Yi Kwang-su's Mujong

When I picked up Yi Kwang-su's Mujong (or "Heartless"), I had not known what to expect. I first came across his name in one of the readings where he had been described as a thinker and a pioneering modern Korean writer. Hence I looked up English translations of his works, and Mujong cropped up as the book most easily available.

Half way through the book, I found the plot somewhat predictable and the message (the negative effects of Neo-Confucianism in old Korea) unmistakable. In particular, there was a strong dose of criticism on how the system of early marriages had inflicted unnecessary suffering and even wrecked the lives of countless men and women (mainly the latter). As U-son, one of the characters in the novel, put it:

"The evil marriage system of the Choson dynasty had killed within the loving heart the seeds of love received from heaven."

Towards the end, apart from evoking a sense of elitism (i.e. how the elites had an inescapable role to play in reviving the country's fortunes), the novel ended with a strong dose of what I thought was youthful wide-eyed idealism.

Contrived though the plot and particularly the ending may be, overall, I found the book touching and stirring. There were also symbolism aplenty towards the end of the book, especially when the group of 4 young people helped a farmer's wife suffering from labor pains in the midst of the destructive storm that had destroyed the homes and fields of several peasants. It's as if the baby's birth is a sign that a new Korea will be born.

But essentially, what I found most compelling were the simple and straightforward exhortations such as:

"Let us work hard so that when we are old, we will see a better Korea. Let us think of how we resented our lazy, powerless predecessors, and let us work so that our grandchildren thank us."

"Our land grows more beautiful with each day. Our arms, once so weak, grow stronger every day, and our minds, once so dark, grow steadily brighter. We will finally become as sparkling and bright as any other country. The more that this is true, the more we will have to exert ourselves. We need more great people, scholars, educators, business people, artists, inventors and religious leaders."

Also, I thought the book was lyrical and beautifully written, and at times, even magical.

Somehow, I also found solace in many aspects of the book, such as one of Yi Hyong-sik's, the main protagonist, many philosophical pontifications:

"We occupy only a moment in infinite time, and a point in infinite space. How significant could any of our "significant matters" be? Or how painful any of our sorrows?"

I cannot be certain if this book is one of the books that had supposedly "awakened" the Korean people. But for Chinese literature, two writers who had a monumental effect on "awakening" the Chinese people - though it's debatable whether the said people had really been "awakened" - would surely be Lu Xun and Lao She.

I first read - or attempted to read - Lu Xun's "Diary of a Mad Man" when I was 11 years old, as the book was in the family collection, and I randomly picked it up. I remembered not understanding anything whatsoever! While I understood most of the words, I just could not understand why the main character kept using the expression "chi ren" (literally: eating people). I was thinking, surely he wasn't talking about cannibalism? I remember being extremely frustrated at not being able to understand what the book was trying to say.

It was not until my university days that I attempted to read the book a second time. And while till this very day I still cannot claim to understand the work in any respectable depth, I at least understood that Lu Xun wasn't talking about cannibalism! Rather, he was talking about how feudal practices had suffocated and killed the Chinese people. That revelation was a relief as it help cleared the mind of that once confused and frustrated 11 year old kid.