Fortress Besieged
Fortress Besieged (Traditional Chinese: 圍城; Simplified Chinese: 围城; Pinyin: wéi chéng) is a Chinese satirical novel written by Qian Zhongshu (Ch'ien Chung-shu), first published in 1947, and widely considered one of the masterpieces of twentieth century Chinese literature.[1] The novel is a humorous tale about middle-class Chinese society in the late 1930s. It was made into a popular television series in the early 1990s.
 Cover art of the 1st edition of Fortress Besieged, 1947 | |
| Author | Qian Zhongshu |
|---|---|
| Country | China |
| Language | Chinese |
| Genre | Novel |
Publication date | 1947 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-0-14-118786-0 (2006 Penguin edition) |
Origin and History
The book was begun while Qian Zhongshu and his wife Yang Jiang were living in Shanghai during the Japanese occupation. According to Yang Jiang, the successful production of several of her plays inspired Qian to write a full-length novel.
The writing of the novel began in 1944, and was completed in 1946. Many of the characters and much of the plot are taken from the experiences of Qian and Yang both abroad and in China. For example, the opening scene at sea reflects their journey from France to China on board the ship Athos II.
The title is based on a French proverb:
- Marriage is like a fortress besieged: those who are outside want to get in, and those who are inside want to get out.
- (Le mariage est une forteresse assiégée, ceux qui sont dehors veulent y entrer, ceux qui sont dedans veulent en sortir.)
The novel is known for its acerbic asides, such as describing one young lady in the following way:
- Others called her “Truth,” since it is said that “the truth is naked.” But Miss Pao wasn’t exactly without a stitch on, so they revised her name to “Partial Truth.” [note 1]
Qian never completed another novel. He began work on a second, but the manuscript was lost when he and his family moved to Beijing in 1949.[2]
Publishing history
The novel was published in Shanghai in 1947. The second edition was published 1948. The third edition in 1949. After the Communist Revolution, the book was not reprinted in mainland China again until 1980. In the meantime, it was also banned in Taiwan because of its scathing satire of the Nationalist government.[3]
Plot summary
Set in the 1930s, the novel follows the misadventures of Fang Hung-chien (方鴻漸 Fāng Hóngjiàn), a bumbling everyman who wastes his time while studying abroad, then secures a fake degree when he runs out of money and must return home to China.
Onboard the Vicomte de Bragelonne, Fang meets Miss Su (蘇文紈 Sū Wénwán), a young woman in her late 20s. She is quite pretty, if thin and pallid, but her pickiness means she is still unattached. He also meets the tanned and voluptuous Miss Pao (鮑小姐 Bào xiǎojiě), whom Fang pursues with some success during the voyage. However, when the boat reaches Hong Kong, Miss Pao disembarks into the embrace of her fiancé, a middle-aged, balding doctor, and Fang realises he has been used.
After disembarking at Shanghai, Fang looks for work and is forced to attend matchmaking sessions arranged by his parents. When visiting Miss Su he meets her cousin, Miss T'ang (唐曉芙 Táng Xiǎofú), and promptly falls for her. Fang wants to pursue Miss T'ang, but Miss Su expects him to propose to her instead. When she discovers the truth, she ruins any chance of Fang getting with her cousin.
His heart broken, Fang leaves Shanghai and gets a teaching job at a recently-opened university in the interior, where he discovers one of his new colleagues also has a bogus doctorate from the same institution. At the university he meets Sun Roujia (孫柔嘉 Sūn Róujiā), an assistant professor of English. After his contract is not renewed, they get married and go back to Shanghai, where their relationship worsens. The novel ends with his wife leaving him as he listens to the chiming of a clock.
Influence
The literary critic C.T. Hsia has called Fortress Besieged, "the most delightful and carefully wrought novel in modern Chinese literature" and "perhaps ... the greatest".[4]
Aspects of the novel have entered the Chinese idiomatic lexicon. For example, the fictional "Carleton University" (克萊登大學), where the novel's character obtained his bogus degree, is used as an idiom to signify an illegitimate foreign degree qualification or academic institution. Likewise, the novel's title, deriving from the French proverb, has given rise to a similar saying in Chinese.[3]
Translations
The novel has been translated into many languages. These include a Russian version which appeared in 1979, a German version in 1982, a French version in 1987, and a Japanese version in 1988. The novel was translated into English by Nathan K. Mao and Jeanne Kelly in 1979, and it was published by the Indiana University Press on April, 1980. It was updated in 2004 by New Directions Publishing with an additional foreword by the historian Jonathan Spence. Despite pinyin becoming the standard romanisation in the intervening years, the publishers retained the original Wade-Giles romanisation of Chinese names and places.[6]
Notes
- “又有人叫她「真理」，因為據說「真理」是赤裸裸的。鮑小姐並未一絲不掛，所以他們修正為「局部的真理」。”
References
- Hussein, Aamer (2005-05-20). "Fortress Besieged, by Qian Zhongshu trans. Jeanne Kelly & Nathan K Mao". The Independent.
- O'Kane, Brendan (2013-10-13). "A Monument to What Might Have Been: Qian Zhongshu's "Fortress Besieged"". The Los Angeles Review of Books.
- Huang, Yu. "Allegorizing the Existential Crisis in Modern China. Qian Zhongshu’s Philosophical Novel “Fortress Besieged”." World Literature Studies 10, no. 2 (2018): 80-90.
- Hsia, Chih-tsing. A History of Modern Chinese Fiction. 2d ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971.
- Fortress Besieged at Penguin Books
- "A Note From the Publisher" in Fortress Besieged. New York: New Directions, 2004.