The Eastern Miscellany And The Birth Of Modern Chinese Literature

The Eastern Miscellany, a comprehensive magazine of theCommercial Press, is a treasure house of modern Chinese literature. Nowin academic circle, The Eastern Miscellany is researched and approachedfrom historical angles of thought, communication, law, economy,education and so on for the sake of its comprehensive nature, but literaryresearch and approach are relatively poor. And this dissertation fills thisgap to a certain extent.This dissertation is divided into five chapters, excluding Preface andConclusion. Preface introduces the significance, present researches,research methods and innovative points. The first chapter introduces thehistory of the Commercial Press and something about The EasternMiscellany, such as its starting of publication, face-lift, editors, evolutionof publication idea and so on.The second chapter investigates the relationship between The Eastern Miscellany and literature. This dissertation thinks that whenMeng Sen and Du Yaquan were editors-in-chief, old and new literarystyles were mixed; classical and colloquial languages coexisted;translated works were more than literary writings, showing that modernliterature was coming with more literary varieties and higher position. Inthe time when Qian Zhixiu and Hu Yuzhi were editors-in-chief, TheEastern Miscellany was the most prosperous, for literary type, column,number and quality reached an unprecedented degree. The compilation ofthe column “Eastern Literary Records” and New Year solicited essayshad important influences on literary circle. When Li Shengwu waseditor-in-chief as well as in the period after him, literature wasmarginalized with declining number and quality. It can be seen thatliterary column is closely related with literary situation, editors’background and knowledge, aesthetic taste, ability to solicit contributionand so on. The third chapter explores the relationship between The EasternMiscellany and New Culture Movement. This dissertation gives adynamic investigation to the magazine in a longer time instead of the pastsimple judgement that this magazine is conservative of cultural identityin the eastern and western controversy, and thinks that their relationshipundergoes three stages of thought forerunner, controversy opponents andassistants. And in the meantime this magazine plays a role that can’t beignored in the Vernacular Movement.The fourth chapter explores the relationship between the translatedliterary works of The Eastern Miscellany and the birth of modernChinese literature. This dissertation sorts out the literary translated worksand thinks that this magazine sets an example to the development ofmodern literature, such as comprehensive studies on world literature andintroduction to the literary situation in the world, enlarging the literaryscope of reception, providing wide reference resources and new literary ideas, thus pushing ahead modern Chinese literature.The fifth chapter discusses the relationship between literary writingand modern Chinese literature. This magazine, open to various literaryschools, publishes many works of modern literature. In addition, thismagazine is the first to advocate modern criticism, which values theapplication of criticism, guides the writing way, subject matters, artisticmeans and at the same time cultivates new authors for the developmentof modern literature.Conclusion discusses the value of The Eastern Miscellany inmodern literature. First, this magazine accepts the various literary schools,theory, thought, writers and works, a witness and recorder of the wholehistory of modern Chinese literature in the first half of the20th century,which may be called a development history of modern literature. Second,this magazine publishes many translated literary works and articles ofliterary criticism, through which writing way, subject matters, artistic means, and theory, thought and so on are guided and supported, thushaving made contributions to the sound development of modern literature.Third, this magazine witnesses and records the whole process of modernChinese literature and also keeps rich historical materials andbackgrounds.The innovative points of this dissertation cover three aspects. First,statistical method is applied to research the literary field of The EasternMiscellany and reveal those ignored in the past. Second, the methods ofliterary sociology, culturology and sort research are applied to explore thebirth, development and evolution in the mutual reaction of magazine andsociety, editor and author, criticism, translation and writing, and reveal itsdevotions of literary works to the writer community, writing tendency,literary ecology and so on. In the perspective of genealogical theory, theinfluences of cultural transformation, literary translation and literarycriticism on modern Chinese literature are explored as key points.