On the Foundational Role of A Madman’s Diary in Shaping the Narrative Paradigm of Modern Chinese Fiction

Abstract

Lu Xun’s “A Madman's Diary” (1918) is universally acknowledged as the genesis of modern Chinese literature. This paper argues that its significance transcends this chronological primacy, positing that the story is a foundational text that deliberately constructed a new narrative paradigm that defined Chinese literary modernity. This paradigm is characterized by a revolutionary synthesis of three elements: (1) a radical shift to subjective, psychological interiority enabled by a first-person, unreliable narrator; (2) the strategic weaponization of literary form—specifically allegory and satire—as a tool for incisive socio-cultural critique; and (3) the ideological and aesthetic championing of vernacular Chinese (baihua) over its classical counterpart (wenyan). This paper first establishes the historical and intellectual context of the New Culture and May Fourth Movements that necessitated this literary break. It then conducts a close formal and thematic analysis of the story, dissecting its “diglossic warfare” (the wenyan frame versus the baihua diary), its modernist exploration of consciousness, and its central “cannibalism” metaphor as a multi-layered deconstruction of Confucian tradition. Finally, the paper traces this paradigm’s profound and enduring legacy, examining its immediate influence on May Fourth literature, its complex canonization during the Mao era, and its continued resonance in the works of contemporary authors such as Mo Yan and Yu Hua. The paper concludes that “A Madman's Diary” functions as both a national allegory and a work of world literature, whose final plea to “Save the children” remains a timeless call for humanistic renewal.