Zhou Zuoren (Chinese:
Zhou Zuoren | |
---|---|
Born | Zhou Kuishou ( 16 January 1885 Shaoxing, Zhejiang, Qing Empire |
Died | 6 May 1967 Beijing, People's Republic of China | (aged 82)
Occupation(s) | Translator, Essayist |
Partner | Zhou Xinzi (original name: Nobuko Habuto) |
Children | Zhou Fengyi Zhou Jingzi Zhou Ruozi |
Parent(s) | Zhou Boyi (father) Lu Rui (mother) |
Relatives | Zhou Shuren (elder brother) Zhou Jianren (younger brother) |
Biography
editEarly life
editBorn in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, Zhou Zuoren was educated at the Jiangnan Naval Academy as a teenager before moving to Japan in 1906, following his brother’s footsteps. During his stint in Japan, he began studying Ancient Greek, with the aim of translating the Gospels into Classical Chinese, and attended lectures on Chinese philology by scholar-revolutionary Zhang Binglin at Rikkyo University, although he was supposed to study civil engineering there. He returned to China in 1911, with his Japanese wife, and began to teach in different institutions.
During the May Fourth Movement
editWriting essays in vernacular Chinese for the magazine La Jeunesse, Zhou was a figure in the May Fourth Movement as well as the New Culture Movement. He was an advocate of literary reform.[1] In 1918, Zhou Zuoren, then a literature professor at Peking University, published an article titled “Human Literature”, insisting on mutual understanding and sympathy between each other, and required a “recognition of the existence of the same kind”.[2] In the article, he attacked specifically such thematics in literature as children sacrificing themselves for the sake of their parents and wives being buried alive to accompany dead husbands. Meanwhile, Zhou made a distinction between "democratic" and "popular" literature by identifying the former as literature that studies human life rather than written for the common people to read.[3] Zhou condemned elite traditional performances like the Beijing opera. He called it "disgusting," "nauseating," "pretentious" and referred to the singing as "a weird inhuman sound."[4]
Later life
editDuring the Second Sino-Japanese War, Zhou is seen as a collaborator with the Japanese occupation, and has been regarded by some Japanese as one of the three Chinese in modern times who "truly understands Japan".[5] In 1945, Zhou was arrested for treason by the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek, stemming from his alleged collaboration with the Wang Jingwei government during the Japanese occupation of north China. He was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in 1947. In January 1949, shortly before the liberation, the Nationalist Party Government with the temporary President Li Zongren decided to release some people under detention. As one of them, Zhou Zuoren was released on bail and went back to Beijing.[1]
In the next 17 years, Zhou continued to translate classical Japanese traditional and classical Greek literature. However, during the Cultural Revolution, the People's Literature Publishing House no longer paid royalty to Zhou Zuoren, which used to be his sole source of income. On May 6, 1967, Zhou Zuoren died of a sudden relapse of the illness.[1] During the first decades of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Zuoren's writings were not widely available to readers due to his alleged treason. Only during the relatively liberal 1980s did his works become available again. The Chinese scholar Qian Liqun (
Literature Interests
editHe called his studies "miscellanies" and penned an essay titled "My Miscellaneous Studies" (
Philosophical Stance
editIn his early work, Zhou Zuoren denied the legitimacy of violence as a force for modernizing China, but rather sought social change and intellectual engagement through nonviolence.[8] Before the 1920s, his literary and philosophical views agreed with the essential aspects of Romanticism,[9] which impulses set him apart from other major literary and intellectual figures as his motives in participating in the New Culture Movement had much less or little to do with any apocalyptic vision or transcendental aspiration.[10] During the May Fourth era, he continued commitment to what he called “individualist humanism”,[5] but eventually abandoned this ideology after witnessing increasingly violent tendencies that were out of the idealism of the May Fourth movement.[8] As he wrote in 1926, “class struggle was not a Marxist invention but true as the Darwinian idea of competition for survival”.[11] After the May Fourth Movement, Zhou sought to retreat from the nation-building project into individual and ordinary life.
Between 1940 and 1943, Zhou used Confucianism as a guise to argue that the Chinese never had any “thought problem,” as the Japanese so claimed. By comparing the Confucianism development in China to a tree, he asserted that “the tree can grow up again if there was no outside interference through either restraint or artificial cultivation.”[5] However, after the war, his profuse textual language and artistic attitude were also seen to align with the spirit of Daoism thoughts.[12] In 1944, he explained: “According to my own observations and experience, I have an opinion that is incompatible with the time, which is my two not-to-be-isms. First, I don’t want to be a follower; second, I don’t want to be a leader. Although I labeled myself a Confucian, this attitude actually belongs to Daoism. However, since I cannot retreat fully, I still have no way to avoid conflicts”.[13]
References
edit- ^ a b c "PKU Today in History - May 6: Passing of Zhou Zuoren". english.pku.edu.cn. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- ^ Zhou Zuoren’s “Human Literature” View and Christianity: An Encounter and Departure." English Language and Literature Studies.
