LU Xun (1881-1936) was a writer, essayist, and poet, and an influential figure in China in the early 1900s. In 1918, Lu published his first short story, “The Diary of a Madman,” a dark and satirical political commentary that forcefully attacks the government and culture of China in the early 1900s. Society was based on Confucianism, which values traditionalism and denigrates Western ideas. Through the story, Lu Xun calls for a more humanistic and individualistic society that eradicates the old values of China. This was one of the first works of vernacular fiction in Chinese history, and it was written for the magazine New Youth, which would become the flagship journal for the May Fourth movement. His most famous work is “The True Story of Ah-Q.” Similar to The Diary of a Madman, this story also criticizes Confucian ideals and urges readers to resist them, albeit not as violently as the former. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature because of this work, and it solidified his writing as a pillar of Chinese literature.
FURTHER READING
Xun, Lu. The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China: The Complete Fiction of Lu Xun. Afterword by Julia Lovell. Translated by Yiyun Li. London: Penguin Books, 2009.
Leo Ou-fan Lee, Voices from the Iron House: A Study of Lu Xun. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
Spence, Jonathan. The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution 1895-1980. New York: Viking, 1981.