Lu Xun

Lu Xun (鲁迅)

Lu Xun (1881-1936), the pen name of Zhou Shuren and the founder of contemporary Chinese literature, is a famous Chinese writer and thinker. Lu Xun was one of the leaders of the May Fourth Movement, a political and cultural movement started in Beijing with students as major participants to protest against the weakness of the Chinese government toward the intruders. Lu Xun’s writings were very influential toward the contemporary revolution of China and were highly admired by Chairman Mao. The Diary of a Mad Man 狂人日记 by Lu Xun was the first novel written in vernacular Chinese. The Diary of a Mad Man told a story of the absurdness of the society from the perspective of a man with intellectual disability.

不能想了。

四千年来时时吃人的地方，今天才明白，我也在其中混了多年；大哥正管着家务，妹子恰恰死了，他未必不和在饭菜里，暗暗给我们吃。

我未必无意之中，不吃了我妹子的几片肉，现在也轮到我自己，……有了四千年吃人履历的我，当初虽然不知道，现在明白，难见真的人！

I can’t think any longer.

At the place I had eaten people for four thousand years, I just realized today that in some of those years I didn’t do much. My big brother took care for the family business. My little sister just died. My brother might have put it into the rice and secretly fed to us.

I might have unconsciously eaten my sister’s flesh. Now it’s my turn.

Having four thousand years of eating people experience, although not knowing about this at the beginning, now I know that real people are rare.

(Lu Xun The Diary of a Mad Man 《狂人日记》)

The Diary of a Mad Man was written at a time when the people were still affected by the end of Qing dynasty, the new government was still fluctuating and the country was pressured by the intrusion of foreign countries. Lu Xun, angered by the turbulent situation in China, was trying to use his writings to point out the cruel reality of the nation and wake up the Chinese people to start the revolution. Under this context, Lu Xun made up a fictional figure, the mad man, who appeared to have hallucinations and habit of men-eating. The mad man represented the carrion feudal culture, and “the habit of men-eating” implied that the feudal rituals were consuming the humanities.

The use of a intellectual disabled figure in a revolutionary novel reinforced the stereotypical figure of a person with intellectual disability. It was not uncommon for writers to use a figure with intellectual disability to imply the problems hidden in the government or the social structure. The craziness, unexpectedness, cruelness embedded in the stereotypical figure of intellectual disability helped the writer to convey his ideas and critics. It was also interesting to see that the main character of the first vernacular novel in China was a man with intellectual disability. With this distinct figure, Lu Xun was trying to show the craziness and unexpectedness of breaking the rule of writing of thousands of years.

Lu, Xun. 狂人日记The Diary of a Madman. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.