Modern Chinese Literature in Translation

1. Modern Chinese Literature in Translation • Professor Kirk A. Denton • 375 Hagerty Hall • denton.2@osu.edu • 292-5548 • Office hours: T 2-4 • Course website: http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/denton2/courses/c503/c4403.htm

2. Late Qing Period (1895-1911) Narratives of “Modern” Chinese History I: The Western impact • Chinese ethnocentricism and isolationism • product of geography and long cultural tradition that dates back to 2000 BC • during its heyday from the Tang-Song-Ming (7th c-13th c.), China was arguably the greatest civilization on earth • achievements in science, philosophy, ethics, politics, and literature

3. Late Qing Period (1895-1911) Western imperialism and the challenge of the West • what is imperialism? What are its origins? What form did it take in China? • Lin Zexu (林则徐), the first Opium War (1839-42) and the Nanjing Treaty (1842) • Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and the beginning of Japanese imperialism and Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895) • Other conflicts with the French and Russians

4. Imperialism and Spheres of Influence

5. Late Qing Period (1895-1911) Narratives of Modern Chinese History: Internal Decline • e.g., Taiping Rebellion (1850-64) led by Hong Xiuquan 洪秀全 (below) • Boxer Rebellion (1900)

6. Late Qing Period (1895-1911) “Now if we wish to make China strong and to preserve Chinese knowledge, we must study Western knowledge. Nevertheless, if we do not use Chinese knowledge to consolidate the foundation first and get straight in our own minds what our interests and purposes are, then the strong will become rebellious leaders and the weak will become slaves of others…. Scholars today must master the classics first in order to understand the purpose underlying the establishment of education by our ancient Chinese sages and teachers. And then they can select and make use of that Western knowledge which can make up our shortcomings . . . and cure our illnesses” (from Zhang Zhidong’s “Exhortation to Study”张之洞，劝学) Self-Strengthening Reform Movement (洋务运动/自强运动) • proposed reform in material development through importation of Western science and technology • reforms included new navy, postal service, shipping, military technology, etc. • “Chinese learning for the essence, Western learning for practical use” (中学为体,西学为用) 100 Days of Reform (1898) (戊戌变法) • Led by Kang Youwei (康有为) and Tan Sitong (谭嗣同), etc • radical proposals for reform quashed by the Empress Dowager Qing reforms (1905-1910) • Educational reforms, etc.

7. Late Qing Period (1895-1911) Now here is a big mansion which has lasted a thousand years. The tiles and bricks are decayed and the beams and rafters are broken. It is still a magnificently big thing, but when wind and rain suddenly come up, it’s fall is foredoomed. Yet the people in the house are still happily playing or soundly sleeping and as indifferent as if they have seen or heard nothing. Even some who have noted the danger know only how to weep bitterly, folding their arms and waiting for death without thinking of a remedy. Sometimes there are people a little better off who try to repair the cracks, seal up the leaks, and patch up the ant holes in order to be able to go on living there in peace, even temporarily, in the hope that something better may turn up. These three types of people use their minds differently, but when a hurricane comes they will die together. . . . A nation is also like this (quote in Teng/Fairbank, 155) Sense of Crisis (Liang Qichao 梁启超)

8. Revamping the Confucian tradition Kang Youwei (康有為) promotes Confucius as a progressive reformer of institutions Tan Sitong (譚嗣同) critiques li礼 (rites, or ritualized behavior) and promotes ren仁 (innate goodness) Late Qing Period (1895-1911) For the past 2,000 years the ruler-minister relationship has been especially dark and inhuman, and it has become worse in recent times. The ruler is not physically different or intellectually superior to man: on what does he rely to oppress 400 million? He relies on the formulation long ago of the Three Bonds (三纲) and Five Moral Relations (五伦), so that, controlling men’s bodies, he can also control their minds (from Tan Sitong, “On Benevolence”仁学) Kang Youwei

9. Introduction of Western Ideas through Translation Lin Shu 林舒 (1852-1924) and the translations of Western fiction (Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Balzac, Walter Scott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, etc.) Yan Fu 嚴復 (1854-1921) and the translation of political, sociological, and philosophical treatises -most known for his introduction of social Darwinist theories Late Qing Period (1895-1911) Top: Yan Fu translation of Thomas Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics; bottom: early edition of Lin Shu’s translation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin

