On this year's World Reading Day, the Beijing News Book Review Weekly planned a series of online reading week activities of "At this moment, read it", a total of 6 online salons. On April 17th, we and Hantang Sunshine invited Lei Yi, Chen Zishan and Yuan Xiaoyi to be guests in the live broadcast room to talk about a forgotten translator Li Qingya.
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The first translator in the history of Chinese translation to fully translate Maupassant's works into Chinese from French was a forgotten translator, Li Qingya.
Li Qingya (Photo courtesy of publisher)
In 1907, Li Qingya went to Belgium to study, during which he developed a strong interest in French literature. After returning to China after completing his studies in 1912, Li Qingya successively taught in many colleges and universities and actively participated in literary activities. He loved Maupassant, and during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he fled to the southwest with teachers and students from Fudan and other universities, and he told his family that he could not do anything, and the French version of the Complete Short Stories of Maupassant must be taken away. He and his family carried the heavy Maupassant complete works, shoulder to shoulder, or hand, and traveled for six or seven years.
Li Qingya's translation can convince Chinese readers who do not know French that Maupassant is indeed a great literary hero. Li Qingya's achievements and experience in translation have also set an example for future generations of translators such as Fu Lei. In the period of new and old iterations, his translations are the most faithful record of the mission of translation and the changes in language and culture.
Recently, "Li Qingya's Translation Collection" was published by Zhengzhou University Press, and the Beijing News Book Review Weekly, together with Hantang Sunshine, invited Lei Yi, a researcher at the Institute of Modern History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chen Zishan, emeritus professor of the Department of Chinese of East China Normal University, and Yuan Xiao, professor of the French Department of East China Normal University, to take you to touch the real life of translators and get a glimpse of the intertwined changes of translation and socio-linguistic culture. The following is a compilation of the content of the live dialogue.
Lei Yi:
Learn about Li Qingya and his family history, and understand the era in which he lived
Lei Yi shared Li Qingya's family history at the event. Li Qingya's grandfather's grandfather was named Li Xingyuan, a native of Xiangyin, Hunan, born in 1797, and studied at the Chengnan Academy, which was the same name as Yuelu Academy at that time.
Li Xingyuan was well-known and served as an envoy to Shaanxi, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, the governor of Yungui, and the governor of Jiangsu. In 1847, seven years after the Opium War, he served as the governor of Liangjiang, ruling over the area around present-day Su and Shanghai, and his important position was evident. Later, when Lin Zexu fell ill and died on the way to conquer the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Xingyuan took over his mission, but encountered the same changes as Lin Zexu.
Portrait of Li Xingyuan. In 1851, Li Xingyuan died in the army due to a recurrence of an old disease.
Li Xingyuan's grandson Li Fuyi, who later also served as an official in present-day Zhejiang, was deeply interested in literature and culture, and funded the establishment of the Xiling Printing Society. Li Fuyi's son died early, so he paid special attention to the cultivation of his grandson, that is, Li Qingya.
Lei Yi believes that if you understand a person, you will also understand an era, a society, and a culture. In china before modern times, everyone despised those who studied science and engineering, and regarded them as "strange tricks and tricks". Li Fuyi was a feudal official from the academy, and his ancestors were all learned of traditional culture, but in the 1900s, he let Li Qingya go to a church school, study in France, study science and engineering, not read the Four Books and Five Classics, and did not take the road of examination, which shows the advanced thinking of Li Fuyi. At the same time, this also reflects the change in the atmosphere of the times - the abolition of the examination system has become the desire of the people.
Li Qingya attended a French church school in China and knew French, so he studied in France and Belgium. His family let him study science, but his interest was in the liberal arts. Later, he met a revolutionary, Li Shizeng, who had known Sun Yat-sen, who had traveled to France several times and also met Li Qingya.
Li Qingya's wife, Wu Qinqing, was the daughter of Wu Zhiying, who helped Zhang Zhidong train the new army in Hubei, so he had contacts with large households, political and business circles, and military circles in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. When the Xinhai Revolution broke out, Sun Yat-sen went to various places to raise money and open up relations between various localities, and Sun Yat-sen knew the relationship between Li Qingya, Wu Zhiying, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so he asked Li Qingya to do Wu Zhiying's work and use his connections to exert some influence on the revolution. After Sun Yat-sen returned to China, he often went to the "Xiyin Hall" in Shanghai to find Zhao Fengchang, and Zhao Fengchang and Zhuang Yunkuan were also relatives of Lady Li Qingya's family, and they all played an important role in the Xinhai Revolution.
