The outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War caught the immediate attention of a great number of Chinese intellectuals who thus devoted themselves to national salvation. They found the European war literature, especially the Russian-Soviet literature, an important source of inspiration for the Pro-war audience and the ideal nutrition for their own patriotic war-narratives. Previous studies have largely demonstrated the significance of the Chinese Anti-Japanese war literature, mainly written by left-wing writers, and its contribution to the construction of national identity. However, there is little discussion of Chinese modernists’ attachment to the leftist ideology and their contribution to the war-resistance literature. A large portion of Chinese modernists’ criticism and translations of European war literature concerning the Franco-Prussian War, the First World War, the Polish-Soviet War, the Spanish Civil War, the Russian Civil War and the Great Patriotic War in the particular historical context of China has been overlooked, thus making it a missing chapter in the study of both the Chinese Anti-Japanese war literature and the modernist literature. 

This project aims at carrying out research in the Chinese modernists’ reading, criticism, translation and reinterpretation of the European war literature from the transcultural and trans-historical perspective respectively. It will focus on three major Chinese modernist “writers-translators-editors,” namely Shi Zhecun, Ye Lingfeng and Dai Wangshu who introduced and translated over 200 works in the European war literature from five countries and in four languages. By examining their criticism and translations, this project will examine how they reinterpret the war literature written by European writers from different political views, including those of humanists and pacifists (e.g. Romain Rolland), socialists (e.g. Henri Barbusse), anti-fascists (e.g. Heinrich Mann), communists (e.g. Rafael Alberti, Pyotr Pavlenko, Yuri Libedinsky) and fellow-traveler writers (e.g. Vsevolod Ivanov). It will also investigate how they use the translation of the war literature to fulfil their purposes in the anti-Japanese resistance movement in Hong Kong, a movement that struggled to survive under the immense pressure from the pro-Japanese “Peace Movement” and the severe political censorship imposed by the British colonial government.

This project will bring forward an important but long-neglected chapter for the study of the Chinese Anti-Japanese war literature and shed new light on the relation between the study and the European ideological trends. It will extend the research scope to cover the Chinese reception of the European war literature and its literary and political ideas by adding the contribution from modernist writers. It will also deepen our understanding of the transcultural and hybrid nature of the Chinese literary modernity in time of war. 

The project aims to examine and evaluate a large corpus of emulative ci poems written during the late Qing and early Republican era, focusing on its complex relationship with masterpieces of the Song dynasty and modern culture. It centers at the most discussed and controversial poet, Wu Wenying 吳文英, whom was raised to be one of the four leading poets of Song by Zhou Ji 周濟 and became increasingly important in both the fields of critiques and creative writing. Despite fierce criticisms by leaders of the New Cultural Movement, Wu continued to be the model poet among writers. By analyzing these emulative poems, it is hoped to understand how tradition was drawn upon, transformed, and produced new meanings for modern poets. 

Among Chinese poets, “tradition” is not only honored, but more importantly, gives value to present works. As early as in the Six dynasties, emulative poem (za ni雜擬) became a genre of its own. Ci poetry formed its unique form, subject matter and style in the Song dynasty. Emulation to famous poets, like Su Shi 蘇軾, Li Qingzaho 李清照and Xin Qiji 辛棄疾, started as soon as they finished their works. Wu Wenying, who was previously regarded only as a minor poet, became the canon among late Qing poets. Almost all ci poets in late Qing and after were influenced by Wu in one way or the other. The trend was described as “the fever of Mengchuan” (夢窗熱). In this respect, Wu serves to be the best example in analyzing how ci poets perceived the past works and how they placed their works within the tradition. 

The project approaches these emulative poems in two directions. First, emulation involves a rather complex process in which the poet tries to define his work by empathizing, challenging and altering the past works. The study explores how the modern poet interacts with the masterpieces and make his present works relevant and significant. Second, contextualization of these poems are essential not only for understanding the implied meanings of the poems, but also enabling an evaluation of emulation as a creative writing strategy deliberately deployed to express subtle present experiences. The study reconsiders the importance of these seemingly “conservative” and “unrelated to the real world” ci poems against the background of tradition forms of literature in the modern period.

