Students Reading Classics -- Feng Zikai

Author: Feng Zikai
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: This book is a collection of Feng Zikai's essays. Feng Zikai's literary works are most familiar to people as his essays and sketches from the 1930s. These works transcend worldly prejudices, observing society and savoring life with an artistic mindset and philosophical reflections. From the ordinary and mundane, he discovered what others had not noticed, experienced what others had not experienced, and gained insights that others had not. Feng Zikai was formerly known as Feng Run or Feng Ren before changing his name to Zikai, under which he became known in the world. He was from Chongde, Zhejiang (now part of Tongxiang), and studied painting in Japan in 1921, returning to Shanghai the following year to teach. In 1927, he published his first comic book collection (Zikai Comics). In 1928, he became an editor at Kaiping Publishing House, dedicating himself entirely to painting and writing from 1930 to 1937. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance, he taught at Guilin Normal School, Yishan Zhejiang University, and Chongqing National Art College. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he served as the president of Shanghai Literature and Art Federation and as a standing committee member of the China Artists Association. His major works include the essay collections Yuan Yuan Chang Suibai, Yuan Yuan Tang Zaibei, Zikai Modern Essays, and more than ten other works, as well as the comic book collections Zikai Comics, You Sheng Huaji, and Painting Lu Xun's Novels, among others. He also wrote numerous academic treatises and translated works.
I am named Feng. The surname Feng is quite rare, as far as we know. In my hometown of Shimenwan, it is "only this family," and outside, you rarely hear of anyone with the surname Feng. So when people ask my surname, they always say, "Rare, rare!" Because of this, I had a strong sense of self-importance as a child due to my surname. However, it wasn't just because the surname Feng was rare. In Shimenwan, there was only one family with the surname Feng, and only my father was a scholar-official. In Shimenwan, it seemed everyone believed that those with the surname Feng must be scholar-officials, and scholar-officials must be those with the surname Feng. I remember when I was young, my father's servant, Chu Laowu, took me to see a play and said on the way, "There is no second lord in Shimenwan—only the Feng family is a lord. You will become a lord when you grow up, Feng Lord!"
After the imperial examinations were abolished and my father passed away, when I was ten years old, Huang Banxian, who did odd jobs, once told my older sister one evening, "There is a Feng official in the rice store at Xinqiao Bridge. I don't know where he is from." My sister and mother were both surprised and asked Huang Banxian to find out that night if he was indeed named Feng and where he was from. It seemed they doubted whether there could be a second Feng family or if he was just pretending. Huang Banxian returned and said, "He is indeed named Feng, the 'Feng' in 'raising jade and being abundant,' and he says he is from Xiaqiao." My sister, holding a long cigarette pipe, said, "Could it really be? Or is it the 'Shi Tang' 'Sheng'?" But she didn't pursue it further. Later, when I traveled to Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Tokyo, I had no friends with the same surname. The surname Feng was indeed only mine. However, no matter how much I tried to act proud of my surname, I couldn't find any special qualities associated with it. To this day, I still live the same way as those without the surname Feng, and I have never passed the imperial examinations. Instead, because of the peculiarity of my surname, I often cause trouble: When people ask my surname, I say, "My surname is Feng," and they always correct me or mishear it as "Feng." In hotels, at the city gates, even the night watchmen suspected me of making it up, saying, "There is no such surname!"
Recently, on a Ning-Shao steamship, a moneylender taught me a very simple way to explain it: When I boarded the ship and went into my cabin, there was already this fat moneylender inside. As usual, he asked me, "What is your surname?" I said, "Feng, the Feng of Emperor Xianfeng." Perhaps because the times were too distant, he couldn't remember Emperor Xianfeng at once, and he was confused. I drew the character "Feng" in the air with my finger and said, "The Feng in 'abundant harvests.'" Since the phrase "abundant harvests" is not commonly used in moneylending, he had never heard of it before. He was still confused, so I took out a pencil and wrote the character "Feng" on a cigarette case for him to see. He suddenly seemed to understand and said, "Ah! Right, right—the Feng of Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation!"