Capturing Chinese — Chinese Text

This week we would like to introduce Tomorrow, a sad, but very good story.  If you missed the introduction to Lu Xun, then follow this link to An Introduction to Lu Xun.

Tomorrow

明天

Míngtiān

明天 was published in October 1919 in New Wave (新潮 Xīn Cháo). The story is about a widow and her three year old son.  After the death of her husband, she supports herself and her child by weaving on the loom.  Recently, the child has contracted tuberculosis and is terribly ill.  While the mother is not the smartest woman, she tries her best to save her child.  She pulls supernatural bamboo slips (a Chinese superstition), makes a vow to Buddha, and gives the child his traditional Chinese medicine.  After the passing of the night and the child showing no sign of improvement, she takes him to a traditional Chinese doctor who has four inch long fingernails.  The doctor gives an esoteric diagnosis, claiming the child is suffering from fire overwhelming metal (see notes in story) and prescribes some medicine such as "preserve the infant's life pills."  The prescription and the doctor visit cost the mother her savings and the child nevertheless dies shortly thereafter. She sells some of her belongings and with the money holds a funeral for her deceased son.   She buys a coffin, buries her son, and holds a dinner for all those who helped.  After the sun sets and everyone goes home, the mother realizes she is now all alone with her loom.  With the earlier passing of her husband and now her son, her home seems much too quiet. As discussed in the preface to Nàhǎn, Lǔ Xùn was very critical of Chinese folk medicine.  His father died in 1896 of an illness, likely to be tuberculosis, which Chinese medicine and doctors failed to treat.  During his youth, he would pawn the family's goods so that he could buy exotic and expensive Chinese herbs and medicines.  The ingredients would be items such as sugar cane exposed to three frosts, and a pair of crickets who never had another mate.  While these items proved difficult to procure, they did nothing for his father's illness.  He died after four years of the expensive medicine.  His father's death was Lǔ Xùn's inspiration to study Western medicine in the first place (which he ended up quitting to pursue literature) and he always remained very skeptical of Chinese medicine. Lǔ Xùn also discusses the flaws of Chinese medicine in his story, Medicine (药). Tomorrow 明天

Would you like to read this Chinese short story with pinyin, footnotes with definitions, historical summaries, and cultural references, as well as Chinese audio files of two native speakers, one male and one female, reading the story? Get your copy of Capturing Chinese today! See the Capturing Chinese Catalog

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This week we would like to introduce Medicine, another one of Lu Xun's most famous short stories.  If you missed the introduction to Lu Xun, then follow this link to An Introduction to Lu Xun.

Medicine

药

Yào

  药 was first published in New Youth (新青年 Xīn Qīngnián) in May of 1919. The story is about a little boy who has contracted tuberculosis and whose parents go out desperately in search for a cure. According to a Chinese myth, human blood is a guaranteed cure to fight tuberculosis and therefore his parents seek out and find the blood of a young revolutionary who had recently been executed.  Even with the fresh human blood, the boy still dies shortly afterwards. The story takes place in Shàoxīng (绍兴城), Lǔ Xùn's hometown.  The revolutionary in the story refers to the real anti-Qing revolutionary, Qīu Jǐn (秋瑾) (1879?-1907). Her older cousin, Xú Xílín (徐锡麟), led a failed uprising against the Qing empire in July 1907 by assassinating the provincial governor of Ānhuī Province hoping to trigger a wider rebellion.  After Xú Xílín's capture and execution, Qīu Jǐn, who was planning a coordinated attack in Zhèjiāng Province, was arrested at her school (Dàtóng Academy for Girls), tortured, and then decapitated in her hometown, Shàoxīng, a few days later.  The father in the story buys a mántou filled with the blood of Qīu Jǐn. As discussed in the preface to Nàhǎn, Lǔ Xùn's father died in 1896 of an illness, likely to be tuberculosis, which Chinese medicine and doctors failed to treat.  During his youth, Lǔ Xùn would pawn the family's goods in order to buy esoteric and expensive Chinese herbs and medicines.  The ingredients would be items such as roots of reeds gathered in the winter, or Japanese ardisia herb that had formed seeds.  While these items proved difficult to procure, they did nothing for his father's illness.  He died after four years of using this expensive medicine.  His father's death from inadequate medical care inspired Lǔ Xùn to study Western medicine in the first place (which he later quit to pursue literature) and he continued to be very skeptical of Chinese medicine. Lǔ Xùn also discussed traditional Chinese medicine in his story, Tomorrow (明天). Medicine 药  

