Qian Zhongshu, Prose And Scholarship:Reading Between The Lines1929to1949

Viewed as a whole, the body of writings produced by Qian Zhongshué'±é”ºä¹¦take the reader on a voyage between "prose" and "scholarship", and between "main stream" and "non-main stream", thereby gradually building a methodology and different thought process towards scholarly writing that gave Qian’s work a unique style. Qian took the position of a pursuer in the pursuit of adopting a holistic perspective that was inspired by both ancient and modern, as well as the Chinese and Western canons. It was on the thoughts that comprise literature and the manner in which one describes scholarship that Qian carried out his most detailed studies, thus breaking down the barriers between the two great fields of prose and scholarship, space-time and academia and realizing a "union" of the two. In other words bringing out the "creativity in the scholar" and the "scholarship in the writer".Qian Zhongshu’s incorporation of prose with scholarship has been praised as an emblem of Chinese culture, which leaving aside natural talent can be attributed to Qian’s "stylistic sensitivity". Qian’s sensitivity towards literary styles and writing, and his willingness to experiment was what, to a certain extent, was infused throughout the loving care he took for his works and the academic rigor Qian sought to produce, thus creating a menage of differing styles of prose. If one were to use the fixed concepts of genre and form with which to analyze a reading of a Qian Zhongshu’s prose and scholarship one would find it difficult to encapsulate the extraordinary way with words displayed by Qian and thus it would be make the possibility of a multi-dimensional reading of Qian equally difficult.The research presented here therefore takes the above as the starting point of its discussion. Beginning with Qian’s earliest works and looking at how his "literary sensitivity" manifested itself in those writings, the key topic of this dissertation is the concept of Qian Zhongshu as both a writer of "prose" and "scholarship", both a writer and an academic and how those two versions of Qian coexist and cooperate. By basing my answers in a close reading of Qian Zhongshu’s work to "let Qian speak for himself" this dissertation shall employ previously ignored and discarded writings to further illuminate the problems at hand and seek new breakthroughs.The scope and objective of the research in this dissertation has been approached from several angles. These include the interior and exterior contexts found in Qian Zhongshu’s creative and academic works, choice and characteristics of wording as well as some unique aspects of Qian’s prose. Despite the fact that this dissertation is limited to works by Qian pre-1949, however, this does not mean that the research is limited in scope to any certain single。 objective. In other words, the research carried out here can be applied to Qian Zhongshu’s entire body of work and should be read with Qian’s post1949works equally in mind as a reference.Other than the table of contents, bibliography and appendices, the body of this dissertation consists of three sections:an introductory chapter, main text and conclusion. The introduction outlines "On Qian Zhongshu’s Problems and Thought","Overview of Research" and "Research Perspective and Methodology". The main text comprises of four chapters, each chapter focusing in on Qian Zhongshu’s "literary sensitivity" thus creating an overall sense of a "complete body of work". This is the key point of the research, outside of Qian’s novels and stories selecting essays, notes, prefaces and after words, book reviews and translations to find evidence of Qian Zhongshu putting "emotional delight" and "academic purport" into his writings. The fifth chapter is the conclusion in which the main points of the text are summarized in an attempt to find the true Qian Zhongshu and at the same time uncover the face of "Qian Zhongshu style" and the meanings that can be drawn therein. In addition, the conclusion underlines the significance of this dissertation and its meaning for the future of Qian Zhongshu studies.Qian Zhongshu never failed to remind himself through his selection of "academic thought" and "prose style" to strive to exceed his own inadequacies; to begin with the mere twinkle of an idea and to see it through to fruition, and throughout that process gain a diachronic "growth", not to mention standing on the "edge", on the crossover between "prose" and "scholarship" thus founding a solid academic approach and frame of mind.