Knowing this bad news, Smedley "rushed to Lu Xun's home" and found that Lu Xun "had a dark face, no decoration, unkempt hair, deep cheeks, sharp eyes and a tone full of resentment, which was daunting".
Lu Xun handed the manuscript to Smedley and said, "This is an article I wrote that night. I call it "writing late at night". Please translate it into English and publish it abroad! "
Smedley understood the main idea of the article and said, "If the article is published, you will die."
Lu Xun said, "What's the matter? Someone has to talk! "
As a result, the two of them immediately "drafted a statement to western writers about the slaughter of writers and artists." The vocabulary, style and format of the manifesto seem to have been sketched directly by Smedley in English.
Obviously, this manifesto was sent by Smedley to the United States and the Soviet Union, and was published in the American New Masses and the Soviet Union's World Revolutionary Literature. The publication of the Declaration caused a joint protest by more than 20 writers from France, Germany, Ratkov, France, Germany and the United States in the Soviet Union, and a joint protest by more than 50 writers in the United States, which greatly shook the Kuomintang.
According to Smedley's account, it was Mao Dun who helped her translate Lu Xun's Writing in the Late Night and its annex, A young man of 18 years old and two students of Shanghai University who participated in the woodcut seminar founded by Lu Xun, to Lu Xun: Excerpted from Prison Brief Introduction. But she added: "Lu Xun's" Writing in the Late Night "has not even been published abroad, and I have always taken it with me. Of all the articles I read in China, this one left a deep impression on me. This is a cry of pride and excitement written in blood and tears on the darkest night in China's history. " The following are two paragraphs from Lu Xun's "Writing in the Late Night" she quoted:
"China used to have a death row, as usual, is to cut a.. Allow him to cry injustice, let him say innocence, let him scold the faint officer, listen to his performance, and recognize his heroic spirit of not being afraid of death. Before leaving the killing field, the audience will cheer and the news of his heroic death will spread. When I was young, I thought these practices were brutal and cruel. Now I think that the rulers of the past let the death row inmates do this, which is evidence that they are quite confident and brave about their rights. The practice of letting death row inmates speak is somewhat cordial and kind. "
"Today, I hear the death of a friend or a student every day and know how to die. I'm sadder than hearing how he died. I can imagine the loneliness of being killed by a butcher in a dark room is more chilling than being executed in public. When I first read the first chapter of hell in Dante's Divine Comedy, I was surprised at the cruelty envisaged in the book. But now, after much experience, I think Dante's idea is still too kind. His vision did not reach the level of cruelty that is very common today. "
Among the 23 young writers and artists killed in Shanghai Longhua Prison, besides Rou Shi, there were Yin Fu, Hu Yepin, Feng Keng and Li Weisen, all of whom were party member. They sang "The Internationale" with other 18 revolutionary young men and women, and were buried alive and shot. When the last person's singing stopped abruptly, the executioners had fired a row of guns for the sixth time. ...
How can such cruelty and sin not sting the hearts of Lu Xun and Mao Dun, or make Smedley angry and indignant? Mr. Ge Baoquan translated the English declaration into Chinese. You can feel angry just by reading the translation!