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Modern Chinese Biographical Writing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Richard C. Howard
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Extract

“Biography,” in the words of Hu Shih, “is the least developed branch of Chinese literature.” This statement would, at first sight, seem to have little justification when we take into account the enormous quantity and wide variety of Chinese biographical literature produced during the past two millennia, and when we consider the voluminous biographical output and the keen popular interest in biography in twentieth-century China.

Type
The Biographical Approach to Chinese History: A Symposium
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , August 1962 , pp. 465 - 475
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1962

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References

1 Hu Shih's preface to Hsiao-jo, Chang, Nan-t'ung Chang Chi-chih hsien-sheng chuan-chi (Shanghai, 1930), P. 1.Google Scholar

2 For this point the author is indebted to Dr. Arthur W. Hummel.

3 Notable examples of these manuscript diaries published by the offset process are Tseng Kuo-fan's Tseng wen-cheng kung jih-chi (1909 in 38 volumes), Weng T'ung-ho's Weng wen-kung kung jih-chi (1925 in 40 volumes), and Li Tz'u-ming's Yueh-man-tʻang jih-chi (1922 in 51 volumes).

4 See the 316 chapters of the lieh-chuan section of the Chʻing-shih kao, compiled by the Bureau for the Compilation of the Chʻing History (Chʻing-shih-kuan) under the general direction of.Chao Erh-sun and published in 1928. Similar in nature were the biographies appearing between 1947 and 1949 in the Kuo-shih-kuan kucm-kʻan, the official publication of the government-sponsored Bureau for the Compilation of National History (Kuo-shih-kuan) in Nanking.

5 Among the more important biographical dictionaries are the famous Chung-kuo ming-jen ta-tzʻu-tien (1921), containing over 40,000 biographies which, while very brief, were in large part based upon collections of lieh-chuan in the dynastic and local histories; and the Min-kuo ming-jen t'u-chien (1937), compiled by Yang Chia-lo, in which the biographies, in many cases much longer than in the former work, bear close resemblance to the lieh-chuan in form and content.

6 See for example the biographies of revolutionary leaders appearing throughout the five volumes of Feng Tzu-yu's Ko-ming i-shih (1939–1947), and the 227 lieh-chuan-type biographies of Kuomintang leaders and martyrs included in part four of Tsou Lu's Chung-kuo kuo-min-tang shih-kao (1929–1944).

7 In the Hsin-tʻai-pʻing-shih chi (1947), the collected works of Chang I-lin, one-time secretary to republican presidents Yuan Shih-kʻai and Feng Kuo-chang, there appear a number of mu-chih-ming and hsing-chuang composed during the 1930's and early 1940's.

8 Of special interest in this respect are the biographical writings appearing in the mid-1930's in the magazines of Lin Yutang: the Lun-yü, begun in 1932, Jen-chien-shih, in 1934, and Yü-chou-feng, in 1935. Continuing this trend in popular biographical writing were Yi-ching, begun in 1936, and Ta-feng, in 1938, both under the editorship of Chien Yu-wen.

9 Some idea of the diversity of such biographies may be gained from a survey of the works noted in Wu, Eugene, Leaders of Twentieth-Century China (Stanford, 1956).Google Scholar

10 On Cheng Ho, see Liang Chʻi-chʻao, Cheng Ho chuan (1905), in Yin-ping-shih chuan-chi (hereafter cited as YPSCC), Vol. III, followed some years later by Li Shih-hou, Cheng Ho chia-pʻu kʻao-cheng (1937) and Cheng Ho-sheng, Cheng Ho (1944). Renewed interest in Wang An-shih had begun in the Chʻing period, but critical reassessment of his career began in the twentieth century with Chʻi-ch'ʻao's, LiangWang Ching-kung (1908), in YPSCC, Vol. VII.Google Scholar

11 The extensive range of subjects selected for biographical treatment can be seen from the books and magazine articles reported in the bibliographical sections of the Jen-wen yeuh-kʻan, which was published between February, 1930 and December, 1937. Of some 2,500 biographical articles noted, about 52 percent were concerned with non-Chinese personalities, 48 percent with Chinese; of the latter, about half were devoted to Chinese who lived in the twentieth century and half to figures of earlier periods.

