Plain Language Literary History

Author: Hu Shi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Hu Shi asserted that all valuable literature must be vernacular literature; classical literature holds no value. Therefore, he believed that China had only "dead literature" for two thousand years. This book defines the history of Chinese literature after the Han Dynasty as a history of the struggle and mutual decline between classical and vernacular literature. On the surface, it appears to uphold classical literature as the orthodox tradition, but in reality, vernacular literature continuously overcomes classical literature. Thus, this history is the story of vernacular literature constantly overcoming obstacles and ultimately winning the status of "orthodoxy" and "authority." Overturning the "orthodoxy" and "authority" of classical literature and re-establishing the "orthodoxy" and "authority" in the history of Chinese literature is the mission of this book. Hu Shi regarded this as a "Copernican revolution."
Reviews of this book can be divided into two aspects. Those who praise it consider it a "masterpiece with great effort and influence," "a decisive role in the replacement of vernacular literature with classical literature as an important tool for modern Chinese thought and communication," "a highly reputable literary theory work in the 20th-century history of Chinese literature that had a tremendous impact on the development of contemporary literature," "a groundbreaking work that played a revolutionary role," "whose significance lies not in the perfection of its arguments but in providing a model," "pioneering comparative literature in China," "contributing more to the exploration of comparative literature than Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao," "not only equipped with a theoretical foundation but also set an example by practicing it," "a foundational work," "unearthing nearly a thousand years of Chinese vernacular literary tradition and connecting the May Fourth vernacular literary movement to China's nearly thousand-year vernacular literary tradition," "the first to initiate the vernacular literary movement," "a vibrant and creative segment of literary history in Chinese literature that represents the era," "a new classic passed down to the world," "historical perspective and scientific research," "leading the main trend of literary history," "an important work in the history of modern Chinese academia," "a typical literary narrative," "a symbol of the transfer of power in the discourse of academic discourse," "a unique voice supported by a 'doctrine'," "a highly influential foundational work."
Those who criticize it believe the book has "too strong preconceived notions," "a tendency to overcorrect," "where the study has ceased to be a study," "forced into a theory," "uncomparable to Lu Xun's Outline of the History of Chinese Fiction," "setting a very bad precedent," "deliberately downplaying and even suppressing the literary works of two thousand years of scholars," "leaving many regrets," "a 'paradigm' in the history of academic thought that has become outdated," "confused definitions, with subjective choices," "the selection lacks a clear line," "the result is that the boundary between classical and vernacular literature becomes even more blurred," "perhaps no one but himself would agree," "like Outlines of the History of Chinese Philosophy, only the first volume was completed, so Hu Shi was mocked by Huang Kan as a 'blueberry writer,' always writing books that were 'the last of their kind.'"
Before writing this book, two Chinese Histories of Literature had already been published by Chinese authors. One was Lin Chuanjia's History of Chinese Literature in 1904, compiled according to the scope of literary history in the then-Qing imperial university regulations, covering topics such as writing, phonology, etymology, rhetoric, literary styles, grammar, the relationship between literature and the state, geography, archaeology, diplomacy, and the cultivation of moral learning in writing. The other was Xie Wuliang's History of Great Chinese Literature in 1924, influenced by Pao Keshi's History of English Literature, which distinguished between "broad literature" and "narrow literature." In 1897, a Japanese-authored History of Chinese Literature greatly stimulated the Chinese. Lin Chuanjia's History of Chinese Literature was "born" under such circumstances, with the entire book "drafted in one hundred days." Almost simultaneously, other works like Huang Ren's History of Chinese Literature and Dou Jingfan's History of Literature of Each Dynasty were also drafted. The prototype of Hu Shi's book is said to be his lecture notes from the National Language Institute of the Ministry of Education in 1921, but it was actually completed in 1927 and published by the New Moon Publishing House in 1928. The plan was to write it in three volumes, but only the first volume was completed. Guided by the Western "theory of literary evolution," the book argues that "the history of vernacular literature is the central part of the history of Chinese literature," reorganizing the development of Chinese literature over a thousand years. It is considered a "popular literary award."
This book is recommended for the following readers:
- Scholars or enthusiasts of modern Chinese academia
- Scholars or enthusiasts of the history of modern Chinese literature
- Scholars or critics of Hu Shi
- Scholars or enthusiasts of the history of modern Chinese thought
- College and high school students