"All races not yet moribund are trying to revolt every day" - Lu Xun

Lu Xun (1881-1936)

Some quotes from an article Literature of a Revolutionary Period by Chinese writer Lu Xun in April 1927,

"When a hawk catches a sparrow, the hawk is silent; the sparrow is the one to cry out. When a cat catches a mouse, the cat is silent; the mouse is the one to cry out. And the one that can only cry ends by being eaten by the one that is silent. "

"...nearly all literature expresses dissatisfaction and distress over social conditions, voicing suffering and indignation"… "Those who oppress you will ignore them. The mouse may squeak and even produce fine literature, yet the cat will gobble it up without any consideration. So a nation with only a literature of complaint is hopeless, because it stops short at that"…"the literature of complaints, like proclaiming one's grievances, gives the oppressors a sense of security"..."nations with inner strength which dare rebel when complaints prove useless wake up to the facts and their lamentations change into roars of anger."

"Mankind could only progress, evolve from protozoa to men, from barbarism to civilization, because of ceaseless revolutions. Biologists tell us: "Men are not very different from monkeys. Apes and men are cousins." How is it then that men have become men while monkeys remain monkeys? It is because monkeys will not change their ways — they like to walk on all fours. Quite likely some monkey once stood up and tried to walk on two legs, but many others protested, "Our ancestors have always crawled. You're not to stand up!" Then they bit him to death. They refused not only to stand but also to talk, being conservative. Men, however, are different. They eventually stood up and talked, and so they won out. But the process is still going on. So revolution is nothing strange, and all races not yet moribund are trying to revolt every day, though most of their revolutions are merely small ones." (Literature of a Revolutionary Period - Lu Xun)