The Grave

Lu XunPeople's Literature Publishing House · ChinaOct 2017

4.3

Word count: 58K words
Chapters: 7

Summary

Tomb is a collection of essays by Lu Xun. Lu Xun (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), originally named Zhou Zhangshou and later renamed Zhou Shuren, courtesy names Yushan and later Yucai, was a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang. "Lu Xun" was the pen name he used in 1918 when he published "A Madman's Diary," and it became his most widely influential pen name. He was a renowned writer and thinker, an important participant in the May Fourth New Culture Movement, and a founder of modern Chinese literature. Mao Zedong once remarked: "The direction of Lu Xun is the direction of the new culture of the Chinese nation." Throughout his life, Lu Xun made major contributions in many fields, including literary creation, literary criticism, intellectual inquiry, literary history, translation, the introduction of art theory, the popularization of basic science, and the collation and study of ancient texts. He exerted a profound influence on the development of social thought and culture in China after the May Fourth Movement and gained worldwide literary renown, holding an especially important place and influence in the intellectual and cultural spheres of Korea and Japan. He has been hailed as "the writer who occupies the largest territory on the cultural map of East Asia in the twentieth century."

Editor's review

Tomb is the first collection of essays Lu Xun published, in 1927. It contains 23 pieces written between 1907 and 1925. The title itself is a metaphor: it symbolizes the burial of old ideas and also suggests that these writings are traces of a "past life." Unlike story collections such as Call to Arms and Wandering, Tomb foregrounds Lu Xun as thinker and essayist. Its styles are mixed—from early classical-language essays such as "The History of Man" and "A Brief History of Science" to later incisive vernacular essays such as "On the Necessity of Slowing Down 'Fair Play'" and "What Happens After Nora Leaves Home"—clearly tracing the evolution of his thought from evolutionism to class theory and from scientific enlightenment to social critique. Essays such as "How Should We Raise Our Sons Now?" and "My Views on Chastity" offer profound analyses of traditional ethics that remain powerful today; the judgment in "Random Notes Under the Lamp"—"an age when one wants to be a slave but cannot" and "an age when one has temporarily secured the position of a slave"—is a penetrating summation of the essence of Chinese history. Reading Tomb is not only reading an essay collection but entering the gateway to Lu Xun's complex inner world and understanding the formation of his philosophy of "resistance against despair." This edition, published by People's Literature Publishing House, is based on the Complete Works of Lu Xun and includes detailed annotations, making it a reliable text for study. Its Douban rating of 9.2 confirms its timeless classic status.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary researchers seeking a systematic understanding of the early intellectual trajectory of Lu Xun
Readers interested in modern Chinese intellectual history and cultural criticism
Literature enthusiasts seeking nourishment for essay writing and intellectual depth
Young people confused by the conflict between tradition and modernity who hope to find intellectual reference points

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting light, story-driven reading or a pure fiction experience
Readers who find classical Chinese and highly theoretical argumentation difficult to read

Reading tips

Reading in chronological order of composition is recommended, as it clearly conveys the evolution of Lu Xun's style and thought
When reading the early classical-language essays, consult the annotations and relevant historical background materials; do not feel obliged to understand everything on a first reading
Key pieces such as "Random Notes Under the Lamp" and "On the Necessity of Slowing Down 'Fair Play'" can be chewed over repeatedly to appreciate their argumentative logic and linguistic power
Tomb can be read alongside later collections such as Hot Wind and the Huagai Collection to observe shifts in intellectual focus and style

About the publisher

People's Literature Publishing House China · Founded in 1951

People's Literature Publishing House publishes across classical literature, foreign literature, documentary writing and folk literature, with 492 titles in its catalogue. Representative books range from the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms to Lao She's Teahouse and Longxu Ditch in the Selected Works of Lao She, as well as translated foreign literature such as Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, Dante's Divine Comedy and Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, alongside documentary and fictional works including Primo Levi's If This Is a Man and João Guimarães Rosa's The Devil to Pay in the Backlands. Its authors include Chinese writers such as Lao She, translators such as Shen Emeri and Li Wenjun, and foreign authors such as James Wood. Overall, the house has a strong record in editing classic works and translating foreign literature, with a publishing character that bridges Chinese and foreign writing and values textual quality.

版权信息
题记
科学史教篇
文化偏至论
摩罗诗力说
我之节烈观
我们现在怎样做父亲

FAQ

The essays in Tomb vary greatly in style, some in classical Chinese and some in vernacular. Why?

This precisely reflects Lu Xun's nearly two-decade span of writing (1907–1925) and his experiments in thought and style. Early essays such as "The History of Man" use classical Chinese, reflecting the influence of Yan Fu's translations of evolutionary theory and the academic discourse of the time; after the May Fourth New Culture Movement, he consciously adopted the vernacular, and his style turned toward incisive, direct essays. This divergence is itself an important clue to understanding his intellectual transformation.

Why did Lu Xun name this collection Tomb?

In his "Preface," Lu Xun explains: first, gathering these past writings together counts as "burial," carrying a sense of farewell and summation; second, the "tomb" is not an absolute end—it preserves old traces and may also become the starting point of a new journey, embodying the complex state of mind of "a memorial for the sake of forgetting." The title crystallizes his profound reflection on history and on himself.

For ordinary modern readers, where does the value of reading Tomb mainly lie?

Its value lies in at least three respects: first, as a historical mirror—its critique of national character, old ritual ethics, and sham reform can still illuminate the present; second, as intellectual training—Lu Xun's rigorous logic and paradoxical depth (such as the "iron house" metaphor) can greatly sharpen critical thinking; third, as linguistic nourishment—his essay language is concise, vivid, and forceful, a model for Chinese writing. Despite the different era, his pursuit of "establishing the human being" and of "truth" retains an enduring spiritual power.

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About the author

Lu Xun Author · China · 1881–1936

Lu Xun, originally named Zhou Shuren and styled Yucai, was a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and a leading modern Chinese writer and thinker as well as a representative figure of the New Culture Movement. With works such as "A Madman's Diary" and "The True Story of Ah Q," he laid the foundation of modern Chinese fiction. His writing often focuses on the spiritual condition of ordinary people and on social reality, in a cold, concise style rich in critique and self-reflection. His story collections "Call to Arms" and "Wandering" and his prose collection "Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk" are widely read, and his works are often classified as classics, social fiction, and documentary literature. The library holds as many as 499 editions of his works, showing that they continue to be read, anthologized, and circulated. Public information is limited, so this is only a brief account of his life's key points and creative character.