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nearly a century and a half ago today, lu xun was born.

today, lu xun has become a faceless person, because he has too many images and too many symbols. on one hand, he is "the direction of the new culture of the chinese nation", a great writer and revolutionary; on the other hand, he is a frequent guest in chinese textbooks and a "nightmare" for primary and secondary school students; on the other hand, he is widely circulated in gossip and internet memes. for many years, various dimensions of lu xun overlapped, like cultural dust, but covered up lu xun's original image and made it unclear.

on his birthday, we found the "lu xun biography" and used ten photos to briefly string together lu xun's life. most of the time, he was a person who studied, pursued, struggled, and was lonely. he would say, "this loneliness is growing day by day, like a big poisonous snake, entangled my soul." he would also say, "i am definitely not a hero who can gather people with a wave of his arm." before he died, he would tell his family, "forget me and live your own life. if not, you are really a fool."

the real lu xun should not be so colorful, and later generations have tried hard to make him look serious, playful, and sharp, for fear that he would not attract people's attention. the real lu xun might be more like those photos of him in his life: a little reserved, a little contemplative, and a little gray.

this article is excerpted from "lu xun's biography". the subheadings are written by the editor, and the content has been deleted due to space limitations.

lu xun, september 25, 1881 - october 19, 1936

01

haircut photo:

the earliest existing solo photo of lu xun

this is the earliest single photo of lu xun that still exists. lu xun attached great importance to this photo. he and many people later often compared this photo with a poem - the last sentence of the poem is"i offer my blood to xuanyuan"it has become one of the iconic descriptions of lu xun's spirit.

the earliest existing photo of lu xun alone, taken in 1903, is known as the "broken-hair photo"

in 1902, lu xun graduated from the mining and railway school attached to the nanjing army normal school and was sent by the qing government to study in japan. he first took japanese language and basic knowledge lessons at the hongwen college in japan for two years. at the hongwen college, he was assigned to the jiangnan class of the accelerated general course. at that time, anti-qing revolutionary sentiments were high among the overseas students in tokyo. as lu xun said, "when all the overseas students arrived in japan, they were eager to seek new knowledge. in addition to learning japanese and preparing to enter specialized schools, they went to clubs, bookstores, rallies, and listened to lectures."

at hongwen college, lu xun met xu shoushang, a fellow countryman who was in the zhejiang class of the same school, and they became friends. the students in the zhejiang class cut their braids as soon as they arrived in japan, but no one in lu xun's jiangnan class cut their braids because the supervisor yao did not allow it. the classmates were very dissatisfied with this. several classmates caught yao and his mistress having an affair and forcibly cut their braids - cutting braids was a punishment for felons or those who had an affair at that time. yao's reputation was ruined and he had to return home. although several students who participated in the incident were punished, the ban on cutting braids was finally relaxed. after lu xun cut his braids, he took a photo as a souvenir. his good friend xu shoushang was given a photo. xu shoushang said that after lu xun gave him the photo, he also gave him a seven-character poem:

lingtai has no way to escape the divine arrow, the storm is as heavy as a rock and the old home is dark.

i hope the cold stars don't notice, i will sacrifice my blood to xuanyuan.

after lu xun's death, xu shoushang named this poem "self-titled small portrait" in his memoirs. this poem may not have been written specifically for this photo, but because xu shoushang named it this way, the two have been inseparable since then, and the photo has been called "the broken hair photo". according to the time when the photo was taken, it can be roughly determined that lu xun's seven-character poem was written later than the group photo of the zhejiang overseas chinese association in japan. zhou zuoren believed that the poem was written in 1903 because the photo of lu xun taken in 1902 that he saw in person still had a braid.

as for the year when the poem was written, it was in 1903 when he was 23 years old, and xu's record is also credible. this was probably written on the "cut hair" photo taken in february of guimao (1903), rather than the photo taken in hongwen college uniform in april of the previous year. the only difference between the two is that one took off the hat and the other wore a student hat, because the "mount fuji" was still on the top, which was not very elegant.

