Folk gatherings of literati: Research on the Nan She

Author: Luan Meijian / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-06-01
Features: In the history of the development of modern literary societies in China during the first half of the 20th century, whether it was the Baishi Society or the Yuanyang-Hudie Society contemporary to the Nan Society, or later organizations such as the New Youth Society, the Literary Research Association, the Creation Society, the Yushi Society, the Xueheng Faction, the Modern Review Faction, the Lunyu Faction, and so on, the vast majority of them were established in modern metropolises such as Shanghai, the economic center, or Beijing, the political center, of China. The Nan Society was officially founded in 1909 at Zhang Gongci in Tiger Hill, Suzhou, a place with a strong feudal and folk character. Its tradition and uniqueness led previous literary historians to often classify it as part of classical Chinese literature. Checking the Cihai (Comprehensive Dictionary) - Literature Supplement, it is evident that the "Nan Society" is listed as the last among classical Chinese literary societies and factions, as if classical Chinese literature had consistently maintained its traditional characteristics up to the Nan Society, and only after the Nan Society did Chinese literature embark on a completely new path of modernization. However, the issue lies in this: From its conception to its founding, development, and eventual fragmentation, the Nan Society spanned several decades, seemingly coinciding with the entire course of modern Chinese literary history. If the Nan Society is excluded from the history of modern Chinese literature, one cannot help but ask: While modern Chinese literature was developing, did a tradition of classical Chinese literature coexist? Or, was the previous perspective on modern literature too monotonous and narrow? Although there are many factors contributing to this traditional understanding of the Nan Society, its choice of location for founding and its adoption of traditional and folk methods during its activities were undoubtedly important reasons for its classification as classical literature. In the turbulent early 20th century, publications such as Liang Qichao's New Fiction (1902), Li Boyuan's Illustrated Novels (1903), Wu Jianren and Zhou Guisheng's Monthly Novels (1906), and Wang Yunzhang and Yun Tieqiao's Monthly Novel Magazine (1910) either advocated political reform and the promotion of a democratic republic or emphasized light entertainment to cater to urban readers, all strongly reflecting the new demands and tastes of politics and culture during this critical period of social transformation. However, although some members of the Nan Society called for democratic political reform, its most concentrated and obvious impression was that the Nan Society was nationalist and opposed the Qing Dynasty. Why did the Nan Society exhibit such a strong nationalist sentiment? Why did it so strongly seek to overthrow the Qing Dynasty? The answers to these questions are deeply tied to the origins of the Nan Society's founding and the real motivations behind its appearance in the literary scene at the beginning of the 20th century. Here, the geographical context provides the primary and most focused perspective for observing the founding of the Nan Society. The timeline must be traced back to 250 years ago, to the late Ming Dynasty. In the long history of Chinese civilization, the economic center of China shifted from north to south. During the Wei and Jin periods, a large number of aristocratic families migrated south, and by the time of the Sui Dynasty, the Grand Canal connected the north and south, allowing the Jiangnan region to rapidly become the richest economic center in the country due to its well-developed water and land transportation, fertile plains, and abundant resources. By the Song Dynasty, people could easily appreciate the region's importance and prosperity from phrases like "When Suzhou and Lake Tai are prosperous, the whole country is prosperous" and "Heaven is above, Suzhou and Hangzhou are below." By the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the prosperity of Jiangnan reached its peak. Agriculture and sericulture flourished, merchants gathered in large numbers, and the urban middle class emerged in cities like Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jinling (Nanjing), and Yangzhou, with some already reaching scales of around one million people. The scientist Xu Guangqi recorded in his Comprehensive Treatise on Agriculture that the silk-reeling technique of "five people accomplishing the work of six" had already been widely adopted in Jiangnan. Another scientist, Song Yingxing, in his work Treatise on the Mysterious Arts of Heaven and Earth, noted that the silk-reeling efficiency and craftsmanship had greatly improved in areas like Suzhou and Songjiang, with the highly complex "flower loom" appearing. Alongside the improvement in productivity, the emerging capitalist mode of production, where "households with capital invest, and households with labor work," also gradually took root in Jiangnan. The capitalist buds that seemed to herald the end of the ancient feudal empire had already taken root in Jiangnan by the late Ming Dynasty. The talented scholar Tang Hu in his poem Viewing the Changle Gate Market wrote:
"Three thousand women in green sleeves, above and below the towers,
Millions of gold flow east and west.
Where does the market end at dawn?
In the four corners, all is different."
He described the prosperous scene in Suzhou's Changle Gate area during the Ming Dynasty. Simultaneously, He Liangjun in his Collected Sayings of the Four Friends Study noted that in Suzhou and Songjiang at the time, "Few people once pursued commerce, but now those who abandon farming to engage in industry and commerce have tripled compared to before." With the development of commercial economy, several famous commercial cities in Jiangnan rapidly rose. "Narrow lanes and broad streets were lined with splendid markets; alleys and shops were densely arranged, and bridges were as numerous as teeth. Merchants from all directions converged here, and boats from Shu and Yue sailed day and night at the gates, forming prosperous and famous commercial cities." Taking the Wujiang County of Jiangsu Province, where many members of the Nan Society later gathered as an example, there were only seven market towns in the early Ming Dynasty, but by the Jiajing era, they had developed into fourteen large towns. Among them, the typical town of Qingcuidi, which had only hundreds of people in the early Ming, had become a major silk hub with tens of thousands of people by the late Ming. This is reflected in literature, such as the Three Words and Two Captures compiled by Feng Menglong and Ling Yingchu, which left behind many literary scenes of commercial cities and the urban middle class. Although the late Ming Dynasty was marked by eunuch rule and corrupt governance, the Donglin Party members, who fought bravely against the feudal bureaucratic class led by Wei Zhongxian, revealed a sharp conflict between the emerging capitalist buds and the decaying feudal bureaucratic system at the deep level of productive forces and relations. However, with the emergence of a large urban middle class, the growing prosperity of commercial cities, the rapid increase in social wealth, and the serious opposition and subversion of outdated feudal values and ethical norms in people's minds, the middle and late Ming Dynasty held a pivotal position in the history of Chinese civilization. Among the accounts of historians, one can faintly sense the impending great transformation of Chinese history, a dawn somewhat similar to the European Renaissance, as if it were about to appear in the ancient land of the East. However, in 1644, with the suicide of the Chongzhen Emperor on Coal Mountain in Beijing, the Qing army swept across the Central Plains, and this dawn of capitalist buds vanished like a dream. P001-003