12 On the development of the nien-pʻu, see Chʻi-chʻao, Liang, Chung-kuo chin san-pai nien hseuh-shu shih, in YPSCC, XVII, 324–336Google Scholar, and especially Liang's, Chung-kuo li-shih yen-chiu fa pu-pien, in YPSCC, XXIII, 64–89Google Scholar. For bibliographies of nien-pʻu, see Shih-tʻao, Li, Chung-kuo li-tai ming-jen nien-pʻu mu-lu (1941)Google Scholar, and Tʻing-tsʻan, Liang, “Nien-pʻu kʻao-leuh,” in Kuo-li Pei-pʻing tʻu-shu-kuan yuch-kʻan (Bulletin of the National Library of Peiping), III (July-November, 1929), 1–5Google Scholar. The latter bibliography affords some indication of the popularity of the nien-pʻu during various periods: among the nien-pʻu whose dates have been determined, 52 were written in the Sung period, 11 in the Yuan, 90 in the Ming, 492 in the Chʻing, and 100 during the Republic. Many more nien-pʻu not reported in Liang's bibliography were published during the 1930's.

13 According to Liang Chʻi-chʻao, Chung-kuo li-shih yen-chiu fa pu-pien, p. 65, the earliest autobiographical nien-pʻu appeared in the Kʻang-hsi period (1662–1722). However, Liang Tʻing-tsʻan, op. cit., reported 12 autobiographical nien-pʻu dating from the middle and late Ming period, as well as 99 written in the Chʻing, and 11 in the Republic.

14 Teng-feng, Kuo, Li-tai tzu-hsu chuan-wen chʻao (1937), editor's foreword, p. 1.Google Scholar

15 Hughes, E. R., The Invasion of China by the Western World, (New York, 1938), pp. 240–248.Google Scholar

16 Chieh-kang, Ku, Tzu-hsu, in Ku-shih-pien, 1 (1926), 1–103Google Scholar; and translation by Humimel, Arthur W., The Autobiography of a Chinese Historian (Leiden, 1931).Google Scholar

17 For the current fashion for autobiography, see Kuo Teng-feng, op. cit., p. 1, and Wenhsuehshe, Hsin-yuan, ed., Ming-jen chuan-chi (1934), pp. 18–19Google Scholar. In 1935 one publisher, the Ti-i chʻu-pan-she of Shanghai, came out with a special series, the Tzu-chuan tsʻung-shu, which included autobiographies by Lu Yin, Pa Chin, Shen Tsʻung-wen, Chang Tzu-pʻing, Hung Shen, Yü Ta-fu, and other literary figures.

18 For this information, the author is indebted to Miss Olga Lang. Regarding Pa Chinʻs trilogy, see Hsia, C. T., A History of Modern Chinese Fiction 1917–1957 (New Haven, 1961), pp. 249 ff.Google Scholar

19 For political personalities, see the for instance, Hu Han-min tzu-chuan, in Ko-ming wen-hsien, III (Taipei, 1953), 1–70Google Scholar, and Chʻen Pu-lei's autobiographical Hui-i-lu (1949); for military men, Feng Yu-hsiang's three-volume Wo-ti sheng-kuo (1947), and the Tsʻai Tʻing-kʻai tzu-chuan (1946); and for businessmen, the Ou-chʻu wu-shih tzu-hsu (1926), by the noted textile manufacturer, Mu Hsiang-yueh.

