In this blog post, we will examine the servile mentality of the common people, social contradictions, and the limitations of revolution through the lens of Lu Xun, a master of modern Chinese literature, and his masterpiece ‘The True Story of Ah Q’, and explore the sharp message he conveyed about his era through his work.
Lu Xun (魯迅) was born on September 25, 1881, in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, as the eldest son of his father, Zhou Fengyi (周鳳儀), and his mother, Ms. Lu (魯). His given name was Zhou Shuren (周樹人), and his courtesy name was Yufang (豫方). When he was five years old, his younger brother, Zhou Zuoren (周作人), was born, and from the age of seven, he studied traditional Chinese classics at a private school and a village academy. Although his family was relatively well-off, owning over 10,000 pyeong of rice paddies, their fortunes declined sharply when his father passed away when he was fifteen.
In 1898, he left his traditional studies behind and went to Nanjing, where he enrolled in the Jiangnan Water Conservancy School; the following year, he transferred to the Guangwu Railway School. After graduating from the Guangwu Railway School in 1902, he traveled to Japan as a government-sponsored student. Believing that the advancement of medicine was one of the driving forces behind the Meiji Restoration, he decided to study medicine; after graduating from the Hongwen Academy in 1904, he enrolled in the Sendai Medical School. Around this time, his ideological leanings shifted toward the revolutionary camp, and he joined the Guangfuhui, an anti-Qing revolutionary organization.
In 1906, Lu Xun was deeply shocked after watching a newsreel during class that depicted the execution of a Chinese man. He concluded that reforming the people’s minds was more urgent than curing physical illnesses, and ultimately decided to drop out of medical school and devote himself to the literary movement. That same year, he returned to China, married a woman surnamed Zhu, and then traveled back to Japan with his younger brother, Zhou Zuoren, to begin his literary career.
In 1909, he and his brother published ‘A Collection of Foreign Short Stories’, which contained translations of short stories from various countries. After returning to China, he taught physiology and chemistry at the Yangji Normal School in Zhejiang Province. He later became the principal of the Shaoxing Normal School, and in 1911, he published his early short story “Hui Gu.”
In 1912, when the revolutionary government was established in Nanjing, he became an official in the Ministry of Education at the request of Minister of Education Cai Yuanpei and worked in Beijing. He later served as an assistant secretary in the Ministry of Education and participated in educational administration.
In 1918, he began his full-fledged literary career by publishing “The Diary of a Madman”—considered the first modern novel—in ‘New Youth’. He subsequently published ‘Kong Yizi’, ‘Medicine’, ‘Hometown’, and ‘The True Story of Ah Q’ in quick succession; in particular, ‘The Diary of a Madman’ and ‘The True Story of Ah Q’, which sharply depicted the realities of Chinese society and the common people, became the starting point of modern Chinese literature.
Furthermore, his lecture series ‘A Brief History of Chinese Fiction’, delivered at Peking University, is regarded as a seminal work that laid the foundation for research on the history of Chinese fiction. He led the New Literature Movement through his involvement in literary organizations such as the “Mi Ming Society” and the “Yu Sha Society,” and devoted himself to nurturing young literary talents.
In 1923, he published his first collection of short stories, ‘Suppressed Thoughts’, and was subsequently dismissed by the Ministry of Education for participating in a protest against the forced dissolution of the Beijing Women’s Normal University. During the same period, he further solidified his literary standing by publishing works such as ‘The Lonely One’, ‘The Book of Songs’, and ‘Hot Wind’.
In 1926, following an incident in which student and civilian protesters were killed by the warlord government, he relocated his base of operations via Xiamen and Guangzhou. He later took up a teaching position at Sun Yat-sen University but resigned in protest against the arrest of anti-government students; he then moved to Shanghai, where he lived with Xu Guangping and devoted himself entirely to writing.
During his time in Shanghai, he faced criticism from the Revolutionary Literature School, which labeled him a “petty-bourgeois writer,” but he, in turn, sharply criticized their dogmatic attitudes. His literature was grounded in a sober understanding of reality and a deep concern for the common people. Furthermore, while cautioning against uncritical adherence to Western culture, he worked diligently to translate and introduce foreign ideas and literature.
In 1929, he founded the Zohua Society to introduce new art forms, including modern woodblock prints, and translated works by Plekhanov, Chekhov, Gogol, and others to introduce them to Chinese readers.
In 1936, he published the historical short story collection ‘New Tales of the Past’, but his long-standing tuberculosis worsened, and he passed away in Shanghai on October 19 of that same year. He was 56 years old.
Throughout his life, Lu Xun produced a vast body of work, including novels, essays, literary criticism, and translations. These achievements earned him the title of “the founder of modern Chinese literature.” However, what truly sets him apart is not only his literary accomplishments but also his courage to confront reality and his spirit of reform. He depicted the dark realities of Chinese society and the consciousness of the common people without embellishment, and through his works, he criticized feudal mentality and social contradictions. He was also a pioneering intellectual who charted the course of modernization for China.
In particular, his masterpiece ‘The True Story of Ah Q’ satirically portrays the servile mentality and self-deception of the Chinese people through the character of Ah Q, a laborer from the lowest social strata. In the story, A Q constantly suffers defeat yet turns a blind eye to reality through “spiritual victory.” This behavior symbolically illustrates the ills of Chinese society at the time.
However, Lu Xun does not stop at simply mocking A Q. As the story progresses, A Q reveals himself as a representative of the oppressed masses, evoking the reader’s sympathy. Ultimately, even after the revolution, his life fails to improve and ends tragically, demonstrating that no revolution can bring about true change unless the lives of the common people themselves change.
‘The True Story of Ah Q’ left a deep impression on intellectuals around the world, including Romain Rolland of France, and has been translated into numerous languages, remaining widely read to this day.
