Dongwei Chu

Chinese Literature and Culture Volume 14 Dongwei Chu

This volume features three translations: Chapter One of A Physician with a Formula, a novel by Zhang Wei, "Poems from the Courtesan House and Their Stories (1)" edited by Lei Jin, and"'Family' to Chinese People"(from Chapter Two, Fundamentals of Chinese Culture) by Liang Shuming. These translations loosely follow the theme "Women, Marriage, and Family" . A Physician with a Formula involves a young male physician's misguided, deviant life-nourishing practice of using women as a tool to achieve long life. Chu Dongwei's accurate and flowing translation of Chapter One gives the reader an early glimpse of this masterly work. "Poems from the Courtesan House and Their Stories (1)" shows the sexually enslaved women in ancient China as talented souls aspiring for liberation and freedom. Liang's "'Family' to Chinese People" gives us an understanding of the Chinese family system. Coupled with the translations are commentaries by Prof. Craig Hulst, who locates Chapter One of A Physician with a Formula in the general context of Chinese culture, Prof. Patricia Clark, who highlights the relevance of poetry writing to life and imagism in the courtesan poems, and author Kyle Muntz, who gives an intellectual discussion of how the subtle emotions of the courtesans take shape in the poems and the narratives between them. In addition, the bilingual content is a valuable material for students and scholars of Chinese studies and translation studies.