02

hongwen college:

studying medicine is also "a painful experience"

hongwen academy, also known as "hongwen academy", was a shortcut school established in japan in the late qing dynasty specifically for chinese students. it was founded in 1902 and is located at 34 nishigokencho, ushigome-ku, tokyo. the principal (and founder) was jigoro kano (1860-1938).

kano served as a member of the house of peers of japan and an honorary professor of tokyo higher normal school. he served as the principal of the fifth high school, the first high school, the director of the general education bureau of the ministry of education, and the principal of tokyo higher normal school. tokyo higher normal school trains middle school teachers across the country, and its principal is responsible for secondary education throughout japan. kano served as the principal of tokyo higher normal school for 26 years and enjoyed a high reputation in the education community. just after the end of the sino-japanese war, in 1896, the first batch of 13 chinese students on government funding arrived in tokyo, and the japanese diplomatic and educational authorities entrusted them to kano jigoro. from then on, kano was responsible for the supplementary education of chinese students before they entered japanese higher vocational schools. before founding hongwen college, kano visited china and met with qing government officials.

hongwen college mainly teaches general courses, japanese and general scientific knowledge, and lays the foundation for entering higher specialized schools. at the same time, various crash courses are also set up, such as normal school, police, physics and chemistry, music, etc. the crash courses are taught through translation. the school also offers auditing classes for chinese who go to japan for inspection or study education. the study period of each subject is different. the general course is two to three years, and the crash course is six months, eight months, one year, and one and a half years. the classes are arranged according to the students' provinces, and students are boarding in principle.

lu xun was one of the 56 students in the first class of the school and one of the 22 boarding students. the age of the students ranged from 17 to 34, with an average age of 25. zhou shuren, who was 22 years old, was assigned to the ordinary jiangnan class. the school had some regulations for chinese students, such as "boarding students must salute after getting up and before going to bed", "students must respect the national system of their country and the dignity of the school", "toasts are given at dinner on confucius' birthday", etc.

lu xun's graduation photo from hongwen college, taken in 1904

jigoro kano was smart since childhood, but he was short and weak, so he was particularly interested in martial arts. while studying at tokyo imperial university (now the university of tokyo), he learned traditional judo from several masters and studied in depth how to use the opponent's weight and strength to enable a small person to carry a big man and throw him out, that is, "softness can overcome hardness", and sorted out a set of standardized guidance methods. after graduation, kano opened a private school to take care of the children of relatives and friends, founded the kobunkan to teach english, and established a kodokan to popularize modern judo. judo, a current olympic event, was founded by him.

in march 1902, hongwen college opened the ushigome judo branch of kodokan to recruit students from the qing dynasty. soon after lu xun enrolled, he signed up with more than 30 students including xu shoushang, becoming the first batch of students accepted by the ushigome branch.

in the graduation photo of hongwen college, lu xun looked handsome and energetic. the two years at hongwen college broadened his horizons and laid a solid foundation for his basic knowledge.

lu xun had already thought about his destination after graduation. according to regulations, lu xun should study mining and metallurgy in the engineering department of tokyo imperial university. however, lu xun decided to study medicine. he later recalled: "by the time i graduated from the preparatory school in tokyo, i had already decided to study medicine. one of the reasons was that i knew for sure that new medicine would be of great help to japan's reform." "my dream was very beautiful. i planned to come back after graduation to treat the suffering of patients who were misdiagnosed like my father. during the war, i would become a military doctor, and at the same time promote the chinese people's belief in reform." in addition,according to lu xun's own account, he had bad teeth since childhood and tried all kinds of traditional chinese medicine prescriptions in china, but to no avail. so his desire to study medicine was "with some deep pain."

there were many medical schools in tokyo, but lu xun did not like staying in tokyo. the first sentence of his article "mr. fujino" was "tokyo is nothing more than this." he was not dissatisfied with the city of tokyo, but he could not stand the chinese students who gathered here. some students only wanted to get promoted and make money after returning to china. they were not focused on studying, but were keen on eating, drinking and having fun, or learning to dance in the clubhouse, or stewing beef behind closed doors. lu xun was very disgusted with this: "i can eat stewed beef in china, why go all the way to a foreign country?" in order to avoid these people, he decided to study at the medical college in sendai, a remote town in the northeast.

