Selected Works of Shen Congwen

Author: Yang Fangfang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Shen Congwen (1902–1988) was a modern writer and historian of cultural relics. His original name was Shen Yuehuan, and his pen names included Xiaobing, Mao Lin, Xiuyunyun, etc. He was from Fenghuang, Hunan (now part of the Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture), and belonged to the Miao ethnic group. After graduating from primary school in 1918, he joined the local troops in his hometown and traveled to various regions along the Yuan River basin, living in the border areas of Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, and Guizhou, where he began to read Chinese and foreign literary works. In 1923, he went to Beijing to study and write independently, and he also attended classes at Peking University. After 1924, he began to publish his works and co-edited the Beijing Daily Supplement and the People's Literature weekly with Hu Yeping. In 1928, he moved to Shanghai and edited the Red Black and Human World magazines together with Hu Yeping and Ding Ling. The following year, he taught at China University. From 1930, he taught at Wuhan University and Qingdao University. Starting in 1934, he edited the Literary Supplement of the Beijing Daily and the Tianjin Daily. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, he became a professor at Southwest Associated University in Kunming. After the war, he became a professor at Peking University and edited literary supplements for the Beijing Daily and the Yi Shi Bao. Since the publication of his first creative collection, Ducks, in 1926, Shen Congwen published over 70 collections of works and was known as a prolific writer. His major works published in the 1940s include: short story collections such as Citrus, After the Rain and Other Stories, Love of the God of Dreams and Other Stories, Inns and Other Stories, The Stone Boat, The Tiger Cub, The Little History of Ahe, Moonlit Sceneries, Like Rui Collection, and Eight Horses, middle-length novels such as A Mother and Border Town, long novels such as Old Dreams and The Long River, and essay collections such as Memoirs of Hu Yeping, Memoirs of Ding Ling, My Autobiography, Jiangxi Wanderings, and Western Hunan. His novels drew from a wide range of sources, depicting the lives of various characters from rural to urban settings, with his works reflecting the lives of the lower classes in Western Hunan being particularly distinctive. His masterpiece, Border Town, uses lyrical prose and sketch-like writing to portray the beauty of nature, folk customs, and human nature, offering a richly poetic rural landscape filled with pastoral charm and local color, forming a unique lyrical pastoral novel. His creative style was unconventional, with no restrictions on genre, structure, or narrative format, experimenting with various forms and structures to become an exceptional "" in modern literary history. His essays also possessed unique charm, adding artistic brilliance to modern prose. Many later writers were deeply influenced by his creative style. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Shen Congwen was assigned to the Chinese Historical Museum, where he engaged in the study of cultural relics, artistic and craft patterns, and material cultural history. In 1957, he abandoned his literary career. In 1978, he was transferred to the Institute of History at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as a researcher, dedicating himself to the study of ancient Chinese clothing and other historical fields. His research achievements include academic works such as Tang and Song Bronze Mirrors, Dragon and Phoenix Art, and Studies on Ancient Chinese Clothing. In 1980, he was invited to lecture in the United States, and in 1982, he was appointed as a member of the Chinese Writers' Association. In addition to the works mentioned above, Shen Congwen's other works include essay collections such as Fleeting Thoughts, Letters from a Discarded Post Office, and Yunnan Notes, critical collections such as Selected Critiques of Modern Chinese Writers, and various selected collections of Shen Congwen, as well as the multi-volume Collected Works of Shen Congwen.