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Cao Runxin 曹润鑫

Harvard Lecture

On the 20th Century Chinese Essay

Modern Chinese Literature

And the Essay Genre:

A New Perspective

In this paper, I will not recount the contents and propose interpretations of any essays, nor will I outline the main topics or styles of essaywriting in China, but I would like to take the opportunity to reflect a little bit on the phenomenon of the genre itself and discuss some conclusions and hypotheses with the attentive and critical audience which can be found at only a few places on earth, EALC at Harvard definitely being one of them. On the handout, you will find an overview of the structure of my argument.

1. The unknown genre

The literary-historical narrative told by anthologies and collections of the 20th century has drawn an incomplete picture of Chinese literature: The genre of the essay was lacking.

Chang Huiyue 常慧月

In my paper I will ask, if the picture of literature can remain unchanged, if we take into consideration also the essay. The genre has been neglected for a long time as a genre of merit (Margouliès 1949, Schmidt-Glintzer 1990) or overlooked (McNaughton 1974, Leiden 1988-90, McDougall 1998); whereas its elder brother, fiction, has been prized ever since the valuing of fictional literature and the vernacularisation of writing in early Republican China, which followed from the master narrative established by the May 4th movement. Modern anthologies would have the reader believe that a triumvirate of poetry, fiction and drama forms the backbone of modern Chinese literary output.

Excursion: Defining the essay

As a non-fictional subjective representation in a free form

Chen Han 陈涵

Similar to international literature, the basic subdivision of literature in China in general is one in three types: epic (with xiaoshuo (fiction), sanwen (non-fictional prose)), lyrics (shige) and drama (xiqu). Though there is no pure epic form, fiction and prose are often jointly addressed with the Chinese term "wu yunwen" which corresponds to the term "epic" in the West. The types may be distinguished roughly by their nature in the following way: In the epic, bygone events are retold, a broad, filled story dominates the foreground. In the lyrics, the reader is encouraged to feel the current sensations and often confessionlike feelings of the poet. The drama recalls a self-contained action directly in monologue or dialogue and in this way unburdens the re-creative imagination of the readers/spectators through it. The essay as a genre of the epic is a detached non-fictional subjective representation in a free form.

Chen Hui 陈惠

"Essay", Chinese mostly sanwen 散文[ The choice of the term “sanwen” instead of “suibi” (familiar essay) or “xiaopinwen” (short literary piece) is of course arbitrary, but it corresponds to the present usage. In about 200 essay collections and histories between 1949 and 1996 known to the author, sanwen turned out to be the common expression, xiaopin was used only in one out of 25 essay titles of the PR China, in one out of 14 Taiwanese, and one out of ten Hong Kong publications.], is a genre term for shorter, self-contained non-fictional prose texts, in which the author tries to mediate individual experiences on an object or a question out of subjective I-perspective. This it tries associatively and from different sides, not as a text for daily use, but with artistic or educationally demanding means of language, nevertheless in an accessible form. The resource is mastered by the essayist sovereignly and the topic is seen in a larger context and can even be presented humorously. Freedom in form and content is essential for the essay.

Chen Jiangning 陈江宁

Different perspectives range in the international genre of the essay: Genres are primarily divisions of literature through the scholarship of literature for specialized contemplation and in order to be able to compare similar texts more easily. On the other hand, a subcategorization in numerous small entities, like Zheng Mingli does with the essay, questions the sense of such subdivisioning in reference to hermeneutic findings. One must also stay aware of the changing nature of literature itself and the relativity of the scientific perspective, which is still a timely one, even if its accepted internationally.

Regional deviations seem less important for the essay than for established genres like short stories, novels etc., and far less important than for poems.

Chen Jiaxin 陈佳欣

All these other genres are seen as international genres. My hypothesis, that the Chinese and the Western essay also belong to the same international genre maybe proved by the crosscultural mutualities both in form and content.

In the 21st century, the world is growing together and culture is mainly determined by the grade of modernization. The Chinese essay, as we find it in newspapers today, has taken on the form and content of the Western essay and is aimed at a target group comparable to that of the Western essay. This is a second hint that the modern Chinese essay belongs to the international genre of the essay. Even though the translation of duanpian xiaoshuo 短篇小說 with short stories is commonly accepted, both are less closely related than the Western essay and its Chinese counterpart.

Chen Jingjing 陈静静

The definition, which I developed out of a sample of more than 5000 modern Chinese essays, fits also the special international understanding of the essay (following Bolz 1992 13:269-272 on the development of the western essay; Butrym 1989 on the theory of the western essay).

Besides the trend towards a globalized society, first expressed in Zhou Zuoren's call to adopt the English essay style, there are special local characteristics of the Chinese essay. How is the Chinese essay to determine culturally, what makes it "Chinese"? In the occidental essay the form seems to be a more important criterion of differentiation than in its Chinese counterpart. In China even those texts are included, which have only a similar content, but cross the borders of the formal generical framework.

Chen Sha 陈莎

This can be shown with Zheng Mingli, who subcategorises the "unfinished diary" or the "unfinished letter". Those texts belong - within the Western context - to texts of personal use and therefor to the non-fictional prose works. Only after they have been altered into essays (Zheng Mingli: "essay in diary form" and "essay in letter form"), they are accepted as essays.

The Chinese understanding of the genre

Is tendencially broader

This tendencial broader understanding of the essay in China can be traced back directly to the connotation, that the term sanwen possesses in Chinese: wú yùnwén 無韻文 "non-rhythmic prose", which originally meant all non-fictional prose. In this broader meaning, also texts for personal or everyday use are included. However I deal only with sanwen in the narrower meaning "short literary essay pieces".

Chen Sunfu 谌孙福

Further differences are that Chinese essays often have ideological contents and show stylistic characteristics like repetitions and the usage of sayings.

The Chinese essay is booming again

In the 1980s and 1990s

Analysis reveals a general increase in essay publication after 1979 with two peaks immediately after the 'Cultural Revolution'. The publications apparently reaching a new height in 1990. The first increase came about in the 1920s and 1930s, after which the essay's role was eclipsed by the genre of the report (baogao wenxue 報告文學).[ Klaschka 1998.] The flourishing of essay publication in the 1920/30s and 1980/90s was helped in part by the appearance of new magazines that existed chiefly as vehicles for contemporary essayists, and numerous sanwen congshu 散文叢書 (essay bookseries).

Chen Yongxiang 陈永相

The increase in essay production right after the clear-cutting of the ‘Cultural Revolution’ has been the backlog of demand, which is reflected in 1 million copies of essay collections being printed between 1980 and 1982 - only counting the collections contained in a sampling of 130 ‘representative’ books I was able to collect for a survey.

Thanks to the work of some major Chinese editors, the whole essay culture was compiled from magazines and newspapers and was published in a flood of anthologies since the 1970s. This boom is comparable to the cultural fever of undigging xiangtu 鄉土 literature, which rose in Taiwan in front of the background of the movement of self-identification and independance.

Cheng Yusi 成于思

Why is the essay as abundant as fiction?

Let me name a few reasons, why the essay in fact is as abundant as its prose brother, fiction, and its lyrical sister, poetry, and why it must be valued as highly:

- The essay had a direct impact on Chinese society throughout history (the reform ideas from the end of the Qing dynasty through the May Fourth period with the literary theorethical pieces and the daily political zawen 雜文 of Lu Xun, until today are mostly presented in essay form). The impact on literary reflection and theory is shown in the collection "Modern Chinese Literary Thought" 1996.

Deng Jinxia 邓锦霞

The effect of the essay genre with its direct language, its connection to life (e.g. its role in the coming to terms with the cultural revolution), and its direct access to the individual reader through newspapers. This impact is larger than the indirect one of fiction or poetry. The poem is the genre of retreat from social life, from political issues and time references.

Hu Shi argues, that poetry is most important in the process of modernity, since poetry rises emotions. But it relies also on images and on linguistic rhythm. Liang Qichao stresses the role of novel and opera in the changing society. But sanwen is able to name things, it reflects life, caleidoscopic. Modern subjectivity is constructed with the tool of sanwen.

Ding Daifeng 丁代凤

- The essay also reflects trends in the society better than poetry and fiction: Individualism is expressed in the essay more directly than in the poem with its limitation in content and form. Ephemerality is reflected in the short form of the essay, which may be read in the subway on the way to work, where poems may not be so spontaneously enjoyed.

- The essay reaches a larger part of the population than poetry, the amount of time spended on reading novels goes back, too. The essay itself a genre of high actuality, if not simply the genre of today.

Fang Jieling 方洁玲

- The essay tells us more about an author and his time than fiction or poetry, because in this genre, we encounter the author himself without metrical restrictions. We look trough authentic eyes on his contemporary society. Many authors turned to essay writing in the later periods of their lifes, like Lu Xun, Ba Jin, and Wang Meng.

- The volume of essay production exceeds the volume of xiaoshuo 小說 production: Chinese newspapers since the 1870s on[ Shenbao, Shibao etc. Liang Qichao sees the role of the newspaper both as liberal and authoritative: He understands the press as an institution to control the government, on the other hand he favors censorship.] and as a mass media from the early 20th century presented only one or two fictional stories in a serialized form, but invented essay columns like zagan 雜感 (from which Lu Xun developed his zawen), suibi 隨筆 or suixiang 隨想 (from which famous collections like Ba Jin's Suixiang lu 隨想錄 derived).

Gan Fengyu 甘奉玉

Let us assign the essay its proper place

The consequence which must be driven from the above presented contrast between value and valuing of the essay is: Let us assign the essay its proper place! I will describe the beginnings of the discovery of the essay.

Despite the increase in essay writing from 1979 on, it took a decade for the first theoretical reflections on this phenomenon to appear. It took another decade before the international scholarship of Chinese Studies became aware of the phenomenon of the essay.

In the 1980s, Chinese scholarship made a first major approach to reflect on essay literature by writing essay histories and collecting papers, which concentrated first on the essayistic work of single authors like Lu Xun.

