Selected Prose Works of Zheng Zhenduo

Author: Zheng Zhenzhuo, edited by Chen Fukang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: Zheng Zhenzuo was a renowned scholar, literary historian, and art historian after the May Fourth Movement. Perhaps due to his outstanding achievements in academic research, people almost forgot that he was also an outstanding writer, especially an unapologetic master of prose. Zheng Zhenzuo (1898–1958) was a modern writer, literary critic, literary historian, and archaeologist. His pen names include Xidi, CT, and Guo Yuexin. Originally from Changle, Fujian, he was born in Yongjia, Zhejiang. In 1917, he enrolled in the Beijing Railway Management School. After the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement, he participated in social activities as a student representative and co-founded the magazine New Society with Qu Qiubai and others. In November 1920, he helped establish the Literary Research Association with Shen Yanbing, Ye Shaojun, and others, and served as the editor-in-chief of the association's official publication Literary Weekly. He also edited and published the Literary Research Association Series. In January 1923, he succeeded Shen Yanbing as the editor-in-chief of Monthly Review of Fiction, advocating realistic "art for life" literature and proposing the literary doctrine of "blood and tears." After the failure of the Great Revolution, he lived in Paris. In 1929, he returned to China. He once served as the editor-in-chief of World Library at the Life Publishing House. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance, he participated in establishing the "Shanghai Cultural Circle Salvation Association" and founded Salvation Daily. Together with Xu Guangping and others, he organized the "Fush Society" and published works such as The Complete Works of Lu Xun, History of the Communist Party of China, and Selected Works of Lenin. After the victory in the war, he participated in establishing the "China Democratic Promotion Association" and founded Democracy Weekly, urging the people of China to fight for democracy and peace. After 1949, he held positions such as Director of the Cultural Relics Bureau, Director of the Institute of Archaeology, Director of the Institute of Literature, Vice Minister of Culture, and Vice Chairman of the China Folk Literature Research Association. On October 18, 1958, while leading a Chinese cultural delegation abroad, he perished in a plane crash. His major works include the short story collections Stories of the Family and Guigong Tang, the prose collection Notes from the Mountains, and the monographs Outline of Literature, Illustrated History of Chinese Literature, History of Popular Literature in China, Collected Works on Chinese Literature, and Sketches of Russian Literature. There is also The Collected Works of Zheng Zhenzuo. His prose has achieved considerable success in terms of artistic and intellectual quality, as well as in truth, goodness, beauty, talent, knowledge, and insight. Of course, it is unnecessary to deny this. Due to his bright and straightforward creative personality, he sometimes wrote impulsively or became overly emotional, which might result in insufficient refinement of language or a rougher structure. Additionally, as a scholar, he sometimes quoted excessively, including some difficult classical Chinese, which might overshadow the artistic quality with academic rigor. Moreover, the rapid or gradual development of his thoughts and the varying breadth of his life experiences also affected the artistic conception of some of his prose. Etc. However, on the whole, most of his prose is plain yet original, relaxed yet rigorous in structure, allowing readers to directly connect with the author's heart, as if listening to him speak face-to-face, completely forgetting that it is a written expression—this is not a highly accomplished artistic realm after all?