While researching the work of poet Jin Tianhe (1873-1947) for the forthcoming “Cambridge History of Chinese Literature,” Professor Kang-i Sun Chang of Yale University said that she ran into an unexpected problem. Sun Chang said during her lecture at the East Asian Studies Center on April five that she had trouble finding historians who wrote about both the years of the Late Ming Dynasty (1400-1550) and the period she labeled “between traditional and modern China” in the 19th century. Determined that they were important to her research and understanding of Tianhe, Sun Chang decided to study these gaps herself.
Tianhe wrote specifically during this transitional period in China, making new research particularly essential. Tianhe does not fit into either the classical garden genre of poetry, popular in the Suzhou region of China, or the revolutionary poetry that flourished in the years before his death.
Sun Chang championed the poet as the missing link between dynastic China and the People’s Republic. The poet wrote work of social criticism and combated distorted images of female worth within China.
Tianhe published his more critical pieces under different pseudonyms, a factor Sun Chang said contributed to his relative obscurity as a poet. The May 4 Movement of 1919 and the turmoil of student demonstrations at this time eclipsed his work as well, according to Sun Chang. Additionally, after the short-lived Republic of China, which survived from 1912 to 1916, failed, Tianhe became so discouraged with his country’s politics that he completely withdrew from society, adjourned to the gardens of Suzhou, and returning to the traditional nature poetry that he had departed from so drastically in the revolutionary years.
His work also debunked negative images of women, invoking a history of strong artistic contributions from women within the country. For centuries, Suzhou had a rich history of independent women intellectuals and artists. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, social unrest, the Boxer Rebellion, and the Sino-Japanese War had wreaked havoc on established social hierarchies throughout the nation, leading to a de-valuing of women throughout the country, including in Suzhou.
Tianhe’s 1903 book “Wake Up, Women” declares that women were crucial to China’s stability and critically states that they had been treated like “slaves of slaves.”
In the course of his fervent defense of women, Sun Chang pointed out, Tianhe’s work suffered one major flaw. He exaggerated the free state of the Western woman, going so far as to suggest that all Western women wielded the power of exceptional historical figures.
“He overrated Western women like [supporter of the French Revolution Madame] Roland and Joan of Arc,” Sun Chang said.
Sun Chang said that exploring the many gaps within China’s long history and discovering new works, all as part of the effort to understand Tianhe, has been a rewarding and even exciting experience.
“I like to be a literary detective,” she said.
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