让散文用于用武之地吧。 上述中，散文价值与重视散文程度之间，反差明显，这势必导致一个结果：散文要有用武之地！接下来我将阐述散文是如何开始受到重视的。

尽管从1979年起，散文写作量有所增加，但首次从理论上反思这一现象思却花了十年时间，然后又花了十年，国际中文学术界才开始意识到散文现象。

20世纪80年代，中国学术界通过写散文历史，征集论文的形式，第一次反思散文文学。这首先集中体现在鲁迅等个别作家的散文作品中。--Gan Fengyu (talk) 04:53, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

让散文处在它应在的位置吧。 上述中，散文价值与重视散文程度之间，反差明显，这势必导致一个结果：让散文处在它应在的位置吧！接下来我将阐述散文是如何开始受到重视的。 尽管从1979年起，散文写作量有所增加，但首次从理论上反思这一现象思却花了十年时间，然后又过了十年，国际中文学术界才开始意识到散文现象。 20世纪80年代，中国学术界第一次以写随笔史、征集论文的方式来反思散文文学，这首先集中在鲁迅等个别作家的散文作品上。--Li Lingyue (talk) 05:39, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

Gao Mingzhu 高明珠

Also two essay conferences in the 1990s showed no move towards international scholarship. Not before 1995 did international scholarship started to use common philological methods to explore single essayists (on Gaylord Leung [Liang Xihua] 梁錫華 Kubin 1995, on Wang Meng 王蒙 Woesler 1995, on Liu Zaifu 劉再復 Mansberg 1995 [unpublished]) or essays of groups (on xīnyučpài 新月派 Wagner 1996).

Not before the second half of the 1990s, did a history of the Chinese essay using the means of Western philology appear (Woesler 1998) and for the first time, the essay was included in Western anthologies of literature as a genre equal to fiction and poetry (The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature 1995, Modern Chinese Literary Thought 1996).

Gong Yumian 龚钰冕

Regarding the valuing of essays in China, Taiwan and the West, there are regional differences: In the States, essays are often chosen according to Western taste and totally unknown authors are given as much space as established ones. In Taiwan, Lu Xun has been banned for a long time, but today, in my survey, which Chinese essayists are printed the most in the 1990s, he ranks 16th. If one only take modern authors into account, he even ranks 12th. Hong Kong literature on Yu Guangzhong has been censored by Huang Weiliang in favor for the first (see Lin Yaode 1989:50), and Wang Meng has been overestimated in the People’s Republic of China due to his political post.

Gu Dongfang 顾东方

Still it remains a desideratum to get the most important Chinese essays in Western translation. Currently at least three essay collections in English translation are in the reviewing process (Tam King-Fai, Woesler) or already published (Pollard 1999). Pollard's selection is a highly subjective and eclective choice of essays, covering even the premodern essay. This year, scholars will meet on a first international conference on the essay (Achern, Germany August 25-26). In the years to come, a new Bonn History of Chinese Literature will grant the essay its proper place with two to three volumes only dedicated to the biji, youji and other essays.

Guan Qinqing 管钦清

Taking into consideration the essay

Will rewrite the history of Chinese literature

I will give a few hints, what the essay can contribute to the picture of Chinese Literature, which so far is overshadowed by fiction through the narrative of C.T. Hsia, Prusek and Anderson.

We are used to established narratives, like the emergence and success of the May-Fourth literature. But this view neglects the role, that for example the yuanyang hudie pai played in the choir of different voices in the awoken intellectual debate in the beginning of this century. The May-Fourth group at that time was one voice among many and only succeeded because of its agitation and polemic in the public sphere, so we have to use new means to assign the Chinese essay its proper place.

Gui Yizhi 桂一枝

We learn from simplifiying narratives, that it is absolutely necessary to differentiate, and to reconstruct the complex time background. Having understood Chinese literature as determined by the development of fiction and poetry only, a broader understanding will change the whole appearance of Chinese literature. A scholarly endeavour is the use of modern literary theories in the approach to this genre.

In the following, I will name three aspects (chronologically sorted by past, modern and contemporary time) to hold the argument, that the taking into consideration of the essay will rewrite the history of Chinese literature and change our current understanding of it.

Guo Lu 郭露

The classical and premodern essay

Documents Chinese philosophy, early subjectivity

And still, a native Chinese tradition is questioned

How is the Chinese essay to be positioned historically, how did it emerge, what is its generic background? Generically, the ancestors of the essay are both in China and the West notes written on the margins of books, they are letters and travel notes. These notes differed from the canonized literature through its informal style, its expression of individuality und subjectivity, a much earlier document for subjectivity than the first autobiographical Chinese novel, The Dream of the Red Chamber.

Han Haiyang 韩海洋

From the very beginning, the essay was valued lower than poetry: the oldest reference[ This is older than the ones referred to in the Large Chinese Dictionary of Morohashi (Morohashi undated) and in the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of the Chinese Language 1966.] this far for the term sanwen that I found is Luo Dajing's statement from 1240: "詩騷妙天下，而散文頗覺瑣碎局促 Shī sāo miào tiānxià, ér sǎnwén pōjué suǒsuì júcù" (Poetry is moving mankind in a wonderful way, prose inquires into incoherent bagatels, is limited.) (Helin yulu). Another reproach Luo Dajing mentions, is a formal one: In comparison to the highly artistic and century-long tradition of poetic writing, the direct and often vernacular langage of the essay in his eyes had less value.

Han Wanzhen 韩宛真

In the West, a real 'art of the essaywriting' came up in the late 16th century as a medium for the newly reorganized knowledge. The reorganization originated from the observations of Kopernikus, which destroyed the whole conception of the world of the Middle Age.

In China, particularly the debates on Buddhism in the 4th and 5th century A.D. saw the origination of a tradition of letters. The Chinese tradition of the sanwen 散文 (essay) however, in the understanding of sǎn 散 as (to dispel, leisure, loose, relaxed, irregular, independant style, free prose, can be seen not before the detachment from the dialogue - or aphorism, which is still visible in the philosophical Lunyu. Xunzi delivered the prototype of the later essay with his philosophical treatises.

He Changqi 何长琦

They are an early form of philosophical didactical essays, in which general theorems are derived not only from quotations of the canonized classical works, but for the first time also from his own individual experience. The individuality is still a main characteristic of the essay today.

During the dynasties the essay manifested itself further in certain subcategories: From reading-notes written at the paper margins originated the biji 筆記 (occasional notes), flourishing in the Ming Dynasty. The marginalism is a link between Western and Chinese tradition of early essays. Occasional notes could contain private historical notes, anecdotes, communications and contemplations. However, the consciousness of the essay as a genre of its own originated in China not before the Qing 清 dynastie, when numerous essay anthologies were compiled.

Hu Baihui 胡百辉

Taking into consideration the social-historical background draws a different picture of the old society than short stories and novels: Essays are much closer to real life, since they express individual problems and experiences. Until now, the Chinese pre-Hongloumeng individual literature spoke only through the indirect language of poems to us. Rediscovering the essays, we have a splendid source of opinions, social-historical pictures etc.

Premodern essay literature consists of much more than its most well-known example, the formally restrictive baguwen. Lu Xun himself wrote some of his essays in baguwen style, but on the other hand took it as a synonym for the ancient society. Zhou Zuoren saw the rhythm of the language of the "Eight legged essay" as as appealing and intoxicating as the "pleasure of doing opium. (Zhou 1932:148).

Hu Huifang 胡慧芳

But he considered it also as a prevalent genre implicit in the modern writings as yang bagu (westernized bagu) and dang bagu (party-line bagu) (borrowing from Wu Zhihui, Zhou Yuanliu:71).

Neo-Confucianism stressed wen (prose) as the most important tool to transmit the dao (way): Wenyi zai dao (Literature as the carrier of the way). If we reinterprete this diction in the perspective of genre, we can say, that the essay then has been regarded as an important tool to express truth, subjectivity and Self.

Liang Qichao developed a xīn wéntǐ 新文體 (new prose style), which was influenced by Western languages, but the essay became popular not before the newspapers became mass media, and the language changed into baihua.

Hu Jin 胡瑾

The essay as the medium of modernity,

The questioning of the genuiness of the Chinese essay

To solve first of all the dispute on whether the Chinese essay grew out of a native tradition or was influenced by Western translations, one finds both traditions relevant: The occidental essay was introduced to the writers of the literature reform movement from 1907 on by translations in Chinese (Lin Shu: Irving 1907, Addison 1911). The current form of the genre is mostly based on the influence of Western essay translations. First developed a Chinese essay tradition, which consciously leaned upon the Western model in language, form and terminology, its own proponents succumbed soon to the temptation to derive a tradition of the Chinese essay from Chinese history only.

Ji Tiantian 纪甜甜

A seemingly unbroken Chinese tradition of the native Chinese wenyan sanwen is presented in Chinese textbooks (Yu Zaichun 1978-82, Li Xishang 1985). Still, the value of the native tradition of essay writing and the role of the Western influence upon it is discussed controversially among the scholars. Some admit that Western impact played a key role in what we understand as Chinese essays nowadays: Wang Bin 1992, Fan Peisong 1993; for Western impact in general see Průšek 1964, Gálik 1966, McDougall 1971. Other scholars think that Western influence is overestimated - Denton 1996 showed that the theoretical background was missing for understanding Western theories of literature in China, - and recommended that we understand the essay first by its national tradition.

Jiang Fengyi 蒋凤仪

How far personal opinion may influence the narrative of historical facts can be seen by the example of the legendary authors of the May Fourth movement. All of them considered the English essay as the father of the Chinese essay: Zhou Zuoren 1921, Lu Xun 1933, the anarchist and later member of the Guomindang Wu Zhihui [1934]. Later, some of these authors changed their minds to support their own theories on the essay by looking for proof of a native Chinese essay tradition: for example, Lu Xun with his theory "“Zhǎnkāi” shuō yǔ “méngyá” lùn “展開”說與“萌芽”論" (Theory of "Starting" and "Blossoming") came to see the fighting and critical character of the essay of the Jin dynasty (265 - 420) as the 'father' of the Chinese essay, and Zhou Zuoren first the English essay (1921) and later the biji (occasional notes) of the Ming, although he still tried to integrate the English essay in his "公安派與英國小品“合成”論 Gōng'ānpài yǔ Yīngguó xiǎopǐn “héchéng” lùn" (Theory of the Synthesis of the Gongan School and the English Essay).

