Contemporary Chinese Stories 9780231880268

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Contemporary C h i n e s e Stories

Contemporary Chinese

Stories

Translated by CHI-CHEN

WANG

COLUMBIA U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS New Y o r k : 1944

COPYRIGHT

1944

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, NEW YORK FOREIGN

AGENT:

Oxford University Press, Humphrey Milford,

Amen House, London, E.C. 4, England, and B. I. Building, Nicol Road, Bombay, India M A N U F A C T U R E D I N T H E U N I T E D STATES OF AMERICA

To Katharine Seelye Wallace 1891-1938

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JLJ reface

When an American tcachcr in a missionary school in Shanghai asked some of her students what they thought of Ah Q & Others, they all "tabooed it, seemed rather embarrassed that I had read it, and showed plainly that they wished that I had not read this 'other side of China's life."' ( T h e Chinese Recorder, November, 1941.) Here are more stories of contemporary China that will probably embarrass most Chinese of the "better sort," for a good many of these stories are, like those of Lusin, preoccupied with the "other side of China's life." They are offered here not in a spirit of "debunking" but in the belief that the only way to banish darkness is to turn on it the searchlight of truth and that there is no better justification for our faith in China's future than that its most influential writers today have elected to man the searchlight batteries rather than play gigolo to faded old hags under the deceptive moon. Moreover, it is inevitable that any truly representative anthology of contemporary Chinese stories should reflect so much of the other side of China's life, for modern Chinese fiction began as part of a general movement for reform toward the end of the last century, when such intellectual leaders as Yen Fu and Liang Ch'ich'ao saw in fiction a powerful weapon for political agitation and decided to adopt it as a means for "arousing people's hearts." If it had not been for this spirit of change and reform that has dominated China during the past decades, if China had remained a nation of smug A h Q's instead of awakening to its own weaknesses and trying to do something about them, China would probably have capitulated to Japanese aggression long before this, taking comfort in the delusion that in the end it would be able to "absorb"

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Preface

its Japanese conquerors through its "superior" civilization as it has absorbed the Mongols and Manchus in the past. Surely it is senseless to sacrifice millions of lives and bring misery to untold millions more as China has been doing, when she could have let the enemy in and then proceeded to annihilate them with her magic power of assimilation! T h i s anthology covers the period from 1918, when the Literary Revolution began in earnest, to 1937, when the present Sino-Japanese war broke out. W i t h the exception of "Yuchun" and the t w o stories by Lusin, practically everything included here was written during the second ten years of this period, for the simple reason that most of the earlier products have, as stories, little intrinsic value to recommend them. I have not attempted to include anything later than 1937 because there is no adequate collection of such material available in this country from which a fair selection can be made. I have tried to make this collection as representative as possible and have for that reason included a transitional piece more because of its faults than its virtues. O n the whole, however, I have taken into consideration ( 1 ) the technical excellence of the stories as such; (2) the position occupied by the author by general consensus; (3) the light the story throws on Chinese life and problems. I have also taken into account the availability of the authors in English translation. If the best of Lusin had not already been published in an independent volume, I would have given him much more space than I have, and I would have included at least one story each from the works of K u o Mo-jo, Y i i Ta-fu, Miss " T i n g Ling" and Miss "Ping H s i n " if they had not already been represented in the anthologies listed in the Bibliographical Note. In the arrangement of the stories I have placed first those which have been most influenced by Western technique. In some of the stories I have found it necessary to introduce a number of Chinese words and honorifics in order to make the dialogues faithful to Chinese conventions. T h e meanings of these words and terms are in most cases self-evident, but for those curious to k n o w their exact meanings, a glossary has been provided. I have

Preface

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followed consistently the Wade system of transliteration only in the case of actual names. With names of characters and Chinese words, I have generally followed the same system but have omitted all aspirates and diacritical marks except when these are essential. C. C. W . COLUMBIA JULY,

1943

UNIVERSITY

ontents The Road, by Chang T'ien-yi

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The Inside Story, by Chang T'ien-yi

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A Country Boy Withdraws from School, by Lao Hsiang

18

Black Li and White Li, by Lao She

25

The Glasses, by Lao She

40

Grandma Takes Charge, by Lao She

47

The Philanthropist, by Lao She

60

Liu's Court, by Lao She

67

The Puppet Dead, by Pa Chin

80

Night March, by Shen Ts'ung-wen

95

Smile! by Chang T'ien-yi

108

Reunion, by Chang T'ien-yi

119

Little Sister, by Feng Wen-Ping

127

T h e Helpmate, by Ling Shu-hua (Mrs. Ch'en T'ung-po)

135

Spring Silkworms, by Mao Dun

143

"A True Chinese," by Mao Dun

159

Mrs. Li's Hair, by Ych Shao-chiin

165

Neighbors, by Yeh Shao