This paper explores the evolution of the concept of “national character” (国民性) in the modern intellectual history of China and Japan, as well as its role in the formation of Lu Xun’s thought. Taking American missionary Arthur Henderson Smith’s Chinese Characteristics (Japanese translation Shina Jin Kikaku) as a starting point, the paper analyzes its influence on Lu Xun’s discourse on “national character.” It traces the transmission of the concept from Meiji Japan to China, emphasizing Lu Xun’s role as its modern bearer, and reveals the origins of his thought by combining his motivation to “abandon medicine for literature” with the recollections of Xu Shuzhang (Perm Shou-ch’ang). It particularly notes that Xu’s memoirs (e.g., What I Knew of Lu Xun) were altered due to postmortem editing, with Kitaoka Shoko’s research correcting textual deviations related to “reforming national character.” The paper further examines how Lu Xun, through Shibue Yasukazu’s Japanese translation, borrowed perspectives such as “servants” (從僕) and “boy” (包依) to critique “servility” and the “comprador mentality” (西崽相), as reflected in works like A-Qin. Ultimately, it argues that Lu Xun’s discourse on national character is fundamentally a matter of the human soul, positing “establishing the individual” (立人) as a prerequisite for “establishing the nation” (立国), in contrast to Liang Qichao’s “nationalist” new citizen theory.
Keywords: National character, Lu Xun, Xu Shouchang, Shina Jin Kikaku, Smith, reforming national character, establishing the individual, Sino-Japanese intellectual history, textual analysis.