Jiang Hao 姜好

Wang Zengqi regrets that the national Chinese tradition of the essay at the time of the 'May Fourth Movement' has not been taken up again and has not continued in contemporary essays (Wang Zengqi 1993). The Chinese essay is an accommodating object of study, because one may look to it to prove any theory of the essay. One can find examples for each topic in almost every period, simply because the essay has a wide range of subjects.

When Zhou Zuoren showed that only seven months after the incident at Marco Polo bridge it was again possible to write about a candy seller[ Siehe Zhou Zuoren: "Mai tang 賣糖" (Über Bonbonverkauf), in: Yao wei ji 藥味集 (Sammlung bitterer Geschmack), Peking 北京: Beijing xinmin yinshuju 北京新民印書局 (Pekinger Buchladen Neues Volk) 1942.3.20, Nachdruck: Hongkong 香港: Shiyong shuju 使用書局 (Praxisverlag) 1973.6, S. 126 - 131, englische Übersetzung u.d.T. "Candy selling" von Wolff: Chou Tso-jen 1971, S. 92 - 95 [Datiert auf 25.2.1938 mit einem Nachspann vom 28.]] (1924), he was critizised as "paralyzing" (Lu Xun 1934, Zhu Zhaoluo 1943).[ Vgl. Lu Xun: "Die Krise des freien Essays" 1934 und Zhu Zhaoluo: "Tan xiaopinwen 談小品文" (Über den freien Essay), in: Yiwen zazhi Bd 1 (1943.8, Heft 2).]

Jiang Qiwei 蒋淇玮

When he wrote a piece on the "Fly", he was reproached with dealing with subjects of minor importance. Reproaches like this lie in the very nature of the genre, since marginalism is substantial to the essay. The mentioned formal reproach of Luo Dajing can be found again in the 1990s, Hong Kong students critisized the literary style as it appears in Ba Jins "Thoughts" (Suixiang lu) as too direct and too less artful. But this perspective does not recognize the very nature of the essay, which is a very individual expression of an author's thoughts and not bound to tradition, and therefore much more free also in content.

Kang Haoyu 康浩宇

The essay - from its very nature free and independant - almost disappeared in the time of the Cultural Revolution and - except for the ideologically influenced essays - had a hard struggle between Yan'an and the loss of moral legitimacy by the leadership in 1989.

The essay was the genre of the modernizing society of the early 20th century. Many writers had to define and often redefine their position and self-understanding in reaction to war and warlordism and later in the modernizing society, often burying their own ideals, in the larger perspective for the seeming "needs" of society, which also claimed the author to be one of its products. But from its very nature, the essay set new boundaries in form and content, and therefore not only survived the ideological restrictions, but also established its own critical subculture within.

Kang Lingfeng 康灵凤

The essay was not only a medium of discussion and a documentation of the social-political background for us today, but also a documentation of the personal struggle of the writers finding a position in a changing environment, since the essay is "a genre of self-reflection". Some essays even deconstructed master narratives like the one of leftist ideology, often simply by confronting it with subjective experience, reality or art.[ I want to mention another position on literature, which stresses the impact of literature on life, especially on the eve of revolutions - following this view, all literature is political (Jameson).]

Kong Xianghui 孔祥慧

Not only the understanding of literature as a whole changes if we take into consideration the essay, also the view of single authors shifts, if we see not only their novels or poems, but also their essays. I mention only Zhou Zuoren. His ideas connected him[ Like for example Zhu Ziqing and Ba Jin.] spiritually to his contemporary collegues in Europe, Japan and America, but these where ideas for which China turned out to be not yet ready. At that time, China had taken a road which led away from progress, wealth, freedom and spiritual enlightenment. The consequences have yet to be overcome.

Kong Yanan 孔亚楠

In 1927, Chinese literature has taken the form of 'engaged literature'.[ The 'mainstream' writers took an affirmative approach in their writing, whereas the other writers formed a minority. The individual authors did not necessarily belong to either one of these groups throughout their life, but may have moved between them. Since the essay is a medium which enables the individual to express thoughts directly, the writers chosen for this paper can be classified according to their position.] The topical development of political essays sees a shift from the enlightenment-educational essay, which emerged in 1907, to the daily-political essays in the 1920-30s, further to anti-Japanese propaganda in the 1940s and ideological propaganda in the 1950s and 1960s.

Lei Fangyuan 雷方圆

In the 1980/90s, the discussion of politics of daily interest form a smaller part than in the 1920/30s. In the 1980s all genres including poems and essays were used for the critic against the master narrative of Communism or the Maoist understanding of art as serving ideology. Whilst the 1980s saw a revival of political issues in terms of discussion on the best system of society, (also in literature in general and in film) to a mere unpolitical and again more philosophical-moral theme spectrum in the 1990s, where essayists define their role, first of all to counterpart the consume-orientation of the masses.[Yu Guangzhong's essay "The wolves are coming" shows that the ideological perspective did not only harm mainland essaywriting.] The essay seems to be the only genre in China which has kept its educational claim with the exception of essays which claim to be "art pourt l'art".

Lei Kuangxi 雷旷溪

The topical development of the unpolitical essay starts with the everyday-topics of Zhu Ziqing ("Shuo meng 說夢" On dreams in: Zhu Ziqing 1928) and Zhou Zuoren from 1917 (My own garden 9.1923, "The Fly" 1924, "Reading on the Toilet" 1936), with a caesura 1927, when the political essays became the main stream, until the late 1930s, when the unpolitical essay was eliminated totally by the anti-Japanese movement. It didn't recover until the 1970s, when life turned back to normality and normal things became topics of interest because of their long absence. Again in the 1990s, the unpolitical essay boomed also due to less interest in political issues and the need for a new orientation in the new found world of mass consumerism.

Li Haiquan 李海泉

I mentioned the lack of translations in Western languages. One of the reasons might be the impression of some scholars that many of the Chinese essays were just propaganda. This might be true for the 1940s and even the 1950s, but nowadays this has changed, as the overwhelming majority of publications prove. This demands a closer look: Since 1949, politically affirmative literature has been encouraged by the government, resulting in a statistical paradox: not the affirmative authors and their texts form the majority of the essayists read in the 1990s, but the critical essayists, whose texts oppose the order to serve politics through their apolitical, sometimes even defiant character. In the 1990s, the texts of 1920s/1930s Republican China are still as often reprinted as their contemporary counterparts.

Li Lili 李丽丽

Obviously we can conclude that the politically affirmative essay of the 1950s only survived in special political essay collections and is no longer written by famous contemporary authors nor read by the Chinese audience in the beginning of the 21st century.

Taking into account of a genre shifts the whole perspective on literature, taking into account the essayistic works of an author shifts also the view of the author. I will name only one author as an example for a modern essayist:ZHOU ZUOREN.

I mentioned already his theoretical contribution to the Chinese essayism, but still, his essays have been neglected until the 1980s. The reason does not lie in literary quality, but in political valuing. The master narrative of the offical literary history of the People's Republic on Zhou Zuoren is, that the theoretical May Fourth genius "degenerated" and later became a "traitor".

Li Lingyue 李凌月

Publishing in the Japanese sponsored magazines Reminiscences, and Chinese Literature, he was blamed together with Zhu Pu and Yuan Xi of collaboration. An unanswered question is, why another author, who published there, Zhang Ailing, was never reproached with collaboratorship. The difference between all of them is that Zhang Ailing tried to avoid political committments, whereas Zhou felt guilty, Zhu justified it and Yuan simply accepted it. In his small literary pieces, Zhou tried to aesthetizise the little things of the everyday life out of the subjective experience of his private space. The major contribution of Zhou Zuoren is, that he set the turning point in Chinese essay writing with his call for writing short literary pieces (Meiwen 1921). 在日本主办的杂志《追忆》和《中国文学》上发表文章，他被指责与朱璞和袁熙合作。一个悬而未决的问题是，为什么在那里发表文章的另一位作家张爱玲从未因合作而受到指责。二者的不同之处在于，张爱玲试图逃避政治委员会，而周则感到内疚，朱则为之辩护，袁则干脆接受了。在他的文学小短篇中，周试图从私人空间的主观体验中，将日常生活中的琐事审美化。周作人的主要贡献在于，通过号召写文学短篇，开创了中国散文创作的转折点。（美文1921）。--Li Lingyue (talk) 05:30, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

因为在日本主办的杂志《追忆》和《中国文学》上发表了文章，他受到指责与朱璞和袁熙合作。一个悬而未决的问题是，为什么在那里发表文章的另一位作家张爱玲从未因合作而受到指责。二者的不同之处在于，张爱玲试图逃避政治委员会，而周却感到内疚，朱则为之辩护，袁是干脆接受了。在他的文学小短篇中，周试图从私人空间的主观体验中，将日常生活中的琐事审美化。周作人的主要贡献在于，通过号召写文学短篇，开创了中国散文创作的转折点。（美文1921）--Liu Yiyu (talk) 08:31, 15 October 2020 (UTC)Liu Yiyu

Li Liqin 李丽琴

In foreign literature there is the so-called lunwen 論文 (treatise), which is roughly divided into two groups: the reflecting ones, piping 批评 (critical), are scientific articles. The others are jishu 記述 (descriptive) and yishuxing 藝術性 (artistic), they are also called meiwen 美文 (aesthetic essay). Within these texts, one can distinguish between xushi 敘事 (narrative) and shuqing 抒情 (lyric). But there are also mixed texts. [...] I hope that the aesthetical essay is encouraged to come back, and will open up a new field for the New Literature. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

With these words from the essay "The aesthetic essay" this new vernacular form was defined. This starting point founded a whole new tradition of essay writing in China. Contemporary writers called this piece the "king of essays".

Li Luyi 李璐伊

In order to bring this new form to his compatriots, he tried to find similiarities with the xiaopinwen of the Ming dynasty. He further discussed these thoughts in his essay theory. In his own essays, he profited a lot from ancient suibi. Later he further developed his literary theory towards an up and down of two trends. In the modernizing society, he advocated the liberation of women and asked to "treat children as full subjects with their own external and internal lives" and to "make children the essence of children's literature" (Zhou 1923). He promoted the baguwen and the independance of literature from politics and effected the literary scene and the development towards a modern Chinese society especially between 1917 and 1938.

