Zheng Zhenduo
Zhèng Zhènduó (鄭振鐸), (1898-1958), Chinese courtesy name Xidì (西諦), was a journalist, a modern writer, an archeology and a literature scholar. His pen names were Baofun (寶芬), Guo Yuánxin (郭源新) and CT.
He made a significant contribution towards the establishment of the Chinese Literature and the editing of a variety of literary magazines. He was also be regarded as an important journalist especially on both newspapers [e.g. Jiuwang Ribao (救亡日報)] as well as magazines [e.g. Xin Shehui (新社會)].
Biography
Family
Zheng Zhenduo was born in 19 December, 1898 in Yongjia, Zhejiang province. His ancestral home was Changle in Fujian province. He was born in a poor family having two younger sisters. His grandfather took his childhood name as " Mù Guan" (Wooden official 木官) And his name "Zhengduo"(振鐸) was also named by his grandfather with great implication. "Duo" (鐸) is a kind of big ring. His grandfather would like him to swing ring to send out summons and to arouse the people. His father and grandfather passed away when he was in teenage. He was brought up by his mother.
During school
In 1917, Zheng began studying at the Beijing Railway Management School and graduated in March 1921. Beyond classroom, he read a lot of books and developed an enormous interest in social sciences, Chinese literature and Western literature. During the May Fourth Movement, he joined a lot of sociey activities as a student representative. In 1919, he helped publishing two magazines called Xin Shehui (新社會), which literally means “New Society”, and Jiuguo Jiangyan Zhoukan (救國講演周報).
In January 1921, Mao Dun, Zheng Zhenduo, and Ye Shengtao founded the earliest literary society of the New Literature Movement, Wenxue Yanjiu Hui (Literary Study Society 文學研究會), which advocated realism and opposed art for art's sake.
Editing career
Zheng also participated in editing several magazines including Xue Deng (The Light of Learning 學燈), Wenxue Zhoukan (文學周刊) and Shijie Wenku (The World's Library 世界文庫).
In May 1921, Zheng helped set up a drama society Minzhong Xiju She (Demotic opera troupe 民眾戲劇社) with Ye Shengtao, Mao Dun, Chen Dabei, Ouyang Yuqian, Xiong Foxi and other writers. They published a monthly magazine named Xiju (Drama 戲劇) on 31 May in the same year.
In 1922, Zheng established the first magazine for children, Children's World (兒童世界), and the first magazine of new poetry called Poetry. In January 1923, he became the chief editor of a monthly magazine of novel, Xiaoshuo Yuebao (小說月報). After the "May-30 Incident" in 1925, he helped founding a newspaper called Gongli Ribao (公理日報).
From then on, he had written many books including Zhongguo Wenxue Shi (History of Chinese literature 中國文學史) and 1943 Diary (1943年日記).
Exile
In April 1925, Chiang Kai-shek began a swift and tyrannical attack on thousands of suspected Communists in the area he controlled. Many writers, including Zheng, were under political pressure. Therefore, he left his family for France in May 1927. During the years living in Paris, he kept mailing his diary to his wife, which was published as a book named Ouxing Riji (Diary of travels in Europe 歐行日記).
Back to China
He continued his journalistic career after coming back to China in 1929 and founded Jiuwang Ribao (救亡日報). In October 1945, he founded a weekly magazine called Democracy (《民主》) to oppose Chiang Kai-shek's pro-US policy and urge people to stop civil war.
Scholar
From the 1930s onwards, he was active as a university lecturer and researcher. He had once taught in the Department of Chinese in Yenching University (燕京大學) and been the Dean of faculty of Arts in Jinan University (暨南大學).
Death
On 18 October, 1958, Zheng honourably led the National cultural delegates to visit Arabia and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, he died in the plane crash in the Soviet Union during his journey.