03

dropping out:

the first thing is to change their spirit

lu xun told his good classmate sugimura takuro about his decision to leave sendai. in march 1906, sugimura takuro and other grade leaders who were close to lu xun, such as suzuki itaro, aoki imao, and yamazaki kizo, held a farewell party for lu xun and took a group photo. it was a simple farewell party. everyone had snacks at a snack shop and then went to a photo studio to take commemorative photos. aoki was a sophomore who had been enrolled for four years, suzuki was a sophomore who had been enrolled for three years, sugimura was a sophomore who had completed the department of pharmacy, and yamazaki was a first-year student who had been enrolled for two years. they all failed a grade, which shows how strict the medical college exams were.

lu xun (first from left) and the class leaders of sendai medical college, march 1906

lu xun's classmates recalled the situation at that time:

zhou jun was a person who was not very conspicuous. he was very honest. everyone liked him and got along well with his classmates. no one treated him specially. but because he was a foreigner, we didn't have a deep relationship with them, so we couldn't ask him the reason why he left sendai. he just said that he couldn't stay here for a long time due to various reasons. later, i heard that he left because of the slide incident. zhou shuren was usually taciturn, but he made people feel that he was a very sensitive person. zhou shuren stood by in the photo. maybe he hadn't decided to leave yet, so he just stood by. this was probably out of politeness. but he left soon after that, and there was no time to hold a farewell party in the class. when i talked about this with sugimura and others later, that party was like a farewell party.

why did lu xun give up studying medicine and leave sendai?

he once explained the reason: "in the second year, i taught mycology. the shapes of bacteria were all shown with movies. when a section was finished but before the end of the get out of class, we would show a few current affairs films, all of which were about japan's victory over russia. but there were chinese people caught in the middle: a detective for the russians was captured by the japanese army and was about to be shot. there was also a group of chinese people watching; there was also me in the lecture hall. 'long live!' they all clapped and cheered." these scenes strongly stimulated lu xun. "from that time on, i felt that medicine was not an important matter. all weak and ignorant people, no matter how healthy and strong they are, can only be meaningless materials for display and spectators. it is not necessary to think that it is unfortunate if many people die of illness.so our first priority is to change their spirit., and what was good at changing people’s minds was that i thought at that time that of course literature and art should be promoted, so i wanted to promote a literary and artistic movement. "

at that time, the influence of lu xun's environment on him is noteworthy. the book "lu xun's records in sendai" describes many details, such as the natural environment and living conditions at that time, especially the famine caused by heavy snow and its impact on the local economy and people's hearts, as well as the celebrations and conscription activities after the victory of the japanese army in the russo-japanese war. during lu xun's time in sendai, the citizens held five victory celebrations, all of which were grand and warm. the conscription in sendai did not rely on naked power oppression, but was held spontaneously and voluntarily in every corner of the city and countryside, overflowing with loyalty to the emperor and patriotism. lu xun later expressed considerable favorability for the japanese national character on many occasions, which was not unrelated to what he saw and heard during this period. of course, at the same time, the violence of militarism also aroused his disgust and vigilance.

during his studies, lu xun realized that it was not feasible to improve the human race through western medicine, and that the literary criticism, translation and other activities based on the modern scientific spirit that he had begun before studying abroad were more effective in promoting china's modernization.

04

tokyo:

he doesn't care much about food, clothing or housing, but he is willing to buy foreign books and periodicals.

in 1909, lu xun took a photo in tokyo wearing a western suit. at that time, western style was prevalent in daily life in japan, and wearing western suits was quite common. lu xun's good friend xu shoushang was able to wear quite high-end western suits because of his wealthy family.

in april 1908, at the invitation of xu shoushang, lu xun moved from "chuyue pavilion" to the former residence of the famous japanese writer natsume soseki, no. 7, nishikatamachi 10-b, hongo district, together with zhou zuoren, qian junfu and zhu mouxuan, so the five of them lived together, and thus called it "wu she". they tidied up the courtyard and made it tidy and beautiful, and planted many flowers and plants on the open space, including the flower called "morning glory" in japan, which has a short flowering period but is very beautiful. compared with cherry blossoms, it reminds people more of the poem "pick the flowers when they are in bloom, don't wait until there are no flowers to pick branches".

during his stay at wushe, lu xun often went to bookstores to buy books, but rarely went sightseeing, only occasionally going to the park to admire the cherry blossoms. renting wushe increased the cost of food and lodging, and in order to make up for the financial shortfall, lu xun once worked as a manuscript proofreader for a small reward. according to zhou zuoren's recollection, lu xun lived a simple life on weekdays. after returning to tokyo from sendai, he changed to wearing kimonos. he only had three sets of kimonos made of single, padded, and cotton cloth, and a padded coat. in winter, he only wore shorts.

