The Writings of Lu Xun

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Lies written in ink can never disguise facts written in blood.
--Lu Xun

Quite likely some monkey once stood up and tried to walk on two legs, but many others protested, "Our ancestors have always crawled. You're not to stand up!" Then they bit him to death.
--Lu Xun

John Stuart Mill declared that tyranny makes men cynical. He did not know that a republic makes them silent.
--Lu Xun

Though China has different classes, they share all the same ideas. They all want to become officials or make money.
--Zhou Zuoren (Lu Xun's brother)

Later I felt if a man's proposals met with approval, it should encourage him; if they met with opposition, it should make him fight back; but the real tragedy for him was to lift up his voice among the living and meet with no response, neither approval nor opposition, just as if he were left helpless in a boundless desert.
--Lu Xun

The Writings of Lu Xun

Call To Arms (Preface)
A Madman's Diary
An Incident
Storm In A Teacup
Ah Q: The Real Story
A Happy Family
My Old Home
What Is The Secret of Good Writing?
Excerpts

LU XUN - SELECTED WORKS - VOLUME ONE
Translated by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang
Foreign Languages Press, Beijing

Lu Xun (1881-1936) was not the greatest writer produced by a certain time, or city, or nation. He was one of the greatest authors this world has ever produced. Period.

This book begins with an overview of the man's life and works. I read its long preface, something I rarely do with a career retrospective, and enjoyed it. Lu Xun lived his life. He was not lived by it.

The meat of the book comes from his short stories, prose poems and reminiscences. The only way to tell his fiction from his non-fiction is by the name of the narrator, and even then you don't really know. Lu Xun is that good.

I was immediately stunned by his turn of phrase, his utterly realistic portrayal of life, his unflinching honesty, his gentle wit. His mind, his heart, his soul. Here in his hometown, 100 years too late. I am so grateful that he wrote, because otherwise I would have never known him.

"As to why I wrote [stories], I still felt...that I should write in the hope of enlightening my people, for humanity, and of the need to better it.... My aim was to expose the disease and draw attention to it so that it might be cured."

Just a few of his early words. I also admire how he openly states that he set out to use his words as "daggers" and "javelins." Here are more of his words.

"I did my best to avoid all wordiness. If I felt I had made my meaning sufficiently clear, I was glad to dispense with frills. The old Chinese theatre has no scenery, and the New Year pictures sold to children show a few main pictures only.... Convinced that such methods suit my purpose, I did not indulge in irrelevant details and kept the dialogue down to a minimum."

Let me pause here. Lu Xun knows how to show rather than tell. But dialogue that does neither doesn't exist in his writing. That's what he means by "a minimum." His dialogue rings so true that I'm sick with jealousy, and there's an ample supply.

"I forget who it was that said that the best way to convey a man's character with a minimum of strokes is to draw his eyes. This is absolutely correct. If you draw all the hairs of his head, no matter how accurately, it will not be of much use."

The best authors have always known this. But look at how well Lu Xun explains it. I could copy and paste what he wrote about writing, pass myself off as an expert, and get rich. Let me return to his words.

"After finishing something, I always read it through twice, and where a passage grated on my ears I would add or cut a few words to make it read smoothly. When I could not find suitable vernacular expressions I used classical ones, hoping some readers would understand. And I seldom used phrases out of my own head which I alone -- or not even I -- could comprehend."

I graduated high school, in Tampa, Florida, in 1981. I was taught that simple language is bad, which we now seem to accept isn't true. In China, roughly 70 years before that, Lu Xun defended the use of words that readers actually understand. Modern China and modern USA could both learn from him on this. The goal of communication is to communicate. It really bugs me that I feel a definite need to state this.

"Truth is the life of satire. Unless you write the truth it cannot be 'satire.'" But satire must be good-intentioned. Lu Xun opposed the cynicism which "simply convinces its readers that there is nothing good in the world, nothing worth doing."

I learned all this, and was convinced I'd love his writing, before I even read the first word. Look at the intelligence, the perceptiveness, the passion, the clarity. All this from the preface alone. Before I move on to a preface written by the master himself, let me throw in some historical perspective.

The Revolution of 1911 overthrew the Qing Dynasty, but it didn't erase the imperialism and feudalism. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Lu Xun saw this. He shows us life as it was then. But please don't think of him as a "political author," the way the preface by a loyal Communist Party member encourages you to do. To reduce Lu Xun to those two words would be a terrible injustice.

