Lu Xun Quotes

Lu Xun was the pen name of Zhou Shuren , a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. Writing in Vernacular Chinese and Classical Chinese, he was a short story writer, editor, translator, literary critic, essayist, poet, and designer. In the 1930s, he became the titular head of the League of Left-Wing Writers in Shanghai.

Lu Xun was born into a family of landlords and government officials in Shaoxing, Zhejiang; the family's financial resources declined over the course of his youth. Lu aspired to take the imperial civil service exam, but due to his family's relative poverty he was forced to attend government-funded schools teaching "Western education." Upon graduation, Lu went to medical school in Japan but later dropped out. He became interested in studying literature but was eventually forced to return to China because of his family's lack of funds. After returning to China, Lu worked for several years teaching at local secondary schools and colleges before finally finding a job at the Republic of China Ministry of Education.

After the 1919 May Fourth Movement, Lu Xun's writing began to exert a substantial influence on Chinese literature and popular culture. Like many leaders of the May Fourth Movement, he was primarily a leftist. He was highly acclaimed by the Chinese government after 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, and Mao Zedong himself was a lifelong admirer of Lu Xun's writing. Though sympathetic to socialist ideas, Lu Xun never joined the Communist Party of China.

Wikipedia

✵ 25. September 1881 – 19. October 1936

Lu Xun photo

Works

Call to Arms

Call to Arms

Lu Xun

A Madman's Diary

A Madman's Diary

Lu Xun

Call to Arms

Call to Arms

Lu Xun

A Madman's Diary

A Madman's Diary

Lu Xun

Lu Xun: 16 quotes6 likes

Famous Lu Xun Quotes

“The Revolution is so that people can live, not so that they can die!”

Source: [citation needed]

“The so-called "peace" is an interval between wars.”

9
"The Epigrams of Lusin"

“For all of ignorant people of a nation, even if their body is somehow strong, somehow grand, even then they can only make meaningless displays [of this "strength"]. [As for] the multitude of constituents and observers, however many may die from [this] sickness, this is [still] not to be considered as unfortunate.”

Lu Xun book Call to Arms

Lu Xun studied medicine before he became a writer. Once he saw on a film a Chinese being executed by Japanese while many other Chinese were watching this "spectacular event". This made him feel that saving the "souls" of people is more important than saving their bodies.
Source: From the preface of his work Na Han (Call to Arms) (1922)

“Savage as a lion, timid as a rabbit, crafty as a fox…”

Lu Xun book A Madman's Diary

Sixth entry
A Madman's Diary (1918)

“The literature of former days is like watching a fire from across the water; in present-day literature, the author himself is being scorched by the fire and he is bound to feel it deeply, and when he begins to feel it deeply, he is bound to take part in the social struggle.”

35
"The Epigrams of Lusin"

“"Soviet Union is under dictatorship of the proletariat, the intelligentsia class is going to be starved to death."…a well known reporter had so warned me. Yes, I am afraid I might lost some sleep. But then, dictatorship of the proletariat(at present), isn't it for the forth coming of the classless society? As long as you do not murder it, naturally it's success will arrive soon, the elimination of classes will arrive soon, then no one will be "starved to death"…But now, the imperialists and their running dogs, still trying to tell us the Soviet Union's shortcomings, as if they really wish that Soviet Union would become heaven overnight, and all of it's people would enjoy life. Now, it turns out to be like that, it (imperialist) is disappointed, and feel uneasy…This is really the tears of the devil.”

Source: 1932年《我們不再受騙了》

Lu Xun Quotes

“Chinese tend to love moderation because of their temperament. If you said, for example, the room is so dim that there is an window to be installed here, no one would agree. But if you intended to dismantle the roof, they would come to mediate and therefore would agree to install a window.”

Source: From Wu Sheng de Zhong Guo (Silent China) (1927)

“Chinese medicine lies, whether purposefully or not.”

Lu Xun book Call to Arms

Source: From the preface of his work Na Han (Call to Arms) (1922)

“Verbal abuse and intimidation are not fighting.”

Source:

“Rather than worship Confucius and Kuan Kung, one should worship Darwin and Ibsen.”

29
"The Epigrams of Lusin"

“I used to think that a man was sentenced to death or imprisonment because he was guilty; now I know that he is found guilty because he is disliked.”

13
"The Epigrams of Lusin"

“Chinese people love compromise. If you say to them, "This room is too dark, we must have a window made," they will all oppose you. But if you say, "Let's take off the roof," they will compromise with you and say "Let's have a window."”

16
"The Epigrams of Lusin"

“We have hereafter only two roads to choose: one is to embrace the ancient literature and die, the other is to forsake the ancient literature and live.”

32
"The Epigrams of Lusin"

“Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.”

8
"The Epigrams of Lusin"

“When you talk with famous scholars, the best thing is to pretend that occasionally you do not quite understand them. If you understand too little, you will be despised; if you understand too much, you will be disliked; if you just fail occasionally to understand them you will suit each other very well.”

2
"The Epigrams of Lusin"

“Save the children...”

Lu Xun book A Madman's Diary

Kuang Ren Ri Ji (Diary of a Madman), thirteenth entry
Original: (zh-CN) 救救孩子……
Source: A Madman's Diary (1918)

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