Great Works Fall 2013

Lu Xun’s short story, “Medicine”, is about a family using traditional Chinese medicine, mantou (stream bread) soaked in blood, to treat their only son’s tuberculosis. The mantou does not cure the tuberculosis and the son is buried right outside of the city wall. Lu Xun uses symbolism to reflect the state of China as a nation during this time period.

The story starts out with a very dark supernatural feeling. It is a dark night with no moon in the sky and “creatures that roam in the night” (253). Big bolt is walking down a gray road and suddenly he feels this magic burst of energy and he walks a little fast with longer steps. He came up to the intersection when, suddenly, his lantern goes out and he sees all these people on the street like ghosts wandering the street. These people are heading to the execution of Xia revolutionary.  Two men walk by him and he sees a “predatory gleam that flashes from the man’s eyes. He has the look of someone who has long gone hungry and has just caught sight of food” (254). Like his other short story, “Diary of a Madman,” there is a cannibalism theme, but it is less scary.  The people harvest Xia’s organs after his execution and there is this craving for human remains. Even Big bolt is getting a magical burst of energy from the death of Xia.

I think the theme of cannibalism reflects the attitude of  the Chinese people. Lu Xun was horrified by “apathetic crowd of Chinese onlookers” who gather around to watch the execution of a Chinese prisoner “about to be decapitated as a Russian spy” (242).  Lu Xun uses cannibalism to show the lack of national spirit and a sense of community in China as the country spends decades falling into ruin. The hardship of China has ruined the spirit of the people and it is reflected in their need to consume human flash. People are being described as ghost heading towards the execution site because the spirit is hungry and self involve and it wants to consume its own people.

Little bolt represents the state of the old system of the Chinese government. China was once a great empire but it went into a decline as foreign countries carved up the resources and even took over certain taxation department. The Qing dynasty was too weak to hold onto the empire with many rebellions all over the country. A country elected a parliament, but it was kill  by Yuan Shikai and he declared himself emperor. He died in 1916 and left the country without a leader. Regional military leaders broke off from the central government and started battling with each other for the control of China. China’s government system came from the Confucius Era and it was rarely changed to deal with problems in the modern world. There was a lot of corruption at the local government level and the central government failed to fix corruption. The central government also heavy relied on foreign countries for monetary support because they had no tax income. Qing dynasty and Yuan failed to fix the tax system and, without money, they could not build a new modern nation or better infrastructure. The bloody mantou represents the China’s using old useless ineffective methods to treat problems and ultimately failing at it.