Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature： An Open Course

Written by Chen Sihe et al.

Translated by Ma Dan et al.

Sichuan People’s Publishing House

September 2020

168.00 （CNY）

China’s first-class writers and well-known scholars have joined hands to strictly select the immortal classics of Chinese modern and contemporary literature， leading readers to witness life through literature and gain insight into the classics. This book is liberated from the stereotypical pattern of the textbook and put back into the ten major themes of life – birth， childhood， youth， ordinary men and women， traveling abroad， and the end of life.

Chen Sihe

Chen Sihe is a Distinguished Professor of Changjiang scholars of the Ministry of Education and the current director of the Fudan University Library. He is the author of The Holistic View of New Chinese Literature， The Development of Personality –The Biography of Ba Jin， etc.， and more than 20 kinds of series of chronicles. He is also the chief editor of the university’s general textbook Course on the History of Contemporary Chinese Literature， and the famous humanities series Fire Phoenix.

Gao Yuanbao

Gao Yuanbao is a "Distinguished Professor of Changjiang scholars "of the Ministry of Education and a professor of the Department of Chinese in Fudan University.

Zhang Xinxin

Zhang Xinxin is a Jiang Scholar Distinguished Professor of the Ministry of Education and a professor of the Department of Chinese in Fudan University. He is the author of Modern Consciousness of Chinese Literature in the First Half of the Twentieth Century， Shen Congwen Intensive Reading， Shen Congwen’s Second Half of Life， Habitat and Nomadic Land， and Double Witness.

Sometimes we read about the conception and birth of an individual life in literary works. However it is truly difficult for writers to describe such a phenomenon because an individual life at the stage of conception and birth only has a very immature and uncertain shape， its future development being unable to foresee.

Upon birth， a person is a blood-stained ball of flesh， and except for crying a bit， it cannot laugh， speak， or even open its eyes. Therefore， in most cases， we’d say that literary works describe a span of life experience of the parents that conceive and give birth to a little person rather than the conception and birth of a new life. Nevertheless， if we put aside the individuals and consider the whole of human beings， we’ll see another progress in conception， birth， renewal， and recreation. This progress lasts much longer and contains much more adventures.

The story Patching Up the Sky does not describe the birth of a particular person. Instead， it narrates the birth of the human race， which is of greater importance because the fabulous creation and birth entails the richest information about life， concerning the existence of every one of us and inspiring each person to contemplate on their own life.

Patching Up the Sky was finished in November 1922. It was entitled Buzhou Mountain at first and was included as the grand finale in Call to Arms， Lu Xun’s first collection of stories published in 1923. But in 1930， when Call to Arms was printed for the thirteenth time， Lu Xun withdrew this piece of work Buzhou Mountain and didn’t republish it until six years later， that is， 1936， the year of his death. He personally put the story into his collection of historical stories Old Tales Retold， which consists of the stories he wrote in his last thirteen years， and made the story the first item in the collection with a new title， "Patching Up the Sky.

The story was the same in spite of the title， but Lu Xun used half of the space in the preface of Old Tales Retold to explain how he had created Buzhou Mountain and then retitled it Patching Up the Sky and put it into another collection. We see how much he cared about this little piece of work.

So what does Patching Up the Sky write about？

In a word， it is Lu Xun’s typical rewriting of the legend that Goddess Nyu Wa made people with clay and melted down stones to patch up the sky.

As a matter of fact， the legend of making people and patching up the sky in Chinese culture has appeared in a relatively late period and goes in very simple narrations. The big set of reference books edited in the Song dynasty Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era quotes Comprehensive Explanations to Customs by Ying Xun of the Han Dynasty contains the saying： “The legend goes that upon the creation of the world， there existed no people. Goddess Nyu Wa kneaded clay to make people， and when exhausted， she pulled a rope into the mud pit， and the splatters off the rope became people. Hence the noble and rich ones are made of clay; the humble and poor ones are made of mud splatters.” Such few words conclude a legend that has been handed down to the Han Dynasty.

As it regards patching up the sky， the book also edited in Han Dynasty Writings of Prince Huainan records in the chapter of “On Cosmology” that： “Once upon a time Gong Gong fought with Zhuan Xu for the throne and in anger he crashed into the mountain of Buzhou， collapsing the heavenly pillar and breaking the earthly rope. Thus heaven tilted toward the northwest， with the sun， moon， and stars displaced to that corner; the earth gave way in the southeast， with the waters and dusts mobilized to that direction.” This narration endures the same short length as the above-mentioned one.

These narrations of making people and patching up the sky， brief as they are， are not taken seriously by later generations. The Confucian instruction – “The topics the Master did not speak of were prodigies， force， disorder and god.” –may contribute to the fact that the literary adaptations of the legends are few in number and mediocre in quality. " " "It is what the academia in China and around the world commonly acknowledge as a phenomenon of underdeveloped ancient Chinese mythology.

But the situation changes a lot when it comes to Lu Xun. The eighty–odd characters in the previous two narrations are lengthened by Lu Xun to a story of nearly six thousand characters with magnificent scenes， fabulous imaginations， twisted plots and detailed descriptions.