In the Tang dynasty (A. D. 618-906), writers were still mainly concerned with romantic, supernatural or historical themes. But in the subsequent Northern Sung dynasty, prose left the imaginative and became more realistic, largely under the influence of professional story tellers. Using the vernacular, these story tellers brought traditional tales down to the level of the people.
Chinese literature had a great renaissance in the early years of this century. The first decade saw the beginnings of a modern era. Dates vary. Some say the renaissance began in 1917. Others prefer the May 4th Movement of 1919, when students of the National Peking University demonstrated against the demands made upon China by Japan at the Versailles Peace Conference.
The turning point actually was reached some years earlier. At the outset of the 20th century, Chinese writers found a new source of reference. Their masters had always been the classical Chinese writers of ancient days. Now a new century brought them translations of the western writers. Foreign literature in English, French, German, Russian, Japanese and the Scandinavian languages introduced new themes and techniques.
For a time, it looked as if western influences would dominate those of the Chinese classics. For instance, a poet of the early 1900's appeared to suffer an emotional trauma because he was torn between naming his heroine "Helen" or "Hsi Shih", a famed beauty of Chinese literature. "Helen" seems to have won out because of the novelty and perhaps as an expression of newly acquired emancipation from tradition. Yu Kwang-chung, the contemporary poet, tells of this instance in New Chinese Poetry. For a while theaters in the cities seemed to be staging more plays by Ibsen and Wilde than by Chinese playwrights.
Western names and undertakings were prominent among the new literary schools and sects. Western trends were fashionable and proliferate. Punch, the British humor magazine, was lifted bodily from its native ground and transplanted to China in name as well as contents.
Period of Ferment
The May 4th Movement gave rise to a period of intellectual and social ferment. A new sense of patriotism swept the populace. In addition to western trends, writers devoted themselves to China as a nation-state. They stressed social and political questions of the time; novels, short stories and poetry all carried a "message."
At this time, too, the vernacular language of the Sung story tellers found its way into the written language. Pai hua (the everyday vernacular) became a literary favorite. Dr. Hu Shih, among others, long had urged discarding the allusions and stilted style of classical Chinese literature. Young writers took up his call and sought to convey a sense of immediacy in their writing through use of pai hua.
During these early renaissance years, Chinese literature was rudely roused from its customary crawling pace and tried to catch up with the younger literatures of the West. The old literature was not dead, but it had been supplemented by the new literature of pai hua and social and political realism.
In the years of incubation, writers began to turn back toward art. Political consciousness and social realism were all very well, but not to the exclusion of all other forms of expression. Young writers discovered that the limitations of political and social propaganda could corrupt their art. They again turned to writing as a means of individual creation and expression. They found that all the wrongs of the world did not have to be righted in their works, and that they could write merely to evoke an image or create a mood. Literature had been in danger of falling into the pitfall of propaganda. Writers became aware that they could serve the cause of a progressive era and still be artistic.
Despite the renaissance and its innovations, Chinese writing still retained a distinctive flavor of its own. As one critic remarked of outside influence, "in the history of a people burdened with so much dust of the ages, it is a mere speck." Chinese literature was liberated from the shackles of rigorous formalism, but classicism is still found in both prose and poetry.
The strongest points of Chinese writing have been its narrative, often long-winded but always descriptive; its ability to present a lengthy chronicle of figures, events and background at a leisurely pace; its accuracy in recreating historical events entertainingly; its subtle insight into human character, its impersonality; and above all, its simplicity and compactness. These assets are still present in modern Chinese literature.
Chinese writers of today also share the advantage of the Chinese written characters with their forefathers. Chinese writing, the ideograms, are unchanged. They have always been conducive to the writer's projection of an image. A poet of today can, as he could two thousand years ago, select a word to express a visual image as well as a mental one. With a wide range of ideograms to draw from, he can avoid visual monotony.
Fall of Mainland
In 1949, the mainland fell into Communist hands. More writers than other artists chose to remain on the mainland rather than come to Taiwan. Idealists for the most part, they thought they felt an identity with the Communist cause but were not too familiar with its ways.
Chinese literature thus took two courses after 1949. What happened to those who took the road to Taiwan is evidenced in their achievements as the modern writers of free China.
What happened to the others, including some of the best China had to offer in the mid-1900's, is also clear. As far as literary achievement is concerned, silence has been their lot. Mao Tun, one of the foremost writers of this century, is Minister of Culture in the Peiping government. He affixes his signature to anti-bomb declarations and attends "peace conferences" in Soviet satellite countries. Such is his literary inheritance under Communism. Ting Ling, best known among the women writers, received the Stalin Prize for Literature in 1952, but was subsequently disgraced. Her stories of social protest, protested too much, and she was last seen scrubbing floors in the offices of the All-China Union of Writers at the age of 53.
There are many writers in Taiwan today and they are prolific. In fact, Taiwan can boast of more poets, novelists and short story writers, proportionate to population, than at any other time in Chinese history. According to the National Central Library, which published the Monthly List of Chinese Books, literary titles totaled 468 in 1961. In some recent years, more than 600 works of literature have been published.
Amid this output are novels and short stories well worth reading. Unfortunately, the young novelists of today are more concerned with the past than with present or future. Realism is derived from Dickens rather than Eliot or Joyce. Literary expression is conservative rather than experimental. Since almost all contemporary prose is written in pai hua rather than the classic style, the terseness of classical Chinese literature has been lost. Writers seem to ramble in a way foreign to those schooled in Chinese literary history.
Besides novels and short story collections, a wide range of magazines and reviews devoted to literature are published. Worth reading are: The Rambler, Wen Hsin (Apollo), Modern Literature, Tao Ping (Literary Work), The Literary Review, and Youth (Young Lion's Literature). Newspapers run special literary sections in which poetry, essays, short stories and even serialized novels are published. Many young talents are seen for the first time in the pages of the Central Daily News, United Daily News, and the Kung Lun News.
Literary Publications
Three of Taiwan's major literary publications, Free China's Creative Writing, The Literary Monthly, and The Literary Review, have ceased publication in recent years. New ones have sprung up to fill the gap. Modern Literature is notable for experimentation and innovation in new modes of expression and subject matter. Editors and writers are mostly instructors, students and recent graduates of the National Taiwan University.
There are four major literary organization. The China National Association of Literary Arts was founded in 1950. It has about 1,300 members and has published an anthology of creative writing and two of essays and criticism. The National Association of Young Writers, founded in 1952, is associated with the Youth Corps and has published a monthly review called Youth since 1954. The Chinese Association of Women Writers includes professionals and amateurs. It has published four volumes in a series entitled Creative Writing by Women Writers.
Of the major prose writers in Taiwan, the following are the most widely acclaimed:
—Chen Chi-ying, a legislator and founding member and present executive director of the China National Association of Literary Arts. His best work is considered History of Ti Village, which has been translated into English by Eileen Chang under the title Fool in the Reeds. Among his other published novels are Red Earth and Eight Years of the Hua and Hsia Families. He is planning to write a panoramic view of Chinese fiction since 1946.
Study of Communism
—Chiang Kwei. Virtually unknown before the appearance of his major novel The Whirlwind, this writer from Shantung still prefers a life away from formal literary circles. Perhaps no other modern novel is comparable to Whirlwind, a searching study of the advent of Communism in China. The novel suggests Communism may soon spend itself in its own wanton fury.
—Kuo Shih-feng, a native of Szechuan and former naval officer who has also worked in the Provincial Information Office. His better known works are The Tragedy of the Hanging Cliff and The Great Crossing in the Snow Storm.
—Lin Rai-yin, of Taiwanese parentage. Born in Japan, Miss Lin was schooled in journalism in Peiping. One of the most famous of women writers in free China, she has been editor of the literary section of the United Daily News for many years. Her novel, The Morning Cloud, is already in a fourth edition.
—Lin Shih-tseng, a native of Honan province. Born in 1915, he is a retired army officer. He is now editorial writer for the Chung Hua Daily News. Also writing under the pen name of Nan Kuo, he has had novels published in Hongkong. His Sinister Shadows in the Red Dynasty is well known and his Resourceful Woman won him the Ministry of Education's Literary Award in 1959.
—Meng Yao, one of the best known Chinese women writers. Born in 1919 in Hankow, she is teaching Chinese literature in the Provincial Normal University. Among her more than a dozen novels are The Heart Garden, Under the Eaves, and Before Dawn, a long look at the vicissitudes of the Chinese since 1909.
—Nieh Hua-ling. Born in 1926 in Hupei province, she majored in English literature and is teaching English at the National Taiwan University and Tunghai University. She is known mainly for her short stories and translations of western writers. Her work is greatly influenced by Maupassant, Chekhov and Katherine Mansfield.
—Pan Lei, a young Cantonese who was born in Vietnam and returned to China to take part in the Second World War. His best work is Trilogy of the Red River. He became widely known as a result of his Golden Years, which was made into a movie.
Studying in America
—Peng Ko, a prolific young writer from Hopei. Born in 1926, he has been executive editor of The Rambler and assistant managing editor of Hsin Sheng Pao, one of the major newspapers in Taiwan. He is now doing graduate work at the University of Southern Illinois. The Setting Moon, about the life story of an actress, is thought to be the best of his novels, novelettes and short stories.
—Wang Lan, a National Assemblyman and together with Chen Chi-ying, founding member and executive director of the China National Association of Literary Arts. Born in 1922 in Hopei province, he was an art student in college. Turning to literature later, he has published 13 novels, a volume of poetry and collections of short stories. He is still known as a painter, working mainly in watercolor. His Blue and Black won him the 1958 Literary Award from the Ministry of Education.
Most of the writers and works mentioned are not yet known to the English-reading public. Lucian Wu, a writer in his own right, has compiled a collection of short stories by some of these authors. His book includes 12 short stories under the title of New Chinese Stories.
Today's poets share the youth and energy of prose writers. They are torn between following the stream of past tradition or of borrowing from foreign literature. Some write in the classic style almost exclusively. Others feel the lack of originality in the classical style and turn towards newer forms.
An entirely new group has appeared since Taiwan became the center of the Chinese literary scene. Many of the older poets remained on the mainland and have become all but silent. The newcomers have poured out some 200 volumes of verse since 1952 and contributed to more than 30 periodicals devoted to poetry. Of the 10 poetry reviews, the best are Blue Star Selections, Modernist Monthly and Genesis. Each represents one of the prevalent schools of poetry.
The Blue Star Selections was founded in 1954 by a group of five young poets who also edit the weekly poetry section in the newspaper Kung Lun Pao. Additonally, they have sponsored publication of the Blue Star series of 20 volumes of poetry, the Blue Star Quarterly and the Blue Star Folder. This group is not unified as to style or theme, classicism, dadaism, symbolism, and both Chinese and western influences are to be found.
The Modernist group was set up in 1956 under the leadership of poet Chi Hsuen. In the Modernist Monthly, they seek to depart from the traditional. They are poetic radicals around whom rages a storm of versifying controversy.
The Genesis school is the youngest. Their most important figures are Chinese naval officers stationed at Tsoying and their headquarters is in that southern seaport. Diametrically opposed to the Modernists, they maintain that modern Chinese poetry should adhere to a tradition. Although they are against slavishly following western models, western influence is felt in their works.
Major Poets of Today
Most of the contemporary poets are associated with one or another of these schools, but there is no sharp dividing line. Influences and tendencies are intermingled. Major poets of today include:
—Chi Hsuen, high priest of the Modernist school. Born in Shensi, he is known as a controversial poet and an exacting critic. He has taught Chinese in a middle school for more than ten years. His taste for the bizarre and shocking reveals influences of Baudelaire and other modern French poets. His books of verse include The Uninhabited Island, The Star-Plucking Youth, and In the Winged Age: A Collection of Political Lyrics.
—Chin Tzu-hao, one of the founders of the Blue Star group. A native of Szechuan, he is active as poet, translator and critic. His verse, influenced by the French romanticists and symbolists, include Poems on the Sea, The Sunflowers and The Gallery.
- Chou Meng-tieh, whose book stall on Wuchang street is a literary landmark in Taipei. His modest living comes from the stall, which specializes in secondhand volumes of contemporary verse. The son of a peasant from Honan, Chou has led an interesting and varied career as would-be monk and soldier. His poetry, as exemplified in The Kingdom of Solitude, is modern but includes the tenets of Buddhism and Confucianism.
Translator and Poet
—Hsia Ching, one of the founders of the Blue Stars. Born in Chekiang, he is considered more of a classicist than others in his group. Now a forestry specialist for the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction, he is translator as well as poet. In the Quiet Woods and The Fountain are two of his works.
—Lo Men, originally a follower of the Modernists but now associated with the Blue Stars. Married to a poetess, he works as an airline technician. His Aurora won two literary prizes in 1958.
—Ruan Nang, a farmer. Associated with the Blue Stars, he has written poetry throughout his varied career as baker, apprentice in a candy store, teacher, clerk, enlisted man and officer in the army.
—Wu Wang-yao, an engineer working in Vietnam. Originally a pseudo-romanticist, he is now considered a surrealist. His books of verse include Songs of the Soul, The Horizon, and The City of Roses.
—Ya Hsuen, self-educated, whose colorful writing makes use of popular songs and speech. Now a lieutenant in the Navy, his A Night at Kulingling was first published in Hongkong.
—Yeh Shan, a native of Taiwan who did not start studying Chinese until 1945. He is at present studying history at Tunghai University. On the Water Margin is his first book of verse.
—Yung Tzu, the first woman poet to win wide recognition in free China. She is married to the poet Lo Men. The Bluebird was her first published work, White Slumber her most recent.
Enjoyment of Essays
The stereotype of the Chinese as a scholarly, contemplative people has some merit. It is generally conceded by observers that the Chinese have the knack of turning idleness into an art. Nowhere is this hedonistic enjoyment of idleness more readily visible than in Chinese essays.
Cultivated in the Tang and Sung dynasties and brought to perfection in the Ming dynasty, essays have always reflected the wit and humor of the Chinese people. Modern essayists continue this tradition. The essay still remains one of the major forms of literature in China, unlike western literature, in which the essay has tended to become less important.
Liang Shih-chiu and Liang Yung-jo, both of whom are represented by short essays in this issue of Free China Review, are essayists who reflect the Chinese sense of humor.
Be it novel or short story, poem or essay, the one certainty of Chinese literature is that it lives and thrives—and is still going strong after more than 2,000 years. The record is unique. The goal of China's writers today is to make the literature as good as the history is long.