All Men Are Brothers: Pearl S. Buck’s Translation of Shui Hu Zhuan and its Effects on Her Writing Career

In her article "All Men Are Brothers: Pearl S. Buck's Translation of Shui Hu Zhuan and its Effects on Her Writing Career," Zhihui Sophia Geng focuses on Pulitzer Prize winner and Noble Laureate Pearl Sydenstricker Buck's All Men Are Brothers, her translation of the classical Chinese novel Shui Hu Zhuan. She examines the reception of her translation and analyzes the significance of All Men Are Brothers to Buck's literary career. By providing the first complete translation of Shui Hu Zhuan to an English-speaking audience, Buck made a significant cultural contribution to the United States and English-speaking cultural spheres. The panoramic Shui Hu Zhuan showcases a drastically different way of writing from a long and dynamic Chinese literary tradition. Immersion in Shui Hu Zhuan nurtured Buck's sympathy towards the common people and is instrumental in her choice to focus on the Chinese peasantry as the subject matter of her writing. This keen insight is indispensable to her creation of ground-breaking works such as The Good Earth. In addition, Buck's reading of classical Chinese fiction had a considerable effect on her prose style. Buck proudly declared that the Chinese novel "has an illumination for the Western novel and for the Western novelist," and her success as a novelist, in turn, affirms the worthiness of this tradition.