Would you like to read this Chinese short story with pinyin, footnotes with definitions, historical summaries, and cultural references, as well as Chinese audio files of two native speakers, one male and one female, reading the story? Get your copy of Capturing Chinese today! See the Capturing Chinese Catalog

Sample the book before you buy! Get Your FREE Sample Chapter

Don't take our word for it.  Take yours.  Download a FREE sample of "A Small Incident." [wp_eStore_free_download_ajax_fancy id=22]

Enjoy and 加油！

Kong Yiji was my first short story to read in Chinese and gave me the passion to pursue the Capturing Chinese series.  After reading Kong Yiji, I wanted to dive into more of Lu Xun's literature.  The story ranks as one of my all time favorites.  If you missed the introduction to Lu Xun, then follow this link to An Introduction to Lu Xun.

Kong Yiji

孔乙己

Kǒng Yǐjǐ

  孔乙己 was first published in April 1919 in New Youth (新青年 Xīn Qīnnián). Kong Yiji is about a Chinese intellectual, named Kǒng Yǐjǐ, who never passed the civil service examinations and as a result struggles to make a living.  While Kǒng Yǐjǐ can recite obscure texts and can write a character in its many alternate forms, he doesn't have any concrete skills that he can use to support himself.  Since he never passed the exams, all his studying becomes irrelevant and his pride keeps him from doing tasks deemed unfit for a gentlemen. He copies old texts to get by but usually resorts to stealing.  People treat him like dirt and laugh at him every time he visits his favorite local bar, the Xián Hēng Jiǔdiàn (咸亨酒店).   Due to this disrespect, Kǒng Yǐjǐ enjoys talking to children by either teaching them the characters, reciting old phrases for them, or just sharing his bar treats with them. Kǒng Yǐjǐ doesn't have much money, but he always pays off his tab at the local bar. After not seeing him for a few days, the bartender and his assistant wonder what has happened to Kǒng Yǐjǐ.  They find out he was caught stealing from a Selectman (举人 jǔrén – someone who did pass the exams).  The Selectman had tied him up and had given him an all night beating, leaving both his legs broken.  Surely, a beating such as this would keep him from stealing, but it also robbed him of his only livelihood.  Justice is achieved by reducing Kǒng Yǐjǐ to dragging himself around by his two hands. Kǒng Yǐjǐ drags himself into the local bar for one last bowl of wine.  While the people at the bar still laugh and make fun of him, he enjoys his wine and leaves, never to come back.  Kǒng Yǐjǐ surely died shortly after. This story is based on one of Lǔ Xùn's uncles, Zhōu Zǐjīng (周子京) who lived in the family compound in Shàoxīng and helped teach Lǔ Xùn the classics in Lǔ Xùn's younger years.  He spent years studying for the civil service exam, yet repeatedly failed to pass.  He was something of a nuisance in the family compound and did not contribute much except to teach the children the classics. Lǔ Xùn's uncle and Kǒng Yǐjǐ highlight one of the flaws in the civil service exam in feudal China.  While the system prepared people very well in the classics of China, it also produced many people who never passed the exams, but yet had spent years and years in preparation.  After their failure they lacked any other skills to support themselves and their families.  Lǔ Xùn's uncle eventually committed suicide by lighting himself on fire and jumping off a bridge into the water below.  He died a few days later. Kong Yiji 孔已己  

Would you like to read this Chinese short story with pinyin, footnotes with definitions, historical summaries, and cultural references, as well as Chinese audio files of two native speakers, one male and one female, reading the story? Get your copy of Capturing Chinese today!   See the Capturing Chinese Catalog

Sample the book before you buy! Get Your FREE Sample Chapter

Don't take our word for it.  Take yours.  Download a FREE sample of "A Small Incident." [wp_eStore_free_download_ajax_fancy id=22]

Enjoy and 加油！

A Madman's Diary is definitely one of the best short stories in Chinese history and one of my personal favorites.  If you missed the introduction to Lu Xun, then follow this link to An Introduction to Lu Xun.

