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Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2: Personalities

Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2

Language
English

Contents

Personalities

Chen Duxiu

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Chen Duxiu (or Ch’en Tu-hsiu, October 9, 1879 - May 27, 1942) is a leading figure in China’s New Culture Movement and one of the founders of the

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*Chen Duxiu*

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Communist Party of China. Originally named as Qingtong, he also called himself Zhongfu or Shi’an. He was born in Huaining (present-day Anqing), Anhui, and is the first Chinese scholar to translate Rabindranath Tagore’s works.

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**Lifetime** Chen Duxiu’s father died when he was a child. He was smart and given a traditional Confucian education by his grandfather. He passed the countylevel imperial examination in 1896 and in 1897, he went to study at Qiushi Academy in Hangzhou and learned about modern Western Thoughts and culture. From 1901, he went to Japan three times, and joined an English-medium school in Tokyo in 1907 and later transferred to Waseda University. In September 1915, he founded the *Youth Magazine* (renamed as New Youth in 1916) in Shanghai. He became the Dean of Peking University in 1917. As a leading figure in the New Culture Movement, he called for a literary revolution. After the May Fourth Movement in 1919, he began to propagate Marxism. In August 1920, he founded China’s first communist group in Shanghai and began to prepare for the founding of a communist party. In July 1921, the Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded, and Chen Duxiu was elected as the General Secretary. From then on to July 1927, he was a major leader of the CPC. In November 1929, he was expelled from the Party. He moved to Sichuan in 1938 and lived in poverty and poor health. He died in Jiangjin district of Chongqing. His major works are included in *Collected Works of Chen Duxiu*.

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*‘Youth Magazine’, front cover*

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**Connection with A *Sanskrit Grammar*** When he studied in Japan in the early 20^th century, Chen Duxiu came to know of revolutionary Zhang Taiyan, Liu Shipei, Su Manshu and the like. He went to Japan in the spring of 1907 and became a roommate of Su Manshu. Soon after, he founded ‘Asia Friendship Society’ together with Zhang Taiyan, Liu Shipei and Su Manshu with a purpose “to fight imperialism and regain independence for subjugated Asian nations.” Each with a large store of knowledge, they learned from each other to broaden their horizon and make rapid academic progress. From Zhang Taiyan and Su Manshu, Chen Duxiu learned much about Buddhism and India. In the summer of the same year, Su Manshu finished *A Sanskrit Grammar*, with the original English version furnished by Chen Duxiu. This book was translated from Volume I of Max Müller’s *A Sanskrit Grammar for Beginners* (1866). Su Manshu stated in the preface, “Henceforth, there will be communication between Chinese and Sanskrit.” Chen Duxiu composed a poem to praise him, “Start a millennium-old learning from today, and strive best to benefit people. Excellent writing once existed, and Siddham’s heavenly language disappeared. Living creatures are bound and black is hard to become white, and human nature is smeared with mud and horse does not neigh. I do not want to go with dreams, and see you deep in the snow mountain.” Here, ‘millennium-old learning’ means Sanskrit study, and ‘heavenly language’ refers to Sanskrit.

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**Translation and Comment on Tagore** As the first Chinese to attempt the translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s works in “To the Youth” (*Youth Magazine*, Issue I, Vol. 1, September 15, 1915), he thought highly of Tagore and compared him to Leo Tolstoy. He selected Articles 1, 2, 25 and 35 from Tagore’s *Gitanjali* (a collection of religious lyrics) and translated them into five-character Chinese poems, *Songs of Praise* which were published in *Youth Magazine* (Issue II, Vol. 1, October 15, 1915). If *Gitanjali* is a masterpiece of Tagore, then Article 35 is the best part of this masterpiece. An Indian scholar once said, even without any other poem, Article 35 of *Gitanjali* (Where the mind is without fear) alone would be enough to bring a lasting name to the poet. Chen Duxiu made an excellent translation, and below is a copy:

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Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

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From the choice and the translation, it is clear that Chen Duxiu has an unusual mastery of Chinese and poetry. He gave an explanatory note on Tagore: “A modern Indian poet and an advocate for oriental civilisation, and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (it should be Nobel Prize for Literature). He is reputed in Europe and revered by the Indian youth as a sage, and his poems are filled with religious and philosophical ideals. Gitanjali are composed to praise Brahma”. In the translation, he made adept use of Buddhist terms, and this indicates that he had a good knowledge of Buddhism. His style of translation was similar to that of Su Manshu. It is a kind of recreation, though not necessarily in full agreement with, yet on the whole could reproduce the basic spirit of the original text.

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However, Chen Duxiu soon became a Marxist and a revolutionist and began with vehement criticism of traditional Chinese culture, stopped the probe into the “millennium-old learning” and “Siddham’s heavenly language”, and his attitude towards Tagore also underwent a drastic change. When Tagore visited China in 1924, Chen Duxiu became a violent critic and attacker, and repulsed by Tagore’s appreciation of Chinese culture and his ideas such as non-violence and universal love, he successively published more than 20 articles, for example, ‘*Tagore and Oriental Culture*, *On Tagore’s Speeches in Hangzhou and Shanghai*, *What a Fraternal and Peace-loving Poet-Philosopher, Tagore and Money Worship, Is Tagore Something*’, to constantly track and criticise the poet’s lectures in China and even accuse him as 'a lobbyist for imperialism', and 'a politician rather than a poet'. Most of these articles are radical, unfounded and unscholarly. Besides, he also asked Mao Dun and others to write critical papers and even took actions to besiege and harass Tagore. When Tagore was making a speech, there would be someone to humiliate and harass him by shouting, throwing leaflets and rapid assembly. Tagore had to cancel some public lectures. In fact, Chen Duxiu may not know, Tagore was also a sure-footed social reformer. Tagore once aspired to socialism and expressed certain sympathy and hope with respect to the October Revolution in Russia. Tagore was a firm opponent of imperialism, colonialism and fascism, and he never changed and was a lasting friend of the Chinese, as well as people across the world. But Chen Duxiu changed his attitude and took his friend for his foe and seriously hurt Tagore. However, apart from oral explanation, Tagore never reacted to the misunderstanding and attack he encountered in China. Ironically, his reputation in China rose rather than fell, and he is popular in one generation after another, while, now few would like to read those articles by Chen Duxiu.

