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The Influence of Western Literature on Lǔ Xùn's ‘Diary of a Madman’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

J. D. Chinnery
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Extract

Lǔ xùn's first story Kúangrén rìjì ‘Diary of a madman’ was published in the review Xīn Qīngnián (La Jeunesse) in May 1918. This was during the New Culture Movement when the editors of the review were engaged in their onslaught on Confucian morality, the literary language, and other aspects of the Chinese tradition. Lǔ Xùn's story was intended as a contribution to this movement and was written, according to the author's own account, at the request of one of his friends and fellowprovincials on the editorial board, Qián Xuán-tóng .

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Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , June 1960 , pp. 309 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1960

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References

1 See Xīn Qīngnián, iv, 5, 1918, 414–24.Google Scholar

2 For Lǔ Xùn's account of how he came to write ‘Diary of a madman’ see Nàhǎn zìxù in Lǔ Xùn quánji , vol. I, Peking, 1957, pp. 3–8.Google Scholar For an English translation see Selected works of Lu Hsun, I, Peking, 1956, pp. 1–7.Google Scholar

3 Zhōu Zùo-rén gives details of his early literary collaboration with his elder brother in Gūanyú Lǔ Xùn zhī èr –, first published in Yǔzhōu fēng , in 1936 and reprinted as an appendix to Lǔ Xùn de qīngnián shídài , Peking, 1957.Google Scholar

1 Lǔ Xùn quánji, IV, Peking, 1957, 393.Google Scholar

2 Gogol's story is translated in Garnet, Constance's The works of Nikolay Gogol, III, London, 1923, 131–62.Google Scholar

3 Lǔ Xùn guánjí, VI, Peking, 1958, 190.Google Scholar For the original passage from Nietzsche see Nietzsche, Friedrich W., Thus spake Zarathustra, trans. Tille, A., London, 1958, 5.Google Scholar

4 The last entry in Gogol's ‘Diary’ contains the words: ‘Is that my house in the distance ? Is it my mother sitting before the window ? Mother, save your son !…’. Lǔ Xùn's ‘Diary’ closes with the words: ‘Perhaps there are still some children who have not eaten men ? Save the children…’. Another point of similarity is that both stories contain references to dogs, which are thought by the respective madmen to be imbued with human perception.

5 See Magarshak, D., Gogol, London, 1957, 119.Google Scholar

1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., xx, 767.Google Scholar

2 See Selected works of Lu, Hsun, I, 10.Google Scholar

3 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., xx, 768.Google Scholar

4 ibid.

5 Xiá-shòu, Zhōu (pseud, of Zhōu Zùo-rén), Lǔ Xùn xiǎoshūo lř de rénwù . Peking, 1957, 6–7.Google Scholar

6 Lǔ Xùn rìjì , Shanghai, 1951, Case 1, fase. 5, p. 22b, 11 1916.Google Scholar

7 Magarshak, , op. cit., 65.Google Scholar

1 See Xiá-shòu, Zhōu, op. cit., 46–7.Google Scholar

2 Selected works of Lu Hsun, I, 11–12.Google Scholar For the parallel phrase in Gogol's work see Gogol, , op. cit., 134.Google Scholar

1 In April 1919, Lř Dà-zhào wrote in Měizhōu pinglùn : ‘The Japanese say their political system is like a zoo. They lock the people behind bars, give them meat to eat, and call it “humanitarianism”. I consider that our Chinese political system is like a slaughter-house for pigs. Our people are slaughtered like pigs and our blood, flesh, and bones are fed to those wolves and jackals of politicians and generals’ (see Měizhōu pínglùn, No. 18). Later in the same year Wú Yú wrote an article in Xīn Qīngnián entitled ‘Cannibalism and the Doctrine of Propriety’ in which he wrote of Lǔ Xùn: ‘… he has torn away the disguise of the knavish dissemblers who wear the mask of propriety in order to eat people’ (see Yú, Wú, ‘Chī rén yǔ Uřiào’ , in Xīn Qīngnián, VI, 6, 578–80).Google Scholar

2 See also Selected works of Lu Hsun, I, 410–11.Google Scholar

3 This idea is put forward in Tóng, Zhū in Lǔ Xùn zuòpřn fēnxì Shanghai, 1954, p. 82 and note.Google Scholar

4 Lǔ Xùn quánjí, I, 315.Google Scholar

1 Selected works of Lu Hsun, I, 10.Google Scholar

2 ibid., I, 16.

3 Lǔ Xùn quánjí, I, 314.Google Scholar

4 Selected works of Lu Hsun, I, 14.Google Scholar

1 Lǔ Xùn quánjí, I, 399.Google Scholar

2 This comparison was suggested by Qīn-wén, Xǔ in an excellent essay on Kúangrén rìjì in his Nàhǎn fēnxì , Peking, 1957, 13–19.Google Scholar

3 Selected works of Lu Hsun, I, 18.Google Scholar

4 ibid., I, 25–34.

5 See Lǔ Xùn quánjí, II, 55–66.Google Scholar

1 See especially the ideas put forward in his essay ‘The power of mara poetry’ (Mólúo shī lì shūo ), in Lǔ Xùn quánjí, I, 194–234.Google Scholar

2 Selected works of Lu Hsun, I, 4.Google Scholar

3 ibid., I, 4.

4 ibid., I, 15.

5 Lǔ Xùn quánji, I, 387.Google Scholar

6 See op. cit., IV, 34–5.

1 See Lǔ Xùn quánjí, I, 388.Google Scholar

1 Selected works of Lu Hsun, I, 19.Google Scholar

2 ibid., I, 17.

3 ibid., I, 20–1.

4 See above, p. 310, n. 3.

5 See, for example, Lǔ Xùn quánjí, IV, 5.Google Scholar

6 Lǔ Xùn quánjí, I, 400.Google Scholar

1 ibid. For the quotation from Nietzsche see Nietzsche, op. cit., 6.

1 See Chǔ cí, Sì bù cōngkān edition, fase. 3, Juan 7, p. 12b.

2 See Selected worlcs of Lu Hsun, I, 49.Google Scholar

3 See Sòng shū, Sì bù bèiyào edition, fase. 15, juan 89, p. 2a.

4 According to Zùo-rén, Zhōu (op. cit., 10)Google Scholar Lǔ Xùn's conception of cannibalism also owes something to Zhāng's outlook on orthodox Neo-Confucianism.

1 For an analysis of Jī Kāng's influence on Lǔ Xùn, see Yáo, Wáng, Gūanyú Zhōnggúo gǔdiǎn wénxué wèntí , Shanghai, 1957, 16–22.Google Scholar

2 See Jī Kāng jí , ed. Xùn, Lǔ, Peking, 1956, Juan 2, pp. 5–8.Google Scholar