Hsia Chih-tsing 夏志清 or C. T. Hsia (January 11, 1921 – December 29, 2013) was a Chinese historian and literary theorist. He contributed to the introduction of modern Chinese literature to the Western world by promoting the works of once marginalized writers in the 1960s. Today, C. T. Hsia is considered one of the most important critics of
Chinese literature.
Biography
Career
C. T. Hsia was born in Pudong,
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
, in 1921. His father Ta-Tung was a banker before the Communist came to power in 1949. In 1942, C. T. Hsia graduated from Hujiang University with a B.A in English Literature. After teaching at
Peking University in 1946, C. T. Hsia moved to the United States in 1947, where he enrolled in
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
's English Department. He wrote his dissertation on the realist poet
George Crabbe
George Crabbe ( ; 24 December 1754 – 3 February 1832) was an English poet, surgeon and clergyman. He is best known for his early use of the realistic narrative form and his descriptions of middle and working-class life and people.
In the 177 ...
, and obtained his PhD in 1951. In 1961, C. T. Hsia joined
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and taught Chinese literature there until his retirement in 1991. Thanks to his work,
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
became “one of the strongest institutions in Chinese literature in Western academia.” In 2006, Hsia was inducted into
Academia Sinica at the age of 85, rendering him the oldest person ever to receive this appointment. Hsia joked about this experience, saying that he felt like "a new bride".
Family Members
C.T. Hsia married his wife Della Wang in 1969. His survivors include two daughters, Joyce McClain and Natalie Hsia; a son, Ming Hsia; and four grandchildren. C.T. Hsia has a brother Tsi-an Hsia, who is a Chinese literary critic and a scholar of
Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
history. C.T. Hsia also has a sister Yu-ying Hsia.
Death
C.T. Hsia died in New York City on December 29, 2013, at the age of 92, and a funeral service for him took place on January 18, 2014.
Scholarship and legacy
The pioneer of modern Chinese literature studies in the English-speaking world
C. T. Hsia is often considered “the most influential critic of Chinese fiction since the 1960s” and his essays have become an essential part of the scholarship on Chinese literature. With the publication in 1961 of ''A History of Modern Chinese Fiction, 1917–1957'', C. T. Hsia introduced modern Chinese literature to the West by “providing a close analysis and the first English translations of writers who are now widely recognized,” thereby establishing “modern Chinese literature as an academic discipline in the English-speaking world.
Contributions to the study of classical Chinese fiction
As a literary critic, C. T. Hsia was instrumental in shaping a modern understanding of classical Chinese fiction. ''The Classic Chinese Novel'', first published in 1968 and reprinted several times, is an introduction for Western readers to the six novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties which Hsia considered to be of highest value: ''
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'' () is a 14th-century historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong. It is set in the turbulent years towards the end of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, starting in 184 AD ...
''; ''
Water Margin
''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''.
The story, which is ...
''; ''
Journey to the West
''Journey to the West'' () is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the greatest Classic Chinese Novels, and has been described as arguably the most popul ...
''; ''
Jin Ping Mei
''Jin Ping Mei'' () — translated into English as ''The Plum in the Golden Vase'' or ''The Golden Lotus'' — is a Chinese novel of manners composed in vernacular Chinese during the latter half of the 16th century during the late Ming dynasty ...
'' (''Golden Lotus''); ''
The Scholars''; and ''
Dream of the Red Chamber
''Dream of the Red Chamber'' (''Honglou Meng'') or ''The Story of the Stone'' (''Shitou Ji'') is a novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, it is known fo ...
''. Through his analysis of these six novels, C. T. Hsia identifies the essence of a ‘great tradition’ for Chinese fiction, thus compelling Cyril Birch to write that this book “is more than an admirable interpretation of six novels. It is a study of Chinese values which should appear near the top of the most selective reading-list.” The critic
Andrew H. Plaks
Andrew Henry Plaks (; born 1945) is an American sinologist who specializes in the study of the vernacular fiction of the Ming and Qing dynasties. From 1973 to 2007 he taught at Princeton University, becoming full professor in 1980. He moved to the ...
says that the term "six classic novels" (''gudian xiaoshuo'') as a "neologism of twentieth century scholarship, seems to have come into common use under the influence of C. T. Hsia's ''Classic Chinese Novel'', a view now reflected in a wide variety of critical writings."
Rediscovering and showcasing marginalized modern Chinese writers
C. T. Hsia was particularly adept at rediscovering and showcasing marginalized writers like
Shen Congwen
Shen Congwen (28 December 1902 – 10 May 1988), formerly romanized as Shen Ts'ung-wen, was a Chinese writer who is considered one of the greatest modern Chinese writers, on par with Lu Xun. Regional culture and identity plays a much bigger rol ...
