In the Xu Zhangrun Archive
The legal scholar Xu Zhangrun is a prominent specialist in constitutional jurisprudence. He was formerly a professor in the Faculty of Law at Tsinghua University, Director of the Centre for Research on the Rule of Law and Human Rights at that institution, editor-in-chief of the series Tsinghua Law Studies and special fellow at the Unirule Institute of Economics 天則經濟研究所.
In July 2018, the Unirule Institution released online Xu Zhangrun’s point-by-point critique of Xi Jinping and Xi’s ‘New Epoch’ (see ‘Imminent Fears, Immediate Hopes’ — a Beijing Jeremiad 我們當下的恐懼與期待). Over the next eighteen months, Xu was repeatedly interrogated, harassed and silenced by his university — a college that likes to think of itself as ‘China’s MIT’ — state security authorities and the Ministry of Education. In July 2020, Xu Zhangrun was summarily dismissed from his academic position, stripped of his professional qualifications and his university superannuation. Since then he has lived in a book-lined apartment in the distant west of the capital region.
Living under constant surveillance (for details, see Cyclopes on My Doorstep) and shunned by all but a handful of his former colleagues, students and professional contacts (see Xu Zhangrun Goes Shopping and A Day in the Life of Xu Zhangrun), Professor Xu continues to read, think and write (see The Curse of Great Leaders).
***
In June 2022, China’s famously becalmed academic composed a series of poems, some earnest, others playful. ‘In My Words’, translated below, is written in the style of a ‘doggerel poem’ 打油詩. Circulated online by a former colleague and loyal friend it was soon culled by China’s censorate. Both poet and ‘publisher’ were subsequently subjected to hours of questioning and verbal abuse. Xu’s friend was barred from all social media platforms. The professor maintained his previous stance, which he sums up as:
老子不服，老子不怕。
‘I will not submit, I will not be cowed.’
— Geremie R. Barmé, Editor, China Heritage
Distinguished Fellow, The Asia Society
1 August 2022
***
In My Words
我的字
Xu Zhangrun
許章潤
Translated by Geremie R. Barmé
Ranked among the involuntarily unemployed
My fate is in the hands of police who hide behind aliases
I’d name them here, if I could, but
They’ve never told me who they really are
如今我被歸類為社會無業人員
管我的派出所警察叫張三李四
不是我不願喚他們的大名
是他們從不告訴我真姓實名
But their concern for me is real: Exactly when did I last fart?
When will I be venturing out? Above all,
They’re anxious about all the new words that
I may scribble during these relentlessly bright and sunny days
他們關心我幾點放過屁
也掛念著我何時出過門
他們更緊張的是朗朗天空下
今天我又寫了幾個字
My words — an aperture drilled through the granitic façade
My words — relentless like the cane of a blind man at night
My words — pulsating with the life force from a severed vein
My words: they may merely be words, but they are what I have
我的字斗大如岩壁上鑿出的窗戶
我的字勁健若盲人夜行的拐杖
我的字是切開的血管彷彿落日殷紅
我的字啊字 不過就是我的字
My words have been a lifelong love affair
My words are my fate, my unfailing guide
My words nurture my existence; they are my animating breath
These words of mine mark out time with an ancient beat
我的字是我一生的愛人
我的字是我冥冥中行雲流水的命運
我的字用血管飲水頭顱呼吸
我的字是倉頡深古的手鼓
This lover has never abandoned me; they are ever by my side
They embraced the tempest in the face of that unruly July swell
Their energy ceaselessly draws upon the vast tundra
Their piercing rays light up the distant horizon
愛人心意堅定不離不棄
命運在七月的滄浪上擁抱風暴
血水感動於草原廣大
執太陽的芒刺揮毫於天際
Ranked among the involuntarily unemployed
My fate is in the hands of police who hide behind aliases
One day, though, when we are all free, we may venture out together
I’d like to invite them to buy rice and to hawk these words of mine
19 June 2022
如今我是社會無業人員
管我的派出所警察叫張三李四
改天有空一起出門
我想邀他們去買米賣字
二零二二年六月十九日