孔乙己

Before anyone asks “What on earth does the title mean?” I’ll do a quick explanation.

The title (pronounced Kong Yi Ji) is a character from a novel written by the great Chinese novelist Lu Xun (鲁迅).

And before I move on to talk about the topic related to this character, here’s the story in gist:

Kong was a scholar who repeatedly failed the Imperial Exams in China. In addition to his failed academic career, he’s also poor, for he’s never held a job for long.

But despite his failure and poverty, he still feels self-important as a scholar. He continues to wear his chang shan (长衫), the standard dress for the literati at that time, even though it’s torn and dirty.

And because of his poverty, he has resorted to stealing books from others to get money for wine.

He buys his wine from a tavern that he frequents, but every time he’s there, the people in the tavern, from the boss to the customers, even the young assistant, who’s the narrator in the novel, makes fun of him.

They say things like: “You’ve gone stealing again!” “How come you can’t even get a Xiu Cai! (秀才, the lowest level in the Imperial Exams)”

Kong will then get moralistic, quoting all the Confucian classics, much to the laughter of the people in the tavern.

He could have settled for a job writing and reading letters for the illiterate folk in the town, but again, owing to his self-importance as a “scholar”, he didn’t.

Eventually, he didn’t come to the tavern for days. Everyone was initially curious, but soon after, life simply went on without him.

The last time he came to the tavern, he was crawling. Turns out, he was caught stealing from Ding juren (举人, the second level in the Imperial Exams), who got his henchmen to beat him up, till his legs broke. But despite his sorry state, he received no sympathies, and after drinking his wine, he crawled out of the tavern, never to return.

What are the lessons from the story?

First, whether Kong deserved any sympathies.

He does, if you consider the sorry state he ended up in. stealing is wrong, but being beaten to that state is way too much. It exposes the inequality of society, and the injustice that people in power inflict over the weak in society.

But nevertheless, he has himself to blame for his predicament. His self-importance as a “scholar”, albeit a failed one, his refusal to settle for a decent, respectable job, and his irrelevance, quoting Confucian classics while living in the modern world, creates the situation where he cannot be accepted by society.

In addition, “morals” and so-called “principles” are mere excuses for the failure to improve and reflect on his predicament.

Actually, though the story is set in the 20th century, many things remain relevant to our times. In any society in any time, there’s always a Kong Yi Ji, who’s always bullied and ridiculed, who’s unwilling to face failure, who’s unwilling to change and improve, who’s unwilling to adapt to changing times, and who is so insignificant, life for everyone else goes on, with or without him.