From Tradition To Modern

Late Qing was an important and crucial period of the development of literature evolving from tradition to modern, and the translated novels published on the four major journals of that period: New Novel, Tapestry Portrait Novel, The All-story monthly and The forest of Novel just witnessed this shift. In contrast with the well-known translators'writing, translated novels published on the four major novel-journals of Late Qing were neglected by the academic field of home and abroad. Taking the Chinese ancient novels as the starting point, the paper approaches the developmental paths of modern literature from tradition and presents the initial forms of"Modernity"exhibited in the novels of late Qing period with the translated literatures in the four journals as the data.Beginning with the definition of"modernity", this paper gives an historical analysis of the translated novels in the four major novel-journals of Late Qing. It analyzes how the literature tradition negotiates with modern and moves to modern toughly, how the literature tradition penetrates into modern and gives birth to the modern novel at last. Here we find not only the new identity of traditional storytellers in the vernacular translated novels, the new use of traditional reading notes in the classical Chinese translated novels in Late Qing, but also the ingrained Chinese conception melting with modern characteristics in the translated novels in the four major novel-journals of Late Qing. Chapter two and three are devoted to this aspect.Besides, the paper does a synchrone analysis for these translated novels, explores the modernity that imagined and chased by literates and scholars in Late Qing. Modernity on the one hand means enlightenment, freeing people from prejudice or superstition. Though their masterpiece translators brought modern notations to people, in which science, business, law and human rights and many other new things are included. On the other hand, it means aesthetic modernity, implying translators'humanity, ethic consideration and their wishing to reach after the perfect in literature. For this aim, translated novels questioned the so-called justice in the war, reconsidered the highly-worshipped science, worried about the sudden landing of freedom in wedding, as well as worked hard for the development of classic Chinese translated novels. Trough all these, it showed features of aesthetic modernity. Some of the modernity die out in the long development of literature history, while others were passing down till today. Chapter four and five are concerned about this topic. To sum up, instead of discussing what is modernity, the aim of the author in this paper is to show how the modernity come out and develop from tradition, and witness the most drastic fight and melting of all kinds of ideas and actions.