Li Meng 李梦

With this theoretical foundation and his own vo'luÉminous essayistic work, Zhou Zuoren through the example of his own form of short literary pieces within this genre, fought at that stage of the development of his literary theory like Benjamin Henri Constant de Rebecque 130 years ago in France for the idea "l'art pour l'art", for individuality and independance of the writer, for disinterested literature. The jugdment, that Zhou was an apolitical author cannot be proved with his essays. Instead, he wanted his abstinence of political statement to be understood as a political statement by itself.

Benjamin Henri Constant de Rebecque (1767 - 1830) war französischer Romanschriftsteller und liberaler Politiker, der neben der Freiheit der Kunst nach der Französischen Revolution die Einführung der konstitutionellen Monarchie nach englischem Vorbild forderte.

Li Yongshan 李泳珊

Siehe Journal (10.2.1804). Die "Kunst um der Kunst willen" propagierte die Zweckfreiheit der Kunst. Im Gegensatz dazu versteht sich die engagierte Literatur. Die Parallele zwischen Zhou Zuorens Literaturverständnis und dem Konzept "Kunst um der Kunst willen" zieht auch Wolff: Chou Tso-jen 1971, S. 84.

Siehe Zhou Zuoren: Der Ursprung der neuen chinesischen Literatur 1934, S. 95 - 98; vgl. auch Chen Zizhan: Vorträge zur chinesischen Literaturgeschichte 1937, Bd 3, pp. 416 - 422, besonders S. 422. Hinweis in: H. Martin: "Liang Qichao on Poetry Reform" 1996, Bd 1, S. 213.

For him, literature was a mean not for revolution, but for resistance (Zhou 1929:180-181). In fact he saw himself as ‘patriotic underground fighter’ and looked at the collaboration with the Japanese puppet regime as a forced one, following his attempted assasination, through which his driver had lost his life. His own concept of essay writing served less the needs of the building of a nation-state and comes closer to the ideal of the individual.

Li Yu 李玉

How broadly his enlightenment concept might have been accepted in the West, China was simply not ready for this modern concept then, instead it had to give way to a politically manipulated literature and to a dark period first under different warlords, then in the civil and Anti-Japanese war, finally under communist regime, which lasts until the 21st century.

"I don't really know why, but I am feeling as if I am born into a dark age. I admit, that our forests are not inhabited by dragons, tigers and wolves, but shapeless "monsters" and "goblins" are still creeping around and try to swallow our souls. [...] What alarms me most, is the absence of freedom in this prison, into which we writers have been thrown."

Lin Min 林敏

Confronting tradition and progress in the essay "Ancestor Worship", he is in favor of the latter, since past could only become present through changes (Zhou 1919:7-8).

Regarding Zhou Zuoren, I want to correct the official assessment of the People’s Republic, that his work would have experienced a caesura in 1938. In order to explain his opposition of the propaganda to build up national heroes about 1937 and his collaboration from 1939, it has been said officially, that his thoughts had "duoluo 墮落" (degenerated) at that time (Zhu Jinshun 1990:59). In fact, this caesura, namely the change in the style and subject in his essays on literature, art etc. to zhengjing 正經 (serious, intentional essays), and xianshi 閑適 (essays for one’s own enjoyment) is located not before his outlawing through Mao Zedong (1942), and his arrest through the Guomindang (1945).

Lin Xin 林鑫

Therefore not the Japanese suppressors are responsible for the retreat of this great writer, but his Chinese compatriots'. On the basis of the stigma of the 'traitor', he has been undervalued until now. That his work in the 1990s is almost as often published as Lu Xun's and Zhu Ziqing's shows that his texts finally experience a more positive literaric evaluation through the audience, which now must be registered also by scholars.

Another example of a misread Zhou Zuoren is his short essay on "The Fly", where he describes his changing attitude towards flies, which he had played with as child but later disgusted when he learned about their danger of passing on diseases. ”The fly” shows Zhou Zuoren’s strength to describe details and make them a real topic by recalling memories on them or describing a change of perspective on them.

Ling Zijin 凌子瑾

Siehe Zhou Zuoren: "Cangying 蒼蠅" (Die Stubenfliege), in: Chenbao fujuan 晨報副鐫 (Beilage zur Morgenpost) (1924.7.13). Eine Zusammenfassung des Inhalts findet sich in: Yu Daxiang (Hg.): Auswahllexikon chinesischer Essays mit Inhaltsangaben und Analysen 1993.

Zhou summarized the philosophical wisdom he learnt from this, that people did not judge on things objectively, but were likely to praise or damn things. The official reading reproaches Zhou that he "saw only the fly and not the cosmos", a quotation of the young Zhou about a position he himself clearly opposed.

Siehe Vollständige chinesische Anthologie der Wissenschaften - Bd Chinesische Literatur 1988, Bd 2, S. 1300. Dies spielt auf den Essay "Cangying 蒼蠅" (Die Stubenfliege), in: Zhou Zuoren: Zhi Tang. Sammlung 1933 an.

Liu Bo 刘博

His ability to chat about the more pleasent things in life is displayed in his essay ”Birds’ twitter”. In ”Peking cakes and sweet-meat” and in ”Wild vegetable of my home region”, Zhou Zuoren shows his ability to make the reader feel at home at a region, where he feels at home himself, by describing the customs and special regional food.

His piece ”Bitter rain” shows the atmosphere, for what his essays had been labelled ”bitter tea”: There remains a taste in one’s mouth after reading. If you compare Lu Xun’s ”On tea drinking” (Yang/Yang 1961 3:325-326) with Zhou Zuoren’s essay with the same title, you see the difference of ”short and to the point” and ”eloquent and well-read”. ”First love” is more hilarious.

Liu Jinxingqi 刘金惺琦

The essay ”Three different ways to die” shows that Zhou Zuoren can compete with his elder brother in sarcasm. Lu Xun's essay on the same subject, the massacre on March 18, 1926, was a sight. Zhou asks for the ”best” way to die and favors the short and painless one. In ”On alcohol” and ”The awning bunk boat” Zhou Zuoren continues the tradition of late Ming biji.

What is the state of contemporary essay writing in China? Its position should be brought into its proper relationship to recent approaches, perspectives and terms of categorization, like post-modernist elements, post-colonial thinking, deconstructivism etc.

Liu Liu 刘柳

The increase of the essay production after the ‘Cultural Revolution’ might be explained with the ability of the essay, to express personal experiences much more authentically than other genres because of its immanent claim of historical truth. But the essay is not a guarantee for objective truth: In the same time it is subjective, the essayist mediates his image consciously. This restricts the reported truth to a subjective one and bears the risk of a consciously “corrected” truth. The individualism of the Republican era has been based on the common feeling to stand at a historical turning point and directed towards common targets like the creation of a New Literature and a new Chinese society.

Liu Ou 刘欧

In the 1980s and especially in the 1990s, individualism asks for a critical reflection on the satisfaction of personal consumption needs and tries to give personal orientation, essayists plead for moral virtues (Wang Meng: "Anxiang 安詳" (Serene) 1992, "Zuohao ni ziji de shi 做好你自己的 事" (First make your own things in a good way) 1994). These essays, mainly published in newspapers and magazines, are widely read by people in the rapidly changing, anonymous, alienating and consume-oriented mass cultural society.

Other essays in the 1980s and 1990s are in a kind of new subjectivism targeted away from contemporary contradictions but apply to the feelings of the audience by creating an either positive ("Shanxi opera", Jia Pingwa 1984) or negative world ("The nightmare", Si Yu 1995).

二十世纪80年代，特别是90年代，个人主义要求对满足个人消费需求的思想进行批判性反思，并努力寻求个人目标。小说家提倡道德美德，(王蒙: 安详1992，做好你自己的事，1994)。这些文章主要发表在报纸和杂志上，在当时激荡、虚幻、疏远和消费主义盛行的大众文化氛围中，被读者广泛阅读。这一时期的其他作品，出现了一种新的主观主义色彩，它们逃避当下的矛盾，给读者营勾勒出由积极色彩(《秦腔》, 贾平凹 1984)和消极色彩(《噩梦》,思域 1995) 共同构成的世界。

Liu Yangnuo 刘洋诺

From the essay, we can see contemporary trends of literature, which are also reasons for the increase in volume of this genre in the 1990s: - The giddy-paced nature of current Chinese society with its demands for diverting and short texts: “[...] we live in an age of exposition” (Hall 1984:xiii);

- The increasing consciousness of individuality for which the essay is the most direct form of subjective expression, even more direct than the poem with its metrical and formal demands;

- A revival of interest in discussing social-political issues through the medium of the essay, as was the case in the 1920s/30s.

Liu Yi 刘艺

- The banality of everyday life becomes conscious through becoming a literary topic, most commonly in the genre of everyday life, the essay.

- The De-ideologization of Chinese society. Today not the governmentally demanded affirmative texts stand at the forefront, but unpolitical essays, mostly dating from the Republican era, especially from the years 1923 to 1928. This observation is supported by the results of the mentioned statistical analysis. The mostly read political essays after 1949 are critical essays.[Ba Jin for example complains in "Remembering Xiao San" about the death of his wife in the 'Cultural Revolution'.]

Liu Yiyu 刘怡瑜

- Regarding the compiling of essay collections: For the most often selected essays in the People’s Republic, Taiwan and Hong Kong, moral and aesthetic criteria seem to have underlain. This is a sign of the increasing independence of the editors of essay anthologies from governmental or ideological handicaps, and for the increasing commercialization of the publishing houses with an orientation toward customers (former: "readers").

- The criteria for essay best sellers in the P.R. of China are the following: In the most often printed essay "The Back View", filial piety is the driving factor, parallelistic and repetitive structures in the atmospherical nebulous "The Moonlit Lotus Pond", both written by Zhu Ziqing, whose style easily may seem mannerist to the Western reader. Nostalgic home feelings are the emotional identification element in "Wild vegetables of my home region" by Wang Zengqi. Therefore one can state, that moving essays form the top.

