Kong Yiji (Chinese characters: 孔乙己, Hanyu Pinyin: Kǒng Yǐjǐ) is a representative work in famous Chinese writer Lu Xun's short story collection Call to Arms (呐喊, published in 1922), and also the name of the main character in the story. This piece is the second Vernacular Chinese story written by Lu Xun after writing A Madman's Diary but before the May Fourth Movement. This story describes Kong Yiji as a scholar who has not passed the Imperial examination to become a Xiucai (roughly equivalent to the level of a Bachelor's degree). Kong Yiji lost his respect as a man, and descended into an object of ridicule in the local inn. His ending is not clear. The story made clear some of the social problems of the time.
Kong Yiji is a life-long "student", who never manages to pass the government exams to become an official. He earns a living from copying manuscripts for rich patrons, but he often steals their writing equipment and gets beaten up for it. In fact, he is very poor and forced to steal from his employers for a living.
Kong Yiji is an anomaly in this small town. He wears a long-sleeved shirt, which is a sign of the moneyed upper-class, yet his shirt is old and tattered since he has no money to buy new clothes. He is tall and strong and could make a good living from manual work, yet he is too proud to stoop that low. At the inn, the short-sleeved workers stand outside on the street to drink their Chinese wine, while the respected long-sleeved officials get to sit inside. Kong Yiji wears long sleeves yet he is not allowed to sit inside.
Most students at that time just wanted to pass the exams, to be an official of the government. If they managed to pass the exams, they could become rich by exploiting the people. Kong Yiji is one of these students, but he never passes the exams. Whenever he has the money, he drinks in the inn in which the writer was a young waiter.
It is considered by some people that Lu Xun wrote this story to express the sadness of the students at that time. Others have suggested that Lu Xun wrote the story to explain what was wrong with the 'feudal society', where people could waste their entire life trying to pass silly exams.