,
Qian Zhongshu
Qian Zhongshu (November 21, 1910 – December 19, 1998), also transliterated as Ch'ien Chung-shu or Dzien Tsoong-su, was a renowned 20th century Chinese literary scholar and writer, known for his wit and erudition.
He is best known for his sati ...
, or
Eileen Chang
Eileen Chang ( zh, t=張愛玲, s=张爱玲, first=t, w=Chang1 Ai4-ling2, p=Zhāng Àilíng;September 30, 1920 – September 8, 1995), also known as Chang Ai-ling or Zhang Ailing, or by her pen name Liang Jing (梁京), was a Chinese-born A ...
. On the later, he writes: “to the discerning student of modern Chinese literature,
Eileen Chang
Eileen Chang ( zh, t=張愛玲, s=张爱玲, first=t, w=Chang1 Ai4-ling2, p=Zhāng Àilíng;September 30, 1920 – September 8, 1995), also known as Chang Ai-ling or Zhang Ailing, or by her pen name Liang Jing (梁京), was a Chinese-born A ...
is not only the best and most important writer in Chinese today; her short stories alone invite valid comparisons with, and in some respects claim superiority over, the work of serious modern women writers in English
Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Murry (née Beauchamp; 14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a New Zealand writer, essayist and journalist, widely considered one of the most influential and important authors of the modernist movement. Her works are celebra ...
,
Katherine Anne Porter
Katherine Anne Porter (May 15, 1890 – September 18, 1980) was an American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. Her 1962 novel '' Ship of Fools'' was the best-selling novel in America that year, but her sh ...
,
Eudora Welty
Eudora Alice Welty (April 13, 1909 – July 23, 2001) was an American short story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the American South. Her novel '' The Optimist's Daughter'' won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty received numerou ...
, and
Carson McCullers
Carson McCullers (February 19, 1917 – September 29, 1967) was an American novelist, short-story writer, playwright, essayist, and poet. Her first novel, '' The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter'' (1940), explores the spiritual isolation of misfits ...
.” Although Eileen Chang’s success was immediate in the Chinese-speaking world, it was not until the 1960s and the publication of C. T. Hsia’s ''A History of Modern Chinese Fiction'', that she became famous in the Western world. Karen S. Kingsbury thus notes:
“As C. T. Hsia, one of her earliest and most perceptive advocates, remarked (in ''A History of Modern Chinese Fiction''), mi-century American readers’ view of China were greatly influenced by writers like
Pearl. S. Buck, which left them unprepared for Chang’s melancholy incisiveness and insider’s perspective.”
C.T. Hsia and Eileen Chang
C. T. Hsia's scholarship encompasses many Chinese authors and genres, he is particularly associated with Eileen Chang's works. In 1957, C. T. Hsia published a full-length study of Eileen Chang in ''Wenxue zazhi'', a Taiwanese literary journal edited by his brother T. A. Hsia, thus launching Chang studies. In 1981, it was at Hsia's recommendation that Eileen Chang expressed an interest in having her English translation of
Han Bangqing's ''
Sing-Song Girls of Shanghai
''The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai'', also translated as ''Shanghai Flowers''Forbes, p240 or ''Biographies of Flowers by the Seashore'',Idema, p. 355 is an 1892 novel by Han Bangqing.
The novel, the first such novel to be serially published, c ...
'' published by
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...
. Although Chang changed her mind a year later, this translation was eventually published in 2005 thanks to the support and recommendation of C. T. Hsia and Joseph Lau.
In 1998, C. T. Hsia published his correspondence with Eileen Chang in ''Lianhe wenxue'', a Chinese literary journal, thus contributing primary sources to scholarship on Eileen Chang. The original letters are now part of the Ailing Zhang Papers collection of the
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $8.1 ...
.
Publications covered a wide range of topics
In addition to his two monumental works, ''A History of Modern Chinese Fiction'' and ''The Classic Chinese Novel'', C. T. Hsia also published many articles "ranging from nineteenth century literati culture and novels (on ''
The Flowers in the Mirror''
inghuayuan 鏡花緣 to modern national discourse and family romance (on the fiction of Tuan-mu Hung-liang 端木 蕻良), and from the dialectic of passion and life in the Ming drama (on ''
The Peony Pavilion ''The Peony Pavilion'' ( zh, t=牡丹亭, s=牡丹亭, p=Mǔdān tíng, w=Mu-tan t'ing), also named ''The Return of Soul at the Peony Pavilion'', is a romantic tragicomedy play written by dramatist Tang Xianzu in 1598. The plot was drawn from the ...
''
udanting 牡丹 亭 to the dialectic of passion and death in the early Republican
Mandarin Duck and Butterfly fiction (on the ''Jade Pear Spirit''
ulihun 玉梨魂."
