master detective in a series of casebook stories. But if one wishes to pick out the stories that are most significant from the point of view of Zhang's development as a writer then
the stories one would isolate would be Zhang's three "symbolist" stories published between 1926 and 1928, These stories,
published, as they were, at intervals of more than six months, chart increasingly sophisticated experiments in technique, both narrative and stylistic, whilst keeping roughly within the confines of v/hat might reasonably be expected of stories that were written "in imitation of the so-called Symbolism" as Zhang put it. As I hope I have already demonstrated, it is possible to trace an important stage in Zhang's development as a writer by way of these three stories until drawing all his experimental threads together Zhang was finally in a position to write his first published realist short story 'Dream lasting Three and a Half Days', It is worth noting the way in which Zhang in
'Towards a New Hoad' and 'The Black Smile' varied one technical aspect, whilst retaining all the other characteristics of the preceding story. In 'Towards a New Road', Zhang experimented with a new narrative method, an introspective, reflective first- person narrator, enabling the reader to identify with the narrator and her highly personalised experiences. The themes in 'Towards a New Road' are, however, the same as the themes that are to be found in the preceding story 'Vibration of the Darkness'. 'The Black Smile1retains the highly personalised first-person narrative technique of 'Towards a New Road' whilst experimenting with a diary-entry framework with which to contain the narrative. In
'Dream lasting Three and a Half Days', Zhang retained both the narrative technique and the diary-entry framework of 'The Black Smile' whilst realistic description replaces the fantasies that lard the narrative of 'The Black Smile'.
With the publication of 'Dream lasting Three and a Half Days' Zhang abandoned his earlier experiments with symbolist technique, and having found a satisfactory way to express the stories he wished to tell, Zhang subsequently made consistent use of a realistic narrative method.
66
that are of greatest significance in giving a hint of Zhang's .subsequent use of satire, as exemplified most notably in
Short as these two stories are, they nonetheless possess a
satirical edge that makes itself felt amidst a general atmosphere of comic exuberance.
Two underlying currents run through the pre-1929 works by Zhang. One is the search for a satisfactory narrative technique. The other, which is quite closely related to the problem of
finding a satisfactory narrative technique, is the problem of resolving the complex interrelationship between author, author/ narrator, work and reader, v/hilst at the same time reconciling external contradictions such as, for example, conflicting attitudes towards literature as found amongst the older, more staiu members and younger, more eclectic members of 1920s Chinese society. That this problem was never far from Zhang's mind is evidenced by recurring references to this problem in the pre-1929 stories. Zhang's treatment of this problem took two forms:
questioning of the nature of fiction; and contrived distancing of the narrative method. The question of the nature of fiction and its relationship with fact is a philosophical question, and as Zhang has never claimed to be a philosopher it is unsurprising that his treatment of this question is far from full-bloodedly philosophical. Attention is drawn to the problem of fictionality by the introduction into the narrative of remarks about "making
fiction" /)^<s /J'' ?.ftL • traditional vernacular fiction such remarks as these are unimaginable, because although the framework of each chapter, within which the narrative is told, begins and ends in the same way (beginning "The story goes
, and ending if you want to know the reason for this, please listen to the next chapter for the explanation*"
the oral storytelling technique of earlier times (probably the Song dynasty), the content and method of presentation of the
narrative urges the reader to willingly suspend his/her disbelief. In this case the reader enters into a compact with the author/ narrator as a result of which the fictional events enjoy a
1 Mr „ Hua W e i , are his comical stories such as •Strange Fetishes' i]'^q *
"factual” existence in the minds of the reader and the author/ narrator * Occasionally in Zhang's early stories, the tacit agreement between reader and author/narrator to accept the fictional events recounted in the narrative as dramatic "fact", must be considered to have been deliberately broken by the author, narrator. This forces the reader to abandon the pretence of "willing suspension of disbelief" and accept at face value the fictional nature of the narrative. When the point is further elaborated as it is by Xu Changyun in 'Empty R o o m ' , the reader is led to consider further the implications of drawing attention to the fictional nature of the narrative, by which the inter
relationship between fact, fiction, and what I have called dramatic "fact" above, is called into question.
