Reading Wang Yao

Name: Reading Wang Yao
ISBN: 9787301240120

Qian Liqun / Sun YushiPeking University Press · ChinaAug 2025

4.0

Word count: 346K words
Chapters: 33
ISBN: 9787301240120

Report an error Find this book

Summary

Mr. Wang Yao was a renowned scholar. This book collects numerous essays recalling and assessing him; the writing combines admiration with a distinctly rational, critical awareness and reveals genuine personality. It serves as historical source material and as pleasurable reading, allowing later generations to glimpse again the bearing of a celebrated scholar of his time.

Editor's review

This is a collection of reminiscences and assessments of the scholar Wang Yao, written by scholars including Qian Liqun and Sun Yushi. The writing conveys admiration for a teacher and elder while maintaining academic rationality and scrutiny, rather than unqualified praise, and thus reveals genuine personality. Some essays recall details of personal association, others assess scholarly contributions; together they sketch the bearing and character of a renowned scholar. Readers interested in modern Chinese literature will see the scholarly attitude and spiritual foundations of a generation of academics; for general readers, these pieces can be read as memorial prose, offering both historical value and literary beauty. The book is not a systematic biography but a multi-voiced, multifaceted presentation, reading like sitting together listening to people reminisce. It suits quiet, unhurried browsing; reading a few pieces at random rather than pressing straight through better savors their flavor and weight.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Researchers of modern Chinese literature seeking to understand Wang Yao's scholarly life and academic relationships
University Chinese department faculty and students interested in the scholarship and character of academic predecessors
General readers who enjoy memorial prose and anecdotes about scholars
Readers interested in the history of modern Chinese scholarship who wish to gather relevant source material

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a systematic, complete biography of Wang Yao with a linear narrative
Readers entirely unfamiliar with modern Chinese literature and academic figures, lacking background knowledge
Readers expecting only theoretical monographs and unwilling to accept the memoir-essay genre

Reading tips

There is no need to read straight through; begin with pieces by authors you know.
When you reach sections touching on Wang Yao's scholarly views, briefly compare them with his works to deepen understanding.
Reading different authors' recollections of the same event together reveals the interest of multi-perspective narration.
Keep a pen handy to mark details that move you; looking back after finishing brings new impressions.

About the publisher

Peking University Press China · Founded in 1979

Peking University Press is a comprehensive university press whose publishing areas cover classical literature, popular science, social culture, world history, Western philosophy, and culture. Its catalogue contains 6,031 titles, with representative books including A Dream of Red Mansions, Relativity: The Special and General Theory (15th Edition) (with Einstein's classic papers on unified field theory and other topics), Elements, Conics, The Aristocratic Families of the Eastern Jin, The Philosophy of Mythology (Volume I), The Philosophy of Mythology (Volume II), and The Origin of Continents and Oceans. Representative authors include Cao Xueqin, Zhou Ruchang, Albert Einstein, Euclid, Apollonius, Tian Yuqing, Schelling, and Xian Gang. The press has developed distinctive strengths in classical Chinese literature and in the translation of Western philosophical classics, while also covering scientific classics and social and cultural studies. As public information is limited, this description is based only on the books in the catalogue and offers no further extrapolation.

版权信息
上辑为人但有真性情
哭昭琛
宛在的音容
回忆四十年代的王瑶学长
昭琛二三事
一个冷隽的人一个热忱的人
王瑶先生
夕阳下的王瑶先生
他拥有绿色的永恒
从麻木中挤出的回忆——王瑶师逝世一周年祭
最后的和最初的日子
学魂
王瑶先生杂忆
写出的与写不出的
深切怀念王瑶先生
念王瑶先生
瑶华圣土——记王瑶先生与清华大学
风雨燕园四十载——王瑶先生与北京大学
“挣扎”的意义——读《王瑶全集》
我的老同学王瑶
文件中的王瑶
下辑治学犹能通古今
论文学史家王瑶——兼及他对中国现代文学学科建设的贡献
王瑶的中国文学史研究方法论断想——以《中古文学史论》为中心
他是“清华”的，也是“古典”的——王瑶先生与中国古典文学研究
王瑶先生对中古文学研究的贡献
《中国新文学史稿》的历史地位
王瑶《中国新文学史稿》与现代文学学科的建立
某种启示：鲁迅研究史——过程中的王瑶先生
清华薪火的百年明灭——谒王瑶书
我理解的王瑶传统
编后记

FAQ

Is this book a biography of Wang Yao?

Not in the strict sense. According to the introduction, the book collects numerous essays recalling and assessing Mr. Wang Yao; it is a commemorative collection offering multiple perspectives. It can serve as historical source material and as pleasurable reading, but it is not a biography narrating his life systematically along a timeline, and readers should not demand biographical completeness of it.

Can I read this book without having read Wang Yao's works?

Yes, but understanding will be reduced. The essays touch on Wang Yao's scholarly contributions and academic relationships; without any knowledge of his works and the background of modern Chinese literary scholarship, some content may feel unfamiliar. It is advisable first to learn Wang Yao's basic scholarly identity, or begin with pieces focused on personal recollections before turning to the more evaluative essays.

Is the style of the essays uniform?

Not entirely. The collection is written by several authors, including Qian Liqun and Sun Yushi, whose tones and emphases differ: some focus on recalling personal association, others on scholarly assessment. This difference is both a characteristic and a source of reading pleasure, letting readers perceive the same scholar from different angles.

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

Qian Liqun Author · China · 1939

Qian Liqun was born in Chongqing in 1939, with ancestral roots in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. He is a senior professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Peking University. His research focuses on the history of modern Chinese literature, studies of Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren, and the intellectual history of modern Chinese intellectuals. His representative works include In Search of the Soul, A Biography of Zhou Zuoren, On Zhou Zuoren, Thirty Years of Modern Chinese Literature, 1948: Heaven and Earth in Dark Mystery, and The Richness of Suffering: The Eastward Migration of Don Quixote and Hamlet, as well as My Spiritual Autobiography. His Fifteen Lectures on Lu Xun's Works, which interprets Lu Xun in an accessible lecture format, has had a wide influence. His writing spans academic research and essays, with attention to literary appreciation and intellectual inquiry, in a rigorous style informed by a concern for reality.

Sun Yushi Author · Chinese · 1935–2024

Sun Yushi (1935–2024) was a Manchu scholar from Haicheng, Liaoning, and a professor of Chinese literature at Peking University, where he also served as chair of the Department of Chinese Language and Literature. He devoted his career to the history of modern Chinese literature, Lu Xun studies and the study of modern Chinese poetry. His works combine archival research with close reading of texts; among his best-known books are a study of Lu Xun's Wild Grass, a history of Chinese modernist poetic currents, and a study of the theory and practice of modern Chinese poetry explication, together with a seventeen-volume collected works. The volumes he edited or co-edited, including the concise history of a century of Chinese new poetry and the readers and guides to modern Chinese poetry, have been widely influential in the appreciation and teaching of modern verse. Eleven of his works are held in this collection.