Qian “So long as wit and satire, insightfully imagined characterization, and unmatched erudition matter in literature, Qian Zhongshu’s writing will have a place, and this translation of his work is among the most significant renderings from Chinese.” — Ron Egan, University of California, Santa Barbara Qian ZhongShU was one of twentieth-century China’s most ingenious literary stylists, one whose insights into the ironies and travesties of modern China remain stunningly fresh. Between the early years of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and the Communist takeover in 1949, Qian wrote a brilliant series of short stories, essays, and a comedic novel that continue to inspire generations of Chinese readers. Humans Beasts With this long-awaited translation, English-language readers can immerse themselves in the invention and satirical wit of one of the world’s great literary cosmopolitans. This collection brings together Qian’s best short works, combining his iconoclastic essays on the “book of life” from Written in the Margins of Life (1941) with the four masterful short stories of Human, Beast, Ghost (1946). His essays elucidate substantive issues through deceptively simple subjects—the significance of windows versus doors, for example, or the blind spots of literary critics—and assert the primacy of critical and creative independence. His stories blur the boundaries between humans, beasts, and ghosts as they struggle through life, death, and resurrection. Christopher G. Rea situates these works within China’s wartime politics and Qian’s literary vision, highlighting and significant changes that Qian Zhongshu made to different editions of his writings and providing unprecedented insight into the author’s creative process. Ghosts Qian ZhongShU (1910–1998), hailed as twentieth-century China’s “foremost man of letters,” is best known for his novel, Fortress Besieged, and his groundbreaking study of the Chinese literary canon, Limited Views: Essays on Ideas and Letters. ChRiStophER g. REa is assistant professor of modern Chinese literature at the University of British Columbia. ColUmBia UnivERSity pRESS / nEw yoRk C www.cup.columbia.edu ol UMB ISBN: 978-0-231-15275-4 i Weatherhead BookS on ASiA A Cover design: Marc J. Cohen 9 780231 152754 Printed in the U.S.A. Humans, Beasts, and Ghosts s Weatherhead Books on Asia Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University Weatherhead Books on Asia Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University LITERATURE David Der-wei Wang, Editor Anonymous, Courtesans and Opium: Ye Zhaoyan, Nanjing 1937: A Love Story, Romantic Illusions of the Fool of Yangzhou, translated by Michael Berry (2003) translated by Patrick Hanan (2009) Oda Makato, The Breaking Jewel, translated Cao Naiqian, There’s Nothing I Can Do When by Donald Keene (2003) I Think of You Late at Night, translated by Han Shaogong, A Dictionary of Maqiao, John Balcom (2009) translated by Julia Lovell (2003) Park Wan-suh, Who Ate Up All the Shinga? Takahashi Takako, Lonely Woman, translated An Autobiographical Novel, translated by Maryellen Toman Mori (2004) by Yu Young-nan and Stephen J. Epstein Chen Ran, A Private Life, translated by John (2009) Howard-Gibbon (2004) Yi T’aejun, Eastern Sentiments, translated by Eileen Chang, Written on Water, translated Janet Poole (2009) by Andrew F. Jones (2004) Hwang Sunwŏn, Lost Souls: Stories, translated Writing Women in Modern China: The Revo- by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton (2009) lutionary Years, 1936–1976, edited by Amy Kim Sŏk-pŏm, The Curious Tale of Mandoji’s D. Dooling (2005) Ghost, translated by Cindy Textor (2010) Han Bangqing, The Sing-song Girls of Xiaomei Chen, editor, The Columbia Anthol- Shanghai, first translated by Eileen Chang, ogy of Modern Chinese Drama (2010) revised and edited by Eva Hung (2005) Loud Sparrows: Contemporary Chinese Short- s Shorts, translated and edited by Aili Mu, Julie Chiu, and Howard Goldblatt (2006) HISTORY, SOCIETY, AND CULTURE Hiratsuka Raichō, In the Beginning, Woman Carol Gluck, Editor Was the Sun, translated by Teruko Craig Takeuchi Yoshimi, What Is Modernity? Writ- (2006) ings of Takeuchi Yoshimi, edited and trans- Zhu Wen, I Love Dollars and Other Stories of lated, with an introduction, by Richard F. China, translated by Julia Lovell (2007) Calichman (2005) Kim Sowŏl, Azaleas: A Book of Poems, trans- Contemporary Japanese Thought, edited and lated by David McCann (2007) translated by Richard F. Calichman (2005) Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: Overcoming Modernity, edited and translated A Novel of Shanghai, translated by Michael by Richard F. Calichman (2008) Berry with Susan Chan Egan (2008) Natsume Sōseki, Theory of Literatureand Ch’oe Yun, There a Petal