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Chapter 5 Toward a New Mode of Vernacular Chinese: A Study on Zhou Zuoren’s Modern Translation of Theocritus’ Id. 10

Lihua Zhang* Co-translated by Jiaming Xiu and Lihua Zhang

As a founder of the New Culture in twentieth-century China, Zhou Zuoren (1885–1967) was not only a renowned essayist, but also a celebrated translator of ancient Greek literature.1 In contrast with the seasoned translations of his later years (after 1949), Zhou’s early translation was characterized as ‘amateur,’ as those translations voiced the translator’s own conception of literature and his specific cultural view.2 In this chapter I discuss the translation of Theocri- tus’ Idyll 10, a Hellenistic poem, by Zhou Zuoren, composed during the (1915–1923), in order to explore the process in which Zhou’s translation of Hellenistic literature became profoundly involved in the forma- tion of modern vernacular Chinese (i.e., baihua wen). Zhou’s translation of Theocritus’ Id. 10 was initially published as ‘Gushi jinyi’ (Modern translation of an ancient poem) in Xin qingnian (The ), volume 4, issue 2, 1918, which he deemed his ‘first article in vernacular Chinese.’3 I analyze Zhou’s process of translating this work, along with his oth- er translation activities since the late and the discourse sur- rounding the ‘literary revolution’ in the May Fourth era, in order to uncover his

* This chapter is one of a series of papers in the research project, Genres in Transcultural Context: Case Studies on Literary Translations of Late Qing and Republican China (跨文化的文类构 建：以晚清民国文学翻译为例) (Project Principal: Dr. Lihua Zhang) supported by the MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project in Humanities and Social Sciences (No. 13YJCZH245). 1 Apart from individual articles published in magazines, Zhou’s separately published transla- tion of ancient Greek literature includes Xila niqu (Greek Mimes) (1934), Xila nvshiren Sabo (: A Female Poet of Greece) (1951), Yisuo yuyan (’s Fables) (1955), Xila shenhua (Bibliotheke) (1999), Oulibidesi beiju ji (The Tragedies of ) (co-translated with Luo Niansheng, 1957), Caishen (Ploutos) (1999), and Luqi’an duihuaji (Collection of ’s Dialogues) (1991). See Zhou 2002, 680–699. 2 C.H. Wang has comprehensively commented on the role of Greek culture in Zhou’s thinking and literature world. See Wang 1993. 3 Zhou 2002, 383.

 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi 10.1163/9789004370715_007 © Toward A New Mode Of Vernacular Chinese 113

inner logic for adopting vernacular Chinese in literary writing during that pe- riod. In so doing, I consider the differences between Zhou Zuoren and Hu Shi (1891–1962) on the question of vernacular Chinese, aiming to deepen and en- rich the understanding of the mechanism that built the modern Chinese liter- ary language through translation – a phenomenon normally referred to as ‘Europeanization’ (Ouhua).

1 Zhou’s Translation Strategy Declared on ‘Apologia’

Theocritus’ Id. 10 is comprised of the dialogues of two reapers, Milo and Bu- caeus: Milo asked Bucaeus why he was working slowly, and Bucaeus replied that it was because he had fallen in love with a girl named Bombyca; with Mi- lo’s encouragement, Bucaeus sang a love song eulogizing Bombyca, while Milo responded with a traditional reaping song, claiming that such a song was what a reaper should have sung.4 While it evoked farming scenery and dialogues of reapers, Id. 10 was not considered a bucolic poem in a strict sense, nor did it receive much attention in the Western academy.5 Nevertheless, Zhou Zuoren chose Id. 10 from the thirty pieces in Theocritus’ Idylls.6 In his Ouzhou wenxue shi (History of European literature), compiled in 1917, Zhou discussed Theocri- tus and laid out his interpretation of the term ‘Eidyllion’:

In ancient times, the herdsmen composed songs to compete in Artemis’ festival. Descendants simulated the mode and named it Eidyllion Buko- likon or Eidyllion Aipolikon. Given that what they sang was not all about herdsmen’s lives, Eidyllia should thus be understood as small pictures. To limn ordinary sights, persons, and events, to embed painting in poetry, Eidyllion is sometimes compared to Ukiyoe (genre) by certain scholars.7

In Zhou Zuoren’s view, portraying pastoral life is not an indispensable factor for Eidyllion as a genre of poetry. Instead, he considered the function of Eidyl- lion to be the depiction of ordinary sights, persons, and events, as well as its aesthetic effect of ‘painting in poetry.’ His translation of Id. 10 achieved a sketch effect of tranquil country life, which accorded with his interpretation of the term Eidyllion – that is, a ‘small picture.’

4 Gow 1952, 80–85. 5 Grethlein 2012, 603. 6 In addition to Id. 10, Zhou consecutively translated Id. 2, 3, 14, 15 and 27, afterward. See Zhou 1925 and Zhou 1934b. 7 Zhou 1919, 50.