"Lu Hsun (1881-1936), chief commander of China's modern cultural revolution, was not only a great thinker and political commentator but the founder of modern Chinese literature. As early as in the May 1918 issue of the magazine New Youth, Lu Hsun published one of his best stories, A Madman's Diary. This was his "declaration of war" against China's feudal society, and the first short story in the history of modern Chinese literature. Thereafter he followed up with a succession of stories such as The True Story of Ah Q and The New Year's Sacrifice, which cut through and sharply attacked stark reality in the dark old society. These stories were later included in the three volumes Call to Arms, Wandering and Old Tales Retold, and have become treasures in the Chinese people's literary heritage. In his early life Lu Hsun was a revolutionary democrat, who later matured into a communist. His earlier works were mainly stories, 18 of the more important of which, plus the preface to Call to Arms, his first short story collection, have been selected for this volume. The stories show clearly his method in this period of creative writing, thoroughgoing critical realism, a method closely related to the outright anti-imperialist and anti-feudal views which he formed in his early days. In his preface to Call to Arms, the author tells his motive in choosing literature as a weapon of struggle. This will give readers a deeper understanding of Lu Hsun's stories." --

Lu Hsun (also known as Lu Xun), was the pen name of Zhou Shuren (1881–1936), a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. Writing in Vernacular Chinese as well as Classical Chinese, Lu Xun was a short story writer, editor, translator, literary critic, essayist, and poet. In the 1930s he became the titular head of the League of Left-Wing Writers in Shanghai. Lu Xun was born into a family of landlords and government officials in Shaoxing, Zhejiang; the family's financial resources declined over the course of his youth. Lu aspired to take the imperial civil service exam; but, due to his family's relative poverty, was forced to attend government-funded schools teaching "Western education". Upon graduation, Lu went to medical school in Japan, but later dropped out. He became interested in studying literature, but was eventually forced to return to China due to his family's lack of funds. After returning to China, Lu worked for several years teaching at local secondary schools and colleges before finally finding a job at the national Ministry of Education. After the 1919 May Fourth Movement, Lu Xun's writing began to exert a substantial influence on Chinese literature and popular culture. Like many leaders of the May Fourth Movement, he was primarily a leftist and liberal. He was highly acclaimed by the Chinese government after 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, and Mao Zedong himself was a lifelong admirer of Lu Xun's writing. Though sympathetic to socialist ideas, Lu Xun never joined the Communist Party of China.

Lu Xun (Lu Hsun) is arguably the greatest writer of modern China, and is considered by many to be the founder of modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun's stories both indict outdated Chinese traditions and embrace China's cultural richness and individuality. This volume presents brand-new translations by Julia Lovell of all of Lu Xun's stories, including 'The Real Story of Ah-Q', 'Diary of a Madman', 'A Comedy of Ducks', 'The Divorce' and 'A Public Example', among others. With an afterword by Yiyun Li.

Selected Stories of Lu Hsun By Lu Hsun The True Story of Ah Q, and Other Stories Translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang Selected Stories of Lu Hsun is a collection of English translations of major stories of the Chinese author Lu Xun translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang and first published in 1960 by the Foreign Languages Press in Beijing. This book was republished in 2007 by the Foreign Languages Press with the updated title of Lu Xun Selected Works. Stories included in the collection are drawn from three of Lu Xun's story collections: Call to Arms (CTA), "Wandering" (W), and "Old Tales Retold" (OTR). The stories were a major influence on the May Fourth Movement in China in the 1920s. One major theme in the stories in this collection is that habits of mind (psychology or "spirit") need to be examined; improvements in material conditions and institutions, while important, are not sufficient by themselves to renew China. See in particular A Madman's Diary and The True Story of Ah Q. Lu Xun employed point of view in his stories in a way that was novel at the time for Chinese literature, helping readers consider new possibilities about the true nature of the reality around them. A second major theme in the stories is the problem of how members of the intellectual class are to live their lives. It is a theme in many stories, including Kong Yiji, My Old Home, In the Wine Shop, Regret for the Past, and others. A third major theme in the stories is commentary on traditional customs and institutions. The stories look at the specific dysfunctions of particular customs and institutions, and also at the general result in which people are discarded. It is a theme in many stories, especially Kong Yiji and The New Year Sacrifice.

"Here at last is an accurate and enjoyable rendering of Lu Xun's fiction in an American English idiom that masterfully captures the sardonic wit, melancholy pathos, and ironic vision of China's first truly modern writer." -Michael S. Duke, University of British Columbia The inventor of the modern Chinese short story, Lu Xun is universally regarded as twentieth century China’s greatest writer. This long awaited volume presents new translations of all Lu Xun’s stories, including his first, “Remembrances of the Past,” written in classical Chinese. These new renderings faithfully convey both the brilliant style and the pungent expression for which Lu Xun is famous. Also included are a substantial introduction by the translator and sufficient annotation to make the stories fully accessible, enabling readers approaching Lu Xun for the first time to appreciate why these stories occupy a permanent place not only in Chinese literature but in world literature as well.

"Some of these stories, I am sure, will be read as long as the Chinese language exists."—Ha Jin "When I was young I, too, had many dreams. Most of them came to be forgotten, but I see nothing in this to regret. For although recalling the past may make you happy, it may sometimes also make you lonely, and there is no point in clinging in spirit to lonely bygone days. However, my trouble is that I cannot forget completely, and these stories have resulted from what I have been unable to erase from memory."—Lu Hsun Living during a time of dramatic change in China, Lu Hsun had a career that was as varied as his writing. As a young man he studied medicine in Japan but left it for the life of an activist intellectual, eventually returning to China to teach. Though he supported the aims of the Communist revolution, he did not become a member of the party nor did he live to see the Communists take control of China. Ambitious to reach a large Chinese audience, Lu Hsun wrote his first published story, "A Madman's Diary," in the vernacular, a pioneering move in Chinese literature at the time. "The True Story of Ah Q," a biting portrait of feudal China, gained him popularity in the West. This collection of eighteen stories shows the variety of his style and subjects throughout his career. In a new introduction, Ha Jin, the author of Waiting (National Book Award winner), The Bridegroom, and other works, places Lu Hsun's life and work in the context of Chinese history and literature.