Lu Xun

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Lu Xun (September 25, 1881 – October 19, 1936) is one of the most prominent and influential writers in 20th century China. Born as Zhou Zhangshou (later known as Zhou Shuren), Lu Xun is considered a founder of modern vernacular Chinese literature (白话baihua) and an outstanding personality of modern Chinese literature as well as a key player in the May Fourth Movement. In India, Lu Xun is probably the best known among all modern Chinese writers and his works have been translated, studied and performed widely.

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*Lu Xun*

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He was born into a scholarly family in Shaoxing of Zhejiang province in China. Until he was 11, Lu Xun studied in a private school run in his home town. His family went through various troubles and suffered a gradual financial decline while he was in his a youth. The memories of this period became an important source material for his creative writing, and are vividly depicted in his later works such as *Call to Arms* (《呐喊》), *Wandering* (《彷徨》) and *Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk* (《朝花夕拾》).

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In 1898, 17-year old Lu Xun left home to study at the Jiangnan Naval Academy and in 1899, he shifted to Jiangnan School of Mines and Railways at Jiangnan Military Academy. It was there that he had his first contact with Western learning, especially the sciences. He studied some German and English, reading in translation Huxley’s *Evolution and Ethics*, J. S. Mill’s *On Liberty*, as well as novels like *Ivanhoe* and *Uncle Tom’s Cabin*. In 1902, Lu Xun went to Japan to learn Japanese but after two years, he joined the Sendai Medical Institute (later known as the Medical Department of Tokyo University) to study modern Western medicine. Later, he decided to abandon his studies because he felt that it was more important to cure the Chinese people of their spiritual diseases through literature and art. He returned to China in 1909.

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*Lu Xun delivering a speech at the playground of Beijing Normal University, November 27, 1932*

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After returning home from Japan, Lu Xun taught in Hangzhou High School and Shaoxing High School. During this period, he went through a phase of extreme depression and mental turmoil. The Xinhai Revolution of 1911 gave his feelings a temporary sense of excitement but subsequent events made him realise that the Revolution had neither changed China’s stagnating reality nor its social chaos. These events, compounded with national disasters and problems in his marriage, led Lu Xun to extreme depression. After the May Fourth Movement, his pent up thoughts and emotions burst forth like lava through the eruption of his literary writings. At this time he was working for the Ministry of Education and had moved to Beijing.

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In October 1923, Lu Xun began to teach the history of Chinese fiction to the Beijing Women’s Higher Normal University students. He later shifted to Sun Zhongshan University in Guangzhou. From October 1927, he began to formally live together with Xu Guangping.

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Lu Xun also served at various levels in the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China. Amongst his many achievements, he worked for the standardisation of Chinese, helped to develop the phonetic alphabet, designed the national emblem of the Republic of China along with Qian Daosun and Xu Shoushang, and designed the then emblem of Peking University. But Lu Xun soon left the civil service after a legal wrangle with the Ministry and the government.

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After the success of the 1917 Russian October Revolution, Lu Xun was highly inspired and together with many progressive intellectuals of the time such as Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, he wrote essays and established journals which marked the beginning of China’s New Culture Movement. He was in the frontline of the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggle, actively advocating new culture, new ideas and new morals and severely criticising the old culture, old ideas and old moral values which had existed for thousands of years in China. In 1918, he published the novel *Diary of a Madman* (《狂人日记》), published in the magazine *New Youth* (新青年). This was the first vernacular novel in the history of modern Chinese literature. Partly inspired by a short story by Nikolai Gogol, it was a scathing criticism of outdated Chinese traditions and feudalism which was metaphorically 'gnawing' at the Chinese society, and daringly exposed the evils of feudal etiquette and the feudal patriarchal clan system. It immediately established him as one of the most influential writers of his day. After that, he never stopped writing, and wrote many novels, essays, satirical essays and commentaries. Another one of his well-known longer stories, *The True Story of Ah Q* (《阿Q正传》), was published in installments from 1921 to 1922, and came to be regarded as one of his finest works.

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While teaching and writing, Lu Xun devoted himself to the revolutionary struggles of his times. From 1927 till his death in 1936, he lived in the more liberal city of Shanghai, where he co-founded the Chinese League of Left-Wing Writers and focussed his attention on revolutionary literary and artistic movements. Most of his essays date from this period. In 1930, Lu Xun’s *A Concise History of Chinese Fiction* (《中国小说史略》) was published.

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'True Story of Ah Q' (A Q Zhengzhuan), front cover

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Based on his lectures delivered at Peking University, this work is a comprehensive overview of the history of Chinese fiction until that time. It went on to become one of the landmark books of Chinese literary criticism in the 20th century.

