“自然状态”及其终结——《狂人日记》重释

The “State of Nature” and Its Termination——A Reinterpretation of A Madman’s Diary

以霍布斯所描述的“自然状态”重释《狂人日记》,有助于构建阐释该小说思想内涵的新视角,更为深入地揭示鲁迅启蒙思想的内在理路。“自然状态”下的人因缺乏安全感,而互相怀疑和敌视。在《狂人日记》中,“怕”是贯穿小说始终的氛围和情境,狂人由自身的恐惧感,认识到其普遍性。他更进而发现,“吃/被吃”已成为固化的结构;“吃人者”与“被吃者”分享着同样的价值观,二者共同造成了“从来如此”的局面。狂人因确立了历史不断进步的观念,劝说周围人担负起对于他人、历史的责任;但因意识到自己无法成为“真的人”,其呼告最终落实为“救救孩子”。鲁迅在“五四”后仍坚持了精神革新的思路。

A reinterpretation of A Madman’s Diary by means of Thomas Hobbes’ s “state of nature” is helpful to construct a new perspective to explain the ideological connotation of the novel as well as to further reveal the inner logic of Lu Xun’s enlightenment thought. Persons in the “state of nature” are hostile to and suspicious of each other due to their lack of a sense of security. Fear is the atmosphere and situation throughout A Madman’s Diary, and the madman recognizes its universality through his own sense of fear. Moreover, he discovers that “to eat/to be eaten” has become a solidified structure, for persons to “eat” and those to “be eaten” share the same values, and together they create a state that “it has always been such a case”. As the madman, by establishing the concept of continuous progress in history, tried to persuade persons around to be responsible for others and history, but his appeal was eventually implemented as “saving the children” after his realization that he could not turn into a “real person”. Lu Xun still persisted in the spiritual innovation after the May 4th Movement.