He Diǎn (New Annotated Edition)

Author: Zhang Nanzhuang
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Hedie (The Story of the Three Villages) is a very peculiar Chinese classical novel that adopts a "humorous" style, setting it apart from other classical Chinese novels. Through the contrasting experiences of the two generations of the wealthy family, the Hua Gui (Ghost) family living in the "Lower World Yinshan" in the "Gujue" area of the "Three Villages," the novel satirizes the various aspects of the underworld where the King of Hell and demons and ghosts reside. It defies the traditional "literati" style of old novels, lacking any rules or conventions. Despite being filled with vulgar language, it is not vulgar; though it is full of colloquialisms, it is quite serious. Due to its unconventional nature and the author being an independent scholar, the novel did not gain recognition in the literary circles from the early Jiaqing era to the early Guangxu era (roughly 70 years), nor was it ever published. It was not until 1878 (the fourth year of the Guangxu reign) that the Shanghai Shanghai Shibao publisher, Haiyang Canxia Ke, wrote an appendix for a version of Hedie.
In May 1926, Liu Fu (Bai Nong) accidentally obtained an old version of Hedie, marked up and annotated, preparing it for publication and inviting Lu Xun to write a preface. Lu Xun wrote two articles on May 25th: A Preface and A Postscript to Bai Nong’s Preface for Hedie (the former was included in Collected Works: Miscellaneous and the latter in The Sequel to Hua Gai Zhi Bian). Lu Xun "enjoyed" the "printed sample" and believed that Hedie "talked about ghosts as if it were about people, using new allusions just as classical ones," "showed the living world in action," and that "at that time, the courage of the man who dared to write it (Zhang Nanzhuang) must have been great."
After the publication of Hedie, it became extremely popular, partly due to Lu Xun’s strong recommendation. Following the shocking "March 18th Massacre," intellectuals could no longer sit in their studies, and the opening line of Hedie—"Bullshit, bullshit, really unbelievable!"—became an excellent commentary on the political situation. Wu Jihui, a founding member of the Kuomintang, claimed that Hedie was his model for satirical and humorous writing. Meanwhile, important literary figures such as Hu Shi, Zhou Zuoren, and Lin Yutang often mentioned the book. However, some "literati and scholars" criticized Hedie as being "unrefined."
In 1932, when Japan planned to compile an Anthology of World Humor, Lu Xun recommended Hedie as one of eight humorous works from China to Tetsuo Kudo. In a letter to Kudo on May 22, he wrote: "This book has recently been used as a humor book and has gained considerable fame."