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His other important works include volumes of translations, notably from Russian, discursive writings like *Re Feng* (热风, Hot Wind), and many other works such as prose essays, which number around 20 volumes or more. He was the editor of several left-wing magazines such as *New Youth* (新青年), *Sprouts* (萌芽) and so on. His works exerted a very substantial influence on the Chinese literature produced after the May Fourth Movement. He was eulogised by the government of China after 1949; Mao Zedong himself was a lifelong admirer of Lu Xun’s works. Though sympathetic to the ideals of the Left, Lu Xun never actually joined the Chinese Communist Party.

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His importance to modern Chinese literature lies in the fact that he contributed significantly to almost every modern literary medium during his lifetime. He wrote in a clear lucid style which was to influence many generations. His translations were important in a time when Western literature was not widely read and his literary criticisms seem acute and persuasively argued even today.

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The work of Lu Xun is world renowned. In India, there is a general consensus that despite cultural and geographical differences, his writings are extremely relevant to contemporary India. Moreover, his works are included in the syllabus of courses on Chinese Literature and History of Chinese Literature, taught in the university departments/centres of Chinese language, literature and culture. On the occasion of Lu Xun’s birth centenary, a three-day seminar was organised in New Delhi in 1981. Indian scholars of Chinese Studies and academics from other institutions presented papers on him, his works, and, his social, cultural and political philosophy. The seminar was also attended by a number of well-known writers from all over India and was marked by a compilation of Lu Xun’s works and commentaries on his works entitled ‘*Lu Xun ki Virasat (Legacy of Lu Xun)*’ edited by Manager Pandey, *et al*.

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The students of India’s prestigious National School of Drama have produced a stage adaptation of the *The True Story of Ah Q*, set against the backdrop of the Naxalite Movement in Bihar, named *Chandan Singh urf Chamku*. It was directed by eminent Indian theatre personality Bhabu Bharti. A Marathi adaptation of *The True Story of Ah Q* was staged in early 2013, directed by Durvesh Arya and the production starred Girish Pardeshi in a 55-minute solo performance.

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In 2008, at the initiative of Chinese residents of Kolkata, a bronze statue of Lu Xun was installed in the town hall. The statue was unveiled by Qian Jianmin, the mayor of Shaoxing, the hometown of Lu Xun, and the mayor of Kolkata, Bikash Bhattacharya. Drawing parallels between him and Rabindranath Tagore, Jianmin said that both had left deep impressions in world literature. Pointing out that Lu Xun was popular in Kolkata, Bhattacharya said, “People of the city love him for his empathy for the poor and the marginalised.”

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To commemorate his 130ᵗʰ birth anniversary in 2012, an international conference on *Lu Xun and His Legacy* was organised in Delhi by the Institute of Chinese Studies, with many participants from India, China and other countries. On this occasion, an exhibition entitled *Life and Work of Lu Xun* was brought from China by the Beijing Lu Xun Museum and was on show in the Indian capital for a week. Students of the Centre for Chinese & South East Asian Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University also staged a theatrical production based on Lu Xun’s *The True Story of Ah Q* and a soliloquy on him.

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(Sabaree Mitra)

Su Manshu

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Su Manshu (1884～May 2, 1918) A Chinese writer, poet, painter and translator, whose original name was Jian and who later changed his name to Yuanying or Xuanying and styled himself as Zigu. After becoming a monk, he called himself Manshu. His ancestors were from Xianshang, Guandong

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*Su Manshu*

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(now Zhongshan). He mastered many languages - Japanese, English and Sanskrit. He travelled to India, translated Indian tales and compiled Sanskrit grammar books. In modern China, he is the first to study Sanskrit and has made a special and indelible contribution to India-China cultural exchange.

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**Family and Life** Su Manshu’s grandfather, Su Ruiwen made his fortune from international trade, and his father Su Jiesheng was a tea merchant who lived and worked in Yokohama for a British firm and had one wife and three concubines, with his first concubine being a Japanese. Su Manshu was born in Yokohama, but his mother Wakako did not marry with his father and instead, was the younger sister of his father’s first concubine. So, Su Manshu was an illegitimate and mixed-blood child. When he was a small child, he was taken back to Guangdong, separated from and since then never saw his mother, since his mother was not allowed to entre the door of Su’s family. He was considered as an outcast and

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'Complete works of Su Manshu' (Su Manshu Quanji), front cover

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mistreated by the family. At the age of nine, his father went bankrupt due to poor management, and the family never recovered from financial decline. At the age of 13, he went to Shanghai to live with his aunt. At the age of 14, he was disillusioned and went to Changshou Temple in Guangzhou to be tonsured by a Buddhist monk called Zanchu. However, one day he was caught stealing pigeon meat, and was expelled from the temple. In 1898, with money provided by his cousin Lin Ziyuan, he went to Japan for education, and in nearly six years, where he studied western arts, politics, military affairs etc at Yokohama Chinese School, at Waseda University and at the Seijo School. He lived in extreme poverty but thought nothing of it. To save oil, he never lit the lamp at night. In September 1903, since he was in favour of anti-Qing revolutions, Lin Ziyuan forced him to leave Japan. He returned to Shanghai, taught at Wuzhong Public School in Suzhou and was introduced to Chen Duxiu and Zhang Shizhao. In the meantime, he translated *Les Misérables* by Victor Hugo for *China National Gazette*. In the winter of the same year, *China National Gazette* was closed, he went to Hong Kong with a reference letter by Feng Ziyou, but was cold-shouldered by Chen Shaobai, who then took charge of *China Daily*, [Figure: *Seeing the monk off to Japan (Song seng gui Riben)*, a poem by Qian Qi, Tang Dynasty, calligraphy by Su Manshu]

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the mouthpiece of Hsing Chung Hui (Society for China's Regeneration). Thus, he could not attend revolutionary activities, nor could earn a living. He had to go to Huizhou in Guangdong and became a monk again. Without a formal qualification, he stole a certificate from Bojing, an elder monk that already died, fled to Hong Kong, and there was actively involved in anti-Qing activities while wearing cassock, and used literature as a weapon to pay the way for the 1911 Revolution. After revolutionary victory, he was wild with joy, but still lived an unconventional life, and thought nothing of "mean or utilitarian matters" (said by Zhang Taiyan). He stayed away from dignitaries, and acted in his own way and refused to be bound by formalities. He drifted here and there as a monk or as a layman, teaching, writing or eating at a temple.