Silently Falls: Three Other Critical Writings, edited and trans- Stories by Ch’oe Yun, translated by Bruce lated by Michael Bourdaghs, Atsuko Ueda, and Ju-Chan Fulton (2008) and Joseph A. Murphy (2009) Inoue Yasushi, The Blue Wolf: A Novel of the Life of Chinggis Khan, translated by Joshua s A. Fogel (2009) Humans, Beasts, and Ghosts Stories and Essays s Qian Zhongshu s Edited, with an introduction, by Christopher G. Rea With translations by Dennis T. Hu Nathan K. Mao Yiran Mao Christopher G. Rea Philip F. Williams Columbia University Press New York s iii This publication has been supported by the Richard W. Weatherhead Publication Fund of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 2011 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Qian, Zhongshu, 1910– [Selections. English. 2010] Humans, beasts, and ghosts : stories and essays / Qian Zhongshu ; edited with an introduction by Christopher G. Rea ; with translations by Dennis T. Hu . [et al.]. p. cm. — (Weatherhead books on Asia) This book brings together the essay collection “Written in the margins of life (Xie zai ren sheng bian shang)” and the short story collection “Human, beast, ghost (Ren shou gui).” Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-231-15274-7 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-231-15275-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-231-52654-8 (e-book) 1. Qian, Zhongshu, 1910– —Translations into English. 2. Chinese essays—Translations into English. 3. Short stories, Chinese—Translations into English. I. Rea, Christopher G. II. Hu, Dennis T. III. Qian, Zhongshu, 1910– Xie zai ren sheng bian shang. English IV. Qian, Zhongshu, 1910– Ren shou gui. English V. Title. VI. Title: Written in the margins of life. VII. Title: Human, beast, ghost. VIII. Series. PL2749.C8A2 2010 895.1′452—dc22 2010018856 ∞ Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 p 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the edi- tor nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. s Contents s Acknowledgments vii s Introduction 1 s Written in the Margins of Life and Human, Beast, Ghost Author’s Preface to the 1983 Editions of Written in the Margins of Life and Human, Beast, Ghost 23 s Written in the Margins of Life Dedication 27 Acknowledgments 29 Preface 31 The Devil Pays a Nighttime Visit to Mr. Qian Zhongshu 33 Windows 39 On Happiness 43 On Laughter 47 Eating 50 Reading Aesop’s Fables 54 On Moral Instruction 58 A Prejudice 62 Explaining Literary Blindness 66 On Writers 70 Notes 75 s vi s Contents Human, Beast, Ghost First Preface to the 1946 Kaiming Edition 91 Second Preface to the 1946 Kaiming Edition 92 God’s Dream 93 Cat 107 Inspiration 153 Souvenir 177 Notes 205 s Editions 217 Further Reading in English 219 Translators 221 Acknowledgments s This volume has been several years in the making, and I would like to thank the many individuals and institutions who have helped it reach completion. I began translating Written in the Margins of Life in Taipei in 2004 as a recreational adjunct to my doctoral dissertation research on comedic cultures of modern China. When publication became a possibility, I decided to make the essays more accessible by including notes to explain their numerous allusions and occasional instances of untranslatable wordplay. My thanks to Shang Wei and Liao Ping-hui, who early on illuminated several obscure terms and passages. I am also grateful to Philip F. Williams for his generous advice as this project was getting off the ground, and for contributing his masterful translation of “On Writers” to the volume. I decided to combine Margins and Human, Beast, Ghost into a joint volume in order to offer readers a more comprehensive picture of Qian’s early works. Three of the four stories in Human (all except “God’s Dream”) have been published previ- ously in English translation, and I offer my sincere thanks to Dennis T. Hu, Yiran Mao, and Nathan K. Mao for sharing their translations. These translations have been revised both to match the 1983 Fujian renmin chubanshe edition and for overall stylistic consistency. Qian made many changes to both Margins and Hu- man over the years, and I have preserved his more substantial alterations in the endnotes. My thanks to Michelle Cheng and Shannie Hsu at the University of Brit- ish Columbia for their assistance in comparing editions, and to Bruce Fulton for his feedback on a portion of the manuscript. At various stages of this project, I have relied on financial assistance from the graduate schools of arts and sciences of Columbia University and Harvard Univer- sity, the Fulbright Foundation in Taiwan, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, the Whiting Foundation, and the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University.