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Wang Zengqi (Chinese: 汪曾祺; pinyin: Wāng Zēngqí; 1920 – 1997) was a contemporary Chinese writer. He is known for his short stories and essays with an elegant style and content infused by both traditional literature and folklores of his hometown. He was referred to as a "master stylist of modern Chinese", along with his teacher Shen Congwen. He is regarded as a successor of Beijing School Writers.

Biography

Wang was born in a landowner family in 1920 in Gaoyou, Jiangsu province. In 1939, he enrolled into then National Southwestern Associated University. He took writing classes from Shen Congwen during his university years and started writing in 1940. He finished the first draft of Fuchou .

He should have graduated in 1943, however, the graduation was postponed to the next year since he failed PE and English. For unknown reason, he failed to obey the university's arrangement to act as an interpreter for the US army, so he didn't get his certificate eventually.

Later he became a teacher at a high school in Kunming from 1944 to 1946, where he fell love with Shi Songqin, and then in Shanghai until 1948. He moved to Beijing and got a job at a museum later in the year. He followed the Fourth Field Army to go to the southern as a civil cadre in the next year. He became an editor after being transferred to Beijing in 1950. He adapted the story of Fan Jin in Chapter 3 of The Scholars for the Peking opera and gained reputation in the 1950s, it also contributed to his being transferred to Beijing Peking Opera Theater in 1961.

He was targeted at the Anti-Rightist Campaign and was banished to Zhangjiakou until 1962. He suffered the plight again since the Cultural Revolution began. That reversed in 1968, since he was summoned by Jiang Qing to improve a model opera (yangban xi) Spark amid the Reed, namely Shajiabang.

He restarted normal writing after the decade. A series of short stories were deemed to be his apogee of writing. The character of his contemporary works is portraying the rural life lyrically. These works stimulated writers of roots-searching literature in the mid- and late 1980s.

Writing Career

Wang published his first volume of short stories in 1947, after studying with Shen Congwen at Southwest Associated University in Kunming during the War of Resistance against Japan. During the following three decades of the Mao era and the Culture Revolution, he focused his creative energies on politicized model operas heralded by Jiang Qing. He began fiction writing again in 1980, when Deng Xiaoping brought the political and social reforms to remedy the aftermath of the culture revolution.

Wang's 1980 story "Buddhist Initiation" painted a beautiful, poetic, and nostalgic portrait of life before 1949, in sharp contrast to the Mao era literature which generally denounced the evils of China's "feudal" past. Wang's decision to portray Buddhist culture reflected an effort to expand literary topics and his unwillingness to place politics at the centre of his story writing. The story, to Wang's own surprise, was warmly received by readers in mainland China at its publication, and subsequently well accepted by readers and critics alike in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where several critics listed it among the best 100 stories of the past 100 years.

Writing Style and Themes

In the realm of contemporary literature, Wang emerges as a modern-day Su Dongpo, embodying the essence of a traditional Chinese intellectual deeply rooted in the wisdom of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. With a profound sense of compassion for humanity and an unwavering faith in the innate goodness of human nature, his writing seamlessly blends ancient philosophies with a genuine commitment to the well-being of fellow beings.

During the 1940s, when Wang Zengqi was teaching at a middle school in Kunming, there was always a copy of "Zhuangzi, Collection and Explanation" placed on his desk. In contrast to the eloquence of Mencius's discourse, the young Wang Zengqi evidently favored the unrestrained freedom found in Zhuangzi. In his later years, Wang Zengqi incorporated the Taoist spirit into a state of "tranquil harmony," forging his distinctive writing style: "blending classical and colloquial language with a judicious balance of intensity, to have substance without being flowery." The essence lies in "vividness of spirit," “elegance in the ordinary" and "refined in the vernacular".

Works

Short Stories

• Buddhist Initiation, or The Love Story of a Young Monk (Chinese: 受戒; Pinyin: Shoujie), 1980
• A Tale of Big Nur (Chinese: 大淖记事; Da Nao Ji Shi), 1981
• Special Gift (Chinese: 异秉), 1981
• (Chinese: 皮凤三楦房子)
• (Chinese: 岁寒三友)
• (Chinese: 云致秋行状)
• (Chinese: 讲用)
• (Chinese: 故里三陈)
• (Chinese: 水蛇腰)
• (Chinese: 徙)
• Revenge (Chinese: 复仇; Fu Chou), 1944
• (Chinese: 羊舍一夕)
• (Chinese: 鸡鸭名家)

Personal life

Wang had a grasp of advanced culinary skills, he was considered to be a gourmet. This enthusiasm is also revealed in his many works, such as The Foods in my home town.

References

1. Zhang, Longxi (2023). A history of Chinese literature. London New York: Routledge. pp. 403, 413. ISBN 978-0-367-75828-8.
2. Mair, Victor H. (2001). The Columbia history of Chinese literature. New York: Columbia University press. p. 1057. ISBN 978-0-231-10984-0.
3. Chang (2010), pp. 577–578.
4. Encyclopedia of China, Vol. 22 (2nd edition, 中国大百科全书（第二版）第22册). Encyclopedia of China Publishing House. 2009. pp. 576–577. ISBN 978-7-500-07958-3.
5. Deng, Youmei. "漫忆汪曾祺". Free Forum of Literature (文学自由谈) (in Chinese). 1997 (5): 98–105.
6. Chang (2010), p. 654.
7. ^ FitzGerald, Carolyn (2008). "Imaginary Sites of Memory: Wang Zengqi and Post-Mao Reconstructions of the Native Land". Modern Chinese Literature and Culture. 20 (1): 72–128. ISSN 1520-9857. JSTOR 41490991.
8. ^ Yang, Zao (March 1, 2020). "Wang Zengqi, the Su Dongpo of our time (in Chinese), 《汪曾祺：我们时代的苏东坡》". The Paper 澎湃新闻. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
9. "林江 石杰：汪曾祺小说中的的儒道佛_爱思想". www.aisixiang.com. Retrieved 2023-12-10.

Bibliography

• Chang, Kang-i Sun (2010). The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature, Volume II: From 1375. Shanghai: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85559-4.
• FitzGerald, Carolyn. “Imaginary Sites of Memory: Wang Zengqi and Post-Mao Reconstructions of the Native Land.” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, vol. 20, no. 1, 2008, pp. 72–128. JSTOR 41490991. Accessed 7 Dec. 2023.

• 1920 births
• 1997 deaths
• National Southwestern Associated University alumni
• Chinese male short story writers
• 20th-century Chinese essayists
• Writers from Yangzhou
• International Writing Program alumni
• 20th-century Chinese short story writers
• 20th-century Chinese male writers
• Victims of the Anti-Rightist Campaign
• 20th-century Chinese novelists
• Short story writers from Jiangsu
• Dramatists of Chinese opera