In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life of Lu Xun, born Zhou Shuren, the writer who abandoned medicine to diagnose what he saw as China’s deeper spiritual sickness. The episode begins with the famous lantern slide moment in Japan, where Lu Xun watched an image of a Chinese man about to be executed while other Chinese onlookers stood by with numb indifference. That scene convinced him that physical health meant little if a people had become morally and emotionally calloused. From there, the episode traces his fall from old-money scholar-official privilege after his grandfather’s bribery scandal, the collapse of his father through illness, opium, and failed traditional medicine, and Lu Xun’s bitter rejection of the corrupt systems that had destroyed his family.

The episode also follows Lu Xun’s transformation from disillusioned student ...