition that shaped a series of literary figures, including Kong Yiji, Xianglin's wife, Runtu. These creations established Lu Xun's position as a modern literary philosopher in the history of Chinese literature and philosophy. However, unlike Cao Xueqin, Lu Xun ultimately failed to provide a philosophical solution to the problem of “man-eating” through the creation of “new people.” This failure lies in the fact that the life numbness he exposed was not subjected to sufficiently concrete philosophical analysis. Moreover, the critical measure of “man-eating” bears clear traces of both Western and Chinese humanitarianism, rendering the philosophical project of “man-building” incomplete and, to a certain extent, illusionary. This limitation reflects the constraints of Lu Xun's non-systematic philosophical critical creativity, which tents to emphasize grieving over understanding and confrontation over reformation.

Keywords

figurative philosophy, life numbness, critique of man-eating, illusionary construction of men, Lu Xun's limitations

First Page

43

Last Page

54

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