FOR several years now I have been wanting to write "our story" of Ah Q. I am aware that this desire to write about such an insignificant person proves that I am not a man of immortal words, for from time immemorial immortal words have been used only to describe immortal personages, so that in the end it becomes impossible to tell whether the subject is immortalized by the writing or the writing by the subject. I have, nevertheless, undertaken to write about Ah Q, the devil knows why!
But at the very outset of this mortalescent piece, a thousand difficulties confront me. First, the choice of a title. This is a very important matter, for did not Confucius say, "If names are incorrectly defined, it will be impossible to attain truth"? There are all kinds of terms for biographical works: official biography, autobiography, "inner biography" and "outer biography," unofficial biography, family biography, short biography and so on.[1] But none of these seems appropriate for my purpose. Official biography? But this piece does not form part of the biographical section in any of the Dynastic Histories, which include only personages of more conse-
- ↑ All these terms are two-syllable compounds in the original, with chuan (story, record, biography) forming the second syllable. It has been necessary to insert a few transitional phrases in this paragraph as without them it would be difficult to convey facetious effects quite obvious in the original.