"wherever he went, he wore the same outfit, a cap or a bird-hunting cap, a kimono with a skirt, which looked like the trousers that rural farmers wore in winter, and leather boots. apart from the boots, he looked like a poor local student." he only used one quilt for a mattress and one for a cover, a thick japanese quilt for both hot and cold weather. these clothes and quilts were all his old possessions, and he hardly bought anything new during his years in tokyo.

lu xun in japan, 1909

lu xun was not particular about food, clothing and housing, but he was willing to buy a large number of foreign books and periodicals. with these books and periodicals, he translated literary works and wrote literary essays, working very hard. according to the "official gazette of overseas students", he visited the hospital many times and was hospitalized for many days at the surugadai hongbaicho xingyuntang hospital.

xu shoushang said: "unfortunately, good times don't last forever, and grand events are hard to come by. in winter, the lotus pond dried up, the chrysanthemum bed withered, and our wushe could no longer sustain itself - because zhu qian and his roommates moved out first, and i am going to germany next spring, so i had to cancel the lease. lu xun found a small rental house in nishikatamachi, where the three of us can live together temporarily, and after i leave, the two brothers will live together." just like that, in february 1909, lu xun, zhou zuoren and xu shoushang moved from the "wushe" to no. 19, c, 10th floor, nishikatamachi.

lu xun had originally planned to go to europe to learn german, because germany introduced foreign literature extensively and rapidly, and many of the translations of eastern european russian literature that lu xun read were in german. unfortunately, he was unable to make the trip for some reason.

05

returnees:

the funds were insufficient, so i had to give up my research and return to china to work.

in april 1909, xu shoushang left japan because he failed to study in europe and returned to china to serve as the dean of academic affairs of zhejiang two-level normal school. lu xun also wanted to study in germany, but encountered financial difficulties. he said to xu shoushang: "it's good that you return to china. i have to return to china too, because qi meng is going to get married and the expenses will increase from now on. i have to find a job to help with financial support." lu xun returned to china to teach at zhejiang two-level normal school in the autumn of 1909.

the "qimeng" who was about to get married mentioned by lu xun was the second brother zhou zuoren. xu shoushang said in "about brothers":zuoren had not yet graduated from rikkyo university, but he had already gotten married and had insufficient funds, so he had to rely on his brother for financial support. therefore, lu xun had to give up his research and return to china to work."in 1925, lu xun wrote in his autobiography at the request of wang xili, the russian translator of the true story of ah q: "because my mother and several other people hoped that i would have financial help, i returned to china; i was 29 years old at that time. as soon as i returned to china, i worked as a chemistry and physiology teacher at the two-level normal school in hangzhou, zhejiang." "several other people" included zhou zuoren and his wife hata nobuko.

so, how much financial support did lu xun get from this job? in zhejiang's two-level normal schools, "teachers' salaries were the highest in the province, but the homework was the least." for example, the drawing teacher taught "only six hours a week, but the monthly salary was 70, 80, or 120 gold coins." according to this standard, it was not a problem for lu xun to pay the 60 yuan monthly living expenses to zhou zuoren. the next year, lu xun returned to shaoxing to teach, and his monthly salary was reduced to more than 30 yuan. he was not able to make ends meet, and when he was particularly tight, he had to sell his land.

lu xun, photographed in hangzhou in 1909. photo taken by hangzhou "erwoxuan" photo studio

lu xun taught chemistry courses in the junior normal school and physiology courses in the advanced normal school at zhejiang normal school. he also served as a translator for suzuki keiju, a japanese teacher of natural history courses (zoology, botany, and mineralogy). at that time, many courses were taught by japanese teachers, and the handouts compiled by the teachers needed to be translated, and someone had to interpret during class.

at that time, vernacular chinese was not popular yet, and school textbooks still used classical chinese. lu xun had a deep foundation in classical chinese, and the lecture notes he translated were accurate and elegant. xia yizun praised him, saying, "using such exquisite words to translate lecture notes on animals and plants may seem a waste now, but it was very popular thirty years ago when people valued writing." xia yizun also said that lu xun "often looked at things from a long-term perspective, but also took a serious attitude and started from small things." for example, when he advocated planting trees, others laughed at him for being stupid because it took ten years for a tree to grow, but those people only cared about the present and advocated "being a monk for a day and ringing the bell for a day."lu xun said, "as long as i am a monk for one day, i will ring the bell, and ring it hard and seriously."

