Chinese · 1881–1936
Lu Xun founded modern Chinese literature with short stories that excoriated traditional culture's failings and awakened readers to their nation's crisis. Trained as a doctor in Japan, he abandoned medicine for literature after realizing that China needed spiritual rather than physical healing. "Diary of a Madman" used the metaphor of cannibalism to attack Confucian society; "The True Story of Ah Q" created an antihero embodying Chinese self-deception. His essays were equally fierce, targeting both traditional conservatism and revolutionary dogmatism. Mao Zedong praised him as "commander of China's cultural revolution." His collected works remain required reading in Chinese schools.