Criticism
Despite his monumental works on Chinese literature, C. T. Hsia was often criticized for his "Eurocentric, anticommunist stance as well as his New Critical criteria." Hsia's disagreement with the Czech critic
Jaroslav Prusek over his unfavorable view of
Lu Xun
Zhou Shuren (25 September 1881 – 19 October 1936), better known by his pen name Lu Xun (or Lu Sun; ; Wade–Giles: Lu Hsün), was a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. ...
, as well as the methodology and ideology of Chinese literary studies, thus "marked a crucial moment of literary politics during the Cold War era."
Leo Ou-fan Lee
Leo Ou-fan Lee (; born 10 October 1942) is a Chinese commentator and author who was elected Fellow of Academia Sinica in 2002. Lee also was a professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Princeton University, Indiana University, University of C ...
, who claims both Prusek and Hsia as his mentors, writes that Prusek's review of ''History of Modern Chinese Fiction'' and Hsia's reply "can be regarded as the methodological groundwork of the discipline." Prusek, Lee goes on, faults Hsia for being "politically biased and failing to grasp the 'objective truth', as would benefit a 'scientific endeavor". Hsia's "rebuttal", Lee continues, takes direct issue with Prusek's "scientific' methodology, which he charges with the "
intentional fallacy
In literary theory and aesthetics, authorial intent refers to an author's intent as it is encoded in their work. Authorial intentionalism is the view that an author's intentions should constrain the ways in which a text is properly interpreted. Op ...
", that is, confusing the author's intention with the content of the text.
Less theory-laden work
The introduction to the third edition of Hsia's ''A History of Modern Chinese Fiction'' by
David Der-Wei Wang
David Der-wei Wang (; born November 6, 1954) is a literary historian, critic, and the Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University. He has written extensively on post-late Qing Chinese fiction, comparative literary the ...
offers several suggestions for interpreting Hsia's approach to literary criticism. In the case of ''A History of Modern Chinese Fiction,'' Wang argues that this voluminous work remains relevant although it is much less theory-laden than its counterparts for Western literary texts. Wang observes that Hsia's literary history was controversial in Mainland China due to its perceived hostility to leftist literature. Nevertheless, Hsia's work, according to Wang, avoids being "reflectionist" or "moralist."
Unpatriotic literary criticism viewed by nationalistic Chinese
C. T. Hsia’s essay “Obsession with China” concentrated the criticism. To Hsia, “modern Western authors use literary techniques to critique modernity, giving voice to our collective disappointment and disillusionment. Modern Chinese authors, however, labor under a historically imposed limitation in that they restrict their critiques to the dark side of Chinese society, not human society in general.”
Leo Ou-fan Lee
Leo Ou-fan Lee (; born 10 October 1942) is a Chinese commentator and author who was elected Fellow of Academia Sinica in 2002. Lee also was a professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Princeton University, Indiana University, University of C ...
explains that many nationalist Chinese considered this view unpatriotic and politically biased.
Selected works
Books
*''鸡窗集''(Rooster by the Window) (1964).
*''中国现代小说史'' (A History of Modern Chinese Fiction) (1961).
*''中国古典小说'' (The Classic Chinese Novel: A Critical Introduction)(1968).
*''爱情社会小说''(Love, Society, and the Novel)(1970).
*''二十世纪中国小说选'' (Twentieth-Century Chinese Stories)(1971).
*文学的前途(The Future of Literature)(1974).
*''夏济安日记''(The Diary of Hsia Tai-An, (1946)), published in 1975.( Editor and annotator)
*''人的文学''(Humane Literature) (1977).
*''新文学的传统''(Chinese Literature: The New Tradition) (1979)
*''中国现代中短篇小说'' (Modern Chinese Stories and Novellas,1919–1949)(1981). Coeditor with S.M Lau, and
Leo Ou-fan Lee
Leo Ou-fan Lee (; born 10 October 1942) is a Chinese commentator and author who was elected Fellow of Academia Sinica in 2002. Lee also was a professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Princeton University, Indiana University, University of C ...
.
*''印象的组合''(A System of Impressions) (1982).
Articles in English
* "To What Fyn Lyve I Thus? – Society and Self in Chinese Short Story" (1962)
* "Comparative Approaches to Water Margin" (1962)
* "Residual Feminity: Women in Chinese Communist Fiction" (1963)
* "Love and Compassion in ''Dream of the Red Chamber''" (1963)
[HSIA, C. T. 1963. “Love and compassion in ‘dream of the red chamber’". ''Criticism'' 5 (3): 261–71.]
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hsia, Chih-Tsing
1921 births
2013 deaths
Chinese anti-communists
Chinese expatriates in the United States
Chinese literary critics
Chinese literary theorists
Educators from Shanghai
Historians from Shanghai
Members of Academia Sinica
Republic of China historians
State University of New York faculty
Taiwanese people from Shanghai
University of Michigan faculty
University of Pittsburgh faculty
University of Shanghai alumni
Yale University alumni