Students in my Late Imperial China class are familiar with Shen Fu, the writer and artist who wrote “Six Records” about a life of financial hardship, troublesome family, his loving relationship with his talented and dutiful wife Yun, and some of the indignities of trying to cling to elite status in the increasingly complex society of late 18th/early 19th-century China. The problem though is that of the six records, only four are extant…until now, and will wonders never cease, it just so happens that Shen Fu turns out to be an expert witness in the ongoing debate between China and Japan over the status of the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands.
From China.org/China Daily:
A hand-written document believed to be of a missing part of a Chinese literary work which showed the Diaoyu Islands as being part of China, was auctioned for 13.25 million yuan (2 million U.S.dollars) Monday in Beijing.
The item was hand-written by Qian Meixi, a calligrapher in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It is believed to be a copy of the fifth chapter of “the Six Chapters of a Floating Life” of Shen Fu, a writer and painter also from the Qing Dynasty.
This island chain, once a tributary of the Qing later claimed by Japan and whose status was never as clear in the historical record as partisans from both sides would like to believe, made the world stage when Chinese ‘fishing boats’ decided to play a round of maritime demolition derby with a Japanese Coast Guard vessel. (A “game” which was repeated this past weekend against a ship from South Korea, with tragic results.)
Peng Ling, a book collector from the tourist-trap town of Pingyao in Shanxi, purchased the recently re-discovered “Fifth Record” of Shen Fu’s memoir at an antique market in Nanjing and then patriotically refused requests by foreign buyers for the — if authentic — valuable literary treasure.
“Peng said he rejected an offer made by a Japanese citizen to buy the scripts for 10 million yuan in December 2009.
“I’m a descendant of the Chinese nation. The Japanese can’t take it away, even with 100 million yuan,” he said. “The scripts must stay in China.”
The eventual buyer, a mysterious Mr. Wu, echoed Peng’s patriotic sentiments:
“It was a very quick decision,” he told Xinhua by telephone. “I believed this is a very valuable document and I just don’t want it to fall into the hands of others, particularly foreigners.”
It seems to me, that this kind of ‘reasoning’ is used quite a bit by the Chinese press in trying to bolster various historical claims. Once-upon-a-time So-and-So says Such-and-Such is a part of China. It’s a pretty specious argument, but that does not appear to diminish its appeal among China’s chattering classes.
(King George III once upon a time felt that Connecticut was part of Britain, and I’m guessing a few of his countrymen at the time agreed in print…how’d that work out?)
Oddly, it was left to The Global Times, not known for their levelheaded appreciation of historical nuance, to apply a bit of cold fizzy water to the news:
Tao Duanfang, a Chinese commentator who lives in Canada, said on his blog Monday that novel could hardly be used as “solid evidence,” and he believed it was a promotional ploy.
Gao Hong, a professor with the Japanese Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said he was not sure if it was legitimate to use a novel as “solid evidence.”
“Sovereignty is a serious topic and should be seriously treated and discussed. It would be humiliating for China if the so-called solid evidence turned out to be flawed,” Gao said.
Nevertheless, defender of the Motherland or not, if anybody is looking for an accessible not overly long book that gives a lot of fascinating insight into life at the very boundary between elite and non-elite in Qing society, I recommend checking out 《浮生六記》 Six Records of a Floating Life. For those who prefer English, Penguin has a decent translation and yes…it will be on my reading list for next fall’s Late Imperial China class — at least the first four chapters.
“Sovereignty is a serious topic and should be seriously treated and discussed. It would be humiliating for China if the so-called solid evidence turned out to be flawed,”
What a flawed kind of a so-called point! Even if not proven genuine, think of the efforts the Japanese imperialists have made to keep the evidence from the eyes of the world! Besides, there is a deeper truth in it!
I used Shen Fu’s book (Penguin ed.) many years in a 2 semester survey of East Asian history I taught – the student reaction was, on the whole, favorable. They were fascinated. In a course on contemporary China I used it as a mirror for Chiang Yang, Six Chapters from My Life Down Under. Two literary gems.
In other news, Bill Shakespeare “proved” that Northumbria belongs to Scotland, Homer “proved” that Asia Minor belonged to Greece, and the film The Living Daylights “proves” that Gibraltar is British territory. All of these points make about as much sense as the idea that the writings of a novelist prove anything one way or the other about the ownership of these islands.
Myself, I favour the solution of asking the residents who they think the land they live on belongs to in these kinds of cases, but since no-one is stupid enough to want to live on these scraps of dirt, let’s just apply the Sudan/Egypt solution for Bir Tawil and just say that it doesn’t belong to anyone.
My proposed solution is that the islands should be recognised as historical Japanese territory and then they should be awarded to China explicitly as war reparations for the whole SSJW/World War II business.
A mention of Six Records? Be still my beating heart!
PS: That was one of the first books I learned to REALLY read footnotes from. Because only there can you learn about why Yun was so keen on getting her man a concubine.
Yes, finally someone has mentioned the Lesbian undertones to Six Records, nice one!
Winslowrob/Jiong,
It was actually part of a pop quiz this past semester: “According to the translator annotations in the endnotes, what is the real reason why Yun is so eager to get Shen Fu this particular concubine?”
It’s one of those “If you read it, you know it and if you didn’t, you don’t” kind of questions.