有关散文集的编纂:对于中华人民共和国(包括台湾和香港在内)的常选散文来说，其大部分的道德和美学标准似乎都有所隐藏。这是一个信号，意味着散文选集的编辑者在摆脱政府或者意识形态上的阻碍，独立性变得越来越强，也意味着出版社以客户(之前称之为“读者”)为导向，逐渐商业化。

中华人民共和国的畅销散文标准如下:常选印刷散文《背影》，孝顺主题是其畅销的主要原因。《荷塘月色》的内容氛围朦胧，文章结构具有平行性和重复性。这两本书的作者都是朱自清，他的写作风格对于西方读者来说易被视为矫揉造作。思家情绪是汪曾祺的《故乡的野菜》一文中的感情特征元素。因此可以说，畅销榜首均为感人散文。

Liu Zhiwei 刘智伟

- In the latter half of the 1990s, the master narrator himself seems to be lost within the subjectivity of individuals and everyday's profaneity and banality of a more and more formally organized but substantially empty citylife. Time loses worth, since more and more of the daily acctivities are filled with mechanical and autistic actions. In the 1990s, the essayistic culture of political criticism of the 1980s has vanished, the only political replique is the patriotism, for example expressed in the 1996 published monograph China can say no! – Possibilities for politics and emotions in the period after the cold war (No! 1996).

- The reason that we do not find post-modernist essays in the sense of post-modernist fiction lies in the directness of the essay: The essay as a genre is a chat between author and reader and not an object d'art which wants to give cause for different interpretations or which would depend on exceptional form or contents or even quotations of pre-modern characteristics in order to make it an distinguishable object d'art.

Lou Cancan 娄灿灿

Also trends like the use of ordinary language, which one finds in novels since 1993 (Jia Pingwa, Feidu; Gu Cheng, Yingger) and New Borderlessness[Xin zhuangtai xiaoshuo 新狀態小說 (new borderless fiction) with Chen Dong 韓東, Lu Yang 魯羊, Zhu Wen 朱文, Lin Bai 林白, Chen Liang 陳梁, Zhang Mei 張梅.] since 1995, cannot be proven in the essaywriting.[Post-colonialist thinking (Williams et al. 1994), which is to be seen as part of the social-political discourse, appears in essays, especially in the less critical political, but patriotic essays of the 1990s. Kafkaism helps us understand the essay "The nightmare", where Si Yu appears as a deconstructionist, the I-narrator even is drawn near to suicide.]

Luo Weijia 罗维嘉

- Also the fictional realism David Der-Wei Wang sees in Lao She, Mao Dun and Shen Congwen, proves helpful for the understanding of some essays, one being "The Small Dog Baodi", written by Ba Jin 1981, in which the author turns into a narrator who recounts the memories of the 'Cultural Revolution' in allegoric instead of in descriptive truth as before ("In memoriam of Xiao Shan II", Ba Jin 1984). Similar is the concept of imaginery nostalgia, as Wang calls the fictional truth in Shen Congwen's work (David Der-Wei Wang 1992), helpful for the reading of Wang Zengqi's "Rain in Kunming" as well as for Jia Pingwa's "Shanxi opera".[And maybe for Xie Bingxins reflections on her experience as one of the chosen voluntaries of the Wuhan military academy: She insisted to remain a lifelong "woman soldier" .]

Luo Yuqing 罗雨晴

- The Schwarcz' concept of personal grief expressed in a metaphorical discourse helps us to understand how Ba Jin was able to overcome the truth of being he was known for, only to reach a more convincing fictional truth through the metaphor of his dog Baodi.

DISCUSSION: IS THE GENRE OF THE ESSAY THE FORM OF LITERARY EXPRESSION IN 21ST CENTURY CHINA?

Regarding the future of the Chinese literature, we can only speculate. But out the risk of being wild and provocative, I would like to suggest some questions for considering the place of the essay in the field of Chinese literature and literary studies.

Ma Juan 马娟

- People have less time for actions like reading, and get used to reduced visualized information through the Internet. Will the brevity of the essay make it the ideal medium?

- If the Chinese people are rediscovering their individuality, will the essay allow them to express individual thoughts more directly?

- Modern societies are characterized by TV culture, mass consumption, and the loss of consciousness of one's own tradition, often partly due to the American impact on national cultures. Is the essay less bound to the restrictions of tradition, especially compared to the poem and thus more adaptable to the modern phenomenon of mass consumption?

Ma Shuya 马淑雅

- The alienation and the anonymity of citylife worldwide, in China is combined with a loss of traditional values like ideology, family, solidarity etc. in favor of the concept of profit for oneself, - if this has produced a longing for new orientation, will it possibly be filled by morally guiding essays or nationalistic thinking?

Source: Lecture at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA USA, March 14, 2000

REFERENCES

Ba Jin 1981 Ba Jin, "Xiao gou Baodi 小狗包第" (The small dog Baodi), in Tansuo ji 抻坰摩 (Inquiries), Hong Kong 香港 4.1981 [Series Suixiang lu 隨想錄 (Thoughts) vol. 2]

Ma Zhixing 马智星

Bolz 1992 Norbert Bolz: "Essay", in Walther Killy, ed., Literaturlexikon, 15 vols., München: Bertelsmann 1992

Butrym 1989 Alexander J. Butrym, "Introduction", in Butrym, ed., Essays on the Essay - Redifining the Genre, Athens etc.: The University of Georgia Press 1989

Denton 1996 Kirk A. Denton, ed., Modern Chinese Literary Thought. Writings on Literature 1893 - 1945, Stanford University Press 1996, 554 S.

Fan Peisong 1993 Fan Peisong 範培松, Zhongguo xiandai sanwen shi 中國現代散文史 (History of the Modern Chinese Essay), Nanking 南京: Jiangsu jiaoyu chubanshe 江蘇教育出版社 (Paedagogic Press Jiangsu) 9.1993, 626 S.

Meng Ying 孟莹

Gálik 1966 Marián Gálik, "On the Influence of Foreign Ideas on Chinese Literary Criticism, 1898 1904", in Asian and African Studies, Bratislava: Department of Oriental Studies of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, 2 (1966) 38-48

Hall 1984 Donald Hall, The contemporary essay, New York: St. Martin’s Press 1984, 488 pp [In this textbook, Hall has chosen a wide range of contemporary american essayists (34, each is presented with one text), among them many women writers like Alison Lurie, Frances FitzGerald, Diane Johnson and Annie Dillard. The authors are presented with a short biographical overview. In his introduction, Hall applies for clear writing, and active reading.]

Mo Ling 莫玲

Jia Pingwa 1984 Jia Pingwa, "Qin qiang 秦腔" (Shanxi opera), in Renmin wenxue 人民日報 (Folksliterature) (5.1984)

Kubin 1995 Wolfgang Kubin, "Das aschene Herz oder Der Sieg des Lebens. Der Hongkonger Essayist Gaylord Leung (The Ashen Heart or The Victory of Life. The Hong Kong Essayist Gaylord Leung)", in minima sinica 1 (1995) pp. 100-114

Leiden 1988-90 A Selective Guide to Chinese Literature. 1900 - 1949, 4 Bde, Leiden 1988 - 1990 [Only on novels, fiction anthologies, poetry collections and drama.]

Mo Nan 莫南

Lin Yaode 1989 Lin Yaode 林耀德, Shuangmu he . shi nai de 雙目合．視乃得 (You need two eyes to see), in Guannian duihua 觀念對話 (Dialogue of ideas), Taipeh 臺北: Han'guang wenhua shiye gufen youxian gongsi 漢光文化事業股份有限公司 (Shining Chinese Cultureworks Corp.) 8.1989, 266 pp, p 49-77 [A very critical interview with the Taiwanese author Yu Guangzhong.]

Lu Xun 1933 [missing, will be added in a later edition]

Nie Xiaolou 聂晓楼

Lu Xun 1934 Lu Xun, "Xiaopinwen de weiji 小品文的危機" (The crisis of the short literary piece), in Nanqiang beidiao ji 南腔北調集 (Mixed Accents) 1934[?] [Dated 1933. Lu Xun writes, "Sanwen 散文 (essay) and xiaopin 小品 (short literary pieces) are presumably more successful than novels, traditional operas and poems. They contain of course also struggle and fight. Because they often take English suibi 隨筆 (essays) as their example, they are also humorous and distinguished." Following Lee's 1985 :287 terminology, the title reads "The Crisis of the Literary Essay".]

Ou Rong 欧蓉

Luo Dajing ca. 1240 Luo Dajing 羅大經 (? - after 1248), Helin yulu 鶴林玉露 (Forest of cranes and jade dew), in Baibu congshu 百部叢書 (Book series in 100 vols.) tao 套 14, ce 冊 1

Mansberg 1995 Anja Mansberg, Essays aus dem Exil: Liu Zaifu - ein chinesischer Intellektueller in Amerika, Schweden und Kanada (Essays from Exile: Liu Zaifu - a Chinese intellectual in America, Sweden and Canada), Ruhr University Bochum 1995 [Unpublished master thesis.]

Ouyang Jinglan 欧阳静兰

Margouliès 1949 Margouliès, G., Histoire de la littérature chinoise (prose) (History of the Chinese Literature (Prose)), Paris: Payot 1949 [Contains only a few pages on the essay.]

McDougall 1971 Bonnie S. McDougall, The Introduction of Western Literary Theories into China, 1919 - 1925, Tokyo: Center for East Asian Cultural Studies 1971 (East Asian Cultural Studies Series 14-15)

McNaughton 1974 William McNaughton, ed., Chinese Literature. An Antholo-gy from the earliest times to the present day, Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co. 1974, 836 S. [Although it says "literature" in the title, it contains no essays, only "fiction" and "verse".]

Ouyang Ling 欧阳玲

Mei/Wu 1996 Mei Jian 美女建, Wu Weigong 吳為公, eds., Zhu Ziqing nianpu 朱自清年譜 (Biographical chronic of Zhu Ziqing), Hefei 合肥: Anhui jiaoyu chubanshe 安徽教育出版社 (Education Press Anhui) 5.1996, 361 pp.

Morohashi undated Morohashi, Tetsuji 諸橋轍次, Dai Kan-wa jiten 大漢和辭典 (Large Chinese Dictionary), Taipei 臺北 undated, vol. 1-13

Peng Dan 彭丹

Pollard 1985 David E. Pollard, "Lu Xun's Zawen", in Leo O. Lee: Lu Xun and his Legacy 1985, pp. 54-89

Průšek 1964 Jaroslav Pršek, "A Confrontation of Traditional Oriental Literature with Modern European Literature in the Context of the Chinese Literary Revolution", in Archiv Orientalni 32 (1964) 365-375.