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Su Manshu was known as "a lonely monk like floating cloud and flowing water". In his early years, he once learned English from a Spaniard. From 1904, he had been to Southeast Asia several times, and in Thailand, he met a famous monk and studied Sanskrit from him for two years. Then, he went to Sri Lanka and stayed at Bodhi Temple. In 1907, he became a lecturer for Sanskrit Society, made friends with patriotic Indians, gave away all his Sanskrit collections, talked with Gui Bohua, Chen Duxiu and Zhang Binglin about setting up a Sanskrit library, but this attempt failed, since no one responded. He published Collected Poems of Byron in 1907 and went to Singapore in 1908. In the late spring and early summer of 1909, Zhang Taiyan opened a Sanskrit class at Koishikawa, Tokyo, and recruited Mishira from India as the lecturer, and Su Manshu acted as an interpreter and worked with Mishira for two and a half hours every day. In 1910, he went to India and stayed at a temple in the central India, where he acquired a solid knowledge of Indian Buddhism, society, literature and customs. Throughout his life of adversity, he roamed around in a melancholic mood. In 1918, he became sick and was hospitalised at Guangci Hospital in Shanghai for several months, and died there. The last words he breathed were "Every being is sentient, and every sentient being is unimpeded". He suffered a destitute and troubled life, finally resulting in a weak and sickly disposition, and died at the age of 35 without consummating his potential. Wang Zhaoming arranged his funeral, and he was buried at Mountain Gushan near the West Lake in Hangzhou. Liu Yazi, a member of Southern Society as well, considered his poems "to be sad and beautiful", and his novels and essays "to be nothing vulgar". His writing is grand and outstanding.

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**Achievement and Inspiration** Su Manshu is a learned scholar of Indology. Back from Thailand, he went to Ling Yin Temple in Hangzhou and there wrote the eight-volume Sanskrit Code, plus a preface, and other relevant works include *A Basic Sanskrit Dictionary* (four volumes), *Fan Shu Moduo Ti Wen (Alphabets for Brahmanas)* and *Geographic Names and Itineraries for Faxian's Fo Guo Ji and Huisheng's Xi Yu Ji*, which, however, are little known of and even lost. From his extant poems, novels, essays and letters, his knowledge of India proves to be thorough and meticulous. In a poem "To Zhang Taiyan and Huang Kan from Java" (1910), he portrayed Indian landscape, "Jump and climb a mountain and look around to find no cliffs around. My horse is exhausted, while India is vast. The

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[Figure: *Qing gong tu, painted by Su Manshu*]

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Ganges flows constantly, and a sad wind sweeps the forest”.

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His “*Yanzikan Suibi*” consists of 63 essays, with more than 10 related to India. The 43rd essay says, “When I came to the central India, I went to a temple with two or three companions. In the forest there are many fruit trees, and for nearly a month, I picked 50-60 and ate every day. I was so happy doing this as to think I may not eat anything else in the future. However, this made me suffer first from constipation and then from dysentery.” In essay number 53, he praised the Indian epics *Ramayana* and *Mahabharata* as “grand and elegant”, and “a great treasure in the eyes of European literary figures, just like Illiad and Odyssey were to Greece. These two Indian epics have not been translated into Chinese, and only in the book “*Huayan Jingchao*” it states, “*Ramayana* and *Mahabharata* are names of books. They were translated into European language a long ago, and the best is the translation made by Ramesh Dutt, with an introduction provided by the British scholar Max Müller, but it is a partial rather than complete version.” And in essay number 54, he referred Kalidasa as “the poet-sage of India” and “Indian Shakespeare” in the eyes of British poets. Su Manshu became the first modern Chinese scholars to pay attention and comment on Kalidasa and his works. In essay number 59, he even noticed the difference between lotus in China and those in India. He remarked, “Lotus in China is only of red or white colour, while that in India may be golden, yellow, blue, purple and the like, and the pink-white one opens in the day and closes at night, with edible petals. It is fragrant and several times larger than that in China. It is what is called as ‘Pundarika” in sutras.” In respect of Sanskrit literature, Su Manshu had precise comments, which have broadened the horizon of successive Chinese scholars.

