SOURCE: "Fire under the Ice: Lu Xun," in The Burning Forest: Essays on Chinese Culture and Politics, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985, pp. 100-07.

In this essay, which was originally written in 1981, Leys aims to refute the myth of Lu Hsün as a great Communist patriot and assert his importance as an artist and humanist.

Lu Xun always vehemently rejected the role of messiah that some naïve or cunning admirers attempted to force upon him. Whoever actually reads him—his professional devotees never bother to do this, it seems—is struck at once by his disconcerting ambiguities. In fact, he was so paradoxical and contradictory, riddled with so many doubts, hesitations, afterthoughts, and mental reservations, that he sometimes upset his comrades more than his enemies. He spoke out of personal experience when he said: "When the Chinese suspect someone of being a potential troublemaker, they always resort...