The True Story of Ah Q, or ā Q Zhèngzhuàn (Traditional Chinese: 阿Q正傳, Simplified Chinese: 阿Q正传), is a long short fiction by Lu Xun, first published between December 1921 and February 1922. It was later collected in his first short story collection Nahan (呐喊) in 1923, and "The True Story of Ah Q" is the longest of all the stories.
The piece is generally held to be a masterpiece of modern Chinese literature, and one of Lu Xun's most important works; it is certainly his most famous.
The story traces the adventures of Ah Q, a man from the peasant class with little education and no definite work. Ah Q is famous for "spiritual victories", Lu Xun's euphemism for self-talk and self-deception even when faced with extreme defeat or humiliation. Ah Q is a bully of the less fortunate but fearful of those who are above him in rank, strength or power. Lu Xun exposes Ah Q's extreme faults as symptomatic of the Chinese race of his time. The ending of the piece - where Ah Q is carted off to execution for a lowly crime - is equally poignant and satirical.
The downfall of Qing Dynasty and the growth of capitalism industry, as it is shown in the novel, had almost no essential effect on Chinese people in that small rural town. The ignorant Chinese citizens, which was one of the most important topics of Lu Xun's works, could not be saved after a simple change of government. What they really needed was what Lu Xun himself called "medicine of the spirit", which indicated thorough modern education and the proceeding changes on social habits.
In the novel, Ah-Q (A-Gui, the author claims that he could not recall the correct name, a claim that consolidates the fact that no one really cares about Ah-Q) is not cared for by anyone in town. He wanders all day on the streets and makes a living by stealing and begging, and sometimes doing low-paid temporary jobs. Ah-Q has an "abundant" spiritual life made up of watching others doing things that he considers "foolish" or "rude". Ah-Q always feels superior over most people despite the fact that he was the one being looked down upon. Many people actually "enjoy" watching the absurdity and failure of Ah-Q. There are also some people that Ah-Q truly-respects or fears, which are the Landlords and rich folks.
One day the news of Xinhai Revolution comes into town. Some people, under the name of "revolutionary army", rob the houses of the landlords and rich folks. Ah-Q also wants to join them and also claim himself a revolutionary, but is too afraid to act when the time comes. Finally, Ah-Q is caught as a robber and sentenced to death by the new governor.
