Although Lu Xun’s Diary of a Madman (狂人日记) and Gogol’s work of the same title are often linked in comparative literary studies, their similarities remain largely superficial. Contrary to common assumptions of influence, the two works diverge significantly in thematic depth and ideological orientation. Gogol’s novella depicts a morally depraved minor official in Tsarist Russia, whose delusional aspirations for upward mobility end in madness and death. Lu Xun’s Diary of a Madman, by contrast, undergoes a moment of awakening—recognizing the cannibalistic structure of his society and choosing to “go elsewhere to assume a post,” a gesture charged with ambiguity but also potential resistance. Lu Xun’s text that more profoundly echoes Gogol’s is not Diary of a Madman, but White Light (白光). This lesser-discussed story, a continuation of the anti-feudal project left unfinished in Kong Yiji (孔乙己), offers a searing psychological portrait of Chen Shicheng (陈士成), a victim of the imperial examination system whose interior life is dominated by an unfulfilled, violent desire to “consume” others. In exposing the latent ferocity within the so-called victims of the feudal order, White Light complicates simplistic readings of “small characters” like Chen or Kong as merely pitiful. Instead, it reveals how the mechanisms of feudal power create individuals who are simultaneously victims and aspirants to the very violence that oppresses them. Only by reading White Light alongside Kong Yiji, and by moving beyond facile empathy, can we grasp the depth of Lu Xun’s critique of the examination system and appreciate the uncompromising radicalism of his anti-feudal stance.