Old Stories Retold & Arrogance
Mankind was not created to be exalted but designed to be humbled. [Deuteronomy 8:11-20; Proverbs 16; Zephaniah 2:12-15, 3:1-13; Phillipians 2:1-11; 1 Peter 5:1-6; Luke 18:9-14] Lu Xun paints a picture of contemporary China by recasting old legends to represent what he thought was the contemporary country's issues, hence the title of the tome, Old Stories Retold. One classic blunder of mankind is arrogance. Arrogance is a stereotypically ubiquitous sin; even Adam and Eve thought higher of themselves than they should have, for they placed themselves higher than the Lord Himself. Lu Xun represents throughout these stories the folly in thinking one matters more than they do, that one is more important than one actually is.
Arrogance shows itself in two forms, the first of which is exaggeration. This is shown in "Flight to the Moon," where the archer Yi exaggerates his role in his relationship with Chang'e. He positions himself as her sole provider, as the center of her life, in their struggle to find food to eat. He says, "And now they're all gone [the animals] – who'd have thought it? How we'll manage in the future, I have no idea. I'm not so bothered about myself – that elixir of immortality the Daoist priest gave me's my ticket to heaven. But I’ve got to see you right first. . ."[1] He quite bluntly says how significant he sees himself to be, but he will be swiftly humbled when Chang'e drinks that potion when he goes out the next day. Even when she steals his immortality elixir, Yi says "How could she have left me like that? Did she think I was getting past it? Just last month she told me how young I still was. That the moment you start thinking you're old, you're halfway to the grave."[2] He can’t see that she was fed up with the life she was living and wanted out of it. He assumes there was something surface-level about her leaving, that she just thought he was too old or something. Yi is not asserting himself to his wife throughout this story – far from it. Arrogance is not dependent on assertion, though. Chang'e made it clear how little Yi means to her, and Yi thought too highly of himself to be able to accept the information; he puts his position as provider much higher than it is in reality – not that Chang'e is not being arrogant in assuming she is above Yi. She fails to consider their circumstances and assumes Yi's work ethic, assumes his value. When presented with dinner at the start of the story, she says "Crow, crow and more crow! With fried-bean noodles! Who else d'you know has to eat crow and fried noodles every day, from one end of the year to the other? What did I do to deserve this?"[3] She places her worth – as deserving the best meal instead of nourishing food – at this echelon with no basis. She thinks highly enough of herself to steal Yi's potion, figuring herself worthy of it, worthy of ascension, of escape. She meant a lot to Yi, but she takes this admiration and twists it and stretches it into far more than it actually is. This kind of thing also shows itself in "Bringing Back the Dead," a scoffing of the Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, one of the founders of Taoism. In the story, Zhuangzi is traveling and finds a skull. He takes it upon himself to bring the skull back to life, using the power of the God of Fate. Some ghosts come up before he does this and tell him to mind his business, and Zhunagzi responds to them: "ZHUANGZI: You’re the idiots! You know nothing about dying." Then the God of Fate admonishes Zhunagzi in much the same way, and Zhunagzi responds similarly: "You really have no idea, do you, O God? Life and death are mere constructs."[4] These responses speak for themselves. The God of Fate gives Zhuangzi what he asks for, and the revived man accuses Zhuangzi of robbing his clothes, as the newly revived man cannot tell he has been dead for five hundred years, and calls the police on Zhuangzi. The policeman does let Zhunagzi go since the philosopher had business with the emperor, but the new man leaves behind a mess that he and the policeman have to deal with. As usual, one's inner sin does not ever stay on the inside. Zhuangzi is important, but again, he takes this pushes it to unreal limits, thinking him much more important and knowledgeable than he actually is.
Arrogance also shows itself in invention, as the scholarly people of Mount Culture in "Taming the Flood" invent their own importance. They sit on their mountain, provided for by foreigners, and think on things. The word "think" is used intentionally – the scholars do not ponder, do not wonder, do not search. They are the kinds to stick their nose in a book and give no glance to the real world, to consider "facts and evidence" over truth, to connect pieces together without considering what the complete picture is supposed to look like to begin with. In the story, the scholars' focus is on Yu, a person assigned by the emperor to try and withdraw the flood waters. The story starts with them arguing about this:
"'No son of Gun [Gun is Yu's father; this is not a metaphor] will succeed in controlling the floods,' one learned individual with a walking stick declared. 'I have not only collected, but also actually examined, a vast number of genealogies of kings, dukes, ministers and rich men.
