The Research Of "Xingwei School" Novelists In Early Republic Of China (1912-1923)

The research objects of this dissertation are the novelists who used to be called "Old School" in the early Republic of China. These novelists or several of them have once been denominated as "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School", "Muckraking school", "Saturday School", "Popular Fiction School", "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly-Saturday School", etc. These denominations reflect the miserable history of the "Old School", which has been criticized, concealed and misunderstood for almost one hundred years. In recent years, though the academic circle has paid more attention to this school, yet it has the inclination to be studied in the field of "Pro-Modern and Modern Popular Literary History". As a matter of fact, this school continues to be misinterpreted. The main purpose of this paper is to restore the fundamental features of "Xingwei", which these novelists greatly advocate and should be interpreted as artistic and recreational. With the methods of macroscopical exposition and individual case study, this paper will reveal the global features and historical contributions of "Xingwei School"; and meanwhile, it will completely describe the modern transformation process of Chinese novel to highlight the independent identity of this school. This dissertation consists of three parts:introduction, body text and conclusion, among which the body text is further divided into two parts.The introduction part depicts and discusses the dual concealments and one malposition that the "Early Republic of China Old School" novelists have encountered in a century. Through this way, it rearranges the relevance research history, and puts forward the issue of name rectification for the "Early Republic of China Old School" novelists. Then it represents the research perspectives, methods, scope, data, ideas, chapters, as well as academic significance and application values of the paper.The first part of body text is overall study on the novelists. It includes the content of rectifying the name "Early Republic of China Old School" to "Xingwei School" which emphasizes on the artistry and recreation of novels. And it reveals the global features and historical contributions of "Xingwei School".Chapter one indicates that a literary school should be named according to the propositions, and writing and translation features of the fictions of that school. Then it will be appropriate to rectify the "Early Republic of China Old School" to "Xingwei School". Through the analysis of the novel comments and the writing and translation works of that school, the paper points out that the core opinion of this school is to stress the "Xingwei" of novels, i.e. emphasize on the literary aesthetic independence and highlight the recreational function of fictional texts. Thus, these novelists raise the upsurge of becoming "Xingwei" in the early Republic of China with their various fictional writings and translations. Then, the paper gives a brief introduction to the boundary of this school and its representative writers. Chapter two uses for reference of some conceptions and theories in western literary sociology and history, such as "literature field", "relation network" and "cultural identity". It demonstrates the independence and modernity of "literature field" in the early Republic of China; it depicts the relation network of "Xingwei School" which is interactive between tradition and modern times, and shows clearly the phenomenon of literary intergeneration intersection in the modern transformation process of Chinese novel; it confirms that their cultural identities are the "Jiangnan literati" walking up to modernity; it also proclaims that "Xingwei", which they advocate in novel, is a result of self adjustment in facing market restraint as professional writers. Actually, it is used as "recreation" to break the contradiction between "passing down" and "awakening" since the Novel Revolution. It adapts the market, conducts "awakening", and at the same time sticks to artistic standard and pursues "passing down". Chapter three mainly discusses the opening state of mind of the "Xingwei School" when confronting all kinds of traditional, western and folk literature resources. They inherit the "Xingwei" tradition of ancient literature, and meanwhile, consciously accept the influence of traditional and western novels which base on the folk writing stand, and actively draw nutrition from folk literature. All the facts prove that "Xingwei School" is by no means the group that has once been described as "restoration" and "conservative". It is reversely a new pioneering group which is multiple-learning, and proceeds various modern experiments. They have strongly promoted the modern transformation of Chinese novel by effective literary practice, and have made indelible contributions to this process.The other part is about the individual cases. Through the empirical study of five representative writers of "Xingwei School" and their works, it further verifies the conclusions which have got by the macroscopic investigation in the above part. It also corrects the misreading that these writers have confronted for a long time.Chapter four and chapter five study on Bao Tianxiao and Liu Bannong respectively. They are the famous cross-literary intergenerational