56 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 56 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when new ideas enter a world where old habits still decide who belongs?
In Wandering, Lu Xun brings you into small towns and cramped households where teachers, scholars, wives and villagers struggle against the pressure of their communities. These eleven stories explore isolation and moral struggle in a society where revolution fails to change daily life, and hope gives way to doubt.
The collection includes Blessing, In the Wine Shop, Soap, Regret for the Past, The Misanthrope and Divorce. Xianglin's Wife seeks a place in a village that shuns her. Lü Weifu faces the distance between youthful ideals and daily work. Juansheng and Zijun choose love, then face the ordinary pressures of sharing a life.
What you’ll discover
- A village closes ranks Meet Xianglin's Wife, a hard-working widow whose misfortunes make her an outsider in Lu Town.
- Ideals worn thin Enter the wine shop where a once bold reformer meets the narrator again.
- Freedom under pressure Follow Zijun's determination to choose her partner as love meets everyday hardship.
- Respectability meets sharp satire Find comedy in Soap, where Siming's private thoughts stir a quarrel at home.
- A woman resists rejection Stand beside Aigu as she brings her struggle before relatives and local gentry.
Who will love it
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.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A traveler returns to a town of rituals
- A careless answer to a desperate question
- A widow is hired, seized and sold
- A mother's grief becomes a town's joke
- Regret for the Past, a love told backwards
- Two old friends meet in a snowy tavern
- A man who is strange to everyone around him
- Small farces, a verdict and a lamp
Who’s who
- Xianglin's WifeA widow who works hard in Lu Town and is judged unclean by those around her, she longs for a place where she may belong.
- JuanshengA clerk who tells the story of his own love, he wants a free and modern life and keeps a diary of his regret.
- ZijunA young woman who leaves her family to live with Juansheng, she wants to belong to herself and to build a home.
- Lu WeifuOnce a fierce young reformer, he now teaches old textbooks and quietly keeps promises to his mother and to the dead.
- Wei LianshuA teacher thought strange by all, he cares for his grandmother and for children, and he struggles to stay alive in a hostile town.
- Mr GaoA man of small learning and large vanity, he takes a grand new name and a teaching job to meet female students.
- AiguA farmer's daughter, she refuses to accept being put aside by her husband and travels to the home of the elder to state her case.
- Seventh MasterA solemn city notable examining an ancient burial object, he settles a marital dispute by the weight of his presence.
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Umherirren
by Lu Xun · 1926
A beggar woman asks a returning scholar whether the dead have souls, and he cannot answer her.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to readDeutsch
Excellent
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In short
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.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1926
- Language
- Deutsch
- Reading time
- 35 min
- Level
- Medium level
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}
}
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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.
The author
Lu Xun
1881–1936 · Chinese novelist and essayist
Lu Xun (1881–1936) was a Chinese writer born in Shaoxing. His original name was Zhou Shuren. He wrote fiction, essays, and literary history. A Brief History of Chinese Fiction appeared in 1923–1924, and Wandering in 1926. He lived in Japan and several Chinese cities, and died in Shanghai.
More by Lu Xun
Alle Bücher des Autors ansehenMore like this
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