A GARDEN OF ONE’S OWN
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A Garden of One’s Own
A Collection of Modern Chinese Essays,
1919–1949
Edited and translated by
Tam King-fai
The Chinese University Press
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A Garden of One’s Own:
A Collection of Modern Chinese Essays, 1919–1949
Edited and translated by Tam King-fai
© The Chinese University of Hong Kong 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from
The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The Press has made all possible efforts to identify
the copyright holders for the original Chinese essays
in this book and has sought non-exclusive permission
to translate the essays into English accordingly.
In cases of omission, please contact the Press. For further query,
please approach the Copyright Agency Center of China,
which applied for the non-exclusive English translation permission
on behalf of the Press.
ISBN: 978-962-996-423-8
THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY PRESS
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Sha Tin, N.T., Hong Kong
Fax: +852 2603 7355
E-mail: cup@cuhk.edu.hk
Website: www.chineseupress.com
Printed in Hong Kong
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Table of Contents
Introduction
1
Essays 39
Lu Xun 41
The
Kite
42
Xia Mianzun 45
A
Memory
46
Winter at White Horse Lake
49
Zhou Zuoren 51
Black-Canopied
Boats
52
First
Love
55
Bitter
Rain
57
Xu Dishan 61
Undelivered Letters (Three Selections)
62
Ye Shengtao 67
Random Reminiscences (Two Selections)
68
Moon-watching
73
Lin Yutang 75
Ah
Fang
76
Buying
Birds
80
Zhang Henshui 85
Checkers
86
Mao Dun 89
Before
the
Storm
90
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vi
Table of Contents
Xu Zhimo 93
Idle Talk About Life in the Mountains of Florence
94
Thoughts of Flying
97
Yu Dafu 103
My Humble Shelter from Wind and Rain: A Chronicle
104
Su Xuelin 107
In My Moments of Dejection (Two Selections)
108
Feng Zikai 115
Children
116
A Mean Alleyway
121
Seeking Shelter from the Rain in the Mountains
126
Lu Yin 129
Thorns
on
the
Rosebush
130
Zheng Zhenduo 133
The Pleasures of Food and Wine
134
Zhu Ziqing 139
Looking for a Mate
140
Random Notes on Sea Travel
143
Lao She 151
Winter
in
Jinan
152
Bing Xin 155
The
Smile
156
The Treasure That Will Always Be with Us
158
Yu Pingbo 163
West Lake on the Evening of the Eighteenth Day
of the Sixth Month
164
Going to the City
171
Fang Lingru 173
Home
174
Liang Shiqiu 177
Middle
Age
178
The
Send-off
182
Travel
186
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Table of Contents
vii
Zhu Xiang 191
Books
192
Ba Jin 195
Outside the Garden Ruins
196
Ye Lingfeng 199
The Weary Sound of the Fiddle
200
Li Guangtian 203
Mountains and Water
204
Two
Thoughts
209
Liang Yuchun 213
Tears and Laughter
214
On
the
Road
218
Wu Boxiao 225
Conversations
at
Night
226
Lu Li 233
The Water Pestle
234
Greenery
Imprisoned
237
Qian Zhongshu 241
Windows
242
He Qifang 247
Old
Men
248
Hunger
254
Su Qing 261
Sweet
Bean
Cakes
262
My
Hand
268
Zhang Ailing 271
Love
272
My
Little
Brother
273
Works Cited 275
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Introduction
Names
The time is around the New Year. The chilly wind outside is still blowing
strong, discouraging people from venturing out. The paper windows of the study are tightly closed, and the doors are carefully locked up. Works of calligraphy and paintings by ancient artists hang on the wall of the study, and a pot of narcissus in full bloom sits on the table. Fragrant incense comes wafting from the golden burner shaped like the mythic animal ni
on the desk. The master takes a snuffbox from his pocket; after taking a few sniffs, he caresses the jade ring on his thumb. All of the sudden, he seems to think of something, gets up, and walks toward the pot of narcissus to see whether the few buds that have remained unopened have bloomed. He stands there and looks at the plant for a while. Then, holding his hands behind him, he begins to pace back and forth in the study.
The day feels as long as a year. Not knowing how to pass the time, he
walks up to the bookshelf and picks out a book at random. He lies down on a couch and begins to read. Thus does he come to enjoy a conversation with the ancients, as his spirit roams in a realm of timeless enjoyment, forgetting the frigid wind outside and the hustle and bustle of the city. By the time he puts down his book, he feels as if, in this world of turmoil, only he has remained unsullied.