writers in the period of the modern transformation of Chinese novel. Bao Tianxiao not only is a well-known novelist in Novel Revolution in Late Qing Dynasty, but is the leader of "Xingwei School" in Early Republic of China. During Late Qing Dynasty, he has conducted the experiment of becoming "Xingwei" via editing Newspapers and periodicals, as well as writing and translating fictions. The main novelists during Early Republic of China are greatly influenced by his novelistic idea of "Xingwei" During the early times of Republic of China, through editing multiple influential newspapers and periodicals, and ceaselessly exploring new writing and translating methods in fiction, he leads the fictional trend of an age with the literature view of "Xingwei". He is not a member of "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School" or "Saturday School". Liu Bannong is famous as the major member of the New Culture Movement in 1917, and he changes the character"侬"to"农"in his name (In Chinese, "侬" and "农" have the same pronunciation.). In fact, his literary activities in early Republic of China are mainly related to the colleagues of "Xingwei School". His literary views and writing and translation works are all consistent with the main trend of "Xingwei". And he has an obvious transitional process from a "naughty Young man of Xingwei" to a "new youth". His later successful diversion to the New Literature goes hand in hand with his unswerving folk writing stand. Even though he becomes a "new litterateur", he still has the flavor of "Xingwei", and holds the literature view of "Xingwei" which suits both refined and popular tastes. Through the review of this intergenerational change of character, this paper further restores the historic original appearance of "You're a part of me, I'm a part of you" in literature intergeneration during the period of the modern transformation of Chinese novel. The following three chapters discuss Zhou Shoujian, Ye Xiaofeng and Yao Yuanchu separately. They represent different types of writers in "Xingwei School". Zhou Shoujuan is known as the "Lin Daiyu" in the world of fiction, because he writes a large number of "mournful novels". He is a famous translating novelist in early Republic of China. His translations combine his literary talent with professional insight. These works are not only popular with the readers, but receives high appraisements from the professionals, such as Lu Xun. Besides, he is a busy newspaper editor, and calls himself "words labor". His fictional writing, translation and composition take literary "Xingwei" as the fundamental aim, and take the evocation of readers' "Xingwei" as the basis. In addition, he is also the spokesman of traditional virtues, as well as the artistic star who not only admires the ancient rhyme, but also leads the fashion. His position in the fiction world of early Republic of China ranks only second to Bao Tianxiao. Ye Xiaofeng is a revolutionist who cannot realize his ideals, and "sells essays" in Shanghai fiction world during the low tide period of revolution in early Republic of China. His novelistic idea of combining "Xingwei" with "enlightenment" has no difference with the main trend of becoming "Xingwei". Both his short "legends" which take "Tang People" as teachers and the novels which base on Outlaws of the Marsh and The Scholars are the demonstrations of modernized transition of "Xingwei" in ancient novels. He makes a name in early Republic of China fiction world because of his distinguished writing style and artistic pursuit. However, he has been neglected for a long time by the academic circles. Yao Yuanchu is a journalist novelist who graduates from the Imperial University of Peking, and is greatly influenced by Lin Shu. And he is famous for poetry and has rich intercourse. He encourages "Xingwei", and proposes that novels should integrate refined and popular tastes. He is known as the inheritor of Lin Shu, and has written many compiled novels which imitate Lin's style. Besides, he is good at multiple-learning and creates many widely accepted novels. What's more, he is full of enthusiasm about the stylistical experiments of short stories, and writes some distinctive ones. In a word, he is a writer of "Xingwei School" who compiles different lives by the artistry and recreation of poetry. The above five writers and their works can basically show the principal characteristics and the writing and translating achievements of "Xingwei School", and accordingly, reveal the truth of this group in the center of early Republic of China "literature field".The conclusion states briefly the importance of restoring the history of "Xingwei School" novelists in early Republic of China. From the perspective of academic value, it proves the objective existence and modern orientation of "Xingwei School". And at the same time it displays the special historic position of the "artistic and recreational trend of fiction" during the early Republic of China in the connection of the late Qing Dynasty Novel Revolution and the May Fourth New Literature Movement. Thereby, it really depicts the whole process of the modern transformation of Chinese novel. From the perspective of application value, summarizing the gains and losses of "Xingwei School" can provide some references to the current literary circles where the tradition of modern Chinese literature meets some crisis.