Renditions no. 80 (Autumn 2013)
This issue is another collection of writings in various genres and from different periods of Chinese history. We are both delighted and honoured to begin it with the late Professor D. C. Lau’s translation of the ‘Advanced School of Learning’ (Daxue), that foundational Confucian text offering sage advice on self-cultivation that was a moral guide in China for many hundreds of years. Other highlights include a Song dynasty tale of elopement and the resulting court case, and seventeenth century critic Jin Shengtan’s insightful commentary on the Shuihu zhuan. Included also are ‘The History of Humanity’, an important 1907 essay by Lu Xun, a thought-provoking exploration on the differences between Chinese literature and civilization and the Western institutions by the controversial writer and critic Hu Lancheng, followed by ten contemporary poems by Chien Chengchen, and a short story from 1930s Shanghai by the ‘new sensationalist’ Mu Shiying.