Lu Xun
Lu Xun
Lu Xun, formerly also romanized Lu Hsün, was the pen name of Zhou Shuren, 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...
NationalityChinese
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth25 September 1881
CountryChina
across begin cannot earth hope men nor pass roads
Hope cannot be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist. It is just like roads across the earth. For actually the earth had no roads to begin with, but when many men pass one way, a road is made.
men greatness puppets
When a great man has become petrified, and everyone begins to proclaim his greatness, he has already turned into a puppet.
fighting men speaks-out
If there are still men who really want to live in this world, they should first dare to speak out, to laugh, to cry, to be angry, to accuse, to fight-that they may at least cleanse this accursed place of its accursed atmosphere!
pain men people
True fighters dare face the sorrows of humanity, and look unflinchingly at bloodshed. What sorrow and joy are theirs! But the Creator's common device for ordinary people is to let the passage of time wash away old traces leaving only pale-red bloodstains and a vague pain; and he lets men live on ignobly and amid these, to keep this quasi-human world going.
men funeral sparks
If men refuse to be kindled, sparks can only burn themselves out, just as paper images and carriages burn out on the street during funerals.
men past heaven
Let those who hanker after the past return to the past! Let those who want to leave the world leave the world! Let those who want to ascend to heaven do so! Let those whose souls want to leave their bodies expire quickly! The earth today should be inhabited by man with a firm hold on the present, a firm hold on the earth.
real fighting men
I felt that if a man's proposals met with approval, it should encourage him; if they met with opposition, it should make him fight back; but the real tragedy for him was to lift up his voice among the living and meet with no response neither approval nor opposition just as if he were left helpless in a boundless desert.
men way earth
I thought: hope cannot be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist. It is just like roads across the earth. For actually the earth had no roads to begin with, but when many men pass one way, a road is made.
men existential horror
Men who have not known the horror of death are not likely to be awed by it.
responsibility thinking faces
True, we must dare look things in the face before we dare think, speak, act, or assume responsibility. If we dare not even look, what else are we good for?
taken thinking unbiased
But anyone who thinks themselves genuinely unbiased is bound to be taken in.
people culture able
But a people unable to reform will not be able to preserve its old culture either.
book ideas tactics
All who have read a few old books have picked up the old tactics of considering every new idea a 'heresy' which must be rooted out.
song hero home
Where are now the warriors of the world of the spirit? Where are those who raise their voices for truth, who lead us to goodness, beauty, strength and health? Where are those who utter heartwarming words, who will lead us out of the wilderness? Our homes are gone and the nation is destroyed, yet we have no Jeremiah crying out his last sad song to the world and to posterity.