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Recognising Sanskrit’s position in the world and the great value of Sanskrit literature, Su Manshu compiled *Sanskrit Grammar”*, which was not anything out of his imagination, but was a translation of *A Sanskrit Grammar for Beginners* by Max Müller (1866). As he stated in the preface, “Henceforth, communication between Chinese and Sanskrit will commence”, he translated and compiled this book with a clear purpose to arouse the interest towards Sanskrit, restore India-China cultural links that had been interrupted for many years, and revive the rapidly sinking spirit of Buddhism and interest in Indian culture. He was of the opinion, “India is the origin of philosophy and culture, which is superior to Greece”, and he even believed that, “in terms of beauty and conciseness, Sanskrit is the best, and next to it is Chinese, and then after that are the European languages.” This shows how he admired classic Sanskrit literature. The translation

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[Figure: 'Earthly Dreams and Meditative Mind: Collection of Su Manshu Paintings' (Chenmeng chanxin—Su Manshu huaji), Shao Yingwu]

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of *Sanskrit Grammar* was not difficult for him and became as important a scholarly text as Max Mueller’s original. The original English version was furnished by Chen Duxiu. When the first volume of the *Sanskrit Grammar* was completed, Zhang Taiyan and Liu Shipei separately wrote an introduction for him, while Chen Duxiu composed a poem to praise him, “start a millennium-old learning from today, and strive for the best to benefit the people. Excellent writing once existed, and then Siddham’s heavenly language disappeared. Here, “millennium-old learning” means Sanskrit study, and “heavenly language” refers to Sanskrit.

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He translated *My Escape to the Sala Beach* in 1908, and this indicates his concerns for the fate of India and worries about the future of China. When this translation was published at *Min Bao*, it noted that “this was written by Chocha of South India, and translated by a traveller”. He stated in *Translator’s Introduction*, “This is a dairy of an Indian and translated from an English version. Through fairy tales the Indian expresses his grief at the subjugation of his nation. Those wearing red hats and carrying guns refer to the white people”. Since Su Manshu had added his imagination to the translation of *Les Misérables* by Victor Hugo, there are some who doubt that he could have written this on his own. So far, it is still not known who was the so-called Chocha, and it is hard to find the original text of *My Escape to the Sala Beach*. Fantastic, undulating and structurally complete, the novel portrays the courage with which the Indians resisted against the colonists, and Su Manshu uses this book with a purpose to warn Chinese of possible subjugation and to encourage Chinese to resist and rebel, and it also probes why India was subjugated, and expresses the translator’s deep sympathy with Indian people.

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Su Manshu translated Goethe’s *Epigram on the Sakuntala* into Chinese:

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*Wouldst thou the young year’s blossoms and the fruits of its decline*
*And all by which the soul is charmed, enraptured, feasted, fed,*
*Wouldst thou the earth and heaven itself in one sole name combine?*
*I name thee, O Sakuntala! and all at once is said.*

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The translation is so excellent a literary piece that this poem and Kalidasa’s Shakuntala became well-known in China.

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In 1909, Su Manshu translated *Garden of Joy*, a short poem by Toru Dutt, a talented Indian girl-poet (March 4,1856 - August 30,1877). Dutt was a born linguist, and besides her mother language Bengali, she was also proficient in English, French and Sanskrit. The young girl once lived and studied at Cambridge, and could write in English and French, translate Sanskrit into English, and compose poems and essays. Sir Edmund Gosse praised her store of knowledge as simply miraculous. Su Manshu said in the preface, “Toru Dutt wrote this profound and meaningful poem to plead for his country. Alas! This talented girl lived such a short life! I translate it into a five-character poem and show it to my friends. I give a copy to her sister at her family garden”. In *A Letter to Liu San*, he further said, “Now I send a poem of Toru Dutt for your comment. She is a talented girl in modern India, and her poems are well known across Europe and America. Last year, she was just 19 years old. She dies young, and I have translated this poem and sent a copy to her sister.” Proficient in English, Su Manshu was well informed of the world’s literary circles. He and Toru Dutt both had a talent for languages, and naturally, he appreciated her ability and took pity on her early death. Through introduction by Su Manshu, Toru Dutt soon became well-known in China, and even now, many people still know about her.

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Su Manshu thoroughly understood the two great Indian Sanskrit epics, also had a deep understanding of the Upanishads and *Manusmrti*, and had a strong desire to translate them. He had a particular interest in Kalidasa, and once avowed to translate *Shakuntala* and the long epic *Meghaduta*. He, Yan Fu and Lin Shu are considered to be three great translators in the late Qing and early Republic of China. Were it not for his early death, he must have become a Sanskrit master and earn greater achievements in translation. In respect of Sanskrit, his contemporaries and successors have greatly benefited from his studies. In the 1950s, less than 40 years after the death of Su Manshu, Ji Xianlin translated *Shakuntala*, and Jin Kemu translated *Meghaduta*. Now, the two great Sanskrit epics all have been translated into Chinese and Su Manshu’s wishes have been fulfilled one by one. China has a growing study and research of Sanskrit.

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Su Manshu had an unusual and unrestrained talent, and his writing was neat and elegant and hard to be matched. He wrote love stories in classical Chinese, such as *Duanhonglingyan Ji* and *Jiangsha Ji*. These stories are delicate, touching and somewhat autobiographical. Most of his poems are sentimental, and often portray a scene of a lonely lamp midst wind and rain, “cassock and tears”, worries and sadness. He benefited from Sanskrit and Buddhism studies and improved his writings accordingly. Zhang Taiyan praised him as “having a noble character and desisting secular gains”. Zhou Zuoren admired his translations. *Collected Works of Su Manshu* and many other works are extant. He also left some valuable paintings.

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(*Liu Jian*)

Guo Moruo

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Guo Moruo (1892-1978) was a well-known writer, poet, scholar, playwright, archaeologist, social activist and historian of the 20ᵗʰ century China who rose to the prominent position in the leadership hierarchy of the CPC in becoming the President of the Chinese Academic of Sciences in 1949 and continued to adorn this post till his death in 1978.

