Chapter 2: Under the Greek Sunshine

During the New Culture movement, Zhou Zuoren made his debut with a translation of a poem from Theocritus, an Alexandrian poet of the third century BCE. His essay, “Gushi jinyi” 古詩今譯 (An ancient poem in modern translation), was published in Xin Qingnian 新青年 (New youth) in February 1918,1 the journal that served as the mouthpiece for the movement. The essay combines an introductory passage with Zhou's translation of Theocritus's Idyll 10, based on Andrew Lang's English version.2 In his autobiography, Memoir of Zhitang, Zhou identifies this piece as his first essay written in the modern Chinese language,3 and he reproduces the entire introductory section. Notorious for habitually copying passages from both the materials he read and wrote, it is not surprising that Zhou includes this introductory part in his Memoir. Surprising, however, is that six chapters later, when discussing the essay that brought him overnight fame, “Ren de wenxue” 人的文學 (Humane literature), he mentions it only in passing, noting that it was praised by Chen Duxiu 陳獨秀 (1879–1942), who encouraged him to write more.4In 1918 Zhou Zuoren became a star among his colleagues at New Youth, thanks to the impact of “Humane Literature,” whose title served as one of the most important slogans of the May Fourth Movement. The literature prompted by the New Youth camp was precisely this “humane literature,” aiming to promote a healthy, positive existence for humanity in general and the Chinese people specifically. The essay's condemnation of the literature of ancient China and advocation of those from the West also summarizes a key agenda of the New Culture movement. It is safe to say that in the intellectual sphere of the Republican China, without “Humane Literature,” Zhou's career and legacy would be substantially different, as well as his place in the history of modern Chinese literature. But when offered an opportunity to comprehensively reflect on his career and life, and his contributions to modern Chinese literature, what he emphasizes and what he neglects prompts us to closely examine how this prominent writer—now regarded one of the founding fathers of modern Chinese literature—conjured a literary future for modern China.When examining May Fourth literature, the thinker Li Zehou famously highlights the interplay between two overarching themes: enlightenment and salvation.5 In the decades that followed, these themes became closely entangled, alternately collaborating and conflicting, shaping the literature in the making deeply marked by ideological concerns. This literature prioritized its role as an avant-garde force for the political, social transformations envisioned by Chinese intellectuals. As a result, its practical function, as C. T. Hsia bitterly observed, often came at the expense of its literary merit.6 In this chapter, I argue that Zhou Zuoren, along with others in the formative decades of modern Chinese literature, sought to imagine and construct a literary culture unburdened by the grim historical circumstances of twentieth-century China. Through their introductions and translations of the Greek poets from the sunny islands of the Aegean Sea, they breathed a sweetness of Chinese literature. This the of as Theocritus, and in modern In Zhou not to from when and the literature he in the of modern Chinese literature and culture in a healthy, literature on Chinese came from In the literary history of the this Alexandrian poet of the third century was for his written in and on the in is not Zhou's first essay a Greek Idyll his first translation of a Greek In the he the May Fourth he written on and among and Chinese two to when Idyll 10, however, he to a that he in by his and the of this in the history of modern Chinese In its when modern Chinese was by the of this poem as one of the first in is also in Zhou's two introductions and translations of the May Fourth In he an to and his translations of Chinese and a of and later, in he and a of as well as the This they modern Chinese in the of these that both the of and to literary Chinese and modern Chinese The and in the the and translation of Zhou Zuoren for a in with a of a in the This along with the the the from a poem at however, from his translation the to a written in the of modern Chinese The as and the it from the in is In the between the two Zhou became a in New movement, the agenda of was to the and the Chinese with a literary with Zhou's two translations of the of Chinese literature and in a But for the the of in his Memoir that the of the in to him the of a literary and a intellectual the of of the In the was only a to the it was most translations of and the of May Fourth his for this to his of the Greek who he to and his the he of to and not to and Greek and His translations of in his when he was the his colleagues in the of and when his was of and to the enlightenment of May Zhou's with the Greek It was the of his from and his intellectual to In was Chinese culture and as it the May Fourth not modern culture to be the of New Youth Chen and Zhou the they to from their and to and their among in the of a future what Zhou in the of modern Chinese literature and culture was a Greek Zhou's the May Fourth and this Greek would and to an important of modern Chinese literature and Zhou's made debut in the literary of the Chinese translation of of from the Chinese As in the modern Greek and in the and Republican in the of became a for China. by the they for a in whose they their China. however, at the of a to the of modern ancient that the Chinese as a of the of their poem in to de in China became de as the of the for to be at the of a poem that a role in modern was the in and was The of the for the ancient that in Zhou's intellectual also be to his as a in In a star of literature, a essay on Greek literature and from to the This is a to the is a for the and in sunny and The essay as the of Greek journal this to in he the as a of Greek literature and and six in translations of in the published of on of the in an of the that his translations of from to the In the became and His most of the in its would to the of and His of the along with his introductions to to the of in literary his formative in Zhou his to literature. the that he among was the of and in his with for he of literature, as is the of from for not be Zhou also the poem to is a and the to is to be to with and Zhou is not and their by a is what Zhou of as the of Greek literature would in Zhou's of Theocritus, and of Greek literature. 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