Peng Juan 彭娟

Si Yu 1995 Si Yu 斯妤, "Mengyan 夢魘" (The nightmare), in Si Yu 斯妤, Li Hong 李紅, eds., Dangdai nüxing sanwen suibi jingcui - qingxinxiang gao (sanwen juan) 當代女性散文隨筆精 粹—傾心相告（散文 卷） (Choice of Essays and Familiar Essays of Contemporary Women Authors - Opening One's Heart - Essay Vol.), Peking 北京: Zhongguo qingnian chubanshe 中國青年出版社 (Chinese Youth Press) 6.1995, 392 pp, 130-134

Peng Ruihong 彭锐宏

Schmidt-Glintzer 1990 Hellwig Schmidt-Glintzer, Geschichte der chinesischen Literatur, Bern etc.: Scherz 1990, 686 pp. [Contains altogether only a few pages on the essay.]

Tam King-Fai [announced] Tam King-Fai, The Chinese xiaopinwen [working title], New York: Columbia University Press [This collection has been announced for 1999.]

Wagner 1996 Alexandra Wagner, Bildnisse des Selbst: die Neumondschule und der moderne chinesische Essay (Alexandra Wagner: Images of Self: The Crescent Moon Society and the Chinese Essay), Dortmund: Projekt Verlag 1996 [Reihe Edition cathay Bd 15]

Peng Xiaoling 彭小玲

Wang Bin 1992 Wang Bin 王彬, "Essay de youfa Essay的誘發" (The origin of the essay), in Beijing wenxue 北京文學 (Peking literature) (10.11.1992, issue 11) 66-68

Wang Zengqi 1993 Wang Zengqi 汪曾祺, "Dangdai sanwen daxi zongxu 當代散文大系總序" (Preface to the Compendium of the field of the contemporary essay), in Dangdai zuojia pinglun 當代作家評論 (Critical review of contemporary authors) (25.1.1993, issue 1) 8-9

Wu Zhihui [1934] Wu Zhihui as cited by Zhou Zuoren in Der Ursprung der modernen chinesischen Literatur (The Sources of Modern Chinese Literature) 1934, 71-72

Peng Yongliang 彭永亮

Zhou Zuoren 1921 Zhou Zuoren, "Meiwen 美文 (Belle lettre), in: Beijing chenbao fukan 北京晨報副刊 (Supplement to Peking Morning Post) (8.6.1921) ["It appears to me, that the English literature has had its greatest success in the field of the belle-lettre.", ibid.]

Zhu Jinshun 1990 Zhu Jinshun 朱金順, ed., Wusi sanwen shi jia 五四散文十家 (10 Essayists of the 'May-Fourth-Movement'), Peking 北京: Baihua wenyi chubanshe 百花文藝出版 社 (100 Flowers Literature and Art Press) 12.1990, 221 pp. ["1938 dao 1945, shi Zhou Zuoren zui bu guangcai de shiqi, zuo le hanjian 1938到1945是周作人最不光彩的時 期，做了漢奸", p. 59]

Peng Yuzhi 彭育志

Zhu Ziqing 1928 Zhu Ziqing, "Beiying 背影" (The back view), in Beiying 背影 (The back view), Shanghai 上海: Kaiming shudian 開明書店 (Kaiming Bookstore) (10.1928) 像1948

Yale lecture on the 20th Century Chinese Essay

A Survey of the Genre and New Insights Into the Essayists Ba Jin, Zhou Zuoren, Zhu Ziqing

Qi Kai 漆凯

The narrative established by literary histories[Hsia] and anthologies has drawn a distorted picture of 20th century Chinese literature: The genre of the essay was almost ignored. In my paper I will demonstrate, how the picture of three authors change, if we take into consideration also some of their esayistic work. Here I choose the example of the critical political essay. The essay tells us more about an author than fiction or poetry, because in this genre, we encounter the author himself without metrical restrictions.

Qu Miao 瞿淼

In 1927, when the writers were threatened by a massacre among leftists by the National People's Party in Shanghai, a whole generation of writers found a common base in communist ideology, formally expressed in 1930 in the foundation of the "League of Left-Wing Writers".

Quan Meixin 全美欣

Many writers had to define and often redefine their position and self-understanding in reaction to the changing political climate, often burying their own ideals, in the larger perspective for the seeming "needs" of society, which also claimed the author to be one of its products. This struggle of finding a position in a politicized environment is best documen¬ted in the essay --- "a genre of self-reflection". Moreover, by its very nature, the essay overcomes boundaries of form and content. Therefore there are more essays than there is fiction free from political thoughts. Some essayists even went a step further, deconstructed the master narrative of leftist ideology, like the three writers I will talk about today.

Sagara Seydou

The master narrative of the offical literary history of the People's Republic on Zhou Zuoren is, that a sophisticated May Fourth genius "degenerated" and later became a national "traitor". Zhou's writings were officially considered bad literature, a total elimina-tion of his texts was only prevented, because of the fame of his brother, who became a state author posthumously through the valuing of Mao Zedong. Actually the reception of his essays reaches a new climax now, in the essay collections of the 1990s, his essays rank 3rd, as I was able to proof with a survey of 5000 essays. [] That makes clear that his political engagement had no effect on the brilliance of his literary works.

Shi Diwen 石迪文

[All rankings refer to the survey results published in my books on the Chinese essay: Martin Woesler, ed., The Modern Chinese Literary Essay - Defining the Chinese Self in the 20th Century - Conference Volume, Bochum: European University Press ²2003, 327 pp., ISBN 3-934453-15-5, € 35.79; Martin Woesler, ed., The Chinese Essay in The 20th Century - , Bochum: European University Press ²2003, 496 (xlii, 205, 229) pp., ISBN 3-934453-14-7, € 25.00; and in German: Martin Woesler (Hg., Übers.), Ausgewählte chinesische Essays des 20. Jahrhunderts in Übersetzung, Bo¬chum: Europäischer Universitätsverlag ²2003, 300 S.; ISBN 3-932329-05-8, € 15.29; Martin Woesler, Geschichte des chinesischen Essays in Moderne und Gegenwart (3 volumes), Bo¬chum: Europäischer Universitätsverlag ²2003, xiii, 900 S., 3-932329-04-X, € 46.00.]

Shi Haiyao 石海瑶

The official assessment of the People's Republic is that Zhou's work experienced a caesura in 1938 due to his "degeneration" and opposition against the patriotic campaign. Zhou kept trying to aesthetizise the little things of the everyday out of the subjective experience of his private space his whole life, only seven months after the incident at Marco Polo bridge he showed that it was again possible to write about a candy seller for which he had been critizised as "paralyzing" But there was indeed a caesura, namely the change in style and subject in his essays on literature, art etc. to zhèngjiang and xiánshì(essays for one’s own enjoyment).

Si Yu 司妤

But this change is located not before his outlawing through Mao Zedong (1942), and his arrest by the Guomindang (1945). Therefore not the Japanese suppressors should be made responsible for the retreat of this great writer, but his Chinese compatriots. So the first correction of the narrative is, that his literature was not effected by socio-political circumstances in quality, but in contents. And there is a second master narrative on Zhou Zuoren, which says that he was an apolitical author. Actually, he wanted his abstinence of political statement to be understood as a political statement by itself.

Song Jianru 宋建茹

For him, literature was a mean not for revolution, but for resistance[ (Zhou 1929:180-181).]. In the modernizing society, he advocated the liberation of women and asked to "treat children as full subjects with their own external and internal lives" and to "make children the essence of children's literature"[(Zhou 1923).], literature should make the society more humane.

Su Lin 苏琳

The second example, where a reading of some of his essays lets us rediscover the author is Ba Jin: He is known for his practical essays with anarchistic and communist background in the 1930s and 40s, for his opportunistic self-criticism, self-censorship[(The Family in 1951)] and the accusation of a writers' collegue during the cultural revolution. After the 'Cultural Revolution' he seemed to emerge as a righteous character[(1982 Yi pian xuwen).], when he claimed to have done all this under pressure. He then devoted his essays to the working up of the trauma of the 'Cultural Revolution', for example in the self-accusing essay series Random Thoughts.[(Suixianglu) The essays of the 1980s are more autobiographical, and deal with literature and questions for society nowadays. Due to the very nature of the essay, we can look through his "Random Thoughts" into the soul of Ba Jin..]

Tan Xingyue 谭星越

Since they were seldom reprinted, two of Ba Jin’s critical essays "Independent Thoughts" and "Writers’ Courage and Sense of Duty", dating 1956 and 1962 were overlooked. With them, Ba Jin turns out to be a lifelong independant writer. The two essays were criticised. He had to deny their contents and later they were censored. Even nowadays, these texts are not easy to find in anthologies and dictionaries in the P.R.C. and Taiwan.

Tan Xinjie 谭鑫洁

"Independant Thoughts" dated 1956, propagates the freedom of the individual and of thoughts. This essay was written in the '100-Flower-Movement', when criticism was induced officially. Ba Jin corresponded only to the 'mainstream', although his criticism was unusually sharp. Much more distinctly directed against the 'mainstream' was the second text, which I want to introduce shortly.

Tan Yuanyuan 谭媛媛

"Writers’ Courage and Sense of Duty", a speech at the second Shanghai congress of writers and artists in early 1962, has later been censored at seven striking places. In it, Ba Jin"judges very hard about himself and his collegues: At different campaigns against literary works they would have followed the political demands opportunistically and therefore were traitors. The second target of Ba Jin's criticism were the censors and critics, who would posess more power than the writers and that without legitimation. Ba Jin interpreted Mao's Yan'an speeches on art and literature in the way, that writers should themselves take over responsibility.

Tang Bei 汤蓓

"The Small Dog Baodi" as a metaphorical discourse on Ba Jin's personal grief

Although Ba Jin is regarded together with Bing Xin as one of the representatives of Republican literature, the more important part of his essayistic work seems to lie after 1949[ (Random Thoughts 1978-86, see Ba Jin 1988).]. Publishing from Hong Kong since 1979, he has spoken out loudly in opposition and in trying to help ease the trauma associated with the 'Cultural Revolution'.