Deliberately contrived distancing of the narrative method, which is the second form that Zhang's treatment of the problem of resolving the complex interrelationship between author, author/narrator, work and reader took, is a technique that Lu Xun made considerable use of in his short stories. In Lu Xun's story 'Upstairs at the Inn' /4„ sfcjf J l, , for
instance, there is a first-person narrator who listens to a story told him by an acquaintance whom he has not met for a long time, The first-parson narrator merely acts as a sounding board and an
inconspicuous sounding board at that whilst the reader and the author seemingly observe the tableau from a discreet distance. In fact the story is distanced even further since the narrator's acquaintance relates a story that he knows only second-hand. Several possible reasons can be posited for using a narrative technique such as this. Sometimes the author or author/narrator does not wish to be associated too closely with the story being told, occasionally the reason will be political, occasionally personal. On yet other occasions artistic considerations may take precedence; some stories are more effective if an elaborate distancing method of narration is used. In Zhang's pre-1 9 2 9 stories he occasionally makes use of elaborate
distancing methods of narration. The most noteworthy example is the story 'Bad Dream', a clearly political analysis of anti-Japanese feeling amongst Chinese people resulting from the unequal treaties of 1919 that had given rise to what is
68
known as the ‘'May Fourth Movement"a Zhang seems in tills story to have exercised a measure of caution, probably because of the political nature of the story, and possibly also because of a decree of ambiguity in his feelings towards some of the attitudes and events described in the story. The most curious thing about 'Bad Dream* is not that Zhang should have used a distancing narrative technique but that he should have drawn such clear attention to what he was doing' by having the first person narrator declare in the last line of the story: "There was nothing else for it but to get up straightaway and put my clothes on, and tell this to Wuzheng /^Zhang’s pseudonym 7 i saying that this material could be worked up into a piece of fiction". As if the technique of relating events contained in a dream were not a sufficiently distant method of narration, Zhang adus one more layer of distancing by making it plain that Wuzheng and the first-person dreaming narrator are not one and the same.
Bound up closely with Zhang’s search for an effective narrative technique was the problem of what kind of language to use in his fiction. It is not surprising that Zhang experimented with several different types of language in his pre-1929 stories. In China in the 1920s, several types of language were used by writers of fiction. Some imitated
the style of language made popular by Lin Shu in his translations of famous Western novels and stories, namely a kind of "wenyan" that followed the lead set by the ’Tongcheng* 7 7 ^ school, at the end of the
19
th century. Other v/riters imitated the traditional vernacular. Yet others— - and this group makes up the majority set out to write a sort of modern vernacular that bore a closer resemblance to the contemporary spoken language than the vernacular found in traditional novels. These attempts sometimes resulted in a curious hybrid language which was neither modern nor classical and came to be known as "ban wen bu bai"1
6
Lu Xun’s short stories though ’written in modern vernacular were intelligible only to a well- educated minority. Most other writers of fiction in 1920s China produced works written in a language that was more or less literary in flavour. It was not until the 1930s that language that wasbased closely and consistently on the contemporary modern vernacular became widely used in the writing of fiction*
Most of Zhang's pre-1929 fiction was written in language that falls into the category "modern vernacular11 , but
at the same time his language varies considerably across the oossible spectrum of "modern vernacular" writing* Only two of Zhang's
pre
-1929
writings are exceptions to this generalisation* They are Zhang's earliest story 'New Poetry' and the story 'Bad Dream'. There are cogent reasons why Zhang should have chosen to use a language that tended towards traditional "wenyan" in these two stories* In 'New Poetry', Zhang satirised contemporary attempts to write poetry in current vernacular that did not obey theancient conventions about rhyme, length of line and language, which distinguish traditional poems. Zhang's choice of language was thus determined by his satirical objective and the need to create a contrast between the formality of "wenyan" and the informality of current vernacular imitations of Western free verse. Zhang's motives for using "wenyan" in his story 'Bad Dream' were quite different. It was a tradition to write passionate tirades in classical Chinese because of the increased effectiveness lent to essays by formal, terse, punchy language and the use of highly stylised literary language in a set-piece commemorating National Humiliation Day would be entirely appro- priate. Another possible explanation is that the story was aimed at the older generation, who with their stick-in-the-mud attitudes responded badly to articles and stories written in modern-style prose* Zhang may have been deliberately dressing up his material in a form that would prove acceptable to those members of the public least likely to concur with the ideas expressed in his story.
