Modern Prose - Selected Prose of Li Liewen

Author: Li Liewen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: Li Liewen was born in Xiangtan, Hunan in 1904. His great-grandfather, Li Jintan, served as the magistrate of Tainan, Taichung, and Quanzhou successively. After the First Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan was ceded to Japan. Li Jige, his great-uncle, led the people and army in resisting the Japanese occupation forces but was defeated and committed suicide by drowning. His grandfather, Li Zexiang, served as the magistrate of Yuhang, Zhejiang. His father, Li Mozong, graduated from the Hubei Public Railway College and served as a station master in several places before working in the Hunan Provincial Military Governor's Office, where the family's fortune further declined. At the end of 1919, 15-year-old Li Liewen came to Shanghai. With the help of his cousin who worked at the Commercial Press, he passed the entrance exam and became a clerk in the Translation and Compilation Department, where he was responsible for copying, organizing, and proofreading manuscripts. In the summer of 1921, Zheng Zhenwen, the head of the Translation and Compilation Department, was appointed as the president of Xiamen University. Recognizing Li Liewen's talent, he took him on as the secretary to the president's office. However, due to his attachment to the publishing house, he returned to the Commercial Press in the spring of 1922 and was promoted to assistant editor in the Chinese Department of the Translation and Compilation Department. Starting in 1921, he began publishing short stories, which were later collected into "Boat Journey" and published by Shanghai Taide Book Company. Meanwhile, he、《》、《》、《》《》4 ancient books, published by Shanghai Commercial Press. With some income from his writings and the support of his cousin-in-law, Huang Song, Li Liewen went to Japan for studies in June 1926. Upon arriving in Japan, Li Liewen attended a preparatory school to improve his Japanese. After half a year, he entered the preparatory department of Tokyo Imperial University. Soon after, due to overworking, he developed "neurasthenia." Following the doctor's advice, he took a month-long leave to rest in Itō. During his recovery, the respected Japanese avant-garde writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, whom he admired, committed suicide. This deeply affected him. He had already been influenced by Akutagawa's "view of a lonely life," and this event further deepened his depression. His teachers and classmates advised him to change his environment, and he himself felt that studying literature in Japan was not as good as studying in France, where French literature seemed to be richer. In September 1927, he completed his studies in Japan and returned to Shanghai.