| Chapter : | Introduction: Tradition and Modernity in China |
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Figure 1. Lu Xun in his Study. Woodcut. 1974. Li Yitai. Private collection.
suggesting instead that he write something for the radical journal New Youth. Lu Xun replied:
Imagine an iron house without windows, absolutely indestructible, with many people fast asleep inside who will soon die of suffocation. But you know since they will die in their sleep, they will not feel the pain of death. Now if you cry aloud to wake a few of the lighter sleepers, making those unfortunate few suffer the agony of irrevocable death, do you think you are doing them a good turn? (1972, p. 5)
Lu Xun’s attitudes towards tradition were more sophisticated than they were later portrayed during the years of the Cultural Revolution (Clark, 2008), when he was viewed as a precursor of revolution. He trod a delicate line between valuing aspects of traditional practice and wishing to sweep away the accumulated habits of thousands of years that he believed were keeping China from adopting Western advances