1902년 루쉰은 일본유학생으로 파견되어 국내에서 학습한 자연과학 지식을 바탕으로 의학 전문대학에 진학해 의학도의 길을 걸었다. 그러던 어느날, 청국 유학생에 대한 멸시와 이른바 ‘환등기 사건’으로 돌연 자퇴하고 문학의 길로 전향한다. 의술이 한두명의 환자를 구할 수 있을지언정 썩어 있는 중국인의 정신을 구할 수 없다는 자각에서 였다. 토쿄에서 동생 저우쭤 런(周作人)과 쉬서우창(許壽裳) 등 친구들과 문예잡지 『신생』을 창간해 본격적인 문예운동에 뛰어들고자 했다. 하지만, 상황은 녹녹지 않았고 필진, 자금 등의 고갈과 주변의 냉대로 인해 실패로 돌아가고 말았다. 그러나, 그가 그리고자 한 세계와 내용은 우연한 기회에 연결된 『허난(河南)』이라는 잡지에 발표되면서 일정한 반향을 일으켰다. 하지만, 유학생활은 오래가지 않았고, 귀국해 오랫동안 ‘무쇠로 만든 방’에 갖혀 침잠해야 했다. 반제반봉건 운동이 활발히 전개되는 가운데, 『신청년(新靑年)』이 창간되었고, 루쉰은 침묵을 깨고 글들을 발표해 나간다.

In the 19 century, the Western naval powers including England overwhelmingly rushed to China since their earlier aggression to India and the other parts of Asia. The English merchants armed with naval forces illicitly sold opium to China to regain its trade balance from the Chinese market. Consequently, China rapidly went to be drawn into the world economic system which was leaded by England and this unstable shift of China caused the collapse of the Qing dynasty at last. Then Wei Yuan, the patriotic intellectual of the late Qing, believed that the reason of the invasion of the Western powers is due to their needs of trade with China and then developed his idea of the benefits from the trade between China and the West could be shared in the mutually beneficial and equal international trade. However, Wei Yuan felt that his belief would be realized only in the condition of China's possession of unbending force to that of the West. Therefore, He developed his idea of China would need to equip with strong defense abilities, well trained armed forces and armaments to protect itself from the West and he also came to realize the necessity of learning from the West which would be able to do so only after getting over from China's superior understanding to the West. This is the idea of the 'Yi-xia concept(夷夏論 the concept of differentiation of Non-Han and Han Chinese)' which had sprouted from 'the studies on Jingshi(經世學 the studies on practical aims of political and social guidance)' and later the Yi-xia developed into his philosophical thoughts. Wei Yuan insisted that China should learn from the West but maintaining its sense of being superior to it. These thoughts became Wei Yuan's motivation of writing the book, 'Haiguotuzhi(海國圖志 Illustrated Treatise of Maritime Nations)', in which he insisted to learn from the West so as to protect China from outer threats. From the understanding of Wei Yuan's patriotism to China with his idea of 'Yi-xia concept' and his academic tendency of the New Text school(今文經學派), we can find the early concept of nowadays Chinese dream connected with the idea of the modernization movement of China.