A Splendid Future cover

A Splendid Future

Rating 3.6
Word count
236K words
Chapters
66
ISBN
9787520500043

Tags

Summary

Jinpian Qiancheng is a collection of five novellas by Zhang Henshui: "Jinpian Qiancheng," "The Second Empress," "Shu Dao Nan," "The Poor Couple," and "The Guerrillas."

"Jinpian Qiancheng" tells of Baozhu, a Beijing girl who defies her family's arranged marriage and chooses her own lover, only to be abandoned—just when another romance arrives... "The Second Empress" follows Zhuqing, who, at her wit's end with her mother, meets a new neighbor, Yuchan, who supports her and leads her onto the opera stage...

"Shu Dao Nan" is set after the outbreak of the War of Resistance: Yuzhen's lover leaves to join the army, and she endures countless hardships to enter Sichuan and seek refuge with relatives; once there, she finally learns of her lover and leaves Sichuan to reunite with him.

"The Poor Couple" depicts how affection between husband and wife gradually cools amid the poverty of a low-ranking civil servant's household. "The Guerrillas" tells of the Japanese army's brutal destruction of villages, which stirs local resistance as villagers, students, and seasoned guerrillas form a new guerrilla unit and take up the fight.

Editor's review

This novella collection best showcases the breadth of Zhang Henshui's subjects: five works ranging from a Beijing woman's autonomy in love and marriage, to an opera singer's turning point, to displacement into Sichuan amid the War of Resistance, the estrangement of a poor civil servant's family, and villagers organizing guerrillas against invasion—covering much of the urban and rural landscape of the mid-to-late Republican era. "Jinpian Qiancheng" follows Baozhu as she breaks free of an arranged marriage only to be abandoned, in a calm tone that refrains from rushing to judgment; "The Second Empress" uses Zhuqing's encounter with Yuchan to unfold a picture of survival within the opera profession; "Shu Dao Nan" renders wartime migration and reunion with restraint and concreteness; "The Poor Couple" is especially solid in depicting emotional wear under economic pressure; "The Guerrillas" presents Japanese atrocities and popular resistance in a more direct tone than the earlier pieces. Read together, the five reveal Zhang Henshui's sustained attention to social reality beyond romance. Suitable for readers interested in the diverse faces of Republican-era fiction and willing to encounter multiple subjects at once.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers who want to sample Zhang Henshui's novellas across multiple subjects at once
  • Researchers interested in Republican-era marriage, the opera profession, and wartime writing
  • Readers who enjoy collectionsof short works and flexible reading by piece
  • Readers curious about the family life of low-ranking Republican-era civil servants and rural resistance

Not a good fit for

  • Readers who prefer only a single continuous long narrative
  • Readers uninterested in the Republican-era background and old-style marriage contexts
  • Readers expecting a happy ending in every piece

Reading tips

  1. Read in the order "Jinpian Qiancheng," "The Second Empress," "Shu Dao Nan," "The Poor Couple," and "The Guerrillas" to feel the progression of subjects.
  2. Pause after each piece, note the detail that moved you most, then move on to the next.
  3. Before reading "The Guerrillas," learn a little about rural experiences during the War of Resistance for a fuller understanding.