Tang Ming 唐铭

One of this essays is the story-like "Small Dog Baodi". Written in 1980, the author remembers his dog, which he had received two decades ago from a Swedish person and which he loved after a while. When the 'Red Gards' raged, the dog was in danger. Ba Jin describes in detail the fate of the animal and his own resignation, when he learned that he could not protect the dog. In order to save him from a torturous death, he finally submitted the dog in 1966 for medical experiments. Revisiting his garden after the 'Cultural Revolution', he remembers painfully how his wife had played here with the dog. I would like to show six points of interpretation:

Tang Yiran 汤伊然

1, The dog is a metaphor. In the beginning Ba Jin seems to report the fate of a dog with relevance only to his owner. But soon it becomes clear that Ba Jin actually mediates to the reader the cruelty of the 'Cultural Revolution'. The reader wonders, "if they did this with an innocent dog, what did they do with men, whom they considered guilty?" Ba Jin analogizes himself with the dog, when he sees himself liying on the dissection table. Even Baodi's death is useful, he serves science - could a man be more altruistic?

Tao Ye 陶冶

2, Ba Jin expresses the pain of the loss of his wife through the dog. Not before the very end of the essay, Ba Jin mentions his wife in painful remembrance, who became ill and died during those ten years. In the essay "In Memoriam Xio Shn",which appeared earlier in the collection, he had confessed severe feelings of guilt regarding her death, what haunted him into his dreams. He claimed, that they had withwithhold her medical treatment because of him.

3, The essay is an accusation of the 'Cultural Revolution'. The not-mentioning of the 'Cultural Revolution' as the reason for his wife's death makes the pain the more accusatory, especially in front of the comparable unimportant doglife. His terrifying awareness is the powerlessness - he was not able to protect his dog nor his wife. Ba Jin actually wants to illustrate the powerlessness of the individual in front of collective cruelty.

Wang Meiling 王美玲

4, The significance of this way to deal with the 'Cultural Revolution'. If one compares the mentioned essay with others of the year 1979, it lied within the common trend of criticizing the 'Cultural Revolution'. But there were also authors like Bing Xin denied the 'Cultural Revolution' - soon after its end, she used similar titles for her books than before - in order to pretend continuity. Wang Meng worked up the 'Cultural Revolution' in a humoristic way - Ba Jin's essays stand out of these, because of their relentlessness and confessing character.

Wang Xuan 王轩

5, The use of rhetorical means. Ba Jin pretends to be a simple documentarist "I expect from literature [...] that it tells the truth.". In fact he is known for his direct and accusing truth, sometimes his literary style is critizised as too direct and too less artful (a reproach from Hong Kong students). In "The Small Dog Baodi" he is using literary means to create emotion in his readers. He uses composition and rhetoric means like animation. The dog Baodi allegorically shows the injustice and inhumanity of the 'Cultural Revolution'. Here, Ba Jin turns into a narrator who recounts the memories of the 'Cultural Revolution' in allegoric instead of in descriptive truth as before[ ("In memoriam Xiao Shan").]. He is longing for a fictional truth, instead of the truth of being in the sense of Thomas Aquinas. The fictional realism Wang Der-wei sees in Lao She, Mao Dun and Shen Congwen, proofs helpful for the understanding of this piece.[ Similar is the concept of imaginery nostalgia, as the fictional truth in Shen Congwen is called (David Der-Wei Wang 1992), helpful for the reading of Wang Zengqi's "Rain in Kunming" as well as for Jia Pingwa's "Shanxi opera"..]

修辞手法的使用。巴金自称是纪实小说家：“我希望从文学中获取事实的真相。”确实，巴金的文字也是出了名的犀利、直接，甚至有时他的文学风格受到批评，说是太直接而缺乏艺术性（一位香港学生提出的质疑）。在巴金的小说《小狗包弟》中，他用了一些文学方法来让读者产生共鸣，比如小作文的形式和动漫插图这样的手段。借用包弟这只小狗，以寓言的方式，深刻揭露了“文化大革命”的不公与残酷。在文中，巴金一改作者身份，以寓言和反讽的形式，化为一名叙述者，平静地回忆起“文革”的事情，而非如往常的文章一样，平铺直述真相。（《怀念萧珊》）巴金太渴望寻求一种小说的真相了，而非托马斯·阿奎那式的真相。王德威在作家老舍、茅盾和沈从文的作品中看到的一种小说现实主义证明了对我们理解巴金这篇文章有所帮助。（类似情况还有沈从文提出的想象思乡这一概念，对于理解汪曾祺的《昆明的雨》和贾平凹的《秦腔》也是很有帮助的。）--Wang Xuan (talk) 07:48, 15 October 2020 (UTC)Wang Xuan

Wang Yu 王煜

6, Ba Jin's personal grief is much more persuading in the metaphor of the dog than in his direct accusing essays. As Vera Schwarcz (1996) points out "To speak too much of grief is to blunt its edge. It might even make us deaf to the cry that sparked discourse about suffering in the first place. A cold, calculating intelligence cannot grasp the rough contours of grief. [...] To preserve the significance of personal suffering in public life we need a more indirect approach; one that accepts and, indeed, nourishes AMBIGUITY. This, in the words of Cynthia Ozick, is the discrete province of METAPHOR, "the reciprocal agent, the universalizing force that makes it possible to envision the stranger's heart." [...]

Wang Yuan 王源

She also mentions that "[...] absence of talk -- or, rather modest use of metaphorical discourse -- serve us better in the presence of massive grief."

To sum up, Ba Jin turns out not to be the self-censorer, who tried to make his literature fit into the communist ideology. Instead he was a lifelong fighter for the freedom of speech and the independancy of literature from politics, who spoke out whenever he had the opportunity without endangering himself. He also no longer appears as the "uneducated" writer of simple truth, as he leads us to believe. Yet he has achieved a high rhethoric of fictional truth and is able to transmit his personal grief even more persuadingly in a metaphorical discourse throught the metaphor of the dog Baodi.

Wei Honglang 韦洪朗

A third example, where an author shows another face in his essays is Zhu Ziqing. He is known as the author of the most often reprinted story-like Chinese essay "Back View" (Beiying), a standard school text. The success of this essay lies in the fact, that it applies to filial pity. From the reported fare-well scene with his father at the train station, he learned that his father loved him and that he had grown-up too now. This self-reflective essay helped Zhu to find himself through the observation of the other (here his father).

Wei Yafei 魏亚菲

The 2nd often printed essay is also from Zhu. Parallelistic and repetitive structures are the driving factor in the atmospherical nebulous lyrical landscape desription "The Moonlit Lotus Pond", whose style easily may seem mannerist to the Western reader.

Zhu Ziqing supposedly opposed all political engagement and, wrote about unspectacular things. In Taiwan he became a type of substitute for the categorically refused state writer of the People’s Republic, Lu Xun, mainly because of Zhu’s supposed political independence.

I would like to show with three examples that Zhu had absolutely clear political ideas: He had taken part in the demonstration March 18, 1926, which ended in a massacre. Zhu described this in "Report On the Massacre of the Government"[(Zhizhengfu da tusha ji).].

Wen Sixing 文偲荇

Shots were still being fired, and the entrance of the east gate was packed with people. [...] Pushing and shoving, we climbed over them with great effort. We must have lost our senses then, not seeing, to our shame, the grotesqueness of our action. [...] I was still walking on top of the people. No one dared to miss a single step, filing through the gate that divided safety from danger, one that would give us life or take our lives away. [...] My efforts finally brought me down to the ground, sealing my fate as I rolled down from the human pile. [...] I learned later that some of the people by the gate were dead, killed by the pistol squad firing from the other side of the gate. When I recall stepping over dead bodies, I cannot help but tremble with fear. [...]

Wen Xiaoyi 文晓艺

From this experience, Zhu addresses directly the repsonsible political leaders: Duan Qirui[ 段祺瑞.], you must think about it! [...] How could we explain this to the world? [...] Granted, Duan Qirui and others could commit such atrocities without a thought; but how could we, the people of China, face the world with such a shameless government? [...] We, [...], must ask, „So many were killed—what should we do?“

Wu Kai 吴恺

In contrast, Lu Xun has portrayed the same massacre with sighing undertone and Zhou Zuoren bitter-humorously in his "Ways to die"[ (Si fa).] - in which he finds "to be shot" the best method to die. The supposedly less politically engaged Zhu shows here more engagement.

The essay "Facing the New China"[(Xin Zhongguo zai wang zhong).] is Zhu's political manifest: He asks for democracy, enlightenment and an increase of the education level.

China has to be born again through democratization. [...] The people should express their own will, concentrate on their own strength. Every level of administration should build up on the expressed will and strength of the people and struggle for the majority and its greatest happiness. This means that the people govern, the people own, the people enjoy.

Wu Qi 吴琪

A few weeks before his death, he demanded in the speech "Today's duty of the Intellectuals"[(Zhishifenzi jintian de renwu).] the participation of the intellectual in the struggle for a better society.

With only a handful of essays I have demonstrated, that the picture of these three authors changes substantially, if we read carefully also their less known essayistic work. Imagine now how the picture of 20th century Chinese literature might change, if the literary histories and anthologies would not only tell the history of drama, fiction and poetry, but would also grant the essay its proper place. The following part of my paper are results of my monograph on the 20th century Chinese essay.

