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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
While many Chinese studied in Japan, Lu Xun was iconic both because of his status as China's most important modern writer and because of the impact his time in Japan had on his life. Lu Xun was preparing to be a medical doctor until his teacher showed a slide of listless Chinese prisoners at the end of his anatomy class. Lu was shocked by his compatriots’ passivity and the laughter they induced from his Japanese classmates, and he later wrote that this experience convinced him to abandon his studies of modern medicine and return home to awaken the Chinese people. This became known as the Magic Lantern Incident, and it is probably the best known story of nationalist awakening for modern Chinese.
1 Lu Xun: Diary of a Madman and Other Stories, translated by William A. Lyell (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990), xi.
2 David Holm, “Lu Xun in the Period 1936-1949: The Making of a Chinese Gorki,” in Lu Xun and His Legacy, ed., Leo Ou-fan Lee (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1985), 165.
3 Op. cit., 166.
4 Translations of “Mr. Fujino,” “A Small Incident,” “Storm in a Teacup,” and “My Old Home” were included in the Japanese junior high school kokugo (national language) curriculum after the 1950s. More than 20 million Japanese read “My Old Home” as part of their high school education. See Maruyama Noboru, “Lu Xun in Japan,” in Lu Xun and His Legacy, 240.
5 Oda Takeo, Ro Jin den (Biography of Lu Xun) (Tokyo: Daiwa shobo, 1966), 40.
6 Numano Seisuke, Ro Jin to Nihon (Lu Xun and Japan) (Bungeisha: 2004), 31-32.
7 In Shimizu Yasuzo, Shina shinjin to reimei undo (Chinese new people and the enlightenment movement) (Osaka: Osakago shoten, 1924), cited in “Lu Xun in Japan,” 218.
8 Nakano's biography of Lu Xun (Ro Jin den) was less a comprehensive biography than an argument for the necessity of one. Nakano was imprisoned for two years between 1932-34 for leftist activities and was released after becoming a political “convert.” Cited in “Lu Xun in Japan,” 224-225.
9 Phyllis I. Lyons, The Saga of Dazai Osamu: A Critical Study with Translations (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1985), 32.
10 Donald Keene, “Japanese Writers and the Greater East Asia War,” The Journal of Asian Studies, 23:2 (Feb., 1964), 219-220.
11 Daizai Osamu, Sekibetsu, in Dazai Osamu zenshu, vol. 7 (Chikuma shobo, 1989), 189.
12 Sekibetsu, 210-212.
13 Sekibetsu, 222-223.
14 Sekibetsu, 247.
15 Sekibetsu, 250.
16 Takeuchi Yoshimi, Ro Jin (Lu Xun) (Tokyo: Nihon hyoronsha, 1944; rpt., Tokyo: Miraisha, 1961), 70. Cited in “Lu Xun in Japan,” 226-227.
17 Sekibetsu, 302
18 Sekibetsu, 277-278.
19 Sekibetsu, 315.
20 Sekibetsu, 295.
21 Sekibetsu, 298-299.
22 James W. Heisig and John C. Maraldo, eds., Rude Awakenings: Zen, the Kyoto School, and the Question of Nationalism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994), 216.
23 Rude Awakenings, 309-310.
24 Leo Ou-fan Lee, Voices from the Iron House: A Study of Lu Xun (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1987), 22-23.
25 David E. Pollard, The True Story of Lu Xun (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2002), 37.
26 Sekibetsu, 316.
27 First performed January 9, 1991, at the Taira Municipal Hall (Iwaki City) in Fukushima Prefecture. Published serially in the magazine Subaru, beginning in March 1991, and in book form with Shueisha the same year.
28 The titles of these Inoue Hisashi works are Wagahai wa Soseki de aru (I am Soseki [Natsume Soseki] (1982); Zutsu katakori Higuchi Ichiyo (Higuchi Ichiyo with a headache and stiff neck) (1984); Nakimushi namaiki Ishikawa Takuboku (The cheeky crybaby, Ishikawa Takuboku) (1986); Iihatobo no geki ressha (The Iwate theatre train [Miyazawa Kenji]) (1980); Ningen gokaku (Passing as human [Dazai Osamu]) (1990); Ani ototo (Older and younger brother [Yoshino Sakuzo]) (2003); and Taiko tataite fue fuite (Blow the flute and beat the drum [Hayashi Fumiko]) (2002).
29 Inoue Hisashi, Hon no unmei (The fate of books) (Bungei shunju, 1997), 18-20.
30 Inoue Hisashi, “Hahagimi no nokoshi tamaishi kotoba (Words bequeathed to me by my mother)” in Bungei Shunju, August 1991, 214.
31 Inoue Hisashi, interview with the Yomiuri Shinbun, September 16, 1991.
32 See brief introduction, Inoue Hisashi, Shanhai Mun (Shanghai Moon) (Tokyo: Shueisha, 1991), 5.
33 Leo Ou-Fan Lee, “Literature on the Eve of Revolution: Reflections on Lu Xun's Leftist Years, 1927-1936,” Modern China, Vol. 2 (July, 1976), 281.
34 Oda Takeo, Ro Jin den, 143.
35 Inoue Hisashi, Shanghai Moon, 19.
36 Yoshida Hiroji, Ro Jin no tomo: Uchiyama Kanzo no shozo (Portrait of Uchiyama Kanzo, Lu Xun's friend) (Tokyo Shinkyo shuppansha, 1994), 113.
37 Koizumi Yuzuru, Hyoden: Ro Jin to Uchiyama Kanzo (Critical biography of Lu Xun and Uchiyama Kanzo) (Tokyo: Tosho shuppan, 1989), 263. Sudo, who was born in Okayama Prefecture in 1876 and died in 1959, was actually 58 years old when he was in Shanghai with Lu Xun in 1934. See Izumi Hyonosuke, “Rojin no shiin Nihonjin ishi hinan wa gimon,” (Doubts about accusations against a Japanese physician regarding the cause of Lu Xun's death,” Asashi Shinbun, June 4, 1984.
38 See Koizumi, 263.
39 Shanghai Moon, 32.
40 Shanghai Moon, 40-41.
41 Shanghai Moon, 41.
42 Shanghai Moon, 53.
43 Shanghai Moon, 73-74.
44 See David E. Pollard, The True Story of Lu Xun, 55-67.
45 Shanghai Moon, 99-100.
46 Shanghai Moon, 134-135.
47 Shanghai Moon, 186.
48 Shanghai Moon, 200-201.
49 Shanghai Moon, 202.
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