06

alumni association:

"i am definitely not a hero who can gather people with just a wave of his hand."

on january 13, 1918, lu xun attended a tea party held by the alumni association of zhejiang no. 5 middle school in beijing and took a group photo. the predecessor of zhejiang no. 5 middle school was shaoxing prefecture middle school. zhou zuoren also taught at this school, so he also appears in the photo.

a group photo of zhejiang shaoxing middle school alumni in beijing, taken on january 13, 1918. lu xun's diary: "sunny. rest on sunday. in the afternoon, i went to deguzhai in liulichang with my second brother. i found the inscription of the "shangzunhao stele" and other kinds of special and miscellaneous stone rubbings, a total of six pieces, and paid one yuan. i also went to peking university to visit xia qing, and went to the zhejiang no. 5 middle school alumni reunion. we took photos, had tea, etc., and returned home at six o'clock." the predecessor of zhejiang no. 5 middle school was shaoxing prefecture middle school. the second person from the left in the third row is lu xun, and the fourth person is zhou zuoren

lu xun had lived in the shaoxing guild hall since he arrived in beijing in 1912, and he had daily contact with many people from shaoxing. zhou zuoren, who came to beijing to live with him in 1915, said:

people in shaoxing seem to dislike the name "shaoxing". the reason has not been investigated in depth, but it can be summarized as the following reasons. the first is that it is not elegant enough. yuyue dates back to the three dynasties, and kuaiji also dates back to the qin and han dynasties. the name shaoxing did not exist until the southern song dynasty. the second is that king xiaokang fled south to live in peace, but used auspicious characters as the reign title and arbitrarily changed the place name. this is a very ridiculous thing. the third is that people from shaoxing are everywhere. the "yueyan" also published the saying "sparrow tofu shaoxing people", saying that the three are everywhere. in fact, they are hated everywhere. for example, in beijing, people from shaoxing are not very popular, so many people are unwilling to admit that they are from shaoxing. lu xun is like this. when people asked him about his hometown, he just said zhejiang.

therefore, zhou zuoren and lu xun rarely participated in collective activities in the guild hall. zhou zuoren said:

there was also a room in the former shanhuiyi pavilion, where the tablets of the ancestors were enshrined. this was the main hall in the pavilion, and its name was "yangji hall". it was obvious at a glance that it was dedicated to liu jishan... there were two public memorial services in spring and autumn each year, and i never participated in them. the memorial service was held on sundays. on that day, lu xun always got up very early. we fled to liulichang before ten o'clock, chatted in several stone tablets and calligraphy shops, and then went to qingyun pavilion for tea and snacks as meals. we slowly returned in the afternoon. the people who attended the memorial service had also dispersed and returned home, and everything had returned to the silence of the past.

enlarged version of the photo above

the image of lu xun in this photo is often magnified as a testimony to his life in beijing. , especially in the early period of his stay in beijing, that is, before his family came to beijing to reunite, because during this period lu xun did not take a single photo. the expression in lu xun's photo is consistent with several passages he described in his own mental state:

this loneliness grew day by day, like a poisonous snake, entangling my soul. however, although i had my own unprovoked sadness, i was not angry, because this experience made me reflect and see myself: i am definitely not a hero who can gather people with a single wave of his arm. but my own loneliness must be driven away, because it is too painful for me. so i used various methods to numb my soul, so that i could sink into the people and return to the ancient times. later, i also experienced or witnessed several more lonely and sad things, but i did not want to recall them. i was willing to let them and my brain perish in the soil together. but my anesthesia method seemed to have worked, and i no longer had the passionate spirit of my youth.

07

the true story of ah q:

the image of ah q has been in my mind for many years.

on may 28, 1925, lu xun took two photos for the russian translation of the true story of ah q. the true story of ah q is lu xun's representative work and a rare masterpiece in the history of modern chinese literature. lu xun described the origin of the creation of this work:

lu xun took a photo of the russian translation of the true story of ah q on may 28, 1925. the russian vasilyev (wang xili) wrote to lu xun through cao jinghua to translate the true story of ah q, asking lu xun to write a preface and photos, and to write a "self-narrative biography"

at that time i lived in the western part of the city. probably only the people in the new youth and new trends knew that lu xun was my friend. sun fuyuan was also one of them. he was editing a supplement at the morning post. i don't know whose idea it was, but they suddenly decided to add a column called "happy talk" once a week. he came to ask me to write something.

the image of ah q seems to have been in my mind for several years, but i have never intended to write about him. after this mention, i suddenly remembered it, and wrote a little bit at night, which is the first chapter: the introduction. because i want to stick to the title of "happy talk", i randomly added some unnecessary humor, which is actually out of place in the whole article. the signature is "baren", which means "low-class baren", which is not elegant. ...

