Wang Zengqi

Wang Zengqi (; 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 "Revenge" ().

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 Second Sino-Japanese War. 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

Yang Zao (杨早), a contemporary scholar of history and literature, regarded Wang as a modern‑day Su Dongpo, observing that Wang embodied the wisdom of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, and maintained an optimistic, humane outlook toward his fellow human beings and his circumstances. Yang noted that during the 1940s, when Wang Zengqi was teaching at a middle school in Kunming, there was always a copy of ''Zhuangzi with Annotations'' (庄子集解) 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."

Lin Jiang and Shi Jie provided a background study of Wang's family, upbringing, and education, in connection with his personality and literary themes.

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

Bibliography

*
* 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. . Accessed 7 Dec. 2023.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Zengi
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