(1) Condolence Telegram to Xu Guangping on the Passing of Mr. Lu Xun

To Madam Xu Guangping, via the Shanghai Cultural Salvation Association:

The sad news of Mr. Lu Xun’s passing has plunged the entire nation into mourning. Our Party, together with the Soviet Government and the people of all Soviet areas, join in expressing our profound grief at the loss to the Chinese nation of its greatest literary figure, a devoted mentor in the quest for light, an extraordinary leader who dedicated himself to the cause of resisting Japan and saving the country, and a dear comrade in the communist Soviet movement. We send this telegram of sincere condolences, firmly believing that the people of the whole country and its outstanding writers will carry forward Mr. Lu Xun’s legacy, waging a life-and-death struggle against all aggressors and oppressive forces, so as to achieve the complete national and social liberation of the Chinese people and their oppressed classes.

Respectfully transmitted by telegraph,

October 20, 1936

(2) An Address to Fellow Countrymen Throughout the Nation and to People All Over the World

Sad tidings have reached us: Mr. Lu Xun, the mentor of China’s literary revolution, a towering authority of thought, and the greatest master penman in the literary world, has passed away in Shanghai. At a time when fascist powers such as Germany and Japan are baring their fangs and provoking a world war, placing the Chinese nation on the brink of survival or extinction, his death represents an irreparable and incalculable loss—a blow to our nation’s most advanced and fearless warrior. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic hereby express their deepest and most heartfelt condolences upon learning of Mr. Lu Xun’s passing.

Throughout his glorious and militant life, Mr. Lu Xun set an exemplary standard for all loyal sons and daughters of the Chinese nation—a model writer committed to national and social liberation, and to world peace. His pen was both a cannon and a magic mirror, exposing and shattering imperialism, traitorous collaborators, warlord bureaucrats, local tyrants and gentry, fascists, and every other kind of shameless villain. At no moment did he stand apart from the oppressed masses in their fight against these enemies. With his incisive pen, impeccable character, forthright words, and indomitable fighting spirit, he left no hiding place for these pests and toxins. He not only inspired the masses to charge fearlessly into battle but also commanded the admiration, respect, and even dread of his fiercest adversaries. The nation’s sworn enemies sought to intimidate him through massacres, imprisonment, bans on publishing any of his works, and prohibitions against printing or selling his writings; yet he never yielded. They tried to slander him with fabricated charges of “communist infiltration” and “receiving Soviet subsidies,” yet every attempt failed. Even the Trotskyist faction among them attempted to sow discord within the ranks of the people with honeyed words, only to be met with a crushing rebuff. No matter how arduous the circumstances, Mr. Lu Xun always stood shoulder to shoulder with the masses in their struggle against the enemies of the people; he remained steadfastly on the side of progress and revolution. He stirred countless individuals to embark on the revolutionary path, guided young people to become revolutionary fighters like himself, and earned superhuman merits in the course of China’s revolutionary movement.