Wei Zheng compiled Qunshu Zhiyao (hereinafter referred to as Zhiyao), extracting the text related to governing the country. This book retains the old features of many classics. Zhiyao was introduced to Japan in the late Tang Dynasty, and the important editions we see today are all from the collection of Japan. This project is intended to focus on the following aspects:

First, collect and collate different editions of Zhiyao collected in Japan. Including the earliest Kujō clan edition from the Heian period, Kanesawa-bunko edition from the Kamakura period, and the most readable Suruganokuni edition, and finally the Tenmei edition. Textual research on different editions of Zhiyao collected in Japan, discussing the similarities and differences of different editions, we can know the evolution process of various editions, which is of great help to understand the dissemination and importance of this book.

Secondly, the collection of various editions of Zhiyao in Japan is used to collate the cited books, and the lost books can be compiled. The edition of Japanese collections dates back to a relatively early age. Taking Zhiyao to collate the quoted books can correct many problems of the original books. In addition, Zhiyao also quoted the lost books and articles, so we can use Zhiyao to retrieve the lost documents.

Thirdly, this project will discuss the selected articles of Zhiyao and the ways of governing the country mentioned in the book. Narratological methods can be used. The compiler of Zhiyao used this book as an admonition book to recommend the way of governing the country by selecting articles. Today, we can still manage the enterprise by means of the way of governing the country in Zhiyao.

This project will sort out different editions of Zhiyao collected in Japan, and then explore their inheritance relationship. Next, using the collation and compilation of Zhiyao to make up for the inadequacies in philology. Finally, taking the contents in Zhiyao as an example, analyses the selected articles of Zhiyao from the perspective of narratology.

Specific directions are as follows: 1. Discuss the spread of Zhiyao in Japan and the relationship between different editions of Zhiyao in Japan. 2. Make use of the cited books in the collation of Zhiyao and compile the lost parts. 3. Discuss the attitude of selecting articles in Zhiyao and the application of the way of governing the country in the book today.

National identity, defined by individual’s relation to the state, has been a preeminent topic in the studies of late Qing literature. The Travels of Lao Can, a late Qing novel famous for its challenging of traditional bureaucratic values through criticism of local governance, marks a significant change in Chinese intellectuals’ understanding of the individual’s relation to the state. This project will analyze the novel’s discussions on local governance while situating this discourse within the author’s own engagement in flood control in his professional life. This analysis will provide a better understanding of the role that environmental crisis played in late Qing intellectuals’ construction of national identity. 

Previous studies help us to understand the importance of local governance in the novel in addressing the issue of national identity in the late Qing period. However, scholars often neglect the fact that it was deteriorating public security in local society, rather than the way of local governance Liu E criticized, that was Liu E’s main concern. As studies on the 19th century Chinese local history demonstrate, the deterioration of public security in Shandong, where the novel is set, was intimately tied to the frequent catastrophic floods in that era. Nevertheless, scholars tend to neglect such context when discussing the novel’s discourse of local governance, and underestimate the significance of environmental crisis in Liu E’s personal construction of national identity. 

The proposed study aims to contribute to the scholarship in late Qing literature and intellectual history by: (A) understanding personal construction of national identity of late Qing intellectual in ecological context; and (B) shedding new light on studies of political thought in the late Qing by explaining the relation between the mechanism of hydraulic engineering technology and Liu E’s proposal for local governance; and (C) providing a coherent framework to combine the studies of ecological crisis, literary texts, technology, and the writer’s personal life experience. 

This case study on The Travels of Lao Can aims to provide a new way of looking at late Qing intellectuals’ personal construction of national identity. By linking research on everything from river engineering technology to political discourse, the proposed study offers an ecological understanding of Liu E’s conceptions of the relation between individual and the state. It will also help to open a dialogue with literary studies in the context of ecology, science, and politics in general.