SOURCE: An introduction to Lu Hsün: Diary of a Madman and Other Stories, translated by William A. Lyell, University of Hawaii Press, 1990, pp. ix-xiii.

In the excerpt below, Lyell relates some of Lu Hsün 's short stories to events in the author's personal life. In his essay Lyell translates the titles of Lu Hsün's collections Nahan and P'ang huang as Cheering from the Sidelines and Wondering Where to Turn, respectively.

Late in 1911 . . . before leaving his hometown, Lu Xun wrote his first short story, "Remembrances of the Past.-' Though written in the literary Chinese idiom, this story is modern in most respects and presents a view of reality consistent with that found in the twenty-five stories he would later write in the colloquial language between 1918 and 1925. But the fame enjoyed by Lu Xun's later colloquial stories has generally eclipsed the merits of this first literary...