Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Umherirren
Go deeper: the whole of Umherirren
About 3 h to read.Für wen es gedacht ist
You will love this book if you enjoy short, sharp stories about ordinary people, and fiction that shows a whole society through one scene or one cruel little joke.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
A beggar woman stops a returning scholar by a river and asks whether souls exist, whether there is hell, and whether dead relatives meet again.
This scene occurs near the beginning of Wandering, a collection of eight stories by Lu Xun, written in the mid 1920s in China. He writes about teachers, clerks, servants and villagers caught between old customs and new ideas, and nearly all of them are lonely.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A traveler returns to a town of ritualsFree
- 2A careless answer to a desperate question
- 3A widow is hired, seized and sold
- 4A mother's grief becomes a town's joke
- 5Regret for the Past, a love told backwards
- 6Two old friends meet in a snowy tavern
- 7A man who is strange to everyone around him
- 8Small farces, a verdict and a lamp
Punkt 1 von 8
A traveler returns to a town of rituals
The collection opens with New Year's Sacrifice. A man comes back to Lu Town, his home village, on the night when firecrackers send the kitchen god off to heaven. He has no house there now, so he stays with Fourth Master Lu, an elderly relative of the strict old school. Their talk fades fast, because Fourth Master spends the greeting scolding the new reformers.
The town is busy with its great yearly rite, called the blessing. The food is laid out before dawn with candles and incense, and only the men may bow. Nothing in his uncle's study speaks to the narrator, and he decides to leave the next day.
But something keeps him uneasy. The afternoon before, by the river, he met a servant he knew five years earlier, called Xianglin's Wife. Her hair is now white and her face is thin and dark, like carved wood. She holds a cracked bamboo pole and a basket with one empty bowl, and she has plainly become a beggar.
A festival can be at its warmest in the very place where someone is left out in the cold.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
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Go deeper: the whole of Umherirren
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Questions about Umherirren
What is Wandering by Lu Xun about?
It is a collection of eight stories about ordinary people in early twentieth century China, such as a servant, a clerk, a teacher and a farm woman, who struggle with loneliness, old customs and sudden change.
What does the title Wandering mean?
The Chinese title suggests drifting without a settled path. It fits characters who have left old certainties behind, move between towns and jobs, and cannot find a place where they truly belong.
Which stories are in Wandering?
The stories are New Year's Sacrifice, Regret for the Past, In the Tavern, The Loner, Public Exhibition, Mr Gao, Divorce and The Everlasting Lamp. Each one is short and can be read on its own.
Is Wandering based on a true story?
The stories are fiction, but they draw on the real world of China in the early twentieth century, including village rituals, schools, offices and the clash between old and new ideas.
Is Wandering easy to read?
Its short stories, clear scenes and spare, lively dialogue make it approachable. Each tale can be read in one sitting, and the characters are easy to picture from the first page.
Cite this edition
Lu, Xun. Wandering. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/wandering.
Lu, X. (2026). Wandering. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/wandering (Original work published 1926)
Lu, Xun. Wandering. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/wandering.
@book{lu2026wandering,
author = {Lu, Xun},
title = {Wandering},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/wandering},
note = {First published 1926}
}