And what is the book that he reads, one might ask? It is not Dream of
the Red Chamber or The Western Chamber, but a volume of Ming essays.
Qian Gechuan (1935, 200)
Like the essays that the man of leisure in this passage picks up to while
away a long wintry day, the works introduced in this anthology are
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2
A Garden of One’s Own
known in Chinese by the name xiaopin wen. 1 Having a common name
is but one of the resemblances between essays of the Ming and those
of the modern period, which echo each other in many significant
ways across a time span of three centuries. Modern scholars of
xiaopin wen of either period have often felt obliged to include in their studies speculations on their similar aesthetic orientations and cultural
underpinnings, as well as the social and intellectual climates that account
for their emergence.2 Indeed, our understanding of essays from both
XMZQWL[PI[JMVMÅMLNZWUUIVa[]KPQV[IVKM[WN U]]ITQTT]UQVIQWV
Unlike the majority of essays found in the West nowadays, xiaopin
essays are almost always meditative, casual, and intimate in tone.3
1
While the meaning of xiaopin PM ÅZ[ KWUXWVMV WN PM MZU xiaopin wen, will be the subject of this introduction, it should be noted here that the other component, wen, in the present context simply means either writings or essays.
The traditional philosophical connotations of the concept of wen or wenxue, so crucial in the investigation of prose writings up to the late Qing period
(see Huters 1987 and 1988), have very little relevance here. For all intents and purposes, xiaopin wen simply means the kind of prose known as xiaopin; in other words, xiaopin essays. Sanwen, which means prose as opposed to verse, is also sometimes paired with xiaopin in the place of wen, in which case it has the same meaning as the latter.
2
See Chen Shaotang (1981) and Gong Pengcheng (1994) for examples of
scholarship on late Ming xiaopin wen that also touch on modern xiaopin wen.
Even though Chen thinks that modern xiaopin wen should not be confused with
PM SQVL NW]VL QV PM TIM 5QVO PM LMMU[ Q VMKM[[IZa W LM^WM Å^M XIOM[ W
comparing the two. Gong’s topic is a late Ming xiaopin collection, Caigentan. In accounting for its popularity in present-day Taiwan, he goes to considerable
length in discussing the different ways in which Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren
interpreted late Ming xiaopin.
Early twentieth-century writers and critics of xiaopin wen were just as obsessed, if not more so, with late Ming xiaopin wen, betraying no doubt an anxi-Ma WN QVÆ]MVKM ;MM PM [MKQWV WV ¹,Q[X]M[º JMTW_ NWZ I LQ[K][[QWV WN PMQZ
interminable arguments over the relationship between the two periods.
3
) _WZL WN Y]ITQÅKIQWV Q[ KITTML NWZ PMZM ;]ZMTa I[ Ua IKKW]V JMTW_ _QTT
show, Chinese essayists have often regarded the tradition of the familiar essay in the West as addressing the same aesthetic concerns as their own works. Yet,
PM XZM[MVLIa ?M[MZV ]VLMZ[IVLQVO WN PM _WZL ¹M[[Iaº Q[ XZMLWUQVIVTa
¹M`XW[QWZaM[[IaºW_PQKPPM+PQVM[MM[[Ia[QVKT]LMLQVPQ[IVPWTWOaJMIZ
little resemblance, if any at all. See, for example, William Zeiger, 1985.
There are, however, indications that the tradition of the familiar essay
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Introduction 3
Argumentation is not their forte, but philosophizing is. They tend to shy
I_Ia NZWU WXQK[ KPIZOML _QP XWTQQKIT IVL [WKQIT [QOVQÅKIVKM J] IZM
inclined instead to explore ethical and interpersonal situations. Their
scope ranges widely, from ruminations on large existential issues to
contemplation of mundane daily objects and activities. And though their
medium is prose, they more often recall the characteristics of poetry.
