Chinese Literature

of cultural intercourse between nations. Everyone felt that now, when a vast amount of work in industry and educa‘tion has been set afoot in an organized, planned fashion, it was high time that translation of literary works, too, should be carried out in a far more systematic way. The conference, therefore, bearing in mind the needs of our country, thoroughly discussed a plan to introduce famous world literature. This plan lists over seven hundred outstanding works, from ancient Greek, Roman, Indian and Egyptian classics down to works of the world’s leading writers of the early 20th century. A separate plan will deal with works of contemporary writers.

To introduce famous world literature to the Chinese is no easy task. The translators attending the conference Spent much time in discussing how the quality of translation could be improved. They were unanimous in their conviction

Classics for

“We must properly edit and systematically publish Chinese classics of a popular nature, as well as all worthwhile and sound research work on these classics and their writers.” This was one of the important tasks outlined by Chou Yang, Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Writers’ Union and China’s outstanding literary critic, at the second (1953) all-Ghina conference of writers and artists. To make available and assess the best traditions of China’s classical literature is an essential step to the creation of China’s new culture,

At the end of 1952, the People’s Literary Press brought out a popular edition, containing seventy-one chapters, of Water

Margin by Shih Nai-an, a classical writer. This novel is outstanding in our national literary heritage for its

strongly popular character. It has as its theme the peasant uprising. In it the author incorporates pen portraits of one hundred and eight popular heroes, skilfully Suggesting the character of each as an individual and at the same time showing the part they played together

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that in translating literary works, the job of curately and faithfully, the content and spirit of the original, striving to reproduce the style of the original by the use of appropriate literary language, so that in reading translations readers will be as greatly inspired, as deeply moved, and receive as much aesthetic satisfaction as if they were reading the original.

The holding of this conference shows how keen the Chinese people are to make every possible effort to understand the life, customs, thoughts and feelings of people in other parts of the world. They respect the cultural glories of other nations. They wish to assimilate the best of other peoples’ cultural traditions in order to enrich their own new culture. And furthermore, they hope through the works of the great writers of the world to strengthen the ties of friendship with the peoples of all lands,

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against the general historical background. For centuries different editions of this novel were eagerly read by the masses. Before the present. edition Was printed experts working for the People’s Literary Press referred to various earlier editions, systematically collating the texts, eliminating the many errors which had crept into the manuscript, and restoring the novel to its original form. How successfully they performed this task is evidenced by a flood of congratulatory letters from readers, The consensus of opinion was that: this edition of Water Margin, lovingly edited and restored, is a more perfect edition of the novel than any we have ever read.

To meet the needs of people engaged in literary research, there was also published a complete edition of the novel. This contains 120 chapters, some of which were added by later writers.

In 1958, the Writers’ Press edited and published the Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Lo Kuan-chung, a writer of the fourteenth eentury, and the Dream of the Red Chamber by Tsao

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