Meaning:

The body can be saved, but the corrupt and ugly heart cannot be saved. Mr. Lu Xun studied medicine in order to save the lives of Chinese people, but he found that he could not save the already rotten souls. So I gave up medicine and followed literature, trying to "attack the minds" of the Chinese people through articles

The origin of this sentence:

In the second year, Tian taught mold science, and the shapes of bacteria were all made of movies To show, after a paragraph was finished but before the get out of class ended, a few movies of current events were shown. Naturally, they were all about Japan's victory over Russia. But there were Chinese people caught in it: I worked as a detective for the Russians, was captured by the Japanese army, and was about to be shot. There was also a group of Chinese people watching around me; there was also me in the lecture hall.

"Long live!" They all clapped their hands and cheered.

This kind of cheering happens every time I watch a film, but to me, this one was particularly harsh. After that, when I returned to China, I saw those people who were just watching the execution of prisoners, and they were cheering like they were drunk, ─ Wow, it’s unthinkable! But at that time and place, my opinion changed. ——"Mr. Fujino"

"I did not graduate this year. I have already arrived in Tokyo, because after that (Russian-Japanese war film), I felt that medicine was not important. The thing is, all foolish citizens, no matter how healthy and strong they are, can only serve as meaningless publicity materials and spectators, and death from illness and death should not be considered unfortunate." - "Preface to "The Scream"

Extended information:

The author of "The Scream": Lu Xun

"The Scream" is a collection of short stories by the modern writer Lu Xun, which includes Lu Xun's short stories written from 1918 to 1922. 14 short stories, first published by Beijing Xinchaoshe in 1923, now included in the first volume of "The Complete Works of Lu Xun". The collection of novels truly depicts social life from the Revolution of 1911 to the May 4th Movement.

Starting from revolutionary democracy, with the purpose of enlightenment and the spirit of humanitarianism, it reveals various deep-seated social contradictions, and conducts a profound analysis and comparison of the old Chinese system and some outdated traditional concepts. The complete denial shows a strong sense of concern for the survival of the nation and a strong hope for social change.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Scream