The Back of History; Selected Works of Jia Zhifang

Author: Xiuxianlin
Publisher:
Publishing Time: Not available
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Excerpt: This small book is a collection of most of the short essays I wrote between 1936 and 1947. Amidst the turmoil and chaos, the articles included here could have been lost if it were not for the help of several enthusiastic friends. I am truly grateful for the value of friendship, especially to my brothers Tao Tiao, Liu, Sun, and Minjun. I am an accidental writer, though this interest has greatly strengthened and encouraged me in life, it has also brought me greater frustration and sorrow in this era. I often reflect on Andrei Bely's words: "For the dying, to live through their works is a sad thing." Although I have no aspirations to become a literary saint, in the true sense of a strict life path and the personal choices shaped by the times, this work can be seen as an 'escape,' and yet this tragic 'escape' is not easily avoided! It is like the dull phase of foreign war, where a friend I deeply respect kept urging and encouraging me to write something as if it were a 'toy of sorrow.' This mood of gaining something amidst helplessness truly moved me to tears! At that time, I was in an old-style military unit, even unable to put my mouth to the ground like a wolf to vent my frustrations. I was filled with the dark and simple emotions of a soldier, faith in the bayonet. Time flies—I was 'ill' for nearly a year, though still in an environment that was not fully recovered, due to the encouragement of my loving friends, I compiled this small book. "There is no voice in the height of battle," as a former soldier, I understand this principle. So, while I couldn't help but feel a sense of sorrow, I wondered what this small book could possibly be. The idea of naming it "A Toy of Sorrow" came from this feeling of regret and silence in my heart; but some friends said it was not suitable, even though we live in a faded life, we cannot lose our color as humans; we must have some vitality. So, let's call it "Heat," I could only smile silently and agree. But, "A Toy of Sorrow," I want to shout and call out loudly in my heart.
Postscript in late autumn of 1948: The postscript was written for Mr. Jia to compile a relatively complete academic, allowing the fruits of Mr. Jia's years of academic activities to be fully reflected, while also providing some practical convenience for us to read his articles. This topic has been discussed among us, the "disciples and grand-disciples" who have often been around Mr. Jia in recent years, more than once. Since Mr. Jia's return to prominence, various works and collections have been published, including some like "Literary Remains After the Calamity—Collected Prefaces and Postfaces by Jia Zhifang," which reflect Mr. Jia's achievements in a certain field. However, perhaps precisely because of this, the absence of a systematic collection of Mr. Jia's academic achievements in different periods and fields has especially left us unsatisfied in reading and understanding. Originally, in the mid-1980s, a publisher in Mr. Jia's hometown had a plan to publish a multi-volume of Mr. Jia's works, and Professor Chen Sihuo, who was then Mr. Jia's assistant, had compiled the first two volumes. But for some reason unknown, the manuscript was shelved in the publisher for many years, and the publication plan was ultimately canceled, replaced by a thin, small "Selected Works" with a print run of only 1,000 copies. Of course, this meant nothing to Mr. Jia himself, so although it was only a small consolation, he still expressed his sincere gratitude to the individuals involved and the "home publisher" for their "generous hospitality" in the postscript of the book, with a cheerful and capable attitude. But as readers who had expectations, the loss of this "what could have been" opportunity was hard to accept, and we couldn't help but feel some injustice when certain petty voices buzzed around us like flies. So, when Shandong Education Press came to Mr. Jia to invite him to compile a self-selected collection, Mr. Jia hesitated because he was already publishing two recent works collections and feared repetition in content. I was one of the few who strongly encouraged him to accept the invitation. My reason was that since Shandong was inviting him to compile a part of the "Century Academic and Literary Series," the focus was clearly on academia, and the page limit was very generous, so we could fully compile it into a "summary of Mr. Jia's academic activities." Perhaps my bold words worked, and Mr. Jia not only accepted the publisher's invitation but also entrusted me with the task of co-editing the "Self-Selected Collection." Naturally, I couldn't just speak empty words; under Mr. Jia's close attention and detailed guidance, I had to approach this task with high standards and strict requirements, "treating it as a serious study." Looking back after completing it, I do have a few points of pride. First, in terms of material collection, we have unearthed and gathered a batch of original documents that have never been included in any collection or published before, which can alleviate Mr. Jia's concerns about repetition in content with other collections. These documents were written during a relatively concentrated period: the early 1950s, before Mr. Jia was imprisoned, when he published some topical essays,, and reviews of foreign writers in newspapers and magazines. We have selected some representative ones and included them in the fifth section of the book, "Return and Beyond." The second period was the early 1980s, after Mr. Jia's rehabilitation and return to prominence, when he worked in the reference room and was invited to serve as a member of the editorial committee for two large-scale series of reference books, "Comprehensive Collection of Materials on the History of Modern Chinese Literature" and "Materials for the Study of Contemporary Chinese Literature," organized by the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He later served as the responsible editor for several of the collections, leaving behind a batch of precious documents that have never been publicly released. According to our current understanding, serving as an editorial committee member in a book co-edited by a group of people should only be a honorary position, with no real tasks to be concerned about. But no, the few long articles we unearthed, written during this period and likely intended for guiding the specific editorial responsibilities, prove that Mr. Jia was not only involved but also very detailed and thorough. It is clear that he was also "treating it as a serious study." This kind of pure "material" discovery also brought me a great shock. I think its significance should far exceed the few specific materials themselves and lies more in making us understand that when we conduct in-depth research on modern and contemporary Chinese literature and the relationship between Chinese and foreign literature on the basis of rectifying chaos in the 1980s, those "basic literature" collections that seem readily available and are often taken for granted are not inherently meant to exist in any particular form. They are also a kind of "civilizational achievement" worthy of our cherishing. Behind those yellowed pages, how much effort, life, cries, and struggles of scholars like Mr. Jia and reference workers of his generation have been condensed and locked away, most of which have remained undiscovered or long forgotten.
