Lu Xun and N. V. Gogol: the unexplored field of poetry

Russian literature has had a massive impact upon the creative path of Lu Xun. The researchers of his prose (including sinologist and translator L. Z. Ėĭdlin, literary scholar L. D. Pozdneeva, writer and literary scholar Feng Xue Feng, and others.) oftentimes compared his texts with the works of Russian writers. Despite the fact that Lu Xun wrote poetry throughout his life, his poetic legacy is poorly studied. Comparative analysis is conducted on the poetry of Lu Xun and N. V. Gogol. It is noted that the poetry of both authors reflects their philosophical and cultural views. The similarity of the authors lies in the fact that each used the versification that is traditional for their culture. The content and shape of Gogol’s poetry is based on the Slavic folklore and Orthodox faith, while Lu Xun is one of the initiators of the “New Culture Movement” and is considered an innovator in the Chinese literature. He wrote prose and poetry not in Wenyan (classical Chinese), which was understood by the elite of Chinese society alone, but in Baihua (written vernacular Chinese), the new Chinese literary language. Therefore, Lu Xun made a considerable contribution to the creation of new poetry, and many Chinese literary scholars (Chang Tsao, 1962-2010, Zhu Ziqing, 1898-1948) consider him the founder of the modern versification in China. The article establishes the similarities and differences between the Russian syllabic-accentual verse poems and Chinese new poetry.

Shanxi Courtyard Dwellings and Hakka Walled Village: A Comparative Study of Wang Family Courtyard and Sam Tung Uk Walled Village

Through a historical research on two well-preserved vernacular Chinese dwellings: The Wang Family Courtyard in Shanxi and the Sam Tung Uk Walled Village in Hong Kong, this paper examines the cultural sustainability of architecture in China, and explores what factors have contributed to their success and decline, and what can be learned from their stories. In doing so, the article employs the analytical framework developed in the author’s previous works, that is, architectural form and space, and social and cultural dimensions of the cases. The findings reveal that ancestor worship was a common practice in the two families, hard work and traditional family values had resulted in their success. The abandonment of traditional values and schooling, coupled with social and military instability in the country, along with urban sprawl, destroyed the family unity and businesses, and ultimately caused the moving. The study has implications for the contemporary world beyond China.

De Poirot’s Chinese Bible and Its Influence

Louis de Poirot’s Chinese translation of the Bible is the first attempt among Catholic missionaries to translate the Bible systematically into vernacular Chinese. Based upon a circumstantial introduction to de Poirot’s version, this essay explores the motivation behind the translator’s idiosyncratic choice of vernacular Chinese in translation, at a time when classical Chinese was still the dominant written language in China. Also, influences of de Poirot’s version upon later translated versions of the Bible in China, including Morrison’s version and the Studium Biblicum version, are investigated and discussed in detail.

Linguistic Hybridity, Transnational Connectivity, and the Cultural Territorialization of Colonial Literature

This chapter examines conceptualization and use of a hybrid Chinese language by a leading Manchukuo Chinese writer, Gu Ding (1914/1916–1964). This hybrid language references a type of vernacular Chinese, mixing elements of Japanese vocabulary and syntax, classical and local Chinese, and other linguistic elements from the Manchurian frontier into standard vernacular Chinese, resulting in a collage of different literary styles. By investigating Gu’s theory and practice of this experimental language, the chapter demonstrates how a transnational literary form shaped within the colonial frontier lent voice to a colonial writer’s political agenda for cultural survival, and the limits of this linguistic strategy under political domination. It therefore provides a new way to understand Chinese intellectuals’ collaboration with and resistance to the Japanese in the Manchukuo context.

Hesitant Empathy: Sun Baoxuan's Diary and Approaches to Reading Fiction in Late Qing China

ON THE TWENTY-FIFTH DAY OF THE FIFTH MONTH OF 1903, SUN BAOXUAN—A SCHOLAR-OFFICIAL IN LATE QING DYNASTY CHINA—documented in his diary that he had acquired a copy of the periodical 新小說 (Xin xiaoshuo; “he New Novel”), founded by Liang Qichao in 1902 to propagate translated fiction and new Chinese fiction. Immediately drawn to the stories and novels it carried, Sun soon concluded that Western fiction had the unique strength of imparting knowledge and expanding rational capacity: 「觀西人政治 小說，可以悟政治原理；觀科學小說，可以通種種格物原理；觀包 探小說，可以覘西國人情土俗及其居心之險詐詭變，有非我國所 能及者」 (“Political novels teach us principles of politics; scientific novels teach us theories of things; detective novels show us Western customs and treachery, which often surpass ours”; 690). Immersed in a culture where vernacular novels had been suppressed by official censorship and prejudice among the elites, Sun ardently embraced translated fiction. By contrast, vernacular Chinese novels, with few exceptions, seemed to him routinely 「陳腐」 (“decadent”), providing no more than 「排遣」 (“diversion and entertainment”; 677, 690) The perceived rationality of Western fiction gave him a sudden license to seriously engage with a genre that the literary culture in China continued to exclude well into the twentieth century. Sun's encounter with foreign fiction marked the early stage of a somewhat bumpy adventure. In later sections of the diary, Sun documents reading sentimental strains of translated fiction and the more ambiguous responses they incited in him.

Classics, Examinations, and Confucianism

This chapter deals with the Confucian tradition in East Asia and the role played by the Chinese classics in education and learning throughout East Asia and in the civil service examinations which were held in most neighbouring societies. The Chinese classics were by no means easy to understand, so commentarial traditions emerged in China at an early stage; the difficulties were compounded for those who spoke quite different languages, and there was tension between those who considered mastery of the Sinitic texts essential and those who considered the messages they contained more important and who therefore tolerated vernacular approaches to them. In China this happened during the Mongol Yuan dynasty when Xu Heng produced explanations and translations in vernacular Chinese. In Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and other societies vernacular approaches went hand in hand with engagement with the Sinitic originals.