"Only one conclusion thrusts itself out at me. . . if Gun was unsuccessful, his son will be equally so, because the stupid never give birth to the clever!'"[5]
The other scholars respond in similar ways, with most concluding that Yu is not even real. The scholar has not considered the complexities of life, nor the intersection of conflicts in the human life, et cetera. In arrogance, he has assumed that he can read one source and come to the correct conclusion – in his arrogance, he assumes he can select a work of such importance. Naturally, the scholar does not have this ability – he simply seeks the sources he is drawn to seek and forms the conclusions he is drawn to form without the discipline needed to correctly parse them. In his arrogance, he assumes he already has this discipline. Yu, of course, does exist, and he does propose radical changes in an attempt to help the flooding – changes that greatly deviate from Gun's way of doing things. The academics invent everything from thin air, most notably their own high opinions of themselves. The government (under Yu) comes around to study culture in the current flooded world and ways to make life easier. When the government asks the academics to "make a report," the academics struggle a lot to do so! Obviously they have invented their own value. "Forging the Swords" also gives us a protagonist who invents his own importance, though it is by the means of other characters. This story follows Mei Jiangshi, a kid who is tasked by his mother with killing the king to avenge his father. He is unprepared for this task, of course, but his mother puts it on him anyway. Being a kid, he feels capable of anything, especially anything that seems important. His first assassination attempt goes rather awful, as he is stopped by someone before he can even pull out his sword. Someone comes to his help, though. The helper frees Mei from the attacker and offers to help with assassinating the king: "Justice, pity – once, these words were pure. Now, they are the debased capital of fiendish usurers. I know nothing of these things. All I seek is revenge on your behalf."[6] His method of doing this is quite surreal: he cuts off Mei's head, but keeps Mei alive. He then offers himself to the king as a jester and uses his magic to entertain him, cutting off the king's head during a moment without guard and letting the king and Mei fight (as only their heads) in a cauldron of boiling water. Mei is good but not quite a match for the king, so Mei's help cuts off his own head and joins the battle. With his help, the king is killed. "When they were satisfied that the king's head was indeed dead, they locked glances, smiled, then closed their eyes, faced upwards and sank to the bottom of the cauldron."[7] They are quite satisfied, though they cannot see the fruitlessness of their actions in their disembodied state. The king is dead. The court is sad and the king is buried. That is all. The entire revenge plot had no real end goal, as revenge tends to do. Mei and the man who helped him merely invented the end goal, perhaps with help from peers. They thought quite highly of themselves and extended their bloated self opinion to their actions and goals, and both deflated.
You likely have picked up on this by now, but exaggeration and invention within arrogance always comes together. One of the two is the instigator, the primary motive, and it necessarily brings along the other. Yi and Chang'e had real roles in their marriage, but they chose to invent roles anyway, with Chang'e seeing herself as the perfect mistress and Yi seeing himself as the fulfillment of Chang'e's needs; neither of the two were ever those things. Zhunagzi imagined himself as master over life and death, having power and ultimate knowledge over both, but of course he was master of nothing and relied entirely on others. The scholars of Mount Culture invented their sophisticated demeanors, but when the arrival of the senior officials examining the effects of the flood prompts a visit from reality, they exaggerate what they can define as real in self-defense. Mei's invented persona largely came from other people's wants, which led Mei to exaggerate his own capabilities in order to make himself believe he could fulfill those wants.
Of course, to be rid of arrogance, we turn to Christ and submit to Him, prostrating ourselves before our Savior and humbling ourselves before others, but do not be so quick to assign Christ as one would a cure. Christ is a Person, not a pill. If one is to be humbled, one must want to be rid of arrogance. Christ is not in the business of wanton changing of people's personalities. In his fiction, Lu Xun often tries to point out remedies for the 'spiritual illness' of China. He fails spectacularly because he fails to understand that problems cannot be simply solved. Christ calls us to be disciples, not doctors. We are called to submit to Him and follow Him. He will have mercy on whom He has mercy, and He is not slow as some would describe slowness but patient, waiting for all the world to be saved, every last person who can be saved, before He establishes his Kingdom and defeats Sin finally and eternally.