08

five lectures in peking:

"helping literature" and "helping literature"

in november 1932, when lu xun went to beijing to visit his mother, he was invited by peking university, fu jen catholic university, women's college of arts and sciences, beijing normal university, and china university to give speeches: "helping literature and helping literature" at peking university, "two feelings of this spring" at fu jen catholic university (both on november 22), "revolutionary literature and obedient literature" at women's college of arts and sciences (24th), "re-discussing the "third kind of people"" at normal university (27th), and "literature and military force" at china university (28th). the first two speeches were revised by lu xun and included in "collected works of miscellaneous works", and the rest of the speeches were not preserved. lu xun said: "i heard that a book called "five lectures" was published in beijing, but it was not written by me, and i have never seen that book." it is possible that the listeners at the time organized and printed the notes, but they have not been found so far.

lu xun giving a speech at beijing normal university, november 27, 1932

in a letter to wang zhizhi on december 21, 1932, lu xun said: "my trip to peiping this time is not worth commemorating, but if your friend must publish a commemorative album, i hope for two things: first, you must show me the excerpts of the speech, and i can send it back to you in a very short time, because some of the articles in the newspapers are very wrong, and now that they are printed in this book, they have to be corrected; second, if you collect articles from newspapers, those attacking me must also be included, such as shanghai's "social news"." later, this commemorative album was not published.

there are many records about these speeches by later generations, from which we can see the sensation lu xun caused in the peking literary world at that time and his elegant demeanor.

on the afternoon of november 22, lu xun, accompanied by tai jingnong, went to the second college of peking university to give a 40-minute speech. beforehand, lu xun proposed that the audience should be limited to the chinese department. therefore, the school posted a notice three hours before the lecture, but when the lecture started, the auditorium was still packed with listeners, as many as seven or eight hundred people. the topic of the lecture was "helping literature and helping literature", with ke sang's transcript, which was published in the first issue of "film and literature" in december of that year. lu xun did not fully approve of this transcript. on december 23, 1934, he wrote to yang jiyun: "helping literature is not as reliable as the reporter said. in the second half, even i don't understand it. therefore, i deleted it and only kept the better first half, which can be included in the collection. this point is enough to explain the title." the first half that lu xun approved was revised by himself and was originally intended to be included in the "collection outside the collection", but it was removed by the censorship agency and later included in the "collection outside the collection".

lu xun said in his speech: "generally speaking, when a country is about to perish, the emperor has nothing to do, and his ministers talk about women and wine." this is hanger-on literature; "when a country is founded, these people write imperial edicts, decrees, declarations, and telegrams." this is helping literature.

he believed that chinese literature "can be divided into two categories: (1) palace literature, which is to enter the master's house and either help the master or take care of the master's leisure; the opposite is (2) mountain literature. the latter type, although temporarily without help or leisure, is in the mountains, but 'the heart is in the wei palace'". whether it is "helping literature" or "idle literature", the essence is "bureaucratic literature". not only did this kind of "bureaucratic literature" exist in history, but it also still exists in large quantities today, "but the methods are much more clever, so clever that it can't be seen", such as the so-called "art for art's sake".

lu xun giving a speech at beijing normal university, november 27, 1932

lu xun pointed out that those who put forward such ideas are non-resistance-oriented, "not only are they non-resistance-oriented, but they also suppress the emergence of new literature. they dare not criticize society, nor can they resist. if they resist, they would be saying sorry for art", and they have become helpers and hangers-on.

