My Miscellaneous Studies from the "Little Books for Everyone" Series

Author: Zhou Zuoren Zhang Lihua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Zhou Zuoren's most frequent description of his own theories and writings is the term "miscellaneous." He has repeatedly lamented the diversity of his intellectual influences, referring to his reading as "miscellaneous reading." During a certain period, he called his articles that blended various literary styles "miscellaneous essays." He proudly declared that he did not wish to be included in either the "Record of Scholars" or the "Garden of Literary Figures," but rather took delight in being recognized as a "miscellaneous scholar." The entire book is based on Zhou Zuoren's essay "My Miscellaneous Studies," selecting thirty-one articles from the ten volumes of "Zhou Zuoren's Literary Anthology" edited by Zhong Shuhe. These are organized into three sections, with the boundaries of the Chinese mainland/Western/Eastern. Among them, Miscellaneous Study 18, which discusses foreign languages, is interspersed into the "Western" and "Eastern" sections according to Zhou Zuoren's translation work. Miscellaneous Study 19, which discusses Buddhist scriptures, is represented by "On the Precepts" and included in the "Chinese Mainland" section. The essay "My Miscellaneous Studies" serves as the "outline" and is placed at the beginning of the three sections.