His short stories are satiric, vivid, pungently realistic - as satisfying in structure as they are in tone and content. Lu Xun studied medicine in Japan, but soon exchanged his physician's scalpel for a literary one, which he wielded with a sure hand and an accurate eye to probe the sickness of a still-feudal Chinese society. This collection of Lu Xun's short stories is the most complete, accurate, and authoritative yet to appear. It includes the preface to his first book, CALL TO ARMS, in which Lu Xun explains how he came to be a writer.