“Harvard’s New History of Modern Chinese Literature”, translated by Wang Dewei, editor-in-chief, Zhang Zhi, etc., published by Sichuan People’s Publishing House
■Xu Deming
Sichuan People’s Publishing House “Harvard’s New History of Modern Chinese Literature” (published in 2022, is the third edition of the book, hereinafter referred to as “New Edition”) has recently appeared, and the first edition of Harvard’s “A New Literary of Modern China” is five years old. . The identity mark of the English translation of this book can be described by the words of Lu Xun’s self-evaluation of “special format and profound expression”. Because of its “speciality”, it is refreshing and inevitably dazzling.
“Special” or “deep” is the intention of the editor-in-chief of the book and Professor Wang Dewei of Harvard University. History is sublime and solemn, and it is the same in both China and the West; what makes people smile should not be ignored. “New Edition” can be nicknamed “New Story” based on its format, ranging from “worlding in the world” to wars and revolutions, to the trivial matter of Jia Zhifang’s cotton-padded clothes one day. Looking back, there is often hidden under the confusing literature and history. Many absurdities. The serious narrative and humor of “New Edition” were praised as “unprecedented” and “wonderful” by the back cover of the Harvard English edition. Interestingly, the Harvard edition has a total of 1,001 pages. Is the coincidence of “one thousand and one pages/night” echoing Wang Dewei’s “storytelling” format?
In fact, Wang Dewei often leaves some solemn “joke” designs across ancient and modern and history in the book. On the cover of the Sichuan edition, the year numbers in the sky indicate the beginning and end of history: Tiantou 1635, Ditou 2066, echoing the recommendation on the back cover of “long modernity”. This starting and ending year is not the time logic of general dating history. The first chapter of Xinbian discusses the beginnings of modern Chinese literary history, using the plural beginnings, “1635, 1932 and 1934”. Does this mean that they belong to the same beginning after 300 years? No, this is the historical view of his dialogue, which means that Chinese modern literature begins in the dialogue with relevant people in these three years, and it is 300 years in a flash. This kind of “whimsical” thinking has caused colleagues in the academic circle to wonder.
The cover of the Harvard edition of “New Edition” is an ink painting, and the cover of the traditional Chinese version also has an ink mark between the book and the painting, which Wang Dewei likes. He is a redisciple of Pu Xinshe, and it is difficult to say how far his painting achievements are from his master, but the Harvard version is a good choice to use Chinese paintings to match the history of Chinese literature. The charm and charm of Chinese painting lies in the outline of the dots, which is in line with the special format of “Xinbian”. The artistic spirit of Lu Xun’s “New Story” lies in “just take a little reason and touch it at will”. Each of the 161 stories in “New Edition” has its own “reasons”, and the position and method of the “dot” at the beginning of the story has its own ingenuity. 143 people wrote 161 stories, and some people wrote multiple stories. The “dye” in “New Edition” is transformed into radiation, divergence, or “display”. Layers of ink and wash are smeared on the white paper, both revealing and concealing.
Taking the article as “history”, the emphasis is on “theory”. “Xinbian” does not care much about discussing his representative works for recognized great writers, but pays attention to the actions of people at various opportunities and times. This is Wang Dewei’s strategy: I have what I have without others, and what I have without others. The English version even replaces the regional literary history with fictional novels, which is far from the traditional expectation of the historical style. The Sichuan version has made some adjustments to this point, making it slightly closer to “expectation”. Lu Xun’s multi-contextualization has allowed him to appear in different articles. At least three people discuss “The Tomb”, and Ha Jin’s description of how Zhou Shuren started “The Diary of a Madman” is an inevitable coincidence. Another example is “Lao She and the United States“, which highlights the unique process of translating modern Chinese works into foreign languages. What you see: Lao She chooses a unique way of working in translation, and discusses the original text and English expressions word by word with Pu Aide and Guo Jingqiu. This article is still missing: Lao She and Ivan King’s translation competition. The latter changed “Camel Xiangzi” and “Divorce” to “Great Reunion” from an Orientalist perspective. In order to defend the subject of the work (the theme of tragedy) and copyright, Lao She filed the first Chinese copyright lawsuit in the United States.
