Confucianism is an old Chinese tradition. It is built on an ancient religion, which was founded in order to establish the social values and ideas of conventional Chines society. In his short stories, Lu Hsun criticizes Confucian culture in its reliance on the old ways. In the next paragraphs I will discuss the environment of disease and deformity including metaphors, irony and ignorance that he describes in hid stories. I will particularly focus on two of his stories: "Medicine" and "Madman's Diary".
In the "Medicine" the author talks about disease. Lu Hsun uses metaphor of medicine to further his theme in tradition as form of ignorance. For instance the cure itself is from olden days. The father chooses to use remedy that existed in his past, in which he places false expectation. This story presents the main criticism of common people of China, who are steeped useless and superstitious. The tone shifts are Lu Hsun introduces more heavy irony. He shows ignorance of people who want to use the traditional cure. Beside the ineffectiveness of traditional medicine, the stories also demonstrate the inability of many Chinese of the time to see what was happening in the world outside their immediate surroundings.
The story explains the futility found in Chinese lives. It also examines the system or traditional medicine, but the common read through the story is inability of characters to change their lives or brake out of the molds of tradition. .
In the story "Madman's Diary" the author talks about deformity. The story tells the growing obsession with the cannibalism. Lu Hsun shows us how people obey the tradition and their rituals, and the tradition in this story is cannibalism in text it says:" In ancient times as I relocate the people often ate human beings" and also that his history is composed of "Virtue and Morality". (535) People are afraid to go against it, because they may become victims of it.