The kind of language that Zhang used in his pre-1929 stories gradually changed, becoming in his three symbolist stories of 1926, 1927 and
1928
, ever more close to the linguistic style he was to use in his realist short stories. Zhang's experimentation with symbolism was a passing fad and we shall see in the next chapter that Zhang's decision to write realist fiction brought with it a decision to write in a language that increasingly bore a close resemblance to the contemporary vernacular.70
Chapter Three
Zhang's fiction written in the realist mode (1929-1932)
Introduction
Zhang, recalling the period immediately after 1929 in a recent 1
autobiographical sketch, wrote:
After the short story 'Dream lasting Three and a Half Days' was published in Benliu 1:10 edited by Lu Xun and Yu Dafu, I went on writing and felt that literary works were capable of playing an important role with respect to propaganda and agitation — - for I had seen with my own eyes many youngsters who had become inclined towards revolution as a result of their contact with literature. Subsequently it became increasingly apparent, that one wanted to make the reading masses lean towards revolution and recognise or be aware of the iniquities of the social system of that time and the dark nature of the government etc., through the medium of literary works. If literary works could be of service in this respect and if they were also written in such a way that people liked to read them and they were able to attract readers, then this would be of great significance. In this way, I gradually came to consider writing to be my profession.
2
Earlier in the same autobiographical article, Zhang dates his espousal of Communism as the beginning of 1927 and attributes his contact with Communist teachings whilst attending Peking University as his reason for joining the Party. According to Zhou Songdi*s
R) ^ I f recent reminiscence about Zhang ^ "Tianyi probably
1 2 t o o n g g u o _ x ia n d a l^ ^ 1 9 8 0 :2 ( 9 . 1 9 8 0 ) 2 7 7 .
Again, it is important to note that this autobiographical sketch was published some time after Zhang had suffered a stroke in 1975 and must therefore be regarded with circumspection. 2 ibid. p. 2 7 6 .
3 'Wo he Tianyi xiangchu de rial* ^ ^
f f
4$
Hua cheng 1981:2 (3- 1981) 93-98.began to participate in the Chinese Communist Party towards the end of 1926 or at the beginning of 1927H « Zhou's evidence for this is the fact that shortly afterwards and before Zhang left Beijing for the South in the spring of 1927* Zhang had already introduced him into the Party*
Further indications of Zhang’s espousal of Marxism at an early stage in his literary career are to be found in his
1 literary critical and theoretical writings of the early 1930s. Examples of Marxist terminology and thought used by Zhang in such
into the three broad categories of factory-workers, peasants and
Zhang also makes the point that the majority of Chinese writers, if not all, at this time were members of the educated petit-bourgeoisie. He, himself, clearly, falls into this category and both his family background and education served to establish and consolidate his position as a member of educated petit- bourgeois society. That Zhang should have begun his career as a writer of realist short stories by writing about the intellectual class of which he was a member, is not at all surprising. An important group amongst the various groups and thematic classes of fiction into which Zhang's literary works can be divided deals with the problems faced by the educated petit-bourgeoisie in trying to adjust to the society in which they found themselves.
Zhang’s first three realist short stories.
'Dream lasting Three and a Half Days' ^5- 7^
is the earliest example of this thematic class. This story,
which charts the actions and disordered feelings of a young school- teacher upair©turning home to visit his ageing parents, is told by a first-person narrator in the form of a letter written over a period of several days to a friend. The narrator betrays easily
1 See Beidou 2:1 (20. 1. 1932) 151-2 and Beidou 2:3, ^ (20. 7» 1932) ^-
57
~?§o7
2 Benliu 1:10 (20. 1929) 1789“1807« See Appendix D for a