10. Introduction of Western Ideas Journalism (particularly Liang Qichao [1873-1929]) -introducing new concepts such as Democracy; Law; Individualism; Nationalism Late Qing Period (1895-1911) Above: Shenbao, first mass circulation newspaper in China; left: Shiwu bao, edited by Liang Qichao

11. Introduction of Western Ideas Liang’s concept of “new citizen” (新民) Late Qing Period (1895-1911) The world of today is not the world of yesterday. In ancient times, we Chinese were people of villages instead of citizens. This is not because we were unable to form a citizenry but due to circumstances. Since China majestically used to be the predominant power in the East, surrounded as we were by small barbarian groups and lacking any contact with other large states, we Chinese generally considered our state to encompass the whole world. All the messages we received, all that influenced our minds, all the instructions of our sages, and all that our ancestors passed down qualified us to be individuals on our own, family members, members of localities and clans, and members of the world. But they did not qualify us to be citizens of a state. . . In an age of struggle among the nations for survival of the fittest while the weak perish, if the qualities of citizens are wanting, then the nation cannot stand up independently between Heaven and Earth.” (Liang Qichao, “Renewing the People” 新民说)

12. Late Qing Period (1895-1911) Liang Qichao, “On the Relationship between Fiction and the Government of the People” (论小说与群治之关系, 1902) If one intends to renovate the people of a nation, one must first renovate its fiction. Therefore, to renovate morality, one must renovate fiction; to renovate religion, one must renovate fiction; to renovate politics, one must renovate fiction; to renovate social customs, one must renovate fiction; to renovate learning and arts, one must renovate fiction; and to renovate even the human mind and remold its character, one must renovate fiction. Why is this so? This is because fiction has a profound power over the way of man (in Denton 1996: 74) • Changing Attitudes Toward Fiction • inversion of traditional generic hierarchies is promoted by Liang Qichao, Lin Shu, et al. • Fiction as the most important genre for “conveying the Way” A celebrated scholar in England once remarked that fiction is the soul of the people. How true! How true!– Liang Qichao in Denton 1996: 73

13. Late Qing Period (1895-1911) Lu Xun, “On the Power of Mara Poetry” (摩罗诗力说, 1908) Now survey China: where are the warriors of the spirit? Is there a genuine voice to lead us to goodness, beauty, and vigor? Is there a warm voice to deliver us from this barren winter? Barren homeland, without a Jeremiah to compose a final lamentation as a legacy to the world. Unborn perhaps, or murdered by the public, or both--thus China has become desolate . . . (in Denton 1996: 109) • Changing Attitudes Toward Literature • Lu Xun 鲁迅 and the romantic view of literature as a vehicle to disturb society out of its complacency • Wang Guowei 王国维 and the aesthetic or playful view of literature Wang Guowei

14. Late Qing Period (1895-1911) • Late Qing poetry and prose • Poetry Revolution (诗界革命) led by Liang Qichao and Huang Zunxian (黄遵宪) • new styles of prose writing, including Liang Qichao’s “new style prose” (新文体) Huang Zunxian, diplomat and poet

15. Late Qing Period (1895-1911) • Fiction Boom of the Late Qing • satirical novel: criticizing corruption, bureaucracy, myriad social injustices • sentimental novels influenced by Western romanticism • four “masters” are Wo Woyao 吳沃堯, Li Boyuan 李伯元, Zeng Pu 曾樸, Liu E 劉鶚 Wu Woyao, late Qing novelist

16. Late Qing Period (1895-1911) • Sea of Regret (Henhai 恨海) by Wu Woyao • short novel set during the Boxer Rebellion (1900); because of the rebellion a daughter and mother are separated from family and must survive in the chaos • daughter is torn between her love for a young man and her filial devotion to her mother and father Empress Dowager Cixi (top); a “Boxer” (bottom)

17. Late Qing Period (1895-1911) • Sea of Regret (Henhai恨海) by Wu Woyao • daughter is torn between her love for a young man and her filial devotion to her mother and father