''Sea of Regret'' or ''The Sea of Regret'' () is a 1906 novel in 10 chapters by

Wu Jianren Wu Jianren (T: 吳趼人, S: 吴趼人, P: ''Wú Jiǎnrén'', W: ''Wu Chien-jen''; 1866–1910), also known as Wu Woyao (T: 吳沃堯, S: 吴沃尧, P: ''Wú Wòyáo'', W: ''Wu Wo-yao'') was a Chinese writer of the late Qing period. Novels of th ...

(Wu Woyao). Set in the turmoil surrounding the

Boxer Uprising The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

of 1900, the plot involves two couples, whose arranged marriages cannot be completed. The husband-to-be of one couple dies from opium addiction, and his brother’s bride-to-be becomes a prostitute. The novel was one of the best sellers of the decade and is taken to be a response to foreign-inspired attacks on

traditional Chinese marriage Traditional Chinese marriage () is a ceremonial ritual within Chinese societies that involves not only a union between spouses, but also a union between the two families of a man and a woman, sometimes established by pre-arrangement between fa ...

. There are two English translations: *''The Sea of Regret'' translated by

Patrick Hanan Patrick Dewes Hanan (4 January 192726 April 2014) was a New Zealand scholar of Chinese literature who was the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University. A sinologist, he specialised in pre-20th-century vernacular f ...

, published by the

University of Hawaiʻi Press The University of Hawaii Press is a university press that is part of the University of Hawaii. The University of Hawaii Press was founded in 1947, publishing research in all disciplines of the humanities and natural and social sciences in the r ...

in 1995 *''Sea of Regret: China's First Modern Love Story'' translated by Douglas Lancashire and Edel Lancashire, published in 1998 in the UK

Background

Wu Jianren claimed that he dashed off his 1906 novel in ten days. It became one of the most famous novels of the period.

explains that ''Sea of Regret'' was Wu’s response to ''Stones in the Sea'', a novel published a few months earlier, under the pseudonym Fu Lin. ''Stones in the Sea'' is narrated by the hero of a tragic love affair to dramatize the conflict between the traditional Chinese system of arranged marriage and the wishes of the young people involved. The story emphasizes the rights of the young people rather than their responsibilities to their families. Wu Jianren felt that this seemed to emphasize sexual passion or even lechery rather than love of parents. Michael Egan argues that the plot determines the character and therefore the characters are subordinate to the plot, rather than the character determining the plot, as the case is in traditional novels.Yee, p. 574.

References

* Doar, Bruce. "

The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century ''The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century'' is a 1980 book edited by Milena Doleželová-Velingerová, published by the University of Toronto Press. It was the first book that had been written in a Western language that chronicled fiction pub ...

" (book review). ''The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs'', ISSN 0156-7365, 01/1982, Issue 7, pp. 199 - 201
Available on

JSTOR JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...

) * * Hegel, Robert E. "

" (book review). ''Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews'' (CLEAR), ISSN 0161-9705, 07/1983, Volume 5, Issue 1/2, pp. 188 - 191 * Yee, Cordell D. K. "The Chinese Novel at the Turn of the Century" (book review). ''

Journal of Asian Studies ''The Journal of Asian Studies'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Asian Studies, covering Asian studies, ranging from history, the arts, social sciences, to phil ...

'', ISSN 0021-9118, 05/1982, Volume 41, Issue 3, p. 574

Background

References

Notes

Further reading