Editing Lu Xun (section)

=== Later career ===
[[File:Lu Xun 1 with Xu Guanping and Haiying.jpg|left|thumb|Lu Xun with [[Xu Guangping]] and their son, {{interlanguage link|Zhou Haiying|lt=|zh|周海婴}}]]
[[File:The Fengs and the Lu-s.jpg|right|thumb|Lu Xun (right) sat in the front, and Xu Guangping sat behind him, their son (Zhou Haiying) in Lu Xun's arms.]]
In 1929, he visited his mother, and reported that she was pleased at the news of Guangping's pregnancy.<ref name= "DMTTL" /> Xu Guangping gave birth to a son named Haiying on 27 September. She was in labor with the baby for 27 hours. The child's name meant simply "Shanghai infant". His parents chose the name thinking that he could change it himself later, but he never did so. Haiying was Lu Xun's only child.<ref name="McDougall">Lu & Xu 64</ref>

After moving to Shanghai, Lu rejected all regular teaching positions (though he sometimes gave guest lectures at different campuses), and for the first time was able to make a living solely as a professional writer, with a monthly income of roughly 500 yuan. He was also appointed by the government as a "specially appointed writer" by the national Ministry of Higher Education, which secured him an additional 300 yuan per month.

He began to study and identify with [[Marxist]] politics, made contact with local CCP members, and became involved in literary disputes with other leftist writers in the city. In 1930 Lu became one of the co-founders of the [[League of Left-Wing Writers]], but shortly after he moved to Shanghai other leftist writers accused him of being "an evil feudal remnant", the "best spokesman of the bourgeoisie", and "a counterrevolutionary split personality". The League continued in various forms until 1936, when the constant disputes among its members led the CCP to dissolve it.<ref name= "DMTTL" />

In January 1931, the Kuomintang (KMT) passed new, stricter censorship laws, allowing for writers producing literature deemed "endangering the public" or "disturbing public order" to be imprisoned for life or executed. Later that month he went into hiding. In early February, less than a month later, the KMT executed twenty-four local writers (including five who belonged to the League) whom they had arrested under this law.

After the execution of the "24 Longhua Martyrs"<ref name= "DMTTL" /> (in addition to other students, friends, and associates),<ref>Lovell 2009 xxviii</ref> Lu's political views became distinctly anti-KMT. In 1933 Lu met [[Edgar Snow]]. Snow asked Lu whether there were any Ah Q's left in China. Lu responded, "It's worse now. Now it's Ah Q's who are running the country."<ref name= "DMTTL" />

Lu Xun wrote a classical Chinese poem, ''A Lament for Ms. Ding'', to commemorate [[Ding Ling]], who on 14 May 1933 had been kidnapped from her residence in the [[Shanghai International Settlement|Shanghai international settlement]] by the KMT.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Xian |title=Gendered Memories: An Imaginary Museum for Ding Ling and Chinese Female Revolutionary Martyrs |date=2025 |publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]] |isbn=978-0-472-05719-1 |series=China Understandings Today series |location=Ann Arbor}}</ref>{{Rp|page=15}}

Despite the unfavorable political climate, Lu Xun contributed regularly to a variety of periodicals in the 1930s, including [[Lin Yutang]]'s humor magazine ''The Analects Fortnightly'', and corresponded with writers in Japan as well as China.<ref>Christopher Rea, ''The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China'' (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2015), pp. 132, 148-149.</ref>

Although he had renounced writing fiction years before, in 1934 he published his last collection of short stories, ''Old Tales Retold''.<ref name= "DMTTL" /> In 1935, he sent a telegram to CCP forces in [[Shaanxi]] congratulating them on the recent completion of their [[Long March]]. The CCP requested that he write a novel about the communist revolution set in rural China, but he declined, citing his lack of background and understanding of the subject.<ref>Lovell 2009 xxx</ref>

[[File:Lu Xun 1936.jpg|thumb|Lu Xun 11 days before his death. Photograph by [[Sha Fei]].]]
[[File:Lu Xun's remains.jpg|left|thumb|The remains of Lu Xun in Shanghai on October 19, 1936. Photograph by Sha Fei.]]
[[File:Move Lu Xun's casket.jpg|left|thumb|Lu's casket being transferred, 1956]]
[[File:Shanghai - Lu Xun's tomb 2.jpg|thumb|Lu's tomb in Shanghai, 2010]]

Lu was a heavy smoker, which may have contributed to the deterioration of his health throughout his last year. By 1936 he had developed chronic tuberculosis, and in March of that year he was stricken with bronchial asthma and a fever. The treatment for this involved draining 300&nbsp;grams of fluid in the lungs through a puncture.

From June to August, he was again sick, and his weight dropped to only {{convert|83|lb|kg}}. He recovered somewhat, and wrote two essays in the fall reflecting on mortality. These included "Death", and "This Too Is Life".<ref name="Jenner">Jenner</ref> A month before his death, he wrote: "Hold the funeral quickly... do not stage any memorial services. Forget about me, and care about your own life – you're a fool if you don't." Regarding his son, he wrote: "On no account let him become a good-for-nothing writer or artist."<ref>Lovell xxxii</ref>