The Complete Prose of Xu Zhimo (Volume 1 and 2)

Author: Xu Zhimo | Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Xu Zhimo (1897–1931) was a modern poet and prose writer. His given name was Zhang Xu, and his pen names included Nanhu and Yunzhonghe. He was from Haining, Zhejiang. He graduated from Hangzhou No. 1 High School in 1915 and studied successively at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tianjin Beiyang University, and Peking University. In 1918, he went to the United States to study banking. In 1921, he went to the UK for studies, enrolling as a special student at the University of Cambridge to study political economy. During his two years at Cambridge, he was deeply influenced by Western education as well as the romanticism and aestheticism of Western and Chinese poets. In 1921, he began writing new poetry. Upon returning to China in 1922, he published a large number of poems and essays in newspapers and magazines. In 1923, he participated in founding the Crescent Society and joined the Literature Research Association. In 1924, he co-founded the weekly magazine Modern Review with Hu Shi, Chen Xilin, and others, and served as a professor at Peking University. He served as an interpreter for the great Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore during his visit to China. In 1925, he traveled to Europe, visiting countries such as the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, and France. In 1926, he edited the literary supplement Shijing for the Morning News in Beijing, collaborating with Wen Yiduo, Zhu Xiang, and others to promote the regularization of new poetry, which significantly influenced the development of new poetic art. That same year, he moved to Shanghai and served as a professor at Guanghua University, Da Xia University, and Nanjing Central University. In 1927, he participated in founding the Crescent Bookstore. After the Crescent monthly magazine was launched the following year, he became its editor-in-chief. He also traveled abroad to the UK, the US, Japan, and India. In 1930, he became a member of the China Committee of the China Cultural Foundation and was elected a member of the British Poetry Society. That winter, he taught at Peking University and Beijing Women's University. In early 1931, he co-founded the quarterly Poetry magazine with Chen Mengjia and Fang Weide and was elected a council member of the Chinese branch of the PEN Club. On November 19 of the same year, he took a plane from Nanjing to Beiping (now Beijing), but due to fog, the plane crashed near Jinan, killing him. His published works include poetry collections such as Poems of Xu Zhimo, A Night in, The Tiger and Other Poems, and Cloud Travel, prose collections such as Falling Leaves, Fringes of Paris, Self-Examination, and Autumn, the novel-prose collection The Wheel, the play Bian Kun Gang (co-written with Lu Xiaoman), diaries such as Notes on Mei, and Xu Zhimo's Diaries, and translations such as The Complete Works of Arthur Symons. His works have been compiled into The Collected Works of Xu Zhimo. Xu's poetry is fresh in wording, harmonious in rhythm, original in metaphor, rich in imagination, beautiful in imagery, ethereal in spirit, varied in form, and artistic elegance and perfection, embodying a distinct artistic personality and making him a representative poet of the Crescent Society. His prose also has a unique style and achieves no less success than his poetry, with works such as Self-Examination, Wishing to Fly, What I Know of, and Evenings in Mountain being celebrated masterpieces.