I much love literature and to find out about a literary giant that I'd never heard of was like finding lost gold. Lu Xun's writings aren't readily available in English， no major American or British publishing house distributes them， but I am lucky to live in the San Gabriel Valley of California and I found a good bookstore that had an English section. They had the True Story of Ah Q and other works by Lu Xun. I know that reading Lu Xun in English translation is like looking at a bit mapped black and white image of a great painting， but still I am able to tell that Lu Xun produced great literature.

　　Lu Xun （or Lu Hsün） is called the father of modern Chinese literature. His first story "A Madman's Diary" is considered the first story written in Modern Chinese. The classic Chinese literature by Lao Zi （or Lao Tze） and Confucius for example were written in literary Chinese which is different than the language spoken by everyday folks. Any scholar worth his salt would have written in this literary style. Lu Xun chose to begin writing the way people talk. At the same time though， he was well educated and learned and， I am told， used the language very colorfully and had a large vocabulary. In no way can what he did be considered "a dumbing down".

　　Lu Xun is a pen name. His real name was Zhou Shuren. Lu Xun wrote stories， poetry， essays， literary criticism and literary history. His stories were published in literary journals of the time and were then collected and published as books. He has three volumes of short stories.