Section First sentence
I. Tonight the moon is very bright.
II. Tonight there is no moon at all, I know that this bodes ill.
III. I can't sleep at night.
IV. In the morning I sat quietly for some time.
V. These few days I have been thinking again: suppose that old man were not an executioner in disguise, but a real doctor; he would be none the less an eater of human flesh.
VI. Pitch dark.
VII. I know their way; they are not willing to kill anyone outright, nor do they dare, for fear of the consequences.
VIII. Actually, such arguments should have convinced them long ago. 
IX. Wanting to eat men, at the same time afraid of being eaten themselves, they all look at each other with the deepest suspicion. 
X. Early this morning I went to look for my elder brother.
XI. The sun does not shine, the door is not opened, every day two meals.
XII. I can't bear to think of it.
XIII. Perhaps there are still children who have not eaten men? Save the children. 

Production
Running time: 32 minutes
Read by: D. S. Harvey
Source: The Marxists Internet Archive

Artwork
Cover: Lu Xun at Shanghai, 1928, by Situ Quaio, Beijing Lu Xun Museum
Inset:  A Madman's Diary, published in the La Jeunesse (New Youth) magazine Volume 4, Issue 5
Inset:  Photograph of Lu Xun,1930, author unknown, from The Legacy and Works of Lu Xun

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“A Madman’s Diary” is a short story by Lu Xun first published in 1918. Written in vernacular Chinese, it is considered “China’s first modern short story” and the most influential modern work in the republican era. Lu was inspired by “Diary of a Madman" by Nicolai Gogol, both in the use of the diary form and in the idea that the madman sees things more clearly than others. The story comes about when the narrator decides to visit two friends with whom he has lost touch when he learns that one of them has fallen ill. When he arrives, he is met by the brother, who informs him that his brother is no longer ill and hands him a copy of his brother’s diary. It is immediately apparent that the diarist is indeed mad. He believes he is surrounded by cannibals and that everyone has cannibalistic designs on him. His paranoia grows and he begins to see threats everywhere. He even sees  the words “Eat People” between the lines of classic Confucian texts. He eventually suspects that his late sister had been eaten by his brother, and that he himself may have unknowingly done so. He ardently hopes that everyone will have a change of heart and change their ways. The story ends with a plea to “save the children”.

The story is not readily comprehensible, and it took several years for it to be recognized as important. Gradually the madman is seen as a revolutionary contemptuous of Chinese tradition and its feudal society that “eats people”, people who themselves are corrupted by traditions they cannot escape.


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Item Info
EAN - DVD case 0687700170655
EAN - CD jacket 0687700170662
Media MP3 CD
Package CD jacket, CD in security sleeve, DVD case
Author Lu Xun (1881-1936)
Translator Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang
Year 1918
Recording
Read by D. S. Harvey
Length 32 minutes
Type of Reading Solo

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A Madman's Diary

  • Author: Lu Xun
  • Product Code: DB-6022
  • Availability: In Stock
  • $7.99


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