Selected Essays of Hu Shi

Author: Hu Shi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: This "Contemporary Prose Series" is a part of the "Hundred Flowers Prose Series." It selects renowned and outstanding works of prose writers from 1949 onwards, organizing them into individual volumes dedicated to each author. The selected authors are all famous prose writers of that era, and the chosen works are carefully curated to reflect the development of each author's prose style. Each volume begins with an extensive critical preface of over ten thousand words, briefly introducing the author's life and combining the selected prose to analyze and evaluate their artistic characteristics, creative evolution, and influence. The selected works are annotated with their original publication sources and dates as much as possible; necessary notes are also provided for particularly challenging sections. Chinese prose has a long and rich tradition. For thousands of years, prose and poetry stood in contrast, dominating the mainstream of Chinese literary history with enduring popularity. The so-called "Five Classics" revered by people for a long time, except for the "Book of Songs," are all prose. This shows that the articles regarded by the ancients as "the great undertaking for governing the state and the immortal achievement" have always prioritized prose as the essential form. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, novels and dramas have seen significant development and remarkable achievements, yet they were still discriminated against and neglected, long excluded from the literary hall of fame. Only prose and poetry were exceptionally favored, though they gradually declined as well. Hu Shi devoted his life to reading and writing, leaving behind millions of words in articles and works, making him a scholar of equal stature and a prolific writer. His prose is clear and fresh, with a strong emphasis on scholarship. In his unrestrained and vigorous style, he often wrote without reservation, making his works hard to savor fully. Some hastily written pieces are inevitably rough and rambling, even bordering on superficiality. At times, his prose is burdened by his scholarly pursuits. For example, in his "Lushan Travelogue," his obsession with textual research leads him to devote thousands of words to a pagoda at Guizong Temple, giving the work an overly academic tone and making it dull. As for his insights, they are also severely limited. Regarding these aspects, we believe readers can discern and critique them. Later in life, Hu Shi allied himself with the Nationalist regime, opposing the People's Republic of China, making great mistakes in his later years. He wrote extensively on this topic, but these writings are excluded from this book and need not be elaborated upon. The 36 articles selected for this book are mostly renowned works of Hu Shi's prose.