Folk Literati Gatherings - Research on the Nan She

Author: Lan Meijian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: In the history of the development of modern literary associations in China during the first half of the 20th century, whether it was the Baishi Society or the Yuanyang-Hudie Society during the same period as the Baishi Society, or later associations 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 of China, or Beijing, the political center. The Baishi Society was officially established in 1909 at Zhang Gong Ci in Tiger Hill, Suzhou, a place with a strong feudal and folk color. Its tradition and uniqueness made previous literary historians often inclined to classify it as part of classical Chinese literature. Checking the Cihai (Comprehensive Dictionary) - Literature Volume, it is clearly evident that the "Baishi Society" is listed as the last among Chinese classical literary associations and factions. It seems as if classical Chinese literature maintained its traditional characteristics consistently up to the Baishi Society, and only after the Baishi Society did Chinese literature embark on a completely new path of modernization. However, the issue lies in this: From its inception to its establishment, development, and eventual division, the Baishi Society spanned several decades, seemingly parallel to the entire course of the history of modern Chinese literature. If the Baishi Society is excluded from the history of modern Chinese literature, one cannot help but ask: While the history of modern Chinese literature was developing, was there also coexisting a tradition of classical Chinese literature? Or, was the previous perspective on modern literature too monotonous and narrow? Although there are many factors contributing to the traditional positioning of the Baishi Society, its choice of location for founding and the traditional and folk-oriented methods it adopted 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 in politics and culture of the critical period of social transformation. However, although some members of the Baishi Society did call for democratic political reforms, the most prominent and apparent impression it gave was that the Baishi Society was nationalist and opposed the Qing Dynasty. Why did the Baishi 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 Baishi Society and the true motivations behind its appearance in the literary scene at the beginning of the 20th century. Here, the geographical context forms the initial and most focused perspective for observing the founding of the Baishi 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 underwent a significant regional shift from north to south. During the Wei and Jin periods, a large number of aristocratic families migrated southward, and with the completion of the Grand Canal during the Sui Dynasty, which connected the northern and southern parts of China, the Jiangnan region, with its well-developed water and land transportation networks and fertile plains, rapidly became the wealthiest economic center of the country. By the Song Dynasty, people could easily perceive the importance and prosperity of Jiangnan in the country from phrases like "When Suzhou and Lake Tai are prosperous, the whole world is prosperous" and "Heaven is above, Suzhou and Hangzhou are below." By the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, the prosperity of Jiangnan had reached its peak. Farming and sericulture flourished, merchants gathered in large numbers, and the urban strata emerged in cities like Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jinling, and Yangzhou, some of which had grown to a scale 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" was already widely used in Jiangnan. Another scientist, Song Yingxing, in his work Treatise on the Mysterious Arts of Heaven and Earth, also noted that during that time, silk-reeling efficiency had greatly improved and the craft had become extremely complex in areas like Suzhou and Songjiang, with the emergence of the "flower loom." With the improvement of productivity, the emerging capitalist production method of "capitalists investing and workers laboring" also gradually took shape in Jiangnan. The capitalist sprouts that seemed to herald the end of the ancient feudal empire had, by the late Ming Dynasty, already appeared in Jiangnan in reality. The talented scholar Tang Yin wrote in Viewing the Gate of Changmen:
"Three thousand women in green sleeves ascend and descend the towers,
Millions in gold flow east and west.
Where does the market cease to buy at dawn?
In the four corners, all are different."
Describing the prosperous scene in Suzhou's Changmen area during the Ming Dynasty. Simultaneously, He Liangjun, in his Collected Discourses of the Four Friends Study, also pointed out that at the time, in areas like Suzhou and Songjiang, "Those who once pursued commerce were few, but now those who abandoned farming to engage in commerce had 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; streets and markets were densely arranged, and bridges were as numerous as the teeth of a comb. Merchants from all directions converged in these places, and Sichuan and Yue boats navigated day and night at the gates, forming prosperous and well-known commercial cities." Taking the Wujiang County in Jiangsu Province, where many members of the Baishi Society later gathered, as an example, there were only seven market towns in the early Ming Dynasty, but by the Jiajing period, they had developed into fourteen large towns. Among them, the typical rural town "Qingcuidi," which had only hundreds of people in the early Ming Dynasty, had suddenly become a major silk-producing hub with tens of thousands of people by the late Ming Dynasty. Reflected in literature, in the "Three Words and Two Captions" compiled by Feng Menglong and Ling Yingchu, there are many literary scenes depicting commercial cities and the urban strata. Although the late Ming Dynasty was marked by eunuchs in power and corrupt governance, the Donglin Party members, who waged a brave struggle against the feudal bureaucratic class represented by Wei Zhongxian, revealed a sharp conflict between the emerging capitalist sprouts and the decaying feudal bureaucratic system at the deep level of productive forces and relations. However, with the large-scale emergence of the urban strata, the growing prosperity of commercial cities, the rapid increase in social wealth, and the serious opposition and subversion of the outdated feudal value system and ethical norms in people's minds, the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty held a pivotal position in the history of Chinese civilization. Among the accounts of numerous historians, one can vaguely 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's iron hooves trampled the Central Plains, and this ray of capitalist sprouts, like a spring dream, vanished without a trace. P001-003