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Guo Moruo, the eighth child of his parents, was born in a landlord family living in the small town of Sha-wan (located on the Dadu river) near the prefecture level city of Le Shan of Sichuan province in November 1892. In the early phase of his life he received a traditional education of acquiring mastery over the Chinese classics under the tutelage of Guo Huanzhang, a private tutor with an aim to appear in the imperial civil service examination. However, after the educational reform in China, he was quite fortunate to avail the opportunity of going through new subjects of contemporary relevance when he went to study in the provincial capital of Cheng-du in February 1910. After about four years of stay there in Cheng-du, he went to Japan in January 1914 and after a year of preparatory course in Tokyo, he entered the sixth Higher School in Okayama. In 1918, he joined the Medical School of Kyushu Imperial University of Fukuoka. But, he was hardly interested in medicine. His real interest lay in the studies of foreign language and literature, especially, the works of Spinoza, Goethe, Walt Whitman and the Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore. In Japan, after thus being exposed to new forms of literature, he reached to the conclusion that western literature was superior to classical literature and folk tradition of China. Such conviction propelled him to translate lots of foreign literary works into Chinese, and published them in *New Journal on Current Affairs* (*Shi-shi Xinbao*), so as to acquaint his countrymen with the developing trend of the new socio-political-literary thoughts of the modern world. It is during this period of his stay in Japan, Guo Moruo brought out an anthology of his poems titled 'the Goddesses' (nu-shen女神) in 1921, that distinctly reflected his outlook of romanticism.

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*Guo Moruo*

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Guo Moruo, (first from the left), delivering a speech at the founding meeting of the Chinese Journalists' Association on March 20, 1938

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While in Japan, Guo Moruo came in contact with the Japanese Marxist Kawakami, and it may be said that both the doctrine of Marxism and the May Fourth new literature movement had a pronounced effect on his future course of thinking and action. From this time onwards, he changed himself from being a liberal democrat to a committed Marxist. In 1921, Guo Moruo, along with other patriotic writers like Yu Dafu and Cheng Fengwu formed the "Creation Society' with an avowed objective of promoting new vernacular literature in China. They brought out two periodicals, the “Creation Quarterly (Chuang-zao Ji-kan创造季刊) and the “Creation weekly” (chuang-zao zhoubao创造周报), both of which initially aimed at propagating western romanticism and individualism to varying extent, while upholding the prime motto of “art for art sake” in their literary pursuits. However, after the May 30^th Incident of Shanghai in 1925, and the consequent nation-wide anti-imperialist agitation, the main focus and orientation of the magazines shifted towards the growth of proletarian revolutionary literature.

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In 1923, Guo Moruo returned to China and joined the Kuo-min-tang (Nationalist Party) as political commissar while participating in the Northern Expedition of Jiang Jieshi. But when the rising peasant and workers movement in Jiang-xi and An-hui was crushed in March 1927, and the Communist Party members were subjected to severe persecution and suppression by Jiang Jieshi and his party, Guo Moruo felt disillusioned with the KMT policies. He left the KMT and joined the Chinese Communist Party. He actively participated in the Nan-chang uprising of August 1927, but after its dismal failure, Guo Moruo fled to Japan where he continued to prolong his stay for about 10 years, and devoted all his precious time in scholarly works till the outbreak of the anti-Japanese Resistance War of 1937, when again, he returned to China.

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As a devoted scholar of exceptional talent and ability, Guo Moruo's academic output during this period of 10 years has proved to be excellent and extraordinarily fruitful. Among his most illustrious scholarly works of this period were - *Inscriptions on Oracle Bones and Bronze Vessels* and *Study of the Ancient Chinese Society* etc in which he tried to demonstrate the slave nature of the Chinese society. All his academic works have been compiled into *Guo Moruo Quanji* (*Collected Works of Guo Moruo*) in 38 volumes, which were found to have been divided into three parts such as literature, history and archaeology.

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Guo Moruo was an ardent admirer and lover of Rabindranath Tagore's poems during the time when he was pursuing higher studies in Japan as a student. However, on the eve of Tagore's visit to China, in view of the changing socio-economic–political conditions and fierce ideological debate then raging in China; Guo Moruo without mincing words, is reported to have vividly showed his cynicism and scepticism about the message that the Indian poet was likely to convey to the Chinese people and youth when the latter would visit China. But, even then, Guo Moruo continued to have high regards and appreciation for Tagore's poems.

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In 1966, Guo Moruo was attacked by the Red Guards during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and severely humiliated. He passed away in 1978 due to old age.

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(*Arttatrana Nayak*)

Xu Dishan

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Xu Dishan (February 14, 1893-August 4, 1941) was a Chinese writer and scholar of Indology, and was known by another name of Zankun, and had a courtesy name of Dishan, and pseudonym of Luohuasheng.

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Lifetime

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Dishan was originally from Fujian province, and was born in Taiwan. He moved to Fujian with his family in 1895, then to Guangdong in 1897. At first, he received education at home after which he went to school. He taught in Fujian Provincial Second Normal School in 1912 and in 1913, taught in the school for overseas Chinese in Yangon in Burma (Myanmar), where he began to be interested in Buddhism, finally, returned to China in 1915 to keep teaching in Fujian Provincial Normal School. He studied in the School of Liberal Arts of Yenching University from 1917 to 1920, receiving the Bachelor of Arts, and stayed at school to be the teaching assistant