Because the facts of each article are “cause” rather than “always”, “New Edition” leaves more room for dialogue. If readers are accustomed to reading “Xin Bian” based on their past literary history experience, they will feel that “Xin Bian” is not finished. Indeed, it is not a historical gestalt, but it is open. The reader enters the context of the book, clarifies the context, grasps the context, and discovers the gap. When you make up your mind to fill the gap, you become a potential Hidden author.
The 161 articles are all articles that discuss facts and reason, contain academic content, and explain the profound things in simple language. 143 scholars and writers, some more than one. Wang Dewei himself wrote six articles, among which, “The Misplaced Times: Western Demons, Chinese Celestial Masters” analyzes the new model of the story “Dang Kou Zhi” derived from “Water Margin”, and embeds the modern theme of juxtaposition of science and technology and superstition; ” From Moro to Nobel, from Lu Xun’s writing of Moro’s Poetic Power to Mo Yan’s winning the Nobel Prize, it highlights the literary subject from resistance to negotiation; “The Frozen Season” examines Jia Zhifang’s diary. The process of evaluation and analysis is lyrical literature; “From Xixia to the Northeast” talks about the two generations of writers Luo Yijun and Qi Bangyuan, and the geography and history related to the family’s previous life are interpreted as fictional stories, and the commentator uses it to reflect on literary Taiwan. The six essays have different styles and writing styles, none of which is a monophonic sonata, and the Bakhtin polyphony is still Wang Dewei’s keynote.
Wang Dewei’s writings diffuse Western literary theory from Neocriticism to Deconstruction. The way of narrating literature and history in Qian Zhongshu’s “A Conical Pointer” is not a general history and a grand narrative, nor is it a history of chronology, but a complex context of “the same thing between the east and the west”. The literary genre in Wang Dewei’s time was more complex than Qian Zhongshu’s, and it was not feasible to use traditional stylistic theories to write literary history. Therefore, a literary history that was integrated by articles combining historical facts, literary theories and dialogues was bound to emerge. This is not an industry of literary history. It is a contemporary choice to play the subjectivity of “Theory”, but it has a premise to fill the gap, and requires readers of this literary history to take the initiative to complete it. Everything is “in the world“. “New Edition” is not finished, it is an experiment, and it also invites everyone to participate in the practice of exploration.
In my opinion, the writing method of “Xin Bian” is of course experimental, but for readers, the reading method can also be experimental. You can take “Xinbian” as a ball, the knowledge points of the articles are scattered on the surface of the sphere, and the author of the 161 articles kicks the ball at any point, and it rolls. The kicker’s footwork is different, and the trajectory of the ball is different from the distance and distance. It is the best way to appreciate their footwork and the trajectory of the ball. In this way, there is no need to follow the chronology step by step, you can read it in sequence, reverse order, or skip. There is no great benefit to stick to the chronology. The narrative of “Xinbian” follows the “cause and reason”, not the beginning and the end of the “chronology”. The most important thing is the discourse—the dissertation weighs the history, the literary heart is the most important, the understanding of the main body of the discourse, the exploration of the ancient and modern context, and the general idea in the hidden or present. Combining the past with the present, modern literature for 30 years, covering thousands of years of literary history, let the tradition live in the discussion.
“Worlding in the world” is the foundation, “modern” extends to the future and the past, “China” is both a country and a civilization, and the process of discussing literary history is to face the inexorability of the literature that highlights the life of history and culture. interest. People are in the endless life, and the “New Edition” from English to Chinese is the ecology “in the world“, and this academic direction of Wang Dewei is also “in the world“.
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责编：张晓荣 ]