Social Commentary in Lu Xun’s A Madman’s Diary

The following is an essay I wrote for my Chinese Literature in Translation class at Tsinghua University during the summer of 2007.

Lu Xun’s talent in critiquing society in a discrete and yet extremely powerful way is astonishing. This talent is readily apparent in his short story, A Madman’s Diary. The political climate of Lu Xun’s era would not take kindly to a piece of work that openly criticizes society, so Lu Xun utilized a “madman” and his delusions to expose the madness of a society, based on ancient laws, which “eats men.” By claiming that he was publishing a personal diary which was written in vernacular Chinese as medical research, Lu Xun reached out to the lower classes of society who could not read the writing style at the time. Not only did this enable the common person to be exposed Lu Xun’s critiques of society, but it also helped protect Lu Xun from prosecution by giving the impression that the views expressed were not his own.

As Lu Xun’s madman begins his descent into madness, he begins to realize the ails of society. The madman, upon seeing the moon, realized that he had “not seen it for over thirty years, so today when [he] saw it [he] felt in unusually high spirits.” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 7) I believe the moon represents a different way of thinking, one which Lu Xun had began experiencing. It doesn’t make any sense that one could have not seen the moon for thirty years, but one could easily not have had a thought that ran in opposition to the established opinions of society for thirty years. The next night for the madman is what really makes his madness – or rather, Lu Xun’s contempt for society’s beliefs and actions - apparent. “Tonight there is no moon at all, I know that this is a bad omen.” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 8) A bad omen, indeed! Lu Xun is trying to show that despite having thoughts that run counter to society, those thoughts are easily eclipsed by the overpowering nature of the predominant ways of thought.

But what makes the views of a society so universal and so compelling? Certainly its the indoctrination of the young by their parents into a social system or belief structure. This is apparent at all times in history, today being no exception, and is integral to who we are. The indoctrination of the young is seen in religion, in culture, in everything that humans do. “But then what of the children? At that time they were not yet born, so why should they eye me so strangely today, as if they were afraid of me, as if they wanted to murder me? … I know. They must have learned this from their parents!” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 8) Lu Xun saw how children were raised to accept Confucian thought and how being apathetic about the injustices committed against one’s self by a higher member of society, but to defend that social structure against change became part of the social norm:

Those people, some of whom have been pilloried by the magistrate, slapped in the face by their local gentry, had their wives taken away by bailiffs, or their parents driven to suicide by creditors, never looked as frightened and as fierce then as they did yesterday. (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 8)

Beyond being critical of the indoctrination of the young into Confucianism, Lu Xun critiqued Confucianism itself. He felt that the ideas that Confucianism promoted were corrosive to a good society and encouraged people to ostracize, demean, and persecute – in other words, to eat – people with new ideas. “I realize all the poison in their speech, all the daggers in their laughter. Their teeth are white and glistening: they use these teeth to eat men.” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 9) This critique of Confucianism is still rather veiled behind social commentary, but Lu Xun takes a more direct stab at Confucian ideas when the madman researches the history of eating men in China. On every page he reads he sees the words “Confucian Virtue and Morality.” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 9) As the madman reads more he starts to “see words between the lines. The whole book was filled with the two words – ‘Eat people.’” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 9) This is presented as a hallucination, but it can be read as extracting deeper meaning from a text. Instead of taking the Confucian virtues and morals at face value, Lu Xun saw them for what they were – a way to keep people in line and maintain a power structure that is abusive to a large portion of society. Words such as these would be grounds for arrest and possibly death at the time Lu Xun wrote it. The protection Lu Xun gained from claiming this was the diary of a madman was absolutely essential for its publication and his continued free life.

From addressing the young, Lu Xun moves to the elders of society. “My elder brother came slowly out, leading an old man. There was a murderous gleam in his eyes…” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 10) At first glance, the madman’s delusions about the old man are the same delusions he has about the rest of the people he’s come into contact with. This, however, is not the case. The madman believed that this old man was there because he was conspiring with his brother to eat him. The old man represents the elders of society in general, and their impact on perpetuating customs. “I knew quite well that this old man was the executioner in disguise!” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 10) The disguise is the reverence and respect which elders are given despite their beliefs or actions, such as enforcing Confucian doctrines. Lu Xun is saying that these elders who demand so much respect are the same people who prevent societal change.

Society in A Madman’s Diary is portrayed as being full of individuals who are too fearful to do what they want themselves, and instead leverage the pressures of society to achieve their desired outcome. “I know their way: they are not prepared to kill outright, nor would they dare, for fear of the consequences. Instead they have banded together and set traps everywhere, to force me to kill myself.” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 11) Lu Xun is showing that society seeks the destruction of some people, particularly those that threaten established traditions. He also felt that despite their actions, people were aware of the harm they were doing, but ignored bad feelings because they just wanted to be normal. “That’s the way it’s always been…/Does that make it right?/I refuse to discuss it with you. Anyway, you shouldn’t talk about it. It’s wrong for anyone to talk about it.” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 12) Instead of addressing problems with society, they were ignored and accepted because that’s the way it has always been.

How comfortable life would be for them if they could rid themselves of such obsessions and go to work, walk, eat, and sleep at ease. They have only this one step to take. Yet fathers and sons, husbands and wives, brothers, friends, teachers and students, sworn enemies, and even strangers, have all joined in this conspiracy, discouraging and preventing each other from taking this step. (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 13)

Lu Xun finally starts offering solutions after revealing the apathy the society has. “…If you will just change your ways, change right away, then everyone will have peace. Although this has been going on since time immemorial, today we could make a special effort to do what is right, and say this can’t be done!” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 13) The madman is now expressing Lu Xun’s personal ideas directly, without using metaphor. If people, Lu Xun thought, would stop accepting old philosophies and start questioning things, they could be so much better and come to new and more just conclusions. He didn’t have much hope for society, however. “They would never be willing to change their stand, and their plans were all laid: they had labeled me a madman.” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 14) Because there was an automatic bias against someone with new thoughts, those thoughts were cast aside as ridiculous and never given adequate contemplation. Anyone who didn’t conform to the expectations of society was truly mad.

This resignation certainly didn’t stop Lu Xun from imploring people to change, “You should change, change from the bottom of your hearts. You must realize that there will be no place for man-eaters in the world in [the] future.” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 14) Lu Xun’s reference to the “world in [the] future” is the western world where free and scientific thought reigned. He favored western societies for the advanced medicine and felt that the Chinese people could really become great if they opened up to new ideas. “Man-eaters” refers, as before, to the practice of shunning new ideas and persecuting those who had them. He rightly saw that the future is dependent on free thought and free expression, as well as scientific inquiry. Sadly, Lu Xun saw no hope in the adults of his era, and only saw the promise of change with children. “Perhaps there are still children who haven’t eaten men? Save the children…” (Lau, Goldblatt, 2007: 15)

Lu Xun’s A Madman’s Diary is laced with powerful social commentary which influenced society greatly. His disdain for Confucian virtues and thought clearly shine through, as well as his negative views on society in general. I feel that having a madman represent the only sane man in the society in the short story helps Lu Xun get his point across that the society of his age was flawed. He was probably risking his life, or at the very least his freedom when he wrote and published this story, but as someone who was deeply dissatisfied with society, he had no other choice. Thankfully, his influence positively affected China and helped lead the country to new ways of thought.

Sources:
Lau, Goldblatt (2007) The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature, Second Edition Columbia University Press

Social Commentary in Lu Xun’s A Madman’s Diary by
Steven Buss is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.