Lu Xun is a famous literary scholar and thinker in modern China, and his essays, literary translations and reviews have influenced several generations of Chinese. Throughout his life, Lu Xun made significant contributions to literary creation, literary criticism, ideological research, literary history research, translation and other fields. He has had a significant impact on the development of Chinese society, ideology and culture after the May Fourth Movement, and his reputation transcends national boundaries and even radiates to Japan, South Korea and other countriesHe was praised by the famous Korean literary critic Kim Yang-shou as "the writer who occupies the largest territory on the cultural map of East Asia in the 20th century". * He also once commented that "the direction of Lu Xun is the direction of the new culture of the Chinese nation." ”
What is little known is that Lu Xun's first work was in the 32nd year of Guangxu (1906), co-authored with Gu Lang, a classmate from Nanjing (Jiangning in the Qing Dynasty), who was also studying at Nanjing Road Mining School, and published by Nanjing Qixin Book Company (and later reprinted by Shanghai Popular Book Company) Natural science work - "China Mineral Chronicles", when Lu Xun was only 25 years old.
Lu Xun has also made pioneering and outstanding contributions to the compilation of China's geological research and characteristic professional chronicles, and Huang Jiqing, a geologist and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, commented, "Lu Xun is the first scholar to write and explain China's geological articles, and "China's Geology" and "China's Mineral Chronicles" are the first chapter in the history of China's geological work, and are pioneering achievements in the history of China's geology. It has created a precedent for the compilation of China's mineral chronicles. Lu Xun was even praised by later generations as "the first person in Chinese geology".
As early as the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu (1898), Lu Xun's grandfather Zhou Jiefu was imprisoned for cheating in the science field, and his father Zhou Boyi fell ill and died early, resulting in the unfortunate bankruptcy of the family and no longer had enough money for him to go to school. But Lu Xun was unwilling to drop out of school and was depressed all day long. At that time, Lu Xun heard the news that there was a school in Nanjing that recruited students to study for free, so he asked his mother's consent, packed up his simple suits, and took the eight yuan that his family could barely scrape, bid farewell to his hometown Shaoxing, and traveled hundreds of miles to Nanjing to apply for a tuition-free school.
In this year, Lu Xun was admitted to the "Jiangnan Sailor School" (the site still exists) near Rujiangmen in Nanjing under the real name of Zhou Zhangshou, which is also regarded as the earliest private school education he received that was different from his hometown focusing on the imperial examination, and then Lu Xun changed his name to Zhou Shuren.
Jiangnan Naval Academy was founded in the sixteenth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1890), as a military school opened by the Qing Dynasty in the Westernization Movement, as a base for cultivating scientific and technological and military professionals, and is the cradle of the earliest training of naval talents in modern China. Although it was a naval school opened during the Westernization Movement, the basic courses offered were mainly English and ancient Chinese, and the education of a typical semi-colonial and semi-feudal society was practiced.
In the second year, Lu Xun soon transferred to the "Mining Railway School", which is located at the site of the current middle school affiliated to Nanjing Normal University.
The Mining Railway School, originally a railway specialized school, was opened with the approval of Emperor Guangxu by Zhang Zhidong, a representative of the Westernization faction. Liu Kunyi, the later governor of Liangjiang, heard that Qinglong Mountain on the outskirts of Nanjing contained coal, and the grade was not low and profitable. In order to train specialized mining technicians, the original mining and railway-related majors were integrated, and this mining railway school was set up "in imitation of the German system". The school's curriculum is mainly based on mining, supplemented by railways. This is an early mining school in China, and Lu Xun is an early graduate of the school.
In addition to learning German, Lu Xun was particularly interested in these new subjects, and he worked tirelessly and diligently to study Xi them. Lu Xun was never satisfied with the teacher's lecture in class, he looked for books everywhere after class, and once carefully copied the translation of the famous British geologist Ryle's "Elements of Geology", and even the relevant geological structure maps that were difficult to draw were also depicted, bound into two thick books, and often flipped through. Lu Xun's transcript in Nanjing Mining Road School still retains the results of his major courses such as mining, geology, chemistry, smelting, latticology, measurement, and cartography. Among them, Lu Xun's lowest score is 8 points and 5 cents, and the highest score is 8 points and 7 cents (10 points). As Lu Xun later said: "The first thing I learned seriously was mining Xi, and it may be better for me to talk about coal digging than to talk about literature." ”
Lu Xun's living conditions and Xi conditions at that time were extremely difficult, and he could not wear cotton pants in winter, let alone buy extracurricular books. In order to satisfy his thirst for knowledge, he did not hesitate to sell the prizes he received for his excellent grades and buy the relevant books that he needed most. At this time, Lu Xun learned that Yan Fu's translation of "The Theory of Heavenly Evolution" by the British scholar Huxley was on sale in Nanjing, so he hurriedly went to a bookstore in the south of the city on Sunday and gritted his teeth and spent 500 yuan to buy a copy. This is one of the earliest books in modern China that directly introduces the theoretical works of the European bourgeoisie. Lu Xun read and thought hungrily, refusing to put down his book until late at night. During this period, the works of Rousseau and Montesquieu that he read gave him new spiritual strength. So, he began to write poems under the pseudonym of "Jia Jiansheng", and also engraved three stamps of "Jia Jiansheng", "The article misunderstood me" and "Rongma Scholar", to show that he realized that reading ancient books in the past was useless in the world, and that he was wasting his time.
At that time, more and more social sciences and natural sciences were introduced into China, and the study of the West was spreading to the East, and the idea of bourgeois democratic revolution had gradually become a trend of social thought. Once, the principal of the Mining and Railway School used the title of "Washington Theory" to evaluate the relevant teachers, but some Chinese language teachers could not even understand the meaning of the topic, and did not know the meaning of the word "Washington". For Lu Xun, a young man who had already begun to come into contact with the Western bourgeois democratic ideas propagated by the reformers, these winter baking teachers who "made people known for their faintness" simply made him laugh.
In November of the 27th year of Guangxu (1901), Lu Xun and his classmates went to Qinglongshan Coal Mine under the leadership of the teacher for a field trip and went down to the mine to dig coal, which lasted 13 days. Qinglongshan Coal Mine is located in the southeast of Nanjing, which is located in the Xiangshan Coal Mine of Guantang Coal Mine in Jiangning District, Nanjing City today (Xiangshan Coal Mine was first called Qinglongshan Coal Mine). Qinglongshan Coal Mine was opened in the 22nd year of Guangxu (1896), when the coal mine was very bad, with backward technology, chaotic management, and extremely bad working conditions for miners. Lu Xun also mentioned in the article "Morning Flowers and Evening Pick-ups" that during his Xi in the coal mine, he personally experienced that "the situation in the mine is really quite bleak, of course the pumping machine is still rotating, but the water in the mine is half a foot deep, and the top is also dripping down, and several miners are working like ghosts here."
The miserable life of the miners underground left a deep impression on Lu Xun. Even so, Mr. Lu Xun's study experience in and out of Nanjing played an extremely important role in Lu Xun's accumulation and improvement of knowledge in geology and mineralogy, and absorbed and reserved rich relevant professional knowledge for the compilation and publication of China Mineral Chronicles.
On September 7, the 27th year of Guangxu (1901), the Qing Dynasty signed an unequal Xinchou Treaty with 11 countries, including Britain, the United States, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, in Beijing. After that, the Westernization Movement was declared bankrupt and the Boxers were suppressed. The signing of the "Xinqiao Treaty" was like a heavy burden on the heads of the Chinese people; the situation in China was getting worse day by day, and major changes took place in the thinking of China's advanced intellectuals; the search for a strong country and a rich people was not only limited to the cultural and philosophical historical accumulation of Chinese civilization over the past 5,000 years, but also began to shift their attention to the philosophical thoughts, political and economic systems, and other major Western powers at that time. In the fields of basic science and theory, as well as the strong desire to change China's backward situation at that time, it was a powerful spiritual driving force to inspire the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
In December of the twenty-seventh year of Guangxu (1901), Lu Xun graduated from the Mining Railway School with excellent results. Under the influence of the bourgeois democratic revolution, in March of the 28th year of Guangxu (1902), the 22-year-old Lu Xun was sent to Japan to study at the official expense of the "Jiangnan Supervision and Training Office".
In the twenty-ninth year of Guangxu (1903), Lu Xun published the article "Outline of Chinese Geology" in the magazine "Zhejiang Chao" founded by the Zhejiang Association of Chinese Students in Japan during his study in Japan, and in the thirty-second year of Guangxu (1906), he cooperated with Gu Lang, a classmate who also studied in Japan, to publish "China Mineral Chronicle" (with "China Mineral Map"). The introduction of the Chronicle of Minerals of China is based on the Outline of Geology of China, and the Complete Map of Minerals of China is drawn by Gu Lang based on the content of Japan's Map of the Distribution of Major Minerals of the Qing Dynasty. They are all groundbreaking and influential in the history of Chinese geology (mineralogy). "Mineral Chronicles of China" is considered to be the first geological and mineral book in China, and has been published and reprinted by Qixin and Pupu Books.
Popular Books Co., Ltd. recommended "China Mineral Journal" as follows: "Gu Junlang, who studied at Tokyo Imperial University in Japan, and Zhou Junshu, who studied at Sendai Medical College, have always paid attention to mining for ......many years, special collection (search) collection of more than dozens of secret books of the east and west, and refer to the general chronicles of the provinces contained, summarize the fine deletion, the collection is the compilation. Collect the riches and record them accurately ......, an unprecedented work in the mining industry of our country, those who aspire to be rich in the country, must not be in a hurry to make a compilation. As soon as the "Mineral Chronicles of China" was published, it had a strong response among academics and readers—the first edition was published in May 1906In December of the same year, it was revised and republishedThree editions were updated in January 1907. It was published several times in eight months, which shows that the book had a great impact at the time. At that time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Industry of the Qing Dynasty also gave a high evaluation and recognition to the "China Mineral Chronicle", and subsequently, it was approved as a "national must-read" book by the Qing ** School and was approved as a "reference book for middle schools".
Lu Xun studied in Nanjing for four years. In a sense, Lu Xun's study experience in Nanjing objectively laid a fairly solid foundation in natural science. Although Lu Xun was no longer engaged in geology and minerals-related work, his early geological works played a role in promoting the localization of geology and the trend of "industry to save the country" in the intellectuals and industrialists in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China.
Nowadays, China's geological prospecting work has achieved rich results. As of 2012, the Ministry of Natural Resources has led various departments to compile the Mineral Geology of China, and as of 2021, 50 chronicles have been published, and more than 200 books are planned. Looking back at the geological works of Lu Xun and Gu Lang more than 100 years ago, their historical status and value are worthy of eternal memory by future generations.
The author is the editor-in-charge of the Local Chronicles Office of Qixia District, Nanjing).
Author: Zhang Shuangquan **China Social Science Network.