Lu Xun's youth

Author: Zhou Zuoren
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: This book is a volume of "Selected Essays" from Zhou Zuoren's self-edited collection. It includes a large number of prose works by Zhou Zuoren. These works are rich in content, cover a wide range of topics, and are written with vivid and fluent prose. Though seemingly disorganized, they contain exquisite craftsmanship, fully demonstrating the author's mastery of language. They possess high literary, artistic, and readability qualities. Each of the beautiful essays in the book will leave you with a lasting impression.
By the year Wuxu (1898), when Lu Xun was eighteen, he was preparing to go to Nanjing to attend school. At that time, China still used the imperial examination system, where anyone aspiring to success had to study the Four Books and Five Classics, practice the eight-legged essay and regulated verse, and endure the grueling exams to obtain the titles of Xiucai or Jinshi as a foundation for advancement. There were no modern schools yet, only a few naval and military academies scattered in places like Tianjin, Wuchang, Nanjing, and Fuzhou, all funded by the government. Students not only didn’t have to pay but also received stipends. Lu Xun wanted to study abroad but his family couldn’t afford it. As a result, he had no choice but to enroll in a government-funded naval academy. Considering the distance, he decided to go to Nanjing.
In fact, there was another reason, and it could be considered the main one: there was a distant relative of his, a kinsman, serving as the supervisor of the "Steam Engine Hall" at the naval academy in Nanjing—in other words, the head of the mechanical engineering department. When Lu Xun arrived in Nanjing, he went to seek refuge with him and stayed in his back room. However, this supervisor was quite stubborn. Although he held the position based on his Jinshi qualification, he felt it wasn’t proper for his descendants to attend school and "serve in the military," and at least they shouldn’t use their family name. So he changed his name for him. The name was chosen from the saying "To educate people is to plant trees for a hundred years," so his courtesy name remained unchanged. Later, after leaving the naval academy, he transferred to the Road and Mining School affiliated with the land military academy, still using the same name and courtesy name.
It was during his time at the Nanjing academy that Lu Xun began to use other names. He carved an inscription on a stone seal that read "A Scholar at War," and once used the name "Ganjiansheng" as his signature. This was quite early, as his old diary from the Gengzi year (1900) contains copies of "Ganjiansheng’s Notes on Flower Planting" and other entries, and on the New Year’s Eve of that year, in a memorial to the spirit of writing, he signed himself as "Jieshi Ganjiansheng," which serves as proof. Additionally, from the character "Shuren," he derived the name "Zishu," and around the same time, perhaps taking the meaning of living alone, he used the titles "Suoshi" or "Su Zi." These were all used after he went to study in Japan, as they appear in his diaries from the Guimao and Jiaochen years (1903–1904), though he had not used them before.
After 1907, the magazine "Henan" invited him to write articles, and at that time, he signed with "Xunxing" or "Lingfei," which had no connection to his real name. It was likely just meant to convey the idea of moving forward. Ten years passed, and after the May Fourth Movement, he began writing for "New Youth." The editors, Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, and others, had a rule that they did not approve of anonymity, and using a pen name was considered irresponsible. They insisted on using real names. Although Lu Xun was reluctant, he didn’t want to break the rule. So he removed the character "xing" from "Xunxing" and added the surname "Lu," just to get by. He used his mother’s surname because he feared that his family name Zhou might lead people to make guesses, so he changed his name to Lu, with no other meaning behind it.
At that time, he had another pen name, "Sitang," which he also used, but he reversed the character "tang" to "tang," making it "Tang Si." He used this name more often for new poetry and essays, while for fiction, he exclusively used "Lu Xun," which became his permanent name.