Historically famous critics

Lu Xun

1881-1936 · Chinese · 20th century

Chinese writer whose fiction and essays attacked Confucian tradition and social decay

Born Zhou Shuren, Lu Xun is widely regarded as the founder of modern Chinese literature and its sharpest social critic. He abandoned medical studies to attack what he called the man-eating nature of old Confucian society, using stories like Diary of a Madman and The True Story of Ah Q to expose cruelty, servility, and self-deception in Chinese life. His savage essays made him a moral conscience for a generation, and his diagnosis of a passive national character still shapes how China debates its own culture.