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*Xu Dishan*

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of Zhou Zuoren (a famous Chinese writer). He also studied spiritual courses at the Seminary of Yenching University, and graduated in 1922, receiving the Bachelor of Theology. In the same year, he went to Columbia University in New York of the United States of America to learn history of religion and comparative religion, receiving the Master of Arts in 1924. Then, in the same year, he went to University of Oxford in Britain for learning history of religion, Indian philosophy, Sanskrit and Folklore, receiving the Bachelor of Arts of University of Oxford in 1926. In October of the same year, on the way back to China, he went to Banaras Hindu University in India to learn Sanskrit and Buddhist Studies. He taught in Yenching University from 1927 to 1935, holding the post of teaching assistant, associate professor (1928) and professor (1930), and he was also the part-time teacher of Peking University, Tsinghua University and Beijing Normal University. He again went to India to learn more about Indian religion, Indian literature and Sanskrit from June 1-6, 1934. Since

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*'Selected Prose of Xu Dishan' (Xu Dishan Sanwen xuanji)*, front cover

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1936, he worked as the professor of Faculty of Arts of The University of Hong Kong, until he died of heart attack.

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Literary creations

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In 1919, he made the acquaintance of Zheng Zhenduo, Qu Qiubai, Geng Jizhi and Qu Shiying in Beijing while jointly editing the youth literature called *New Society*, which was a periodical published every 10 days, and began to be engaged in prose writing, with about 20 published works. In 1921, Xu Dishan, Mao Dun, Zheng Zhenduo, Wang Tongzhao and Ye Shaojun set up the Literary Research Association. In the same year, he published his first short story *Jivajivika Bird* in *Novel Monthly*, attracting a great deal of attention from the literary world. And then he consecutively published three short stories including *Businessman’s Wife* in the same magazine. In 1922, he published a short story *Laboring Spider* in *Novel Monthly*. In 1923, Xie Bing Xin, Liang Shiqiu and Xu Dishan went to America for studies, and published the short story *Goddess Lakshmi* in *Novel Monthly*. In 1924, he published short poems like *Looking at Me*, *Love Letter* and *Mailbox*, short stories like *Withered Flower* in *Novel Monthly*. Later, he met Lao She (a famous Chinese writer). In January 1925 his first collection of short stories *Laboring Spider* was published and in June, the prose collection *Raining in the Mountain* was also published. Since then, he had less literary creation but more academic works. In 1927, he published the poetry *My Patients* in *Novel Monthly*, and *In the Living Room of Premier Fei* in 1928. In 1930, he wrote children stories like *Firefly Light* and *M’yrtle*, and published them in 1941. In 1933, his second collection of short stories *Liberator* was published by Beiping (present-day Beijing) Xing Yun Tang Bookstore, and his short story *Heart of a Teenage Girl* was published in the monthly magazine *Literature*. In 1934, he published short stories *Pretended Person* and *A Woman for Two* in the magazine *Literature*. In 1938, he published one-act play *Heroine* in *Ta Kung Pao* mobilising Chinese people for Anti-Japanese War. In 1939, he published novella *Wang Guan* in 10-day periodical *Wind*. In 1940, the play-script *Murderer* was published in *Cosmic Wind* but the play-script *Mulan* was not published. In February 1941, he published the short story *Fish Gill in the Wind*, in the same year. Yu Dafu reprinted it in *Overseas Chinese Weekly* of Singapore.

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'Groundnut (Luo hua sheng)', front cover

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One of the outstanding features of Xu Dishan's literary creation is that his works were deeply influenced by Indian literature. Especially, in his early proses and short stories, he uses a lot of Buddhist vocabulary, and expresses the thought of Buddhism. In his first novel *The Jivajivika Bird* he quotes from the allusion in a Buddhist story. In 1923, he had not yet been to India but he had introduced the Hindu mythology 'Samudra manthan' in his story *Goddess Lakshmi*. It relates the story of Lakshmi (lucky lady) who rises from the sea made of cream and milk, and she is the wife of Visnu, who protects the world.

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Study and translation of Indology

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Xu Dishan began to focus on Buddhism during his boyhood, and studied the Buddhist scriptures when he grew up, which gave him a strong Indian complex. As early as May in 1920, he published his translation of Rabindranath Tagore's philosophical article *True Feelings of Beauty* on the supplement to *Morning Paper* and his novel *On the Way to Calcutta* in *Novel Monthly* in 1921. He was one of the earliest writers to translate Tagore's philosophy articles and novels. In 1921, he held a special symposium and invited Xu Zhimo to introduce Tagore's achievements and literary creations. In the same year he began to study Sanskrit by himself. He studied the comparative religion in America in 1923, the Sanskrit and Indian philosophy in Britain in 1924. In 1925, he published *Influence on Chinese Literature from Indian Yilan Literature* in *Novel Monthly*, and it is the earliest works on the comparison of Chinese and Indian literatures in modern China. In 1926, he went to India to study Sanskrit and Buddhist studies. At the same time, he also made a special trip to Visva-Bharati University to visit the great poet Tagore. In 1927, he wrote three books of *Index of Subtitle of Buddhist Scriptures*, which was published in Sinological Index Series of Yenching Institute, and wrote *Style of Indian Drama and its Manifestation on Chinese Drama*, which was published in *Novel Monthly*. He began to teach Indian philosophy in Peking University in 1928, and was one of the earliest scholars who taught Indian philosophy in modern China. His part-time translation of *Folk Tales of Bengal* was published by the Commercial Press in 1929. In 1930, he wrote *Dinnaga's Hetuvidya of Madhyamaka and Yoga* and *Humble Opinion on Stone Inscription Era* which were published in *Yenching Journal of Chinese Studies*. In the same year his book *Indian Literature* was published by Commercial Press, and it is China's first works which makes a comprehensive and systematic introduction of Indian literature. In 1934, he went to India to study for six months at his own expense, and then began to translate Indian folk tales such as *Questions asked in 20 Nights* and *The Setting of the Sun* after returning to China. In the same year, the *Origin of Worshiping Avalokitesvara* was published in *Ta Kung Pao* in Tianjin. In 1935, *Questions asked in 20 Nights* was published in the magazine *Literature*, and came out as a book in 1955 from the Writers Publishing House from which *The Setting of the Sun* was also published in 1956. In 1939, he used his spare time to compile Sanskrit dictionary, with more than 80,000 cards having been made, however, the dictionary was not completed due to his sudden death. Within his short life he has with great enthusiasm, made a pioneering contribution to the research and translation of Indology in China.

