Research On The Novelette:a Swordsman In Yellow Garment

This dissertation studies on A Swordsman in Yellow Garment, a Chinese novelette in French, written by Chen Ji-tong, a diplomat in the late period of the Qing Dynasty.Chen Ji-tong adapted the novelette from Miss Huo Xiao-yu’s Love Story, a famous marvelous tale of the Tang Dynasty. It was then published in French and was favorably received by the European readers. But it had been unknown in China for a long time until it was translated from French into Chinese by Dr. Li Hua-chuan a few years ago. Professor Yan Jia-yan wrote a preface for this translation. He highly appraised the novelette and seriously introduced it to the Chinese readers. Indeed, it is a unique literary works which has more value and meanings.As one novel, the distinctive value of A Swordsman in Yellow Garment lies on that it is the first Chinese novel directly written in foreign language by a Chinese writer. So it has a special function in the external literary exchange. Because of the intention of letting the European know the Chinese literature, the author of the novelette not only firstly used French (not his oriental mother tongue) to write it, but also creatively applied many artistic techniques of European works to the creation of Chinese novels. He adopted some means of artistic expression that the European writers liked to use in their works, for instance, European-fashion dialogues, landscape descriptions, mental activities, images, the changes of narrative mode, etc., to tell the story of the Chinese. He successfully opened a new way for the exchanges of Chinese literature in abroad. And so he became one of the pioneers and models in the area of the Chinese writers’ creation in foreign language. Through the development of more than one hundred years after him, the Chinese writers’creation in foreign language has become an important aspect of the exchange between Chinese and foreign literature, which is equaled to the translations of Chinese literary works.The writing and publishing of A Swordsman in Yellow Garment was also of special significance in the history of Chinese literature. At that time, Chinese writers continued to write their novels in traditional ways, and were reluctant to explore the modern creating methods of Chinese literature. But Chen Ji-tong was willing to abandon the writing stereotype of the traditional Chinese novels Zhanghui, deliberately kept some distances to it. He had explored a new narrative method of Chinese novels that was suited to modern readings. A Swordsman in Yellow Garment could be a valuable attempt that Chinese writers did their best to make traditional literature modernization before The New Literature Movement.The novelette made many important changes in the plotting, the characterization, the theme and the technique of expression of the original work, and wasn’t a simple adaptation. Especially, due to the re-creating of characters and the change of its theme (betrayal plus revengeful), the novelette had actually become an aestheticism works. It tells us a moving, tragic ancient love story. In addition, its author purposely inserted some Chinese customs and sceneries, introduced lots of knowledge about Chinese culture, and therefore let its European readers feel strongly the Chinese civilization. This novelette is full of the tea flavor of ancient China.This dissertation adopts the comparative analysis to research the French-to-Chinese translation of A Swordsman in Yellow Garment from many sides.1. the differences between the adaptation and the original;2. the development to the traditional narrative methods of Chinese literature;3. the learning and absorbing to European literary creation;4. the specific characteristics of the adaptation and its historical backgrounds;5. the endeavor for the literary interchanges between China and foreign countries. The expositive emphasis of this dissertation is the value and meanings that the author wrote A Swordsman in Yellow Garment in French, and that he used the narrative methods of modern literature.