A Study On Bao Tian-xiao And His Novels

Bao Tianxiao was initially called Bao Qingzhu. In his whole life he adoped many pen names such as Tianxiao, Xiao, Chuanying, Nianhua, Aijiao, Manmiao etc. On February 26, 1876 (February 2, the second year of Emperor of the Qing Dynasty Guangxu's reign ) Bao Tianxiao was born in Xihuaqiao Alley, Suzhou, and on November 24, 1973 he died of illness in a French hospital in Hongkong. This paper will discuss Bao Tianxiao and his novels in four orientations as follows:The First Chapter makes a division of Bao's nearly-100-year life. Based upon the preparation and accumulation in adolescence, he published his first literary work, a Chinese version translated from Joan, a British love story, during the period(1906-1019) of Lixueyibian. The period of Shibao was Bao's most brilliant and prominent time in his life when he did much compiling and writing, laying a sound foundation for being a great writer in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican China. In the 1920s around the literary revolution of May-4th Movement, Bao Tianxiao adjusted and transformed himself gradually from compling newspapers and periodicals to literary creations. In the 1930s and 40s (1931-1946)-a period of fighting against the Japanese invaders, Bao created a lot of works with the war and love as the main topics and published them in some well-known popular literary periodicals. After moving to Taiwan and Hongkong(1946-1973), Bao never stopped writing, putting out plenty of memoirs. In Bao Tianxiao was blended culturally and psychologically the old and new as well as the oriental an occidental. This stemmed from the combinations of the nurturing of the culture of Suzhou, succession of the culture of Huizhou merchants, from the interactions and incorporations of the old traditional education and modern weastern civilization, and from his affection and humanity for the society and its people. All this formed a fulcrum for his whole life.The Second Chaptor deals with Bao Tianxiao's activitis in papers and periodicals. There was a fairly intimate relationship between modern novelists and papers and magazine. One the one hand, they edited and published papers and periodicals; on the other hand, as an editor, they had to create and translate novels in their papers and magazines in order to maintain their normal issuing, thus forming a large body of paper novelists differing vastly from those traditional writers. Bao served as a typical example: he was a novelist, journalist, and an editor,dedicating over 30 years to editing, and additionally always claiming to be a journalist. As the chief editor or working with other editors, he edited various papers and periodicals, meanwhile, he produced and translated a substantial number of literary works. All this contributed to his authority in the literary circle from the late Qing Dynasty to early Republican period-"taking the real lead in literature for two decades", producing a far-reaching effect upon the literary atmosphere at that time, and even into the modere times.Wiping off the thick dust, a re-examination of the papers and periodicals edited by Bao Tianxiao will leave us astonished at the its highly commercial editing and operation: enshrouded in an intense commercial mood, they were realizing their transformation towards modernization. As an editor and novelist, by employing the...