SOURCE: A preface to Cheering from the Sidelines, in Lu Xun: Diary of a Madman and Other Stories, translated by William A. Lyell, University of Hawaii Press, 1990, pp. 21-8.

The following essay was written in 1922 and published in the Beijing Morning Post in August 1923, the month Nahan (Call to Arms; here translated as Cheering from the Sidelines) was issued. Lu Hsün discusses the circumstances surrounding his earliest efforts at story writing.

As a young man I had my share of dreams too. Later on I forgot most of them but saw nothing in the least regret-table about that. To be sure, reminiscence can afford us pleasure, but it can occasionally make us lonely too, and keep the threads of our spirits attached to still other periods of loneliness that have long since gone by. In that case, what point can there possibly be in reminiscing? The trouble...