If the colloquial Pai-hua is meant to help to emancipate the illiterate millions, then this "True Story of Ah Q" is meant to give voice to one of them, indeed an example of the millions of plain folk who for more than four thousand years have been almost neglected in what is considered the best of recognized Chinese literature. What was written concerning common things and common people was considered outside the pale of refined literature. Ah Q is only one of the many types which occur in the collection of fifteen stories, from which the translator has chosen the present "True Story of Ah Q."
The original Chinese runs along in a rippling, humorous, and distinctive style; but beneath each word one may hear from down the ages the cry of the poor oppressed rustic and the author's protest against all sham and petty meanness.
There has been a notice in a Chinese pamphlet that the eminent Sinologist, Mr. B. A. Vassiliev, requested permission to translate "The True Story of Ah Q" into Russian and there is little doubt that the work is already off the press.
The author, Lu-hsün, a brief account of whose life I have included in the Appendix, was most obliging in granting me the right of English translation and supplying me, from time to time, with printed matter, as well as two sets to the original pages of the story. For these and the
