Re-research on Lu Xun’s Choice of Being a Literary Physician Instead of a Western Medicine Doctor from the Perspective of “Hygienic Modernity”

As Lu Xun pointed out that medicine might not play a vital function in national modern transformation in the areas of individualized medicine and clinical treatment, which is the primary reason for his choice of being a literary physician instead of a Western medicine doctor. However, “hygienic modernity”, which is the main derivative of population medicine, has contributed significantly to this transformation in terms of the development of bio-politics. According to the history of modern Japanese social medicine, the accurate implication of “Meiji Restoration originated from Western Medicine” (propounded repeatedly by Lu Xun) means that Japanese restoration is the derivation of “hygiene modernity” derived from Western medicine. But due to the assertion of “medical salvation” during the late Qing Dynasty, Lu Xun’s understanding of modern medicine and hygiene would be limited. And he also insisted on his individual pursuit of “supporting the individual and ostracizing the mob”. For these reasons, Lu Xun neglected or disagreed Japanese “hygiene modernity”which could make the most personalized individual body become nationalized and institutionalized, and this may shape him as a literary physician rather than a Western medicine doctor. Otherwise, his termination of studying Western medicine has no logical necessity, at least in the sense of national modern transformation.