“To cling to our classical language and die; or to throw it aside and live.”
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Lu Xun
Lu Xun, pen name of Zhou Shuren, born Zhou Zhangshou, was a Chinese writer. A leading figure of modern Chinese literature, he wrote in both vernacular and literary Chinese as a novelist, literary critic, essayist, poet, translator and political commentator, known for his sharp, satirical style and critical reflections on Chinese history and culture.
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culture · Chinese novelist and essayist (1881–1936) · essayist · poet · literary critic · Esperantist · translator · novelist · critic · writer · short story writer · also Lu Xun, Loe Sjunn, Lu Siun, Shun Luo, Chou Shu-jen, Sjunn Loe
Born 25 September 1881 · Died 19 October 1936 · Q23114
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2026· 6 entries
“On no account let him become a good-for-nothing writer or artist.”
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“Hold the funeral quickly... do not stage any memorial services. Forget about me, and care about your own life – you”
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“French... does not fill stomachs”
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China Daily: 65 Lu Xun Literary Prize winners headline Sinan Literature Month in Shanghai
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아시아경제: Lu Xun and Yi Yuksa: A 93-Year Connection Rekindled Through Their Descendants
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2025· 1 entry
siliconera: Omitting Lu Xun in Dynasty Warriors Origins Is a Mistake
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2023· 1 entry
JSTOR Daily: Lu Xun and His Legacy
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2017· 1 entry
Harvard University Press published a book of his essays translated by Eileen J
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2016· 1 entry
中国日报网: Essayist Lu Xun commemorated in new Beijing exhibition
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2012· 1 entry
Nippon: Lu Xun and Japan
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2009· 1 entry
Penguin Classics published a complete translation by Julia Lovell of his fiction, The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China: The Complete Fiction of Lu Xun , which the scholar Jeffrey Wasserstrom said "could be con
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1986· 1 entry
Fredric Jameson cited Diary of a Madman as the "supreme example" of the "national allegory" form that all Third World literature takes
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1957· 1 entry
That, had Lu Xun lived, he would have “either remained silent or been imprisoned
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1949· 1 entry
Lu Xun was firmly settled as a center in the communist literary canon and became widely taught in schools, even as many of his associates were persecuted, including his brother Zhou Zuoren
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1942· 1 entry
At the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art, Mao quoted Lu Xun to urge his audience to be "a willing ox", but told writers and artists who believed in freedom of expression that, because CCP areas were already liberated, t
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1940· 1 entry
Mao wrote in On New Democracy that “Lu Xun was not only a great writer, but also a great thinker and a great revolutionary,” a formulation that subsequently became the orthodox CCP assessment of Lu Xun
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1936· 8 entries
Died 1936-10-19.
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Li Ji, a close friend, recalled that Lu Xun had told Feng Xuefeng, his student and liaison with the CCP: “When the revolution succeeds, I will be the first to flee
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“Translation: The Revolution is so that people can live, not so that they can die!”
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Kaji Wataru would be the only foreigner who served as pallbearer at Lu Xun's funeral
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“Verbal abuse and intimidation are not fighting.”
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“When the revolution succeeds, I will be the first to flee. Because you people will be the first to kill me.”
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Lu Xun would meet Kaji Wataru
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With an anthology edited by Edgar Snow and Nym Wales Living China, Modern Chinese Short Stories, in which Part One included seven of Lu Xun's stories and a short biography based on Snow's talks with Lu Xun
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1935· 1 entry
Sent a telegram to CCP forces in Shaanxi congratulating them on the recent completion of their Long March
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1934· 2 entries
“if the old society collapses one day, I will probably end up wearing a red vest and sweeping the streets of Shanghai.”
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Published his last collection of short stories, Old Tales Retold
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1930· 1 entry
Lu Xun became one of the co-founders of the League of Left-Wing Writers, but shortly after he moved to Shanghai other leftist writers accused him of being "an evil feudal remnant", the "best spokesman of the bourgeoisie"
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1929· 1 entry
Lu Xun visited his mother, and reported that she was pleased at the news of Xu's pregnancy
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1927· 1 entry
That "revolutionary literature" alone could not bring about radical change
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1926· 1 entry
When the warlord troops of Zhang Zuolin and Wu Peifu took over Beijing, Lu Xun left northern China and fled to Xiamen, where he taught at Xiamen University, but was disappointed by the petty disagreements and unfriendlin
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1925· 3 entries
Lu Xun began what may have been his first meaningful romantic relationship, with one of his students at the Beijing Women's College, Xu Guangping
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Opined, "I feel the so-called Republic of China has ceased to exist
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Founded a journal, Wilderness, and established the "Weiming Society" in order to support young writers and encourage the translation of foreign literature into Chinese
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1923· 1 entry
Lost his front teeth in a rickshaw accident, and in 1924 he developed the first symptoms of tuberculosis
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1922· 1 entry
“Preface of his work Na Han (Call to Arms) (1922)”
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1920· 1 entry
Lu Xun began to lecture part-time at several colleges, including Peking University, Beijing Normal University, and Beijing Women's College, where he taught classical fiction and literary theory
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1919· 1 entry
Lu Xun moved his family from Shaoxing to a large compound in Beijing, where he lived with his mother, his two brothers, and their Japanese wives
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1918· 2 entries
Lu Xun wrote the first short story published under his name, Diary of a Madman, for the April 2, 1918 issue of the magazine
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The name "Lu Xun ", by which he is best known, was a pen name chosen upon the initial publishing of his story Diary of a Madman in 1918, with the surname Lu from his mother.
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1917· 1 entry
Qian Xuantong invited Lu Xun to write for La Jeunesse, a radical populist literary magazine newly founded by Chen Duxiu
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1915· 1 entry
Lu Xun was briefly forced to participate in rituals honoring Confucius, which he ridiculed in his diaries
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1911· 2 entries
Wrote his first short story, Nostalgia, but he was so disappointed with it that he threw it away
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Returned to Japan to retrieve his brother, Zuoren, so that Zuoren could help with the family finances
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1909· 2 entries
But did not have sufficient funds, and was forced to return home
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Lu Xun and his brother published their translations of Western fiction, including Edgar Allan Poe, as Tales from Abroad, but the book sold only 41 copies of the 1,500 copies that were printed
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1904· 2 entries
Enrolled at the Sendai Medical College in Japan, but left medicine to pursue literature
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Lu Xun enrolled at the Sendai Medical School (now Tohoku University School of Medicine), but remained there for less than two years
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1902· 1 entry
Lu Xun left for Japan on a Qing government scholarship to pursue an education in Western medicine
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1901· 1 entry
The Zhou family only prevented Lu Xun's grandfather from being executed through regular, expensive bribes to authorities, until he was finally released in 1901.
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1898· 2 entries
Before he went to the Jiangnan Naval Academy, he took the given name "Shuren" (樹人), which figuratively means "to be an educated man"
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But then abandoned pursuing a traditional Confucian education or career
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1893· 1 entry
Was discovered attempting to bribe an examination official
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1881· 1 entry
Born 1881-09-25.
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