Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t3: Su Manshu
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s2.t3
- Language
- English
Su Manshu
v2.c10.s2.t3.1
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
v2.c10.s2.t3.2
*Su Manshu*
v2.c10.s2.t3.3
(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.
v2.c10.s2.t3.4
**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
v2.c10.s2.t3.5
'Complete works of Su Manshu' (Su Manshu Quanji), front cover
v2.c10.s2.t3.6
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]
v2.c10.s2.t3.7
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.
v2.c10.s2.t3.8
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.
v2.c10.s2.t3.9
**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
v2.c10.s2.t3.10
[Figure: *Qing gong tu, painted by Su Manshu*]
v2.c10.s2.t3.11
Ganges flows constantly, and a sad wind sweeps the forest”.
v2.c10.s2.t3.12
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.
v2.c10.s2.t3.13
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
v2.c10.s2.t3.14
[Figure: 'Earthly Dreams and Meditative Mind: Collection of Su Manshu Paintings' (Chenmeng chanxin—Su Manshu huaji), Shao Yingwu]
v2.c10.s2.t3.15
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.
v2.c10.s2.t3.16
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.
v2.c10.s2.t3.17
Su Manshu translated Goethe’s *Epigram on the Sakuntala* into Chinese:
v2.c10.s2.t3.18
*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.*
v2.c10.s2.t3.19
The translation is so excellent a literary piece that this poem and Kalidasa’s Shakuntala became well-known in China.
v2.c10.s2.t3.20
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.
v2.c10.s2.t3.21
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.
v2.c10.s2.t3.22
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.
v2.c10.s2.t3.23
(*Liu Jian*)
Linked texts (4)
- Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
- Meghadūta — Kālidāsa, Sanskrit
- Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit
- Abhijñānaśākuntala — Kālidāsa, Sanskrit