LU HSN

born Sept. 25, 1881, Shao-hsing, Chekiang province, China died Oct. 19, 1936, Shanghai Pinyin Lu Xun, pen name (pi-ming) of Chou Shu-jen writer commonly considered the greatest in Chinese literature of the 20th century. Although he originally studied to be a doctor, Lu Hsn became associated with the nascent Chinese literary movement in 1918, when, at the urging of friends, he published his famous short story A Madman's Diary. Modeled after Nikolay Gogol's tale of the same title, the tale is a condemnation of traditional Confucian culture which the madman narrator sees as a man-eating society. The first Western-style story written wholly in Chinese, it was a tour de force that attracted immediate attention and helped gain acceptance for the short-story form as an effective literary vehicle. The True Story of Ah Q (in Chinese, 1921; Eng. trans. in Ah 2 and Others) is a representative work. A mixture of humour and pathos, it is a repudiation of the old order; it added the word Ah Qism to the modern Chinese language as a term characterizing the Chinese penchant to rationalize defeat as a spiritual victory. Other stories in Na-han (1923; Call to Arms), the work that established his reputation as the leading Chinese writer, P'ang-huang (1926; Hesitation), and his various symbolic prose-poems, reminiscences, and retold classical tales all reveal a modern sensibility informed by a sardonic humour and biting satire. Although Lu Hsn is better known for his works of fiction, he was also a master of the prose essay, a vehicle he utilized more and more toward the end of his life. His Chung-kuo hsiao-shuo shih-lueh (Outline History of Chinese Fiction) and companion compilations of classical fiction remain standard works. Translations, largely from the Russian, also occupy a large place in his complete works. Forced by political circumstances to flee Peking in 1926, he eventually found sanctuary in the Shanghai International Settlement. Increasingly pessimistic about the political future of China, in the 1930s he began to see the Chinese communists as the only salvation for his country. Although he himself refused to join the party, he became a fellow traveler, recruiting many of his fellow writers and countrymen to the communist cause. Considered a revolutionary hero by present-day Chinese communists, Lu Hsn was adopted posthumously as the exemplar of Socialist Realism by the Chinese communist movement.