- ^ Feng, Liping (April 1996). "Democracy and Elitism: The May Fourth Ideal of Literature". Modern China. 22 (2). Sage Publications, Inc.: 170–196. ISSN 0097-7004. JSTOR 189342.
- ^ Nicholas D. Krsitof: Beijing Opera Is 200 and Facing a Crisis. In: The New York Times, Nov. 1, 1990
- ^ a b c Lu, Yan. “Beyond Politics in Wartime: Zhou Zuoren, 1931-1945.” Sino-Japanese Studies 11, 1 (Oct. 1998): 6-13.
- ^ LIU, HAOMING. 2002. "From Little Savages to Hen Kai Pan: Zhou Zuoren's (1885-1968) Romanticist Impulses Around 1920." Asia Major 15 (1): 109-160.
- ^ Christopher Rea, The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2015), chapters 2 and 6.
- ^ a b Li, Tonglu. 2014. "The Sacred and the Cannibalistic: Zhou Zuoren's Critique of Violence in Modern China." Chinese Literature, Essays, Articles, Reviews 36: 25-60.
- ^ Abrams, M. H. 1971. Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature. 1st ed. New York: Norton.
- ^ LIU, HAOMING. 2002. "From Little Savages to Hen Kai Pan: Zhou Zuoren's (1885-1968) Romanticist Impulses Around 1920." Asia Major 15 (1): 109-160.
- ^ Zhou, Zuoren. “An Amateur's Comments 门外
的 按语.” In 谈虎集 , 261-266.北 新書 局 , 1936. Accessed June 19, 2024. https://taiwanebook.ncl.edu.tw/zh-tw/book/NTNULIB-9900006066/reader. - ^ Jianmei, Liu, 'Zhou Zuoren: The Unconscious and Troubled Semi-Zhuangzi', Zhuangzi and Modern Chinese Literature (New York, 2016; online edn, Oxford Academic, 22 Oct. 2015), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190238155.003.0005, accessed 20 June 2024.
- ^ Zhou, Zuoren. “Beyond the Literary
文壇 之 外 .” In立春 以前 . Accessed June 19, 2024. https://xuoda.com/xdmj/zzr/lcyh/33.htm
Bibliography
editA great number of books about Zhou Zuoren are published in Chinese every year. For basic information about his life and works, see:
- Zhang Juxiang 张菊
香 and Zhang Tierong 张铁荣 (eds.) (1986). Zhou Zuoren yanjiu ziliao (周作 人 硏究 资料 "Materials for the study of Zhou Zuoren"). 2 volumes. Tianjin: Tianjin renmin chubanshe.
A character portrait by a contemporary colleague at Peking University:
- Wen Yuan-ning (1934). "Chou Tso-jen: Iron and Grace," in Imperfect Understanding: Intimate Portraits of Modern Chinese Celebrities. Edited by Christopher Rea (Amherst, MA: Cambria Press, 2018), pp. 49–52.
For Western language studies, see:
- Daruvala, Susan (2000). Zhou Zuoren and An Alternative Chinese Response to Modernity. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center.
- Georges Bê Duc (2010). Zhou Zuoren et l'essai chinois moderne. Paris: L'Harmattan.
Comprehensive editions of his works and translations include:
- Zhi'an
止 庵 (ed.) (2002). Zhou Zuoren zibian wenji (周作 人 自 编文集 "Zho Zuroen's essays as arranged by himself"). 34 volumes. Shijiazhuang: Hebei jiaoyu chubanshe. - Zhong Shuhe 钟叔
河 (ed.) (1998). Zhou Zuoren wen leibian (周作 人文 类编 "Zhou Zuoren's essays as arranged by subject matter"). 10 volumes. Changsha: Hunan wenyi chubanshe. - Zhou Zhouren (1999–). Kuyuzhai yicong (
苦 雨 斋译丛 "Translations done at the Studio of Uninterrupted Rain"). 12 volumes have appeared. Beijing: Zhongguo duiwai fanyi chuban gongsi.
Some of his essays are available in English:
- Pollard, David (trans.) (2006). Zhou Zuoren, Selected Essays. Chinese-English bilingual edition. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.
Further reading
edit- Chinese Writers on Writing featuring Zhou Zuoren. Ed. Arthur Sze. (Trinity University Press, 2010).
External links
edit- A more comprehensive bibliography of English translations of Zhou's writing can be found in the Modern Chinese Literature and Culture resource centre.