Writing Revenge with the Body —— On the Rewriting of “The Crucifixion” in Lu Xun‘s Revenge (II)

The prose poem Revenge (II) rewrites the Passion narrative in the Gospels.The “revenge” spoken by the suffering body and the juxtaposition of emotions between “hatred” and “compassion” make this text full of multiple meanings and even ambiguities.This paper first analyzes the relationship between the paradoxical expression of the subjective emotions of the “son of man” and the Christian martyrdom tradition,and then compares Revenge (II) with Lu Xun‘s other texts on the themes of “revenge” and “blood sacrifice”.The intertextual reading thus clarifies that the body writing on revenge is ultimately difficult to reach the perfect tense of revenge due to the lack of existing bodies.Finally,on the deeper level of “reconciliation” and “revenge” reflected by the body as a mirror,the anonymous state of “son of man” presents the loss and empowerment of meaning after the Biblical text was introduced into the modern metaphorical context.