Selected Prose Works of Li Liewen

Author: Li Liewen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: Li Liewen was born in Xiangtan, Hunan in 1904. His great-grandfather, Li JinTan, served as the magistrate of Tainan, Taichung, and Quanzhou successively. After the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan was ceded to Japan. Li JinGe, his great-uncle, led the people in resisting the Japanese occupation forces but was defeated and committed suicide by drowning. His grandfather, Li ZeXiang, served as the magistrate of YuHang, Zhejiang. His father, Li MoWei, graduated from the Hubei Public Railway School and worked as a station master in several places before serving in the Hunan Provincial Military Governor's Office, where the family's fortune further declined. In late 1919, at the age of 15, Li Liewen came to Shanghai. With the help of his cousin who worked at the Commercial Press, he was admitted as a clerk to the Translation and Compilation Department, where he was responsible for copying, organizing, and proofreading manuscripts. In the summer of 1921, Zheng ZhenWen, the head of the Translation and Compilation Department, was appointed as the president of Xiamen University. He recognized Li Liewen's talent and took him as his secretary in the president's office. However, missing the work at the press, he returned to the Commercial Press in the spring of 1922 and was promoted to assistant editor in the Chinese Department of the Translation and Compilation Department. Starting in 1921, he began publishing short stories, which were later collected into "Boat Journey" and published by Shanghai TaiDong Publishing House. Meanwhile, he successively compiled, annotated, and published four ancient books: "The Journey of Tripitaka to the West," "Commentary on the New Edition of the History of the Five Dynasties," "Remains of the Great Family in the XuanHe Era," and "The Popular Stories of the Capital." With some income from his writings and the support of his cousin-in-law, Huang Song, Li Liewen went to Japan for studies in June 1926. After arriving in Japan, Li Liewen attended a preparatory school to improve his Japanese. Half a year later, he entered the preparatory department of Tokyo Imperial University. Soon after, due to overworking, he contracted "neurasthenia." Following his doctor's advice, he took leave from school and stayed in Ito for a month to rest. During his recovery, the respected Japanese modernist writer, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, committed suicide. This deeply affected him. He had already been influenced by Akutagawa's "view of a lonely life," and this event further deepened his depression. His teachers and friends advised him to change his environment, and he himself felt that studying literature in Japan was not as good as studying in France, where French literature seemed to be richer. In September 1927, he completed his studies in Japan and returned to Shanghai.