First Paper:

Discussion of Narrative Structure and an Exploration of the Eaters in Lu Xun's A Madman's Diary

MCHI 310: Introduction to Modern Chinese Literature

Duan, Lian
Tuesday, 11h45 to 14h30, H-603-1

February 1, 2011
Lu Xun's A Madman's Diary was the first writing in modern Chinese. It was composed in 1918, just one

year before the May 4th movement in 1919 which attacked Confucianism and promoted science (Class

handout Jan 4). The beginning of the story starts with the narrator who, having returned home for a visit,

meets up with an old high school friend. He is presented with two volumes of the friend's brother's diary

written during his mental illness. The narrator presents a few pages of the madman's diary as “[..] a subject

for medical research” (Lu 8). These entries describe the ill man's fearful thoughts of being eaten by the

people around him. Upon close reading of this text, it becomes apparent that the message of this work is

that China must undergo a change in 'thought' in order to evolve and ensure it's survival in the world. This

paper will begin with a discussion of the story's narrative structure. An exploration into the symbolic and

metaphoric meaning of the eaters in relation to the author's message with respect to Confucianism will

follow.

Firstly I will deconstruct the narrative structure of A Madman's Diary. Narrative structure, as we have

previously discussed briefly in class, is the framework of a story; how a story is told. Narrative structure is

composed of different elements that work together and overlap. We will look at the structural properties of

text and textural considerations of the writing, the idea of gaze (who is telling the story), as well as the

temporal and spatial structures present in this narrative.

Specifically, A Madman's Diary has two stories being told in the narrative. It is a story, or rather multiple

mini-stories, within a story, where one story acts as a supporting mechanism for another much like a picture

frame. The frame story introduces key elements that support the existence and credibility of the inner story.

Questions that are answered include: Who wrote the diary? Why and were the entries copied and why were

they chosen, How did the narrator come into possession of the diary? etc. In Lu Xun's story, the frame

story binds together all thirteen of the individual entries that make up the second story. These smaller units

are inconstant in length and have a variable intensity with respect to their content. This quality breaks up
the text unpredictably and adds an aesthetic, textural quality to the work.

The stories are told by two different first-person narrators; a nameless narrator (perhaps the author) and a

nameless diarist. A key property of first-person narrators is that they tell the story from their own vantage

point and through their own filters of perception. This writing decision may have been made by Lu Xun so

that the reader would be able to see through the mind's eye of his narrator and experience events in tandem

with the narrator on a psychological level. The author could also send specific messages to the reader. For

example, at the beginning and end of section three the phrase, “Everything requires careful consideration if

one is to understand it.” is repeated (Lu 9,10). I interpret this as a message directly to me (the reader) from

Lu Xun to close read this section in order to have a better understanding of the text that follows. First-

person narration also provides the author the opportunity to switch between a physical and psychological

space easily. This helps facilitate the transfer of knowledge and ideas that might be difficult for the author

to convey from a scene physically acted out. Another reason could be related to the fact that the underlying

message of the story is that ways of thinking must change so the author felt that the message may be better

received if read from the vantage point of the narrator's thoughts.

Thoughts and events develop in a linear or sequential order. They are straightforward and follow a logical

path. One unique characteristic of diary entries is that there is a time duration associated on the basis of

their very nature. In the frame story, the narrator divulges to us that the entries were divided based on

writing differences and ink colour insinuating that each divisions represents one sitting/one writing. Each

writing or entry can then be assigned a time value of one. This creates a uniform temporal rhythm that

'beats' thirteen times through the story. This constant undertone steadily moves the text forward in an even

tempo that juxtaposes the variety of the textural structure previously discussed.

The final element of narrative structure that will be presented is spatial structure. As touched on before, this

narrative transcends two planes: physical and psychological. In other words, an internal and external space.
The external space can include the physical space of the nine page story, how the text fills the white of page

or the physical setting of the story. The location of the events in Lu Xun's story is inside and around the

home and hometown of the madman. This is made possible by the fact that the story is told by first-person

narrators and also because the second story is in diary form. The diary not only acts to record and document

events experienced by the writer, but also their perception of thes events. The diary writings are like a

stream of consciousness of the writer's inner thoughts.

