Introduction to "Unavoidable Reflection—Contemplating Stories on Intellectuals"

In this essay, Liu Xiaobo has chosen to wrestle with some of the more famous pieces of "scar literature." This body of texts from the post-Mao period attempted to comprehend the horrendous experiences that intellectuals endured during the Cultural Revolution. To Liu, however, these works, rather than coming to terms with that chaotic event, have simply replicated the "traditional feudal ideology" that he sees as its cause. One of the central features of this "feudal tradition" that can be found in Classical literary and philosophical texts is an idealized image of intellectuals, an image that, he believes, continues to this day to stifle both literature and the intelligensia. The traditional intellectual, or more accurately the scholar-official, aspired to be a sage, but by attempting to make himself into a moral and social exemplar, and conform to this model, he repressed his own individuality and critical facilities. The intellectuals presented in the texts Liu discusses conform to this precedent. They ...