The first on the left is Zhao Fengchang. Zhao Fengchang was known for assisting Zhang Zhidong in his early years, and played an important role in the Constitutional Movement and the Xinhai Revolution. Xiyin Hall was Zhao Fengchang's private residence in Shanghai, and was a news transfer station for people from all walks of life at that time.
Another public space for people from all walks of life in Hunan Province, the "Taro Garden", was founded by Li Qingya's grandfather, Li Xingyuan, where both the political, business, and military circles discussed things, exchanged ideas, composed poems and sang. Whether it is The Xiyin Hall or the Taro Garden, it reflects that the "salon" has played a great influence on the spread of new ideas and new cultures.
Changsha Taro Garden (Photo courtesy of publisher)
Li Qingya later decided to work as a translator, taught at some universities after returning to China, and became the deputy director of the Shanghai Museum of Culture and History in 1949 (the director was Zhang Yuanji, the founder of the Commercial Press). The Shanghai Museum of Culture and History originally has a foundation, and Li Qingya has pulled many famous painters, traditional literati, and even the old and young into the Museum of Literature and History, and the Museum of Literature and History is even more famous.
Chen Zishan:
Li Qingya is not just a translator
At the event, Chen Zishan mainly shared Li Qingya's position in literary history and his translation trajectory.
In the May Fourth New Literary Movement, there was an important literary society, the Literary Research Society, whose founding was a milestone in China's New Literary Movement. In third place on the original list of members of the Literary Research Society was Zhou Zuoren, who drafted the declaration of the Literary Research Society. The sixth is Ye Shengtao, the ninth is Shen Dehong (that is, Mao Dun), who is the editor-in-chief of the revised Novel Monthly, and the tenth is Zheng Zhenduo. Li Qingya joined the Literary Research Society in 1921 and ranked 82nd. Don't mistake him for thinking that he is behind, Xu Zhimo is Number 93, and the poet and literary theorist Liang Zongdai is Number 92, both later than Li Qingya.
In 1923, Li Qingya published his translation of Maupassant's short story "A Scene of a Coup" in the January "Novel Monthly", which opened the prelude to his translation of Maupassant. However, Chen Zishan mentioned that the first translated work of Maupassant published in the history of modern literature was not translated by Li Qingya, but Xie Zhijun's translation of "Mo Boshuang Short Stories", which was published at his own expense in April 1923 and was not publicly distributed, and few people know this name today.
Half a year later, the first volume of Li Qingya's translation of Maupassant's Short Stories was published by the Commercial Press and included in the "Literary Research Society Series". Since then, Li Qingya's translation of Maupassant has continued. A translator tirelessly translates a writer, indicating his recognition of the writer. In addition to Maupassant, he also translated Flaubert's Madame Bovary, but Li Qingya was still not the first to translate Madame Bovary. Chen Zishan said that when Shanghai children were young, there was a children's song "The first is not unusual, the second is to plant a red flag", and Li Qingya was the second to translate Maupassant and Flaubert, but the impact was greater than the first.
After 1929, Li Qingya began to translate Maupassant for the Beixin Bookstore, which published many works by Lu Xun. Now looking into Lu Xun's collection, it can be found that Lu Xun has collected 5 Maupassant translated by Li Qingya, including "Mutton Fat Ball Collection", "Heritage Collection", etc., all of which are now preserved in the Lu Xun Museum in Beijing. The Commercial Press published a three-volume collection of novels translated by Li Qingya, "Maupassant Short Stories", and 10 copies were published by Beixin Bookstore. At that time, his volunteer was to translate all Maupassant's short stories, so in the 1941 War of Resistance, the Commercial Press published two more Maupassant short story collections translated by Li Qingya, "The Complete Short Stories of Maupassant". "Li Qingya's translation deeply intervened in the construction of new literature, or the construction of modern literature, in that era, and readers should re-understand it today."
Chen Zishan
Chen Zishan believes that Li Qingya's contribution has not only been ignored by the history of translated literature, but also ignored by the history of literary creation. Li Qingya is not only a translator, he also creates new literature. After this relationship with the Literary Research Society, he also began a relationship with crescent bookstores. In February 1933, Li Qingya published a short story collection "Shanghai" at crescent bookstore, which contained six of his short stories, one of which was titled "Shanghai", writing about Shanghai.
