From “Self” to “Individual”: Lu Xun's Traditional Model of Thinking in the Acceptance of German Individualism

The early thought of Lu Xun's “individual” was presented in the five theses created in 1907 and 1908 in classical Chinese, together with the concepts of the state of mind, spirit, willpower, aspiration, quiet mind, etc.His idea of individual mainly came from the western thinkers, such as Stirner, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Ibsen etc.on the one hand;the terms used in his expression mainly came from traditional Chinese semiotic resources, such as Book of Changes, Confucius and Mencius, Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi, Buddhism, the Lu-Wang Xin Xue, etc.on the other hand.The study shows that Lu Xun's traditional model of thinking makes him to love and accept the German ultra-individualism in the end of 19th century, and the comparative study of the “cultural individual” in Chinese and German tradition of thinking shows that young Lu Xun accepted the German “individual” through the Chinese “self”.This also tells that his counter traditional “individual” is actually confined with his own tradition.