During the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, science emerged as a potent tool for enlightenment, with intellectuals leveraging 19th-century scientific discourse to address humanistic issues. Two fundamental perspectives on understanding “human beings” emerged: viewing humans as substances and viewing humans as animals. These perspectives challenged traditional concepts of heavenly reason and human desires but also diminished the uniqueness of human beings, subsuming the humanities into a branch of the scientific field. Lu Xun’s five early essays, namely The History of Man (《人之历史》), Lessons From the History of Science (《科学史教篇》), On Imbalanced Cultural Development (《文化偏至论》), On the Power of Mara Poetry (《摩罗诗力说》) and Toward a Refutation of the Voices of Evil (《破恶声论》), implicitly or explicitly, engage with the relationship between scientific and humanistic discourse, forming a cohesive body of work. Through reflecting on the Chinese adoption of 19th-century scientific discourse, Lu Xun began envisioning an ideal “20th-century civilization.” He proposed three approaches: valuing the vitality of the “primitive man,” encouraging spiritual evolution towards becoming the “overman” (bermensch), and appreciating the imaginative capacity inherent in the 19th-century scientific spirit.