Author of The True Story of Ah Q, father of modern Chinese literature who carried May Fourth’s critical spirit into the left-wing league
Author who opened vernacular Chinese fiction with Diary of a Madman in 1918, who traded medicine for literature, and who carried the New Culture Movement's critical spirit into the leftist literary cause.
Born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, he abandoned medical studies in Japan to “cure the spirit” of his people through literature. “Diary of a Madman”, published in New Youth in 1918, was the first vernacular short story; “The True Story of Ah Q” anatomised the spiritual servitude of the old society. After 1927 he translated Marxist literary theory in Shanghai and in 1930 became the guiding figure of the League of Left-Wing Writers, though never a party member. He died of tuberculosis in 1936; Mao later called him the “chief commander of China’s cultural revolution”.
Also known as: Zhou Shuren · Lu Hsun
Activities and affiliations
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1912
Republic of China state institutionsMinistry of Education, Nanjing provisional government
Education -
1912–1926
Beiyang government and warlordsMinistry of Education, Beiyang government
Education -
1920–1926
Beiyang government and warlordsLectured on Chinese literature at Peking University and other colleges
Education -
1927
Republic of China state institutionsHead of Chinese, Sun Yat-sen University
Education
Career Timeline
- 1904–1906Studied medicine in Sendai, Japan, then turned to literature
- 1912Ministry of Education, Nanjing provisional government
- 1912–1926Ministry of Education, Beiyang government
- 1918Published A Madman’s Diary, a pioneering vernacular story
- 1920–1926Lecturer at Peking University
- 1927Head of Chinese, Sun Yat-sen University
- 1930–1936Leading figure of the League of Left-Wing Writers
Related historical events
- 1911–1916The 1911 Revolution and the birth of the RepublicAuthor of The True Story of Ah QJoined the Ministry of Education in 1912 and watched the early Republic; in 1921 he satirised the hollowness of the revolution in The True Story of Ah Q.
- 1915–1921May Fourth and the founding of the Chinese Communist PartyAuthor of “Diary of a Madman”Wrote the first vernacular short story, the movement’s defining literary work.