Lu Xun left Shaoxing when he was 17, to study medicine. His father's death was due to medical incompetence. Lu Xun studied medicine at the Kiangnan Naval Academy in Nanjing, then at a medical college in the Japanese countryside. This background exposed him to the world, whereas most Chinese at that time knew only their little corner of China. But let me use his words again.

"...one day I saw a news-reel slide of a number of Chinese, one of them bound and the rest standing around him. They were all sturdy fellows but appeared completely apathetic. According to the commentary, the one with his hands bound was a spy working for the Russians who was to be beheaded by the Japanese military as a warning to others, while the Chinese beside him had come to enjoy the spectacle.

"Before the term was over I had left for Tokyo, because this slide convinced me that medical science was not so important after all. The people of a weak and backward country, however strong and healthy they might be, could only serve to be made examples of or as witnesses of such futile spectacles; and it was not necessarily deplorable if many of them died of illness. The most important thing, therefore, was to change their spirit..."

That's from the preface of the man's first book. Lu Xun, brand new author, states that it's okay if Chinese people die because they are sheep, and that's why he left medicine. He challenges his readers with this before they've ever read his first story. Then he presumably expects those readers to read his stories anyway.

Based on the Western stereotype of China, this is what makes authors vanish without a trace. According to some people, this is what makes authors in Bush's America vanish without a trace. But what matters is that Lu Xun never lied to a reader. That's what he felt, so that's what he wrote.

Have you read a short story collection where you raced to see how fast you could knock it out? Here a story, there a story, everywhere a story story, and two hours later you're done. An hour later, you're hungry again. That's what's hurt the popularity of the short story. Writing them is easy!

No, it's not. Not if you do it right. The well crafted short story is harder to write than a novel. Every time I read a Lu Xun short story, it ended far too soon and I had to pause while my mind caught up with what it had just witnessed. He is truly a master, and I can't recommend him highly enough.

Back to the preface before Lu Xun's preface. "Lu Xun's essays form the bulk and the most important part of his literary work." In addition to his teaching, his editing and his translation. Amazing. I've spent the past two weeks being blown away by his short stories, but the other THREE books are supposedly all more important. Given the mind of their author, I believe it. Oh, the treasures ahead.

The cynic in me would like to know about the essays that didn't make it into this collection, but never mind. Lu Xun opposed that sort of cynicism. I'm happy to spend a whole lotta time with Lu Xun, and I can.

Can you? I don't know. Check your local libraries, bookstores, websites if you must. Lately, I've read email from several Westerners who are familiar with Lu Xun. There must be a reason.

LU XUN - SELECTED WORKS - VOLUMES TWO THROUGH FOUR

I'm pleased to report that Amazon.com sells a short story collection containing all 25 of Lu Xun's short stories, not just the 18 reviewed above. What this means is, you can get it at your local bookstore or perhaps even your local library. Go for it! I have it, I've read it, I love it.

Now then. I also mentioned in my previous review that the anthology claims his essays are his greatest contribution. So how do they measure up?

They measure up just fine, thank you very much. He is a master of satire and he does use words as weapons. He can make you laugh and think at the same time. A remarkable clarity of thought combined with an enviable gift for communication. Again, one need not be from China, or from the early 20th century, to appreciate this remarkable person.

When I reviewed his fiction, I used the phrase "gentle wit" even though it wasn't always gentle. Regarding his essays, I'll say biting wit. Acid wit. Devastating wit. Think Jonathan Swift, think Bertrand Russell, strip them of the rubbish and make them far more prolific. Lu Xun's even better than that, but at least you'll be on the right track.

(I almost mentioned Oscar Wilde, but he wasn't quite disciplined enough to join Lu Xun's tier. Damn witty, though.)

I don't know that you can find these essays. If you can, get them. If not, well, the short stories probably are more "timeless." I probably enjoyed the essays more on my first reading than I did the stories. But I've since read the stories numerous times, and own a collection. It's hard to say whether or not the essays would hold up to the test of repetition so well, no matter how witty their author. Essays are like that, I think.

Lu Xun's Ancestral Home
Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China
Lu Xun's Ancestral Home in Shaoxing