Lu was born in
Shanghai but his
ancestral home was in
Xiangshan County (now is
Zhongshan),
Guangdong. He was a friend of
Sun Yat-sen and was involved in activities targeted at overthrowing the Qing dynasty and establishing a republic in China. In 1895, Lu co-founded the
Revive China Society in
Hong Kong with
Sun Yat-sen. In October 1895, they planned to stage
an uprising in
Guangzhou, but the Qing government got wind of their plan. On 26 October, Lu was preparing to escape from Guangzhou, but decided to return to their base of operations in a church in present-day Beijinglu,
Yuexiu District to burn a roster containing the names of the revolutionaries and other important documents. He could not escape in time and was arrested along with other revolutionaries by the Qing government. Lu was taken to the
yamen in Nanhai County (present-day
Nanhai District,
Foshan,
Guangdong) for interrogation by the county magistrate
Li Zhengyong (), who was acting under instructions from
Tan Zhonglin (), the
Viceroy of Liangguang. When he refused to kneel down before Li during questioning, the magistrate said, "You are a talented young man. Why did you want to get yourself in trouble that would cost you your life? I feel sorry for you that you don't value your life." Lu replied sternly, "China is a vast country and it has the highest population in the world, but it is poor and weak because the Qing government is authoritarian and incompetent in foreign policy. My comrades and I originally planned an uprising with the aim of overthrowing the Qing government and replacing it with a new republican government. I intended to kill one or two persons like you who serve the Qing government. Now that our plan has failed, I can't kill you but you can kill me. What's there to feel sorry about?" The American embassy in Guangzhou attempted to save Lu's life by claiming that he was a translator working at the telegraph office and was not a revolutionary. However, they could not do anything when Li Zhengyong showed them a confession written by Lu himself. Lu, Zhu Guiquan (), Qiu Si () and other captured revolutionaries were executed on 7 November by the order of Tan Zhonglin. Sun Yat-sen called Lu "the first person in Chinese history who sacrificed his life for a democratic revolution". Lu is credited for designing the
Blue Sky with a White Sun flag that became the party flag and emblem of the
Kuomintang (KMT; Chinese Nationalist Party), and the canton of the
flag of the Republic of China. ==See also==