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Lu Xun and Evolution. By JAMEs R. PUSEY. Albany: State University of New York, 1998. xix, 249 pp. $65.50 (cloth); $21.95 (paper).
This rather curious book attempts to study the role of evolutionary theory in the thought of Lu Xun. Having established in the introduction that Lu Xun was not a "great philosopher" nor a "great scientist," Pusey then proceeds in over two hundred pages to lambaste Lu Xun for being neither. The first part of the book relies almost exclusively on two short essays Lu Xun wrote as a student, namely "History of Man" and "History of Science." Pusey analyzes these two essays in great detail, providing inordinately long digressions into the thought of Haeckel, Darwin, Spencer and even more contemporary theorists in sociobiology, Edward Wilson and...