Modern Chinese Literature in Translation

1
Modern Chinese Literature in Translation

• Professor Kirk A. Denton
• 375 Hagerty Hall
• Denton.2_at_osu.edu
• 292-5548
• Office hours T 330-430
• Course website http//people.cohums.ohio-state.ed
  u/denton2/courses/c503/c503.htm

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Late Qing Period (1895-1911)

• Narratives of modern Chinese history The
  Western impact

• Chinese ethnocentricism and isolationism
• product of geography and long cultural tradition
• 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?
• the Opium War (1839-42) and the Nanjing Treaty
  (1842)
• Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and the beginning of
  Japanese imperialism

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 ??? (below)
• Boxer Rebellion
• (1900)

6
Late Qing Period (1895-1911)

• Self-Strengthening Reform Movement
• 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 (????????)
• 100 Days of Reform (1898)
• radical proposals for reform quashed by the
  Empress Dowager

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 Zhidongs Exhortation
to Study)
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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, its 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 it Teng/Fairbank, 155)

• Sense of Crisis (Liang Qichao ???)

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Late Qing Period (1895-1911)

• Revamping the Confucian tradition
• Kang Youwei (???) promotes Confucius as a
  progressive reformer of institutions
• Tan Sitong (???) critiques li ? (rites, or
  ritualized behavior) and promotes ren ? (innate
  goodness)

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 and Five
Moral Relations, so that, controlling mens
bodies, he can also control their minds (from
Tan Sitong, On Benevolence)
Kang Youwei
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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)

• Introduction of Western Ideas
• Lin Shu ?? and the translations of Western
  fiction (Dickens, Hugo, Balzac, Walter Scott,
  Harriet Beecher Stowe, etc.)
• Yan Fu ?? and the translation of political,
  sociological, and philosophical treatises
• -most known for his introduction of social
  Darwinist theories
• Journalism (particularly Liang Qichao)
• -introducing new concepts such as Democracy
  Law Individualism Nationalism
• Liangs concept of new citizen (??)

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Late Qing Period (1895-1911)

• Changing Attitudes Toward Fiction
• inversion of traditional generic hierarchies is
  promoted by Liang Qichao, Lin Shu, et al.

Liang Qichao, On the Relationship between
Fiction and the Government of the People
(?????????, 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)
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Late Qing Period (1895-1911)

• Changing Attitudes Toward Literature
• Lu Xun ?? and the romantic view of literature as
  a vehicle to disturb society out of its
  complacency
• Wang Guowei ??? and the aesthetic or playful view
  of literature

Lu Xun, On the Power of Mara Poetry (?????,
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)
Wang Guowei
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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 ???, Li Boyuan ???,
  Zeng Pu ??, Liu E ??

Wu Woyao, late Qing novelist
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Late Qing Period (1895-1911)

• Sea of Regret (Henhai ??) 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)