Zhejiang Literature in Modern Times

The concept of modern times refers to the period from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China years, i.e. from the year 1840 to 1919 when the political and social situations were in constant turbulence. The Zhejiang Literature had been seeking for the new changes and appeared rather complicated.

　　Traditional Poem

As for traditional poem, the Qiantang writer Gong Zizhen had great influences in Zhejiang and even the whole China. He imitated the Jin Nong (one of the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou) whose poems were imposing, and called for the enlightenment to people's thoughts. The Tongguang Style representative Shen Cengzhi's poems were deep and clear. The Shaoxing writer Li Ciming refused to imitate any ancient poet's style and created his own unique style in writing reading notes. The Hangzhou native Xia Zenyou and Jiang Zhiyou were the exponentials of the revolution in the poem circle. The Yuhang writer Zhang Binglin's early poems like Present to Zhou Rong in Jail were widely spread among the people. His essays followed the opinions of Gong Zizhen as being abundant in contents and complicated in composition. Qiu Jin's Poems were sad, deep and frank. Her poems always had a strong feeling of patriotism and her prose were vernacular and easy to understand like Warnings to My Brethren and Respectful talks to My Sisters. Qiu Jin's close friends Xu Zihua and Xu Yunhua were a couple of sisters from the South Association who were also full of patriotic feelings. During this period, the Zhenhai native Yao Xian and Haining native Wang Guowei were representatives of the Ci Poems. Wang Guowei's book The World's Ci Poems was an important work on Ci poetics. Besides, the Huzhou poet Zhu Xiaozang was one of the Four Ci Masters in late Qing Dynasty. The female writer from Hangzhou, Chen Cuina was skilled in composing Ci poems and tunes. She wrote such novels and plays as Cui Lou Wen Cao, Cui Lou Yin Cao and Sketches of the Ci and Tunes of Cui Yin Lou and became an important figure in the female literature history of China.

Important Works

There were many parallel style article writers like Yao Xian and Li Ziming in Zhejiang in modern times. Besides, there were many other works like The Wulin Lanes Chorography which was the largest local chorography of China. As a part of The Wulin Lanes Chorography, the volume named The Wulin Anecdotes Collection was of high literature value.

During the period, there were several valuable novels like Exterminate the Banditti and Seven Knights and Five Righteous Persons. Exterminate the Banditti was written by the Shaoxing writer Shi Wanchun which was quite good in writing skills but its feudalist ideas went against the stream. Seven Knights and Five Righteous Persons was revised from the folk Singing & Talking play. Both works were worldly and spread widely among the people. Besides, there were many censure novels like The New Stories about the Corrupted Officialdom, The Sequel of the Corrupted Officialdom and The Destiny of Evil Nemesis. Chen Yu was the representative writer of the so-called Mandarin Duck and Butterfly Novel School. His novel The Destiny of Teardrops was quite influential. There were some classical Chinese sketch-books, for example, the Deqing writer Yu Yue's Sketch of You Tai Xian House which was fluent in composing and with the characteristics of the scholar novels.

Although the Za-Ju and legendary were declining in this period, there were still a few works like the Haiyan writer Huang Xianqing's Seven Kinds of Tunes of Yi Qing Pavilion and Yao Xian's The Fragrance Hill Wishes and The Fading Red Clothes. The female Hangzhou writer Wu Zao's Za-Ju Qiao's Shadow (i.e. The Picture of Reading after Drinking) was an important book in the female literature history. It was elegant in composing and rhymes and revealed the author's sad feelings when there were no bosom friends around. And, the Tan Ci (a kind of folk performance art) had been prevailing in this period.

Famous Writers

During the period from the year 1914 to 1949, there were over 130 famous writers in Zhejiang province among whom about 20 persons enjoyed high reputation in the literature circle and led the new wave of the China's literature. The Shaoxing Zhou brothers were most famous: Lu Xun (viz. Zhou Shuren) was considered the founder of the new literature, especially the modern novel and scribbles; and his younger brother Zhou Zuoren was a prose master of the era who initialed the so-called Human Literature. The Fuyang writer Yu Dafu was a great master of the early modern novels. The Haining native Xu Zhimo and Jinhua native Ai Qing were great masters of the modern poems. The Hangzhou native Xia Yan was the forerunner of the modern drama and films. Moreover, these writers can be divided into different genres: the Tongxiang native Mao Dun was a master of realistic writings; Yu Dafu was the forerunner of the romanticism; the Hangzhou native Dai Wangshu was the forerunner of the modern genre poems. Zhejiang writers became the leaders of the three main genres of Chinese Literature then which was unprecedented in Zhejiang's literature history as well as Chinese literature history.

Novel

As for novel, in May 1918, Lu Xun presented Bedlamite's Diary, the first vernacular novel of the modern Chinese Literature on the magazine New Youth. It used some unique art ploys in figuring the rebelled person from the feudal system and whooped to save the young generation. The novel was considered the cornerstone of the Chinese New Literature. Later on, Lu Xun had accomplished about 33 novels like Kong Yiji, Medicine and Blessing in 20 years, all of which were collected in the novel volumes like Whooping, Hesitation and New Collection of Stories. The Lu Xun's novel Ah Q's Life was the first nouvelle of the modern Chinese Literature. In 1921, Yu Dafu presented the first short stories collection of the modern Chinese Literature, namely Sinking which was considered as a flag of the romantic novels. Later, he presented about 50 novels like A Night Soaked in the Spring Wind, Bo Dian and Late Sweet-scented Osmanthus. He considered that novel should reveal one's true feelings and be with strong subjective flavor. He endowed the modern novels with romantic spirits. Furthermore, on the magazine Novel Monthly edited by the Tongxiang native Shen Yanbin, there appeared a lot of Zhejiang writers' novels like Wang Renshu's The Tired Person, Xu Jie's Sad Fog and Wang Yiren's The Single Wild Goose , all of which had great impact on the literature circle.