Abstract: Lu Xun’s essay writing, with his settling in Shanghai in 1927 as the boundary, can be divided into, in terms of time period, two stages the one in Beijing and the one in Shanghai. His early essays, if we agree, are mainly around civilization criticism, i.e. inside are found politicized criticism of totality and radical color. And his later essays focus on social criticism, that is, practical analysis of incomplete modernity in China in the 20th century, at a time when Shanghai served as typical semi-colonial, and reveal a stable style different from the earlier essays. The early civilization criticism is drawn upon his standpoint of national liberation and cosmopolitanism, while the later social criticism is based on the spirit of class liberation and internationalism. The maturity and immortality of Lu Xun’s essays are manifested in his later writing, which deeply integrates the general criticism of civilization criticism and the specific analysis of social criticism, thus achieving the perfect state highly combining political and social nature. This paper takes the analysis of Lu Xun’s later essays as the priority.

Key words: Lu Xun’s essays, civilization criticism and social criticism, Radicalness and Soundness