Chapter 62 Remarks: Letters (Liu Wuji)

We are strangers, please forgive me for the crime of communication. For one thing about Chinese novels.In your "A Brief History of Fiction", you once talked about a romance novel in the Ming Dynasty: "Yu Jiao Pear", as you said, although this book is not very popular in China, it has a certain fate in Europe.A month ago, I visited the dean of the German Department of Yale University and talked about Goethe.He said: Goethe once criticized a Chinese novel, which he praised very much; so he showed me the French and German translation of "Yu Jiao Li" in the "Goethe Library" in the school.Later I found another English translation in the Yale library.

In terms of learning, European and American authors have almost exhaustively researched about Goethe. Only in this aspect, when it comes to the text of "Yujiaoli", there is still nothing.Therefore, I think that if we can collect all the materials about this book from Chinese people and make them public to European and American scholars who study Goethe, it may be considered a small contribution, although it is very small.However, due to lack of knowledge and no tools available here, there is no way to start.Therefore, I thought that my husband is well-researched in Chinese novels, and I don’t know if you can show me some materials; about the exact age of the original book, the author’s name and life, and the records and criticisms of this book by later generations, can you help me to search?

This letter is intended to be forwarded by Mr. Xiaofeng. If it can be made public, it will arouse the interest of the public, which is also a "virtue". Zhu Xuean Enter Liu Wuji.January 21, nineteen years. EE 〔1〕This article was originally published in the "Newsletter" column of the forty-fifth issue of the fifth volume of "Yusi" weekly magazine on January 20, 1930 (published later), after Liu Wuji's letter. Liu Wuji, a native of Wujiang, Jiangsu, was a student at Yale University in the United States at the time. 〔2〕 "Yu Jiao Li" is a human novel written by Zhang Yun in the Qing Dynasty. The title of the old engraved edition is "Compiled by the people of Midi Mountain", five volumes, twenty chapters.The book was translated into French by the Frenchman Remus Sa in 1826; the following year, the English translation was published in London, England, and the German translation was published by Stuttgart, Germany.