Lu Xun was the pen name of Zhou Shuren who was one of the major Chinese writers of the 20th century. Considered by many to be the founder of modern Chinese literature, he wrote in vernacular as well as classical Chinese. Lu Xun was a short story writer, editor, translator, critic, essayist and poet.

Lu Xun, also named Zhou Shuren, was born Zhou Shuren in Shaoxing, in Zhejiang province, in an impoverished but educated family. In 1893, he went to live with his mother's family after his grandfather, who managed his schooling, was imprisoned. Lu Xun received a traditional education before he attended Jiangnan Naval Academy and School of Railway and Mines in Nanjing. In 1902 he went to Japan where he studied Japanese language and then medicine at Sendai Provincial Medical School. In 1906 he dropped out of school to devote himself? to writing. While in Tokyo,he

edited the journal New Life, and? was published in Communist journal Henan.

After studying privately, Lu Xun returned in 1909 to China. He taught in Hangzhou and Shaoxing, and from 1912 to 1926 he held a post in the ministry of education in Beijing. He was Chinese literature instructor at National Beijing University, and also taught at Xiamen University and University of Canton.

What is the Lu Xun’s famous works?

In 1918 Lu Xun published his famous story - “Diary of a Madman”, which appeared in New Youth, the popular journal that initiated the intellectual revolution. “Diary of a Madman” condemned the traditional Confucian culture, but also introduced a short-story writing style. The narrator, who thinks he is held captive by cannibals, sees the oppressive nature of tradition as a "man-eating" society. "Diary of a Madman", written in vernacular and in first-person narrative, has been called China's first Western-style story. Lu Xun avoided traditional narration and replaced it with a single narrator monologue .

“The True Story of Ah Q”, published in 1921, is Lu Xun's most celebrated work. It depicts an ignorant farm laborer, an everyman, who experiences, with an utter lack of self-awareness, a series of humiliations which he interprets as victories, and finally is unfairly executed during the chaos of the Republican revolution of 1911. Ah Q is considered the personification of the negative traits of the Chinese national character. The term A Quism was coined to signify the Chinese penchant for naming defeat a "spiritual victory." While revealing Ah Q's weakness of will, the author also shows his deep sympathy for his character. In the allegory Lu Xun sees China unprepared to deal with the impact of Western culture and technology.

His three volumes of stories, Na han (1923, Call to Arms), Pang huang (1926, Wandering), and Gu shi xin bian (1935, Old Tales Retold), deeply influenced modern Chinese fiction. However, Lu Xun and his younger brother Zhou Zuoren's translations of Western works, including stories by Leonid Andreyev, Guy de Maupassant, and Henry Sienkiewich, were received with near silence by the reading public. Besides short stories, Lu Xun published essays and a volume of childhood memories, Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk. However, he never wrote a novel.

Lu Xun's works exerted a very substantial influence after the May Fourth Movement to such a point that he was lionized by the Communist regime after 1949. Mao Zedong himself was a lifelong admirer of Lu Xun's works. Though sympathetic to the ideals of the Left, Lu Xun never actually joined the Chinese Communist Party - like fellow leaders of the May Fourth Movement, he was primarily a liberal. Lu Xun's works are known to English readers through numerous translations, especially Selected Stories of Lu Hsun translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang.

What is Lu Xun’s Style and thought?

Lu Xun’s style has been described in equally broad terms, conveying both "sympathetic engagement" and "ironic detachment" at different moments. His essays are often very incisive in his societal commentary, in which he frequently creates a fine line between criticizing the follies of his characters and sympathizing with their very follies. Associated with the May Fourth Movement, he strongly criticized social problems in China, particularly in his

What does it mean, being a leader of Left-wing writers?

Lu Xun, a strong individualist, had come under attack from the Communist writers soon after his escape from Peking. After a series of spirited debates, Lu Hsün finally joined the Communist movement and became the nominal leader of the League of Left-wing Writers in 1930. An idol of the youth, he was now mainly a miscellaneous essayist, dissipating his creative energy in an endless series of polemics. He also translated a great deal and refrained from writing fiction works. He wrote a collection of satiric fables, Ku-shih hsinpien, which sadly marked the decline of his talent.

What are titles of Lu Xun?

Lu Xun was a founding member of several leftist organizations, including League of Left-Wing Writers, China Freedom League, and League for the Defense of Civil Rights. He was also a leading figure in the May Fourth Movement, named after a demonstration against international imperialism in China and pro-Japanese provisions at the Paris Peace Conference.