About the publisher

China Culture and History Press China · Founded in 1980

China Culture and History Press has long devoted itself to modern and contemporary literature and culture-and-history reading matter, with publishing directions centered on classic works, social novels, prose and miscellaneous writings, and Eastern philosophy, alongside culture-and-history periodicals such as Zongheng. Among the more than 1,500 titles in the collection, representative books include Zhang Henshui's Ti Xiao Yin Yuan, Lu Xun's Complete Classic Works (10 volumes) and Wild Grass, and Lao She's Four Generations Under One Roof series and the boxed set of Lao She's Classic Works (10 volumes), while its author resources are concentrated on figures such as Zhang Henshui, Lu Xun, Lao She and Sima Qian. Its publishing character lies in solid editorial work on culture-and-history source texts and in issuing famous authors' works in sets, balancing the readability of individual texts with the systematic presentation of complete collections for focused reading and collecting. Beyond these directions, public information on the press's contemporary original publishing is limited, so it is not elaborated here.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 作者简介
  3. 小说大家张恨水(代序)
  4. 锦片前程
  5. 第一回 白发婆娑煨炉温旧梦 红颜憔悴踏雪访情人
  6. 第二回 失约走萧街无心获稿 传音疑旧侣泄恨焚书
  7. 第三回 不料重逢缠绵坠情网 且当永别慷慨酌离斟
  8. 第四回 倩妹引情丝赠袍仪厚 背人飞爱箭报国心闲
  9. 第五回 争民族光会心发微笑 为婚姻死拊掌作孤鸣
  10. 第六回 手足两参商挟衣佯遁 家庭一牢狱投笔终逃
  11. 第二皇后
  12. 上篇 无烟无火度阴天
  13. 中篇 惺惺相惜患难时
  14. 下篇 同气相求
  15. 蜀道难
  16. 一 选定较远的路
  17. 二 好容易离开了汉口
  18. 三 说不出的情绪
  19. 四 托迹何处
  20. 五 挤满了旅客的宜昌
  21. 六 登记,登记,登记!
  22. 七 废然思返
  23. 八 拥挤着,拥挤着
  24. 九 入峡
  25. 十 她顾左右而言他
  26. 十一 通融一间屋子
  27. 十二 神龙不见尾
  28. 贫贱夫妻
  29. 一 冬不暖来夏不凉
  30. 二 有点儿悠然神往了
  31. 三 女人赶什么时代
  32. 四 我这叫自找麻烦
  33. 五 水晶帘下看梳头
  34. 六 在家里看门
  35. 七 引起了胡先生的共鸣
  36. 八 罚你一件皮大衣
  37. 九 一个字的妙诀——“拖”
  38. 十 将门搭扣扭开
  39. 十一 这不能对太太再有什么期待
  40. 十二 那笑声笑得咯咯的
  41. 十三 北方人才看不惯这装束
  42. 十四 下他一百二十四个决心
  43. 十五 今天家里有什么庆典吧
  44. 十六 说是你敢回去说跳舞回来吗?
  45. 十七 还嫌着生活不够水准
  46. 十八 当公务员的还有什么可想的呢?
  47. 十九 这是谁给我们生的火呢?
  48. 二十 这个你也吃飞醋
  49. 二十一 自己也弄点儿穿的呀
  50. 二十二 倒像是一块红烧蹄膀
  51. 二十三 谁也比自己风光些
  52. 二十四 在女人面前还有点儿民主作风
  53. 二十五 整条的胡同不见个人影
  54. 二十六 她有点儿自行检举的样子
  55. 二十七 会做个风雪夜归人吗?
  56. 游击队
  57. 第一章 顺民家里的惨剧
  58. 第二章 用鲜血来洗这羞耻
  59. 第三章 空手夜袭大王庄
  60. 第四章 倭寇洗村
  61. 第五章 要报仇的都联合起来
  62. 第六章 伟大的收获
  63. 第七章 打倒汉奸
  64. 第八章 被围之后
  65. 第九章 意外的救星
  66. 第十章 打回老家去

FAQ

Are these five stories connected?
The five are independent novellas with no continuity of characters or plot; their themes and settings differ, and they can be read separately. Collected in one volume, they chiefly reflect the author's breadth of subject, and there is no need to read them in order for coherence.
Which one is best to start with?
If you prefer love and marriage themes, start with "Jinpian Qiancheng"; if curious about the opera profession, read "The Second Empress"; if interested in the War of Resistance, read "Shu Dao Nan" or "The Guerrillas." Each is independent, so choose by interest.
Is the wartime writing in this book fictional or documentary?
"Shu Dao Nan" and "The Guerrillas" are fictional works with invented characters and plots, though their backgrounds involve historical situations such as migration into Sichuan during the War of Resistance and rural destruction by the Japanese army. They should be read as literary renderings of the era, not cited directly as historical sources.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Zhang Henshui Author · China · 1895–1967

Zhang Henshui (1895–1967), originally named Xinyuan, was a native of Anhui and a writer of serialized chapter fiction, recognized as a representative author of the Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies school. Over his lifetime he wrote more than a hundred novels, and this library holds as many as 436 of his works. His writing uses the traditional chapter form as its framework, with intricate plots and large casts of characters; he excels at portraying social manners and human feelings amid social change and romantic entanglements, in language that is accessible and fluent, earning him a broad readership. His representative works include Ti Xiao Yin Yuan (A Smile of Woe), Jin Fen Shi Jia (The Golden Family), Chun Ming Wai Shi, and Ba Shi Yi Meng (Eighty-One Dreams), among which the first two have circulated especially widely in many editions. His subjects center on social novels and modern romance, with some allegorical and satirical works, giving him an important place in the history of modern popular literature.

More by the same author

Top rated in the same category