Lu Xun

Chinese novelist and essayist (1881–1936)

  • Fame76.6
  • Momentum17.3
  • China rank#17
Source-basedRising
  • Fame76.6
  • Momentum17.3
  • China rank#17
  • Writers rank#161
  • Wikipedia43.2K
Lived 1881–1936, aged 55China
China flagChinaWritersWriter / Author
  • Wikipedia
    108 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Rank in China
    #17
    Writers
  • Era
    1881–1936
    Aged 55
  • Known for
    The True Story of Ah Q
    1981
Summary
Updated 2026-08-30

He turned China's written language inside out. Lu Xun published the first novel in vernacular Chinese — the language people actually spoke — and used it to dissect his country's wounds with a scalpel. The government canonized him. The essays still cut.

Biography

About

Born Zhou Shuren in 1881 to a declining family of scholar-officials in Shaoxing, he set out to study medicine at Tohoku University in Japan, then abandoned it for literature. Financial trouble pulled him back to China, where he taught and worked a ministry post until 1918, when he published "Diary of a Madman" — the first novel written in vernacular Chinese, not the classical form that had ruled for centuries. The May Fourth Movement in 1919 made him a voice of the New Culture Movement; his essays in La Jeunesse became required reading for a generation trying to remake the country. By the late…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Lu Xun

Lu Xun
said
Savage as a lion, timid as a rabbit, crafty as a fox...
Sixth entry
Lu Xun
saidundated
When you talk with famous scholars, the best thing is to pretend that occasionally you do not quite understand them.
From The Wisdom of China and India, ed. and trans. Lin Yutang (New York: Random House, 1942), pp. 1087–1092
Lu Xun
saidundated
Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.
From The Wisdom of China and India, ed. and trans. Lin Yutang (New York: Random House, 1942), pp. 1087–1092
Lu Xun
saidundated
The so-called "peace" is an interval between wars.
From The Wisdom of China and India, ed. and trans. Lin Yutang (New York: Random House, 1942), pp. 1087–1092
Lu Xun
saidundated
I used to think that a man was sentenced to death or imprisonment because he was guilty; now I know that he is found guilty because he is disliked.
13
Where to find them

Platforms

By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Rising
76.6
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum17.3
Historical25.6
Now attention66.1
Source confidence65.0
Completeness75.0
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence