History Of Chinese Literature Research Articles

A Study on English Translation of Song Ci From the Perspective of Translation Aesthetics

Song Ci, one of the highest literary achievements in the history of Chinese literature, is of high aesthetic and artistic value, while the study on the translation of Song Ci still has much room for further efforts. Based on the translation aesthetic, a tentative study is made to analyze how the current translation represent the original beauty and what can be refined through example analysis respectively from the perspective of sound, lexis, emotion, and images. The representation of the rhythm, words and feelings is feasible, but due to cultural diversity, the aesthetic value of image is more difficult to reproduce.

杜甫詩史、敍事傳統與《春秋》書法

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.
 杜甫三十歲時，曾作《祭遠祖當陽君文》，稱遠祖杜預：“《春秋》主解，稿隸躬親。嗚呼筆跡，流宕何人？”當下許諾“不敢忘本，不敢違仁”。晚唐孟棨（啟）《本事詩》稱杜甫逢安禄山之難，“流離隴蜀，畢陳於詩。推見至隱，殆無遺事，故當時號爲詩史。”《史記·司馬相如列傳》稱，“《春秋》推見至隱”，可見杜甫詩號爲詩史者，除了“詩是吾家事”之外，其中自有《春秋》書法之薪傳在焉。清章學誠《上大司馬論文》稱：“敍事實出史學，其源本於《春秋》比事屬辭。”今選擇杜甫詩敍事歌行，關注其善陳時事之特質，持屬辭比事之《春秋》教，考察其中推見至隱之書法，就杜甫詩史與屬辭比事之敍事傳統，分三項考察之：一，屬辭比事，筆削顯義；二，據事直書，美惡自見；三，微婉顯晦，推見至隱。援舉杜詩相關作品，參考清人杜詩說解，藉以探索杜甫詩之敍事傳統。夫然後知抒情傳統之外，敍事傳統也者，尤爲中國文學源遠流長之重要特色。
 When he was thirty years old, Du Fu (712-770) wrote “A Funeral Oration for My Ancestor, Dangyang Jun,” in which he praised his ancestor Du Yu (222-285): “Commentating the Chun Qiu, / He transcribed it by his own hands. / Alas! His own handwriting, / To whom will it pass on?” He then made a promise: “I dare not forget about my roots, / And dare not violate benevolence and righteousness.” Meng Qi of the late Tang commented on Du Fu’s suffering during the An Lushan rebellion: “He wandered to the Long and Shu regions and wrote about all of his experience in his poetry. Its hidden meaning may be inferred—perhaps no incident is left unaccounted for. For this reason, he was given a sobriquet of poet-historian.” The “Biography of Sima Xiangru” in the Shiji says, “Chun Qiu allows one to infer the message hidden in the most profound text.” Therefore, the reason why Du Fu’s poetry was referred to as “poetry-history” was not only because, as he claims, “poetry is my family’s matter,” but also because of his inheritance of the writing style of Chun Qiu. Zhang Xuecheng (1738-1801) wrote in his “Discourse on Literature, Presented to Grand Protector”: “Narrative was in fact derived from historiography. Its origin was in word connection and event arrangement in Chun Qiu.” This study pays special attention to the proficiency at narrating current events observed in some narrative ballads selected from Du Fu’s works. It takes into consideration the model method of “word connection and event arrangement” from Chun Qiu in its examination of the writing style of “hidden meaning may be inferred” in Du Fu’s poetry. In its discussion of Du Fu the poet-historian and his method of “word connection and event arrangement,” the essay analyzes three aspects: 1) “word connection and event arrangement” and manifesting the principles by writing method; 2) writing according to facts and thus praise and condemnation will naturally be shown; 3) showing the implicit through a subtle and euphemistic style and “the hidden meaning may be inferred.” It will analyze relevant examples of Du Fu’s works in light of commentaries by scholars of the Qing dynasty in order to explore the narrative tradition in Du Fu’s poetry. Therefore, in addition to the lyrical tradition, we learn that the narrative tradition has a long history and plays an important role in the history of Chinese literature.

Recent Chinese Literary Histories in English

Recent Chinese Literary Histories in English

In Memory of Oldřich Král

IN MEMORY OF OLDŘICH KRÁL LUCIE OLIVOVÁ Oldřich Král (1930–2018) was a student of Jaroslav Průšek and a member of the strong generation of sinologists which this celebrated scholar educated in Prague after 1950. As the most prolific of Průšek’s students, Král left an enduring oeuvre in the field of the history of Chinese literature, comparative literature, and translation. While still dependent on the guidance of his teacher Průšek, like his fellow students Král was engaged with modern literature, and consequently translated Ba Jin’s 巴金 Family (Jia 家) and Mao Dun’s 茅盾 The Shop of the Lin Family (Lin jia puzi 林家鋪子). From then on, however, he turned to classical philosophy and literature, which he considered the core of Chinese culture. In his doctoral dissertation, he analyzed Rulin waishi 儒林外史 and also published his findings in English.1 It needs to be said, however, that the majority of his theoretical work was written in Czech. He also published the full Czech translation of this novel in 1962. This was something new. Before him, from the field of literary prose, only Laocan youji 老殘遊記 and Fusheng liuji 浮生六記 had been translated in full, both by Průšek during the war. By this time, there appeared also Shuihu zhuan 水滸傳 and Xiyou ji 西遊記, translated from the shortened versions which sometimes are more appreciated by the readers. However, Král’s endeavor always was translations of the complete original texts. He became an assistant professor at the Chinese Department of Charles University, Prague, and being on his own, plunged into early medieval literature and literary theory. What he covered is restated in another English study2 which may seem superseded in some respects today, but in those times was a major step opening this domain. Consequently, he compiled and translated the anthology Tao: the Book of Silence, comprising extracts from Laozi, Zhuangzi, the seven masters of the bamboo grove, Lu Ji’s Wenfu, Wang Wei, Tao Qian, and many more. This anthology captures the very special poetics of ancient Chinese writings and was published three times (1971, 1994, 2016). Meanwhile, he completed his Habilitation thesis on Wenxin dialong 文心雕龍 and was about to submit it, expecting academic promotion. Then came the 1968 occupation of Czechoslovakia, the aftermath of which shattered society and caused thousands to lose their jobs. Průšek, Král and other sinologists were among them. Král’s study of Wenxin diaolong had to wait 30 years before it was published as an introduction to the complete Czech translation in 2000. Král had supported the regime, but “woke up” after 1968 and would not yield. He had to leave his post and his career plummeted. At first, he was only able to get a 1 For example, “Several Artistic Methods in the Classic Chinese novel Ju-lin wai-shih,” Archív Orientální 32 (1964): 16–34. 2 “Miscellaneous Writings on Chinese Aesthetics,” in Charles University on Far Eastern Culture: Studies and Essayes, ed. Oldřich Král and Vlasta Hilská (Praha: Univerzita Karlova, 1968), pp. 31–42. CHINOPERL: Journal of Chinese Oral and Performing Literature 37. 2 (December 2018): 190–191© The Permanent Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature, Inc. 2019 DOI 10.1080/01937774.2019.1596056 manual job at a large train depot. One year later, life took an unexpected turn, and he became a curator at the Asian Arts Department of the National Gallery. This was only possible thanks to the great courage and risk undertaken by his new employers. It was there that he undertook his massive translations, although he could not publish officially. As the saying goes, his work could only be piled up in the drawer of his writing desk. His translations of the Yijing 易經, The Platform Sutra of the 6th Patriarch (Liuzu tanjing 六祖壇經), Zhuangzi 莊子, Sunzi 孫子, and other works were only published during the 1990s, after the Communist regime fell. There was one exception; an anthology of Tang tales (chuanqi 傳奇) was published in 1980 under an apocryphal translator’s name. Such imposture became practiced in those times, but it was a dangerous practice for the person who lent his name. Translating chuanqi was the gate through which Král...

소수민족문학사 서술의 전략 : 오상순 외의 『중국조선족문학사』를 중심으로

‘문학사 쓰기’가 상상으로서 민족 혹은 국가를 실체로 파악하도록 추동하는 근대적 기획이라는 점에서, 조선족문학사 서술 역시 ‘조선족’이라는 특수한 공동체가 자기정립을 해나가는 과정으로서 이해할 필요가 있다. 더불어 ‘중국조선족’ 이라는 자기인식이 중국이라는 국가를 구성하는 하나의 소수민족(국민)으로서의 자기와 조선민족이라는 기원적 자기의 길항속에서 중첩적으로 구성되는 것과 마찬가지로, ‘중국조선족문학사’는 중국문학사의 부분으로서 자기를 정립해가는 동시에 남북한문학사라는 타자와의 동질과 차이를 구현함으로써 자기를 만들어가는 방식이 된다. 이는 문학사 서술의 행위 속에 자기정체성 정립의 욕망이 기입되어 있음을 의미한다. 이 글은 이러한 인식적 전제를 바탕으로 중국조선족문학사 서술의 특수성을 자기정립의 욕망을 실현하는 전략으로 파악하고 그 구체상을 들여다보았다. 특히, 2007년 발간된 오상순 외의 『중국조선족문학사』에 주목하였다. 최초의 조선족문학사인 조성일 외의 『중국조선족문학사』를 참조항으로 삼으면서도 자기인식의 수정을 시도하는 자기성찰적 서술태도를 가지고 있기 때문이다. 이 문학사를 기점으로 조선족문학의 특수성은 ‘디아스포라’로 규정되고 있으며, 이는 조선족문학의 존재론적 위기를 극복하는 기재로 작용하면서 현재적 의미를 획득하고 있다.

Networks of Exchange Poetry in Late Medieval China: Notes toward a Dynamic History of Tang Literature

Abstract This article combines qualitative and quantitative methods to rethink the literary history of late medieval China (830–960 CE). It begins with an overview of exchange poetry in the Tang dynasty and its role in the construction of the poetic subject, namely, the poetic subject's distributed textual body. A total of 10,869 poems exchanged between 2,413 individuals are cataloged to seek the structure of the collectively imagined literary relations of the time. This catalog is subjected to social-network analysis to reveal patterns and peculiarities in the extant corpus of late medieval poetry, which in turn prompt close readings of the sources. These readings lead to four conclusions about the history of late medieval poetry: (a) Buddhist monks were hubs of literary activity, (b) the poet Jia Dao became an increasingly important site of connection over time, (c) the concept of “poetic schools” is not a useful lens through which to view the Late Tang, and (d) poets at the center of the network are increasingly characterized by their mobility. This combination of network analysis and close reading highlights the dynamic nature of Chinese literary history, providing insight into the ever-shifting conjunctures of forms, genres, expectations, and relations in the late medieval literary world.

Contributors

Other| November 01 2018 Contributors Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture (2018) 5 (2): 438–440. https://doi.org/10.1215/23290048-7481583 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Contributors. Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture 1 November 2018; 5 (2): 438–440. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/23290048-7481583 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsJournal of Chinese Literature and Culture Search Advanced Search JING CHEN is an instructor and a PhD candidate in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on pre-1900s Chinese poetry and poetics, traditional Chinese literary thought, and print culture in late imperial China. She recently completed her dissertation titled “Remaking Early Poetic Culture: Publication and Reception of Ancient-Style Poetry Anthologies in Late Imperial China.” By employing both quantitative and qualitative approaches, this dissertation examines the practices of compiling, publishing, and reading ancient-style poetry anthologies in China from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.TIMOTHY CLIFFORD is a Taiwan Fellow and Fulbright postdoctoral researcher at Academia Sinica, Institute of History and Philology. His research focuses on late imperial Chinese literary history, the sociology of literature, and the history of the book in East Asia. His recent publication “The Rules of Prose in Sixteenth-Century China: Tang Shunzhi (1507–1560) as an Anthologist” discusses... Issue Section: Contributors You do not currently have access to this content.

The Tongcheng School and Peking University

The Tongcheng 桐城 School represented the most influential genre in the history of Chinese literature, and Peking University is China’s most esteemed institution of higher education. The two historical players encountered each other during China’s transition from tradition to modernity. In these decades, Tongcheng scholars combined Chinese and Western scholarships while taking Chinese learning as the fundamentals, advocating reserved cultural change. Their indispensable contribution laid in their understanding and support of the May Fourth Movement, building of modern disciplines, and forging of Peking University’s tradition of democracy, science, academic freedom, and cultural diversity. Peking University also provided an excellent opportunity for the development and growth of the new generation of scholars. The Tongcheng School and Peking University benefited each other in their endeavors of reinvigorating Chinese civilization, advancing China’s modernization, and forging the new spirit of the Chinese nation.

China's Chaplin: Comic Stories and Farces by Xu Zhuodai

Reviewed by: China's Chaplin: Comic Stories and Farces by Xu Zhuodai Zheyu Wei (bio) Xu Zhuodai. China's Chaplin: Comic Stories and Farces by Xu Zhuodai. Translated and with an Introduction by Christopher Rea. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2019. 263 pp. Paperback $65.00, isbn 978-1-939161-94-9. The studies on literature of Republican China had been much focused on the activists of the New Culture Movement until in the 1980s Chih-Tsing Hsia, followed by other literary critics, drew people's attention to non-revolutionary writers. Since then the significance of the popular literature of the Republican era has eventually been recognized in the field of modern Chinese literary studies. The Mandarin-Butterfly School 鸳鸯蝴蝶派 of the period, once popular for their romantic portrayal of the petty bourgeoisie in the colonial city of Shanghai, also became appreciated by the public again. Nonetheless, the width of the relevant research is comparably narrow, which makes Christopher Rea's new book timely and inspiring. In China's Chaplin Rea introduces the ingenious writer Xu Zhuodai 徐卓呆 (1880–1958) and offers the translation of five stories and six farces by Xu. Rea has been working on modern Chinese literature for a long time. And in [End Page 69] recent years, with his monograph The Age of Irreverance: A New History of Laughter in China (2015), Rea focused on the idea of humor 幽 默 and how it evolved from the 1890s to the 1930s in Chinese society. Rea's research recognizes the significance of Xu as a writer and a practitioner. Usually in modern Chinese literary history research, Xu Zhuodai is considered as one of the representative figures of the Mandarin-Butterfly School, but he was much more than that. A distinctive Shanghai-style 海派 intellectual, Xu was multitalented and productive: Xu wrote novellas, jokes and even advice columns for the general public. He wrote for the stage (for both spoken drama and the traditional comedy form huajixi 滑稽戏) and the screen, and he acted in and directed plays and films. He translated Japanese stories and plays. He ran film companies and also the first physical education school in China. Xu's life and achievements in Republican and World-War-II Shanghai reflect the dynamics of urban China in the first half of the twentieth century. Rea has put his appreciation and understanding of Xu into informative writings and sparkling translations in China's Chaplin. Rea offers the reader a general introduction to Xu Zhuodai, summarizing Xu's life story and the reasons why this man was so talented and funny. Rea highlights great success in Xu's writing, theatre, film and other creative careers and critically evaluates Xu's contribution to the those fields. Rea sharply notices Xu's endeavor to portray the rapidly growing cosmopolitan city of Shanghai as a "funny" place, a stage where people from different social classes and cultural backgrounds met and interacted. However, this funny place was full of trickery, and therefore everyone was urged to adapt to the changing and conflicting world so as to laugh at others rather than be laughed at. Following the introduction, Rea translates five stories by Xu, showing the richness and cleverness of Xu's comic imagination. For instance, "Plagarist in Western Dress" and "Appendum: Expose Plagarism!", in which Xu ingeniously appropriates an excerpt from Dream of the Red Chamber into an American slavery story, show Xu's satire of Shanghai's cultural production. Meanwhile by "The Unofficial Story of Li Ah Mao," from which the character became not only a fiction series but also a film franchise, Xu illustrates his creativity and vigorous ethos in making jokes about marketing, the excessive enthusiasm of the commercial city. In general, Rea's mastery of Chinese language and knowledge of slang in Shanghai dialect helped him finish the high-quality translation. For clarification, in the appendix Rea attaches a list of joke names, offering the translator's notes including the original names by Xu and the possible implications (puns, equivocation, etc.). The six farces, selected and beautifully rendered in dramatic language by Rea, not only showcase Xu's talents in creating funny and sarcastic moments on the stage, but also offer the...

From the Margin to the Center: The Transformation of the Identity Discourse of Chinese Ethnic Minority Literature

Generally, the paper tries to rethink and rediscover the very notion and the identity discourse of Chinese ethnic literatures through multi-ethnic perspectives. According to the survey, the author finds ethnic minorities and their cultures are either under “ethnic erasure” or excluded from many of the orthodox Chinese national literary histories, while writers and artists of Han nationality have always taken the center stage. The misconception of Chinese literature as Han national literature is influenced by the orthodox Chinese national literary histories and hegemonic discourses. With the transformation of literary history from monistic to multivalent, Chinese ethnic minority literatures are moving from the margin to the center in the literary landscape of China, reclaiming their identities and providing another practical methods for Chinese literature to enter into a dialogue with the world from a new perspective.

On Translation of Literary Terminology as Cultural Sign: with focus on translation of literary terms in History of Chinese Literature

On Translation of Literary Terminology as Cultural Sign: with focus on translation of literary terms in <i>History of Chinese Literature</i>

Research and Discussion on the Stereotyped Writing Criticism of Jiangxi School

The stereotyped writing criticism of Jiangxi School is an important school in Chinese literature history. It is not only an influential existence on literature, but also politically gives impact on historical development. Qing dynasty literature in almost all areas have made great progress that make the various forms of genre of Chinese classical literature have been into the comprehensive prosperity. The rhythm of the eight-part essay writing features can also be of composition structure shift from above, the inversion analysis of rhythm of the reasonable explanation. Eight-part essays writing have speaking format, the arrangement of each part of the article structure and should be treated according to certain programs. This paper integrates the related result to propose the new idea on the stereotyped writing criticism genre that propose the novel perspective for the related research areas.

A Study of Translation Strategy in Eileen Chang’s The Golden Cangue From the Perspective of Feminist Translation Theory

Eileen Chang is an outstanding female writer in Chinese literature history because of her unique writing style. What’s more, she was not only a successful writer but also a translator which was seldom known or studied by others. She self-translated a great number of works including The Golden Cangue and The Rouge of North. Feminist translation theory came into being with the development of feminist movement. As a combination of feminism and translation, it developed under the background of “cultural turn” aiming at enabling the society to hear the voice of women through creating and rewriting strategies by the feminist translators. The feminist translators are devoted to translating the works under the value of feminism. This paper intends to study the translation strategy through comparing the original book and the translation script based on the prefacing and footnoting, supplementing and hijacking strategies proposed by the Canadian translation researcher Louise Von Flotow.

Translation and Dissemination of Chu Ci in the West

As a new style of verse mainly created by Qu Yuan, Chu Ci is the first anthology of romantic poetry in China. With deeper communication between China and other countries, Chu Ci, as an invaluable treasure in the history of Chinese literature, has been gradually translated, introduced and disseminated around the globe. This paper briefly examines the history and present situation of translation and dissemination of Chu Ci in English-speaking countries, aiming to strengthen the globalization of Chinese culture.

The Distant Person in the Near Scene: Kubin’s Study of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature

In this critical essay, Wang Jiaxin and Li Haipeng explore Wolfgang Kubin’s construction and analysis of the history of Chinese literature and its divergence from C. T. Hsia’s “obsession with China.” The article focuses on three key touch points in Kubin’s work: his vision of “world literature” as rooted in the Chinese context, the importance he attached to individuality, and his sensitivity to language and the importance of linguistic value in literature. The discussion centers around Kubin’s view of modernity and its place in contemporary Chinese literature, exploring the centrality of Lu Xun’s work in any analysis of modern Chinese literature, while including additional examinations of the influence Western thinkers have had on specific Chinese writers.

The argument between Zhou Zuoren and Qian Zhongshu on the History of Chinese Literature and its implications: A research of The origin of Chinese New Literature

The argument between Zhou Zuoren and Qian Zhongshu on the History of Chinese Literature and its implications: A research of The origin of Chinese New Literature

Toward a New History of Chinese Literature

Toward a New History of Chinese Literature

The Literary Viewpoint and Significance of Zhu Xi, Were Presented through His Evaluation about Su Shi

Zhu Xi，a well-known moralist and litterateur of Chinese academic history，was extremely interested in literature. Therefore, he was active in literary creation as a professional writer, and always expressed his literary opinion in his works, which include evaluation about other litterateurs.BR As for his literary opinion, the evaluation of Su Shi (Song Dynasty) attracts our attention mostly, since this persons was influential in Chinese literature history. It was necessary for Zhu Xi to evaluate him firstly because his opinion stood opposite against Neo-Confucianism，which was came up with by Zhu Xi. However, because of the limitation of his status and argument, he evaluated Su Shi differently, which made an acute academic debate about the reason why this difference appeared among the later litterateur generation. Some people think that， as time went by，Zhu Xi changed part of his opinion,so he gave different evaluation. But other people disagree with that.BR Through this article, the author argues that the reason why this difference appeared is mainly because the distinguished status of moralist and litterateur. As mentioned above, Zhu Xi was a moralist but also a litterateur, which are supposed to be 2 opposite statuses. Therefore, there are some contradiction in his mind originally, which made this difference.

试论草创期外国人撰述中国文学史的体例特点

Following my previous research, which examines the Chinese literary histories of the twentieth century, this paper seeks to examine the characteristics of editors" viewpoints and their editing systems by looking at four of the earliest published Chinese literary histories, those of Russian scholar V.P. Vasilév 《A Brief History of Chinese Literature: Очерк истории китайской литературы; Očerk Istoriī Kitajskij Literatur (中國文學史綱要)》 (1880), Japanese scholar Sadakichi Kojo(古城貞吉) 《A History of Chinese Literature: 支那文學史》 (1897), English scholar Herbert Allen Giles 《A History of Chinese Literature》 (1901), and German scholar Wilhelm Grube 《A History of Chinese Literature: Geschichte der chinesischen Litteratur》(1902). V.P. Vasilév’s 《A Brief History of Chinese Literature》 was the first Chinese literary history to take a comprehensive analysis of the different literary genres. It therefore not only examined poetry and prose, but also Confucian canon, history, philosophy, and personal literary works. Vasilév also partially explored novels and drama, which was influenced by his more Western literary ideas. Sadakichi Kojo’s 《A History of Chinese Literature》, which was the first Chinese literary history to base periodization on dynasty change, focused on more traditional literary concepts, and therefore mostly neglected the novel and drama genres. Herbert Allen Giles’ 《A History of Chinese Literature》, which also based periodization on dynasty change, was remarkable for including an examination of the literature of the late Qing dynasty, which was the ruling dynasty at the time of the book’s publication. Like his Western contemporaries, he held the novel and drama genres favorably and included them in his book, alongside poetry and prose. Unfortunately, much of his descriptions of the novel and drama text were incorrect, owing to his limited research into Chinese novels and drama. Wilhelm Grube’s 《Geschichte der chinesischen Litteratur》, while including analysis of literature from early Confucian works to the novels of Ming and Qing dynasty, placed a large emphasis on early Chinese works. Four of the book’s 10 chapters focus on literature from before the Han dynasty. What is most unique about his work however is that he quotes a substantial amount of text translated from novels and drama, and compares it to Western texts. After comparing these first four scholars with those of three Chinese scholars (Dou Jing fan竇警凡, Lin Chuan jia林传甲, Huang Ren黃人) who were published shortly after, I can affirm that the most important issue at the time was concerning the idea of literary concepts. Most of the scholars generally hold fast to the Chinese idea of traditional literary concepts, which favor poetry and prose, considered as elegant literary genres by traditional scholars, while ignoring or excluding novels and drama, as these were considered vulgar literature. Dou Jing fan, Lin Chuan jia, and Sadakichi Kojo are most representative of this idea. While V.P. Vasilév mostly based his writing on traditional literary concepts, he also included novels and drama due to his more Western point of view. This viewpoint is even more apparent in the works of H,A. Giles and W. Grube. If we evaluate these early texts’ acceptance of traditional literary concepts, it is easy to critique their viewpoints based on current thought. But they have own historical importance as not only the first literary histories, but as source material that sparked discussion on traditional literary concepts and helped shape future Chinese literary histories.

“Seeing Her Through a Bamboo Curtain”: Envisaging a National Literature through Chinese Folk Songs

In 1922, Chang Hui (1894–1985) published in Folk Song Weekly ten ballads with a shared motif: “seeing her through a bamboo curtain” (gezhe zhulian kanjian ta). Regarding the ballads as at once ten place-based, local folk songs and one placeless, national poetry, Chang urged attention to the exemplary influence of folk songs on the unification of languages in early twentieth-century China. Throughout the folk song campaign (c. 1918–c. 1927), however, the potential of folk songs to facilitate nationalization of Chinese language and literature remained arguably unfulfilled. This article examines the reasons for folk songs’ lack of influence on modern Chinese literary history. Through an analysis of contesting ideas and agendas regarding the literary nature of folk song, the author reveals that folk songs were rediscovered at a moment of modern Chinese history when prevalent discourses on Chinese language and literature could not fully accommodate the folk, the dialect, or the oral nature of folk song.