A Journey Towards Journalism
Zheng started his journalistic career in 1920s during the May Fourth Movement(五四運動). Together with some classmates including Zhong Tao (仲陶), he got a first taste of editing in starting a publication named Jiuguo Jiangyan Zhoukan (救國講演周刊). The magazine - being published in Wenzhou (溫州) for only 6 to 7 times - was strangled by Authority since it enraged a government official.
As one of the founders of a youth magazine, Xin Shehui (新社會), Zheng aimed at critizing the Beijing government. It began its publication on 1 November, 1919, which consisted of four pages. The aims of the magazine was to:
- Advocate the social service
- Discusse society problems
- Introduce social theories
- Research on common people education
- Record society matters
- Criticise society shortcomings
- Narrate society real states
- Report news of the organization
Zheng gave many speeches about the student movement in Beijing. On top of critizing, he wanted to make good use of the New Culture Movement (新文化運動)to publicize and promote new social ideals for the Chinese future development. Chen Duxiu (陳獨秀) suggested that Xin Shehui could be edited with a more approachable style accepted by the general public. The magazine was finally published on 1 November, 1919 throughout China, arousing tides of attention from the public, especially amongst the young readers. However, as Zheng and his co-editors were still inexperienced in editing by that time, the magazine was thought to be immature in editing and too sloganeered. On the hand, the content of the magazine upset the military side of the government. Thus, in one month's time, the government called the publication to a halt.
In addition, he established Wenxue Yanjiu Hui (Literary Study Society 文學研究會) with Mao Dun and Ye Shengtao in November 1920. In January 1923, he took over the position of chief editor of Novel Monthly (小說月報) from Mao Dun. He was the chief editor on and off for nearly 9 years. He advocated a literary advocacy of "Blood and Tears" and he supported to write with the style of realism.
Besides, in the early June 1925, he foundeded a newspaper called Kongli Ribao (公理日報) with Wu Yuzhi and Ye Shengtao in Shanghai. This newspaper was aimed at criticizing the "May-30 Incident" (五卅慘案) and the rising foreign imperialism in China.
Also, he contributed in various newspapers like Jiuguo Jiangyan Zhoubao (救國講演周報) and Xinxue Bao (新學報) to awaken Chinese people from old traditions. These articles were mainly about social issues and the evil deeds of the old traditional practices. Zheng wrote articles from different aspects like the liberation of women, morality, social psychology and the liberation of political power. They all advocated more people to rethink the old values position.
Zheng could be regarded as the expert of editing as he edited more than 53 types of newspapers, books and magazines. Being inspired by the May Fourth Movement(五四運動). , he became an editor based on the influence of the New Culture Movement(新文化運動). With his fruitful experience, he established his own editing theory. He often criticised other editors by claiming them using the most original and the most naive editoring method regardless their resposibility and power as an editor. In 1931, he wrote an article titled Bianji Fangzhen Yu Bianji Jihua (The edit guidelines and plan; 編輯方針與編輯計劃) in which he stated his view on editing in the mass media - quality was more important than quantity. He criticized the profit-oriented theory.
Contribution to literature
Translation
Zheng was proficient in foreign languages including English, Russian and Indian. He did a great job in translating a lot of Russian and Indian literature. He had started translation of Russian literature since early 20s. His works include the works, paper and preface of Turgenve (1818-1883), Gogol (1809-1852), Chekov (1860-1904), Gorky (1868-1936) and Tolstoy (1828-1910).
Literature Union
As the previous newspapers and magazines were banned by the government, Zheng believed that a proper established literature union would make things run easier. In January,1921, he established Wenxue Yanjiu Hui (Literary Study Society 文學研究會), which literally means literature research union, with Mao Dun(茅盾), Ye Shengtao (葉紹鈞) and 12 other people in the related field.
