Selected Prose Works of Lu Xun

Author: Qian Liqun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: The achievements of modern Chinese prose, with Lu Xun as the richest and greatest—Yu Dafu (1935)
He can mobilize simple language (Chinese) to create a fluctuating and diverse effect, always fresh, always clear, always soft yet hard, always sharp yet uncoarse. His great strength lies ining emotions, thoughts, and words within a few thousand characters, like a delicate, slender stone with the explosive power of a grenade.—Lao She (1938)
Like many thoughtful individuals, he felt the darkness of the times and placed his hope in the younger generation, while spending the remaining days with nostalgia. There is a sense of helplessness, pity, and a soft, girlish emotion in his heart, an emotion that belongs to a melancholic woman. He sees and feels the despair of the youth, the disillusionment of the present world, the instability of the era, and other complexities.—Shen Congwen (1934)
The different genres of Lu Xun's works have distinct roles. Lu Xun himself said that he wrote novels to "utilize his strength to improve society," drawing his material from the unfortunate people in a sick society, with the intention of exposing the suffering and drawing attention to its remedy. He wrote essays to "respond immediately or resist harmful things," calling them "the nerves of perception and the hands and feet of defense and offense." His prose, however, either transformed "the strange and chaotic in his mind" into "strange and chaotic writing" or "copied from memory," finding "a moment of tranquility amidst the chaos," more often revealing his inner world. Lu Xun once told someone that Wild Grass contained his "philosophy," and he also discussed the distinction between what he "thought and wrote for others" and what he wrote "for himself." We can say that his novels and essays were written "for others," while his prose leaned toward "writing for himself," meaning he used this more personal genre to present his individual existence—the existence of the individual life and the existence of literary personal discourse: this is the special value of Lu Xun's prose. Reading Lu Xun's prose also carries a special significance: it helps us get closer to Lu Xun's individual life, which will be a meeting of the soul. Lu Xun once said, "A person's words and actions often differ between day and night, under the sun and in the light." This is an important reminder: people reveal different aspects of their personality in different settings and contexts, which allows others to observe and understand them from various angles, achieving a comprehensive grasp. This book organizes Lu Xun's prose into four sections, providing four different perspectives for observation.