In October 1990, Mr. Jia accepted an invitation from his alma mater, Tokyo Japan University, to visit Japan as a visiting scholar for a month, accompanied by his wife. During this time, he gave lectures on topics such as "My History with Hu Feng," "My and Sociology," and "On Hu Feng's Literary Thought" at several universities. Most of these lecture drafts had not been published in China before, and we have included them all here. On the other hand, my idea for the format of this book was fully supported by Mr. Jia, which is also a point that made me quite proud. The idea is actually very simple: based on the original intention of compiling a "summary academic," we strive to fully reflect and embody Mr. Jia's academic achievements and contributions in terms of both activity periods and fields. For this purpose, I first divided the materials by discipline, categorizing Mr. Jia's academic achievements in the main fields of modern literature, comparative literature, and foreign literature (including other miscellaneous studies) into three sections: "Starting from Cleaning Up the Disaster Zone," "Openness and Exchange," and "Return and Beyond" (Sections 3 to 5 of the book). Then, we aimed to collect comprehensively and select based on this comprehensiveness, with the selection criteria naturally determined by Mr. Jia himself.
Moreover, Mr. Jia was never a scholar who lived in seclusion, only buried himself in books, but had a dual cultural identity as both a writer and a scholar, with a turbulent life. His own life experiences, social interactions, thoughts, actions, and academic journey were in themselves a great "study." Many of his viewpoints and insights expressed in a theoretical form often had the background and subtext of his own experiences and perceptions in real life. Therefore, to truly "understand" Mr. Jia's scholarship, one must also understand his character. For this reason, I specifically compiled his "autobiography" ("Speaking of Myself") and "remembrances" ("The Experience of History is Worthy of Attention," including miscellaneous essays on historical themes) and placed them before the "scholarly" texts in the above three sections as the first and second sections, hoping to give readers a sense of gradual progress, from to rational reflection. As an appendix, a collection of ten essays titled "Mr. Jia in the Eyes of Others" was included. These were my own initiative and were added here. Over the years, there have been many accounts of Mr. Jia's scholarship and character. Now, I have selected a few from them, using others' words to indirectly express my own understanding of Mr. Jia. Whether praised or criticized, we are all truly respectful of Mr. Jia himself.
Finally, the title of this book was set as "The Back of History." Initially, it was mostly to comply with the publisher's naming format. They insisted on adding a "poetic" title above the subtitle "Self-Selected Collection." This made Mr. Jia quite troubled for a few days. Later, this phrase was chosen, not because of its "poetry," but mainly because it was a topic that Mr. Jia often brought up at his dinner table and in his study after drinking, a topic we had grown accustomed to and had deeply ingrained in our minds, as if "there were ghosts in our thoughts," with thoughts and people easily coming to mind and hard to shake off. As for its meaning, Mr. Jia said in his memoir "In Prison and Outside Prison," there is half a sentence that can serve as a footnote: "The things that are richer and more real than official history and official books," perhaps, can only be found "behind history."
Assisting Mr. Jia in compiling this "Self-Selected Collection" gave me a strong sense of gratitude. To preserve this joy for longer, I now share it; during the compilation process, many teachers and friends, including Professor Chen Sihuo, Professor Xie Tianzhen, Brother Yan Feng, Brother Song Binghui, Brother Zhang Xinying, and Ms. Jia Ying, the daughter of Mr. Jia, all participated in giving opinions or providing practical help. I am grateful to them all.
Zhang Yesong
November 21, 1997
At the "Humble Abode" in the Southern District