In the mid-1930s, Li Qingya and Lin Yutang co-founded the Analects and contributed to them. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Analects were revived, Shao Xunmei presided over it, and Li Qingya continued to publish various works in the Analects. At that time, Li Qingya was still teaching at the university, so whether it was literary translation, literary creation, or literary education, Li Qingya actively participated in it.
Chen Zishan's earlier contact with Maupassant translated by Li Qingya stemmed from a "book stealing operation". In order to satisfy his desire to read, he stole books from the middle school library. Among the library's numerous collections, he selected Maupassant's short stories "Junyou" and "Life", which was a vertical edition of the New Literary and Art Publishing House in 1955. "It was a terrible experience to think about now. I was reading his book, but I didn't know that the translator was heading for 'death'. Chen Zishan said.
Yuan Xiaoyi:
Why is Li Qingya a great translator?
Yuan Xiaoyi also mentioned that Li Qingya was not actually the first person to translate Maupassant, but one of the first people.
In 1929, the cover of the 37th issue of "Good Friend" magazine published a photo of Li Qingya and introduced it as "Literary scholar Li Qingyajun, who has studied French literature and recently translated the complete works of Maupassant." At that time, most of the cover photos of Liangyou magazine were fashionable people and some political figures, but at least until that issue, Li Qingya was the only literary artist who appeared in this magazine.
After 1949, the number of Chinese translations of French literature decreased, but Maupassant's works have been published, and the main translator is still Li Qingya. After the reform and opening up, translation ushered in a climax, especially the 19th century French classic literary works were constantly being retranslated and reprinted, when major publishing houses more or less produced Li Qingya's Maupassant translation. But after this climax, fewer and fewer people are familiar with Li Qingya, and Yuan Xiaoyi believes that this is very unfair in terms of Li Qingya's contribution to french literary translation.
Yuan Xiaoyi mentioned that one of the very important reasons why Maupassant entered China for the first time was that he had a good translator Li Qingya. In the early days, zhou shuangjuan, Zhou Zuoren and others translated in any language, but most of them were translated from English or Japanese, while Li Qingya was translated from the original French text. Yuan Xiaoyi believes that a translator can focus on and translate his favorite authors for a long time, which is completely different from the current translation atmosphere and the entire operation system of translation.
Li Qingya has a different identity: translator, novelist, critic, and together with Lin Yutang founded the analects magazine. In Yuan Xiaoyi's view, these are also favorable conditions for the spread of Maupassant's works in China. Because of Li Qingya's relationship, Maupassant's works were translated outside of China, and some of the corresponding research articles were also translated into China. Yuan Also mentioned that the translation of Maupassant after 1949 continued, and his works were still being published, in fact, because the supporters of the New Literary Movement valued the works of French naturalism. They believe that the portrayal of society and characters in French naturalist works can reflect some of the practical problems of society at that time to some extent.
Li Qingya's translation of "Maupassant" is always the same "Maupassant". Yuan Xiaoyi mentioned that translations are tested every 50 years or more because they are no longer familiar languages, and new translations with different strengths must continue to appear. Whether it is Li Qingya's more Westernized writing or more localized writing, the translator's position is different, and the translation presented is different. The translator must take the translation very seriously and seriously, dealing with the work day after day, year after year, to ensure that he is translating the same author.
"I think as a great translator, there are a few points that are very important. One is that, as Benjamin said, he can be called upon by the author at the earliest; second, he is able to establish the direction of an author's journey in another country by virtue of his own translation; and third, his own translation of works can constitute a unity of works. Yuan Xiaoyi believes that Li Qingya is a well-deserved great translator.
Yuan Xiaoyi shared a short translation of Li Qingya of "Mutton Fat Ball" at the event:
"A continuous curtain of snowflakes fell straight to the ground and shone back at the same time; it concealed the appearance of various objects, and sprinkled a layer of ice moss on it; in the deep silence of this quiet and cold-buried urban area, people could only hear the vague and indescribable sound of friction, the sound of snow falling. It is better to say that it is a feeling, but it is better to say that the staggered activity of dust seems to fill the air and cover the earth. ”
"Li Qingya's translation is more Westernized, but at the same time does not lose the fun of Chinese at the beginning of modernization, such a beauty, readers can clearly feel when they hear the translation." Yuan Xiaoyi said.
Family portrait of Li Qingya's family in 1962 (photo courtesy of the publisher)