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(*Xue Keqiao*)

Lin Yutang

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Lin Yutang (林语堂, October 10, 1895 – March 26, 1976) was a Chinese writer, translator and linguist. He was the author of well-known work *The Wisdom of China and India*. He was born in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province. He had his university education abroad receiving his Master's degree in Comparative Literature from Harvard University and PhD in Linguistics from University of Leipzig, Germany. Subsequently, Lin Yutang returned to China and taught at Peking University, Beijing Normal University, Xiamen University and Shanghai Dongwu University. In 1936, he went to the United States of America and settled there for a while. From this point on he mainly wrote in English. In 1966 he settled down in Taiwan. In 1967, he was employed as a research professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and then in 1975, he served as Vice President of International PEN. In 1976 he passed away in Hong Kong and was later buried at Yangmingshan, Taipei.

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Lin Yutang

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Lin Yutang was also an internationally acclaimed Chinese humorist. He used humour as a tool to

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'The Wisdom of China and India (Zhongguo Yindu zhi zhihui)', front cover

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express his compassionate feeling for mankind, bemoan the state of the universe and pity the fate of mankind. He was well-versed in English and Chinese which contributed to his being one of the most influential writers and translators of his time. He compiled and translated several Chinese classics into English language. He was one of the prominent modern Chinese writers who accepted ideas from Western thought and civilisation and was also the first to introduce Chinese thought and culture to Western readers through his translated works. *Moment in Peking* (《京华烟云》), *The Vermillion Gates* (《朱门》) and *A Leaf in the Storm* (《风声鹤唳》) were his representative works that introduced Chinese Daoist, Confucian and Buddhist culture to the Western world.

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Lin Yutang was highly impressed by Indian literature, by the country's ideological and social thought and the cultural essence and ideas which he believed had shaped the entire Indian nation. He tried to study and analyse the spirit and essence of Indian thought and culture, and to realise the experience of Indian values and the richness of Indian thought. In one of his famous works, *The Wisdom of China and India* (1942), he interpreted Indian classical writings. The book focussed on the essence of Indian and Chinese culture. It explored these two ancient civilisations and their people, and analysed their national psychology, literary imagination and everyday lives. It includes excerpts and passages from Indian texts such as *Rigveda*, *Upanishads*, *Ramayana*, *Panchatantra*, *Dharmapadas* while at the same time explaining the teachings of the Chinese masters to foreign readers.

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(*Sabaree Mitra*)

Mao Dun

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Mao Dun 茅盾 (pen name of Shen Yanbing 沈雁冰, July 04, 1896 – March 27, 1981) was an outstanding Chinese writer, translator, literary critic and social activist. He is considered to be one of Republican China's greatest realist writers. In India, his works are included in the syllabus of courses on Chinese Literature and History of Chinese Literature, and taught in university departments and centres of Chinese language, literature and culture. He translated into Chinese the short story *Skeleton* (*Kankal*) by Rabindranath Tagore.

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Mao Dun was born in an elite family in the town of Tongxiang in Zhejiang Province, and received a good education in his early years. But his college education was brought to an abrupt end because of their poverty-stricken situation. Therefore, he began to make a living by joining Shanghai Commercial Press in 1916. From the time of the May Fourth Movement, he played a leading role in China's literary circles. He served as Chief Editor of *The Short Story Magazine* (《小说月报》), and established *The Society for Literary Studies* (《文学研究会》) and *Translation Magazine* (《译文》). After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, he was appointed Culture Secretary. A literary career

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Mao Dun

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*‘Midnight (Ziye)’, front cover*

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spanning over half a century created in him a mature man of letters who shouldered responsibilities of high office and displayed great patriotism. After his death in 1981, the Mao Dun Literature Award was set up with Mao Dun's own savings to reward excellence in novel-writing in China.

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His major works include the novels *Three people walking* (《三人行》), *The Shop of the Lin Family* (《林家铺子》), *Spring Silkworms* (《春蚕》), *Autumn Harvest'* (《秋收》), *Rainbow* (《虹》), *Midnight* (《子夜》). His literature of realism focussed especially on the factors that influenced him most in the course of his life: Foreign authors and ideologies, Chinese tradition and politics, class struggle and the emergence of feminism in China.

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In his lifetime, Mao Dun also translated more than 240 pieces of literary works involving over 150 writers from 30 countries, covering diverse literary subjects and literary genres such as science fiction, drama, poetry, prose, social criticism and literary theory. Apart from the hugely successful translation ventures that he undertook, he put forward a number of insightful ideas on translation theory and practice, including theories of "artistic and creative translation" and "systemic translation" which had a great impact on the development of translation practice in China during the first half of the 20th century.

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Through his work Mao Dun greatly influenced the development of China's New Literature Movement in the early 20th century. Simultaneously, he made a great contribution to the development of scientific, revolutionary and democratic thought in China.

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