09

during illness:

“i’ve been wanting to take a break lately.”

in the spring of 1936, lu xun's health gradually weakened and he was plagued by illness. the turbulent situation in the literary world and the open and secret struggles within the left wing made him depressed. the work on hand kept piling up, and he was eager to finish it. these factors combined to accelerate his death.

in his later years, lu xun lacked close friends. qu qiubai, to whom he copied the couplet "it is enough to have one true friend in life, and the world should treat others with the same feeling", was killed by the authorities a few years earlier. his student and friend feng xuefeng went to the soviet area, far away from him.

lu xun posed for a photo in front of the door after his serious illness, taken on march 23, 1936, by agnes smedley

lu xun wanted to rest, but the entanglement of human affairs made him in a dilemma. on may 4, 1936, he wrote to wang yeqiu:

i want to take a break every year, but my official, personal, and idle affairs keep increasing. i have no time to rest, read, or write. i have finally recovered from my illness, but i always have no energy, or not enough energy to handle miscellaneous tasks; my memory has also deteriorated. the heroes keep coming to attack me. recently, a writers' association was held here, calling for national defense literature. i did not join in light of the past, but the heroes regarded this as sabotaging the national plan and even announced my crime at the rally.

i can actually do nothing, and i am not guilty of doing nothing. however, china is not theirs after all, and i also want to live somewhere, so i have recently written two articles to fight back. they are empty shells and will probably disappear soon: there have been many people of this kind before. "on the 14th of the same month, i wrote another letter to talk about my situation and mood, saying: "a large number of heroes are announcing my crime of destroying the united front. i have been quite diligent in the past years, but every time there is a big issue, there are always people who want to take this opportunity to strangle me to death. i really don't know why, maybe i am really a bad person. recently, i often want to take a break.

lu xun still had confidence in his health, and in his letters to relatives and friends, he was still optimistic about recovery. for example, in a letter to cao jinghua on the same day, he said that although he was suffering from "terrible tuberculosis", "tuberculosis is a dangerous disease for young people, but it is not fatal to the elderly." he was also planning to go abroad for recuperation: "around the 20th of this month, i want to leave shanghai for three months and come back in september. the place i will go to is probably japan, but it has not been confirmed. as for going to west lake, it is purely a rumor."

but in the eyes of outsiders, it was actually very obvious that lu xun was approaching the end of his life.

10

remains and will:

"forget me and live your own life"

lu xun finished writing the article "death" on september 5, 1936, and published it in the second issue of the first volume of the semi-monthly "zhongliu" on september 20. in the article, he talked about his anticipation of "death" during his illness, felt that there were still many things to do, and urged himself to "do them quickly." the article also revealed the seven wills he drafted:

1. do not accept a penny from anyone for funerals. - this does not apply to old friends.

second, collect the body quickly, bury it, and that’s it.

third, don’t do anything about commemoration.

fourth, forget me and take care of your own life. if not, then you are really a fool.

5. when children grow up, if they have no talent, they can find some small things to make a living, but they must never become empty-headed writers or artists.

6. don’t take seriously what others promise you.

7. never get close to someone who hurts others but is against revenge and advocates tolerance.

the last one shows his resolute character. the last paragraph of the article echoes this will: "i have also thought of the ritual that europeans often have when they are dying, which is to ask for forgiveness from others and forgive others themselves. i have many enemies. if a modern person asks me about this, how should i answer? i thought about it and decided: let them hate me, and i will not forgive any of them."

on the night of october 18, lu xun's condition worsened suddenly. he could not sleep or even rest by leaning against a chair. he sat with his body bent all night, hugging his legs with his hands, in great pain.

lu xun spent a lot of effort to write a note to uchiyama kanzao in japanese, which became his last work: "boss, i didn't expect to have asthma in the middle of the night. therefore, i can't go to the appointment at 10 o'clock. i'm very sorry. please call mr. sudo and ask him to come and see it as soon as possible. i bow my head and say hello on october 18th."

at 5:25 a.m. on october 19, 1936, lu xun said his last words, "how serious is my illness?" and passed away under the care of his wife xu guangping, his brother zhou jianren and others.

lu xun's remains, photographed by sha fei on october 19, 1936

celebrities, relatives and friends formed a funeral committee and issued an obituary:

mr. lu xun (zhou shuren) died of illness at 5:25 am on october 19, 1936 at his residence in shanghai, at the age of 56. the body was moved to the international funeral home today. from 10 am to 5 pm on the 20th, people from all walks of life can pay their respects to the body. according to mr. lu xun's will, "not to accept a penny from anyone for the funeral", except for memorials and wreaths to express condolences, all monetary donations are declined. this is the obituary.

sha fei took a photo of lu xun's remains, and artists such as situ qiao and li qun used their brushes to leave the world with the final image of lu xun.

this article is excerpted from

biography of lu xun

author: huang qiaosheng

publisher: life·reading·new knowledge sanlian bookstore

publication year: 2022-6