A Madman's Diary

狂人日记

Kuáng Rén Rìjì

  狂人日记 was first published in New Youth (新青年 Xīn Qīngnián) in May of 1918.  The author, Zhōu Shùrén (周树人) is using his penname, Lǔ Xùn (鲁迅), for the first time and A Madman's Diary is considered the first modern short story in Chinese literature and also one of the best. A Madman's Diary begins with an introduction in classical Chinese, which  was typical in Chinese literature at the time.  The story begins innocently relating the experiences of a friend who had recently gone insane.  (Due to the difficulty of the classical Chinese text, extra footnotes have been provided.)  In stark contrast to the introduction, the rest of the story uses colloquial Chinese. Classical Chinese had been in use for the past 2000 years for any serious literary work.  Using the vernacular Chinese was a bold statement. The story was inspired by Nikolai Gogol, a Russian author whom Lǔ Xùn greatly admired, and who wrote a short story with a similar title, Diary of a Madman. The character in the story was inspired by a cousin of his who came to visit Beijing in 1916 and averred that he was being pursued by deadly enemies.  As his paranoia worsened Lǔ Xùn was forced to send his cousin back to their hometown, Shàoxīng (绍兴城). In A Madman's Diary, Lǔ Xùn is attacking traditional Chinese society implying it is a society of cannibals where the strong devour the weak.  The ironic effect achieved in this story is a highlight of Lǔ Xùn's style and what makes his work so effective.  While the madman often quotes old Chinese texts to confirm his paranoia, the reader begins to question whether or not this paranoia is in fact justified.  In addition, recent events lent credence to his madness.  During pre-revolutionary times, anti-Qing revolutionaries had been executed and had their body parts dug out and eaten by soldiers.  One example is of Xú Xílín (徐锡林), a native of Shàoxīng who appears in this story. In the end, one can question whether the madman is still insane as he takes up a post within the local bureaucracy. Kuang Ren Riji 狂人日记  

Would you like to read this Chinese short story with pinyin, footnotes with definitions, historical summaries, and cultural references, as well as Chinese audio files of two native speakers, one male and one female, reading the story? Get your copy of Capturing Chinese today!     See the Capturing Chinese Catalog

Sample the book before you buy! Get Your FREE Sample Chapter

Don't take our word for it.  Take yours.  Download a FREE sample of "A Small Incident." [wp_eStore_free_download_ajax_fancy id=22]

Enjoy and 加油！

 

Lao She (老舍) is our author for this week.  He was born in 1899 as Shū Qìngchūn (舒庆春).  He is one of the most famous authors from the May Fourth Movement and his most famous works include Teahouse (茶館) and Rickshaw Boy (骆驼祥子 Luòtuo Xiángzi literally Camel Lucky Boy). Lao She’s father was part of the banner soldiers for the Qing Dynasty government.  During the Taiping Revolution, in which peasants started an uprising against the Qing dynasty and foreigners living in China, his father was killed by the Eight-Power Allied Forces (a collection of European soldiers) during a street battle.  Undoubtedly, Lao She was shaped by these events which he recalls as:

During my childhood, I didn't need to hear stories about evil ogres eating children and so forth; the foreign devils my mother told me about were more barbaric and cruel than any fairy tale ogre with a huge mouth and great fangs. And fairy tales are only fairy tales, whereas my mother's stories were 100 percent factual, and they directly affected our whole family.

Lao She’s family was poor so with the loss of his father early in childhood, his mother had a hard time making ends meet.  He worked his way through college, graduated and started work as a teacher in primary and secondary schools around Beijing and Tianjin.  During the May Fourth Movement in 1919, he was inspired to take up writing although he didn’t write his first novel until 1933.  His first novel was called Cat Country ((猫城记) which is regarded as China’s first science fiction novel and was a bitter satire about Chinese society.  Rickshaw Boy and Teahouse were written in 1936 and 1957 respectively. This week we are introducing a shorter work of Lao She’s which will make the jump into his longer works easier.  The Chinese name is 老字号 which translates as An Old and Established Name.  It was published in 1936. Lao She's An Old and Established Name （老舍 － 老字号）