The Union’s first publication was Wenxue xunkan (文學旬刊). It was published along with the well known newspaper called Shishi Xinbao (Current events newspaper 時事新報). He revealed the goal of the publication and the literature views of the union. He believed that literature is importance and capability to influence the society. It was not just merely an era, a place or one’s reflection, but it acted as a frontier, which could affect the morality of human beings. Also, he very much opposed the old style of Chinese literature, of setting leisure and religions as main themes. He supported the writing of life – one theme in new realism literature approach.
He also expressed his view on Chinese literature development. He said that the connection between the Chinese literature and the world’s literature was far too little. The Chinese highest spirit could not be shared by the rest of the world. He treated that as the Chinese’s biggest humiliation. And so he was so devoted in the field of literature, eagered to fight for the higher position of the Chinese literature in the world’s stage.
Realism
Within the May Fourth movement, he adhered the direction of realism for New literature era. He thought literature liked 'mirror of a life'. This means his writing mostly revealed the real faces of societies. Also, he put a lot of emphasis on the importance of creative living. During his long composing and researching career, he showed a fully comprehensive realism of literature. He thought,
- literature must contribute with “life”;
- we need the “blood” of literature, “tears” of literature. Both of them will become the trend of Chinese literature;
- the writing consists of not only “blood”and “tears”, but also consists of “literature”;
- the “blood” and “tears” experience and feeling of author are aesthetic for success in writing.
- the literature should consist the highest ideal of the author, which form the soul of the article, in order to make it meaningful to the readers and the whole society.
Bibliography
Academic
- 《中國古代木刻畫選集》 (Zhongguo gu dai mu ke hua xuan ji)
- 《文學大綱》 (Wen xue da gang)
- 《插圖本中國文學史》 (Cha tu ben Zhongguo wen xue shi)
- 《中國俗文學史》 (Zhongguo su wen xue shi)
- 《中國文學論集》 (Zhongguo wen xue lun ji)
- 《俄國文學史略》 (Eguo wen xue shi lüe)
- 《佝僂集》 (Ju lou ji)
- 《西諦書話》 (Xidi shu hua)
- 《鄭振鐸文集》 (Zheng Zhenduo wen ji)
Novel
- 《取火者的逮捕》 (Arrest of the fire-stealer)
- 《桂公塘》 (Gui gong tang)
- 《家庭的故事》 (Jia Ting de Gu Shi)
Prose
He had written more than 20 proses and the following are some of them.
- 《中山集記》(Shan zhong Za Ji)
- 《海燕》(Hai Yan)
- 《避暑會》 (Bei Shu Hui)
- 《大同》 (Da Tong)
- 《山市》(Shan Shi)
- 《離別》 (Li Bie)
- 《貓》 (Mao) (Cat)
- 《歐行日記》 (Ou xing ri ji )(Diary of Travels in Europe)
- 《最後一課》(Zui Hou yi ke)
- 《月夜之話》 (Rou Ye Ji Hua )
Magazines and Newspapers
- 新社會 (Xin Shehui)(New Society)
- 兒童世界 (Children's World)
- 戲劇 (Xiju)(Drama)
- 救國講演周刊 (Jiuguo Jiangyan Zhoukan)
- 小說月報 (Novel Monthly)
- 新學報 (Xinxue Bao)
- 時事新報 (Shishi xinbao)(Current events newspaper)
- 救亡日報 (Jiuwang Ribao)
Chief editing
- 《世界文庫》 (Shi jie wen ku)(The World's Library)
- 《醒世恒言》 (Xinshi hangran)
- 《警世通言》 (Jingshi tongran)
- 《金瓶梅詞話》 (Jing Ping Mei Zhihua)
References
A description of famous scholar (chinese version)
A concise biography of Zheng (English version)
The Love story between Zheng and Gao (chinese version)
- 《一代才華─鄭振鐸傳》(Biography of Zheng Zhenduo), Chen Fukang, 1993.
- 《石榴又紅了：回憶我的父親鄭振鐸》(Memorizing my father, Zheng Zhenduo), Zheng Yikang, 1998.