early twentieth-century China had been expecting. New poetry, yes, and
VM_ ÅKQWV IVL VM_ LZIUI WW ITT WN _PQKP PMa [W]OP W XZWUWM
in their ambitious cultural agenda; but modern xiaopin wen, so new in its sensibilities and yet so old in its associations, so unmindful of social issues and yet so in tune with the expression of individuality that the search
NWZ UWLMZVQa [MMUML W KITT NWZ VW ) ÅZ[ KZQQK[ _MZM XMZXTM`ML
Although they were quite ready to acknowledge the remarkable success
of these essays, they could not help but register a note of surprise and,
QV[WUMKI[M[LQ[UIa1VWNNMZQVOPMÅZ[[]UUIQWVWN PM[]KKM[[WN
modern Chinese literature, Hu Shi (1922, 149–150) wrote:
Vernacular prose has made remarkable improvement. There is no need
for us to go into the progress made in the genre of long argumentative
essays here; rather, in recent years, the most notable development in prose
PI[ JMMV PM ¹ xiaopin sanwenº XZWUWML Ja _ZQMZ[ []KP I[ BPW] B]WZMV
This kind of essay [is able to express] profound meanings in plain and
casual language. At times these essays appear awkward, but in fact they are
quite witty ( huaji). The success of this type of writing has once and for all M`XTWLMLPMUaPPI¹IM[PMQK_ZQQVOKIVVWJMLWVMQVPM^MZVIK]TIZ
TIVO]IOMº
Similarly, Zhong Jingwen (1927, 33) also had this to say:
Since the beginning of the New Literature Movement, most of us have seemed
W Z][P QV LZW^M[ W PM UIRWZ PWZW]OPNIZM[ WN ÅKQWV XWMZa IVL LZIUI
Prose—the xiaopin wen—has seemed to remain a path in the wilderness
covered with thorny bushes. Few have been willing to blaze that path.
is experiencing a revival in the West. For example, two publications in recent
years are devoted to such essays. See Phillip Lopate, 1994, and Joseph Epstein, 1997.
1 PI^M ][ML PM -VOTQ[P _WZL ¹M[[Iaº NWZ PM KWV^MVQMVKM WN -VOTQ[P
readers, in much the same way as Martin Woesler (2000a, 2000b) and David
8WTTIZL =VTM[[ [XMKQÅML Ja PM KWVM` PM MZU ¹UWLMZV +PQVM[M
M[[Ia[ºQVUaLQ[K][[QWV[PW]TLJMISMVWZMNMZWUWLMZV+PQVM[M xiaopin wen.
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4
A Garden of One’s Own
Despite the general lack of interest in this form of writing, however,
Zhong went on to point out that the very few who had ventured down
this path had produced impressive results. Zhou Zuoren, Yu Pingbo,
Zhu Ziqing, Ye Shengtao, and Xu Zhimo were the few t
hat he held up
as models of success.
)TPW]OP 0] ;PQ IVL BPWVO 2QVO_MV ][ML PM VIUM[ ¹ xiaopin
sanwenº IVL ¹ xiaopin wen, º ZM[XMKQ^MTa QV PMQZ IKKW]V[ PM[M _MZM
by no means commonly accepted terms. Instead, until at least the late
1920s, a plethora of names were used, a few of which will be discussed
below. The proliferation of terms went even further due to the many
sub-genres of this type of essay: kexue xiaopin ( xiaopin about science) , lishi xiaopin ( xiaopin about history) , shuqing xiaopin (lyrical xiaopin) , and so on. Understandably, these terms have proved as confusing for general
readers as for professional critics, indicating as they do the multifaceted
nature of this genre of writing on the one hand, and the entrenched
positions from which critics have chosen to articulate their understanding
WN Q[ IM[PMQK[ IVL [WKQIT [QOVQÅKIVKM WV PM WPMZ +PQVM[M TQMZIZa
critics have been well known for their contentiousness throughout the
ages, but in the period covered in this anthology, encompassing what
are generally called the May Fourth and post-May Fourth generations,
literary disagreements were further fueled by political convictions. In
this context, literature was but one of the many venues for people to air
their thoughts about the future of China. Whether and how one wrote
or read essays, and what brand one chose, very often became a litmus
test of one’s political stance, whereby more than one’s literary reputation
was at stake. An exercise in naming thus soon descended into a battle of
name-calling. One recalls, for instance, the utter contempt with which
Liang Shiqiu and Zhou Zuoren were viewed in some quarters.4 In this
regard, the polemics surrounding xiaopin wen were not too much different from other debates in the history of modern Chinese literature.
4
See Gaylord Kai Loh Leung (1990) for a discussion of the ostracism that Liang
Shiqiu suffered at the hands of writers of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Workers for the War of Resistance. Liang’s essay collection, Yashe xiaopin, moreover, had often been singled out for criticism for its pointed silence on anti-Japanese themes that pervaded writing of the time. See also Chen Suyu
(1989) for a description of Liang Shiqiu’s antagonistic reception in the Yan’an area during the 1940s.