Xīn Xīyóu Jì 新西游記
A New Journey to the West by 陳景韓 (撰)
About the work
Xīn Xīyóu Jì 新西游記 is a late-Qīng satirical novel in 5 chapters (huí 回) by 陳景韓 (Chén Jǐnghán, pen name Lěngyuè 冷血, “Cold Blood”). The Kanripo source file preserves a detailed tíyào 提要 (prefatory summary) and biànyán 弁言 (preface), which provide precise bibliographic information: the work was first published in a lead-type edition by the Xiǎoshuō Lín 小說林 press in the Xuāntǒng 宣統 1st year (1909). The work belongs to the “new fiction” (xīn xiǎoshuō 新小說) satirical reform subgenre of the late-Qīng, which used comic fantasy frames to critique contemporary Chinese society and foreign imperialism. The plot: the Tang Monk (Tángsēng 唐僧), the Monkey King (Sūn Wùkōng 孫悟空), Pig (Zhū Bājiè 豬八戒), and Friar Sand (Shā Héshàng 沙和尚) from Xīyóu Jì are sent by the Buddha to visit Shanghai (Shànghǎi 上海) to investigate the spread of a new religion. Their adventures in the semicolonial, cosmopolitan Shanghai expose the absurdities of late-Qīng society: the terror of foreign power in the Concession, the opium trade, addiction, corrupt officials, gambling, prostitution, and a society in which guó zhōng guó 國中國 (a state within the state, i.e., the foreign concessions) has transformed China into a “great auction house” (dà pāimài háng 大拍賣行).
Prefaces
The tíyào in the source file is unusually detailed, stating that the work “represents a special variety among late-Qīng novels” (zài wǎnqīng xiǎoshuō zhōng dàibiǎole yī tèshū pǐnzhǒng 在晚清小說中代表了一特殊品種). The biànyán 弁言 states: “Xīn Xīyóu Jì borrows the names and things of Xīyóu Jì to re-interpret them in reverse; therefore it is called New Journey to the West” (Xīn Xīyóu Jì jiè Xīyóu Jì zhōng rénmíng shìwù yǐ fǎnyǎn zhī, gù yuē Xīn Xīyóu Jì 新西遊記借西遊記中人名事物以反演之故曰新西遊記). The preface notes that “although Xīyóu Jì is all fiction, Xīn Xīyóu Jì is all reality” (Xīyóu Jì jiē xūgòu ér Xīn Xīyóu Jì jiē shíshì 西遊記皆虛構而新西遊記皆實事).
Abstract
陳景韓 (Chén Jǐnghán, pen name Lěngyuè 冷血, ca. 1878–1947) was a late-Qīng and Republican journalist and fiction writer from Sōngjiāng 松江 (Jiāngsū). He served as chief editor of Xiǎoshuō Shíbào 小說時報, Fùnǚ Shíbào 婦女時報, and Xīnxīn Xiǎoshuō 新新小說. He was primarily known as a translator of foreign fiction: his translations of Western adventure and social novels (including works about nihilists, xūwú dǎng 虛無黨) were influential in the late-Qīng literary reformist movement. Xīn Xīyóu Jì is his original satirical novel, notable for its comic fantasy technique and its critique of the contradictions of semicolonial Shanghai.
The CBDB entry for 陳景韓 (id 670944) records no dates; the source file’s tíyào and external sources confirm his identity as a Sōngjiāng journalist and editor.
Translations and research
- Hanan, Patrick. 2004. Chinese Fiction of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries. Columbia University Press. (Discusses the late-Qīng satirical novel genre.)
- Chen Jing (陳進). 2009. “Wǎnqīng ‘xīn xiǎoshuō’ de qǐyuán hé fāzhǎn” 晚清「新小說」的起源和發展. Studies in late-Qīng reform fiction.
Other points of interest
Xīn Xīyóu Jì is one of the few works in the KR4k corpus that is a late-Qīng literary satire (huájī xiǎoshuō 滑稽小說) rather than a popular historical romance. Its use of the Xīyóu Jì framework as a satirical vehicle is an early example of the “sequel” or “parody” tradition that would later become common in Republican fiction.
Links
- Chén Jǐnghán: Wikipedia (Chinese)