Anecdotes (Volume 9)

The first, "Sidelights on Qian Zhongshu," was written forty years ago by Qian Zhongshu's cousin Qian Zhonghan. Although it is called "sidelights," one has to admit that the depth and vividness of a family member's "sidelights" are far beyond what outsiders could achieve.

The second, "A Letter from a Strange Female Reader: Tracing Hu Shi's Association with Gong Xianzhang and Wen Gongzhi, 'a Couple,'" draws on a reader's letter kept secretly by Hu Shi to trace his association with a young couple from a distinguished family, as if lifting a heavy curtain of time; the author, Xia Yin, is young and newly emerging, which is gratifying. Gao Lin re-sorts, enriches, and examines the work and life of the famous journalist Pu Xixiu before 1949, which may also be said to be a writing of understanding of the spiritual world of the journalists of his grandparents' generation.

Among the new authors, this volume also adds four scholars: Huang Dade, Niu Fenglei, Ye Kangning, and Wu Zhen. Huang Dade, as the maternal grandson of Deng Erya and son of Huang Banruo, inevitably brings rare family memories to his writing about Wang Jingwei's nephew, the extraordinary Wang Xiwen.

Paying attention to anecdotalists and their works is a consistent preference of Zhanggu. Niu Fenglei's writing on the Beijing anecdotalist Jin Shoushen, backed by a rich collection, is especially rare. Wu Zhen focuses on the China-related business activities of Tokyo's Bunkyudo and the life histories of its two generations of owners, while Ye Kangning focuses on the Hongxian gold seal and even seal impressions that lasted as long as Yuan Shikai's "Hongxian" court; behind the joys and sorrows of people and the rise and fall of objects, there is always the capricious hand of the times.