Selected Essays of Lu Xun

Author: Lu Xun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-02-01
Features: Lu Xun devoted most of his life and energy to the creation of essays during his later years of intellectual maturity. In fact, Lu Xun's name is closely tied to essays, but what has sparked the most controversy is also his essays. From his lifetime until now, the denigration and ridicule of essays, especially Lu Xun's essays, have never ceased. Despite countless declarations that the era of Lu Xun's essays has passed, and despite Lu Xun himself repeatedly expressing hope that his essays critical of social ills would "perish along with the ills," an undeniable fact remains: Lu Xun's essays have always been cherished by all Chinese (young Chinese) who care about and contemplate social, historical, intellectual, cultural, life, and humanistic issues. Lu Xun's essays remain a living "presence" in Chinese reality at all times, influencing ongoing (developing) Chinese thought, culture (including literature), and shaping the hearts of the Chinese people. They can be continuously republished and read repeatedly, each reading bringing new insights and discoveries—fresh and ever-renewing. The sharpness and bitterness of Lu Xun's essays, which are often hard to accept, also lie in his equally unconventional association (imagination). What people marvel at is that Lu Xun could connect seemingly unrelated people and events that are far apart in appearance, always discovering the (common thread) of the "spirit" amidst the vast contrast of the "form." This is almost ubiquitous in Lu Xun's essays, forming the fundamental associative (imagination) pattern in his works.