Zhu Shenghao () (February 2, 1912 – December 26, 1944) was a Chinese translator. Born in
Jiaxing
Jiaxing (), alternately romanized as Kashing, is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang province, China. Lying on the Grand Canal of China, Jiaxing borders Hangzhou to the southwest, Huzhou to the west, Shanghai to the northeast, and the ...
, Zhejiang of China, he was among the first few in China who translated the works of
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's into Chinese language. His translations are well respected by domestic and overseas scholars.
He translated a total of 31 of Shakespearean plays, 27 of which were published before the founding of the People's Republic of China. Due to the
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
starting from 1966 and other social turbulence around the 1950s, it was not until 1978 that Zhu's completed texts were finally published in Beijing. In order to adapt the plays to Chinese reading habits, Zhu did not adopt the chronological arrangement of the original
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
Edition; instead, he divided these plays into four categories: comedy,
tragedy
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...
,
historical play
History is one of the three main genres in Western theatre alongside tragedy and comedy, although it originated, in its modern form, thousands of years later than the other primary genres. For this reason, it is often treated as a subset of trage ...
, and