The Field of Life and Death

Xiao HongYilin Press · ChinaMay 2017

4.5

Word count: 51K words
Chapters: 18

Summary

Wang Po was able to sit by the riverbank with a fishing rod and fish! The wrinkles on her face had neither increased nor decreased. This proved that she had not changed; she still had to live on. At night the frogs by the river croaked loudly. Mosquitoes set out from the riverside grass, swarming in noisy squadrons and filling every household. In the daytime the sun grew hot too! The sun burned people's skin; in summer, the people in the fields resented the sun as they would resent a vicious brute force. Over the whole field a great ball of fire went rolling.

Editor's review

The Field of Life and Death is a novella Xiao Hong wrote in 1934 and the work that made her name. Set in a village on the outskirts of Harbin, it depicts the plight of peasants in Northeast China in the 1920s and 1930s under feudal oppression and Japanese invasion. The novel has no central plot running from beginning to end; instead, through a series of vignettes of daily life, it shows the peasants' numbed cycle of living and dying like animals. Lu Xun wrote the preface himself, saying the book revealed "the Northern people's strength in living and their struggle in death," and noting that "the meticulous observation and unconventional brushwork of a woman writer add much brightness and freshness." Xiao Hong's prose is plain yet sharp; with a cold, unsparing touch she portrays the tragic fates of women such as Wang Po, Jinzhi, and Yueying under double oppression. Her deep insight into human nature and her true rendering of rural society make the work transcend its time and stand as a weighty classic in the history of modern Chinese literature. This Yilin Press edition usually collects The Field of Life and Death together with The Tales of Hulan River and other representative works, making it the best introduction to Xiao Hong's literary world. Reading it, one feels not only the aching vitality behind the words but also the deep pulses of Chinese society in that particular historical period.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in modern Chinese literature, especially rural and women's literature
Readers who want to understand the social and historical landscape of Northeast China in the 1920s and 1930s
Readers who appreciate a plain, cold, yet vital literary style
Literary researchers and university students in the humanities

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking light entertainment or fast-paced fiction driven by strong plot
Readers who find depictions of suffering in the old society and women's fates too heavy and oppressive

Reading tips

It is advisable to read Lu Xun's preface first, as it helps in understanding the work's historical background and literary value.
While reading, pay attention to Xiao Hong's distinctive narrative structure and prose style, and appreciate her "unconventional brushwork."
The Field of Life and Death can be read alongside Xiao Hong's later The Tales of Hulan River to sense the change and deepening of the author's style.

About the publisher

Yilin Press China · Founded in 1988

Yilin Press focuses mainly on translated foreign literature. Its current catalogue of 318 titles covers common categories such as mystery and detective fiction, foreign literature, world classics, biography, and social novels. Representative books include The Complete Sherlock Holmes 2: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, To the Lighthouse, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, and Lives of the Artists: Michelangelo, often presented in bilingual or English-language editions that serve both original-text reading and language learning. Its author resources include foreign writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and Romain Rolland, as well as translators including Li Jiazhen, Gao Fen, and Ma Ye. The catalogue also includes Chinese works such as Li Jieren's Ripples Across Stagnant Water. The press shows a concentrated publishing strength in foreign classics and bilingual readers; given limited public information, this overview is based only on catalogue data.

版权信息
一麦场
二菜圃
三老马走进屠场
四荒山
五羊群
六刑罚的日子
七罪恶的五月节
八蚊虫繁忙着
九传染病
一○ 十年
一一年盘转动了
一二黑色的舌头
一三你要死灭吗
一四到都市里去
一五失败的黄色药包
一六尼姑
一七不健全的腿

FAQ

What is The Field of Life and Death mainly about?

The novel chiefly depicts the miserable lives and tenacious struggles of peasants, especially women, in a village near Harbin in the 1920s and 1930s under the double oppression of feudal forces and Japanese invasion, showing their almost numbed cycle of "living" and "dying."

Why did Lu Xun highly praise The Field of Life and Death?

Lu Xun admired Xiao Hong's truthful and powerful depiction of the "strength in living" and "struggle in death" of the lower classes, as well as the meticulous observation and convention-breaking literary brushwork characteristic of a woman writer, which he felt brought a new breath to the literary world.

What are the features of this Yilin Press edition?

The Yilin Press edition is usually one of the authoritative versions of The Field of Life and Death, possibly published together with other representative works by Xiao Hong such as The Tales of Hulan River. It is well bound with a reliable text, a good choice for reading and collecting.

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About the author

Xiao Hong Author · China · 1911–1942

Xiao Hong, originally named Zhang Naiying, was a modern Chinese woman writer from Hulan, Heilongjiang. She rose to fame in 1935 with The Field of Life and Death. Her works are mostly set in the rural society of Northeast China, focusing on how ordinary people live and struggle with fate in turbulent times, with delicate, compassionate writing. Her representative work Tales of Hulan River unfolds through memories of her hometown and its people; its plain, natural language and essay-like narration portray local customs and individual experience, and it is regarded as an important achievement of modern Chinese literature. Works such as Ma Bole and Commercial Street also show her sustained observation of social reality and daily life. She died in Hong Kong in 1942 at the age of thirty-one. The library holds 175 of her works, commonly classified as social fiction and classics, reflecting her lasting influence among readers and publishers.