Wu Qiong 吴琼

The essay boom as a mirror reflecting growing individuality, participation in the public sphere, and the giddy-paced character of modern Chinese society 散文的流行犹如一面镜子，反映出日益增长的个性、公共领域的参与度以及现代中国社会的步调节奏。--WuQiong (talk) 03:29, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

散文的流行犹如一面镜子,反映出人们日益增长的个性、公共领域的参与度以及现代中国社会令人眩晕的快节奏。--Wang Xuan (talk) 08:11, 15 October 2020 (UTC)Wang Xuan

Acquiring an overview of the essay and assessing its essence has required extensive research in bookstores and libraries, in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United States for available resources in the form of essay book collections as well as secondary literature dealing with the essay. 要理解论文概述并评估其本质，需要在中国大陆、台湾、香港和美国的书店及图书馆进行大量研究，获取论文集和二手文献等可用资源来进一步研究。

要理解论文概述并评估其本质，需要在书店，图书馆，中华人民共和国，台湾，香港，美国境内，获取论文集和二手文献，借助可用资源进行广泛研究。--Gan Fengyu (talk) 03:59, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

要理解论文概述并评估其本质，需要在中国大陆、中国台湾、中国香港的书店、图书馆和美国的书店、图书馆进行大量研究，以此获取与论文相关的文集和二手文献资源。--Wang Xuan (talk) 08:11, 15 October 2020 (UTC)Wang Xuan

Wu Xiang 邬香

I built a database for a statistical analysis to rank more than 5000 essays and 1400 essayists. It turned out that out of the top 60 most famous Chinese essays only 14 had been translated into English so far. The forthcoming collection of Tam King-fai adds 4 and my own one the remaining 42.

Analysis reveals a general increase in essay publication after 1979 with two peaks immediately after the 'Cultural Revolution'. The publications apparently reaching a new height in 1990. The first increase came about in the 1920s and 1930s, after which the essay's role was eclipsed by the genre of the report[(baogao wenxue) (Klaschka 1998).].

Wu Yilu 吴一露

The flourishing of essay publication in the 1920/30s and 1980/90s was helped in part by the appearance of new magazines that existed chiefly as vehicles for contemporary essayists, and numerous essay bookseries[sanwen congshu 散文叢書.].

The reason for the increase in essay production, which we can date right after the clear-cutting of the ‘Cultural Revolution’ has been the backlog of demand, which is reflected in 1 million copies of essay collections being printed between 1980 and 1982 - only counting the collections contained in the sampling of 130 ‘representative’ books I was able to collect for the survey. There are three reasons for the increase in Chinese essay production and popularity in the mid-1990s:

Wu Zijia 吴子佳

1, The giddy-paced nature of current Chinese society with its demands for diverting and short texts, as Hall has put it: “[...] we live in an age of exposition”[(Hall 1984:xiii).].

2, The increasing consciousness of individuality for which the essay is the most direct form of subjective expression, even more direct than the poem with its metrical and formal demands.

3, A revival of interest in discussing socio-political issues through the medium of the essay, as was the case in the 1920s/30s.

Xiao Shuangling 肖双玲

If we look carefully at essay collections not only published in the United States, but also in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the People’s Republic, we find the following three reasons for the under- and overestimation of single essayists or essays which correspond to regional differences:

1, EXOTIC In the United States, essays are often chosen according to Western taste and totally unknown authors are given as much space as established ones.

Xiao Ting 肖婷

2, SOCIO-POLITICAL In Taiwan, Lu Xun has been banned for a long time, but today, as the mentioned survey proofs, he ranks 12th among modern authors there. Wang Meng has been overestimated in the People’s Republic of China due to his political post.

3, PERSONAL Hong Kong literature on Yu Guangzhong has been censored by his disciple Huang Weiliang in favor for Yu.[(see Lin Yaode 1989:50).] Having named reasons for the essay boom and for the support for and the suppression of different actors in the cultural field of the essay, I would like to finish my paper by naming a few trends of the essay as they appear at the eve of the century.

2.社会政治原因。鲁迅的作品在台湾被禁读很长一段时间了，然而，如上述提及的调查证明显示，他在台湾近代作家排名12位。王蒙因其政治文章在中国一直受到过度吹捧。 3.个人原因。香港余光中的作品，在其弟子黄维梁的审查后并得到了颂扬。 在列出了文坛繁荣的原因和为什么有些作家在文坛受吹捧，而有些却遭到贬低之后，我将以介绍上世纪末散文发展的几个趋势作为文章的结尾。

Xiao Xi 肖茜

The topical development of political essays sees a shift from the enlightenment-educational essay, which emerged in 1907, to the daily-political essays in the 1920-30s, further to anti-Japanese propaganda in the 1940s and ideological propaganda in the 1950s and 1960s. Whilst the 1980s saw a revival of political issues in terms of discussion on the best system of society, (also in literature in general and in film) to a mere unpolitical and again more philosophical-moral theme spectrum in the 1990s, where essayists define their role, first of all to counterpart the consumer-orientation of the masses. The essay seems to be the only genre in China which has kept its educational claim with the exception of essays which claim to be "art pourt l'art".

Xiao Yining 肖伊宁

The topical development of the unpolitical essay starts with the everyday-topics of Zhu Ziqing ("On dreams"["Shuo meng 說夢" On dreams in: Zhu Ziqing 1928.]) and Zhou Zuoren from 1917 ("My own garden"[9.1923.], "The Fly"[1924.], "Reading on the Toilet"[1936.]), with a caesura 1927, when the political essays became the main stream, until the late 1930s, when the unpolitical essay was eliminated totally by the anti-Japanese movement. It didn't recover until the 1970s, when life turned back to normality and normal things became topics of interest because of their long absence. Again in the 1990s, the unpolitical essay boomed also due to less interest in political issues and the need for a new orientation in the newly encountered world of mass consumerism.

Xie Fan 解帆

In the end of this century not the governmentally demanded affirmative texts stand at the forefront, but unpolitical essays, mostly dating from the Republican era, especially from the years 1923 to 1928. This observation is supported by the results of the mentioned statistical analysis. Among the upper list places of the political essay after 1949 there are critical essays. For the most often selected essays in the People’s Republic, Taiwan and Hong Kong, moral and aesthetic criteria seem to have underlain.

Xie Ziyi 谢子熠

A sign for the increasing independence of the editors of essay anthologies from governmental or ideological handicaps, and for the increasing commercialization of the publishing houses with an orientation for customers (former: "readers"). Following the emotional essays of Zhu Ziqing who rank 1st and 2nd, nostalgia is the element of emotional identification in "Wild vegetables of my home region" by Zhou Zuoren, which ranks 3rd[Compare to Jia Pingwa's "Moon traces", which ranks 11, and Ba Jin's "Paradise for Birds", which ranks 19.]. Therefore one can state, that moving essays form the top.

Xu Jia 徐佳

In 1927, Chinese literature took the form of 'engaged literature'. In the 1980/90s, the discussion of politics in daily interest form a smaller part than in the 1920/30s. In the 1980s all genres including poems and essays were used for the critic against the master narrative of Communism or the Maoist understanding of art as serving ideology.

Xu Jing 许晶

In the later half of the 1990s, the master narrator himself seems to be lost within the subjectivity of individuals and everyday's profaneity and banality of a more and more formally organized but substantially empty citylife. In the 1990s, the essayistic culture of political criticism of the 1980s has vanished, the only remiscent element left is the patriotism.[Trends like the use of ordinary language, which one finds in novels since 1993 (Jia Pingwa, Feidu; Gu Cheng, Yingger) and New Borderlessness since 1995, cannot be proven in the essaywriting. The reason that we do not find post-modernist essays in the sense of post-modernist fiction lies in the directness of the essay: The essay as a genre is a chat between author and reader and not an object d'art which wants to give cause for different interpretations or which would depend on exceptional form or contents or even quotations of pre-modern characteristics in order to make it an distinguishable object d'art.]

Xu Jing 许静

References

Vera Schwarcz 1996, Vera Schwarcz, "The pain of sorrow: public uses of personal grief in modern China", in Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Winter 1996)

Ba Jin 1982，Ba Jin:"Yi feng huixin"(A response letter(26.10.1982)), in:Bing zhongji(On the sick-bed),Hongkong 1984(?)(Reihe Suixiang lu(Thoughts) Bd 4),147 pp.,in the following:Ba Jin:On the sick-bed 1984,reprinted in:Ba Jin: Thoughts under time 1978-1986,vol.4 On the sick-bed, S.19-23

Xu Mengdie 徐梦蝶

Ba Jin 1982a, Ba Jin: "Yi pian xuwen" (A preface) [dated 1982.9/10], in: Ba Jin:On the sick-bed 1984

Ba Jin 1956,Ba Jin:"Duli sikao"(Think independantly),in:Li Jisheng, Li Xiaolin (eds):Ba Jin liushi nian wenxuan (1927-1986),Suixiang lu, zagan,sanwen, xuba, yanjiang, shuxin (Ba Jin. Selected Works from 60 years (1927 - 1986), Thoughts, mixed feelings, essays, prefaces, speeches, letters),Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe(Literature and Art Press Shanghai), 1986.12,S.461-462 [Dated 1956.]

Xu Pengfei 许鹏飞

Ba Jin 1962, "Zuojia de yongqi yu zerenxin" (Encouragement and responsibility of the writer)1962;the essay of Zhou Zuoren:"Wenxue tan"(On Literature),has been published in:Tan long ji(On Dragons. A collection), Shanghai:Kaiming shudian(Kaiming Bookstore)1927.12,reprint:Hongkong:Shiyong shuju(Practical Press)1972.1,310 S.,S.165-167

Zhou Zuoren 1919, Zhou Zuoren, "Zuxian chongbai 1919 (Ancestor Worship)," in Early Essays, op.cit., pp. 7-8

Yang Chenting 杨晨婷

Zhou Zuoren 1920:Zhou Zuoren, Xin wenxue de yaoqiu"(The demand of the New Literature) [lecture],in Beiping shaonian xuehui (Beiping youth conference)1920.1.6,in:Zhang Ruoying:Xin wenxue yuandong shi ziliao(Material on the history of the New Literature movement),Shanghai:Guangming shuju (Guangming bookstore)(1934.9 ²1936.9, 291-296

Yang Hairong 杨海容

Zhou Zuoren 1923, Zhou Zuoren: Yanzhicao ba (Preface to Yu Pingbo's Yanzhicao), in: Yongri ji (Book of Eternal Day), Shanghai: Beixin shuju 1929, 180-181

Zhou Zuoren 1929, Zhou Zuoren: Ertong de shu (The books of children), in: Chenbao fukan (1923.8.17)

Yang Hui 阳慧

Zhou Zuoren yuanliu, Zhou Zuoren: Zhongguo xin wenxue de yuanliu (Sources of New Chinese Literature), p 71

Zhou Zuoren 1932, Zhou Zuoren: Lun baguwen 1932, in: Kanyun ji p. 148

Source: NEAAS annual meeting 10/09/1999 New Haven (Yale University)