Title: Lu Xun—Thirteen Perspectives
Author: Valiowk
Characters: Lu Xun, Lady Song, Lu Kang (陆康), Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Kan Ze, Lu Ji (陆绩), Lü Meng, Han Dang, Sun Huan, Sun Xian, Zhuge Jin, Lu Kang (陆抗), Sun Quan, Lu Ji (陆机).
Keywords: Lu Xun, Three Kingdoms, historical fiction
Summary: Twelve 'quindrabbles' (500 words each) and one 'icosadrabble' (2000 words) about the life of Lu Xun, from the perspectives of thirteen people.
Author's notes: This is a Three Kingdoms historical fiction based on Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms and Pei Songzhi's annotations to it. However, seeing as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms section here is mostly inactive, I have decided to post it here instead. A companion series, Those Days in Wuchang, follows this story.

I owe an immense debt of gratitude to 锦瑟无端 for her vignette 《陆逊之死》 The Death of Lu Xun (in Chinese at 5ds8 (point) com (slash) modules (slash) article (slash) reader (point) php (question mark) aid (equals) 39171 (ampersand) cid (equals) 1381856), and to 文子君 for her story 《陆公日志》 The Daybook of Master Lu (in Chinese at bbs (point) chinae3 (point) com (slash) showthread (point) php (question mark) t (equals) 538976), which had an enormous influence in molding my mental image of Lu Xun.

I would also like to acknowledge my extensive use of the translations of Records of the Three Kingdoms on kongming (point) net . This story could not have been written without it.

Please see Chapter 16 for a list of historical characters mentioned in the story and their style names.

Note (5 June 2013): Historical errors in the story have been corrected as far as possible so that this story reads smoothly with a new story set in the same universe, In Conversation and Laughter—Lu Su. Thus, the chapters are no longer perfect multidrabbles. The original perfect multidrabble versions are available in PDF format at https (colon) (double slash) www (point) dropbox (point) com (slash) s (slash) ndx53c3smplnzq2 (slash) Lu (percent) 20Xun—Thirteen (percent) 20Perspectives(percent) 20(Original) (point) pdf .

Mother ∙ Lady Song ∙ AD 183

My husband dashes into the bedroom upon hearing the cries of our newborn babe.

'My felicitations, Your Honour—you have a son!' the midwife congratulates him. She dabs the fresh blood away from the baby's skin with a moist towel and swaddles him in a red blanket before handing him to my husband to cradle. My husband murmurs a few words of thanks to her, too preoccupied with gazing proudly at our baby to pay her much attention. The midwife and maidservants complete the delivery and help me into a reclining position before taking their leave.

'It's been hard on you, my Lady,' my husband remarks as he seats himself upon the edge of the bed and holds out the baby for me to gaze at.

'As long as the baby is safe and sound, any amount of hardship is worth it,' I reply. 'In the poem Thick Tarragon in the Book of Odes, it is said, 'My father begot me, / My mother fed me, / Led me, bred me, / Brought me up, reared me, / Kept her eye on me, tended me, / At every turn aided me.'[1] This is but a minor tribulation.'

We gaze at the babe in silence for several moments. The babe has his father's fair face, but his eyes and smiling lips distinctly resemble those of his maternal grandfather. Recalling my late father, I turn to speak towards my husband.

'My father was a man of arms all his life; he had only a rudimentary knowledge of the Classics. His greatest dream was to have a son who would be a great scholar, and that his son would have no cause to take to arms. Alas, the Heavens bestowed him with two daughters instead!' I smile faintly at the irony. 'Fortunately, this did not cause my father to disfavour my sister and me; instead, he hired the best tutors for us and had us educated as he would have had his son. How proud and delighted he would be if only he could see this grandson—I imagine he would sit by his grandson's side as the boy was being tutored, and learn the same lessons and read the same books as him!'

My husband smiles affectionately. He lowers his head in thought for a few seconds, before saying, 'In that case, let's name our son Yi[2]. In the book Explaining Characters[3], it is said that "Writing is theorising [lùn]. Theorising is discourse [yì]. Discourse is language."[4] We'll raise him to be a great scholar capable of discoursing on [yì lùn] all affairs under Heaven.'

I stare mutely at my husband for several seconds, astonished by his thoughtfulness, before smiling gratefully in return.

'Lu Yi,' I murmur, trying out the words against my tongue. 'Lu Yi... It is a good name,' I conclude.

I return my gaze to the peaceful, smiling face of my son. Lu Yi, my child, you shall grow up to be a great scholar...

Footnotes:

[1] 《诗经·小雅·谷风之什·蓼莪》：「父兮生我，母兮鞠我。拊我畜我，长我育我，顾我复我，出入腹我。」 This translation is by Arthur Waley.

[2] 议。

[3] 《说文》 [shuō wén], in full 《说文解字》 [shuō wén jiě zì] Explaining simple and analysing compound characters. A Chinese dictionary dating from the Han dynasty, which was the first to analyse the structure of characters and explain their etymology.

[4] 「下文语，论也。论，议也。议，语也。」