Throughout his diary entries, the madman references the cannibalistic intentions of the people he encounters

daily. The children playing outside, the doctor, and even his own brother wants to eat him. In the third

section of the dairy entries, a clear link is presented between Confucianism and the eaters when the madman

is searching through history book and sees the words 'eat people' in between the lines of Confucian Virtue

and Morality (Lu 10). This section also documents the first account of cannibalism in the story which is

recounted by their tenant from the Wolf Cub Village in which a man is killed and his heart and liver is eaten

by others. The madman later refers to those eaters as hyenas. He refers to the eaters as “long-toothed with

livid faces” who look fierce and frightened (Lu 10). In my opinion, the madman illness symbolizes

Modernism or Western thought, ideas and thoughts that would doom Confucianism if embraced by the

people of China. He has documented the reactions people have when they see him: “Those people, some of

whom have been pilloried by the magistrate,...never looked as frightened as they did yesterday” (Lu 9). To

the feudal society, modernism is an evil that outweighs even the worst of Confucianism and should be

feared, fought and extinguished.

As you read through the text more animal-human comparisons are made. On page fourteen of A Madman's

Diary, the madman is pleading with his brother to change his ways. He describes reptiles as men that make

no effort to do what is right. Those men that are on the path to doing what is right take the forms of fish,

birds, monkeys, and men, but those who try so hard to do what is right turn into real men. This correlation
between animals and the thoughts of men is clearly referencing Darwin's Evolutionary Theory which, as we

know from class discussions, had been translated into Chinese and was part of the Western influence in

China at that time. According to Lu Xun, the eaters, as the reptiles, are at the bottom of the evolutionary

scale because they can't or won't evolve.

Confucianism had been the way in China for centuries. “Does force of habit blind a man to what is

wrong?” (Lu 13). The eaters are the Confucian supporters which includes those supporters of a feudal

society like the madman's family of peasant landowners. One interpretation of the act of eating is the

assimilation of the individual, or the consumption and extinguishment of individual identity or thought.

Confucianism is a system that relies on conformity. Lu Xun's message is a plea for change of thought and a

warning that survival in a future world depends on China's ability to evolve from its past.

To summarize, Lu Xun's eaters represent the Confucian supporters in China. They are defenders of

traditional ways and are frightened and fierce in the face of the threat that Westernization poses. The eaters

are men that Lu Xun compares to reptiles in the text dwelling at the bottom of the evolutionary scale. “If

you don't change, you may all be eaten by each other. However many of you there are, you will be wiped

out by the real men, just as wolves are killed by hunters-just like reptiles!” (Lu 14). This phrase warns that

the strong will devour the weak, from within and outside the ranks, and that regardless of number of people,

they are destined to extinction. It also alludes to the self-destructive (cannibalism) of Confucianism itself.

Lu Xun told this story from a first-person perspective which gave him control to convey ideas through the

narrator's thoughts and reactions to events that occurred throughout the narrative. It also gives us the

opportunity to experience events simultaneously with the narrator and hear his inner most thoughts and

perceptions. A madman's Diary exemplifies the desire of Lu Xun to help his country move into the future

through the introduction of new ideas and a new way of thinking and hope for change “Perhaps there are

still children who haven't eaten men? Save the children...” (Lu 16)
Works Cited

Bal, Mieke. Narratology, 3rd edition: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative. University of Toronto

Press, 2009. Web. Ebrary Concordia University Library. Web. 28 Jan 2011

“General History of China.” Xinhua News Agency. N.p. 2000. Web. 28 Jan 2011

<202.84.17.11/english/china_abc/>

Lu, Xun. “A Madman's Diary.” The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature. Ed. Joseph S.M.

Lau and Howard Goldblatt. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Print.

“Narrative Structure.” Narrati. ARCHidictus. 2006. Web. Feb 4 2011 <www.narrati.com>