20 Chʻi-chʻao, Liang, Wu-hsu cheng-pien chi, in YPSCC, I, 95–112.Google Scholar

21 Chʻi-chʻao, Liang, Li-Hung-chang, also entitled, Chung-kuo ssu-shih nien lai ta-shih chi, in YPSCC, Vol. II.Google Scholar

22 Liang Chʻi-chʻao, Hsiung-chia-li ai-kuo-che Ko-su-shih chuan (on Kossuth), l-ta-li chien-kuo sanchieh chuan (on Mazzini, Garibaldi, and Cavour), Hsin Ying-kuo chu-jen Kʻo-lin-wei-erh chuan (on Cromwell), all in YPSCC, Vol. IV. Nan-hai Kʻang hsien-sheng chuan (on Kʻang Yu-wei), in Yin-ping-shih wen-chi (hereafter cited as YPSWC), Vol. III; and Kuan-tzu chuan, in YPSCC, Vol. VIII.

23 Chʻi-chʻao, Liang, Wang Ching-kung, in YPSCC, Vol. VII.Google Scholar

24 In the 1920's, Liang compiled a few nien-pʻu, including those of Tʻao Chʻien and Chu Chih-yu (see YPSCC, Vol. XXII). His funerary biographies, which he began to write about 1915, appear in YPSWC, Vol. XV. For Liang's attitudes during the latter part of his life, see Levenson, Joseph R., Liang Chʻi-chʻao and the Mind of Modern China (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), pp. 193 ff.Google Scholar

25 Liang, Chung-kuo li-shih yen-chiu fa pu-pien, pp. 28 ff.

26 Liang, pp. 37 ff.

27 Liang, pp. 38–39.

28 Liang, p. 89.

29 Liang, pp. 90–92.

30 Liang, pp. 92–100.

31 Hu Shih, Tsʻang-hui-shih ta-chi, pp. 415–418, entry for September 23, 1914.

32 Shih, Hu, Ssu-shih tzu-shu, tzu-hsu, in Hu Shih wen-tsʻun, ti-ssu-chi (Taipei, 1953), IV, pp. 604.Google Scholar

33 Hu Shih, p. 606.

34 Chang Hsiao-jo, Nan-tʻung Chang Chi-chih hsien-sheng chuan-chi, Hu hsut (Hu Shih's preface), pp. 1–3.

35 Chang Hsiao-jo, p. 2.

36 Chang Hsiao-jo, p. 1.

37 Hu Shih, Chang Shih-chai hsien-sheng nien-pʻu, Hu hsu, pp. 2–3.

38 Hu Shih, p. 3

39 Hsaio-jo, Chang, Nan-tʻung Chang Chi-chih hsien-sheng chuan-chi (Shanghai, 1930)Google Scholar. This work was to a large extent based upon an autobiographical nien-pʻu written by Chang Chien himself.

40 Chang Hsiao-jo, op. cit., Hu-hsu, p. 4.

41 Another serious work, the first volume of which appeared in 1929, was the biography of Karl Marx (Ma-kʻo-ssu chuan) by the Chinese Marxist, Li Chi.

42 See especially Tung-jun, Chu, “Chung-kuo chuan-hsu wen-hsueh ti kuo-chʻü yü chiang-lai,” in Hsueh-lin, No. 8 (June 1941), 19–29Google Scholar, and other articles by the same author. See also Chun-yuan, Hsu, “Lun chuan-chi wen-hsueh,” in Tung-fang tsa-chih, XXXIX: 3 (April 15, 1943), 51–54Google Scholar, and Ming-chih, Wang, Chuan-chi hsueh (Canton, 1948)Google Scholar. The latter work, written for a course in biography at National Sun Yatsen University in Canton, contains a useful bibliography of writings on the subject of Chinese biography.

43 On Chu Tung-junʻs biography of Chang Chu-cheng, see the review by Shih-hsiang, Chʻen, “An Innovation in Chinese Biographical Writing,” in FEQ, XII (Nov. 1953), 49–62Google Scholar. A similar but somewhat shorter work by Chu Tung-jun, hu Yu chuan, a biography of of the Sung dynasty poet and official, Lu Yu, was published in Shanghai in 1960.

44 Shih, Hu, “Chuan-chi wen-hseuh,” in Hu Shih yen-lun chi (Taipei, 1953), p. 52.Google Scholar