Pearl Buck's Reference To Chinese Literary Resources

Pearl S.Buck,an American-born writer who grew up in China,is world-famous not only for her novels on the Chinese theme,but also for the close relation that her view on fiction(including its theme and its art)and her writing about families,socio-politics and intellectuals bear with the works in Chinese literature.This has once made her a hot shot in the history of both Chinese and American literature but meanwhile has trapped her in the long controversy.Among all the previous researches conducted on Pearl S.Buck,some has touched upon the relation between her novels and the works in Chinese literature.However,there has never been any complete systematic study treating her major works on the Chinese theme as a research subject,which would turn out to be a necessary premise and basis for a more accurate and deeper interpretation,appreciation and exploration of her Chinese-themed novels.The formation of Buck's view on fiction was greatly shaped by the Chinese literature as it is evident in two aspects such as the theme of her novels and her artistic perspective.The theme of her novels has two focuses:the humanity-centered,civilian standpoint as well as the humanism based on love and esteem for the human nature.These two focuses have much in common with what characterized the heyday in the evolution of Chinese novels during the Yuan,Ming,and Qing Dynasties,like the shift to the realistic literary trend,elaborate portrayal of the lower-class everyday life,and characters with the rich human nature as the first and foremost essence in literary creation.Moreover,the two focuses in her novels' theme coincide with the prevalent philosophical schools at that time,including the Mind Studies of Wang Yangming and his disciples and the belief of Tao within people's daily existence advocated by Taizhou School,the leftist school of Mind Studies.As for her artistic view,Bucks tended to practice quasi-naturalism which is typical to traditional novels to represent true life,and at the meantime she adhered to the principle of remaining natural in her novels' plotting and narrative structure.In fact,rapid development of the plots,colloquial story-telling language and easy-to-understand artistic style in her novels all derived from her imitation of the features of folklore seen in populace novels and story-telling art.The imitation of the strange coincidences and the surrealist way of solving problems employed in ancient novels gives some of Pearl S.Buck' works the characteristics of "romantic realism".Buck's writing on families is likewise closely knitted with Chinese literary works.Family and family culture are an important component of China's patriarchal society,and also a key theme in traditional chaptered serial novels in China.The socio-romantic novels such as Jin Ping Mei(or The Golden Lotus),A Dream in Red Mansions and so on in the Ming and Qing dynasties are all categorized as family or family-clan novels.Six Chapters of a Floating Life is a lyric autobiographical novel about family life.When Pearl S.Buck who was well versed in Chinese cultural tradition began to work on her novels with the Chinese theme,she preferred the family theme for her writing.Many of her novels,like her debut long piece East Wind:West Wind,her fame-making representative The Good Earth,and the ensuing ones The Mother,Dragon Seed,The Pavilion of Women,Kinfolk,Peony,etc.are exclusively centered around the family or family clan,connecting the characters'experiences with the times,social vicissitudes and fate of the nation in a way to produce the genre paintings for Chinese society.At this point,traditional Chinese novels on the family theme become a vital source of inspiration for her writing as well as her train of thought during her creation.Due to the differences in the times of composition,cultural background,writing preference and competence,Buck made selections and brought forth a lot of developments in the theme,character building,art form,etc.when she borrowed or applied traditional writing experiences.Buck's socio-political writing has more apparent linkage with the works in Chinese literature.Out of concern about various significant problems in modern Chinese society like incessant disasters,famines,bandit rampage,official-civilian conflicts,endless warfare,etc.,she pondered over the cause for these problems and actively sought solutions,which went even further as to forecast the political form in future China in her novels A House Divided and The Patriot.Such observations and reflections came not only from her understanding of the social reality at that time but also from her reading experience of Chinese novels such as Water Margin,Romance of the Three Kingdoms,and those by Lu Xun.The works in Chinese literature enabled her to deepen her knowledge about the Chinese society but on the other hand she fell into fallacy either to use ancient experiences to explain realistic problems or to use the plots in the novels to compensate her lack of real-life experiences,thus resulting in the poor logic detrimental to the novels' artistic truth.Buck's writing about intellectuals is also based on her reference to Chinese literature.Among the negative images of the intellectuals she creates,some are pedantic,weak,and good-for-nothing;some are playboys,indulging in writing sentimental verses and playing games;some are selfish and indifferent,forgetting their origin.The positive images of the intellectuals in her novels are independent,mindful of potential danger or highly responsible,which have already been epitomized in the earlier novel The Scholars(or Informal History of Academia),and sometimes in the short stories on intellectuals in Lu Xun's anthologies entitled Screaming and Hesitation.These characters share similar experiences,personality or spiritual temperament.Owing to national and cultural differences,nevertheless,Buck's works lacks a macroscopic overall view of the social reality and a stern,poignant and deep revelation,which can be identified in the novels written by Wu Jingzi and Lu Xun.Instead she tended to simplify the complicated social issues,mediate the sharp contradictions,and endeavor to find a passage out for those intellectuals in difficulties and dilemmas.It reflects on the one hand she was a positive and optimistic person,and on the other,she was superficial in observation.But there is a relatively high degree of constructiveness and reference value in her planning that Chinese intellectuals should reach out to the people.Pearl S.Buck was well educated and nourished in the tradition of Chinese and English literature and language,keeping in close touch with them both.In her literary creation,it is certain that she could not escape from the influence and restriction of English literary heritage.Therefore,only through the integrated study of her works in the context of both Chinese and English tradition,can a comprehensive,fair and objective conclusion be drawn.