During the 19th century, the social structure of China positioned the masses at the bottom with relatively few people at the top. “A Madman’s Diary”, written by Lu Xun, is a Chinese story that was published in 1918 and is considered one of China’s first modern short stories. The story is comprised of a handful of diary entries written by a madman who begins to think everyone around him is a cannibal and that they are out to get him. He turns his attention to the younger generation because he is afraid that they will also be cannibalized.
Xun ultimately uses madness to warn China against passing bad ideas and practices down to the next generation because of its corrupt system. It is evident in Xun’s writing that he makes various social criticisms against China’s monarchical system. China’s society can be described as a man-eating society because the people in power consumed the weak. The higher somebody is on the pyramid, the more they would “feed” off people below them. This is revealed with the use of cannibalism, as it demonstrates the nature of China’s declining system.
Xun believed that corruption and “cannibalism” were just as predominant as before and that nothing had changed in the past couple of years. The story “exposes the ubiquity of such cannibalism and how everyone is an accomplice in the game of eating and being eaten” (Wu). Through the use of symbolism and allegories, he describes the cannibalistic nature of people to be the norm among society. Since Xun did not want to be integrated into the society surrounding him, he thought he should idealize youth.
For him, “growing up was essentially bad. It meant assimilation into a social structure which he saw as evil: maturing was equivalent to being corrupted” (Farquhar). He thought that the possibilities of youth were determined on how the child was brought up. In a natural upbringing, the child had the opportunity to grow towards maturity and independence. An unnatural upbringing would transform them into unproductivity and obedient compliance. Xun knew the importance of childhood qualities and sought to develop their potential.
The direction of their growth depended on their upbringing because children are the seeds of society and lead the next generation on a certain path. He also had a strong outlook on childhood and exaggerated how different it is from adulthood. He believed that “children must be liberated so that they can develop their potential, surpass past generations and enrich future Chinese society” (Farquhar). A child should be given the opportunity to develop their mind and to grow and mature at his or her respected pace, as long as they do not become corrupt and weak.
Xun was essentially responsible for creating the child as a symbol for China’s future. Throughout the story, he expresses the idea that children determine the direction for the Chinese nation. He uses the phrase “save the children” (Xun) near the end of the story to suggest that there is still a chance for China to refrain from exposing its future generations to the corrupt society they grew up in. In the story, the madman asks a young man if it is right to eat human flesh, but the man becomes pale and says it is not right to talk about such things.
The madman comes to the conclusion that the young man “must have been taught by his parents. And I am afraid he has already taught his son: that is why even the children look at me so fiercely” (Xun). He uses the story to emphasize that the parents are the ones who teach their kids what society deems as correct. The responsibility of the children and their behavior is in the hands of adults. Children learn how to act in society from the environment they grow up in.
His fear does not arise until the madman questions that the children are being exposed as cannibals and says, “then what of the children? At that time they were not yet born, so why should they eye me so strangely today, as if they were afraid of me, as if they wanted to murder me? This really frightens me, it is so bewildering and upsetting” (Xun). The madman’s fears reflect Xun’s fears for the future prosperity. Xun’s purpose was to warn people about the dangers of their actions and eliminate the downfalls of society in which they lived in.
For Xun, the madman’s delusions serve two purposes, with a literal and a symbolic meaning. In the beginning, it is placed at a literal level where victims are scared to be eaten by cannibals, and then as a symbol for the Chinese nation by the end of the story. Xun is critical of the Chinese society and the hierarchy in place, believing it to be harmful and inhumane. Xun’s interest in changing society is revealed in this story by converting people from their cannibalistic ways to an improved level of humanity.
The children represent Xun’s hope for the future of China. Lu Xun continually believed that perhaps some children have not been exposed to these cannibalistic ways and have hope that these select few can overcome the problem. Lu Xun’s message for humanity remains powerful in general. He has acknowledged that he might have been influenced by the beliefs he opposed, and clearly stated that the future generations is where the changes begin. Every society has its disadvantages and he reminds the reader to continue to believe that there is hope for a better future.